when we study most carefully the conditions under which we give utterance to them. The orator who persuades men to go and do something is the man who has read the thought of his audience, and found the key to the springs of action in their character and will, and the successful teacher is the man who has given most attention to the natures of his class. But if the teacher whom we call secular, and who addresses his teaching specially to the reason, feels the need of a good character in children, and deems it indispensable to the success of his work, how much more is such study necessary for those who give religious instruction! For us, more than for other teachers, Rousseau's words are true:

Religious teacher's special need of character and study

to teach them is how to live.'

The art which we wish

That they may have

life, and have it more abundantly,' is the end of all our labours. We cannot give them that life. Froebel is perfectly right when he maintains 2 that you cannot give religious instruction unless religion is already there. If a human being could be without religion,' he goes on to say, we could not give him religion.' Is not this the assumption that underlies infant baptism? If a child were without the Holy Spirit, no voice of ours could quicken a life that did not exist. The sons of God are not born of the will of man. It is not the work of religious instruction to impart new birth any more than it is the work of 2 Froebel, Education of Man,

1 St. John x. 10.

p. 141.

secular education to give intelligence. All that we can do is to secure conditions, and to give training, calculated to strengthen and develop the life which is already there. But for this very reason we need, more than ordinary teachers, that study of character, that knowledge of the springs of action, and of the balance of forces in child life, of which I was speaking just now. For God does not give to children such a fixed and settled character that we have nothing to do but to tell them things which they did not know before. He gives them capacities which it is our business to train till they become settled habits. These capacities are so tender that by blundering work we may destroy the very plant which we seek to cultivate. And1if any man cause one of these little ones which believe in Me to stumble, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.'1 The responsibilities of undertaking to teach children are unspeakably great-at all events in the sight of God.

1

The subject is so important that I offer no apology for illustrating it at some length. My endeavour will Illustrations be to show you how little the best devised of this neces- and best prepared course of lessons can sity do for children, if you neglect the rest of your work—that is, the preparation of yourself both to know what the child's nature is, and to act upon it rightly. Our Lord Himself has taught us that for

' St. Matth. xviii. 6.

apprehension of the truth the will is as indispensable as the reason. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.' The reason is obvious enough. It is the will in us which suggests to us the very existence of God. It is the will which contradicts the idea that the world is material force and nothing more. From the will we gather the sense of our responsibility. It is not only the originator of our deliberate actions, but also the seat of any merit in our action at all. From the will come manliness and love of liberty. It is the will which must determine that we must obey God rather than man.' Now if the will were nothing else than reason, we might be quite satisfied with supplying right information and leaving that to do its work. But we cannot forget the words, If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.' And again,3 To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.' Here in the will we encounter a power which may either resist and defeat all our instruction, or turn that instruction to the best account. How are we to reach it? How are we to deal with it?

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On the answer to this elementary question educational systems have been divided. Some have sought to break the will by rigorous and frequent punishments. They have looked upon it as the seat of pride and rebellion against God, which must, at all hazards, be destroyed. But it is clear that this work 1 St. John vii. 17. 2 St. John xiii. 17.

St. James iii. 17.

of destruction can be carried too far. We may establish a rule of force, which produces outward conformity, without touching the deeper faults of character. Then in the hour of temptation comes bitter disappointment. The seed which had sprung up quickly lacks moisture. It is withered and dried away. Our building, of which we were so proud, to use another parable, is swept away by the storm. The hearer, coerced to hear, has never become a doer of the word. Reason has been informed, but the will has not become obedient to reason. Of course it would not be difficult to allege instances in which this same system appears to have had the most salutary effect. It was avowedly the system on which the mother of John and Charles and Samuel Wesley brought up her children. Other systems, too, have had their trial, and these also with varying success. It is not necessary to mention them, for not one has been absolutely successful. If an absolutely successful system were discoverable, it would be, in effect, the removal of the source of sin. My object has been rather, so far, to shake your faith in any one system as applicable to all children, and to impress upon you the need of careful and watchful study of each child, as having his own individuality, and the need of treatment suited to the balance of forces in that child's character. Better than any system is a clearly defined aim, and the nature of that aim is indicated in the Lord's Prayer. The petition, Thy Will be

6

done,' is preceded by the prayers, 'Hallowed be Thy Name: Thy Kingdom come.' Consciousness of the Divine presence is the first step towards harmony with the Divine will.

Illustrations

character

Now here it would seem as though we who teach in church or in Sunday school had an immense advantage over the ordinary day-school of the need of teachers. For we bring the child delibestudying child rately, so far as we can, into the Divine presence. We try to behave ourselves as those who are conscious of that presence. If there is anything in the law of association of ideas; if buildings, vestments, music, symbolism, can teach as well as delight children, then everything is on our side. No doubt it is partly with this idea that some clergy bring children to the Holy Communion, and others have adopted children's eucharists. They know that if they have taught the child reverence they have gained more than half the battle.

The difficulty is that the impression thus made is produced at the expense of a child's natural restlessness, and avenges itself by a reaction with which we are all of us far too familiar. The last thing which we wish to convey is that God is present in church, but not elsewhere. Dupanloup is right, no doubt, when he insists on the necessity of silence, if the voice of God is to be heard: Fuit silentium in cœlo.' We are sure also that the bear-garden style of Sunday school and catechising must be spiritually