d upon his
mind, and he would now very readily answer, "It teaches me that I should
not hate my brother." In this case also, it is quite obvious, that
without such a question having been proposed, and the answer to it
given, the practical uses of the truth recorded might have been
altogether overlooked; and even although they had not, still the
question and its answer will always have the effect of making them stand
out much more prominently before the mind, and will enable the memory to
hold them more tenaciously, and bring them forth more readily for
practice, than if such an operation had been neglected. Hence the great
importance of training the young by this exercise early to perceive the
uses of every kind of knowledge, particularly Scriptural knowledge;
because the habit formed in youth, will continue to render every useful
truth of practical benefit during life.

We may remark here, that the exercise is not limited in its application
to the young. For if an adult were first told, that the squalid beggar
before him, though once respectable and rich, had made himself wretched
by a course of idleness and dissipation, and were then asked, "What does
that teach you?" he would instantly perceive the lesson, and would be
stimulated to apply it. When, in like manner, the farmer is told that
his neighbour has ruined himself by over-cropping his ground; or the
iron master, that the use of the hot-blast has doubled the profits of
his rival; a similar question would at once lead to the legitimate
conclusion, and most likely to the proper conduct.

In all these examples, the operation of mind which we have endeavoured
to describe, is so exceedingly simple, that it is perhaps difficult to
decide how much is the work of Nature, and how much belongs to the
exercise here recommended. This at once proves its efficiency, as an
imitation of her process, in following her in the path which she has
here pointed out; and it at the same time recommends itself as strictly
accordant with observation and experience. The teacher then, in order to
render the knowledge he communicates useful, has only to do regularly
and by system, that which, under the direction of Nature, every
intelligent and enquiring mind in its best moments does for itself.
Wherever a useful truth has been communicated in the school or family,
or a moral act or precept has been read or announced, the question by
the parent or the teacher, "What does that teach you?" wi