but the frown on the forehead and the nervous, hurried motions show our ruffled and unpeaceful mind.

Punctuality. Both Bishop Paret and Dean Hodges emphasize this point. The former states: "I will name one more qualification for a helpful Sunday School teacher. It is unfailing, punctual regularity. No other excellencies will make up for lack of this. If I were heard now by some who may be disposed to become teachers, I would say something like this: 'If duties at home or circumstances which you cannot control make your punctual regularity impossible, consider it a providential indication that you are to work for Christ not as a Sunday School teacher, but in some other way.' This will be one (but not the only one) of the real tests and proofs of your earnestness. The teacher should be not the last, but the first, to arrive, ready to receive the pupils, showing that they are expected, and that some one is watching for them. The class that has to wait often for a teacher, needs a new teacher. And I mean not only punctuality of hours, but regularity of continuous Sundays." The latter says: "The good teacher will be unfailingly present and unfailingly prompt. One of the principal reasons for the nervous prostration of the clergy is the irregularity of Sunday School teachers. For unpunctuality includes a multitude of sins. The unpunctual teacher is lacking in the ability of discipline. He is deficient in that sense of order which is at the heart of discipline. Even if he is able to control a class, he hampers himself by an initial disadvantage. He permits the class to make the first move. When he arrives upon the scene, the scholars have already opened the hour's proceedings. In most cases, youthful human nature being what it is, they have established a situation of cheerful disorder. They have begun in a spirit which is defiant both of the service and of the lesson. The tardy teacher must regain a rocky mile of lost ground, and this he rarely succeeds in doing. The mental and moral defects which make him habitually late prevent him from taking the command. The wise teacher precedes his pupils. When they get to their seats they find him there already, prepared to receive them one by one, into an association of peace. The unpunctual teacher is commonly deficient not

only in the ability of discipline but in the sense of duty. He is not obedient to the commands of conscience. He is not attentive to the inner voice. He will cheerfully take a class if he is asked to do so, but he does not understand that this act imposes upon him any serious responsibility. He accepts, as if it were an invitation to an afternoon tea, and if the weather is propitious and he has nothing else to do he goes."

Alertness is but Mental Readiness due to a fund of Knowledge and Related Knowledge, bearing upon the subject taught. Knowledge is acquired, thought over, compared with previous knowledge, made a part of one's self, and so forms a stock of digested learning, readily and quickly drawn upon when needed for teaching. Practice in speaking rapidly and in giving quick answers to questions will aid in the development of this alertness.

Personal Magnetism. This is part of our Unconscious Tuition, or Personality, caused by posture, voice, dress, manner, clearness of eye, assuredness, etiquette, self-confidence, selfcontrol, winsomeness, etc.

Insight. This is really sympathy, mental diagnosis, quick observation and weighing of certain signs that indicate character in the Child observed; watching his modes, expressions, attitude, and other, often obscure, signs. People brought up in large families, in active and varied surroundings, have this power naturally. The only rules are therefore (a) being with children, (b) making sympathy a purpose in life, (c) trial and error, or guessing and learning by mistakes.

Common Sense. In spite of popular opinion, Dr. Thorndike analyzes this into simple elements. It is not a quality per se, as most persons suppose. Analyzed, it appears as (a) absence of queer, bizarre Ideas. Any eccentricity or habit out of the usual order in a teacher is noted and set down to a lack of Common Sense; (b) absence of Sentimentality; (c) absence of a doctrinaire Temper or Assertiveness, which is so often a habit in the teaching profession. It starts with a good idea, and injures its own cause by pushing it too far, to the exclusion or unfair balancing of other equally good ideas; (d) presence of a Sense of Humor, that works more for unruffled temper than any other one point. It turns discomforts aside, and cheers the dull, routine work, so full of disappointments and mistakes; (e)

presence of Self-Criticism, which sizes one's self up, and, by comparison with the usual run of people, eliminates peculiarities of habit; (f) presence of the Golden Mean. The "Golden Mean" cannot be justified logically nor morally; yet all are agreed that it is the wisest course in everything. Even excellencies may be overdone. Keep a little behind the leaders and a little ahead of the mediocrity, which will make us better proportioned, since the majority of mankind are mediocre.

Ever realize that intercourse with men in a wide sphere of life and society will give more Common Sense than anything else, that we should abandon hobbies and pet notions, by which we differ from the generality of men. Think and act for the most part as the rest of your fellows do. Avoid fussiness, nervousness, and worry. Economize life-work and energy. Adopt the policy of doing the best you can (only be sure it is the best, and not a piece of "Shirk-work") and leave the results to God. Try to escape narrowness, the pet vice of all teachers. This is the result of semi-pedantry and semi-timidity, that shies at meeting new things, new problems, new persons. Humanize yourself at every step, gaining the widest possible amount of efficiency and experience along the most varied lines.

The Primary Peril.

Wells rightly states that in all spiritual work the primary peril is pride. The teacher in a Sunday School enjoys a superb chance to show off. He is not obliged, like the secular school teacher, to bear the brunt of a six-hours' daily struggle with stupidity, obstinacy, and heedlessness. He need only be wise and shrewd, tactful and fascinating, for half an hour a week. If he succeeds in that, he has won his scholars' hearts and the delighted praise of their parents.

How a Proper System Will Help Teachers.

Here are a few suggestions given by Mr. Gilbert: "How can the system make a poor corps of teachers good or a good corps better, keep the teachers up to the highest standards possible, and secure from them their very best work?

"First, by making them feel that they are persons of consequence whose judgments are worth considering and who may

justly be supposed to possess reasonably tender consciences, some professional ambition, and at least a fair degree of devotion to their work. The first duty of school superintendents and other officials is to lead the teachers to respect themselves, to feel that they are trusted, and in return to secure their confidence. This done, it is possible to put into effect definite plans for helping teachers, and developing their freedom.

"A course of study, then, should be broad in its outlines and suggestive rather than mandatory as to details and methods. It should require results, but these results should be stated in large rather than in small terms. They should be results of growth, manifested in power to do new things, rather than ability to answer a few stereotyped questions.

"Further, a course of study should stimulate teachers to selfimprovement. One of the claims made against the teachers as a body, especially in discussions of that utterly futile question, 'Is teaching a profession?' is that they are not scholarly. After much observation I am convinced that the defect, in so far as it exists, is due chiefly to the lack of impulse towards selfimprovement in most of our formal school systems. A teacher going over the work of the grade soon acquires mastery of the few insignificant facts that must be imparted to the children, and is able each year to do the required work with less effort. Very few of us keep up a high degree of intellectual activity without some stimulus outside ourselves, so that teachers, finding it possible to do their work, keep a respectable position among their associates, hold their places, draw their pay, and often settle into a condition of intellectual coma.

"A course should not be so superficial that it can be understood without study. It is good to make it necessary for teachers to study the curriculum and then to study educational principles in order to understand it. This is in itself broadening and strengthening and opens up to the teachers, especially the more thoughtful and the brighter, wide fields of inquiry and fine stimuli for growth."

Some Silent Teachers.

In the wonderfully attractive little book by the above title, Miss Harrison, the great Chicago kindergarten teacher, calls

our attention to the potent influences of certain silent teachers, such as stone, wood, architecture, toys, the shop window, and colors. Under the last we should note the influence of colors both in the choice of pictures and in the trimmings of the Sunday School rooms.

Violet, the color of sadness and grief, is the most depressing of all colors and produces mental depression and stagnation in persons exposed exclusively to its influence. It is said by Lillian Bentley that it is the practice of Russia to confine men of unusually brilliant mental attainments, who are opposed to the government, in rooms from which all rays of light the vibrations of which are slower than those of blue and violet are excluded. In every case the mental perceptions of the man placed in them are so dulled that he is unable to cope with the simplest task of life.

Red has the most exciting effect upon the nervous system. It is the most powerful of all colors. There are instances where those who have lived in red-papered and furnished rooms have become cases for the neurologist. Photographers find that the use of red in their dark rooms has caused the nerves of the workers to become restless and irritated. The effect of red upon the female sex is particularly noticeable and injurious, so that those who wear red dresses and even a red veil are apt to become cross and irritable and high-strung. Dressmakers cannot allow any one girl to work on red for a great length of time. Nausea is often caused by red. A red carpet in the Sunday School room or red paper on the walls has been known time and again to produce a nervous and irritating effect upon the class, as well as eye-strain and mental fatigue.

Green is softening, so that green carpets in Church and Sunday School are to be preferred to red. Red is undoubtedly a beautiful and warm color, but a little of it goes a long way. Greens and olives, browns and tans and yellows have a more natural and satisfying effect, neither over-stimulating on the one hand, nor depressing on the other.

Colors show character and Miss Harrison delightfully describes the millinery windows: "They begin with the display of soft roses, made softer still by veils of lace or illusion; warm rich velvet hats, trimmed with furs, flowers and burnished gold,