"Asylums for the insane illustrate the evils of an ungoverned will." "Never allow an unfinished bit of work or play." "Never let a child's tears sweep away your purpose." "Don't let a child say 'I cannot.'" "Never frighten children." "Do not try to break a child's will, but through a keen, strong sense of duty lead him to break self-will." "Train a child to the habit of willing according to God's will."

7. "What are the greatest dangers to which our young people are in these days exposed, and how may we protect them against these dangers?" The principal dangers are "Unbelief," "Frivolity," and "Sensuality." From a large number of papers we glean such items as these: "Public schools allow depreciating remarks about religion and the Church." "The inconsistencies of professing Christians at home sustain these slanders." "Sabbath excursions and amusements demoralize our youth." "Low literature," "lascivious plays," "foul pictures," "corrupt conversation," "bestial habits" are all quoted. "There is too little parental authority in this age." We are to protect our youth from these evils by "beginning to govern children earlier,” “making home interesting,” “guarding against corrupt and weak companions,” “build up Christian fellowships under the combined efforts of home and church," "give young folks innocent recreation and cultivate a sensitive conscience," "a shepherd-pastor," "early experience in the joy of the Christian life," "develop a higher type of social life." 'Every day my mother prays for me and my father's prayers surround me like mountains,' exclaimed a prodigal son on his sick bed. And he was brought to God." "Protect our children by a stronger love than they can find outside." "Protest to the State authorities against day school teachers who speak disrespectfully of religion and the Church in the presence of their pupils." "The same God who gave Joseph strength against the seductions of Potiphar's wife, who was able to protect Daniel amid the idolatry and debauchery of the court at Babylon, is strong enough nowadays to save our children."

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8. "What are the peculiarities of so-called ‘young people' between twelve and twenty years of age?” “Ambition, ambition, ambition." "Levity of character." "Freedom from restraint, long coveted, is now possible." "Desire for change and travel." "It is their month of May; imagination runs away with them; they dream, build castles in the air, live an unreal life." "The age of illusions." "The time of decision, and yet they are less than ever qualified to decide wisely." "Newly formed friendships-dreams of marriage, easily deceived, utter apathy concerning religion." "The period of passion, of physical crises, of new perils, and the most difficult of all things is-self-denial." "The period of unripe judgment and yet in danger of fancying themselves always right." "Now is the time of need for wise, experienced, discriminating friends." "The most needed thing now is the development of true self-respect."

9. "How may home and the Church cooperate in helping these

young people?" "By entering into their youthful views of matters, trying not to treat their ideals with disdain. Cultivate truly Christian ideas of life in the family circle and among a few friends, rather than making so much of public meetings and associations." "Encourage early decision for righteousness." "Combine to devise wise ways of bridging over the peculiarly perilous period between fourteen and twenty years of age." "Parental example of loyalty to the Church will go a long way toward keeping strong the Church's hold on young people." "Don't be too critical of young life and its follies. Don't see too much. Know when to shut your eyes." "Keep family religion positive, steady, and consistent." "Make home the brightest and happiest place in the world." "Cultivate the homelike atmosphere in the Church, and the reverent, churchlike atmosphere in the home." "Above all, avoid sarcasm, scolding, and contempt." 10. "What requests has the Church to make of the day school?" "That only apt and conscientious teachers be employed." "Perfect fairness toward all forms of religion." "The school should have enough respect for religion to teach children that there is a reality in it, but that the home and the Church must be responsible for teaching the details of it." "No avowed skeptic should be employed as a teacher of children." "We as a Church (Methodist) have many difficulties to overcome that are not known in a country where all the Churches are treated alike by the State. As there are some privileges that one is deprived of in not being 'confirmed' in the established Church, many of our own members hesitate about giving their children over fully to our care. But I am glad to know that our Church gains continually in influence, and I trust that the time will soon come when the established Church (in Sweden), as some of their leading men have intimated, will be organized as a free Church." This severance of the Church from the State might not put more religion into the day school, but it would put the children of the free Churches and of the established Church on a level in the day schools. "In Saxony no teacher has a legal right to cause any child to suffer any loss because of his religious faith."

11. "What help has the day school a right to expect from the Church?" "The Church should insist upon the value of education, upon diligence and obedience on the part of pupils and of respect for their teachers." "To train children and youth to represent and positively to illustrate the true Church spirit in the school." "To teach children to apply the parable of the 'talents' to school life." "To avoid all criticism that may diminish the respect of children for the school." "The public schools should be prayed for in the public services of the Church."

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ARCHEOLOGY AND BIBLICAL RESEARCH.

EXCAVATIONS AT GEZER.

THE excavations now in progress at Gezer under the directions of the Palestine Exploration Fund were commenced on June 11, 1902, and will probably continue till the spring of 1905. The work is superintended by R. A. Macalister, M.A., F.S.A., an experienced excavator and skillful draughtsman. The reports of the work done at Gezer are now passing through the Quarterly Statement, published by the society in London. The value of these written reports is greatly enhanced by the plans of the places unearthed, as well as with accurate description and drawings of all the objects discovered. The selection of Gezer was a very wise one in every sense of the word. In the first place, it is the largest tell, if we consider the dimensions of the surface, which can be excavated without let or hindrance, yet undertaken in Palestine. We learn from the report that "the mound is in length about seventeen hundred feet, and in breadth at the narrowest part about three hundred." Fortunately, there are but very few obstacles in the way of the excavator, such as dwelling houses, gardens, or modern graveyards. Indeed, Mr. Macalister says that fully nine tenths of the entire mound can be thoroughly examined, and that nearly the whole of the remaining one tenth stands on the solid rock, where, in the very nature of things, nothing of importance could be discovered. There is another favorable circumstance about this site: it has less débris than any of the other large tells so far examined-perhaps no more than eighteen feet. Yet Gezer, which signifies "separation," was built on two hills separated by a ravine, which in the course of time became filled up, so as to form one level surface. Thus the depth in this intervening space may be greater than expected. The identification of ancient Gezer is universally admitted and well-attested. The mound is now called by the natives Tell ej-Jezari, but appears on the best maps as Tell Gezar or Tell Dschezer. It is quite near the little village of Abu Shûshak, some four miles northwest of Amwas, the ancient Nicopolis, on the railroad from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and eighteen miles from the latter place. The honor of identifying Gezer belongs to the veteran archæologist, Clermont-Ganneau, who, in 1873, discovered two bilingual tablets or inscriptions. One of these is in Hebrew, and has 3 bn, that is, the boundary of Gezer, and which probably defines the Sabbatic limit of the little town. The other inscription has the name Alkios in Greek characters. This Alkios may have been the son of a certain Maccabean named Simon. The importance of Gezer is fully shown by the great number of historical allusions which we have to it. It figures quite prominently in the Tell el-Amarna correspondence. Not only is

Gezer frequently mentioned in these tablets, but there are three letters written by Yapachi, the governor of Gezer, to his sovereign in Egypt. This is not the place to discuss the contents of this correspondence, but if three letters were sent from Gezer to Amarna may we not hope that some tablets either from Egypt or from the towns surrounding Gezer may be unearthed in this tell? It is well known that one such tablet was brought to light during the excavations at Tell el-Hesy, or Lachish. Gezer is also one of the places named in the Merenptah inscription, in which the word "Israel" likewise occurs. Horam, the king of Gezer, who had formed an alliance with Lachish, was defeated and slain by Joshua (Josh. x, 33). Of this alliance we shall speak farther on. The Gezerites were not fully subjugated till centuries later (xvii, 10). Gezer appears as a Philistine stronghold during the reign of David, who, though he fought against the city, never succeeded in taking it (2 Sam. v, 25; 1 Chron. xiv, 16). Sometime during the reign of Solomon the place was taken and burned by the Pharaoh whose daughter the king of Israel had married, when it was presented as part of the dowry to this wife of Solomon (1 Kings ix, 16). The town played a very important rôle during the Maccabean wars (1 Macc. iv, 15; vii, 45; ix, 52; xii, 43, and often).

The following eloquent passage by George Adam Smith in his Historical Geography of the Holy Land is well worth reproducing:

Shade of King Horam, what hosts of men have fallen round that citadel of yours! On what camps and columns has it looked down through the centuries, since first you saw the strange Hebrews burst with the sunrise across the hills and chase your countrymen down Ajalon-that day when the victors felt the very sun conspiring with them to achieve the unexampled length of battle. Within sight of every Egyptian and every Assyrian invasion of the land, Gezer has also seen Alexander pass by, and the legions of Rome in unusual flight, and the armies of the cross struggle, waver, and give way, and Napoleon come and go. If all could rise who have fallen around its base-Ethiopians, Hebrews, Assyrians, Arabs, Turcomans, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Saxons, Mongols-what a rehearsal of the judgment day it would be!

The first thing to attract the attention of the excavator at Gezer is its buried walls; of these there are at least three. One of them exhibits a splendid piece of very ancient workmanship, and is in marked contrast with the dilapidated condition and rude construction of the house walls, which are so completely ruined that it is impossible to trace "the complete plan of any building," unless that of an old sanctuary. This city wall, to use Mr. Macalister's words, "is a magnificent structure of an average thickness of fourteen feet, and in some places standing below ground to a height of twelve feet." The skill shown in the stone-dressing as well as in the masonry can best be explained by supposing that the work was executed by trained workmen from Egypt. From the walls, the series of beaten mud and limestone floors, with their pits, ovens, and cisterns, and the objects found in the several strata, we have a right to

conclude that there were no less than seven successive occupations-some pre-Semitic, one very early Semitic, two later Semitic ones, and one of the time of the Crusades.

The "High Place" demands our attention. It differs in many regards, though constructed on the same general plan, from other high places discovered both on the east and west sides of the Jordan. The masonry is superior. To judge from the débris under which it was buried, this old temple must be very ancient; and yet it is probably Semitic in origin. Its form, something between a circle and a square, is peculiar. It has an average width, not counting the walls, thirty inches thick, which almost completely surround it, of forty-five feet. The inclosed space is divided into two almost equal parts. The east side is cut up into small chambers of varying sizes, but the western portion has nothing in it except a circle, not quite two feet high, built of small stones. There is a similar structure at Tell es-Safi, yet the two exhibit such differences of arrangement and construction as to justify the inference that the worship at the two places was not exactly the same. As at all high places, the sacred stones were in evidence here also. The massebah, or pillar, so often denounced in the Pentateuch is represented at Gezer by a solid rude block nearly eight feet in height and about five feet in thickness. The objects, so far discovered, in the ruins at Gezer are, on the whole, very similar to those brought out of other mounds in the Shephelah, and yet a number of specimens not common elsewhere have been brought to light in this mound. This is especially true of some flint knives, with rude marks upon them. "Marked flints are so extremely rare that every specimen is worth recording." Many of the stone objects are very highly polished, which goes to show that the ancient Gezerites were people of some æsthetic taste. There are fine specimens of workmanship in alabaster, agate, carnelian, chalcedony, diorite, emerald, jasper, etc. Utensils for domestic use are very plentiful and in fine state of preservation. There is a preponderance of articles in copper and bronze, and indeed both silver and gold are represented. Of the pottery we shall speak farther on, in connection with the burial cave. There were a large number of jar handles, marked Socoh and Hebron, but these are all of late origin. Other pieces bear marks, either straight or angular; though some of these marks have a remarkable similarity to the old Phoenician letters, it is impossible, notwithstanding their uniformity or regularity, to regard them as either an early or a degenerate system of writing. Many of the pieces are painted in three colors, the figures, for the most part, being geometrical.

The most valuable and interesting of all the discoveries at Gezer is that of a very ancient crematory-later used as a burial place. It is an artificially made chamber, and measures thirty-one by twenty-four and a half feet, with a height varying from two to five feet. It is questionable whether this room had these dimensions from the very beginning, or whether it was enlarged as time went