There are two ideas about the Church; and as parents feel and think about the Church the children will be pretty sure to think and feel about the Sunday-school. One conception of the Church is that it is a kind of receptacle for pious people. When one becomes "good enough" he is expected to get into this receptacle and there be acted upon by the means of grace. It is one of the mischiefs of this notion that it seems to excuse laymen from any active part in Christian work, if only they are regular attendants upon divine service. So, many people come to the preaching and the praying as if there were nothing for them to do, nothing either great or small. Such members may be said to be found in the "passive voice." The other and better notion is that the Church is not a receptacle, but an engine; not a box for Christians to get into, but a "body" for them to operate, and through which Christ can act upon the world of to-day. According to this view, the minister is not the only member whom the Master has called into His vineyard, the ideal Church is not so much a company of sheep as a company of soldiers; the congregation comes together not simply to "hear Mr. ----," but to organize for work. This may be called the Church's "active voice." I cannot (within the verbal limits assigned me) measure the miles of distance which lie between these two views. The same confusion of thought prevails in the Sunday-school. We know how the small boy finds that Sunday-school the most attractive (and that teacher the "nicest") whose Christmas-tree pays the largest dividend. [Illustration: CHILDREN BEARING CHRISTMAS GIFTS]