person over the head class in the school, was not intended by some writers, when they gave a superior education the first place in the qualifications of a teacher of a select class. That this interpretation has been put on the words of some intelligent advocates of select classes is but too clear, from the fact, that on the formation of such a class, the common course is to secure the services of some, so-called, respectable member of the church-not in the Sunday school-to preside over it.

To this plan there are several objections.

1st. The teacher of a select class must be the friend of those committed to his care. There must be the greatest intimacy between teacher and taught, or the class will fail in its object. This cannot be the case where the newly introduced teacher is a perfect stranger to the school.

The association of teacher and select class should not close with the Sabbath engagements.

2nd. In most instances the persons alluded to are ignorant of Sunday school teaching. Whatever their educational acquirements and accomplishments may be, prudence and principle would say, let them be tried before such an important position as teacher of the select class is assigned them.

3rd. A man's educational position is no index as to his capacity as a teacher. Place one of the professors from some of our colleges at the head of a Sunday school class, and it is a question whether he would be more at home with his charge, than the teacher would be in conducting one of the professor's classes. In both cases the want of adaptation would render their efforts fruitless. It is not what a man knows, but what he can communicate, which makes the successful teacher. This accounts for the fact that many teachers of very limited attainments, have been the most successful.

4th. No other education can supply the want of a Sunday school education in fitting a person to become an efficient teacher of a select class.

Those who have had all the advantages of a first-class education, and who pass through several classes in our schools, and ultimately become the teachers of our select classes, are the most useful and generally the most honoured of those engaged in the Sunday school work. A well educated teacher who has not had this training, might be fraternal in his intercourse with his fellow-teachers, he might win the hearts of his class, but we think his teachings would not be so productive of good as those of his humble fellow-labourer who has few human acquirements of which to boast. The educated teacher gets materials for thought

from books. The humble teacher's lessons are drawn from life, and serve as a sort of moral harness, by which he seeks to keep the minds of his class from swerving from the narrow path during the week.

Whatever allowance may be made for exceptions, the conclusion to which we are led is, that as a rule the efficient teacher of a select class must be a well-trained Sunday school teacher. We say, there may be exceptions. There are some who have minds so comprehensive, and hearts so full of sympathy, that you cannot put them in the wrong place in working for the cause of Christ. For such, no position is too exalted; happy is that school where one such is found.

Such a person will be the best teacher in the school,-is adapted to all circumstances-and that is the teacher who ought to be placed over the select class. In the absence of one so gifted, take the best teacher in the school-the one with the greatest number of qualifications most highly developed. Many young men in our schools have had eight or ten years' experience in teaching. Where the enthusiasm of youth is combined with other excellences in a select class teacher, it is of very great advantage. Whatever obstacle there is to putting the right man in the right place should be removed. Is the teacher who is best qualified to take charge of the select class far down in the school, in the sixth or seventh class? Lift him over the heads of his seniors, it is God's work which you are doing, and if you do it as kindly as you can where it crosses a brother's feelings, but still firmly, and cut the red tape of routine which has too long fettered us all, you will have the reward of success which always follows a bold act when done for God at the call of duty. We have said that the best teacher in the school should be placed over the select class. But the custom in Yorkshire is to elect the best teacher to the office of superintendent. This we know is rather a touchy subject, and if nothing which has been said will excite an after-dinner discussion, to say anything about our Yorkshire plan of causing our best men to retire from active work in our Sunday schools, by appointing them to the office of superintendent, is sure to raise a storm about our ears. Well! be this as it may, to touch the nettle gently is to be stung; to grasp it firmly is the way to escape unhurt.

Many who would make able teachers of our select classes, pass their time in the office of superintendent. We refer to those schools where the work is done by the secretary, and where there are other superintendents in the same room. Where there is only one superintendent, he should be the best man that can be obtained. It is not of

such a superintendent that we speak. Take a school with three rooms, there must be six superintendents, and these the best men in the school. This we believe is a serious evil, and is confined chiefly to this part of the country. It is a great waste of the talent which God has given for the evangelization of the world.

Let us revise our plans, and let our object be to seek work in our Sunday schools. The result will be, that many whose zeal is almost dying of nothing to do in the discharge of one-half or one-third of the duties of superintendent, will be placed at the head of select classes, where they will find that pleasure and work are inseparable allies in the Sunday school. This is our answer to the question, Where shall we find efficient teachers for our select classes? You who are delegates from schools with four or six superintendents, study the law of adaptation in your schools as you would in your business; and you will find many an indifferent teacher who is a first-class business man of exemplary piety, with a large amount of tact, who would fill well the office of superintendent; but the gifted and earnest in our ranks should be retained for our select classes. Remember that the efficient teacher is the great bulwark of the Sunday school.

Two questions ought ever to be kept before us, viz.,-What is the great object aimed at by our select classes? and how can we best attain that object?

The common answer to the first question is, that the great object of select classes is to retain our elder scholars. We ask, for what purpose do we wish to retain them?

To supply our Sunday schools with teachers, is the general reply. These classes, if allowed to do their work properly, will supply our Sunday schools with their best teachers; but the supply will be much greater than the demand.

This will, perhaps, be the proper place to point out one of the greatest evils which select classes have to contend with, the full magnitude of which the teacher of the class only knows. We refer to what we think is the common error, that one great purpose which these classes are to serve, is to supply the places of absentee teachers. Take any school, with from thirty to forty teachers, where the want of system, which prevails too much in our best schools, is seen in every part of the institution. In the supposed school there are three or four teachers noted for irregular attendance. Seldom, if ever, a Sabbath comes, but one or other is absent. The superintendent has the choice of two evils: he must either put the scholars into another class, or procure a teacher from the select class.

Which would be the better course? Superintendents generally will say, take a teacher out of the select class, rather than allow a class to be neglected. We would offer several remarks on this common, but we think evil practice.

1st. This plan is adopted because it is the most convenient, and not because it is the best.

2nd. A class without a teacher may be distributed into two or three classes, so that there is no necessity for the alternative of the class being untaught, if a teacher be not taken from the select class.

3rd. If the neglected class be thus distributed, the scholars composing it will be under the care of one who has come to teach the lesson for the day.

4th. To take a member of the select class to supply the place of an absentee, as a rule, is to pander to the giant evil, (viz., irregular attendance,) which is the bane of our Sunday schools.

It is much more pleasant for the superintendent to ask the kindhearted young man or woman to take a class, than to enquire of the irregular teacher as to the cause of his absence.

5th. The above course disturbs the select class, interrupts the teacher, and not unfrequently spoils the lesson.

6th. The young person, who, after much persuasion, consents to take a class, is not prepared to teach, he has come to hear, not to give a lesson.

The lesson for the select class may be a particular one, and, therefore, the services thus rendered are given with only half a heart, and so far as he is concerned, the occupations of the Sabbath end with disappointment.

The common argument which settles all objections on the part of the members of our select classes, when asked to take charge of a class is, "it is your duty." We think that this is a great mistake. To miss one lesson may make a break in a series of lessons. We have known a member of a select class request another to furnish him with his notes, as he himself was expected to go at the call of the superintendent. At other times we have known all to remain resolute, and give a firm no! to the superintendent's request, which refusal was regarded as rebellion.

We think it is not the duty of the members of our select classes to offer themselves up as the victims to the caprice of any teacher, who may be allured from his class by a fine morning, an interesting book, or an eloquent preacher. The young man or woman has a right to demur to the request of the superintendent, especially when the subject of the lesson is of a peculiarly interesting character. We are not speaking of absence from illness;

a teacher's place, vacant from such a cause, would be most cheerfully filled by the members of our select classes.

It will augur well for our Sunday schools, when the members of our select classes respectfully, but firmly, make a stand against the above evil, and say, we will either come to teach, or to be taught; but we will not be the makeshifts for those who have neither a conscience to impel them to attend to their classes, nor the dignity to resign them; give each of us in our turn a class, and say, that is yours, and we will show ourselves worthy of the important trust. LESSONS. The lessons best adapted to the select class is a question on which there are many opinions. The Sunday School Union Lessons are recommended by some. Taking them as subjects for all classes in our schools for any lengthened period of time, we believe that the Union lessons cannot be surpassed.

A plan which will commend itself to some, is to take Genesis for one part of the day, and Matthew with parallel passages from the gospels on the other part of the day. We have known the above plan carried out with some success in a young men's class.

Another plan which we have known work well, is worthy of a trial, as it gives the members of the class a choice in the selection of subjects.

The plan of taking the Scriptures in consecutive order, may be better adapted to young men than the one which we are about to describe, which we think will be preferred by many young women's classes. Take a class of young women, numbering from twenty to thirty members. If newly formed, the teacher may select subjects for the first two Sabbaths. When the teacher (there are very good teachers of both sexes of young women's classes) announces them to the class, it will be stated that these will be the last subjects which will be selected for the class, and that at the close of the second Sabbath, each member will be expected to furnish a subject in writing-each subject to occupy one Sabbath. On the given day, after the duties of the class have closed, the papers are collected, and the subjects proposed will probably occupy the class for the subsequent six months. Of course, the teacher would reject any improper subject, of which there would not be much danger, as each subject would be accompanied by the proposer's signature.

Some would think that the above plan would give too much power to the class. Let our young men and women see that they have our confidence, and they will give their affection in return. It is the unwise exercise of "a little brief authority," simply for the sake of mastery, which ruins many select classes. The above plan

has many advantages.