GENTLENESS of demeanour which ought, especially in the cases of persons of the female sex, to be, invariably, the outward and visible sign of "that meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price."

Some of the latter chapters of the work entitled "The Infant System," treat of the modes recommended by the author for the instructing of children in some particular sciences; as arithmetic, grammar, geography, music, &c. It does not fall within our plan to describe the mechanical contrivances and other helps which, in Infant Schools, have been found useful in communicating instruction on these subjects. By intelligent mothers and governesses, whose sphere of action is the private nursery or the domestic fire-side, such contrivances would be found to be superfluous; and, in some instances, inconvenient, or even prejudicial. The PRINCIPLES however, which our author lays down with reference to the communicating of various branches of learning are worthy of universal attention, and will repay the most sedulous study. To excite children to think, and to use and apply the knowledge which they have gained, is one main object which he has in view; mere learning by rote, or any acquirement in which the only faculty exercised is the memory, he regards as comparatively of little value. The very learning of the alphabet is not, under his teaching, merely a matter of memory; on the contrary, it is made the ground work of a series of familiar conversations highly interesting to young children, and admirably calculated to bring into use, and to increase their stock of general knowledge.

The following observations, which occur in the chapter on language, deserves the careful notice of all teachers of young children. Having spoken of the eager desire which too often exists in the minds of instructors, to make children acquainted with the names of things of which they have no knowledge or conception, the author thus proceeds: "sounds and signs which give rise to no idea in the mind, because the child has never seen or known the things represented, are of no use, and can only burden the memory. It is therefore the object of our system to give children a knowledge of THINGS, and then a knowledge of the words which represent those things. These remarks not only apply to the names of visible things, but more particularly to those which are abstract. If I would say, show a child a HORSE, before you tell it the name of that animal; still more, would urge it upon the teacher, to let the child see what LOVE, KINDNESS, RELIGION, &C., &c. are, before it is told what name to designate these

I

principles by. If our ignorance as to material things, be the result of instructing children in names, instead of enabling them to become acquainted with THINGS; so, on the other hand, I believe, we may account in the same way, to some extent, for virtue being so frequently a mere word; an empty sound amongst men, instead of an active principle."

With this passage, which is suggestive of much that is too often forgotten or neglected by those who have the conduct of early education, we conclude this paper. In our next number we purpose to bring under the notice of our readers some further valuable hints, suggested by the author of the "Infant System," on the most effective methods of teaching grammar, arithmetic, and other sciences; and also some general observations which appear to us to deserve the especial attention of every mother.

(To be continued.)

LINES

ON ECCLESIASTES xi. 6.

"In the morning sow thy seed."

Mother! watching o'er thy child,

Fill'd, perchance, with anxious care,

In the soil by sin defiled,

Sow the seed, and sow WITH PRAYER.
Though, through many an anxious year,
Neither fruit nor flower appear,

Yet refrain not in despair,

Sow the seed, and sow wITH PRAYER.
First the blade shall, then the ear,

Last the ripen'd corn appear,
Till the whiten'd harvest stand,
Ready for the mower's hand.
Though it may not meet thine eyes
Till the fruit is gathered in,

Housed and garner'd in the skies,
Safe from every blight of sin;
Mother, still, the soil prepare,

Sow the seed, and sow WITH PRAYER.

SKETCHES OF CHARACTER.

No. I.

KNOW of no exhortation within the compass of ScripSture, more touchingly simple, and if followed, more conducive to happiness, than that of the Apostle-" be clothed with humility." But who ever fully exhibited this heavenly temper, save that perfect and glorious Being, who made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant ;" and not the form only, for if we study his life and actions we shall find the solemn reality of all that is afflicting and humiliating! So truly did he answer to the description drawn of him by Isaiah

And we looked upon him but he had no appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected of men,

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
He was one from whom we hid our faces;
He was despised and we esteemed him not.*

This is our Redeemer in the vision of prophecy; and easy enough is it to trace its complete fulfilment during the period of his earthly sojourn. But if I were asked to point to the crowning act of his deep humiliation, I should, I think, turn to the 13th chapter of St. John; when, as the evangelist tells us, "the hour was come that he must depart out of this world"-that awfully important hour on the issue of which the salvation of millions depended! A mere mortal would have been overwhelmed with the consideration of what lay before him; but here is OUR JESUS calm amidst tumultuous motion; and about to perform the most unequalled act of condescension!

The beloved John, as if anxious to assign a reason for the strange event he was about to relate, tells us, by way of preface, that his Divine Master " having loved his own which were in the world, loved them unto the end." He proceeds with such breathless haste to introduce us to this act of wonder, that he passes by all the previous con

Fry's translation of Isaiah,-chap. liii.

versation during supper, which, doubtless, was fraught with the very deepest interest, and comes at once to the moving scene.

*

"Supper

being ended, and Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things unto his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God, riseth from supper!" And is this all? O No! See! he layeth aside his garment and taketh a towel and girdeth himself! Watch him pouring water into a basin, and now stooping down to wash his disciples' feet ! !

Well might the astonished and impetuous Peter exclaim, "Lord dost thou wash my feet?" Nor can we wonder at his solemn refusal, "Thou shalt never wash my feet." The world's CREATOR and REDEEMER washing the feet of poor fishermen, and perhaps too those of the very man who within a few hours should betray him!! We may well imagine with what breathless and profound amazement the disciples gazed on their Master, waiting to hear from his own lips the why and the wherefore of such mighty condescension! And now that he had made good his own words, that he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, he resumes his office as teacher"Know ye what I have done to you?" A question which seems at once to imply the bewildered and astonished state of the apostles' minds from what had passed before them, and which still seemed more as a fancied vision than as a sublime and sober reality! "Know ye what I have done? Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well ; for so I am. If I then your Lord and master have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet. For I have left you an example that ye should do as I have done to you! Wonderful Teacher! Surprising lesson ! But alas, how few of us are really anxious to learn it to perfection! Worms of the earth think they perform prodigies of condescension and humiliation, when they show a little kindness or affability to those a few grades below them in the scale of society! O ye great ones, here you must for ever hide your diminished heads! Here all boasting is eternally excluded! CREATOR has far outdone his creatures! For where is the sovereign that would stoop to wash his subject's feet? Where is the individual that would descend to minister, when he could be ministered unto? Yet St. John tells us, "he that saith he abideth in him, ought himself so to walk as he walked. (1 John, ii. 5.) But where shall we

Our

look for this close walking? Or if look, where shall we find it? When the sons of Zebedee solicited places of honour in their Master's future kingdom, Jesus proposed to them a searching question-"are

Oh

ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with ?" They replied "we are able;" but it was with as much truth as tenderness, that the Redeemer had just before said to them, "ye know not what ye ask." So neither did they know the full import of their reply! To follow the Lord fully, through all the scenes of his deep humiliation, having fellowship with his sufferings, and, if circumstances so order it, conformity unto his death, and this too, with feelings of cheerful satisfaction, and genuine contentment, devout trust, and grateful love, requires that our own wills be ploughed up, and all our carnal desires and wordly affections laid at the foot of his cross. For all these place themselves in hostile array against an entire surrender! One pleads for this indulgence, and another for that; and it is because these enemies to ourselves and our Lord are parleyed with, and in many instances too much yielded to, that our conquests over self and sin are so few and trifling, and our imitation of Christ so fitful and dwarfish! did we drink more into the spirit of our dearest Lord—were we more effectually planted together with Christ,-how different would be our daily walk! how gigantic our attainments! Every imagination which exalteth itself would soon be cast down; and all our vaunting and gadding thoughts, brought into complete obedience to Christ. Not one indulgence would be pleaded for, but the most diligent search made after our more latent foes. No truce entered into,-no, not even for a moment, but the whole concealed force resolutely dragged out and slain before our rightful sovereign! Instead of all this decisive conduct, we too often resemble the Israelites in their treatment of the doomed nations of Canaan. To make no league with them, but utterly to expel and destroy them, was the original command; and had they faithfully obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, they would have had no pricking thorns in their sides, but might have roamed at large over the good and pleasant land, without one enemy to molest them— one foe to disturb their peace! And so likewise would it be with the soul, rescued from the spiritual Egypt, if it would only attend to the Lord's command. But alas! we combat with and overcome only our more open enemies; while we make league with others. And when

we ought to be pressing our conquests into the very interior of our idolatrous hearts, we are contentedly sitting down on the borders of the land, even though we are again and again harrassed by the powerful outbreaks of our inbred foes.

And why is all this? Why does not the Christian more earnestly