one had to take a choice (thank God, we do not!) between closing the doors of the Church for a season or closing the doors of the Sunday School, we would judge the Sunday School of greater importance. It was a Roman prelate who once said: "Give me the child and you can have the man." Someone has remarked that we of the clergy stand in the pulpit. We have before us in the congregation an assembly of bottles. Some of these bottles are corked, and some are uncorked; some have wide necks and some have narrow ones. We stand and sprinkle over them a sponge filled with hyssop and water. The corked bottles are those who are either deaf mentally or physically-they receive nothing. The narrow-necked, uncorked bottles drink in a few drops here and there, but only a few. They are either inattentive or too young or too indifferent or the preacher talks over their heads. The wide-necked, uncorked bottles are eager to drink in all that they can, but even they miss much. None of the bottles are filled. A great many drops fall between the bottles and are wasted. The Teacher is the one who takes each bottle individually and places it under the faucet and turns the water on and fills the bottle. In the Mission Field to-day and in the Church at home, it is the individual Teacher who counts for the most.

Liberty Enough.-There is the freedom to teach what one believes. The Sunday School is no place for teachers who have not settled their own doubts. It is no place for destructive criticism. It is the place for constructive criticism. It is the place for sound doctrine in the foundations of belief. "The prophet should give no uncertain sound," and so the Sunday School Teacher must be one of positive conviction, and those points of scholarship that are proved and on which educators universally agree have their place in the Sunday School only in positive teaching. There is plenty that is sure and settled in the Faith to build up character. We have no need to draw on platitudes of scholarship or tread uncertain ground.

Time Enough.-There is the opportunity for sufficient and proper study and preparation; for the personal acquaintance with the children by frequent calling upon them in their homes; for at least three hours a week of solid study. Three things every Teacher who is worthy of her calling should undertake:

Three hours a week for study; two hours a week for calling, and one hour a week for the Teacher-Training Class. Work that is worth doing for God at all is worth doing well. As Drawbridge says: "In those Sunday Schools where little or nothing is expected of the teachers, they get bored and soon leave. And their classes have usually anticipated their departure. Where the ideal is a high one, and the leader of the school is an enthusiast, the teachers discover that teaching is very interesting. Their pupils simultaneously begin to appreciate Sunday School. It is a very great mistake to have a low ideal for those whom one would influence, on the ground that it is easy to expect too much from them. The fact is that people always endeavor to rise to one's estimate of them, and they respond to a high ideal much more readily than to a low one. There is much more heroism and self-sacrifice in human nature than pessimists suppose. That is a mean and foolish proverb which says, 'Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he will not be disappointed.' Those who expect most of their fellows are the ones least disappointed in them.

"At the same time some teachers will undoubtedly leave the school rather than entertain a noble ideal of their work. What then? Others will come forward to take their places, just because the work is no child's play; and those who previously were indifferent teachers will rapidly become worth twice as much as they were before. Therefore at the worst they could teach the few remaining pupils of the classes left vacant by the deserters, as well as their own classes.

"Sunday School Teachers resemble hens' eggs in one respect, viz., that one good one is worth any number of bad ones. The good teacher can successfully teach a whole room full of children-especially if assisted by one or two members of the Teachers' Training Class. The latter can keep order, mark the books, etc. The value of all religious work is to be measured, not by its quantity, but by its quality. It is the latter rather than the former which is deficient in our Sunday Schools. Then, again, the quantity cannot very well be greatly increased, but the quality can be indefinitely improved. Moreover, it is quite possible, and even common, for a score of Sunday School teachers to teach practically nothing in a twelvemonth; but it is impos

sible for one good teacher to do otherwise than teach a great deal in one hour. It is not the volume of sound, but the amount of learning, which makes the difference. Then, again, one teacher who is very much in earnest is worth vastly more, as an inspiring agent, than a couple of score who are nothing of the kind. One of the chief difficulties in Sunday School work is getting rid of those teachers whose presence is worse than useless. The latter not only do no good in their own class, but (by the uproar they allow) interfere with the work of half a dozen neighboring classes. By all means let the loafers desert, because there is no room in a well-worked Sunday School for any but workers. In an article on The Discouraged Teacher, I came across the following advice: 'If the discouraged teacher does not attend the teachers' meeting, discourage him a little more.' All teachers cannot be either great theologians, or skilled educationalists, but all can be very much in earnest."

Heart Enough.-There is the personal element of sympathy and love without which no Teacher can be a success. It is "the smile that won't come off." It is the quality that Dean Hodges calls Cheerfulness. In his little brochure on the Sunday School Teacher, he says: "The good teacher has a bright face. All good Christians are good-looking. The teacher, who represents the Christian religion, ought of all people to have a cheerful countenance. That is a vital part of his instruction. S. Paul showed his profound knowledge of human nature when he enjoined those who show mercy to do it with cheerfulness. He knew very well how the long face, the sombre manner, the artificial pathos and piety of some benevolent persons spoil their gifts. There is a look in the faces of some of the people who are seen in electric cars carrying limp-covered Bibles under their arms which is of itself an argument against the Christian religion. The natural man, beholding such disciples, says within himself, 'From this religion, good Lord, deliver us.' It is true that the warning, 'Be not righteous overmuch,' is written in the book of Ecclesiastes, which is not the best book in the Bible. If we take righteousness to mean simple, interior goodness, it is not possible to be righteous overmuch. Nobody can be too good. It is quite possible, however, to be righteous overmuch in the matter of expression. There is an oppressive goodness which

defeats its own purposes. It is highly desirable, in order to give effective instruction, that the Sunday School Teacher be a human being, and the children ought to be informed of that encouraging fact by the teacher's behavior.

"The lasting lesson is taught by the personality of the teacher. The words are forgotten, but the face is remembered, and the teacher's face and manner proclaim the results of religion. What will religion do for us? What sort of persons will it make of us? These questions, unexpressed, are in the hearts of the scholars. If they see that religion makes the teacher pessimistic, nervous, narrow-minded, cross, and complaining, they will be prejudiced against it. You may teach the creed of Christian satisfaction, you may sing the songs of everlasting salvation, but all will be of none effect unless you, yourself, are honestly happy, hopeful, merry, and joyful. The preacher in the pulpit is impeded by a general disapprobation of humor. There is no such impediment in the Sunday School. The lesson begins well when the teacher and the scholars laugh together."

Head Enough.-There is the wide collateral study which goes beyond the paltry preparation of the individual lesson and reaches out to the widest and broadest phases of a ripened Education. One cannot know too much about any subject, and there is probably no line of Education where teachers seem so afraid to know any more than they will need to teach in a particular lesson hour, as in the Sunday School. If one is teaching the life of our Blessed Lord, it is not enough to read the meagre Teachers' Notes, which, at the best, only serve as crutches for lame teachers; one should read each week two or more of the many excellent lives of Christ. No two men have ever viewed the Master from the same view-point. No two have ever written duplicate biographies. Each one tells something new. the same landscape looks different from varying mountains, so the lesson topic should be viewed from many standpoints. Therefore, read Stalker, and Farrar, and Geikie, and Edersheim, and Andrews, and Dawson. Dip into each of them. Read between times. Use odd moments. Cultivate the hunger

Just as

ing and thirsting after knowledge. Once get the Vision and the Study becomes absorbing. There is time for it-plenty of time

in everyone's life, time snatched from the wasted moments, from the light gossip, from the bridge-whist, from the idle novel, from the too much sleep, and God's work is worthy of it all.

Other Essential Qualifications.

Earnestness and Consecration. This means a deep and real devotion to the spiritual ideals and principles of the Ministry of Teaching, such as should be the vital and basal power of a Master in the Kingdom of Life. It betokens devotion to God, to our fellows in the persons of the children whom we teach, and to our work and its duties.

Amos Wells puts it strongly in his little book, THE TEACHER THAT TEACHES: "For the prime essential of Sunday School teaching that really teaches is-I say it with intense conviction-a vital Christian experience. Do you know, in every fiber of your being, the love of Christ? Does it pervade your soul, thrilling you, intensifying you, empowering you, as the electric current fills the wire with pulsing energy? Is there no hidden, eating sin or love of sin, which, like an electrolysis, allows this. power to escape? Are you, in this glad, eager love of Christ, given up-entirely given up-to do His will? Is there to you, in all the world of pleasure and purpose, no ambition more appealing, no pleasure more entrancing, than to win some other soul to do His will? Has this love of Christ and His will led you into a deep and tender love of Christ's children, for whom He died and for whom He lives and longs? Do you exist for one thing-all else being secondary-just to bring these two together and join them forever, Christ and His children ?"

Personality. Such is what Bishop Huntington emphasizes in his trenchant booklet on UNCONSCIOUS TUITION, which should be thoroughly studied by every Teacher who hopes to do helpful work. It is not what we say and teach; but what we are, that counts in the long run with children. Few teachers appreciate their own Nervous Temperament which telegraphs our inward mental changes to the outward world. The play of the Face, the tone of the Voice, the Manners and Mannerisms, the Etiquette, the Dress, the Personal Habits are indications to the pupils of what we are and think. We may smile ever so sweetly;