Jesus calls the death of the good a not lawful in the school), and run his sleep. He does not deny the reality of eyes through the several classes as he the child's death; but He intimates passes them, with a smile of kindly enthat it shall be followed by a resurrec-couragement for scholar or teacher, tion, as sleep is by an awakening, v. 39. They laughed him to scorn. Knowing that she was really dead, and not believing in a resurrection. So the infidel world ever mocks that precious article of our faith: I believe in the resurrection of the body, v. 40. Talitha cumi-in the ordinary dialect of the people, meaning: maid arise, v. 41. The word was sufficient; she not only arose, but was able to walk, v. 42. With her life, her strength also returned. should either look up. If a frisky boy or volatile girl is disturbing a class, the eye of the superintendent will bring order. If an arm around a neighbor's neck, or from an adjoining class, is administering a sly twist of a comrade's hair, a tap of the superintendent's finger will bring the offender to terms. But here is a class whose teacher has "run dry" in fifteen minutes. He was not at the teachers' meeting, and has not got himself filled with the lesson, and so has little to bestow. His boys are reading their papers, or are entertaining themselves and annoying their See Quarterly neighbors. The superintendent takes a Notes. The soul that is raised to new-seat in the form. He kindly asks how ness of life needs the bread of life. IV. THE RESTORRD LIFE NEEDS NOURISHMENT, v. 43. THE SUPERINTENDENT. There are teacherless classes; he must see that in some way they are supplied. He draws from the adult classes; he consolidates a teacherless class with one whose teacher is present, or he sets a bright boy or girl of the class at its head. Too often he sees no way of caring for some important class except by teaching it himself. He teaches it-and this is within itself a good work-but for the time he ceases to superintend his school. He next turns his eyes to the officers. He sees that the secretary and the librarian are in their places and attending to their duties. He goes to his infant school (if in a separate room), not to distract the attention of the scholars, o to annoy the teachers, but to show his sympathy with both, whilst seeing that all is right, and to assist if assistance is needed. He turns again to the main school and quietly oversees its working. He guards the classes from interruption from without, and, at the same time, is on the alert to remedy internal difficulties. It is well that he keeps a roll-book of his own, with the names of the teachers, if the school is large; or teachers and scholars, if it is of moderate size. He may move slowly and noiselessly along the aisles (boots that squeak are the class is getting on, and tests their progress by asking a few questions on the lesson, calling for the golden text and the catechism. If the teacher be not very stupid, the result of these questions will probably show him that his work was not all done when he closed his teaching that day. After seeing thus that all is moving his seat where he can still overlook his as it should, the superintendent takes little army, and compose his thoughts for to follow the "teaching hour." a few warm words with which he is to follow the "teaching hour." -W. Teacher. SHRINKING. Time was, I shrank from what was right, I would not brave the sacred fight, But now I cast that finer sense And sorer shame aside; Such aim at heaven was pride. So when my Saviour calls, I rise, I step, I mount where He has led; I know them; yet though self I dread, -J. H. NEWMAN. THIRD PART. I. School recite in concert, or boys and girls alternately, the Catechism, first thirteen Answers. (Sing a Hymn). II. QUESTIONS ON THE LESSONS. The Superintendent may add others, or substitute. Who was the Forerunner of Christ? What did he do besides preaching? What occurred at Jesus' baptism? Whither did He go after His baptism? Did He overcome Satan for us? How old was Jesus when He began to preach? What were the opening words of His preaching? What fishermen did He call? What miracle did He perform on those who were possessed of devils? Whom did Jesus cure of a great fever? Who said: "If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean?" Who was let down through the roof of the house? What did Jesus say to him? What publican did He call to be an Apostle? Who need a physician? Of what were bottles made in ancient times? For whom was the Sabbath made? Who is Lord of it? Whom did He heal on the Sabbath, in the Synagogue? (3:1-5). How many Apostles did the Lord choose? How many can you name? What did His kindred say of Him? (3:21). What wicked charge did His enemies bring against Him? (3: 22). What is the unpardonable sin? Who are the true brethren of Christ? (3:35). What is the first Parable of Jesus? What kind of soil is your heart? How does the seed grow? Ans. (1) Silently, (2) Gradually, (3) Greatly. To what little seed is the Kingdom of God likened? What did Jesus do to the stormy sea? What to the demoniacs in the cemetery? Whose dead daughter did Jesus bring to life? etc., etc. TO SUPERINTENDENTS AND TEACHERS. The review ought to be made interesting and thorough. Take sufficient time to make yourselves familiar with the twelve lessons. Read carefully the first five chapters of St. Mark, and notice that they present us a series of pictures of Christ at Work. The central truth for the quarter is applicable to all the lessons. "I work." Jno. 5: 17. The golden text brings out the same truth. It is St. Peter's declaration of the Saviour's manner of life: "He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil." II. Part. THE SUBJECTS of the twelve les sons are: 1. The Beginning of the Gospel. 2. Jesus in Galilee. 3. Power to Heal. 4. Power to Forgive. 5. The Pharisees Answered. 6. Christ and His Disciples. 7. Christ's Foes and Friends. 8. Parable of the Sower. 9. The Growth of the Kingdom. 10. Stilling the Tempest. 11. Power over Evil Spirits. 12. Power over Disease and Death. THE TOPICS. 1. Preparation for the Saviour's Work. 2. Jesus begins His Work. 3. Picture of Jesus as the Healer. 4. Forgiveness of Sins. 5. The Lord and the Sabbath. 6. Workers for the Kingdom of Christ. 7. Hindering the Lord's Work. 8. The Teacher, the Word, and the Hearers. 9. Growth of the Saviour's Work. 10. Christ is Lord of Nature. 11. Christ destroying the works of Sa tan. 12. Disease and Death subject to Christ. THE CENTRAL TRUTHS. 1. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God. 2. Christ calls us to serve Him. 3. All Men seek for Thee. 4. The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive Sins. 5. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 6. If ye continue in my Word, then are ye My Disciples indeed. 7. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. 8. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God. 9. Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 1. Behold, I will send my Messenger, and he shall prepare Thy way before Thee. 2. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. 3. I am the Lord that healeth thee. 4. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses. 5. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 6. Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye might go and bring forth fruit. 7. He that is not with Me is against Me. 8. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. 9. There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the tops of the mountains, the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon. 10. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. 11. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 12. Be not afraid, only believe. The Guardian. VOL. XXXIII. APRIL, 1882. NO. 4. LESSONS OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER. of Cornelius; in their defense before "Siloah's brook that flowed It is a pan of victory, and breathes the language of buoyant hope to "all who through fear of death, are all their lifetime subject to bondage." Scepticism, in its derision of Christianity, has at times, thrown out the taunt that "the Christian Church is founded upon an empty tomb." Apologists of the faith have not only submitted to the taunt, but have always gloried in the fact. Nothing in the whole body of Christian revelation, save tho fact of Jesus Himself, has been more precious to the Christian consciousness. In the judgment of St Paul, the resurrection of Christ is the very corner-stone of the whole fabric of Christian teaching. "If Christ be not risen then is our teaching vain." Hence, the historian in his chronicles of the missionary activity of the primitive church, is careful to record that "with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." Indeed, wherever they preached the good tidings of salvation-whether at Jerusalem, at Antioch, or at Athens; in the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, or Felix or Agrippa-this was the gist of their teaching. In their estimation the great text of evidential value was "Jesus and the Resurrection." The locality of the holy sepulcher, which tradition has pointed out as the place where they laid the body of Jesus," is enveloped in uncertainty. When we come, in the light of historical criticism, to test the various theories on this question, which have been suggested by controversial explorers in Palestine, we find that the reliable evidence for any particular theory is exceedingly scanty. All that we do know with any degree of absolute certainty, is contained in the sacred record itself. There we learn that the place was "nigh to the city;" there was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified; the sepulcher was in the garden, it was a rock-cut tomb, and it was" without the gate." So far does faith lead us, but no further. May God in His wise providence have any design in leaving men in this uncertainty? It looks very much like it. We are taught by high authority that it is possible to "know Christ after the flesh only." Men may learn habitually to think of Christ, as one who belongs only to human history, and may gather up everything that can illustrate His appearance among men. The idioms of Eastern speech, the scenery of the lakes and hills of Palestine, the flora, the climate, the customs of the unchanging East, all these are sometimes thus summoned by great intellectual skill, that they may place vividly before our imagination the precise circumstances which surrounded the earthly life of Jesus. But, here too often the appreciation of that life really ends. Where Christ is now, what He is, whether He can be approached by us-these are points from which they who know Him after the flesh only, may either turn away their thoughts, or contemptuously dismiss as theological speculations. But what saith the high authority to whom we have referred? "Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet, now, we know Him so no more." Does not this very uncertainty, then, in regard to many of the geographical sites in the historical life of our Saviour, admonish us that "Christianity is a religion which expresses itself not through the voices of rustling forests, nor the clefts of mysterious precipices, but through the souls and hearts of men; a religion, which was destined to have no home on earth, least of all in its own birth-place; which has attained its full dimensions only, in proportion as it has traveled further from its original source, to the daily life and homes of nations, as far removed from Palestine in thought and feeling, as they are in climate and latitude; which alone of all religions, claims to be founded not on fancy or feeling, but on fact and Truth." The sepulcher is empty-of this we are assured, and now He who rose therefrom should be a more attractive center of interest to us, even as He was to the first disciples. On the morning of the resurrection the significant inquiry of the angels, put to the devoted women of Galilee, who had brought their spices to anoint the body of the Lord, was "Why seek ye the living One among the dead?" The question turned their hearts and thoughts into another channel, so that "they returned from the sepulcher," and announced the glad tidings to the eleven, and to all the rest." Nor was it long ere those scattered sheep were all found by Him, in that higher sphere of life into which He had risen. 66 It is very significant that the church, in the lessons of her yearly cycle, has appointed so early after Easter the Gospel lesson of the Good Shepherd. Scarcely less significant is also the fact, that among the earliest frescos, which covered the walls and ceilings of the burial chapels, in the catacombs of Rome, was Jesus symbolized in the same character. In what harmonious accord are these facts with acts of the risen Saviour during those mysterious forty days, that immediately followed His resurrection! Truly, did He then manifest His right to the title of the Good Shepherd! As we combine the narratives of all His various appearances, which are distributed through the Gospels, we have a complete and consistent picture of Him in that character. His sheep had been sadly scattered by the scenes of the arrest, the trial, and the crucifixion, their hearts were all trembling, and full of fear-and consequently His first task was to administer comfort, and re-assurance. To Mary Magdalene; to the other women-Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, to Peter, to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, and then to the ten apostles, in the absence of Thomas, did He successively fulfil this mission. "All hail!" or "Peace be unto you!" were the comforting words by which He calmed and re-assured their troubled souls. Then on the following Lord's day did He tenderly bring back to the fold Thomas, the one sheep who had gone astray, and was in danger of perishing. In Jerusalem and the vicinity, was this work accomplished. Then, when the flock had been re-constructed in its completeness, He sent them into Galilee, where He had previously appointed to meet them. There on the mountain which He had pointed out, He once more gives His apostles their commission, explains it, and adds the promise," Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." And as the end draws nigh, He brings them back to Jerusalem, where they are to "wait for the promise of the Father." Then, in the last appearance He bids them farewell, and takes His departure only to return in a higher, and more abiding presence in the mystery of Pentecost, to be in them, and all His sheep evermore as a well of water springing up into everlasting life." As in those days, in which He tarried upon the earth to gather His scattered sheep, so, through the ages is He ever the Good Shepherd, gathering His dispersed sheep into His fold, in order that they may "hear His voice." May we so hear His voice as to pray indeed that prayer, which His church has placed upon our lips for the Lord's day of the Good Shepherd: "Let Thy |