THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. ANNUAL REPORT. The affairs of this world are not despised by the Christian, but he cannot rest his soul in them. He is diligent in business, and transacts the duties required of him as in the sight of God; but he must also be fervent in spirit, and, while in the world, cannot be of the world. He is unable to comprehend how the pursuit of time should so engross and absorb the soul as to exclude entirely the consideration of eternity. He has himself learnt the grand lesson taught by Christianity for the past eighteen hundred years, and now dimly recognised by a few philosophical teachers, that what the people of the world call the substance is in reality but the shadow,—that what they consider as visionary is the only foundation on which the soul can rest. He, therefore, receives with thankfulness the boon of this transitory state, and makes everything subserve his higher interests. He prepares for the solemn period when time shall be with him no more. He travels without murmuring through the wilderness, but his gaze is steadily fixed on the distant horizon. He takes the glass of faith presented to him by the Shepherd, and although, as Bunyan says, "his hand shakes by reason of the doubts that agitate him, so that he cannot steadily look through it, yet he thinks he sees something like the gate of the celestial city, and also some of the glory of the place." Do we err when we say that something like this has been the experience of every member of the Young Men'sChristian Association? Why is it that amid the temptations that assail them on every hand with peculiar power, they come forward —a noble band-and bear their protest against the vanities of the world, just at the time when their vanities are viewed through all the colouring of a strong imagination. They have seen some of the glory of the place, and they are unable to turn again to the beggarly elements of the world. By the grace of God they have been enabled to look up and observe the brightness of the Sun of Righteousness as it shines unobscured, and now they cannot return to the dull atmosphere of earthly pleasure. They resist temptation because their hearts have been changed, their affections turned into a contrary channel, and because they have found that the ways of religion are " ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace." They have realised that peace passing all understanding, left to his disciples by the Redeemer, and not dependent upon external influences. It would be a poor exchange to give this for the riches and pleasures of the whole world. Such, perhaps, are a few of the reasons why these young men are so beautifully banded together as Christian brethren. But they cannot retain the grace of God which they have received. The holy fire is not allowed to smoulder within. It must be sent forth to other hearts, that its purifying power may extend far and wide. In receiving moral influences, we necessarily impart them, not merely passively, but actively. The members of this Association are not only exhibiting the marks of their profession in their stated departments of life, but with the goodwill of Christians they are making for themselves fresh spheres of labour, and so both negatively and positively working for the benefit of those around them. Their first Annual Report may be received as the first fruits of their efforts, which we believe will be graciously accepted by that Master under whose banner they have now enrolled themselves. The contents of this Report, and of the addresses delivered by the excellent ministers who attended the meeting at Radley's Hotel, we shall lay before our readers in the next number. It will be an honourable duty to promote the welfare of this Association, so far as we may be able, and to bid its members press forward and take courage. The Early Closing Movement. THE following, says a correspondent of the "Christian Witness," is a faithful picture, extracted from an article published last January :-"After workshops and counting-houses are closed and silent, shops continue in full operation, flaring with gas, and crowded with buyers and sellers, till late in the night. Go forth into streets early in the morning, between 7 and 8, and you see shops opening, shutters everywhere moving, windows everywhere being arranged to catch the eyes and admiration of passengers during the coming day. Come again when the night is advancing, they are still open, nearly all till nine, many till ten, and some, in particular neighbourhoods, and devoted to particular traffics, until eleven, or perhaps midnight. A long day's toil, this, and almost without intermission; a hasty half-hour or so twice a-day for meals, constitute the only breaks. And frequently, even when to outward pearance the shop is closed and the attendants gone, they are still at work with closed shutters within, making up the day's accounts, and arranging disordered goods for the business of to-morrow.' Such was the language of a writer in January last, and still the evil prevails to an alarming extent; still many of our youth are confined to a very late hour, breathing the impure oppressive atmosphere of the shop, jaded and worn out with unmitigated toil. The appeal has been made to the reason, the justice, the humanity, the religion of the employers-but in vain. Eagerly grasping after gain, they are reckless of all consequences. That the health of their assistants is of the first importance, and should not be perilled, they will admit. They allow that recreation is needful-that the mind should be improved-that a taste for reading and science should be cultivated-that the morals should be purified that the claims of religion should not be disregarded; but when, in connexion with the securing of these important ends, there arises possibility of loss, the fear of competition, or the alteration of long-established customs, the matter is hastily dismissed, and the evil moves on unchecked. Perhaps the iron hearts of these gentlemen drapers and others, who are insensible to what is elevating and generous, might be moved by the stern authority of law. Were our legislature to interpose between the unhappy victims of this system and their merciless employers, by limiting the hours of labour in shops, as they have done in factories, such a restraint would be at once effective and merciful. It might not gratify the sordid, hard-hearted shop-keeper, but it would be approved by the humane of every class. As it is, however, health may be sacrificed—no matter! Youth may lose its buoyance and become languid, emaciated, and care-worn-no matter! Mind may be crippled, contracted, and buried in the dust-no matter to those miserable earth-worms, whose only care and ambition is to amass wealth at any risk! Reader! shall this wretched state of things continue? A solemn duty devolves upon you. The remedy is at hand. It is in your power to remove the curse of late hours in business. None can deny that the public have the power of applying a simple and effectual remedy. Are you willing to abstain from shopping after seven o'clock in the evening? For so long as people go to buy late, shops will sell late. VOICES FROM THE CROWD. VOICES FROM THE CROWD. "WAIT A LITTLE LONGER." We may not live to see the day, There's a good time coming, boys, The pen shall supersede the sword, Worth, not birth, shall rule mankind, There's a good time coming, boys, A good time coming: War in all men's eyes shall be In the good time coming. Nations shall not quarrel then, To prove which is the stronger; Nor slaughter men for glory's sake ;— Wait a little longer. There's a good time coming, boys, A good time coming: Hateful rivalries of creed Shall not make their martyrs bleed There's a good time coming, boys, The good time coming, Smallest helps, if rightly given, Make the impulse stronger; "Twill be strong enough one day;- Wait a little longer. John Hasler, Printer, Crane-court, Fleet-street. "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, fashy things."-BACON'S ESSAYS. IN our last number, we made some observations upon the end and purpose of all knowledge, promising, at the same time, to Write further with respect to the various means by which it might be acquired. In so doing, we cannot promise to the Student an easy, or, if he be a tyro, a primarily pleasing task. There is no golden road to knowledge, though the system-mongers of the present day profess to be acquainted with one; nor must the rudiments of art or science, dry and distasteful as they often are, be lost sight of for a moment, if any approach to proficiency be desired. We do not urge upon our readers an implicit adherence to the system pursued in schools, nor do we regard a knowledge of Latin and Greek as essential; for a man may be very learned, and yet know nothing of the dead languages; but we Would impress upon them that every man, who aspires to be other a mere smatterer, must, in his study of any particular art or science, examine it ab initio, and not disdain to enter into any of its details. An attention to minutiæ in the acquirement of any mechanical art is so obviously necessary, as to need no comment from us; nor are the higher arts exempt from this necessity, as the painter, who could not grind his colours aright, would find to his cost, however brilliant his genius, or correct his taste. ean the philosopher, the mere propounder or expounder of theories, depart safely from this rule, if he would have his theories than H Nor pass into practice or gain credence amongst men. We have often heard the remark, that the author of the "Vestiges of Creation" had never made so many blunders, if he had now and then visited a dissecting room; an act certainly not incumbent upon all students, but highly necessary to him who had undertaken to write upon the physiology of man. Whilst, therefore, we recommend to the student a patient perseverance and enduring toil in all things, we would particularly advise him, in regard to books, not to be satisfied with the perusal of extracts from, or abridgments of, any author whatever. Let them be assured that they had better read no part of a book, than found their judgment on, or draw their conclusions from a particular portion, be that portion ever so excellent and beautiful. Even in the matter of poetry this rule holds good, so that, if a man had to choose between the "Beauties of Shakspeare" and a perfect edition of Burns, he had better choose the latter, and study an inferior poet thoroughly, than acquire an imperfect knowledge of the greater bard. For, books instruct in proportion to the ideas which we form of their beauty or fitness, and these ideas occur differently to different men; so that if one man make a selection of what he deems the beauties of a book, and another man read the selection, the latter shall chance to derive less profit and pleasure from the perusal, than if he read the original work, wherein he might discover passages, beautiful to him, though incomprehensible to others. For like reasons, reviews are of no other use than to guide us to, or warn us against, the book of which they treat, and ought not, when they recommend a work, to be taken as an equivalent for the work itself. Nevertheless, we by no means regard the reading of many books as being absolutely necessary to the student; but think that he had better understand one book thoroughly, than read, and not remember, a whole library. Milton, Pope, Byron, and Scott, read much, and did not confine themselves to any particular class of books, but Shakspeare and Burns read but little: the latter, indeed, did not read more than fifty books in his whole life-time yet surely the works of the last-named poets are no whit inferior to those of their more learned, though less wise rivals. Indeed, if a man, through want of means, were restricted to one book, and that book the Bible, he might, by constant and attentive perusal of it, become both wise and learned; for, setting aside its revelations of heavenly, it contains the elements of all earthly, knowledge; which statement of ours will seem less marvellous when it is considered that the whole civil polity of a great nation was regulated by the Old Testament for many centuries; and that the New Testament has an equal share in the civil government of Christian countries at the present day. |