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informational and memory use of the lessons. In addition to these important elements in his spiritual training, it weaves into his life three other strands. He receives careful training in "Church Loyalty," in which during each year he is taught such facts as come within the scope of his experience concerning the Church building, ornaments, vestments, holy days, customs and observances, etc., and which will make him a well-trained Churchman. His devotional life is developed year by year by the use of prayers, acts and exercises of devotion, the use of the sacraments, his part and duty in the public services of the Church the devotional use of the Bible by means of daily readings (which are prescribed in each course), etc. And by no means the least, he is trained through acts of Christian service to put into daily practice toward others the ideals he has learned to love. By the use of duplex envelopes he learns the privileges of Christian stewardship, and finds pleasure in giving his money to strengthen God's work in the parish, in the mission fields and works of charity.

The co-operation of parents is essential to the success of any scheme of instruction. In this course letters are sent home at the beginning of each month, giving detailed directions to parents how to assist the child in the preparation of his work for each week. These letters come in printed forms for the teachers to send. Upon each letter is given a report of the work of the child for the previous month. These letters have been of the greatest assistance in the success of the course.

To help the teachers the Manuals for each course in the series contain full and explicit directions for the work of the year. In addition to this, it will simplify the teacher's problems if the Rector or Superintendent (or some other qualified person) will meet with her and go step by step over the work for each week, until the teacher becomes familiar with it. This need not become a burden, for a month's work can easily be gone over at each meeting. If the school is large enough to have more than one class in a grade, all the teachers of that grade may meet together, one of them being appointed as Leader of the grade. In addition to these grade meetings, there should be held every

month a meeting of the whole faculty, to discuss the Series as a whole, so that each teacher may understand the part her course fills in the whole fabric, and to study the whole subject of teaching and its problems. The Correspondence Course offered by the General Board of Religious Education offers much practical help to teachers who are not able to be in regular classes for study. Write to the Rev. Dr. Bradner, 289 Fourth Avenue, New York, for information about it.

Now we hear some one saying "All that is very fine for your big city schools, where you have lots of children and plenty of teachers. But we can't use it in our school because we are so small." And that is where he is mistaken. The Christian Nurture Series is so elastic and adaptable that it can be used in any school of any size, provided some one is willing to follow the plan. The writer has used it in a large school, where it has wonderfully stimulated the pupils and teachers. And he has also used it with equal success in a small school, by adopting "the cycle plan," in which certain courses are taught one year (for instance 1, 3, 5 and 7) and the following year the classes each take the next higher course (2, 4, 6 and 8). This is fully explained in a book on "Organizing the Smaller School," by the Rev. Dr. Bradner, published by the Young Churchman Co., Milwaukee.

The most complete results in religious education in our parishes will come when we learn to value rightly the educational possibilities of each and every organization in the parish, and make full use of it. We have not the space to discuss it here. But no vestry is fulfilling its highest function unless it is acting as a tremendous dynamo in the educational work of the congregation whom they represent. Our guilds, auxiliaries, clubs, confraternities, societies, and what not, miss the greatest opportunity they have for serving God and His people if they are not organs for educating every soul they reach, training him in better ideals of life and service, giving him nobler conceptions of his place in the world. Let us grasp the vision of service and make bold use of the opportunity these organizations have placed in our hands. We can revolutionize the life of the Church

if we catch this vision ourselves, and then lead others to live up to it. We need not wait for the millenium. The time is today. Let us use what we have.

We would like to say more about the importance of religious education in the home, if space permitted. Here again we need the divine power, the "dunamis" which God has promised, and which will be the dynamo to furnish power for right living and true thinking by God's people. We long to see our homes become Christian homes, where our Lord is well known and loved and served, where parents and children pray, where grace is said, where the Bible is read each day, where devout souls try to live up to their Faith, and where families come together to the Lord's House to plead His Sacrifice on the Lord's day. It is hard to see wherein the majority of modern homes differ from those of pagan Rome, except that we use telephones, automobiles, cigarettes, and some styles of clothing not known to them. Possibly one result of the great war may be the restoration of our homes to God.

We have left to the last to mention briefly one of the most important elements in the spiritual training of children, worship. We have referred to the devotional life as it is developed through the Christian Nurture Series. Since our boys and girls are the children of God, they have the right to be trained to approach Him in divine worship in the manner appointed by our Lord Himself, through the pleading of His Sacrifice. The best way to do this is to give them the opportunity of taking their part in the service, using the Prayer Book and Hymnal of the Church, with just as much of the ceremonial and music as circumstances make possible, in order that they may learn by doing. If the regular parish services can be arranged in such form and with such music, lessons, sermons, etc., as come within the range of children's capacity and comprehension, it is ideal to have them present in full numbers with their parents in the family pew. But observation has led us to believe that in many of our Church Schools a large proportion (frequently one-half) of the children are from the homes of non-Church, or non-attending, families. They have no one to take them. And in some of our parishes

the services and music are arranged so entirely from the adult point of view that they are not especially helpful to children. When these conditions prevail, we have found it of the greatest benefit to establish as a definite part of the work of the Church School services of the Church, in which the children can be carefully trained to take their full part and to understand what they are doing.

Let the children, with their teachers and such parents as can come, assemble in the Church for this worship. The Rector, his assistant or one of the Lay Readers, can drill the congregation for a few moments on finding their places and explain the meaning of the service about to begin. Where it is possible, there should be a choir to lead the singing of the congregation. Older boys of the School may be used as crucifers and acolytes. Others may act as ushers. The Altar should be as carefully prepared as for the regular parish services and every detail of reverence carefully observed, for children are responsive to every influence and are forming their impressions of what is fitting in the worship of God. At each point in the service the assistant can quietly tell the children the page, and make such explanations as are necessary. This does not disturb the service. It may even be done by the Celebrant when he has no one to assist him. In a very brief time the children become familiar with the Prayer Book, and take their parts with earnestness and devotion which warm our hearts. Our observation is that they are usually as reverent as adult congregations and their responses far more hearty. Children who are trained in this way love the services and are less frequently lost to the Church than when they have never learned how to worship. The transition from Church School to Church worship comes naturally. They understand the services and feel at home in the congregation, and as a result are less likely to drop away when they stop attending the School. We do not mean to substitute entirely these services, where the children are learning to worship in an environment which wins their love, for the other parish services. But if we prayerfully and wisely use them for teaching our children they will prove of the greatest benefit to them

and to the adults who attend them. It is not difficult to have them. The Rector, with the help of a few sympathetic people, can arrange them. Again, let us use what we have.

By taking up the work where we find it, seizing upon the materials at hand with which to work, and learning from those whose experience may give us good suggestions, we can go forward with our work among the children. We know that it lies very close to the heart of our Saviour. We may therefore feel sure of His assistance if we take the children upon our hearts and ask Him to give us grace and power to do it.

The Place of Women in the Church

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'N a recent number of The English Church Review, the Rev. A. E. Olroyd discusses the claim recently made in the Church of England that "women may occupy any position in the Church that men do." This movement, it is pointed out, is not a legitimate development within the Church, but is the demand of the English Suffragettes applied to the Church and her government. The whole question, at any rate in this shape, is entirely foreign to our thought. And we are startled to learn that, while some of the societies working for this "reform" confine themselves to the province of the laity, others go so far as to claim that women should be admitted to the Diaconate, the Priesthood, and the Episcopate, on the same basis as men. The foundation for this claim in the Church is the same as for the claim of equality of rights in the political world: that men and women are equal. Much use is also made of the claims of "Democracy." In connection with these claims the precedent of women ministers in the "Free Churches" is cited. It is even asserted, by the claimants, that women have in the past exercised the priesthood, though it is carefully concealed that no woman has ever served as a Priest at the Altars of the Catholic Church of Christ. I am sure we all agree with the writer when he says: "But surely we have the right to demand that professing Churchwomen shall consider this question from the standpoint of Church principles, and not from that of

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