day school ranks, and back of it is a sensing of the responsibility to better fit ourselves for the noble work. This awakening is fast permeating the whole association.

This is manifested in the adoption by general convention of a "Standard of Excellence" by which, to quote one of the prime movers of it, "the Sunday school districts throughout the church are taking their measure to find what they lack," and finding it, to come up to the higher standard of work.

This "standard" requires that we train our teachers; hence the existence of our normal department, in which our teachers are systematizing their knowledge, gaining more, and becoming more ready in history and doctrinal facts. One of the graduates testifies

that this preparation gives him "more system and thoroughness" in the acquiring and teaching of the weekly lessons, "suggests helps and variations not thought of before, furnishes a plan not readily forgotten," and shows him the best methods of reaching results in the Sunday school work.

Church officers can see now a more businesslike zeal on the part of our workers, showing that they are going in for real work and results, and time is freely given at conferences and reunions for this work.

Teacher training is in the air, and is being sniffed far and near. Says the head of the normal department:

"If it is essential for public school teachers to be trained for their work, how much more essential that we have Sunday school teach

ers trained for their work-their very important work. The work of the Sunday school is important because of the all too common lack of religious training in the homes to-day; because of the very little time spent by the child in the Sunday school each week; and because of the great need that every child should be taught righteousness, the will of God, and how to decide his course in life according to God's way. Then, we must train for this work."

We consider this the most important feature of the Sunday school movement to-day, not only because of the necessity for it but because of the fruit it will bear for the church in the near futurefor that reason we dwell on it.

We have some well-meaning members of the church who are apparently unable to sense the beauty of this new work-though their children will. Here and there the older ones are nervous, fearing some new fad is developing. Let them read the articles in the normal department of the December and succeeding issues of

the Sunday School Exponent, and they will probably hesitate before they throw cold water on normal work, which is teacher training. Others are inclined to rest peacefully on the thought, "The work is the Lord's-he is able to do his work." True-that is, he is able to qualify the willing instruments who, nevertheless, are commanded to study good books in order to fully qualify themselves. There are many problems and much knowledge that have been worked out for us at great expenditure of time, patience, and money. Shall we not take advantage of it? God's Spirit will then aid us in assimilating it as well as using the knowledge thus gained. His Spirit is ever and increasingly on the side of systematic and orderly preparation.

Our Sunday school workers are realizing more and more that you can not "thrust in your sickle and reap" effectually and acceptably to God until you first get hold of the instrument and sharpen it. And that is just what two hundred and fifty graduates have done,

and some fifteen hundred other enrolled normal students are now trying to do, by prayerful study and preparation in the best methods of acquiring and teaching God's truth.

Those in charge of that department are adopting this motto:

"It is the whole business of the church, and it is the business of the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world as speedily as possible."

We opine that no good church member will deny the truth of this motto. If the Sunday school, as a part of the "whole," makes this their motto for the future, that department will give a good account of itself, in the momentous work that lies before the church, both in warning the world and in building up Zion.

GOMER R. WELLS.

A Lesson from the Shop
Windows.

By Hortense Sellon Cramer.

'N RECKONING up the factors of beauty in our modern lives, how many social philosophers have counted in the store window?

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"Not many, we fear. Not one that we ever heard of. For your social philosopher is a timid sort of creature, who never likes to say anything unless he is sure it has been said before. The store window is new, and it is better not to be in too big a hurry about indorsing new things. It is safer to discuss Gothic portals and Saracenic wood carving.

"But if anyone who is not a social philosopher will wander leisurely through the streets of an American city for awhile, he will come to the conclusion that the modern store window is a wonderful treasure-house of beauty. It is a treasure-house with some barren spots in it, to be sure, especially since the coal scuttle hat has made the milliner's window a thing to dread. But it is a treasurehouse which offers more beauty free to the common gaze than any previous age could know. There are dainty laces draped in bewildering curves. There are stretches of cool, white linen. There are half acres of silks and satins and other fabrics whose first names the mere man never learns, but which glow with a wealth of color that lights up the whole street. There is the glitter of cut glass, and the sheen of china, and the dull tones of unglazed pottery. Here and there is a jeweler's window, where you can see the gems you will never be able to buy nestling against their black velvet bed. Across the street may be a furniture store, where the soft brown tones of oak and leather afford a pleasant relief from the mirror-like polish of 'Wisconsin mahogany.' In odd corners, here and there, one may catch the unrivaled sheen of a group of Oriental rugs. Even the pawnbroker's window is not entirely a desert; for mingled with the streaky yellow glare of 'phony' diamonds, one is

pretty sure to catch the changing lights of an opal, or the soft blue of a turquoise.

"And these things count. The art which goes to the galleries, the art which deems itself-and perhaps rightly-of a finer clay than the world at large, is at a rather low ebb in our day; and one can not deny that some phases of craftsmanship have been well nigh lost. But taking in mass the things of common use, we are richer in beauty-and incomparably richer in color-than any age which preceded us. And it is the store window which has put this beauty at the service of even the shabbiest tramp that patrols the streets."-Denver Sunday News.

I would not underestimate the beautiful or the truly artistic in the education of the people; but to my mind the shop windows of to-day are an indication of the extravagance of the age. The extremes of fashion are displayed daringly and in glaring colors. And to the "common" mind (which I have) use is not always associated with the display.

In making a tour through one of our city streets it is for the most part as though we were passing through a great exposition, where the articles displayed were not for sale, but were, collectively, simply a wonderful "show."

The prices which are marked conspicuously upon the goods are far beyond the reach of the average person, and often alluringly invite those of insufficient means to enter and buy that for which they are too poorly able to pay; in consequence of which some one who has earned a daily wage, the dressmaker perhaps, is put off until a more convenient season.

I never view this vast display, which represents thousands upon thousands of dollars, but I think of the many meals it might buy for the hungry; the many moderate costumes it might supply the needy; the many decent homes it might provide for the deserving, who are, perhaps, living in unpleasant surroundings.

The shabbiest man out of work that patrols the streets may be so cold that "art" is far, far from his mind. He may be so hungry that what he wishes is that the merchant would "teach" the "brotherhood of man," and demonstrate the same in most substantial fashion.

Beauty is to be admired wherever we see it, but real beauty ought ever to be associated with use and the fitness of things.

One day a lady and I were looking into a window in which were displayed many beautiful lace curtains. One pair was marked three hundred dollars. "Isn't that dreadful," I said. "I never would pay that price for a pair of curtains."

"If I had plenty of money," said my friend, "I would pay that price willingly."

That set me to thinking. If we had the money to pay three hundred dollars a pair for curtains, had everything to correspond, and at the same time would pay the tithing on the whole amount, would the Lord want us to do it, when some of our people must live in the very plainest homes and eat the very plainest food? We are admonished to wear plain clothing and to be temperate in all things.