the gaining of the work is a "direct answer to earnest prayer" or "the true education found for the first time after a life's search." Thus this system has gone to all parts of the civilized globe, and has representatives in every State and in all the principal cities of our country. From the tiniest tots of three or four years, who learn their first lessons in "Kindergarten Music-Building" in the simplest form, to the adult who is still a child in heart, it is the natural system of education and music for all. This teaching has ever dwelt latent in the mother-heart, but remained undiscovered for the world until the present day. But to learn it one must be willing to become as a little child, even as such a change is also essential in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven. In 189S an organization was founded in Boston which will represent the work for future generations. The membership during the first year numbered over three hundred, including some of the ablest men and women in this country and Europe. Among them may be found judges, musicians, composers, and leading educators, as well as the teachers of the System.
SARAH ANNIE PERKINS was born at Lewiston, Me., October 1, 1842, the daughter of the Rev. Gideon and Mary (Dunham) Perkins. Her father was one of the early ministers of the Free Baptist denomination. To unusual mental grasp and deep spiritual insight he added ardent convictions that led him to give valiant
.service to the temperance and anti-slavery reforms of his day; and the thrilling experiences of those historic years, together with a most careful Christian training, made a deep impression on the lives of his children.
Sarah received her education in the Lewiston schools and in the Maine State Seminary, now Bates College, located in the same town. She entered the seminary at the age of fourteen, was graduated at seventeen, and at once took up the duties of a teacher, having been assigned even thus early in her life to the responsible position of preceptress in the Limerick (Me.) Academy. Before leaving school she had become a member of the Lewiston Main Street Free Baptist Church, of which her parents and three brothers were also members.
The second year after graduation she assumed charge of the Dexter (Me.) High School, but, being honored not long after by a call to return to her Alma Mater, .she accepted it, and was installed as instructor in French, Latin, and other branches, a position which she filled satisfactorily for .six years. She then resigned to accept a similar one in a private school for girls in Boston. Two years later she entered the Lothrop Publishing House as editor of book manuscripts. In this congenial work an honorable and pleasant career was opening before her, when the death of her eldest brother, in 1873, changed her plans for life. At his request she unselfishly relinquished the task for which she had proved herself to be so well fitted, and, taking his orphan children into her care, for nearly ten years she devoted herself to their nurture and training, at the same time ministering to the needs of her aged parents.
It was only when these duties had been fulfilled that Miss Perkins permitted her taste for literary work to assert itself once more. She accepted a position on the editorial staff of the Morning Star—the official organ of the Free Baptist denomination, published in Boston—maintaining her connection with this periodical for seven years. She was then transferred to the more difficult position of editor of the three juvenile papers of the denomination—Our Dayspring, for young people; The Myrtle, for children; and Our Myrtle Buds, for the little tots. The first and last were originated by her, and all three were under her sole management, their successfully attesting the tact and versatility, little short of genius, that are absolutely necessary to an editor of children's papers.
These periodicals were, in truth, the heralds of the great movement among young people that was soon to sweep with such beneficent results over the church life of all denomiiuitions; and Miss Perkins was speedily called upon to assume the great but inspiring responsibilities
