neglected appointments! five minutes too late here, ten minutes there! and half an hour, or an hour yonder! It is absolutely frightful to look back on such a throng of errorssuch a catalogue of carelessness with regard to time.

And is it true that diamonds are worthless, compared to the sands that run so rapidly through the hour-glass of our lives? Is it true that every misused moment is an offence against ourselves, and that

"The spirit walks of every day deceased,

And smiles an angel, or a fury frowns?"

How then can we think so lightly of the proper and improper apportionment of our time? For a man to be in one. place, when his duty requires him to be in another, and to spend that time on himself, which being promised to another, is not his property, is not acting honestly. I was once five minutes too late for the steamer that was to bear me across the British channel, and those five minutes cost me two days time, and two days expense at a hotel before I could proceed. Again I say, that I could hide my face when I think on my past inattention and irregularity.

But now, as I have not spared myself, let me act a part, equally faithful towards you. Either you are faulty, with regard to an attention to time, or you are not. If the latter, my remarks will not reach you, and if the former, you stand in need of a little castigation. Do you, then, keep time like a clock?

He who keeps a dozen persons waiting for him five minutes, has squandered an hour and five minutes, for we must reckon not the time lost by himself only, but that lost by each of those whom he has hindered, which added to his own, will make up the amount I mention. Then comes the bad example set to others, which if followed, greatly increases the evil; so that a Sabbath school teacher who does not keep time like a clock, but on the contrary is very irregular and very backward, does incalculable mischief, and as effectually

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"My Teacher is like a Clock."

[Nov. hinders the progress of his scholars, as he would if they were running a race, and he were to lay hold of their jackets and pull them back.

What think you would be the reply, if one of your scholars were to be asked whether you were punctual or not in your attendance at school? Would he say, like my little friend, "My teacher is like a clock?" or would his reply be of a different kind? Be assured that irregularity and backwardness in a Sabbath school teacher, is a sad, a very sad error. Useless, however, would it be for a doctor to talk about the disease of a patient, and not go on to prescribe a remedy. And equally unavailing will it be on my part to censure a fault in a Sabbath school teacher, and not do my best to correct it. If then any one of my readers should really have fallen into the error of not keeping time like a clock, in an attendance at his Sabbath school, let him read with care the following remarks.

To me it appears that the failing of our not being punctual with regard to time, proceeds altogether from a too low estimate of the value of time, and that the correction of the evil must be by raising this estimate to its proper standard. Let me try to make this plain. If any one of you were to pick up what you regarded as a pebble stone, the care you would take of it would be small. Whether you kept it in your hand or flung it away, would in your opinion be a matter of no importance whatever. But if any one on whose judgment you could rely, were to assure you that what you took to be a pebble was a real diamond of great value, a very sudden change would take place both in your mind and in your conduct. There would be little inclination to carry your prize carelessly, and still less to fling it away. What I have said of the pebble stone is a mere fanciful case, but what I have signified by it with regard to tinre, is a real one.

That time which we often use as carelessly as if it were of no more value than a pebble, is a real diamond, or rather a

diamond is a pebble stone in comparison with it. "If," says one, "it be important to compute our time, how much more so to improve it; to give to every hour its proper occupation, and to let no portion be wasted of that which is so valuable. So to number our days, as to apply our hearts unto wisdom, and to employ our brief allotment of time on earth, in preparation for an endless life in heaven, is the indispensable obligation of every one, and happy is he who is enabled effectually to fulfil it."

Value time aright and you will never waste or misuse it. Consider whose gift it is! He who made the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and all that they contain, meted out your moments of time from the never-ending years of eternity. What God has given should be used to his glory, and never is he more glorified than when his creatures are made happy. The minds of your scholars are to be seriously impressed, and you know not at what moment they may be most accessible. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Suppose at the accessible season you are not at your post, and you lose the opportunity of being made a means in holy hands of duly impressing their minds! Not willingly would you take on yourselves such a responsibility.

When Baxter had lost a thousand pounds, which he had laid up for the erection of a school, he used frequently to mention the misfortune as an incitement to be charitable while God gives the power of bestowing, and considered himself as in some degree culpable, for having left a good action in the hands of uncertainty, and suffered his benevolence to be defeated for want of quickness and diligence.

I have acknowledged my errors, are you ready to admit yours, that we may mutually, with all good faith and sincerity, strive to amend? Take this subject into considerationtake it to your Bibles-take it to a throne of grace, that your

VOL III.

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Berkshire Sabbath School Society.

[Nov. minds may be so open to conviction, and your hearts so strengthened in your future amended course, that should the question be put to any of your scholars, Is your teacher punctual at the school? the answer may be given promptly, and given with truth, "My teacher is like a clock!”

[London] S. S. Teachers' Magazine.

BERKSHIRE SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY.

There are connected with the Sabbath school society in the county of Berkshire, 27 schools. Twenty-one of these, from which returns have been received, embrace 382 teachers and superintendents, 2,893 scholars, of whom 6-5 are over 18 years of age; and 6,801 volumes. The number of hopeful conversions reported in all the schools, is fourteen, ten of which are in the school in South Marlboro'. There has more recently been a revival in Peru, in which there have been eighteen or twenty hopeful subjects of grace, all of whom are youth, and nearly all members of the Sabbath school. At the time the pastor communicated this intelligence, July 24th, all the cases of conviction, excepting one, were youth connected with the school.

The schools generally, report the existence of a good degree of interest. Some, however, complain of a lack of interest in them, on the part of some members of the churches. There seems to be a fault here in most of the schools. Parental influence, and the influence of the adult portion of the congregation, may be very great in giving efficiency and interest to a school. Children will much more cheerfully and faithfully study the Scriptures, if they can but see their parents engaged in the study of them.

"Our school," says the Pastor in Peru, "the last year has been more prosperous than for the two or three preceding years.

The oldest parishioners, when at church, are uni

form in their attendance on the Sabbath school.

The sever

al classes of them we call Bible classes. They set a noble example to the younger portion of the congregation. There is no revival, and yet the blessing of God has been upon us." The account of the revival referred to above, was given subsequent to this report.

"One of the most encouraging things," says the Pastor in Great Barrington, "in a Sabbath school, is, to have the members of the church, not otherwise connected with the school, form themselves into Bible classes, and thus by their example, show the children that they really attach a value to this institution. Parental influence should also be thrown around the Sabbath school like a strong wall."

Two years ago, a resolution was passed at Curtisville, making it the duty of all members of the church, to connect themselves in some way, with the Sabbath school. It did well for awhile, and the effect of it has not entirely passed away. The superintendent says, "the Well Spring has had a noble effect in keeping up an interest in the school. The concert for prayer in behalf of Sabbath schools, has had a very full attendance."

The school in Richmond reports an increase of interest, during the better part of the last season, and " one means of that increase of interest," it is said, "was the Well Spring." Says the report of the school in Housatonic, "It requires strong faith in God to be a zealous and faithful Sabbath school teacher, month after month, with no visible signs of a blessing upon our efforts."

The superintendent of the Pittsfield school thus writes:— "We hold weekly teachers' meetings, for prayer and the study of our lessons. Our Pastor has met with us, and his familiar and instructive explanations of the lessons, have been highly beneficial both to teachers and scholars. These meetings have been more fully attended than formerly, and we consider them of vital importance to the prosperity of the