ure of any other in the little group
remaining at the present time.

A noteworthy event at the Assembly of 1876 was the establishment of the
Children's Meeting as a daily feature. Meetings for the younger people
had been held from time to time in '74 and '75 but this year Frank Beard
suggested a regular "Children's Hour," and the meetings were at first
conducted by him, mingling religion and humor. Underneath his fun, Mr.
Beard had a serious soul. He read strong books, talked with his friends
on serious subjects, always sought to give at least one illustrated
Bible reading during the Assembly, and resented the popular expectation
that he should be merely the funny man on the program. He was assisted
in his children's meeting by the Rev. Bethuel T. Vincent, a brother of
the Founder, who was one of the most remarkable teachers of children and
young people whom I have ever known. He could arrange the facts of Bible
knowledge in outline, could present them in a striking manner, and drill
them into the minds of the boys and girls in an enduring way that few
instructors could equal and none surpass. Before many sessions, Mr.
Vincent's lesson became the major feature and Beard's pictures the
entertainment of the meeting. The grown-ups came to the meetings in such
numbers as threatened to crowd out the children, until the rule was made
that adults must take the rear seats,--no exception being made even for
the row of ear-trumpets--leaving the front to the little people.
Following the custom of the Normal Class, an examination in writing that
would tax the brains of many ministers was held at the close, limited
to all below a certain age, and prizes were awarded to the best papers
presented. As after forty years I read the list of graduates in those
early classes, I find the names of men and women who have distinguished
themselves as ministers and missionaries in the churches.

Early in the Assembly season, on August 7, 1876, a momentous step was
taken in the appointment by the instructors and students of the Normal
Class, of a committee to prepare a course of study for the preparation
of Sunday School teachers. Eleven men, present at Chautauqua,
representing ten different denominations, were chosen as the committee,
and their report constituted the first attempt at a _union_ normal
course. Hitherto each church had worked out its own independent course
of study, and the lines laid down were exceedingly divergent. This new
cours