lasting impressions possess
permanent value. The sermons, the lectures, the lessons that we remember
and later dwell upon are the ones that finally are built into our lives
and that shape our thinking and acting. Impressions that touch only the
outer surfaces of the mind are no more lasting than writing traced on
the sand. Truths that are but dimly felt or but partially grasped soon
fade away, leaving little more effect than the shadows which are thrown
on the picture screen.

Especially do these facts hold for the teacher in the church-school
class. For the impressions made in the church-school lesson hour bear a
larger proportion to the entire result than in the public school. This
is because of the nature of the subject we teach, and also because of
the fact that most of our pupils come to the class with little or no
previous study on the lesson material. This leaves them almost
completely dependent on the recitation itself for the actual results of
their church-school attendance. The responsibility thus placed upon the
teacher is correspondingly great, and requires unusual devotion and
skill.

ATTENTION TO KEY

The things that impress us, the things that we remember and apply, are
the things to which we have attended wholly and completely. The mind may
be thought of as a stream of energy. There is only so much volume, so
much force that can be brought to bear upon the work in hand. In
attention the mind's energy is piled up in a "wave" on the problem
occupying our thought, and results follow as they cannot if the stream
of mental energy flows at a dead level from lack of concentration.

Or, again, the mind's energy may be likened to the energy of sunlight as
it falls in a flood through the window upon our desk. This diffuse
sunlight will brighten the desk top and slightly increase its
temperature, but no striking effects are seen. But now take this same
amount of sun energy and, passing it through a lens, focus it on a small
spot on the desk top--and the wood bursts almost at once into flame.
What _diffuse_ energy coming from the sun could never do, _concentrated_
energy easily and quickly accomplished. Attention is to the mind's
energy what the lens is to the sun's energy. It gathers the mental power
into a focus on the lesson to be learned or the truth to be mastered,
and the concentrated energy of the mind readily accomplishes results
that would be impossible with the mental energy scattered or not
directe