other, and not ask them indiscriminately and at a venture. It is really melancholy to think how much power in teaching is wasted, for want of a definite aim.

I must now revert to a remark made before, that questions of examination addressed to a class, might prove to some of the children questions of instruction. I mean that a teacher may ask questions which the class as a whole ought to be able to answer, and some boys may answer them correctly, whilst others give wrong answers, or none at all. Now there is a constant need of discrimination, first in detecting, and then in remedying this difference in knowledge on the part of different boys in the same class.

It will sometimes need great acuteness to detect it. Few classes are without one or two indolent boys; but indolent though they be, and therefore generally (not always) ignorant, they are yet sharp enough to try and evade their teacher's efforts. To ask questions of each boy in turn is best, but even this will not secure the possession of each answer by each boy, nor do I know any infallible method of doing so, I only urge it on teachers as a point to be aimed at—that is, they should try to carry the whole class onwards together. I am taking it for granted that the whole body of scholars is in the first instance properly classified, for I know no method (or want of method) more likely to distract and impede a teacher, and to render his instructions like unsightly patchwork, than to give him a class of which some can master an argument, whilst others can scarcely read the words in which it is displayed. On this I must not now enlarge, but my subject seemed to demand thus much of remark on it.

It is evident again that the size of a class affects the teacher's knowledge of each individual. He should have under his care only so many as he can "take the measure of." If, as in some schools, a teacher has twenty boys under him (I am not speaking of infant classes, for they are entirely different things) I defy him to be so well acquainted with the amount of knowledge possessed by each as to be able to judge if a question put be easy or difficult, or if an answer given by one boy be mentally shared in by the rest.

With eight or ten boys however, this may be done, and by constant variety in the order of questioning, and especially by the sharp enquiring glance round the whole class when a question is put, or an answer received, the teacher will generally be able to judge whether his little band is advancing in a body, or whether the line of march is covered with stragglers at different distances in the rear.

In dealing then with a class, many questions will be experiments; that is, the teacher asks them, in doubt whether they will be answered or no: if answered, they rivet the knowledge; if not answered, they point out an ignorance which the teacher then proceeds to supply,

S

But supposing that an intelligent boy answers a difficult question, whilst a boy of good disposition but less brains is puzzled, and a third, of equal power of mind but combined with great indolence, will not make the effort. Should a teacher be satisfied with this? Will that boy's answer so teach his class-mates that the teacher may pass? I should say, as a general rule, it will not. That a schoolfellow should tell them, may impress the boys more than if their teacher told them; but it will be far better for the teacher to clench the matter. Suppose that the question given above had been answered at once by a clever boy. You look quickly round your class. Alfred, a dull, heavy, but well-disposed boy, seems puzzled at the process of the answer; whilst Harry, sharp enough, but sadly idle, is gaping about him, and if he heard the question, would not trouble himself to discover the answer. Now, one rule will not apply to all such cases. The question might be a trivial one, when it would be a waste of valuable time to linger over it-or it may be an important one, leading to some practical lesson, when it would be wrong to slur it over, or to indulge one's self in teaching the sharp boy, whilst the stupid and the careless were left to themselves. The question given above (on David's history) is not one of the most important, and in such a case, therefore, I should feel inclined to look the puzzled boy steadily, but kindly, in the face, and repeat the answers just given me thus: "David's great grandmother was that Ruth of whom we read in the Bible; she came from Moab, so David thought that the people of Moab would be kind to him and his relations for ber sake." The idle boy must be aroused by a personal question, one perhaps out of the series, which, if answered, will shew that he has heard without seeming to hear, (as I have often found to be the case) and if unanswered, should draw down a caution, or a reproof.

Let us take another example. Elijah fled for his life into the wilderness, when he heard that Jezebel threatened to kill him. "What made Elijah flee?" you ask, and many a scholar in our Sunday schools who had already had the benefit of some training, would give as the reply, Want of faith. But in most classes (excepting of course senior ones) however wise the classification, this answer would be too good; many of the lad's class-mates would be left behind. If I may take a familiar illustration-that lad has got a leaping pole, and has learned to use it-the others must have stepping-stones found for them. So you go back thus: "Who had threatened Elijah? What had she said she would do? What had raised her anger against Elijah? Who had bid Elijah do that thing? Then as Elijah had done his duty, whom should he have trusted to preserve him? Did he trust God? Then he ran away because he?" Did not trust God. "Yes; as A. said, for want of faith."

The limits of my paper oblige me to stop here, and I fear that some of my readers will already have thought my remarks too long; but the points to which I have adverted, seem to me of great importance. A clear knowledge of what we are aiming at is of much consequence, and I trust some teachers will have gained a few hints which they will find useful.

I hope on another occasion to pursue the subject in its other bearings. But meanwhile, as the pathway may have been but dry and barren, let us scatter over it some of Zion's dewdrops. He who spake as never man spake, taught much by questions. Here are two; questions of solemn examination, questions of rich instruction :Wilt thou be made whole? Lovest thou Me?

·--

I. G. F.

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.

WHEREABOUTS is it probable that the Israelites crossed the Red

Sea?

It was a brilliant July day. In the morning we had passed the entrance into the gulf of Suez; the noble mountains some thousand feet in height towered above the sandy plain which shelved upwards from the sea, and terminated in distant peaks well known as the mountains of St. Catharine, and * Sinai on the right; the high land of the upper Egyptian coast skirted the horizon on our left. Black barren rocky ridges rising higher and higher, and meeting from different directions, contrasting vividly with the brightness of the no less barren sands, seem to mark the spot of such deep interest as that from which Jehovah gave the law-on which Moses stood and communed with his God. But again the question recurred, whereabouts could the Israelites have crossed? Assuredly it must have been near. It could not have been to the Southward of this, because to our right extended the deep gulph of Akaba; and the history forbids our supposing that they journeyed across or around that arm of the sea to get to Sinai. The eye stretched along the gulph of Suez as we rapidly ascended it. Egypt, that "house of bondage," engaged our thoughts and fixed the eye on its shores; steep and inacces

Captain Moresby, of the Indian Navy, when employed in the scientific survey of the Red Sea, reports his having on one occasion seen a steam vessel enter the Gulph of Suez, from the summit of Mount Sinai; a proof that the "Holy mount of God" may be seen from the sea.

sible were the volcanic rocks that bounded its coast, until we came in sight of Suez, about twelve miles distant: there the beams of the setting sun, which had cast a shadow from the mountain cliffs across the sea, again illuminated its surface with its wonted brilliancy, through a chasm in the mountains, which there formed a valley shelving very gradually from the water's edge, with an easy slope, unbroken by rock or ridge; until lost in the distance. The Arabs still give the name of "Tiarre" or "wanderings," to this valley: the mountains on either side of it they still call the mountains of "Tigh," or "deliverance, deliverance," In no other place we had passed could a descent have been so easily formed from the land into the bed of the sea; for steep and inaccessible clefts, and bold volcanic rock, was the general feature of the western coast. Could this have been the the crossing place? Could both armies, at this spot, have been, simultaneously in the bed of the ocean, as required by the Sacred Narrative? What distance may we suppose the Israelites to have travelled when overtaken by Pharaoh's host? All conspired to deepen the interest of this spot. Opposite to it, on the Arabian side, is a green spot of date trees, with some white domes, marking the Bir ul Moosa, the "wells of Moses," the only springs of fresh water on that coast for some distance.

The depth of the sea, from thirty to fifty feet, and the distance across, about fifteen miles, all concur in heightening the probability that on that very shore "Moses stretched out his hand over the sea: and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided; and the Children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. And the Egytians pursued and went in after them, to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass, that in the morning watch, the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

sea,

But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses." Ex. xiv. 21-31.

We opened the Bible and read this wonderful passage on the deck of the steamer, as we rapidly traversed this interesting spot; and whether we consider the ancient traditionary names given to the localities by the Arabs, whose pertinacity against all changes, and whose unbending attachment to the habits and customs of antiquity, are notorious, or the many coincidences with the sacred narrative, which alone meet on this spot, the impression is powerfully left upon the traveller's mind, that there, and there only, could the Red Sea have been crossed by the Israelites, as recorded in the Bible. Dr. Robinson's supposition, that it may have been passed across a narrow stream, north of Suez, when drawn down and rendered dry by a northerly wind, is utterly indefensible. It was "a strong east wind," by which "the waters were divided." And again, the route taken by the Israelites from the ancient capital of Egypt was more likely to have been by "the valley of the wanderings," through the chasm or valley between "the mountains of deliverance," to the sea, at the spot we had just passed, than any where else. *"No other ordinary route than that, led anciently to the Red Sea. Even caravans, we are informed, came that way, and winding along to their left, skirting the sea shore, they travelled this way to Suez, rather than by the route now followed, from Cairo to that place. So even and level is the route by the "valley of the wanderings," from the Red Sea all the way to Cairo, that it has lately been surveyed by an English engineer, in view to a rail-road, which it is believed may be at once laid down the entire way, about 120 miles, without any material cutting down, or filling up.

Never did my mind receive a greater confirmation of the truth of the Bible, than in this late journey; may my few remarks upon it not be unacceptable to your readers.

N. I.

* Dr. Wilson's valuable and very learned work, on "The Lands of the Bible, enters fully into this interesting question; and shows clearly, the high probabi lity that this was the identical crossing point of the Red Sea.