sorry for those who have not received so much as we are blessed with.

But there are other causes which make dull children besides lack of natural ability.

How many of the poor little ones with whom you have such difficulty are properly nourished, or properly cleansed? How many of them breathe sweet, pure air? How many of them are heavy with hidden sorrow, and dull with hopelessness and misery?

What is behind that apathetic, unchildlike face? What hardships have produced that hardened, careless manner? Oh! if each child who comes to us to be taught wore, stamped upon their brows in legible characters, the real story of their lives, their hard, unlovely, unloved lives, could our hearts be stirred with any other feeling towards them than tender pity?

Very many there are, thank God, whose faces tell us at once that they are well cared for, and that they lack nothing which love can procure

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for them. But in others the spare clothing, the pinched features, the stunted growth, the heavy eye, the general want of animation and life, all tell a sad story. Can these children be goaded and pressed? Are these the ones from whom we should exact feats of memory? Faint from want of food, is it any wonder that problems in decimal fractions are not worked correctly? Or with a heart bruised and sore with some hidden sorrow, can they be expected to give undivided attention to their tasks?

But if we need to be harmless as doves in dealing with these poor lambs, we shall want the wisdom of serpents in regard to the clever ones. In these times, when so much importance is attached to a child's ability, there is great danger that the little mind will not rightly estimate its qualifications. It will see that the quickest wins the highest place and the most valuable prize, "To be clever, then, and escapes correction. must be better than anything." This is the

feeling that makes our little ones miniature men and women-which gives them airs and conceits, and lifts them out of all humility and meekness.

Talent is at a premium, and goodness nowhere, in our school curriculum only too often. And it is very difficult to prevent this-very difficult to show to a child's mind how vast and deep are the fields of learning, and that they are but on the very edge; very difficult to make them feel that there are other and far more important things than learning. And yet we should strive to bring such knowledge about. It is possible to regulate the tone of the whole school by your wise management, so that everything shall occupy its due and proper place. You can show by your teaching, as well as by your smile and manner, how much you value evidences of evil resisted and good followed up; and you can lead the quickest and brightest to recognise that we have nothing but what we have received, and

that "to whom much is given, of him also much shall be required."

It is quite possible, unintentionally, to sow seeds of vanity and self-conceit in a child's heart. We must be on our guard against this. We should not address ourselves especially to the quickest in our teaching. It is very hard to keep our eyes perfectly impartial, because naturally they will seek other eyes which show most eagerness to understand us, as well as the largest sympathy with the thought which stirs us. Many and many a bright, clever child, in whose ready intelligence the teacher took especial pleasure, and who seemed perfectly to learn the lesson, has gone away and borne no fruit. And many a silent, unnoticed little one, has treasured the good seed in the heart, and it has yielded fruit a hundredfold.

To forget ourselves in the children! Yes, it is hard. In this as in everything, self-abnegation is foreign to our nature, and yet with their good

for our chief aim, our own pleasure will sink into

insignificance.

Perhaps we are the only beings different to those in their daily surroundings, with whom they come into contact. In their eyes we are encircled with a kind of halo; we can scarcely tell how we are watched, nor how much importance they attach to our most trivial word or deed. Children draw conclusions at once, and they are very sensitive. Let us take heed that we offend not one of these little ones, for in heaven their angels do always behold the face of the Father."