George was not satisfied with his attainments in the divine life, but sought to possess higher enjoyments and more extensive usefulness,—­“to deeper sink, and higher rise, and to perfection grow.”  He was soon enabled to testify that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin;” and had much delightful evidence that to be more holy was to become more happy and useful.  He labors devotedly and successfully as a local preacher, and is determined to live to the glory of God.

CHAPTER V.

CONCLUSION—­BENEFITS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.

Having now brought my sketches to a conclusion, I would here make a few remarks, before I take leave of my reader.  First:  the benefits resulting from Sabbath-schools are not confined to those which are present and palpable.  How often do we hear of children leaving the school, and going out into the world, without any apparent effect being produced in their minds; but yet, in the course of time, through the blessing of God, the most beneficial results have appeared from these instructions.

Not a few instances of boys who have been excluded on account of bad conduct, but who have been brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the blessing of God upon the instructions received in the Sabbath-school, have been laid before the public.  And who will say, that in many cases where there seems no connection whatever between the instruction and the conversion of the individual, no such connection exists?  It is my firm conviction that a person who has received instruction in a Sabbath-school is much more likely to receive the truth in the love of it, than is the individual who has been brought up in complete ignorance of the truths of the gospel.  The heart and understanding of the former may be compared to the ground broken up, and prepared for the seed; while those of the latter are like the field through which the plow has never passed, and the face of which has never been prepared; to sow seed on which is, in general, to cast it upon “stony ground, where” it is either picked up by the “birds of the air,” or, should it chance to take root, soon “withers away, because it has no deepness of earth.”

Secondly:  if no positive good resulted from Sabbath-schools, the amount of negative good produced would be sufficient to compensate for all the labor and toil of the teachers, and to warrant their continuance and support.  How much Sabbath-breaking is prevented by these instructions!  A very great proportion of those children who attend Sabbath-schools would, but for them, be spending their time in running about the streets, and in profaning the Lord’s day; and, by the unholy companionships which they must form, into how much of profligacy and vice would they be led!  Is it true on the one hand, “train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it?” Then it is equally true, that if a child be trained