ver
innocent it may be in itself."

She fixed the age of five for the teaching to a child the letters of the
alphabet; and tells us that in all cases except two, the first day saw
the conquest of the alphabet. The birthday festivities over, next
morning the child went to the schoolroom of the house, where no one must
come into the room from "nine till twelve or from two till five," while
the teacher devoted herself entirely to that one pupil. Another feature
of the method was the abolition of the study of syllables, and the
immediate and usually successful advance into words and sentences, such
as the opening verses of the Bible, "In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth."

"It is almost incredible," said Mrs. Wesley, "what a child may be taught
in a quarter of a year." To this period belongs the well-known
incident--when one day Mr. Wesley said to his wife while engaged in
repeating a lesson to a dull child, "I wonder at your patience: you have
told that child twenty times that same thing," and the mother
replied--"Had I satisfied myself by mentioning the matter only nineteen
times, I should have lost all my labour; you see, it was the twentieth
time that crowned the whole."

VI.

THE CHURCH IN THE HOME.

The children at Epworth were well grounded in the observance of Divine
worship. We may look in vain in the records of many families for
anything so deep and so beautiful as that one thing which is told of
them--that before they could kneel or speak the little ones were taught
to ask a blessing on their food by appropriate, signs. Repeating, as
soon as they were able to articulate, the Lord's Prayer morning and
evening, they were encouraged to add sentences of prayers of their own
conceiving, petitions for their parents, and requests for things of
their own earnest desire. From this period, in each case, the parental
eye was already carefully looking forward, to the time when the mind
should begin to think for itself; and to help them in this important
matter, Mrs. Wesley, remembering her own mental struggles, prepared for
her children a book of Divinity, written for their special edification.

In due time, as the children grew a little older, days of the week were
allotted to each of them, for special opportunity of conversation with
their mother, as distinct from being catechised by her. This was for the
purpose of dealing with "doubts and difficulties." Of the well-recorded
list of days an