appointment was, that it afforded me the acquaintance of "Father T.," the celebrated mariner's preacher of the city-a gentleman whose fame for genius and usefulness was general; whose extraordinary character has been sketched in our periodicals, and the books of transatlantic visitors,* as one of the so-called "lions" of the city, whom a distinguished critic has pronounced the greatest poet of the land, though unable to write a stanza; and the mayor of B- had publicly declared a more effectual protector of the peace of the most degraded parts of the city than any hundred policemen.

In a spacious and substantial chapel, crowded about by the worst habitations of the city, this distinguished man delivered, every sabbath, discourses the most extraordinary, to assemblies also as extraordinary, perhaps, as are to be found in the Christian world. In the centre column of seats, guarded sacredly against all other intrusion, sat a dense mass of mariners—a strange medley of white, black, and olive-Protestant, Catholic, and pagan-representing many languages, unable, it may be, to comprehend each other's vocal speech, but speaking there the same language of intense looks and flowing

* See Miss Martineau, Buckingham, and, more recently, Dickens.

tears. On the other seats, in the galleries, the aisles, the altar, and on the pulpit stairs, crowded, week after week, and year after year, with the families of sailors, and the poor who had no other temple, the elite of the city-the learned professor, the student, the popular writer, the actor, groups of clergymen, and the votaries of gayety and fashion-listening with throbbing hearts and wet eyes to a man whose only school had been the forecastle, whose only endowments those of grace and nature; but whose discourses presented the strongest, the most brilliant exhibition I have ever witnessed, of shrewd sense, epigrammatic thought, melting pathos, and resistless humor, expressed in a style of pertinency, spangled over by an exhaustless variety of the finest images, and pervaded by a spiritual earnestness that subdued all listeners-a man who could scarcely speak three sentences in the pulpit, or out of it, without presenting a striking poetical image, a phrase of rare beauty, or a sententious sarcasm, and the living examples of whose usefulness are scattered over the seas.

During my second year in B

an

aged English local preacher moved to the city from the British provinces, and became con

nected with my charge. His wife, though advanced in years, had that colloquial vivacity, motherly affectionateness, and air of tidiness, which we often find in the better-trained women of the common people of England. I felt a cordial comfortableness about their humble hearth which was not to be found in more stately dwellings, and often resorted to it for an hour of sociability and conversation. I thus became acquainted with her history-her former residence in the city-the evening prayer meeting -her removal to the provinces-her second marriage, etc.

The old local preacher was mingling in a public throng one day with a friend, when they met "Father T." A few words of introduction led to a free conversation, in which the former residence of his wife in the city was mentioned; an allusion was made to her prayer meetingher former name was asked by "Father T." He seemed seized by an impulse; inquired their residence; hastened away, and in a short time arrived in a carriage, with all his family, at the home of the aged pair. There a scene ensued which I must leave to the imagination of the reader. "Father T." was the sailor boy of the prayer meeting and the prison; the old

lady was the widow who had first cared for his soul. They had met once more!

Her husband has since gone to heaven; and she resides in humble but comfortable obscurity, unknown to the world, but exerting upon it, through the sailor preacher, an influence for good which the final day alone can fully reveal.

Reader, there may be a neglected spirit within thy reach, which, reclaimed by thine influence from vice, might be to thee an agency of inestimable usefulness; a gem on the brow of the church on earth, and a blessed companion in thy walks over the "flowery meads” of heaven. Under the abject rags of poverty is wrapped a jewel which may glitter on the crown of the Redeemer in the heavens; and which an archangel would descend swiftly from the skies to seize and recover. But to angels is denied this honor; yet it may be thine! and it may afford thee more "riches of glory" than could all the diadems of earth.

2

UTILITY OF SABBATH SCHOOLS.

"All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children."-Isaiah.

WOULD that I could place every child of this land in a sabbath school. I should prefer this usefulness to that of the "father of his country." I should thereby secure and aggrandize its destiny more than all treasures, and arms, and legislation could; nay it would thus be made the light of the world! I wish to put on record an humble word for this noble institution.

Among the distinguishing advantages of the sabbath school, I consider most important

Its tendency to counteract the almost universal mis-education of the moral character of children. The only system of education which is sanctioned by the spirit and principles of Christianity, is that which is based on the recognition of man's eternity; which calculates, as its first object, the improvement of his heart; and teaches him to estimate everything else only as it is subservient to the world to come. How widely different is this from the prevailing systems of education! How seldom is the young immortal impressed with the admonition, that all its present improvements should be made in r