136 QUESTIONS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL CHILDREN—Continued. [For the American Sunday School Teacher's Magazine.] Do bad children go to church and to school? Do they keep the Sabbath day? May you take God's day to do your And can't you give him one day? What must you do on the Sabbath? I'll tell you when you are not at school or at church, sit still at home, and say over your little bymns, and think about all I have been telling you, and tell your mothers and brothers and sisters about it, and ask them to come to church too, and to read for you, and hear you say your hymns and your prayers. Now tell me what you must do on Sundays when school is out and you go home. When do good children say their prayers? Who takes care of us all day and all night? Must not we ask him to take care of us? Who gives you your clothes and victuals, and every thing? Can you tell me how God gives you the clothes? Your clothes are made out of flax, or cotton, or wool. Where does the flax come from? Who makes it grow? Would it grow if God did not send rain upon it, and make the sun shine upon it? Would the cotton grow if God did not make it? Where does wool come from to make us warm clothes in winter? Who makes it grow on the sheep's back? If God did not make the cotton and flax and wool grow, where should we get clothes? Who gives us our victuals? to a mill and ground into meal. And what do people make of the meal? Then who makes the corn and wheat and rye grow in the fields? How does God make it grow? Should little children be sorry when it rains, and they can't go out to play? No; they should think, now God is so good, he is sending rain down upon the corn, and the potatoes, and all the things, that we may have enough to eat to keep us alive. When you go to bed, say, "I pray Remember, God is looking at you, people eat fish and oysters. Where do they come from? Did God make them? Where does meat come from? You know who made the world, and the creatures, and the fowls, and birds, and fishes? Well then God gives us all these things, does not he? Now suppose God were not to send Who is looking at you all day to Remember, if God takes care of Don't you remember a great many times you have been bad; how you told lies and said bad words, and would not mind your mother, and played all day Sunday, and would not go to school nor to church? And then for all God has been so good to you, you don't thank him nor love him nor care any thing about him: is this being bad or good? And you don't say your prayers to him and ask him to make you good, nor return him thanks for his kindness? Do you think God will love you, and take you up to heaven? Where do you think you shall go when you die? God will punish bad children, won't he? But there is one who died to save all who will come to him; and who is he? When you were so bad that God said "They must die and go to hell," Jesus Christ died to save you, that you might go to heaven. ON FEMALE SABBATH SCHOOLS. [To the editor of the Amer. S. S. T. Magazine.] It has long been a source of secret regret with myself and a few associates, that the depositories of the schools supply no manuel or book of instruction on the various interesting topics connected with the duties of Sunday School Teachers, for which reason we hailed, with the more heart-felt satisfaction, the appearance of your Teachers Magazine and Journal of Education, doubting not but that it would be to us an unfailing mine, rich with the experience of many, and replete with pleasing narratives of the success of our fellow labourers with their young disciples. Your prospectus inspired us with confidence that the pages of the Magazine would lay before us the long desired information, so needful to enlighten and direct our ignorance, as well as to cheer us amidst the many afflicting embarrassments and discouragements that have so long obscured our path in this field of duty. We have been partially gratified by the several VOL. I. 18 papers of general usefulness that have already appeared, especially hints on the formation of Sunday Schools, and the essay on emulation. The excellent little card of rules we have already adopted, having only substituted the word Girl for Boy, and are of opinion it is every way adapted for our purpose. But while we have been highly gratified in observing the plans for the discipline of boys, so minutely detailed, we have waited with surprize and regret for similar instruction, adapted to the female department. The other day, on mentioning my regrets to a friend of the schools, he replied "really girls are so easily managed, I am surprized that you can say you require with them. such schemes of discipline for their government. I always thought that a few kind words, a meek and patient example, and a little energy of action, would prove sufficient to bring the most careless and obstinate to submission, as well as to excite an interest in the mind of the most indifferent of your pupils, leaving little else for the instructress to do than to dictate to her precepts of virtue and religion under circumstances every way so pleasing and advantageous as would originate the most enlivening hopes that early and abundant success would joyfully crown their efforts." Fearing lest this should be your opinion, as well as the prevailing sentiments of the contributors to your Magazine, and earnestly coveting the good that may flow from future useful and sensible communications, I venture to suggest, that we lie under even more difficulties than they do, in the discipline and instruction of our classes; for while the inventive mind of the instructor of boys may adopt plans of management, and modes of punishment and reward as varied as the circumstances which call for them, we are restricted in our management, and the list of our rewards and punishments is necessarily confined to a few, and those altogether of the same character. I am no theorist; but seven long years of alternate hope and painful solicitude has been my sad experience at my humble and retired post in the Sunday School, where I have still found the certainty of the sacred truth, that "the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above measure, who can know it." More than forty have passed out of my class at various periods, and of none am I privileged to say, they were a grace to my neck, or yet a crown of rejoicing." But, on the contrary, most of them were vain, idle, and noisy; many of them obstinate, cunning and malicious; some even addicted to stealing and swearing; and in all, lying and deceitfulness abounded. Two of them were lately found creeping through a hole in the enclosure of the school to play truant from the hours of worship, and but a few days since, several of them were seen playing ball in an open field bordering on the most frequented street in our city. A more rigid discipline than any we now have should be in troduced for the government of such children. None but those who have visited the homes of the poor and ignorant, can tell how greatly a mother's manners influence the children. To see how thonghtless and inconsiderate many of them are, we need not wonder at the disobedience and wickedness of the children under our care: this is only owing to their education, and to the habits and manners they acquire when children. To improve the rising generation is our peculiar province; that we should succeed, it is necessary for us to have order and discipline established in our schools. With these suggestions, I entreat that some one familiar with the youthful mind, will point out a remedy for our evils; recommending some plan for the management of a class of girls of such habits and dispositions as generally fall to our charge at the Sunday Schools, directing for its instrnction and discipline, and especially relating to rewards and punishments. I wait impatiently for suitable hints on these topics, and will yet fondly delight myself with the pleasing hope, that my toils may be amply repaid, by one day beholding among my dear scholars some, at least, emulating that model of a good and youthful disciple, so concisely and beautifully laid down by an ancient writer," to be encouraged when commended-and to weep when outdone." MARY. THE STORY OF BENEVOLUS-continued. After Benevolus had visited the parents of his refractory scholar, and had been assured that they would send him to school in the afternoon, he began to consider what would be the most proper course of conduct to be pursued towards him. At first he thought it would be best to take but little notice of him, except to tell the class he had been to the parents, and that they had determined to make him obey the authority of the school, and when he addressed the boy, to speak sternly, and let him know he had not forgotten his morning conduct; but his good nature, rather than a fear or a thought of the consequences of such a measure, determined him to pursue a very different, and a much more preferable course. Perhaps, thought he, if I take no notice of what has happened, and treat him better than he deserves, it will be showing the class that I can not only forgive, but forget When the class read in the afternoon, he called each boy in his turn, and after having read over the verses he intended they should read, he requested them to do so carefully and distinctly; when it came to this boy's turn to read, he took more than usual pains to explain the purport of the verses, and thus the boy's mind being abstracted, as it were, from the affairs of the morning, he read his verses as he was requested, and behaved through the afternoon with more propriety than he had done since he belonged to the school. When the school was dismissed, Benevolus sent the following note to the parents, hoping by this means to do away any ill impression the parents might have formed of him : "It affords me much pleasure to inform you that James has conducted himself with propriety; his behaviour this afternoon is as good as any boy in the school. I have given him an extra ticket, and I hope he will continue to deserve one: if he does, he will be an honour to me, a credit to the school, and a blessing to you." This little note was of great service. The boy came to school next Sunday more neatly dressed than he had been accustomed to, went to his place and behaved as well as Benevolus could have wished. The reason of this is obvious; the surest way to gain the parent's heart is to praise his child if he deserves it, as was the case with this boy. He had expected to be treated very harshly, and to have but little notice taken of him; but the mild treatment, and the tender language of Benevolus effected what no force could have done |