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QUALIFICATIONS OF A TEACHER.

5. Growing humility;-otherwise, his station, the deference exacted and paid, and the influence exerted, will make him a Diotrephes. He must cultivate piety in his own heart, and become like the angels, who are ministers to worms of the dust, and are good ministers in proportion as they are humble. True exaltation and greatness consist in great humility.

6. An example in all that is good; he should be fervent, simple, unaffected in prayer, increasing in a knowledge of the Bible, prompt, liberal, noble in charity, untiring in labours, warm in Christian intercourse, growing in all the Christian graces, and living for the salvation of the earth.

Such should be the SUPERINTENDENT of the Sunday School.

CHAPTER IV.

QUALIFICATIONS OF A GOOD TEACHER.

In the enumeration of the qualities desirable in a Sunday-school teacher, it is not to be supposed that every teacher will possess them all in due proportion. Few characters are perfectly symmetrical; and where there are great excellencies, there are usually great defects. The latter must be overlooked for the sake of the former. The success of men in doing good to the souls of men, from the apostle down to the distributor of tracts, depends greatly upon the state of the heart. Indeed, without a right state of heart, all other qualities will for the most part be useless. I begin to describe the Sunday-school teacher, then, by saying, that,

1. He should be a devotedly pious man.

The office of a teacher is, and must be, one of selfdenial; the labour necessary to acquire the lesson to be taught, to understand the best way of communicating truth; the stupidity, restlessness, listlessness, and trying

RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE.

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appearance of the class from week to week; the want of government at home, and the utter indifference of most of the parents; the return of the same routine of duties, the obscurity of the station, the amount of labour bestowed unknown and unappreciated, and the entire loss of so much labour, all unite to make the office of a teacher a drudgery and a burden. I cannot express my own views on this point better than by giving an extract of a letter addressed to me by a Superintendent —a lady,—and one of great experience and character. "My own opinion is, that the Sunday-school teacher sustains the same relation to the children of his charge as a Pastor does to his flock. He is emphatically the spiritual guide of the little ones committed to him; and his responsibility, as touching the eternal interests of the six or eight deathless souls who cluster around him on the Sabbath, seems to me to be precisely that which the Pastor sustains to the same number who sit under his ministry, and receive from him the bread of life. If children are blessed with pious parents, who not only teach them to read the word of God, but are wont to enforce it with their admonitions and prayers, why place them, during the sacred hours of the Sabbath, under the care of one who cannot be expected, with a heart overflowing with earnest desires for their salvation, to point them to a crucified Saviour? If, on the contrary, the neglected one is from a family where the holy name of God never falls upon his ear, except from a profane and intemperate father, and where no praying mother commends this child to God (and alas! how many such are found in our schools!) is the class of the teacher who has never felt the love of Jesus, the refuge for this ignorant and wretched child? I have often, as a Superintendent, in my experience, had my feelings severely tried on this very point, although of late years no teachers have been admitted to the school with which I am con

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THE GRANDMOTHER.

nected, except such as entertain the hope that they are the children of God. A child is introduced into the school, perhaps well known to be greatly neglected at home. My anxious eye is invariably turned to the seat occupied, not by the cold, uninterested teacher, even though a professor of religion, but by the devoted, praying teacher, who constantly pours into the ear, and presses home upon the hearts of her pupils, the truths of God's holy word. If no vacancy is found in such a class, I feel that almost a wrong is inflicted upon the child who is committed to the charge of one who feels but little for the priceless gem she is forming for eternity. I can well recollect, a few years since, an aged and holy mother in Israel entered our school, leading by the hand two little grandchildren. As I went forward to meet her, she took my hand, and addressing me in a familiar manner, with a solemnity of countenance, and an impressiveness of voice I can never forget, she said, 'These are my grandchildren; remember that take care of their souls. I commit them to you you.' I felt constrained to take these to the class of a teacher whom I knew to be faithful, and to repeat the solemn admonition I had received. It may be possible, and there probably are cases, where it would be more desirable, than to leave them without a Sunday School, to place children who have no religious instruction, under the charge of those who do not possess true piety, but who are competent to teach them to read the word of God. In desolate portions of our country where Christians are few in number, such teachers, under the direction of a devoted Superintendent, who as far as possible will endeavour to make up this deficiency, by giving special religious instruction himself, may be better than none; but where large churches in our cities and villages contain great numbers of the followers of Christ, every method should be used to impress upon

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their hearts the importance of fulfilling the injunction of our blessed Master, Feed my lambs.'

"I know it is said that teachers in great numbers have been converted in the Sunday School, and therefore we should admit those to be teachers who have not piety, for the sake of doing them good. But I ask, what is the great, absorbing design of the institution of Sunday Schools? Is it not to train up the rising generation for God? If this be its first and commanding object, then clearly our duty is to make every thing bear upon securing this great end. A teacher is now and then converted; but how many children may have passed from under his care unwarned and unholy into eternity, or led astray by his example; and others may have entered upon the busy concerns of live with hearts unsubdued by the grace of God! The providence of God may have taken from one a beloved father, and his heart softened by afflictions, and under the influence of the Holy Spirit, may be just upon the point of submitting to the blessed Saviour. He goes to the Sunday School, but his teacher is not watching with eager solicitude to see the tear of penitence, and to lead the burdened sinner to the foot of the Cross. The inquiry which was ready to break from his lips, is driven back, by the look of indifference from his unconscious teacher. The blind cannot lead the blind. A Superintendent, under such circumstances, if faithful, will not fail to do his duty; but I am persuaded that no Superintendent can gain that influence over the children of the school which each individual teacher may possess over his class. Those who have had most experience cannot have failed to observe the strong hold which teachers have upon the hearts of the children of their class; and how astonishing is the influence exerted over them by their faithfulness or unfaithfulness. I will mention one fact to illustrate this point. On the distant shores

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TESTIMONY OF A MISSIONARY.

of China, lives and labours a youthful missionary, who, I think, was but twenty-one years of age, when he left a happy home, to go and fulfil the dying command of his Master, Go preach the Gospel to every creature under heaven.' He was nurtured in our Sunday School from his earliest boyhood; and when of sufficient age, filled with much zeal and faithfulness, for several years, the responsible office of teacher. On the evening preceding his departure from us, at our accustomed weekly meeting of teachers, when taking his leave, he made this remark, 'Do not be discouraged in your work. I am indebted to my faithful Sunday-school teacher for the first desires which were kindled in my bosom, and my final determination to be a missionary of the Cross.' It is not certainly for us to say what other way the providence of God might have opened to lead to the same result, had this lovely youth been placed under the care of a teacher possessing a different spirit; but this seems certain, that the teacher, who had in charge the training of the future missionary, will find him a bright gem in the crown of his rejoicing."

I know I shall be pardoned for this long extract of a letter so judicious, and so much to the point.

Let the question be plainly asked—What is to be taught in our Sunday Schools? And the answer is plain,--The way of salvation. Each child is to be trained up, so far as is possible, for the service of God. Need the question be discussed, who are to be the guides, as a general rule, to lead the child to the Lamb of God? It certainly is a work which none but a pious heart can appreciate,—it is to be done by means which none but a heart taught of God can understand and use,—and it requires a continuance of virtues which none but a renewed heart can exercise. I am confident I speak the language of thousands when I say, that as a parent seeking the best, the eternal welfare of my children, I should