Editorial Notes.

The Lord has given our Reformed congregations an abundant ingathering of souls during the late Easter season. The large majority of the persons confirmed were young people, taught and trained in the Sunday-schools of the churches From these nurseries of souls the Church of Christ receives her most active members. Or perhaps we should not say receives; for she can not receive them from herself. They belong to her from their baptism. Under her nurture and tuition they have grown up, and been fitted for confirmation. The Sunday-school is to her what a nursery is to a fruit-grower; the place where she tenderly cares for the young plants of grace, and prepares them for transplanting. This is implied in the word Seminary-a seed plot, where plants are raised for transplanting. Pastors and Sunday-school teachers ought to keep this design of their work steadily in view. Their instruction lays the foundation of the future instruction in the catechetical class. Their early training straightens crooked habits, corrects faults, bends, prunes, and blesses the tender plant, and helps to turn its growth forever in a right direction. Our experience has taught us that the best and most efficient help to build up a congregation is a godly, skilful set of Sunday-school teachers.

What shall be done with the Sundayschool scholars recently confirmed? Some hold that at their confirmation they step out of the Sunday-school. This is an erroneous view. Now, more than ever, they need the kind care, counsel and sympathy of their teacher. They have renewed their baptismal vows and assumed new duties. The relation of a teacher to the scholar is in some respects more familiarly intimate than that of the pastor. It is more difficult for the latter to have an eye and vigilant care on each one of the many souls of his flock than it is for the teacher to have the same on the smaller class-flock. Keep the catechu

mens in the class. Speak to them about their religious duties. Get them to confide to you their temptations and troubles. Inquire about the regularity of their church-attendance; of their communing at the Lord's Supper; of their habits of devout prayer at church and in the closet; of the character of their associates. Get them regularly to give something to the cause of Christ. The kind, familiar conversation of the teacher in the class reaches and touches the heart of a scholar more directly and impressively in the class than the sermon of the pastor from the pulpit. The faithfulness of the catechumens will, in a great measure, depend upon the fostering, prayerful care which their Sunday-school teachers will continue to exercise over them.

The expenses incurred by punishing criminals and protecting the public against wicked acts, and for the support of paupers, are rapidly increasing. Our prison statistics show that perhaps more than four-fifths of the inmates have had no early religious training, neither in the family nor Sunday-school. And the great bulk and burden of pauperism is entailed upon society by vice. Many persons are poor if not from their own sins, at least from the sins of their parents. To whatever door the curse may be traced, its door posts will certainly not be sprinkled with the sacrificial blood of the Atonement. We are now speaking of the vagrant paupers, not God's poor, whose lowly condition providentially schools them in the attainment of eminent piety. Such do not become a burden, but a blessing to society. Had the communities where our present criminals and paupers were born and reared, properly cared for them by early religious training, in the family, Sunday-school and church, our prisons and pauper institutions would be comparatively empty. The murderer, whom bars and bolts can scarcely keep from killing his fellow-beings was once a gentle, prattling little boy, whom an occasional friendly pat on the shoulder, and kind words could easily have

lesson on delay! What an awful lesson!"

Christ is the source and centre of all abiding religious life. Everything that tends to exclude Him from our hearts or minds, that makes us think less fervently and frequently of Him, must be shunned and gotten rid of. "Looking unto Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith," is the advice of Holy Writ. Hold Him up in your pious life to the view of others. Let Him live, love, speak and meekly suffer in and through

you.

A Spanish artist was once employed to paint the "Last Supper." It was his object to throw all the sublimity of his art into the figure and the countenance of the Lord Jesus; but he put on the table in the foreground some chased cups, the workmanship of which was exceedingly beautiful. When his friends came to see the picture on the easel, every one said, "What beautiful cups!" "Ah!" said he, "I have made a mistake; these cups divert the eyes of the spectator from the Lord, to whom I wished to direct the attention of the observer." And he forthwith took up his brush and blotted them from the canvas, that the strength and vigor of the chief object might be prominently seen and observed. Thus all Christians should feel their great study to be Christ's exaltation; and whatever is calculated to hinder man from beholding Him, in all the glory of His person and work, should be removed out of the way. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Let the sentiment and language of Paul be

ours,―

"Him in all my works I seek,

Who hung upon the tree; Only of His love I'll speak, Who freely died for me. While I sojourn here below, Nothing I desire beside; Only Jesus will I know,

And Jesus crucified."

Arago, in his Autobiography, tells us that his "master in mathematics" was a word or two of advice which he found in the binding of one of his text-books. Puzzled and discouraged by the difficulties he met with in his early studies, he was almost ready to give over the pursuit. Some words which he found on

the waste-leaf, used to stiffen the cover of his paper-bound text-book, caught his eye, and interested him.

66

Impelled," he says, "by an indefinite curiosity, I dampened the cover of the book, and carefully unrolled the leaf, to see what was on the other side. It proved to be a short letter from D'Alembert to a young person disheartened, like myself, by the difficulties of mathematical study, and who had written to him for counsel. 'Go on, sir, go on!' was the counsel which D'Alembert gave him; the difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn and shine with increased clearness on your path.' That maxim," continues Arago, my greatest master in mathematics."

was

We have a number of anonymous articles on hand for the Guardian, some of which deserve a place in its columns. We are, however, compelled to reject them. In order to insure insertion, the editor must be put in possession of the author's name, although, if the author so chooses, it may appear in print under an assumed name.

The Children in the Sanctuary.

BY THE EDITOR.

"THE Sunday-school is not the Church. The longest lesson cannot make up for the shortest prayer. Lesson-giving and receiving is only a part of the child's religious education. Worship is a most important part. It cannot be neglected and the soul prosper. We have seen children refuse to enter church because they have been to school. Is this right?" -Sunday-School Times.

Certainly not. Just here is a weakness in our present Sunday-school spirit and system that needs correction. Prominent Sunday-school men, lecturers, superintendents, and even some pastors, magnify the mission of the Sundayschool so immoderately and in such a one-sided way, as to leave the impression upon the minds of the people that the Church is a secondary matter-that the congregation is to be an auxiliary to the Sunday-school, instead of the reverse. In a well-ordered family there is a room called the nursery. Here the little folks roll about on the floor, romp

and play, and learn their frst lessons in life. It is an important room; still it is not the head of this home department, but only a part of it, which helps to train and educate the children for their duties as older members of the family and the Church.

A Sunday-school is the nursery of a congregation. In it the children are trained and taught to become full, active communicant members of the fold. In order to do and become this, they must early be taught to meet and worship with the congregation. They may not understand an entire sentence of the sermon. Yet withal they will be solemnly impressed. The example of parents here becomes impressive and salutary. The father, with hat in hand, leading his little family, mother and children, to his pew; all helping to sing, all devoutly joining in prayer-all this is a schooling which the Christian child imperatively needs. Any Sundayschool that makes a child dislike or disrelish the regular church service, is a curse instead of a blessing to its congregation and its children. Last summer certain churches held their Sundayschool services in the morning. Usually they closed their sessions about the time when the regular church services began. We often noticed crowds of children and youth going away from the church when other people, the parents of the scholars, were coming to the house of God. Their conduct seemed to say: "What do we care about church! The Sunday-school is our church."

We regard this growing alienation of the children from the regular worship of the sanctuary as a great evil. The Sunday-school must have its place, has its holy mission; but every successful effort to make it a substitute for the Church, must result in the most serious damage to the cause of Christ. As well might the arm say to the head, "I have no need of thee." Old people tell us that in the Reformed and Lutheran Churches, and likewise in the Presbyterian Church, of fifty years ago, it was the universal custom for parents to take their children with them to church. Within our memory, even, this good custom prevailed much more than now. We never enjoyed the benefits of a Sunday-school, for the reason that there was none sufficiently near our country

home. At least, so it was thought then; now perhaps we would not consider the distance too great. Besides, people did not feel the same zealous interest in the cause then as now.

But our now sainted parents, from early boyhood, always took us with them to church. Often of a pleasant Sunday morning we walked a distance of two miles to the old stone church in Lancaster. We can still remember how we sat with them in their pew, and with what a solemn pleasure we first watched father and mother bowing their heads and whispering their short prayer as they sat down in their pew. And then how earnestly they sang. And how tired we sometimes got because our feet could not reach the floor, and our child-mind could not feel the same interest in the sermon as older people. And yet the whole service seemed a heaven on earth to us. The kneeling place around the outside of the chancel railing sat full of little children, who looked like angels, circling around good old parson Hoffmeier, waiting to carry forth and impress his message upon the hearts "of those who are heirs of salvation." The organ loft and one side of the gallery were crowded with boys and girls. True, some of the more restless ones gave stern sexton Hubert a world of trouble. And many watched him working the long mysterious levers of the large organ-bellows. In short the congregation assembled for public worship was composed of parents and their children.

One pleasant Sunday morning our dear father, with two of his boys with him, walked leisurely up West King street, on his way to church. In passing Cooper's hotel he was accosted by an acquaintance. He was not a member of the Church, a man of wealth and wild reckless habits; indeed was known by the soubriquet of "wild John S.' His sons were as wild as their father, whom they treated with disobedience and disrespect. He had evidently been drinking too much the day and night previous. As he sat on the board bench in front of the hotel, listening to the solemn ringing of the church-going bell, our father passed along.

After the usual greeting, his acquaintance pressed him to take a seat beside him. He replied that he could not.

"Why not? Where are you going?" "I am going to church," said father. "To church? Do you go to church every Sunday?" "Yes, if I possibly can."

boy or girl would not think of trying to read such a dry book" as a history; but every boy and girl will search out all the pictures that are to be found in its pages, and gaze upon them, greatly

"Yes."

Why, how can you get them to go with you? Mine would not do that."

"I have no trouble with mine. I take them with me when they are small, and as they grow older they wish to do it without being urged. I have an old book at home, which I read a great deal. It says:

"Train up a child in the way he shall go, and when he is old he will not depart from it! I have tried to do that, and thus far have found it true with my children."

After a short pause wild John Ssadly replied:

"B., I wish I had done the same. You are a happy man, far happier than I am. My children give me no comfort. They are leading an unchristian, reckless life. And what is worse, they have learned it of me. B., you are a happy man; I am very unhappy."

"S it is your own fault. Come, begin a Christian life. Come with me to church. Make a beginning."

"Alas, it is too late now. Too late to train my children in the way they should go, after they have grown up and been hardened in sin. And I set them the example. B., you are a happy man; but I am very unhappy." They parted, the one, with a little boy at each hand, thankfully went to the sanctuary. The other pondered long and sadly as he sat on the bench. The one took his children with him to church, and sought to train them in the right way, and so far as human eye can see and tell, they have not departed from it. The other, with his offspring, have made shipwreck of life, have been ruined in body, reputation and soul.

"The Old Pictorial History."

BY J. O. J.

Most people do not, perhaps, fully appreciate the advantage of having pictorial histories about the house. A young

osity will be aroused by the pictures and will incite them to look over the chapter merely to understand the picture. In this way they become well informed by degrees on historical subjects. In my father's house was a pictorial "History of the American Wars," well bound and profusely illustrated with pictures of all the leading characters of both armies, and of all the important battle-fields, forts and ships.

The book was always lying on the table, and not kept carefully away from the children of the household. I grew up with it in my hands and before my eyes. When nothing else interested me I found a real pleasure in looking over the pictures of generals and war scenes. It was my companion during the long winter evenings in our country home. Even now it lies before my mind's eye, and many of the pictures come out clearly to my view. Old friend of my boyhood, how familiar is thy look! How much I owe to thee! How great a part of my knowledge of American history I derived from looking over thy illustrated pages!

I was often puzzled to know what the wars were about, and on which side I ought to be. The pictures could not tell me that. But I gradually learned to know the meaning of it all, and, happily, chose the right side.

To the children of the household a good pictorial book is an inestimable blessing. It is a silent tutor in the family, imparting useful knowledge to the children in the most pleasing manner. Both the eye and the mind are feasted by it. Parents, you cannot spend a few dollars to better advantage than by buying good books, especially such as are illustrated with good pictures, and allowing the children to have free access to them.

THE mind is to the heart, as the door to the house: what comes into the heart, comes in through the understanding, and truths sometimes go no farther than the entry, and never penetrate the heart.