The fair enclosures of thy grace, Water, O God, with dews and showers; Rear goodly trees of righteousness, Let this new year be richly crowned Eighteen Hundred Thirty Nine. A. B. H. Teachers and parents! Another year of your labors and prayers is ended! Its accounts are all sealed up for the judgment of the Great Day! Every tear you have shed, every effort you have made and every act of self-denial you have performed, for the salvation of the young, are all chronicled in the Book that will then be opened. All self-indulgence, too, and want of fidelity and prayer and faith, in this work of training the young for this life and that which is to come, are also recorded in that same Book of remembrance. If you have been unfaithful, though no tears, nor sighs, nor prayers, can recall what is past, yet you can redeem the time. This we are all exhorted to do: for, however faithfully any of us may have labored for the honor of God and the good of our fellow-men, we shall all, as we sit down, at the opening of this new year to take a retrospect of that which is gone,discover much time that has been misimproved-many deficiences to deplore. Let us evince the sincerity with which we deplore them, by a quickened zeal in our work for time to come. The past year, it will be remembered, opened upon many of our Sabbath schools most auspiciously. For several months, not a few of these schools presented scenes that must have awakened new joy even among the angels. Teachers were greatly encouraged and quickened, as they saw, among their precious charge, the tear of penitence, and heard the song of deliverance; and many a parent's heart was made to sing for joy, as he exclaimed, "My child was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." It is a solemn and very practical question, Shall the present year open as did the past? As parents and teachers, you, perhaps, may instrumentally answer this question; and the interests of Zion, in all her varied enterprises to honor her King and bless this sin distracted and ruined world, will be greatly affected by the character of this answer. How amazing, then, is the responsibility that rests upon those who have the religious training of the young. If they be faithful in their work, hundreds and even thousands of youth, in this State, may, the present year, be enlisted in the cause of Christ; if unfaithful, these hundreds and thousands of youth may be confirmed in their friendship to the god of this world. Will not each teacher and pious parent, in view of this solemn consideration, after earnest prayer for guidance and aid, adopt as his own, the following resolution? Resolved, That, with the divine assistance, I will so labor and pray for the salvation of those committed to my care as a parent or teacher, that, should they this year die in their sins, or continue to its close in impenitence, like the faithful watchman, I shall be clear of their blood. A Story for the New Year. Altered from a London Tract. "A happy new year to you," said James Brown to his school-fellow, Thomas Jones, as they met in their way to the Sabbath school. "The same to you," said Thomas, as he took James by the hand, and gave it a hearty shake. As they went on their way, they talked about the pleasures of the happy opening year, with light hearts and cheerful countenances. They then spoke about their weekly subject, which was to find out texts suitable for the new year. "Have you many texts?" said James. "I could not find a great number," replied Thomas, "it is rather a hard subject." Thus talking, they entered the school door. Mr. Freeman, their teacher, was there before them. He soon after called upon his class to give an account of the weekly subject. He began it thus : My young friends, I like to see great attention paid to beginnings; such as the beginning of life, the beginning of a day, the beginning of a year, and especially its first Sabbath. I hope you will now begin well; you recollect that I explained the subject to you last Sabbath, and I hope you have been attentive during the past week." Each one of the boys then opened his Bible, and some of the elder lads, who were able to write, had long strips of paper, on which they had put down the texts they had found out. James Brown began, by quoting Gen. 47:9. "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." Teacher. Very well. Jacob was 130 years old when he said this; so short did his life seem when he looked back on it. It is well at the beginning of the year to think of this. Thomas Jones. Psalm 90: 12. "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Teacher. An excellent prayer, Thomas, for all of us. You see Moses speaks of "days," not years: we only have a single day given us at a time. John Smith. 1 Cor. 7:29. "The time is short." Teacher. May God incline our hearts to improve this truth! William Adams. Prov. 27: 1. "Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." Teacher. We cannot begin the year with a better thought than this: two of your school-fellows have died during the last year, and they began it as well in health as any of you. The other scholars then brought their texts, and I am happy to say that they did begin the year well. But I must just tell you what Mr. Freeman said, when they had finished. "You see from the Bible how very frail we are, and that we do not know how soon we may die. Let every one ask, 'Am I fit to die?' Those are best fit to live who are best prepared to die. I fear some of you think it will be time enough by-and-by. This is a sad mistake, and has ruined thousands of the young. May God teach you now to apply your hearts to wisdom! Jesus is willing to receive you; he says, 'Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.' What a happy first Sabbath of the year would this be to me, if I could hope that you, my dear boys, were this day induced to believe on Jesus Christ, and to begin a new life of holiness. 'Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?" O may the Holy Spirit take of the things of Christ, and show them to you, and may this year, and every future year of your lives, be spent in the service, and to the glory of God!" Contentment.-An Allegory. The vine one day complained to heaven, with tears in her eyes, of the severity of her destiny, and envied the condition of the reed. "I am planted," said she, "amidst parched rocks, and am obliged to produce fruits replenished with juice; whereas, in the bottom of the valley, the reed, which bears nothing but a dry shag, grows at his ease, upon the brink of the water." A voice replied from above, "Complain not of thy lot. Autumn is coming on, when the reed shall perish without honor on the borders of the marsh; but the rain of the skies will seek thee out on the mountains, and thy fruits, matured on the rocks, shall one day cheer the heart of man." Voice of Nature. Mrs. Champion's account of Inhabitants of Cape Town. Ginani, 12th Aug., 1837. To the children of Rev. Mr. Clarke's congregation, Sturbridge, Mass.: DEAR CHILDREN, I have never seen you as you assemble each Sabbath in your Sabbath school; but just before leaving America, I attended a Missionary meeting in Sturbridge. I then promised the lady of your beloved pastor to write you something about the heathen. I have now been in this country a year, and can tell you many things, some to make you sad, and many which I hope will influence you to do all you can for the poor heathen: you know there are many besides those in Africa. But I saw VOL. VII. 1* many heathen before I reached this country. I think you would like to hear about them. Well, stop a little at Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, which you know is the south-west point of Africa. Cape Town is a city not so large or so neat as Boston. The houses are mostly white, with flat roofs, and the streets are full of people from various nations. Beside English, Dutch, French, Germans, &c., there are many other people, who are heathen. Malays, from the Malayan Peninsula in India beyond the Ganges; Malagash, from Madagascar, which you will see is an island east of Africa; Mozambiques,--Mozambique you will find opposite Madagascar on the African coast; slaves, originally from Western Africa; Hottentots and Bushmen. The first four are black like the negroes you see in America, though the Malays have better features. The first three are Mohammedans, and will not permit their children to receive instruction. They treat them very cruelly, and you cannot enter that part of the city where they dwell, without having your heart ache at the scenes you witness there. The slaves are many of them becoming Mohammedans, and assume the conical hat or red turban. Those who have not embraced the religion of the false prophet, love to have their children instructed; still I have seen them treat their children very cruelly. The Hottentots are not black, but have a yellow complexion, like a faded oak leaf in winter. Their features are ugly,-high cheek bones, sunken eyes, flat noses, thick lips. They are of small stature, exceedingly filthy in their habits, and lazy to a proverb. Before the English took possession of the Cape, the Hottentots were treated very cruelly by the Dutch people, who said they had no souls, and were much lower in the scale of being than their cattle. They gave them no instruction; and had you been at Cape Town at that time, you would have seen the following singular inscription over the church door: "Dogs and Hottentots not permitted to enter." But the English sent missionaries among them, and a station was formed at Bethelsdorp, a few miles from Algoa Bay, which you will find about east from Cape Town, on the opposite coast. Here the children have been taught to read; many have become good, and |