ld take a child to public worship at least once of
a Sunday; it forms a good habit in him. If the sermon be long and
unintelligible, there are the little Sabbath-school books in every
child's hands; and while the grown people are getting what they
understand, who shall forbid a child's getting what is suited to him
in a way that interests him and disturbs nobody? The Sabbath-school is
the child's church and happily it is yearly becoming a more and more
attractive institution. I approve the custom of those who beautify the
Sabbath school-room with plants, flowers, and pictures, thus making it
an attractive place to the childish eye. The more this custom
prevails, the more charming in after years will be the memories of
Sunday.

"It is most especially to be desired that the whole air and aspect of
the day should be one of cheerfulness. Even the new dresses, new
bonnets, and new shoes, in which children delight of a Sunday, should
not be despised. They have their value in marking the day as a
festival; and it is better for the child to long for Sunday, for the
sake of his little new shoes, than that he should hate and dread it
as a period of wearisome restraint. All the latitude should be given
to children that can be, consistently with fixing in their minds the
idea of a sacred season. I would rather that the atmosphere of the day
should resemble that of a weekly Thanksgiving than that it should make
its mark on the tender mind only by the memory of deprivations and
restrictions."

"Well," said Bob, "here's Marianne always breaking her heart about my
reading on Sunday. Now I hold that what is bad on Sunday is bad on
Monday,--and what is good on Monday is good on Sunday."

"We cannot abridge other people's liberty," said I. "The generous,
confiding spirit of Christianity has imposed not a single restriction
upon us in reference to Sunday. The day is put at our disposal as a
good Father hands a piece of money to his child,--'There it is; take
it and spend it well.' The child knows from his father's character
what he means by spending it well, but he is left free to use his own
judgment as to the mode.

"If a man conscientiously feels that reading of this or that
description is the best for him as regards his moral training and
improvement, let him pursue it, and let no man judge him. It is
difficult, with the varying temperaments of men, to decide what are or
are not religious books. One man is more religiously impress