ok of the New Testament?"

The boys answer promptly, "Revelations."

"Do you know what books are between the Acts and the book of
Revelation?"

Some say "No, sir;" some begin to enumerate such books as occur to them,
and some, perhaps, begin to name them promptly and in their regular
order.

"I do not mean," interrupts the teacher, "the _names_ of the books, but
the _kinds_ of books."

The boys hesitate.

"They are epistles or letters. Do you know who wrote the letters?"

"Paul," "Peter," answer many voices at once.

"Yes, there were several writers. Now the point which I wish to bring
before you is this; do you know in what order, I mean on what
principles, the books are arranged?"

"No, sir," is the universal reply.

I will tell you. First come all Paul's epistles. If you turn over the
leaves of the Testament, you will see that Paul's letters are all put
together after the book of the Acts; and what I wish you to notice is,
that they are arranged in the _order_ of _their length_. The longest
comes first, and then the next, and so on to the shortest, which is the
epistle to Philemon. This, of course, comes last--no, I am wrong in
saying it is the last of Paul's epistles; there is one more to the
Hebrews; and this comes after all the others, for there has been a good
deal of dispute whether it was really written by Paul. You will see that
his name is not at the beginning of it, as it is in his other epistles:
so it was put last.

Then comes the Epistle of James. Will you see whether it is longer than
any that come after it? The boys, after a minute's examination, answer,
"Yes, sir;" "Yes, sir."

"What comes next?"

"The epistles of Peter."

"Yes; and you will see that the longest of Peter's epistles is next in
length to that of James's; and, indeed, all his are arranged in the
order of their length."

"Yes, sir."

"What comes next?"

"John's."

"Yes; and they are arranged in the order of their length. Do you now
understand the principle of the arrangement of the epistles?"

"Yes, sir."

"I should like to have any of you who are interested in it to try to
express this principle in a few sentences, on paper, and lay it on my
desk to-morrow, and I will read what you write. You will find it very
difficult to express it. Now you may lay aside your books. It will be
pleasanter for you if you do it silently."

Intelligent children will be interested even in so simple a point as
this--much more in