AUGUST 30.-MORNING LESSON. SUMMARY.-The next morning Jesus is brought before Pilate, and examined by him. Pilate desires to release Him, but the people clamour for His death; Pilate yields to their cry, releases Barabbas, and delivers Jesus to their will. The soldiers mock Him, and lead Him out to crucify Him. The I. PILATE'S EXAMINATION.—V. 1—5. A consultation, &c.- -They had condemned Him to death, now they consult as to the best means of getting Pilate to carry out the sentence. whole, some of the council had not been with them the preceding night. Bound Jesus,-possibly to secure Him against any attempt at escape, but probably to signify to Pilate that He was under their sentence of death. V. 2. Art Thou the King ? &c.-This was the charge they preferred against Him now, Luke xxiii. 2: they knew Pilate would not care for the charge on which they had condemned Him, ch. xiv. 61, 62. Thou sayest,―Thou art right: I AM, John xviii. 36, 37. V. 3. Of many things. -Luke xxiii. 5; they had no definite charge which they could prove; and Jesus, knowing this, answered nothing. II. WHO SHALL BE RELEASED ?V. 6-14. Whomsoever.-It was the people's privilege to name the prisoner to be freed. Barabbas,-a man notorious for violence, lawlessness, and murder, Luke xxiii. 19. Insurrection,a popular outbreak, or disturbance. V. 8. As he had ever done.-It was an old custom, but its origin is uncertain. V. 10. For envy, because He was so popular with the people. V. 11. But the chief priests, &c.-The people, left to themselves, would, perhaps, have asked for Jesus. V. 14. What evil? &c. - Pilate, being convinced of the innocence of Christ, ought to have resisted this clamour. More exceedingly, -the excitement and tumult increasing under priestly influence. III. THE GUILTY FREED; THE INNOCENT CONDEMNED.-V. 15 — 21. Willing,-to please the people rather than do justice. Scourged, this was customary before crucifixion. Pratorium.-The hall of the Governor, where he sat to administer justice. Whole band, the tenth part of a Roman legion, consisting of from four to six hundred men. V. 17. Purple,-Matthew says "scarlet:" "the ancients gave the name purple to any colour with a mixture of red in it." Platted,-wove a wreath of thorns. A reed.-Compare Matt. xxvii. 29, 30. Worshipped,-in mockery. Compel, probably Simon was a friend to Christ. Cyrenian.'Cyrene was a city of Libya, in Africa. Alexander and Rufus,-"both celebrated among the first Christians." REFLECTIONS.-1. Innocence strengthens us to be calm under provocation.-Isai. liii. 7. 2. What a blinding, maddening thing envy is ?-Beware of it. 3. Designing men can easily enlist popular passions in their cause. 4. Sympathy with the Saviour should be practical in its expression.—Like Simon, we should bear His cross after Him. QUESTIONS.-What did the Jews consult about? Why did they bind Jesus? What did Pilate ask Him? Why did not Jesus answer the charges of the Jews? Why did Pilate marvel! Whom did the people ask to be released? Who was he? Why did Pilate wish to release Jesus? v. 10. Who prompted the people? Why did Pilate release Barabbas, and bind Jesus? What did the soldiers do to Jesus? What else? Who carried the cross? Illustration.-SCOURGING. See v. 15. "Among the Romans it was customary to scourge, or whip, a slave before he was crucified. This was done to inflict a greater suffering than crucifixion would be alone, and to add to the horrors of the punishment. Our Lord, being about to be put to death after the manner of a slave, was also treated as a slave; as one of the lowest and most despised of mankind."-Barnes. The remaining Lesson for August will be given in the next Number. J. ROCHE, PRINTER, 25, HOXTON SQUARE, LONDON. THE WESLEYAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL MAGAZINE. PRACTICAL PAPER S. SEEKING THE LORD'S SILVER. SOME months ago, at a week-evening service in one of our chapels, as the preacher was making an earnest appeal to all his converted hearers to work heartily for the Saviour, he remarked, "The Lord's silver is lost! and we must find it." This one sentence seemed to me peculiarly expressive of the whole work of a teacher, as that work is viewed in its highest and noblest aspects; so I treasured it up. Many a time since then, I have gone to my daily duties, thinking, "I am looking for the Lord's silver;" and the thought has never failed to encourage me, though, at the same time, it presses home the great responsibility resting on all who undertake the important task of guiding the feet of others into the way of peace. We are seeking the Lord's silver; we may take encouragement. This work, whether in Day or Sunday schools, to be done successfully, cannot be taken up as a mere pastime, or as a respectable mode of earning a living. Unless higher motives than these influence a teacher, the work will be a weary toil, and the spiritual results, at least, will be most unsatisfactory. Teaching-especially Sunday-school teaching-is emphatically the Lord's work. He appoints our duties, strengthens us for the toil, watches us in all our labours; and, when our work is done, His hand will place on our brows the crown of recompense. As long as we heartily and prayerfully engage in the work God Himself gives us, we need not fear for one moment that we shall be left to do it in our own strength. It is the Lord's silver we are seeking; therefore we may be sure of the Lord's assistance in the search. Many a most unpromising piece of ore is put into our hands, which we are tempted to think all dross, utterly unworthy of our patient labour and precious time; but the Lord does not so regard it. It is ours to induce souls, whom Jesus has redeemed, to seek the purity and peace which only He can give; therefore, we may rest assured that He will aid us to secure what He purchased at so vast a cost. We are seeking the Lord's silver; a work of grave and fearful responsibility. It is not a mere amusement to be lightly taken up, or as helping to fill the otherwise unoccupied hours of the Sabbath, or because some friend is a teacher; and then to be carelessly VOL. III. NEW SERIES.-August, 1868. I laid down on the first trial of faith and patience. Who that values this world's silver, treats it, seeks it, with impatient indifference? But the silver we are seeking is of infinitely more value then all the precious metals of the universe. Surely, then, such a work involves great responsibility. The immortal spirits entrusted to our care, created by God to be continually aspiring after things high and holy, to be enjoying constant communion with Himself, and daily learning more of His love,-have been clouded and degraded by sin; and, instead of rejoicing in the sunshine of God's favour, unless rescued, will moan and grope in ever-deepening darkness. Ours is the privileged occupation of showing them the way of escape from the gloom and misery of sin, and of approach to the glorious "Light of the world," so as to gain His blessing. Should not the thought of our responsibility make us watchful, humble, and prayerful; and lead us constantly to examine our own hearts as to the purity of our motives, and the reality of our consecration to God? We need not be faint-hearted. Hard and difficult the work may be to us, if alone; but it is not so to the Lord of hosts, and will He not afford us His help? We are not rambling through life purposeless, and unassisted; but this is our work,-to seek the Lord's silver as He enables us. May He make us wise and diligent searchers, and grant us abundant success! E. A. R. EIGHT BAD HERE are eight rules, the strict observance of which will soon wean from you the love and confidence of your scholars, and enable you every Sunday to return home feeling convinced that you have neither been blessed, nor made a blessing, in your school-work :— 1. Come to school without having prepared the lesson. Let your scholars read on, verse after verse, without any explanation; and if one of them should be impertinent enough to ask you a question, tell the child to be quiet, and to find out an answer for itself by the next Sunday. 2. When the children repeat their verses or hymns to you, lay the book on your knee, and stare about the RULES. school. When they have done, say, indiscriminately, "Very good! or "Very bad!" " when the children well know that you have scarcely listened to a word of what they have said. 3. While the scholars are reading, look listless and weary; arrange your bonnet-strings, or necktie; yawn occasionally; and show by every means in your power that your task is a distasteful one. 4. Do not trouble yourself to study the characters of your scholars. Treat the gentle and timid ones with the same severity as the obstinate and rebellious. Never mind, if you do wound sensitive feelings, rouse pride, crush yearnings after good, and nourish evil inclinations in the children. 5. Never ask the scholars whether they love Jesus, or not? or whether they find it hard to be good? If you do, you'll have to help them, and that would be so 66 troublesome." 6. If a child has been absent several Sundays, take no notice: do not ask the reason, nor manifest any concern about the matter. If the absentee scholars are sick, do not visit them; you may, perhaps, catch the disease. 7. Encourage talebearing. Do not take the trouble to find out which is the right side of the question. Punish the one complained of; and, if she objects, tell her she deserves punishment for daring to question your judgment, if for nothing else. 8. Do not think of your class after you leave school; never pray for it, nor ask the children to pray for you. Do not notice them on week-days,— or only superciliously, as though you were conferring a favour upon them by nodding, or speaking to them. If any Sunday-school teachers, on reading the foregoing rules, are compelled in candour to say, "My conduct at school has been in accordance with them, or with some of them," may God forgive you! Brother! sister! pause a moment. Try to realize the importance of the charge you have taken upon you, the evil of neglecting it, and the good which may and will, under God's blessing, result from the proper fulfilment of it. Do not rest until you can say, "Every Sunday, in my class, I break every one of those rules." M. E. HUMPHREYS. TEACHERS, AND THEIR WORK, THE subject of Sunday-School teaching is one with which we are so familiar, that to write of it may seem almost superfluous. It is not, however, my intention to burden my readers with the minutiæ of the work; but rather to offer a few thoughts, which, I trust, may be useful for their future guidance, and as incentives to increased exertion and greater usefulness. Teaching is the great and recognised agency in our Sabbath-school operations; and, if we are to have order, attention, and the higher results of Sabbath - school effort, there must be good teaching in the classes. It may aid teachers in their work to name one or two things which especially affect them. Perhaps, the first thing that a Sunday-school teacher ought to consider is, to what part of the work he is likely to be especially adapted. Let me draw the attention of my younger fellowlabourers to this subject. There are but few of us who have not a special liking for some particular study, or department of labour; and, however much we may strive to adapt our talent to all the variety of duty that is required at our hands, still there are certain parts of it more in harmony with our views and feelings than others; and we naturally prefer to do that which we feel best able to perform. Some possess more than ordinary activity of mind, strong nervous power, and any amount of energy; now, such persons are specially adapted to arrest the attention and gain the confidence of scholars of that rougher type found in our Ragged-schools, and to draw them to a better and higher life. Others, again, have minds especially apt at simplifying and illustrating truth,-let such take our infant-classes. Others, with susceptibilities more sensitive, and minds well-stored with the doctrines of Scripture, and hearts richly imbued with the grace of which Gospel doctrines tell, ought to take the higher classes in our schools. I would strongly urge this attention to specific qualifications upon all teachers; because, without such a knowledge of themselves, and great candour in disclosing it to Superintendents, they cannot be placed where they can labour with the greatest comfort and advantage. There is adaptation in all God's works,-we see it in the little spider as he runs up his silken web; and in the padded foot of the camel, so well fitted, by its elasticity, to travel over the sandy desert. We ourselves study adaptation in other matters, let us especially do so in the appointment of labourers to posts of work. Then, if we are to have good teaching in the classes, there must be careful preparation. We do nothing that is worth doing without effort; and it would be unreasonable, and a proof of our ignorance of this work, and unfitness for it, did we engage in it without due painstaking, with a view to being ready to do it well. I am aware that the pressure of business, and the exhaustion produced by it, as well as the difficulty of securing needful facilities for such careful study as the appointed lessons demand, prevent many of us, who engage in Sunday-school work, from such cultivation of our minds, and acquaintance with the truths of Holy Scripture, as we desire. Nevertheless, as we have engaged in the work, it becomes our duty to do our best; perhaps, to apply ourselves to it with as much earnestness as we give to business engagements. We have too long put our religious duties second to our business life let us reverse this order. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness," is a precept which bears upon our labour, as well as upon our personal piety; and let us devote to the improvement of our talent and the cultivation of our hearts, such time and effort as these duties demand. To teach efficiently, we must ourselves be taught of God. Many of the truths we teach lie upon the surface, like the pebbles upon the shore; but many more are like precious ore, which lies deep in the bowels of the earth, and which requires laborious digging and careful search to secure; and many truths which we need to know, that we may teach them, God only can reveal to us by His Spirit. He can and will, if we ask Him, lift from before our search the veil which else must hide the truth; and will give us not only to see it with a clearness, but also to teach it with a power, which, under other circumstances, we cannot possess. Let us ever draw near to God with earnestness, seeking a holy heart and a sanctified intellect; and then shall we best be able to impart saving knowledge to others. The mental and moral influence which we shall thus acquire over our classes, will prove helpful in the maintenance of discipline. Power for that we must obtain, and keep up at any cost, if we would be thoroughly efficient in our work. If the children are brought to esteem and love us through our ripe knowledge of the truth, and our unswerving devotion to Christ, we shall have no difficulty in reducing the most refractory to order; while, on the other hand, if we are wanting in acquaintance with the subjects we have to teach, and are weak in moral power, and become the victims of temper, the result will be ruinous to our class, and serious to the school at large. Let me, also, draw attention to the subjects and style of our addresses to the scholars. This is an age of novelty and sensation, and the public mind is too ready rather to pursue what is new and exciting than what is profitable. Multitudes gratify a false taste with light and pernicious literature, and I fear that the infection has reached many teachers of youth in connexion with Methodism. So far as my experience goes, more anxiety is displayed to gratify the taste of the children for |