"I don't care," said Jane, angrily. "I hate the school, and I shall be glad to go!"

He endeavored to reason with her upon the ingratitude and sinfulness of her conduct. As he was speaking, one of the teachers, whom we will designate Miss Gray, came very near them to fetch a book which she wanted. Of course she did not pass without Jane's quick eyes seeing her. The girl's sullen demeanour instantly changed. A fresh thought seemed to strike her, and looking up at the superintendent, she said, hastily, "Well, I'll promise to be a better girl if you put me into Miss Gray's class." "How will that make you a better girl, Jane?"

"I don't know, sir. But I like her, and I'll do what she tells me." "And why do you like Miss Gray, Jane ?"

"Because she's the first teacher that's ever spoke kind to me. She helped me to get my bonnet-strings out of a knot this morning, when I wanted to undo them because it was so hot; and she was so pleasant over it. She smiled and said, ' It only wants a little patience, Jane.' Oh, she is such a nice lady! If you would only let me go into her class!"

The result was that Jane went into Miss Gray's class, where she soon fulfilled the promise she had made of becoming a better girl. She grew so tractable, and industrious, and obliging, that everybody in the school, the grave superintendent not excepted, was perfectly astonished. "We must learn your secret," they said to Miss Gray.

"I have no secret but Love, was her reply. And that "Love was the key which had opened Jane's heart. She loved her teacher, and from loving her teacher, she learned to love her Saviour. Years have rolled away since then; Miss Gray has finished her labours, and entered into her rest; and Jane the once troublesome, self-willed, unmanageable school-girl-is now the active and devoted wife of a faithful home missionary, winning the affections of children by the same irresistible charm which early attracted her own.

Take encouragement, dear reader, and resolve to make use of this magic key. Cultivate an affectionate attractiveness of manner. Strive to "be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves ;" for in a world like ours, where sin has planted not only sadness but suspicion in the mind, and natural pride and independence guard with careful jealousy the portals of the heart, it needs a tender and considerate touch to elicit another's confidence and sympathy. "He that winneth souls is wise." Let your children feel that you really love them, and they will soon reciprocate your love; and when you have secured their warm affections, you have accomplished much. For there is little hope of our doing the young any permanent good, unless we have first found out the way to reach their hearts; and this is one reason, we are inclined to think, why our teaching so often fails-it emanates rather from a mind imbued with a sense of duty, than gushes forth from a heart overflowing with love. Our pupils recognise us as their teachers; but do they look upon us as their friends?

"Mother," said a Sunday scholar one day to his mother, "I don't like my new teacher half so well as my old one."

"Why not, Robert? Isn't he as clever ?"

"O yes, mother; he talks much grander than Mr. B- used to do, and he seems to know all that is in the Bible; but somehow I don't get so interested in what he teaches us, and I don't feel so inclined to mind it.” "How is that, Robert ?"

"Why, mother, he never looks a bit pleasant at us, and he never says a word to us except about our lessons. I'm sure I could never tell him if I was in any sort of trouble, for I don't think he understands just how boys like us feel; but I could have gone to Mr. B- if I had wanted to, as easy as I could go to you, mother. He was a real gentleman, Mr. B― was, mother; but for all that, he was the best friend I ever had. I wish he would come back again !"

It is very evident that Robert's old teacher had got hold of the right key.

CULTIVATE THE UNDERSTANDING.

EVERY word that falls on a child's ear, that he does not know the meaning of,-every phrase repeated to him, that finds not some relationship within him, every article of belief,-every principle of moral duty, that he cannot see the necessity for, will not only be thrown away upon him, but by wearying and disgusting him, will do him and religion infinite mischief, and be the cause of much profanity and infidelity.

When a child assents to that which he does not understand, you make him a hypocrite and a liar. He will answer yes, or no, as you wish, but in doing this he does it to please you; but would you have him deceive you?

Reviews.

Lectures to Children. By Rev. John Todd, D.D. 18mo., pp. 152. Second Series. Knight and Son, Clerkenwell Close

WHEN We saw the above advertised, we naturally anticipated a little book, composed with much grace of language, and abounding in forcible illustration. Dr. Todd has already gained a high reputation as an author; and if he had written nothing more than his first series of "Lectures to Children," and “Truth made Simple," these books alone would stamp him as a man of genius. In these volumes he has combined the powers of a logician, united with a highly poetical imagination, and has also brought down the great subjects of which he has treated to the comprehension of a child. We have long entertained the opinion, that children can appreciate even an abstract truth, if set before them in simple language, and illustrated by natural objects; and, it appears to us, that our author has eminently succeeded in his two earlier books, not only in teaching the young to think, but more especially to feel. The bewitching style of these little treatises, and the great truths which they illustrate, have naturally led to a very large circula

tion, and, to our minds, they have never been equalled by any subsequent writers for children. We are not, therefore, surprised to learn, that " they have been translated into French, German, Greek, and many other languages." We notice that the author in his preface to this "second series," has his misgivings-" whether the harp has since become so worn by time, that its notes will be no longer recognized," will be determined by the issuing of this little volume.

It is evident that the publication has been rather sought by the friends of the author, as we learn in the preface, than a spontaneous act on his part. We share with Dr. Todd, in his implied doubt, whether this "second series " will be as acceptable as the first. A quarter of a century has elapsed between the publication of the two, and very few writers can expect to maintain the same power in relation to the youthful mind, as when hope is firm, and strength is high. If we may venture to hint at what we consider the defects of this book, we should say that they were the very reverse of what we should suppose would be found in it, taking into account the maturity of life to which the author has now attained. We think the style in many parts too complicated for children. This is natural in written compositions, but we take it, that these addresses have been spoken, and by many readers will be adopted as a model. We give one instance in proof of this from page 11. "If you use bad, low, wicked words; if you are rude, unkind, cruel, and headstrong; if you are proud, vain, and overbearing; if you are selfish, covetous, envious, or jealous, of others; if you are profane or vulgar, in manners or behaviour; if you are unkind to your brothers or sisters, or disobedient to your parents; then you have something to be ashamed of." This passage is sufficiently long for a pulpit purpose, and even then, we doubt whether more than half the congregation would follow the speaker to the end of the sentence. We are quite sure that to give utterance to it from the Sunday school desk would make no impression, if unillustrated, and quoted in its present form. The style of elaboration into which Dr. Todd is here betrayed we are quite sure would be admitted on reflection, even by himself, to be quite unsuited to the audience of a Sunday school, and yet there are many long passages of a similar nature scattered through the book. We find some of the more poetical parts of these addresses disfigured by the same. fault. We advocate the quotation of the great poets, even before children, when occasion calls for it, but we think our own descriptive pieces should be terse and clear. We believe our readers will agree with us, that the majority of a company of children would be quite lost as to our meaning before we came to the conclusion of the following paragraph, page 14: "As the large company wound along the footpath, among the hills, where the vineyards were hanging their ripe fruits; where the flowers were breathing out their sweetness, where the fields were waving with grain; where the beautiful oleander gleamed with its load of richest blossoms, and the roses of Sharon tempted the children to stop and pluck them; where the dove sat on the boughs of the trees that hung over the path, and poured out her low songoh, how glad were the hearts of these people!" It is at least not too much to say, that very many juvenile readers would have to refer to the beginning of the sentence, to come to an understanding as to the scope of its meaning: what effect, then, could it have upon the hearers?

We find a great similarity of description in many parts of the book, and principally of that peculiar style to which we have referred; we might almost call them repetitions, only varied according to the subject in hand.

We also detect some of the more beautiful illustrations of the "first series " adapted to the "second," but certainly spoiled in the process.

In the following passage, we object both to the exaggerated style, (that is for a Sunday school purpose,) as well as to the overstrained analogy which is attempted. There are very few facts in human history which will bear citation, as holding in any sense to the atonement of the Redeemer. The Bible alone is our safe guide in this respect, and we are quite sure that all efforts of the imagination on this subject will utterly fail. The simple story of the life of our Lord, the ungarnished record of the circumstances attending His death, and the solemn description of His sufferings, as told by the Evangelists, will make a much deeper impression on the minds of children, than any far fetched descriptions can possibly accomplish.

Page 84-"Now, imagine that you are on the brink of one of these glaciers in the night. You are alone; and you must cross it and find shelter or you perish. The winds how, and the great avalanches of ice thunder and echo among these awful solitudes, and the storm-notes come booming up from far below. You cautiously creep along on the edge of the ice-cake, and you see an awful chasm running along, one on each side of your narrow path. As you thrust down the sharp point of your staff into the ice, you move very slowly. And now you have got out a mile into the middle of the glacier; and just as you have got between two fearful openings, your staff breaks, and is useless; and that moment, a gust of wind, fierce as a tiger, (?) puts out your light! Ah! now what will you do? To move backward or forward is certain destruction! To stop there is to be frozen as solid as the ice beneath your feet! What will you do? You shout, and the swelling winds carry your voice away, and it is lost in the storm. Just then you see, on the far-off land, a little twinkling light. In a few minutes more, you would have given up, and sunk down into the opening ice, where you would never have been heard of again till the resurrection morning. But now the light seems to creep nearer and nearer to you. It comes up, and a man stands close to you-only that deep chasm is between you and him. He hangs the little lantern on the end of his alpenstock, and reaches it to you. You take it off very carefully. He then reaches again to give you the needed staff. You sieze it eagerly, and give it a jerk; and by that jerk he loses his balance, falls in, and down, down, he falls, and lies bleeding and mangled far down under the deep ice! You had no time to ask his name, or learn who he was. You only know that he perilled and lost his life for you! With that staff, and that lantern, you reach the land, find a dwelling, and are saved. Ah! yes! and you learn that the man who thus lost his life for you, was one who knew you would be lost unless he went to you, and who expected it would cost him his life; and the one whom, of all men in the world, you had treated the most unkindly, and who had reason to despise you and hate you, and to be willing to have you perish in the dark cold night, under the deep awful glacier! And now suppose, that after this you are never heard to speak of the kindness of that man, never to mention how you were delivered,

never to think over your unkindness to him, and his nobleness and kindness in forgetting it all and coming to save you!—is this being grateful ?"

We mention these as points to which exception must be taken by the readers of this volume. There are many beautiful and telling illustrations scattered through the book; but, as a whole, we must pronounce it inferior to its predecessors. We shall be glad, however, if the publication stimulates the teachers in our schools to attempt greater things in the way of Sunday School Addresses. This is a department of admitted importance and equal difficulty. It is, however, to be attained by study, perseverance, and practice, and the class is the very best sphere for its exercise. The reason why so many fail here is, that its importance is either under-rated, or no preparation is made, or the want of ability is taken for granted. We say to all who feel interested in this matter, mark out a path for yourselves. A student of his Bible, a general reader, and a man of common observation, if he loves children, will soon learn how to "strike home."

Fragments of the Great Diamond set for Young People; being a variety of Addresses to Children. By the Rev. James Bolton, B.A., Minister of St. Paul's Episcopal Chapel, Kilburn, Middlesex. Second Edition.

Wertheim and Co.

THIS is a charming little book. The addresses are well worthy to take rank by the side of Dr. Todd's happiest efforts, and they have an ease and liveliness which will ensure for them a ready access to the minds and hearts of children. The respective titles are-The Fleet of Fishing Boats-The Troublesome Member - Happy Rhoda-Our Fathers and Mothers-The Favoured Colt-Little Vessels-The Babe and his Friends-Our New and Better Home.

Teachers who desire to excel in the difficult art of speaking simply and attractively to young people will do well to take Mr. Bolton as one of their models.

Scripture Lessons. Second Series. Edinboro', T. C. Jack.

WE are disappointed with these lessons; they are good in themselves, but decidedly heavy. The author has adopted the purely didactic style, and hence the book is all preaching and application.

The Children's Charter; or the Saviour's Charge regarding the Young. By the Rev. John Edmond, Glasgow. Nisbet and Co.

AN able series of lectures, by a Presbyterian Minister, on the relative duties of parents and children, based on the evangelic narrative of the chil dren brought to Christ. The volume originated, the preface informs us, in an address prepared at the request of the Glasgow Maternal Association, and now extended to a series. The child's place in the kingdom of Christ