cated and simple-minded tiller of the soil can understand enough for his salvation, and for his happiness; while the most deeply read and profoundly thinking philosopher may exercise his largest powers, and yet feel that he has scarcely moved a step towards grasp ing its wondrous truths. The man of worldly experience can find its precepts to be his best and surest guide in the gravest transactions of his weighty business; while the infant of tender years can carry out its loving mandates in its little world of play.

And so in worship; the long and stately dedication prayer of Solomon, that masterpiece of florid and earnest supplication, so marvellously displaying both his wisdom and his piety; and the short and simple prayer of the publican, welling up from his heart at the moment, and the few words put by Eli into little Samuel's mouth, alike crave and find acceptance at the footstool of Almighty favour; while the fervid Psalms of Moses and David, and the joyous Hosannahs of the little ones of Jerusalem, alike meet with the Divine approval.

That the prayers and praises of the little ones of the flock are regarded by, and pleasing to their Heavenly Father, then, cannot for a moment be doubted; and that God requires of his

worshippers hearty and intelligent ser vice is plainly declared in Holy Scripture. The question, then, naturally follows,—“ Is there, as a rule, provided for the younger members of our Sunday schools such a form of public worship as they may, and can join in with their hearts, and as a condition prece dent to that, with their understanding?

To this we think that the melancholy, but almost universal reply must be,— There is not.

Before proceeding to discuss how this want may be supplied, let us for a few moments consider what is generally provided for them. It is this:-A service of prayer and praise compiled exclusively for, and admirably adapted to, the adult members of the Church (though requiring even from them care. ful attention), followed by a sermon addressed, as a rule, exclusively to such adult members (and often but slightly appreciated by them), the whole occupying an hour-and-three-quarters to two hours, during which the children must remain comparatively in one posi tion, and which in their case follows, with but a short interval, an hour or an hour-and-a-half of school teaching, itself too often not of the most lively or interesting description; added to which, in nine Churches out of ten, they are placed en masse, on uncomfortable forms without backs, in some dark, out-of-the-way corner, where they can see little and hear less-unless, indeed, they take great pains to pay attention, which (seeing that their elders who are in good comfortable central seats, and with a knowledge of their duty, too often fail to do) we can scarcely expect

of them. Nor is this all-their attendance at this service is not of their own free will, but compulsory, a necessary sequel to their attendance at school. Too often they know full well that attendance may mean the probability of purgatory, but that absence precedes the certainty of punishment. Ere we, however, point out (if, indeed, that be at all needed) what there is to be said against the present system, let us hear what its advocates have to say in favour of its retention.

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And here we must commence by stating our conviction that the majority of people, both clergy and laity, are passive, rather than active supporters of the existing state of things. tenths of the congregation rarely give the children a thought, except on School-sermon-Sundays, or when they chance to be more noisy than usual; and in this latter case, I fear, the thoughts arise rather from annoyance at their own discomfort than from sympa thy with that of the children. Or, if the subject be brought specially before them, their reply will probably be, "The children have come to church, and sat in that gallery time out of mind, and why should they not continue to do so ?"

Some, however, do think on the subject, and do desire the best good of the children, and yet advocate no alteration. Their great argument is based upon the power of habit and early associations. "Bring the little ones," say they, "in their early years to church, and it will grow into a habit with them to come, which will continue to influence them when they are older and left to themselves."

We quite admit the force of habit (in fact, we fear that much of the external religion of the present day is the result of habit, rather than of conviction), and such habits (and even they are not utterly useless) may be formed in the case of children who (as is the case with the generality of the

middle classes) go to church with their parents, and sit in good seats, and who probably have at least some explanation of the service from them, and who, above all (though their attendance as children may be said to be compulsory), have no clearly defined period when that compulsion is removed and a change of seats necessitated, as is the case with our Sunday scholars, when they leave school. But what are the habits our children acquire? They can't understand, therefore they don't attend, and as a necessary consequence, go to sleep, or talk to one another, and this repeated week by week grows into habit, which bears as its natural fruit disrespect for God's house. And what are their early associations with Church? To them it is a place where they are forced to endure an unmeaning and wearisome penance, from which they will do their best to escape at the earliest possible opportunity. We have, probably, already sufficiently shown the evils of the present system; let us briefly sum them up under two heads

Negatively,--The children, except in few cases, do not worship.

Positively, -Evil habits in church and a dislike of it are engendered, of which the former begets disrespect of God's house; and that, strongly aided by the latter, causes the children to cease attending church at all, as soon as it is open to them to do so.

Hence one of the great causes of want of visible results of our teaching. The happy side of religion which we,-feebly alas! indeed,-endeavour to explain to them in school, is defaced and buried beneath the painful side of it which they have to suffer at Church. On this point hear what says the Rev. J. Clay, after more than thirty years experience as a gaol chaplain, in one of his reports some years ago, "To the discomfort experienced by children, especially of the lower classes, in places of worship-the cold, the fatigue, and the hard raps from the beadle's or nomi

tor's cane, which afflict them during the long service, and inspire a distaste for church or chapel-I attribute much of the godlessness which leads to crime." And the Rev. J. Erskine Clarke, of Derby, well-known for his deep knowledge and skilful treatment of the working classes, says, "I believe that the enforced attendance on a public wor ship intended for adults has been one great cause of the comparative failure of Sunday school work. A boy finds himself compelled to sit out a long service which, with his best attention, he cannot understand and follow, and so he comes to think that all education, all religious duty, is equally unreal, and he views it all as a dreary penance."

Most of the observations we have heretofore made, and, indeed, almost the whole of this paper, refers more especially to the case of town children. As a general rule, country children are better located in church; and the intelligence of a rustic congregation being usually lower than that of one in town, it is more easy to adapt the sermon, at least, to the understanding of all. Much, however, even here, remains to be done.

The ordinary course of proceeding being, then, so unsatisfactory, both when considered in itself and in the results it produces, and in those which it fails to produce, the questions force themselves on our minds, Is there any remedy for the evil? What substitutes can be suggested? been tried? And how have they been found to answer? This is, in fact, the practical portion of our subject.

Have they

The plan, to my mind, most recommendable, and least open to objection of any sort, would be to have a service in the church, selected from the Morning Prayer, conducted by one of the clergy, and followed by a short address or sermon by him, adapted to the capacity of children. This, however, is in practice impossible, or, at least, is generally supposed to be so.

Failing this plan, what next shall be suggested? Some have advocated that a small portion-say ten minutes -of each sermon should be specially addressed to the children, to be called the children's portion. But would this compensate for the wearisome service and the remaining part of the, to them unintelligible, sermon? Others, again, propose special services for the children in the church, say on one Sunday afternoon in the month. This is very good so far, but not enough; a weekly service is needed. In connec tion with this school we have such a service once a quarter, and the children look forward to it with pleasure, and seem thoroughly to appreciate and enjoy it. Being unable to have it in the parish church, we hold it in the Bishop Wilson Memorial Hall. The afternoon service is read, and a sermon to children follows. The children of the congregation are invited, in addition to the school children, and the Hall is generally quite full.

Others, again, say, and with considerable reason, that if the clergy, as they are bound to do, observed the Rubric following the Church Cate chism, in the Prayer Book, the neces sity for separate services for the children would be, in great part at least, obviated. The Prayer Book, indeed, except in the Baptismal Ser vice, as far as I remember, makes no reference to children, except in this Rubric. It runs as follows:-" The curate of every parish shall diligently, upon Sundays and holy days, after the Second Lesson at Evening Prayer, openly in the church, instruct and examine so many children of his parish sent unto him as he shall think con venient, in some part of the Catechism.” This catechising stands in the place of a sermon to the children, and they, being of necessity placed in a good position for the purpose of being catechised, most of the objections to the children's attendance at church

of the schools in this parish. Many objections, of course, have been made against it, such as leading the children to grow up Dissenters, &c., but most that arise have already been stated and replied to. The details of the mode of conducting such a service will, of course, vary in different schools, but the general outline is, as far as I have been able to learn, much the same, Personal experience on such matters is, however, always more valuable than descriptions at second hand, and as our object in these classes is of a practical character, I will describe with some minuteness the mode in which the Separate Service is conducted in this school, and I would ask you to weigh each particular, even though at first sight seemingly trivial. The three youngest classes of the boys' school (that is, the non-readers), the same of the girls, and all the children of the infant school (except the babies) are assembled in the boys' room, and arranged some on the fixed seats on each side (but in advance of the superintendent's desk), and the rest on forms placed across the room. About 120 thus assemble every Sunday morning, at eleven o'clock, and three or four teachers (ladies) kindly attend to maintain order. The service was for some time conducted by the curate, but church engagements unfortunately intervening, it was undertaken by four of the teachers, each having his own Sunday in the month, the fifth Sunday, when occurring, being supplied by a fifth teacher. It is now conducted by a candidate for Holy orders, who is eminently fitted for the post. The school boasts a seraphine, which is played by one of the teachers, and is a great help in the musical part of the service. The service commences with a simple hymn (bye-the-bye, how scarce are really good hymns for children!), which hymn is read out one line at a time-the children repeat the line after the teacherthe second line is treated in the same way

and then both lines are sung, and so on through the hymn. If the children fail to repeat any line pretty generally, the process of reading and repeating is gone through again. The hymn concluded, one of the sentences is read, followed by the general confession. In this and all other responsive prayers, the teacher finishes each sentence before the chil

dren commence. This is done to keep them clear and together, and to prevent confusion-they soon get into the way of it with a little care. Then follows the collect "O Lord, whose nature and property," the Lord's prayer, and the versicles following it; and a chapter from the old or new Testament is read, selected to suit the subject of the address. Another hymn is then introduced to enliven the children after the chapter and before the prayers following. The Apostles' Creed is next repeated in the same manner as the confession, and then come the following prayers :-the Collect for the day, the 3rd Collect at morning prayer, the prayer for the clergy and people, the prayer for all conditions of men, the general thanksgiving, the prayer of St. Chrysostem, and the Apostolic benediction. Another hymn and a collect precede the address, which is followed by a Collect and the blessing. The children are then dis missed in quiet order at 12 o'clock.

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These various Children's Services are all, more or less, feasible, and each has its strong and weak points. It seems, however, to me that in the existing state of feeling of clergy and congre gation towards the children of the poor, the one last described is the most generally practicable, and least likely to meet with obstacles in its carrying out, though, perhaps, in some points, not so theoretically unexcep tionable as one or two of the others. However, whichever be adopted, endeavours should be made to conform in all respects, as far as possible, to the Church Service and procedure, as laid down in the Book of Common Prayer