we tell of the awakening, and of Jacob speaking of the Holy place, and promising to give one-tenth of all he has to the Lord; in other words, promising to pay tithing. Is the lesson finished? By no means. Here is the chance to connect it with today. We can teach the children that we should all pay tithing, just as Jacob did, because we love the Lord-not because we hope for a great blessing, but because it is a pleasure and a great privilege to be able to give one-tenth of what we have to the Lord; 'and then we can show how it is given to him. In this way we can teach them to give gladly, without hope of reward, and they will receive the blessings without giving with that idea.

All these things have to be taken into consideration in preparing the lesson. The teacher reads the story over, not only once, but several times, until the facts are firmly in the mind. She reads all the references given. In the lessons on the life of Jesus, the "Life of Christ" by Farrar is suggested for teachers' 'reading. It is not intended that this should be read to the children; but the more knowledge the teacher has on the subject of her lesson, the better lesson she can give. When this is done, she decides how she can best present it to arouse the interest of the children, how to connect it with their lives; then, if possible, she tells it aloud.

In telling the story, use language that the children will understand, and do not tell just the mere facts, use a little imagination. I do not mean to change the facts at all, but weave in a few details. Children are not particularly interested in mere historical facts, and we do not tell these stories simply for their historical value, but to teach some truth and give the children a desire to put this into practice in their lives. Do you remember the school in Dickens" "Hard Times," where there were taught nothing but facts, facts, facts?

It is not the amount of work that is gone through during the lesson that counts, it is the impression that is made on the children. It may take a longer time to tell a story in this way, but still it may be economy of time in the end. Let us think how we feel in regard to these things. Suppose we go to a lecture on some scientific subject. We hear a number of facts, just facts; but possibly only those who are already deeply interested in the subject have gained much benefit or are much impressed with the lecture but let us attend another in which the lecturer states some of those same facts, perhaps not so many of them, but he uses apt illustrations, connecting them with something we already know, we gain a great deal more from the lecture. So with stories. The following quotation from the "Story of the Chosen People" illustrates the method of telling facts without the use of imagination:

The food which they brought from Egypt was soon eaten up, for their family was a very large one. As the famine was still raging, they soon saw that they would be obliged to go to Egypt to get some more grain.

They did not dare appear before Joseph without Benjamin, so they begged their old father to let him go with them. Jacob would not let him go at first, but finally he yielded to the brothers' entreaties, and the little caravan again went down into Egypt.

Joseph looked with pleasure upon his little brother, who, of course, did not know him; and then, wishing to find out whether his elder brothers could now be trusted, he made up his mind to try them. By his order the travelers were feasted in his own palace, where he sent all the best dishes to Benjamin, and then the eleven brothers were sent away with full sacks of grain.

In the following selection from "Old Stories of the East," the story is told in an imaginative way:

Days and weeks went by, and the famine grew worse and worse. The grain which the brothers had brought was almost gone.

"Boys," said their father, "you will have to go again and buy a little more grain."

"It is no use, unless you will let Benoni go with us,” they answered; "for the man said that he would not listen to us again unless we brought him."

But the old man wept, and declared that he would not part with the boy.

Then Praise asked him, "Which is better,-that all your children and grandchildren should perish here with hunger, or that we take the risk with the young lad? I will answer with my life that he shall come back safe."

At last the prince agreed to let the child go.

"Carry a little present down to the man," he said. "We have not much that will please him; but take him a little balm and a little honey, and some spices and nuts, and carry back the money that you found in your sacks. There must have been some mistake about it. Then, when he sees your little brother, it may be that the great man will deal kindly with you."

The brothers did as he told them, and taking their presents and the young lad with them, they went down again into the Land of the Nile.

This

When the Master of the Land heard that they had come, he ordered that they should be brought to his own palace. frightened them very much, for they thought that now he would throw them into prison or put them to death for carrying the money home in their sacks. When they were led into the room where he sat, they bowed very low before him, and gave him the

presents which their father had sent; but how poor and little did these presents seem in the midst of so much grandeur!

"Is your father well, the old man of whom you told me?" asked the great man. "Is he still alive?"

"Our father is still alive, and he is well, they answered; and they again bowed themselves to the ground.

Then the great man saw the young lad, his own brother, standing trembling before him.

"Is this your younger brother, about whom you told me?" he asked.

"This is he," they answered.

"May the God of your father be ever kind to you, my lad!" said he; and he turned away, and went into his own room and wept.

But in the attempt to make the story interesting, the point to be brought out must not be lost sight of. The teacher must keep that in mind, so that when the story is ended, the children wil have gained that point, and there is no need whatever of pointing out the moral. Mr. Adler says :

"Treat the moral element as an incident; emphasize it, indeed, but incidentally. Pluck it as a wayside flower. How often does it happen that, having set out on a journey with a distinct object in mind, something occurs on the way which we had not foreseen, but which in the end leaves the deepest impression on the mind. The object which we had in view is long forgotten, but the incident which happened by the way is remembered for years after." The whole story need not be told by the teacher without any help from the children. Questions may be asked during the telling of it.

It has been said that no lesson is complete without a concert recitation, and the memory gem (of course on the same subject as the lesson) will furnish an opportunity for this concert work, and besides this, it teaches the truth in a different form, and gives the children a way of expressing it. A great deal of time is sometimes used in teaching a memory gem. If it is not made clear to the children, then there is no meaning in it for them, and if taught without this understanding, it may not prove to be a Gem. This understanding can be given by means of questions, bringing out the full sense and meaning, for parrot-like work is not very satisfactory.

In order to keep the class orderly and attentive, it is necessary that each moment be occupied; for in work with the children, as in other things, delays are dangerous. For this reason it is well for the teacher to have a moral story prepared.

The lesson from the Bible or from Church history is the main lesson; the moral story, being on the same subject, is given to

supplement that lesson, and for the purpose of giving to the children the truth taught by means of the Bible story in another form; but the moral story should not be made the principal part of the lesson.

The reason the whole of the moral story is given in the Children's Friend, while the other stories are outlined or references for them given, is because it is quite often very difficult to find suitable moral stories. There are a great many of these stories, but discrimination must be used in their selection. We wish to teach the child to do right because it is right; not because he expects some reward or fears some punishment; so we teach obedience, not by showing the evil effects of disobedience, but by showing that obedience is a duty, and that happiness comes from the knowledge of having done our duty. In real life is everv good deed rewarded in some material way: y? Honesty is the best policy, but is that the reason we are honest? It is true that we reap what we sow; but the harvest is not always a material one, or if so, it is sometimes so long in coming that the child may lose sight of it. If we have this thought in mind, we will not chose so many stories in which every good act is rewarded in a material way, but we will choose those which show the reward of a good act is in the consciousness of having done right, of having done the best we could.

The preparation for these stories is much the same as for those taken from the Bible, and the same care should be taken to keep in mind the point to be made in telling the story, so that the child may have a desire to improve by it, without having to be told to do so, and without having to end with, "The moral of this story is," etc.

It is not a light or careless work in which we are engaged; it requires time and thought, and a great deal of prayerful preparation, and our hearts must be filled with love for the little ones in whose interests we are working. But in helping them we help ourselves, for we are allowed to be with them, to share in their troubles and their joys, and to make for ourselves a place in their hearts; and we must remember

"There's nothing on earth half so holy
As the innocent heart of a child."

-Olive Derbidge.

PARENTS' DEPARTMENT

"God help us parents all to live aright,

And may our homes all love and truth unfold,
Since life for us no loftier aim can hold
Than leading little children to the light."

"Don't look for the flaws, but, instead, extol the virtues of your child.”

A member of the Mothers' Class in a little Illinois town writes me that the above subject afforded a most animated discussion at their last meeting.

No better subject for mothers to discuss could be found. The general idea in many homes is, I fear, that a mother's duty to her child consists in watching for his faults, picking them out and holding them constantly before him.

The atmosphere of homes that are run on this principle, says a prominent writer in the "Examiner," is smothering to all good impulses and emotions that may spring up in the mind of the child.

Your child's life is loaned to you to develop and bring out all the good, the highest and the noblest qualities that are not yet unfolded. They are all there, for we are born with all our gifts, circumstances and environment crushing down in one what different surroundings and events bring out in another.

If you are given a handful of clay and told to model a beautiful face out of it without the first idea of sculpturing or art, it would be impossible for you to do it, try as you will. An ugly lump of clay it will still remain, out of all proportion to the ideal you are striving to fashion.

You must study the prinicples of modeling before you can make a likeness of anything out of the clay. So it is with the young lives given into your care to mold. Study yourself first. Turn the searchlight of inquiry on your own mind, bring out the best in yourself first, or you will never succeed with another.

Try to view things from your child's standpoint. Stop harping on his faults. Don't tell him he is naughty or stupid, or that you are ashamed of him. All that does more harm than good.

It either awakes a keen resentment or chills his better impulses. When a child is struggling to have his own way against