those who were led to Christ before the age of eighteen or twenty. Every year after that lessens our expectation of conversion ever taking place. And that means that the most hopeful, most promising part of life is under your care; and that it largely depends, under God, upon how you do your duty to these young lives, as to whether they shall pass into the kingdom of God, or stand mournfully and remorsefully without.

4. Just one more reminding word. I have tried to shew you the importance of being faithful teachers of the Divine Word, by making your own lives the living illustrations and proofs of all your teaching of that Word, and by keeping before you, as the one aim of all your teaching, the conversion and salvation of the souls of your pupils. But to all that you have to add this-that you can expect to teach and win your young pupils only as you love them. All your lessons must be seen to be the outgoing of your tender interest and affectionate regard for the young. You will never teach well unless you make love the very atmosphere in which you live and labour for their good. We have not by any means learned and tested the full power of this in any department of life. We need it in our day schools as well as in our Sabbath schools. Tens of thousands pass from both of these most imperfectly educated, because teachers have sought to teach more by precept and authority than by love. What it can do you find in the thrilling and grateful testimonies given by the pupils of such a man as the late Dr. Arnold of Rugby, who was one of the mightiest teachers of youth the world has seen, because he loved his pupils, and because they loved him. What it can do for Sabbath school scholars you find in the testimonies given by many to-day who recall with grateful hearts what they owe to those who were not only their teachers, but their friends. Only make the young people your friends, only gain their hearts, and you may do with them what you will. They will accept your good words, not so much by your arguments, or your explanations, or even your earnest conscientious appeals, as by the all-powerful persuasion of your loving-kindness to them. Let none of you be satisfied that you are prepared for your work until you go over your class one by one, and make it a duty to knit your heart to every pupil, even the roughest, rudest, and most unpromising. You may find it hard to love some of them, but until you do you will fail rightly to teach and guide them. Surely it should be no harder for you to love them all than for God to love you. Surely, surely, when you think of the love of the Redeemer for the least of them all, the worst of them all; when you think of the blood shed for them, and the kingdom of God large enough and open enough to receive them all in blessedness, and remember that God has sent you to them to tell them of His love through your own, to gain them to His heart through your hearts, you will teach them and lead them in loving-kindness, and find that one of the grandest stepping-stones to the kingdom of heaven for a little child is the heart of a faithful teacher.

If thus you labour your reward shall be with you every day of your lives a foretaste of the richer recompense God will give you when you and those who learned of you the way of life shall meet together, and when you can say, in grateful gladness, "Behold I and the children which God has given me!"

Sabbath School Statistics.

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH REPORT FOR 1885.

THE annual returns submitted to the Synod at its last meeting are encouraging. There is again a considerable increase of teachers and scholars. The Rev. Mr. Wade, convener of the Sabbath School Committee, kindly sends us the following summary :—

For the last three years the increase in teachers has been 126, 204, 221, and the increase in scholars 1,421, 2,970, 1,570. The decrease in Sabbath schools has arisen mainly by separate schools being brought together and forming one.

The Synod has, through its committee on the care of the young, conducted, for the last three years, a scheme of examination of Sabbath schools and Bible classes, which has met with encouraging success. The examination of the Sabbath schools has been confined to the Bible lessons and questions of the Shorter Catechism in the three series of lessons in use in the Church,-viz., those of the International, the Glasgow, and the Edinburgh Sabbath School Unions. The Bible classes have this year been examined on the Life of Jacob, the Life of Joshua, the Gospel according to Mark, and the Gospel according to John. The third examination was held at the end of March of this year, and shews an increase in candidates over those in previous years. Upwards of 11,000 papers were issued, which may be held to represent the scholars prepared for the examination, though only about 5,000 candidates presented themselves. In the year 1884, 29 presbyteries were represented, this year 30, and the presbyteries remote from the centre of the centre shewed as lively an interest in the scheme as presbyteries near its centre. The following are the results of the examination for 1885:

Exception had been taken on a previous year to the simplicity of the questions set, but the committee designedly began by setting questions comparatively easy, intending gradually to raise the standard. The standard has this year been considerably raised; and the result has been, that whilst in 1884 about 630 failed in the Sabbath school examination, this year, in nearly the same number of candidates, 880 failed, or close upon one in every 4. The results are considered most satisfactory. The style of teaching, and the accurate knowledge of Scripture conveyed, have been shewn to reflect credit upon the Sabbath schools examined.

The character of the papers received from the candidates in connection with Bible classes reflected great credit upon their writers. These papers were, in many cases, of superior excellence, and in not a few instances shewed a complete mastery of the subject down to the smallest detail. The subject studied was much larger than with the Sabbath scholars, comprising an entire book of Scripture, or the life of a Bible character; but these had been studied with remarkable care and with great intelligence.

Aberdeen Sabbath School Union.

THE last annual report of this Union, submitted by the secretary, Mr. Brown, says, "Seventeen years have elapsed since the Aberdeen Sabbath School Union commenced the important work for which it was instituted. That it has been instrumental in doing much good, both directly and indirectly, must be freely acknowledged. One of its leading objects-viz., "to stimulate and encourage persons engaged in the superintendence and instruction of Sabbath Schools"-has been steadily kept in view in its various schemes of usefulness, and has, no doubt, been largely realized. Many teachers, discouraged by difficulties, have been revived through our instrumentality, and led to consecrate themselves afresh to this work of faith and labour of love. The increased interest of the Church in recent years in the religious education of the young may be attributed, to some extent at least, to the operations of our Union. By affording opportunities for Christian fellowship and co-operation, we have exerted a beneficent influence on those who would otherwise have occupied a position of isolation and estrangement. We have thereby been enabled to see eye to eye on many matters affecting the spiritual welfare of the children, and to encourage one another to greater zeal and earnestness on their behalf. Another important object to which your committee have given their unremitting attention is improvements in the methods of teaching. The extent to which their efforts in this department have been appreciated is most encouraging. They do not, however, regard these efforts as meeting, to any adequate extent, the necessities of the Sabbath school. If the youth of all classes are to be well grounded in Christian truth and Christian principles, we must have the best talent and piety of the Church enlisted in this noble work. Men of education, of social influence, of large sympathies, may find here amplest scope for their energies. We plead for their help-we claim from them personal service in the Sabbath school and the Bible class-and we trust that not a few will respond to the call."

The report also referred to their arrangements for the visitation of the schools. Recognising the importance of this work, the committee obtained the services of gentlemen actively engaged in the work of teaching. No better means can be found for stimulating and encouraging superintendents and teachers. The committee experienced no little difficulty in getting suitable deputies. The report states that "The visitors were asked to report on the following points:-1. Whether there

was a summer vacation, and what were the results? From the reports received it seems that the number of schools who have a vacation, and those who have none, is about equal. Where there is a summer vacation the results do not seem to be either beneficial or otherwise. In many cases a short vacation is a matter of necessity, and not of choice. 2. How the time was occupied prior to the opening of school? There seems to be very little attention paid to this matter in most schools. In a few hymns are sung and practised, and conversation engaged in with the scholars; but in a good many the deputies' answer to this query is, 'In doing nothing.' Might not some effort be made, where at all practicable, to utilize the spare minutes in singing hymns-nothing being better fitted to put a school into form and spirit for the other exercises? 3. Whether it is the practice of the teachers in turn to conduct the public exercises of the school? As a general rule, this can scarcely be said to be the practice in all the schools, but the importance of it is recognised by not a few. 4. How many of the scholars have become teachers during the year? It is gratifying to find that a goodly number of scholars have given themselves to the work of teaching, and it is to be hoped their numbers will increase year by year. In one school as many as twelve, and in others six scholars have become teachers during the past twelve months. The committee have given special attention to training class meetings, and have much reason to be gratified with the results. To the various dayschool teachers and other friends who conducted the classes, as well as the clergymen who presided, the committee accord their grateful thanks. The committee rejoice in the earnest and self-denying work carried on in the Sabbath schools of the city. The painstaking endeavours of teachers to instil into the minds of youth that knowledge which 'maketh wise unto salvation'-the loving care which gathers together for instruction and guidance the children of the depraved and outcast-the patience displayed in dealing kindly with the untrained and incorrigible—the various agencies employed for shielding them from the manifold dangers which beset them on every hand all these your committee regard with feelings of devout satisfaction, and they pray that a rich blessing may be poured out by Him who came to seek and save that which was lost."

The Teacher's Outside Work.

By MARGARET E. SANGSTER.

WHAT is the teacher's outside work? Is it not all the work which cannot be done in the brief, quickly flying hour which is all too crowded for more than a study of the lesson, from which, let it be faithful and comprehensive as it may, no teacher ever goes home feeling entirely satisfied? There is always so much left out, so much ought to have been said which was pressed into the background, and finally omitted, not merely for lack of time, but because a question or suggestion from some thoughtful pupil threw the lesson quite off the track which had been designed for it. Doubtless it often happens to every earnest teacher,

that he unfolds the lesson in a different way from that he had intended, simply because something in the manner of a scholar, or a word in the opening prayer, or the presence of a new element in the class, makes a change desirable. The advantage of full, even of exhaustive preparation, is found just here, that the teacher is ready to leave one line or treatment and adopt another, if need be. It is only the unprepared, or the half-prepared, who are rigidly bound by a cast-iron system.

In taking charge of a large class there is always the danger of forgetting individual needs, and merely addressing the mass. The personal care and instruction which are possible to the teacher whose little group clusters so closely around the central chair that it is easy, unseen, to slip a little hand into one's own, giving it a loving pressure, to drop now and then a single word into a child's ear, are out of the question when the class, anywhere in age between seventeen and thirty, and numbering from twenty to fifty, are ranged in seats before the teacher. The teacher should individualize the class in his at-home work, in his closet prayer, in his thought as he comes to them with life's bread in his hands ready for the breaking; but so should his art conceal art, that no one in the listening circle should be able to say, "That word was meant for such a That sentence fitteth such another."

one.

It is the triumph of teaching as of preaching, when the learner, the listener, says, with the conviction of a heart into which has entered an arrow sharpened with love," There was a message heaven-sent to me!"

About the outside work. It is many-sided. If you have a home into which your scholars may come as guests, it is well for you to give them the feeling, that, while you are always easily accessible to them, if they really need you, you have a special hour, or afternoon, or evening in every week, which is set apart for them, which is their own, when you will be glad to receive and talk to them, entertaining them socially, and treating them as friends. If you are not in your own home, and cannot have the pleasure of thus entertaining your pupils, you may perhaps be able, as a friend of mine does, occasionally to borrow a friend's house for the purpose. At least you may make a point of being early in your place at the Sabbath school, early enough to secure fifteen or twenty minutes for social conversation with your pupils, in a familiar way, before the ringing of the bell. Or you may tarry after school is dismissed, detaining now one, now another, for a bit of bright friendly talk.

Calls upon scholars and their families are never wasted. Perhaps we hardly realize what a pleasant break in the routine of daily life, in a plain home, is made by the teacher's visit. Some of us have naturally more tact and ease than others. There is wonderful charm in a gracious and unaffected manner, and let us be thankful that it is within the reach of all. Nobody has a monopoly of amiability, or can take out a patent for politeness. The real fountain of courtesy is the heart; and while manners are perhaps somewhat conventional, a perfect manner springs from ready sympathy, from promptness to enter into and reciprocate the feeling of others, from " a heart at leisure from itself."

Do you want to penetrate dark places like a sunbeam? To make cold, unlovely homes glow with new warmth and cheer? To awaken responses from natures which are apparently sealed and dormant? To leave