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CHAPTER V.

ENCOURAGEMENTS.

"To educate young people truly, we must give them inductive habits of thought, and teach them to deduce from a few facts a law which makes plain all similar ones, and so acquire the habit of extracting from every story somewhat of its kernel of spiritual meaning. But again, to educate them truly, we must ourselves have faith; we must believe that in every one there is a spiritual eye, which can perceive those great principles when they are once fairly presented to it— that in all there are some noble instincts, some pure yearnings after wisdom, and taste, and usefulness, which if we only appeal to them trustfully through the examples of the past, and the excitements of the present, will wake into conscious life. Above all, both pupils and teachers must never forget that all these things were written for their examplesthat though circumstances and creeds, schools and tastes may alter, yet the heart of man, and the duty of man, remain unchanged."-REV. CHARLES KINGSLEY: Introductory Lecture at Queen's College.

IT has just been admitted that every state of life

abounds with difficulties; but each one has those peculiar to itself, and to the character of the person placed in it. It may be well to enter upon this subject more fully. To some, their relative position, arising from the tempers of those they dwell amongst, is "the crook in the lot;" to others, their own mental trials are the hardest to be borne; and others again, have to struggle with poverty, or very contracted means. Each

has his own burthen to bear, his own cross to carry, and the youthful dream of ease and rest soon vanishes. Now, these things cannot happen by chance; there is a reason and fitness in them all; and He who tells us that "the very hairs of our head are all numbered," would not suffer His children to be thus tempted, unless He saw that there was "a needs be" for it.

If we apply these remarks to the lot of a governess, it must be granted that there are certain things connected with it which cannot fail to be trying, even under the best circumstances.

From morning till night, day after day, and week after week, to be almost confined to the society of children, is very wearisome, and especially if they look upon instruction as a penance. When this life is first entered upon, everything seems new and strange, especially if it has been adopted as a means of subsistence, in consequence of reverses of fortune-the contrast of the former and present condition is vivid and painful.

And how are these feelings to be disciplined and overcome? Simply by habituating ourselves to look upon the circumstances in which we are placed as God's appointments, and to claim His promised strength and help, in all we think and do.

Young and ardent persons are soon apt to be discouraged, even if they labour in this spirit, by seeing how little they can accomplish in education. They fancied they had a receipt by which they could easily govern all tempers and disposi

tions, and they wonder that they find it such up-hill work-nay, sometimes, that the case seems to get worse rather than better. These disappointments spring from their ignorance of what education is, and want of experience of their own hearts. Do they find it easy to root out what is evil there? Do they find that even the convictions of their own consciences are implicitly followed? Can they fix and govern their thoughts at will? Can they subdue the flesh to the spirit? Does reproof from without, or the voice of conscience from within, speak so audibly, that all evil passions are at once hushed and still? Is not the whole inner life one of conflict and struggle? And is it not unreasonable to expect that those who have yet but little self-knowledge can, by a few precepts and threatenings, become all that they ought to be?

Nature teaches us a lesson here. She does not, as soon as seed is cast into her bosom, at once return a full harvest, but she demands the early and latter rain; she asks for the cold of winter, the warmth of spring, the heat of summer, before she requites the labour of the husbandman; and can it be otherwise with mental and spiritual growth? We are all too impatient. Some forget to weed, and train, and water, whilst some over-prune, and then they quarrel with the young plants for not thriving. It may be, after all, that our toil may prove vain, but this is rarely the case in the end, when in faith, and hope, and love we really educate a soul. Sometimes it is not granted

us to see the fruits of our labours, but the command is the same. "In the morning, sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not which shall prosper, this or that." "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." So few give a really religious education, that we cannot wonder that good has not followed.

To tell a child not to do this or that, because it is naughty, and to punish it only for the same reason, is to make it a little atheist. Why is this naughty? - why is this good? it may naturally inquire. "God says it; you are His child; you displease Him when you sin-you serve Him when you do right; He is your Father; He knows what is good and what is hurtful for you; therefore He commands you to do the one and to shun the other." Here is a reason that at once satisfies and speaks to the conscience-which answers, "True, I am not my own-God is here; I feel His presence restrain me— -I am not aloneHis eye is upon me-let me not sin—but I am weak-I cannot do right without help-let me pray." And though the will rebels again and again, yet often the hardest struggles take place where there is the most earnest desire to do right. Then hope must be held out that these struggles shall not be in vain, and that every victory gives more power to gain another and another. Many are in the habit of saying to young children when they do wrong, "I don't love you when you are naughty," or, worse still, "God does not love you

when you are naughty." This is a falsehood, and the child feels it to be such, but it confounds in his mind the notions which should always be distinct-the sinner and the sin; and it is a blasphemy when it is said of Him, who, "when we were sinners," so loved us as to give Himself for us.

Nothing is more erroneous than to suppose that children naturally dislike religion because it is so serious a subject; but numbers are made to dislike it by the mode in which it is presented to them, and thus an irreparable injury is done to the mind.

A governess who does her work in the spirit of faith and prayer must prosper; if she begin the day by seeking direction in duty, and asking wisdom for guidance, and commending her charge severally to her Father in Heaven, she will come into the school-room feeling that "as her day so shall her strength be," and she will be prepared to meet any cross accidents with a quiet spirit.

One great trial to a conscientious person is a sense of incompetence to do her work as she wishes to do it. Her aims are high: she longs to see her pupils all that they ought to be. She trusts to kindle in them such a love of improvement and thirst for knowledge, and desire of progress, that they shall labour with all diligence to advance in study; and when they flag or linger she is apt to turn back on herself and ask if it be not her fault, -she pants after larger stores of knowledge, from which to supply them. She sees what others have done, and feels as if she had done nothing, and