a service would be profitable to those who cling to the weekly lecture. Parents especially would be interested, as thereby they could hear explained the very passage of Scripture which would be before them and their children on the next Sabbath. The older scholars would soon be drawn to the service as preparing them for the lesson. Thus the attendance would be increased, and the whole congregation be united in the study of one portion of God's Word.

The pastor should be in communication with each teacher, so as to have reported to him all cases of religious awakening among the scholars, also of sickness, of new scholars; of bad conduct or harmful habits, against which he may use his influence. In short, a corps of teachers may become a body of valuable lay workers, by whose subdivision he can reach almost every family in the congregation. Let him so identify himself with the school, mingle in its business, be informed about its wants, that his connection with it shall be felt continually, without involving him in the peculiar duties of a teacher or superintendent.

par

A great indifference has existed, and perhaps does yet, in reference to catechetical instruction. We have fallen into a sad blunder in these times. When infidelity, error, and a plausible philosophy are coming forward as the apostles of a generous faith and a freer exposition of doctrines, we are loosening the bands which connect vital truths and enter less into those ticular doctrines which philosophy assaults. To meet these onsets, and to counteract these sappers and miners, the present generation needs just that distinct, systematic, positive, condensed statement of truth, which is nowhere better given than in church catechisms. More readily can the pastor secure catechetical instruction through the teacher than through the parent. Recitation of the catechism in some mode, should be a part of the exercises of the school, each Sabbath, or on stated days. And some encouragement should be presented by prizes, to commit the Shorter Catechism. The old custom of assembling the children for a catechetical exercise by the pastor, has passed away; but in many cases nothing similar has come in its stead. This is a serious omission.

We believe that much of the objection which exists against our Catechism, on account of its terse, difficult answers, arises from the fact, that too little attention has been bestowed upon

its elucidation. To learn it, is perhaps generally an irksome and heartless task. Few of the children have an intelligent idea of the doctrines they learn. It is not an adequate relief to know, that if the mere "form of sound words" be lodged in the memory, the future development of faculties, and growth in grace,will bring the appropriate ideas, and ensure a proper appreciation. This form should so be taught, as to make a present impression, and become the vehicle for the religious thought of the child. We fear that the ordinary system of catechising fails of imparting to children as clear ideas of religious truths as they are capable of receiving. Unaccompanied by a suitable exposition, it engenders an aversion, and creates the notion that religious truth is incomprehensible, and the Catechism a nuisance. The Catechism should be presented so that it shall teach how to live and how to die, and not how to wrangle more successfully. We should not be satisfied to have children accept truth in a general formulary, but follow it as a living reality. Therefore elucidation should always accompany the study of the Catechism. The method must depend upon the judgment and skill of the pastor. Catechetical lectures could be given, in which all the points of doctrine could be considered in a familiar way, and illustrated. And those who make the attempt will be surprised to see how the attention of children can be kept, while even such questions are expounded as 20th, " Did God leave all mankind? etc.," as 31st, 96th and 97th. The very effort to simplify and illustrate, is an excellent exercise for the pastor himself. And he will find that the devoutest in his Church will enjoy such lectures, as not the least profitable of his ministry. The advantages of such services would be so apparent, as to do much towards silencing the sneer with which too often the mention of the Catechism is received. And we hold that if as much time, pains and ingenuity were devoted to the illustration of the Catechism, as are now bestowed upon black-board exercises, the Catechism could be made a success, and with far greater benefit to the children. In such and in similar services, the pastor at times should come before the children as their instructor, that they may hear the law from his lips in their own dialect. Pastors should qualify themselves for this work of bringing to the comprehension of children, Biblical truths and our standards. They should make methods in this a study, even as they do methods of sermoniz

ing. It is worth all the time and effort it may cost. Is it any less than a serious neglect, to spend days and read volumes, in order to fit oneself wisely and well to address a congregation on religious subjects, while no labor is bestowed upon the question, how most suitably divine truth may be adapted to the understanding of the children of the congregation? Some excellent and devoted pastors excuse themselves by the notion that they have no gift for addressing children. It is sometimes a gift. But like other apparent gifts, diligent study and practice have secured more than any afflatus has bestowed. And is not this a subject of sufficient importance to deserve a place among the lectures given as a part of the training in homiletics? Is not how to preach to children, a part of sacred rhetoric? In our opinion it is. And we believe the Church will ere long require it to be taught to her candidates for the ministry. And thus the Sabbath School will be brought into the Theological Seminary.

We have briefly sketched the standard to which we would have the Sunday School attain. It is not chimerical, but practical and feasible. Thus elevated and sanctified, there will be no occasion for those meretricious appendages with which sometimes it is decked, not adorned. One of the most prosperous schools of New York has pursued its course for years, discarding all such additions. Dr. S. H. Tyng's school in Stuyvesant Square numbers 600 scholars. The walls are bare of maps, and even Scripture texts. There is no black-board. The seats are closely set, with reversible backs, and without cushions. There is an entire absence of pet measures and plans, which so many Sunday School men consider indispensable. Yet from that school fifty young men have gone into the ministry of the Gospel.

ART. III.-LIFE AND ITS INSTINCTS.

By L. P. HICKOK, D.D., LL.D., Amherst, Mass.

Science, Philosophy and Religion; By JOHN BASCOM. G. P. Putnam & Sons, New York, 1871.

Instinct; its Office in the Animal Kingdom, and its Relation to the Higher Powers in Man; By P. A. CHADBOURNE, LL.D. G. P. Putnam & Sons, New York, 1872.

THESE books contain courses of lectures delivered consecutively before the Lowell Institute, Boston; and after fulfilling their original design they were published for wider circulation, and a short summary of their contents respectively will be a favorable introduction to a further independent discussion of the topics of Life and its Instincts. The authors have for years been distinguished instructors of youth, and their publications abundantly repay the thoughtful reading of full-grown men.

The opening part of Prof. Bascom's work is a vigorous defence of Philosophy against the assumptions of Positive Science, and an ample presentation of the distinctive ideas of a Spiritual Philosophy, which are worthy of general attention and careful study. With this emphatic note we pass the first eight lectures of the course, as not directly relevant to our present design, and confine attention to what is said of Life; its Nature and Origin, beginning with the ninth lecture.

Prof. Bascom gives his answers to three questions-1st. Why postulate a life-power at all? 2d. Whence the origin of vegetable and animal life? 3d. What the nature and method of the life-power?

The few who deny a distinct life-power, have two forms of argumentation. One is derived from some experiments inducing doubt of the necessity, in all cases, of pre-existent germs, and that rather a spontaneous generation seems probable. To this the reply is, that it is a weak argument which rests on obscure and doubtful facts against the mass of plain phenomena. And even admitting some form of spontaneous origin, the presence of such peculiar phenomena, interpreted only on the working of peculiar powers, proves there is then distinct being, whether coming from a germ or not. Infusoria appearing in a given

solution, are a new product, as truly as elephants would be on African plains, and as truly demand their adequate causality.

The other form of argument is that as protoplasm is found existing as a complex body, with neither cells nor nuclei, and is food for both plants and animals, the former taking direct mineral elements in making it, and the latter obliged to procure it already made, and thus, at last dependent on the plant, so this protoplasm is to be taken as the highest inorganic compound, and not the lowest organic, and life springs from its molecular properties just as water springs from its constituent elements.

The conclusive answer given is, that water can be produced at pleasure, and its properties at once and always exhibit the same limited phenomena, and so needing for explanation only its limited molecular elements. If the properties multiply, as in the snow-flake, we assume a new force of crystallization for them. Not thus with the ten thousand forms life assumes, can we refer it to the molecular action of the elements of protoplasm. Admit the forces to be in the molecular elements, that will not satisfy, for it is the user of these forces philosophy must find before it can comprehend the wondrous combinations and harmonized system of ends in organic beings. The chemist at his laboratory controls molecular properties, but no chemist can produce or explain the growth, maturing and reproducing of living organisms. The second inquiry is for the method of life's introduction; not by successive creations, as strongly argued from distinct and succeeding existences, but a continuous ascent from primeval chaos to the present graded system by "natural development,” without a gap or a leap through all the process, is the more recent assumption. The answer given is, the geologic gaps in such supposed series make the assumption of unbroken threads of development improbable, and force to the admission of accident and anomaly. And, further, whether life has been enlarged by slight increments, or by distinct steps, is of no consequence, but how the life of to-day is more than that of yesterday is the essential point. Circumstances or accidents cannot satisfy us, and orderly changes will compel the admission of the distinct independent life-power claimed, for every increment in the orderly effect must demand a corresponding orderly cause. "A thousand mills as surely make a dollar as ten dimes, and the