214 INSTRUCTION TO BE DEFINITE. children, with those who have the Gospel;-to show the superiority and the divinity of the Gospel, and to impress the heart with a sense of obligation and gratitude. The responsibility of the child who is born in the land of the Gospel, can be urged upon him with great force and power. It can, I have no doubt, be made a powerful auxiliary in leading the soul to submission, and conversion. 2. The information communicated respecting modern missions, should be as definite as possible. "A mission in an unknown country has no local habitation for the mind to fix upon. It can awaken only a vague, uninteresting, transient perception: and the church will never enter heartily into a plan for christianizing all nations, until it becomes acquainted with the geography of the world." If, for example, you have occasion to give an illustration of the principles of missions, and there are some most admirable illustrations in it,-from the history of the Greenland Mission, try as far as possible to make the child understand the geography of the country, the climate, natural features, and all those deep shades of the picture which the hand of nature has put on. Let all the information be of this definite kind. It is impossible for the mind to be interested in any other way. It might be well, too, to have a committee, consisting of a few of the teachers, and elder scholars, to correspond with some one or more missionary stations, to make inquiries respecting their school, their children, and their wants. I have seen a school thrilled by the reading of one such letter from a missionary station. There might be, if thought best, a special meeting of the school to hear the letters read; and be sure to read the letters sent from the school, as well as the answers received, at the same time. May we not, if we have the true missionary spirit ourselves, do much towards creating and perpetuating a missionary spirit in our SUGGESTIONS AND HINTS. 215 Sunday Schools, and that, too, without an organization so distinct that it shall create prejudices in the minds of worldly people? Shall we not, also, go on the principle, that our children are to become Christians, and ministers, and missionaries, and thus lead them to begin the work of sympathizing with the fallen world from their childhood? I have no doubt but all this can, and might, and ought to be done; and I pray that the Spirit which baptized apostles, and all the "sacramental host of God's elect," may baptize the children of our Sunday Schools! 3. There ought to be a system of contributions for the spreading of the Gospel, introduced into every school. The object of introducing such a system is threefold; -to raise money by which to carry on the plans of the church,-(very considerable sums, too, might easily be raised in our Sunday Schools ;)—to teach the children how to exercise benevolence, and of consequence, to acquire the habit of it, as every exercise will strengthen the habit, and to teach the child to exercise self-denial in obtaining the money which he contributes. Every thing of this kind should be regular and periodical; and perhaps the plan of having a contribution brought in once every month, will be a good one. As far as possible, encourage the children to give the money which they have earned by some labour or self-denial. Show that you are interested in their little contributions, and encourage them to feel that the smallest sum, given from right motives, is neither overlooked nor forgotten by the great Redeemer. At the same time avoid making the impression that giving in this way is piety,— because a child may bring his pennies, and yet carry the heart of a little Pharisee. Avoid, also, casting blame or censure upon a child who does not contribute, -at least till you know the reason. His parents may be too poor, he may have no parents, or they may be unwilling to furnish the child with money, and he knows not how to earn any himself. I have known children 216 A CERTAIN PRINCIPLE NECESSARY. make very great sacrifices to earn money,-others to endure great self-denial to obtain it, in order to contribute; and I have known others whose feelings were cruelly and unnecessarily wounded when they could not contribute. Some teachers who have so far acquired the confidence of the class as to know the real situation and disposition of each one, have hired such children, as were unable otherwise to obtain money, to do little jobs for them, for which they have paid them, and thus the contributions of the teacher passed through the hands of his poor scholars. But every school should have regular, stated seasons of contributing, and an object to which the charity is applied, so definite, and so tangible, that they can all see that the little stream of charity which takes its rise in their schools, does, indeed, flow into the great river, and swell its tide, and cause the waters to reach those who are perishing with thirst. As to the precise mode of doing this, every school will choose to have its own way and method. Go on the principle,—it is always safe and sure, never yet been known to fail,-that God will never be indebted to his creatures for the smallest gifts to him; he will reward them all, and return the cup full and running over; and while I do not believe that a school or a child can do any thing like purchasing his own salvation with his contributions, I do, at the same time, believe that he is more likely to receive salvation, in consequence of such charity. Let them begin life, as if the service of God was to be the object of life, and see that it is the object of your life; let them feel that in this life, we only begin to enter upon a service so glorious that the angel feels honoured in being a servant in its cause, a service which brings peace of conscience here,- —a support which is stronger than hope as we pass from time into eternity, and that it will lead to what more than fills the measure of our hopes, and more than satisfies the highest desires of the soul. ERRORS RESPECTING SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 217 CHAPTER XI. DUTY OF THE CHURCH AND PASTOR TO THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. I BEGIN the remarks which I am about to offer on this subject by taking it for granted that every church will wish to have a Sunday School under her immediate care, sympathy, and direction; and that she would be glad to know what her duties are, that she may perform them to the best advantage. Every church ought to know when she has performed her duties to the Sunday School, and I shall esteem it no small happiness if I may be able to lay them plainly before her. There are certain errors which prevail extensively among our churches in connexion with the cause of Sunday Schools,- -errors which discourage the teacher, and frequently destroy not a little of the good which would otherwise flow from his labours. I wish briefly to specify some of these errors. FIRST ERROR; That children who go to the Sunday School do not need so careful instruction at home. It is far from being improbable that the day of judgment will reveal the names of many who with the lips favoured Sunday Schools, and sent their children to them for the very purpose of throwing off the trouble and responsibility of religiously instructing them at home. "I need not talk with my child on the Sabbath on the subject of religion; I need not try to bring his conscience under the light of the Bible; I need not endeavour to gain his roving attention, with the view of fixing his thoughts on God and eternal things;—especially I need not give him the opportunity to say by his looks, 'My father, I do not see you bearing this holiness and showing it in your life, though you urge it upon me and profess it yourself; '-I need not take him alone and pray for him, and over him,-because-he goes to the Sunday School. I am careful to have him go U 218 HOME INSTRUCTION NECESSARY. constantly, and he is there instructed in religion. If I also teach him, he will hear so much about religion, that he will be disgusted." Such is the language of the heart, while the child is turned away from the father's table, and sent to find bread at the hand of strangers. Alas! for such cruelty. God has laid duties upon parents which they can neither throw off, nor delegate to others. The Sunday School was designed to cooperate with parents, to aid them in training their children up for the service of God on earth, and for the rewards of this service in heaven. It cannot so take the place of parental instruction as to excuse the father or the mother from doing their duty. You can never know, till the light of eternity reveals it, how cruel it is to push the child from the bosom of his parent; and if he lives after that parent is gone, memory can never lead him to the spot,—the chamber in which his parents used to pray with him and teach him. The cultivation of the heart of the child, will draw it out with love and reverence. That poor child who has no parents, finds in the Sunday School a substitute for the kind and tender admonitions of parents; and that child who has parents will find it an additional blessing. But the head of the family is the priest whom God hath placed there to minister to the temporal and spiritual wants of the little congregation; and woe to the family, and woe to the church, when the Sunday School shall supersede the religious instructions of the fire-side. When it shall be left to the teacher in the school to do the work of praying for the children and of instructing them, one of the most glorious ends of the family relation will have been lost sight of, and one of the dearest privileges of the child will be destroyed,—that of being led to God by his own parents. 66 Many seem to think that the responsibility is transferred from themselves to the teachers. When their children are committed to the school, their duty seems |