there is scarcely any place or room in it for the preaching of the pure gospel. But, thanks be to God, I am able to tell you that if you were to visit my country you would find the good work going on there, and though we are scattered all over the country, and in numbers are few compared with you, much has already been done in spreading the knowledge of the truth, and the prospects of religion, especially in our Sunday schools, are very encouraging. It is not a novelty in France to see a Sunday school. It is looked upon, indeed, by some people there as a new thing, but as the dear friend who preceded me has shown you, by texts of Scripture, it is as old as the Bible, and is one of those beautiful ideas which was reduced to practice among the Jews many generations ago. We might say, indeed, that even in our own church in France, it was a thing which existed at the time of the Reformation. All our great reformers had ordered in our churches, and it was agreed upon by all our religious synods, that there should be a catechizing of the children from house to house, and the elders of the flock were obliged to go and perform the duty. It was so strongly recommended, that it was the first thing our persecutors tried to take away from us, but they could not; and even in the times of persecution, it was, by the blessing of God, the means of keeping up the faith. I am, thank God! descended from a family of martyrs, and I have seen in my family that good old family Bible, out of which the head of the house taught his children, in the absence of the minister, the truths of Godthose truths, the belief in which the children were enabled, by the grace of God, to maintain in after years. Our Sunday School Union, as compared with yours, is a new society, and, as I said to the friends this morning, it has been able to profit by your experience. I am gratified to be able to tell you that Sunday schools are pretty well organized all over France. We number about 600 Sunday schools, nearly 400 of which belong to the Reformed Protestant Church, 29 to the Lutheran, 58 to the Independents, 29 to the Methodists, 9 to the English Church, 7 to the Baptists, and 1 to the Calvinistic Methodists. These schools are divided among 66 of our departments, but there are still twenty departments in which there are no Sunday schools at all. Let me tell you, however, of some of the difficulties which in France we have to encounter. The first difficulty arises from the scattered state of our Protestant population. I know instances in which clergymen have to go round to find their flocks in three departments. They travel miles and miles to meet their people, and it is only with great labour they can collect them together. This difficulty is, of course, considerably increased when surrounded, as they are, completely by a population which is not of the same faith. The children, of course, if we do not instruct them, are brought up in the Catholic schools, and they become lost to us, and to all notion of true religion. Thank God! the Sunday school has been the means of preventing that to a large extent, although not completely. To show how debasing is the influence of the Romish faith, I

may mention, that when I was in the south of France there resided in the vicinity a poor peasant, who, though he was a Protestant, was a very ignorant one. He came sometimes to our church, but as he spoke and understood only patois, and not French, he was not able to profit by the sermons. The good clergyman of the place had tried to speak in patois, but the peasants were opposed to it; they thought it was too common a language, and desired to be instructed like the great people of the land. The consequence was, the poor people, when they came to church, slept all the time, because they could not understand; but, having been to church, they thought they had done their duty, and went away satisfied. The poor man to whom I referred, being surrounded by a Catholic population, had heard people say that a mass for any purpose was a good thing. Having his daughter and his cow sick, he put his daughter in a cart, to which he harnessed the cow, and thus brought them to a neighbouring Catholic church, and paid for a mass to be said for them both at the same time, so as to save time and money. When he came back, a lady said to him, "How could you do so? I thought you were a Protestant ? How could you think it would do them good?" "Ah, madam,” he said, "if it does not do them much good, it will do them no harm." That was the conclusion he came to. Another difficulty we have to contend with is the absence of biblical knowledge among the people. The Catholic population do not read the Bible, and many of them are as ignorant as possible of what it is to be a Christian. Another difficulty is the want of lay agency. You see our difficulties are not exactly those that you have here. I found that you applauded the remarks of the preceding speaker, who told you of the interest which the ministers of the gospel took in the Sunday schools of America. Thank God! we have that in France. Nearly all our ministers, of every denomination, are of one heart in reference to the Sunday school enterprise, and willing to do everything to support it. Wherever there is a church, there, if possible, a Sunday school is established. In Paris, by order of our presbytery, there is not a single church, or place of worship, where there is not, at the same time, under the direct care and influence of the minister, a Sunday school; and it is certainly the best part of his field of labour, and that which frequently yields him the best fruits. Yes, thank God! there are encouragements. We have had, of late years, many proofs of His blessing upon our work. We have celebrated this very year, for the tenth time, the anniversary of the foundation of our society; and we have been surprised to see, in reviewing the past, by what slow but certain progress the Lord has been pleased to prosper us. We have increased, both in the number of the schools, and in the good feeling of the people towards us. There is no danger of the cause now; it has even become quite fashionable to be a Sunday school teacher. We have also, beside the support of our ministers, another feature in our schools, which I like exceedingly,—we have the rich

and the poor together, not caring at all for difference of station, so as they get, under the same teaching, the good things of the word of God. And then, again, although in the beginning we had a difficulty in providing teachers for our schools, we find that the schools are beginning now to support themselves in this respect, and in many instances, some of our best and most efficient teachers are supplied from the school itself. And although the Sunday school cause is young amongst us, it has already given to the church a number of devoted missionaries and clergymen, as well as laymen, prepared to carry on the work, and extend its blessing in all directions. In proof of what I say, I may mention one fact which has greatly encouraged me. I have been called of late to be at the head of a parish, which forms a portion of one of the faubourgs of Paris. I had heard that there was in that poor neighbourhood one part which was more neglected than another. I began to labour there about seven years ago, at which time only twenty Protestants resided there; and now, in that very part of the town, I number, as members of the church, and belonging to it, nearly two thousand. I have also a Sunday school with two hundred scholars; amongst whom there are many Catholic children, who first came to us for the sake of a good secular instruction in our day school, and have then been brought into the Sunday school. Some of these have not only come to the knowledge of the truth themselves, but have been the means of bringing whole families. Last Easter day I had the happiness of introducing three families to the church, the members of which had become converted through the influence of their children, who attend the Sunday school. Well, I wanted to do something more, and I found help among my Sunday school teachers. I spoke to them about the place which I have already mentioned, which was more renowned as the locality for pickpockets, and people of that class, than for anything else, and was called "the lions' den." I told my teachers I wanted them to do something for the people there, and they determined to set to work. I heard nothing of it for four or five months, when one of them came to me one sabbath after the service, and said, "Sir, we have been able, thank God! to do something; will you come and see?" This dear young man had begun by collecting the children of that poor neighbourhood together on the Boulevard, and talking to them; and what was my surprise when he took me to a poor house which had been lent to the teachers for the purpose by one of the inhabitants! There I found twenty children, as ragged as possible, but singing heartily the praises of God; and all over the place, the children, who had heard of my going, began to join us, and I had nearly thirty collected there. Since that, the work has been going on for more than a year and a half, and those dear young men have never ceased their labours there, while they continue to have the same interest in our own Sunday school. What will become of this work I do not know; I instance it in proof of what I was saying, as I believe it is an earnest of

what God will do for us, if we are only faithful. Let me say that what we want is to bring into this glorious work the spirit which the men of our country bring into the military service. You have heard of the Zouaves, and I may tell you a tale which will be useful by way of example. I knew a young man who was formerly a clerk in a large mercantile establishment. He was a poor, pale, weakly young man, who, at the age of twenty-one, was compelled to become a soldier. I never saw a man less fitted for such a life. Imagine my surprise when I found that he had chosen, from admiration of their fine costume, to become a Zouave. I thought he had lost his senses; but a few months afterwards I found he was very different to the man he had been; he had become soldierly, and ready for every fight. What had altered him so? It was the esprit de corps. He had caught the spirit from the military men with whom he associated, and they had made a Zouave of him. Well, we must, like him, imbibe and cherish among ourselves, and endeavour to instil into the hearts of our fellowteachers, the esprit de corps of the Sunday school work, so that it may be impossible to come near us without catching something of our zeal and devotedness in this great work, and that thus we may help to hasten on the time when the hateful spirit of war shall be driven away, and all nations shall live in peace with each other, and unite, as we do this day, for love, for kindness, and for words and works of christian grace.

Rev. J. P. COOK, B.A., of Calais, said,-My very dear friends, while my good brother and colleague has been mentioning to you the difficulties of our work in France, and a few of the encouragements we receive, and giving you some of the statistics as to the number of our Sunday schools, he has made a statement which has perhaps startled some of you. He made the same statement at another meeting this afternoon; viz., that it seems to him, from his acquaintance with the Sunday schools in France, and after hearing the discussions in the Convention yesterday and to-day, that we are, perhaps, a little more advanced in France, taking the general average, than you are in England. Now, I have had the privilege of visiting more than 300 Sunday schools there, belonging to different denominations, and I quite agree in this opinion of my friend-but it requires a little explanation, and I think, when you have heard me explain it, you will believe we have some reason for this assertion. There is a fable, which is, I think, of French origin, and it tells us that once upon a time a discussion arose among the birds as to who should be king. It was agreed that they should try their strength in some way, in order to ascertain which was the best one among them, and had a right to the office. It was settled, after a while, that the one who should fly the highest in the air should be acknowledged king by the others. The contest began, and very soon the eagle outstripped the rest. He rose higher and higher, and as he neared the sun, he looked down upon those who had vainly attempted to compete with him, and said, "Surely I am your king." The other birds were quite

ready to acknowledge his supremacy, when all at once, to the surprise of all, a little voice was heard just above, and it was discovered that a very little bird-I do not know what you call it—had perched itself, and was sitting upon the back of the eagle. It was so small and light that the eagle did not feel it as he flew upwards, and then, just as the eagle could not fly a foot higher, the wren, which had not exerted itself at all, and was as fresh as when they started, took to its wings, and was the highest of all. Now

it was not through its own strength, but through the help of the eagle, that he had flown the highest, yet he was entitled to the prize; but because they could not make him their king, they called him the Roitelet or little king. Now, I would say that if we have the average of our schools in good order in France, it is just because we have not had to go through all the experience that you have had to pass through. Our Sunday schools have not been teaching many things which we have afterwards had to unlearn. We have been able to learn through your experience, and to take from you, as my friend said to-day, "the latest fashion." Hence, having been able to begin at once with the advantage of the very best example, our Sunday schools generally are above the average in England. And now let me repeat what we owe to you English people in reference to our schools. The first Sunday school (I speak not of those established at the time the Book of Deuteronomy was written)—our first Sunday school was organized, as near as I have been able to learn, in the year 1815. And how was it organized? By the help of a grant from this Sunday School Union. A few years afterwards, a minister from this country exerted himself to establish a number of Sunday schools in France. That was in the year 1818 or 1820. At a later period, our Sunday School Union was formed, and we have been able to publish some books, and establish a library, but it has been by the help and encouragement of friends from without, so that if we have done anything well, no glory to us at all, the glory be to God, and thanks to those friends, both in England and America, who have so cordially and cheerfully helped us. One or two words about what seems to me to be the chief characteristics of our French Sunday schools. I have, however, omitted another point in reference to what we owe to England. Three or four years ago, we began, as a Sunday School Union, to publish a series of Sunday school books, and lately we received great encouragement when the authorities requested the French people to prepare anything they had, which referred to educational purposes, to be sent to the International Exhibition in London. We thought we might send a specimen of all the books we had published, and which had come out of our press. We did so, and when the rewards were given, we had the satisfaction of learning that we had obtained a medal-the first medal obtained in France for educational works of a strictly Protestant character. This is a thing for which we are thankful, because I believe it will help us to disseminate our books more extensively than we have hitherto done.