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direct ministrations from the pulpit, or to the close, urgent, and convincing appeals of the parent, the teacher, or the pastor?

Thus, I think, Sir, we are left with but one argument to overcome. I admit it is a stubborn one. But though the greatest, it is always the final obstacle. It stands in the way of all improvement, and cries out lustily whenever we venture near its privileged boundary. Custom, however, though almost invincible is not eternal.

But, Sir, if it be true, that there is no advantage to children from these adult services, how great must be the loss! It is well known that those schools flourish best which give the longest time to the teacher for direct intercourse with his class; but here we lose a moiety of the little space allowed us. We desire to have the whole time for this great object; and in doing so, we only ask an extension of that influence already allowed. And if pious teachers are appointed with the full approval of the pastor and his church; if they are trained by him, and earnest in their work, ought they not to be worthy of such a trust? Do they "infringe the prerogative" of the minister? Already they are the pastors of the little flock. Why debar them from this interesting service? Why not permit them thus to feed the lambs?

But what is this service? Allow me, Sir, as a preacher to little children, to describe it as it is known to myself. A hundred children, from three to twelve years of age, are retained when the elder scholars are taken to chapel. Conscientious mothers, as they go to public worship, leave their little ones as they pass the door to attend the children's service, and be "nursed," or rather nurtured in the admonition of the Lord. The teacher is there alone. He has no monitors, no rods, no rewards: none are needed. The service commences. The little company are on their knees; the teacher repeats the Lord's Prayer; and, altogether, the little voices repeat it too. A hymn is selected; it is in the "Child's

Own Hymn-Book," and sung to one of the few, chaste and simple tunes, fit for children; they join in praise. The word of God is opened; a verse is read; repeated by them, and explained to them, another and another; so a parable, a psalm, or a narrative; the teacher questions the children, and the children question him; a few minutes only are occupied, and again the congregation kneels in prayer. Prayer is offered, not by the teacher for the children, but with them. He who prays thus, followed word by word in all he says, must study the language he has to use, as much as he who speaks to the deaf and dumb. Doing this, he cannot fail to enlist the sympathies of the children; so much so, in the case to which I refer, that requests often come from these little ones, that a sick mother, a brother gone to sea, or some one in whose want and woe they feel a tender interest, may be prayed for. Thus a teacher literally gathers up the petitions and presents them, accompanied by the children, to the throne of grace. There is no weariness. The exercise lasts but a few minutes, and again the song is raised. So, at intervals, breaking into the subsequent service, the signal is given, the position changed, the verse sung, and again the children, refreshed and full of animation, are listening to the voice of the teacher. Teacher, I call him, for he ought not to preach. Some emblem, word, or figure, helps him in the exhibition of religious truth; and by copious illustration, he is enabled to present on a broad and luminous field of vision the plan of redemption through Jesus Christ, than which doctrine none can be more simple and intelligible to the little child. He appeals to nature; incidents of every-day life; facts of common occurrence. He breaks up his instruction into little pieces; and is just so far successful as he is able, by God's help, to bring down his own mind to the level of the child's mind, winning his confidence, attention, and love; and then dropping the precious seed into the prepared ground.

The tax upon the mind is not great. The attention is not kept up too long on any one subject. It is not the length of time, but want of employment, with which the child finds fault; and cheerfulness, variety, and an earnest manner tend to render the exercise pleasing and profitable.

Such, dear Sir, is our "succedaneum," and I leave it to you to decide whether it éan be the "dull round" of

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"Lessons still prolonged,"

as you judge it to be. You are too much engaged on the Sunday morning, but could you witness the scene you would not then say, that it is a plan 'unacceptable" to children. Every Sabbath sun shines upon sixty or more services, such as I have imperfectly described, some of them, in turn, conducted by ministers (co-pastors), and all, I believe, by holy men and women. Your offer to put it to the vote would be readily accepted by any one of these happy groups, and I could only wish that the condition might be that such decision should be final.

We teach the children that God is everywhere. They know that the influence of the Holy Spirit is not restricted to place; and is not the school as much a place of worship to them, as the chapel where their fathers go, and to which, when older, they will go, intelligently to worship with the people of God? Taught to think, to reason, and to attend, would they not be, dear Sir, what you ask of usyoung men and women "well trained in early life?" The children, ever taught to respect the "pastoral office," would do so the more; for I am persuaded the influence of the pastor would, if they were properly instructed, be eventually more largely felt.

Then, as to the appointment of this new agency exciting" jealousy" (6) among teachers. I should deeply regret it if I

could think it possible.

That "we have not the men" is just because we have not at present an ex

tensive demand for them. The proposal for establishing a Children's Chapel was, however, made very much to meet this difficulty; for it was thought, and very justly, that if in a town there were three or four schools willing to unite, it would be more desirable to have one service than four, occupying the time of four teachers. This is done in some large room or old chapel, the children coming from their various schools. Thus there is a real adjournment to the chapel." It is "a separate place;" is a perhaps, with all the "idea of the sanc"real chapel " tuary" attaching to it. As a matter of convenience and economy of means this is a most desirable plan.

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I think, sir, I have said enough, and I greatly fear that, in the fulness of my heart, I may have said more than you can well find room for; but it is not often the interests of the Sunday-school require so large a space at your hands. The plan is not new; it neither owes its origin to that estimable lady, Mrs. Davids, nor to that devoted friend of Sunday-schools, Samuel Martin; (much as they have done to recommend it ;) it is consistent with other and approved plans; it yields comfort to parents, relief and satisfaction to teachers, edification and delight to children; it has the sanction of scores of ministers, who have tested and tried its efficacy; it enables the mother to turn the key upon her humble dwelling, and go to the house of God; it gives just views of worship, and a right conception of prayer; and above all, it honours God, and is honoured of him. Should it then be rejected? Would you, dear sir, but gather, as I have done, the results of the experiment from all parts of the country, and then form your opinion as to the value of the separate service, I think you would decide that custom, in this case, should be no bar, seeing that we seek to establish "a more excellent way." C. R.

Hackney.

EDITOR'S NOTES AND

CRITICISMS.

(1.) WE dare not retract the word "revolution." It is the only word in the English language to express our view of the measure under discussion. In vain does our Correspondent try to represent that measure as belonging to the series of gradual and reasonable changes through which the Sunday-school system has passed in reaching its present position. It claims no affinity whatever to that series. It is a new thing under the sun. It is a radical and unconstitutional change, in which Pastors, the best friends of our Schools, are overlooked, and, as we think, insulted, though not, perhaps, intentionally. No plausibility of representation can conceal the fact, that it is now intended, if the churches will submit to it, to remove our Sunday-school Children! ay, and all the other children, too, from the ministry of our stated Pastors. In other words, the ministerial connection of our Pastors with the Sunday-school is now to cease; and, henceforward, a new class of agents, totally undefined, and altogether irresponsible, is to take their place. This, we say, is revolution, and a revolution to which we are persuaded few of our Pastors will become parties.

(2.) To us there is no "consistency" at all in "C. R.'s" demand for "A SEPARATE SERVICE," and "A CHILDREN'S CHAPEL." Consistency, as "C. R." uses the phrase, must have relation to some substantive measures already adopted in our Sunday Schools. Now, we are bold to say, that our consistency will in no way suffer from the rejection of the new plans. We are not committed to them by anything we have hitherto done. Το be consistent with ourselves, we must stand out against them as a revolting innovation, having no kind of relation to any of the progressive improvements of the Sunday School system. Our correspondent refers to "this age of carnest thought." We would remind him, respectfully, that the earnestness of the age is not all on one side. We, too, who cannot travel on at the speed of some of

our friends, are earnest; and, just because we are so, we are anxious that rashness and inconsiderateness should not be mistaken for the high attribute of character laid claim to. We yield to no one living in earnestness for the real prosperity of the Sunday School cause.

(3.) We have, with great seriousness and impartiality, looked at "C. R.'s" attempt to invalidate the adaptations of our Pastors' services to the condition of children. (i.) In the matter of praise: we do not sing the Children's Hymns. But is there a child that can use the Chapel Hymn Book, that may not be furnished with one? We say, no, with an earnestness becoming the age. But, then, our correspondent tells us, that the Chapel Hymn is not calculated to awaken the child's devotional feeling. Are the Hymns sung in our places of worship so abstruse as all this? The difficulty urged is only that of an advocate. Children who have learned to read can as well join in the Chapel Hymns as in the School Hymns. (ii.) Then, as it would appear, when the Minister reads the chapter, the child is again" at fault." But why? If it has a Bible, and can read, what difference can there be between the readings of the Pulpit and those of the School Room? The supposition of such a difference is to us an absurdity. Why, surely, our Ministers can at least read the Scriptures as well as the most qualified of our friends the Teachers. If they cannot, we are sorry for them. We have long been of opinion, however, that all children in our Schools, able to read, should bring their Bibles with them, and should be enjoined to turn to the Chapter or Psalm read by the Minister. This would be wholesome occupation; and if any section of our Sunday School friends had proposed such an improvement as this, we should not have called it a revolution. (iii.) Even the Pastor's prayer, it should seem, will not meet the necessities of Sunday-school (and, of course, other) children. If this be true, our Pastors are greatly to blame. We never heard Robert Hall offer up a

prayer in public, that a child with devout | feelings might not have joined in. There may be intricate pulpit prayers; we wish they were unknown among us;-but, from what we know of Sunday-school Teachers, we most thoroughly believe that our Pastors pray quite as simply and intelligibly as they do. (iv.) But the greatest obstacle in the way of the edification of Sunday-school children, in our places of worship, is the Pastor's Sermon. That is the master-difficulty of all;that, of course, as doctrinal, logical, metaphysical, and all other difficult and mysterious things, is toweringly and hopelessly beyond the reach of children. Our correspondent puts forth his strength here. He creates sympathy for the poor children doomed to listen to something with which they have nothing in common. With some the appeal will take. But let us look it fully in the face before we are led captive by it. It proceeds on a fallacy. The fallacy is this, that if there be aught in the sermons of our Pastors above the capacities of children, then they ought not to be in attendance at our sanctuaries; and the necessity and reasonableness of "Separate Services" follow as a consequence. Now we reject the premises as unsound, and therefore cannot admit the reasonings founded on them. There is, doubtless, much in a pastoral course of instruction above the capacities of children. But children in years are not alone here. The very ignorant and uninstructed adult has no advantage in our places of worship over them. Who does not know, that while Ministers are unfolding the special privileges of Believers, they must, of necessity, be advancing much that is dark and enigmatical to the untaught and impenitent. But, in a wise and discriminating ministry, all classes will have their portion of meat in due season; and thus, too, it will be with the lambs of the flock -the children in our Schools and Private Families. All that may be said, and that ought to be said, by our Pastors, may not be equally adapted to all their bearers; but it does not follow that any

hearer will be neglected in the long run. Children can only have their fair share of attention in the public ministry; but we solemnly believe that the plan of taking them, with their parents and adult friends, to the House of prayer, is God's ordinance for advancing our little ones from the infantile stages of public worship to that matured state of mind and feeling in which the whole engagement will be an enlightened and reasonable service to them. Meanwhile, they are inured to the best of all habits, are taught to look up with respect to the Ministers of Christ, are associated with those whose silent example may favourably impress their young and observant minds, and in the sermon least adapted to them must hear much that they can understand and feel. Our dear Brethren in the Ministry will pardon us if we press on them a more habitual attention to the case of children in their public instructions. The most intelligent of their adult hearers will be delighted with this peculiarity in their instructions. Let them keep their eye steadily on the young and ignorant of their flocks; and they will find their reward in the effects produced. Our experience-and we think it quite equal to that of the most earnest advocates of the Separate Chapel Services

is all against the statement now so often repeated, that children are not interested and instructed by the ministry of our Pastors. We find many of them well instructed and tenderly impressed; nay, we find not a few of them converted, as well in the Children's Gallery as in the family pews of our friends. We believe it to be a gross violation of general truth, to affirm that any large body of the very young are disinclined to attend upon the ministry of our Pastors. Those parents, moreover, who are most eminent for the spiritual care of their offspring, listen to the new doctrine about separate services, with equal surprise and dread. With ourselves, they adhere to the wholesome conviction, in which they were trained by wise and holy parents, that Husbands and Wives, Parents and Chil

dren, Masters and Servants,-that all ages and all relations constitute the Pastor's charge; and that to remove the Children from our sanctuaries, would be to commit two great evils-to sever the Parent from the Child, and the tender shepherd from the lambs of his flock.

(4.) The whole of this paragraph, ending with "sacred day," is so extravagantly exaggerated, as scarcely to have any remnant of truth in it. If it were true, we should call in question the efficiency of the whole Sunday School Insti

tute.

Such representations are like a two-edged sword; they cut both ways. We do not believe them, but as they relate to extreme cases, which cannot be regarded as a general rule. If they were true, they would be an awful witness against the tendency of Sunday School Instruction. No children in our private families would conduct themselves so.

(5.) It is a great plea, and we are not ashamed of it, that neither the Old nor the New Testament separates children from their parents in the service of God, or speaks of any stated ministry for children but that which God himself has

distinctly pointed out.-See the remarks of an Experienced Theological Tutor in the "Home Chronicle."

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(6.) "Jealousy;" yes, however it may be with Sunday -school Teachers, we have a holy jealousy, before our God, lest plans should be urged at variance with the sober conclusions of our most experienced Pastors and pious church members. We wish to be the helpers of Sunday school Teachers, and that they should be helpers of us. We feel that the cause is ours as well as theirs; that we have a deeper stake in its continued right progress than any of our flocks; that our honour is implicated in the adoption and prosecution only of right measures; that, to remove the children from our ministry, would be to degrade us in the eyes of the public, and to give practical currency to the enormous fallacy that the Christian pastorate is unadapted to the religious training and discipline of the rising generation.

If we had a thousand voices, they would all be lifted up in serious warning against the removal of children from the benefits of Pastoral instruction.

THE EDITOR.

THE COMING YEAR. PART I.

Poetry.

THE coming year-the coming year,-
May prove the last to me,
As its diurnal, swift career
Points to eternity:

Each day, methinks, aloud proclaims,

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Prepare to meet thy God;"

"Be pure and holy in thy aims
To trace the heavenly road."

Say, "By the grace of God I am"
What I profess to be,

Redeem'd by God's own chosen Lamb,
Who loved and purchased me.
A trophy thus of sovereign grace,
Rescued and saved from hell,
I live in this-in every place,
Its victories to tell.

I tell to fellow-men around
What grace for them can do;

How pardoning mercy can abound
To love and save them too.

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