BAPTIST SUNDAY SCHOOL INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.

Evening Star, Issue 7212, 14 May 1887, Page 5 (Supplement)

BAPTIST SUNDAY SCHOOL INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.

There was a very, large gathering in the schoolroom of the Hanover street Baptist Church .... evening when the certificates and priises won by scholars and teachers at the late exhibition wore distributed. The Rev. A. North (pastor), occupied the chair, and there wero present the Hon. Thomas Dick, Mr M'Laren (superintendents of the tchool), and L>r Hislop, who had kindly coLsented to address the j oung people. After opening the meeting with praise and prayer, the pastor (Mr North) referred to the energetic manner in which all concerned had worked to bring the industrial exhibition to a successful issue. The thanks of the Committee were due to those ladies and gentlemen who had acted as judges of the various exhibits, and on the present occasion to DrHislop. Dr Hislop said: I have to thank the Committee of Management for their invitation to take a part in the interesting proceedings of this evening. The Committee did me the honor to invite me also to share with my two old friends, Messrs M'Laughlan and M'Uregor, the duty of examining and deciding as to the merits of some of the articles sent in for competition. Taking into account tho total number of young people connected with the Sabbath schools, I was quite surprised at the number and variety of the articles sent in for competition, to say nothing of tho merit displayed by very many of them, and the taste, industry, and ability of which they gave evidence. The beautiful and interesting collection of articles that were lent for the adornment of the rooms and tho instruction and gratification of visitors gave very satisfactory evidence of the kindly interest! felt in the Sabbath schools by members of the Church and other friend*. In the course of a lons official life I have had a good doil to do. with the awarding and distribution of prizes '-o young people for excellence of one kind and another. But I confess that such occasions never afford me unmixed gratification; for, while willing to believe that the prizeß are highly merited, and willing to sympathise with the winners in their feelings of satisfaction, yet my feelings of sympathy go out much more largely and heartily towards the unsuccessful competitors, because I cannot help believing that a number of these latter have probably striven as eagerly and diligently to gain commendation as those who have carried off all the honors. Ido believe most sincerely that in connection with the recent exhibition here the medals and other awards ha*o been given in strict accordance with the relative intrinsic merits of the work sent in for competition, and that the winners have given satisfactory proof of very great care, industry, and determination to excel, as well as of superior natural ability or talent. But one cannot overlook tho fact that God, in his wisdom, has not bestowed on all alike an equal amount of natural ability and taste, livery observant school-teacher can see how wonderfully varied arc the natural tastes and capabilities of his pupils, even of those in the same family scarcely any two being in all respects exactly alike. For example, one pupil greatly excels and another is greatly deficient in powers of memory, or ready comprehension. Some have a natural talent for arithmetic, and make wonderful progress with little or no effort or trouble to themselves or their teacher; others, again, even with greater efforts, cannot make anything like the same progress. No doubt diligence and steady perseverance often make up for very moderate Hatural ability; but, other things being equal, the prizo for intrinsic excellence in any work is bound to go to the.competitor who is blessed with tho largest share of natural ability. For this reason I have often felt grieved at the failure of less talented pupils, who, to my certain knowledge, had been as diligent and a3 desirous to excel as the prizewinners. Then there is another matter to be taken into account in judging of the merits of pupils or of work, and that is tho more or less favorable home circumstances of the scholars or competitors. It is clear that in such a competition as that which took place here, a very great deal must depend upon the home of tne competitor; the amount of accommodation, the means of procuring necessary materials and appliances, and, not least, the encouragement given by parents. You young people cannot sufficiently value the blessing of having a good, kind father and mother. By-and-by, when you grow up and know more of life and the world you will better understand what you owe them. This remir.ds me of an incident in my official life many years ago. I had occasion to inspect a school on the goldfitlds. After the examination I considered it my duty to compliment the pupils on their remarkably good conduot. When the children were dispersing one of them, a girl of five or six years, came up to me and B&id " Plco,bo Mr Hislop, I should not have behaved myself so well only my mother told me to." It is vary likely some of you medallists may truly say " I should not have done the work which gained me tho prize only my mother or my father encouraged ine to." To those of you who are conscious of having done your very best and yet have failed to gain any distinction, I would say, be not disheartened, but make up your minds to use increased effort in future. Practice leads to perfection, and to a great extent persevering effort will make up even for want of tho highest degree of natural ability. With a few exceptions everyone is endowed by God with a certain degree of natural ability-some with more, tome with less. You remember the parable of the talents. The Lord gave to one man five talents, to another two, and to a third one talent, with a view to their right employment. Mark the reasonableness of the masteir. He p'ainly expected them to make gain in proportion to the measure they had received, for on the man with five and the man with two taleuts showing that they had profited in proportion to what they had received, they each obtained the simo meed of commendation. " Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will mako thee ruler over many things." And you remember the fate of the man who failed to employ aright the one talent with which he had been entrusted. God expects all of us to employ to the beßt of our ability the various talents He lias bestowed on us, be they few or many, and He has so ordained in His goodness that the very exerciee of our faculties bestows on us a groat amount of pleasure. You must have felt that to be the case in your own experience. The recent display of work here shows that God has bestowed on many of you good taste, skilful hands, and the gift of diligent effort; and lam sure that the successful performance of the work at every stage of its progress, and especially at its completion, must have caused you to feel very happy. Thus the acquiring of useful and industrious habits will not only greatly inorease your own happiness and that of otters, but you know that in learning those habits you are obeying the will of your Heavenly Father, who both commands and encourages us to be diligent and industrious, as well as to fear and love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength of mind. Be diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. I have already referred to the parable of the talents. You know that our first parents, when yet in a state of innocence, were not intended to lead idle lives. They wero put into the Garden of Eden to dress and to keep it. To acquire lazy habits would be to bring ft life's curse upon yourselves;

to learn habits of industry, on the other hand, will prove a blessing upon yourselves. The object of the exhibition was to encourage you to acquire habits of industry and thrift Time forbids me to say a word about thrift. I would only remark that thrift, or economy, is applicable to time as well as to money 01 other material things. You, when young, may think little of the value of time, and be disposed to think it passes away too slowly; but, should you bo spared to live to my age you will have learnt how very precious time is, aud how foolish those are who nesdlessly and foolishly waste it. Much of my o"vra success in life I may attribute to the deep sense of the awful value of time that I felt since my youthful days, and of the wisdom of crowding into my life as much work as possible. We are enjoined in the Bible to redeem tho time, because the days of our life are few. Lord, teaoh us to number ourdayn, that we may apply our hearts uuto wisdom.—(Applause.) The Bev. Mr ftorth then distributed the prizes to the various winners, and closed the meeting with the Benediction.