To our Correspondents and Readers.

In answer to several inquiries we beg to state, that the second number of the Journal (that for February) has been for some time out of print. There are very few copies left of one or two other of the earlier numbers.

A PARENT who asks us at what age we think it best that a boy should be sent to a large public school, is informed that, all things considered, we should not be disposed to send a son of our own, until he was sufficiently advanced to be likely to work his his way into the upper school, or highest form but one, in the course of a term or He had better, however, put the question to one of the masters of the school to which he thinks of sending his child.

SOME ACCOUNT OF ST. AUGUSTINE'S TREATISE ON

CATECHISING.

SIR,-It is now some time since I read the little tract of St. Augustine, called 'De Catechizandis Rudibus," and I cannot pretend to anything like a full recollection of it; but as we may presume, that what I have retained and practically applied is the most serviceable part, I now offer these recollections to my fellow catechists, hoping that the thoughts which cheered the labours of our predecessors may enkindle

our zeal.

St. Augustine, we must know, was Bishop of Hippo, on the north coast of Africa, at the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century. He was asked by a deacon of the church of Carthage for his advice about catechising those unbelievers who came to him in numbers, and desired to be grounded in the church's teaching before baptism.

These men he called "Rudes," i. e. ignorant, or, at least, untaught, for it seems that many were not wholly ignorant, but had picked up a great deal in a scattered way from christian companions, and perhaps had learned something in the churches, where they might go as mere hearers, without partaking in the worship. But what they knew they knew in a very loose way, very like those in our own church, who are very heedless of their baptismal vows, and take no pains to learn what they have promised to believe and to do.

The loose churchman of the 19th century, who has never been catechised, has probably very little more knowledge of his faith than many of the young heathen gentlemen of Carthage, who acknowledged themselves Rudes," and came to be catechised. Perhaps the mass of our young men in the middle classes have such a confused, ill-arranged kind of knowledge, that they never could give a reason for the hope that is in them, and hardly understand one half of the public preaching to which they listen when it suits them.

Many of these "Rudes" desired to become christians for very little paltry reasons-because it was growing fashionable-because they wished to be like their companions, or perhaps they thought that on the whole it might be better for their souls, and they would see how when they came to think of those things.

Howbeit, many of the catechumens were very cold and indifferent about the matter, and the deacon was much perplexed how to deal with them :

1st. How to engage their good will and serious thoughts. 2nd. How to keep up their attention during a long discourse. 3rd. How, in what order, to set forth to them the truths of the faith. To the first question St. Augustine answers, that all religious teaching must rest on a groundwork of love-" Caritas." Love is the subjectmatter. Love must be the teacher, and love must be the taught. The teacher must first show, that all which God has done for his creatures is from love, that He is the Father, and can act only from love to his children; that even to his rebellious children in their fallen state He has shown the most paramount love, потañŋv åɣañŋv. I John iii, 1. There VOL. I. NO. 11. NOVEMBER, 1843.

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are few hearts so stony that they will not receive some glow from such thoughts. At any rate, if the hearer's heart be not melted, the speaker's heart must be warmed, and he will be able to proceed with more power.

Next he may show that, as God has done all from love, so he works from the same motive the love of God reflected and refracted upon his fellow-men-driving him to show his thankfulness for what he had received, by spreading it amongst others; that on this principle he felt himself bound to spare neither pains, time, nor power, for the good of their souls, for which Christ had died.-1 John iii, 16.

The more earnestness that he can display, the more patience and long suffering with the stubborn and listless, the more life he will give to his words, the more love he will enkindle in his own bosom, and the more love he will gain for God and for himself, as God's messenger.

This is the groundwork then that must be laid for all teaching."Caritas." It is the only fit frame of mind which can teach, it is the only frame of mind fit to receive teaching. The same will apply to writing also. We ought not to sit down to write, in the name of God, to declare his message, unless we arm ourselves with that mind that first delivered it, nor ought to venture on rebuke or even exhortation, without laying our ground first; "not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow helpers of your joy."

Then comes the second question-How to keep up their attention ? To this the good bishop answers— -that it is indispensable, that the teacher should maintain his own cheerfulness-"Hilaritas." This is the feeling he wants to beget in his hearers, and it must first shine out of his heart before it is reflected from theirs. Dullness and weariness in the teacher is sure to beget dullness and weariness in the taught. By all means then let him maintain his own hilaritas first, and not complain of the dullness of his pupils, when the beam may be in his own eye. Let him think of the love which laid down its life to die for the brethren. Can he die for the brethren? Nay, he is now yawning and gaping, and begrudging a few moments and a few words, though by them he may gain a soul to his master's fold. Let him speak then in the full belief that he is uttering the truths which Christ lived to preach, for which he toiled and watched, and suffered hunger and thirst, and cold and weariness; and for which, after all, He laid down his life and built his church. Let him speak too in the full belief that his efforts must prevail.

But supposing his hearers, notwithstanding, do flag after some time, let not this re-act upon the teacher, as though all hope of doing good was past. Let him think that they are standing before him-creatures with souls, and desirous to save them. At least it is certain, that a few minutes ago they had that desire. All desire cannot be gone now. All hope of effecting it cannot have vanished at once. Let him think that the fault is with him rather than with them, and while there stands before him one who is not a christian, but may be made so, let not the love of Christ grow slack within him.

How easily we may apply these thoughts to these little members of Christ whom we have to train. When they try our patience, when they show no good fruits, when they are dull and listless, and weary and idle,

let us think that there is a member of Christ standing before us—a lamb of the great shepherd's flock. He may be dull, but did not the great shepherd patiently instruct the slow of heart? He may be stubborn, but still the great catechiser did not turn away from an untoward generation. At any rate there is a member of Christ before us, for whom Christ has died as well as for us? Shall we spare the pains and patience of a few moments to forward towards heaven a soul, for which He spared not his own blood? Do we never try the long suffering of our heavenly Father by our coldness of worship, and lifeless prayers, and oft-repeated back-slidings? Surely we must often reproach ourselves, like the deacon of Carthage, with weariness, with hopelessness, with impatience in teaching those catechumens, who are under our charge, with being self-willed in the choice of pupils, with petting the hopeful, and abandoning the unthankful and the stubborn. What if God dealt so with us?—what if the good sower sowed his seed in good ground only?—perhaps our hard hearts might never have received a grain of His good seed.

And now, thirdly, as to the order in which the truths of the gospel are to be presented to the inquirers. Always begin (says St. A.) from the foundation." In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" —even at the risk of wearying your hearers. Of course they vary much in knowledge, and therefore I give you a longer and a shorter sketch of doctrines, but as no house can stand without a foundation, all teaching, long or short, must spring from the—“ In the beginning,"

The creation and the fall of man must be understood, before the meaning of the redemption can be made clear, and if this was needful in St. Augustine's day, much more so now, when we cannot point so plainly as he to the heathendom around us. Immediately upon the fall, follows the promise of the Saviour, and forthwith we trace the chosen seed, from the womb of Eve to the womb of the blessed Virgin-the kingdom of Satan in the children of Cain, the kingdom of God in the children of Seth.

The history of the former kingdom is plain enough, and Holy Scripture does not concern itself with it, as with the latter. The bible is the chronicle of the church in all ages, from Seth downwards. It keeps in our view the chosen seed and its preachers of righteousness; the constant renewals and enlargements of God's covenant with them ; the narrowing of the promised seed in the single line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the outspreading of the promise amongst the thousands of Judah, to be again narrowed within the house and lineage of David. The bible shows us, too, how God kept the chosen seed apart from the rest of this world, as witnesses of his oneness; how he purged them by various scourges from idolatry, and scattered by them the seeds of truth amongst the nations, and raised the hope of a deliverer-and thus, when the fulness of time was come, He sent his own Son, “made of a woman,"-Eve's own seed, to bruise the serpent's head, to remove the curses and fulfil the promises of Eden. The unfolding of gospel truth by our Lord; the planting of the outward frame-work of the Apostle's church, to secure the inward truth, now of course follow in due order—and unite the Catechumen to the fellowship of that body,

within which he is taught that, the founder of the church deposited the truth; and he will then desire to throw himself into the bosom of this body, and share in the knowledge of the truth of which it is the witness and the keeper.

I do not pretend to have done justice to St. Augustine's sketch of teaching; I have not his tract now within reach, and therefore can only hope that I have stated correctly, as far as I have gone, his principle, viz. of presenting the truth historically. Facts first, and doctrine afterwards, as dependant upon and arising out of facts. It seems to have been the Apostolic principle of teaching. The apostolic sermons in the Acts are chiefly historical. The creeds of the early church, which we

yet have, are historical. We do not say, I believe in the Holy Trinity, in the conception, the incarnation, the redemption, and propitiation"—but even the Holy Three are presented to us historically—and the other doctrines are contained in the facts "born of the Virgin Mary," &c. &c., on which we are afterwards to hang them, and to arouse our hearers" to love and joy and peace in believing.”

Of course, to the children whom we have to teach, we should somewhat vary the order, according to the difference of their circumstances from the catechumens of Carthage. They were outside the body of the church, desiring to come in; ours are within, willingly receiving all we teach, and we need not therefore be so careful of tracing the historical descent of the gospel truths to us, and of showing our warrant for teaching; but may at once unfold the doctrines belonging to the facts of the creed, by the light of the written word. But in another respect, we have more need than St. Augustine, of enforcing upon our hearers the nature of man's fall, and their own birth-sin, (its consequence) because we cannot show them the complete fallen man, unregenerate,' as he could in the heathens about them. However near a resemblance to heathendom we can show in individuals, or even in masses of our people, we cannot show it as a ruling system, unleavened by Christendom; we cannot show the distinct living line, between the kingdom of satan and the kingdom of God—the church and the world, and therefore we must trace it, from the very beginning of the world, by the history which God has vouchsafed to us, and teach them therefrom, that the line between the world and the church is as distinct in God's sight, as when the ark divided the saved and the destroyed— that they were born in the world, and were since called out of it, into the church, that they might be redeemed from the wrath due to Adam's sin. May we not do much mischief by speaking so much of a Redeemer, before they know what need they had of redemption? We tell them, as God's crowning mercy that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin ;" but what sin, do they suppose, if they never heard of their birth-sin? They are left to conclude that the Redeemer will forgive them at once all their future sins, and thus we find them in after life, really applying their blessed Saviour's death to no other purpose than to make sinning more safe and easy.

I am sure that we puzzle and mislead our children, by going on to the strong meat, before we have laid the foundation of repentance from dead works, &c. We are loth perhaps to talk to little children, un