xvi INTRODUCTION 



of their work on the leaflet, it is well to review 

 briefly the lesson of the preceding Sunday. Some of 

 the questions furnished are intended to be a guide 

 in this review. Any method of review which seems 

 advisable to the teacher should be used, making sure 

 that the children have a correct idea of those sub- 

 jects which the questions cover. 



Throughout this whole course of lessons the 

 teacher should work to stimulate curiosity and won- 

 der in the children of the class, and to arouse such 

 eager interest in the natural objects about them that 

 the perceptive faculties will be quickened. Thus the 

 children will gain the ability to look at nature with 

 ''seeing eyes," and a deep moral and religious feeling 

 toward God's wonder world will develop of itself in 

 their hearts and minds. 



The Child of Nine 



As the child nears the age of nine, the vivid imagi- 

 nation which seemed to dominate his mind during the 

 preceding years begins to give way to a more active 

 interest in what is going on around him. The world 

 of fact, which has been more or less obscured by his 

 own fancy, has gradually become more apparent to 

 his growing intelligence. His curiosity is aroused as 

 he looks with questioning wonder upon those very 

 things that, but recently, furnished his imagination 

 with fanciful stories. His eyes are opened to the re- 

 ality of the world in which he lives, and his mind is 

 full of questions concerning the why and wherefore 

 of every thing he sees, — questions which are some- 



