would hail relief; but if others will not do the needed work, they must. It is vain to say "Don't overtax your strength." Spring to their side. Be Aaron and Hur to them; and you will prolong their lives and brighten your own. Oh! for a few men in our churches whose ruling passion is Home Mission work; men who, knowing at what cost their fathers won their humble position in the villages, resolve to keep the flag of God flying there as long as the slightest need remains; men who can see that the morality of our villages, streaming townwards, will largely determine the morality of the towns themselves; men who, remembering that a solitary Samaritan woman received at the hands of Christ the same patient care and precious instruction which blessed the cities of Judea and the populous towns of Galilee, learn the value of units; and, filled with His hunger, satisfy their souls with His bread. What would difficulties be to such men as these? "One man would chase a thousand, and two would put ten thousand to flight.” Brethren all— "Not many lives, but one have we, One, only one. How sacred should that one life be, Day after day filled up with blessed toil, Drinking by Women. AT a Meeting in Leicester, I took occasion to deplore the sale of wines, &c., by grocers, and I suggested that our members should keep themselves free from such a department of trade. Since then no fewer than 920 physicians, surgeons, and general practitioners have signed and published in the Lancet the following remarkable protest: We, the undersigned, being members of the medical profession, beg to record our strong persuasion that the facilities for obtaining spirits, wines, stout, and ale, in bottles, which are provided by the grocers' licence, have a most injurious tendency. We believe women, servants, and children of respectable households, who could not, or would not procure intoxicating drinks at public-houses, are encouraged to purchase and use these liquors by the opportunity offered when visiting the grocer's shop for other purposes. Female domestic servants are often enabled to obtain bottles of spirits, wine, and beer at a small cost on credit, or as 'commission' on the household bills. This trade is wholly removed from police supervision, and is a direct incentive to 'secret drinking-a practice more injurious to the health and moral and social prosperity of the community than the ordinary trade in intoxicating liquors as carried on by the licensed victuallers. We protest against the continuance of this licence on grounds moral and medical, and urge its consideration by a Select Committee of the House of Peers now investigating the subject of intemperance and the measures expedient to reduce the evils of excess. The abolition of this special licence we hold to be the first, and perhaps the most practical, step within the province of the Legislature." To this solemn protest I need not add a word. I am sure it will have due weight with those excellent tradesmen, members of our Churches, who either now hold, or contemplate obtaining a “grocer's licence.” GEORGE W. M'CREE. THE title of this paper at once calls our attention to what may be called the more important classes of our Sunday schools, namely, those composed of little children. Let us begin with the splendid opportunity here presented for our most effective work. I. Little children are naturally the most inquisitive beings upon earth. They want to know about all they see and hear; and their questions, when not repressed, are simply endless. Sometimes their enquiries take a strange and unexpected turn. For instance: a little boy was one day conversing with his uncle about the sun and moon. The uncle was endeavouring to make him understand that the sun was really very much larger than the moon; and at length the boy appeared to realize it. But this did not end his difficulties; for after thinking a few moments, he asked why, if the sun were biggest, God had not made it to shine at night, when it was dark, and we most wanted light? Occasionally there will be need to check a tendency to ask impertinent or senseless questions. But, as a rule, this spirit of enquiry so early manifested, is a grand advantage to a really earnest teacher, who will take care to use it as the King's highway, along which the precious merchandise of truth shall travel to the youthful mind. Little children are very communicative. Once gain their confidence and they will tell all they know or think, sometimes with almost startling plainness of speech. A little fellow, walking one day over a wretchedly uneven pavement in the street of his native town, confidentially informed one who was with him that, had he been God, he would never have made a pavement like that. Another young freethinker held an argument with his nurse in reference to the origin of things. The nurse positively affirmed that "God made everything.” But the boy as flatly denied, and, at length, he put an end to the argument by adding "He didn't make dolls." Of course, this kind of thing gives a rather severe shock to one's orthodox feelings; and it wants judicious handling, lest it should lead to a disagreeable and unbecoming self-assertion on the part of the child, or degenerate to mere tittle-tattle and gossip. But it is an immense advantage to the teacher to be able thus readily to ascertain the thoughts and feelings of his pupil. Another valuable element in the case is : -The Bible is a marvellously interesting book to the little ones. If anyone should doubt it, I would say, "Go, my friend, and try an experiment. Take up one of those grand old Bible stories. Read it alone, at first, and turn it over in your mind, until the scene there discribed becomes a living reality to you, vivid and clear in all its details, and radiant with light and meaning. Then gather the children around you, and tell out to them in simple words, and with earnestness of tone, that same old story;" and the little limbs, so restless but a few moments before, will be still; the eyes will be fixed; and those very children, who sometimes are so dreadfully troublesome, will be listening with all but breathless interest to your words. And it only needs a little tact to interweave with every * A Paper read at the Sunday School Conference of the Association, and printed by request such story, some practical lesson, and so make it the vehicle which shall carry home to the heart some inestimable truth. II. Let us now hastily glance at the results of our work in this promising field, and enquire whether they can be considered thoroughly satisfactory? For the answer to our question, we will turn to our senior classes, where, in the course of years, we may expect again to meet with these same children, no longer little, but grown in both mind and body to the statue of young men and women. Their thirst for knowledge will surely be still unabated, only developed under the careful training of a judicious teacher, from the somewhat childish curiosity of former days, into a thoughtful and earnest enquiry as to the many things that go to make up the intricate problems of human life which daily surround them. And, as difficulties are wholly or partially explained, they but serve as new points of departure for further discoveries in the ever-widening field of truth. The Book, too, that was the friend and companion of their early years, has lost none of its power; but, on the contrary, has grown more dear with the lapse of time, for out of it has shined into those young hearts the Light of Life. All along the path it has been an inexhaustible mine of wealth; and the former childish delight in its wondrous stories of noble men and mighty deeds has grown into a real love for the principles that made those men so noble, and produced such mighty deeds. And now, having long since mastered the first rudiments of its precious and heavenly teaching, these young men and maidens are still bending over it in loving study; seeking, as far as they are able, to explore its deeper depths, their toil being constantly rewarded by sparkling gems of truth, yielding to the searchers an ever-increasing joy. And in such a work, who more likely to help them than the teacher to whose wise counsel and ready sympathy they already owe so much? He is endeared to them now by many pleasant memories of the days already gone. The confidence they have reposed in him has never been betrayed; and now he is their most trusted friend and adviser, not in study only, but in the growing responsibilities of life. And he, with unwearing diligence, labours on as though unconscious of increasing years; and, as they look together week by week into the Book of God, he seems to them father and brother in one; and the angels may well love to linger over such a scene, for love keeps within the teacher's soul much of the freshness and vigour of youth. Happy class! And happy, thrice happy, teacher ! Who would not desire a work like that! But where shall we find such a class? Alas! for our beautiful picture. At the touch of reality it fades from view, leaving the hard stern facts for us to face. And, if I read those facts aright, they are both hard and stern. Is it not true that immense numbers of our scholars drop out of the ranks, and are lost to us long before adult age, for the simple reason that they have not sufficient interest in, and love for, the school to hold them in it? And of those who do remain, and who constitute our senior classes, how many are there, or might we not rather say how few, who, to any great extent, answer to our ideal? Is it not sadly too true, that in very many cases, the general aspect of the senior class is one of com JUNIOR CLASS TEACHERS. 307 parative indifference? The thirst for knowledge, so evident in the child, has died away. The Bible has become to them almost as a worn-out book. And all too often the teacher finds to his sorrow, that just on the very approach of the active duties and grave responsibilities of life, when the winds and currents of human existence are setting in for good or evil in all their strength, and the mighty storm wind of temptation, like some fierce tornado, beats furiously upon the young and inexperienced voyager, the cable of religion,-into which all Sunday School work ought to have twisted the varied strands of love, truth, and the like, until it should have defied the very storm blast of hell; and which, reaching deep down into the unshaken verities of eternity, would, by the anchor of faith, have taken firm hold of the very nature of God,-that cable is either entirely missing, or is all too weak to bear the strain; and out upon the wild, raging sea, the helpless vessel drifts, the sport of all the tempests of life. Brethren, if these things are true (and, without further remark, I shall proceed upon the assumption that in the main they are so), must there not be some terrible defect in our method of working; and is it not time we set ourselves with intense earnestness to seek out the source of our weakness, and, wherever we find it, throw the whole energy of our being into the effort to rise above the weakness for ever? III. I propose, therefore, to occupy the remainder of this paper with a few practical hints and suggestions which will, I believe, have such a tendency. Addressing myself then, first to the teachers of our Junior Classes, I would say: (1.) Make each individual child your special study. It is not enough to deal with the class as a whole. Little children manifest as much diversity of character and disposition as do men and women; and just as the successful leader among men is one who seems intuitively to know exactly where and how to touch and influence his fellows; so is it essential to our success that we should be able to read the characters of our scholars, and adapt ourselves and our method to their peculiarities. (2.) Love, and sympathize, with the children. I don't mean that make-believe kind of love and sympathy which teachers sometimes put on half-unconsciously because they feel it is their duty to love the scholars. No, No! It must be the real spontaneous out-going of your own soul that will find its way, without many words, straight to their hearts, and make some of the more demonstrative amongst them want to climb upon your knee and give you the precious, pure kiss of childhood; or perchance seize your hand, and run prattling by your side down the street. This is all the more necessary, because many of the dear little ones get but little love at home. I have, nevertheless, sometimes shrunk back from the very thing here indicated, because of the feeling of horror with which I regard anything that appears at all like usurping the parent's place. But love is to the child what sunshine is to the flowers-simply essential to the growth and development of its being. And if the father, with all the powers of nature at his back, fail to hold his own in the affections of his child, and the Sunday School teacher should, without seeking it come to reign upon what ought to be the father's throne, it is not usurpation, but only a stepping into a vacant place, which has been abdicated by the rightful possessor. And it is far better that the child should learn what love and sympathy are like from its teacher, than that it should be warped and stunted for want of them. If, however, you feel that you have not this qualification, you cannot call it into being by a mere exercise of the will; but go in earnestness of soul to the loving Father of all, and seek at His hands a richer baptism of His own Spirit, and this difficulty, at least, will vanish. (3.) Aim directly at the present conversion of the little ones. But do we really and heartily believe in the probability of their conversion as one of the principal articles of the Teachers' creed? If so, what are we doing with a view to realize it? Have we not still too much of the old notion, that such children are not old enough to know what they are doing; and that the work of the junior class teacher is only to put the scholars through a sort of preparatory training, in the hope that their conversion may afterwards be brought about in our senior classes? If any such idea does still live among us, surely it is time it was destroyed, to the last rag and thread of it; for religion, summed up in one word, is love, and there is nothing children sooner understand and appreciate than love. Nay, more; there is a beautiful simplicity in the Gospel, when men do not muddle it, which harmonises so exactly with the nature of the child, that in some respects they have the advantage over us who are older; and so when our Saviour would shew His disciples what they should strive to be, He "took a little child" for His model. But if you doubt at all the capacity of little children for real abiding religious impressions, just give them a fair trial, and I venture to say you will soon have an experience of most blessed astonishment. Only the other week it was my privilege to be present at a veritable childrens' prayer-meeting. One dear child, about eleven years of age, opened the meeting by giving out "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire." Then all knelt down, and two or three of about the same age offered short simple prayers; not just a parrot-like imitation of older people, but the desires. of their own hearts, breathed out in their own simple words. Then another one gave out "Dear Jesus, ever at my side, How loving must Thou be To leave Thy home in heaven to guide A little child like me." Then a few more simple earnest prayers, and so on. I only wish I could as thoroughly enjoy all adult prayer-meetings as I did that one. (4.) But, in all you do, never forget you are dealing with children. Speak to them personally and pointedly; but simply and naturally. Throw away all the old cant phrases, and come right down to their little natures. Repeat the same idea, in different forms, to shew its various lights and shades, and to fix it in their minds. Keep your eyes and ears open to see whether the children are following what you say, and if not, pull up at once, and get them on the track again. Remember, not your words only, but all your character and example are unconsciously |