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parents; another, the want of sympathy among parents with their children upon the subjects that are taught. There is no following up of the subject-no con versation upon it. Thus the homes and outdoor companionship create among our scholars a bias in favour of evil; and added to these is the practice of Sunday purchases, and excursions on the Lord's day. Now, it is certain that, whatever hindrances arise, our duty is clear. To seek to create religious impressions is mainly our work. Childhood, in all its stages, is susceptible of impression. We are encouraged to expect success in our efforts to produce it, and we are bound to seek it. Little reliance is to be placed on teaching power, organisation, or social position. There may be all the appliances for a good school, and yet little success may be achieved. Our labours should have immediate relation to each one. We seem

rather to think it just possible that some good may arise, instead of labouring with that one aim.

In speaking of "the means whereby the influence of the Sunday school may be made more practical, extensive, and continuous," Mr. Meen touched upon several points. He said :—Mr. Ferguson, writing on the claims of London, says (Standard, October 15, 1858), "We may build sanctuaries and open schools, and a thousand other good things; but the great desideratum is an adequate agency to carry our living and loving Christianity to the homes and hearths of our teeming and crowded masses. It is not enough to invite them to come and take the water of life freely : we must carry it to them, put the cup to their very lip, and ask them to drink that they may live." In order that this may be done among the parents of our scholars, it should be regarded as of far more consequence to win souls than to have several of our best teachers engaged in mere routine duties. Our teaching should be less discursive-there should be more point, more direct aim. We should exercise more care in the classification of the children, who are often disgusted by being placed in association with those with whom they have little sympathy. No teacher should enter upon the work without some amount of preparation and training; while superintendents generally should better understand their duties. No less than teachers they require to be instructed, in order that they may understand the art of good government. The moral power of the school will be influenced, more or less, by the status of the superintendent himself, and the influence he may be able to exert. Not long since, after speaking on this very subject, a superintendent came to me and said, "I have hitherto been doing the very opposite of what you have been recommending." I think it would be well that there should be meetings of superintendents from time to time, that they may take counsel with each other on this matter. Then, too, I think that special regard should be paid to our elder scholars. They have peculiar claims upon us, because they are exposed to peculiar difficulties and temptations; and they are more inclined to speak freely to their teachers upon them than to others. I remember hearing a young friend once say, "I can never talk to my mother upon religious matters." It seems strange it should be so, but I believe it is often the case; therefore we should honour their confidence, for they demand our special regard in this particular. I would encourage amongst them prayer meetings and epistolary correspondence, from which the most blessed results have been known to follow. Be yourselves also possessed of a deep religious feeling; have faith in your work: we want earnestness, intelligence, and sympathy, and deep-toned piety, that we should drink deep into Christ's spirit, and get our spirits refreshed by waiting upon God. Seek, too, in prayer, both when alone and with your classes, enlarged measures of blessing. It is sometimes a grievous matter that the prayers put up in our Sunday schools are anything else than what they should be, embracing every subject, and having no special reference to the object in which the teachers are engaged.-The speaker concluded by referring to the recent revivals of religion in this country and in America, and by

urging upon teachers to seek for a more abundant outpouring of the Spirit in connection with their work.

Mr. COLLINS believed they were all prepared to admit that a considerable improvement had taken place in the Sunday schools of this country, both as regarded their organization, and the qualifications of the teachers engaged in them. But it was the opinion of some, that satisfactory results had not yet been realized,-results commensurate to the improved and enlarged machinery brought into operation; and hence it was that the subject now submitted for discussion had been selected. It was a thoroughly practical subject, and he should like in the first place that they should settle what they meant by religious influence. For his own part, he found so much vagueness whenever he conversed with friends upon the subject, that he felt it was desirable they should start by defining it more accurately than was usually done. He thought if they looked at the question in two aspects it would materially assist the inquiry. Let them ask first how much of the production of this influence belonged to God, and then how much of it belonged to themselves. If he were required to say what it was that peculiarly distinguished man from the brute creation, he should not be inclined to say reason; for the mere untrained reason of man was far inferior to the instinct of the brute, which almost invariably led him right, while man untrained as invariably went wrong. He would rather describe the peculiar characteristic of man as the possession of the religious instinct, whereby he naturally, and under all circumstances, felt after the unseen. Let them see how this was developed. Wherever they went they found this constant searching after God manifested in the various forms of superstition and idolatry. The right training of this religious instinct belonged to man. The precise line of demarcation between that which fell within his province and that which was the direct work of God, was, perhaps, as difficult to define as in scientific inquiry to settle the quadrature of the circle; but there was a practical point, at which the one began and the other ended. In looking at the accounts given in Scripture of the miracles performed by Christ, they found that the lame man was told to rise up and walk, and the man with the withered limb to stretch forth his hand. And so with religious feeling; sinful men were told to repent, to believe, and to pray. Therefore, in reference to all questions about human capability, there could be no doubt that when God called upon men to obey the gospel, they were bound to follow His commands. The subject put before them for consideration indicated that there was a religious influence, and the point was, how that influence was to be increased. Among the means proposed, prayer meetings and revival meetings had been named. He felt, whenever questions were put to him respecting children's prayer meetings, that he could not give downright answers to them. His own experience had made him rather afraid of such meetings; but he believed that it was because proper means had not been perseveringly carried out. Then with regard to teachers' prayer meetings, he could only say that he considered the great fallacy upon the subject was, that they were not looked upon as a means to an end, and that frequently persons met together and enjoyed a sort of religious voluptuousness instead of working. If they could not both pray and work, let them pray at home and work abroad. A large amount of their want of success as teachers consisted in this, that they had too often left off work and gone to prayer, without having settled in their minds whether they had done anything on which they could satisfactorily invoke the divine blessing. He thought, too, that if they would only look more carefully and constantly at what their aim was in this undertaking, they would secure more practical religious influence. If every child in their schools and throughout the kingdom were converted to God, that was only a small part of their work. They had looked upon conversion as the whole object of their labours; but something more was wanted: it was the bringing of the Christian character to the

highest degree of perfection of which it was capable; and they must no longer be content when they had merely got the children in the church and left them there. He could not understand how it was that hundreds and thousands had been brought into church fellowship, of whose after career, as far as usefulness was concerned, they heard but little. If all these persons were thoroughly imbued with the Christian spirit, and went forth to convert the world with a thorough, downright, earnest, practical, abiding and unreserved determination to succeed, would they not soon see more pleasing results in the extension of religious influence than was now presented? It was not enough that our children should be brought into the church; when there they had a work to do, and that work was the development in themselves and others of a religious influence which would be practical, abiding, and extensive.

Mr. GOVER thought that, without going into the metaphysical part of the question, and without having anything to say in reference to the church, but confining their attention to their schools, there were two things which they would all agree were necessary,-the one, to get a better state of religious impression in the minds of the teachers; and the other, to extend that influence among their children and their parents. With regard to the teachers, he thought that they were admitted into the schools in a way that was not calculated to give them an impression of the importance of the work as a religious institution. Young people were frequently invited by friends to enter the school; and if they were pleased with the occupation, they remained. Ministers of the gospel were not admitted into their responsible and sacred office without having a charge laid upon them; and though he did not know that any public introduction would be deemed advisable in the case of a Sunday school teacher, he would suggest that it would be well for the pastor of the church, the superintendent, or some judicious friend, to introduce the teacher solemnly to his important work. If this were done, the office would not be lightly taken up, nor, for secondary considerations, resigned. Then, if the pastors were more frequently to attend teachers' meetings, it would help to keep up in them a right view of their duties, and prevent their sinking down too much to the secularities of their work. Teachers' prayer meetings had hitherto been, to a great extent, failures, and it was rarely that the attendance at them had been regularly maintained. They were too formal in their character; the prayers were too long by three times; and the interest, generally, was found to flag. He recommended that the engagements at such meetings should be diversified, and that not only portions of Scripture, but suitably selected pieces from other books, such as James's "Teacher's Guide," should be read on such occasions. In addition to these things, they wanted to exercise an influence over the children at home, as well as their parents. There was a great difficulty in this matter, but the importance of it was so great, that it demanded their very earnest consideration. He thought all present would be inclined frankly to acknowledge that hitherto the system of visiting scholars had been the exception, and not the rule. There must be something wrong in their plan, and he entertained the opinion that it would be well if they had, in connection with all the schools, regular trained visitors, upon whom this duty should be devolved. The churches would, no doubt, furnish such persons, and give them to the school. It might be urged that the objection to this would be, that it did not meet the great need, which was, that the teachers themselves should visit the scholars. Well, then, having a band of trained visitors, let the teachers of the class go with them. In conducting such visitations, a definite object should be kept in view, and he would suggest that the visitors should take with them the lessons on single leaves, converse with the parents upon the subject of those lessons, and urge them to talk with and thus impress their children's minds in reference to them.

Mr. COOPER, of Birmingham, said his own mind had been much engaged of late in

the consideration of the subject to which the chairman had alluded, viz., the importance, in a national point of view, of maintaining the Sunday school as an institution for the religious education of the young; and within the last few days he and his colleague had had an interview with the parliamentary representative of their borough upon the subject. He would add, that he left that meeting with the deep conviction that, for the future religious instruction of the young, they must look mainly, if not entirely, to the Sunday schools of the land. The day schools were doing little, comparatively, in that direction, and he felt convinced they would have to do less. Mr. Meen had referred to the importance of early piety, and of their looking for manifestations of it. He (Mr. Cooper) was afraid there was a great deal of scepticism amongst teachers on this point. There were many, he believed, who had little faith in the realization of it, and who really did not seem to expect it. As to the value of scholars' prayer meetings, he was able to bear testimony from experience. He thought it was always desirable to have their teachers with them. In Birmingham, the teachers' prayer meetings were well attended; not unfrequently from 150 to 200 met together at their monthly prayer meetings, and a deep interest was felt in them. He was glad that the subject of epistolary correspondence had been touched upon, as it was a matter to which, some years back, he had given some attention. He had always found that the teachers' letters were received in a kind spirit, and he was convinced it was one very powerful means of maintaining a religious influence over the elder children of their charge. Another means was that of the teacher meeting his class at home, where they could kneel together in prayer. He recently called upon a friend so engaged, and he left with the deep conviction of the value of such an opportunity. The great hindrance in the way of a systematic visitation of scholars was, that the teachers had great difficulty in finding the necessary time for the purpose; but, after all, there was no visitation so good as that of the teacher himself, who was sure to get a kind reception, and an attentive hearing. He strongly recommended the holding of parents' meetings. They had been held regularly, during the last seven or eight years, in Birmingham, and with the happiest effects. He recognized the importance of the superintendents of Sunday schools being duly qualified for their responsible undertaking, believing, as he did, that the character of the school very much depended upon the qualifications of its officers. And while on this point, he would suggest that the Committee of the Parent Society could render them great service by the publication of some works specially designed for superintendents of schools,-a Superintendent's Manual,-pointing out what they ought to do, and how they ought to do it.

Mr. BUTCHER, of Bury, as the representative of a school which for some years past had yielded about twelve members to the church annually, said he had come to the conclusion that, in proportion to the religious influence which the church exerted, so would be the character and influence of Sunday schools. He thought the friends present must not go away with the idea of "getting up" prayer meetings and revivals, for it was only where there was a spontaneous outburst of religious feeling that prayer meetings could be expected to excite a wholesome and lasting influence. The duty of teachers was not only to seek the conversion of their scholars, but the training of all their powers for the work of God. Separate religious services for the children had been tried with good effect, and it had struck him whether they might not have children's communion services also, from which the youth who had thus publicly acknowledged themselves on the Lord's side, might be drafted off to the ordinary communion service of the adult church. Teachers' prayer meetings and parents' meetings had been held, and with the best results, in his locality.

Mr. C. REED had always been an advocate for separate services for the young, but he should deprecate most strongly the attempt to commence the holding of

children's communion services, either by the churches or the Sunday schools. He believed that there was a very large amount of youthful piety at the present day. In one town the church record had been taken during the past year, and it was found that the per-centage of youthful members had very much increased, as compared with five or ten years ago. He believed that this would be found to be the case in many other places, some pleasing instances of which had come to his own knowledge, and therefore they ought not to be discouraged with the present aspect of their work. The importance of the question before them to-day lay in this,-that they had never as yet considered the subject of the duty of the Sunday school teacher out of the school, but only of what he ought to do in the school, and with his class. But the first-named duty was 'as important, if not more so, as the last. Their connection with their children hitherto had been more of the character of an acquaintance, or at best a friendship; whereas it ought to assume the features of a relationship, if their influence was to be of the highest kind. With regard to the visitation of scholars, there could be no doubt that it was the teacher's duty to visit the parents and children at home. But he was fearful that some teachers were not competent to the work. Everything which interested the child,-his home, his companions, his parents, his reading books, his workshop,-everything with which he came in contact during the week, should be familiar to the mind of his teacher, because an acquaintance with these things brought the teacher into contact with the influences which most affected the child for good or evil, and enabled him to adapt his instructions accordingly. Where systematic, regular home visitation had been conducted, he knew that lasting good had followed; that the teachers themselves had been received with kindness, and treated with respect; and the parents had begun to regard religion with very different feelings to what they had done before. The same thing might be said in reference to correspondence, which he believed was carried on extensively in some schools. Sunday school teachers ought to feel that they had a pastorate in their classes, and that their concern for, and responsibility in, the child, did not close when he was removed from the class. He wanted the influence of the Sunday school to be as stated, in the topic of conversation, tinuous."

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Mr. MORGAN, of Buckingham, spoke of conversion as the great aim of the Sunday school teacher's labours. The means at the disposal of the teacher were precept and example, and he pointed out the importance of adapting the instruction given in the school to the sphere of action in which the children were called to move.

Mr. COOPER, of Cambridge, said some people professed to believe that the work of the Sunday school was limited, and that its utility or existence would last only for a certain time. He believed, on the other hand, that it was a "continuous" work, -that it was an agency well adapted to lay hold of the youthful mind, and to imbue it with religious truth; and he conceived that they had altogether mistaken its mission, or had failed to accommodate themselves to the circumstances of the times, or the wants of the age, if that agency came to be generally regarded as obsolete. They were not called upon in any way to interfere with, or supersede, parental discipline and teaching, but where these were totally neglected, to offer auxiliary aid in such case, and to supply the only means which could be obtained of religious training. He did not sympathize with the suggestion offered in reference to juvenile communion services, and he would deplore any step which appeared to draw a distinction between the school and the church. In his neighbourhood, efforts had been made to carry on the instruction of the children out of the school, and to keep. up epistolary correspondence, and both classes of effort had been attended with

success.

Rev. James INGLIS, of Glasgow, said a great deal had been urged in Sunday schools

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