YOUNG MEN'S ASSOCIATION IN AID OF THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY

SOCIETY..

THE tenth annual meeting was held on Tuesday evening, Nov. 2, in the library of the Mission House, John Sands, Esq., in the chair. Mr. E. Rawlins offered prayer. The secretary next read the annual report, comprising a minute detail of all the operations of the association during the year. It stated that fifty-nine useful and interesting lectures had been delivered, illustrated by dissolving views and diagrams, to an aggregate of 25,000 children and adults—that a number of juvenile meetings in London and the country had been addressed on missionary subjects by several members of the committee, and that the twenty-six annual juvenile meetings, on sabbath afternoon, April 25, were attended by upwards of 13,000 young persons. Prayer-meetings had also been sustained, a sermon preached, and conferences held on behalf of the mission work. The committee had also petitioned Parliament with reference to the state of religious liberty in India. A special effort has been made, with encouraging success, to call into existence more auxiliaries to the society. The committee, at the commencement of the year, resolved to present missionary brethren on leaving England with some token of the affectionate interest taken in their work and welfare by the association, and accordingly each missionary who had departed since then had received a copy of Bagster's Fac-simile Edition of the Bible, suitably inscribed. It has been arranged that the Christmas and New Year's Cards to Sunday scholars shall this year be issued by the association. It was also mentioned that during the past year the Sunday school at Crayford has engaged to support the Toodowagedera school, Ceylon; and the Sunday school at Charles Street, Camberwell, has undertaken the support of the Byamville School, Ceylon. The Committee have in the course of preparation an entirely new series of dissolving views, illustrative of Social Life and Mission Work in India, designed to show the manners and customs of the Hindoos, and the scenes daily witnessed by the missionary in the prosecution of his work. Mr. John Templeton read the financial report, which showed an income of £216 18s. 8d. Mr. T. explained that the association only reported the amount received and expended for its own special purposes, and made no mention in its reports of the pecuniary assistance it was the means of rendering to the parent society, which was always handed over without the deduction of a single farthing. The Rev. J. H. Millard, B.A., said, It seemed to

him that this work of lecturing might be practised much more extensively than it is. Why should not each member of this assotion be a lecturer? The work need not be left to one or two if the young men would set themselves to acquire the knowledge and the method necessary for its efficient performance. The association might thus become a college De Propaganda Fide. Missionary societies were now asking for more agents, and it was from the young men of this and kindred associations that they ought to It is stated that the association will gladly provide lectures for any of the Congregational schools in London.

come.

A CHILD SAVED FROM UNDER THE ICE. ABOUT thirty years ago that is, in the March number of the Baptist Children's Magazine for 1827-we published the following little incident:

"A few weeks ago, a little girl about four years of age, ventured upon the canal at Measham, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, when it was frozen over. The ice almost immediately broke, and she sank to the bottom. A little girl, a companion, who was with her, ran to a house just by, and told the people that Sally was in the canal. A young man hastened to the spot and jumped in, but saw nothing of the child. Presently, however, she rose towards the surface, when he broke the ice over her, and rescued her from a watery grave. Let this be a caution to our young readers to beware how they venture upon the ice.

When the little girl had recovered from the danger and weakness which followed, she looked very shrewdly at her cousin, a pious youth of about twelve years of age, who with sixteen other candidates had been baptized in the same water last summer, and shrewdly said, "Ah, John, I have been in the water as well as you!"

That youth, then twelve years of age, was a boy of promise, though greatly afflicted. He won the first prize we offered in that Magazine for the best list of the names given to Jesus Christ in the Bible. He also furnished for its pages a good outline of a sermon to the young by his pastor, the late Rev. J. Goadby, of Ashby-de-laZouch. He grew up, and his health having become established through the Divine blessing on the means used, he offered himself as a missionary, and being accepted, he was sent to Orissa, in the East Indies, where, for many years now, he has been very actively and usefully engaged in turning the heathen from dumb idols to the living God.

THE HIGH PRIEST OF THE HEBREWS.

BESIDES his lineal descent from Aaron, the high-priest was required to be free from every bodily blemish or defect (Lev. xxi. 16-23); but, though thus incapacitated, yet, his other qualifications being sufficient, he might eat of the food appropriated to the priests (ver. 22). He must not marry a widow, nor a divorced woman, or profane, or that had been a harlot, but a virgin Israelitess (ver. 14). In Ezekiel's vision a general permission is given to the priests to marry a priest's widow (xliv. 22). The high priest

might not observe the external signs of mourning for any person, or leave the sanctuary upon receiving intelligence of the death of even father or mother (ver. 10-12; comp. x. 7). Public calamities seem to have been an exception, for Joacim the high priest, and the priests, in such circumstances ministered in sackcloth, with ashes on their mitres. He must not eat anything that died of itself, or was torn of beasts (Lev. xxii. 8); must wash his hands and feet when he went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and when he came near to the altar to minister (Exod, xxx. 19-21). At first Aaron was to burn incense on the golden altar every morning when he dressed the lamps, and every evening when he lighted them, but in later times the common priest performed this duty (Luke i. 8-9); to offer, as the Jews understand it, daily, morning and evening, the peculiar meat-offering he offered on the day of his consecration (Exod. xxix); to perform the ceremonies of the great day of expiation (Lev. xvi); to arrange the shew-bread every sabbath, and to eat it in the holy place (xxiv. 9); must abstain from the holy things during his uncleanness (xxii. 1-3); also if he became leprous, or contracted uncleanness (ver. 4-7). If he committed a sin of ignorance he must offer a sin-offering for it (iv. 3-13); and so for the people (ver. 12-22); was to eat the remainder of the people's meat-offerings with the inferior priests in the holy place (vi. 16); to judge of the leprosy in the human body or garments (xiii. 2-59); to adjudicate legal questions (Deut. xvii. 12). Indeed,

when there was no divinely inspired judge, the high-priest was supreme ruler till the time of David, and again after the captivity. He must be present at the appointment of a new ruler or leader (Num. xxvii, 19), and ask counsel of the Lord for the ruler (ver. 21). Eleazar with others distributes the spoils taken from the Midianites (Num. xxxi. 21-26). To the high-priest also belonged the appointment of a maintenance from the funds of the sanctuary to an incapacitated priest (1 Sam. ii. 36, margin). Besides these duties, peculiar to himself, he had others in common with the inferior priests. Thus, when the camp set forward, "Aaron and his sons were to take the tabernacle to pieces, to cover the various portions of it in cloths of various colours (iv. 5-15), and to appoint the Levites to their services in carrying them; to bless the people in the form prescribed (vi. 23-27), to be responsible for all official errors and negligences (xviii. 1), and to have the general charge of the sanctuary (ver. 5).

MEMORIALS OF THE YOUNG.

"A LIFE BRIEF BUT BEAUTIFUL"

Is the name of a very pretty and interesting little book, written by Mr. A. M. Stalker, late baptist minister at Leeds, and published by Heaton and Son. It is a brief memoir of a young christian, and the incidents related are very pleasing.

Mary was the first born child of Mr. and Mrs. William Illingworth, of Leeds. "Themselves," Mr. Stalker says, "the children of pious parents, they attached a high value to the blessings which only religion can secure to the domestic circle. Hence, Mary, at an early age, was taught to think with reverence of the being, the claims, and the character of God. His book, his house, his sabbaths, were clothed with attractions that engaged her child-like sympathies. The instructions she received, the Bible stories to which she listened, and the daily example she beheld, convinced her that the service of heaven was no gloomy thing. At the family altar she might be seen sitting with rivetted attention; and when the devotions were ended, might be heard putting questions touching the Scripture that had been read, or some petition that had fallen from father's lips. She was delighted on being informed, one day, of the birth of a sister whose name was 'Jane.' In all that concerned the welfare of the welcome little stranger she was deeply interested, and always deemed herself privileged, when permitted,

for a few minutes, to act as nurse. Between the two daughters a mutual affection glowed which it was beautiful and touching to observe. When Mary had attained her eleventh year she proposed to her sister the holding of a prayer-meeting; and for some time, regularly as the Saturday afternoon rolled round, she and sister 'Janey' were together in a little room, reading 'the book of books,' and holding converse with its blessed Author. 'Her prayers were so lovely,' is the language of her who was privileged to kneel by her side.

At the school she attended in Leeds, Mary soon became a favourite both with her teacher and her fellow pupils. So thoroughly indeed had she attracted the affectionate regards of all around her, that had she been asked how she had acquired so genial a pre-eminence, she might, with truthfulness, have adopted the reply of Dr. Doddridge's little daughter, and said, 'Everybody loves Mary because Mary loves everybody.' Amiable, however, as she was, and apparently the subject of serious impressions even then, her parents longed for more unquestionable evidence than they yet enjoyed of her having been born again.' In prospect, therefore, of her leaving home for school, they felt not a little anxious; and in making choice of the educational establishment for young ladies conducted by Mrs. Yeadon-now Mrs. Binns-of Rawden, near Leeds, they were influenced by the high estimate they had always cherished of that lady's qualifications for her position. They felt persuaded that, under such auspices, Mary's training would be all they could wish; that while due importance would be attached to what are called accomplishments, neither literature nor music, neither drawing nor needlework, would be regarded as the ne plus ultra of education. They were not disappointed. They had followed Mary with their prayers when she stepped into the railway train for Rawden in 1850. They soon saw proofs that the culture of the intellect, the direction of the will, the discipline of the heart, and the formation of the character, were made the leading object of their daughter's excellent Instructress. Elegance and ornament, instead of being sacrificed to solid and useful acquirements, beautifully enshrined them. They were never the staple, always the accompaniments, of the system pursued. The fine discrimination of character, too, combined with the maternal tenderness of manner, that distinguishes Mrs. Binns, was of high service to her youthful pupil. This is apparent from a communication now before me.

'When a pupil,' says Mrs. B., 'enters my establishment, I always