firmly and securely with himself; the countless forms of opposition and discouragement, which may assail him, must be parried and quenched by the shield of faith; but in every exercise of the weapons of our warfare, strength, experience, and wisdom are increased, and the Christian, though he undertakes the contest with a view to the profit of others, will find that every effort made conduces to the victory on his own part.

The contemplation of the precious promises, rich grace, and mighty power of God, encourage the teacher to large hopes and vast desires for his scholars, yet his yearnings and his trustful confidence, must be tempered by a patient submission, prepared to abide deep, bitter, and continued disappointment. In the frequent struggle with insubordination, turbulence, or sloth, he is called upon for the exercise of patience, meekness, decision, firmness, vigour, and wisdom; and while his own nature is thus disciplined and matured, he must learn, like the husbandman, to wait with long patience for any further fruit of his labours, and be content to abide in affliction and discouragement, even to the coming of the Lord. To some it has been granted in this department of God's service, to see the tender blade spring up and grow to maturity, while they were yet in the seed time; but such instances are rare, and more often has the teacher to wait and watch in vain through the tedious and protracted seasons of the early and latter rain; but while the duties of the teacher's office are so obvious, and the words of encouragement in Scripture so distinct and so abundant, let him be content to cast his bread upon the waters, and not, even in desire, limit the Holy One of Israel, as to the number of days that may elapse ere he find it; nor in what form it may be rendered to him. Despondency is often the result of vanity and an over-estimate of our own work; we do not take into account the impure motives that mingle with our feeble desire for the glory of God; the efforts that find the reward which they sought in the esteem of men, these which are directed by the impulse of habit, or stimulated by mere natural feelings. Our own corruption mingles tares with the good seed we sow, and we murmur because the harvest is scanty, or defective; and again, we are not content, that God should employ our services in any of the humbler departments of his kingdom, we are not content, if He make us useful in the subordinate branches of that vast system of Divine government, which includes many temporary purposes and temporal benefits to men, as well as the more glorious works of grace, and the objects of eternity. True, our hopes and endeavours should be directed to do God's service to the utmost of our power: but when we see in the natural world, that the sunshine and rain fall on many a barren spot-that they come to the unthankful and the evil among

men, let us not repine, if all our efforts for the spiritual improvement of our fellow creatures be apparently in vain, and our poor talents expended for nought. Let nothing that can befall us, shake our confidence in the unchangeable wisdom and goodness of God; and the swelling waves of distress and disappointment will but bear up the bark of faith to a higher level.

D.

SUNDAY SCHOOL ANECDOTES.

SOME time ago, I was engaged with a class of very little children, I forget the subject of the lesson, but it led me to make some remarks on the happiness of heaven; I noticed that one of the number looked very uneasy, and as I addressed myself especially to her, she hung down her head and became painfully agitated and distressed; drawing her closer to me, I said, "Mary, you would like to go to heaven ?" Never shall I forget the expression of her countenance as she replied, while the tear started to her eye, "No teacher, I don't want to go to heaven, I had rather live with mother, I don't want to go away from mother." I thought I could now perceive that her ideas of heaven were confused with those of death and separation from friends; she literally trembled, and the tears stood in her eyes. I tried to soothe her and to remove the painful impression that had evidently taken strong hold of her mind; I said, "You know Mary, if mother loves Jesus she will go to heaven too, and then you will always live together and be with Jesus." She looked interested and eagerly enquired, "Will Julia go there too ?" "Yes," I replied, "if little sister loves Jesus she will go to heaven too:" she smiled through her tears, and running to the form on which her sister sat, threw her arms round her neck and exclaimed, while she fondly kissed her, “O teacher, then I should like to go to heaven, then I should like to go to heaven."

This incident strongly impressed my mind with the importance of speaking to children, on the subject of heaven, in language adapted to their years, and never to dwell on the minute circumstances connected with the death of the body. How many have received fearful impressions on this subject, which have ever after haunted them and brought them into bondage through fear of death, and there are aspects of the nature and happiness of heaven which peculiarly suit the glowing imagination and ardent sympathies of children; if we think of it as a place of constant and holy activity in the service of God, where every eager enquiry will be satisfied, every aspiration after all that is wonderful and great eternally gratified, in learning to know that "which passeth knowledge," if we speak of it as a region of love and blissful

companionship, with bright angels and happy spirits; these are features of the happiness of heaven into which children can fully enter; but while to the weary and wayworn pilgrims, we might speak of heaven as an eternal Sabbath-rest which remaineth for the people of God, to the buoyant and restless mind of a child, such language would convey the idea of irksome inactivity.

A girl who heard a sermon on "Spending a day with Jesus," went home and told her father that Mr. T., had said, "If we do not spend a day with Jesus here, we shall never spend eternity with Him hereafter." "Did Mr. T., say so ?" replied the man; "Then I will certainly go and hear him preach to-night." It was the first time he had been to church for many years.

I had been reading to the lowest class but one in the Sunday school, the 1st. of Mark, and after explaining the healing of Simon's wife's mother, I asked, on the 35th verse, why did Jesus rise up so early? A little girl of seven years old answered, “Because Simon's mother would not have liked Him to go, if she had been up." There was in this answer a realizing of the circumstances and feelings of the parties, which I felt to be of far more value than the correct answer would have been. S. M. K.

CHILDRENS' QUESTIONS.

TEACHERS should never forget, that more wisdom and discretion are often required in answering the questions of children, than in replying to the remarks of those who, though older in years, in many cases think and reflect less: for many children in their way, can turn over a teacher's answer in their own minds, and will not be satisfied unless they are convinced.

"What is done with all the horses in heaven ?" was the question of a little boy. A relative answered, “There are no horses in heaven;" "What became of Elijah's horses?" was the ready response of the child.

There is no reason to fear that the person appealed to could not satisfy the little enquirer, but we think the anecdote forcibly says to the instructor of the young, "do not think lightly of the questions of children, and well consider what answers you should give them "; we little know what may be passing in the minds of children to prompt the questions they put to us- -let us take care that our replies do not lead them to draw inferences unfavourable to our understandings, lest our influence over them be lost; if we would teach young children they must look up to us as infallible.

f. D. J.

The Teacher in his Study.

A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN FRANCE.

From the French of M. A. Rendu.

THE SCHOOLS UNDER THE DRUIDS.

A knowledge of reading and writing are not, at the present day, esteemed as acquisitions conferring distinction upon their possessor. There was, however, a time when the great majority of the inhabitants of France possessed neither of these acquirements. Almost every Commune, even in the most distant provinces, has now its schoolmaster, who is zealously engaged in cultivating the minds of its youth; and we may reasonably indulge the hope of witnessing, in due time, most happy results from their labours.

There are no doubt some countries in Europe, such as Prussia and Holland, in which elementary education is in a more advanced state than among us; but we are following close in their steps, and the numerous village schools every where springing up, afford substantial proof of the interest now very generally felt in the promotion of education. The school we regard as one of the most effectual instruments of our day for the melioration of society, being, as it is, open to all classes; and we trust there is no class of society at the present day, so blind to the dignity of man, as not to rejoice at seeing even the meanest of their fellow-creatures rescued from ignorance, and blessed with an amount of intellectual culture suited to the station in which the Providence of God has placed them. Great, indeed, is the progress which France has already made, compared with her state at the early period to which we have alluded; for profound was the darkness which enveloped our country while heathenism brooded over it. And were we not ungrateful, we could never pass by a Church or a school, without thanking God for having caused the light of true Christianity to shine upon France and the world. In a few years, comparatively, we may hope that almost all our people will have passed through some of our elementary schools, and there will be found no one who will be under the necessity of revealing his family secrets to some neighbouring gossip, in consequence of

being himself unable to decipher the characters of a letter, or reply to it. Two thousand years ago written characters were altogether unknown in our country. When the Romans conquered France, about fifty years before the birth of Christ, they found in its villages and towns no traces whatever of writing, and their General, Julius Cæsar, mentions it as a surprising fact, that he found in one of the enemy's camps, some tablets of wood or stone, on which were inscribed, in characters resembling Greek, a list of the companies of troops comprising the French army. This, we have said, was regarded as a surprising fact, and well it might be; for on the other side of the Rhine, among the Germans, nearly two centuries elapsed before there was found any one who was capable of communicating his thoughts by writing. Great would be the surprise of an inhabitant of France in the nineteenth century, could he transport himself back two thousand years in the series of ages past, and find himself an auditor at one of those lessons which the savans of that period were in the habit of giving their pupils in these places in which we now live. Few were the persons then who pretended either to give or to receive instruction. The great and powerful were occupied in waging war against their neighbours, or pursuing in the chase, the wild animals which peopled their forests. The only class among them who possessed any instruction, were the Druids, a kind of priests, who had considerable influence in the conducting of public affairs, and were entrusted with the education of the youth. These priestly instructors only admitted to their lessons the children of the great families, the chiefs of the nation. Nothing could be more mysterious or fantastical than the manner they adopted in instructing their pupils. Among the Romans and the Greeks, schools were held in the most central parts of their principal towns. In France, on the other hand, the Druids chose for their meeting place, a grotto, a cavern situated in the vicinity of a wood, or they selected a cleared spot in the bosom of the forest, where they were surrounded by the thick and gloomy foliage of ancient oaks. When thus assembled, the teacher commenced his lesson, by reciting to his privileged pupils, certain verses embodying the mysteries of their religion, and then followed others, setting forth their national traditions, and other matters relating to astronomy and geography. What was conveyed in one lesson, the pupils were required at their next meeting to repeat previous to the commencement of a new lesson. Some of the pupils in particular cases were instructed in tracing written characters on wood, or stone; but it was strictly forbidden to employ any writing. in the lessons which were given to the youth, indeed the teachers themselves committed nothing to writing. All the instruction was imparted orally, and for its retention they had to trust to their