ample operates with a prodigious effect on the junior classes of society. If the example is pernicious it will also prove contagious and spread disease and infection in all directions; but if it prove salutary it will operate as a powerful stimulus on the side of virtue. Thus, if the eldest son or daughter in a family should join a juvenile society the younger branches of that family may be expected to follow their example. Nor will the matter rest here, each of them will look around among their connexions and endeavour to prevail upon their juvenile friends to unite with them, of the truth of this remark our sunday schools afford a sufficient proof.* II. Society * The Editor has recently received a Report of a Juvenile Institution established in Dublin. The design of which is to encourage and assist the children which attend the Sunday Schools. The following is an Extract, "It originated with a few young persons who were in the habit of teaching the children of a sunday school, many of whom were found to be in a state of very great want, and par ticularly destitute of clothing sufficient to make a decent appearance at the School; and this discouraging circumstance counteracted, in a degree, the exertions of those who had the education of the poor at heart, To remedy this evil, a small subscription was set on foot, and the poorest of the children supplied with what was immediately necessary for them, and in some extraordinary cases the pressing wants of the parents relieved, particularly those of a mother during a state of confinement. But the benefit to the objects, though great, is not the only advantage to be derived: the young persons who form the Institution are hereby taught to feel their own mercies, and have their desires awakened to communicate their blessings; by an early attention to the wants of the poor, a spirit of active benevolence is excited among them, they are taught to repress II. Society at large is essentially benefited by Juvenile Societies. Every thing which tends to lessen superfluities, with a view to increase their means for benevolent purposes, and juvenile ardour is retained in the service of humanity. To insure its permanency and utility, it is managed under the guidance and discretion of experienced persons, while the young are permitted to be the active members of the institution, and have an opportunity afforded them of feeling that they can be useful and of tasting the pleasure of doing good." Extract from the Rules. "The members of the juvenile institution to consist of young ladies only. A subscription of five shillings per annum constitutes a member. Ladies or gentlemen subscribing £1 per annum, or upwards, are considered patronesses or patrons of the Institution. The members of the institution meet on the second Tuesday of every month, at No. 18, Bagot-street, to consider such cases as may be represented. A PARENT always presides at each meeting. No persons to be objects of this Institution but children attending a Sunday School, or their parents, or immediate guardians; their case to be represented by some member present, who has personal knowledge of the circumstances.. Particulars of Clothes distributed. Summer distribution, lessen the aggregate of vice and misery and to en large that of virtue and piety must be an advantage to the community. Every individual who quits the standard of rebellion is a real gain and additional strength to the cause of a lawful sovereign. Society is composed of individuals and the accession of every one is an acquisition to the cause of truth; add to this, that the good conduct of young persons will go far to put vice out of contenance, oblige it to hide its face and sneak into corners in order to avoid observation. Among the future and more remote benefits resulting from juvenile societies I mention only the following: I. They form the mind for future activity and usefulness. I have often been astonished at observing the conduct of some persons in the committees of our benevolent institutions; not being accustomed to public business they are incapable of rendering any effectual assistance in the work, and the whole weight of the society necessarily devolves upon two or three of the most intelligent of its members, while the remainder only occupy the place of cyphers. But this would never be the case, were the greater part of our youth more early initiated into the habits of transacting public business. Now juvenile societies are an excellent preparative for more extended usefulness; the active youth is led forward by degrees, in the various departments of different societies. The scene of business expands to his view, and he is daily acquiring knowledge, so that by the time he attains the full vigor of manhood, he is qualified qualified to occupy the higher departments in the most extensive societies. At length he begins to take his own children by the hand, and to instil into their minds, the principles by which his own conduct has been governed, and he is thereby preparing them for filling up the places of the present generation, when age, infirmity, or death, shall terminate their labours. I shall only mention one more idea. II. Juvenile Societies may be very likely to prove a means of the conversion of many young persons. I have hitherto argued the subject on different grounds, but I look upon this as one of the most powerful arguments in their favour. It is readily admitted that neither the possession of talents, or their display in opportunities of usefulness, can make a person a Christian, or prove him to be such. But it is in the order of things, and the most general method of the divine procedure, that the conversion of souls to God chiefly takes place under the appointed means of grace. In order to elucidate this, I again recur to the history of Sunday Schools it is a pleasing truth that many teachers in these excellent institutions, have at different periods been united to churches of Christ in various denominations; the means of whose conversion were some of the very exercises in which they were employed. I trust I am not too sanguine in expressing a hope that juvenile societies will also become the instrument of converting some of their subscribers. How would the heart of a pious parent rejoice at such an event? What pleasure must the ministers of Christ ex : perience perience on hearing the glad tidings; and what joy will it impart to all the real disciples of Christ. I hope the time is not distant, when all this will be realized. I trust that juvenile societies will encrease in every part of the country, and that the blessing of God may render them an extensive and a lasting benefit, to this and to future generations. CRITO. OBITUARY. ACCOUNT of the DEATH of THOMAS ELIAD PARKINSON. (Communicated by his Father.) (Concluded from page 248.) HIS mind was much impressed by a sermon he heard lately preached, in the evening, at Kingsland, by one of Dr. Smith's junior students, from 2 Cor. v. 1. — For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens and said, (hearing a person find fault with it) "It was a good sermon to me; I could have sat two or three hours to hear it." He then repeated the text, and several parts of the sermon also.* His * It is much to be regretted, that many young people behave themselves very irreverently in places of public worship, and pay little or no regard to what they hear, except to criticise and find fault, either with the preacher's manner, or some unguarded word that may inadvertently escape his lips. It would be well if our young friends would be upon their guard against a conduct at once so disgraceful, and of the most dangerous tendency, as they must one day render a solemn account at the bar of the heart-searching God of the use they make of their privileges. We ought always to go to the house of God, depending upon his promised presence and blessing, to hear |