such an extensive circulation among the lads and girls who attended the schools.

An excellent choir, conducted by D. S. Allan, Esq., led the praise, and in course of the evening, varied the proceedings by rendering, in a most efficient manner, several choice songs of a sacred character. The Chairman, at the close, briefly addressed the meeting, after which a hymn was sung, and the Rev. Mr. Mathieson pronounced the benediction. The motion for the adoption of the Report included the election of the

Office-Bearers for 1879-80.
President-JOHN E. WATSON, ESQ.

Vice-Presidents--MESSRS. PETER GARDNER and ROBERT B. SMITH,
Treasurer-JOHN S. KELT, Esq.

Secretaries-MESSRS. JAMES RICHMOND, PETER MACKICHAN,
JAMES CAMPBELL.

Honorary Directors-Messrs. Robert T. Middleton, William Miller, David M'Cowan, George Thomson, Michael Connal, John N. Cuthbertson, James A. Campbell, LL.D., James Salmon, Hugh M'Coll, Adam Paterson, LL.D., David Anderson, James Hannan, J. D. Bryce, James Bell, Thos. Morrison, M.A., Henry Clow, James Templeton, R. M. Murray, Matthew Wotherspoon, Peter M'Omish, Sir James Watson, and the Hon. Lord Provost Collins.

Acting Directors-Messrs. Wm. Fife, James White, James Macgill, H. F. Stevenson, James N. M'Raith, Joseph J. King, James Kerr, John Steel, John Gray, James Howatt, Andrew Aird, and Joseph C. Robertson.

SABBATH SCHOLARS' SINGING COMPETITIONS.

THE Eighty-first Annual Report of the Paisley Sabbath School Union contains several useful facts upon this subject which possess more than a local interest. The efforts now so general to improve the service of praise in the Sabbath school have been very much stimulated and helped by the example and experience of the Paisley Committee. Not satisfied with mere demonstrations for the purpose of shewing how large bodies of scholars can be taught to sing successfully, they have, during several years, carried out a system of testing the progress and merits of individual choirs belonging to the various schools; and, by allotting prizes for competition, a certain measure of healthy rivalry has been sustained, which, so far from being hurtful, seems rather to have tended to the utmost good feeling amongst the conductors and scholars. The examiners appointed for last competition were Messrs. W. Litster, of Aberdeen, W. Moodie, of Glasgow, and J. Armour Brown, of Paisley. The competition took place in the spacious hall of the Neilson Institution, on the afternoon of Saturday, the 15th March. Commencing at three

o'clock, nearly six hours were spent in thoroughly testing the eleven choirs, which of course were taken seriatim, the hour for the arrival of each choir having been carefully arranged previously. There was a fair attendance of the general public. On Tuesday evening, 18th March, the Free High Church was densely crowded, notwithstanding most inclement weather, when the Hymns which had formed the subject of competition were sung by the united choirs, comprising the 1400 scholars who had been examined on the preceding Saturday. The area and front seats of the gallery of the large church were literally packed with scholars, while the side galleries were filled by friends, parents, and teachers. Ex-bailie M'Gown presided. Mr. James Parlane, convener of committee, reported that they had now completed the fourth Singing Competition under the auspices of the Paisley Union,-that of 1875-76 was solely due to Mr. Stewart Clark, who had generously offered prizes of an average of £5 for each class which came forward for examination; but a competition three years in succession was considered quite enough for conductors and scholars, so that there was no desire to continue the competition in the following year. In September of 1878, however, William B. Barbour, Esq., of London, spontaneously offered £60 for prizes for another competition, and the Union Committee could not resist the tempting inducement. The result of the searching examination on Saturday thoroughly satisfied all the friends interested that the musical instructions of the scholars had been wonderfully promoted by the scheme. The singing of the united choirs fully warranted this opinion, as it was highly appreciated by the large audience; the various parts being balanced in a most extraordinary degree, considering the great number and variety of voices. Addresses were delivered in the course of the evening by Rev. J. B. Sturrock, Sheriff Cowan, Rev. A. G. Fleming, Rev. A. Henderson, Rev. A. M. Lang, Mr. Stewart Clark; and the report of the examiners was read by Mr. John A. Brown, one of the judges. As their report may be useful to other Unions contemplating similar action, we give it entire; also the various sums awarded to the respective choirs. Any further information which may be desired respecting details, we have no doubt will be cheerfully supplied by the convener of committee, Mr. James Parlane, Publisher, Paisley:

"The examiners, while giving in their formal report upon the competition, feel that they cannot do so without congratulating not only the Sabbath School Union, but the town of Paisley, upon the really splendid results that were then exhibited. That 1400 young people should be trained by voluntary agency to such a high state of efficiency, not only in the rendering of the pieces, but in modulation and ear exercises, speaks

volumes for the enthusiasm and self-sacrifice of the teachers, and for the readiness and docility of the taught; while the amount of hard, honest work represented by Saturday's examination is a thing delightful to contemplate in these days, when sham and superficial work of all kinds do so much prevail. In the essential matters of time and tune all of the choirs exhibited a very creditable proficiency, though in the matter of 'tempo' some of the conductors missed the true feeling of the pieces, the tune 'Violets' having been more than once taken considerably too fast and loud; while in the matter of sustaining the pitch, there was occasionally more flattening than ought to have been. Pronunciation was, in most of the choirs, fairly clear; but there is still much to be done in the correction of broad vulgarisms, and in overcoming the often thoughtless habit of breathing in the middle of a word. For true poetic and musical expression the Free Middle choir unquestionably bore away the honours of the day, their rendering of 'Violets' and 'Hushed was the evening hymn' being simply charming, though the Thread Street choir almost equalled it in the latter, while the Free St. George's came very near it in the former. On the part of most of the choirs, indeed, there was a very laudable attempt at expression. In the modulator exercise all of the choirs succeeded to a most gratifying extent. In the test exercises generally the Free Middle and Thread Street choirs distinguished themselves, the Free St. George's and Est. High coming very close behind. The method of marking adopted by the examiners was the same as in former competitions,—viz., affixing an ideal value of 10 to the items of time, tune, pronunciation, and expression in the singing of the tunes, and a similar value to each of the test exercises. There was thus attainable for the singing of the three pieces a possible maximum of 120, or, adding the markings of the three examiners together, 360; and for the test exercises 30, or an aggregate of 90. The actual results were as follows:

The total number of Teachers who took part were-males, 71; females, 44. Scholars-males, 371; females, 918,-in all, 1404. The examiners, in their award, do not claim infallibility: the task of judging all points simultaneously is a very difficult one, and possibly points of excellence in some of the choirs that are lower down in the list may have been overlooked; all they claim is to have done their best, without fear or favour; and the conductors and choirs may rest content, that the average or aggregate of three judges must come very near the truth. In con. clusion, the examiners would express the hope, that so much labour and organization and discipline as have brought about the present competition

may not be allowed to terminate finally here. Let every member of every choir sign a petition to their honoured conductors to resume systematic study next autumn at latest, with or without a competition, and they would not refuse; and were this done perseveringly for a few years, there would soon manifest itself-in the Sabbath School, at least, if not in the Church-a power for good such as at present few of us have little conception of."

The prizes were allotted as under :-Mr. R. K. Bell, conductor of Free Middle, £7; Mr. R. M. Paterson, Thread Street U. P., £6 6s.; Mr. Wm. Waters, Free St. George's, £6 6s.; Mr. James Barr, Abbey, £5 10s.; Mr. P. Cameron, Free South, £5; Mr. Matthew Holms, Wallneuk Mission, £5; Mr. H. Hamilton, High Established, £4 10s; Mr. G. H. Cockburn, Martyrs' Established, £4 4s.; Mr. Robert C. Begg, Oakshaw Street R.P., £4 4s.; Mr. J. Caldwell, James Street U. P., £4; and Mr. James G. Dalziel, Victoria Place Baptist, £3 10s. The prizes were handed to the respective winners amid applause.

CITY ARABS AND WHAT THEY MAY BECOME.

MANY a time and oft has it been proved that the street Arab may be a rough diamond, but awaiting the polishing hand of the loving, devoted Christian, and the blessing of the Master, to shine out one of the brightest gems in God's kingdom on earth. A short time ago the Rev. Dr. John Hall, lecturing to a couple of hundred ragged street urchins at a Boys' Lodging House in New York, made the following statement—a statement of the most stimulating kind to every one labouring to bring our city Arabs into the Saviour's fold:—“ Not long since," said Dr. Hall, "the Rev. John Brady, an eloquent young Presbyterian minister, just graduated with the highest honours at the Theological Seminary in New York city, after a highly creditable four years at Yale College, took his departure with great eclat for Alaska-the first Presbyterian missionary to the burrowing Eskimos inhabiting that barren territory. Twelve years ago this brilliant John Brady was an inmate of one of the institutions at Blackwell's Island as a street vagrant, and something rather less reputable -a frouzy-headed, vagabond little savage, sleeping under grocers' carts, in nooks, and down by the docks, in neglected areas and doorways, anywhere he could find room to curl himself up in a ragged bundle, and appropriate to himself a cat-nap before the inevitable policeman, who is the terror of his class, could discover and interrupt his slumber. At the Island he caught the eye of an agent of the Aid Society, and was sent out West to work on a farm. There was work in him, and better work than sleeping in empty hogsheads. He worked, won the confidence of his master, and was sent to the district school three months in a year; developed an extraordinary passion for learning, and devoured mathematics with an eagerness begotten of intellectual hunger. At last, having served out his time faithfully, he wrote to the President of Yale College, inquiring if there was any way in which he could pay his tuition, and was appointed bellringer there. His record at Yale was so brilliant that, when he graduated, friends offered to bear the expenses of his three years

in the Theological Seminary; and he came to New York-the scene of his former vagrancy-as a student of theology. The other day, or rather last summer, after passing a creditable examination, he was selected by the united voices of the principal Presbyterian congregations in New York city, to become the pioneer of that faith amongst a new and strange people the low-statured and swart-visaged aborigines of Alaska.”Night and Day.

CONFIRMATIONS OF SCRIPTURE FROM HEATHEN MONUMENTS. RECENT researches in Mesopotamia have brought to light a mass of historical information regarding the nations adjacent to Palestine. Many of the inscriptions on the Monuments refer to events which the sacred historians also chronicle. It is our intention, in a short series of articles, to select and place side by side these parallel historical notices.

None of them have yet been found to contradict the Bible, as was expected in some quarters when they were first exhumed. On the contrary, they have corroborated its statements in the minutest particulars. Taken together, they form a new and important class of evidence for the historical accuracy and credibility of the records of our faith. We shall not follow any particular chronological order in their selection, as in the present state of our knowledge of these monuments such appears inadvisable. Each article will, therefore, to a great extent, stand alone.

No. I. THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE OF NIMROD.-Genesis x. 6-10. The sacred historian here mentions the existence of a powerful empire in Babylon as early as B.C. 2234, having Babylon, Erech, Calneh, and Accad as its chief cities; and the land of Shinar or lower Mesopotamia as its location. The character of the empire, being founded by Nimrod, would be pre-eminently Cushite or Ethiopian, as Nimrod himself was a descendant of Cush.

Profane history, as a rule, knew nothing of such an empire. There is a vague notice in Herodotus (I. 6.) to the effect that an empire such as the one spoken of did once exist; but the notice was too vague to affect the direct statements of such writers as Ctesias and Diodorus, the first of whom affirms that Babylon was an off-shoot from Nineveh; and the latter of whom ignores its existence altogether, by holding up Assyria and Egypt as the oldest civilized powers.

A native Babylonian writer, named Berosus, claims for Babylon an existence 432,000 years prior to the deluge. Being destroyed by the deluge, it was immediately rebuilt by Xisuthrus, (the Babylonian Noah,) and continued in power for other 340,000 years, when it fell into the hands of the Medes, who held it for 1,700 years, till the days of Cyrus. The exaggerated character of this writer's statements, however, was so great that no historian placed any reliance on them whatever. Niebuhr alone deserves the credit of drawing a line between the mythical and the historical parts of this story. He alone perceived some grains of truth, which, when separated from the chaff, were in accordance with the Biblical account.