their parents to attend as you can. Generally make the exercise short; or rather, contrive to make it so interesting, that the time may seem much shorter than it really is. This will make both parents and children anxious to come again.

If children are catechised, they must have catechisms selected for them, and must commit them to memory. Quite young children want something more simple, than those who are a few years older. But I think the fault of the present age is, to simplify too much; or at any rate, to confine the child too long to the mere elements of things. The order of nature is to advance, to expand, to "leave the things that are behind," and "go on unto perfection." As yours is a presbyterian church, I take it for granted, you will use the Assembly's Shorter Catechism for the older children, whatever more simple questions and answers you may select for the younger. This catechism is an incomparable summary of "sound doctrine," and the objection that children cannot understand it will weigh but little with any one, who believes that their memories ought to be early stored with clear statements and accurate definitions. No theory of early religious education can be more erroneous, than that which would withhold from children every thing which cannot at the time be perfectly understood. I might confidently appeal to the experience of all who have enjoyed the advantages of early religious instruction, and profited most by it, that much, which the child cannot fully comprehend, furnishes, by being laid up in his

memory, the richest materials for intellectual and moral improvement in after life.

same.

I must be allowed to add, that very much will depend upon the manner in which you conduct your catechetical exercises. Were you to content yourself with asking the naked questions, as they occur in their order, and receiving the answers, however correctly committed by the children, you would but very imperfectly discharge your duty. Almost any one of them might take the catechism, and do the You are their pastor; their religious guide and teacher. To you they have been taught to look for instruction. Their bright eyes are upon you; their little ears are open; their young hearts are tender. You ought therefore to prepare yourself thoroughly for the exercise; to enter into it with all your heart; to ask a hundred questions growing out of the lesson; to explain, to simplify, to illustrate; and in one word, to pour in as much truth as can be profitably received. In this way you will keep up a most interesting acquaintance with the rising hopes of your congregation; will gain the love and confidence of your infant charge, and will be able to sow much precious seed, which by divine refreshing may spring up and bring forth, "some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred fold."

In the next place, let the sabbath school receive a large share of your pastoral attention. I know you cannot take it upon your own shoulders. It will not be expected. The burden would be too heavy. You cannot be a regular teacher, nor the immediate and responsible superintendent. Your public labors

on the Sabbath will not ordinarily leave you either time or strength for the service. But, my dear E., you must do a great deal, in one way and another, or your school will not prosper. You must, unless you are more highly favored than most pastors are, be the life and soul of it, or it will have but little efficiency. You must prepare the machinery and move the wheels, if you do not perform the work. I hope you have some first rate men in your church, with whom you can advise, and who will be ready to second you in all your plans and efforts. But they will look to you to move first. It is best they should. There must be a central power somewhere. There must be a head. The duty properly devolves upon the pastor to take the lead, and he must not decline it. In order to bring the importance of sabbath school instruction before the whole congregation, you must preach on the subject. You must point out its advantages. You must urge upon those who are competent, and who may be applied to as teachers, the duty of enlisting in the great and good work, and exhort parents of every class to send their children seasonably and steadily. You must, with the best advice you can obtain, select the teachers, and secure as many consistent, well informed, and devoted christians as possible. If a sufficient number of professing christians competent to the task cannot be found, then others of sober minds and unblemished morals must be enlisted; but I hardly need to add, that no individual should ever be applied to, or received as a teacher, whose moral character is at all doubtful.

Though you cannot take charge of the school yourself, you can meet the teachers once a month, or oftener, to hear their reports, to ask their opinions upon the merits and defects of text books, and the best methods of instruction; to discuss and answer questions, and to give them familiar lectures such topics as you judge will be most interesting and profitable.

upon

Let me earnestly advise you also, to meet the teachers every week, when it is practicable, and go over the lesson with them carefully before it is recited. This will give them opportunity to hear your explanations and practical remarks, to propose their difficulties if they have any, and will be a better safeguard than any other, against erroneous expositions of scripture, and those discrepancies of instruction which are liable to creep into the best regulated school. I do not know how you can spend an hour in the week to better advantage. If the teacher alone were to be instructed and benefited by it, no good pastor would grudge the time or the trouble. How much less, when you consider, that through the teachers, and without any further toil, you are communicating religious knowledge to all the children of your congregation.

Let me advise you, moreover, to keep your eye, as it were, always upon the school, though you should rarely be present through the exercises. It will task your strength but a little, when you come down from the pulpit, to say a few words to the children, and open with a short prayer. You can also frequently step in a few moments, before the public service be

gins, and when you have help, you can spend more time, going round from pew to pew, listening to some of the recitations, and dropping a word here and there, for the encouragement both of teacher and pupils. They will love to see you.

If there should be any occasion for it, give your advice in regard to the ordinary length of the exercise. When we consider, that the teachers and most of the children attend two public services on the same day, there is more danger of making the Sabbath school too long than too short. There is danger from too long confinement and too great fatigue. The health, particularly of female teachers, is liable to be impaired by it. Young children cannot sit still so long as older persons, and we all profit under the best

know that even adults cannot instruction, when the confinement becomes irksome. A high responsibility will devolve upon you in the choice of text books. There are so many now in use, that it will take up some of your time to examine and compare them, and you are bound, as a faithful pastor, to see to it, that nothing is introduced, which militates against the system of divine truth which is taught in your Confession of faith, and which is the basis of all your preaching. Woe to the church, where the weekly ministrations of the pastor are counteracted and undermined in the Sabbath school. "A house that is divided against itself cannot stand."

One suggestion more, and I will pass on to other topics. It will require a good deal of time and perseverance, to hunt up all the children in the by ways,