worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called. Unlike those gross sensual pleasures, and degrading vices, which brutalize men's nature, they will, by giving vigour to his mind, even fit him better to understand the mysteries of godliness, to comprehend the proofs and arguments on which his belief as a Christian is built up, and to give a reason to others for the hope that is in him.

Soldiers, you are most of you probably aware that a great and increasing interest is now felt in education generally; that laudable efforts are making to improve the moral and intellectual condition of the soldier in particular, and of those who are, or ought to be, as dear to him as himself, I mean his children. The schools of the army are to be made as efficient and as well adapted to their purpose as any schools in the country, and every possible opportunity given to you and to your children to gain instruction, if you will but take advantage of it. In this great movement, which the government of your country, as well as your officers, are most anxious to forward for your benefit, there are four classes of persons especially interested, viz., the young soldier who has newly entered upon the duties of an honourable profession, the parent, the child, and the schoolmaster; and to each of these separately I would wish to address a few words of kind, affectionate admonition.

Soldiers, then, first, let me ask you, what profit will it be to you to have been born

in a Christian land, to have been made in baptism soldiers of Jesus Christ, if you do not endeavour to acquaint yourselves with God? You are then like men who, though living in the midst of light, shut their eyes, wilfully determined to remain in darkness when the light is shining around them. Oh, from what comfort and happiness do you exclude yourselves, if, from your being unable to use your Bible, or perhaps even to understand it when read or explained to you by others, it remains a sealed book to you! Believe me, if you do not feel an interest in the four great subjects of Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell, in learning the only way to make Death peaceful, and Judgment less terrible, and to gain Heaven, and to avoid Hell, Christ will have died for in vain. But to understand these things the School will teach you, for it will teach you to read, and therefore to use your Bibles; it will teach you to think seriously on the importance of striving to do your duty, and therefore will, by God's blessing, make you better soldiers and better men; it will, moreover, lead you to take pleasure in improving your minds, instead of debasing them by intemperance and licentiousness; it will show you how to become efficient soldiers, a credit to your profession, an honour to your country, and active and intelligent in the discharge of your duty to the sovereign whom you serve; and all this will win for you the respect of your commanders and of all good men, and open to you

you

Oh, then,

the path of honourable distinction. take advantage of these opportunities, for the sake of yourselves and of the profession to which you belong; use these means of elevating your character morally and intellectually; these means of insuring your happiness here and hereafter!

Parents, let me now address a few words to you remember how awful is your responsibility if you deny your children these blessings, nay, if you do not encourage them to profit by them, when they are yet too young to value them properly. If you have yourselves had the blessing of education, let your children have the same advantages which you have experienced; if, unfortunately, you have been neglected in your youth, give your children. that precious gift which has been withheld from you. Do not, as is too often the case now, keep them at home merely because you find them useful in your household concerns; for you are thus robbing them of their rights. Strengthen the hands of the schoolmaster, by supporting his authority at home; enforce his teaching by your example, for remember that example is better than precept; and that if your children when at home see strife and quarrelling, and drunkenness and vice, and hear indecent language, or irreligion, or blasphemy, you are undoing all that they learn at school. God has given you children as sacred charge, and if by neglect of your parental duties you endanger their souls, be as

sured that at your hands He will require them.

Children, to you I am about to speak: now is your time for learning; if you waste it now it can never be recalled. In a few years, the toils, the duties, the hard work of life, will leave you but a very few hours to give to learning, and then you will look back to your school-days with the bitterest sorrow, if you have let them pass by unprofitably. Pay the strictest attention to all your master teaches you; remember that he is your best friend, and that all he does or says is for your good, and for your happiness. Be diligent in study, punctual in attendance. Be obedient, even as your Saviour Christ, who became a little child like you, and for your sakes was subject to his earthly parents; and, believe me, that what you learn at school will lead you to that highest earthly happiness, viz., usefulness to your fellow-creatures, independence and respectability, the reward of an approving conscience, and the love and favour of your Heavenly Father in this life, and at last to glory and immortality beyond the grave.

Schoolmasters, yours is an arduous task, a difficult duty; no profession requires more selfcontrol, more single-hearted devotion, more persevering efforts, more patient continuance in well-doing than yours. Often must your tempers be severely tried, I will not say by intellectual deficiency in those whom you teach, as that no sensible man, who knows what human

nature is, will for a moment think a trial, but by perverseness and obstinacy; but all this must be borne with, if, as I know you wish, you would do your duty. But, though a schoolmaster's task is difficult, it is still an interesting one; at any rate, whoever does not find it so should never be a schoolmaster, for he will never succeed. But it is an interesting one to watch the gradual development of the intellectual and moral powers of a human being, to curb and eradicate what is bad, and to train up a candidate for immortality. It is interesting to watch the progress of a plant or a flower, to train even a dog or a horse, how much more to train up a child in the way he should go, to tend and watch the growth of a moral and intellectual being! And though the walk and ways of the schoolmaster are modest and retired, though many occupations are more splendid, none are more honourable. The military Schoolmaster's combats with the evil passions of human nature, his victories over their infant vices, which, when matured in the man, spread more havoc and more misery in a civil community than even the attacks of an invading enemy, will bear a comparison with the most brilliant exploits of his comrades, and his services are as valuable as theirs. In a word, I need only say to you, as to other soldiers, Do your duty.

Finally, remember, all of you, that you can do nothing without God's help; pray, then, that the labours of those in authority for your