profanity are getting to be as common at county fairs, as at any race-course in the country; and men who regard their character of any account are obliged to keep away, or be accused of countenancing these growing evils." One of the satirical writers of the day, in reporting his visit to a cattle-show, humorously says: "There was tew yoke of oxen on the ground, besides several yokes of sheep and a pile of carrots, and some worsted work, but they didn't seem to attract enny sympathy. The people hanker after pure agricultural hoss-trots." IMAGINARY TROUBLE. Half the trouble people have they make themselves. They try to get rid of things which God sends upon them for their special blessing, and worry themselves into a fidgety of fretful moroseness, because their efforts prove unsuccesful. Our ancestors of the last century were in the habit of wearing a large bunch of natural hair hanging down the back, tied together in the form of a pigtail, and hence called by this name! A certain German balled tells of a worthy gentleman who imbibed the idea that his pigtail was on the wrong side of his head, and worked himself into a world of trouble about it. The story has been prettily rendered into English by Thackeray, the following verses: There lived a sage in days of yore He mus'd upon this curious case, Not dangling there behind him. Says he "The mystery I've found; Then round and round, and out and in, The pigtail hung behind him. And right and left, and round about, And though his efforts never slack ; The pigtail hangs behind him. HOW MY HORSE STARES AT YOU! When any indecent or profane language was uttered in the presence of the Rev. Jonathan Scott, pointed reproof was sure to be given; but there was at once a peculiar delicacy in the management, as well as singular fidelity in the application of it. An ostler at an inn in Coventry, being about to do something for his horse, used some profane language; when the animal turning round to look at Mr. Scott, he improved the opportunity, and said to the ostler, "Do you observe how my horse stares at you? He is not used to such bad words at home: he never hears an oath there; and he does not know what to make of it." Thus the profane sinner was reproved, but could not be offended. The Guardian. VOL. XIX.-MAY, 1868.-No. 5. THE NURSERY OF THE CHURCH, BY THE EDITOR. This is preeminently an age of Humbug. All the world is susceptible of being imposed upon. Medicines for the body and medicines for the soul are not only made, but make fortunes for their makers. With what a greed and growing passion the great world evermore thirsts for more to imbibe and devour, to the infinite delight of the fortune-making servants of Humbug. 'Tis bad enough that the human body should be immolated on the altar of this idol of a deluded public. But when the soul is claimed for a victim, we demand that the hideous features of the false god be unmasked, that all may see who and what he is. a There can be no doubt that a certain class of cunning, crafty persons, are using the Sunday-schools of this country as a means of money-making, in the sacred name of religion. We can see no harm in the author of good Sunday-school book, expecting and receiving a reasonable remuneration for his labor. But when writers and publishers flood the juvenile book market with a mass of semi-pagan productions, containing scarcely enough sound moral teaching to blind the minds of the unsuspecting, to their pernicious ingredients; pandering to the natural passion for tales of fictitious piety and artificial sorrow, so as to make their stuff more palatable to the unsanctified heart, and more profitable to the greedy unscrupulous tradesmen, we maintain that it is high time for the lovers and trainers of the young, to be more discriminating in the selection of Sunday-school books. Some of our friends, whose good opinion we highly esteem, are greatly pleased with the prolific productions of our Sunday school Muse. Very faithful she certainly is, giving birth to a Sunday-school music book every few months. Before the children have learned to sing one half the hymns in a new book, a newer one still leaps into the arena, claiming to be better than any of its predecessors. Now, although it is unwise to change music books so often, if their contents were always of the proper kind, this haste for making money off of the children might be in a measure tolerated. But the music and the sentiment of a great mass of them are VOL. XIX.-9. entirely unsuited for the religious instruction of children. The evil has increased until our Sunday-schools have been deluged with a species of doggerel, which, in sentiment and sound, makes a most irreligious impres sion on the minds of the children. A certain American divine is of the opinion, that it is unfair to give the devil all the best tunes, and therefore insists that "Alas! and did my Saviour bleed," should be sung to the tune of "Old Susanna." In some of these books "Jerusalem, my happy home" is sung to "Lily Dale", and "Jesus my all to heaven is gone" to "Dixie." In a popular Sundayschool book on our table, we find the first tune the "Grambampali" sung to a famous beer song, in almost every beer "Kneipe" of Germany. A very stirring melody, to be sure, but sung in our Sunday-schools to the very great amusement of our unbelieving anti-Sunday-school fellow citizens of teutonic birth. Many a joke do they have at our expense, as they peep into our Sunday-schools, and see the heads and heels of the godly urchins keeping time to their beer melody, which calls up many associations of Sunday revelry in the fatherland." Much of the sentiment of the hymns could be just as acceptably said and sung in Jewish or Mohammedan schools as in ours. Hymns which tell the children to get up early, and the parents to send them early to school; singing to the trees, the birds, the hills, damning the naughty and dubbing the saintly with titles to mansions in the skies-all this and much more is sung with voices sweet as angels use, in the name of praise and worship! Certainly they ought to come to school in time; to be sure the birds, trees and hills are beautiful, and we should thank God for them; good children will go to beaven and bad ones won't. But to sing all this to God, when in reality it is addressed to creatures, is a most undevout absurdity in the name of worship. We are happy to find a severe, yet just critique on "the Sunday-school Muse" in the March number of the "Hours at Home." It says: "The publication of the 'Juvenile Psalmist' (by Lowell Mason, in 1829) at the request of the 'Boston Sabbath-school Union,' proved to be like the leaking out of water, and a stream of singing books, big and little, has flowed in upon us ever since, sometimes at the rate of half a dozen or more in a single year. Under all names and titles they have come, sometimes simply as Music-books,' 'Singing-books,' 'Hymn books,' 'Melodies' &c.; sometimes impersonated as Minstrels,' Psalmists,' Pilgrims,' 'Oriolas' 'Cherubs;' sometimes 'as things without life-giving sound,'-and with the old uncertainty as to what is piped or harped,' rather aggravated since Corinthian days." 6 " Undeniably our Sunday-school music is in unsafe bands. The hymns these little ones learn to sing will live in their hearts forever. A wellspring of eternal song will they be unto them, if they are Christian hymns, unburdened by the associations of unhallowed use. In such a receptive and fruitful soil seed sowing is a solemn mission. This mass of mischiev ous material must be sifted. A stern censor is needed, who has the judg ment and courage to examine every candidate to juvenile favor according to the criticism of a sound theology and hymnology and of a good musical taste. "We let a new hymn into our books a great deal too readily. We ought to stop it, and challenge it, and try it with varying tests before we give it entrance. What then shall be done with the Sunday-school Muse? First, gag her. She has done enough for the present. Pick out the gems from her productions, and let her rest a while. She does too much producing half-a-dozen music books a year, with the words and tunes warranted new, the chances are tremendously against the excellence of any. And when the greatest merit of a hymn is reckoned to be its novelty, we may be sure that there is something wrong in our methods of judgment. So then we say, although this is a free country, and the Muse is an unshackled fowl, let her be silenced as soon as may be. And to that end let us begin by putting away the heresy that, when a hymn or tune has been. sung a few times, and has grown familiar, it is time to have done with it, and it must be considered spoiled. Good hymns cannot spoil by use— cannot be sung too often. Familiarity with them breeds reverence and not contempt. And though the adoption of this principle might be bad for the Sunday-school-music-book-trade, and discouraging to the poets who are called on for hymns continually, it would be good for every body else." It has all along been a great misfortune, that such an important institution as the Sunday-school, should have been left to develop so much at random. Superintendents and teachers have had few opportunities to prepare themselves for their special duties. Of course we have had Bible classes and a certain kind of books. But these will not suffice. The school system of Germany has been methodized. Many works have there been written on Catechetics and Pedagogueics. In the religious training of the young the pastor is the chief teacher; and the school-teacher of the congregation, especially educated for his work, is his assistant. In this country pastors are likewise at the head of Sunday-schools-at least they ought to be. Yet at best they have little to do with the teaching. The superintendent and teachers ought to be specially educated and trained for their calling. In the absence of this training they labor under many disadvantages. A small volume of 256 pages has recently been published by J. C. Garrigues & Co., which we believe will become a valuable help in this direction.* Its author, Mr. R. G. Pardee is well known as an experienced and proficient laborer in the Sunday-school cause. The book is a sort of a manual for all laborers in this field of church activity. It gives instruction to Superintendents, Librarians, Secretaries and Teachers, and just such instruction as they need. The History of the Sunday-school, Sunday-school Conventions and Sunday-school Institutes, how to conduct Infant schools, and Bible classes, and kindred subjects are here treated in an apt and instructive style. Robert Raikes is generally regarded as the founder of Sunday-schools. One of our Sunday school songs even obliges the children to sing this statement. But the Sunday-afternoon Catechization of the children by the pastor, practiced in the Reformed churches since the Reformation, shows that among German Christians it has been a pious custom for centuries. For this reason the Heidelberg Catechism was divided into fifty-two parts or lessons, giving one lesson for every Sunday afternoon in the year. And according to this custom a Pennsylvania German started a Sunday-school thirty-four years before Robert Raikes made his beginning in Gloucester, *The Sabbath School Index, by R. G. Pardee, A. M. England. "The first Sabbath-school of which we have any authentic, definite, and detailed account, extending over a period of a quarter of a century, was that established by Ludwig Hacker in Ephrata, Lancaster county, Pa., as early as the year 1747. It was continued during a period of more than thirty years until the building was taken for a soldier's Hospital in the time of the Revolutionary War. It enjoyed its precious seasons of revival, and had its children's meetings, and we are informed, that many children were hopefully converted to God. We have before us a long letter from Dr. Fahnestock to the Rev. W. T. Brantley, D. D., of Philadelphia, written in 1835, detailing many interesting facts connected with the history of this Sabbath-school, drawn from living pupils and records." A Superintendent's office is difficult to fill. That which demands his care "is not a cause of small import." Dr. J. W. Alexander used to say: "That man who can well superintend a Sabbath school can command an army." "If he stands at the desk like a cold snow-capped mountain or floats about the school like a majestic iceberg, the whole atmosphere of the school will be cold. If he is warm and genial, such will be the school." "Superintendents should be cautious whom they invite to address the school, and particularly strangers, of whom they know but little, only that they are called very good men. Few persons can address a Sunday-school with profit." The book contains excellent advice for Teachers. "He is to draw all the information he can from the class. To induce the class to find out all for themselves they can. Never teach what you do not quite understand. Clear knowledge makes clear pleasant teaching. Never tell a child what you can make that child tell you. He will thus remember it ten times as long. Never give a piece of information without asking for it again. Never use, a hard word if an easy one will convey your meaning; and never use any word at all, unless you are sure it has some meaning to convey." The pastor is the chief leader of the school. If possible he should visit it every Sabbath. His presence alone will cheer the hearts of the teachers and scholars. These are his true working members, who have special claims upon him, and he upon them. Of course, like all human productions, this volume has its faults. Some of the author's views are impracticable. His impatience for greater progress here and there leads him into visionary schemes; into the adoption of some Sunday-school experiments which are of doubtful propriety. We are not certain that it is wise to hold children's prayer-meetings, as he proposes, separate from the exercises in the school. There is the time and place to pray-Superintendent, teachers and scholars all together. We must be careful not to put the armor of Goliah upon David-not to teach them to ape older people in everything. Children are children. Such let them remain until God makes them something different. This hastening process, which requires children to meet and in all things to demean themselves as grown people, is unnatural and unwise. These little ones are much prettier, and more heavenly, if left in their proper sphere. Most tenderly and tellingly do the sweet beings preach to us. Not very long ago we buried a little boy, scarcely twelve years old. A dear bright little fellow, he was, a member of a small country Sundayschool, of which his father is the Superintendent. His tender heart was wholly rapt up in this school. Young as he was, he prayed for it, read |