Protestants, not through their own conviction, but by obligation, because they were dependent on the Bernese. The result of this has been that forms have always been the principal thing for the people; individuals do not seem to concern themselves in acts of religion; all that is for the pastor to manage, and he only has a right to instruct the children, as well as baptize them, and marry the adults. Woe to him, or her, who would do what is not his business; he would expose himself, in many cases, to laughter and contempt. Thence we find very few persons disposed to help or do this good work; the greatest number, even amongst real christian people, have never thought, and dare not think, of such a thing, and they say they do not feel any call to do what has ever been considered the exclusive work of the pastor. In this also, it is true, a great change has taken place; numerous independent churches have been formed, and their members take the thing in a different light, so that it is especially amongst dissenters that we find the greatest number of our teachers, and thus the schools are considered to be dissenters' schools, though most of the children do not belong to christian parents. Now the living pastors of the national church feel that a change must take place; they want to associate the laymen to the government of the church. A committee has been formed amongst them on purpose to propagate Sunday schools, and the president of that committee having been elected lately the general secretary of the "Cultes" and "Justice," makes us hope that a step will soon be taken in a good direction. Now perhaps above all this it is a fact that the Vaudois do not think a thing ought to be done except it can be very well done, and as they say themselves, they are not generally very clever to tell others what they know themselves; and when they feel it rather difficult, they conclude it is best to let it alone. Now I am convinced that many who say so would soon do very well, if they would but try with a little perseverance. It is to speak to such persons that we have lately published an “Appel," and we have some hopes that, under God's blessing, it may make some of those Christians think seriously before God, and ask themselves whether they have not hid their talent in the earth. Now a few words on the schools themselves. Most of them are very small. A lady generally, sometimes a young man, gathers a few children, from twenty to forty in number, of all ages, and explains to them some portions of Scripture; this has rather an appearance of a meeting for children, except that verses are learned and repeated. In other places there are classes, but the "monitors" have only to hear the verses and give tickets. Sometimes they put a few questions to the children on what the minister has explained the previous Sunday. Then the pastor comes and explains to the whole school the lesson of the day. In some places there are different classes in the same room, but each lady explains the whole time to her class, and there is nothing done in common but singing and prayer. All these different ways are not the result of any system, but only of necessity. I have convinced myself that the want is generally felt of dividing the schools in groups, so that the teaching may be appropriated to different ages, but often those who teach find no one willing to help them. To encourage the children to come to school, the general idea is that there should be no material recompence; nevertheless, in some places books are distributed once a year, according to the tickets received. Some have a Christmas-tree, with a few presents given as the teacher thinks best. Some others, a Sunday school library, and they give books to read to those who have behaved well. It is also thought a good thing to call together in the open air, during summer, schools of different villages, and have some one interesting to address them. We have done that a few times, and it has very well succeeded. We should wish very much to see in every school a good religious library, the books to be lent to the children who would care for them, and think it worth while to come regularly to the school; all the teachers feel a great want of this, as a means of keeping their scholars out from many dangers, but many cannot afford it themselves, and nobody helps them; they try to get tracts and exchange them, till they can do better. It has been thought to have a bazaar. If this succeeds, we hope to be able to help those scattered Christians who have much work and little encouragement. Once a month, in many places, the teachers tell their pupils something of the mission work, and a good many of them bring something for the missionaries. Some schools have a correspondence with African children; others pay the board of one or more children in the mission house, &c.; for this, money is easily raised, for interest is much excited. Until now our Committee had never asked anything from its friends, and people were accustomed to let it walk alone by itself, but since a missionary agent has been employed expenses have been incurred, and it has been a necessity either to cease what was considered almost a necessity, or to ask help from Christians. For the first time, then, an appeal has been made, and the Committee has been rejoiced to receive in a short time about forty pounds,-a sum which is far from meeting the expenses, but which is rejoicing as a proof of sympathy from some Christians. Nevertheless, we must say that our Committee does not find, in money matters, all the sympathy that would be necessary; many who seem to approve our work, who appreciate the visits of its agent, do not seem to deem it necessary to raise funds for it, and had it not been for the encouragements given to us by our friend, Mr. A. Woodruff, we should have been obliged to tarry in our work, when we felt it was the best time to go forward. What is our work, and what are our plans for the future? As I have just now mentioned, our Committee, helped by Mr. Woodruff, from New York, has employed, for the last two years, a missionary travelling agent. Our object, first, is to visit the existing schools, to establish thus a bond between them and the Committee; to give an opportunity to the children of distant and isolated places to hear another voice telling them the same things they hear from their teachers, and encourage the friends, who often feel they are alone, to do their labour, speak with them, give them counsels, and hear good things that may be said to others, to encourage them also. This object is well understood and appreciated; all whose schools I have visited have appeared quite joyful, as well as their children. I have offered these teachers to send them the Supplement to the "Magasin," from Paris, and 110 have accepted with thankfulness to subscribe to it; more would have done so, were it not that they explain to their children the Old Testament, and not the New, according to the Sunday School Magazine. We see the need of many publications to meet the wants that are expressed on all sides, for most of those isolated teachers feel they must have help to go forward in their task; but here again we are often stopped by want of funds. The Tract Society has had for twenty-seven years a little periodical under the title of "Lectures pour les Enfans." It is likely they will put it under the direction of our Committee, if we can accept it, and I think it would be a very good thing for us, because we might have thus a very natural organ, what we have missed for a long time. Such are some of the things we try to do for the schools already formed, but we do not forget that more than half of the villages have no school whatever. I have tried to visit some of those places on the sabbath day, but I found it was almost useless, for what I have to do is to see the pastors of the church, and impress upon them the usefulness and necessity of having a Sunday school. For this a week-day is much better; we have then leisure to speak quietly on the subject. When I find them well disposed, I ask them to point to me the persons in their parish who might be able and willing to begin and continue a school under their patronage. When the pastor refuses to have anything to do with it, I try to get the names of the pious people in the place, from whatever denomination they may be; then I go to visit them. I tell them my mission, and put upon their conscience not to leave the children without the instruction they might give them. I am always very well received; the sympathy is excited; but I have very often to hear the answer, "I cannot do it-I am not able." Then we speak a little more with one another; they give me sometimes other names; we pray together; they will not promise to do anything, but afterwards some of them try, and succeed. And when after some weeks I am again not very far off, I hear either that there is nothing still, or that the children are now every Sunday taught the way to heaven. As I go through the village, and meet boys and girls, I stop and give them tracts; they receive them with pleasure, and lose no time in showing their treasures to their companions, so that often, when I come out of a house, I find groups of children, who approach timidly, and ask in a whisper, "A small book." I stop, and am soon surrounded by many; I speak to them, ask them whether they would not like to attend a school on Sunday in the village, explain what is a Sunday school, and when they have answered affirmatively (which they always do), I give them a few more "small books," and leave them. If it were not too long, I could give the particulars of a whole "tour," but this will suffice to show you in what our work consists. More particulars might, however, tend to prove that the Canton de Vaud needs Sunday schools as much as any other Protestant country, and even more so. I cannot refrain to tell why. In this country, whose natural beauty is above all that can ever be described, one finds a great deal of evil next to many very good things. The greatest mass of the people is fearfully materialist, whilst others are infidels, devoted disciples of Voltaire and Rousseau. The national church is deserted, except on the great communion days, when every one goes to take the sacrament. The morals are very loose; no one could believe what they are without having seen it, or heard the pastors speak of it. Drunkenness pervades all classes of society, and is a thing that no countryman is ever ashamed of; it is a matter of course for now and then, when it is not for every day. One can hardly conceive such a state of things without seeing it continually under one's eyes. A lady told me lately she had seen in one of Lausanne's streets a father dragging after him his little boy, two or three years old, and laughing aloud because the child resisted with all his little might. Some people asked the man why the child would not go with him? "Oh," said he, "I want to take him to the tavern, and he is afraid, because yesterday I made him drunk, and he fears this might happen again!" This demoralization has been the consequence of the politics of the government elected in 1845, but, thank God! there has been a reaction; we are now governed by honourable men; and though years may and must elapse before all the evil done can be cured, yet we may hope that we enter now in a new era, and that, with God's blessing, we may hope for better things. Allow me to mention another reason why Sunday schools are perhaps still more important here than anywhere else. Every year a great number of young girls leave this little country to go to Russia, to Prussia, to Austria, to Germany, to England, &c., as governesses, nurses, ladies' maids, &c. What good might not these females do in the different families where they are placed, and especially to the children with whom they generally have to spend their time, if, having heard, understood, and felt in their Sunday schools at home the love of Jesus, they were ready to teach others what had been taught to them. Such has already been the case for a few; their teachers keep a correspondence with them, and are rejoiced to see them keeping in the right path; but those happy instances are still too scarce. Our field is extensive; we enjoy the utmost religious liberty; every child receives a sound primary instruction; the population are at ease, each man in his small property,-all things which seem to be a help in doing God's work, if it were not that there is a danger of being invited to slumber in such a happy state of things. As for me, it is with pleasure and with faith that I go through this fine land. I feel that working here I work also for France, my beloved native land, for from here we may receive the most blessed influence if this country is christian, as it may very well be. Besides, everywhere do I find myself in the midst of descendants of French refugees, so that I can almost fancy I work for my own country people, for those at least who, for the love of the gospel, have had the courage to lose all they had on earth, and to whom God has afterwards given all that they needed. WEDNESDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 3. THE prayer-meeting and conference this morning were presided over by the Rev. S. MARTIN, of Westminster. The proceedings of the latter were commenced by singing, "O Thou who canst alone endow And fit our souls Thy work to share; And make our wants Thy gracious care. "Our plea is not for gifts to shine, After which the Rev. C. W. BOLTON, of New York, offered prayer. The CHAIRMAN said, he should not be justified in occupying time by any lengthened observations of his own. The subject to be brought forward was one of considerable importance, and manifestly suitable to the occasion of their meeting. Every one present would feel that what was wanted just now, was not so much to extend the quantity, if he might so speak, of sabbath school work, as to raise its quality, and it appeared to him that the discussion of the topic selected for this sitting would, under God's blessing, very much tend to that end. The Rev. JAMES INGLIS delivered an address upon "THE QUALIFICATIONS OF AN EFFICIENT SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER." He said, I must introduce the answer to the inquiry, What are the qualifications of an efficient teacher? by a very brief reference to the great |