this group of all the sections, that part of the lesson which portrayed so forcibly the exceeding peril of delay in giving the heart to Christ. He spoke most solemnly of that fatal "to-morrow" which lured men on to destruction. In arguing for "to-day as the accepted time," and availing of the obvious but always strong reason of the uncertainty of life, he seized the occasion to mention very tenderly the death of one of the little scholars during his recent short absence of one Sunday.

His manner is singularly unaffected and heartsome, and the stillness and absorbed attention of that great audience to his address, coming at the close of the session of two hours, impressed me very much. Indeed, when I consider that he ministered there year after year, and was therefore an old story to them, I felt that it was a just tribute to his real power.

I need hardly say that this great school knows no sectarian boundaries, but gathers under its shelter whoever can be reached by Christian love and enterprise, that they may be taught "repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." Some years ago a pious lady, moved by the religious destitution of some French families who had no worship in their own language within their reach, was allowed a room at Bethany. Here she ministered, in their own tongue, to a class of sixty for many years. Latterly many have moved to New York, but the remainder, under another teacher, are still to be found in the old class

room.

Mr. Wanamaker's school is not the out-growth of genius, or of circumstances especially favourable to its planting and progress. It is simply an exhibition of what can be accomplished by strong common sense and persevering labour, inspired by the love of Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. As such it is an example for other Christians in rapidly growing towns; and in the hope that it may be so, I have written this imperfect sketch, and been at the pains to collect the following facts of its history :

"The school was started in a room on South Street, in 1857, with 27 scholars. This point was then the extreme south-western corner of the built-up portion of Philadelphia. The school has prospered and grown to 2,300 scholars, with over 100 teachers. It moved to a small chapel on South, near Twenty-first street, and from there to its present site at Twenty-second and Bainbridge; and has twice since enlarged its Sabbath school hall."

A congregation of about 1,700 now compose the church, over which Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D., is pastor, and Rev. T. C. Horton, associate pastor.

There is a "college, Tuesday and Friday nights, for the benefit of the scholars, in which is taught phonography, writing, book-keeping, German, &c. Dr. Pierson, on Monday evenings, explains the lesson of the following Sabbath to a thousand of the Sabbath school teachers of the city. Ă good work of grace is now going on, and over 100 scholars have just been added to the church."

Rich men in every quarter of the Union have made, during their lives and by will, splendid gifts for the material aggrandisement, the physical needs, and the intellectual benefit of their country and their countrymen ;

but I know nowhere of such a monument as this Wanamaker Sabbath school and church, of patient, personal toil for the thirty years together, in the midst of heavy, secular business, in this most difficult, yet noblest of all labours, the renewing and upbuilding of moral character. And although the work had for its paramount design and ultimate end the securing of the life beyond, yet, undeniably, it furnishes the foundation of all good citizenship, and scatters its blessings and dispenses its favours in every department of human thought and industry and desire.

And now, in closing, let me urge every visitor to Philadelphia who would have his Christian zeal quickened, to make this entry upon his programme, "Bethany Sabbath school, Twenty-second and Bainbridge; service at 2.30 p.m. Be sure to go early." And if he would have his heart brightened and warmed, let him find out those little darlings in the infant room. ALDEN DICKINSON.

The Place and Power of a Son.

By the late REV. WM. ARNOT.

"A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother." Proverbs x. 1.

"THE Proverbs of Solomon." Hitherto, although the style has been in the main proverbial, there has been a large measure of connection and continuity in the argument. At this stage we enter a new section of the book. Here we touch the edge of a vast miscellaneous treasure, contrived or collected by Solomon, and transmitted in safe keeping down to our own day. It is like a heap of wheat; the grains are small, but they are many; they lie close together, and yet each is a separate whole; they are fair to look upon, and good for food. The first proverb is a characteristic specimen of its kind. Every reader may see at a glance how its words and clauses are poised upon each other, so as both to condense and reiterate the sentiment, both to retain it on the memory and impress it on the mind. "A wise son maketh a glad father." Do you hear this, young man? It is in your power to make your father glad, and God expects you to do it. Here is an object for your ambition; here is an investment that will insure an immediate return. Come now, make your choice. Whether will you try to please these fools who banter you here, or to gladden your father's heart that is yearning for you there? He loved you in your childhood, and toiled for you all the best of his days. He was proud of you when you promised well, and clings fondly to the hope that you will be something yet. These companions that come between you and him—what have they done

for you, and what would they do for you to-morrow if you were in distress? They would desert you, and mind their own pleasures. They have never lost a night's rest by watching at your sick-bed, and never will. But your father-what has he done, and yet will do? The command of God to you is that you gladden that father, and not grieve him. Your conscience countersigns that command now. Obey. In former lessons we found out where the root of wisdom lies,-in the fear of the Lord; here is one of its sweetest fruits-a son's wisdom is a father's joy! Alas, how often do we see a son in manhood becoming a burden which a father must bear, instead of a support that his weary heart may lean upon! A heavier burden this than was the helpless child. "A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother." It is difficult to deal with this word. The conception is easy, and the examples manifold; but though it is easy to comprehend, it is hard to express it. It is an almost unutterable thing. A son who breaks his mother's heart -can this earth have any more irksome load to bear! Foolish son! do you ever allow yourself to think that you are bruising the bosom which you lay upon when you were a helpless infant? It is not your mother only with whom you have to deal. God put it into her heart to love you, to watch over you night and day, to bear with all your waywardness, to labour for you to the wasting of her own life. All this is God's law in her being. Her Maker and yours knew that by putting these instincts into her nature for your good, He was laying on her a heavy burden. But He is just. He intended that she should be repaid. His system provides compensation for outlay. There are two frailties—a frailty of infancy and a frailty of age. God has undertaken, in the constitution of His creatures, to provide for both. Where are His laws of compensation written? The counterpart laws answer to each other from two corresponding tablets, His own hand-work both, as the curse and blessing echoed and re-echoed alternate from the sides of Ebal and Gerizim, when first the Hebrews entered the promised land. One is written on the fleshy table of the heart, and the other on the table of the ten commandments-both, and both alike by the finger of God. A mother's love! You do not read in the decalogue, "Mother, take care of your infant." So deeply is that law graven on a mother's heart, that God our Saviour compares to it His own everlasting love to His redeemed, (Isaiah xlix. 15.) To that law the safety of infancy has been entrusted by the Author of our being. The bed provided for the child is its mother's breast. There is the provision for humanity's first period of feebleness, and where lies the security for the next? It is partly in nature too; but it would appear that He who knows what is in man would not confide to that instinct the care of an aged parent. He spoke the command from the mountain that burned with fire; He engraved that command on the tables of the covenant, "Honour thy father and mother, that thy days may be long." There, foolish son, there is thy mother's title to her turn of cherishing. You dare not dispute her right, and you cannot withstand her Avenger. There will be compensation. All God's laws re-adjust themselves, and woe to the atoms of dust that are caught resisting, and crushed between their dreadful wheels! How much more perfect and uniform is the parent's instinctive love than the

child's commanded obedience, may be seen in all the experience of life, and is well embodied in the Spanish proverb, "One father can support ten sons, but ten sons cannot support one father." I never knew a mother. I have been an orphan almost from the first opening of my eyes. If at any time my mind breaks loose from sober submission to my lot, and wanders into wishes for what cannot be, the keenest longing of my heart is that I had a mother. One of the fountains of affection within me has been sealed up from my birth; I would fain have an object to let it flow upon. Oh, how sweet it must be to a son in his manhood strength to be the gladness of his mother! Foolish sons are compassing sea and land to obtain pleasure, and trampling under their feet untasted a pleasure stronger, sweeter far, even to nature, than that which they vainly chase. Let sons who are not prodigal, who seem to be fairly doing their filial duty, remember that their time for that duty is short and uncertain. Let those who now love and cherish a mother much, love and cherish her more. Occupy the talent, lest it be taken. Be yet more tender of your mother while you have her, lest you suffer by unavailing regret when it is too late-lest there should be thorns in your pillow the first night you lie down after her voice is silent, and her eyes closed.

Scottish National Sabbath School Convention.

WE remind our readers of the cordial invitation issued by the Dumbarton Union to the Sabbath School Teachers of Scotland, to appoint delegates to represent them at the National Convention to be held there on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd October. Fellowworkers in the great cause of the religious training of the young who may be resident in other towns, are heartily welcome to attend, even although not formally elected as delegates by any particular school or District Union. We have no doubt there are many deeply interested in the work who would be glad to attend, but they have difficulty in getting their co-workers to see the importance of being represented. It should be known that a formal commission from any school does not require to be presented to gain admission to the Conference meetings, and that all who love the Lord, and are desirous to promote His kingdom by means of the Sabbath school, are invited. Those who may be sent as delegates will, of course, have the advantage of being formally recognised as such on their arrival; and, as far as it may be in the power of the local committee, they will be accommodated with suitable lodgings if necessary; and they will also be supplied with admission tickets for the public dinner and breakfast. In our September issue we gave a forecast of the proceedings as far as we could then do so, but for the convenience of our readers we

repeat the details in tabulated form. All the meetings will be held in the Burgh Buildings.

PROGRAMME.

THURSDAY, 1ST OCTOBER.

6.30 p.m.-Conversazione and reception of Delegates.

7.30 p.m.-Opening Conference. Chairman-A. ORR EWING, Esq., M.P., Ballikinrain.

to the Power of the Sab-Rev. E. J. BRAILSFORD, Blair-
bath School as a Teach- gowrie.
ing and Saving Agency?)

8 p.m.

9 p.m. Model Lesson,

Day Conference.

FRED. A. LAING, Esq., Glasgow.

FRIDAY, 2ND OCTOBER.

Chairman-ALEX. WYLIE, Esq., Cordale.
Rev. WILLIAM WATSON, M.A.,
President of the Sabbath
School Union, Dumbarton, and
other local Ministers.

11.30 a.m.-Devotional Exercises,

12 noon. -Sabbath School Build- (JOHN HONEYMAN, Esq., I.A.,

ings,

1 Glasgow.

BAILIE SELKIRK, J.P., Glasgow.
CHAS. S. INGLIS, Esq., Édinburgh.
Rev. BUCHANAN BLAKE, M.A.,
1 Bombay.

Chairman-Rev. WILLIAM WATSON, M.A.,
Dumbarton.

- Teachers' Library,

- The

Co-operation

Chairman—J. C. WHITE, Esq., Overtoun.
Rev. JAMES RENNIE, Glasgow.
DAVID ROSS, Esq., M.A., Princi-
pal of Dundas Vale Training
College, Glasgow.

of Parent and Pupil a necessity of successful Sabbath School Teaching,

9.15 p.m.-Spiritual Results of Sab

bath School Teaching,

T. MORRISON, Esq., M.A., LL.D.,
Principal
Principal of Free Church
Training College, Glasgow.

ANDREW AIRD, Esq., Glasgow.

SATURDAY, 3RD OCTOBER.

8.30 a.m.-Public Breakfast. Chairman-WILLIAM DENNY, Esq., Dumbarton. Remarks by Delegates and Friends.

3 p.m.-Scholars' Meeting. Chairman-JAMES CAMPBELL, Esq., Tillichewan. Addresses will be delivered by the Revs. Alex. Andrew, Glasgow; William Patrick, B.D., Kirkintilloch; Robert M'Lean, M.A., Kilcreggan, and others.