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they may not exactly feel it. An example or two will explain my meaning. Such lines as .

Should storms of seven-fold thunder roll,
And shake the world from pole to pole,
No flaming bolt shall daunt my face,
For Jesus is my hiding place. p. 49.

or, Nothing I ask or want beside,
Of all in earth or heaven;

But let me feel thy blood applied,
And live and die forgiven. p. 172.

or, Me for thine own thou lov'st to take,
In time and in eternity. p. 207.

are, I think, in every respect inadmissible; while such as

How justly might thine anger rise,
And sink me down to hell,

To feel the worm that never dies,
In endless flames to dwell. p. 44,

or, To every sin inclin'd,

Selfish we are and proud;

Our will perverse, our carnal mind,
Is emnity to God. p. 40.

or, Lord, we are vile, conceiv'd in sin,
And born unholy and unclean;

Sprung from the man whose guilty fall,

Corrupts the race, and taints us all. p. 43.

are strains to which I think no one can object, because the doctrines they contain are true of every one, though all may not equally feel them,

Your correspondent remarks, that all our labours are di rected to the great object of bringing children to an experimental knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, and that our efforts have repeatedly been crowned with success. Of this I have no doubt; but the preceding remarks have perhaps intimated, that I am not so sanguine on this head as some others are, and fear that both living and dying conversions have been too readily believed. I am afraid that instances of present success are much more rare than most of us would allow; and that many dying experiences, which we have thought much of, will at last turn out to have been merely language learned by rote, and repeated to please teachers. Experience has taught me to doubt the value of what I once thought sterling, and to

beware of pronouncing confidently of any. Though I wish and pray that the worthy " compiler" may be saved the painful defeat of hopes and expectations which I have experienced, yet I cannot but fear that future years will convince him, that some whom he thinks "deeply solicitous for their eternal welfare, conscious of their sin and misery," have merely transient convictions, and that he has more sinners and fewer saints to provide hymns for.

I cannot agree either with him in the opinion, that hymns should be inserted in the hymn-book which are not intended to be sung, because I apprehend that in every School such hymns will frequently be publicly used. All the teachers or superintendants may not be convinced of the impropriety of such language in the mouths of children, and may consequently use hymns which are dear to them as expressing their own sentiments, and for the moment forget their little charge. I have very often heard this in public prayer in Schools, and therefore entertain fears the more readily that it would be the case with hymns.

The wise and just observation he has quoted, viz. "That of the two ways of writing or speaking to children, the more excellent is not that whereby we let ourselves down to them, but that whereby we endeavour to lift them up to us," is to be understood with some qualification, and some limitation. Some qualification, for if it were strictly and entirely adhered to, they never could understand a word we say; and some limitation, because it refers only to the understanding, and not at all to the heart. Nor shall we ever "bring them up" to the state of Christians by directing them to speak the language of confident assurance that they are so, but must seek the influences of the Holy Spirit to bring them down to a sense of their exceeding einfulness, and to lay them in the dust, crying, Behold I am vile.

Permit me, in conclusion, to refer to the excellent liturgy of our venerable Establishment. For warmth and energy of devotion I believe no human composition ever excelled it, and yet we meet throughout with hardly any sentiments in which unconverted persons cannot join, except in the sacramental service, where it is charitably hoped the majority present are believers indeed. In that service we say, "We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; the remembrance of our sins is grievous unto us, and the burden of them is intolerable;" and "Here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls, and bodies," &c. while in the more public services we confine ourselves to more general

expressions and I believe that there is no collection of hymns of similar bulk with our liturgy, in which we should not find ten times as many passages, which are unsuitable to the use of mixed congregations..

Truth is elicited by amicable discussion among those who are agreed in their great object, while they differ upon minor points; and I hope that none of my remarks will tend to grieve any of your readers, and least of all, the devoted and diligent compilers of the Bristol Sunday School Hymn Book.

RUFUS.

A SYSTEMATIC mode of TEACHING WRITING.

THE following plan of teaching writing has been found useful, and I should be obliged to you to insert a short account of it for the benefit of those Sunday Schools, in which writing is taught once or twice in the week. The letters are of a large size, and are written on half a sheet of foolscap paper. The is suspended to an upright standard so as to be seen, and used by about 10 children at once. The following is the copy which the children write from in beginning to learn.

copy

1.1.2.2.0.

The following letters in writing are formed from the above. a b d h i l m n o p r t u v w y The following are irregular, though some of them are partly formed from the first copy.

с e f g j k q Ꮽ X

I have found it the best plan to teach the children thoroughly to write the first copy; from this they proceed to the letters formed from it, which thus become very easy: then they write the irregulars. After having learned to write all the letters quite well, I commonly set them their own names, which they feel a pleasure and pride in being able to write; and then they proceed, without any intermediate join-hand, to the scriptural copies published by the Sunday School Union. These may likewise be placed on a board, on the collective plan, and when a number of children are writing in a class, the same copy, it is a great stimulus to emulation. On the plan mentioned, one

teacher, with the assistance of a monitor, may instruct 100 children in writing. The slates are cut into lines, ready to write: on the one side large-hand, and the other small roundhand I conceive to be superfluous. The children of a Sunday School will learn to write sufficiently well upon a slate without pen and ink, and copy-books, which are very expensive.

ISAAC.

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A Plan for TEACHING the first RULES of ARITHMETIC. TO this exercise we admit all the Scholars twice a week, who are capable of reading the second spelling-book, beginning of course with teaching them the forms of the nine digits. Copies of these are suspended on a kind of cross (†) erected at each end of the desk. All the figures being marked very strong, and about two inches in length, so that they are very discernable by one half of the desk, who are directed to look at the copy hanging at the left hand, while the remainder take their instructions from the opposite: our desks are double ones, that is with a seat on each side, so that about 20 Scholars are accommodated at each, who are attended by a monitor. Hav ing learned to make the figures tolerably, we proceed to their junction in tens, hundreds, &c. the teacher calling the several suns, while the monitor keeps walking round, to see that all are correct. This being accomplished pretty readily, we commence addition in this way, the teacher taking a slate or paper in his own hand, calls aloud and distinctly, several figures at his pleasure, marking them off on his own table to determine the amount the children are required to do the like, and a prize awarded to him or her who first declares the total. Lest this should be misunderstood, permit me, Mr. Editor, to give an example: the teacher then is supposed to give out the following numbers, 15-37-24, making a short pause between each to give the children time to mark it; he then proposes a ticket to him or her who first declares the total correctly, running it up speedily himself, in order to be ready to receive their reports; I say "speedily," for I as sure you our children have been so delighted with what they have considered an amusement, as sometimes to be beforehand with me, reckoning the different amounts as the figures are given out, and declaring the total immediately upon hearing the last, before they have put it upon the slate.

After this the teacher calls his numbers as tens, thus, 2437-42-36~51—22. When the monitor giving

notice that all have the figures correct, the first child begins by saying loud enough for all at that desk to hear, 2 and 1 are 3, the next child takes it up, 3 and 6 are 9, another proceeds, 9 and 2 are 11, then 11 and 7 are 18,-18 and 4 are 22; the succeeding child says, put down 2 and carry 2 to the next line, the Scholars then continue in the same manner with the lefthand column, until the whole is compleated. Every child is expected to have his pencil upon the figure under notice, in order that each may be observing the operation, and the monitor keeps walking round the desk to see that they are thus attentive: if the pencil is not upon the proper figure it subjects the defaulter to the penalty of one ticket, and in order to ascertain whether all understand the business, two or three are indiscriminately fixed upon, who each in turn stand upon the form and perform the work in the hearing of all. This too serves to make them attentive as no one knows who may be thus called upon, each therefore endeavours to be prepared.

So much, Sir, for the initiating part of our plan: having made this progress, their further instruction goes on in profound silence, by means of lessons suspended at each end of the desk, from which they copy the several sums to be added; as the construction of these are entirely new, I must add a few specimens. (The total in the copies are omitted in course.)

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Now, Sir, the utility of lessons thus constructed, will appear if you observe the last line but one of the several sums, which being doubled or multiplied by 2, adding to the tens of the left hand, (if any) as many as there are columus of figures it gives the exact total of the whole. But then, Mr. Editor, you will immediately perceive that not even a monitor, no, not a confidential one is to be entrusted with the important secret, or all is lost. While this is preserved, the teacher can walk up and down the desk, and with a single glance observe if all be right or no, without the trouble of reckoning the whole. I used to put the line to be doubled the last in the row, but was afraid

Would it not be more simple and easy to place the figure to form the total on the left hand at the end of the top line, or some other situation?

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