gion entirely different from the one we now have. Perrone in his Dogmatics says: "Christ never said, go ye and distribute Bibles." But if on the day of Pentecost the Apostles received the power to preach the gospel in many tongues, God is certainly not displeased if by means of the printing press the Bible Societies of our day proclaim the gospel in every written language upon the globe. the schools had to devote to the thorough and accurate committing of the same Lessons, and proof texts and verses of hymns. The pastor would come at certain hours to hear the scholars recite the same. Then, before confirmation the pastor would give them special instructions. By the time they were confirmed they had a vast store of precious religious truth laid up in their hearts and memories. The modern Sundayschool has no system which presents such a co-operative unit, between the pastor and teacher. In reference to Catholicism the proverb holds true, "that distance lends enchantment to the view." When seen from afar the hierarchical fabric of the 3.) It laid more stress on accurate Romish Church makes an imposing ap- committing to memory, and less on the pearance. Unity, antiquity, art and explanations of individuals, who had wealth contribute their charms to her. no chance of qualifying themselves for But many of the charms vanish when such a difficult task. Bible verses, the one comes to inquire more closely into Catechism and the grand old hymns matters and customs. The admira- were always true, always to the point, tion which had been instilled into me a safe guide in every season of danger, by priests and members of that Church, doubt, darkness and death. These were with whom it has been my privilege given them, unincumbered by private to associate, was more than counter-speculations. balanced by what I saw in countries that have not been subject to the ing influence of Protestantism. 4.) All their religious instruction and mould-training was made to work for one common end- the preparation of the scholar for confirmation. On this point our pres The Two Sides-Or, Then and Now. ent Sunday-school system is unquestion BY THE EDITOR. Is the system of religious instruction in the modern Sunday-school better than that which prevailed in the Protestant Churches in Germany since the Reformation? This question has two sides. The catechetical system as introduced in these churches three hundred years ago, was superior to that in our Sundayschools: 1.) In that it had better teachers the pastor and the school-master. The latter, as well as the former, was thoroughly educated for his position. The teachers of our Sunday-schools are not expressly educated for their office, but must fit themselves for it as best they can. None such could have been appointed teachers of the young in the Reformation Churches of the continent of Europe. ably at loose ends. Individual schools there doubtless are, whose course and system of instruction have the same end in view. But the institution generally is without a fixed, well-defined object, toward which all efforts are concentrated. Lecturers and writers on the subject tell us that the end of all teaching must be the conversion of the scholar. But they fail to give a concise, definite idea of what they mean by this; and what is worse, not one half of the teachers have this idea. Besides, in every well ordered congregation it is to be presumed that the bulk of the baptized children, who have been properly trained, do not need conversion, in the technical sense of that term. Like Timothy, they have been pious from childhood. What is to be the aim of teaching in the case of such? Certainly in the Reformed Church—at least, their preparation, by the Word and grace of God, for confirmation. 2.) It had more co-operative help. On the other hand, the present SunEvery Sunday the pastor had to preach a plain sermon on the Catechism Les-day-school system is in some respects an son of the day, to the parents and the advance on that of the past. 1.) It has better school-room accomchildren. Certain hours of the week modations. In Europe, and in this country, up to within thirty years ago, the school-rooms for children were uncomfortable, dingy, dreary places. Benches without backs, often too high for the little feet to touch the floor; but few windows, and those small, and perhaps dusty; ceilings low; ventilation poor, walls without pictures or maps. In short, rooms which aside of our cozy, well-lighted, well-ventilated, well-furnished, cheerful Sunday-schools, seem like cells for juvenile prisoners. 2.) Whilst, as a rule, the sentiment or doctrine of the hymns is inferior, the music of our Sunday-schools, we think, for children, is superior to that of the other system. It is more cheerful and better suited for the capacity and peculiar tastes of childhood. 3.) There is greater variety in the present than in the past system. The half-matured, half-disciplined mind of a child, cannot be confined long to any one subject, without discomfort and a sense of weariness. The present system seeks to secure a pleasing variety in its services, better adapted to rivet and retain the attention of the child than the other. 4.) With the lamentable amount of pernicious fiction in our Sunday-school libraries, it must still be admitted, tak ing all in all, that our Sunday-school scholars have more apt, good reading than the older system furnished. In a child's mind, the imagination predominates. And this want the Sundayschool recognizes and seeks to supply. The minds of little ones can be reached and influenced better through the imaginative than the strictly reasoning or logical faculty. 5.) The present Sunday-school system makes religious instruction less of a task-and invests it with more attractive and pleasure-giving features than the old one. It seeks to blend duty with pleasure. Under the old system pleasant rooms and entertaining books were less used than the birch of the schoolmaster. We know of no prettier place on the face of the earth than some infant schools we sometimes visit, where you inhale the breath of heaven among a crowd of innocent little ones, singing and praying to our Saviour, and as happy as the angels in heaven. PALESTINE.-The Mount of Olives has changed hands. The Countess de la Tour d'Auvergne, who lives at Jerusalem, has bought and handed it over to the French Government. She is now erecting a convent on the spot where our Saviour prayed. The prayer is inscribed on the stone wall around the court yard in thirty-two languages. The Countess is a lady of immense wealth, and is as queer as she is wealthy. She lives in an old cottage of oriental style, with only a tortoise-shell cat and a brown dog for her companions. LAST Summer's flowers are all gone. You can not find one in the fields or gardens. Yet we know that next summer the earth will be covered again with floral beauty. God has other flowers preparing, just as fragrant and beautiful as those which the frost has killed. So the joys that have faded from our homes and bosoms are not the only joys. God has others for us in store, as sweet and rich as those we have lost, which He will give us in due time. OFTEN when traveling among the Alps, one sees a small black cross planted upon a rock, or on the brink of a torrent, or on the verge of the highway to mark the spot where men have met with the danger. So God in His word has a sudden death, that others may shun marked the spots where men fell, and those who follow after may know where the sins by which they perished, that perils lie. A LITTLE child was passing along a quiet street, clinging with one hand to its mother's dress; but when crossing one of the busiest thoroughfares, I saw the little hand quickly letting go the dress and seeking a hold of its mother's hand, which when it got, it felt safe and content. So it is with us. When pursuing the even tenor of our way, and all goes on quietly and comfortably with us, we are satisfied with the most casual and outward contact with Jesus; but when we have to cross the terrible thoroughfares of life, when we are brought face to face with the dangers and distractions of sickness, or bereavement, or sorrow, then we instinctively reach up to clasp the living and loving hand.-Macmillan. The Sunday-School Department. [EDITORIAL NOTES.] PLEASE TAKE NOTICE.-All letters pertaining to the business affairs of the Guardian, are to be sent to S. R. Fisher & Co., 907 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Please do not worry the Editor with matters pertaining to the payment of bills, and the many questions arising from unavoidable clerical or mail irregularities. The back and missing numbers of the GUARDIAN can be had at the Publishing House in Philadelphia. resumed his well-written and instructive None can write so zine. Those friends who in the kindness of their hearts furnish us articles which we feel constrained to reject, will please not think hard of the non-appearance of their mental offspring. We can not insert everything sent to us, either because the matter is not adapted to meet the wants of our readers, or not suited for publication on account of a defect in the composition. All communications and letters pertaining to the editorial department are to be sent to the Editor of the Guarnish the monthly table of our magadian, Reading, Pa. Articles to be inserted in a certain number, must be in the hands of the Editor by the first day of the month preceding. As a rule, the manuscripts of rejected articles will not be returned to the authors, nor can the reason of their rejection be furnished them. We have no time to spare for such matters, neither will our friends demand such at our hands. We wish to fill our monthly with apt reading material. It may become our duty to reject thoroughly prepared articles, writ-insert, were it not for a few blemishes. ten by the best of scholars, men of ability and prominence, simply because they are unsuited for our class of readers and will not meet the object of this magazine. Our friends can furnish us with valuable material in the form of Sundayschool incidents and items from their experience. Whether woven into an article, or given us in a few sentences of a letter, in either case they will be thankfully received and judiciously used. Our friends will notice with pleasure the increasing number of contributors which the GUARDIAN is gaining, and the entertaining and instructive reading which they furnish. In the name or our readers we cordially thank these kind co-laborers in the good cause, and invite others, who possess an aptitude for this kind of writing, to join them in the good work. It affords us pleasure, that our foreign correspondent, Rev. N. C. Schaeffer, has "The Soul Lost" we should like to It bears the marks of a talented mind. We advise the author to cultivate and improve her gift. Meanwhile it would perhaps be well to use her pen somewhat in prose composition. No man can be an under-shepherd of Christ, in the full sense of the term, who does not know how or care to feed his lambs. "How do you manage to raise and keep such a thriving set of sheep?" said a certain wool dealer to a plain shepherd in the highlands of Scotland. His sheep were the healthiest and largest, and had the best quality of wool of any in the neighborhood. The reply of the shepherd was: "By taking care of the lambs." And the great secret of true, permanent congregational prosperity_consists in taking care of the lambs. It seems to us our Theological Seminaries and works on pastoral theology pay too little attention to the Sunday-school work in the teaching and training of their students. We know of no seminary in this country where the candidates for the ministry are specifically prepared for this work. Indeed, apart from what some may derive from their experience as teachers in some school during their course of study, they simply get nothing. They are sent out to take charge of one of the most difficult and fruitful departments of their calling, without being trained for it. Many a young pastor learns more from the unlettered teachers of his school and from his bungling experiments, than he ever did from his Professors. The department of catechetics, as now taught, does not cover the ground. Ought we not to have a Sunday-school Professorship in our Theological Seminaries? If not that, the Church should devise some other means by which our theological students can be "thoroughly furnished" for this great work. Tardiness among Sunday-schools is in some cases unavoidable, but in many cases the result of bad habits. Some of the best people we know are always late in arriving at church. They are among the most liberal, prayerful, devoted persons you can find, whose godly influence is diffused on every side, like a sweet-smelling savor. They are always in their place, and always get to it five or ten minutes after the time. Not that they wish to do it. For they rise early and sit up late to do good. But they always get ready to leave home for church or Sunday-school a little too late. If they would begin to get ready a little sooner, or consent to let some matters of little importance unattended to till they return, or tell some thoughtless friends, who always happen to drop in just when they ought not, either to go along to Sunday-school, or excuse them, they could be up to time. Tardiness is a great annoyance, a great wrong to a school. The Superintendent or director regards the class vacant for that Sunday. After he has supplied it, the regular teacher comes. Then an unpleasant scene ensues. Either the teacher or the supply must withdraw from the class; both feel badly and the director, perhaps, feels worse than either. A tardy teacher will soon train a whole class in the pernicious habit of tardiness. And thus the evil will spread and perpetuate itself. In the Waldensian Valleys a selfdenying pastor gives the following good example on this point. Pastor James Cook, a Sunday-school missionary, says there is a Sunday-school there that begins at five o'clock in the morning, as most of the scholars, during the day, must keep the herds and flocks upon the mountains. When he began it, he feared that the scholars would fail to come so early. But he says that he is often awakened by the children long before that early hour. They gather around the church door and sing their sweet hymns. And the charming melodies of their ringing voices pleasantly awaken the man of God from his early slumbers, and summon him to his welcome work. The January number of the GUARDIAN has been greeted with an unusual welcome. And this welcome was in a form most encouragingly tangiblepayment of arrearages, a large addition to its subscription list, and many words of cordial and kindly approval. If its friends and the friends of Christ's kingdom in the Reformed Church will accord it the vigorous aid of their pen, purse and general support, it can be made the vehicle of an untold amount of good. The best advertisement of a publication like the GUARDIAN is its own character. Make it what its readers, the cause of Christ, the times need, and it will need no burrowing or drumming to increase its circulation. It is with a publication as with an individual. Let a man build up a character and acquire a power of doing good, such as the people or community feel that they must have-in other words, make himself a felt necessity-and he need not go a begging for a place. His services will be sought after and demanded. To make the GUARDIAN such, requires more than one mind; demands a diversity of minds and experience. We ask for apt material. Such as many possess. Out of their treasure let them "bring things new and old." To all who have cheered the GUARDIAN in its entrance upon a new year and a new field of labor, with words and deeds, we tender our grateful thanks. The GUARDIAN Lesson Leaves contain gave him strength to endure. And much that the scholars ought to commit when human speech could no longer to memory; such as striking central reach his ear, and the voice of love had verses in the Scripture Lesson, and the lost its charm, these faithful and true Questions of the Catechism at the foot sayings did not lose their power; but of the page. By a little effort children to the very last, the Word of God and young people can readily commit was his shield and buckler, making to memory. The tendency of the Sun- him stronger than the strong man day-school now is to neglect this excel-armed. lent habit of our fathers. After all, one central verse, well committed and pondered over, is often worth more to the scholar, in the form of a perpetual blessing, than the whole Lesson besides, even though never so well explained. Apt Scripture verses clinch the nail of the argument, both of the sermon and the Lesson. Said a young clerical brother, of fine talents and bright prospects of usefulness in the ministry, to us a few days ago: When James Brainerd Taylor was pursuing his studies, preparatory to entering the University, he made it a rule to commit some portion of the Scripture to memory every night before retiring to rest. When he was examined for licensure, one who was present, said of him, "I never heard any man quote the sacred Scriptures with such fluency for the confirmation of his doctrinal views, as the questions were successively proposed to him." When he came to die, the precious truths of the Bible, long before committed to memory, came forth, and stood about him as old friends and welcome comforters. They spoke to his fainting soul, and gave him refreshment and strength, when human help and solace were vain. When suffering acute pains, the repetition or remembrance of these precious words quieted his spirit, and At the late Christmas Festival of the Orphans' Home several pleasing incidents occurred. A letter was received from Rev. J. P. Stein, of Pottsville, Pa., containing $2.00 for the Orphans. He stated that this was the contents of Shendon Stephens' saving-box, a little boy of his Sunday-school. A short time ago this little boy died. Among the last things he uttered when dying was a request made to his sorrowing mother, to give all his money to the dear Saviour. After his death the mother concluded to give this legacy to the Orphans' Home, where in our Saviour's name, fatherless children find a home. There is something touching in the thoughtfulness of a child, right on the verge of death and heaven, giving affectionate direction that its little earthly property should be given to our Saviour's cause. the Last summer Mr. P. F. Eisenbrown Superintendent of a country Sundayschool, at Green Brier, Northumberland County, Pa., urged his scholars to gather and give something useful to Orphans' Home at Womelsdorf, Pa. As their parents and the people thereabouts were a little backward yet in such matters the little folks knew not where to find anything. Their Superintendent advised them to gather chestnuts, each as many as possible, and they would put them in little bags, and give each orphan in the Home a bag of chestnuts at their Christmas festival. In the fall of the year many of these scholars roamed over hill and dale in that region, and climbed many a tree to gather nuts The result was nearly three bushels of chestnuts. Two quarts were put in each bag, and 73 bags in all were distributed by Mr. Eisenbrown at our festival. Every bag had the name of the little boy or girl on it who gathered its contents. After they had |