scripture, got them to repeat the catechism without a blunder, listened to the collect and the hymn, and followed them, wearily, through a long chapter in the testament! And what examination which brings out a competent acquaintance with scripture facts and texts is not supposed to be an index to the highest state of efficiency which such a school can present? Are not these things so? Well, so far, so good, but it is not all the way. It is scarcely half way. Much more is to be done. For herein there is no training for the mental faculties, no education for the moral dispositions. Learn, then, teacher, that you have done but little when you have cultivated your scholars' memories. It is a small good that you have made them parrots.

In addition to the subordinate technical instruction, there must be MENTAL TRAINING. Does one teacher out of a hundred know anything of this? Has he even tried to know it? For it does not come by inspiration. It is not a chance endowment-that power of drawing out the faculties of the child into gradual and harmonious exercise. The teacher must educate himself by a long and careful process, before he will be rightly skilled in the work of educating mind. He must know something of the usual faculties of the mind, -something of the way in which these faculties are developed in children, what are the earliest exercises of the infant intellect,how a child reasons and imagines,-what a difficulty there is in youthful days of comprehending truth in an abstract shape-and various other things pertaining to mental history as recorded by observation. To do this is the reason why schoolmasters and mistresses are required to undergo a preparatory training. The training is not so especially to inform them what to teach, as How to teach. If Sunday school teachers cannot do this, they will soon be left far behind in mental adaptation to their class, and the same children whose faculties are brightening under the intelligent training of a master himself trained, will be dulled, and disheartened by the dame-school-method of instruction which is in vogue on Sunday.

There must be also a close study of individual character. It is not enough to understand the general laws which regulate the mind, or account for its various intellectual movements. It will be highly necessary to learn how diversity of moral character influences even the mental developements. Experience in teaching, shows that the same truth must be imparted "in divers manners," according to the peculiar dispositions of the children. And the teacher who is anxious to gain admission into his scholar's heart, and to exercise a powerful moral sway, must know thoroughly the most important features of his character, and by this knowledge, must select, modify, and colour the topics of his instruction.

And, above all, there must be direct and prayerful efforts for the conversion to God, of each child. This is to give a tone to all that the teacher does. This is the goal of his enterprise. He is to look upon the salvation of each scholar as a possible thing as a result which so far as instrumentality goes, depends more on him than upon any other person. He is not to sit down and count his labours done, till each dear child in his class has bowed before the cross in a youthful surrender to the Saviour's claims. He is to feel that God has placed him in the Sunday school, in order that he might be the means of leading children into the way of peace, and that if he is niggard of prayer, holy ingenuity, personal converse, or loving appeals, he is fraudulently withholding spiritual agencies with which he has been entrusted that by these he might save the souls of those who hear him. We do not stop to say that the teacher ought evidently to be a converted person himself. It must be clear to every one, that he who has never himself felt a Saviour's love, cannot commend that love to others, except with the feeble warmth of a hypocrite tongue.

It remains that we now point out in what way Sunday schools, if the preceding suggestions be acted out, will have a vantage-ground which the day school cannot secure.

The master of a week-day school cannot give an exclusively religious character to his teaching. He may teach religion just as he teaches geography or grammar. He may, further, take occasion to make simple, earnest reflections on a Scripture topic, and he may make a passing sort of appeal to the children's consciences. But religion will, after all, be only a part, and a small part of the school learning. His scholars come to learn reading, writing, and cyphering, and the object of all this is with them felt to be, a qualification for the shop or the work-bench. They look upon religion as a matter thrown into the bargain. Their opinion, and it is a just opinion, is, that the six days' study is to fit for the future six days' labour. But on the other hand, the Sunday school teacher, if he banishes as far as may be, the visible machinery of instruction; if he impresses upon his children the fact that they come to his class not so much to get knowledge, as to get religious influence, that while the day school is to make them wise, the Sunday school is designed to make them holy,—he will have done much to unsecularize his teaching, and the scholars will feel that it is the education of their hearts which is almost exclusively his object.

Then again, the children of a day-school pay for their education. And they ought to pay for it. But this tends to prevent any strong religious influence being wielded by the master, who lives, as the children see, mainly upon their weekly pence. This will alway give the unpaid Sunday teacher, a greater chance of securing the sympathies

of his children, and of placing himself before them in a purely religious aspect.

Moreover, the schoolmaster of fifty or a hundred boys, cannot do much with them individually. His teaching is the teaching of a whole. He can scarcely hope to disintegrate his counsels, so as to bring a separate amount of influence to bear upon each child. But the Sunday school teacher, with his six or ten boys, has golden opportunities of exerting individual influence. He can know more of each child, can talk more to each, can labour more for each, than where a large number would prevent his efforts being so specific.

The Sunday school system, therefore, if properly carried out, has a greater religious power than any system of mixed instruction can possibly possess. It must be so carried out, or else it will be a waste of holy time. It can be so carried out, if Sunday school teachers, determine, by God's help, that it shall be. It depends upon them. Will they qualify themselves for another developement of the great Thought? Will they study to acquaint themselves with the best methods of teaching? Will they learn to discriminate character? Will they abridge moments of self-indulgence, and redeem time, if need be, from sleep, that they may become wise to win souls? and will they make the conversion of each child in their class, an object of distinct, intense solicitude, and of unceasing, believing entreaty at a throne of grace. If they reply, "We will do so, the Lord being our helper;" then will the Sunday school system become developed in its moral power, so as the world has never yet beheld it; then will it fling over the little ones, who are soon to be the mothers and fathers of another generation, the gentle, but irresistible enthralment of Christian love, and in another world it may be the teacher's privilege of wondering joy to discover "that the salvation of ten thousand immortal souls has depended upon the education of one child.”

With such views as these, we introduce a magazine which is designed especially for Sunday school teachers, which has for its object the deepening of their own spiritual feeling, the enrichment and education of their own minds, and the rendering in every possible manner, ready and efficient assistance in their work of faith. May He, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, give grace and wisdom to all who contribute to these pages, that they may so write, that what they write, "may have such success, that it may never be written in vain." And to Him shall all the glory be ascribed.

W. M. W.

The Teacher in his Closet.

THE SECRET OF FAILURE.

Perhaps the following extract from a memoir recently published, may awaken solemn thoughts in some unconverted teacher.

"She found that she had been presuming to guide the children under her charge to God by a way to which she herself was a stranger; and that she had been endeavouring to impress on their minds truths which, as truths, had never been practically admitted by her own; and, when she took a retrospective view of her past history, she felt convinced that the most aggravated sin, (next to her rejection of the gospel,) of which she had ever been guilty, was the taking upon herself the solemn responsibility of a teacher of young immortal souls, candidates for heaven, and at the same time in the service of Satan and sin herself; of recommending the acceptance of Jesus to others with her lips, and all the while rejecting his admission to her own bosom.

"Many a time has she alluded to this part of her history with the most bitter regret, and deeply was she humbled and pained at the appearance of any evidence, in any teacher, whether in the Sunday school class, or in the private circle, of their not having been first themselves "born again," and undergone a saving change of heart; considering such labours at once insulting to God, perilling the soul of the teacher, destroying those of the taught, and, instead of advancing, putting a drag upon the wheels of the gospel."

THE SPIRIT OF IMPATIENCE.

interest them in one of the There is something picturWe fancy that we can hear

It is Sunday afternoon, and a little group of children are gathered around their teacher, who is trying to beautiful narratives of holy Scripture. esque in the imagination of such a scene. the earnest yet gentle tones of the teacher, as she unfolds in simple language, those blessed truths, which are hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed to babes; and the eager looks and the beaming smiles of those listening little ones seem vividly brought before our view. The hour passes rapidly and pleasantly, and both the teacher and the pupils are sorry when it closes, for the one delights to impart knowledge, and the others gladly receive instruction.

But our present sketch is from reality, not fancy; and truth compels us to draw a less pleasing picture. Our teacher looks weary and depressed; and there is a shade on her brow and an irritation in her manner, which is not exactly in accordance with our ideal portrait. And the children seem tired and unruly; one girl is whispering to her companion about a new frock which her mother has promised to buy for her; another persists in fanning herself with her pocket-handkerchief; and the rest require all the ingenuity that can be thought of, to keep up their attention for five or ten minutes. The young teacher sighs over her unpromising work; she grows fretful and impatient; and her sharp reproofs, if not undeserved, are apparently useless. Very welcome is the sound of the closing bell! The books are gladly shut; the children begin to chatter freely, and the teacher rises from her seat, feeling that she has effected no good, and wishing that she had never undertaken the office of a Sunday school teacher. Why is this? Why is she so soon discouraged? Is it because excitement instead of principle, originated her efforts? No; our teacher is a sincere, if not an advanced Christian; it was the constraining love of Christ which led her to strive to feed his lambs; and she longs, oh, how ardently! to gather each little wanderer within his peaceful fold. What then is the reason of her fading zeal and her drooping hopes? It is a spirit of impatience. She wants to realize already the promises which are held out for her encouragement; she would fain grasp the crown of victory before she has run the race of conflict. She is not unwilling to work in God's vineyard, but she is unwilling to wait for her reward. She has sown her seed, and sown it with tears, but she has not yet reaped in joy, and therefore she is dissatisfied and disappointed.

Are there not some of our readers, who find in this brief description a transcript of their own feelings; some youthful teachers, who are relaxing their efforts, or murmuring over their work, because success has not yet crowned their labour? Learn then, dear young friends, the remedy for your present state of feeling, it is patience. Patience! ah, there is something unattractive, if not repulsive to you, in the very mention of this sober and old fashioned virtue; you associate it with a deficiency of enthusiasm, if not of intellect; and have scarcely condescended to include it among your qualifications of a Sunday school teacher. But you will find that patience is indispensably necessary for the right and cheerful discharge of your arduous duties; and it is through the want of it that you are now going on wearily and angrily in your toilsome path, or it may be have ceased to make any progress at all. You must set out afresh, but it must be with the stedfast determination to "let patience have her perfect work." Does the husbandman expect to reap his harvest immediately after