TWIGS FOR NESTS.

VI. CHILDREN'S SUNDAYS.

"The Sundays of man's life, Threaded together on Time's string,

Make bracelets to adorn the wife

Of the eternal, glorious King.

On Sunday, heaven's gate stands ope,

Blessings are plentiful and ripe,

More plentiful than hope."

HERBERT.

THE Sunday question, happily for our children, is one of the questions of the day which has been fairly re-opened for discussion, and there is no class in the country which will derive greater advantages, if the investigation should lead to a better understanding of the origin, and the obligation, and the observance of the Lord's Day.

The soundness of the scholarship, and the breadth of the piety of those who are taking the first part in the debate, are guarantees for our being eventually put into possession of the truth, and if perplexity and difficulty have prevailed as widely as is supposed amongst those who have had the management of children in homes and schools, parents and teachers will be among the foremost to return their thanks for any results which will throw a clearer and steadier light upon their duty.

For some years matters have been in a most unsatisfactory state, and the most pernicious effects have been the consequence. When the puritanical theory and practice respecting the day were honestly accepted as the standards of opinion and con

duct, false and impracticable though they were, those who adopted them had yet the merit and power which belong to all who have principles and act upon them. There has been, however, for the last generation or more, a secret suspicion that the Sunday is not the Sabbath, and this smothered doubt being ignored, with some others, by religious teachers, has been left to smoulder, demoralizing those who have been obliged to continue a course of training in which they did not fully believe, and preventing, in those who have been brought up during the interval, the formation of any early faith in the sacredness of the institution.

We are just now between two evils: on the one hand there are good and earnest people who, through ignorance or timidity, would strive to preserve the past by enforcing the judaistic observance of the Lord's Day; and on the other hand, there are some who will evidently do their utmost, in this period of transition, to introduce the continental Sunday. There is nothing to fear if there be amongst us a belief and love of the truth, and while it is not given to many to guide and form general opinion, none of us are without our influence upon popular movements; and of all those who are interested in Christianity, none can render greater service than those who have the opportunity of giving to the next generation their first impressions.

As parents, we cannot afford to wait the issue of the present discussion, allowing the question to remain open, for it presses upon us for immediate settlement. The Sunday difficulty re