tions of awe, wonder, and admiration? Beloved brethren, such honor may be yours, through the grace of Christ. We have known many, very many, who have dated their first abiding impression to the simple teaching of the Sunday School class. You will, however, find even upon earth your sweet "recompense of reward." The unbought, unbribed affection of a child is a tribute not to be despised, and he that does not appreciate the free, fresh love of the simplest heart, wants the finest feelings of the renewed nature.

It is sweet to be loved for the truth's sake, to be loved for our own sake in Christ, and the Sunday school teacher often has that rich reward. There is one deeply interesting illustration of this feature in Sunday School teaching that I cannot forbear mentioning to you in conclusion, for your encouragement. It occurred in connection with the first Sunday School, or at least the first village Sunday School in England. That school was formed by a master manufacturer in the neighborhood of the city of Gloucester. In that Sunday School there was a pious old man that gathered the hamlet's little group upon the Sabbath day and read to them, and spoke to them about Christ, and asked them what they knew of Jesus. Years and years rolled on; and the master of that manufactory, in the vicissitudes of trade, became a bankrupt and lost his all. In these circumstances he was one day passing through a street in a neighboring town, where he was accosted by a disbanded soldier, whose eyes glistened and whose face lighted up when he saw him. "How I rejoice to meet you again!" exclaimed the soldier. "I remember you not," the man, in sorrow said. "But," said he, "I well remember you, I was taught in your Sunday School at Cherrington, and all that I have learned about my Saviour, I learned there, and it has been my guide, my joy, and my delight." "Ah!" said the man in trouble, "things have changed with me since then, I was rich then, I am poor now, or perhaps I ought to say I was poor then, and I am rich now; I have lost my earthly all, but I trust I have found all in my Redeemer." "Say you so?" said the British christian soldier, "I have just received a pension for services done in the army; I can work for myself, you cannot; you shall have my pension; I will pay it regularly while I live," and that poor soldier pressed upon the friend of his youth all that he had bled for, and toiled for in the service of his country. "Never before," said the gentleman, as he told the simple story, "had I so fully known the force of the words 'Cast thy bread upon the waters and thou shalt find it after many days.' How sweet the first fruits that a Sunday School teacher may gather on earth! And, oh! what will be the harvest that he may hope to reap in heaven! what the joy and ecstasy with

which any, with whom he has been in his degree, "a fellowhelper" to their salvation, shall greet him and welcome him, when they appear in the temple "not made with hands" to keep that Sabbath, whose sun shall never go down!

Assurance-Witness of the Spirit

and

The Call to the Ministry.

DISCOURSES BY

REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D. D.,

of Charleston, S. C.

[Extracted from the Southern Presbyterian Review.]