the adaptation we may plant some hope of success. Appealing to the Christian adult we might ask, "Are you in the habit of attending public worship where your heart is not interested, and where your mind is not instructed? Have you chosen such a ministry for yourself? or, if it be your misfortune to be placed under such a ministry, is it not your habit to absent yourself for another spiritual leader?” Can more self-denial be expected from an unconverted child than from a pious woman, or from a godly man? Secondly, Separate Services can alone speak with children to God, or speak for God to children.-If prayer breathe the desires which the hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows of an adult have begotten; and if these feelings are excited by the care of business, the charge of a family, the toil of earning daily bread, the discipline of suffering, the state of trade, the politics of the government, the condition of the nations-can children follow that prayer? If adoration expresses conceptions beyond their reach, and if thanksgiving acknowledge mercies they cannot have received, and if confession mention sins beyond their sphere-can children unite? Yet the worship of our public services does all this, and to be effective must do it. But prayer with children alone, can not only use those simple forms of speech which infant lips employ, it can embrace those particular objects which the sphere of a child's life involves. Thanksgiving and confession can also, as the exercise of prayer, refer to the scenes of school and of play, to the circumstances of the errand-boy, of the apprentice, and junior servant; and can exclude those objects with which children are not familiar. The same remarks apply to preaching. The preacher who would interest children must, to a considerable extent, think as a child, and speak as a child. A congregation of adults often suffers considerable loss through a preacher using Lexicon words, and not everyday-life-words; and a congregation of children, when not addressed as children, is in a far more evil case. The mental condition, and the external circumstances of children, are so different from the inner and outer state of the adult, that to speak with them, and to speak to them, we must employ a separate tongue. We may speak for them and over them without this distinction; but a recognition of childhood's state is essential for carrying the minds of children with us, or for conveying ideas to their intellect and sentiments to their heart. Thirdly, Separate Services can alone be expected in any large measure to be the means of the conversion of children.-In what does converting power abide, or with what is it connected? There is no virtue in the place of Christian assembly: "The heart alone can make divine There is no abstract and absolute God's house. God's house is that spot or structure which to our hearts is a meeting-place with God. The building which is "amiable" to the Christian through associations of God's presence therewith, is not lovely to the mind that has not connected with it corresponding thoughts. So that to the case we are contemplating, no more advantage is derived from assembling our Sabbathschool children in our places of worship than would be obtained by the young, the habit of attending public worship.—We take this argument from the lips of those who advocate the attendance of children on ordinary public services. They say, "hereby you form the habit of attending God's house." From this we entirely dissent. Is it in the character of our ordinary services to interest children, and can it be? Is not the heart of an adult-in its tones, and the mind of an adult-in its operations, and the circumstances of an adult-in their seriousness, distinct from the condition, feelings and thoughts of children; and is there suffi cient in common to the adult and child to render what is interesting to the former interesting to the latter? Distinct amusements, separate pursuits, individual companionships, say-" Decidedly not." But where interest is not felt habit is not formed; or, if habit be formed, it is destitute of the element of intelligence and of conscience. Without appeal ing to facts, therefore, we affirm, that the habit of attending public worship cannot be formed by children attending services not adapted their case. But what is the evidence of circumstances? So far as ou personal observation and our inquiry extends, we are constrained say, the habit affirmed is not created by children attending general wor ship. The habits of listlessness, wandering of the eyes, restlessness playing, talking, wishing for the final Amen, longing for the time whe they can spend their Sabbath as they please, and such like, are formed and regarding our Sabbath-school children en masse, we know of other. Upon this point there are certain forward witnesses whose testi mony must be rejected. These are the Christians who sit comfortabl in their pews on the Lord's day, and who pleasantly dream that childre sit as they sit these are the Sabbath-school teachers who never sit i the children's gallery, but who talk most glibly of the ease with whic children are kept quiet-these are the church-members and church officers who would put children into places of worship for show, or occupy vacant pews, as the hair-dresser puts blocks in his window, or a the clothier suspends suits in his show-room-these are the religion conservatives who imagine that when they protect from invasion the cus toms which years have sanctioned, they necessarily preserve what useful and good. Such witnesses are not competent, and their testimony is little worth. But the Sabbath-school teacher who sits with the chil dren, and who wishes to see them enter into public worship, will tell us that bad, not good habits, are formed by the attendance of Sabbath scholars on the services of ordinary worship. We do not mean to assert that no careful, intelligent and earnest teacher will defend the present system; but we speak of majorities not minorities, of rules and not of exceptions. Appealing to the bulk of devoted teachers on this subject, we think we can anticipate the nature of their reply. If we say to them. "Is it a fact that the majority of our Sabbath-scholars attend public worship when they leave our schools?" Their answer will be, "We think not." And if we add, "Of those who continue to frequent the house of prayer, how many come because they were brought in the ranks of the school?" Their reply will be, "Few, very few-perhaps none." Now we do not affirm, that services for children would necessarily and invariably beget the habit of attending worship; but this we say hereby no impediment would be put to its formation as in the present case; means adapted to the end would be employed, and on the adaptation we may plant some hope of success. Appealing to the Christian adult we might ask, "Are you in the habit of attending public worship where your heart is not interested, and where your mind is not instructed? Have you chosen such a ministry for yourself? or, if it be your misfortune to be placed under such a ministry, is it not your habit to absent yourself for another spiritual leader? Can more self-denial be expected from an unconverted child than from a pious woman, or from a godly man? "" Secondly, Separate Services can alone speak with children to God, or speak for God to children.-If prayer breathe the desires which the hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows of an adult have begotten; and if these feelings are excited by the care of business, the charge of a family, the toil of earning daily bread, the discipline of suffering, the state of trade, the politics of the government, the condition of the nations-can children follow that prayer? If adoration expresses conceptions beyond their reach, and if thanksgiving acknowledge mercies they cannot have received, and if confession mention sins beyond their sphere-can children unite? Yet the worship of our public services does all this, and to be effective must do it. But prayer with children alone, can not only use those simple forms of speech which infant lips employ, it can embrace those particular objects which the sphere of a child's life involves. Thanksgiving and confession can also, as the exercise of prayer, refer to the scenes of school and of play, to the circumstances of the errand-boy, of the apprentice, and junior servant; and can exclude those objects with which children are not familiar. The same remarks apply to preaching. The preacher who would interest children must, to a considerable extent, think as a child, and speak as a child. A congregation of adults often suffers considerable loss through a preacher using Lexicon words, and not everyday-life-words; and a congregation of children, when not addressed as children, is in a far more evil case. The mental condition, and the external circumstances of children, are so different from the inner and outer state of the adult, that to speak with them, and to speak to them, we must employ a separate tongue. We may speak for them and over them without this distinction; but a recognition of childhood's state is essential for carrying the minds of children with us, or for conveying ideas to their intellect and sentiments to their heart. Thirdly, Separate Services can alone be expected in any large measure to be the means of the conversion of children.-In what does converting power abide, or with what is it connected? There is no virtue in the place of Christian assembly: "The heart alone can make divine There is no abstract and absolute God's house. God's house is that spot or structure which to our hearts is a meeting-place with God. The building which is "amiable" to the Christian through associations of God's presence therewith, is not lovely to the mind that has not connected with it corresponding thoughts. So that to the case we are contemplating, no more advantage is derived from assembling our Sabbathschool children in our places of worship than would be obtained by convening them in any other building. There is no salvatory virtue in the mere forms and modes of public worship. Say, the children see an assembly kneel and sit and stand; thus taking the posture of the worshipper and of the disciple: but it is not often to them a delightful sight, and the mere spectacle is without remedial power. Say, the children hear an assembly utter the expressions of worship; but if the words are not easy to be understood, how shall the children know what is spoken? so far as they are concerned, the assembly speaks into the air. There is no converting power in the mere office and function of the Christian ministry. The hem of an apostle's garment in the day of miracle, might be the channel of healing influence, but no contact with the mere bodily presence of a minister has any power to bless. With what then is converting power allied? "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Truth is the incorruptible seed of the second birth. Now this truth, to be the seed of a Divine life, must be believed; and before it can be believed, it must be understood; and to be understood it must be so spoken as to meet the mental capacity, and the soul-sympathy of the individuals concerned. Hymns, moreover, which children fail to comprehend, do not teach and admonish them, or awaken their glory to the service of praise. Prayers which children cannot understand, do not lift up their souls to God, and by sympathy create the supplication, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" And sermons which are above the mental range of children cannot be the channels of the living seed to them. But while in no instance of adaptation, is there reason to expect invariable and universal success; in the one case we are paralysed by despair, while in the other we are certainly nerved by hope. Fourthly, By the foregoing observations, it will appear that the objects for which Sabbath-school children are conducted to public worship can only be extensively realized in Separate Services.-We have stated, that wor ship and ministration specially adapted to children, can alone be expected to engender a devotional taste and to form a devotional habitthat in such services alone can the fellowship and attention of children be reasonably looked for-and that we cannot hope for conversions among children as the result of ordinary ministration. We know of no other object for which children are conducted to our houses of instruction and prayer; and it would hence appear that hundreds of thousands of children are assembled every Lord's day in our places of public worship without an object or end. If any stranger, pointing to the children's seats, were to inquire, "What mean ye by this service?" the only answer we could furnish would be, "We found it so, we keep it so"-" It was, it is." Few, I hope, would add, "And thus it ever must be. Fifthly, We do not hesitate to assert that injury is inflicted by the attendance of children on ordinary public services.-Sanitary reform! is one of the public demands of these times. Perhaps this reformation will proceed much farther than its leaders and supporters anticipate. Does the Sabbath-school teacher imagine that it will interfere with his procedure? If he fancy himself secure from disturbance, we have only to say, "Be not deceived." We think that sanitary reform may find a wide sphere in our Sabbath-schools; and, in our judgment, it should 99 at once put its corrective hand on our public worship practices. Can it be for the health of children to keep them occupied on the Lord's day morning, from nine o'clock until one-to place them during two hours of that time in such a position that they are either shivering with cold, or fainting with heat-to make them sit still doing nothing through two long hours, many badly clothed and ill-fed, not a few suf fering from positive disease, some exhausted with six day' hard work, and the majority having known toil and confinement of some description during the week-and then to jade them with "sit still," "keep awake," "hold your tongue," "sit up," "attend,"-the word being, not seldom, we fear, followed by the blow? We say, here is scope for sanitary_reform. For the children's health-sake, appoint separate services. That bad habits are engendered by the present system none will deny. We speak that which every Sabbath-school teacher knows, and we testify what all such see. But evil habits are begotten beyond inattention and dislike to public worship. Among the most prominent, we may mention the habit of deception. Those children who behave well, do it generally as a mere eye-service. When the teacher's eye is upon them, they look demure and attentive; but when that eye is diverted, the little prisoners talk on the sly, and play on the sly; and thus Pharisees and hypocrites are born in swarms. Is not the time of our Sabbath scholars wasted by our present system? If it be true that they are not interested and instructed by the services, and that they cannot be; then, verily, two precious hours are cast away. But the time of the teachers is lost. They stand or sit as sentinels-one guard (say) to every fifty children. Reckoning the number of Sabbath-school children in England and Wales at two millions, we thus have forty thousand teachers wasting eighty thousand precious hours on the Sabbath, and two millions of children wasting four millions of hours. But we now speak of the teachers. If they worship and listen to the preaching, they cannot keep the children quiet; if they keep the children quiet, they cannot worship and hear. Now what, we ask, is gained by merely keeping down open and boisterous disorder? Is this result worthy the means? Not unfrequently the minister and his congregation are annoyed and disturbed by the bad behaviour of Sabbathschools, and the melody of the ministration, and the harmony of kindred labours have been destroyed by the voice of rebuke from the pulpit, and the cry of complaint from the pew. An opportunity of usefulness is hereby also lost. It is possible to interest and to instruct the children by services adapted to their case; and the hours allotted to public worship are the opportunity. (To be concluded in our next.) ON THE CHIEF END OF SABBATH-SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. BY DR. MUNRO. THIS subject deserves the consideration of Sabbath-school teachers, because it is probable that in proportion as the end is clearly understood and distinctly kept in view, so will the best and most suitable means to effect |