ory of Heaven over millions
of death-beds, and sustained uncounted numbers of weak and hard-pressed
men, true to honor, virtue, and goodness, amid all temptations and
misfortunes. It has comforted and ennobled the slave under his master's
tyranny. If simply presented, and with faith in God, it can redeem the
outcast youth of the streets from all his vices and evil habits, keep
him pure amid filth, honest among thieves, generous among those greedy
for money, kind among the hard and selfish, and enable him to overcome
anger, lust, the habit of lying or profanity, and to live a simple,
humble, God-fearing, and loving life, merely because he believes that
this Unseen Friend demands all this in his children and followers. When
this Faith and this Love are implanted in the child's mind, and he is
inspired by them, then his course is clear, and sure to be happy and
good.

One mistake of Sunday-school oratory is frequently made in addressing
these lads, and that is, a too great use of sensational illustrations,
which do not aid to impress the truth desired. Attention will be
secured, but no good end is gained. Where the wants of the audience are
so real and terrible as they are here, and so little time is given for
influencing them, it is of the utmost importance that every word should
tell. There should be no rhetorical pyrotechnics at these meetings.
Above all modes, however, the dramatic is the best means of conveying
truth to their minds. The parable, the illustration, the allegory or
story, real or fictitious, most quickly strike their mind, and leave the
most permanent impression.

One of the best religious speakers that ever address our boys is a
lawyer, who has been a famous sportsman, and has in his constitution a
fellow-feeling for their vagrant tastes. I often fancy, when he is
speaking to them, that he would not object at all to being a boy again
himself, roving the streets, "turning in" on a hay-barge, and drifting
over the country at "his own sweet will." But this very sympathy gives
him a peculiar power over them; he understands their habits and
temptations, and, while other gentlemen often shoot over their heads,
his words always take a powerful hold of them. Then, though a man
particularly averse to sentiment in ordinary life, his speeches to the
boys seem to reveal a deep and poetic feelings for nature, and a solemn
consciousness of God, which impresses children deeply. His sportsmanly
habits have led him to