Month after month she attended the school, and often her teacher was on the point of giving up what seemed a hopeless task, so little apparent influence did she exert over her. At length she removed to another city. Years passed on. Those who once were pupils had taken the places of teachers in the school, and still its usefulness was sustained. Nothing had been heard of Caroline B, until, one Sabbath morning, a letter was handed to her old teacher, directed in a well-known hand. After giving an account of her new and pleasant home in the far West, and of the little family gathered around her, in touching terms she referred to the old schoolroom at and of the many associations gathered around that spot. "Often and often have I thought of your kindness and of your instructions, and thanked God that you wearied not in what must have seemed such fruitless labors. I know I ridiculed and spurned them. But when laid for months on the bed of sickness, unable even to read, your gentle voice and those Sabbath lessons came back to me as freshly and as vividly as but yesterday. Your pleading and earnest words echoed and re-echoed through my soul, and when life and health slowly returned, I arose from my bed another and a different being. Life has become transfigured to The future is no longer a dream, nor eternity and retribution mere names. Gladly would me. I pour forth my heart-felt thanks to you, but words are inadequate. In another world, next to the Saviour shall I thank you for your love to me, when I rendered no return." Do not such incidents as these and easily could they be multiplied-speak in earnest tones to every teacher of the duty of long-suffering patience, and a steady, hearty perseverance in the work? Shall we be so quick and ready to see the faults and be discouraged by the heedlessness of the little child, or the ardent, impetuous youth, when standing in such daily need ourselves of the Divine forbearance and forgiveness? Where should we be, were the Master as ready to mark our follies and sins, as we are to complain of those who often hear no words of religious instruction, save from our lips? Let the teacher be diligent, faithful, and true, but never let him be discouraged in witnessing no immediate results of his labors. "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." Let him faithfully give line upon line, precept upon precept, never wearying of repeating the same explanations, patiently meeting the various wants of his pupils, and in trusting faith breaking to them the bread of life. Let him never give way to any feelings of impatience or irritability, or evince, by a careless, hurried manner, that he is weary of his work; but let him ever remember Him who is long-suffering and kind, even to the unthankful and the evil, and never feel discouraged, so long as he is conscious of having spoken and acted with the sincere purpose of following his divine Master. "Speak gently to the erring ones, They must have toiled in vain ; Perchance unkindness made them so; Speak gently, 'tis a little thing Dropped in the heart's deep well; Patience and perseverance, learned from a holy communion with the Saviour's life and spirit, inwrought into the secret recesses of the soul, what qualifications more essential to the religious teacher! Patience towards others, patience with one's own heart, sustained by the steadfast, onward endeavor, and the quiet waiting upon God; a fixed and definite aim, upheld by a strong, resolute, and determined perseverance to go right onward, though no visible, immediate results are realized, such a spirit does every teacher need. To every one truly and heartily engaged in the work is it said, with a deep and abiding emphasis, "Be not weary in well-doing"; for the promise is sure and for ever, "In due season ye shall reap, if ye faint not." "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed," IF said our Saviour to his disciples, as, awe-struck and astonished, they witnessed the display of his miraculous power, "ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you." In another place, as if to unfold to them yet more fully the profound and seemingly hidden mystery of his words, he adds, "What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Are not these words equally applicable to the Christian teacher of the present day as to those first disciples? However widely different in its peculiar circumstances and mere outward envi ronments, is there not as deep a need now in the Church of Christ of this true, abiding faith, as in those earlier times, when trial and persecution were the certain results of a frank and honest avowal of the divine claims of the Redeemer ? Is not this faith greatly wanting among us? Have we not, to a great degree, lost a simple and practical trust in the power and efficacy of prayer, the one great means of sustaining a true and living faith? Believing, it may be, intellectually, in the promise of divine help and guidance, is there not among many a half-acknowledged feeling that prayer is only an act of selfexcitation, a requisite form of the acknowledgment of the divine goodness and support, but bringing to the soul no peculiar benefits, no special blessing from the fount of divine truth and love? Is there not a too prevalent feeling of the necessary reliance upon God as the author of eternal law and order, as a Being unchangeable in his government, and for ever fixed in his wise and inscrutable decrees, without that reverential fear, that personal confidence, that holy trust, that sees in all a Father's hand, that believes in his direct, immediate communion with every soul, listening to the faintest prayer of the sincere and child-like spirit, and adapting every blessing, every trial, every event to the ultimate good of the individual soul, — yearning over it with a Father's tenderness, and satisfying its |