his servants to feed him. After a sumptuous dinner, he permitted them to shake out the crumbs to Lazarus. So at present, the rich professor often fares luxuriantly, and then shakes out the crumbs. to the Lord's poor and destitute! Dives, for aught I know, might have been an elder in the church, for there are elders who do as Dives did, and no more." We, teachers of deaf-mutes, in an intellectual sense, "are clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day, and then shake out the crumbs" to our pupils. To speak particularly, our libraries contain choice books, and leading newspapers, and we enjoy the pleasure of reading on any subject whatever, and then we "shake out the crumbs" to the pupils. That makes the trouble. Many pupils frequently refer not only to the manner, but, also, the matter of preaching. They do not like to hear preaching. Why? Partly, no doubt, because they already know more than the teacher does, and they can learn nothing by listening. Partly, also, because the lectures are monotonous and cold. As to the manner, they do not mean the clearness of signs, though that is indispensable. Their complaint lies in the fact that most preaching falls flat and fruitless from want of life. The tameness of preaching is offensive. They grow inattentive, and insensible to the claims of duty, and do not attach importance to religion. We now observe that preaching in earnest is of the utmost importance. Since, if the preacher seems careless and indifferent, the hearers can not be blamed for their inattention and indifference. We again point to the fact that an earnest preacher makes earnest hearers. Suppose a preacher to be ungainly yet earnest, the audience will forgive and forget his awkwardness, for he is alive and aflame with his message. Therefore they would prefer him to a languid and indifferent preacher, even if he should be a clear and graceful sign-maker.

In the foregoing we have stated that prejudice on the part of teachers leads to the neglect of cultivating preaching as an art. In our opinion, the lack of enthusiasm on their part is chiefly hostile to the art of preaching. Excessive knowledge is a temptation or a besetting sin to them, and hostile to the spirit of enthusiasm. For example, a Presbyterian minister is learned, but a Methodist minister is earnest. As money is a good servant, but a bad master, so, much learning (which is not an evil in itself) should be extended to the audience with great earnestness. Also, the respect of men for an intelligent class of people and their indifference toward

whether the service be co-operative or responsive, or the contrary. I have been led to fear also from the discussion and from the news that we hear from different quarters of the comparative failure of religious services, that the idea that we heard advanced yesterday is bearing more evil fruit even than I had apprehended. If the sign language, with its power to communicate ideas graphically to the mind of the deaf-mute, has passed away as the vehicle of religious instruction, and another has been substituted for it which the children can not understand, it is not to be wondered at if the services are trite and uninteresting to them. I do not know that this is the fact, but unless we take care to keep up the sign language in all its vigor and beauty, we are sure to lose in the success of our religious services. I think it can not be denied that all who have used the sign language competently, in conducting the Sabbath services, have been gratified with the attention given by pupils to the services where it has been employed.

With regard to the younger class of pupils, I think there might, with propriety, be some participation in the services, and that it might be made a very interesting appendage to our ordinary services. Suppose that some of our little prayer-hymns were taught to the youngest class of the little ones, and they were brought up as a part of the service and recited together; it would at once touch the hearts of older persons, and fill the minds of the little ones with religious ideas proper to their infantile condition, and would be an experiment that would be almost surely happy in its results.

Participation is very greatly valued by some, and perhaps undervalued by others. One of the elements that has not been alluded to here is the sacred associations which repetition produces, and which come in and aid in exciting and in deepening religious emotions. This is the testimony of those religious people who have been in the habit of using services of this character. But the principal point I wish to make is, that we should not be too long in any exercise; that we should take care that we are intelligible in our instructions, and should all the time remember that we are dealing with children. And, with these points borne constantly in mind, I think we shall be successful in our religious instruction of the deaf and dumb. E. M. GALLAUDET.-I propose to give you a brief account of the Sabbath School that has been organized in Washington. About a year and a half ago we became satisfied that the lecture services were not sufficient in their interest to the pupils, not that there was

a lack of attention or interest in that service, for with us their interest in the religious services has been and is very gratifying; still we felt that there was not quite that being done for the deaf and dumb children and youth which was being done for others by the Sabbath School. We decided to organize a Sabbath School, and did so. And it was thus: We arranged our pupils into classes, not the classes of the week-day recitations, as is the case in New York and in Illinois. It bears the name of the Ephphatha Sabbath School. We have endeavored to create a different routine from the routine of the week; the interest of the pupils is increased by the variety. The highest class in the Sabbath School consists of a number of the members of the college classes, who are taught by the President. Then there are classes taught by the teachers. Then there are classes of pupils of younger years, some of whom are taught by professors, and others by older pupils. The school meets at nine o'clock in the morning. The opening services are variable, somewhat. There is an opening prayer, and generally, the reading of the Scriptures; then the classes go to their teachers and remain with them one hour for the lesson, and then separate. We have not adopted any uniform lessons, but each class has its own lessons arranged according to the ability of the persons comprising it.

A feature of this Sabbath School, has been a Sunday School concert, held on the first Sabbath evening of each month. This exercise has been found to be one of very great interest. We have generally, on Sabbath morning, announced a word, to illustrate which, the pupils recite in the evening texts of Scripture which they have found in the Bible. For instance, they have had "love," "faith," "hope," "charity," and words of similar character. This gives the pupils something to occupy their minds during the hours of Sunday; and it has been very surprising to see how even little children would take their Bibles and search, and look and read, to find these texts. "How did you find that text?" "O, I found it myself." Some of them would write out their texts on the slates; others, I would call up to the platform and have them spell the words on their fingers. These texts would then be made the subject of remark by the teachers, and sometimes by the pupils. We have succeeded in relieving it entirely from the stiffness and formality of such meetings, in general, and have made it very much like a sort of family meeting.

RELIGIOUS SERVICES FOR DEAF-MUTES.

BY H. W. MILLIGAN, A. M.

Under this subject I wish to show

First. That religious services for deaf-mutes, as generally conducted, are not such as are best adapted to their wants;

Second. What it is that they need;

Third.-A prepared service or liturgy would meet their wants; Fourth. What this service should be, how used, and by whom prepared.

Religious services for deaf-mutes, generally, if not universally, consist of a prayer or prayers, scripture reading, and an explanation or lecture having for its subject some passage from the Bible. The order of these exercises varies somewhat in different institutions; yet the general features remain the same.

Such a method of conducting religious services does not seem the best for deaf-mutes, because it does not secure their attention. We have all seen the expectant, eager look on the faces of deafmutes as they enter the chapel for religious services. Every one who has conducted these services has felt the responsibility resting upon him of doing the best which could be done for their welfare. Yet, after the introductory exercises, the reading and the prayer, when the pupils become seated for the lecture, how soon does the attention flag, the animated expression change to one of patient endurance, or suppressed mischief, or to a stare of vacancy, or else sleep overcomes both body and mind. Nor is this result at all wonderful. The wonder, indeed, would be if it were otherwise. The body and the mind re-act upon each other in their moods. Suffused eyes, compressed lips, a clenched fist, tense muscles are indications of an applied mental stimulation; while a soothing influence on the senses, such as the hum of bees, the rippling of waters, the monotonous waving of leaves, the motion of a boat, or

the rocking of a cradle, will soothe mental action into rest. Thus, while mental states affect the condition of the body, it is no less true that physical conditions affect the state of the mind. Apply this physiological fact to the case under consideration and we shall cease to wonder at the effect produced. Let us see what is the physical condition of the pupils. They sit still and gaze. Not a muscle moves; winking even is inconvenient. The circulation lingers for want of muscular action. The nerves are unstimulated from the depressed circulation. The brain responds languidly to the feeble nervous impressions, and soon sleep soothes the hearer into slumber. It may be said that the lecturer, in such cases as that mentioned, has mistaken his calling, or, at least, that he needs reconstruction; yet the similarity and the universality of the results forbids such a supposition. Facts as well as reason indicate that the defect is not with the lecturer, neither with the hearers, but in the method of conducting the service.

The above result, though common, is by no means universal. On another class of pupils, whose mental activity is more irrepressible, the effect is different. They seek relief from an enforced quietude in sly tricks or in contraband conversation.

Others gaze steadily at the speaker-looking, yet seeing notwhile many let their eyes wander around the room from one object to another, with no motive save to pass the time till the exercise is ended.

I do not, by any means, assert that the classes mentioned above include all the pupils of any institution, or even a majority of them; yet they comprise so many that the argument, that the usual method of conducting religious services fails to secure attention, seems to me to be a legitimate one.

Another reason why the usual plan of conducting religious exercises is not the best possible, is, that it is not understood by a large number of the pupils. Some, on account of sluggish or deficient intellect, and others, on account of the limited time which they have been under instruction, derive little or no benefit from the services. In an institution of sixteen classes, where the course is eight years long, the number of those who do not understand, for want of sufficient instruction, would include, at least, four classes, or one-fourth of the whole; while, if we allow one class of unclassified pupils who are unable to advance in regular progress from one grade to another, we shall have five-sixteenths, or nearly one-third