YOUNG HEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

Colonist, Volume V, Issue 468, 18 April 1862, Page 2

YOUNG HEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

The Mutual Improvement Class in connection with this Association have adopted the plan of writing short essays or addresses from time to time, signed anonymously. The first, entitled " Usefulness of Young Men," was brought before the class on Tuesday evening last, and which we have been requested to publish. We hope our young men will pursue the course they have begun, and we shall feel great pleasure in giving publicity to some of their effusions. Usefulness of Young Men. Every one will admit that Sunday Schools have been, and still are, a great benefit to early youth. Such an Institution commenced on a very small scale, but now we see it taking a prominent feature in the means of religious instruction. Our Mutual Improvement Class is not a great many steps from the class of a Sunday School; it is true we have more < freedom, but learning is our chief object—-and instead of having a teacher we endeavor to instruct oursblves. Having grown in years, and seeing the necessity of gaining knowledge moro forcibly then when younger, we assemble together from week to week to hear a lecture—join in a debate—or take part in social conversation.

We do not number many members at present, but like beginnings in every work it must be on a small scale. It rests with us individually to increase our number, and we have not far to go for recruits—there are many young men in this small city who, if they once came in with us, would be interested in the Society, and would be a great benefit to it. It would throw in more ideas—we should find ourselves better informed—and consequently, have more confidence in speaking. Let us, to the best of our ability, conduct the class with propriety, and in a few years henco we, without doubt, shall sco the fruit of our endeavors.

But to be useful is a great object in this life ; if we receive freely we ought to dispense freely. How many young men throw away their time upon nothing, when they may be engaged in a work that would be beneficial to others, and honoring their Creator. There aro many ways where time may be well employed, and wbich, if once begun, would prove pleasing occupations. What young man has not the ability to teach a class in the Sunday School, though it be only the ABC class ? or, if not engaged in the school as a teacher, he may occasionally look after children who have not yet attended. Tract distributing is another useful occupation.

The writer was a member of a Society some years since, having for its name "The Juvenile Missionary Society." The young men determined among themselves to do their utmost to prove useful in the outskirts of a large city. Teaching the young, and supplying religious publications was their first work, and it may be interesting to know how they succeeded. Their last report was presented in August, 1861, and from which the following is taken :— "During the past five years this Society has endeavored, to the extent of its limited ability, by tho missionary efforts of its members, to spread religious truth. Week after week, on the Sabbath-day, young men have gone out to teach the young, to read to the ignorant, and to warn the Sab-bath-breaker. They have been supplied with religious publications, which they have gratuitously distributed in large numbers, and they rejoice to know that good has resulted from their efforts." It also states that they had engaged one of their number a3 colporteur at the close of the previous year, and in that short time he had visited, in various country districts, 1800 houses—sold 920 books—and conversed with 513 families.

Here is a lesson for us. This is accomplished by young men like ourselves, and we should not remain dilatory in such a cause. Let us act as the following linos dictate: —

Tho lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime; And, departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time. Footprints that, perhaps, another Sailing o'er life's solemn main— Some forlorn and shipwrecked brother Seeing, shall take heart again. Let us then be up and doing With a heart for any fate ; Still achieving—still pursuing— Learn to labor and to wait.

Diligence and attention are needed to make this class wbat it should be. There is no royal road to knowledge; and if we would acquire ifc we must do it by patience and perseverance. Attendance afc the weekly meetings will be nothing if we do not carefully prepare for tire exercises ofthe. evening. Winter is upon us, and the long evenings will give ample time for study. Do not be discouraged by the thought that with all our time and labor we make no progress. Rome was not built in a day. Our faculties must be invigorated, and every increaso of knowledge— every exercise of intellectual powers, will add to our means of influence and usefulness in society. Should any sphere of usefulness be known toany member of this class, where no other agency is at work, make it known, and let us try to be doing. Let us win a name that will be more honorable to us than merely meeting for our own pleasure. Where duty calls, no one will bo found to act quicker than Lightning.

To the Editor of the Colonist. Sir—Perhaps the following extract from the New Zealander entitled ' A Voice from the Strangers' Gallery.' will put some of our new councilmen on their guard. One notorious sinner in the matter of that abominable sin of ' omission and commission ' —the ill-used [I—has been sent to the 'lightabout,' and I trust that the new members will be careful and not follow so bad an example. OUTSIDER.

My ' /tonerable' friend, the Secretary of the Lindley Murray Etymological Society, has followed the practice and not the preaching of his brother in arms and dear friend, the' Dodger,' who co lately declared ? on that memorable occasion

when he took advantage of the absence of leading men from the Council to vilify and traduce tho character of Mr. Richmond, the late Colonial Treasurer, ( that he utterly abhorred the principle of standing up to bluster for a question which he knew he had no chance of obtaining.' Now the ' honorable ' thinks differently from his leader, and could not resist the temptation of giving another proof of his devotion to letters, and his love of promoting what he would call' hintellectual hinformation among the lower borders,' by moving the Council to address the Superintendent, praying him to place a sum of money on the estimates for the benefit of .the Mechanic's Institute. He well knew that such a motion would meet with the reception which it most deservedly did, that of being negatived by about 14 to 4—but his zeal and attention he calculated would look well with his constituents, and might at a future time serve his purpose on the hustings. The ' /ionerable,' I may remark, en passant, was one of those dirty birds which did not hesitate to befoul its own nest by raising the lying cry of provincial bankruptcy, and frantically declaiming against the wickedness of voting a single sixpence when (as he himself stated) • there was no available hassets to meet any such votes as them which was asked for by the hexecitive.'

If he really believes this cry, which he takes up and echoes from his great financial 4 Captain,' who is again, I believe, in an interesting condition, where on earth does he expect the £250 moved for to come from ? Of a piece with such inconsistency —I don ft wish to use harsh terms—was the little bit of villany in which he was frustrated on Wednesday last. A return of the land in the hands of the Government had been applied for by the Council, and on.Wednesday an answer was sent down in a message by the Superintendent. The '/ionerable' took this paper at once from the hands of the |clerk, had walked away with it to his seat; when, having duly examined it with one or two kindred spirits, and finding that it gave the lie direct to their previous statements, they determined to put a bold face upon the matter, and the ' /ionerable' walked up with a self-satisfied smirk to the table, document in hand, exclaiming ' very valuable hinformation, the most himportant paper as as been sent down this session, showing as ninetenths of the land is hutterly valueless. Mr. Speaker, sir, I moves as it be printed.' Now the usual course is first to move that it be read; this was not what the 'Aonerable' wished, and he looked very crest-fallen, and sat down sulkily enough, when such a course was pointed out as the right one, and insisted on by Mr. J. O'Niell. It then came out that instead of 49,000 aSres of bad land, as Joe May stated in his seat in the Council in order to deter immigration to the Province, there was actually in the hands of the government, surveyed and unsurveyed, no less than three quarters of a million of acres, of which one half was declared to be of more than average quality.