X.

THE TEACHER TEACHING.

HE teacher is the master and superior, and his character, attitude, bearing and words

should be well calculated to govern and to guide. Teaching is not simply educating-namely, drawing out, nor simply instructing the pupil, but training him. It is taking my thought and converting it to his use.

With this view great care should be taken to begin a lesson aright. The teacher should come from communion with God, and his spirit and manner should be at once thoughtful, earnest and cheerful, never cold, cheerless, indifferent, or severe. Let him give to each scholar a warm, quiet, but hearty salutation; be early, be calm, be gentle, be firm and seriously in earnest; never allow any scholar to take any undue liberties; and see that each one and everything is in its place.

With interest and reverence the teacher and his class will then enter upon the devotional opening exercises, joining in them. After which he will gather his class around him, and first place himself on

terms of good-will with all, and find some common ground for their minds to begin acting upon. A well-timed, easy, and awakening question about the former or present lesson will arrest attention, but it must be well adapted, and readily answered. The first questions must never perplex or embarrass the pupil, for they are very important. From thence proceed and rapidly draw their minds up towards the great central thought of the lesson; awakening thought, arousing curiosity, and deepening impressions.

The teacher should question the lesson out of the pupils, and then question it into them. He will first get the words of the lesson clearly into the minds of the scholars-mostly by catechising-and then the meaning and illustration of the principal words. Next the lessons of instruction must be carefully drawn, and lastly, applied to the heart and life of all.

A severe test comes upon the teacher in the recitation and catechising upon the lesson. He is to remember: 1. To draw all the information that he can from the class; 2. To induce the class to find out all they can for themselves; 3. To give such informa tion as is best for the class, but before giving any information, be sure that no member of the class can give it.

The true teacher starts from the known, and proceeds over short and easy stepping-stones to the faintly known, thence to the contrast, and then to the unknown. Some very learned men utterly fail as teachers.

They take such tremendous strides that no pupil can follow them. It is like the father rushing up three steps at a time to the top of the staircase. If he would lead his child, he must be careful to take but one step at a time. Let the child's present knowledge be the starting-point for all future acquisitions. Reading, or even reciting, a lesson, may possibly teach nothing. "'Tis in vain that you make them read the life and doctrines of the Saviour, if you do not explain to them that he lived for their example, that he died to redeem them, and that those doctrines are to govern them in thought, word and deed." Care should be taken to select the best plan of arranging the lesson. "The beginning should arrest attention, the middle inform the mind, and the end affect the heart." Let there be a natural order and method in all your teaching ;-one thought gliding into and connecting with the next, and so on. In no department of life is system and method of more value, and a child is as much aided by it as a man. Robertson justly says: "Memory without method is useless. Detached facts are practically valueless." Method is the laying out of the lesson and proceeding in its natural order in conformity with the uniform laws of the human mind. It tells what shall come first and second, and puts everything in its right place, so that the mind can take a clearer grasp, and memory a more easy and a more retentive hold, of the truths presented.

We should not, however, bind ourselves to any one method of teaching, for there is no standard

mode alike adapted to different persons and lessons. The most of our good teachers have wrought out some way of teaching in a measure peculiar to themselves and adapted to them. Those who can do so, however, will be able to borrow much of value from "Gall's Lesson System," with its thorough analysis, numerous exercises, exhaustive doctrines and lessons of instruction, or from "Stow's Training System," with its sympathy of numbers, its picturing out into life and training which will aid others, and "Mimpriss's Gospel Harmony" will help many. Let us ride no hobbies, but gather the best suggestions from all for our Sabbath-school work.

What we want in our Sabbath-schools is to add a sufficiency of teaching-power-to give efficacy to our teaching without stiffening it with rules and forms.

A few years ago hymn-learning, catechism, and task-lessons formed the staple of even our Scriptureclasses. Now there is a demand for good Bibleteaching, that will equal the teaching of our best academies and colleges. The Bible is so adapted and wonderful as to place us on great vantage ground. We want to know, How to use it? Mr. J. G. Fitch, of the Normal College, London, has given us an admirable synopsis of the few simple principles which underlie the great art, and which, as he justly observes, "require to be pondered and thoroughly grasped by every teacher:"

I. "Never to teach what you do not quite un

derstand." Clear knowledge makes clear, pleasant teaching.

2. "Never to tell a child what you could make that child tell you." He will thus remember it ten times as long.

3. "Never to give a piece of information without asking for it again.” The mind cannot retain what it does not expect to be called on for again, or to have a future use for.

4. "Never to use a hard word if an easy one will convey your meaning; and never to use any word at all unless you are quite sure that it has a meaning to convey." Mark-not "long" word, but "hard" word.

5. "Never to begin an address, or a lesson, without a clear view of its end." Then aim high and at the mark.

6. "Never to give an unnecessary command, nor one which you do not mean to see obeyed." Therefore, few commands; for in case you fail to secure obedience the child rules you, and not you the child.

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7. Never to permit a child to remain in the class for a minute without something to do, and a motive for doing it." A child wants something to do, and cannot bear to be idle. Keep him busy.

Teaching is an art, and like any other art, it has to be learned-learned, too, by study, observation, and practice. It has its rules and principles. He who knows and practises them is a good workman ; while he who neglects them is necessarily inefficient.