THE SUNDAY SCHOOL-A FIELD FOR THE EMNOTMENT OF THE BEST TALENT,”

Mr. RENN said:

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen z

It is a remarkable fact in the history of the church that one of the loveliest, brightest stars in the lus minous constellation of the christian system re mained comparatively unnoticed for nearly eighteen hundred years after the establishment of the church in the world. That star is the rich provision made by the great Head of the Church for the religious training of children; and, as we look into the moral heavens to-day, it meets our more enlightened vision in its modest glory as the loveliest gem in the brilliant coronal that encircles the brow of Jesus, and shines out a noble vindication of the claims of christianity over all the religions of earth, This is much of the peculiar glory of our system that, while others claiming dominion in the spirit nal world either ignore the little ones or offor them in sacrifice to their false gods, ours takes them in the tender arms of its blessing and holds them up as model subjects of its kingdom. For nearly eighteen centuries the organized efforts of the church were directed mainly to transplanting rough and hardened men from the wilderness of the world into the paradise of the church, "that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He might be glorified." And to a marvelous extent her efforts were eminently success

ful. But she seemed scarcely conscious of the fact that underneath the wide-spread but decaying branches of these gnarled and knotty trees stood their young and tender successors just budding into vigorous life, ready to be trained by careful culture into forms that might stand in her fertile soil stately as the palm and lovely as the cedar in Lebanon. But at last she learned the blessed truth in part, and committed the care of these tender plants to any who would voluntarily assume the task. But to day, awake to its great importance, with a correct estimate of the grand results already achieved, and with prophetic eye scanning the future, she displays to the view of an admiring and applauding world the Sunday school as a department of consecrated thought and activity in which the best talent of the pulpit and the pew, of the forum and the auditorum, of the sanctum and the senate, may labor, with the sweet assurance that through their united efforts the innocence and beauty of the primeval Eden will be reproduced in the latter-day glory of the millennial reign, when earth's moral desert shall blossom as the rose, when beside its every stream shall stand these trees of life.

The Sunday school has in our day assumed astonishing proportions. Its field of operations is as wide as the world, and in its results as far-reaching as the countless eons of the great hereafter. As an organized institution of the church, it calls loudly for the best gifts of the head and heart of all. It is the dawning hope of the church that from the present ranks of the great Sunday school army will

go forth those who are destined to plant the Cross as the ensign of the nations on the last stronghold of hell, and gathering around it shall thrill the oceansundered fibres of the redeemed earth with the tri

umphant shout, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." Let her but use the means which she has and her hope will not be disappointed.

For many and various reasons the Sunday school requires gifted and talented workers. In the discussion of this important theme I shall simply attempt to lay the proposition of my subject against a clearly defined back-ground of facts with which it is vitally connected, that all anay see and feel its importance.

1. The design of the Sunday school. This design is to cast the character of the young in the mold which the Bible has prepared; to train them up in the way they should go; to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" to teach them to "remember their Creator in the days of their youth;" to guide them to the Cross and assist them to twine the tendrils of their affections around its imperishable beams; to set before their minds and impress upon their hearts the highest objects of their faith and hope and love; to assist them in the formation of habits of virtue that they may be ready to perform with patience the duties, and to meet with resignation the ills of life, that they may be useful in their day and generation, that they may stand as pillars in the temple of God, that they may

be as lights in a benighted land, as salt amidst the impurities of earth, that they may escape the pollutions and consequences of sin and find a home in heaven. This is a work which cannot be successfully performed by minds darkened by ignorance and unskillful in the word and doctrine, however much the heart may be illumined by the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Religion is both a science and an art. Indeed, it is the Science of all sciences, the Art of all arts. Its divine author says, "If ye will do His will, ye shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." To know His will is the science-to do His will is the art of religion. And in the Sunday school in a preeminent sense is sanctified talent necessary to unfold the theory to the mind, as well as sanctified example to impress the practice on the heart of the learner.

2. The intense desire of young minds for knowledge. Every child is a philosopher in embryo. His mind is always on the stretch to know the nature and reason of things. He believes in the invisible as well as the visible, the ideal as well as the real. He is ready to grasp and retain the design, to run back along the line of reason to the designer, and forward to the destiny of every object; and the only way to satisfy and save him is to give a truthful answer to his inquiries. With a child religious truth is as readily received as any other, provided, it be presented in an attractive form and manner; but he soon turns in disgust from the ignorant, indifferent teacher of invisible and past or future things, to the enjoyment of the present and visible,