66 the old saw more vividly realized than where children are concerned: "Variety is charming." It is, perhaps, because little children are so much more natural than adults that they delight in variety. Monotony, sameness - is it not weariness to us all, but especially to the young P But how few among us, save those who have a special genius for freshness and novelty, can altogether avoid the danger of "repeating ourselves"! Ministers are sometimes charged with this fault, and not always without reason. Need we wonder, then, if teachers fall into the same evil ways P The arrangement which compels us from time to time to leave the ruts into which we have settled is, therefore, quite a providential one; for with a new lesson list come the timely warning against sameness. Fresh subjects-new methods-new illustrations-these are urged upon us with new force as we handle our new roll book. SING for the Old Year dead! Clear as the shining morn, Sing for the glad New Year, Sing, for the Morning Star, Through all the glad New Year! Sing, for the Sun hath risen, Bing, for now evermore How can He wax and wane Sun of my glad New Year? YEAR. Sing, for in strength it shines, Bringing my heart to Him, Telling Him all its sin, Telling Him all my thoughts, This, then, my joy shall be, Living each day in light: Sing, then, the Old Year dead! Sing, then! Yea, always sing! Through all the glad New Year, Unpromising Boys. By G. HOLDEN PIKE. HE present is such a singular world, and one in which our shrewdest calculations are so often baulked, and our most far-seeing prognostications so . frequently falsified, that a very little of life experience teaches us not to disparage anything merely because it is unpromising. History teaches us that the grandest reformatory movements had the most unlikely origins; that auspicious events came to pass at times when least looked for; that discoveries which have proved lasting blessings to the race were made by men whose powers were not suspected. The same principle holds good in the world of nature. The broad river rises in a little spring; puny insects are builders of islands; the cloud no bigger than a man's hand overspreads the brass-bound firmament until the parched desert is transformed into a fruitful plain. In point of fact, unlikely things as we see them, or seem to see them, would wear a very different face if we could look upon them as they are seen by God. The case of the Sunday school is very analogous to the things we have mentioned; and because no two boys are alike it is impossible to judge of what they will become by established rules. Indeed, before passing judgment at all, we should, in so far as is possible, place ourselves in the lad's situation, remembering that all alike, whether young or old, are creatures of circumstances. In a general way it is always promising to see a boy with a good deal of the boy in him; for it is a healthy symptom when nature asserts herself, although there may be freaks and traits which run counter to our own taste. At the same time, correct observation is an art which to be mastered requires that we learn to draw reasonable inferences and to make proper allowances. Thus a scholar with superior home advantages, one who is comfortably clothed and well fed, is not necessarily more promising than his less fortunate brother, merely because, at present, he has more knowledge and a sleeker skin. We commend what is good in the one instance, while in the other we have to make allowance for vicious associations and a squalid home. The things which are least lovely in the fortunate boy may not really belong to his disposition at all, but may come from an artificial cause; and vice versa, his companion for similar reasons may appear better than he really is. By all means let us avoid a mistake, which may result in life-long disaster, by looking at either through the green spectacles of personal prejudice. A diamond cut and polished may be detected by anybody; an educated eye alone can discover the same gem surrounded with a rough covering among worthless associates in its native bed. While prosecuting their work Sunday school teachers will naturally expect to encounter a full share of discouragement which faith and perseverance must overcome. No great project is unpromising because at the commencement the outlook is gloomy, otherwise the Sunday school movement itself need never have been inaugurated. When we think about unpropitious circumstances and unpromising boys, let us try to realize what were the surroundings of Raikes in Gloucester a hundred years ago. No day ever had a darker morning; no reformer ever had to mould more uncanny material. Those who looked askance on the innovation, and perhaps thought the eccentric journalist somewhat beside himself, seemed to have all the laugh on their side. What adventurous person before had ever even hinted at the possibility of taming the vicious offspring of vicious parents, who on Sundays, and at all other times when not elsewhere confined, rendered the streets of Gloucester a scene of riot and immorality? What would have deterred weaker natures acted as a stimulus to the leader in the new enterprise, and thus proved his strength. In the dispensation of providence it is frequently ordered that the very things calculated to make an undertaking look unpromising are the most telling incentives to action which even an angel could use. When God condescends to answer His servants' doubts at all it is in a command to go "forward." But as regards our immediate subject, could we not easily show that very many of the men who have done most in the way of influencing their own and future ages were as boys decidedly unpromising? To take John Bunyan as one familiar example, we know only little about his schoolmasters; but we can hardly think that the tutors of Bedford Grammar School saw any reason to suppose their pupil would ever rise in the world above the low level of the family tinkering. Humanly speaking, what was there in the allegorist during his early years to show that he was cast in a finer mould than other boys? Though morally not worse than his fellows, he must have seemed to be much lower in the social scale. Suspected of being a gipsy, and living among the lowest associations, he showed so little aptitude for learning that by the time he grew up he had forgotten almost everything unassociated with his calling, and the village games in which he found his chief delight. Such powers as he inherited seemed to find expression in violent bodily exercises by day and wild dreams by night. A wanton boy-who could have predicted that he would write the most popular of religious books ? The chosen vessel of God was he whom men most despised. When, as a little boy playing with other little boys in the street of an Irish town, John Philpot Curran first attracted the notice of the kind clergyman who undertook to pay for his education, there could have been no promise of the future eminent lawyer in his young face and lively jokes. The patron who took the youngster off the streets and sent him to Trinity College could hardly have explained his procedure otherwise than that he had "a fancy" in the matter. He may have acted in faith, and in that case he had a promise which was not likely to be disappointed; but the prospect from the human standpoint was simply a commonplace one. How Curran advanced step by step, distinguished himself at college, won all that man could win at the bar, and became Master of the Rolls, are facts known to all readers of Irish history. If it be said that he inherited the rarest gifts, we reply that he was hardly more fortunate in possessing those gifts than he was in finding a Christian friend just at the critical turning-point of youth. Only few can overcome all the obstacles which bar their coming to distinction, but timely counsel may lead the least talented into paths of usefulness. George Whitefield as a boy, was, perhaps, even more unpromising than either of the examples above mentioned; for, born and reared in a public-house, among the most undesirable surroundings, his nature partook of his associations. According to his own account of himself, he was addicted to lying, swearing, stealing, gaming, pernicious reading and other vices; so that had some human seer been commissioned to go into Gloucester, and put his hand upon the future great revival preacher of the eighteenth century, about the last corner to be searched would have been the "Bell Inn." There, however, the boy was learning in the school of human nature the things which would be useful to him as a man, and as a champion of the Gospel in an evil world. His mother may have been unfortunate in having inherited no better home than a public-house; but instead of yielding to despair as regarded her sor, she gave him good counsel, and, according to her ability, shielded him from bad influences. What followed is known to every one-the unpromising boy listened to what was said, turned into better ways, formed better habits, until, in the end, evil was overcome with good, and Whitefield stood forth as one of the greatest reformers of his age. It is hardly correct to say of such instances that the child was father of the man; for the child, as the young and tender tree, gave no promise of the abundant fruition of after days. Evil within had to be conquered, new life and strength had to be imparted by the Spirit of God before either Whitefield or Bunyan attained to their full power. Promotion comes from God alone; and who shall say how often it is given as the reward of faith ? Were it necessary to multiply examples, numbers of other eminent men might be mentioned who were, as boys, altogether unpromising. Who, while they were at school, would have predicted that either Goldsmith or Johnson would rise to the distinction they afterwards attained ? A spendthrift without any steadiness of purpose, the first was destined to wander over the Continent before he found his proper calling; the second was partially blind with the seeds of hypochondria in his constitution. It thus appears that the teachers of boys have never cause for despair on account of the apparent lack of promise they detect in their charge. Common experience teaches that it is easier to misjudge than it is to judge correctly. In regard to his own scholars, at all events, hope should ever spring up within the teacher's breast, because they are material to be moulded according to his own individual skill. Luther's tutor, who always politely saluted his pupils whenever he entered the school-house, had some reason for what seemed like ultra politeness; for, said he, "In future years these lads will be the doctors, the chancellors, the electors, the senators, and the rulers of Germany and of the world." Let English teachers work in that spirit-knowing nothing of unpromising boysand they are not likely to lose their reward. |