giver and receiver of a penny, till the poor woman goes home,
saying in her heart, "I have not only found the life of my hand--I
have found a sister for time and for eternity."

But there is another field of parish usefulness which I cannot
recommend too earnestly, and that is, the school. There you may
work as hard as you will, and how you will--provided you do it in
a loving, hearty, cheerful, HUMAN way, playful and yet earnest;
two qualities which, when they exist in their highest power, are
sure to go together. I say, how you will. I am no pedant about
schools; I care less what is taught than how it is taught. The
merest rudiments of Christianity, the merest rudiments of popular
instruction, are enough, provided they be given by lips which
speak as if they believed what they said, and with a look which
shows real love for the pupil. Manner is everything--matter a
secondary consideration; for in matter, brain only speaks to
brain; in manner, soul speaks to soul. If you want Christ's lost-
lambs really to believe that He died for them, you will do it
better by one little act of interest and affection, than by making
them learn by heart whole commentaries--even as Miss Nightingale
has preached Christ crucified to those poor soldiers by acts of
plain outward drudgery, more livingly, and really, and
convincingly than she could have done by ten thousand sermons, and
made many a noble lad, I doubt not, say in his heart, for the
first time in his wild life, "I can believe now that Christ died
for me, for here is one whom He has taught to die for me in like
wise." And this blessed effect of school-work, remember, is not
confined to the children. It goes home with them to the parents.
The child becomes an object of interest and respect in their eyes,
when they see it an object of interest and respect in yours. If