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THE

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER.

Enthusiasm in our Work.

BY THE REV. W. M. STATHAM, HARECOURT, CANONBURY.

HERE can be no good work done in this world without enthusiasm. I do not mean fanaticism, but intelligent, wise, and well-directed zeal, in the fulfilment of every noble ideal.

We all want to make the best of ourselves, and the best of our spheres of work. I have seen a little pamphlet called Our Farm of Four Acres." That

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certainly was a slender enough acreage to call a farm, but it appears to have been well planted, well matured, and at last well recompensed.

Our greatest danger in this age is the loss of enthusiasm in our work, and our work is one that the cold hand of duty can never discharge; it must be the outcome of the warm heart of love. Not that love can ever reign without a ministry of service! A firm will, an enlightened mind and a quick conscience, these are all needful for our great campaign.

Let me say, first of all, that our work can only be sustained by personal individual enthusiasm. It cannot be done by committeeism alone or confederation alone. I remember hearing of a Church that was very united, but a critic said, "Yes; they are all frozen together." JANUARY, 1881.

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Some We have ART enthusiasms, which sordidness, and I am right glad schools in the land. We have

And this enthusiasm is not to be ephemeral. It is to have in it a quiet earnestness born of the deep conviction that Christ had a passion for humanity, and loved all the sons and daughters of men. If once we are touched with that, and see God's ideal within the breast of every child, we shall go to our work with a sublime and joyful consecration. Think of it! I mean of the ideal itself. enthusiasms are good in their way. help to lift the nation out of mere that there are many efficient Art scientific enthusiasms, which have led physicians to inject the poison into their own veins to test experiments which are to affect others : shall we be less enthusiastic in our work? Some are enthusiastic at the 66 canvas "that they may bring out in beauty the human face divine shall we be less enthusiastic in our work, we who have to bring out by God's help on the canvas of a child's heart the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ ?

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Now if an enthusiasm is awakened in my soul I must do all I can to KEEP IT ALIVE. Make companions who will keep it alive. Read books that will keep it alive. So on the other hand, no merely ETHICAL test—that is, whether a theory is wrong-must be my standard of conduct in relation to Christian duty. I must be guided by the law of love to Christ, I must consider what will most conduce to His kingdom and glory in the work I have undertaken for His name's sake. We will suppose, then, that we have the ideal that I have spoken of, and that we are trying to realize it by the will of the Holy Ghost. If this be so, we shall make all bear upon the chief end. We shall be ourselves, and teach naturally. I believe the most successful teachers are those that know best how to turn truth into life— the truth they see, and hear, and read. I have never been in favour of mere "regulation" work. We ought to develop the powers peculiar to us, and which will work pleasantly to us. Painters do not copy one another's methods, they work out their own way, and so you can know men by their works anywhere, in Italy, America, or England; and a good teacher simply makes method a servant but never a master. Take care of this. "Be yourselves."

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But perhaps you say, My own self is not a very good self. Then improve it! but always along the lines of your own constitution. has a pictorial fancy, another has no imagination at all. One has grace of suggestiveness, another has power of elaboration only. One can teach by the life-studies of the week, another by the book-studies of the closet: "there are diversities of operation, but the same spirit worketh all in all."

We have one especial consolation amid the ever-changing ages, and that is this-childhood is ever with us, and apart from the preservation of population, it is a blessed thing that the young child is here to-day. The world's heart is thus kept young and the Church's energies wisely directed in the care and culture of the coming race.

This work will never grow out of fashion or grow old! It is worth while then to treat the work itself with reverence. Robert Raikes, like Abraham, will be "the father of the faithful" to all generations; and long after you and I lie "each in our narrow bed," there will be the long race of successors who try to make childhood blessed in the name of Christ.

I need scarcely say that our work should have largely to do with character. That is a poor result of teaching which leaves a child acquainted with the way a bed was let down through an Eastern roof, and ignorant of the way in which selfishness changes its masks, and deceives the heart with its shifting delusions. We look not only to the cross for forgiveness, but to the power of the cross to truly save us from selfishness and sin. And here let me say that with anti-Christian teachers in our leading towns and cities it becomes those who have to do with senior scholars to show them how the cross alone will aid the true brotherhood of men. Socialistic schemes all break down through the selfishness inherent in our common humanity; a few men filled with guile could and would mar any endeavours to regulate society by a sham equality; but the gospel which inspires personal sacrifice does not rob us of our honest rights in the name of brotherhood, but stimulating all true and wise ambitions yet constrains us to "look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others "this is the best solution of all problems. Yes, tell the sons of the working-classes that you have not taught simply a salvation from Gehenna, but a salvation also from the vices of the human heart and from the sins of society at large.

But you have come to a time, it is said, of riper and broader education. Most men laugh at the three R's now. It is not as in the old days of which George Eliot speaks in the person of Mr. Tulliver. "All the learning my father ever paid for was a bit of birch at one end and the alphabet at the other." No! we have come to days, thank God, when School Boards give an excellent education all round. Well, it is said sometimes, you must raise the standard of your teaching. True, but take care how you say that, lest you dishearten some of your best teachers. Religion on one side is a matter connected with intense spiritual life, and with a charm of influence which God gives to the humblest; and remember these are the priceless gifts which you cannot gain by mere skill or method. I have heard speeches, sometimes of rather a pronounced character, about a better style of teaching; remember that this is a gradual growth and not a sudden gift.

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The result of all our work will and must be tested by what becomes of our senior scholars - for if we lose them we lose all. Now I want them to remember just this-that when we ask them to consecrate themselves to Christ we do not give that invitation in a lugubrious way, as much as to say, We know it is not a very cheerful invite, but do come. Nay, rather it is the most cheerful invitation we can ever give to any of the sons and daughters of men. Religion is

not alone deliverance from danger. It is BLESSEDNESS, it is the highest part of nature pleased and satisfied. Religion is not an accident of human life! As the ear is made for sound and God made it musical, so the soul is made for God, and He is the blessed God, and I am blessed in knowing Him and dwelling in Him, through His dear Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I do not invite the young simply to leap into a lifeboat to leave a wreck. I ask them to join in a voyage to the sacred isles of the blest.

Then I would have the senior scholars remember that we want what the Arabs call "the braves," that is, courageous helpers to carry on the war against evil in all our leading towns, and in our villages too. It requires courage to be an earnest Christian as much as ever it did, for Stuartism in morals is again opposed to Puritanism in England. The tides of pleasure in our towns are carrying away whole argosies of precious treasures, and we must be brave enough to say "No" to all invitations where we cannot ask our Master to go with us. We have not only to avoid the frivolous and the gay, we have to cultivate interest in the pure and the good. Do let us remember that we exhaust our moral forces and need to renew them in every way we can. As all I touch draws away my warmth, so my contact with the world draws away my strength, and I must renew it by communion with all that is elevating and inspiring.

We are all disappointed at times that we cannot fulfil our ideals. The author is always more than any work he ever wrote. The painter sees better pictures on the blank canvas than ever he can put there. Phidias saw more in the unhewn marble than ever he could mould into forms of beauty. So is it with Churches. We have our ideal of teaching, but how far short we come!

And here let me first suggest that we can only teach well by enjoying our work; we must cultivate the spirit of delight in it. In this sense as well as in many others, "the joy of the Lord is our strength!

And I am one of those who believe in cheerful surroundings in Sunday schools. Just as some vestries would never be tempting to the most eager "brokers," so some schools are destitute of the element of brightness. Bring, in summer, some sweet flowers with you whenever you can, and do your part to make the whole work a joy.

The senior scholars should especially interest themselves in those schools where they have gained spiritual good. Gratitude demands it. Stick to the old ship, even if it is a humble one. But do something! Do the do-able as soon as you can. When I was waiting at a railway station one day, a lad dressed in the livery of a linen jacket passed me, and I said, "Well, my lad, what do you do, eh?" He looked at me and said, "I grease the wheels, sir!" Thank God for that, I thought. I should like a multiplication table made out of you, for that is what we want! somebody to ease and help-especially to grease the wheels, for there are plenty to put grit upon them by discouragement.