Chapter IV: A Sprig of Evergreen, broken off, may teach us to abide in (3)

_Third Teacher's_ plan was--The Young Ruler was, 1. Rich; 2. Pleasing; 3. Respectful; 4. Ready to learn; 5. Prostrate--the custom of the country; 6. Put first his love to neighbors; 7. Commandments--Pharisee. Show the children how far they can go and yet be lost. He was a church member, an officer in the church, a ruler: he came to Jesus prostrate, prayed respectfully--Jesus applied the touchstone and _all_ was _wanting_.

_Fourth Teacher._--1. Young man's great desire. 2. It was to be saved. 3. Go to God's word. 4. Justified himself. 5. He loved money more than he loved God. 6. Hollow-hearted. Study the scholar as much as the lesson.

_Fifth Teacher._--1. Young man's question and manner. 2. Asserting he kept all the law. 3. He thought himself honest and sincere, but was deceived. 4. Wanted satisfying peace. 5. Not willing to remove his idols. 6. Great ignorance of the young man. 7. Riches a great hindrance. 8. See our Lord's firmness.

_Sixth Teacher._--We must show our love to Christ by love to our neighbors.

_Seventh Teacher._--With man it is impossible, but not with God.

_Eighth Teacher._--Something must be given up for Christ. What? Pride, sloth, ill-temper, bad company, bad books, love of dress, pleasure.--See Abraham going to a strange land. Offering Isaac, etc.

_Ninth Teacher._--Ruler had his ideas of _doing_ something to gain heaven, and was at work for it. The great Teacher took him on his own ground and _convicted_ him of _sin_.

_Tenth Teacher._--A child says: "Why, here is an honest, sincere seeker, who went to Jesus in the right manner and way, but failed." How hard to be saved! But see--1. His question. 2. The Saviour's answer. 3. The obstacles and hindrances. 4. The greatest apparent defect is in the second table of the law. If perfectly convicted, why so confident? etc.

III. Lesson, Matthew viii. 1-4. Have eight distinct exercises. 1. Read the lesson. 2. Catechise or question upon it. 3. The numerical exercise or asking, How many things, etc. 4. _Explanations_ and illustrations of difficult words. 5. Draw out great important _thoughts_ of the lesson. 6. Call forth the _lessons_ of instruction. 7. Make the _application_ to heart and life. 8. Review of the whole; and then, if desired, two more exercises can be added by turning the lesson into _prayer_, and next to a _paraphrase_ formed of the verses.

There are _three_ kinds of teaching. 1. Catechising or questioning. 2. Conversational. 3. Lecturing. Which is yours? We might add a fourth; but that is not teaching at all, only it is sometimes called so--viz., Reading questions from a question-book, and reading the answers. Good teaching is earnest, hearty work.

IV. The fourth and last example is of the social form of teachers' meeting. I give the notes of one held on the evening of December 11, 1867. We met at 6 o'clock P.M., precisely, at the house of Mr. C----; opened with singing and prayer. Then had half an hour's studying of the lesson, which was upon the Atonement. Some of the thoughts drawn out were: Mediation,--arbitration,--the God-man,--dead goat and the goat sent away,--the passover,--the victim,--a substitute,--altar, victim, shed blood; vivid picture of offering the lamb;--atonement looks both ways;--blood cleanseth. How do you get the atonement? Have you got it? How do you prove gratitude to God for it? Exalting the great truth, "Christ died for me." He is the only barrier against eternal death. The lesson was shown in three phases: 1. The Redeemer buys us from sin--is our ransom; 2. Saves us from sin; 3. Reconciles us to God. Take first under three heads: 1. Man is a ruined wanderer; 2. Man a captive; 3. Man is free in Christ and saved. After the lesson was thus considered, the next half hour was devoted to _business_. The library, Christmas exercises, singing, and length of opening exercises, and the treasury, were topics. The next hour was given to tea and social intercourse. The last hour was devoted to accounts of interesting or discouraging things in the teachers' classes, and work, and intermingled with frequent prayer and singing. All was conducted spiritually and in earnest, and it was a precious three hours.

XX.

VISITING THE SCHOLARS.

Every Sabbath-school teacher should regularly visit his scholars once a month, and every Sabbath-school superintendent should visit his teachers regularly once in three months. These are very important and yet too often neglected duties. A superintendent can hardly discharge his duties to the teachers without frequently visiting them. This should be no mere formal visit. It should be a Christian conference about all the details, particularly of their classes and their duties. The superintendent is the regular counsellor and guide of the teachers. He should talk about their teaching, about each and all their scholars, their difficulties, their trials and successes, and aid and encourage them by every means. These visits should be made so cheerful and pleasant, so free from fault-finding and complaint, that the teachers will hail them with great joy.

The Sabbath-school teacher also, from his own necessities and from duty, must needs visit his scholars often. He has a real errand to the home of every child. He can snatch intervals of time going to or returning from business. He cannot teach that child aright and to good advantage unless he is well acquainted with all his home influences; with all there is in the child's surroundings to help or hinder the teacher's work; with all the dangers, temptations, and trials of the child's everyday life; with all the characteristics of parents and friends. It is from the vicinity of these homes that the teacher will be enabled to see and hear things that will furnish him with good illustrations. He can obtain the parents' co-operation and friendship, and have personal interviews and gain the child's spiritual confidence in these visits to its home and fireside circle. "My teacher has come to see _me_," is often the joyful utterance of the grateful little ones.

Sabbath-school teachers should never neglect this privilege, neither should they make careless or indifferent visits. Arouse up and think your visit all out beforehand. Think what in substance you are going to talk about, what you ought to say, so as to make your visit as welcome and as profitable as possible both to parents and scholars. Have an errand to every house. Carry some little book or tract or paper, if convenient. Give them some interesting and valuable information, or make earnest inquiries and give good wishes and prayers for rich blessings, temporal and spiritual. Choose the right time and seek favorable opportunities. Absentees must, of course, be visited without delay, for it may be sickness has detained them. "The sickness of a child is a golden opportunity for the teacher; God himself ploughs the ground and he must not withhold the seed." Especially avail yourself of seasons when the heart is made tender by illness, afflictions, and trials. Then be constant and true, for it may be your harvest-time of souls. "Oh, to be the guiding star of such a little circle is one of the highest privileges of earth." Teacher, may that privilege and blessing be yours.

We add a single illustrative example from "_The Teacher Teaching_:"

"A decently-dressed woman calls at your house and begs for a shawl to protect a neighbor of hers from the cold when she goes out to her daily work. You have a shawl. You have laid it aside for this very purpose. Why not give it to her and have done with it? If you do not know the person who calls, it would be very injudicious to entrust to a stranger what you intended for a third person. It may be pawned for strong drink, or retained by one who is not in want. Better go or send and satisfy yourself that the need exists, and see that it is supplied. You wisely conclude to look for yourself. You find the object of your charity, and ascertain that she is a superior needle-woman, capable of earning her living, but not able to find work where there is none. If she could hire a room in some part of the city nearer the demand for work, she might succeed. You give her the shawl, and with it a few words of encouragement. In a day or two you are at a meeting of the directors of the Industrial Home or Orphans' Society, and allude to the case of this woman. A young lady present immediately recollects a poor woman, whom she has seen during the week, who has a room to rent, and perhaps it would exactly suit. The parties are brought together and the room is taken. Two wants are thus promptly supplied--the want of a _room_ and the want of a _tenant_. But how came the young lady to know of such a room? Why, simply by visiting the mother of one of her class in the Sunday-school. It was not any part of her plan to obtain any such information; nor could she have known that it might be of any advantage to her or to any one else for her to possess it. The indirect result of this simple visit accomplished--what? 1. It secured a tenant for a vacant room, and thus helped a poor woman to pay her rent. 2. It put another poor woman in a comfortable and convenient position to earn her own living. 3. It laid the mother of one of her Sunday-school children under great obligation to her, and thus increased her influence and her power to do good both to mother and child. It will take a strong force to sunder that tie. 4. It brought to the new tenant Christian care and sympathy, which she before lacked, and the way for her attendance on the stated means of grace."

Thus is exemplified, by a single real and comparatively unimportant incident in humble life, the power of the Sunday-school machinery, in its legitimate movements, to improve and elevate social condition and character. It was all the work of that little wheel in our machinery called VISITING.

XXI.

SYSTEMATIC DISTRICT CHRISTIAN VISITATION.

The plan here given in its present form grew out of an exigency in the operations of the Missionary Committee of the New York Sunday-School Union in the summer of 1856.

In their great endeavor to reach the neglected masses of children and youth, more than sixty thousand seemed to be beyond their reach. A more _thorough_ work was needed. Occasional visits and ordinary attention did not so gain the acquaintance and confidence as to rescue these neglected ones. They were the most destitute and needy, and the most important to reach in our city. After much consideration and prayer, this plan was adopted, presented to, and accepted by the churches in New York and Brooklyn, and it was soon adopted by other cities and States also. Everywhere it has developed astonishing results, increasing Sabbath-schools and churches, and speedily transforming dark neighborhoods.

Forty-four churches of various evangelical denominations entered upon the work within a few months after its introduction, and quite uniformly the Sabbath-schools _doubled_ their scholars within the first month or two, and in some marked instances church members and congregations were more than doubled in numbers within six months. As long as it was faithfully worked it everywhere prospered, demonstrating that the plan was a good one.

It is based on the great command, "_Go ye and teach_." It believes that every church-member should be a working Christian, a real missionary; that "every man should _speak to his neighbor, and each one to his brother_;" that every Christian's business should be so arranged as to give a wider scope for his religion, that he may become, in a degree, a voluntary missionary. It proposes to _systematize_ the work. Mere voluntary personal effort is at times so fitful and evanescent as not to be sufficiently reliable.

The plan is for every church to take a definite district as its special missionary field--in the city a certain number of blocks and streets, and in the country a number of miles square, or neighborhoods, properly arranged so as to give every other church a portion of the field to work.

All this is to be subdivided by a committee of the church into small sub-sections of from five to fifteen families, proportionate to the number of able members. A sub-section is assigned to the member, and becomes his or her little parish, on which to bestow especial labor, sympathy, and prayers. He is to visit it every month, invite all the children to some Sunday-school, the family to church, supply with the Bible, tract, etc., and do all possible temporal and spiritual good. Once a month each church devotes one of the weekly prayer-meetings to hearing reports from the visitors, and conferring and praying over this great work. Special care is taken not to proselyte; not to take a child from one school to another, or induce a person to leave one church for another, but to respect the rights of all. Individuals are not considered under any obligations to _confine_ their visits to their assigned districts, but still enjoy the Christian liberty of going everywhere and doing good to all men as they have opportunity.

This work is--1. A holy work. 2. A deliberate work. 3. It is a work of pure good-will. 4. Says Rev. Dr. Chalmers: "No other ministration is to be offered than that of respect and kindness." 5. They are to go just so far "as they will be gratefully met by the population." 6. Visit rich and poor, but carefully select districts adapted to the visitors. 7. Seek the confidence of parents and children; be patient, be persevering, be courageous, be sympathetic, and take no notice of repulses. 8. Enter no house in vain. Leave some kind suggestion, counsel, or sympathy in regard to spiritual or temporal interests. 9. Relieve all want and distress possible; inculcate temperance, cleanliness, and economy. 10. Counsel with mothers with reference to their children. 11. Give a fraternal aspect to your visits, and avoid controversy, and generally even argument.

If each professing Christian in our churches who is able would become responsible for the regular visitation of but four neglected families, every family in our land would be faithfully visited. "What a plain, simple, magnificent idea is here presented!" A regular Christian army of occupation for our whole country. Says the Rev. Dr. Guthrie: "It would everywhere bring life into contact with death, and cover the whole outlying population, even as the prophet with his own body covered the dead body of the child." The motto is: EVERY CHILD IN THE SABBATH-SCHOOL, AND EVERY FAMILY IN THE CHURCH.

XXII.

NEW MISSION-SCHOOLS.

In all our great cities, in the town and country, there are vast numbers of immortal youth far beyond the reach of churches and church Sabbath-schools, and therefore, it becomes necessary to carry the Sunday-school to them. A room is obtained, conveniently located, with seats, books, etc. The children are gathered, taught to read, to sing, to pray, presented with library books, papers, etc., and thus innumerable blessings are sent down into destitute families, and soon, like leaven, the Gospel is seen diffusing itself everywhere among the mass.

Something like seventy of these mission-schools are now successfully sustained in New York City alone, with twelve to fifteen thousand pupils in them. Roman Catholic, Jewish, and other classes of children are in this way easily and successfully reached, and permanently benefited. This instrumentality must be largely increased everywhere. Some five or six different denominations often unite in the labors of one of these schools, and all work together in the most beautiful harmony. This movement is in the highest sympathy with that _aggressive_ feature of the system, before named.

But to come to the details of this work, and how it should be begun and carried on: First choose wisely the location for a new church or mission Sabbath-school. Then select one or more men and women full of life and zeal as a nucleus of interest and labor. Next survey and visit systematically all the families in the district, and present the objects and the value and adaptedness of the Sunday-school to their wants. Pray much and at every step, privately and socially, especially in the early stages of the effort.

Get all ready for a good commencement. Have every thing arranged, so that not a moment of delay in finding the right hymn, or in singing it, will prompt the children to find something else to do. Do not admit children faster than you can conveniently control them. Some superintendents aim at gathering a rush of scholars the first Sabbath or two, and the result is that they lose months in getting to order and control of the children. It is often better to admit only a dozen or two new scholars at a time, and get them well classified and arranged, and in the hands of good teachers. There most be order, and the superintendent must wait for it, although he may not at the first do much beside. Much depends upon starting right. Have Testaments, hymn-books, and Sunday-school papers, if possible, ready on the first Sabbath.

Select a clear, distinct, easy lesson at the first, and whatever is done, let it be well done. Select the teachers carefully, and admit none who have not a good report, and are not of a teachable spirit. Meet with the teachers socially every week, if possible, to aid them with your suggestions and help. Be cheerful, earnest, and respectful to all. Keep up a regular visitation of teachers and scholars, and let your visits bear a fraternal and not an inquisitorial aspect. Prove yourselves the true friends of parents and scholars, and never get out of patience or discouraged because you cannot gain the children of Roman Catholics or Jewish parents at once: it may be only a question of time. At any rate, do them all the good you can at their homes, whether you ever lead them to the Sunday-school or not. Duty is ours--results belong to God. Through the children reach the parents, and through the parents reach the children. Let your errand to the house always be one of kindness and good-will, so that if they do not receive you kindly it will be because they misunderstand you. These visits, however, are almost invariably well received if made in a natural, pleasant manner, proceeding from a "charity which hopeth all things." Respect and honor the parents all you can, whether they commit their children to your care or not. Exhibit our beautiful library books, our sweet songs, our attractive children's papers, and speak of the great kindness and love of the teachers to the children.

It is very desirable to have a course of regular week-day evening lectures for the children and parents. One week it may be "Jerusalem," another "coal," another "coral," and the next "the ocean," and then some subject of natural history, as the "elephant;" and illustrate highly to meet the eyes. Take especial care of the older boys and girls, and strive to introduce week-day exercises that will interest and please them. Appoint them upon committees and to little offices, and give them all something to do--something that they can do, something that they will do cheerfully.

The following, from _The Sunday-School Times_, is a beautiful illustrative example of mission Sunday-school work and teaching. It is entitled "Bill Jones; or, Our Colored Sabbath-school:"

It was one of those perfect Sabbaths in the early June, that I walked with trembling heart along the locust-shadowed sidewalk leading to our little chapel. On that day our colored Sunday-school was to be organized; and we, who only a few weeks since had professed before men and angels to love our Saviour, were to be enlisted as workers in our Master's vineyard.

What can be done to improve the religious condition of our colored population? was a question which had long occasioned anxious thought among the godly of our village. Originally slaves, they had, when the law of liberation was proclaimed through New York, refused to remove farther than the grassy common, where, almost within the shadow of "Massa's house," they were allowed to build their humble cabins. Increased afterward in numbers, the suburbs of the town had become edged with their miserable tenements. One or two attempts had been made to establish preaching among them by a minister of their own race, but thus far without success. True, in the "brick church," a part of the gallery was set apart especially for their use. Still the "dark corner" (as the mischievous boys called it) was only occupied by a few old uncles and aunties, while the rest, though within sound of the sweetest of all Sabbath bells, were as utterly without God in the world as their brethren in Africa.

At length a Sabbath-school was determined on. As most of those able and willing to work were already engaged, one of the officers of the church volunteered to superintend the school, provided he might have the assistance of a band of young girls, who hitherto had been privileged to assemble week after week as a Bible-class in the "pastor's study."

On the first Sabbath about thirty or forty children were assembled of all ages and sizes, with wondering eyes; and in a few moments I found myself seated in a chair before six boys, whom I at once recognized as some of the worst village urchins, always to be seen at the "depôt," or on the "hotel steps," laden with baskets of apples and pea-nuts, their own best customers. I was about to ask for more hopeful subjects, but our earnest superintendent only held out to me the class-book and pencil--and I was alone with my destiny.

Among the names, I registered Andrew Jackson, Andrew Jackson, Jr., Marquis Lafayette, George Washington, and Byron Clarke. When about to inquire the cognomen of the last, I was forestalled by his calling out, in a stentorian voice, "My name a'n't nothing but _Bill Jones_; but I guess you have heard of the boy who sings nigger songs and dances Jim Crow at the 'Harrison House.'" He was unfortunately not mistaken in his notoriety, and the task before me assumed a new magnitude. None of them could read, and after half an hour of A B C, I proceeded to ask some simple questions of Bible history, of which I soon found that they knew absolutely nothing: their ideas of God, even, were as wild as those of the little Hindoos. So I began at the beginning. I spoke of the six days of creation; then of the deluge. When in my account of the ark and its wondrous freight, I was interrupted by one. "Did they have bears?" "Yes," I answered. "And lions?" "Yes." "Elephants?" "Yes." "Monkeys?" "Yes." And finally Billy Jones, all eagerness, "Did they have a _clown_?" And I found to my utter dismay that my youthful auditors, certainly not incapable of association of ideas, had conceived of Noah merely as the proprietor of a menagerie travelling in that wild waste of waters. Truly this was fallow ground. But our superintendent only smiled encouragement, and bade me go forward.

Sabbath after Sabbath rolled on, and rain or shine my six boys were always in their places. They had learned to love the school, especially the sweet hymns; and their quick sympathies had gone out to one who at least always tried to treat them gently and kindly. Of their affection I had many unmistakable proofs. Once I remember walking in one of the quiet streets. I was suddenly startled by three sonorous cheers, and looking up I saw the "Marquis," Andrew Jackson, and Byron Clarke. Though not precisely the most agreeable greeting for a young lady, I could not in my heart do less than wave a return. Again, they frequently brought to our door presents of flowers and fruit. In one instance the latter bore such a striking resemblance to some rosy-cheeked apples in a neighbor's orchard that I was forced to reprove the boy, and the next Sabbath took for our "lesson talk" the eighth commandment. Not many days after the same child made his appearance at the kitchen, his hands filled with the first pond-lilies of the season; and as he gave them to me he said, "There, Miss Esther, you will like them, for _they's honest; God growed them in the outlet_." Never, from that day to this, have flowers brought more true gladness to my heart than did those pure white blossoms, plucked by swarthy hands in the "outlet" where "God growed them."

We established a missionary society among them, and many a penny, previously devoted to fire-crackers and the like, now found its way down the red chimney of our "savings bank." Poor Bill Jones had less to give than any of the boys, and this I plainly saw troubled him a great deal. He had stopped dancing "Jim Crow," first on Sabbath, and of late on week-days; and this being his chief source of revenue, his spare pennies were few and far between. One day, with a bright face, he asked me "if it was not right to do good on Sundays?" Of course I replied yes; and then "if it was wrong to take money for doing good on Sundays?" This was a nice distinction--one which I felt him not capable of understanding should I attempt it. So I simply said, "No, I thought not." Though feeling rather curious, I had no opportunity just then of asking as to these pious earnings. Next Sabbath the teachers were requested to remain a moment. A gentleman arose, not a member of our school, saying that a few hours since he had witnessed a scene which had so touched his heart that he could not forbear cheering us with the glad tidings. Passing the "Harrison House," he noticed that the invariable group of Sunday-noon loungers had deserted their post. Just then his ear was caught by a clear melodious voice singing. It seemed to come from the bar-room. Yes, as he drew near, from the open windows of that den of pollution floated out on the summer air the words:

"Watchman, tell as of the night,
What its signs of promise are."

He stepped upon the low platform and looked in. On a table sat a negro boy. About the room were hard-faced young men, and those older, on whose bloated features intemperance had set its livid brand. But they were all listening. The singer finished the last verse, and then began again. This time he sang, "Jesus, lover of my soul."

My own eyes were dimmed, said the gentleman, as he came to the lines,

"Vile and full of sin I am;
Thou art full of truth and grace."

It seemed as if for a moment an angel's wing brushed away the shadow from those darkened hearts, and tears moistened cheeks long unused to heart-rain. The singing stopped. "Go on, go on, we will pay you more," said one and another. "I cannot now," answered the boy; "it is time for Sunday-school, but I will sing again next Sunday, if you'll come." And as he put into his pocket the coppers that were handed him, he said, "I wouldn't take these, only I am going to send them to the heathen. I'll sing you the hymn--it's beautiful--about 'Greenland's icy mountains;'" and humming it to himself, "Bill Jones" left the bar-room.

Reader, should it ever be your good fortune to walk down this thickly-shaded village street on a Sabbath morn, you might within those very halls, now pure and white, hear the rich baritone voice of "Bill Jones" leading in some song of Zion, and with him many others, "plucked as brands from the burning."

XXIII.

THE CONVERSION AND CULTURE OF CHILDREN.

Immediate conversion ought to be the aim and expectation of every faithful Sabbath-school teacher. It is indeed a poor excuse to suffer a child to drown because we have but _one_ opportunity of saving it. When a child is in danger of perishing, we do not first try to educate it, but to _save_ it. The fact evidently is, that the great mass of children ought to be led directly to Christ and become child-Christians without delay; and multitudes would so become, methinks, if parents and teachers and pastors had sufficient confidence in the power of God's Word and Spirit, and had faith for the early conversion of children to God.

Nearly one and a third centuries ago that great divine, Jonathan Edwards, of Northampton, wrote the account of the conversion, as he thought, of little _Phebe Bartlett_, at the early age of four years, together with her Christian life for one year thereafter, and the evidences of a gracious change of her heart. The little book has been published since in many of the languages of Europe. Little Phebe Bartlett lived for sixty years after this, and neither herself nor her friends ever doubted that she truly met with a saving change of heart at the early age named by President Edwards. Many of our most learned divines and most devoted and useful Christian ladies date their conversion to the early age of three, four, five, and six years.

We have heard many pastors declare in Sabbath-School Conventions--two on one occasion--"That they never could remember when they did not love the Lord Jesus with all their heart;" and we believe with the pious Richard Baxter that if Christian parents were faithful in the use of the means God has put in their hands, the most of their children would be converted before they are old enough to understand a sermon.

It is a fact that should never be forgotten, that the children, even the little children of our Christian families and Sunday-schools, all _want_ to be Christians more than they want anything else. Little ones of five or six years tell us that they wet their pillows night after night with tears of sorrow for sin, and they long for some one to lead them to Jesus, more than all earthly longings. Such is the testimony of devoted ministers and Christian ladies in great numbers, and many of us can realize it all, most bitterly, if we will only recall our early childhood and live that over again.

Said one little girl of four summers: "Mamma, I should think that anybody that knows Jesus would _love him_."

This is the feeling of properly-trained children in great numbers. They want pure, simple instruction who Jesus Christ is, and what he is to _them_.

All the gospel knowledge really necessary for salvation lies, as it were, in a nutshell. The knowledge of their fall and sinfulness, and the atonement and redemption there is in Christ Jesus, and which, to a willing mind, can be taught in a few minutes, is all the knowledge really necessary for salvation. Really teach this and it will remain attached to the natural conscience for life, and only awaits the spark of grace from the Holy Spirit to descend and act upon it, and renew the heart and change the life.

This subject is one of overwhelming importance. It is the vital point of all Bible teaching. When Sabbath-school teachers learn the holy art of leading children to Jesus, then we may expect constant conversions. Sometimes we have known one-third of all the members of large Sabbath-schools to unite with the Church of Christ in a single season. Why should this not oftener be the case? Why should it not be the general rule in all our schools? and will it not be if the teachers will but have faith in God, faith in his Word, and faith in childhood, and _aim directly_ to bring the children to Christ for salvation "at this time and under my instruction?" The great point is to get Bible truth, the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, to bear directly on the conscience, heart and life of the child. Convince him thereby of his sin; then lead him by a simple trusting faith to Jesus' blood shed for _him_. Seek the proffered, willing aid of God's Holy Spirit believingly, and the work is done. "This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."

_Child-Culture._

Immediately connected with conversion is Christian child-culture and training in Bible knowledge, religious habits and service, and Christian character. Oh how important it is for child or man to have a kind, judicious sympathizing Christian friend at hand at every step, especially in the first year of life after conversion, to inquire and counsel as to difficulties and dangers! Secret and social prayer, the regular study of the Word, the social life and habits, the reading, the associations, the feelings, the imagination, the judgment, and the desire and tendencies all want watching, counselling, checking, guarding or instructing by one who is tender, candid, sincere and true. The whole life and usefulness much depends upon all this. The churches of Christ ought all to be such training-fields of Christian culture, but alas! we are sorry to confess that they are not generally so, and consequently largely fail in this their great work. To throw a little child, with only a spark of grace in the heart, into this world of wolves of temptation and error, with no one to watch over, counsel and guide, oh, it is sad indeed, and ought to excite the sympathy and prayers of all godly people. Let us associate and band Sunday-school workers together in earnest, in this great work of Christian culture and holy living--in little prayer-meetings teaching the children how to pray, how to resist temptation and fight against sin, and stand up for Jesus, how to overcome bad tempers and feelings, how to cultivate the disinterested missionary spirit of the gospel in caring for others, and doing good to others as we have opportunity. The children, like young trees from the nursery, need early "to be _planted_ in courts of the Lord," if we would have them to grow up comely trees of righteousness.

_Children's Prayer-Meetings._

Children, even little children, need to be taught _how_ to pray. We all need to be taught to pray "as John also taught his disciples." This is especially true with children, because the prayers of the minister, or of the father around the family circle, are in most cases examples which a child will not try to follow. The words and expressions are, for the most part, quite unintelligible to a child, and consequently they must be taught in a different way. We must call the attention of a child to the particular things which he wants, or ought to thank God for, the particular sins which would be in his child's confession, and just the things he wants to ask God for in his own language every day and hour mingled with adoration and praise.

Children's prayer-meetings are well adapted to this. Some of our Sabbath-schools hold such a meeting at the close of each afternoon session. A gentleman who is just adapted to the work leads off the little boys who choose to attend, and a motherly lady goes with the girls into another room. We have known eighty to follow her into the room, and as many as half the number voluntarily follow her in prayers of two or three or four simple petitions for just what the little girls feel that they want. The meeting opens with singing a familiar hymn, and then a few appropriate verses and remarks, just adapted to kindle devotion in the little hearts, and then the little prayers follow freely and almost spontaneously. They soon learn to love to pray, and pray in real faith too, for the whole life of a little child is a life of faith. Of course it will all depend upon the manner in which these meetings are conducted, just as it is with any other meeting or religious service. In good hands they prove to be eminently successful and delightful. They teach the children how to pray, lead them into the habit of praying with the heart and voice, and with each other, and the influence on them, on their families, and the Sabbath-school is in every way most blessed.

Let the exercises of such meetings be short, natural and simple, with freedom and not constraint. A half or three-fourths of an hour is long enough, as they should not be prolonged. They ought to be universally adopted.

_The Scholar._

It is a great privilege to become a faithful, punctual scholar in a well-ordered Sunday-school. Unnumbered blessings follow in the train. He should be enabled to appreciate this. It is a matter of primary importance that on his first introduction to the Sunday-school, he should be given distinctly to understand its true character, position, appropriate order and duties, and consent to a willing conformity to all.

Every scholar should be punctual, orderly, quiet, and respectful; he should learn and recite his lessons perfectly; never leave his seat without permission; address no one but his teacher, as a general rule; be obliging and pleasant to his class-mates, and set a good example of reverence for the holy Sabbath. In testimony of his appreciation of the benefits, and in some return for them, he will be diligent in bringing in new scholars, and also be particular to invite his parents and friends to the Monthly Concerts of Prayer for Sabbath-schools. The library book should be carefully read, so that a good account can be given of its contents to the teacher, if requested, and the special instruction of the teacher may, also, profitably become a subject for conversation with the parents. Above all, it is the duty and privilege of the scholar in the Sunday-school to learn the way, and find without delay, salvation by Christ in his own rich and joyous experience, and then to fill his heart and mind with a general and particular knowledge of Bible truths, and learn how to practice all in his daily life.

Nothing short of this experience should be the aim of every pupil.

XXIV.

PREACHING TO CHILDREN.

Greater attention to the children in the public exercises of the Church is becoming a real necessity. With one-half of all the members of the families of the church and congregation before the pastor, as well as the population, under twenty years of age, and those in the most hopeful forming period of life, the question should forcibly arise, Are they not entitled to a far greater proportion of their pastor's labors and efforts than they have hitherto received? The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at Dayton, Ohio, requested all their pastors to "give at least one-half of every Sabbath service to the children and youth." And Bishop Janes in a Methodist Episcopal Conference recently expressed the opinion that "the time is coming when there will be two sermons preached to children and youth where there is one to adults;" and Rev. Dr. McIlvaine, of Princeton, took very strong ground in favor of preaching to children in the New Jersey State Sabbath-School Convention at Elizabeth, two or three years ago. But we are met with this great difficulty at the outset: Many ministers say, "We cannot learn how to preach to children," to which we reply, confidently, "If you would only take one-quarter the pains to learn _how_ to preach to children that you have to learn how to preach to adults, you would generally succeed to so great an extent as to astonish yourself and all your friends. Therefore, 1. The plan is practicable. 2. The subject is of overwhelming importance and imperative necessity. 3. Take a practical interest in the children. 4. Set about gathering and arranging materials for it. Have blank books to record every thought, fact, or illustration, and scrap books in which file in all good illustrations of Scripture truths from newspapers, magazines, etc. 5. Commence regularly and systematically to preach to children; for the way to learn how to preach to children is--_to preach to children_."

All this will involve the necessity of a watchful study of child-nature, child-language, and child-character. Something must be prepared especially adapted to attract and interest the children with fresh illustrations, etc. The Rev. Dr. Newton's sermons are admirable models. "The Peep of Day," "Line upon Line," and "Precept upon Precept," are fine specimens of pure child-language. Bible truths and illustrations are unequalled to interest children if they are only clearly presented, in a life-like, earnest manner, and broken up into little pieces for their use. It should ever be remembered that good preaching to children never fails to be most interesting to the older people. Good preaching to children by the pastor every week will greatly elevate all our monthly concert, missionary, and anniversary addresses, which should often be far more scriptural; and methinks, if the pastor would but preach one good scriptural sermon to the youth every Sabbath, both himself and his people would find a rich blessing in it.

_Address to Children--In Outline._

_The Child Jesus._

Luke ii. 40. "And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him:" _Grew_ an infant, then a boy, afterward a man. Labored, suffered and _died_ for you, for me.

I. See _The Child's Strength_. Not like Samson or David. Strong to do God's will, to do right. Resolute purpose, will, determination, etc. Jesus was strong to learn, to teach, to submit, to reprove and suffer. Strong to resist the world, flesh, and the devil. Strong for self-control.

II. See _The Child's Wealth_. Not Gold, Diamonds, etc., but _Wisdom_. How he got it? He gathered it. Where? Bible, doctors in temple, from the Spirit, from the world, etc.

III. See _The Child's Beauty_. The grace of God. Not beauty of face. Perhaps he had lost his beauty, "his face was as marred." It was beauty within; meek and quiet spirit; beauty of holiness, of obedience, of humility, of love.

1. God thought him beautiful. "In his Father's likeness," "All of his glory," etc.

2. Angels thought him beautiful. "They wondered and adored:" "Angels desired to look."

3. Men thought him beautiful. "The Leper, the Demoniac, the Blind, the Palsied," etc.

_Do you_ think him beautiful? or is there "no beauty in him that you should desire him?"

His strength he will give to you. "My strength is sufficient for thee."

His wealth he will give to you. "Filled with all the fulness of Christ."

His beauty he will put upon you. "No spot or blemish."

_Oh! what think ye of Christ?_

XXV.

CHILDREN'S MEETINGS AND MONTHLY CONCERTS.

These meetings are now becoming not only very important, but very interesting both to children and to adults. Sometimes Sabbath evening is set apart for it every week or every month; in other cases a week-day evening is chosen, and familiar and instructive lectures given. In other instances, again, a public children's meeting follows the regular teaching hour on Sabbath afternoons. If well conducted, these meetings are among the most acceptable and profitable and crowded of all the religious assemblages in a community.

The great word to study in the plan of such a meeting is--_adaptation_. It should be adapted not only to the little children, but also to the older ones, and especially to the young men and women, as well as parents and friends, who may be present. If it is held on the Sabbath, the great idea of worshipping God should never be lost sight of for a single moment. The reply may be--"To do this, and at the same time to adapt all the services to all the various ages and classes, is a very difficult matter." Of course it is difficult, but not impossible. The speaker to children, when in the presence of adults, should always choose a train of thought and illustration which will reach the children not only, but interest, instruct, and impress the older ones. A little special preparation and saving of materials just adapted to such occasions will accomplish it. The hymns and music should be appropriate and devotional, and only such as the children are familiar with and love to sing. The prayers should be short and simple, in order that all the children can join in them. A few verses only of Scripture should be read, but let them be made plain and interesting to all.

In some schools the Sabbath lesson is reviewed by the superintendent and illustrated, followed by five-minute remarks on the lesson by the teachers or friends present. In other places the children will bring scriptural texts to prove "what God says about obeying parents," about the holy Sabbath, about intemperance, or gambling, or lying, etc., interspersed with remarks. At other times a verse of Scripture, with the word "love" or "faith" or "heaven," etc., may be given by the scholars, improved, with instructive comments upon the passages, by the superintendent or pastor. At one concert we heard the children recite, by classes, the Scripture lessons of the last quarter, and the teachers recited the pastor's texts which he had preached from during the past three months. This was followed by an appropriate address, and all produced a most solemn effect. The history of a Scripture event, or character, or epoch will always furnish an abundance to interest. We do not favor elaborate or strained efforts. "Simple and Scriptural" would be our motto, and full of life, and the children and all will enjoy it exceedingly. Sometimes a report of the school incidentally, or the reading of a Christian letter or the words of a Christian visitor, may be timely. Let everything be prepared beforehand, and have no delay or hesitation.

XXVI.

AUXILIARY ASSOCIATIONS.

_Youths' Temperance Societies._

The terrible scourge of intemperance is making sad progress in our land. Whole families, men, women, and children, are desolated by it. Beer, domestic wines, cordials, and even medical prescriptions, are all made to contribute to, and swell this river of death. The only safe and sovereign remedy is--_total abstinence_. This conservative principle, in order to be the most effective, should be fully inculcated in early childhood; for our young men, after stimulating their appetites, often lose all power to stop. Therefore the children in our families and Sunday-schools ought to be early trained in abhorrence of all that leads to this dangerous and vicious course. Drinking leads to falsehood and deception, hypocrisy and dishonesty, impurity, and sometimes to murder. No love of parents or children, husband or wife, reputation, influence, character or wealth is sufficient to restrain.

It is therefore fitting that our youth be early instructed and guarded against the steps toward this great evil. Particularly ought the children in our Sabbath-schools to be made familiar with what God has said on this subject in the Bible. These texts should be often repeated by the scholars and explained and enforced by their teachers. Many fathers will say: "Rather let my son be an abject slave for life than to fall a victim to this degrading, destructive habit of intemperance." The question arises, When and how this can best be taught? We are always careful to protect Sabbath-schools from any diversion from the regular Scripture lesson of the day. The Bible and Bible-teaching is the glory of Sabbath-schools. Therefore we would never allow temperance or missionary work, or singing, or addresses to interrupt it. It is preferable in communities, we think, to take Saturday afternoons for a month or two for this purpose. Say, meet in the largest church at three to four and a half o'clock or three and a half to five o'clock P.M. Organize a Youths' Temperance Society. Appoint a discreet youth of fourteen or sixteen years President, with other officers, with a committee to arrange for each meeting. Secure good, fresh, appropriate speakers, and never allow a dull, heavy orator to occupy the children's attention. Instruction, life-like and adapted must constantly prevail. Some of the older boys, twelve to eighteen years old, may prepare and recite a ten-minute speech or appeal to their associates. The young ladies may write brief essays, giving their views upon the subject, which may be read. Secure as speakers the ministers, lawyers, etc., of the place, who can sustain attention, and who are known to be temperance men. Select and appoint twelve boys and the same number of girls, who shall circulate the pledge and obtain signatures. Continue the meetings only so many weeks as shall be needed and the interest shall be fully sustained, and then discontinue them for a few months. It will be necessary, however, to have some such temperance revival once in six to twelve months, in every place, to keep the cause in the ascendant and save the children, and the meeting and the result will be delightful to all. We have known a thousand pledges taken in this way, within a few weeks, in a country village of twenty-five hundred population.

In some schools the children recite in the monthly concert, texts which tell us what the word of God says about intemperance, and brief addresses are added. Another plan, which succeeds admirably in many Sabbath-schools, is to organize "Bands of Hope," on the plan which originated in Scotland in 1847, and in America in 1855. The pledges exclude not only other intoxicating liquors, but beer, cider, and also tobacco and profanity. They have a regular constitution, and forms of conducting them, with catechisms, hymns, dialogues, etc., all of which may be obtained at a trifling expense.

Their mode of admitting members is very impressive. The Temperance Catechism brings out a mass of facts on "The Origin and History of Temperance Societies," "Nature of Intoxicating Drinks," "Fermentation and Distillation Process," "Brewing," "Alcohol and Mixtures," "Wines of Scripture," "Bible Abstinence," "Tobacco," "Profanity," etc.

Under the head of wine at the Lord's Supper, it holds that the Bible does not say what kind of wine was used, but we think it was unfermented, because at the time of the feast of the Passover the Jews were commanded to put away all leaven, and the word wine does not occur in any of the Evangelists when giving an account of the Lord's Supper. It was the fruit of the vine. Pliny, the Roman historian, has left an account of the various wines used at that time, in which he states that out of three hundred kinds of wine then in common use, only one would burn--that was called Falernian wine; that proves that two hundred and ninety-nine kinds of wine did not contain alcohol, and the chances, so to speak, are two hundred and ninety-nine to one in favor of Timothy's wine being unintoxicating. These extracts will suffice as specimens of what may be found in these little catechisms and tracts. They contain much valuable and needed information, whatever form of temperance effort is made on behalf of the children.

Juvenile Temperance Meetings are conducted, like any other good children's meetings, with much appropriate singing by the children, and prayer and reading of a few Scripture verses, and short, stirring, instructive addresses, so adapted that the interest must never for a moment flag. Sermons by the pastors are also amongst the most valuable ways of promoting sound temperance principles and practice.

_Youths' Missionary Associations._

These are usually formed for a definite object--generally to support missionaries; to plant Sabbath-schools in destitute sections; or to aid in supplying poor schools with libraries. Every month they receive letters telling what has been done. They are organized by the appointment of a President, Secretary, Treasurer, and sometimes Collectors. A monthly missionary meeting is held and a yearly anniversary. At these meetings, besides reading the Scriptures, prayer, and singing by the children, reports are given of the doings and results, and letters are read giving details of the good accomplished. Addresses, brief and to the point, are then made by the pastor, superintendent, or one of the teachers, or by some invited friend of the cause. These missionary meetings should always be attended, not only by the pastor, teachers, and scholars, but also by the parents and members of the church and congregation, and should be made very interesting.

It has become quite popular now, in many schools, to organize each class into a distinct missionary circle, with a name and motto, as: "Earnest Workers," "The Harriet Newell Circle," "The Lambs of Jesus," "The Buds of Promise," "Dew Drops," "Little Travellers," "Willing Hearts," "Modest Workers," "Cheerful Givers," "Young Timothies," "The Sowers," "The Guiding Stars," "Youthful Disciples," "Rose of Sharon," "Little Samuels," "The Reapers," "Olive Plants;" etc. Each circle or class reports through a committee every month to the school. Sometimes each class has a small cheap banner, with its name printed on it.

XXVII.

SABBATH-SCHOOL MUSIC.