"I suppose it is taken for granted that they are instructed enough at home," interposed Lina.

"Which is quite a gratuitous supposition," said Mrs. Villers. "I believe in many cases they are really less attended to, in this respect, than the children of those less fortunately circumstanced: I have certainly met with cases of ignorance of Scripture in college youths and young ladies, which would have disgraced a ragged school pupil of a year's standing."

"In Ireland they have congregational Sunday-schools," said Agnes; "I saw a good deal of them when I was staying in Dublin and Cork. And by a little management, even in small schools, the respectable children can be placed a little apart from those whose dress and person are very neglected, so as to avoid the close companionship mothers dread so much. I had two or three friends who looked back to their intercourse with their respective teachers as to a means of grace which had been much blessed to them; and even where the parents were pious and intelligent the additional stimulus of the Sunday class was felt to be useful."

"The same schools are to be met with in America and on the continent," said Mrs. Villers.

"But Sunday-schools are not universal, are they, among continental Protestants?" asked Lina.

"Not universal," replied Agnes, "but very much increasing. A year ago I was staying at Neufchâtel. I attended a praiseworthy Sundayschool there. The children, poor and rich, all assembled, and the pastor questioned them and explained a portion of Scripture; but his part was only a completion of what had been done in the week: every lady teacher had a class of her own, and

her business was to visit the children separately during the week, and see that they learned thoroughly the lesson set them on the Sunday. Certainly their answering was most creditable. The pastor's wife had a class of very little children an hour or two earlier."

"That plan might be usefully adopted in some places," said Lina.

"There are many ways of doing the same thing well," said Mrs. Villers; "but the great point is to keep the main object in view. See that the children understand thoroughly what they learn when verses are committed to memory, let them be carefully explained; take pains to keep up an interest in the lesson, and to give the listeners some definite thought to carry away with them."

"Dear Mrs. Villers, you have given us most helpful advice," said Elinor; "but I own it makes me almost tremble at the idea of attempting Sunday-school teaching; I sec now how much is needed in a good teacher, and I feel myself so unfit that I am almost afraid to begin."

6

"I think you need not, my dear. The work does require to be undertaken seriously and with prepara tion; but that preparation you can easily make yourself. Diligent reading of the Bible, and comparing Scripture with Scripture, are two important points. Consult the marginal references; Bagster's Bible Treasury' you will find a great help; and Angus's Hand-book for Bible Students,' as well as any good books on eastern customs, such as 'The Land and the Book,' should also be consulted. Make notes of anything you read or hear, which you can afterwards turn to account. Prepare an outline of your lesson before you give it, but do not slavishly adhere to it. Cultivate the habit of recol

6

E. S. J. CLIF

BETWEEN life and growth there is an intimate and wonderful connection. They are found together in all living things. The plants grow, and the animals; and there is a growth of mind as well as of body. Indeed, the presence or absence of these powers of life and growth is one grand distinguishing characteristic of all organized or unorganized bodies; as a tree grows through the mysterious action of an inward vital force, while a stone can be increased only by the addition of matter from without.

Religion in the soul is to be regarded as a growth, like the growth of grain in the field, or like growth in knowledge. This is what Christ taught us when He said, "So is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. "" The begin

ning of religious life in the soul is always faint or feeble, like that of the tender blade of grass when it first

springs up from the ground, or li of the new-born babe; but fro small beginning it may grow till tains a fulness and maturity fitly symbolized in the full corn in the ear, or the full-grown i Christ.

Very beautiful and expressive illustrations used in the Script set forth this great truth. Our re course is likened to the rising a creasing light of the morning, shineth brighter and brighter fro first blush of dawn unto the perfe We are said to be first babes, an men, in Christ. The Christian vir graces, love, joy, peace, long-suf gentleness, goodness, patience, tr ness, kindness, self-control, are "the fruits of the Spirit," rich, and shaking "like Lebanon." this growth of the religious pri and character, from its slender ge its full maturity, the Christian m woman having become in heart an thoroughly spiritualized, and "meet for the inheritance of the in light," is the highest and best a

ment possible for man on earth. After this nothing remains but to be gathered into the garner of the Lord.

Growth in grace, like all other growth, is gradual, often imperceptible to an individual himself and to others, and much less apparent or noticeable in its later than in its earlier stages. The growth of corn, like the movement of the earth around the sun, is imperceptible to our senses; but after a brief period of time has passed we can see that it has grown. And the first year's growth of an oak or elm is very striking to the senses; but after it has attained the size of some of our great, what we may call our historical oaks, it may add still something in bulk to its stately trunk and spreading branches, and the change be not at all perceptible or striking. So mature and well-grown Christians need not wonder if the signs or marks of their religious improvement or growth in grace are not so manifest or observable as at the beginning of their Christian life.

Also, growth in grace, like growth in knowledge, is the result of effort, toil, and painstaking. It requires a diligent and faithful use of "the means of grace," and a life-long work of self-dis

cipline, self-denial, and consecration to the Lord. As every living animal needs its daily food, that it may grow thereby, and as every plant is nourished by the air and sunlight, the soil into which it strikes its roots and the rain that cometh down from heaven, this food being transformed and incorporated into its own being, so we must use the appropriate means of growth in grace, the reading of the Scriptures, prayer, the services of the sanctuary, the ordinances of the Church, through which influences and help the saints" may grow up into Him in all things who is the Head, even Christ."

But this growth in grace is not confined, like that of material bodies, within certain bounds; but, like intellectual growth, it is illimitable, the process going on till the very end of life in this world, then continued for ever in the next. Always we shall need to say with the holy apostle, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect,' and " press toward the mark" of the image of God in Christ-a mark so high that, though we may for ever approach, we can never fully reach it. This continual, endless growth in holiness is the true growth in grace.

THE last reference to Beersheba that | we have in the Bible relates to the return from the captivity. It occurs in Neh. xi. 30, and helps to a definition of the narrow limits of the country in which the chosen people were then compelled to dwell: "They dwelt from Beersheba unto the valley of Hinnom." In Jud. xx. 1 we read of the promised land extending from Dan to Beersheba, or, as in 1 Chron. xxi. 2,

"Beersheba even to Dan;" but this was before the great disruption. Beersheba seems to have been for a considerable period one of the boundarymarks of the land of Israel. In 2 Kings xxiii. 8 we read, "from Geba to Beersheba ;" and in 2 Chron. xix. 4, "from Beersheba to mount Ephraim."

At the present time, Beersheba, or Bîr-es-seba ("well of the oath," or "well of the seven"), is only noticeable for two large circular wells of fine pure water--the principal forty-four feet deep, and twelve and a half in diameter; the other five feet diameter, and forty-two feet deep-and five smaller ones, and a heap of ruins, half a mile long and a quarter of a mile broad, plainly the remains of a once flourishing town. The larger wells are on the northern side of the Wady-es-seba, lying about a hundred yards apart, and are visible from a considerable distance. The stones encircling the mouths of both are worn into deep grooves, evidently from the action of the ropes throughout centuries. Dr. Robinson says they

The

"look as if fluted all round." smaller wells will be found together in a group in the bed of the wady.

In the fourth century Beersheba was occupied by a Roman garrison; and in the time of Jerome it was still a considerable place. Later, it is spoken of as an episcopal city under the bishop of Jerusalem. At the period of the Crusades it was held to be a post of great importance, and was therefore strongly fortified by the Christian invaders.

Of the origin of the name two accounts are given. The first is based on Gen. xxi. 31, which tells us of the alliance entered into by Abraham with Abimelech, king of Gerar. This was ratified by an oath and the setting apart of "seven ewe lambs." As the Hebrew word for "seven is sheba, it is possible this may be the meaning of the name. The other account ascribes the origin of the designation to an occurrence very similar to the one just mentioned. This is given us in Gen. xxvi. 31-33. The chief actors now are Abimelech, Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol, the captain of the king's army; but, instead of Abraham, we have, as the principal figure on the Hebrew side, the patriarch's son Isaac. In this interview there is no reference to the seven ewe lambs, but there is to the oath. "And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day." If ver. 18 of this last-mentioned chapter is accepted as

referring to the same well that is mentioned with reference to the transaction between Abraham and Abimelech, the difficulty will at once vanish.

Beersheba was situated on the southern border of Palestine, about fifty-two miles south-west from Jerusalem, and was the limit in that direction of the dominion of the chosen people. It is one of the most ancient as well as one of the most interesting places in the early history of the Bible. The student of the sacred record will call to mind that it was here that Abraham resided, and here that he received the command to sacrifice his son Isaac, to whom it also formed a residence. Here also it was that Esau was robbed of his birthright and blessing; and here Jacob sacrificed to the God of his fathers before he went down into Egypt. At Beersheba

the sons of Samuel were made judges; and from this place Elijah was compelled to flee into the desert from Jezebel's wrath. In Amos there are incidental references to the place as though it were like Bethel or Gilgalthe seat of an idolatrous worship, apparently connected in some intimate manner with the northern kingdom (Amos v. 5, viii. 14).

As we have said, beyond the foundations and ruins of a town of moderate size on the hills north of the wells, nothing now is left of this ancient place, so memorable in Scripture story; even the grass and shrubs do not cover with a natural cloak the nakedness of the waste. How sadly applicable are the words of the prophet Jeremiah, in telling of the fallen and miserable estate of Jerusalem, to the once well-peopled and prosperous city of the wells: "How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how is she become a widow! she that was great among the nations!"

After describing the danger of such a state, the epistle closes with the affectionate words, "Be zealous, therefore,