After church they were to be employed [oh! horrors!] in repeating the catechism till half-past five, and then to be dismissed with an injunction to go home without making a noise, and by no means to play in the street."

That the question book, so far from laying its dead hand on any one, was a prime factor in promoting the distinctive study of Scripture, rather than catechisms and other formularies of doctrine, will readily appear from the following extract from a welldigested article on the Sunday-school in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia, by Rev. Edwin W. Rice, editor of the American Sunday-school Union: "The schools founded by Raikes were chiefly for the lower classes in the community, who were ignorant, and hence were taught the elementary branches of reading and writing, with oral instruction in the catechism. Reading and memorizing texts in the Bible followed; cramming the memory with large portions of Scripture and the catechism seems to have been a hobby in Scotland, England and America for some time. . . James Gall by his End and Essence of Sabbath-school Teaching, and his Nature's Normal School, aimed to introduce a more sensible lesson system into Scotland, which was also used in some schools in America as early as 1820. Stowe's training system, giving prominence to pictorial methods of instruction, also aided in reforming this excessive use of memory. The reform in America was completed by the introduction of the Uniform Limited Lessons, prepared in 1825, and adopted by the American Sunday-school Union and its three or four hundred auxiliaries in 1826. This scheme contemplated a five-years' course of study for the whole Bible, one and the same lesson for all, of from seven to fifteen verses, questions and comments in at least three grades, and reviews."

It is evident, therefore, that the question book, so far from laying a dead hand on teacher or scholar, was the exponent of a truly forward movement in the development of the Sunday-school idea. No one familiar with the history of these times can fail to recognize the value of the question books of the Sunday-school Union, of the Mimpriss Graded Lessons and many others. Indeed, the question book in some form is a necessity, and it is quite

amusing to hear our critic, a little further on, speak so approvingly of the lesson sheets of the "Blakeslee Course," an “integral part of the plan of which," as he tells us, "is the opportunity afforded for writing down the answers to set questions." If that is not the question book, what is it?

Another evidence of the inaccuracy of the writer of the article we are reviewing is found in his attempt to glorify Bishop Vincent as the originator and prime mover of the scheme of International Lessons. When we read in this article of the extreme admiration of President Hervey for "men of scholarship who are in sympathy with President Harper's spirit and method," and then recall recent events in connection with Bishop Vincent and the Higher Criticism, it is easy to understand why President Hervey should desire to do him honor; but much as we may be disposed to recognize the invaluable service rendered by Bishop Vincent to the work of Sunday-school instruction, it would be impossible to render him honestly any such meed of praise as that implied in saying that "he and those whom he inspired, devised, elaborated, fought for, and finally carried triumphantly into the schools the uniform lessons of the International system." Some of us remember those days very distinctly, and we have no recollection of any such great battle to be fought. Our recollection is that, the American Sunday-school Union having used uniform lessons since 1826, it was only necessary to show the superiority of the selections made by the International Committee, and the system was gladly welcomed. And it is a significant fact that in the article to which we have referred, written by the secretary of the union before there were any criticisms of Bishop Vincent, the credit of suggesting the International Lesson system is given to Mr. B. F. Jacobs, of Chicago, and there is not the slightest reference to any leadership of Bishop Vincent. Before us also is a report of the Indianapolis Convention of 1872, when the International Lesson system was proposed. The statement is made, that after a speech by Mr. B. F. Jacobs the system was adopted. by a practically unanimous vote, and with the greatest enthusiasm. There is no reference to Bishop Vincent.

Before passing from the consideration of that period when the

Sunday-school was under the dead hand of the question book, we canrot refrain from alluding to a most remarkable instance of the deadening influence of this educational incubus to which President Hervey refers. Your "advanced theory" and "progressive theology" men are very much given to presenting us with specimens from that fossiliferous era that preceded the new age of which they are the morning stars. Henry Ward Beecher was never so happy as when he had Plymouth Church in a titter as he caricatured the Puritan Sabbath and the catechism drill. We were prepared to expect something of this kind, but not anything so remarkable. We give President Hervey's exact words: "The legitimate fruit of this era may be not too unfairly indicated by this confession of one who is now a brilliant and devout woman, but who as a child was too brilliant to be devout [how very brilliant she must have been], though she was regular in attendance on Sunday-school: namely, that she reached the ripe age of thirteen years before it was revealed to her that the scene of the Bible narrative was not laid in heaven."

Now, considering that the "scene of the Bible narrative" is laid partly in Armenia, partly in Chaldea, partly in Egypt, and partly in Palestine, what a brilliant, not to say heavenly-minded girl of thirteen years that must have been, who either in or out of a Sunday-school had not yet learned that these familiar places of our geography were not in heaven! If she could be caught, she ought to be labelled and put in some educational museum as one of the curiosities of the nineteenth century.

But it is time to pass to that which is the chief aim of this article, namely, to point out the imminent peril to the Sabbath-school from what is known as the "new education in the church," for which we are, to a considerable extent, indebted to Bishop Vincent and "those whom he inspired." The peril from this movement is threefold.

In the first place, the acceptance of this "reform," as its advocates are pleased to call it, would involve the giving up of our International system of lessons, with all the literature that has grown about it, and the substitution of the system of the "Bible Study Union." The lessons of the International Committee are

now used in nearly all the Sabbath-schools on this continent, and in many thousands of schools abroad. It is safe to say that twenty millions of scholars study them every Sabbath. A change to the lessons of the Bible Study Union would involve many serious consequences. First of all, the uniform study of the same lesson on the same day all over the world must be abandoned. President Hervey reckons it one of the superiorities of the new system over the old that "The lessons are not dated, and one may begin the school-year in September or in January without feeling that he is out of step with anybody. Why it should ever have been supposed that Mr. Brown's class of girls, aged fourteen, should be able to proceed as rapidly as Miss Green's class of boys of the same age, has always been a mystery to the present writer. There are cases on record of classes which failed to finish the lesson for the day, but felt impelled to proceed next time to the lesson of the day."

Of course, no system can have all possible advantages combined; but the matchless advantage of the International system-that for the loss of which nothing to which President Hervey refers could begin to compensate-is that the same lesson is taught in every school from Maine to California on the same day. A teacher or scholar thrown providentially in any strange city to spend Sunday can prepare the lesson, and go and take his place, and teach or recite just as if he were at home. Then, too, comes the inspiration of the thought of the millions that are, at the same time with ourselves, engaged in the prayerful study of the same portion of God's word, and the ability to provide lesson helps so much more perfectly where all can concentrate for the time being on a single passage of Scripture. Not only is there the loss of the inspiration from keeping step with the great body of Bible students all over the world, but there is a Babel in each particular school. What is to become of the superintendent's review and drill in the lesson, if as many different lessons have been taught as there are classes in the school? In this respect the loss through the proposed change would be grievous.

But this is as nothing when compared with the second sacrifice we must make. The International Lesson Committee consists of

fifteen members, chosen from the leading evangelical denominations of the country, the number from each denomination being governed by the size of the denomination, the Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians having three each; the Congregationalists, Disciples, Episcopalians, Lutherans, the Reformed churches, and United Brethren having one each. The new Lesson Committee, appointed at the last International Convention, contains the names of men in whose scholarship, conservatism, and spirituality the friends of the Sunday-school have implicit confidence. As to the Bible Study Union, Professor Hervey tells us all that we need to know, in the following paragraph, under the caption, "The Bible Study Union: Its History."

"The beginnings of this movement seem to be fairly traceable to the work of President (then Professor), W. R. Harper, about ten years ago, whose splendid campaign for improved methods of Bible study so powerfully affected the country at large. Dr. Harper was also the supervising editor of the first published lessons of the series, and ever since the lessons have been edited by men of scholarship who are in sympathy with President Harper's spirit and method. The father of the movement itself is Rev. Erastus Blakeslee, who, after some preliminary experimenting, issued the first course of lessons in the year 1891. The circulation increased in the first three years from ten thousand to one hundred thousand, and then to one hundred and fifty thousand. The lessons were translated and printed in several foreign languages for use in the missionary field. New courses were continually added, and finally, in 1893, the corporation known as the Bible Study Union was formed, being an organization of about five hundred distinguished college presidents and professors, clergymen, Sunday-school superintendents, and teachers, etc., representing a dozen different denominations."

As President Harper is recognized as one of the leading representatives in this country of that rationalistic school of the Higher Criticism, whose views of inspiration are so radical as virtually to exclude the supernatural as an element of Scripture, it will be seen at once that if the lesson helps of this course are to be furnished by men who "are in sympathy with President Harper's spirit and