on the dull and lazy pupil they will scold and rage, and even use the rod!  The Catechism becomes a sort of text-book.  The pupils get out of it a certain amount of head knowledge.  There are so many answers and so many proof-texts that must be committed to memory.  And when all this is well gotten and recited by rote, the teacher is satisfied, the pupil is praised, imagines that he has gotten all the good out of that book, and is glad he is done with it!

Now we would not for a moment depreciate the memorizing of the Catechism.  It is of the most vital importance, and cannot be too strongly urged.  What we object to—­and we cannot object too strenuously—­is the idea that head knowledge is enough!  There must of course be head knowledge.  The memory should store up all the precious pearls of God’s truth that are found in the Catechism.  The mind must grasp these truths and understand their meaning and their relation to one another.  But if it stops here, it is not yet a knowledge that maketh wise unto salvation.  In spiritual matters the enlightening or instructing of the intellect is not the end aimed at, but only a means to an end.  The end aimed at must always be the renewal of the heart.  The heart must be reached through the understanding.  To know about Christ is not life eternal.  I must know about Him before I can know Him.  But I might know all about Him, be perfectly clear as to His person and His work, and stop there, without ever knowing Him as heart only can know heart, as my personal Saviour and loving friend, my Lord and my God.

Here, we fear, many ministers make a sad mistake.  They are too easily satisfied with a mere outward knowledge of the truth.  They forget that even if it were possible to “understand all mystery and all knowledge”—­intellectually—­and not have charity, i.e., deep, fervent, glowing love to God in Christ, springing from a truly penitent and believing heart, it would profit nothing.  The true aim and end of all catechetical instruction in the Sunday-school, in the family, and especially in the pastor’s class, should ever be a penitent, believing and loving heart in each catechumen.

We have, in a former chapter, shown the duty of the Sunday-school teacher in this matter.  The pastor should likewise use all diligence to find out in whom, among his catechumens, the germs of the divine life, implanted in baptism, have been kept alive, and in whom they are dormant.  Where the divine life, given in holy baptism has been fostered and cherished—­where there has been an uninterrupted enjoyment of baptismal Grace, more or less clear and conscious—­there it is the pastor’s privilege to give clearer views of truth and Grace, to lead into a more intelligent and hearty fellowship with the Redeemer, to deepen penitence and strengthen faith through the quickening truth of God’s word.