Hjiiijiiil BV 1520 .V55 1900 Vincent, John Heyl, 1832- 1920. The modern Sunday school BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. The Church School and Normal Guide. Discussing tlie Biblical basis aud origin of the modern Sunday school, its historical development, the pastor's place, the " Older Scholars," the " Senior Circle," the work of the institute aud normal class, with a detailed account of " The Palestine Class." 411 pp. Price, 90 cents. The Revival and After the Eevival. A faithful study of the true and the false " revival ; " words of accurata de- scription, strong defense of protest and of warning. 75 pp. Price, 40 cents. Studies in Young Life. A collection of forty-one sketches, being vivid pictures of the foibles, perils, and best ideals of young people; "vivacious chapters on social and moral topics." 254 pp. Price, $1.25. Better Not. A fair and helpful putting of the true relation of the Church and of young Christian life toward the wine glass, the dance, the card table, and the thea- ter. 86 pp. Price, 50 cents. Our Own Church. A study of our own denominational life, its catholicity, distinctive doctrines, and usages, and an answer to the usual objections made to them. It is de- signed to promote a loftier ideal, a deeper spiritual experience, and a wiser policy in the training and treatment of our young people. 173 pp. Price, 50 cents. The Holy Waiting. A plea for and an aid to a greater reve^'ence for the public services of the Church. A distinguished New York pastor wrote to Bishop Vincent : " The little book, in its beautiful binding and with its still more beautiful selections, has been on my table for several days. I have read aud reread it, and must say you have met a real want in a most discerning way." 90 pp. Price, 35 cents. Unto Him. A tender treatment of the most important theme— Coming to Jesus. It is full of practical counsel and stirring sentiment. 31 pp. Price, 10 cents. The Church at Home. Illustrated. A portion of Scripture, a hymn, and a prayer for daily family worship. 391 pp. Price, $1.90. The Chautauqua Movement. A complete account of the early development of the great Assembly idea, with an account by one who knows best the story of its beginnings, depart- ments, and growth. 308 pp. Trice, $1. To Old Bethlehem. An account of the author's visit to Bethlehem in 1863, and again in 1887. 26 pp. Price, 30 cents. In Search of His Grave. An Eastern study. 32 pp. Price, 30 cents. My Mother. The story of Mary Vincent, the mother of Bishop "Vincent— a rare type of womanly sweetness, maternal fidelity, and Christian piety. Price, 35 cents. Chautauqua Text-Books, on Biblical Explorations, Christian Evidences, Outlines of General History, Greek History, Koman History, English History. From 47 to 80 pp. Price, 10 cents each. The Story of a Letter. An Exposition of the Epistle of Pan! to the Ephesians. 44 pp. Price, 20 cents. Two Letters to a Minister. An Exposition of the Epistles of Paul to Timothy. 46 pp. Price, 20 cents. 2 \>^ liiNS 1914 OCi UM The Modern Sunday School By John H. Vincent Revised Edition New York: EATON & MAINS. Cincinnati: JENNINGS & GRAHAM. ^^V^ v^ Copyright, 1887, by PHILLIPS & HUNT New York Copyright, 1900, by EATON & MAINS New York INTRODUCTION. The pastor of a church is the pastor of its Sunday school. He is not the superintendent, unless regularly elected to that office, and it is usually much better that he be not thus burdened. He is pastor — the super- intendent's pastor, and the pastor of the entire flock. He has the care of all upon his heart. He should feel keenly and constantly this responsibility in the varied spheres of duty and dependence. To be a faithful pastor one needs to understand the theoretical basis, the ecclesiastical relations, the his- torical development, and the distinctive mission of the Sunday school and of its collateral agencies. The more he knows on these subjects the more cautiously and wisely he will work, the greater his influence as a pas- tor will be, and consequently the larger the success of the church he serves. Sunday-school w^ork is not beneath the most thought- ful attention and the utmost enthusiasm of our most scholarly ministers. The Sunday school cannot be a "small matter" in the estimation of a large man in this age of educational emphasis and progress when peda- gogy, psychology, the scientific study of childhood, and sociological problems of every kind are receiving the most careful attention of the ablest, broadest, and pro- foundest thinkers of the age. Aiming at practical results, this is a book of theories. INTRODUCTION. dealing, however, with theories only as they are neces- sary to successful work. True ideas are at the root of true work. It makes a great difference what people believe. He who holds an error is likely to put it into practice and to set himself for its defence. The begin- ning of God's service is honest faith in God's truth. Doctrines are practical things, and in Sunday-school work they are essential. The 'Svork" is, indeed, very simple, practical, and commonplace. But he who thinks that ''anybody can teach in Sunday school" har- bors a heresy which works harm to the institution and to all who are connected with it. There is another false idea from which has sprung a widespread harvest of tares. It is that ''the Sunday school is independent of the church." Akin to it and equally injurious is the opinion that "the Sunday school is the children's church." These are errors ; nor do these exhaust the list, which some good men have in all sincerity accepted, and by which, unconsciously to themselves, much of their earnest service has been mis- directed. g Theories determine methods, and methods are the mediums of contact between teacher and the taught. The experienced teacher develops plans of work in ac- cordance with his theory and in subjection to the neces- sities of his individuality. As he thinketh so he teach- eth. And while no one else may be able to employ Ins particular devices, a knowledge of them, and especially of the ideas from which they spring, will be useful to all other teachers. There is a quickening power in ideas. To know ten different ways in which ten men teach, will certainly help the eleventh teacher, although. INTRODUCTION". after all, he follows his own course and discards every one of the ten methods proposed by his exemplars. He is helped by them because he sees in one or more of the plans radical principles of education which sug- gest to him other and original ways of reaching, arrest- ing, awakening, and developing mind. These chapters are the result of many years of thought and experiment. The author was a Sunday- school pupil before he was ^ve years old. His father was for a long time a successful Sunday-school super- intendent. He has himself served as teacher, super- intendent, pastor, and normal-class conductor, and has been for thirty-five years a close and careful observer of the Sunday school on both sides of the ocean. He has taken a special interest in the training of Sundav-school teachers through institutes and nor- mal classes ; and has given much attention to the devis- ing of plans for unifying all departments of church work, to the end that there may be economy of power and a hearty and intelligent co-operation among all the agencies of the church in the work of Christian culture. 1^0 one department of the church can alone educate her youth. Certainly the Sunday school at its best can- not do it. There are other and more important instru- , mentalities. Home, with its authority, early oppor- tunity, affection, and example ; the Sanctuary, with its living voice and solemn services ; the Pastorate, with its daily contacts and personal magnetisms ; the Press, with its silent, multiplied, and perpetual ministries — all of these must unite with the Sunday school to give it in- dorsement, support, and authority. This book is based upon this radical co-operative idea. 8 . INTRODUCTION. With the new thought of the times concerning educa- tion and especially with the new enthusiasm concerning primary education, the modern leaders of the Sunday- school movement have made prompt application of the best theories and methods in secular pedagogy to Bib- lical and religious instruction. The return, through Pestalozzi, to the Socratic method and the noble work by Dr. Sheldon, of Oswego, are bearing fruit in the scien- tific method of President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University; Professor Starbuck, of Leland Stanford, Jr., University; of the ''Chautauqua :N'ew Education in the Church," the ''Normal Bible School," of Springfield, Mass., and other modern advance movements. An admirable monograph by Mary E. ITutcheson, on "Sun- day School Eeform," recently issued, calls the attention of the Church to the demand for the application to the work of reliii'ious education of the most advanced secu- lar theories and methods. There is no danger that a more perfect knowledge of God's w^ay with the human soul in the processes of edu- cation and providence will diminish our confidence in the divine processes of grace in "conviction," "conver- sion," "santification," and "edification " John H. Vincent. Episcopal Residence, Zurich, Switzerland, July 27, 1900. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE 1. The Thkek Schools 11 II. The School and the Church 15 III. The School and the Home 23 IV. The Organization 38 V. The SupepwINtendent 43 VI. The Teacher , 72 VII. The Normal Class ... 85 VIII. The Institute 120 IX. The Teachers' Meeting 151 X. The Teacher at Work . „ 158 XI. The Lesson Review 172 XII. Gradation 187 XIII. The Primary Class 204 XIV. The Senior Classes 225 XV. The Lessons « » 248 XVI. The Week-day Power 269 XVII. The Country Sunday School 279 Appendix A 299 Appendix B 302 Appendix C , 320 9 10 CONTENTS. Appendix D 325 Appendix E 327 Appendix F : 330 Appendix G 333 Appendix H 347 Index 355 THE Modern Sunday School. CHAPTER I. THE THKEE SCHOOLS. The Sunday school is a modern title for an ancient and apostolic service of the church. It is a school on Sunday. It is a school for '^disciples." It is a school with a ''Master." It is a school with ''lessons." It is a school with a text-book." All this the Sunday school is, and all this also is the church. The "Master" with the "disciples" about Him, by the seaside, on the mountain, in the desert, in the temple, in the synagogue, in the upper room — that was Sunday school in the first century. It w^as a school for question and answer, for conversation, for illustration, for appli- cation. There was no sermon, perhaps, nor lecture, save as the Teacher, in response to spoken question or look of wonder, continued for minutes to unfold the meanings of the Old Testament, or the mysteries of the new kingdom. It was not always held for one hour on Sunday. In those days all days were sacred, and all hours were laden with opportunity while the Son of God walked on the earth as Son of man among the sons of men. 12 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. There were times when the Master "worshiped" ac- cording to the established order of temple and syna- gogue. There were times when He "preached" — the multitudes before Him, His themes the law, the proph- ets, the soul, the Father, the future — His illustrations taken from life and nature. But, supplementing serv- ice and sermon, He taught in the informal way of con- versation when men sought Him to inquire concerning the things of the kingdom, when casual encounters gave Him opportunity, as at Jacob's well or on the way to Emmaus, or, when away "from the madding crowd," He talked of the deeper, personal verities of His mission to His own chosen disciples. In these catechetical and confidential interviews, in these casual conversations full of question and sugges- tion, of susceptibility on the part of the taught, and of tact on the part of the teacher, I see the germinal school- idea of the church, continuing throughout the New Testament period of the early church, and reviving from time to time through all the centuries, whenever Bibli- cal and vital piety broke the iron bonds of civil, ecclesi- astical, and ritualistic oppression. Given an open Bible, an earnest believer, a sincere seeker, or an ex- perienced saint, and the school-form of question, answer, illustration, and application is at once assured. The "conferences" of the Reformation, the "class-meetings" of the eighteenth-century revival, the "inquiry" and "fellowship meetings" of New England, and the "Bible readings" of to-day are but normal, irrepressible, neces- sary outgrowths of a religion that believes and rejoices in supernatural realities as set forth in a written Word. With such earnestness of faith comes one other pro- THE THREE SCHOOLS. 13 vision. The souls that love to build each other up by the natural processes of edification — the interchange, elucidation, and application of truth — seek also to help the unenlightened, that they, too, may know the way and the Word of the Lord. They seek for souls. They welcome inquirers. They awaken the indifferent. They instruct the young. They lay foundations of Christian character by the conveyance of Bible knowledge, teach- ing the susceptible, filling their memories with the facts and words of revelation, alluring them by the delights of association, of song, and of wise tuition — that the coming Spirit in youth or in later years may find truth ready for the kindling fires of grace. Thus the Sunday school becomes a preparatory school, giving the lessons of truth which, in after years, are to be fused by the power of the Spirit, and turned into living, throbbing energies of character. Beyond the limits of the church, beyond the homes of believers, beyond the bounds of Christian civilization, are neglected multitudes to whom the very alphabet of religion is an unknown thing, and the familiar phrases of Christian faith a strange tongue. Children, neg- lected by parents, pastors, and godly neighbors, are growing up in absolute ignorance black as darkest pagan- ism. Little careless feet patter about on the steps of stately cathedral, not knowing, save in senseless profan- ity, the name of the God to whom it is dedicated. Heathen crowds in the centers of Christian civilization! To them come Christian teachers, like Raikes of Glouces- ter. Opportunity opens, and the Bible teacher enters. Here, then, are three forms of the school-idea in the church of Christ: 14 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 1. The School Spiritual — for the promotion of per- sonal divine life through high converse among mutually interested and eager souls, who fear the Lord, and speak often one to another; in all wisdom, teaching and ad- monishing one another, the Word of Christ dwelling in them richly. Among them through His own Word comes the Christ Himself, and their hearts burn within them as He talks with them by the way, and opens to them the Scriptures. 2. The School Preparatory — for the communication of the truth to the ignorant, the young, the susceptible, to whom this world is more real and more fascinating than the world to come; to the children of Christian people who at home see the Bible and occasionally hear it read, who go to the church for public service, and feel a personal, or family, or social interest in its members, its services, its pastor, its reputation. The Sunday school is a preparatory institution in which they receive systematic training in the letter of the Word and in the formulas of the church. 3. The Mission School — for carrying the gospel to the regions beyond — beyond the present reach of pulpit, church service, pastor, or church society ; for gathering in the neglected and outcast ; for teaching the ignorant and prejudiced ; for preparing the ground that soon the church in her full organization may come to welcome and recognize, to enlist and bless the masses hitherto beyond her circle of power and fellowship. THE SCHOOL AND THE OHUECH. 15 CHAPTER II. THE SCHOOL AND THE CHURCH. I SHALL not, in this attempt to adjust the relations of Sunday school and church, with a view to a more perfect practical co-operation between them, enter into the ecclesiastical questions which arise when we seek an exact definition of the church. I leave to the students of ecclesiastical history and to the theologians the prob- lem pertaining to the relations of the visible institu- tion to the invisible and divine energies of grace, whether conveyed from an early and original deposition through appointed, visible ecclesiastical lines of com- munication, or bestowed under a present and immediate dispensation of the Holy Spirit, to individual souls who surrender themselves to the divine leading. Let us rather consider the work to be done by the Sunday school in furthering the practical ends for which the church has been established. And what are these ends? The Word gives ready and easy answer to our question. Every command, every promise, every figure of speech, every line of argument by which the aim and work of the true be- liever are set forth, help to define the mission of the church. "Be ye holy;" ye shall be "partakers of the divine nature;" ye are the "salt," the "light" of the world ; "as therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and builded up in Him, and 16 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. established in your faith, even as ye were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." What is the church ? ''A spiritual house," ^^the habi- tation of God," '^the household of God," ^'the flock of God," ''the temple of the living God," ''the body of Christ," "the pillar and the ground of the truth." It is to be in the world "salt" for seasoning, "light" for illuminating, a "rock'' for building, a "hill" for exalt- ing, a "tower" for protecting. It is designed to "save" men, to reveal to them "the unsearchable riches of Christ," to make known "the manifold wisdom of God," and to give men some insight into "the breadth, and length, and height, and depth," that they may "know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that [they] might be filled with all the fulness of God." So vast and high and eternal and glorious are the ends for which the church has been established on the earth. The true Sunday school helps, in its own way, to be sure, but in an unmistakable way, to attain these lofty objects of the church. Otherwise the world does not need the Sunday school. This is the first and radical idea. The work of the Sunday school is spiritual and divine. It is spiritual and not merely natural ; divine, not merely human. It is to be truly and intensely religious, or we can dispense with it altogether. This doctrine — the churchly and religious character of the true Sunday school — needs present, emphatic, and universal enunciation. For over against this ground present dangers lie, and our most insidious enemies lurk. The spirit of the age is worldly. In the church worldliness nowadays runs to ecclesiastical a}stheticism, to ritualism and to the love of show, the love THE SCHOOL AND THE CHURCH. 17 of money and the love of rule. It is easy for the worldly spirit to capture an organization and carry it on in the interest of personal ambition, social pleasure, public display, and of so-called '^success." The local church is sometimes (let me express the belief, rarely) thus cap- tured — minister and all. The Sunday school may with greater ease be seized and used. It may become a ^^Sun- day sociable;" a ^'side show;" a chance for 3 ^'live" and popular business man to advertise himself and gain friends and a name in the interest of trade ; an institu- tion alongside of, but other than tlie church, and inde- pendent of it — independent of its pulpit, independent of its session or conference, and it may suddenly develop rivalry, if not antagonism, silent and effective, if not expressed. The Sunday school may be "run" by so- called "modern methods ;" by its music ; by its library ; by its "splendid organization and order;" by its "exhi- bitions," its annual "picnics," "Christmas tree," and other festal services. It may be the "biggest school" in town, have the "best singing," and "do more than," or "go ahead of," its neighbors in half a dozen ways. A Sunday school may be thoroughly organized, graded, disciplined, provided with schemes of examination and of promotion admirable enough to excite the envy of a secular educator, and still it may wield only a natural power and tend only to worldliness. These natural and artificial and utterly human ele- ments I do not wholly depreciate, and would not discard the best and truest of them. They may not hinder spiritual life, but they cannot create or promote it. They are, at their best, of earth and not of heaven. They are lamps, but not oil ; cups, but not water ; plates, 2 I 18 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. but not food; mirrors, but not the sun. Let us have them, but let us not depend upon them. Let us have them, but let us have something else and something better. The Sunday school is thus the product of the truth, r the aim and the life of the church. It is a part and a primitive method of the church. It should be sustained by the church, and should be under its complete control and responsible to it. The Sunday school should co- operate with all the other departments of the church, and should contribute to its power. And all teachers duly elected should be publicly recognized before the ^'great congregation" as teachers in the church of Christ. (See Appendix A.) In this connection I make earnest protest against making the Sunday school a substitute for public church service of worship and preaching, especially in the case of little children. The public service is for them, and they should be required to attend it regularly. They should also early be led to a personal knowledge of Christ, and an identification of themselves with the church. To these two topics let me give some attention. First, the attendance of children upon preaching. It is desirable. The service is one divinely appointed. It is a means of spiritual quickening. It is an intellectual stimulant. It elevates the tastes. It is a wholesome way of passing a portion of God's day. It is calculated to exert a good influence upon the child as a member of society, and of the nation whose prosperity so much depends upon the recognition of God. The reverence there begotten for the minister as an ambassador of THE SCHOOL AND THE CHURCH. 19 heaven has a beneficial effect. The worship is inspiring. Blessed are the children whose feet tread the courts of the Lord's house on the day of the Lord ; wdio go thither from habit, never having known anything else from earliest childhood. I am familiar with the usual objections: ^'The child cannot understand the sermon." Nor do all adults. We shall do well to remember that the children are more appreciative hearers than many suppose, and that with increase of culture and wisdom and tact on the part of the ministry we shall have more simplicity and plain- ness of speech in the pulpit, to the advantage of both children and adults. '^Our children are disinclined to go." How does it happen that they have ever had any choice in the matter ? They should not remember the day w^hen they did not attend preaching. But, then, w^hat has their disinclina- tion to do with the claims of God and of their earthly parents ? Have they not learned prompt and unques- tioning obedience to a father's command ? And do parents grant children a release from all uncongenial tasks? Because disinclined to it, do they neglect the week-day school and its appointed lessons ? "We may prejudice our children against public serv- ice, so that when they become old they will not attend, because alienated from the church by the rigorous dis- cipline of childhood." The opposite is true. The men and women of our day who are most faithful in attend- ance upon the sanctuary are those who have been habit- uated to it. Those who are allowed in youth '^to have their own w^ay" are not usually the most devout saints, nor the most regular in the discharge of public or private religious duties. 20 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Let this be our rule : Give some truth in every sermon to hearers of all capacities — to every man his portion in due season — rightly dividing the Word of God, and our children will grow up to reverence and delight in the sanctuary and in the law of the Lord. Let ministers urge upon heads of families the impor- tance of this duty, and then let them study so to read the Scripture lessons and order the service of song and preach the words of eternal life that the ''duty" dis- charged by the parent may be by the pastor transformed into a "delight" to the children. So shall they bless him, and the blessing of a little child is next in precious- ness to the blessing of the Lord himself. A few words upon the second topic : The children and church membership. Whatever be the theological opin- ion and the ecclesiastical policy with reference to child- hood and its religious life and relations, one thing is incontrovertible : the earlier a child can be brought to a personal recognition of Jesus as his Saviour, and to a personal identification with the church, the better for him. Baptized or unbaptized in infancy; at birth a sinner or by the provisions of grace virtually a saint ; wdth these questions I have not now to do; but this I say: As early in the child's life as possible, teach him implicit trust in Christ and the full consecration of his life and all its possibilities to Christ. We may depend upon the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, who will sup- plement our lack of insight into the peculiar nature of the child, and the immaturity of thought and convic- tion which we are so prone to attribute to our youth. Let us, however, be wise with our very highest wisdom in this direction. Ecmembering that the conversion of THE SCHOOL AND THE CHURCH. 21 the little one is the work of the Spirit, let us seek the Spirit. Remembering that the Spirit operates through the truth, let us teach the truth. We must : 1. Distinguish between a transitory emotion easily traceable to circumstances, and the deeper and often less demonstrative work of the Spirit of God. 2. Guard against unwise public methods of ^^seeking religion. '^ We believe that children should publicly profess Christ, but we are painfully aware that the very measures often adopted to secure this end are more likely to develop pride and morbid self-consciousness than piety and humility. Let God's ministers guard this in- terest under the leading of God's Spirit and the dictates of their best judgment. 3. Take good care of the little disciples after the first profession. Teach them ; bear with them ; aid them ; remember that they are children. We should not attempt to adjust to their young souls any morbid type of piety which has been taken out of a ^^religious biography," and which was, even with the adult, an exception if not an excrescence. Xever try to take the ^'boy" out of a boy in order to make him a Christian. What he loses is worth more to him than what he receives in the ex- change. Rather lead him into the paths of practical faith in God. Teach him the eiorv of hard service for Christ. Exalt principle. Store his mind with gospel facts and maxims and promises. Teach him to pray daily, to love the Lord as he loves his mother, to be irue always and everywhere, to avoid all pretences, and to represent the power of Christian faith at home, on the playground, at school or in the street. Let us be careful not to foster self-complacency and 22 THE MODEKN SUNDAY SCHOOL. conceit and morbid self-introspection where lowliness and self-forgetfulness and looking alone unto Jesus are to be sought. It is very easy to substitute a transient feeling for a genuine spiritual fervor. It is easy to ring the chimes in the steeple and forget the heavens above, and the open book on the pulpit below, and the humility which befits the altar, and the poverty and sorrow in the garrets, which hear the chiming bells and wonder if the Lord has left no follower to visit and pray with and in His stead to bless the helpless. Glib talk is a poor substitute for hard work. Tears are cheap. Profession is easy. The tendency of ^'religion" is too often toward talk and tears, to the neglect of toughness and struggle and heroism, and true faith in Christ and hard service for Him. Let us keep our children free from the error of sup- posing that public profession is "the do-all and the be- all" of religion. Let us cultivate in them modesty and fidelity to duty and simplicity of character. This, then, is the duty of the Sunday school : to recog- nize its identity with the church, to live by and for the church, and to train its members, old and young, to personal fidelity to the authority, the services, the enter- prises, and, above all, to the great and divine Head of the church. THE SCHOOL AND THE HOME. 23 CHAPTEE III. THE SCHOOL AND THE HOME. The sweetest word in our language is ^^home." The beginnings of human life for time and eternity occur at home. The most effective school is home. It is in point of time before all other schools, in point of power above all others. It exists and exerts its influence by the side of all others, and when the elements of true home-life are found within all others the real power of every school will be greatly enhanced. The Sunday school is an institution which has to do with adults, but primarily with children. Now, it is impossible to consider an institution which is designed to reach, to affect the intellect, the character, the con- duct, and the eternal destiny of childhood without con- sidering, at the same time, its relations to that earliest, holiest, mightiest of all institutions — home. Tor five or ten years before the teacher, the superin- tendent, or the class begins to affect the mind of the child he is under powerful influence for good or for evil in his own home. The four years of a college course are scarcely more effective in the life of a man than the four years in the nursery, during which he begins to live — and all this before the Sunday school reaches him. Father and mother have the firm confidence of the child, and his fervent, unsuspecting, unhindered love. They have for the child unfailing love, and over him an 2-^ THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. uncliallenged authority. Then who can measure the unconscious influence of the home, its opportunities to illustrate everything it teaches, and to reiterate this teaching day after day, year after year 1 The illustrative value of the home deserves greater attention. It provides object-lessons of the most effect- ive character, given under the most favorable condi- tions. Action day after day puts a real meaning into words. What are the words "law^," ^^penalty," ''justice," ''truth," to the mind of the child who has never had object-lessons in them at home ? How much they weigh in the pulpit when the boy recalls the daily home ad- ministration and character wuth which he is familiar, in which broken "law" is followed by "penalty" accord- ing to "justice" and in pursuance of the word of "truth" spoken by his father ! What significance is given to all the Christian virtues, as the eloquence of the preacher calls the list, when the child can think of every one of them incarnate and alive in his own mother's daily spirit and conduct. It is important, therefore, beyond any power of words adequately to express, that the Sunday school recognize this home influence, utilize its advantages, detect and neutralize what baleful influence the careless and irre- ligious home may exert, and labor faithfully to secure hearty and constant co-operation of mothers and fathers in the religious instruction of their children. The Sunday school has, from its very constitution and aims, many of the elements of the home, and it should seek to develop them to the fullest degree, that children already favored with the right domestic influ- ence mav have increased love for and faith in the school ; THE SCHOOL AND THE HOME. 25 and that those unfortunates who have no religious help from father and mother, and whose everyday surround- ings are of the most unhomelike character, may find rest, love, comfort, and strength in the Sabbath school and its friendships. Therefore the Sabbath school should be like home and not like a military academy; like home and not like a recitation-room ; like home and not like a Romish church ; like home and not like a pub- lic lyceum for entertainments. These elements of home-life should be developed in the Sunday school to their highest degree of power. The place should be comfortable, attractive, beautiful ; the home constituency of the Sunday school should embrace parents and their children. The aim of the school should be the Biblical, spiritual, practical education of its members in order to useful lives and a blessed eter- ity. The atmosphere of the school should be filled with reverence, faith, cheerfulness, sympathy, freedom, and divine love. The school should make a wise use of the experiences of life among its pupils, and by cultivating a home spirit and attachment w^ithin itself turn all its confidences, affections, afflictions, separations, etc., to a good account. The elements of home-life in the school, thus developed to the full measure of their power, should react upon the actual homes of its members — cultivating them and then cordially co-operating with them. The teacher should endeavor to reach beyond his scholars to the homes they come from, the mothers and fathers who so mightily influence the young lives committed to their care and to ours. Therefore I sav to the teacher: Glorify home. Speak often of home. Visit the homes of your pupils. Seek to brighten and strengthen them ; 2G THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. and invite your pupils to your home as well, that you may get a firmer hold upon them. The fact of their associating with you may lead them to nohler living. You are able to supply them with ideals which otherwise they might never apprehend, and an awakening of true and elevating affection which otherwise they might never enjoy. And this coming of your life into theirs as a personal friend will put joy and love into their o\\ti homes later on in life. The teacher should encourage the pupil to make a careful home preparation of every lesson, that coming to the class he may take a deeper interest in its exercises. This preparation in advance by the scholar increases the teacher's opportunity to make a deep impression; increases the power of the school over the home and home-life of the pupil, and promotes more perfect co- operation between teacher and parents. How shall this desirable end be promoted ? I offer the following suggestions: — (1) The teacher should expect it; (2) should feel and manifest disappointment and sorrow when the pupil fails to prepare; (3) should frequently and emphatically insist upon it; (4) should make inquiry on the subject when casually meeting his pupil during the week; (5) should lurite to parents about it; (6) should visit parents in order to promote it; (7) should outline ivorh for the pupil to do at home during the week, not requiring too much; (8) should manifest pleasure when his pupils show, by recitation, that they have made attempts to do work at home; (9) the superintendent should frequently plead w^ith the scholars to prepare at home; (10) the pastor should insist upon it from the pulpit; (11) the pastor, superin- THE SCHOOL AND THE HOME. 27 tendent, parents, and teachers should cultivate con- science in their pupils on the subject; (12) they should endeavor to promote spiritual and Biblical tastes in their pupils. The author some years ago prepared the following leaflet, addressed ^'To the Parents of our Pupils." A message of this kind could not fail to produce an im- pression : ^^1. We, the pastor, superintendent, and teachers of the Sunday school to which your children belong, send you a few words of greeting in the name of the Great Teacher. '^2. The design of the Sunday school is twofold: (1) To make plain to our pupils the truths taught in the Holy Scriptures; and (2) to lead them to love and obey the Lord Jesus Christ, who is set forth in these Scriptures. ^'3. It is exceedingly difficult for us to succeed in this without the help of your parental authority and influ- ence. Your opinions, teachings, and example have im- mense power with your children. A child will for a long time believe what his father believes, and love what his mother loves, in spite of all that the school, the church, and the world may teach. "4. It is not strange, therefore, that we greatly desire to secure your co-operation in our work, and it is the object of this missive to show you what you may do to aid us. If we seem over-zealous in this matter, attribute any excess you may detect to our real and profound interest in the child or children coming from your home to our classes. We are deeply interested in their spir- itual and eternal welfare. 28 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. "5. The following are the requests which we make: '^(1) Show, as far as you are able, an appreciation of our work. Let the children see that you have faith in the scliool and its objects. A word in our favor may beget in the child a strong faith in us, and this will give force to our teachings. "(2) If you are not acquainted with the school or with our method, or if from any cause you have doubts concerning us, or even slight prejudices against us, we respectfully ask you not to give expression to such doubts or prejudices before your children. Write to us. Visit and remonstrate with us. In any way you may deem wisest and best let us know your convictions and desires, but do not unnecessarily awaken suspicion or distrust in the minds of your children relative to their religious teachers. "(3) See that your children feel the claims of the school upon them. If we are doing them good, if we give them knowledge, if our services are worth anything to them, see that they appreciate it. Show them what benefits they are themselves deriving from our instruc- tions, that their regard may not merely be based upon your opinions, but upon an intelligent appreciation of the value of the Sunday school. "(4) Send them to the Sunday school regularly and punctually. By authority, by argument, or by persua- sion secure their presence every Sabbath the year through, and at the proper time, that the order of the school may be promoted. "(5) We say above, *^send your children to the Sunday school.' May we amend by suggesting that you bring them ? Can you not find the time ? Can you not come THE SCHOOL AND THE HOME. 20 as visitor, as teaclier, or as pupil ? We have classes for adults, where the Word of God is expounded, and where you would find hoth pleasure and profit. We are in almost constant need of new teachers. Have you no gift or call in this direction ? Your regular attendance would he a great hlessing at least to your ovm. children. "(6) Encourage and assist your children to prepare their Sunday-school lessons at home. A little aid in this direction will greatly augment our powers. We have no authority to compel perfect recitation. We are not permitted to punish neglect or failure. Our Avork is voluntary, and depends for its success upon the free-will of our pupils. A very little home co-operation would render our teaching much more effective. In some families it is the custom to recite the ^Golden Text' of each week's lesson at the tahle during the week. Others have an ^at home' lesson meeting on Saturday evening or earlier in the week for the preparation of Sunday's lesson. All such help reacts on the parents, and hlesses the children hy giving to their homes a higher aim and holier atmosphere." In 1871 the author of this volume puhlished a tract on ^The Country Sunday School." In that he gave the following advice: ^'Establish family Sunday schools. We say to the Western farmer. If you live on a prairie, ten miles from every other human being, organize a Sunday school. If there are only two per- sons in your house, open a Sunday school. Sit down and read a portion of God's Word together; talk about it, memorize it, ponder it. Save one or two dollars and send for a library of six or eight good books. Give your little germ of a home Sunday school a name, 30 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. report its existence, seek God's blessing, and keep at work iifty-two Sabbaths a year." On the same page I recommended ''Window-sill Gardens" as follows: "If but two or three families live within reach, get them together for a Sunday school. We know it will require faith and forbearance, patience and love, but these may be had in unlimited measure. On window-sills of the fifth story of crowded tenement houses in this city we have seen narrow boxes filled with earth, and green vines springing up from them and shading the windows. In Palestine we have seen flowers, green grass, and fragrant shrubs blooming in tiny clefts and in thin crevices of the rock and on narrow terraces. Despise not the day of small things. Verdure and bloom and fruit may come where there is just soil enough for root- hold. Despise not these little clusters of insignificant houses in out-of-the-way, country places. Where you can get a handful of children or adults, organize a Sun- day school. A Shakespeare, a Milton, a Whitefield, a Peabody, may be there. But of this be sure, where five lowly souls are, there are ^ve immortals redeemed by the blood of Christ ; and although their names are never known beyond the limited neighborhood in which they were born, you may register these names in the Book of Life. There they will shine for ever."* To facilitate the work of home development in religious lines, and to reach parents without personal obtrusion (often annoying and offensive), I prepared a large envelope, filled with material and to be sent under letter postage to homes from which children never went to Sunday school, nor parents to church. The size of * " The Country Sunday School," pp. 8, 9 (1871;. By J. H. Vincent. THE .SCHOOL AND THE HOME. 31 the envelope, and the fact that it cost so much postage to send it, would guarantee it a reception and a careful examination. On one end were printed the following words : — ''I come — a Mystery. I have a meaning and a mission of my own. Receive me freely, treat me fairly. I shall do thee no harm. 'East and west, at home the best.' '' Within the envelope were placed several small illuminated picture-cards and book-marks ; several pleasant pictures (wood engravings) which the little children would look at and keep, whatever father and mother might do with the contents designed for them. There were also bold-type mottoes from twelve to twenty-four inches long, which somebody would certain- ly put on the wall. They were mottoes about the duties of children. There were in the envelope two small sealed envelopes, one addressed to 'Tather" and one to "Mother." In these were bold words about parental re- sponsibility and duty which no living man would care to speak to them. They could not be offended, for no one need know the contents of these little envelopes unless the receiver chose to make report of them; and then, whoever sent them must have cared to do good, for "see how much postage he spent to send them." Then there were in this little budget of home inspirations tracts on secular education and on the wonders of science, with lesson papers for a month of home Sunday school, and directions as to hoAv a family might study together the Word of God. From the beginning of my work as a Sunday-school specialist I have exalted the home as the most important school in the world, and its co-operation as necessary to the efficiency of both week-day and Sunday school. In 32 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. all addresses on Sunday-school work for twenty years I have insisted upon the home as first, best, and most important of all educational agencies. It is, therefore, esj^ecially gratifying to me to see the recent develoj^ment of Sunday-school work in this direction. The Congregationalists of America have, following the suggestion of Mr. W. A. Duncan, Secre- tary of the Chautauqua Assembly, organized a '^Ilome Department," and have issued, under the direction of the Itcv. A. E. Dunning, Principal of the Chautauqua Assembly l^ormal Union, the following circular, accom- panied by pledge and roll cards, with promises for w^eek- ly collections in the interest of benevolent work : "Dear Friend^ "Aware that many are deprived of the privilege of the study of the Bible in the regular service of the Sunday school, on account of age, infirmity, distance from the church, and similar reasons, our Sun- day school has a Home Department to aid all such, to be composed of those Avho will comply with the follow- ing conditions, which are made as simple as possible in order to enlist all we can in the work: "1. Sign and return the pledge enclosed, which asks you to spend not less than a half hour each Sunday in study of the Sunday-school lesson for the day, whenever you are able to do so. "2. Keep for yourself, or for yourself and others of your family who are also members, upon the enclosed report card, a record of your attendance upon the study of the lesson, marking with X X any Sunday when you attend the main Sunday school. THE SCHOOL AND THE HOME. 33 ^^3. On the last Sunday in each quarter, put the report card in an envelope, and address it to the super- intendent of the Sunday school. ^'Lesson quarterlies, either the larger or smaller, will be furnished you (by mail or otherwise) each quarter at five cents each for the Senior, and four cents for Inter- mediate grades ; and they will be sent free to any who feel unable to pay for them. As far as we are able, you shall be made acquainted with the work of our school and of this department. ''It is hoped that this simple, easy plan will receive your cordial support. "Faithfully yours, "A. E. Dunning/' I hope to see the time when families by the ten thousand will be enrolled as parts of such ''Home Department,'' and when cards, leaves, books, and papers filled with information and inciting to diligent personal and home study will find their way into the centres of power — the homes of the land. The "International Bible Heading Union" is another movement which promises to turn our homes into sys- tematic schools of Bible study. Let parents, teachers, and children give their names and influence to this great every-day home Bible school. But our pastors must put greater stress on the one all-important duty of family prayer. There can be no substitute for that. It is difficult to make general state- ments, with any confidence in their accuracy, concern- ing the extent to which family devotion is maintained in the American home. One may say that "the custom 3 34 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. lias been almost entirely abandoned," or that ''compara- tively few households nowadays open and close the day with domestic worship." But who knows this ? And how can any one know unless he has made it a matter of special, wide and careful investigation ? He may know the rule of his own house, of his brother's, or father's house in this particular, but what of the sixty other families in the church he attends ? With how many of them has he ever spent a night ? Of how many has he ever made particular inquiry ? And what of the other denominations, some of whom may be more conscien- tious in this respect than the church to which he belongs ? What of other sections of the country ? He may live in Minnesota or Vermont. But what of the custom in Western Pennsylvania or in Georgia ? It is a difficult matter for any man to speak on this subject with au- thority. Family prayer may be on the decline in American homes. There are some apparent general tendencies in social and church life which suggest the fear that such is the case ; but who knows ? Might it not be a good thing for pastors to put the question and collate the replies ? Some families have prayer on Sun- day mornings. Some mark the special church days by such observance. Some have prayers when they have ministerial guests, some when affliction has entered the house, some during the special revival meetings of the year. How many have prayers regularly ? How many never have them ? How may we get at the facts ? In the meantime there is one thing we as pastors may do. We may call the attention of church members to the subject. By tracts distributed, by sermons deliv- ered, by frequent reminders given in public and social THE SCHOOL AND THE HOME. 35 services, by pastoral questioning and faithful admoni- tion, we may stir up the heads of Christian households to this most important part of their duty as Christians. Some of us have positive convictions on the subject. We have memories that confirm us. Whatever people do now, or did once, we know what our fathers did. Twenty years of family prayer, morning and evening, was likely to leave an impression on the children. What if they did ''not like it" because it was ''tiresome,'' or because they had "no taste for it V^ What if they occasionally wished that "father would forget it some mornings f What if, when they visited other homes where prayers were omitted, they wished that at their house they could have the same freedom from the restraints of religion ? What if they did resolve not to bind their o^\ti children by any such invariable custom when they should become heads of families ? When at last father died, they missed the usual service, and as they looked into his thin face and remembered how those lips, now silent, had faithfully called on God every morning and every evening, they were glad that this record had been made by the departed saint, and they quietly resolved to make the same record. Prayer may interfere with business plans now and then for five or ten minutes in the morning, but no one ever regrets it when the last morning has come and the coffiin is in the parlor. Family prayer is a great educator. It is an object lesson to little people which teaches more than any catechism or homily. It is reverend recognition in action of the unseen God. It is a visible sign to chil- dren of an invisible authority. Why does the greatest 36 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. strength they know of bow down with closed eyes to ask for strength ? Why does the tenderest, sweetest love they have ever seen or dreamed of bend the knee and breathe a prayer for love ? To the child's mind comes the answer, My father and my mother look up to God as I look up to them. I, too, must look up to God. The reading of Scripture in the family is likely to be omitted entirely unless made necessary by the law of daily domestic devotion. Suppos(? it is a reading lesson of only five verses each morning. That will make thirty-five verses a week, and seventeen hundred and twenty-five verses a year. Multiply that by ten years. How much of God's Word is read in the hearing of the household by a fixed habit of holding a brief season of family prayer once a day ! Family prayer exerts a silently subduing and refining power over the house. It calms the mind. It stops the currents of secularity. It brings into the mind great and holy thoiights. It connects daily life with heaven. It sends out over the day a restraining influence. Kitchen and school work will move a little more smooth- ly. Sin will seem more sinful. There will be a firmer safeguard against temptation. The family that does not open the day with prayer must lose power. Family prayer supplies parental opportunity. By it the foundations of doctrine may be laid, reproofs ad- ministered, divine authority recognized, dangers appre- bended and avoided. It is much easier to govern a family of children where parents and children habitu- ally invoke God's blessing. Family prayer, especially where there are very young children, or worldly minded young people, need not be THE SCHOOL AND THE HOME. 37 objectionably protracted. A minute is, after all, quite a long time. How much Scripture can be read in one minute ! How many things one can ask for in a prayer one minute long ! Let us have the fixed order. [N^ever omit it. Before breakfast or after breakfast ; 'Q.x the time, and daily mark it. Sit down deliberately. Avoid all signs of haste. Read carefully a few verses — five, ten or more. Kneel for prayer. Then pray. Pray for something definite. Pray short, but in a calm, reverent and leisurely way. Open the home, and the hearts that are in it, to the heavens. Do this daily. Let nothing pre- vent. The reward will come. 38 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. CHAPTEK IV. THE OEGANIZATION. The Holy of Holies in the Jewish Tabernacle was designed for the presence and manifestation of the Shekinah — the source of all strength, guidance, and vic- tory for Israel. That presence was everything. And yet how particular the directions given to Moses touch- ing the construction of the place for the presence ! The material, the measurements, the sockets, the curtains, the veil, the ark, the cherubim — all ''after the pattern" shown him by the Lord. ''Even so shall ye make it." Absolute dependence upon the divine power did not hinder most careful attendance to the human conditions. As then, so now. The best use of force in associated labor requires economy, and in order to economy there must be organ- ization. I turn, therefore, to the human side of our Sunday-school work — its organization and management. As organization is effected for the distribution of labor, its power is, first of all, expressed in the appoint- ment of certain persons who are to carry out its purposes. Thus we find in every organization: (1) Its own original or derived authority; and (2) a certain trans- ferred authority by which its agents perform the w^ork for which they were appointed. The Sunday school has its authority and its officers — the power and the agents of that power. These agents THE ORGANIZATION". 39 may be distributed in three classes: (1) Those who sim- ply jDerform the work necessary to the existence and management of the organization — such as secretaries and treasurers. (2) Those who perform or direct the work for which the organization was effected — the three- fold service of administration, worship, and instruction, such as the superintendent and the teachers. (3) Those who supervise both classes of agents and every depart- ment of the work, such as the pastor, the church com- mittee in charge of the Sunday school, and finally the central ruling power in the church itself. The question as to the original authority of the Sunday school will be answered according to the theory of the person questioned. It may be in the school itself as an independent organization, a society outside of all churches, and amenable to none. It may be, and I think in every case should be, from the church as a divine institution established to do a given work, and creating the Sunday school as the wisest and best method for doing that work. Having established or recognized the method, the church as a local body, or the church con- nectional, should be responsible for everything pertain- ing to the school — for the constitution or plan under which it is to be conducted, and for the officers who are to have control for this purpose. These should make regular reports to the church in her governing confer- ence or committee, or to the congregation in which all ecclesiastical power may be lodged. Sometimes the whole authority rests with the pastor, who, being responsible for the work of teaching, chooses of his own will to use the Sunday school as one plan for doing his own work. So he organizes it as he 40 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. pleases, conducts as he pleases, and appoints whom he pleases as his assistants. This was the view of Dr. S. H. Tyng, one of the earliest, wisest, and most energetic of the Sunday-school men of America. In my early years as a Sunday-school worker, I wrote to Dr. Tyng, asking for a copy of the constitution of his Sunday school. He gave me a prompt and courteous reply, but said he was sorry ^^he could not come." Dr. Tyng was his own Sunday-school constitution. The power could not have been lodged in a wiser, more generous, more affectionate, or more positive heart and will ; but it is a good thing that this autocratic idea does not prevail in the modern Sunday school. Authority must dwell somewhere, and where more appropriately and securely than in the church itself? The church should create the school — ^the regular church school, and as well the mission school on the borders. It should appoint the officers, subject to such co-opera- tive plan as may enlist the judgment and sympathy of the teachers with whom the officers must be associated. The church should give liberally to the support of the school, should in every way manifest its deep interest in the work of the school, and thereby gain a recognition of right when in an emergency it is compelled to inter- fere for the protection of any interest. This is true of mission schools. It is true of denom- inational schools. They should, wherever practicable, be under the control of some responsible church. All truly ^'Union'' people — those who believe in the unity of believers — can as readily do effective work under a de- nominational as under a "Union" banner. A union school must soon or late become a denominational school. THE ORGATs'IZATION. 41 The sooner the necessary development occurs the better. And better still if it can begin in this larger, wiser way. A Sunday school, to do its best work, needs a church behind and responsible for it. In the election of officers, and especially of superin- tendent, I have already intimated that the teachers should share responsibility with the pastor and church committee. They understand the condition and needs of the school. They render voluntary and gratuitous service, and seem to have a measure of right in the mat- ter. It would be bad policy to give children a voice in the selection of the superintendent. To say nothing of their lack of judgment, it would be injurious to youth, already too little subject to government, to place such power in their hands. The plan of allowing children to vote is every way pernicious. Xor would much be gained by extending the right of suffrage to adult classes, many of whose members are not members of the church, and are not competent to judge as to what will best serve the church. As in secular schools, from pri- mary department to college, instructors are selected for the students, even though they may be men full grown, it will be safest and best in Sunday schools to leave the selection of teachers to the church itself after such method as its governing body may deem most wdse. In this way, too, a deal of political wire-pulling, or at least of temptation to it, will be avoided. The representatives of the governing power of the church in the Sunday school would do well to be there as teachers or as members of adult classes, rather than as a separate council with visible authority. It is rarely that they will have occasion to exert their power against 42 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. the preference of the school, but can do so when neces- sary with greater effectiveness if by their constant pres- ence they are one with the school, and know by personal acquaintance its conditions and necessities. People shrink from ecclesiastical interference. The record of ecclesiasticism in the world justifies to some degree this sensitiveness, and is perhaps the cause of it. It will be well, therefore, to keep the churchly authority in the background, and to invoke its public and official ex- pression against the general preference of the school only when nothing else will do. THE SUPERINTENDENT. 43 CHAPTEE Y. THE SUPERINTENDENT. The Sunday-school superintendent I describe is not a perfect man in physical appearance or health, in intel- lectual endowment or culture, in temporal circumstances or prospects, in spiritual attainment or profession, in professional ability or reputation ; but he is by no means a dead man, or a dolt, or a pauper, or a bad man, or a drone. If he is not at the top of the ladder, he certainly is not at the bottom. There may be "smarter'' men than he is, and bolder men, and men that dress better and have more money, and have seen more of the world ; but our superintendent is a man that nobody dare laugh at, or scoff at, or scold at, or defy. He has good sense and a good heart. He loves his work, and wishes he could perform it better, and would be very willing to resign if he had evidence that it would be better for the school that he should do so. The superintendent superintends. He superintends to protect. He chiefly protects the teachers and pupils committed by parents and the church to his care. He protects the pupils against all bad influence — careless, irreverent, and superficial teachers, and all weak and wicked fellow-pupils. He remembers that parents commit their children to his keeping during the hour of the Sabbath-school session, and he is conscien- tiously anxious to guard them against anything which 44: THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. would be likely to weaken their regard for the church and the Word of God. He protects teachers against interruption during the class-hour. He himself never comes near a class during the time assigned by the programme of the school to the study of the lesson. By counsel and example he pre- vents interruption by pastor, assistant superintendent, treasurer, librarian, and visitors. He protects the entire school against weariness and annoyance. Elaborate and protracted speeches are never delivered from his platform. Xo Sunday-school magnate is great enough, or important enough, to oc- cupy the precious time of his session with an address. He so adjusts the ordering of the programme, and so carries it out, that everything finds its time and place, and the benediction is pronounced before the school is exhausted. He tries to improve. He subscribes for all the peri- odicals he can afford to take and study. He studies the lesson helps, and attends conventions, institutes, assem- blies, and normal classes, whenever he can. He thinks that other people may know some things that he has not yet learned, and that they may have good plans which he has never adopted, and of which he has not yet heard. He knows, too, that ideas stir him up and start ideas in himself — ideas of his own — which he can work better than any borrowed or secondhand ideas. So he puts himself where he may be "stirred up" by other people's experience and speculations. He ponders what he hears and reads. He discusses all new suggestions, and draws out people whose judgments he values ; and while he does not make haste to adopt a new plan, he does not THE SUPERINTENDENT. 45 discard it because it is new and different from anything he has ever done or thought. He often asks the ques- tion in the teachers' meeting, ''What are some of the defects in the present administration of the school ?" He thinks that he may get help from the men and women who every Sabbath observe him, and who must be hindered or helped in their work by him. He tries to be a practical example of what he expects or desires in his school. He wants his teachers and scholars to be punctual, so he is punctual. He loves in them good order, self-control, reverence, attention, sym- pathy, patience, studiousness, enthusiastic love of the school. He, therefore, say§ little about wdiat he loves, but shows his taste, preference, delight, and desire in the most effective way. He tries to be a specimen. He does not say so, but everybody knows it, and that makes them desire to please him. His being is better than bell-ringing and lecturing. The plainest proof of a doc- trine is the practice of it. Thus he governs by example. He knows what quiet is in Sabbath school. It is as nearly perfect stillness as may be secured — a stillness to which the average public-school pupil is accustomed during the opening moments of the week-day school. The charm of absolute stillness is as great in the one place as in the other. It is much easier to secure in the secular than in the Sunday school. It is not, therefore, of less importance in the latter. Some superintendents seem oblivious to all disturbance, whispering, rustling of papers, shuffling of feet, restlessness of body, all of which produce a kind of suppressed confusion. Their ears do not seem to detect, nor their tastes to be shocked at even trifling disorder. It would do the superin- 46 THE MODEKN" SUNDAY SCHOOL. tendent great good occasionally to attend the chapel services or other opening exercises of the village or city public school. lie would thus cultivate sensitiveness in the right direction. The true superintendent knows, as I have said, how to be quiet himself — quiet in spirit, offering the prayer, ''Calm me, my God, and keep me calm;" quiet in deportment, carrying himself with dignity, ease, steadi- ness; free from all perturbation, excitement, and emo- tion ; quiet in administration, never ringing his bell nor rapping on his desk with violence, never betraying a sense of personal injury at the insubordination of his scholars, giving his commands in a subdued tone of voice, filling the school with the peaceful atmosphere which he desires all to breathe. He knows how to wait for quiet: standing for a minute without moving a muscle, looking steadily, holding himself in a hushed, patient, undisturbed mood, until every pupil, seeing him, knows wdiat he desires and purposes. The true superintendent is in charge of his school seven days a week. He has it on his brain and on his conscience and on his heart all the time. He begins his Sunday-school work on Sunday morning before he gets out of bed, and keeps at it until the following Saturday night. He dreams about it when he sleeps. In the place of secret prayer, at the table, on the street-car, in his shop, on the street, he is a Sunday-school superin- tendent, praying, planning, practicing. It makes him smile to see one of his teachers or scholars. He is never so busy that he cannot give a nod of the head, a pleasant look of recognition, and a word of welcome to anybody connected with the Sunday school. It is THE SUPERINTENDENT. 47 his custom to carry a pocket-book in which are re- corded all the names of his school. He has another pocket-book with the lesson for the week pasted in it, and blank pages for his own random thoughts. If he meets John Roberts, a scholar in the intermediate de- partment, he at once begins to ponder the lesson with John in mind, to see if he can find a turn, a topic, a thought, that might do the boy good. If he meets a teacher, he has a word to say about the lesson — a hint to give or a question to ask. Being so full of Sunday- school work week-days, he gets a heavy pressure on by Sunday, and less wise men, with such a ^'head" of knowledge, would flow too freely and too long during the Sunday-school Session. But — The true superintendent knows how to keep still and when to stop. He does not pour forth every speech that tickles his brain. He could talk a great deal, but he does not. He could ^^say a few things" about the lesson at the opening of the session, and before the lesson be- gins and after the lesson closes, and before, during, and after the "reveiw," and again at the close of the school. But he holds his tongue and brain in subjection. He never speaks too often nor says too much His teachers and pupils and visitors wish he would say more, but he is a man of few words, and these are always to the point and well chosen, and full of wisdom, and the multitude of unspoken thoughts gives power to his speech. He is a religious man. He believes the Bible to be divine. He believes this with his heart. He is neither weakly credulous nor sceptical. He is free from fanaticism and full of faith. He hates sin and loves righteousness. His example is right, for he knows that 48 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. deeds are mightier than words, and that what the super- intendent does will tell more effectively than the lessons he communicates in review and exhortation. What it is not well for his pupils to do he certainly must not himself do. What is not becoming in his minister is not becoming in him. The card-playing superintendent, the dancing superintendent, the theatre-going superin- tendent, the wine-drinking superintendent — all these are examples which work harm, and only harm, to the young people who belong to the school and the church of which that school is a part. This is his honest conviction. There is no soft sentimentality about his piety. He has no ^^put-on'^ tones. He does not talk about ^^dear Jesus" after the sickly manner of some. To him Jesus is a reality, a person, a presence, a mar- velous power. He believes in Him, loves Him, lives for Him, represents Him in all uprightness of life, purity of speech, and consistency of example. The scholars say that they never thought of Jesus as being so practical and gentlemanly and great-hearted and un- selfish as He has seemed since they knew their superin- tendent. There is always something said from the superintendent's desk about Jesus Christ. Every les- son has something in it about Him. The hymns selected to be sung are full of Him. The superin- tendent's prayer seems to bring Him very near, and the superintendent has one thought deeper, stronger, more constantly present than any other ; it is apparently em- bodied in this question: How shall I be like the Lord Jesus Christ, and make my teachers and scholars like Him? He is a man of one book. And that is not music- THE SUPERINTENDENT. 49 book, record-book, report-book, or library-book, ^or is it question-book. It is The Book of books. The Sun- day school is the Bible school. The truth it teaches is Bible truth — the facts and ethics and doctrines and promises of God as contained in that great treasury of holy learning. The superintendent is a Bible man; a believer in the Bible ; a lover of the Bible ; a reader of the Bible; a student of the Bible. That book is his favorite book, his "classic," his companion. He knows its best things, its sublimest things, its most useful things. These he runs over so often that the leaves drop out. He needs a new Bible every once in a while. The superintendent makes his scholars and teachers understand the value of the Bible by giving it the right place in the school. He reads directly from it. He requires his teachers to use it in the class. He requires the class to use it in their recitations. The Book is the symbol on the walls and on the banners of his school; the sacred ornament of his desk; the key-note of all songs; the final authority in all discussions; the prep- aration for every prayer; the last thing of every session. The Bible lesson is the staple of the pro- gramme; the theme of "addresses" to the school; the source of "supplemental" or special lessons. The super- intendent honors the Bible that his teachers and pupils may honor it. He speaks of it frequently, handles it reverently, quotes it acurately, teaches it systematic- ally, searches it personally, prayerfully, diligently. Where such a "rock" is laid by a wise master-builder, the foundations of the Sunday school will be firm. Where such a "lamp" is placed, there will be clear light. Where such "manna" is supplied, there will be abundant 4 50 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL. food. Where such '^riches" are accunmlated, there will be inexhaustible resources — ''gold" and "silver" and ''precious things" of the heavenly kingdom. The superintendent does not organize his school to death. lie believes in organization, but he believes also in freedom. He has an aim, a general plan, a fixed purpose, much zeal, and depends upon the general influence of these forces for success in his work. He does not multiply beyond reasonable limits committees, boards, circles, societies, etc. He believes in the print- ing-press, but does not multiply cards, tickets, certifi- cates, circulars, ad infinitum. He depends a great deal on the common sense of people. He believes that the memory may serve a good purpose. He announces from his desk, and the pastor announces from the pul- pit, many of the things which other people would put into print at great expense. He does not have too many meetings; therefore ordinary people can remember his appointments. He avoids the puerilities which many superintendents adopt, and while his general plans may be easily understood by the little people, there is nothing in their simplicity which to the mature scholars savors of silliness. He believes that simplicity may comport with dignity, and that child-likeness is a very different thing from childishness. The superintendent, however, knows the powers of the press. He may not be ambitious to carry on an independent paper Avhich he or his school edits, in lieu of regularly established church periodicals. He may, indeed, publish a quarterly or annual in which his school has a special interest, but this does not crowd out the standard periodicals. He insists upon the use of papers THE SUPERINTEXDENT. 51 and books in his school. He sets his will strongly in this direction. In his own mild but iirm way, he talks about the ''absolute necessity" of putting a paper every week into the hands of every pupil, lie believes that we cannot, in one hour on the Sabbath, do the whole work of instruction that is demanded by the Sabbath school. A good paper must supplement a good lesson. ISTor does he stop at periodicals. He is a firm believer in good books, and in the Sunday school as a centre for a good circulating library in the community. He believes in religious books of every class and for every class of pupils — religious biography, works of the imagination true to the religious idea, church history, works on spir- itual life, experimental and practical; but he also believes that as the pupils of his school will read something during the six days of the week, and will not confine that reading to books of a purely religious and spiritual character, and do not usually have access to the right kind of secular literature, it is the duty of the school to provide for its library a secular department,, containing standard works of imquestionable character, entertaining and elevating. He would be glad to have this great library open through the week, if possible ; at least, on two or three afternoons or evenings. He would encourage everybody to secure their books during the week, and he would make provision on the Sabbath only for those who do not find it convenient to reach the library on any other day. He believes in the power of the tract. He knows that a monograph charmingly written, a condensed argument, a chapter of biography or history, a personal appeal, will be welcomed and pon- dered where a larger volume might be laid aside. With 52 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. such faith in the press, and with such broad views con- cerning its employment by the Sunday school, you will not be surprised to see each member of his school coming from its session with a weekly paper of some sort, a good tract, a religious book, and some book on general literature for week-day reading. By furnishing such a large supply of reading matter he preoccupies the spare time of the pupils through the week, and prevents the purchase by them of the weak and silly trash which is now so largely patronized, the tendency of which is to defeat the very objects contemplated by the Sabbath school. The superintendent has well studied the power of personal influence. He knows that the "hand-to-hand work'' is worth a great deal more than merely public ministrations. He knows the power of social sympathy — the kind w^ord, the smile of friendship, the manifesta- tion of personal interest — and in a quiet way he has committed nearly all of his pupils, at least those who are in special need of such personal supervision, to the care of the best men and women in the church. Each one of these unpublished class-leaders has a list of the names of older boys and girls placed in his charge by this sharp-eyed, wise superintendent. If Miss Mary hap- pens to meet Mrs. on her way from school ; if Mrs. invites Mary to a cup of tea, or to a half hour chat over some new photographs ; if Mrs. calls for a few minutes at Miss Mary's home, leaving a choice extract from some paper, or a few pages marked out of some book, to be read at her leisure — all these movements may seem like accidents, but they are merely the carry- ing out of the plan of the skillful superintendent, who THE SUPERINTENDENT. 63 has a score of ladies and gentlemen engaged in tlie same silent, social ministry, and who knows very well that every such casual interview, or call, is of as much spiritual and social benefit to the class-leader as to the class of persons helped. ' The superintendent waves his magic, invisible wand, and many a household has its family circle enlarged by the presence of two or three guests, who are there ap- parently through spontaneous courtesy, and who are thereby won to the support of the church, and to whom the lessons of the Sabbath become vital and practical. The superintendent knows enough of human nature to recognize the wisdom of the secular system of educa- tion, Avhich draws sharp lines between grades of pupils, assigning to one class the primary grade, to another the intermediate, to another the high school. He notices that in the last-named institution the principal addresses ^'young ladies" and ^^young gentlemen," not "girls" and "boys." He also sees that the songs, the drills, the reci- tations, and all the requirements of the place are of a higher type than those emploj^ed in the lower classes. In so many ways he imitates this wise policy of secular educators. The superintendent has heard of the "assembly idea."* He approves the suggestion that the Sunday school is almost of necessity a juvenile institution, and that while we call it "Sunday school," with the his- torical and traditional associations connected with it, it will be almost impossible to retain in its courts our young people with any real enthusiasm and devotion. He has therefore proposed to organize all the members * For the " assembly idea " see pp. 232-240. 5.4 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. of his scliool over fifteen years of age into an "Assem- bly." Once a month (after a while he hopes to do it oftener) he requests the "Assembly" to remain after the school has been dismissed, and then they all occupy the front seats, boys and girls (nbw young men and young women), teachers and all; and with the pastor, and him- self as president, on the platform, engage in services more dignified and thoroughly adapted to this mature dej)artment of the church. Boys who were ashamed to be called Sunday-school boys, because of the misconception which almost every- w^here prevails concerning the institution, find no offence in being identified with the "Assembly," and the super- intendent sees large possibilities in the "Church Assem- bly" of the future. He sees in it doctrinal study and discussions, archaeological lectures and illustrations, lecture lessons in Biblical evidences, scientific experi- ments for week-day hours, and various drills which will imite the public school, the academy, and the college w^ith the church, and reveal the religious charm that there is in science, showing more and more to our young people what firm friends of science are the church, the Bible, and the clergy. The true superintendent understands very well the power of home-life. He knows that, in spite of the most faithful labors of the Sunday-school teacher on Sunday and through the week, it is possible for home-life, ex- ample, spirit, and unconscious influence to neutralize all that he may do. He therefore tries to link his school Avith the homes it represents. He sends out from his desk, by way of the several classes, imaginary tele- graphic and telephonic lines, which extend to every THE SUPERINTENDENT. 65 household. He prays for the parents of his scholars; he publicly reminds the children of the Bible require- ment concerning obedience to parents. Wherever, in the review of the lesson, it is possible to do so, he brings out the religious duty of reverence and obedience and kindness at home. He reminds the children of the trials and perplexities which their parents experience. In every possible way he seeks to build up in the hearts of his pupils a conscience touching their final and fraternal duties. His efforts in this direction are exerted upon the teachers until they say: "It is a hobby with our superintendent. He is always talking about the homes and the parents of the scholars." He now and then asks the teachers if they become acquainted with these parents, and if they are in the habit of sending messages to them by their scholars ; if they enter their closets to pray for them. All these messages and ministries, reaching in so many ways and so frequently the ears of parents, excite in them a general interest in the school, and a particular interest in the superintendent. In- quiries are made of the scholars as to their lessons, as to "what the superintendent said to-day," and many a little reminder on the part of the children awakens the con- science of mother, and even father, in the everyday duties of life. The true superintendent understands the value of special opportunities. He knows that children as well as old people are more approachable, susceptible, and impressible some times than others. He knows that when the community is suffering from "hard times," a single friendly visit to make inquiry about "how matters gre getting along with the family" will do more toward 66 THE MODEKN SUNDAY SCHOOL. winning both children and parents than a score of ser- mons in days of sunshine. lie knows that w^hen the bovs and mrls are ill, a little attention Avill tell more than six months of ordinary teaching. He knows the power of sympathy expressed in words and in little deeds of conrtesy and kindness. In his pocket-book there is a little slip, handed him every Sabbath evening by the secretary of the school, on which may be found the names of all the scholars who were reported absent on account of sickness, with their places of residence. And during the next week, papers, pictures, choice little fragrant bouquets, motto cards, and other reminders of friendship and sympathy go to these many homes. In the weary sick-room the scholars think of Sunday school and superintendent and teacher who thus think of them, and thinking of these earthly friends, they are very likely to think of the heavenly Friend, whose kindness and sympathy and patient love they represent. The superintendent has a reservoir of sympathy in him, and it is not merely expressed in addresses on the platform, which may be nothing more than glittering musical fountains, pleasant and ornamental, but in many a cup of cold water to the thirsty soul amid the heat and weari- ness and pain. His love is practical. It is a perpetual comment on the law of beneficence set forth in the gos- pel ; and when, in the lesson for the day, good works, charity, sympathy, usefulness, are directly or indirectly taught, the scholars all think of their superintendent, and more than one boy has said to another, ^^That's like our superintendent.'' He knows the power of the pulpit. He knows that the Sunday school is a "school,'' and that the peculiar THE SUPERINTENDENT. 67 charms and influences of worship and of i:)ublic dis- courses are not secured through its ministrations as they are through the public service. He knows the measure of educational power in the Sunday school, and he also knows that there are elements of power that the Sunday school can never possess, and that some of these are found only in connection with the sanctuary. He there- fore always talks as though it were as important for every little child to attend public service as to be in the primary or intermediate class. He announces the preaching. His teachers keep a record of all the scholars who attend preaching. He calls for the public recitation of the last text that was preached from by the minister. A particularly good point in the last sermon is sometimes repeated by the superintendent before the school. In church he sits where he can watch the mem- bers of the school as they may be distributed through the congregation, and little improprieties of behavior are delicately reproved before the school or in private. Through his influence there are more thoughtfulness, reverence, and attention in the public congregation, and the singing is heartier. The superintendent teaches his school to pray for the preacher. He says that when ministers go into the pulpit to preach they depend for their success upon the special blessing of the Holy Spirit, and that the hearer also depends upon this blessing for the profit which is to be derived from the sermon. Even little children have been known to lisp their prayers at mother's side, that the preacher may have the help of Heaven. And this goodly service on the part of their superintendent tells in many ways upon the preacher, the official board, and the congregation at large. It pro- 58 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. motes the unity of the church ; it promotes in silent ways spiritual power ; it gives strength to every depart- ment of church enterprise; it avoids everything like collision and rivalry between church and school ; it pre- vents apathy on the part of both. The pulpit and the superintendent's desk are very near to each other in the true superintendent's church. The wise superintendent knows the power of the secular school. He knows that as parents, companions, and the weekly papers have their power and influence over his pupils, so do the day-school teachers. He remembers that the example of a teacher five days in a week, representing as he does the largest things in the boy's horizon, may neutralize or help the spiritual work which the school aims to promote. He remembers also that a large part of the trials which the average Sunday- school scholar experiences comes in connection with the discipline and tasks of the day school ; that temptations to dishonesty, unfairness, encouragement, revenge, are strewn all along the week, from Monday morning to Friday night. He remembers the power of education for good or evil; the power of literary ambition; the tendency of a certain kind of culture to weaken the faith of childhood in the divine origin of the Bible and the church He therefore studies the Sunday lessons with his eyes open to the temptations and demands of every- day-school life. He cultivates the acquaintance of secu- lar teachers, and enters into their spirit. Through them he studies the peculiar perils of school-life of childhood. He talks to his school now and then about conscientious- ness in study, honesty in recitation, magnanimity and fairness on the playground, sympathy toward their poor THE SUPERINTENDENT. 59 and less highly favored schoolmates. He so teaches, on the Sabbath, truths which pertain to God as the Cause of all things and the King and Father of all men, and to the ethics of school-life, that in the recitation room and on the playground the scholars sometimes think of the superintendent, his exhortations, and frequent re- minders of duty. The secular school is benefited by the moral tone thus developed, but until the day of judg- ment it will never be known who inspired it. He believes in the training of the children and youth of his school in habits of intelligent, practical, next-door, and world-wide benevolence. He believes that love is helpful. One may sing songs about charity and cling tenaciously to his money, as one may chant about the heavenly life and live the life of a brute. He knows that the ideal is one thing and that real life is another. He therefore thinks much over the problem. How can I inspire my pupils to resolve dreams into deeds, songs into service, love into life ? Scholars may become apt in all branches of Biblical knowledge, and teachers may have tact in communicating and eliciting such knowl- edge, and be able on ''state occasions" to make brilliant display of their pupils' power and attainments. He re- members that the knowledge of the Bible is valuable only when it distills its genial and potent influences from the head into the heart, and exerts them in the everyday life. He is therefore famous for his mis- sionary zeal. Believing that charity begins at home, he centres the education of his pupils upon this world rather than upon the new Jerusalem above. He teaches them, by every lesson where the thought can be intro- duced, that love must work itself out in the kitchen, 60 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. dining-room, parlor, schoolroom, on the playground, in the street, and all this three hundred and sixty-five days six hours every year. He tells his pupils that the love of the gospel makes little people sympathetic and useful ; leads them to bear one another's burdens ; to remove father and mother's anxiety ; to stand by the abused and poor and weak boys on the playground; to sympathize with the unfortunate rather than to ridicule them; to visit sick people, young and old; to offer their services in homely, practical ways ; and, in order to do all this, to deny themselves ease, luxury, self-indulgence in mam^ little things ; for, he says, if little people accustom them- selves, out of sympathy for other people, to self-denial in trifles, when they become older and larger they will meet and resist the more dangerous temptations of life. In this way the superintendent cultivates the home soil and the home seed, and thus prepares the seed-corn for the w^orld-wide fields of the foreign missionary work. He broadens the thoughts of his school by presenting the claims of China, India, and every other part of the globe. He brings before his school maps, relics, pic- tures, letters from missionaries, living missionaries who are at home ; and by means also of missionary papers, magazines, and books, missionary concerts, essays, re- sponsive services and songs, he makes the whole world centre in his schoolroom, and in earnest prayer for tribes and tongues he impresses his pupils with the idea that the race is one, redeemed by one Lord, invited to one heaven, bound by cords of brotherhood to love and help each other ; and thus connects the spirit of unselfisli love at home with the necessities of the widest sphere of possible service abroad. The superintendent attends THE SUPERINTENDENT. 61 also to the claims of benevolence besides that of the for- eign missionary work. He gives attention^ and causes his whole school to give attention, to the work of every great benevolent society under the auspices of the church with which his school is identified — Sunday School Union, Tract Society, Board of Education, Freedmen's Aid, Temperance Reform, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Sup- pression of Vice, and every other association by wdiich the thoughts and sympathies of young people may turn in the direction of human need and of the divine provi- sions. With the distribution of papers and the giving of instruction through addresses, lectures, sermons, he connects a plan of systematic giving. In the superin- tendent's Sunday school even the little children of the primary department give so many pennies every year to every department of Church benevolence, and at the end of the year carry home to their parents a little state- ment of the amount of monev which each one has con- tributed to all the great institutions of the church. He thus lays the foundations, firm and broad, for a church membership in the future that shall express the love they profess by usefulness to the objects of their sym- pathy, near and remote. The ideal superintendent believes in the Holy Catho- lic Church. He belongs to one branch of it. Nobody doubts that. His name has been on the record of the church for years. He goes to his own branch of the church twice every Sabbath, besides attending the Sun- day school every session. He attends the social meet- ings of his church. He studies its denominational standards of doctrine and usage. He knows he is one 62 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. thing instead of being another; and everybody else knows this. He subscribes for his own church papers ; he supplies his religious library wdth the publication of his own church publishing house. He trains his chil- dren at home to love their own and stand by it. Watch- ing him through the year, and seeing how devoted he is to his particular denomination, a superficial observer might call him a bigot ; but a bigot he certainly is not. He loves to recite the Apostles' Creed. He tries to be- lieve that that creed came down from the very earliest century. He is glad to stand side by side with brethren of other denominations in union meetings, and with them sing and pray. He attends union Sunday-school conventions. He does his best to maintain in his com- munity a local union normal class, and one reason he has for holding a denominational class is that it may contribute to the enthusiasm and profitableness of the union meeting. He observes wdth his brethren and the other denominations the ^^Days of Prayer." He loves to do it. One of the strong arguments to his mind in favor of the International Lesson System is the union of all denominations which it promotes. He loves to sit down with brethren of other churches and compare notes with them, to see how far he and they can go together ; and when they have diverged he is glad to find how the divergence belongs often rather to the metaphysical than to the experimental and practical realm of thought. He never seems to detect unfair, sectarian policies. If some other superintendent acts shabbily for sectarian reasons, this superintendent never seems to notice it. He goes on quietly, and loves on fervently, and in every case the other person has grown ashamed of his course. THE SUPERINTENDENT. 63 The superintendent never says anything from the desk that would lead a single pupil to suppose that he did not have faith in all who profess the name of Christ. lie scorns the little dodges and devices for building up his own school at the expense of other schools. He says that our church is only a branch of the Holy Catholic Church ; that the other denominations are also branches ; that Christ is the Head of all, and that it is not in dogma, but in love, that the relation to Christ is to be found. He does not call other denominations his ^Wighbors" or ^^second cousins;" he calls them his ^^brethren and sisters in Christ." By this double con- viction of his concerning the value of denominational loyalty and the glory of catholic community, he trains his Sunday school to be strong in itself, in its imme- diate denominational lines, and in its alliances with the whole church of our Lord Jesus Christ. On the theory and by the policy of the superintendent dissensions would soon cease, Christian people would come fairly to discuss together their points of difference, and rapidly and widely the kingdom of truth, righteousness, and charity would extend in this world ! An old gentleman in a Western Sunday-school con- vention, when the subject now under consideration was presented to the meeting, said, ^'Mr. President, I think that God has not made many good superintendents.'' The old man erred in this. A marble block has in it all the capabilities of the most exquisite statue, if the right artist will but apply himself to it with an ideal and a purpose. There are more good superintendents than the old man supposed, but they are uncarved and unquar- ried. Thousands of men have the qualifications neces- 64 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. sary to make them most successful Sunday-school super- intendents, but they are to be sought out, and encour- aged, and trained, and assisted, in order to develop the powers that are within them. God always provides work- men to carry on his work. If any place be vacant, it is because the leaders of the church do not go into the market-place and employ those who wait for a call and an opportunity. The best superintendent for the particular school is someiuliere to he found. He should be found in the church to which the school belongs, or it may be that he is to be found in some other church of the same or other denomination. While it is well for every church to carry on its work within itself, it is sometimes a good thing for a church to receive assistance from the outside. Especially where strong denominational feelings which assume the odious form of sectarianism have become very intense in a church, it may be in the divine order that this church shall be taught, through the earnest labor of an outside brother of some other denomination, that the true church of Christ is one, and that God will not allow us to build up little inclosures, hiding our- selves from others and shutting others from ourselves, and then assuming to be the church of Christ. The true superintendent should be found in some church. It is indeed possible that once in a while we may be compelled, on the frontier or under peculiar cir- cumstances, to use men who are not members of any churcli. In all parts of the country it may be necessary to call in as workers non-professors, but we regard the plan as objectionable (as it is, of course, exceptional) from the simple fact that the church is a separate THE SUPERINTENDENT. 65 body. It is not of the world, but Christ has called it out of the world; and, having a special religious mission to man, it is in the highest degree important that the men who in official position represent it should themselves really be representatives of its spirit and power and influence. The true superintendent may be found among the old men of the church. I do not believe in the "dead line of fifty." I know many men who have reached seventy and are still as fresh and wise in counsel, as vigorous in service, as versatile in device, and as enthusiastic in spirit as our best young men. Too often we take it for granted that because a man's locks are silver his heart has grown slow and heavy, and his intellect lost its power. The superintendent of whom we are in quest may be found among the young men of the church. The old proverb, "'No man is without honor save in his own country,'' is now more frequently illustrated in the case of young men in the church than among any other class. A young brother, known from his earliest boyhood, as- sumes with difiiculty the air, style, and responsibilities of a full-gro^vn man, and where official promotion is to be conferred the church is not disposed to advance him. This is sometimes because of a reasonable fear that such promotion may have a bad effect upon the young man, developing vanity in him, or in some other way doing him damage. Caution is wise; but Ave remember that !N'azareth and Capernaum rejected the wisest and best of teachers, because, having known Him from childhood and through His early manhood, they supposed that they thoroughly understood and measured Him. This error 5 66 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. led them to depreciate His power, and thus they failed to reap the benefits of His blessed ministry. There are young men in every church who are to be the office- bearers of the future. It is the duty of the mature Christians of to-day to prepare such young men for the responsibilities which are in after life to devolve upon them, and as it is good for a young man to bear the yoke in his youth, they should be the first to select such candidates for official dignities, and to train them with judgment and affection and tender- ness for the department of service to which God may call them. The superintendent may be brought froin another neigJihorJiood. I have heard the recommendation that superintendents of Sunday schools be employed as are ministers or as the principals of schools, and that one may be paid to conduct two or more schools on each Lord's day, giving them as much attention during the week as may be necessary to their development. I do not commend the idea usually associated with this of paying such men for their services, although I see no special objection to it under peculiar circumstances, and I do not hesitate to say that when a man has a special aptitude for such work, it will be wise to extend as far as possible his labors beyond the community in which he lives. The best superintendents may after all he ivomen. This, however, I think, is rarely the case. But why should we refuse to elect a sensible woman to the super- intendency, if she have tact to govern and to teach, when there is no one else to take her place ? We have strong convictions on the subject of "woman's sphere," and are THE SUPERINTENDENT. 67 very slow to accept what we regard as dangerous modern heresies on this subject ; at the same time we must avoid that extreme theory which woukl prevent a wise and godly woman from exercising her gifts as a Sunday- school superintendent where there is no one else to do the work as effectively as herself. But let us remember that it is impossible to find perfection either in personal qualifications, personal character, administrative ability, or general scholarship ; and what our superintendents lack in these respects the church must itself supplement by patience, forbearance, diligence, and fidelity. Modest talent may be encour- aged and developed by sympathy, by prayer, by kind words, by prudent commendation. The very qualities which give a superintendent power most easily expose him to self -depreciation and discouragement. The sen- sitiveness which enables him to govern well and produce good impressions, is likely to turn in upon himself in depression and humiliation. Therefore let the church come to his support. Let the pastor consult and counsel with him. Let the officers of the church recognize him as one of their number, and show him by words and by their personal presence that they appreciate the respon- sibilities of his position. Each school, by the constitution under which it was organized, has its provisions for the election of a super- intendent. These provisions may not be of the wisest character. 'No difficulties may have been experienced up to the present time, but one never knows when advantage may be taken of defective constitutional regulations by factious or ill-advised persons. It is, therefore, of great importance that the constitution be G8 THE MODERIT SUNDAY SCHOOL. constructed on true principles, so that no room Le left for such interference Avith the order and prosperity of the school. E'ew constitutions should be modeled and old constitutions modified on the following prin- ciples : 1. The pastor of the church should have a voice in the selection of the superintendent. The Sunday school is a part of the church. It performs a very important function in the work of the church — that of teaching the Word of God. Whatever may be said of the pastor's relation to the church temporalities, there can be no question as to his responsibility in all parts of the church service which relate to the instruction of the people. He is commissioned to ^^feed the flock of God." He is called and ordained to be a "teacher." He is responsible for the doctrines taught in his church. The Sunday-school teachers are his assistants. They are supposed to take their key-note from him. He is re- sponsible for heresies wdiich creep into his church, whether through "false teachers" admitted into his own pulpit or allowed a place in his Sunday school. He cannot secure the wholesome training of his people while any part of the teaching force of the church is beyond his reach. Just so far, therefore, as a superintendent has influence in the matter of organizing classes, ap- pointing teachers, determining the programme of the school, influencing the subject-matter and the method of the instruction which is given there, it is necessary that the chief pastor and teacher of the church shall have a voice in his selection. The pastoral part of the super- intendent's work, the moral and personal influence which his position enables him to wdeld, thereby affect- THE SUPERINTENDENT. 69 / ing tbe tone and temper of the chnrcli, furnishes another reason why the chief pastor should be sharer in the ecclesiastical act by which a man is elevated to so high and responsible a position as that of assistant pastor — for as such, undoubtedly, we must regard every Sunday- school superintendent. 2. The officers or governing hody of the church should have a voice in the selection of the Sunday-school superintendent. All questions which affect the order and discipline of the church are in some way involved in the Sunday school as at present constituted and con- ducted. JSTot only in matters of doctrine, but also in the things which pertain to discipline and government, the school is an important factor. The superintendent can modify the tone, the spirit, and the ecclesiastical theories and sympathies of a school. He can quietly depreciate or exalt the church in the estimation of teachers and pupils. He can contribute to its prosperity, or imper- ceptibly but certainly alienate his constituency from it. The board of government in any local church, ves- try, committee, session, or quarterly conference, should therefore have a firm hold upon the institution and its officers, which thus affect for weal or woe the church for the government of which they are held responsible. 3. The teachers of the Sunday school should have a voice in the selection of the superintendent. They do the heaviest part of the work, and their service is volun- tary. They understand the demands and the difficulties of the case. Thev are likelv to have the interests of tlie church at heart. They are usually among its most judi- cious and godly members. From the very beginning 70 THE MODERiq- SUNDAY SCHOOL. they have been the governing power in the school, and wliile the direct authority of the church shoukl be intro- duced into the board of management, there is no reason why the teachers should be deprived of their long- possessed and legitimate prerogative. 4. The pupils of the school should have no voice in the election of the superintendent. The adult members of the school, if they are church members, are already represented in the '^official members" of the church above referred to; if not church members, there is a manifest imj)ropriety in giving them the right of suf- frage. The juvenile members of the school have no more claim to this right in the Sunday school than in the day school. They do not enjoy the privilege of vot- ing for their own teachers or superintendents in any institution of learning, from the primary school to the university. Why should we make the Sunday school an exception ? There is enough '^pushing forward" of young America already, without giving him ecclesias- tical privileges which he is incompetent justly to appre- ciate or wisely to use. We have known more than one school which has been seriously damaged by the excite- ments and rivalries of elections in Avhich children, even on the Sabbath, engaged in the demoralizing struggle between candidates concerning whom they were incom- petent to form a just opinion. A most unfavorable re- sult is likely to follow in the administration of the school when ^^popularity" is the standard by which a superintendent is judged and chosen. There is already too strong a tendency toward laxity in administration and frivolity in the spirit of the school. What will be the effect of an appeal to the tastes and preferences of THE SUrEEINTENDENT. 71 growing girls and boys in the selection of a superin- tendent ? More than ever will the school be a place of sociality and freedom, and less and less will be found of the much-needed and much-neglected spirit of restraint and reverence and religious sobriety.* * For minierous hints and plans by which the superintendent and pastor may increase an intellii^ent interest in the worlc of the Sunday school and collateral agencies for the benefit of young people, see Appendix B. Y2 THE MODEJRN SUNDAY SCIIOOE. CHAPTEK VI. THE TEACHER. The school, whether its work be among the higher lines of Christian meditation and conversation, the lower lines of Biblical teaching, or the lowest lines of mission effort, must be provided with teachers — chief teachers and subordinate teachers. Everything in the school depends upon the work of the teacher. How to secure true and effective teachers is the most important problem in connection with every department and every kind of Sunday-school work. The singing, the talking, the order, the library books, the architecture, the appli- ances, the lesson helps, are all subordinate elements. The superintendent is chiefly valuable to a school as he is able to select good teachers and protect them in their w^ork, guaranteeing them opportunity for holding the uninterrupted attention of the pupils. As nearly everything in the school depends upon the teacher, so nearly everything in the teacher depends upon his aims. He may have low aims or high, and there are ^^highest aims" which he should have. He may aim at entertaining his pupils, pleasing the fancy, quieting the conscience, exciting the sense of humor, kindling and gratifying curiosity, and giving to the half-hour of the class recitation the charm of a parlor chat, full of bright stories and hoji mots and flashes of genius. THE TEACHER. 73 He may aim at winning the personal regard and admiration of his pupils. He wants them to love him and praise him — to say appreciative things to his face and give good report of him behind his back. He may aim at making his pupil "a good scholar," that he may know every lesson, recite titles and golden texts, commit the catechism, be ready for general re- views, and for home reports of the teacher's efficiency. He* may aim at churchly ends — the training of the pupil to love his own church above all the rest, know its doctrinal formulas, be able to defend its peculiari- ties, be loyal to its service, and everywhere and always sustain it against all critics and fault-finders. But there are still higher aims for the true Sunday- school teacher — ^^the highest aims — conversion, spiritual culture, and the formation of character." The personal relations of the soul to God transcend all other conceiv- able things. The true aim of the pupil to live a life well-pleasing to God, out of a heart full of the Spirit of God, with a will set on the entire and perpetual service of God — this is the end constantly aimed at by the best Sunday-school teacher. And the process by which a soul, young or old, is turned from indifference to serious- ness concerning the will of God, from selfish ambitions and desires to a true love for spiritual and divine things, from instabilitv and irresolution to fixed determination to live for God and heaven — this is conversion — the turning about of the soul. After the turning by the force from on high — God's will, with the consent of the force within — the personal will, there is a long work of "culture" to follow. It is a culture of the soul — not by processes of human skill, not 74: THE MODERISr SUNDAY SCHOOL. by exercise of natural powers, but by the operations of the divine Spirit through the instrumentality of the divine truth. It is '^spiritual culture" — a culture of the new forces, of the old powers, through the new truth and by the Holy Spirit. It is a culture of love, of patience, of will, of resistance, of effort, of submission. It is a culture of the spirit and not of the body ; a culture by the Holy Spirit and not by mere human resolution or circumstances. It is the training of a new Heaven-sent seed in the old soil, and the culture of its stalk and stems and tendrils till the soul is full of its verdure and fragrance and fruitage. With the turning and the training come new convic- tions, new tendencies, new atmospheres, new tastes, new delights, new associations, new triumphs, new habits — a new world within and wdthout — and these become fixed and established ; not by nature, but by grace — grace becoming a new life in the old natural forms, new blood in the old veins, new energies flashing through the old nerves, new visions in the old eyes, new grip-power in the old muscles, new thoughts in the old brain, new love beating and rolling and resting (with the rest of peace) in the old heart. Thus is character fixed — by grace and not by nature, by the Spirit and not by human culture, and as the years go by the man is built up in righteous- ness and true holiness. He loves the things he once loathed. He delights in God. The flesh hath no more dominion over him. Struggle he has — long continued and fierce — but he conquers. He learns to interpret certain Scripture terms and texts which before this were only English words for Greek equivalents — words out of the dictionary, representations of certain religious THE TEACHER. 75 ideas. !N"ow these words break and blaze and burn and bleed with deep meanings, meanings that go down deep into his soul. ''Strive" now means strive, and ""fight" fight, and ''endure" endure. After a while the frail body falls off, and he walks in the world above with the God he sought and served in the world below, and ac- counts himself, even in the spotless glory and purity of heaven, a sinner saved by grace. This, O Sunday-school teacher, is the aim — the high- est aim — of your office. It is a great work, reaching inward even to the sacred center of the soul's life, reach- ing upward even to the throne of God, reaching forward even to an endless eternity. ^^Who is sufficient for these things ?" Remember the Avords of the Master, ^'Without Me ye can do nothing." Remember the words of Paul, '^I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." The manifold and important aims of the Sunday- J school work demand workers abundantly qualified by natural and acquired ability. They need wisdom, tact, delicacy of perception, amplitude of resource, scientific carefulness, industry, and fidelity — indeed, what does he not need who is called to the sacred work of spiritual oversight and training ? Angels might w^ell tremble to assume such holy duty. It is a work upon souls, for eternity, under divine inspection, with divine agencies, and is dependent upon divine inspirations. Verily, he who feels called to this ministry may with the apostle exclaim, '^Who is sufficient for these things ?" The leaders who most appreciate this work are most faithful in holding up lofty standards. They paint it in glowing colors. They weight it with responsibility. 76 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. They connect it with the most solemn realities of this life, and with the more impressive realities of death and the grave, of a judgment-day, and the gateways of irre- versible destiny. One trembles before an ideal so lofty that his head grows dizzy, and so brilliant that his eyes are dazzled. lie cries out, ''Who is sufficient for these things ?" It is just then that he begins to be ''sufficient," for in this work "our sufficiency is of God." When the teacher of souls is "weak, then he is strong." When the feeble three hundred cry, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon," the triumph comes. Broken pitchers — storms of power ! Human qualifications are not to be despised, but they are valuable only w^ien harnessed into God's order and made mediums of God's energy. Scholarship, native mettle, magnetic power, vigorous health, rhetorical grace, logical force — these are useful when divinely called and consecrated and controlled. We commend the leaders who are full of divine ideals concerning a divine work — ideals that drive a man to God, and that wring from his anxious soul (oppressed by a sense of the vastness and delicacy and sacredness of his work) the cry of human discouragement, "Who is sufficient for these things ?" With an overflowing sense of personal insufficiency, and with a supporting and inspiring sense of divine grace, the teacher is ready for the preparation in matters intellectual and professional upon which so much de- pends. These are light matters, indeed, when compared with the weightier matters of motive and divine con- ditions and divine operations, but they are not unim- portant. In the running of a ship there are many THE TEACHER. .Y? essential things besides steam and rudder and pilot. Indeed, some very little omission or mistake may make steam, rudder, and pilot ineffective. Thus compass and rudder-post become quite as important as captain and engine. The teacher needs qualifications for his work. Al- tliough he depends upon God, he is in an important sense ^'a. worker together with God." I do not say that God cannot do without him. God has done without men. What the Infinite can or cannot do is not a profit- able subject for our speculations. It is enough to know that in the earthly conduct of the kingdom of God's grace He does not do without men. He uses men every- where. He seems to depend upon them. When they fail, His schemes seem, at least for the time, to fail. So that while I am alwavs to remember that the Infinite One can do without the thought and enterprise and energy of the finite workers, I am also to remember that God's work is to be carried on to its glorious consumma- tion through such finite workers, and that in their work the human conditions and methods are to be discovered and observed, as though God were limited by laws, and dependent upon the sense and skill and service of His creatures. The qualifications of the worker are determined by the kind and quality of the work to be performed. As the Sunday-school teacher is to perform a service affect- ing the mental, moral, and spiritual character of his pupils, he needs mental, moral, and spiritual qualifica- tions that he himself may have the kind of light he wishes to shed upon the pupils, and the quality of force he desires to convey to them. Like produces like. The 78 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. v^ teacher of art must be an artist ; the teacher of mathe- matics, a mathematician ; the trainer of muscle, an ath- lete ; the buikler of character, a man of character, with knowledge, moral conviction, and spiritual insight. Such is the high office of the Sunday-school teacher, and such the demands made upon him. " 'Tis not a cause of slight import This holy work demands, But what might fill an angel's heart, And filled the Saviour's hands." 1. The Sunday-school teacher's spiritual qualifica- tions must first be considered. He should know the truth of God by spiritual perception, by which process alone it can be real to him. Inner eyes must see it, inner senses apprehend it. The heart must feel it. He must see God. He must see Christ. He must ^^sense" divine things. His knowledge must be beyond reason. He may have difficulties with human statements of divine doctrine. They may tire and trouble and con- fuse him. He may be poor at definition and at discus- sion. But he must feel the reality of soul, and of moral , government, and of character. He must know by this interior power of knowing that the Christ is, and that He is Mediator, and that souls depend on Him for acceptance and guidance and strength. These things he may "see" by faith. His faith may be feeble or strong, fluctuating or steady, but it must force unseen verities on him so that he cannot easily rid himself of them. Sin against them must sting him. Conformity to their demands must give him a sense of harmony and peace. He must have an inclination of heart tow^ard them — the inclination growing into desire, THE TEACHER. Y9 the desire becoming an insatiate ^'hungering and thirst- ing after righteousness/' The spiritual life must be fed by spiritual pabulum. He must know enough to take the food by law of self- discipline where desire is faint. He must force himself into the conditions that favor spiritual growth. He must do it. He will do it. He reads the books that foster spiritual life. He goes to helpful meetings. He listens to wholesome sermons. He associates with spir- itually minded people. He knows that he is sluggish, and forces himself into action. He knows that the air- cells are inert, and goes out of doors and fills every cell with fresh, invigorating air. He exercises every spirit- ual muscle that he may have grip and power. He knows the room he lives in is dark. He forces open the win- dow till it is flooded with light — the light of heaven. The Sunday-school teacher does one thing more to increase spiritual power. He abstains from all things that tend to religious dissipation — books, companion- ships, amusements. He believes in society and in read- ing and in recreation, but he distinguishes between the true and the false, the rational and the sensuous. He allows no game, no conversation, no book, to weaken hig faith, pervert his tastes, or divert him from the supreme aim of a true life. He is as faithful to the laws of spir- itual culture as he was in school-days to the demands of his intellectual nature. He does not waste energies on parties, cards, and theatres, and then growl at books and teachers because he is dull at prayer and study. He also cultivates his "spirituality" by bringing it to play on others — chiefly on his family, and th'en on hii? pupils. He talks, prays, trains, guards, helps, and this 80 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. in every conceivable waj for the promotion of spiritual life in others. Thej come to believe in him, and to be- lieve that he believes in all the truth he teaches. lie ac- quires facility of speech on sacred subjects — that facility that requires few words and no assumed tones. His life talks. His eyes talk. His tone talks. Blessed is the class in Sunday school whose teacher is an incarnation of spiritual conviction, taste, and power ! 2. There are moral qualifications to be considered. Strange to say, there is a semblance of spirituality which is merely sentimentality, and deceives many. It has ideals and longings, and takes to poetry and devout read- ing. It has its conventional affectations, l^ow it is Thomas a Kempis, and now Miss Havergal. It muses and melts, and lifts its eyes heavenward like Carlo Dolci's Magdalen. It sighs and sings. It waits, in its way, and weeps. It talks — in a tender and melancholy strain. It is only a case of acute or chronic sestheticism. Rome is full of it. It feeds Ritualism. It runs also in unliturgical revivals now and then. It is a fever against which religious people need to guard. For it is very shallow and very soft. Sunday-school teachers should watch against it. It is not difficult to distinguish between the true and the artificial. The moral test is the sure one. When conscience is sensitive, and the will submissive, and the life consistent, there is no doubt about one's spirituality. When the soul sings, ^^I delight to do Thy will, O God," and then does delight to do God's will, or does the will of God from firm resolve, there can be no doubt. When one loathes sin, and tries to leave it — all sin, all THE TEACHER. 81 kinds of sin — sin against the body, sin against the soul, sin against the neighbor, sin against Christ and the Father — there is no difficulty in reaching a decision as to the genuineness of Christian character. It is no mirage. The garden of the Lord is there. The Sunday-school teacher teaches for eternity, but also for time. He is to train saints for the heavenly life. But it is quite as important that saints be raised up to enrich the earthly life. London, ISTew York, and Chicago are in as much need of saints as the new Jeru- salem. Our Sunday schools must cultivate morality, decency, sobriety, honesty, good neighborship, patriot- ism. The teacher of boys and of girls must be honor- able, obedient to law, conscientious, an example in every- day life of the moral standards presented in the Holy Scriptures. He must exalt law by respecting it — man^s law and God's law. 3. The mental qualifications of the Sunday-school teacher are of subordinate importance, but are not to be depreciated. The teacher must teach. Therefore he must know. Therefore he must cultivate the powers by which he can know and teach. He must increase his capacity and ability by self-discipline, by wise direction, by constant use. He must know the subject-matter he is to teach — the text-book — its authority and contents. He must know the soul he is to teach — its origin, w^orth, exposure, possibilities, and the laws of its trend and activity. He must know the phenomena, forces, and laws of the kingdom into which he would bring and nurture that soul — the reality of it, and its blessedness. 6 82 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. He must know this world out of w4iich lie leads his pupil — the charms of it, the dangers which throng its highways and which lurk in its secret places, its atmo- spheres, literatures, institutions, and policies. lie must know the laws of access to souls, and of influence over souls — how to begin, when to stop, when to speak and when to be silent, what doubts to assail, what motives to excite, what helpers to command. He must have self-command, that his mental forces may do his bidding — assailing, concentrating, conciliat- ing, retiring, as circumstances require. He should be trained for his work by listening to practical and experienced counsellors, by reading good text-books, by practicing on the pupils next to him and most needing him, and by attending teachers' meetings, normal classes, and conventions, picking up hints, col- lecting material, receiving stimulus and encouragement. He should speak good plain English, pronouncing his words as accurately as possible, eschewing all affecta- tions and mere niceties of speech, putting what he has to say in a clear, forcible way, so that his pupils will be led to say something of their own thinking out, because of the force and freshness of his thought and the wise adaptation of his words to their wants. The more intellectual power and scholarship. Biblical and general, possessed by the Sunday-school teacher, the better for his pupils and liimself — if, and always if, he teach out of a heart full of spiritual sense and divine love. Of the professional training of the teacher I shall speak at length in another chapter. A soul alive to the things of God, a conscience sensi- tive and uncompromising, an intellect able to seek, hold. THE TEACHEE. 83 and apply the truth with wisdom and energy to the soul in need of it — these are the essential qualifications of the Sunday-school teacher. And in the hands of humble obedience to the voice of conscience; in the pursuit of mental grasp by daily thoughtfulness and by devout reading and study of the Scriptures ; in the tender care for our pupils and in the fervent pleadings of the closet prayer — may we secure the qualifications needed. Many true teachers become disheartened by the exalted standards which are placed before them. So do artists. But all true artists very well understand that such moments of self-distrust and agonized longing are partial proofs of their calling, and of their fellowship with the masters of art who have preceded them. So they reassure themselves, and address themselves again to the task, bow reverently before the ideal, and press forward, strong of will, valiant, and persistent. What shall we do, then, with discouraged teachers ? 1. Congratulate them. He who has found that there is something exceedingly desirable which he does not possess, will be more likely both to seek and secure it than if he vainly imagined himself already the possessor of it. 2. Encourage them to give in detail the several grounds for this feeling of discouragement. This simple statement of them will be profitable. A good exercise is this for a teachers' meeting. 3. Answer with all frankness the several difficulties presented. Dissipate by your most assuring method the merely imaginary trouble, and emphatically indorse all that you believe to be real. 84 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL. 4. Give help. Train, illustrate, drill the teachers. If they cannot master the art of questioning, show them ivhy, and then show them how. If they handle illustra- tions awkwardly, spend one evening or more in ^'trying on" illustrations, and showing how they may be most effectively employed. 5. If you find your teachers not quite enough dis- couraged to bring them regularly to your teachers' meeting, try to discourage them a little more. When Elisha sought the spirit of Elijah, he sought the Holy Spirit of God. When he returned from Moab to Jericho through the miraculously opened Jordan, the sons of the prophet said, ''The spirit of Elijah does rest on Elisha." It was not the "mantle" that separated the waters of the river, but the ''Lord God of Elijah," whose power the newly commissioned prophet invoked. Sunday-school teachers, you need the same divine baptism. The "mantle" of method will accomplish nothing unless the energy of the Holy Spirit permeates it. Take up the one and fervently invoke the other. Then will Jordan in your own way open a path for your feet. Then will barren wastes grow fruitful as you scatter into the springs the salt of truth. Your enemies shall perish. The oil shall pour forth its abimdant blessings in the homes to which your counsels come. Dead souls will live. Lepers will be cleansed. Angelic guards will sustain you ; and the very memory of your life and character, like the bones of the dead prophet, wall give life to men after you are in your graves. Seek by fervent prayer the light and life of God's o^vn eternal Spirit. THE NORMAL CLASS. 85 CHAPTER VII. THE NORMAL CLASS. What is a normal class ? The word normal is from the Latin norma, a square for trying right angles, thence a pattern, a rule, an anthorative standard, a model, formal schools are schools in which the true theory of education is taught, its true methods illustrated, and its pupils trained to teach under judicious and skilled scrutiny. What is a normal class in secular education ? It is a process of training teachers in the best possible man- ner to the highest attainable grade of excellence, that they in the most effective manner may teach the pupils afterward to be committed to their care. It involves, of necessity, the acquisition of knowledge, the testing of knowledge thus acquired, and the utilizing of sucli knowledge for teaching purposes. Among secular educators the importance of normal schools, with their distinctive methods, is no longer a question for discussion. Dr. William E. Channing, in 1837, thus pleaded in Boston for an institution in which teachers should be professionally trained : ''We need an institution for the formation of better teachers, and until this step is taken we can make no important progress. The most crying w^ant in this commonwealth is the want of accomplished teachers. We boast of our schools, but schools do comparatively little for want of 86 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. educated instructors. Without good teaching a school is but a name. An institution for training men to train the young Avoukl be a fountain of living waters sending forth streams to refresh present and future ages. As yet our legislators have denied to the poor laboring classes this principal means of elevation. We trust they will not always prove blind to the highest interest of the State. We want better teachers and more teachers for all classes of society ; for rich and poor, for children and adults. One of the surest signs of the regeneration of society will be the elevation of the art of teaching to the highest rank in the community. Socrates is now regarded as the greatest man in the age of great men. The name of king has grown dim before that of apostle. To teach, whether by word or action, is the liighest function on earth." In nearly all of our cities regularly equipped normal schools are established. Men and women who are expected to teach literature and science to our children are expected to prepare themselves for this service. The Sunday-school teacher needs just what the normal school aims to secure for the secular teacher. His work is as important in its aims. He deals with the same intellectual powers, and addresses himself in a peculiar manner to the more delicate, important, and powerful energies of the soul — the conscience, the affec- tions, the will. The text-book which he employs is as full of difficulties, his pupils are as apathetic. He expe- riences the same obstacles in the way of quickening the intellect. In his work the curiosity is to be aroused, attention concentrated, voluntary, delighted, and per- sistent effort to be secured. The Sunday-school normal THE NORMAL CLASS. 87 class is therefore based upon the same theory as that which establishes the secular normal school, and it aims at the same worthy and much-needed results. The standard of secular education in these days is so high, and the appliances employed so perfect, that the Sabbath school must elevate its standard if it would maintain its power. Children measure their teachers in these days. Many of them are able to do it. ISTo sin- cerity of character or earnestness of effort can compen- sate for a poorly prepared lesson, or for habitual incom- petency on the part of a Sunday-school teacher. It is a lamentable hindrance to one's success in this field to have his scholars contrasting his matter and style of teaching with those of ordinary teachers in the public schools, or detecting the sophisms or superficial evasions of his explanations. It is not only that the teacher suf- fers in the estimation of his scholars, but the system of truth he represents also suffers loss. All truth is divine. We may regard the teachers of natural science and mathematics in our public schools and academies as so manv ambassadors of God to the soul of the child. In the Sunday school w^e have charge of another department of divine teaching. Ours is the ethical and spiritual, and we deal with intellect. We seek to exalt and sanctify it — to connect it with a ^^pure conscience" and a redeemed heart, that it mav become the throne of a "faith unfeigned." The secular teachers tell the little ones of God in nature, we of God in grace. They conduct them through the outer courts of the cosmos; we lead them beyond the veil, into the inner- most sanctuary, where God's voice is heard and where man may commune face to face with Him. We must, 88 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. therefore, be ^^apt to teach." We are to show ourselves "approved" — "workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Wisely did the apostle suggest to Timothy, "Give attendance to reading . . . to doctrine." The labor of the Sunday-school teacher is voluntary, and performed under the pressure of secular occupa- tions. Mothers come to the Sunday school as teachers from the nursery, merchants and clerks from the counter and counting-room, mechanics from the shop, farmers from the field, lawyers from the bar, jurists from the bench, physicians from the bedside, students from the recitation room. They are engaged six-sevenths of their time in callings wholly unconnected with the specific work of the Sabbath school. To perform it they turn aside from their habitual paths of thought and effort. Many of them are wholly deficient in mental discipline, and, with no time for preparation, must make sad work with the brain of the pupil and the Book of God on the Sabbath. Eor other professions regular schools of preparation are established, and a curriculum appointed. In the school of medicine, law, or theology, the student gives his whole time to study. He secures the funds requisite, abandons every other enterprise, and devotes all his energies to the one work. In the secular normal schools the same singleness of purpose and occupation gives the student power. He is a man of one work, and he succeeds. Yet we can have no permanent theological school for the training of Sunday-school teachers. Kor can the want be realized in every case by teachers' meetings. THE NORM2VL CLASS. 80 Something must go before them. A clergyman may increase in theological knowledge and pulpit efficiency while engaged in appointed clerical labors; but, before all this, there is a certain preparatory training which fits him for his subsequent efforts, and which is indis- pensable to his success. This is no more a necessity of the preacher than of the teacher. Even our best schools, then, would be benefited by a general plan of teacher training. But we must remember that first-class Sabbath schools, with well-ordered teachers' meetings, are rare and exceptional. In many schools the teachers' meeting is limited to a small minority of those engaged in the Sabbath work. In some schools this meeting is held annually, and then for the election of officers; or monthly, and merely for the transaction of business. In all schools of this class teachers are expected to do their work without other specific preparation than they volun- tarily give at home to the lesson, and with no previous training whatever. Suppose, then, that any one school has a corps of good teachers and a good teachers' meeting, and suppose it does 7iot need any outside help in the culture of its teachers, the whole duty of that school is not done when it becomes in itself strong, studious, and successful. I assert that no school can be thus independent by virtue of its o^\Ti internal strength ; for it still owes sympathy, counsel, and assistance to the weaker and less successful schools in its neighborhood. Whether, therefore, we look at the best or the poorest of our schools, the conclusion is forced upon us : We must have a general system for the training of teachers 90 THE MODEKI^ SUNDAY SCHOOL. — a system that will secure the establishment of regular weekly teachers' meetings where they are not now held, and provide, in some form or other, a complete prepara- tory course of training in connection with those schools which have all along sustained the teachers' meeting. Conventions, local and general, may render assistance by the dissemination of Sunday-school ideas, the com- parison of plans, the discussion of principles, and the occasional illustration of approved methods. But the best convention we ever attended left an important work undone. Mere conventions, in which whole counties, and even States, are represented, cannot meet the de- mand we have specified. The introduction of institute exercises, or normal methods, into these conventions, has been a means of improving their character. But in the midst of these occasional and exceptional exer- cises we have asked. Is there not yet something more practical — some plan better adapted to the necessities of the work ? The answer is to be found in the normal class exer- cises hereinafter described. Let us look at the immediate needs of the Sunday- school teacher. First of all, he is a teacher of Chris- tianity, and the Bible is his text-book. To be a success- ful teacher of Christianity one must he a Christian. Having '^eyes to see," he must have ''seen" the verities concerning which he is to testify. These must be in- wrought into his personal character. He must have the Christian's reputation, the Christian's apprehension, the Christian's tone and habit. He who feels and is daily dominated by the truth, and he alone, is able to teach it. Can the blind teach painting ? Can the deaf THE NORMAL CLASS. 91 teach music? You remember who asked the question, and to whom, "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things V^ The Sunday-school teacher should understand the language in which he proposes to teach; and the more cultivated his pupils, the greater their advantages in the secular school, the greater is the importance that he shall not offend cultivated taste by violating grammatical law. He should have as large lingual resources as possible, a vocabulary from which he may select Avith discretion, using the right word in the right place, using as few words and as many w^ords as may be necessary. And still it is but just to say that there are many honest and earnest persons who, notwithstanding great ignorance and habitual violation of the laws of English grammar, are most successful Sundav-school teachers. These cases are exceptional. They show what consecrated hearts may do. When some one complained to Row- land Hill of the blunders in speech of one of his plain preachers. Hill replied, "Kever mind his breaking gram- mar, if the Lord helps him to break the poor sinner's heart.'' So we say concerning this work of Sunday- school teaching. Let the truth be taught by earnest hearts. Let the living water be dipped from the foun- tain and distributed to thirstv souls. If this can be done in a golden chalice, well. If God appoint for the service some marred or misshapen pitcher, let it also drop into the crystal depths, and be borne dripping with living waters to the thirsty lips. But these exceptions in the line of Divine Providence do not annul the law of the best possible human preparation where one attempts to do a divinely appointed work. Plain men, indeed, 92 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. were the fishermen of Galilee who first taught the gospel, but they were not uneducated men. Thej may not have been familar with subtleties of Greek philosophy, nor were they accounted '^scholars'' in the then ap- proved Jewish schools. But they were men of native strength, trained in the Hebrew Scriptures, and they enjoyed intimate fellowship with the wisest of teachers for three years. The Sunday-school teacher should know a great deal about the text-book in which he is the instructor. This text-book — the Holy Bible — comes to us with a peculiar claim. The teacher, in opening it, professes to open an inspired book, by which God, the Creator of all, has made known His character and His will to men. It is important, therefore, that the teacher understand, at least to some extent, the evidences by which the divine authenticity of the Bible is established, the men by whom its various parts were WTitten, the time and the place of writing, the questions of genuineness and translations, and the actions of ecclesiastical councils concerning it. He should understand the laws of interpretation by which we may approach the sacred pages in the right spirit, and by the right methods arrive at the sentiments which the Divine Author intends to reveal. He should understand the contents of the book, first in general out- line, and then in detail — its history, chronology, geog- raphy, archaeological peculiarities, its doctrines which relate to God, to man, to the God-man, and to life eternal. The fact that the text-book of the Sunday-school teacher is supernatural, and his work dependent upon the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, does not diminish the THE I^ORMAL CLASS. 93 necessity for the most thoroiigli preparation on his part; for the laws of man's mental activity in the study of the Holy Scriptures are the same laws which he must ob- serve in any other intellectual operation. The Bible has been translated from tongue to tongue. Its versions are to be explained, its figures to be interpreted, its principles to be traced, its practical applications to be made, and its difficulties to be removed, as in the case of any other volume written originally in a foreign lan- guage, in a remote age, and in countries differing from our o\\Ti in manners and customs, languages, and politi- cal institutions. The Bible is not a mint with com- pleted coins of gold and silver, stamped and polished, and ready for immediate and easy appropriation. It is a mountain rather than a mint. In its hidden heart are the veins of gold. These are to be sought and dug out with prayer and painstaking and patience. The Sunday-school teacher should have accurate and well-mastered knowledge. He should have thought care- fully and examined critically. He should know from personal interest and attention, by the delight of his soul in truth, and should patiently and with a passion for knowledge apply himself to the exploration of the divine Word. The Sunday-school teacher should know the truth from personal experience. He should have faith and spiritual discernment. ^^The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit: . . . neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth [discerneth] all things" (1 Cor. ii. 14, 15). "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach 94 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. you all things, and bring all things to your remem- brance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John xiv. 2G). He who has felt the power of the gospel is able to proclaim and apply its precious truths. He must know the wide range and relations of truth. To know one thins- well one must know many things. In order to form an adequate idea of Abram's position and conduct as he stood on the Judaan hills and made the magnanimous proposition to Lot, one must have in his mind's eve the antecedents of both men : the double call of Abram, when living beyond the Euphrates, the first entrance into the land, the anxiety which led him into Egypt, and the return from Egpyt to the place of the altar between Bethel and Ai, where this interesting event occurred. The Sunday-school teacher, to teach successfully particular lessons, must gather inspiration from general conceptions relative to persons and locali- ties and antecedent experiences. He must know more about a subject than he intends to communicate in a specific lesson. The immense body of water in the reservoir among the hills gives force to the jet in the fountain in the city park. Large resources of knowl- edge give peculiar power to the simplest teaching efforts in the class. He must know how to grow in knowledge. Every effort at acquiring knowledge and communicating knowledge should be to him an inspiration, and the means to higher attainments. The teacher, at the close of a year of work, should be able to find the largest re- sult in his own mental and spiritual life, ^ow, there is a way of knowing which proves a means of growth, and there is, on the other hand, a way of knowing which THE NORMAL CLASS. 95 provides truth for an immediate emergency, but does not apply it to the fountains of character, intellectual and spiritual. He must know his pupils — the peculiarities of human , nature, the laws of mental life and growth, or of deterioration. He must know the wide variety of forces, habits, and moods in human nature; the prejudices of education, the all-dominating energy of habit, the important and peculiar antagonisms of social grades, or external conditions. He only who knows the needs and defects of human nature can apply the gospel which proposes to supply the need and remove the defect. He must know what other teachers have discovered in their experiences, reading the records of their tempo- rary methods, defeats, failures, and successes. The Sunday-school teacher must know the laws of teaching, and the methods which the right observance of these laws develop. He must have ability to originate methods of his own. There is an empiricism in teaching which, without look- ing for the underlying philosophy, experiments upon some suggested method, and often confounds seeming with real success. Therefore the Sunday-school teacher, like the secular teacher, should know the principle, and, in his intense eagerness to quicken minds to thoughtful- ness and self-application, should devise methods which are his own. In order to know and to teach wdiat he knows, that his pupils may know and grow under his ministry, the Sunday-school teacher should, in his preparatory studies, see other and expert teachers at their work. 96 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. With his knowledge of principle and method, he should be able to observe the application of these by those who are his superiors. The Sunday-school teacher must practice, and practice, and practice. By manipulating the keys of an instrument the puj)il acquires facility, and with ap- parent involuntariness goes through difficult exercises which at first occasioned him weariness, annoyance, and temporary discouragement. Hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, the musician, the artist, the lecturer, the lawyer, the physician, acquire the skill which brings success and delight. The Sunday-school teacher should, during this pre- paratory process, submit himself to the criticism of the most skilful workers. He should not only see them at work, but they should see him at work. As he discovers in their methods excellences to be imitated, they discover in him and to him reveal the defects which he must correct. He must, in this work of practice, enjoy the inspira- tion of those who aim at the same results, that the ad- vantage of class spirit and laudable rivalry may be utilized. The Sunday-school teacher must practice under as favorable circumstances as possible, enjoying the bene- fits of helpful appliances, maps, diagrams, blackboards, books, illustrative apparatus, and he should have ample time. The candidate for the teacher's office should have pre- scribed for him a course of study embodying the results of wise experience, defining the limits to a required ex- THE NORMAL CLASS. 97 ertion, and thus giving the incentive of hope and the satisfaction of a completed work. There are many forms in which normal work may be prosecuted. Our colleges, theological seminaries, and schools of higher grades should, through their faculties, provide for lectures and lessons which, in connection with the regu- lar curriculum of the institution, may fit the young men and women w^ho are so disposed to prepare them- selves for Sunday-school teaching in after-life. !N^ormal classes may be organized in connection with a particular church, or a number of churches, in a com- munity. The older scholars of a given Sabbath school w^ho in- dicate tact and adaptation may be selected and organized into a normal class, to receive instruction in Bible knowledge and educational principles, under the direc- tion of the Sabbath school itself. The author organized and conducted such a normal class in the churches of which he was pastor in 1857-58 and in 1859-61. In these classes he used as text-books Inglis on "The Sab- bath School,'' and Conybeare and Howson's "Life and Epistles of St. Paul." Each session (held weekly) em- braced a lesson in the two subjects. His pupils were advanced pupils between the ages of sixteen and twenty- five. The w^ork was thorough. The normal class may be organized in connection Avith the teachers' meeting, and normal principles ap- plied in the actual study of particular lessons. A sup- plemental session of thirty minutes would, in the course of a year, enable an ordinary teachers' meeting to carry out a very satisfactory course of normal study. 1 98 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Special formal Institutes may be held, lasting for two or three days, and the time improved by regular normal exercises. The Sunday-school Assembly method, which turns to a good account the desire for summer recreation, may also prove, as at Chautauqua, a means of improvement. The Primary Class subdivisions, under subordinate teachers, may prove of immense value in the training of teachers for the future, especially where the superinten- dent of this primary department is competent to instruct the normal pupils as well as the little people. The distribution of normal 2:>upils in a school among the best classes, for three or four weeks at a time, that they may observe the best teachers in their work, is also a practicable and feasible plan. Where a normal class is impracticable, the devout, determined, and diligent Sunday-school teacher may still do something toward normal self-improvement. He may come, by thought and deep desire, to appreciate the most imperative needs of his pupils, their peculiar 'perils, the best possibilities in their lives, the divine pro- visions for them, and the divine methods for turning these possibilities into possessions and attainments. This knowledge must be in him a living force, and must produce results. He may (1) read and think much in the realm of truth in which he is to teach; (2) be per- sonally interested in its experiences and development; (3) acquire the habit of self -testing on every theme on which he is to teach; (4) acquire the habit of personal, independent, concentrated, continuous thinl'ing on every such theme; (5) accustom himself to an after-reading, for information, of the text-book he has to teach, and THE NORMAL CLASS. 99 of whatever other book may be useful in this direction ; (6) identify himself with his pupils in all affection and interest and thought; (7) constantly and carefully study human nature as illustrated in his pupils; (8) carefullj' study their peculiar circumstances and necessities; (9) carefully study the laivs of teaching as laid down by wise teachers, and the phenomena and laws of mental and moral life as presented by the psychologists; (10) frequently — very frequently — imagine his pupils before him, and imagine the processes by which he would win and retain and reward their attention; (11) write out these processes, developing the subject as it would be likely to develop under the interested conversation and questioning of his class; (12) practice on others during the week, on children at home, in conversation with adults, in ^^parlor classes,'' at table, etc.; (13) observe successful teachers in public schools, ministers gifted in making truth clear and attractive, whether in the pulpit, the Sunday school, or in the special children's class; (14) enlarge the horizon of knowledge, secular and Biblical, thus coming into sjanpathy with pupils. He will find as most helpful in this direction the course of reading in the C. L. S. C. (the ^^Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle"). And two things he must al- ways remember: (1) The true teaching power is not in comprehensive and classified knowledge, but in charac- ter vitalized and controlled hy hnowledge of truth. (2) The true teaching result is not in so many new ideas apprehended and retained by the pupils' intellectual nature, but in the self-activity of the pupils' whole nature (physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual), induced by the truth they do receive. 100 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. What are the exercises of a normal class ? Personal ingenuity, by expert and enterprising teachers, will pro- vide a variety of plans for promoting the teacher's knowledge and the teacher's skill. Among them we may propose the following : Recitation from a text-book or catechism on Bible history, geography, Sunday-school teaching, etc. This recitation and conversation may develop the teaching power of the pupils. A specimen juvenile lesson, in which the teacher of the normal class instructs a class of children. When these are dismissed the teacher examines the normal class upon his method, to see what they observed and thought concerning it and the principles he endeavored to illustrate. A practice lesson, in which one of the pupils teaches a juvenile class, and is afterward subjected to the criti- cism of the other pupils and of the normal class teacher. Where the class is large it may be resolved into three, ^ve, or more sub-classes, each under a teacher selected beforehand. At a given signal all the classes may com- mence the study of the same lesson. The time assigned to this exercise having expired, each teacher may report briefly the subject-matter and method of his teaching. After all have made their reports, let the leader elicit written and anonvmous criticisms from the whole class, carefully suppressing everything which would indicate, or improperly reflect upon, the teacher criticised. After such criticism, the conductor should allow the teachers another opportunity to speak, and should himself call attention to the principal practical lessons to be drawn from the excellences and defects of the whole exercise. THE NORMAL CLASS. 101 A lecture, followed by conversations on principles of teaching, Sunday-school order, lesson preparation, illus- tration, questioning, etc. A preparation exercise, in which a given lesson is taken up, and the whole class engaged in acquiring the knowledge of its contents and in preparing to teach it to others, to classes of different grades. The class, in carrying out this plan, may select the golden text ; ascer- tain the central thought; frame questions; select illus- trations ; make topical analyses ; make a pictorial repre- sentation or word-picture of the lesson. Practice in reading a Scripture lesson may occupy a short time occasionally in the exercise of a normal class. There is a great deal in the way of reading, by the class and by the teacher. Practice in committing to memory. There are laws of memorizing. These should be known by the teacher, and practiced until it becomes an easy thing to commit passages of Scripture, outlines of truth, quotations from general literature, etc. All the exercises of the teacher's work may be taken up one at a time and practiced. Among these are the following : Preparing outlines, framing questions, find- ing and applying illustrations, lines of approach, dis- covery of root-thoughts, plans for developing the self- activity of the pupils, removing difficulties Avhich may occur in a lesson, word-picturing, etc. For definitions which form a basis for this work, see Appendix C. There is one exercise which rises above the level of the ordinary normal class exercise, and in which is to be found the principal power of the Sunday-school teacher as of the minister; it is that pleading for personal 102 THE MODEKN SUNDAY SCHOOL. power, the gift of the Holy Spirit which God has prom- ised, without which the teacher, however learned he may be, and however intellectually gifted, will be a weakling in his work. Let me urge Sunday-school teachers and normal class workers to come together often, with pleading for the outpouring of the Spirit of God. To facilitate the individual effort of the normal class pu^^il at home, and of the teacher who, having no normal class facilities, desires to improve, I have occasionally suggested Avhat I call Normal Praxes, which are an aid to the teacher who desires to put himself in the teacher's place, to cultivate the teacher's imagination by imagin- ing before him, in thought, a class of pupils. He wuU be a better teacher for all these attemjDts. He wdll learn better how to begin his lesson when the actual class is before him, how to adapt it, how rescue wandering eyes, how utilize busy fingers, how meet hard questions, how w^ard off an attempt to divert it from its aim, how frame a question that will captivate unw^illing ears, how turn over a leaf of home-life, and put there a fragrant flower of divine truth to stay and perfume the pages and the place, how send an arrow^ into a hard heart. The fol- lowing are specimens of such Praxes : NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 1. Proposition I. — One may know a subject but not be able to teach it effectively to a class of pupils. Why? Proposition II. — It is necessary, in order to teach effectivelj', to examine the lesson with one's pupil in mind. Why? THE NORMAL CLASS. 10(5 Proposition III. — When oue has a class of two or more pupilS; it is not sufficient to study the lesson with only one pupil in mind. Why? Proposition IV. — It is necessary to know at least two thing? concerning each pupil in order to adapt the lesson to him. What two things? What additional knowledge concerning a pupil is desir- able in order to most effective teaching? Proposition V. — Personal acquaintance with pupils requires cer- tain wise efforts on the part of the teacher. How may a teacher become acquainted with his pupils in a way which shall prove helpful to him as their teacher ? What mistakes may be made in cultivating acquaintance with his pupils ? Proposition VI. — There are certain general facts of human na- ture which every teacher should know in attempting to instruct, especially young persons, in the truths of religion. Name a few of these general facts '. NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 2. Proposition I. — A skillful approach to a class with a lesson is of the utmost importance in teaching. What do you understand by "approach?" W^hy is '"approach" so important? Proposition II. — The "approach" to a pupil should awaken his interest, excite his curiosity, and make him resolve to know some- thing more about the lesson in hand. Why is curiosity an important element in teaching?. . . . What are some of the good results of securing the "re- solve" above mentioned? 104 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Proposition III. — The method of "approach" to a pupil must be determined by his age, capacity, and circumstances. 1. Imagine a class of infant pupils (less than six years of age). You are to teach the lesson — Matt. viii. 1-4. With what words would you begin your teaching? 2. Imagine a class of girls twelve years old. How would you begin the same lesson? 3. Imagine a class of full-grown men and women. How would you begin the same lesson? 4. What one great lesson would you seek to impress upon each class above described? NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 3. Suppose I have a class in Sunday school. How many members should there be in it ? Why not more ? Why not a smaller number? Which do I prefer, boys or girls? Why? Which do I prefer, old or young? Why ? I imagine myself seated with my class in school. The very first signal is given by the superintendent calling for order. What two things should I, as teacher, do at that moment? 1 2 There are certain blunders at this point that superintendent, teachers, and scholars are in danger of committing. What are they? Superintendent Teacher Scholars NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 4. My class and I are now (I imagine) engaged in the "devotional services" of the Sunday school. What do I mean by "devotional services" in Sunday school? Why have them at all in Sunday school? What exercises should "devotional services in Sunday THE NORMAL CLASS. 105 school" include? But do I experience several difficulties in my class during these services? What difficulties? 1 find that the principal difficulty with the scholar lies bej'ond the Sunday school, the teacher, and the superintendent. Where? What is it? How may I reach that earlier difficulty? NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 5. What am I in Sundaj'-school work for? What aim have I? Several aims may influence me : 1 2 3 What should be the aim? What if I lack clear and deep conviction and strong feeling? Why am I needed in this work? Who needs me? What arguments are there in favor of my continuance in Sunday-school work? NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 6. The school has been opened — that is, the "devotional services'* are over. Before beginning the study of the lesson in the class, several things are to be done in the school and in each class. What are they? How much time do they usually take? What may he omitted? [Think of the several things usually done in a school before the class work begins.] What hindrances to the successful teaching of a lesson usuallj' arise in Sunday school from outside of the class? NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 7. I am to teach. What is it to teach? [I know what it is to eat, to walk, to plow, to recite a passage committed to memory — but] WHAT IS IT TO TEACH? What do I mean when I say, "I teach a lesson?" What do I mean when I say, "I teach my class?" What several acts does it imply in the teacher? in the pupil? What hindrances to successful teaching usually arise in the Sunday school from the teacher? from the class? NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 8. In selecting teachers for a Sunday school, what qualities of character, intellectual and moral, should be considered desirable? What qualities essential? Why does a Sundaj'-school teacher need general preparation for his work? This preparation should, when- ever practicable, include : 1 2 3 4 Which is better, wide knowledge and little earnestness, or limited knowledge and intense earnestness? 106 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 9. I am to teach a lesson next Sabbath. It is now (let us suppose) Monday morning. I am very busy with home or shop or office duties. I have little time to give to study. Some things by way of prepa- ration for this lesson must be done, \yhat are they? 1 2 3 4 5 , etc., etc. NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 10. I am to teach, but while I am doing my part of the work what shall my scholars be doing? Merely listening? What should they do? 1 2 3 What are the three principal difficulties in attempting to teach average scholars? Is "scolding" of use in the teaching process? Answer Why? NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 11. There is something in the way a teacher legins a lesson. The first words have a great deal of power. Why? Imagine a class of boys, twelve years old, before me. The lesson is — take next Sun- day's lesson. Now imagine that it is time for me to begin teach- ing. What are the first words (the first twenty-five or forty words) I should use in approaching them? " ," etc. State another plan of beginning a lesson. State two forms of beginning to which objection might fairly be made. NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 12. A lawyer was trying to show the Supreme Court of the United States that certain lands near the line of a railroad were the prop- erty of the railroad, and not of a certain township that claimed them. He used a blackboard and a crayon in his address to these learned judges. I saw a map on the blackboard. Why did the lawyer use crayon and blackboard? A gentleman was explaining to a child about the soul being a living reality inside of the body, but independent of the body. lie used his watch to illustrate the point. Can you imagine hoiv he used his watch for this purpose? Why did he use any visible illustration at all? What examples of this did Jesus give in His teaching? What may the Sunday-school THE NORMAL CLASS. 107 teacher learn on this subject from the lawj^er and gentleman above referred to, and from Christ as a Teacher? NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 13. How much of the work in a class recitation should be done by the scholar? What mistake in this line do teachers often make? What can be done to secure from scholars personal participation in the class work? Imagine a class of boys twelve years old; next Sunday's lesson ; work to be gotten out of them somehow — what is the first thing to be done by the teacher? What is the second thing? Name a third. What ten questions would you put to the class just described in teaching the lesson of next Sunday? NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 14. Does the Sunday-school teacher's work in behalf of his scholars cease when Sunday school is over? Why? To what portions of the week does it extend? To what places? What four things should a Sunday-school teacher do for his scholars during the week? What helps does the Sunday-school teacher need, in persons, books, and influence, that he may have encouragement, confidence, and suc- cess in his work? NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 15. Short Studies in Bible Chronology, History, Biography, and Geography. Arrange in chronological order what you regard as the twenty most important events of Bible history. 1 11. 2 12. 3 13. 4 14. 5 15. 6 16. 7 17. 8 18. 9 19. 10 20. 108 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 10. Name a leading trait of character belonging to each of the fol- lowing persons : 1. Noah 2. Abraham 3. Joshua 4. Gideon 5. Saul G. Elijah 7. Manasseh 8. Daniel 9. Nehemiah 10. John the Baptist 11. Peter 12. Stephen NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 17. State the Bible land in which each of the following rivers is found, and an event connected with it : 1. Tigris 2. Euphrates. 3. Jordan 4. Jabbok 5. Kishon 6. Nile 7. Abana Lands. Events. NORMAL PRAXIS. No. 18. Locate sixteen principal mountains of Bible history, and name a person associated with each : 1. Ararat 2. Moriah 3. Horeb 4. Sinai 5. Hor 6. Nebo 7. Gerizim 8. Ebal 9. Tabor 10. Gilboa 11. Zion 12. Carrael 13. Quarantania, 14. Lebanon 15. Hermon 16. Olivet Location. Person. THE NORMAL CLASS. 100 I come next to consider the general course of Sundav- school normal study. It should embrace the following subjects : 1. Pertaining to the Bible : 1. Its names. 2. Its books. 3. The classification of books. 4. The writers. 5. The languages. 6. The gradual development. 7. The canon. 8. The identity of its books. 9. Their historic accuracy. 10. Their divine authority. 11. The inspiration. 12. The principal versions. 13. The contents of the Bible : History, Chronologj', Geography, Biography, Manners and Customs, Divisions of time. Natural history, Institutions, Prophecies, Doctrines, Weights, Measures, etc. 14. Its interpretation. 15. Its mission, use, and power. IG. The Sundaj'-school teacher should study Christ as the one central, vivifying, and all-dominant theme and character of the whole Bible. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Genesis and Reve- lation, of the book. All things in it point to Him. All things in it are because of Him. He is the key to all, and He is the end of all. He is also teacher and example. The Sundaj^-school teacher should live as He lived, and teach as He taught. He is the soul of the book. Without Him it is a dead book. The study of the person, character, and offices of Jesus Christ is, therefore, the radical and essential theme of the Sunday-school teacher. 2. PERTA.INING TO THE SaBBATH SCHOOL : 1. The place and purpose. 2. The relations to home and church. 3. The organization. 4. The management. 110 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 5. The classification. 6. The early lesson systems. 7. The International Lessons. 8. The Supplemental Lessons. 9. The appliances. 10. The Sabbath-school superintendent. 11. The other Sabbath-school officers. 12. The Sabbath-school teacher. 13. The teacher's helps. 14. The teacher's difficulties and mistakes. 15. The Sabbath-school normal ivork: Teachers' meeting, Institute, 16. The week-day poiver of the school. Normal class. o o. Pertaining to Teaching : 1. The soul we teach. 2. The acquisition of knowledge. 3. The retention of knowledge. 4. The application of knowledge. 5. The communication of knowledge. 6. The preparation of lesson matter. 7. The preparation to teach the lesson. 8. The pupil's home preparation. 0. The teaching process: Approach, Attention, Analysis, Questioning, Illustration, 10. The adaptation to classes : Primary, Intermediate, Senior, Analogies, Reviewing, Memory training. Self-activity, Self-application. Adult, Careless pupils, Insubordinate, etc. 11. Normal Praxes: Acquisition of facts : specific lessons studied — Biblical and normal — analysis, analogies, root-thoughts, central thought ; relation of Golden Text. Study of theories : educational and Sunday-school. Practice in teaching : approach, word-picturing, illustra- tion, questioning. Memorizing Scripture. THE NORMAL CLASS. Ill The above series of topics have been, from time to time, arranged in a variety of forms by union and de- nominational Sunday-school departments. One of the most widely used is that of the Chautauqua Assembly ISTormal Department, adjusted in 1876 by a committee of eleven gentlemen, representing nine different denomi- nations. At the Centenary meetings of Sunday-school workers in London, in 1880, an International formal Committee was appointed,^ which has provided a general course of Sunday-school Xormal Study. f Many questions concerning normal work have come to my table, through years of editorial service, from people who were eager to experiment, and from some who have experimented, in this normal work : 1. ^^Is the normal class a substitute for, or an addi- tion to, the ordinary Bible class ?" Answer. The ^'Biblo class" is for the study of specific lessons. The "normal class" is for the training of teachers. The former devotes itself especially to the contents of the lesson, w^hile the other, although it may study the contents of the lesson, does it with a view to the improvement of the members of the class as teachers in the future. 2. "Is it intended for training young people for pros- * Names of the International Normal Committee : For England: Fountain J. Hartley, Wm. H. Groser, Rev. C. H. Kelly, Prof. J. G. Fitch, Alfred Sindall. For the United States: Rev. Richard Newton, D.D.,^ Miss Jennie B. Merrill, M. C. Hazard, B. F. Jacobs, Rev. Edwin W. Rice, Rev. J. H. Vincent. For Canada: Hon. Vice-Chancellor Blake, James Hughes. t See Appendix D. ^ Dr. Newton having resigned, the Rev. A. E. Dunning, of Boston, was elected in 188G to take his place. 112 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. pective teachers, or the improvement of actual teach- ers ?" Answer. Eor both : that the teachers who are now in the work may avail themselves of present oppor- tunities, which in other years they could not enjoy, and, at the same time, that the young people, who are to be the teachers from three to ten years hence, may be better prepared for the work when it is required of them. 3. ^'Is there not difficulty in the ordinary Sunday school in obtaining competent instructors for the normal class ?" Aiiswer. This is, perhaps, the most serious difficulty in connection with the organization and con- duct of normal classes; but if the sessions be held at some other hour than that occupied by the school, a selection from the pastor, superintendent, and teachers of the regular school may be made, and if any given school does not have the requisite talent within itself, there are men and women in every community who would be glad to render the service if called upon. Denominational relations should have no consideration in this matter. Secular teachers, who have been thor- oughly prepared for the w^ork of secular instruction, and who are interested in the work of the church, might be induced to give their experience and training for the benefit of such classes. It is our firm conviction that where a normal class is really needed God will provide some teacher to conduct it. 4. "How large proportion of the time should be given in the normal class to the systematic study of the Bible, and liow much to methods of teaching?" Answer. The great object of the normal class is to dis- cuss and illustrate principles and methods of teaching ; but this may be most effectively done, in most cases, by THE NORMAL CLASS. 113 the illustration of the same in the actual process of teaching. Therefore a course of study covering the general themes of the Bible could be laid down, and especial attention should be given in the study of these themes to the true method of teaching them. 5. ''May it not be well to have two instructors for these two lines of study — Bible Truth and Teaching Methods?" Answer. Where two can be employed it would certainly be advisable; but there should be no clashing of authority. Each should have his place and work assigned. 6. "Would not the pastor of the church have, in the first part, a rare chance of interesting his people in sys- tematic Bible knowledge?" Answer. Most certainly. And if he be a true teacher the conduct of the second part of the exercise would increase his power. Many young ministers who possess teaching tact, but need to develop it, would gain more themselves by the organiza- tion of a normal class than even the pupils whom they sought to instruct. 7. ''How many pastors of the church are willing thus to attend to actually teaching a general summary of the Bible?" Answer. If there were more interest shown by the people in the attempts which many pastors make to render service of this kind, it is probable that there would be greater interest felt by them in the special normal class work. 8. "In the study of methods of teaching, should not the instructors be usually practical teachers from the secular schools, and the most successful teachers of the Sunday school?" Aiiswer. Principles and methods of teaching are very much the same in the secular and the 8 114 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. sacred departments of culture, and where a secular teacher has the right aim and spirit, he certainly would greatly excel the average Sunday-school teacher. Let us always get the best workers we can for every service. 9. ^'If such secular and Sunday-school teachers are unwilling to take complete charge of the normal school methods, might not several, of different kinds and grades of classes, divide the work between them ?" Answer. The question is itself an admirable suggestion. 10. ^Ts there any danger of making machine teachers ?" Answer. No more than of making machine lawyers by schools of law, or machine physicians by schools of medicine, or machine preachers by theological seminaries. If a man be a machine, institutions will not improve him very much ; and if he be a born teacher, culture will not interfere with his tact and fervor. It will, on the other hand, increase his power. 11. "Is there any danger of losing the spiritual element from teaching by normal class instruction ?" Answer. The best-educated teachers are just as likely to be spiritually minded as the ignorant. We are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ' Spiritual life is promoted and established by the diligent and devout study of truth. 12. "How long, how often, and at what time should the normal class hold its sessions ?" Ajisioer. A normal class made up of pupils in connection with the regular school should hold its session every Sunday. Special normal classes, holding a series of meetings — ten or fif- teen — should meet at such times as will suit the largest number. These times should be advertised, and dis- THE NORMAL CLASS. 115 tinctly understood. Then everybody should try to be present. 13. ^'How much study is expected, and how much can be obtained, from the members between the sessions V Answer. The more the better. The better the teaching at the sessions, the more the members will be inclined to prepare for the exercises of the class. Good teachers will require, and by some process secure, previous prep- aration. 14. ^^Should not the sessions of the normal class be conversational ?" Answer. The conversational method, conducted by wise leaders, is the very highest style of teaching, which is, after all, but quickening individual minds to self-activity in a particular line. 15. "How, then, are discussions to be held to the important points, and how much authority should be given in advance to the leader ?" Answer. The leader should have authority and wisdom enough to control the conversation in the interest of the theme under dis- cussion. 16. "Is it not true that few teachers are provided even with a good Bible dictionary and maps ?" Answer. Helps are now so cheap and available that an intelligent, enterprising teacher will find the helps. It would be a good plan to provide a teachers' librarj^ and keep it in some shop or store in the town or village, to which at any hour of the day teachers might have access. 17. "Is the uniform course of normal class study intended to be held to rigidly, or is each class to branch out from this?" Answer. The nearer a class adheres to the prescribed course until it is completed, the better for the class. 116 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 18. ''Is it possible to have model classes tauglit in the presence of the normal class, or is the spiritual element likely to be left out in the presence of spectators?" Answer, It is not necessary to leave out the spiritual element under these circumstances. Teachers who are profoundly in earnest will very soon forget everything mechanical in the process of teaching, and both pupils, teacher, and normal class students will become intensely interested in the work and its method, not losing any degree of spiritual force or of spiritual results. 19. ''Is it not almost impossible to induce the very teachers who most need normal class study to under- take it ?" Answer. This is a radical difficulty which can be met only by personal effort, by rendering the exer- cises of the normal class attractive, by not undertaking too many meetings, nor too much at each meeting, and gradually the apathetic and incompetent teachers, if they have any qualification whatever for their work, will be won to the class, or, seeing that the standard is so high, they will resign. 20. "Is the tendency of the normal class work to make self-satisfied teachers ?" Answer. The more cul- ture and grace, the more humility. 21. "What has been the general effect of normal classes on the Sunday schools in which they have been held ?" Ansiver. From many pastors and superintend- ents I have received the most enthusiastic letters, in- dorsing the normal class movement, and declaring that the power of their schools has been greatly enhanced by it. 22. "How shall we overcome difficulties in arranging for or2:anizin2: and conductinc^ normal classes ? In our THE NOKMAL CLASS. 117 small communities the teachers are few, the enthusiasm is lacking, and the discouragements are great/' (1.) There must be at least one iiidividual in that community who has a true idea of the work of the Sunday school. He or she must see that the school is a training institution — a school, and not a prayer-meet- ing; a school, and not a Sunday concert or sociable; a school, and not a library association. He must recog- nize the imjDortance of thorough preparation on the part of teachers. (2.) This one must find another, and still another, of like convictions with himself. He must find them, or he must raise them up by conversation, argument, or dis- tribution of tracts and articles on the subject. He must compel others to feel with himself the necessity of a higher standard of Sunday-school work. (3.) This little coterie of convinced workers must organize with a view of increasing the number of those who feel the necessity and who are willing to adopt some measures for improvement. This may be done by talk- ing to the superintendent or pastor, or both ; by holding at some private house a meeting for a cup of tea and an hour of talk. (4.) The new movement must not involve too much iDorh or too much time. Instead of inaugurating a meeting which shall be continued for all time, let those who are interested agree to organize for ten or twelve special meetings. A limited number of meet- ings will be attended by persons who could not pledge themselves to be regular attendants for a long series of services. (5.) Public notices should be given of this meeting 118 THE MODEKN SUNDAY SCHOOL. from the pulpit, from the STiperintendent's desk, and in the prayer-meeting, that the whole church may under- stand what is contemplated. (6.) In addition to the public notices there should be a call sent to each of the Sunda [/-school teachers, and to a few in the advanced classes who may be thought willing to devote themselves to such work. This personal call should be made in w^riting or by a printed circular, and either sent through the post-office or handed by one of the interested individuals, who can add oral appeal to the printed announcement. (7.) The 2^lcin of wor^h for the ten meetings should be outlined; the subjects to be studied, the conversations to be conducted, etc. This outline will commend itself to those who are anxious to learn. (8.) The place of meeting should be well understood, so that there may be no uncertainty in the mind of any one as to where he shall go. It should be the aim of the managers to have the place comfortable, well warmed, well lighted, and all this in ample time. (9.) The exercises should be opened punctually, made as interesting and instructive as possible, and brought to a close before the persons present are wearied. (10.) The test man or ivoman in the community should be selected to conduct these exercises. Ample preparation should be made ; members of the class should be encouraged to use blank paper and lead pencils freely, to ask questions, and to offer suggestions. (11.) It should be the aim of every meeting to com- municate Bible knowledge, to illustrate some important lesson from the Bible, to illustrate from the members of the class some conscious need in connection with their THE NORMAL CLASS. 119 work as teachers, and to meet this need, or put them in the way of meeting it for themselves. (12.) There should be no discouragement felt if but a few are present, and not a single allusion should be made to the fact by those who conduct it, that there is ^^but a small turn-out." Nothing so weakens a meeting as to begin lamenting over the absent ones. Numbers do not make a success in normal class work. Two per- sons may constitute and conduct a good normal class — three will do it better. (13.) The difficulty of coming together in rural neighborhoods for the normal class is no greater than that of getting together for sewing societies, spelling matches, evening parties, or revival meetings. I have never known the Aveather to interfere with a revival meeting after it had once gotten a start. When people are interested they do not allow weather to keep them away from a desirable engagement. "Where there is a will there is a way." This work of normal training is pre-eminently the work of the pastor. The officers and teachers of the school are his representatives. Their ideals and aims are not likely to be loftier or nobler than his own. The normal class is his opportunity for gaining a personal hold upon them, for inspiring and strengthening them, and for securing their intelligent, earnest, and unre- mitting co-operation in the building up of the whole church. The skill he thus acquires in the art of putting truth will yield its best fruit in his own pulpit, prayer- meeting, and platform work. The better teacher he is, the better preacher he will become. 120 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. CHAPTEK VIII. THE INSTITUTE. The Sunday-school institute is an abridged normal class. It maj hold a short session of one, two, or more days. Its lectures, illustrative exercises, conversations, discussions, and class drills will give an impulse to all forms of Sunday-school w^ork. The institute has many advantages over the ordinary convention. In America it has increased the interest of ministers in the training- work, and has been the means of creating and develop- ing normal classes. Teachers who may not be willing to commit themselves to a full course of normal study may be easily persuaded to attend the six, eight, or ten sessions of an institute. The success of such local meetings will depend upon the variety of exercises announced upon the programme, the efficiency with which they are carried out, and especially upon the tact and force of the conductor. I shall present in the following pages some of the institute exercises, which in the United States, several years ago, proved of great service. It is not to be expected that their practical value will be estimated alike by all who read these suggestions. In the hands of one worker a plan may be exceedingly useful, which other men would never adopt. I therefore place before my readers a large variety of methods. Should these suggest other and original plans not here indicated, and THE INSTITUTE. 121 more effective than any of these, the object of the author will have been attained. 1. Opening Services. — The religious devotions of the institute should receive careful attention, especially the initiatory devotions, when the key-note is to be struck — the plane of thought and sentiment for the session to be determined. Xo careless appointment should here be made. The dull routine of a "prayer- meeting hour" is to be avoided. A topic being an- nounced beforehand on the programme, all the Scripture readings, remarks, songs, and prayers of the service should have reference to it. The following topics have been thus used with admirable results ; "The Spirit of God now present ;" "Our Homes ;" "The Preachers of the Word;" "The Unconverted Scholars;" "Senior Scholars," etc., etc. The reading of several Scripture selections, alternating with prayer and singing, will tend to instruct as well as to guide the teachers in their devotions. 2. The Entire Work. — It w^ill be desirable at times, where the institute is a short one, to present in very con- densed form the whole range of practical Sunday-school work in a single session. I knew this to be done at an institute in Ohio, many years ago, when addresses, each occupying seven minutes, on the following topics, were delivered. Of course everything was very much con- densed. Each speaker occupied all his time, but his limitation compelled careful elimination and abridg- ment. He said only his best things, and said them in the shortest and plainest way possible. The Entire Work. [Seven-minute Addresses.] (1.) Words from Parents to the Sunday School. 122 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. (2.) Words from the Sunday School to Parents. (3.) Words from the Pulpit to the Sunday School. (4.) Words from the Sunday School to the Pulpit. (5.) The Order of Exercises in Sunday School. (6.) Bible Study in Sunday School. (7.) The Infant Scholars in Simday School. (8.) Senior Scholars in Sunday School. (9.) The Teachers' Meeting. (10.) The Sunday School Power during the Week. 3. Institute Conversations. — Long speeches are the bane of conventions. In Sunday-school institutes they should always be discouraged. If instead of speech- making we could occasionally have conversations, our work would be much more profitable. Once remove embarrassment and secure a lively interest in the sub- ject, and there will be no difficulty in keeping up such conversation. Let the following serve as good examples of what we mean : No. 1. Teachers' Meeting. — Mr. A. A ^'live" Sunday school must have a teachers' meeting. Mr. B. But it is so difficult to get all the teachers to attend. Mr. C. If only two come they may spend an hour profitably. Mr. A. But we must be careful not to find fault and complain because so few are there. Mr. C. Should teachers be selected with reference to their residence near the place of meeting ? Mr. A. Certainly not. The main question is one of qualification. Mr. D. Indifi^erent and incompetent teachers resid- ing near the place of meeting will be less likely to THE IITSTITUTE. 123 attend than the earnest teacher who lives farther away. Mr. E. Teachers at a distance who, on account of bad weather, rough roads, family cares, ill health, etc., are nnable to attend the teachers' meeting regularly, may promise to spend at home in prayerful and careful study of the lesson the hour devoted to the meeting. This would interest them in the meeting, and guarantee their attendance at the earliest opportunity. Mr, B. What exercises are appropriate to a teachers' meeting ? Mr. F. The recitation by every teacher from memory of the next Sabbath's lesson. Mr. E. The hour should be spent, not on the subject- matter of the lesson, but on methods. Mr. A. I understand that the teachers' meeting is not a Bible class. Mr. G. It is rather to test the teacher's familiarity with the lesson, and, by illustrating methods of teaching, to aid him in his work. Mr. B. Why not bring a class of juvenile pupils and have them taught by a teacher ? Mr. G. Then let the rest criticise the plan of the teacher. Mr. A. Should this criticism take place before or after the class is dismissed ? Mr. G. Certainlv after. Children should not hear criticisms before their teacher. Thev would be incited by such example to look with a critical eye on the efforts of those who instruct them. E^o. 2. How TO GET Attention. — Mr. A. We can do nothing with a class unless we have the attention. 124 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Mr. B. The attention, too, of every pupil. Mr, A. All the time. How shall we secure this ?'' Miss C. By being aivake ourselves. Miss E. By being ourselves absorbingly interested in the scholars and in the lesson. Mr. D. By having something new to tell. Mr. F. In an emergency I would rise and stand while teaching. Mr. A. I should like a blackboard, or at least a slate, on which to record some outline or initial letters to excite curiosity. 3Iiss G. The class should see that the teacher fully understands his lesson, and is independent of book and lesson-paper. Mr. H. His eyes should be free. Mr. I. He should use his will silently, and thus summon himself and command his class. Miss E. The true teacher will address questions and remarks to persons most remote, and to those who are most inattentive. Mr. J. I use pictures a great deal in getting the attention of little people. Mr. K. They may be used with older classes. Miss L. I keep three or four little stories on hand to illustrate the lesson, but keep them in reserve for use when the interest flags a little. I can sometimes go through the lesson without using more than one of the stories. Mr. ^. If I can succeed in getting my scholars to question me I find no difficulty in getting attention. 4. Sunday-School Miscellany. — An hour may be set apart for everybody to say something on any and THE INSTITUTE. 125 all subjects, the time of each speaker being limited to one, two, or three minutes. A single sentence, a word of advice, a bit of experience, a very short incident, an objection, a difficulty, a brief quotation from Scripture or poetry — so will the time pass by pleasantly and profitably to all. Written suggestions may also be for- w^arded to the conductor's desk to be read during this exercise. 5. The Promise Meeting. — This is a suggestion of that successful evangelist, D. L. Moody, of Chicago. I saw him conduct such a meeting at the California State Sunday-School Convention in 1871. Any one was per- mitted to rise and repeat or read one of the ^^exceeding great and precious promises" of Scripture. An exposi- tory or experimental sentence was allowed, but no long speeches. As passage after passage of the pure Word dropped from living lips upon the ears of that vast assembly, it seemed as though a "shower of diamonds" was falling from the open heavens. Our institutes cannot have too much of God's Word in them, nor can they err by introducing warm personal religious ex- perience to illustrate and enforce that Word. 6. The Lecture-Lesson combines the peculiarities of a regular lecture and a recitation. The lecturer follows his outline of thought, but he is at liberty to stop at any time and question his audience, subject them to a regular examination of the ground he has covered in his lecture, while they also are at liberty to arrest him by questions at any step of his discourse. What goes by the name of Bible-class teaching in many adult classes is little more than a lecture-lesson, and perhaps too often it is lecture without lesson — discourse without 126 THE MODEEI^ SUNDAY SCHOOL. drill — preaching rather than teaching. The advantages of the lecture-lesson in an institute are apparent in the carefulness of preparation and of statement which it secures from the teacher, and the attention which it is apt to beget in the audience. 7. Institute Catechism. — This is a plan designed to elicit reports from teachers. The following ''Insti- tute Catechism" was sent beforehand to all teachers who had been invited to a certain institute in Michigan : ''The teachers in attendance are requested and ex- pected to answer the following questions, writing the answer opposite the question. 'No names are to be furnished or read. The list will be distributed and collected promiscuously, and no one will know the author of any of the answers made. "Candid and careful answers are desired. "(1.) How many scholars are there in your class ? . . . "(2.) How many of them have you visited at their houses within a year ? . . . . "(3.) How many hours a week on an average do you give to studying the lesson ? . . . . "(4.) Have you any Bible maps? How many ? . . . . "(5.) Have you a Bible dictionary?. . ..Whose?. . .. (6.) Do you use a commentary ? . . . . Whose ? . . . . (7.) What other helps do you have or use in pre- paring your lessons ? "(8.) What books on the subject of Sunday-school teaching have you read ? "(9.) Do you ever take maps or pictures into your class to show to the scholars ? . . . . "(10.) Do you keep a blank book and scrap-book THE INSTITUTE. 127 to note down and preserve illustrations for future use ? . . . . ^^(11.) Have you ever used a paper or slate and pencil as an aid to illustrate lessons in your class ? . . . . ^^(12.) How many from your class have united with the church during the last year ? . . . ." 8. Test Questions or Report Questions. — Instead of spending whole hours in hearing dull ^^reports" from ten, twenty, or fifty different schools, let a few pointed questions be put by the conductor, and answered promptly and briefly by representatives from the several schools. For example. How many schools are here represented ? Pastors rise. If the pastor be absent let the superintendent rise. If neither pastor nor super- intendent be here, will a teacher rise to represent his school ? You now have a representation on the floor from every school. These persons are requested to answer the questions as they may be announced by the conductor. ^'How long is your Sunday-school session ?" Replies come in something like the follow- ing from the audience : First Presbyterian : "One hour and thirty minutes." Second Baptist : "One hour and ten minutes." Third Methodist : "Generally two hours, although the time on the programme is one hour and fifty minutes." "How much time do you spend in actual Bible study?" Answers: "Forty minutes;" "Twenty-five minutes;" "Including general review, thirty-five;" "Twenty-seven;" "Twenty," etc. "Do you have regular teachers' meetings for the study of the lessons?" "Do you hold Sunday-school concerts ?" 9. The Question Drawer needs no more than a 128 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. mention. The whole audience is permitted to ask, in writing, any question on any phase of Sunday-school work. The person whose answer is desired may be indicated on the slip containing the question, otherwise the conductor may reply himself or permit any one present to do so. 10. Serial Questions. — On the published pro- gramme there may appear several questions, which, being circulated before the institute commences, will excite some thought. To these questions the pro- gramme may request "written replies to be presented at the first session.'' The following are specimens : (1.) What are the duties of the family to the Sunday school ? (2.) What are the duties of the pastor to the Sunday school ? (3.) What are the duties of Sunday-school officers and teachers to the church ? (4.) What are the duties of the Sunday-school teacher to the family ? (5.) How may teachers' meetings be made most useful ? (6.) What are the principal defects in our Sunday- school system ? (7.) How shall we retain youth and adults as members of the Sunday school ? Answers having been reported, the institute may appoint "Councils" of two or three persons each to examine, arrange, and present in due form the answers given to each question. For example, at the meeting where the seven questions above were asked, we find the following item in the programme : THE INSTITUTE. 120 Appointment of ^'Councils" on the answers pre- sented : (1.) On Home Help in Sunday School. (2.) The Pastor and the Sunday School. (3.) The Sunday School and the Church. (4.) The Sunday-School Teacher's Duties to the Family. (5.) On Teachers' Meetings. (6.) On Sunday-School Defects. (7.) On retaining Youth and Adults in Sunday School. 11. Institute Lecture. — The right man having been engaged for the purpose, give him the best hour of the day or evening for a lecture on some important and practical subject. Let his lecture be followed by either the Question Drawer, or Institute Conversation, or both. 12. Specimen Teaching. — One can do any piece of work the better for having first seen the same thing done by another. Young teachers of the Bible should enjoy frequent opportunities of this kind in their special work. We place such observation of actual teaching only second in practical value to the young teacher's practice under the eye and subject to the keen criticism of the accomplished instructor. The very best use of "specimen teaching" is that proposed some years ago by an efficient Sunday-school superintendent, who, feel- ing the need of raising up a better class of young teachers, thus proposed to utilize the weekly services of his very best teachers : "I propose to appoint in my school a corps of assistant teachers. These assistant teachers are to be selected 9 130 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. from our oldest scholars, and are each to sit and recite with some one of the classes for two or three Sundays, and then with another class, and so on, until each assist- ant shall have had an opportunity of noting the methods of management and instruction adopted by a majority of the regular teachers. They are always to recite and take part in the lesson in the class with which they sit, so as not to embarrass the teacher. They are to take private notes, and compare for themselves the different methods of instruction, culling out the best features in each. With the practical information thus obtained, revised and strengthened by a further comparison with the systems reported in the published works upon the subject, these assistants will be prepared to enter upon their work with great advantages, and we shall never be at a loss to supply a class with an efficient instructor, nor to provide a substitute for an absent teacher. "These assistants are to pledge themselves never, either publicly or privately, to make comparisons be- tween the methods of the teachers whom they watch, but are to keep wholly and sacredly to themselves the result of their observations. They may, at the end of their probation, give a synoptical memorandum of the different modes noticed, and of the excellences and deficiencies observed, provided it is done in such a man- ner as not to connect the one or the other with any indi- vidual. These precautions seem necessary, in order to prevent the possibility of ill-feeling or embarrassment among the regular teachers from a criticism of their efforts." 13. Specimen Bible Class.— The local and perma- nent Sunday-school institute should provide specimen THE INSTITUTE. 131 lessons. Resolve the whole institute into a class, and appoint some one to conduct a lesson. Assign thirty or forty minutes to the service, after which permit and encourage exhaustive oral or written criticism. 14. Comparison of Methods. — Occasionally resolve the institute into three, five, or more classes, each under a teacher selected beforehand, so as to permit a careful preparation.* 15. The Model Class. — If the audience be not too large it may be well to place a youths', or intermediate, or infant class on the platform, to be taught by some competent person. If criticism follow it would be well to dismiss the class, that the good impressions of the lesson be not dissipated by the objections to the teacher's method which a frank criticism might call forth. Classes of different grades may be taught the same lesson by different persons during a single session. 16. Illustrative Specimens. — Better than the formal specimen recitation is the introduction into a regular address of class exercises designed to illustrate the speaker's theory. For example, a teacher lectures on infant Sunday-school work. He develops a prin- ciple, and, turning to the class placed by his side on the platform, illustrates it in a brief exercise. Suppose he recommends elliptical teaching. He turns at once to his little pupils, and, telling them a story, secures their assistance in re-telling it according to the elliptical plan. So he illustrates questioning, concert replies, physical movements, blackboard drills, etc. 17. Specimen Teachers'' Meetings may be held before a small teachers' institute. * See page 101. 132 THE MODERX SUNDAY SCHOOL. 18. A Specimen Formal Class session on such an occasion will illustrate a most important part of our modern Sunday-school work. 19. A Specimen Sunday-School Session may be conducted by the institute, the teachers constituting the classes; or children may be invited, instructed beforehand in the order to be observed, and then taught by regular teachers. The superintendent, publicly examining the school, may dismiss it in due form. Let me here say to conductors and teachers in all "specimen exercises" before an institute, avoid making a mere show of the children or of your method. Espe- cially avoid all pretending "that this is Sunday," that "these men and women are little children." Don't teach an imaginary class, and go through the farce of personal applications and appeals to "play" children. We have seen some of the shallowest and most puerile performances in the name of "specimen exercises" be- fore institutes. Do not let us, however, mistake the abuse for the thing itself, and ignore a service wdiich, properly managed, must do incalculable good to young superintendents and teachers. Determine just what the specimen is to be — a lecture, a lecture-lesson, a theo- logical discussion, a simultaneous class drill, a prepara- tion class, a teachers' class, or a regular juvenile recita- tion. Then in all earnestness and self-forgetfulness carry out your plan. I am convinced that, as a general thing, specimen illustrations of the character recom- mended will not succeed before large and popular audi- ences. Let our evenings at great institutes be spent in addresses of a general character, and let us give THE INSTITUTE. 133 specimens before those, and those only, who are directly interested. 20. Map Drawing. — All maps being removed from the walls, the conductor requests the institute to prepare rough drafts of one or more maps, containing the follow- ing places, the names of which he writes on the black- board : First Map. — Mesopotamia, Nineveh, Babylon, Eu- phrates, Tigris, Persian Gulf. Second Map. — Gulf of Suez, Akabah, Mount Sinai, Suez, Mount Hor, Kadesh-Barnea, Cairo. Third Map. — Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Jordan. Fourth Map. — Ephesus, Smyrna, Troas, Samothra- cia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth. There is scarcely a limit to the subjects. Eive or ten minutes should be given the institute to prepare. The maps should then be collected, and the best and poorest of them reproduced by the conductor upon the blackboard. 21. A Practice-Preparation. — A lesson from Scripture having been selected and printed in full on the programme, let the institute spend an hour or more in — (1) Selecting the Golderi Text; (2) in ascertaining the central thought; (3) in framing questions; (4) in the choice of illustrations; (5) in the topical analysis; (6) in pictorial representation or word-picturing of the incident. This may seem at first thought a dry and un- interesting exercise. It may, indeed, be unpopular with a large audience who assemble merely for an evening entertainment ; but a small institute made up of earnest teachers will find intense interest and permanent profit 134 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. in such practical training. This very thing is what teachers are required to do every week at home. The suggestions made by the best workers at an institute in this practice-preparation must be invaluable to the majority of teachers in attendance. 22. Class Studies in Bible History. — Suppose an hour to be assigned to the following or some other histor- ical exercise (the plan to be printed on the programme) : (1.) Scri'pture Selections. — Exod. i. 7-14; iv. 27-31; xii. 40-42; xiii. 17, 18; ^umb. xxxiii. 1-48. [Instead of the last-named chapter read Psalm cvi.] (2.) Questions. — [Answers maybe given in writing.] 1. Why did the Israelites forsake Egypt ? 2. Might not the same results have been secured by leaving them there ? If not, why not ? 3. What was the route taken by the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan ? 4. Why did they not take a shorter route to Canaan '? 5. Wliat divine attributes are especially revealed through this part of the Jewish history? 6. What human imperfections and sins and virtue are exhibited in this history ? (3.) Map Exercise on "The Wanderings of Israel.'' (4.) Simultaneous Review. — In this exercise the whole institute should join with heartiness. If at first the answers are few and feeble, let the conductor patiently but firmly insist upon prompt, loud, simul- taneous answers. A very little tact will insure gratify- ing success. 23. An Analytical Exercise in the Books of Scripture. — At an institute held several years ago one hour was given to the analysis of "the Gospel according THE INSTITUTE. 135 to Matthew." The leader gave a brief lecture upon the author and his book, calling upon the institute to sub- stantiate the several points by Scripture references, admitting questions and the expression of dissenting or varying opinions all the way through. After this he placed the outline on the blackboard, as follows : I, Author. 1 Names. 2. Country. 3. City. 4. Business. 5. Character. II. Book. 1. Object. 2. Contents. 3. Size. 4. Style. 5. Language. 6. Sources of Information. 1. Genealogy of Jesus. 2. Infancy and youth. 3. Episode : The Baptist. 4. Introduction to His ministry. 5. In Galilee. 6. Galilee to Jerusalem. 7. In Jerusalem. This analysis, with the facts it elicited, was copied by each teacher. The lecturer or conductor drilled the in- stitute upon it. All answered in concert. Then word after word was erased from the board, and from memory the whole analysis was repeated by the class. 24. A Single Subject might occupy the attention of a two days' institute, supplying all the variety needed to keep up the interest, and concentrating all the ener- gies of the workers upon one subject so as to secure thor- oughness and completeness. Supopse, for example, that an institute spent six sessions on The Wanderings of Israel. In this you have — (1) Geographical Exer- cises on Egypt, Arabia, and Canaan. (2) Exercises on Ancient Manners and Customs. (3) Object leg- sons, blackboard outlines, etc. (4) Specimen infant, juvenile, and adult class exercises may be found in abundance in this most interesting department of the Bible. (5) What more suggestive and inspiring topics for the prayer-meetings and opening exercises than are 136 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. suggested by the pilgrimage to Canaan ? (6) Moses, as a model superintendent, would furnish a most fruitful theme, opening up the whole question of organization and administration, and giving admirable illustrations of true trust in God. 25. Object and Blackboard Lessons should be encouraged in the institutes. We must never reject a good theory or system because weak people abuse it. Let the criticisms upon all such exhibitions, however, in an institute be very candid and searching. 26. The Use of Text-books in a Sunday-school institute should be encouraged. A few pages from Inglis, Trumbull, or other standard Sunday-school authors, may be read, and discussion follow. Or on a given subject many authorities may be taken up. At an institute for thorough work in two days (by taking half an hour at a time) several small tracts on Sunday- school teaching may be read and discussed. A normal class in the institute may be required to recite lessons from such text-books. 27. Memories or Sacred Places. — The topic for a half-hour may be ^^Sacred Memories of Gethsemane,'' ^'Sacred Memories of Bethlehem,'' "Of the Temple,'' etc. Let each person be expected to furnish some fact. Use maps. Eecord the facts stated on the blackboard and in chronological order. Bead Scripture references in concert. A descriptive passage from a standard author relating to the place or its associations may be read bv a member of the institute. 28. Temple Studies, or investigations into the archi- tecture, furniture, utensils, services, offices, spiritual meanings, etc., of the Jewish tabernacle and temple. THE INSTITUTE. 137 29. Pictorial Illustrations may be extensively and profitably used in the Sunday-school institute. Colored diagrams large enough to be seen in all parts of a large lecture-room or church may be pur- chased or hired for an evening. The magic lan- tern affords a large field for such pictorial aids to teaching. These are often employed by lecturers on sacred history and archaeology, and I have seen them used with fine effect in Sunday-school conventions and institutes. 30. The Biblical Museum. — The diagrams already described render it practicable for the Sunday-school workers in any community to open for a few days a Biblical museum which will contribute to a better understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Curiosities from the Holy Land may be borrowed for the occasion. Addresses may be delivered by persons who have visited the far East. In this way teachers, parents, and senior scholars will be interested and instructed. An exhibi- tion like this in connection with an institute would be of much value. The North-Western Sunday-School Teachers' Insti- tute was organized in Chicago in the winter of 1864 and 1865. A "winter course" of institute lectures and other exercises was carried through. One evening was de- voted to the study of Jerusalem. A concert recitation on the gates, wall, etc., of the Holy City was conducted by the writer. Short addresses by Dr. Vandoren, Tut- hill King, Esq., of Chicago, and Rev. Dr. Kerr, of Eockford, all of whom had visited Palestine, were delivered. A variety of maps, pictures, panoramic views, etc., adorned the walls. Three or four tables 138 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. were filled with curiosities from the Holy Land : articles made of olive wood, water from the Jordan, Oriental wearing apparel, shells from the Sea of Galilee, flowers, specimens of Syrian wheat and barley, lamps, pipes, shoes, Damascus '^kob-kobs," sand from Lebanon, mosaic fragments from Tabor, etc. One table contained a large number of Oriental pictures, engravings, photographs, and stereographs. A stereoscope of large size contained thirty-six beautiful views of Eome, Egypt, Palestine, and Jerusalem.* At the Anniversary of the Sunday School LFnion (of the Methodist Episcopal Church) held in Columbus, Ohio, October, 1869, the E'ormal Department of the Union opened its Biblical Museum in the lecture-room of the Town Street Methodist Episcopal Church. One of the local daily papers thus described it : ^^In connection with the Anniversary Institute tEere is placed in the large lecture-room of the Town Street Methodist Episcopal Church, for the inspection of all visitors attending the institute, the very large and valuable archceological collection of Oriental antiquities, which comprises more than one hundred and fifty of the photographs of the Palestine Exploration Eund, two hundred highly colored diagrams illustrative of Eastern manners and customs, antiquities of Egypt, ^N'ineveh, Babylon, and Greece, the beautiful photographs of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, the best and most ap- proved maps and charts of the Eastern lands. We also found models of Eastern objects of interest, a model of the Temple of Solomon, a model of the Jewish taber- nacle upon the exact scale of four cubits to an inch, a * The Sunday School Quarterly, July, 1865. THE INSTITUTE. 139 model of an Eastern khan, or inn ; also, one of the city of Jerusalem and its surrounding country. ^^Collected in one room were complete Eastern costumes; also valuable relics, as lamps, bottles, shells, woods, water, and a variety of things designed to teach and unfold Scripture truth by way of suggestion and of visible illustration." 31. Essays by ladies or gentlemen at an institute should be short and practical. Essays need not always be read by the author of them. Some person with a clear, strong voice, who is a good reader, may be requested to give them to the audience. 32. Mutual Confessiotsts. — This describes a service held at a certain institute which more than any other stirred up intense feeling. The question was asked at the morning session, "What are your personal habits concerning the Word of God? Eor what objects, in what way, and how much do you read it?" Written and anonymous answers were presented in the after- noon from "Mothers," "Sunday-school Teachers," "Pas- tors," "Private Christians," and others. All seemed to feel anew the claims of God's Word, and to be amazed at their strange neglect of it. 33. Subdivision of Institutes. — It is a good thing to devote an afternoon to separate meetings of the several classes of workers. In one place let all Pastors convene, in another place the Superintendents. Hold one meeting for Librarians and Secretaries, another for Senior or Adult Class Teachers, another for Juvenile Class Teachers, and last, though by no means least in importance, a meeting for Infant Class Teachers. 34. Social Moments. — All who attend the sessions 140 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. of a hardworking institute will appreciate the announce- ment from the conductor's desk once at least during every session, ^'Ten minutes will now be spent in social conversation." 35. Sekvice of Consecration. — At the final session of an institute it will generally be appropriate to close with a special season of singing and prayer. We have seen hundreds of teachers rise in token of their entering into covenant to labor more faithfully in the Sunday school than ever before. The normal courses now provided for Sunday-school Avorkers supply the demand which led the author, as early as 1866, to recommend the following general course of study for institutes and normal classes. The course is republished here simply as an item of historic interest. First. — A series of about fifty exercises, to extend through one or two years, as circumstances may deter- mine, as follows: (1.) Five lectures by a professional and experienced teacher on the principles and art of teaching. (2.) Ten lectures on the Bible, its history, writers, inspiration, original languages, style, evidences, etc., with some simple statements concerning Biblical criti- cism and interpretation. (3.) Ten specimen lessons for infant, advanced, and adult classes. (4.) Ten exegetical exercises from the Old and "New Testament history, from the Psalms, Prophecies, and Epistles. (5.) Ten catechetical lessons for concert recitation on Bible history, geography, chronology, ancient man- THE INSTITUTE. 141 ners and customs, etc., covering in comprehensive les- sons the field of Biblical archaeology. (6.) Five lectures on the organization, objects, his- tory, management, cliurch relations, and development of the Sundav-school work. Secondly. — A prescribed course of reading, which shall insure the careful perusal of the best books on teaching. It was in 1866 that the author made the following suggestion, which had so much to do with the develop- ment of the Chautauqua Assembly of 1874: Why might not the State conventions appoint a summer institute in the principal cities, to continue three or four weeks, taking candidates through the course in that time ? We are sure that the Christian families of these cities would open their homes to the country teachers for that length of time, as they are now so often opened to the members of general assemblies, conferences, and conventions. And we are confident that no hospitality would pay as well to the church. With competent lecturers and instructors, what moral power might these institutes soon wield, and right liberally could the managers and lecturers be paid. We need also a wisely and thoroughly prepared course of study for all teachers — a course that may be employed in theological schools, colleges, seminaries, local insti- tutes, teachers' meetings, and regular church normal classes. Among the advantages to be reaped from such an arrangement we may mention the following:* * These words were written in 1866, long before the suggestion at the Lon- don Centenary (1880). 142 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. (1.) Its universal use, actual or contemplated, will incite many to use it. Men go in crowds. What interest and power attach to the 'Sveek of prayer" — from the simple fact that each offered prayer is a fila- ment in that wondrous belt of Christian devotion that girdles the globe during the first eight days of the new year! (2.) The plan w^ill tend to unite schools, and bring the talent of each into the service of all. One reason of our present impotency is the want of harmony and coaction among the various denomi- nations. (3.) It will encourage the right men to prepare suitable text-books and manuals for teachers. There has hitherto been singular deficiency in this d'epartment of religious and educational literature. Give us the insti- tute as a fact, and there are men among us who w^ill provide ^^helps" for the teachers. (4.) It may be said that we cannot find competent lecturers and teachers. The movement will develop the men. Pastors will become theological professors, and the practical teachers of our public schools will be de- lighted to use their talents in aiding this Sunday-school reform. At any rate, the most careless use of a pre- scribed course will be a vast improvement upon the present indifference and neglect which so weaken the influence of our Sunday schools. For local and general institutes some previous prep- aration is needed besides that expended upon the programme. It is important to select the proper persons to aid in "carrying out" the programme. If a condensed address THE INSTITUTE. 143 of fifteen minutes is required, do not employ for the purpose a notoriously tedious essayist or lecturer, who, having obtained the floor, will keep it for any length of time, in spite of the conductor's hints and bell-taps. Do not engage men simply because of their personal worth, tlieir relation to the church in which you meet, or the public esteem in which they are held as professional men. We all know more than one excellent doctor of law, medicine, or divinity, and more than one superior jurist, whom we should not select to instruct a class of Sabbath-school teachers or to entertain an audience of Sabbath-school people. General Clinton B. Fisk, in writing about a certain convention, said, ^^Pray that the gift of ^speakin' in meetin' ' may be measurably abridged for the week." Let us select men who have something to say, and have also the gift of stopping at the right time. Have all officers and persons who are to take a leading part in the exercises appointed sufficiently long before- hand to warrant ample preparation, and such adjust- ment of their business as to insure regular attendance. Insist upon a promise of such attendance so as to guard against the slightest probability of disappointment. There is a successful layman in N^ew York who, when an institute programme is made out, forwards a copy and addresses a note to each party interested in it, and the day before that for which any special exercise is announced he addresses a second communication to the party responsible for it, to prevent forgetfulness and insure attendance. Select a good room. Have it ready in time. It is a serious hindrance to the success of an institute to find 144 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. at the appointed hour a room just opened, cold, half- swept, or full of dust. Let amjDle notice be given. See that the local, secular, and religious papers frequently refer to the institute. Pay them for the service if necessary. Pre- pare pulpit notices and send them, not by mail, but by some committee, to the several pastors, whose cordial approval must by all means be secured. Large posters in conspicuous places are sometimes used for advertising institutes. Don't be afraid of a little expense. Request those in charge of the regular weekly prayer- meetings of the several churches to make the Sunday- school cause the topic of conversation and prayer at the meeting immediately preceding the institute. A special prayer-meeting for the success of the institute may be held. Request pastors to preach on the same subject the preceding Sabbath. A circular indicating three or four topics would not be improper. Prepare a complete list of Sunday-school officers and teachers connected with the schools to be represented in the institute. Register these in an Institute Roll-Book, and send a special ^^card of membership" with an earnest appeal in the form of a circular to every individual thus enrolled. Request from each a reply pledging attendance. Inclose a blank for the purpose. It may be a good plan to send to each superintendent a certain number of cards for ^^senior scholars,'' inviting such to a place in the institute. A personal invitation will often bring out persons who would otherwise be entirely indifferent. Purnish your institute room for the occasion. Have Bible pictures and maps on the wall. Secure the maps THE INSTITUTE. 145 necessary to illustrate all parts of Bible geography. Place a large, clean blackboard on the platform, furnish a rubber or brush, and a supply of crayons. Hang a clock where the conductor and teachers can see it. Pro- vide an organ or melodeon — a piano also, if practicable. On the conductor's table place a '^call-bell." Buy a full supply of paper and pencils for the use of the institute. In every seat put Bibles, singing-books, and pro- grammes, and do this before the hour for commencing. You need a large dictionary. Sometimes a verbal criti- cism is or ought to be made, and it is well to have an authority convenient. For the same reason, such a Biblical Cyclopaedia as Smith's Unabridged ought to be on the table. It will not always appear pedantic to have Greek and Hebrew lexicons for reference. Let the whole preparation for an institute contem- plate the improvement of teachers. Don't spoil it by consulting the public taste. You do not mean to enter- tain the public, but to prepare for edifying them. Have your own way, and rather close the door against the young and frivolous than allow them to degrade the character of your work. Do not consider great numbers as necessary to suc- cess. Ten earnest teachers can fill a meeting with in- terest. I heard Ralph Wells say one day that the best Sunday-school meetings he had ever attended were inci- dental conversations at the close of some regular service, when a few met at the door or in the aisle, and some question was started of practical importance, and every- body said about it just what he thought, and in an entirely informal way. Resolve to have a season of profit. There is a great 10 146 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. deal in simply willing a thing to be. Ten loungers in different parts of a clujrch, wondering why nobody comes, looking at their watches to see whether they had not better adjourn sine die because so few have arrived, croaninir over a lack of interest in the cause — such men will soon disperse, to report sad delinquencies in their fellows. But should one earnest man summon the rest to the front seats, urge all to wrest from the present disappointment a rich blessing, and give all something to do, the institute would be successful. If strangers from abroad are expected, let the com- mittee of arrangements see that preparations are made for conducting guests to their homes promptly. Provide more homes than you may have pledged names of dele- gates. As for the place of holding an institute, let it some- times be where most needed, and not where most wel- come. A few living souls from one locality passing over into a Macedonian neighborhood may find no less profit to themselves in an institute which shall quicken slothful, lukewarm, unawakened church members into a new life and service. On each programme or on a separate circular may be printed such of the following ''Directions" and ^'Mottoes" as may meet the approval of the ''Committee on Preparation :" OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL IXSTITUTE will soox commence its sessions. Directions. 1. Pastors, parents, Sunday-school officers and teachers, the scholars, and all others who are interested in the study of the Word of God, are cordially invited to attend. THE INSTITUTE. 147 2. Ascertain the day and date of opening, and resolve to be pres- ent regularly and punctually until the close of the institute. 3. Bring with you a Bible, Bible-maps, blank-book, and pencil, and take full notes of the proceedings. 4. Study the lessons assigned with great care. 5. Pray at the fireside and in the closet for God's presence and blessing. 6. Send to the conductor's table any suggestions or inquiries you wish to make. It is not necessary that you sign your name. 7. Invite your friends and fellow-workers to attend the institute. 8. Frequently, fervently, and with faith, ask God's blessing upon all our exercises. Programme Mottoes. "The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."— 2 Tim. ii. 2. "God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers." — 1 Cor. xii. 28. "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." — 2 Tim. ii. 15. "He who neglects God's Word, and saith, *I know God,' is deceived ; The truth that quickeneth through faith His heart hath not received ; Belief that comes from heaven's abode Inclines man to the Word of God." — Gellert. "On the next Sunday — who knows? — perhaps I shall rest in the graveyard. Some one perhaps of yourselves — a lily, broken untimely, Bow down his head to the earth. Why delay I? The hour is ac- complished. Warm is the heart. / will sow, for to-day grows the harvest of heaven.^' — Tegner, Longfelloic's Translation. 1. An institute must have leaders wlio possess enthu- siasm, common sense, tact, and experience. !N"o com- munity need go far to find a man competent to conduct a Sunday-school institute. It is not eloquent lectures 148 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. we need. Blackboard ingenuities, dissolving from acros- tic into enigma, and from enigma into rhyme, are not necessary to good institutes. Elaborate essays, brilliant class exercises, marvelous object-lessons, are not indis- pensable. A plain old farmer in Western Xew York listened for a long time to some details of method by '^representative men," as they were called, at a Sunday- school convention. lie then said, ''Mr. Chairman, in our school we begin the session with common sense, continue it wdth common sense, and close it with common sense." The old man's growl — for it was nothing more — had, after all, a good undertone. And we need to be frequently reminded that, after sanctified earnestness, we need nothing so much as common sense in our Sun- day-school work. ISTow let ten, fifty, or one hundred earnest men and women meet together to compare diffi- culties and plans, to aid and edify each other, and I am confident that the institute cannot be a failure. The man who is to take charge of such meetings should be ac- quainted with the practical details of the Sunday school, and should at the same time be competent to manage a public meeting — should have at least a slight acquaint- ance with parliamentary usages. 2. Samuel P. Bates, Esq., a distinguished public- school educator, in his lecture on the "Method of Teachers' Institute," says concerning the president of such a body, "He should in the first place have placed in his hands an exact programme of exercises, detailing the time which each is to occupy, and a limitation upon that which is allowed to each person in debate. When the time has arrived for an exercise to close, it is his duty to give prompt notice of the fact, and announce THE INSTITUTE. 149 and be ready to enter immediately upon that which is to follow. 'Much of the interest and profit depend upon the promptness and despatch with which the presiding officer brings on and closes the exercises as marked down in the programme." Says another, "He should be an earnest man, prompt, decided, courteous, well ac- quainted with the rules of deliberative bodies. He should keep the meetings moving briskly, confine the speakers in discussion to the subject announced to be discussed, and have courage enough to stop, without respect of persons, any speaker who exceeds his allotted time, if a certain time has been allotted." 3. The secretary should be able to report the best things of an institute in such a systematic and abridged form that the reading of his minutes will form a resume of the session, and have all the advantages of a con- ductor's review. Indeed, every member should keep full notes. The secretary may put a syllabus of the pro- ceedings of each session on the blackboard. 4. The opening exercises of an institute should be models of order and fervor. Let no notions of pro- priety chill the spiritual zeal of such an occasion. Re- member the spiritual aim of the Sabbath school and of the institute. Xow and then engage in a brief audible or silent prayer during the session. Sing, read, and pray "with the spirit and Avith the understanding also." Dr. Edward Eggleston says on the subject of singing at Sunday-school conventions, "Nothing helps a conven- tion more than good singing. By good singing we mean also religious singing. Do not use dull hymns, nor hymns that are not just in the key of the spirit of the convention. Sabbath-school music, full of enthusiasm 150 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. and of spiritual feeling, is the very best. A good chor- ister, who understands singing with devotional effect, should be selected beforehand to lead the convention, and the monotony of the exercises should frequently be broken by singing one or two appropriate stanzas." 5. I may add to these suggestions the counsel given by Professor Bates to the instructors of public-school institutes. They apply to all who attempt in Sabbath- school institutes to lecture and teach. He says, '^The instructor should be apprised of the part he is to perform in time for him to make careful preparation, and be able to present well-digested views. In order to discharge his duties profitably, he ought to be able to answer in a clear manner the following questions : For what purpose do scholars pursue this branch? Are the methods of instruction which have heretofore been practiced such as are calculated to secure the best and the largest re- sults ? If not, what changes can be made to improve them? Can I develop and elaborate the plan wdiich I would adopt in teaching this branch, so as to secure the results for which the study is pursued, and at the same time secure the interest and enthusiasm of my pupils ? Until an instructor can answer these questions intelli- gently, he is not prepared to stand up before a company of teachers and demand their attention." THE teachers" MEETING. 151 CHAPTER IX. THE TEACHERS'' MEETING. When I speak of a ^'teachers' meeting" I do not refer to an annual, quarterly, or monthly business meeting of the Sunday-school teachers. I do not understand the teachers' meeting to be the occasional sociable held in a private house, or in the parlor of the cliurch, and designed to promote friendli- ness among these workers in the church. The teachers' meeting is not an adult Bible class for the study of the subject-matter of the next Sunday's lesson. Many teachers' meetings have been utterly ruined by this false conception of its mission. A num- ber of excellent people have come together in utter ignorance of the lesson. They have studied it very much as they would in the church on Sunday in a regu- lar Bible class. There have been teachers and pupils, questions and answers, solemn reflections, practical ap- plications, and, too often, mere controversy upon obscure passages, trifling points, and doctrinal inferences; and this controversy sustained bj^ two or three interested parties, while the majority of the teachers were annoyed bevond measure. At first the teachers attend this meet- ino- ; thev feel their need of aid. But soon their interest wanes, they allow trifling obstacles to prevent regular attendance, and I am not surprised that the teachers' meeting is unpopular. 152 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. The teachers' meeting, therefore, is not for the study of the lesson de novo. I^o man is prepared to attend this meeting until he has already studied and mastered the contents of the lesson. I knew one most excellent pastor, who sustained a successful teachers' class for years, who always expected each of his teachers to recite the lesson from memory immediately after opening the meeting. lie took it for granted that all had made as thorough preparation as possible, so that they knew the lesson before coming to the place. The best conductor of such services should be placed in charge, be he pastor, superintendent, or teacher. Xo official prerogative should prevent the employment of the best man or woman for the position. The meeting should be held in a cheerful, comfortable place. A normal-class room in the church should bo fitted up in the best style with tables, chairs, carpets, maps, pictures, blackboard, cabinet of archaeological curiosities and illustrative apparatus, library of books, especially on the art of teaching, magazines, and other periodicals. The meeting should be held regularly. I^othing should ever be allowed to interfere with it. The sessions should generally be too short. Better to have the members of the class go away ten times regret- ting that the service was not longer, than to go away once feeling that they had been wasting time. Xever scold those present because so many are absent. A cheerful spirit is essential in the teachers' meeting. Resolve to have a good and profitable meeting even though but three attend. Nowhere is the Master's promise, "Where two or three are gathered,'^ more o THE teachers' MEETIXG. ISr likely to be fulfilled than in the Sunday-school teachers' meeting. The teachers' meeting is a teachers' meeting. It is a meeting of teachers, designed to increase their efficiency as teachers in a general way, but especially to prepare them to teach the particular lesson of the ensuing Sab- bath to the various grades of pupils in their school. It is a meeting for collecting illustrations, for discussing methods of approach to a class, for framing and compar- ing questions, for canvassing the difficulties which they expect to meet — difficulties which arise from the pecul- iar circumstances and characteristics of their pupils. If this be the true idea of the teachers' meeting, several practical directions of necessity follow. 1. Let the shortest possible time be spent at the opening of the session in the resume of the subject-mat- ter of the lesson. One teacher may make his statement of it. The others may listen, criticise, modify, and thus bring before the minds of all the theme which they have already investigated. 2. Let the lesson be studied with an eye to the pecul- iarities of the locality in which next Sabbath it is to be taught. ^'What is there in this lesson for our com- munity ?" Are there important moral duties brought to the surface — such as '^^Sabbath observance," ^^purity of speech," ^^parental fidelity," ^^reverence for parents ?" Which truth shall we make emphatic on next Sabbath ? Thus teachers may agree upon a general assault all along the lines, and such concentration will prove of immense value to that communitv. 3. Let the laws of adaptation be applied to the lesson in the teachers' meeting. The school is composed of a 154 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. great variety of pupils. Some are old, some young, some church members, others impenitent and irreligious. How may the truths of each lesson be put in the most effective and quickening way before the minds of the pupils ? The method emplo} ed with success by the primary teacher may not be in detail valuable to the teachers of either the juvenile or senior classes, but from the plans of the infant-class teacher there come richest suggestions, which greatly aid the others. A busy man who at his trade picks up practical illustra- tions, or the woman who in connection with her domestic duties finds points and parables which will lay the truth near the understanding of her pupils, may confer un- speakable blessing upon the most cultured teacher, who, coming from the atmosphere of the drawing-room and library, has too little knowledge of the real experiences of everyday life in his pupils. At every teachers' meet- ing the question should be asked and answered, ''How mav we illustrate the truths of this lesson so that all our pupils will be able to grasp and retain it ?" There may be much helpful practice in illustration in one or more of the following lines : Draw on slates or paper maps to illustrate the topography; prepare a diagram or outline to present several facts, topics, or truths contained in the lesson ; select the elements of the lesson which may be pictured or otherwise represented by pencil or crayon ; two or three incidents mav be called for bv which the truths of the lesson mav be illustrated to the average pupil ; comparisons and metaphors may be given by which to illustrate the leading truths of the lesson; the leader may call for facts of history, sacred or profane, by which to illustrate and enforce the lesson. THE teachers'' MEETING. 165 4. Let some time be spent in preparation for word- 'pkturing. This is one of the most effective methods of teaching. It appeals to the imagination. It transfers vivid, life-like scenes from the book to the brain. Ser- mons that are full of pictures captivate their hearers. The Great Master taught in parables. The mightiest teachers of to-day preach in pictures. Sunday-school teachers may in the teachers' meeting collect material for word-pictures, and construct word-pictures true to topographical, archaeological, and personal reality, true to the reality of action, full of vividness and power. Such an exercise as this among plain and ordinary peo- ple would be a perpetual inspiration. Small successes would encourage them to larger endeavor, and during the week each would come prepared to contribute his quota from thought and observation and experience for the general good. 5. Let some time be spent in conversation, or class experience, by individual teachers, either in the manage- ment or instruction of their pupils. Experience, sym- pathy, prayer, plans for concerted action, might thus infuse a new life into the average Sunday school. The occasional class-meeting for personal experience in re- ligious life and work would be exceedingly helpful to Sunday-school teachers. 6. Make an arrangement w^th the teachers who may not be able to be present at the meeting to spend that hour in the study of the lesson at home. This will pro- mote a feeling of unity, deepen the interest of all, and kindle a desire on the part of all to attend. In 1861 the author of this volume made the following suggestion in support of a temporary expedient for hold- 156 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. ing a teachers' meeting. Even earlier than that he used the uniform lesson in his Sunday school. The first ex- periment in this blending of the teachers' and prayer meeting was made in IS 57. There can be no successful Sabbath school without a regular meeting of the teachers. When shall this meeting be held ? 1. Not on Sahhath. We already have too much to do on the ^^day of rest." 2. Not on Saturday evening. Home duties, prep- aration for Sabbath, and choir-meetings are in the way. 3. On what other evening is it fjradicahle? We have so few ''evenings at home," and there are so many other meetings, especially in cities — concerts, lectures, polit- ical gatherings, etc., etc. In our country churches many of our best teachers live at some distance from the place of meeting. It is as much as they can afford to attend the regular weekly prayer-meeting. 4. Why not associate the teachers' meeting in some way with the regular pray er-7neet ing? The minister may make a brief exegetical and practical lecture on the lesson for the coming Sabbath. An hour may be spent in prayer. After prayer-meeting the superintendent can convene the teachers for the transaction of Sunday- school business. 5. Advantages of this 7nethod. (1) The teachers attend the weekly prayer-meeting. (2) The teachers are present at the ''teachers' meeting." (3) Time is saved. (4) The Sabbath-school workers are brought into contact with those members of the church who sel- dom think of that field of labor. (5) The sympathy of the pastor in the Sabbath school is secured. (6) It THE teachers' MEETING. 157 secures a more tboroiigli preparation on his part for his usual exhortation or lecture. (7) Gives point and definiteness to the prayers offered. (8) Encourages prayer in behalf of the Sabbath school. (9) Suggests to parents the leading topics upon which their children are to be instructed and examined on the succeeding Sabbath. (10) Attracts the older scholars to the prayer-meeting. 6. This is not mere theory. It has been repeatedly and successfully tried. 158 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL. CHAPTEE X. THE TEACHER AT WORK. The Sunday-school teacher conveys to the life of the puj:)!! the forces of Sunday-school organization and en- dowment. He is the carbon point from which the light flashes. Out of sight may be engine, fire, and dynamo, but he is the ultimate expression of their power. There- fore we cannot too highly exalt the office and work of the Sunday-school teacher. If the pastor will expend energy of instruction an-r THE LESSON REVIEW. 1 i i Although not connected with the lesson, nor legiti- mately involved in the discussion of this topic, I suggest the value of calling each Sabbath for the text of the niornin«: sermon, or, if the school be held in the morning, the text of the previous Sabbath, and of drilling the school in the regular recitation of this text, so that at the quarterly review the texts of at least twelve sermons may be repeated. In all general revievv^s aim at preserving the historical order of lessons. Follow the chronology. As each event comes into notice draw from it an appropriate practical lesson. Adopt occasionally the analytical plan of reviewing a lesson. What persons are here named ? In what places? At what dates or times? Their doings? The doctrines and the duties taught ? Or inquire : (1) What facts here reported ? (2) What difficulties? (3) What important lesson? At another time call for the prin- cipal PERSON in the lesson, and inquire: (1) What are the groupings — the time, place, companions, etc. ? (2) What actions by this principal person and by the others? (3) What equalities of character are brought out ? (4) What principles J what doctrine, what duties taught ? Announce one of the several practical truths taught during the quarter and then ask : In what lesson ? What were the circumstances ? etc. Use condensed outlines, and by representative letters put the lessons on the blackboard in a sort of sign- language, which the little people w^ill delight in de- ciphering. The Topic and Golden Text may be made the central 12 178 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. point of each lesson, and all the principal questions based upon them. A superintendent in Kew Jersey makes use of a long roll of paper, on which from week to week the prominent features of the lessons are recorded. As this is unrolled the school is reviewed. At the end of twelve weeks he has a lesson j)anorama. In conducting the weekly review the superintendent may fix upon one or more leading lessons, which he enforces at the time, and then at the quarterly review he may confine himself to these (in addition, of course, to the Titles, Topics, and Golden Texts). Divide among the classes the several parts of a review. Por example, request Class No. 1 to recall the pei^sons named in Lessons I. to III. ; Class Iso. 2, persons in Lessons IV. to VII., etc. ; Class 'No. 6 may name places of first four lessons, etc. Select several memory ^^lelp- words" (as recom- mended to teachers on page 176) and place them on the blackboard, erasing portions of them as the school drill or questioning proceeds, until none but the initials are left. This will facilitate frequent repetition. Take a large map of the ^'Scripture World" or of the ''Holy Land," and let the review be based on the geo- graphical elements of the lesson. As the superintendent points to a place, let the school name the persons and events associated with it in the quarter's lessons. As each lesson is thus brought into notice let the Title, Topic, Golden Text, Outline, and a practical truth be recited by the school. The review may comprise a series of word-pictures, by which the superintendent tests the acquaintance of THE LESSON REVIEW. ITO the school with the several lessons. Here, for example, is a word-picture from the life of Moses : A sand grave. Alarm. A long journey. A tired man. A well. Troughs. Shepherdess and six sisters. Shepherds. The helping hand. An early return leading to a question. A reply leading to two questions and a command. The stranger a son. Another form of word-pictures, which I called ''Men- tal Keview Pictures," were published from quarter to quarter for several years. The following is a speci- men: ''The lessons for the quarter are suggested in their order by mental representations as follows: 1. A DOVE hovers in the air, snow-white, its wings radiant with golden light, a sign to John the Baptist, a symbol of the work to be Avrought in the world by the gospel, and a preparation for the ordeal of temptation through whicli he who receives the Spirit of the holy dove must pass. 2. Suddenly, far below the dove, stretches out an expanse of water, a lovely lake^ in which the fisher- men cast their nets, and by the shores of whicli Christ invited them to become the 'fishers of men,' and near which in Capernaum He taught and wrought His won- ders. 3. From the radiant dove in the sky descend to the lake rays of light from head and breast and wings, representing the 'power to heal' that had come to the sons of men through Christ, upon whom the dove had descended. 4. The descending rays from the dove form in letters of liclit on the lake the word 'forgive- i^Ess.^ 5. All at once a golden atmosphere fills the sky and sea. And above the distant hills I read the words 'Sabbath Day.' The picture is full of restful- ness. 6. Below the word 'Sabbath' rises a hill, and on 180 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. the sea I see a ship. 7. All at once a darkened atmos- phere fills the picture. The light seems to be fading. One might think that seldom words were spoken. 8. On the hillside a man is sowing seed. 0. Not far from me I see a tree^ and on one of its branches a bird. 10. The sky is black, the sea rages, and the ship is tossed in a WILD TEMPEST. 11. Ecjond the ship and beyond the sea rise great walls of mountains in wdiich tombs are hewn out. 12. In the foreground stands a beautiful maiden, her face fixed on the heavens, and I hear her say, 'He giveth life.' " Instead of these more elaborate plans of review, the superintendent may give a fifteen or twenty minute outline of the quarter's lessons in a practical talh, well illustrated, and closing with a forcible application and appeal to the school. Occasionally provide for written answers by the school. For example, call for answers to one or more of tlie following questions: ''Which do you think is the most important truth brought out in the lessons for the quarter V ''Which is the most beautiful clause or verse contained in these lessons ?" ''What difficulties have you found which have not been settled ?" This "Question Drawer'' feature will prove both entertaining and useful. The leading practical lessons of the quarter may be thrown into a sort of "Bible reading." A prominent topic may be selected, and each Sabbath's selection be made to contribute to the enforcement and illustration of tliis topic. As teachers and scholars turn to given texts and read them, the superintendent may show their relation to the central thought of the "Bible reading." THE LESSON REVIEW. ' 181 Always encourage tlie infant class to participate in the general review by the recitation of a few verses, by ansAvering a few questions, and by singing a song. Secure a report from each class as to the scholars who have faithfully recited all the Topics, Golden Texts, Outlines, etc., for the quarter* This will form a "List of Honor." Whenever practicable arrange the review of each quarter into a ''Concert-Review Service" for the profit of the congregation. This may be given on Sabbath evening instead of the regular church service, subject always to the wishes of the pastor. This concert service may comprise songs, addresses, responsive readings, and class examinations. At the "Concert-Review Service" the Scripture com- prising the lesson for a quarter may be read respon- sively for an opening exercise. This may be called the ^'Review Reading." The success of the Sabbath evening concert-review will be greatly facilitated by a week-evening rehearsal. It is not expected that all the suggestions here furnished Avill be available for all superintendents, or that more than two or three of them can be employed on the same occasion. Every man has his peculiar gift. Let him learn what it is, and then employ and improve it. Here is a picture upon which more than one of us raay have looked : The superintendent strikes his bell. Order is not secured. The teachers and scholars still walk, talk, shuffle about, and read papers and books at pleasure. The superintendent asks a question. [N^obody answers. 182 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. He repeats it, and scolds the school for inattention, noise, and general neglect of preparation. He rings the bell again, asks the question again, scolds again, elicits one faint reply, propounds question number two, scolds the school, apologizes to visitors for the failure, stretches the truth a little when he says, 'This is very unusual," asks another question, talks tediously about some general truth in the lesson, and finally "changes the order of exercises." All vote the general review a bore, and the superintendent himself thinks it might as well be abandoned. Carefullv avoid such a failure as this. Is^ever omit the ' 'review." Let it be an invariable part of the programme. Be regular in requiring it every week, and your teachers and scholars will prepare for it. Be enthusiastic in reference to it. Study other men's ways of conducting it. Devise ways of your own. Make experiments. Secure variety. Put your whole soul into it. Be brief. A protracted review is likely to be a bore. Five minutes for a weekly review, eight or ten minutes for the monthly, and twenty or twenty-five for the quarterly. Be brief ! Be brief! BE BKIEF ! When you lose the attention of the school — quit. Quit before that. Prepare for reviews at the teachers' meeting by enlisting the teachers; explaining to them your plans and purposes, and eliciting frank criticisms from them upon your w^ay of conducting the Sabbath reviews. Don't wince if they point out your blunders. You are not infallible. Urge them to prepare their scholars for review, and from week to w^eek freely talk over methods and mistakes. THE LESSON REVIEW. 18Ji Use the printing-press in jour Sunday-school work. Send out circulars to parents, soliciting their co-opera- tion in securing home preparation by the scholars. Send occasional circulars to the scholars, pleading with them to study the several elements of each lesson, and to be ready for the review — weekly, monthly, and quarterly. Let the pastor give frequent notice from the pulpit of the requirements of the review, urging parents and scholars to give attention to this important part of the Sabbath study. A word from the minister is often heard and heeded by those who do not care so much for the superintendent's requests. Let the teachers in the class exercises keep in mind the coming review and prepare the scholars for it. Especially on quarterly review day, let ten minutes at least be occupied by the teachers with their several classes in special preparation. When the moment for review arrives, sing a single verse of some lesson-hymn, and sing it in a lively way. A song well sung prepares the school for work. See that all ''lesson-leaves" and question-books are closed when the examination commences. Be rigid in this. Allow no frauds in Sunday-school recitation that would be rebuked or punished even in an ordinary pub- lic school. Such laxity demoralizes a Sunday school. Insist upon honesty. Require the teacher to enforce this rule. I cannot overstate its importance. Give the management of the review to the right man. K'ever mind official position. Let the greatest in place bow to the greatest in tact. A plain teacher may some- times do this work better than pastor or superintendent. Before commencing the review secure perfect order. 184 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Allow nothing to interrupt it. One thing at a time. No whispering. Xo tract or paper distribution. ISTo collec- tions. Let the whole school be silent, and attend to the one thing — the lesson review. Don't ask a question until this silence is secured. Don't attempt in the review to cover too much ground. You cannot re-teach all that the teachers have taught. The reviewer has to do with general and salient points. In a quarterly review go over the whole ground once in a general way; then, if you have time, return and work up the details a little more fully. But don't try to do too much, and always quit when the time is up. Eemember that your object is not entertainment. It is merely an exhibition of knowledge. Nor is it a ^^drilF' only. The review is designed to deepen the religious impressions which religious truth is calculated to make. Enter upon the duty with the zeal and faith and honest purpose a minister should have in preaching a sermon. When you call for an ansAver see that you get it, and that both question and answer are understood by the whole school. Let both be stated clearlv. Call for an answer from all. If it must be repeated a dozen times, so let it be ; but do not leave the question until (from the entire room) you have received a round, full, harmonious, inspiriting answer. This, rightly managed, will make music, and all will enjoy it. Insist upon promptness, accuracy, distinctness, and heartiness. Avoid all sham and pretense. The simultaneous reply is calculated to mislead. It is a useful method of teaching, but remember that a ^^splendid" concert THE LESSON REVIEW. 185 answer is not an evidence that all in the school are familiar with the lesson. On the strong tide of simul- taneous response many a blockhead floats into favor. Avoid frivolity. Be in earnest. Impress your pupils with the sacredness of the place and the day ; and while you may foster a spirit of cheerfulness, carefully guard against all foolish jesting with things divine. A joke that is sharpened with a Scripture text is a sword, the handle of which is a blade. Treat all answers with respect. Don't turn a laugh against the honest perpetrator of an erroneous or ridicu- lous reply. This is cowardly and injurious. Kindly restrain the bold, who answer too promptly. Tenderly encourage the timid, who answer too re- luctantly. Forbearingly endure the obstinate, who won't answer at all. Subdue them by overlooking their silence, and by speaking as kindly to them as though they were fore- most in reply. An obstinate child, once convinced that his voice is not missed by his teacher, will begin to use it to the best of his ability. Train your older scholars to ansAver. Young men answer boldly in college classes, singly or in concert, and lose no sense of dignity thereby. Let the teachers set the example. Whenever the superintendent desires it, let them answer the questions he puts to the school, that the older scholars may be assured that the service is not ^^all and only for children." If you have addresses in school, let them be in the line of the lesson for the day. Use, but don't abuse, the blackboard. Use it every Sabbath if you can thereby the better review the lesson. 186 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Be willing to have it stand one ''day without a line rather than use it so as to divert attention from the TRUTH. Let the last words of all reviews be well chosen, and the most effective. Give a striking illustration, and frequently close with a practical question to which you ask no immediate reply. An interrogation point is very often a good point to leave with a school or congregation. Follow the review Avith a brief prayer. Lead a thoughtful school to the mercy-seat in fervent pleading for God's blessing on the service and on the truth taught. GRADATION. 187 CHAPTER XII. GRADATION. The Sunday school is a school. There are strong ar- guments, elsewhere adduced, for so far modifying tho title of at least one department now included under the general name of Sunday school, as to adapt it to a cer- tain class of young people; but, in fact, the Sunday school is and must be a school. It ranks with the secular school so far as its methods are concerned, modified, of course, by the different themes and text-books which we employ; but the mem- ory, the attention, the self-activity, the voluntary disci- pline, the thorough recitation, the careful examination, the frequent review, all of which are necessary to the acquisition of secular knowledge, must find their place in that school where the Word of God is to be studied and tauglit for the intellectual and spiritual profit of old and young. There is an educational element in the Sunday school, and there must be organization, management, and in- struction after the manner of the day school, and these should be such as have been approved by the wisest and most experienced secular teachers. The Sunday school must differ from the secular school in several respects : in the necessary inf requency of recitations (one each week), the lack of authority which gives such powder to the day school, the pre-emi- 188 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. nence given to the moral and sj^iritual aims, and the rec- ognized dependence upon divine aid. The work is not so much that of developing nature as it is of promoting the gracious element in the soul and of educating the natural powers under the presence and influence of divine grace. The natural power and the natural order are not to be ignored. Illiterate men, who know absolutely nothing of nor- mal methods, have sometimes been eminently successful both in preaching and in teaching. But this is no argument against the observance of natural law in spir- itual work. Such men often follow the most thorougli methods, although they know nothing of the laws in- volved. There is a sort of instinct in love which makes teachers. Common sense, a knowledge of human na- ture, and a heart full of love, will develop a teaching power which would, however, in every case be increased by a larger acquaintance with the principles and meth- ods of teaching. Love in the teacher of geology will give him a degree of power. But there is a wise way of teaching geology, and the best teachers are those who find it out and employ it. The religious objects of the Sunday school give its educational element peculiar advantage. It associates itself with the moral and spiritual elements, and thus tends to a symmetrical culture. It connects "the good, the true, and the beautiful." Communicating knowl- edge, impressing the conscience, winning the affections, subduing and controlling the will, moulding the char- acter, and improving the life, it emphasizes the moral and spiritual, as being of vastly greater importance, and as being preliminary to all other culture. It furnishes GRADATION. 189 the suhlimest themes which the human mind can con- template. It furnishes the noblest inspirations which can possess a souL It furnishes the choicest associa- tions in the pursuit of knowledge. The Sunday-school scholar comes in contact with refined and cultivated peo- ple. It comprises a longer period of life and study than the best secular school. One need never graduate from its associations and advantages. It is a lamentable fact that our modern Sunday school is too superficial. I believe it, on the whole, to be better now than ever, although in all stages of Sun- day-school history from the ver}^ beginning we might find examples of administrative and instructional method quite equal to the best that we have to-day. I believe that there is now a more widespread and general interest in the Sunday school as a scJiool than ever be- fore ; but I repeat the fear just expressed, that the Sun- day-school instruction of to-day is too superficial. This is unfortunate, because never were our secular schools more attentive to method and to thoroughness of work than uoav, and the contrast between the school of the week day and the school of Sunday must work to the disadvantage of pupils in both institutions. The prob- lem before us is: How to increase and intensify the educational element in the Sunday school. There are several features in the educational system of the secular school which may be appropriated by the Sabbath school, such as the school system in organiza- tion, administration, instruttion, examinatio7i and re- ports, the school curriculum, the school gradation, and the school spirit. All these elements must, of course, be modified by the lUO THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 2>eciiliar ends, aims, and inspirations which belong to the Sabbath schooL I call attention in this chapter to tlie grading of the Sunday school. Now, a school left to itself will grade itself after a fashion, and that not a very bad fashion. Age Avill draw the line first. The relative attainments of pupils will in a general way fit in with the gauge of the years. Thus the most unorganized school will have an infant department, a children's department, a young people's department, and an old folks' department. There you have it all done for you, by simply trusting to the natural instincts of people. You may stretch other lines, and build steps and platforms across these general sub-divisions, if you find that you can afford to do it. And soon you will have primary infant and sec- ondary infant, or intermediate ; first children's grade and second children's grade ; junior youths and senior youths ; then special-class normal for those who are pre- paring to teach ; special adult classes for those who want to study the Word conversationally, critically, and con- nectedly ; and special lecture-class, as I have for years called it, for those who would like to receive instruction from a wise and agreeable lecturer, but who, for some reason, are unwilling to submit to the questioning of the lecturer in an ordinary Bible class. After this come in advanced week-evening classes in Biblical knowledge, historical, geographical, doctrinal, exeget- ical, with classes in church history, denominational church life, or other lines of religious study. In con- nection with the school may be organized special grades or departments for Saturday afternoons, or at other times, designed to teach the catechism of the church. GRADATION. 191 juvenile lessons in Bible history and geography and church missionary work. The following plan I had the honor to submit, in 1875, to the Brooklyn (N. Y.) Sunday-School Union Institute : 1. The Primary or Infant. Made up of the non- reading pupils, usually averaging from five to eight years of age. 2. The Intermediate or Elementary pupils. From eight to ten. 3. The Third Grade or Junior. From ten to fifteen. 4. The Senior Grade. This includes the older pupils, and embraces the lecture-class. 5. The Normal Grade. Made up of two classes of pupils — the candidates for the teacher's office, who form a sort of preparatory normal class, and those who give attention especially to the study of methods and to actual practice in teaching. To this latter division of the normal department the regular teachers of the school should belong, at least until they have completed the course of study required. 6. The Sixth or Permanent Grade. This will em- brace all who have passed the preceding grades, or who on account of good scholarship shall be elected by the proper officers or board of the school. This grade is designed to hold its members for life. It is to be the very highest department of the school, and may from time to time add to its list of members distinguished names who may thus contribute to the exaltation of the Sunday-school work and its increased influence, espe- cially over the ambitious and growing youth of the land. One of the most thoroughly organized schools in 192 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCIIOOl.. America is that of the late Hon. Lewis Miller, in Akron, O., to which I have already alluded. In the account of his school by the teacher of his normal department, published in the Normal Class in 1875, I find the fol- lowing report of the system of gradation : ^'For a few minutes we will notice the different grades, having special permission to pass into the rooms, while ordinary visitors can only look in through the ample glass windows. In the infant department over a hundred bright faces greet us, varying from three to eight years. Active, restless, but sparkling, they are waiting the fulfilment of the Saviour's command, 'Feed My lambs.' There is no routine of recitation here. If you notice carefully the method of developing the lesson on one Sabbath, you may be sure the method will be varied on the next. The children are entertained and rested by singing, in which they can engage without disturbing the rest of the school. The theme for in- struction is the same as that of the entire school, only the milk of the Word is given by their judicious teacher. '^Passing to the intermediate department, we find a grade of scholars from eight to twelve that are taught, in addition to the regular lesson, the main truths of the church catechism ; it being the superintendent's opinion that here the general doctrines of the church can be in- delibly impressed on the child's memory, although it may be years before they are fully understood. ''The youths' department consists of two grades, one occupying the main room, where there are about eight pupils in a class, and the other occupying eight of the class-rooms, and varying in number from twelve to GRADATION. 193 twenty. These divisions differ only in the age of the pupils and method of instruction. ''The normal department, but recently organized, nmnbers fifty young ladies and gentlemen. They have commenced the course prepared by Dr. Vincent, and not only expect the diploma he awards to the successful student, but one that is to be specially engraved for the Akron school. After graduation, if there is no class ready for them to teach, they will pass into the adult Bible department, which is composed of three classes — one for young people, two for those more advanced in life, the fathers and mothers in Israel. "After forty minutes for the special work of the teachers has passed, a signal calls the attention to the desk. The doors are folded back, the few chairs are turned, and in from one to two minutes, without con- fusion, the school is ready for general exercises. These consist in questions and answers concerning the lesson ; an appropriate blackboard exercise; reviews, remarks from visitors, pastor, or superintendent; a song from the school, or from a class appointed for that purpose ; and, it may be, the reading of an obituary of some loved member taken later to the upper congregations. The secretary then reports the number of male and female pupils, respectively, in each department, and the mmi- ber of teachers, officers, and visitors. Doxology and benediction follow, and the large doors are thrown open, permitting the scholars to pass out with ease and quiet- ness. The average attendance for the past year was five hundred and five." The article continues: ''In conclusion, I will give a brief outline of the course of study to which Mr. Miller 13 194 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. is trying to bring the school. All classes study the International Series. In the infant class special atten- tion is given to the story, the pupils remaining there four years. In the intermediate the historical parts are dwelt upon in connection with the catechism, pupils remaining three years. Four years are allotted to the first division of the youths' department, where the lesson with all its contexts is read. Three years for the second division, where various analvses of the lesson are produced. Then the pupils at the average ago of eighteen years, having gone through the Bible twice, enter the normal class, where methods and outside evi- dences are taught. Then those not having classes pass into the Bible department, which is synthetical in its character, including all of the preceding in its search for the deep things of God. In all departments the practical truths of the lesson that tend to make the learner wise unto salvation are pressed home upon the consciences. ^'This course is still to a large extent theoretical, requiring time to bring it to perfection." In the early years of my ministry I worked in the Sabbath schools of my several churches, both as pastor and as assistant superintendent. In those years I devel- oped a scheme of gradation or classification which proved most successful in inciting children to study, in retaining the youth, and in attracting to the school and church the older people. I did not separate the school from the church, but made it simply a department of the church. The uniform lesson was almost invariably em- ployed, except in the infant class. I had in 1853 and 1854 a regular graded church catechism department; in GRADATION. 195 1855 and 185 G I added a Saturday afternoon class in Bible history and geography, which comprised five grades;"^ in 1857 to the catechism and Biblical history classes I added a thorough normal class, with studies in the theory and practice of Sunday-school teaching and in the Holy Scriptures. A popular Bible class on one evening of the week; courses of short lectures on early church history; probationers' classes, for the training of candidates for membership in the church; special sermons on church doctrines, and other devices and provisions, gave to the whole church an interest in Bible study, church history, denominational work, and espe- cially in the Sunday school as an organic part of the whole church life and order. Graduation from plane to plane was a necessity of growth ; and in such scheme of gradation I heartily believe to-day. It is easily possible to apply too rigidly a system of classification to a Sunday school. This is to be scrupu- lously avoided. One of the mightiest factors in our Avork is the personal influence of the teacher. Better fracture a stereotyped law of promotion than sever pupil and teacher in Sunday school, who are bound by cords of mutual confidence and affection. The system of the day school must not be allowed to mar the more delicate, sacred, and potent relationships of teacher and pupil in the church of God. It may interesting to read the following editorial report of a Jewish Sunday school, made by the author several years ago. It gives an illustration of the educa- tional feature : ^On Eifth Avenue, 'New York, in the immense and * See Appendix F. i't 190 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. elegant Jewish Temple Emanu-el, a Siniday school is held every week, which deserves the title its founders gave it, 'The School for Religions Instruction.' ''Of course it is not a Sunday school for Christian children. It is a Jewish institution. It has no Lord Jesus Christ in its creed nor in its worship, except as it teaches of the Messiah yet to come. It does not believe in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit in the sense in which we believe in it ; but in the system of instruction and of organization and administration which it has adopted we may learn many things to our profit. Per- haps, indeed, there is too much of the routine and method of the public school, and too little of the freedom and flexibility of the religious school, in which a gospel of life and hope and joy is taught ; but such as it is, the school of the Temple Emanu-el is w^orthy of a place among our noted and well-conducted schools. It has much that is w^orthy of admiration and of imitation. ''We need not give a description of the elegant temple in which this school is held. Its basement is fitted up specially for school purposes, having a large number of class-rooms in which, during the lesson hour, the classes may meet by themselves, free from all interruption. On the occasion of our visit the main hall was empty, all the classes being in their several rooms ; and when, at the signal for the reassembling, the large lecture hall filled up, w^e wondered where the multitude could have been scattered. A visit through the building answered the query. "The school is under the control of a committee of gentlemen, the Rev. Dr. Gottheil, the rabbi in charge of the temple, being superintendent. This committee GRADATION. 197 has a room handsomely furnished, in which the business meetings are held, and where, during the school exer- cises, several of the members may be found. Of course, it did seem a little singular to us to find three or four of these gentlemen smoking as they attended to the business of the school referred to them, answering questions of juvenile messengers, administering a word of rebuke to pupils who had been sent to them for discipline, etc. But gentlemen they were all in bearing and spirit. They seemed to have watched the Sunday-school work of their Christian neighbors, and to be somewhat inter- ested in the international scheme of lessons. They seemed to take pleasure in showing us about, and in explaining their plan of work. We visited several of the classes, which are much larger than ours usually are, and in which the methods of instruction adopted in the secular school prevail. In one class we found one of the committee examining the children in Old Testament history. He elicited from the little fellows the story of Lot. These little Hebrew learners seemed to be familiar with the entire story. The school had no uni- form lesson system. There are classes in Hebrew, in Biblical history, and in post-Biblical history. They also have classes in music. Some of the teachers are paid. ^'When the bell sounded for the first grade of scholars to enter the hall after the class recitations were over, the piano accompanied their entrance with a march. After the school had all assembled and perfect silence w^as secured, the rabbi. Dr. Gottheil, gave the school a very short lecture based upon an incident in the Bible record of Cain and Abel. It was interesting and profitable. 198 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. He illustrated the practical lesson drawn from it by a tradition or two from the Talmud. The singing of the school was fine. ^^An idea of the organization and practical working of this school may be gathered from the following rules and regulations: 1. For the observance of parents and pupils ; 2. For the observance of teachers. " ^I. Rules and Regulations. — Pupils and their Parents or Guardians. — 1. The regular school hours for religious instruction are from ten to twelve o'clock on Sunday morning ; for Hebrew, Sabbath and Sunday from nine to ten. 2. Applications for admission to the classes for religion will be received by the school com- mittee on the first Sunday in September, and in each succeeding month up to the last Sunday in December ; but admission to the Hebrew classes cannot be obtained after the last Sundav in N^ovember. Children under eight years of age, wdio are unable to read English with tolerable fluency, cannot be admitted. 3. It is of great importance that all pupils be in attendance from the opening day of the school, as the recitations commence at once, and are continued in regular succession without much chance for absentees to recover their losses and fill up gaps. As the time at our disposal is very limited, while the field which pupils have to traverse is extensive, the utmost economy in time is imperatively demanded. For the same reason, parents and guardians are ear- nestly requested not to detain the pupils from attend- ance on any but the most urgent causes, nor to prevent their punctual appearance in the class-room by emjdoy- ing them for errands during part of the school hours. 4. Pupils are required to be in attendance at least ten min- GRADATION. 199 utes before the commencement of the exercises, and to take their places quietly and decorously on entering. Loitering around the school premises while coming to or going from school is strictly prohibited. Pupils are particularly enjoined, while marching from room to room, not to break the line of march, nor to cause any noise by running, boisterous walking, stamping, etc. 5. On entering the class-rooms, pupils will at once take the places assigned to them, and neither change nor leave them without permission, nor loiter in the hall when permitted to leave the room temporarily. Talk- ing and prompting during the instruction are strictly prohibited. 6. Gentleness and politeness of manners are expected in every pupil, to which must be added prompt obedience to teachers and school officers. Any continual want in these qualities will tell against the pupil's standing in the school, and may even lead to sus- pension or expulsion. 7. The pupils are further ex- pected to come well prepared for their school lessons by diligent study at home, and to pay close and undivided attention to instruction and recitation. 8. Lateness or absence from school shall be excused on account of sick- ness or other unavoidable circumstances, of w^hich written notice to the teacher shall be given by parents or guardians. Otherwise marks of demerit will be entered into the roll-book against the absentee. In case of con- tinued neglectfulness, the pupil will be dismissed for the term bv decree of the school committee. 9. The pupils Avill receive bi-monthly reports of their conduct and application for the inspection of parents or guar- dians, who are requested to sign the reports on presenta- tion and return them, by the pupils, to the teacher. The 200 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. return must be made within a fortnight. 10. The superintendent and committee wish it to be understood that they are determined to secure strict compliance with the foregoing or any other rules or regulations they may think proper to adopt for the successful con- duct of the schools, by all the means in their power ; they appeal to parents and guardians for their co-opera- tion, trusting that they w^ill impress those under their charge with the sacredness of the work at the school and the high import of the objects taught therein, for then only can they hope to achieve what they have earnestly at heart — a sound and effective religious training of our youth in the doctrines and principles of our ancestral religions ! " ^Confirmation Classes. — 1. Pupils intending to enter these classes must provide themselves with a written notice to that effect from parents or guardians, must have passed their thirteenth birthday, and must have reached the entrance standard of the first class. 2. They must be able to satisfy the minister as to their general standing in the school. Any serious shortcom- ing either in conduct or application, or want of earnest- ness and appreciation of the import of religious studies, incapacitates a pupil for admittance to the confirmation class. Should such deficiencies become apparent in the course of instruction, the pupil will not he permitted to receive the rite of confirmation during that year, but will have to continue the preparation for another school term. 3. The confirmation class of the girls' department will assemble on Tuesdays, and that of the boys' depart- ment on Thursdays, at four o'clock, to begin on the first week of January. gradatioin". 201 " ^11. Rules ais^d Regulations for the Observ- ance OF Teachers. — 1. Teachers shall be at their post at least ten minutes before the opening of the classes or exercises. They shall keep their roll-books, and mark therein the attendance, deportment, and merits of pupils in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school committee ; they shall always have them written up care- fully and correctly, and keep them on their desks during school hours for the inspection of the school committee. Teachers of Hebrew classes will keep a separate roll- book for that branch of instruction. They shall take care of the contents of their desks, and of all other property and effects belonging to the class-room, and shall see to it that they are not damaged by the pupils. 2. N^o pupil shall be enrolled into any class except upon the presentation of a check signed by the superintendent or a member of the school committee. These checks must be preserved by the teachers until the close of the school year; in case of removal of pupils to another class, their checks must be delivered to them and taken by them into the new class. The date and cause of transfer must be mentioned thereon. Upon entering the names of pupils on the roll-book, the teacher will ar- range them in alphabetical order ; he will write out each name in full, and be careful that it is properly spelled. 3. Whenever a pupil is removed from any class, or leaves the school entirely, the teacher shall make a memorandum thereof on his roll-book, and mention it in his general report to the school committee. 4. The following reports shall be prepared by the respective teachers: a. Absentee Reports. — Whenever a pupil shall have been absent for two successive weeks without 202 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. a satisfactory excuse, the teacher shall make an entry thereof upon one of the absentee blanks provided for that purpose, and send it to the committee-room. h. Bi- monthly Reports. — To be sent to parents or guar- dians for examination and signature. These reports shall be prepared at the end of every second month, in accordance with the established rules of the school. c. The General Report. — This report shall be pre- pared for the use of the School Board at the end of each month, and contain a statement of the total marks attained by each pupil during the past month. These reports shall be prepared regularly at the specified time, and in manner and form as prescribed by the School Board ; they shall be prepared separately for the Hebrew and for the religious classes, except the bi-monthly re- port to parents, which the pupils, after having received from their teacher in the religious class, and before taking home, shall be required to submit to the teacher of their Hebrew class, who shall insert therein their standing in that branch. 5. A teacher being absent from his post without satisfactory excuse, w^ill lose one week's salary for every such absence. 6. When the pupils are assembled in the lecture-room, they are under the direction of the superintendent or his substitute. The teachers are expected to remain with their respec- tive classes, and to assist in maintaining quiet, order, and prompt attention to the signals given from the su- perintendent's desk. 7. When in their respective class- rooms, the pupils are under the sole and entire control of the teacher ; he alone is then responsible for the dis- cipline. 8. The means in the power of the teacher for the maintenance of discipline are: (1) admonition; (2) GRADATION". 203 marks and tasks; (3) complaint to the school commit- tee. 9. In case earnest and repeated admonition prove ineffective, the teacher punishes misconduct bj taking off marks of merit if there are any; and if not, by re- cording demerits. He mav also impose tasks in writ- ing. Of such tasks a note is to be made in the last column of the roll-book. 10. Should all these means prove ineffective, the teacher will then send the refrac- tory pupil to the committee, with a statement of his complaint in writing (on the forms provided for such a case), and await the action of the same. 11. The fore- going rules and regulations are laid down for teachers of Hebrew as wtII as those of religious classes ; their strict and faithful execution is necessary to the proper management of the school. A violation of, or non-com- pliance with, any one of them will be regarded as a breach of the contract existing between the school com- mittee and the teacher. By order of the School Board.' '^We present this account of a Jewish Sunday school. It is especially interesting, as it shows the close con- nection between the school and the f amilv, and reminds us of the strictness with which the Jcavs of all ages have trained their childr£n in their ancestral faith. Our memories of the Sunday spent in Emanu-el are very delightful, and our prayer is that this most excellent school may continue to prosper, and its members come one day with us to see Him who is our King — the Lord Jesus Christ — the end of all the law and of all the ceremonies which the devout Jews of all ages have held so dear.'' 204 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. CHAPTEK XIII. THE PRIMAEY CLASS. The primary teacher's work is delicate and impor- tant. There are, however, extravagant statements made concerning the power of infant training, based upon certain errors to which I call attention. All the possi- bilities of life are not wrapped np in infancy. Early impressions have great power, but failure in childhood is not necessarily failure for all time. There is a differ- ence between physical breakage and moral deflection. The delicate vase, once shattered, can never be restored, but a plant misdirected or injured may yet grow into strength and beauty. There is a persistency of cor- rective power in the life-force. There is a boundless- ness of grace in the infinite heart of God. There is a vigilant and tender providence by which God leads souls through the years, out of sin into virtue. He respects freedom, and teaches as souls will receive teaching. It sometimes seems to require a lifetime to lead a soul into the way and the peace of the Lord. The final re- sults of the divine treatment may not be achieved until heads are silvered w^ith age. Time is an important element in soul-guidance and culture. And it is possi- ble to neutralize early errors — at least to a great extent. But it is better not to err. The work of grace depends upon personal acceptance. You are not working among laws of physical dynamics. THE PKIMARY CLASS. 205 You cannot always be sure how or when results will be secured, or whether certain results will be reached at all. You cannot peer into the mysteries of divine control or of human volition. A child trained up well will become an adult well trained. "Train/' and ''train up" — all the way up. Begin at the beginning and keep at it all the way ''up." There is a law of success in spiritual training, but it is for us to heed the practical side of the statement and "train" the candidate, always remember- ing the force of "train upf and not contenting ourselves with "early training" alone, as though that were all. It is the principal work of the primary-class teacher to teach the religion of Jesus Christ to his pupils, and that with a good practical tone and application. The child lives in the world of sense. Its eyes are open to the ten thousand objects around it. This fact may hinder the work of religious teaching. It lives under the dominion and in the world of the imagination. It glorifies everything on which it looks or of which it has heard. It takes to the world of fairy-life as a bird does to the air. It is always ready for a story. It delights in parables. The infant pupil lives in a world of un- questioning faith. It believes all that it hears. The most improbable and absurd statement even by a stranger is received with perfect faith. The infant pupil has a most retentive memory. The objects it sees, tlie stories it hears, the statements it once believes, all remain in its soul as so many vivid pictures. All these capacities and powers render the work of the religious teaching of infants extremely delicate and difficult. We must not depend upon memory deposits. Con- science and will and affections may be corrupted, though 206 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. the memor J be full of catechism and ScrqDtiire and sacred hymns. Intellectual training is of little value. If secured at the expense of moral culture, it is worse than worthless. We must not depend upon emotions. Fear and sympathy and the delights of aesthetic excitement have their place in the religious training of children, hut may exist without moral sensitiveness or strength of purpose. As primary teachers, work by faith. Mysteries cloud the realm in which we serve. They surround God's purposes and operations, and man's convictions and decisions. J.earn how to teach all sides of the soul according to the divine order, and then trust God. Treat it not merely as a curious, excitable, craving little intellect, but remember that the conscience and the affections of a child are responsive to law quite as early as is his intellect to the statements of fact and principles. The child's love, like a fragile tendril, seeks something it may cling to. Its early sorrows need comfort. Its early sins need pardon. It is the teacher's work to lift up law before the infant conscience, to hold the Lord Jesus within reach of his longing love, and to soothe his early sorrow^s wdth heavenly balm. The infant-class work is "work for souls" as really as is that of the pulpits. The truth as it is in Jesus is the food wherewith you are to "feed the lambs." The "paths of righteousness" are the paths into which you are to lead their feet. The teacher of the primary class must aid his pupils in cultivating the spirit and in performing the acts of devotion. Children's prayers reach the ear of God, and if offered in true faith, receive a prompt reply. Every such prayer, by its reflex influence, strengthens and THE PEIMARY CLASS. 207 exalts the child's character. This result is the more marked with infancy because of its quick susceptibility. Then, these early impressions and convictions remain through the whole of life. How the mountain, that our eyes gazed upon in childhood, was magnified and glorified in our thought ! We return in mature life and look u2:>on the mountain again, but Avith somewhat of disappointment. It is not as vast as we thought. The earliest views we get of God should be so clear and strong that the influence of them might go with us through life. He will never disappoint us. The moun- tain to our manhood's vision may be less lofty than that our child-eyes wondered at; but the infinite God will ever be a wonder and a glory, and no maturity or expan- sion of intellect will ever outgrow a true thought con- cerning Him. Therefore the utmost care should be used to make the right impressions upon even little children when they attempt to pray. The devotions of the infant class should be full of reverence and silent awe, and then of gratitude and gladness. They should not be merely performed. They should not consist of mere ritual or recitation. Every prayer and every song should be preceded by preparatory explanations and reflections and summonings of the children's thought, reverence, and love, as for a holy service, so that they might wait for God's answer, and go away saying, as did one little darling, ^'I think I shall do right this Aveek, for God's going to do it for me. I asked Him." It is important that the prayers of an infant class be not a playing at prayer. Quiet, thoughtfulness, the closed eyes, should accompany the brief, simple, and direct petition of the teacher. One cannot be too careful 208 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. how he leads the minds of little children in the formal worship of God. Concerning the infant-class room I may say that one may admire the setting of a diamond without failing to appreciate the gem itself. The gospel you teach will not lose its charm or power by brightness, freshness, comfort and beauty in the room where you teach it. Convenient seats, pleasant carpets, soft cushions, fresh air, frescoed walls, lloral decorations, stained-glass win- dows, mottoes and pictures on the walls, delight the little ones, and will interest them in you and the gospel you bear to them. ''Father Gardner,'' in Washington, D. C, has rare taste in the adornment of his infant-class room. He is a very old man, but a very young old man. He has crossed the eighties, and although some snow- flakes have rested on his brow, his heart is buoyant and sprightly and gladsome as it could possibly have been sixty or seventy years ago. In his infant-class hall canary birds sing in their cages, and bouquets in beautiful vases throw their fragrance and radiance over the room. If the birds sing when he talks, or in any way dis- turbs the children in their lessons, he has a way of covering up the cages, and the little warblers are ''as still as church mice.'' But the birds and the flowers help the old man wonderfully. How the little members of that class look forward all the week to their Sunday school, with its birds and blossoms, and blessed old teacher of the grey hair and glad face ! To some of them it is the only oasis in the wreck's journey ; to all It is an Elim.* Although you have not a large supply of * Since these words were -written, our dear old friend bas gone to the hettei land. THE TRIMARY CLASS. 209 money, you may do something in this direction, for water is free, and whitewash cheap, and flowers — do they not grow for all ? Wreaths and festoons of ever- greens may he hetter than frescoes. In almost every community there is some one with artistic skill enough to prepare on plain paper heautiful mottoes to hang on the wall, and illustrative designs to use in teaching. The little fellow wdio comes to your beautiful class- room has a physical nature. He is in the body, and a very busy, restless, troublesome little body it is. There- fore don't require him to hang his feet from a high bench, or ^^sit still'' under fear of your wTath, until the schoolroom becomes a prison, and your law like fetters to him. Don't let his physical discomforts so divert attention from your teaching that he really does not know what you are talking about. Give the little lungs fresh air and plenty of it, and the little limbs ample room. Systematize the "fidgets" once in a while into a pleasant gymnastic exercise of some sort. Let the class fold arms, rise and sit, twirl fingers, and turn bodies, march and countermarch, if you please, just as they do in every well-regulated secular infant school. It seems to me I could usually in some way connect the facts of the lesson with these movements, so as to make even the relaxation of the class a medium of instruction in the lesson for the day. Thus, in the lesson about Jesus at twelve years, the seventy miles from [N'azareth to Jerusalem, and the twelve years, and the eight days of the feast, and the third day, were all used by one teacher as a guide for a sort of gymnastic exercise in the class — the children rising and sitting three times, counting eight, striking their hands twelve 14 210 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. times, and finally raising both hands seven times to show how ^'manj miles it was to Jerusalem from IN'azareth." This exercise was used merely to i-est the weary little fellows, but it incidentally gave them sev- eral definite ideas about time and distance as suggested by the lesson for the day. As to the organization of the class I need say but little. There should be one responsible teacher — the best teacher in the church, wise, firm, gentle, patient, and full of tact. She (such a teacher is likelv to be a woman ; there are few "Father Gardners" ) will have the infant class subdivided into small classes under assistant teachers, or she will teach them all herself by the simul- taneous method. Whichever plan she thinks best will be best for her. I fully approve of Mrs. Knox's admir- able 2^1an of class subdivisions, but I know human nature too well, and too much respect the individuality of the teacher, to ask her to adopt a plan which she does not see to be the wisest. Whatever the method, the exercises of the class should be varied. Elastic as rubber balls, juvenile brains leap from topic to topic with marvelous rapidity. It is difficult to hold them for any considerable length of time to one subject. This is the reason that repetition is so indispensable; that line must be given upon line, and precept upon precept. And for this reason you must concentrate your efforts so as to make at least one deep and strong impression at each session of the class. This can only be accomplished by variety in the methods we employ. The one topic for the day must be held up in the prayer, set forth in the songs, illustrated on the board by the picture and story, recalled by questions, THE PRIMARY CLASS. 211 reviewed and re-reviewed with such a diversity of de- vices, that the attention of the restless pupil shall be steadily held to this one truth. For this reason I like the class method employed by Mrs. Knox. The change from class recitation to that of the simultaneous review secures both variety and thoroughness. In teaching little peoj)le we must use objects that appeal to the sight. The eye receives more knowledge, and that more readily, than the ear. Hence eye-teach- ing is more effective than any other. You may discourse from the pulpit with the eloquence of a Chrysostom, but if the sexton should carry his taper about to light the gas-burners all your oratory will go for nothing. That little tonffue of flame will win the attention of vour audience in spite of you. Hence in teaching children, who have still less power of self-direction than adults, so far as attention is concerned, you must use objects, or draw word-pictures, or tell stories and parables, that by putting knowledge in concrete forms you may win and retain the attention of your pupils. Hence, in the infant class especially, appeal to the eye in your teach- ings. A leaf, a grain of wheat, a flower, a dried branch, an ajDple, a toy, a lamp, a cane, a pebble, a stuffed bird, a piece of white paper, a blotted page, a torn book, a grain of sand, a globe — how many things there are in this world from which lessons may be drawn or by which they may be illustrated ! Can you find an object in nature that does not hold in it somewhere and some- how a truth proper to be taught to your pupils ? Es- pecially keep your mind full of Scripture incidents. Bible stories and apt illustrations from nature should linger on the teacher's tongue, ready for use at bidding. 212 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Little learners like amazingly the ^'likes" of a true teacher's discourse. In appealing to the eye we must excite a high degree of curiosity in the child's mind. An eminent educator says, ''Curiosity is the parent of attention." The teacher who allows the pictures he would use in teaching to hang for weeks and months on the wall hefore the child's eve, must not wonder that the pupil shows but little interest when the picture is brought down to be exhibited to the class, or form a text for the day's lesson. Have not all the children seen it for months ? Did they not "eat it all up" w^ith their eyes, as one little fellow expressed it, the first day they came into the room where it hung ? The teacher should learn to conceal as well as to reveal. One of my corre- spondents suggested the following plan for teaching a Biblical alphabet to his infant class. One of its princi- pal advantages is in the hiding and gradual unfolding of its contents. He says, "On a long roll of coarse paper the other day I painted (with an ordinary store marking-brush) several letters, very large and bold. Just above each great letter I placed two or more words of which it is the initial. The roll is hung on a regular window-shade roller, so that I can pull it up or down. The 'Edmond Song Eoll' would be better, but as I cannot afford that, I resort to the shade fixture. Each letter stands for two or more Bible characters, whose names in smaller letters are spelled out in full above it. While only the great letter appears, the scholars recall the names of persons beginning with that letter. As the lesson roll comes down these names are also seen. Then comes the next letter, then the names of which it is the THE PRIMARY CLASS. 213 initial, etc., etc. Thus I excite curiosity, secure fre- quent repetition, and go over a great deal of Bible his- tory every Sunday which does not interfere with our regular lesson. This is the way the roll appears when I first lower it : "Then, pulling it down a little further, we have ABRAM. ABEL. ADAM. "You see that the large letter comes first into sight. Then the scholars try and recall the names that are to follow. When these finally appear they tell me all they know about each. This is the way the roll looked the first Sunday after a lesson : D CORNELIUS. CANAAN. CAIN. BALAAM. BAAL. BENJAMIN. B ABRAM. ABEL. ADAM. 214 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. The infant-class cabinet is another help in this direction. This is a closet-box, or case, for preserving the pictures and other objects to be used in teaching. The key is in the hands of the teacher. No eye but the teacher's ever looks into it. No hand but his ever enters it. New pictures, etc., are placed into the cabinet only in the absence of the class. The walls of the room may be adorned with a few pictures, but not with those to be used in teaching. These are hidden until needed for use in the class. Some of the advantages of this little appliance are these : 1. The objects are preserved from dust and damage. 2. They do not become so familiar as to lose their power. 3. The opening of the cabinet excites curiosity. The teacher's key is worth more than a bell. 4. It arrests attention. Try an experiment. Take down a picture from the wall where it has been hanging for six months, or take it from a box or closet. See what indifference during the one and what intense in- terest during the other performance. 5. Old lessons may be repeated and old pictures exhibited again with no diminution of interest. The blackboard is invaluable for the same reasons. The creation before the eyes of a class of some line, diagram, letter, or picture always holds them spell- bound. The teacher can conceal, and slowly or sud- denly reveal, as he wills, the lesson he is giving. The little ones forget everything else as they watch the won- der-working crayon, and connect the teacher's words with the sketches wrought by his hand on the board. THE PRIMAKY CLASS. 215 The sexton's taper will be less likely to divert attention while this exercise is going on. There is a tendency to crowd the Bible itself out of the infant schoolroom by the numerous adaptations, monosyllabic, allegorical, or pictorial, of its teachings to tlie juvenile capacity. The teacher too often fails to distinguish between the Bible incidents he narrates and tlie secular stories and parables which he gives his pupils. Whatever fact or lesson from God's Word is given to the class should be read in their hearing from the open Bible. Use pictures, blackboard objects, ellipses, questions, familiar illustrations, and whatso- ever else may contribute to the clear statement of Bible truth, but before you leave the subject give the simple ^'Word of God" account of it. Therefore every infant- class room should contain a neat Bible stand, and on it a large copy of the Holy Scriptures. Let every lesson that is drawn directly from the Bible be given to the scholars, sooner or later, in each recitation, from the Bible itself: It is well to bring up children to know that even in God's Word, that great volume that by its size almost repels the little student, there are plain sen- tences and charming stories and precious lessons that even infancy can understand and enjoy. Mothers are w^orth more than infant-class teachers, and home is worth more than school. Therefore the primary teacher should help mother to teach all through the week the lessons which are given in the class on Sunday. And the teacher must try in some way to touch the child's home every dav of the week. The plan of having a lesson for the infant scholar to carry home is good. It induces mother and father, and 216 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. older brothers and sisters, to help the ^^pet" study. If the lesson can be in pictorial form it will be all the better. The picture wins the little one ; the little one wins the larger, and thus little and large study a lesson at home during the week. This suj^poses that a uniform lesson is used in the school, a plan now accepted and employed by all schools that claim to be thoroughly organized and efficient. The teacher must come in contact with the scholars as frequently as possible. The casual meeting on the street should be hailed as an opportunity for tightening the bonds of mutual affection, recalling the lessons of the last Sabbath, and reminding the pupil of the obli- gations for the next. The occasional '^pastoral call" of the teacher at the home of the scholar wall win the parents, secure their co-operation, and enable the teacher to understand the home surroundings of his scholars, and to adapt his instructions thereto. The scholars may be used as '^carrier doves'' from the school to the family for the transmission of practical tracts, books, and other appeals in behalf of Christ and His cause, by Avhich the parental confidence may be in- creased, and the religious influence of home strength- ened. Practical religion, taught at school, and con- nected by the teacher with home scenes and experience, will do a great deal toward recalling, through the week, the instructions of the Sabbath. Best of all is the provision which enables the mothers to sit on a slightly elevated gallery in the infant-class room every Sabbath and watch the teachers of their little ones as they give lessons and train children, show- ing mothers what is to be done at home and how it is to THE PRI]MARY CLASS. 217 be done. This is the demand in Sunday-school work to-day — the '4iome department." This is the demand in Sunday-school architecture — the mothers' gallery in the primary-class room. Thus the primary class be- comes the true home extension work, and is at the same time the true church extension society. One question more I must answer: ^^Shall we teach the International Lessons in the infant class ?" I answer promptly, Yes, but not these alone. Teach the regular lesson for the day— always. Teach it for the sake of keej^ing the golden text in the home the children come from ; for the sake of interesting brother and sis- ter, of the more advanced classes, as well as father and mother, in the lessons which the very little ones ought to know something about ; for the sake of the large pictures on blackboard and ^^leaf cluster" sheets, and of tiny pic- tures — all about the current lesson — in the little peo- ple's papers. This unity, that embraces the infant class, is as good for the older people at home as for the little "tots," and it is lost when the International Lesson drops out of the primary room. There is one rule of common sense which teachers of infant classes must observe. While every Sunday, in addition to the regular lesson, there must be class-drills in reciting texts, hymns, and catechism, on those days Avlien the current lessons are a little more difficult and less adapted to infants, spend less time on them and more time on the memory drills. This rule will solve every problem in connection with the primary class and the International Lesson. Such is the dignity of the infant-class teacher's work. It has to do with mere babes; but babes are the begin- 218 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL. nings of all that is great in human character and achievement. The princes of our race, the philosophers and poets and preachers — the glorious saints of four thousand years and more in heaven — these all began as babes on earth. The "'Alpha and Omega" Himself, who is the 'Trince of the kings of the earth/' ''the King of kings and Lord or lords," who "has the keys of hell and of death," was once the hahe of Bethlehem. When Isaiah announced His incarnation, he proclaimed, "Be- hold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold. His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." What shall this "strong hand" and ruling "arm" do when He comes ? What is "the work before Him ?" Shall He show forth His power by uprooting the mountains, emptying the oceans, or summoning new stars into the void of space ? The prophet himself answers : "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs ivith His arm, and carry them in His bosom,/' This prophecy was fulfilled. We find Jesus on the earth, His "strong hand" outstretched to the children of His times, His ruling "arm" folding them to His bosom, and His sweet, clear voice, that still sounds among the centuries, say- ing, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me." A work that deals with the childhood thus sanctified and exalted bv the Saviour's w^ord and touch, a work that imitates such a perfect example, a work that handles such immortal possibilities, must indeed be one of infinite importance and dignity. The teacher should fill his heart with this truth. The teacher's work being so important, he cannot THE PRIMARY CLASS. 219 expect to do it well without careful preparation every week. It is not an easy thing to hold the attention of children. In order to do it the lesson must be thoroughly inwrought into the teacher's mind. He must have his heart full of it. He must look at it from a child's view- point. He must know what to omit, and how to '^put" what he has selected as appropriate to be taught ; and above all, how to excite the thought, conscience, and heart of each pupil by the lesson. This requires patient, plodding, prayerful preparation. From Sabbath to Sabbath he must keep thinking, planning, experiment- ing, and pleading with God with reference to this great and holy work. To another practical and important thought I call at- tention : Old people, who have outgrown the experience of childhood, are too apt to forget its trials and vexa- tions. We men with great boots on forget that the peb- bles in the morning pathway of life are very painful to the tender little feet that travel there. So we march on, dragging our children with us, unmindful of their sor- rows, chiding their tears, and sarcastically bidding them *^not to be hahies/' Alas ! we forget we too were ^'babies" once, with tender feet and tearful eyes. God make us men more mindful of our own early miseries, that we may more truly sympathize with the trials of our children ! The true infant-class teacher is full of tenderness. He rules by love rather than by law. Loving ardently, he places himself frequently in the spheres where his scholars live, feels what they feel, and, bringing his larger experience and maturer judgment to his aid. 220 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL. gives the little ones comfort where the less discriminat- ing and less generous nature would administer chiding. So they come to him with their sorrows, knowing that he has sympathy for them. His smiles light up their tears. His prayers are always ready to go up to God for their welfare, and they think of him as a true and constant friend. A writer in the Rhode Island School- master thus expresses the policy and relation to his pupils of such a teacher: "The twig is so easily bended, I have banished the rule and the rod ; I have taught them the goodness of kindness — They have taught me the goodness of God. "My heart is a dungeon of darkness, Where I shut them for breaking a rule ; My frown is sufficient correction ; My love is the law of the school. "When the lessons of life are all ended, And death says, 'The school is dismissed,' May the little ones gather around me, To bid me *good-night,' and be kissed." Several years ago, to meet the demands and remove the difficulties of country teachers, I wrote the follow- ing, which may be of service to other teachers : "I often hear teachers in country places complain that they do not enjoy the advantages of city teachers, and justify themselves for not attempting much in view of these disadvantages. Here are some words from a country teacher, whether myth or maiden matters not, so that the words spoken are sound words. It is my story of ^]^inette, the Country Teacher,' told in her own way: THE PRIMARY CLASS. 221 ^^1. Her Difficulties. — ^Tliink of my lot; in a small country church, a class of thirty infants, no infant-class room, no singing possible in the class, no carpets, no frescoed walls, no gallery sittings, no silver bell, no — well, never mind, what a delightful class I have ! And what delightful times I have in my class !' ^"■'2. Her Programme. — '(1.) At the opening of the school Ave all go to the front seats. Superintendent always notices us, and says a kind word to his ''little lambkins." '' '(2.) After the teachers' roll-call w^e go into the back part of the church, where we need not interrupt others. Superintendent often says as we march down, "There goes the best part of my flock. Don't let any- bodv disturb them." " '(3.) When we are all in our places, and quiet as "church mice," I raise both my arms without speaking a word. The scholars do the same. I fold my arms. They fold theirs. '(4.) Then in a ivliisper we all say — 1. 2. *' Softly whisper, " Hush ! and listen ! Softly speak, Do not play ; Little children, Hear what teacher Still and meek. Has to say. 3. 4. ** When from sin " When our hearts We turn away, To Jesus rise, When we sing, Jesus answers And when we pray, From the skies." u a (, (5.) I tell them in low tones the story of the lesson for the dav, and drill them on the "Golden Text." We use the Picture and Bold-Text helps, the International 222 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Lessons. Their answers are in concert, distinct, low, and sweet. How j)lainly one can be heard, even in a low tone, when the words are clearly spoken ! " '(Q-) Of course I have a blackboard. I asked the parents of my scholars for money, and they gave me all I wanted. Matt. Merrill, our librarian, is a carpenter, and a clever fellow. He made a frame for the board, which stands in front of my class. The superintendent says it is almost as good as a partition between my class and the school. " '(7.) Once a month I meet the children at a private liouse to sing. We can sing ten different tunes now, although we do not sing in the class at all. Superin- tendent often selects opening and closing songs that we know.' ^^3. Her Blackboard Lessons. — ^Somebody wrote me the other day to ask this question : ^'How do you get uj) your blackboard exercises ?" I answered the ques- tion by post, but I kept a copy for you. Here it is : ^' ^(1.) I don't use the blackboard for the sake of using it. I don't contract and weaken spiritual truth by putting it into chalk lines and limitation. Think of trying to crayonize ^'Eternity !" " '(2.) I don't follow the published ''Blackboard Ex- ercises" of the magazines. I can't. It's like David trying to use Saul's armor. Every mind, if it really knows a subject and loves to teach it, has its own way of ^'putting" a lesson. The blackboard exercise, to have any force in it, must be the product of the individual who teaches the specific lesson. Perhaps this is putting it too strongly; but I can no more teach other people's blackboard exercises than I can wear their hats and THE PRIMARY CLASS. 223 shoes, or (to be a little more graceful in my way of say- ing it) adopt their style of speech or composition. '' ^(3.) When I do get up a blackboard lesson I first of all take a slate and somebody's youngster, and try (during the week, of course) to teach the Sunday's les- son to that youngster, using the slate only when I can the better make him comprehend the story or subject. The result is, I put nothing on the slate but what is needed, and although the ''Institute Blackboardists" might see no artistic merit in my slate-marks, I see unity in them, and my scholar understands the lesson all the better for it. " 'I don't like the idea of getting up sermons as ser- mons, or lessons as lessons. Think of somebody writing a letter to his mother or sweetheart, following precisely ^'The Letter- Writer's own Book." If a man loves he can find words of his OAvn. If a man keeps God's grace in his heart and has God's gospel in his brain, he will not "get up" artistic or ''model" sermons, nor perhaps think of his productions as sermons at all. Yet with such love what genuine sermons he will preach! In teaching it is all the same. Love ! Love ! LOVE ! Isn't this the main thing? And won't this incite to diligence, quicken tlie intellect, insure Si^ontaneity, sug- gest methods, and all that !' "4. A Practical Plai^. — 'I find the habit of talk- ing to children every day is my greatest help. I have three little brothers. Our next neifi^hbor has two little girls and a boy, so I practice on these almost every day. And they enjoy it. Telling the same story over three or four times a week, watching and avoiding the words our juveniles don't understand, observing the questions and 224 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. « statements which take the strongest hold on them, I get the whole subject ready by Sabbath, and know exactly how to 7nvet the attention of my whole class. And I do enjoy it so much ! "It's the girl's meat and drink," my old grandmother says. If I dare venture one word of advice to my good sister from Bethlehem it will be — Every day talk with the children about the lesson for the next Sabbath.' " THE SENIOR CLASSES. 225 CIIAPTEE XIV. THE SENIOR CLASSES. There are several classes of senior pupils. There are the full-grown, f ullj occupied, active, vigorous men and women, whose energies are given for six days to the pursuits of the world. They need Bible study. They need it ^^for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in- struction in righteousness." One is never too old to study God's Word. Adults have certain advantages over children in Bible study : they are more fond of the- ological themes; are more interested in close and ex- haustive study; have deeper insight into ethical and doctrinal subjects ; have larger experience in matters of religious need, longing, and life, and they are likely to co-operate more intelligently and cordially in the teach- ing work. The man may be easily attracted and held. Ilis activities, his experiences in life, the ability he possesses to concentrate his attention — all these elements render him helpful to the teacher. He may be captious, he may be disposed to go to the bottom of things, he may ask the teacher some very puzzling questions, but with all these he thinks. lie loves to see the reason of things. He delights in mental effort. There is also an interesting section of the Sunday school composed of girls and boys who are really inter- ested in the general exercises and class instructions of the school. They love order. They love knowledge. 15 226 THE moder:n' Sunday school. They love music. They love the society of the school. They have enthusiasm in school life and work. It is easy to govern them. It is easy to teach them. It is easy to love them. These we may call the co-operative pupils. They respond to the teacher's effort. They sustain every interest of the school. There is another class of so-called senior pupils, who give more anxiety and cause more annoj^ance than all the other scholars. They are ^'the most troublesome of alL'' The restless, wide-aw^ake, active, intense, ingenious, irrepressible boy, full to the overflow of the very essence of fun, is not the "most troublesome of all" the pupils we teach in Sunday school, for he may be held with the greatest ease by an ingenious teacher. All he needs is to be interested, and very simple things will do that. Ex- cite his curiosity, utilize his activity, and reward his attention, then the problem in his case is easily enough solved. The most troublesome of all the pupils we are re- quired to manage in the Sunday school is the hoy who is just heyofid boyhood and yet can scarcely he regarded as a man; whose exact counterpart is the girl who is just heyond girlhood and yet can scarcely he regarded as a woman. Let me consider some of the peculiarities of this age. In them we shall find some excuse for the worst features of young people who are in it, and perhaps some aid in the direction and instruction which as Sunday-school teachers we are called upon to give. These young peo- ple are just leaving the age of artlessness and simplicity, which are characteristic of childhood; they have come THE SENIOR CLASSES. 227 into the age of awkwardness and self-conscioiisness. Their attention and tastes are wholly diverted from the serious and earnest things of life, and they have no interest in so-called religions matters. This world is fascinating to them ; they see everything through a rose- colored medium. A false view of themselves and of the worth of the world gives them an overweening sense of their own importance. Their wdiole tone will, of neces- sity, be frivolous. Fun and frolic and fashion and folly make up the whole of life, except where a wise parental discipline prevents it. They are likely to regard insub- ordination as a particularly bright thing, and are fond of showing disregard of all authority. They lack self- government. To rule one's self is a lesson which it takes years to learn. They have not yet learned it. The dictates of sound judgment and of good taste are little heeded. The will is swept this way and that by impulse and passion. In many cases these young people are un- employed much of the time. Indolence aggravates every peculiar difficulty in their case which we have consid- ered. We must also remember that the majority of people do not sufficiently appreciate the peculiar em- barrassments of such young people. They ridicule them unsparingly ; if they have the authority they scold them. It is sometimes the case that the class we are discussing, from associations of a most unfortunate kind, are tinc- tured with a sort of scepticism, which they are as incom- petent to define as they are to defend. ^ow, in regard to the first class I have indicated — the mature adults — let me show what they need while associated with the Sunday school. Some of them need lecture-classes w^here the discussion may be thorough. 228 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCJIOOL. but the questioning is made less prominent; they need rooms large, well seated, and separated from the school proper ; they need experienced and expert teachers ; they need to be brought into closer church relations; they need strong, wholesome, quickening, refining literature, and should have educational facilities — such as are sug- gested by the ^'Lyceum Course" of study, that of the ^'Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle," and the ^'Victoria Heading Circle." They should be urged to take the regular periodicals of the cliurch. They should be set to work in pastoral ways — visiting and reading to the sick, giving to the ])oor, and helping in all benevolent work. They should be trained in normal studies, that they may serve as teachers in the Sabbath school; and, above all, they should be brought into the personal experience of the spiritual life. These adults might be used as the basis of an advanced department — the ''assembly," which I shall discuss later on. I wish now to address myself to one of the most im- portant and difficult problems of the times in connection with the Sunday school. It is the relation to the Sun- day school of the average youth, whether or not he be classed among the "most troublesome of all." I claim that he requires wiser treatment than he at present receives. Bovs don't like to be considered and treated as children. They don't like it at home. They resent it on the street. They are not required to submit to it in the public schools. Wise educators study the instincts of human nature, and in harmony with them adjust THE SENIOR CLASSES. ' 229 their plans. They grade their pupils and provide for them in Kindergarten, primary school, grammar school, high school ; and then in college, with its successive stages of freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior, the laws of age, attainment, fitness, are consulted and re- garded. Boys are not mortified in the public schools by ill- timed or indiscriminate assignment. The dawning of manhood is recognized and its importance appreciated. It is treated with wise consideration, and thus with the pupil self-respect grows with his respect for the school, its teachers, and the system of education they represent. The teachers there do not come to the ^^dear children" and talk childish talk, illuminated illustrations, simpli- fied simplicity, sickening every sensible boy and girl with monosyllabic goodishness. Teachers in our secular schools rather recognize young ladies or young gentle- men as being men and women who can appreciate ma- ture thought, solve problems for themselves, exercise sound judgment, and on most matters which concern them decide sensibly, l^o boy thinks it unmanly to go to school, nor is he ashamed of the fact that he does go, for the school acknowledges the progressive develop- ments of his nature, and adapts itself to them. Thus it commands his self-respect, enlists his advocacy, kindles his enthusiasm. How does the average Sunday-school administration appear in the light of this wise policy of secular edu- cators ? I am compelled to answer that it suffers seri- ously by the comparison. ■ Its courses of study are less systematic. The infant and the senior often occupy the same room. The teaching is more superficial. The 230 THE MODEEIS" SUNDAY SCHOOL. average tone is less elevated, altliough dealing with infinitely more sacred things. The spirit is more frivo- lous. The standards are lower, and often the lack of reverence is appalling. The very name handicaps it. Traditionally and historically the Sunday school is an institution for little children. Actually the Sunday school is a child's affair. Sunday-school men are ^^chil- dren's men," Sunday-school speeches are "children's speeches," and Sunday-school services are services so conducted as to ''make sure that the children can under- stand," and Sunday-school books are supposed to be, and for a long time were, a dihited sort of literature. All this being true to a large extent (although I have stated it quite as strongly as the facts will justify), what will the attitude of school boys and girls be toward the institution ; familiar as they are with another and better educational system, and trained as they are to recog- nition on the higher plane above indicated? The re- sults are precisely what the facts indicated and pre- dicted. Young people go away from the Sunday school. Many of them remain up to seventeen or eighteen years of age through parental authority, or because of the ''good time" socially which they enjoy; but they do not regard it or respect it as a place of religious worship and religious culture — solemn, dignified, and spiritual. What are the suggestions of common sense to the Sunday-school leaders ? Manifestly : 1. The Sunday school shoukl be graded, and the lines drawn as sharply, at least, between the primary and the senior as in connection with our public systems. Chil- dren and grown people may associate in the church by THE SENIOR CLASSES. 231 virtue of the family relation, and adults not in any wise feel themselves belittled thereby ; but to assign girls and boys who are trying, whether wisely or not, to outgrow the conditions and limitations of childhood, with the smallest children under the same organization, is simply suicidal on the part of the church that does it. 2. I am sometimes tempted to say that the Sunday school proper should be limited to children, and that for the senior pupils another, higher, more dignified depart- ment should be provided, and that with a different name ; that the old associations may not embarrass and hamper the church in its attempt to hold the young people. I have elsewhere recommended the organiza- tion of the '^assembly'^ for young people, fifteen years of age and over. 3. The public exercises of the ^^senior grade," or ^'assembly," should be of a different character from those of the Sundav school. There must be a difference in the adaptation of subject-matter, as well as in the tone and manner. Lectures and outlines should take the place of mere drills ; independent statements by in- dividual pupils and teachers . instead of simultaneous responses. A higher class of music may be rendered, doctrinal discussions be conducted, responsive readings introduced, and the methods of the college rather than those of the primary or intermediate school should con- trol the hour. 4. It is a very easy and will, I have no doubt, be a very popular thing to protest against this innovation. But the experience of the church in the past is sufficient to impress all thoughtful people with the importance of some such movement, by which we may command oui* 232 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. joimg people; and this tentative suggestion is worthy, at least, of consideration. As to the name of this proposed department let me offer a remark. There is something in a name. At its utterance, by the law of association, there troop into the soul ideas and sentiments agreeable or uncomfortable, enlarging or belittling, awakening self-respect or annoy- ance, to put the experience no more strongly. A name Avill prejudice even old and wise people against a man, an association, a locality. It may all be very weak, indeed, in the wise man, but facts of human nature are to be recognized and dealt with discreetly, and where it is perfectly easy to avoid the exciting cause of uncom- fortable associations or strong prejudices, it were folly to refuse the concession. Therefore I plead for a de- partment of church service adapted to the needs, and, if you please so to call them, prejudices, of our young people. Concerning this name I have no strong preferences. The ^^Senior Department" is very good, but, after all, it is the senior department of the Sunday school. ''Bible Service" is good. To tlxe ''Bible School" there may be less objection, except as it invariably identifies itself in the thought of the term Sunday school. The "Christian Institute" is well chosen. The Assembly still better meets my view. It finds substantially a precedent in the separate synagogue service of the early ages — a service of consultation and discussion following the usual public service. Vitringa, in his account of the methods of the synagogue, says, "There was first read a portion of the Law, which was explained by a running commentary, so that the discourses in the ancient syna- THE SENIOR CLASSES. 233 gogiies were not at all similar to a sermon of the present day, but were rather exegeses and paraphrases of what was either remarkable or obscure in the portions read; but besides the running commentary, or paraphrases, there was frequently a discourse (analogous to our ser- mon) after the usual service of the synagogue. But this was not all, however, offered in the synagogue proper, but in an adjoining room, after the regular service, discussions and more thorough investigations of the truth were carried on. To these disputations references are frequently made in the ISTew Testament." Kitto says, ''In the Jerusalem Talmud a tradition was alleged that there had been at Jerusalem four hundred and sixty synagogues, each of which contained an apartment for the reading of the Law, and another for the meeting of the men for inquiry, and deep re- search and instruction. There were three of these meet- ing-places in the Temj^le, and in all of these it was the custom for the students to sit on the floor, while the teachers occupied seats. Paul describes himself as hav- ing sat at the feet of Gamaliel. There are many things in the Talmud which throw light on the manner of pre- siding in these assemblies. Thus, a student asked Gamaliel whether the evening prayer was obligatory by the I^aw or not. He answered in the affirmative, on which the student informed him that Rabbi Joshua had told him that it was not obligatory. 'Well,' said Gamaliel, 'when he appears to-morrow in the assembl}' step forward and ask again the question.' He did so, and the expected answer raised a discussion, a full account of which is given. The meeting-places of tho wise stood, mostly, in connection with the synagogues. 234 THE MODERlSr SUNDAY SCHOOL. and the wise or learned men usually met soon after divine worship ; the reading was given in the upper department of the synagogues, wdiere they discussed those matters which required more research and inquiry. The j^upils or students in these assemblies were not mere boys coming up to be instructed in the mere rudiments of knowledge, but men or youths of more or less ad- vanced education, who come thither either to 2^1'ofit by listening to the learned discussions, or to participate in them themselves." To the term ^^Assembly" I can conceive no objection. There are no associations in connection with it em- barrassing to young men wdio do not pride themselves on being '^Sunday-school scholars" perpetually in an association with primary and intermediate pupils. Such youths will not object to membership in the assem- bly — made up of persons over fifteen years of age, enrolling, as it soon will, a large number of the best men and women in the community. I do not recommend an immediate and violent sepa- ration between the Sunday school and the other and higher society or department. That may come in due time, but, for most churches, the time is not yet. Let the whole Biblical department of the church — now called '^Sunday school" — remain as it is, with its primary and intermediate and senior sections. Let all meet, and sing, and pray, and study together as now; but within the existing organization a new department, w^ith a new name, having well-defined objects, a care- fully j^repared plan of operations, and let it develop within the school until such time as the school and the new movement shall be mutually benefited by a separa- THE SENIOR CLASSES. 235 tion, if such time should ever arrive. Thus it will not be in rivalry, in any sense, with the Sunday school, but under the same direction. Its sessions will be held at present in the schoolroom Avith the school. It would be possible to dismiss it into the main audience-room after the opening exercises, and allow it to remain there as long as it chose to stay for special services. The assembly, before its separate organiza- tion, may hold meetings at the close of the school in the main audience-room once a month, or it mav hold a Sunday evening service, under the direction of the pas- tor, once a month. It may meet occasionally for week- evening lectures, debates, Biblical exercises, and drills. Its existence being guaranteed, it becomes the meeting- point for the young and older people of the church. It remains with them as an incentive. It gains a firm grip upon young people, and prevents their early escape from the juvenile, and too often purile, influences of the so-called Sunday school. I have already intimated that the International Lessons will be used by the assembly. Thirty minutes may easily be spent in the usual class-study of the Bible lesson, which, being reviewed before the assembly in the form of a lecture, doctrinal and practical, will prove of more value to the senior than the present system of review, which attempts to enlist old and young, and usually succeeds in effectively doing neither. Supple- menting the International Lesson class-study and re- view, there may be doctrinal statements from eminent theologians, supported by scriptural reading ; difficulties may be presented by members of the assembly, and answered by the president or pastor. Thus a body of 236 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. divinity may be taught to our young people; captious- ness, cavilling, frivolity, all being avoided, and an ear- nest, reverent tone characterizing the services. A brief '^doctrinale," or service of doctrine, made up of Scripture texts, creed-forms, and sacred hymns and chants, may form a fitting and impressive close for the Sabbath session of the assembly. Occasionally — say once a month — the pastor may invite the assembly to assist him in the evening service, and, employing one of the ^^assembly services," the hour may be spent in solemn and inspiring worship. Let us suppose that the assembly has thus been invited by the pastor to meet in the church on a given Sunday evening for service, in lieu of the regular evening sermon. "Assembly Service, ISo. 1," is distributed.* It contains a responsive Bible service, hymns, and readings from standard authors — • the whole centering in one doctrine, "The Being and Attributes of God.'' The rich treasures of Scripture on this subject are selected and arranged for antiphonal reading ; the sublime hymns of the ages furnish stanzas of wondrous beauty and power. Two or three young men read in turn, from ten to fifteen of the great theo- logians, extracts setting forth in noblest language man's loftiest conceptions of God. The pastor preaches a fifteen-minute doctrinal sermon on God. Thus the evening service is made an "assembly service." The members of the new department are enlisted in it to a white heat of enthusiasm. Substantial and sublime truths pass before the minds of our youth. The splen- dors of rhetoric, the weight of vigorous thought, the sweet simplicities of the Holy Scriptures, the inspira- * For Assembly Service, No. 1, see Appendix G. THE SENIOR CLASSES. 237 tion of sublime poetry, are all enlisted in the training of our congregations. A second monthly service brings before us, in the same general plan, the doctrine of "Sin;" the third, ''The Offices of Jesus Christ," and so on through the various fundamental doctrines of evan- gelical Christianity. During the week there may be occasional meetings for conversations on Biblical and literary subjects. The social life of the church may thus be elevated. Young people may be taught how to spend an evening intelligently and pleasantly without resorting to the card-table or the dance. The schemes of the Lyceum, the "Victoria Heading Circle," and of the "Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle" may be adopted, and thus our young people be held, as they are not now held, to the church. Of course there will be objections. "We have a good senior department in our Simday school already." Then, good friend, if you are satisfied that your senior depart- ment is doing the work needed for your church, I have only this to say : first, that "Senior Department" is a very good name for the institution ; secondly, provide for your senior department some of the special services outlined above, and you will meet with still greater success. "Such a department in our church w^ould create rivalry between school and assembly." That might not be wholly a bad thing. The rivalry in the several grades of the secular school works benefit to all. With pastor and superintendent of the Sunday school, the same men being pastor and president of the assembly, you need have no fear of dangerous rivalry. "There will be dissatisfaction among our boys and girls from twelve to fifteen years of age." If your 238 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. standards improve, joii may make it an honorable thing for boys and girls to be prepared to enter the assembly, not merely because of age, but by virtue of their attain- ment; and if the high school creates ambition in the several grades of a grammar school, neither high school nor grammar school is damaged by the eager desire of pupils to pass from one into the other as soon as possible. Indeed, your older scholars in Sunday school will feel more respect for the church as an educating agency, and the Sunday school as its instrument, by having this higher department constantly before and above them — the ^^assembly," which has no way out of it except at the end of life into the gate of heaven. ^^We have no time in our church for another meet- ing." You have time for the meetings that ought to be held. With the ought that comes from God there is always a how. You now have young people's prayer- meetings, church sociables, lyceums, and singing schools. You have need of something more substantial and health- ful than any of these. And the best things of these may be made better imder the direction of the assembly. "It would make trouble in our Sunday school." Perhaps not. If you are sure of this, it is better to move more slowly and steadily along in the best way practicable at present, than hurriedly, at the expense of charity and good feeling, to adopt new enterprises, how- ever plausible they may seem. Where pastor, superin- tendent, teacher, and older members do not want and would not sustain an assembly, or where the w^ork may be as effectively done for our older pupils under the present system, it were folly, indeed, to make the change. Where, therefore, the need is not felt, the plan THE SENIOR CLASSES. 239 is not recommended. ThuSj they who do not approve the new proposition can go on quietly and successfully in the ways of their approval ; and they who feel the need of this other step may take it tentatively, humbly, and work it out to practical results. The following plan or constitution may be adopted, and from time to time modified as opportunities for the separate existence and operations of the assembly be- come possible : Article 1. The assembly of Church is designed to promote the higher Biblical, doctrinal, and general culture of the adults and young people of the Church and communitv. Article 2. The assembly shall be composed of per- sons fifteen years of age and over, who consent to become members, and who agree to conform to its regulations. Article 3. The assembly shall be under the direc- tion of the .* Article 4. The officers of the assembly shall be the pastor, president, f secretary, treasurer, and tutors, who shall be elected, the pastor excepted, by the .* Article 5. The assembly shall hold its regular ses- sions at .:j: * The governing body of the assembly may be the Sunday-school Board, or a special assembly committee made up of the pastor, president, secretary, and tutors of the assembly, with a committee of three or more, from the church, the quarterly conference, session, or vestry. t The superintendent of the Sunday school should, whenever prac- ticable, be president of the assembly. t It may be necessary at the beginning to say, "The assembly shall hold its regular sessions in connection with the Sunday school, remaining occasionally after the dismission of the school, but meet- ing at other convenient hours for special sessions." 240 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Article 6. The assembly shall use the International Lessons, and such additional exercises in the form of lectures, conversations, drills, and other services, as may be adopted by the committee in charge. Article 7. A committee of five on special work shall be appointed by the Board (of Avhicli committee the pastor and president shall be ex-officio members), and it shall be the duty of this committee to provide a library, secular and religious, for the assembly, week-evening meetings for lyceum lectures, scientific, literary, and doctrinal studies, a special Sunday afternoon or evening service, imder the control of the pastor. Let me look at another difficulty in the management of the young people through the teaching department of the church. It is in the matter of home study. Thev won't study at home. This is the almost universal complaint of our Sunday- school authorities against young people who attend the Sunday school: They won't study their Sunday-school lessons at home. That is, they don't; and it is safe to assume that they don't because they won't. This is a way human nature has. The boys do, however, study something at home. So do the girls. The boys study ball and bat, and laws of base-ball grounds. The girls study bonnets and cut of dress, and style of tying this and setting off that. It is simply astonishing to see with what eagerness they look up the subjects in which they are interested; what a world of facts and laws they acquire ; what questions they can answer; what difficulties overcome, and what time and talk and patience give to all these topics. But they won't study their Sunday-school lessons at homCo THE SENIOR CLASSES. 241 Day-school lessons these same young people do study. Systematically, year in and year out, in all weathers, and in spite of the varied attractions and recreations of the changing seasons. I^ot that they are always inter- ested. Xot that their delights, like the delights of game and dress, are hidden among the fascinating leaves of text-books or among the golden minutes of recitation hours. Far otherwise; but they study, nevertheless. They must study. They must study to keep their '^stand" on the records ; to retain the respect of teachers and classmates; to make a good report at home; to secure ''promotion" when the time comes. So it appears that our older Sunday-school scholars do study — outside of the Sunday school limits and les- sons. What they delight in they study. What they are driven to they study. In Sunday-school lessons there is little to delight souls absorbed in merely secular things ; and in Sundav-school administration there is no power to compel, and there are no incentives such as come from class rivalries and promotions, home appro- bation or censure. The fact is, therefore, everywhere thrust upon our unwilling acceptance — young people won't study the Bible as they do grammar, or arith- metic, or science in the secular schools. Add to all this the feeling of parents, as well as of the students themselves, that so much mental effort in "getting lessons" all through the week might excuse young people from hard study in connection with Sun- day school. The dear things need rest from brain work. They will wear out. They run the risk of hydro- cephalus, or other brain affection. Besides, what is the use ? Religion is a simple thing. 16 242 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. It is a matter of feeling. The intellectual forces may be exercised in science and literature, but the Bible is a book for the heart. Its lessons are to be absorbed. And too much study may make sceptics of them. ^Ynd, be- sides, those old times of Bible history — full of miracles and murders, and stories of wicked men and frightful wars — who cares for them ? What good end do they serve in ou?' age of electric light and progressive thought ? Look further. See the woeful want, already acknowl- edged, of provisions for gradation and promotion in the schools. See the superficiality of the general reviews, ^ote the heavy demands of the pulpit every Sabbath upon both pastor and people. !N^ote the lack of pastoral interest in this whole dej^artment of his church. Watch the amused smile of the ''scholarly" divine at the re- ports made to him of puerilities in class and desk — from which his active interest and presence and influence might save both teachers and scholars. What wonder that young people are indifferent and negligent ! What wonder that they think it ''smart" to puzzle the teacher with absurd questions on obscure points, or quote the "wit" of Mark Twain, Josh Billings, and other prophet? of the hour, concerning Bible miracles, "Sunday-school youth," and their precocious piety! With all these elements on the side of apathy, indolence, and scorn, is it any wonder that multitudes of our "young people won't study their lessons at' home ?" But I am not through with the subject. I am dealing with an evil. I seek its root. This found, it will be easier to remove the evil itself. The apathy I deprecate THE SENIOR CLASSES. 243 — this want of taste for spiritual things — is of the "world." The world is very fond of evil, and very much given up to it, and violent antagonism to truth and good is not the only way in which the world opposes the kingdom of Christ. Atmospheres are as dangerous as open assaults. In this indifference to Bible study, the enemy is at work. Let us look into the matter still further. OugJit our young people to study their Sunday-school lessons ? Does the "ought" linger where the "won't" wins? Where duty is, one can stand securely and speak em- phatically. Are there energies in the air that may bo concentrated, and create in the young heart a sharp con- viction of personal responsibility? If so, we need not fear worldly-mindedness, indifference, or contempt. What, then, shall we say in answer to the question: Ought our young people to study their Sunday-school lessons at home ? 1. Young people 7ieed to study the Holy Scriptures. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ? by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word." "I write unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you." "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." 2. Young people need a time set apart for such study ; teachers to direct them; text-books to assist them; appointed tasks to incite them. 3. The question of taste and preference has no more place in the solution of this problem than in the studies of the secular school. Whether a boy "takes" to arith- 244 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. metic or not, he must study arithmetic; he must thus seek to discipline his mind; he must acquire a knowl- edge of rules, and facility in the practical application of them, lie must do this. He must feel the force of the OUGHT^ and his success as a student is measured by the manner in which all his powers respond to the ought. As in arithmetic, so in grammar, geography, and every^ other branch of study. It is only by discipline that ho can acquire taste, facility, and pleasure. Conscience is a strong factor in true secular study. It is the same in Bible study. Every argument wdiieli urges a boy to study the lessons of the everyday school should bo equally operative in connection with the lessons of the Sundav school. 4. Where pu]3ils are not alive to the importance of this fidelity in day school, teachers and parents make clear to them the demands of the situation. Parents and teachers should do the same service in behalf of the Sunday-school lesson. Parental authority and the voice of conscience sliould speak forcibly in the one as in the other department of education. Our young people w^on't study the Sunday-school lesson at home because they are indifferent to it. They are indifferent to it because parents, ministers, and teachers do not make fervent appeals to their sense of duty. Instead of finding con- science reinforcing the arguments, commands, and ap- peals of their superiors, they find their apathy concern- ing Bible study winked at, and sometimes laughed at, and too often justified. Let us, then, remember that indifference to Bible study on the part of our young people is not, and cannot be, innocent. It is sin. And the indifference of the THE SENIOR CLASSES. 245 pulpit and the apologetic tone of the home on the subject are positively wrong. Let us show our young people why they ought to study the Sunday-school lesson; why they need it as students of secular science and general literature in which, too often, the religious element is ignored; why they need it as responsible subjects of God's government, with a destiny before them, an account to be rendered, a character to be developed, a hell to be avoided, a heaven to be attained. Instead of appeals to pride, to the personal love of the teacher, a desire to make a good show in the general review, or to keep up the esprit de corps of the school, let us develop conscience, and appeal to it. Quote the Word of God as our authority on the sub- ject, and deal with this whole question, not as a matter of taste or whim or policy, but as a matter of positive duty, commanded in the Word of God, and for the dis- charge or neglect of which every pupil is personally responsible to God. And finally, as to the ^^troublesome'' pupils, let me say to the almost discouraged teacher : Do not be dis- heartened. 1. Remember what they are to be in the future — the fathers and the mothers of the next genera- tion. 2. Remember that the period through which they are passing is not likely to last long, and yet that is full of the gravest possibilities. Therefore teach for the fu- ture. The truth earnestly taught to-day will certainly yield fruit in the future. 3. Be very patient. iN'ever seem to be annoyed by the irregularities and mischievous devisings of such 246 THE MODEKN SUNDAY SCHOOL. pupils. Endure ! Endure ! Endure ! Be full of good humor. Never scold. Let them look upon you as a cheery, good-natured soul, whose life has a great deal of sunshine in it. 4. The next rule will be easy enough to observe if you can keep the last one. It is this : AVin the love of your pupils. They have it in them to love any one who will come into their sphere with confidence and sympathy for them. 5. Teach with great simplicity. Teach them very much as you would teach an infant class, but don't let them know that you are trying to do that. Give them the clearest illustrations, the plainest applications, but do it in a tone and manner which shall really respect the age and social standing of such pupils. 6. Kindle their ambition. Appeal to their self- respect. Show them the w^ortli of knowledge and the contemptibleness of ignorance. Call their attention to the successful people in their OAvn neighborhood. 7. Teach the Law of God w^ith all its severest penal- ties. We make a great mistake in these days in not presenting to our youth the realities of judgment, the holiness of God, the righteous wrath of God, and the certainty of future punishment. All this should be done affectionately and with great tenderness, but it should be done. 8. Put the right books into their hands. A good book is often the means of saving a young man from per- dition. 9. Visit and understand and secure the co-operation of their parents or guardians. 10. Get them interested in a social organization of THE SENIOR CLASSES. 247 some kind. A little society in the church might be conducted in the interest of such youth, and would be of incalculable advantage. 11. One thing more remains to be said. The earlier you can commit your young people to the personal serv^- ice of Christ the stronger your hold upon them, and the safer they will be while j)assing through the perilous period I have described. The movement known as ^^The Recreative Eveninc^ Classes/' begun by Dr. J. B. Paton, of E"ottingham, and which is now" receiving such hearty approval in England, deserves not only words of commendation and Avidespread announcement, but the most active co-opera- tive efforts on the part of every pastor and of every lay- man who desires the safety and useful training of the young people ^'between thirteen and eighteen 3'ears of age." The plan will give the church a firm grasp on this important portion of our population. 248 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. CHAPTER XV. THE LESSONS. God has commanded man to study His Word ; to read, search, meditate upon, and obey it. He has likewise commanded parents to teach it to their children, even to the little ones 'Svhich have not known anything." He has made the study of it a means of grace, of enlighten- ment (Ps. cxix. 130), of conversion (Ps. xix. 7), of en- richment (Ps. cxix. 72), of comfort (Ps. cxix. 50), of edification (Acts xx. 32), of strength (1 John ii. 14), of sanctification (John xvii. 17), of stability (Ps. xxxvii. 31). He has likened this Word of His grace to all precious and excellent things — to light (Ps. cxix. 105), to seed (Luke viii. 11), to rain and dew (Deut. xxxii. 2), to honey (Ps. xix. 10), to silver (Ps. xii. 6), to fine gold (Ps. cxix. 127), to all riches (Ps. cxix. 14), to a two-edged sword (Heb. iv. 12), to a fire (Jer. xxiii. 29). He has commanded His church to believe, love, and teach it. The Bible is an immense book. The ordinary edi- tions contain over twelve hundred pages. The variety of its contents is astonishing. There is scarcely a branch of human knowledge upon which it does not shed some light. It is a book of diverse sciences, albeit its central science is that of salvation. To this all the rest bow, as the sheaves of Hebron and the stars of heaven bowed to Joseph. In the gradual unfolding of the plan . THE LESSONS. 249 of redemption which the Bible records we find a treas- ure of history, of biography, of geography, of ancient, peculiar, and quite Oriental usages, of philosophy, of ethics, of theology. Now, no man has a right to say concerning any book of the Bible, or of any subject dis- cussed in the Bible, that it is useless or unimportant; for God has said, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is j^rofitahle for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17). It is the duty of the church to teach the Word — its claims as a divine book, and as the standard of faith and practice for all men ; its construction and contents ; its exact language, especially in its doctrinal, didactic, and devotional portions. The Bible is, and it is not, a systematic book. It seems a disorderly mass of history and poetry, of chro- nological tables and sweet promises. It is apparently a confusion of ethical, archaeological, liturgical, and poetical sayings and records ; a mixing up of human transactions and divine declarations. In reality, the Bible is a systematic book. It is a growth, and not a mechanism; a mountain, and not a pyramid. There is order in it, for it was developed according to a divine order and under divine direction. It is a history, extending through long ages of divine providence and revelation. The history had its be- ginnings — its seed-sowing, and then its germination, its growth, its blossoming, and its fruit-bearing. Its con- fusion is only seeming confusion. There is a divine ^^first and last" in it, a ^^beginning and an ending." 250 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. The stars that seem scattered without purpose or plan in the azure have their courses and harmonies and changeless order, as seen bj the all-knowing and all- controllinc: Creator. The Bible is not a classified cyclopaedia of things celestial and divine. It has no alphabetic arrangement by which, as in a dictionary, one may turn at a moment to the sum total of divine revelation on a given topic. Its history reaches through the whole book. It is a book of geography from Eden to Ephesus. Its prophecy and poetry are found almost everywhere. Its unfold- ings of divine character occur in Genesis and in Revela- tion, and in every book of the sacred canon. And as for its promises, like stars they ' 'blossom in the infinite heavens" of this divine expanse. There is a hidden system in Scripture. The student seeks and finds it. There is a mechanical system which may be constructed after the larger and less apparent divine system, and by which the student may the more easily master the Word — ^^rightly dividing it." This mechanical system the teacher should employ for his own guidance, and for the guidance especially of his pupils. The Scripture area is so vast, its sweep so far- reaching, its objects of search and thought so colossal, that children need an orrery to bring within their grasp the unity of plan, and the inter-relation of the various, vast, and remote objects in the Scripture heavens. When Jesus fed the five thousand ^'He commanded them [His disciples] to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties." The system facilitated the feeding of so great a multitude. Every great work is THE LESSONS. 251 promoted by a thoroiigli plan. ''Order is heaven's first law." This systematic arrangement of Bible truth is most useful. Bible geography should lie in the mind — a living map, as the geography of the earth at large does in the minds of day-school pupils. Bible history should take chronological form, and in comprehensive outline should be like mental pigeon-holes, to which Bible facts at their casual recognition should at once fly, "as doves to their windows." Explanations of Bible archaeology, laws of Bible interpretation, outlines of Bible theology, arrangements of Bible promises — all these should form a part of the Bible student's mental furnishing. All these should be taught in a systematic way by parents, teachers, and superintendents to the scholars under their care. A careful plan of study, followed regularly and sys- tematically by a well-organized church or mission school, must certainly secure to its members a more thorough knowledge of the Holy Scriptures than could be possible in the absence of system — allowing always that the presence of God's Spirit be devoutly sought. "While the most admirable mechanism in the world would be a fail- ure without a motive power, the mechanism is not to he ignored because the power is indispensable. To pro- mote a thorough Biblical training for spiritual ends in connection with the church, a system or course qi study is desirable. Let us inquire what such course of study should comprise. 1. Primarily it should embrace a series of lessons on the salient facts of the Bible, from the creation of Py52 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. man to the close of the 'New Testament history. The biogTai)hical and historical portions of the Bible, studied in the light of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, become ^'profitable for doctrine, for re- proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." 2. The leading "doctrines" of Christian theology — doctrines relating to God, to man, and to the Mediator — the wise, rich, and suggestive formulas of theological truth which are embodied in the creeds and catechism of the church, should be carefully, earnestly, and prac- tically taught to children. Uninstructed adults should be g^td to receive a training on these important subjects. Every minister should be able to say to the parents, class-leaders, and Sunday-school teachers of his church, "According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let everv man take heed how he buildeth thereupon." He should faithfully ex- hort his assistants "to build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones." 3. The recognition of Bible names, usages, etc., in the casual investigation of a specific lesson, is of great ad- vantage to a student. A knowledge of the "summaries" of Bible truth is also beneficial. Therefore a complete course of study should comprise special lessons in "Bible History," "Bible Geography," "Bible Chronology," "Bible Manners and Customs," "The Bible as a Book," "Christian Evidences," "Bible Interpretation." 4. The church should teach its youth and its adults the devotional literature of the ages in prose and poetry, which has become classic and which promotes spiritual life. THE LESSONS. 253 5. It should teacli them the principal characters and events of church history. 6. It should carefully train its members in the evan- gelical basis of all missionary and reformatory effort for which the church is or should be responsible, and the facts which demand and inspire such effort. 7. If a particular denomination be doubtful concern- ing its interpretations of the Word, distrustful of its ecclesiastical organization, ashamed of its historical records, it should carefully avoid teaching anything relating to itself to the children committed to its care. If, however, it be conscientious in holding its distinctive doctrines, observing its distinctive usages, or perpetu- ating its denominational history, let the children be thoroughly taught these things, and be referred to the Word of God as the final and only authority for them. It is, in a word, the duty of the church to teach what every Christian should know. It should teach the contents of the Bible in the w^isest manner possible, adopting the best methods of the best teachers. For example, sacred history should be taught as secular history is taught, not by mere memorizing, but by the aid of comprehensive summaries and catechetical ar- rangements, chronology, geography, word-picturing, analyses of character, discovery of immediate and re- mote causes, etc. And the memory should be stored with large and connected portions of divine truth in the very language of the Word. It is the duty of the church to recognize and employ in this work of teaching the several agencies under its control; not to hold any one institution or department responsible for the entire work of instruction, but to dis- 254 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL. tribute responsibility, and secure cordial co-operation between the several agencies. Here lies one of the radical defects of our modern church life. The Sunday school has turned over to it the responsibility of the Biblical and religious training of children. It is said that children neglect the sanc- tuary because they go to Sunday school, that parents neglect family prayer and catechizing because the chil- dren go to Sunday school, and that pastors excuse them- selves from special catechetical and other classes on the same ground. I think (perhaps the wish is father to the thought) that this view of the case is not sustained by the facts. At the same time it behoves us to be ex- ceedingly careful and vigilant, lest the original com- mission to parents and pastors be transferred to sub- ordinate agencies and officers. The whole church must teach. Home, pulpit, pastorate, Sunday school, must unite. Let us now examine a scheme of church study and ask how it should be pursued. 1. A given term of years should be assigned to it — six, seven, or eight, according to circumstances. 2. Parents should make the service of family prayer and their home teachings bear upon this course of lessons. 3. The pastor should enter into it most heartily, urging parents, teachers, and scholars to fidelity, thor- oughness, and spirituality in their efforts. He should, in the w^eekly prayer-meeting and in the pulpit, keep the whole question as well as the current subject of study before his jDcople. 4. The pastor and superintendent should hold special THE LESSON'S. 255 week-day or evening meetings for drilling the school and all persons who are interested in the '^specific les- sons" and '^summaries" of Bible history, geography, and doctrine above recommended. 5. The Sunday-school session should be especially set apart for the prosecution of this work. The lesson for each Sabbath should run through the entire school. I therefore recommend for each school what is called the ^'Uniform Lesson." Here are a few of the considera- tions in its favor : (1.) It facilitates the teachers preparation. The assistance needed by most of our Sabbath-school teachers can be given more economically and satisfactorily when all have the same lesson to prepare. It requires less time to examine or review one lesson than ten lessons. (2.) It facilitates the pastors supervision. The pastor is responsible for the doctrinal and practical truth upon which his assistants — the Sabbath-school teachers — feed his flock. Even if the normal training might be as effectually secured in the use of miscellane- ous lessons, certainly the guidance and direction in re- gard to the subject-matter could not be given half so well. (3.) It facilitates home preparation. The adult department of the church school is increasing every year. Soon, we trust, our parents, older brothers, and older sisters will be regular members, and with the steadily rising intellectual standard of the "Assembly," the home preparation will receive more attention. Even as it is, members of the same household might aid each other in the lesson during the week if the uniform svs- tem were adopted. And the questioning of the old by 256 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. the young for information, or of the young by the old for examination, would quicken the interest of all in the topic for the week. (4.) It increases the effectiveness of the gerieral exer- cises of the school. By the class-method of teaching we secure thoroughness; by the general exercise, enthu- siasm. The uniform system gives the key-note to all the general exercises of the school. It arrests the eye by the blackboard sentence or symbol. It fixes the rounds in the ladder of the prayer. It runs through the hymns or songs. It facilitates the general review at the close of the class recitations. Healthful emulation may be excited, defective teaching in the class com- pensated, thought concentrated, and truth practically applied by the general examination under the uniform system. (5.) It may vastly augment the poiver of the pulpit. When the public mind has been called through the week to any particular subject, the pulpit commands pro- found attention on the Sabbath by its discussion. The more the people have thought about it, the more eagerly they listen to the pulpit utterance. For this reason the wise pastor' frequently selects as the topic of his morning or evening discourse the Sunday-school lesson of the day. He has in such cases been rewarded at the very outset by a fixed attention, which has kindled his own soul, and thus given the truth double power. And should the family readings from the Word of God every morning be suggested by the subject of the lesson for the ensuing Sabbath, and the text of the Sabbath be found in the lesson, and all the exercises of the school be pene- trated by its leading idea, what educating power would THE LESSONS. 257 the churcli exert, as compared witli its present miscel- laneous array of working ! The arguments against uniformity, dra^^ra from the analogies of secular education, seem to us unfair and defective. The Sabbath school is not what the secular schools are. These have from ten to twenty text-books on as many distinct sciences. The Sunday school has one, only one, text-book on one science. The secular schools teach from twenty-five to thirty-five hours a week; the Sabbath school scarcely averages one hour. May not these disparities justify a diversity in method ? This whole difficulty is removed by remembering that the Bible contains in every part truth for the weakest and the strongest. From the same lesson phi- losophers and babes may learn wisdom. In these fair gardens of revelation are fountains everywhere, from which the little and illiterate ones may sij), while the learned may drink deep, and wonder at the sweetness of the waters. If in any particular school an adult Bible class should insist upon pursuing an independent set of lessons, it will certainly not decline to spend at least a few minutes in the general resume of the current lesson, for the sake of uniformity. The International Lesson scheme is now beginning (1887) its third series of seven years. While the author claims the honor of having originated the two great lesson systems — the "National" (of Chicago) and the "Berean" (of :N'ew York)— in 1866 and 1868 respec- tively, and of having prepared and published the first of the now popular "Lesson Leaves,"* all of which made * See Appendix H. 17 258 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. possible the conception of a "Xational system," it is to B. F. Jacobs^ of Chicago, that the honor for this concep- tion belongs. And to him, moreover, belongs the honor of having secured the experiment when the ''odds" were against him. The International Lesson system, which naturally followed the ''National," the author of this volume proposed and most strenuously advocated on both sides of the Atlantic, as the only method by which the local rivalry of publishing houses in America could be neutralized. The story of the whole movement has been accurately and interestingly told by the Eev. Simeon Gilbert, of Boston. Large credit must, of course, be given in all such historical reminiscences to the Sunday School LTnion, 56, Old Bailey, London, which issued uniform lessons twenty-two years before the National scheme was devised, and which, with royal magnanimity and zeal, has co-operated from the begin- ning of the International movement. There are many advantages in this system of uni- versal uniformity : 1. It has increased the influence of the Bible over the people. It has advertised the Bible ; has led to its wider use; has increased the popular knowledge of its con- tents; has exalted it as the only standard of faith and practice, and lias promoted the love of the Book among the people. 2. Unity in the study of the Word has promoted the spirit of unity among the people of God. It reminds us that we all search the same Word, love the same truth, depend on the same Spirit, appeal to the same authority. The study of God's Word for ourselves is the surest way of promoting growth in the grace and in the knowledge THE LESSONS. 259 of our Lord Jesus Christ. This must be acceptable to Him who jDrayed, '^ Sanctify them through Thy truth : Thv Word is truth. . . . That thev mav be one, . . . that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." Tlie benefits to the church at large by the week of prayer it is hard to estimate. How much greater the advantages of a union every Sabbath in the study of the divine AVord ? The race has had its Babel ; but the race has had its Pentecost. We are now under the dispensa- tion of Pentecost. By all denominations studying the same sid)jcct we come to see the truth from many stand- points. We are surprised to find in how many particu- lars we affree, and in how few we differ. This unitv is greatly needed, in view of the present power of Boman- isni, Bationalism, and worldliness. 3. It has increased the influence of true educational philosophy and methods in the church. The laws of the intellect in religious teaching are the same as those observed in secular culture. Wise teach- ers who follow the best educational methods are, other things being equal, the teachers best qualified to promote Biblical training. The International system has exalted the teacliing work in the school ; has driven teachers to the study of educational principles and examples; has led to the general schemes and outlines of Biblical study; has set parents and teachers at work teaching children at home and elsewhere during the week; has instituted that plan of Bible study which takes up great characters and events, and makes them centers of thought and investigation ; has increased the intellectual power of plain men in the church ; has led young and scholarly men to appreciate the higher intellectual 260 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. standards, and has tended to connect Biblical and scien- tific study. The one STeat text-book has thus increased the power, the teaching power, of our Sunday schools. 4. The same lesson in every Sabbath school is a great convenience to those who move from place to place, or who, by the exigencies of travel, are thrown frequently in new neighborhoods. The removal of a family from one section of the country to another will not suspend the course of study which has been commenced. 5. The common interest felt by Christian people of all denominations in specific lessons must promote profitable conversation as they chance to meet through the week. The results of fourteen years' experiment in this direction are very marked and gratifying. 6. The fact that so many different minds are engaged in the preparation of lesson-helps gives variety and abundance of aids in the way of notes, comments, out- lines, and illustrations, and, by inciting all to a health- ful emulation, increases the power of each denomina- tional or union organ. 7. The union conventions and institutes are to be rendered doubly interesting and profitable by the dis- cussions and illustrative exercises growing out of the lesson svstem. 8. Denominational interests cannot suffer by this union. If the peculiar doctrines of one church are not found in a wisely chosen series of three hundred and thirtv-six Bible lessons, it would be as well not to teach these peculiar doctrines at all. The lessons are selected from the Bible. Tlie committee makes no provision for notes or comments, but leaves every church or individual to teach the truths of that selection in his owti way. THE LESSONS. 261 It is possible that enthusiasm in such a scheme as the International may have to some extent crowded back some exercises which hitherto found large place, perhaps too large place, in the Sunday school. So much regular Bible study may have had this effect. The historical method of studying history may have left too little time for verbal memorizing. The Bible lesson may have taken the place of the catechism. From the beginning of the International plan I fore- saAV this possibility, and therefore, in 1872, provided for the church schools under my official care a course of lessons, to which I gave the name of "Supplemental Lessons," and for which I made a plea before the At- lanta International Convention in April, 1878, in which plea I said, "The value of the studies supplanted by the new system, and of the studies rendered essential, leads us to inquire whether we may not, with the Inter- national system, combine a series of lessons ivhlch shall meet the groiving demand for the best features of the old. scheme, remove honest difficulties and objections, and thus greatly facilitate Bible study in the church/' 1 at that time proposed a series of supplemental lessons occupying about ten minutes a Sabbath, after the regular International Lesson, including a sum- marized or catechetical arrangement of the facts per- taining to the Bible as a book, its evidences, geography, history, manners and customs, institutions, doctrines, laws of interpretation, etc. ; memory lessons from the Holy Scriptures; church catechism; church creed; church economy; church work; church hymns; church history. This supplemental scheme will not be a substitute for 262 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. the International series, but it will call attention to the wide range of subjects embraced in a tliorough Bible education ; encouraging home, pulpit, and pastoral co- operation; the organization of classes outside of the Sabbath-school session ; cultivating and enriching the memory of our pupils during the years of life when this faculty is most active and susceptible ; providing for primary classes material for their use in connection with the International Lessons, especially when the latter are less adapted and less suggestive to the primary teachers ; systematizing and rendering permanent the knowledge derived from the International series ; providing for in- struction in distinguishing church doctrines, usages, be- nevolent work, etc. ; recognizing and providing lessons for the church year ; economizing time in the study of the International Lessons; rendering a thoroughly graduated and progressive course of study possible. I had, in 1875, published the following scheme, by wdiich the International and the Supplemental Lessons might be systematically combined and taught: I. Biblical. This comprises — (1) A Series of Bible Lessons on the salient facts of the Bible from the creation of man to the end of the 'New Testament canon, including selections from the prophetic, poetic, and doc- trinal portions of the Scriptures. (2) A Summarized or Catechetical Arrangement of the facts pertaining to the Bible as a book, its evidences, Bible geography, his- tory, manners and customs, institutions, doctrines, and laws of interpretation. (3) Memory Lessons from the Holy Scriptures, including all such passages as the Com- mandments, the twenty-third Psalm, the fifty-third of Isaiah, the Sermon on the Mount, the seventeenth of St. THE LESSONS. 263 John, the twelfth of Romans, and other large portions of Scripture. We cannot know too mnch Bible truth, nor can we do better than to get it into our minds in the very language in which we find it. Nor can we begin too early in the child's life to accomplish this great re- sult. (4) The Topical and Textual study of Scripture combined. Everv Lesson in the Bible should be sue;- gestive of some great theme, and should set the student at the exploration of Scripture to find what it has to say on that theme. II. Ecclesiastical. This comprises Studies — (1) in the Church Catechism; (2) in the Church Creed; (e3) in the Church Economy; (4) in Church Worh; Missionary, etc. ; (5) in Church Hymns; (6) in Church History. III. N^OKMAL. Comprising Studies — (1) in the Suhject- Matter we expect to teach; (2) in the Methods of Teacliing; (3) in Practical Teaching. IV. Miscellaneous. The Christian Evidences, the History of Missions, the Belations of Science and Rev- elation, the various pagan Religions, etc. The following adjustment of the scheme was printed and circulated at the International Convention in 1878 : The Graduated Course of Study. I. Primary. Two Years. I. International Series ; 2. Texts to be committed ; 3. Catechism about the Book of books ; 4. Simple out- lines of Bible biography and history; 5. Church Cate- chism ; 6. Sacred Hymns. II. Intermediate. Three Years. 1. International Series ; 2. Texts to be committed ; 264 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 3. Bible history and geography ; 4. The Bible as a Book of books ; 5. Church Catechism ; 6. Ilymns ; 7. Lessons on Temperance, Missionary Work, etc. III. Senior. Three Years. 1. International Series ; 2. Texts to be committed ; 3. Bible history and geography ; 4. Church Catechism ; 5. Ilymns ; 6. Church history (general and denomina- tional) ; 7. Missionary and Temperance. IV. Advanced. Fifty Years? 1. International Series; 2. Special Bible Classes for exegetical study ; 3. Lectures on Evidences, Church his- tory, Science, and Eeligion; 4. Sermons, theological; 5. Series of text-books to be read ; 6. Normal classes. It may be thought that ten minutes a Sabbath will give too little time for any work worth attempting. Ten minutes a Sabbath for forty-eight Sabbaths a year, wall give in seven years fifty-six hours of solid worh on out- lines of Biblical hnoivledge. Taking five questions and answers a Sunday, and an average of two verses of Scripture memorized, we have in seven years a well- mastered catechism of Biblical and ecclesiastical knowl- edge of 1680 questions and answers, besides 672 con- nected verses of Scripture in the memory. There are objections to any and every system of lessons. The International svstem has come in for its share of fault-finding, and has, I have no doubt, been improved thereby. It is said that ^^the teaching in our Sunday school to-day is superficial." So it is ; but do not let us forget that the teachers of to-day are the prodiiets of the old, and not of the new, system. The seven years' course, if continued long enough, w^ill lead to a profitable repeti- THE LESSONS. 265 tion of the lessons, so that a child of Rve years entering the Sunday school will, at the age of twelve years, have gone over the Bible; at the age of nineteen will have gone over it twice; at the age of twenty-six will have three times studied the Word from Genesis to Kevela- tion. It is said that by this system ^Sve do not have enough formulated doctrine.'' But we do have God's own Word, the fountain of all doctrine. This is the begin- ning. After God's Word, man's definition to be itself tested and judged by God's Word. "The seven years' course," says a clergyman, "is a confusing medley. The children get 'mixed up,' so that even the characters of the Old and ^N'ew Testaments are not clearly defined." It is a connected, comprehensive study of the whole Word. Defective teaching will con- fuse and mix up scholars, as defective preaching will do. A minister should see to it that his teachers are well prepared, and that they teach the lessons in their proper order and in the proper way. I venture to assert that there is less confusion in the topics of any six months' course of International Lessons than in the topics of the sermons preached by the minister who made the objection. "The lessons are not adapted to the primary class." Primary teachers say just the opposite of this. We have one text-book for all, old and young. The Bible is a stream where a bird may sip or an ox wade. "The 'Leaves' crowd out the Bible." Then don't use the "Leaves." They are not an essential part of the International system. But, in fact. Bibles are more used now than ever. Every "Leaf" is an advertise- 266 TJIE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. ment of the Bible, a guide to the Bible, a part of the Bible. A class studying Matthew from a copy of the I^ew Testament is really studying God's Word, even though the Books of Genesis and Malachi are missing from the book then in hand The student in day school with six books of the "Iliad" in his manual is as really studying Greek as though he had in hand the whole twenty-four books of that great Homeric poem. Did Jesus not preach from the Bible when, in the synagogue of Nazareth, "there was delivered unto Him the Book of the Prophet Isaiah," and He opened the book and found the place, and read and spake ? What was that old roll but a "leaf ?" "The present lesson system discourages the memo- rizing of Scripture." The opposite is true. It leads to the study of the Bible on scientific principles. It puts Scripture truth into the mind as so much fact and prin- ciple. It requires the committing of "golden text" and "memory verses" every week. Concerning the Catechism — that stereotyped ques- tion-book — something should, in this connection, be said. The catechism is a summary of truth, arranged in the form of questions and answers, for purposes of instruction. A Bible catechism is such a summary of Bible truth — historical, geographical, and doctrinal. A church catechism is a summary of theological and ec- clesiastical truth, setting forth in condensed form the interpretation of the Bible by a particular branch of the church. The answers of a church catechism may be made up of separate Scripture texts, or compilations of texts, or statements in human language of the teachings of many texts. Such catechisms of doctrine are profit- THE LESSONS. 267 able for definition in order to full discussion and careful indoctrination. The use of the catechism in the in- struction of children is important: (1) That they may have a solid foundation of doctrine in their early train- ing; (2) that they may receive early and enduring im- pressions; (3) that they may have direction and as- sistance in studying the contents of the Bible. The catechism should be faithfully taught to all children: (1) in the family; (2) in special meetings, under the care of the pastor; (3) in the Sabbath school. There are objections to the use of catechisms. ^'They are hard to be understood." There are por- tions of the catechisms not easily understood, because, being statements of Bible truth, and dealing with in- finite themes, human language cannot make perfectly simple what the Word of God does not itself make simple. But this objection holds against the Bible as well as against the catechism. Man may know as fact or principle what he cannot fully explain." ^'They contain errors." Some catechisms may con- tain errors. The statement of the error enables the ad- vocates of truth to assail the false and defend the true, and tluis the catechetical definition helps the cause of truth. But the proportion of errors in the catechisms of the Evangelical churches is very slight, and, being human statements, they do not have weight of divine authoritv. The use of the catechism on the whole is helpful, and tends to the knowledge of saving truths. ^^Catechisms prejudice children against religion." Certainly not, if wisely taught. One may teach any de- partment of human knowledge in a harsh and irrational way, so as to prejudice children against all learning. 268 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. '^Catechisms are likely to bias children in favor of particular schools of theological thought." Children should be by every possible influence brought into sym- pathy with truth. The people of positive opinions are the peoj^le most likely to look carefully and intelligently at opposite opinions. Indifference is the foe to thought. Then every child is bound to be biased in this life — for sin and error and self-indulgence, if not against it. It is impossible to bring too much or too strong influence in favor of truth and righteousness to bear upon children and youth. It would be well for pastors, parents, Sabbath-school superintendents and teachers to combine in an effort to secure the memorizing of the church catechism by ail the children. Let the official and adult members of the church set the example and secure this desirable result. The International Lesson System with its inestimable advantages need not be abandoned to make room for ^^graded systems." It may itself be ''graded," and the "supplemental" lessons on which it insists may be devel- oped to any degree of system and thoroughness desired. THE WEEK-DAY POWER. 209 CHAPTER XVI. THE WEEK-DAY POWER. Six days lie between two Sundays, and they are days ^^out in the cold," away from the glow and grace of the Sunday service of song, sermon, and school. They are week-days, secular days, worldly days, business days — when the church is mostly closed, or, at best, only opened in the basement or lecture-room, for the select and saintly and the sensible, who are in the small minority among men. Though the church is shut the world is open ; and it is open from basement to attic. Its fires are burning, its aisles crowded, its seats occupied, its altars full, its pulpits ringing with the speech of mammon, its organs pouring forth ceaseless strains of its own alluring music, its windows ablaze with visions of glory and achieve- ment, and its very crypts and cloisters alive with stir and scheme and self. Against the world-church, open and busy seven days a week, the Christian church seems content to fire away from its sacred batteries once, twice, or thrice a Sunday. The crowds that are awake six other days (and if asleep on the seventh are dreaming of the coming six) do not go into the sanctuary on Sunday. The few go, grow weary soon, scold if detained over ninety minutes, and return home to eat and nap and wait for the next Sunday's round of duty. Literature feeds active brains seven days a week. 270 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Science stands ready with her practical results or her inspiring speculations to gratify eager brains. Art attracts in ten thousand forms — fair and fouL Society welcomes to her fascinations. Commerce awakens greed of gold in souls open to her power. Appetite, with bait and cup, stands at every corner to gorge and craze the impotent victim. Doubt, with sneer and scoff and bold defiance, scatters her alluring pages, or plays the orator and humorist on j)ublic platform. Indoors and out, in school-house, playground, street, shop, alley, field, parlor, and kitchen ; in theater, concert-hall, beer-garden — evervwhere the forces are at w^ork in the activities of life, and of every side of life — activities which, wisely directed and watched and controlled, will work good to society; but which, neglected, will, in spite of Sunday service, bring ruin to souls and communities and whole generations of men. What shall the church do with such an active, intense, persistent, and uncompromising world at work seven days a week ? The answer is ready : Let the church be equally active, intense, persistent, and uncompromising seven days a week. Play against batteries of evil with equally powerful batteries of good. Set vigilance against vigilance, true ideas against false ideas, divine against human and in- fernal ambitions, delight in God against delight in self and the world, study against study, reading against reading, society against society, and thus hold the ground, and gain and keep gaining, until, by her own weapons, the world is worsted, and the kingdom of truth established. THE WEEK-DAY POWER. 271 The church must develop Christian strength and activity in all legitimate aims and efforts, giving her young people occupation for their varied powers, week- day as well as Sunday, at home as well as in church. The "Lyceum," the "Victoria Reading Circle," the "Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle," are efforts in this broad and much-needed work. They are de- signed to give the church a firmer hold on the young peo- ple within her communion ; a surer grasp upon the young people without ; a proper influence over society ; a correction of taste in the matter of amusements, and ability to appreciate the higher things of art, science, literature, and life, and all this in subordination to Christ and His gospel. Our pulpit and Sunday school must teach the people the wholesome doctrine that, when one becomes a Chris- tian, he gives all his time to God. He turns over the possibilities of service that are in him for every hour of every day of every month of every year that he lives in the body. He belongs to God on Wednesday, in the rush of business ; on Saturdav, in the freedom of recrea- tion; in winter, when the days are short and the nights are long; in summer, when the days are long and the nights are short. He belongs to God on the working days and on the holidays as well as on the holy days of the year. There is not a minute of a Christian man's time that does not belong to God, and that ought not to be given up to Him. Recreations that cannot be taken in the name of God and to His glory are not legitimate. Whether he studies with his brain, works with his hands, or devotes hours to innocent recreation for the building up of his body, all his time belongs to the Lord. 272 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. When a man becomes a Christian, he gives all hia power to God. He gives his physical power — the power to do with hand and foot ; he gives his intellectual power — his ability to read, to remember, to think, to write, to speak, to investigate, to teach ) he gives his moral power — his power of conscience, of affection, of purpose, of influence; he gives his professional power — the ability which he possesses to work in certain lines, as farmer, mechanic, merchant, teacher, lawyer, physician, minis- ter, statesman, citizen ; he gives his peculiar power — the endowments which are his as distinguished from other men. If he have special ability in the mastery of natural science, in the study of history, in the use of his imagination, in the analysis of character, in the writing of books, in the preparation and delivery of sermons and orations, in teaching in any special branch of human or divine learning — all these belong to God. After all a man's time and all his powers are given to God, the surrender makes all these sacred. You may divide his life into secular and sacred if you will, but for him the secular is sacred ; all days are holy days, all hours are holy hours, all places are holy places; the spirit of heaven pervading his life makes his life — every part of it — a fragment of heaven. This consecration of all things secular does not diminish the necessity for special seasons of meditation and worship. Indeed, the influence of such seasons becomes the greater as it is felt over a longer period of time, and as it extends to a greater variety of employ- ments and conditions. He observes Sabbath days with greater strictness than those who do not consecrate the other six days to the THE WEEK-DAY POWER. 273 Lord. He attends the church with greater frequency, reguhirity, and delight than those who put their religion into the Sabbath only. He sees all things in God, he does all things for God, he values all things according to the standards which God has taught him. The light of revelation shines on the book of science, and the life immortal gives luster to his earthly life. When one gives all his time and all his power to God^ ]iis life in every part of it, however secular some por- tions of it may seem to be, is sacred, as was the ^'holy of holies" in the Jewish tabernacle before the veil was rent in twain, and the sanctity and glory of the Shekinah extended. The work of God's grace in the human soul does not diminish either intellectual power or taste for scientific and literary studies. When a man devoted to philo- sophical, scientific, or literary pursuits surrenders him- self with his peculiar intellectual tastes and endowments to the service of God, these pursuits do not lose their charm. The Christian geologist loves geology; the Christian astronomer rejoices in the heavens that "de- clare the glory of God;" the biologist sees a divinely given life in plant and animal; the student of human nature and of philosophy still pursues with unabated delight his investie^ations in the history of ancient and modern times, and in the phenomena and laws of being. All this is right. It is right for a Christian man to be a student. He ought to know ; he ought to improve ; he ought to take delight in intellectual growth, and find time for reading and research. The young man in his college course may serve God as faithfully as a preacher in the discharge of his purely 18 274 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. professional duties. He may study Livy, Herodotus, Virgil, Homer, Horace, with pure motives, and in these studies find opportunity for developing mental and moral strength. Indeed, a college-boy cannot get the best results of his colleo:e curriculum unless he does -'fe thus studv with a sanctified aim. Our grammar and high school pupils ought to be actuated by such religious convictions in all their studies. ^'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wis- dom.'' There is a depth of educational philosophy in this inspired statement. Our young people ought to be trained from the beginning to make use of educational advantages as religious opportunities. They should be guarded against the idea that study in the public school and the reading of papers and books through the week are purely secular, wdth no religious aim and power in them. They should be guarded against confining all religious inspirations and aims to Sabbath hours and Sabbath services. There should be no break between Sabbaths. The cable of divine influence should stretch through the seven davs, sendins: out wires to touch with their divine charm every hour of every day. What is true of study is also true of worldly labor. Kitchen work, shop work, farm work, as well as school work, are divine duties ; they hide pearls in their rough shells ; they are means of discipline in the highest quali- ties of character. Throuc^h the faithful discharc,'e oi? such plain duties come some of the sweetest and mighti- est enerc:ies from the heavens. The vounc; convert should be guarded against the fearful lieresv, that when he leaves the hour of song and prayer and revival poAver, and goes to his homely service in the shop or field, he is THE WEEK-DAY TOWER. 2Y5 imperiling his spiritual life by leaving the place where spiritual power especially belongs. Honest service for God, with pure motives and the spirit of prayer in the lowliest places, is a means of grace, without which, as collateral and supplementary agencies, devotional hours are absolutely worthless. It becomes the duty, then, of every religious teacher to show the young Christian that all his time, all his poAver, all his studies, all his work, are to be consecrated to God ; that such consecration makes them religious. And this opens a world of opportunity and of re- sponsibility before the Christian minister. The minister of the gospel, therefore, is the true edu- cator. The church is the true school. AVhen it secures the consecration of a life with all its power to God, the responsibility of the church begins anew, for the train- ing tliat life in all its relations and possibilities into a svmmetrical growth. The church must win souls to Christ ; that is, to this spirit of entire consecration of all things to the service of Christ. The church must edify by the divine Spirit through the divine promises the souls thus committed by hearty consecration to its care. The church must, therefore, direct its converts in all the aifairs of life, showing them the relations between the Christian spirit and everyday service in school, shop, kitchen, field, street, parlor. The church should see that its members, who are already in business, carry their religion into business ; that its citizens, as such, carry their religion into poli- tics ; that its students carry their religion into the school and the college. 276 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. The church should also see that no branch of Chris- tian activity and personal culture is being neglected by its members. Students in school should not neglect practical duties at home — the helping of father and mother. Business men should not neglect politics. Citizens, mechanics, housekeepers, farmers, occupied with their various lines, should not neglect education. The ploughboy who has intellect is bound by every con- sideration to cultivate it. The mother, whose children are growing up about her, although she be busy with domestic cares, has no right to neglect intellectual im- provement that she may be the better qualified to fulfil the mother's duty. Young people on farms and in shops, who did not have educational privileges in child- hood, should feel their responsibility for education, for true literary taste, and for the improvement of their mental powers. Such symmetrical, far-reaching work increases great- ly the responsibility of the Christian pastorate. It opens many doors of influence. It makes the pastor supervisor over all the affairs of his people in the wise and courteous ways w^hich refinement, zeal, and wisdom will suggest. It is in pursuance of this true theory of the Christian life that I commend the cultivation by the church of w^eek-day power, by diligent and faithful visitation of the homes of the scholars ; by the circulation of books, religious and secular, under the direction of the church ; by special meetings on week-evenings, in which the ministries of music, art, science, and literature are secured in subordination to religious aims and uses; and by the organization and management of educational t-rhr THE WEEK-DAY POWER. 277 Societies and circles, such as those to which I have already alluded. ^linisters should preach and lecture to their congre- gations on such topics as the following; ^^The peculiar perils from modern society to which our young people are exposed ;" ''The necessity of consecrating the intel- lect to God;" ''The Christian's inheritance in science, literature, and art" (a good text would be: "All things are yours ;" or, "Whatsoever things are true . . . think on these things") ; "The study of divine Providence in human history;" "The value of human learning in the preservation and translation of the Holy Scriptures;" "The recreative power for an earnest man in literature, science, and art ;" "The increase of personal power by a higher culture;" "The pleasures of science." Ministers should organize classes in science and history, in art and in general literature, in grammar and conversation, and invite to them the young people who need such provisions. Of course the minister cannot add the details of work which this suggestion implies to his already busy life, but he can induce some other church-people to do the work, or to give the means by which he can secure talent competent to direct and teach. Reading circles may be organized imder church aus- pices ; circles in history, in the literature of a people or of a period ; circles whose individual members agree to read so many minutes a day — ten, twenty, forty — in useful and specified lines. A habit of reading good books on the part of a young man may not only give an impulse to power otherwise dormant, but may develop gifts which wdll increase his value to society and the 278 THE MODEKN SUNDAY SCHOOL. church a hundred per cent. A taste for good reading formed by a mother may result in sending her children to school ten years longer than they would have dreamed of going. Tlie '^Victoria Eeading Circle/' which was estab- lished in London, in 1887, under the auspices of the London Sunday School Union, and the ^^Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle," on the basis of which it operates, are both designed to enlist the influence of the church in literary and educational spheres, and thus utilize legitimate secular forces in church life. In the Appendix may be found a full account of these organi- zations. THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 279 CHAPTER XVII. THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. I HAVE a few things to say about country Sunday schools. The one distinctive feature of these schools is that they are located in the country. Whatever disad- vantages their managers may experience are traceable to this simple fact. A superintendent from an inland city, when addressing an audience in the great metropo- lis, represents himself as ^'from the country.'' I do not at this writing propose to discuss country city Sunday schools, which have in reality no embarrassments that are peculiar to themselves, '^ov am I speaking of the schools in our large towns ; for although these towns are less compactly built, and are not so well supplied with pavements as the larger cities, their schools find no difficulty in maintaining themselves in all seasons and through all weathers. In the thinly settled neighborhoods, in farming regions, in straggling villages, the real country Sunday school has its existence; where, in snowy weather, in rainy weather, in extremely cold weather, and in thaw- ing weather, it becomes exceedingly difficult, nay, al- most impossible at times, to travel any distance on foot. The people who form the Christian congregation in such a section as this live from one to ^yq miles from the school-house or chapel, and many of them must walk every step of the way if they attend church service at all. 280 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCIIOOIi. In such neighborhoods it is not unusual to close Sabbath school during six weeks or more of winter, just as in the city certain Sunday schools are closed for six weeks or more during the hot season. What the cold does for the country the heat does for the city, so that crimination in either case is exceedingly unbecoming. The old argument based upon the maintenance of the secular district school in the rural neighborhoods during the entire winter is thus answered by the country brethren: Our churches, or the school-houses in which our religious service is held, are not as near to us as the school-house our children attend during the week. Many families must pass two district school-houses on Sabbath to reach the place of church service in the country. Boys and girls roughly clad may easily enough walk half a mile or more on Monday to reach the school-house, who find it less agreeable to walk two or three miles in better clothes over muddy roads on Sunday. Horses ? The farmer believes in at least one day of rest out of the seven for his horses, or, if the horses are used once on Sabbath to convey the family to church, this is enough. Again, to attend two services a day so far from home when the days are so short, and the ''chores" of a large farm are to be done morning and evening, is almost impossible. The irregularity of church services in coimtry neigh- borhoods is another serious obstacle. Preaching is afforded in many of these places only once or twice a month, and this, perhaps, at the very hour most appro^ priate to the Sunday-school session. The frequent in- terruption seems to justify the brief suspension for the winter. THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 281 It is often the ease that the moneyed men of a communitv, whose children have formed social ties in adjoining towns, find it pleasant to ride thither on Sabbaths to enjoy the comforts of well-appointed sanc- tuaries and the advantages of a more cultivated society than the country neighborhood affords. The children, perhaps, identify themselves with a morning or noon Sunday school in town. What time has such a family to give to the maintenance of a country school ? What interest will they take in it ? A strong denominational feeling too often prevails in country neighborhoods. Rivalries find place there Avhich are disastrous to spiritual success. Unable to maintain a denominational school, and unwilling to affiliate with those whose slightly larger influence gives the administration into ^^unfriendlv" hands, our stronar denominationalist withdraws entirelv, and we have rea- son to know that in more than one neighborhood Sunday schools do not exist at all because thev cannot be exclu- sively Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, nor yet gen- uinely ^T^nion." This state of things in many places not only gives the winter's frost a keener edge, and deepens the mud of the country highway, but affords a very- convenient excuse for closing the school altogether until the genial warmth of summer and the personal devotion of some disciple of Christ almost compel a new en- deavor. And in spite of the inharmony some good is done, and in many cases, thank God ! the persistent labor of a few patient Christians is instrumental in bringing blessed baptisms of conviction and light and charity from the Lord. To the difficulties encountered in the management 282 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. of country schools which I have already stated, may be added the following : The indifference and scepticism of so large a part of our country population, with whom it is a small matter whether their children go to school or not; the want of convenient, commodious, and well- appointed rooms; the lack of teachers; the want of a just appreciation on the part of the people of the Sun- day-sc]iool work, and a consequent failure to give the in- stitution a liberal financial support. I can think of other embarrassments. I have named enough to show that the work in the country is to be prosecuted in the face of serious difficulties. He is a brave man who keeps a steady hold of the institution and pushes it on from J anuary to December. May I offer a few words of exhortation ? "Whoever you may be already in charge of a country school, or projecting the organization of one, remember that one consecrated heart can stir up a whole neighborhood. The one great need of any country Sunday school is an earnest leader. He will attract to himself the heart of every child. This will win every parent. Earnest, in- defatigable love can keep up a Sunday school under the most inauspicious circumstances. The magnet, in spite of wind and wave, and blackness and tempest, points steadily toward the pole. A force silently woos it from afar, and it trembles thitherward in responsive longing. So woos true Christly love ; and this may throb in your heart, brother or sister, and win childhood and age from neglectful homes to the school, the sanctuary, the Saviour. Remember that to be a successful Sunday school yours need not be a large school. Ten pupils and two THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 283 teachers may have a session full of enthusiasm and profit. Instead of expending joiir zeal in futile en- deavors after large accessions to your numbers, make the school itself so profitable and instructive that every pupil sliall of his own accord become an earnest mission- ary, and from personal asurance of its value persuade his fellows to join your ranks. Emphasize Bible study. This is the one great means by which the Sunday school is to benefit any community. Resolve, therefore, that your Sunday school, however small it mav be, shall be a Bible school. I commend to your notice the uniform lesson. Its use is as prac- ticable in the country as in the city. Fill the country with Sunday schools. Let highways and hedges, fields and forests, bloom with the truth and grace of tlie gospel. If you can do no more, establish family Sunday schools.* If it can be done without violence to Christian courtesy and charity, let your school be denominational. 'This is the better form for a Sunday school, but not always practicable. As the union school will sooner or later become denominational, it is a saving of time to begin as a regular church school. But where you cannot do as you would, go heartily into the union effort. And do not be too solicitous about securing advantages, for vour o^\Ti branch of God's sTcat church-family, nor too sensitive to slights and neglects, which some strong partisan or sectarian of narrow measure may mete out to you. When certain x\thenian messengers brought an insulting message to Philip of Macedon, their conqueror and king, he replied, ^Tell the Athenian king that it is * See page 29. 284 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. worse to speak sucli things than to hear and forgive them." Be magnanimous, and if you cannot have what jou want, do the best you can with what you have. Be generous yourself, even if others are ungenerously secta- rian. Yield gracefully to the majority, and work as diligently and fight as valiantly under the accepted banner as you would under your own. This is the wiser, better, nobler way. It is often the case that the denomi- national school loses its right of possession by suspension through the winter. Early in the spring some union agent slips in betimes and starts a union school. Are we right in thinking that any school by closing up for the winter forfeits its claim upon public favor, and deserves some such rebuke ? In organizing your school let everything be done openly, and after fair and full notice. Don't '^election- eer.'' Pray much for divine direction. Insist upon the selection of superintendent and other officers by adults and not by children. Let the key-note of your school be "Bible study for spiritual edification. Then organize with this aim before you, and select officers and teachers who love, and are to some extent qualified, to teach the Word. Elect as few officers as possible. Put all your force into the main work as pupils or teachers. Be sure to get a superintendent whose heart is in the right place. Get a man of as much talent as possible, but exalt grace above genius. It is surprising how much one talent can do in Sunday-school work. Because you cannot have a Wells or a Peynolds, be satisfied if you find a man in whom Jesus dwells, and who loves the Word of God and the souls of the people. Remember that all questions of organization are of minor importance. Don't be stick- THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 285 lers for particular modes. Whatever constitution, plan, rules of order, may be adopted, carry them out faith- fully. I think that a very few simple regulations are sufficient for the management of a Sunday school, and when once adopted by the majority of teachers let them be tenaciously observed by all. Your Sunday-school room is not like St. John's in Brooklyn, Grace Mission in :N'ew York, Bethany in Philadelphia, or the model schoolroom of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Akron, O. Yours is either a small church with no class-rooms, or a country school-house of the plainest style. You have no railroad seat to turn over, no cane-bottomed chairs to arrange, no double doors to close, no fountain with its gold fish and water- lilies, no frescoed walls, no stained-glass windows, no organ, no carpets. Yours is but a plain, soiled, dusty, web-hung country school-house, very rough, very in- convenient. We have often been in just such rooms, and what glorious times we have had there ! All this matter of apparatus and ornament is of minor impor- tance. Of some importance it is, and so we suggest the appointment of a ''Committee on the Koom." How long, think you, will it take a bevy of smart country girL^ to convert a rude school-house into a rustic palace, fresher and fairer far than the majority of our city basements ? Here are arms and fingers that fear neither soap nor scrubbing-brush. Here are taste and strength to make windows shine, exchange for folds of spider- webs festoons of evergreens, suspend against bare walls wreaths and anchors and crosses of laurel and hemlock, and place on the superintendent's desk every Saturday evening bouquets of flowers to fill the place with fra- 286 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCIIOOI.. grance for the day of the Lord. Cleanliness and comeli- ness, even to the point of elegance, are possible in our roughest and most rural school-houses. I do not say that these things are necessary. Far from it. I do say, for I do believe, that these things have a mission not to be despised ; and I congratulate the school whose super- intendent and teachers have enterprise, taste, and skill enough to give the ministry of the beautiful a place in their Sunday-school work. As compared with Bible study, these adornments are but as the velvet case to the costly diamond cluster it contains. True, in vour school-house the infant class has no room by itself. But it can have a corner. If its teacher has the tithe of a mother's tact, she Avill drill her ten or twenty little lispers by softly uttered responses and 'Svhisper songs" so as to disturb no one else. Why may not a temporary blackboard shield her from the rest of the school, and afford at the same time a surface on which to draw rude letters, sketches and maps, to the perfect delight of her pupils ? I know also that in your little school-houses the classes are of necessity placed very close together. But patient effort on the part of your superintendent will soon accustom each to speak in recitation so quietly that a partition will really separate the classes, and give each an opportunity to prosecute its studies without inter- ruption. If you wish to know about cheap maps for your school, blackboards, the new Silicate Librarians' ^^Rec- ord," library books, a lesson system for three, six, nine, or twelve months, or anything else relating to the work, address a note of inquiry to the editor of any Sunday- THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 287 school paper. A little labor and a little money wisely expended will give the most unfavorably situated coun- try Sunday school a new life and new facilities for use- fulness. The hour of meeting must be determined by each locality for itself. When there is one preaching service, the school will usually be held either immediately before or after it, that the families may be saved the trouble and fatigue of a second journey. In New England it is very common to place the Sunday school between two sermons. The noon hour, between morning and after- noon preaching, is devoted to this purpose, and the school fits in like a thin slice of tongue between two halves ox a buttered biscuit. The mass of the people, however, regard it rather as a piece of thin paper be- tween two slices of jelly cake — the latter to be eaten and relished, the other to be thrown away. I hope that very soon the three services will be rearranged, so that an hour and a quarter may be devoted by old and young to Bible study, with accompanying religious worship, and that then, after a brief intermission, the same persons may be assembled to join again in worship, and hear God's Word preached from the pulpit. The present form of public worship is not in its details so divinely ordained that it will be improper or injurious to change it, and we may soon look for such modifications as will give to the school the place it deserves in the Sabbath services. But while the time is limited to forty-five minutes or extended to seventy-five, let our country friends resolve to make the most of what they have. Don't fritter away one-half or three-fourths of it in opening exercises, ex- 288 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. clianging books, collecting money, or in hearing some itinerant religious life insurance agent '^speak his piece/' Go directly to work, and secure at least thirty or thirty-five minutes of solid study out of the time assigned. The order of exercises should be left in the hands of the superintendent, who, if he be fit for his position, will cheerfully receive suggestions from the teachers, and, as far as possible, comply with their wishes in all matters of management. I may suggest, in reference to the ^Wder of exercises,'' that the ''exercises" are far more important than the "order." A self-possessed, prompt, firm, kind, calm superintendent will secure "quiet" whenever he wishes it, and all will cheerfully yield to his direction. Give more time to Bible study than to anything else, and allow no interruption while that is the order of the day. A high wall, impenetrable and insurmountable, should guard the school during that part of its session against librarian, missionary collec- tors, secretary, visitors, and other interlopers. The main work in the country, as in the city school, is Bible study. Therefore the main point is live teach- ers. The ablest scholars are not always the ablest teachers. Profound learning is desirable, but not indis- pensable, in this work of teaching God's truth. There- fore I say to country superintendents, Take the best and most devoted people you have, learned or unlearned, and enlist their hearts in the service. Then give them tracts and books to read. With earnest, studious teachers you will soon have a successful Sunday school. Give, there- fore, the largest measure of attention to this part of the work. THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 289 During the week do something for the Sunday school. Have an occasional sociable, inviting old and young to attend it. Spend half an hour or more in some Bible exercise. Look over the lesson for next Sabbath, or take up the geography of Palestine, drill the meeting on the mountains, waters, plains, and cities of the Bible world. Sing a great deal. Have one or two brief prayers. If the pastor is unable to be at your school on Sabbath, owing to the demands of his work, let him make use of this week-evening meeting. I reiterate my solemn conviction that the question of success in country Sunday-school work is not one of organization and appliances, but of enthusiasm; not of art, but of heart. There are in this labor no barriers that a true zeal cannot overleap. Make every summer, dear brethren of the country, a golden summer to you by faithful Sunday-school work, and may you gather many and large and heavily freighted sheaves for Christ ! Let me discuss the question of suspension during the winter. I appreciate the difficulties which our fellow- laborers in the country encounter. I have conversed freely on the subject with many of these brethren. I have lived for several years in the coimtry. I have thought carefully over the usual objections to winter sessions — bad weather, bad roads, "chores'' to be done about house and barn, plain clothes (a second or Sunday suit made of light and cheap material being possible in summer to the poorest boy, while a winter Sunday suit costs three times as much), short days, other meetings, distance, etc., etc. These, and all conceivable argu- ments on that side of the question, while they show the embarrassments of country workers, do not amount to a 19 290 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. justification of the prevailing habit of closing the Sim- dav school for from three to five months every year. In spite of them all, I believe in fifty-two Sunday-school sessions every twelve months, and intend, in all humil- ity and in the fear of God, to protest against the unwise policy of withdrawing so large a portion of the Sunday- school army every year from the field, and giving to the great enemy of souls an advantage so grateful to him, and so gratuitous, unnecessary, and culpable on our part. If Sunday schools are not practically valuable, let them go. Whether stalled by the mud, frozen by the cold, melted by the heat, or drowned by the rain, mat- ters little. But if thus worthless, why hold them for five or six months in spring and summer ? If Sunday school is needed for one Sunday and the week it represents, I know no peculiarities of any Sun- day which would justify its omission. The soul that lives by "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" needs regular supplies of truth. God's Word is as necessary to the development of God's grace in the heart in January as in July. The Berean believers of Paul's day ''searched the Scriptures daily." Souls are choosing for God or against God all the year round. "Be ye also ready," we find remaining as the Word of God from January to December again. Men sicken and die in all seasons. In fact, there is no special sea- son to the Christian worker. Says Paul to Timothy, "Be instant in season and out of season." And is the Bible so small a book, so easily fathomed, or so simple, that half a dozen summer sessions will sufiice to explore and master its contents ? It is true, as you say, to some THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 291 extent, "We can study the Bible at home." But why, then, have Sunday school at any time ? You may also read sermons and pray at home, and thus avoid the fatigue of attending the prayer-meeting, and save your- selves the expense of a preacher. The unwisdom of the policy I deprecate is the more apparent when w^e consider the peculiar social perils of the winter. Satan never suspends his operations be- cause of the cold or storm. Winter is the special season for gay, dissipating parties with their dances, or coarse and equally demoralizing "plays.'' On the winter days, when but little farm work can be done, and on the long winter nights, that drive men indoors by the side of warm fires, does not Satan see to it that groggeries are open, and that beer, whisky, cards, coarse stories and ribald songs are supplied to beguile and degrade the weak and unwary ? When do the people more need the Sunday school with its Scriptural warnings, instruc-- tions, and quickenings ? AYinter is the season of special opportunity. The evening school, the singing school, the lyceum debate, the spelling match, the lecture course, the church soci- able, the protracted meetings, the public school, the great parties and balls, the entertainments in hall and church, all these seem to flourish best in mid-winter. Why, then, should the Sunday school die ? "If its sessions were held in the evening it would be different." Then, I answer, hold its sessions in the evening. "But the verv little children could not attend." I am sure of the contrary ; and yet I do not know but it would be better to run the risk of their non-attendance for a time, if by the proposed argument a larger number of young 292 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. people and adults could be brought together for the study of the Word of God. The evening session is not indispensable. But somehow, at some time, in some way, the Sunday school must be kept up. The public school is always open in winter in country places, answering to some extent the arguments against winter Sunday schools, by showing how entirely prac- ticable it is for children to leave home in spite of mud, snow, and cold. But there is another phase of the pub- lic school which weighs heavily in favor of winter Sun- day schools. The intellectual effort of young people put forth in preparing for daily recitations, the casual con- tact with the great facts and problems of history and human experience which school habits occasion — these quicken intellects otherwise dormant, and render stu- dents especially susceptible to the truth. At no time in the year are young people in the country so intel- lectually impressible, at no season are their minds more clear and vigorous, at no season are they more exposed to the temptations of scepticism, than in winter. At the very time when all the consecrated culture we have in the church should be responding through Sunday- school teaching to the intellectual awakening of our youth, the school is closed, the teachers are silent, the Bible is unopened. The keen, inquiring, penetrating brain of the boy turns from the text-book of science and asks about the Maker of all these marvels in nature. He finds the church school closed. And why ? ^^It's winter.^' But I do injustice to the church of Christ in this putting of the case. The church is not closed. In winter it is usually open oftener than in summer. The protracted meetings are held chiefly during tlie THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 293 autumn and winter: In some communities it is cus- tomary to hold a special meeting every winter, even though the Sunday school closes, concerning w^hich I remark — 1. That the attendance upon such special meetings in the dead of wanter, and in most unpropi- tious weathers, only proves that 'Svliere there's a will there's a way." The same degree of zeal in Sunday- school w^ork ^vould overcome every obstacle. 2. That the results of a protracted meeting ^'revival" would be intensified and extended were its special meetings of prayer, consecration, and preaching supplemented by thorough class studies in the Word of God, which is able to ^'build up" and "sanctify" believers. The study of divine truth and effort for others are the two things which young converts most need, and these are the things most effectively accomplished by the Sunday school. The suspension of this service, therefore, in winter exposes the young Christians to immense loss. 3. While it is common to hold these protracted meetings every season, there remain very many places where the people suspend their school, and yet enjoy no advantage from revival meetings. Doubly culpable are those min- isters and superintendents who, in such communities, allow the Sunday school to close in the autumn. Let me plead, dear reader, for the continuance of the country schools for autumn and winter. Try the ex- periment. Foil the arch-foe of our faith. Keep the school up and the Word open. Let not the devil gain any advantage by the relaxing of Christian endeavor. Of all the excuses for giving up Sunday school in Avinter which an artful devil ever put into Christian lips, the cry of "old clothes" is the silliest and shabbiest, 294 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. ]^o more tattered garment ever hung over an exciiseless sin. Show me the neighborhood where people say, '^We cannot afford decent clothes, therefore we cannot go to Sunday school. '^ Place one earnest soul in that town- ship, lie visits, distributes tracts, prays, pleads with the people; through his labors the divine Spirit awakens religious concern among the people. He preaches the law and then the gospel. The people turn out. Souls are forward for prayers. Believers are in an agony of earnest longing. It is mid-winter. The snow is a foot deep on the level, the drifted roads are well-nigh impass- able, yet the little school-house is crowded. Sleighs and sleds, foot-passengers with shovels swung over their shoulders, mothers with children in their arms, all wend their way, in defiance of snow and wind and frost, to the place where God has manifested Himself to His people. On Sunday, from early morning till ten o'clock at night, the school-house is full. Service after service is held. Miles dwindle into rods. "Chores" were never so rapid- ly despatched. Clothes! Who thinks of seedy coat, patched trousers, dented hat ? On Saturday night the swift needle, the stout clothes-brush, the hot flat-iron, soon repair, dust out, and press down a ragged week-day garment until it looks "almost as good as new," and its glad wearer, gladdened with the zeal and joy of the "new life," never gives a thought all that jubilant Sab- bath day to the plain, patched garb his body wears. Ah, dear brethren, "where there's a w^ill there's a way." When the heart is in a work it tears away in the twinkle of an eye all these cobweb apologies and ex- cuses for apathy and lukewarmness. We close Sunday school in winter because we do not love souls; hecause THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 295 we do not love Christ; because we are half-hearted, and care more for our ease than for our Masters hingdom. This is a fact. Why not put it in plain words ? And the saddest fact of all is, that when people of the world excuse themselves from Sunday school and church on the flimsy ground of inability to ''dress well enough," we at once indorse the sentiment, cover ourselves with it as with a mantle of self-justification, and, closing up the school on Sabbath, write on our conscience these weak and wicked words : "The poor are so poor they cannot come, and we acknowledge the justice and propriety of their excuses.'^ There are other excuses on the tongue's end of all who loathe labor in the Lord's vineyard. They say, "But few would come out." Of this I am not sure ; but then a few are worth working for. There were but a feiv young men in Oxford who studied their Greek Testaments weekly with the vow of service upon them ; but the few became millions. Jesus in the night labored with one ^N'icodemus. In the heat and hunger of the day He talked with one woman of Samaria. He found in the lowly service "meat" that His disciples knew not of. It is equally incomprehensible to many of His so- called disciples to-day. "We have no teachers." One earnest soul loving the Word and loving souls may so teach that Word to many as to make it profitable. No teachers ? Have you no Christians among you ? Is there not one? "We lack the funds." Do you lack equally the spirit of self-denial ? We know how difficult it is to raise money in many country places for Sunday-school work. But the "will" hews out the "way." Take the "cheap" cigars one of your number smokes. They cost only three cents apiece. 296 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Tie smokes only one a day, including Sunday. I^early eleven dollars a year ! That is all. But five men, each smoking or chewing eleven dollars a year, consume on their appetites, and to the damage of body, brain, and heart, only fifty-five dollars a year! And all this is in neighborhoods where people are too poor to dress decent- ly, and far too poor to provide reading matter for a Sunday school. What will the Master say when the '^judgment is set and the books are opened V^ It is common to answer remonstrance by remon- strance. The city cries aloud to the country, and re- ceives an echoing rebuke: ^'If country Sunday schools do close in winter, the city schools also close in summer." These lines are not written from the city standpoint, nor are they intended to be the voice of the city in any sense. Personally, I have lived in the country and preached in the country enough to understand its needs, its embarrassments and advantages. I write earnestly because I feel keenly the importance of the question. I write plainly because I wish its importance to be fully felt by those who must personally grapple with it. But I have a word or two in this place to say concerning the custom of closing Sunday schools in the city during the summer — a word of condemnation and a word of ex- tenuation. I think that clergymen and most students and business men of intellectual and sedentarv habits need a few weeks' relaxation in the summer. In securing this, most of the wealthy church members are ^^out of town'' for some time. The superintendent goes ; the chief teachers go ; many of the scholars go. So the authorities close the school. Just so far as this arrange- ment prevents people from attending the public service THE COUNTRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 297 and the Sabbath school it is harmful. Those who travel are, of course, permitted to attend service every Sab- bath. Now, such is the proximity of churches in all cities, and such the summer arrangements, that, al- iiiough one or two churches may be temporarily closed in the neighborhood, there is always one, and generally more, within easy reach where preaching may be heard, and where the Sabbath school is held twice a day. The schools that close are aware of this, and it is customary for departing pastors and superintendents to exhort those of their flocks who must remain in town to attend one of the neighboring churches and schools. So that, in fact, the city Sunday schools do not at any time close in such a way as to leave city people without opportunity for regular Sunday-school service every Lord's day. These words have been written in love, and with a profoimd anxiety to so write them that, while they could give no offence by undue plainness, they might be so plain and direct that they could not be misunderstood. Methodists hold class-meetings. They are intended to be, and almost invariably are, "means of grace." A brother minister writes as follows : "I have been preaching and working in the Sabbath school a great many years on circuits in country places. I have tried hard to keep up the schools in winter. I am very glad you are treating the subject in the Sunday- school Journal, and so well thus far, but I have an ob- jection for you to answer. In many places the Sabbath school must be held immediately after the morning ser- mon, but that entirely prevents all class-meetings, as they can only be held at that hour. To me this is the greatest objection to winter Sabbath schools in the country." 298 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL. But why an objection to "ivinter Sabbath schools?" Does not the difficulty exist just as much in summer? ISTow, there are two or three methods which I should adopt or test before abandoning either the class-meeting or the Sunday school. 1. I should plead for a morning session of the Sunday school. But the country will say, "It is too early for the people, and especially for the children, to get out." 2. I should then plead for a later preaching hour, say, Sunday school at 10 a. m. ; preaching at 11.15; class-meeting at 12.30. 3. If both classes and Sunday school must meet at the same time, I should recognize the class-meeting as a good Sunday-school class, and its leader as a Sunday- school teacher. I should recognize the Sunday-school classes as class-meetings, and their teachers as leaders. I should uphold both institutions. If I needed a teacher for one class, I should feel free to take him out of an- other where he had been a scholar. If I needed a devout class-member for a Sunday-school teacher, I should lay hold of him, feeling that I was virtually making a class- leader of him, and thus promoting him. 4. If we were compelled to meet at the same hour, and had but one room in the church for all purposes, I should borrow a neighbor's kitchen or parlor for the class-meeting. I do firmly believe that when Christians rightly estimate the Sunday school, and Sunday-school workers truly appreciate the class-meeting, there will prevail a spirit of confidence, concession, and co-operation before which every difficulty will vanish. APPENDIX A. 299 APPENDIX A. PUBLIC RECEPTION OF SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS. The church should extend its hand of welcome to the man who consecrates his gifts to the work of teaching in the Sabbath school. A word of counsel and encouragement at that important stage may have a most salutary efEect upon his future career. The pub- lic recognition would favorably impress the church itself, and give the teacher increased power over his scholars. This course has been adopted in several schools already, and many years ago I pre- sented the following plan for the public reception or installation of teachers : 1. Let the school, or the school and congregation, unite in reading responsively with the pastor Psalm cxix. 1-lG. 2. During the singing of the following hymn the persons to be received may come forward : Christ our Example. C. M. Tune — Balerma. Son of the living God ! receive This humble work of mine ; Worth to my meanest labor give, By joining it to thine. Servant of all ! to toil for man Thou wouldst not, Lord, refuse ; Thy majesty did not disdain To be employed for us. Thy bright example I pursue ; To Thee in all things rise ; And all I think, or speak, or do, Is but one sacrifice. 3. Prayer. 4. Remarks by tlie pastor or superintendent, or both, on the Sunday-school teacher's work, and the need of the Holy Spirit in order to success. 5. Scripture readings : 300 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. (1) By the pastor: Rom. xii. 1-8. (2) By the superintendent : 1 Cor. xii. 27-31. (3) By the school and pastor or superintendent, responsively : Eph. iv. 1-16. 6. The following hymn may then be sung : The Scriptures. L. M. Unto our inner man expound The things in all Thy Scriptures found Concerning Thee, that we in turn May make Thy Iambs the same discern. Instructed thus by Thee, O Lord ! Our souls shall prosper in Thy Word ; Apt teachers in our school to shine. Apt scholars must we be in Thine. 7. The following questions may then be asked : (1) Do you believe that the Holy Scriptures were given by in- spiration of God, and that therein we find all things necessary to salvation? (2) Do you believe that the study of the Holy Scriptures, with a view to spiritual edification, is the chief and all-important aim of the Sabbath school? (3) Will you endeavor faithfully, as a Sunday-school teacher, to instruct your scholars in the Word of God? 8. The following covenant may then be made, all teachers and officers present, who desire to do so, uniting with the candidates in its audible repetition. Covenant. "I do solemnly promise to devote myself, with all diligence, to Sunday-school labor. I will endeavor to study the Word of God thoroughly and prayerfully ; to spend as much time as possible in reading, meditation, and prayer, with special reference to my work ; as regularly as possible to attend all the means of grace ; to visit my scholars as their temporal or spiritual necessities may require, and to be punctually present at school and all meetings of teachers." APPENDIX A. 301 9. The Teacher's Consecration Hymn may then be sung : Tu n e — D ennis. Father, my spirit search ; Reveal my needs to me, As now, a teacher in thy church, I give myself to Thee. Teach me to love Thy Word, Teach me to do Thy will ; With earnest labors for my Lord Help me my life to fill. Thy lambs Thou bidd'st me feed, Feed me, O Shepherd mine : If led by Thee then may I lead My flock in paths divine. I give my life to Thee ; Forgive the guilty past, And dwell Thyself, O Christ, in me. And give me heaven at last. 302 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. APPENDIX B. In the following pages are miscellaneous hints and memoranda made by an imaginary superintendent, but written by the author while serving as a Sunday-school superintendent, or while editing a magazine especially for superintendents. Plan, — I intend to keep a pocket note-book on which to put down my own thoughts and other people's thoughts about the superintendent's work. If only one penciled hint out of ten seems to do me good, the time spent in writing the other nine will not be wasted. The Young People. — I believe I shall try the plan of class so- ciables, I can issue notes of invitation to Mr, A 's class and jMrs, M 's class to spend Tuesday evening with the pastor and the superintendent in the large Bible-class room. There will be less than forty to accommodate. A little music ; a talk of ten minutes from Brother L ; a cup of tea ; a "look" into the lesson for next Sunday ; a social twenty minutes ; some photo- graphs and engravings to be looked at ; a "reading," etc., etc., will make a good programme, I must try it. Cyclopaedia, — Lyman Abbott's new Biblical Cyclopaedia was recommended to me to-day by a friend. Must examine it. Artist, — Young Wilton, who works for Mr, Daggett, on Salem Street, is said to be an ingenious hand on the blackboard. Shall call on him. He may be the very man I need to develop the black- board work in my school. Lesson Notes. — It is a good plan, after one has studied his lesson without help, to use all available helps. I am afraid I have reversed that order hitherto. The hint dropped by Mr. Malcolm last night on that point is worth remembering. Normal Classes. — Are not the friends of the Sunday-school work carrying things too far in trying to "train" Sunday-school teachers? Would they put us all through a theological seminary? But I must look into that question. It may be more practicable than I supposed. Questions.— Prof. II is to spend Sunday with us. He knows a good deal about the Sunday-school work in England. Mem. : Ask him, 1, Concerning the irreverence of children in Sun- day school. Is it as bad there as here? I am sorely afflicted by the want of reverence among my scholars. 2. How generally is APPENDIX B. 303 the "International Lesson System" used there? 3. What is the best English Sunday-school periodical? Ventilation. — Miss M complained to me about the "close air" in the Sunday-school room last Sunday. I don't believe the sexton knows anything about ventilating a room. Every window should be open all of Mondays and Saturdays. A good current of fresh air should sweep through the house before Sunday school. It is impossible to be awake and alive and to do good teaching in old, dead, over-used, overheated air The Ideal. — If 1 put the best elements of the home, the public school, the public service of the church, the prayer meeting, and the class meeting together I shall have an ideal Sunday school. A Stereopticon. — A good instrument that will show pictures ten or fifteen feet in diameter would cost over $150. It would be one of the best, including cylinders for the gas, and a table for the lantern. This does not include pictures, which cost from seven to ten dollars a dozen. Now, if I could have such an in- strument I might hold evening exercises from time to time adapted to the older scholars and to the public generally. A "vesper service," with responsive Scripture reading and songs, could be put on the screen, and in the same way we could run through outlines of the lesson, besides giving good maps, and the best pictures illus- trating Bible lands, etc. I think of several uses to which such an instrument might be put by a Sunday school. I can see how a school might earn enough to pay for it. Must look into the sub- ject again. The Absent Teachers. — How would it do to put all classes whose teachers are absent into one large lecture class for the day? One superintendent in New York State sends all classes home whose teachers are absent. His teachers now are never absent. They say it costs too much to be away even for one day. The Class Sociable. — At the last one Mr. Langford, of the High School, gave a lecture on "Gas." At the next Mr. Raymond will give a talk, with experiments, on "Vocal Culture." It will do my young people good. Invariable Announcements. — I shall try never to omit an- nouncing in Sunday school : 1. The preaching service. 2. The reg- ular prayer meeting. 3. I shall always ask our pastor if he has anything to say to the school. An Itinerant Letter. — Have started a letter on its rounds among about twenty Sunday-school superintendents. Have stated my principal difficulty in reference to my older pupils, and re- quested each superintendent to whom it comes to give a suggestion 304 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. toward getting a firmer hold upon this class of pupils. If the letter ever comes back I shall send it to the Journal for publica- tion. Map Drawing. — I am taking lessons in drawing just to be able to make a rude but approximately correct map on the blackboard to illustrate the lessons from week to week. An Annoying Boy. — George causes me a great deal of trouble. He is bright, witty, mischievous, and as restless as a humming bird. He sees that I watch him, and is trying to get me out of humor. I must pray for perfect patience to conquer him by kindness. The Library. — The best way to replenish the library is to pur- chase few books at a time, not more than a dozen. These can be selected carefully, and a leaflet printed for the use of the scholars, called "Supplemental Catalogue No. ," as often as new works are introduced. Some statement concerning the book, its subjects, class in literature, purpose, etc., might also be printed upon the leaflet, in order to awaken interest in the school. Collection Envelope. — Gardner's "Sabbath-school Collection Envelope" is a new and practical invention. Variety. — I shall open my school next Sunday with a brief "Invocation" preceding everj' other exercise ; then a song ; then the "roll-call ;" then the reading of the lesson and the study hour. It will be a change, and it will give the classes more time. The Boy Trouble. — George is all right. He annoyed me until I sent for him to help me put up some pictures. Since then he has behaved like a little gentleman. A Superintendent's Class. — Why may I not have a class to teach every Sabbath, on a little circle of seats near my desk? A class without a teacher for the day might come forward, and, after I have put everything into running order for the school I could, for twenty-five minutes or more, give them the lesson for the day. It would do me good. It would do them good. It would put me into fuller sympathy with my teachers. Absent. — Must go north on business for two weeks. Sorry to leave my school that long. Must write a short letter for each Sabbath during my absence. May be able to say some things not so easy to say viva voce. The Senior Classes. — Don't believe Mr. T 's class like to answer in concert with the rest of the school. They call it "child's play." What shall I do to reconcile them to it? The Class Sociables. — Mr, L , the telegraph operator, promises to give a lecture (with experiments) on "Telegraphy" APPENDIX B. 305 before my "Sociable," to which I have invited Mr. A 's and Mrs. M 's classes. The Non-essentials. — I must not make too much of punctu- ality, silence, precision, etc., important as these elements are. Character and tendencies and love of Christ and zeal for souls are worth so much more in a superintendent. Tract Distribution. — It will add to the interest of the schol- ars, and do good in many homes, for the superintendent to select a good tract on some subject related to the lesson, and present copies of it to the entire school. However the lowly tract may be looked upon by some older people, by the children it is esteemed if wisely adapted to their needs. A Boy Choir.— Think I shall select ten boys for a choir, to sing on special occasions in the school, and, if the pastor approve, now and then in public service. But have I the boys who can sing well? Must consult the chorister. It will do the boys themselves good if I can make the plan work. Mothers' Meetings. — Wish our pastor would get the ladies to organize a "mothers' meeting" for conversation and prayer over the difficulties, responsibilities, and needs of mothers. Shall give him a hint. Two-Minute Drills. — Have heard of the plan of a "two- minute drill" every Sabbath, conducted by the superintendent. Subjects miscellaneous. Must inquire about the plan, and put down the results of my inquiry. Must do it. — Must ask the question every Sunday in my school, "Who was present at the last preaching service in our church?" Shall have all — teachers and scholars — who were present arise. Teachers' Meeting.— The superintendent should always ask at the teachers' meeting for the "sick" in the Sunday school. Who were absent last Sunday from each of your classes? Why absent? How shall we find out before next Sabbath? Change. — Variety in Sunday school is good, but I must not change too frequently. A plan needs time to test it. It won't do to drop an experiment because it does not work well on two or throe trials. Bibles. — Only forty Bibles in my whole school of 350 persons last Sabbath. This won't do. We must aU bring Bibles. My Dksk. — A superintendent's desk should be a model of order and neatness. To look at a specimen of system tends to promote system. My desk was dusty and overcrowded with books and papers last Sabbath. 20 30G THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Before 18f>0. — Some evening I shall bring together all the peo- ple in the church who were members of our Sunday school before the year 18G0. This will aid me in preparing a brief history of the school. Echo Talks. — This is what I call my infant class drills when I visit and teach the class. The little folks love to repeat, and re- cite, and echo back my words. It is only another form of "cate- chizing,'' with an improvement in the name of the thing. Choral Service. — I like the new name I have given my singing meeting half an hour before school. The children learned to chant the "Gloria Patri" last Sunday, and they sing "Duke Street" admirably. Am determined to exalt the old hymns and tunes in my school. Hand Exercise. — The infant class manages the first "hand exercise" nicely. The teacher says, "One ;" hands go to the laps. "Two;" arms folded. "Three;" hands raised as high as possible. "Four ;" hands twirl and turn rapidly. "Five ;" arms folded again. It is restful to the young. Tea Meetings. — First, all the teachers and officers. Then, on another evening, all the senior scholars. Divide the other classes into about four sections, and have for each section a tea-meeting, with readings, declamations, pictures, etc., etc. Avoid High Pressure. — Enterprise is laudable. Ingenuity is allowable. Let me, however, avoid crowding matters too much, so as to develop an unhealthy craving for excitement in my school. Reach the social element. Control it. Develop it. But the study of God's Word that we may all grow in grace is the one aim. Impressive Moments. — The first and the last moments of a Sunday-school session should be calculated to impress the pupils with the sacredness of the day and the work. The introductory "silence" is a fitting preparation for the hour, and at the close the "silence" and the "Scripture sentences" are well adapted to leave a wholesome impression on the heart. Must give more thought to this matter in my school. Temperance. — Cannot accommodate Mr. B and "SIvs. L , who are bent on giving up the regular lesson once a month for a "temperance meeting." "Fifty-two Bible lessons a year" is my motto. That is what Sunday school is for. Still I must teach temperance. Scroll of History. — Have had it prepared. Fifty yards of narrow bleached muslin, stretching across the schoolroom, divided into century sections. The word ADAM, a rude picture of the APPENDIX B. 30 ark, a radiant cross, and the American flag indicate four important points in the history of the world. The name of Noah, followed by a long blue bar, indicates the length of his life. In the same way one sees at a glance the name, place, and full period of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the Judges, etc., etc. I can add many items of interest to the "Scroll." The Bible in the Sunday School. — The "Leaf" is a fragment of the Bible, but I wish my pupils to have the whole Bible in hand in, the school. Plans which occur to me as calculated to induce teachers and pupils to bring their Bibles every Sabbath : 1. Talk about it every w^eek ; 2. Give credit marks to those who bring thom ; 3. Issue a little circular or note to send home, making an appeal to parents in regard to the bringing of Bibles ; 4. See if our pastor will not make a special announcement and request from the pulpit ; 5. Ask all who have Bibles to rise in the Sunday school at each session. The Absent Teachers. — It is an excellent plan. I shall con- tinue it. Just before the time to begin the class study I ask all classes whose teachers are absent to stand up, and remain standing while I appeal for teachers. Thus I stop the whole school during the provision of substitutes, and make all feel that one absent teacher brings trouble to a whole school. The results are excel- lent already. Church Hymns. — Have printed four hymns on a separate sheet. Call them "Our Church Hymns." They are, 1. "From all that dwell below the skies;" 2. "Rock of Ages, cleft for me;" 3. "Arise, my soul, arise;" and, 4. "When shall we meet again?" Why should not our Sunday schools make their members familiar with the grand old hymns and tunes? The older pupils know them, and the little ones soon learn them. Properly sung they are as good as anything of later date. I believe in the modern Sunday-school music, however, and encourage its use. Lesson Banners. — I put the initial letters and catch-words of the titles, topics, and golden texts for each month on a large paper banner (manilla paper). This helps in a monthly and quarterly review. Closing Words. — The last words spoken in Sunday school should be reverent and impressive. I now have my school read with me responsively the twenty-third Psalm at the end of the session. The Infant Class. — It troubles me: it troubles me exceed- ingly. Noisy, restless, insubordinate. It makes the whole school uneasy. Must devise some plan to keep it out of the main room. 308 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Our Sick Scholars. — I must have some plan by which I can find out who of our scholars are detained from school by illness. How would it answer to call attention to the matter at the close of every school session, asking the teachers to inform me of any of their scholars who are ill? The Three Agencies. — I must never forget the value of the family in my school. Home is my best helper or my greatest hindrance. I must have a wire of influence between every class in the school and the homes they severally represent. Then there is the pulpit. I must see that my teachers do not get the idea that they are doing the whole work that the church was appointed to perform. The scholars must be interested in the preaching serv- ice. I am afraid they are not at present. Let me see to it that I am not the cause, in the slightest degree, for any failure here. My own school is the next, the third of the three great church agen- cies. I must see that no weak theory of Sunday-school work takes from the Sunday school the claim to divine authority which it un- doubtedly has. Vest-pocket Help. — Why does not some publishing house give us a little manual for the vest pocket, containing the title, topic, golden text, and home readings for the International Lessons? I wonder it has not been done; must inquire. [Since the above was written it has been done.] Small Book for the Infant Class. — These little "tots" need some very small volumes or tracts to carry home with them. The Picture Lesson Paper is delightful — nothing more beautiful ; but we ought to make every little infant pupil a messenger of the gospel, by using him or her to carry a few printed pages home with them. These may be interesting both to the parents and to the youngsters. Let me see if there is not something like this in the market. Missionary Work. — I am sure that my school is not doing enough in the missionary cause. They do not know enough about it, nor do they feel enough on the subject ; they do not give enough. I must have a missionary revival in my school. Associated Schools. — I wish that we might have a plan of union by which all schools in the church might be bound together in a sort of alliance or league especially devoted to the development of the teaching power of the individual schools. If, for example, we could all agree to adopt the same course of study outside of the International scheme — the same catechism, missionary studies, memory lessons, etc. — it would tend to increase the interest in a denominational way in the Sunday-school work. APPENDIX B. 309 The Conscience. — A child has a conscience. We must appeal to it in insisting upon the attendance of the little ones at church. Parental authority ought to be strong enough to send them all to preaching everj' Sabbath, but where that is employed we should convince them that church going is a duty. Annual Report. — Must publish one, giving names of all teach- ers and scholars. Can say a good deal to parents and church members through the columns of a neat little "Annual." A few advertisements will pay for it. Choral Circle. — Once knew a superintendent who organized his school into a "Choral Circle." He engaged a teacher to drill them. What a chorus choir for public services my school would make ! Sunday Evening. — Our pastor says he would like to have a choral circle to sing for him on Sunday evenings. The spirited evangelical songs of Moody and Sankey, and others quite as good ; and then many of the fine old hymns would give an additional charm to the evening service. If the pastor favors the choral circle we can have it. At Home. — Why do not my scholars prepare their Sunday- school lessons at home? 1. Perhaps the public school crowds them too much. It makes no allowance, as it should do, for religious education. 2. It is my fault. I do not talk about it enough. I might circulate a tract about it. 3. It is the pastor's fault. He never mentions it in the pulpit, nor, I fear, at the homes of the children. 4. It is the teachers' fault. They do not insist upon it emphatically enough. 5. It is the parents' fault. They do not use persuasion and authority. Readings. — In connection with the lessons I can easily find passages of poetry and of prose illustrative of the theme for the day. Why not have them read at the close of the class recitations by some good elocutionist in the school? I believe I will try this plan. Small Schools. — Mr. A says, "All the modern methods, as they are called, may be used as effectively in a small as in a large school." It is not the largest schools or the wealthiest that have most success. We may have gradation, discipline, and good instruction with fifty pupils as well as with five hundred. Put on the Pressure. — I am convinced that the superintendent who puts on the pressure on the educational side of his work in the Sunday school will not be a popular superintendent. There are so many indolent teachers, and so many incompetent teachers, and there is so much aversion on the part of our scholars to down- 310 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. right hard work in Sunday school that it is as much as a man's reputation is worth to insist* firmly and uncompromisingly upon study of the right sort in his Sunday school. There is a sort of weak, pathetic, so-called "religious talk" in Sunday school, and it is the easiest thing in the world for a superintendent to substi- tute pious pathos for vigorous, stalwart work. Now, I want work done in the thorough study of God's Word. 1 want my scholars to get God's Word into their intellects and into their lives. In order to this they must Jcnoiv; to know they must study. This kind of work requires teachers. Teaching can be done by none but teachers. Teachers to make others know must themselves know. Now, may the Lord help me to stand up for the intellectual side of the work ! And I must not and need not sacrifice the religious side one particle. If this makes me unpopular, let me have grace to be unpopular. It will be a crown of honor after a while. But I must try toj^arry on my reform, for such it is, in a patient spirit. To lose my patience once may do me and my teachers untold damage. Short Opening Services. — I am satisfied that I make a mis- take when I take too much time for the opening exercises of my school. Ten minutes is long enough for the average school. The teachers should get at their classes for the class work when they are freshest. It is wrong to tire out a school with general exer- cises and then pass them over to the teachers in an exhausted con- dition. Tracts. — The tract is a powerful agency for good or for evil. Every errorist seeks to spread his errors by circulating tracts. I must see that we have a supply of good tracts to send out now and then from my school into the community. I may thus do a great deal of good. Must send to the Tract Society for a cata- logue of tracts that I may select some good ones for distribution. Rough Boys. — Eight or ten of our boys stand outside of the schoolroom to the very last minute and annoy the other children as they come in. What can I do to correct the evil. Solos. — Sankey sings solos. Why not? We may have solos in Sunday school if we can find the earnest, unaffected, sincere, sweet-voiced singer. Have I some talent of this kind in my school that should be developed? My Portfolio. — Friend L suggests to me the utility of a Sunday-school portfolio for the collection of all sorts of engravings, chromos, etc., on Biblical subjects, of all sizes and kinds, so that in teachers' meetings, in classes, and at home evening entertain- ments of pupils, we may have at command all that art has for our APPENDIX B. 311 use in the illustration of the Word of God. I think the plan as feasible as it is beautiful and practical. At old art stores, and in old magazines, I may find any number of these old engravings, while the new and recent interest in the International Lessons on both sides of the Atlantic has produced some most admirable pictures in a great variety of sizes and styles bearing on the Bible. Then the department of religious pictures, not wholly historical, is very rich, and may be summoned to our service, I believe I will submit the plan to the teachers, and by their aid I can pick up a large number of the very works I need. Mr. W goes to the city soon ; I will have him look in at the old book and engraving shops, and see what he can do. The London Tract So- ciety publishes a large number of very fine lithographs, colored ; and I have seen a few samples of Bible pictures for infant classes by the Wesleyan Publishing House of London, which will be very well adapted to our use. Chautauqua. — I learn that Miss G , through the liber- ality of her superintendent and a few friends, intends to take her normal class of thirty young people to the Sunday-School Assembly to spend two weeks in the normal exercises, and to pass the re- quired examinations. She has been teaching them very faithfully, and it will be a pleasant and a wise thing to have them all together in tents at the Assembly. It will be two weeks of de- lightful recreation for them and for her. Why cannot some of our teachers at least club together and spend the time at Chau- tauqua? The Akron Museum. — What will not Akron do in Sunday- school lines? The Methodist Episcopal Sunday school of that city has organized a regular museum — geological, historical, and archaeological — of which Dr. Leiter of that school is superin- tendent. It already contains a great variety of specimens from all parts of this country — minerals, specimens in the department of natural history, coins, scrip, curiosities from Palestine, India, China, Japan, and elsewhere. The children are trained to make contributions to their museum. They are always on the look-out for rare things. It is a good, feasible, practicable plan. I spent a day or two not long ago with Franklin Fairbanks, Esq., of St, Johnsbury, Vermont, He showed me a rich cabinet of curiosities, a large museum, in fact, which he had collected himself from the time he was a little boy. The plan is useful. The Sunday school may cultivate this same habit among its young people. Difficulty jNIeeting. — Miss F says that she is puzzled to know what to do with her class of bright. Inquiring girls. They 312 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. have many questions to ask, more or less directly growing out of the lesson — questions about ethics, doctrines, and the "rights and wrongs of things generally." She says there is no time to discuss these matters in the school, nor are they in the direct line of its work. The teachers' class has no place for them, nor the prayer meeting, nor the Sunday sermon. Yet there ought to be room to meet them somewhere. She might ask her class to bring their questions in writing on Sunday, and meet them on some afternoon at her house to give answers. She suggests that there are many points of faith and practice which people would like to have explained. Why not have all who wish come to a meeting for the purpose with their questions, and let the pastor or superintendent answer them? Another plan — let there be a question box, and one Sunday evening in each month let our pastor devote his dis- course to the discussion of its contents. I think if prepared for and announced, it might prove a popular service. Teachers' Meeting.— Speaking of difficulties, I scarcely know what to do with Mr. X , who came to our teachers' meeting last week bristling with knotty questions, and ready to spend the whole evening in disputation. He was quite offended when I lim- ited the discussion of all the difficulties in the lesson to ten min- utes, and said, in a loud whisper, something about "gag-law." But I am determined to make our Friday evening meeting intensely practical, and shall not waste the time in frivolous talk. Cakes and Cream.— Mr. P , one of the trustees who is not in the school, has asked me to hold the teachers' meeting in his parlor next week, and enjoy some refreshments at the close of the lesson study. He says that he cannot labor in the school, being absent from town a large part of the time, but he appreciates the teachers' work, and wants to give them a little encouragement. Children's Meeting. — Our pastor has closed his course of "Familiar Talks to Children" for the season. lie has given seven short, easy addresses on Friday afternoons, accompanied with blackboard illustrations on such themes as "Your Companions," "Your Work," "Play," "Steps to Salvation," "Success," etc., much to the enjoyment of the children, as well as their profit. I notice that many of the young people who attended his meetings last fall, and were converted in the revival during the winter, speak in prayer meeting with remarkable clearness, and seem to have a very distinct understanding of God's work in their hearts. APPENDIX B. 313 Programme of a Sunday-School Session. 1. Perfect silence. 2. Invocation. [Very brief.] 3. Singing. [Church Hymn.] 4. Recitation : Titles, Topics, and Golden Texts for current quarter, up to the day's lesson, by whole school. 5. Review Catechism. [Ten minutes.] Embracing salient facts of the quarter's lesson up to the day's lesson. 6. Class Studies. [Thirty-five minutes.] 7. Review of the day's lesson, with practical application. 8. Two-minute Catechism. [Books of the Bible.] 9. Report of Secretary. 10. The Pastor's Words. 11. Announcements for the week, always including Preaching, Weekly Prayer Meeting, Teachers' Meeting, and Church Classes. 12. Singing. 13. Books and Papers distributed. 14. Silence. 15. Dismission. [Length of whole session from 2.30 to 4 P. M.] Plans for Exciting Interest among Children. To interest little people in the reading of useful books, and in real study outside of the prescribed tasks of the day school, I must adopt various ingenious schemes which will kindle the imagination, appeal to the ambition, and transform work into play. I do not sympathize wholly with the idea that children are never to be required to do hard work, that all study must be turned into a species of game, sugar-coated with amusements ; but, assuming that the authority of the day school and home guarantee the harder work out of which come mental discipline and enrichment, I think that the church, having no especial authority in educational mat- ters, must appeal to devices of various kinds which shall allure childhood. We cannot by rightful authority coerce, and so we must by legitimate expedients invite and delight. I must enlist the sympathies of our pastor, for a wise minister keeps his hand on the childhood of his church ; and with his heart in this work wil\ tax his powers of invention to their utmost to make pleasant to the lambs of his flock the meadows in which they wander. By photographic or printed communications ; by special week- afternoon classes ; by occasional Sunday after-school sessions ; by pastoral visitation ; by little domestic local circles ; by pulpit an- 314 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. noiincoments, the true minister can create an esprit de corps in his church in tlie promotion of wholesome reading and home study which will helpfully supplement the educational work carried on by the ordinary day school. Imagine our pastor enlisting his little people in tracing the derivations of certain words, their origin, growth ; the families to which they belong ; the different uses made of the same word, etc. While this would bo little else than an everyday school exercise, the fact that the minister proposed the question, that somewhere in the course of these w^ord studies he has hidden away, to be found out, an important moral and practical lesson, w^ould give more charm to the research than it could have by merely dropping into the regular order of daily recitation. It w'ould make the casual meeting of the pastor and his children in the street an occasion of interest to both, and little eyes would twinkle with satisfaction at having made some progress since the last interview. They would have more respect for the minister, and he more interest in them. They would be on the constant lookout for words with which to puzzle him, and, perchance, with modest criticisms on something he "said in last Sunday's sermon." The friendly relations between pastor and children promoted by even so slight a literary fellow- ship as this would involve larger interests than appear at first sight. The literary fellowship might be the dumb wire through which, later on, and under other circumstances, might flash the spiritual message and illumination which every pastor has in his heart for every little member of his church household. Every house has some pictures in it. There are engravings or chromos, paintings or photographs, that hang on the wall. There are many kinds of pictures. There are different kinds of engrav- ings, on w'ood, stone, metal, line, stipple, mezzotint, etc. There are pictures of various kinds in books. No house but has its uncata- logued list of pictures to wiiich little hands and eyes have access at will. The minister who sets the members of his Lyceum Reading Union or school on an artistic exploration to discover and classify the pictures in their own homes is already doing a good work. One little fellow begins with the parlor, draws his diagram of the four walls, and locates every picture, telling its" subject, the class to which it belongs, the manner of its execution. Thus he goes over the walls of the whole house, and then begins to search like an Egyptologist or an Assyriologist into the pictures buried in the volumes on the table or on the shelves. Criticisms upon pictures as to their truthfulness to nature or otherwise, the stories which they commemorate, the lessons which they teach — what a world APPENDIX B. 315 of possibilities do we find in the plainest home simply among the pictures which it contains, and in how many worthy things a min- ister educates the children of his church when he turns them out to observe, classify, criticise and report! The pictorial papers which abound to-day furnish a good field for operation in this work of developing the activities of youth. The child who saves every picture to which he has a right, who learns how to trim them, and how neatly to paste them in a book, how to bind them, and then ornament the cover, has an oppor- tunity to do good by sending to many a home of poverty and degra- dation these little products of his own ingenuity and industry, which become worthy ministers of beauty, neatness, and morality. A minister whose Lyceum Reading Union has, in the course of the year, produced fifty or a hundred scrap-books of pictures and stories, would thereby be able to make valuable contributions to destitute families, schools, and communities. What we have said concerning the classification and study of pictures at home may also be said in reference to books. Some homes have but few books in them. And yet children from these homes would be able to make a good report concerning the sub- jects on which the books treat, the number of chapters into which they are divided, the style of binding, the authors, the publishers, and many other items about them. Such reports from a home would give the pastor a better insight into the real calibre, taste, and tendencies of that home than he could possibly secure through any amount of visitation. In a little town among the mountains of Pennsylvania there is a boy who has cultivated his taste for collecting geological and other specimens, curiosities and relics. He has learned through books and friends some facts about every specimen ; and it is most entertaining to have the little fellow go through his cabinet, his little finger pointing to each specimen, and his tongue rattling away, making report concerning it, where it came from, what it is composed of, what it belongs to, how it was produced, where better specimens may be had, and what he expects one of these days to do when he gets "all the money he wants, and gets a big room :" and out of the stones come dreams, and out of the stones and dreams productive, educating, and refining influences. An herbarium, containing the flowers, leaves, plants, grasses, and mosses of a neighborhood, would in the same way be an in- centive to observation, carefulness and industry. Sweet contacts with nature might thus be promoted. And how, in the minister's study, ou a given day, the pile of herbariums prepared by his own 316 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Lyceum Reading Union, as gifts to this hospital or that, would delight his heart ! Seated at the breakfast table, one of the older boys or girls starts a question, which the pastor put into motion the day before : How are the things on this table and in this house related to distant parts of our land or to other lands? Where did the mate- rial come from of which these dishes are made? That bit of silver, where was it probably found? The tea, the coffee, the pepper, the salt, the cord by which yonder picture is suspended, the wood from which that choice bit of furniture in the corner was made, the Japanese curiosity on the mantel, the four big shells that lie here and there in the room? One day our minister says to his Lyceum Reading Union : "I am very anxious to collect plans of houses, rooms, closets, halls. I want these plans to be accurate, the doors and windows must be properly located. I want to know the heights of ceilings, the height, as nearly as you can get it, from the ground to the top of the roof, or the top of the tower or chimney. In connection with such plans, I want to know the materials of which the house is built, the age of the house, the various families that have lived in it, the changes that have taken place in it;" and they have for ten days such a searching into history, such a measuring of heights and lengths and breadths and depths one never saw before. There is not a movement in the whole task assigned but has educating power in it. The boy who once ascertains the height of the house will scarcely ever look at a house afterward without forming an estimate. To the above suggestion a wise minister adds a question ap- pealing to the imagination and the architectural skill of his Lyceum Reading Union : "If you had your way what improvement would you make on the inside and outside of the house you report, and that without changing its size?" Consultations between parents and children come on — and jolly conversations they would be — on the changes which, for convenience' sake, and for the sake of appearance, could be made if only money were as plenty as the imagination is active. Wiser than the wisest plans above mentioned, by which such associations as the L. R. U. and the V. R. C. may be made a power, is that which, finding out the sick and blind and the really needy people of the community, organizes a mission of relief and comfort. Little hearts are touched by the appeals of the pastors; little hands are employed in gathering and forming floral offerings; little voices are heard in many a bedchamber reading for the half APPENDIX B. 317 hour or more out of the latest paper the news of the day, or out of some good book the precious experiences of the past, or out of the Book of books the blessed hopes of eternity and the pledges of a Father's care. Blessed ministry would this be ! And if our chil- dren were earlier trained to practical beneficence, the songs they sing about love and service would be far more worthful than now ! Imagine a pastor calling for "out-of-the-window prospects" from the children of his congregation. In the cities and in smaller towns some of these outlooks would be very limited ; but even there a plain and simple description would educate the observer who would undertake to write his report, especially if he could learn to look beyond fences and walls. The glimpse at the blue sky which the back window of the city house furnishes might be more full of suggestion to the little city boy than a wider landscape from a country home. But our pastor gets something from the pens of his pupils, and a whole pile of "out-of-the-window" views accumulate upon his table. Again, he encourages his little people to write letters for correc- tion. The secular schools do not render much of this service. They cram, and they require "compositions" on "Eternity," "Au- tumn," "Amiability," the "Power of Love," etc., ad nauseum. The writing of business letters, letters of description, letters of friend- ship, in which in after years boys and girls are expected to have facility, is rarely called for in the public school. What a world of benefit the pastor might secure to the children of his fold by thus training them on the practical side of life ! The same skill and enthusiasm on the part of the minister might secure the reading of selected passages from the classical authors, the committing to memory of other passages, outlines of authors' lives, all of which would enrich the memory and refine the tastes. Children will do for pastor's sake things that for teacher's sake they would not do. He is a wise pastor who utilizes this willing- ness. Let the leader of the "Children's Lyceum" call for autobiog- raphies — life records of the little ones as they can recall them, the principal events they remember — the moving, the funeral, the longest journey they have ever taken, the best friends tjiey have had, and what happened to them, their school teachers, their min- isters, their exploits, stories of adventure and peril, odd dreams — all the curious and remarkable things of a child's life. One minister secured from his young people written reports of sermons and lectures, and this was kept up so long that they ac- quired the habit of observing closely everybody whom they heard 318 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. speak in public. This habit has educational advantages. Listless auditors are the curse of our modern churches. Training to the habit of attention to the sermon would compensate iu three months for the labor spent. One day the pastor says to his class, "I want each one of you to think in a straight line from the center of your house out of each window, and let your thought run not merely a mile, but one hun- dred miles, and a thousand miles, and so on round the world, to see what great city that window would command if nothing interfered. There is a window iu your home through which you might, circum- stances favoring, see Rome ; another window would command Lon- don, another San Francisco. How many great city windows have you in your house?" What a study of geography would follow such a proposal ! Every little fellow would be ready to report to his pastor the "Jerusalem window," the "Melbourne window," or the "London window" in his house. This is an age of newspapers and magazines. There is scarcely a house into which does not come some weekly religious or secular paper, and also some monthly magazine. Require a report from your pupils of the papers and magazines taken by the families they represent. Here would be a means of canvassing in the inter- est of useful publications. A teacher encouraged his pupils to study local geography by ask- ing for plans of the town or township in which they lived, they locating principal houses, connecting every point of interest with some event of the local history, or a history of the country, which would be interesting to all. A minister once located the principal characters of universal history on a single street — a long street, many miles long — chrono- logically so divided that his pupils could locate "Alexander's house," and the "house of Moses," and the "house of Napoleon," so that the street became a constant reminder of not only illus- trious names in history, but a chronological guide always present. "I passed," said a little fellow, "Alexander's house this morning on the way from the post-office, and it was not very far from the house of Aristotle." Reports might be brought to the pastor concerning and from the oldest people whom the pupils know — where they were born and when, some of their experiences, adventures, journeys, etc., etc. The study of human life, the listening attentively and with interest to what the old have to say, would be a profitable lesson to Amer- ican and English youngsters. If a minister or teacher were to undertake the collection of eti- APPENDIX B. 319 quettical improprieties, breaches of good manners on the street, in the parlor, and elsewhere, he would have opened an admirable opportunity for educating his children in a subject very much neg- lected. One of the most delightful exercises which I ever introduced among a lot of young people was an imaginary tour of the Holy Land. Committees were organized to find out the best routes, and the expenses of each. A decision was arrived as to the route we were to take. The day of departure was appointed. We imagined ourselves, wherever we were, as on a journey, picking up from books of travel incidents to be reported at our next meeting. It took us eleven days to cross the Atlantic. We stopped in London five days, and saw many things ; and then passed onward across the Continent to Palestine, and one of our number wrote imaginary letters from the Holy Land, which were published in the village paper, and every little pilgrim interested in the device was eager to gather all the information he could. We have sometimes thought that, with such a pilgrimage in connection with the pub- lic school, there might be put variety into the monotony and tire- someness of school life. How much might be taught by this meth- od of history, geography, archaeology, art, and business habit ! 320 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. APPENDIX C. SUNDAY-SCHOOL SEED THOUGHTS On the Institution, its Relations and its Teachers. No. 1. The Sunday-school is not a substitute for the family, for the public church service, nor for the other religious meetings of the church ; but it is a department of the church of Christ, in which the Word of Christ is taught for the purpose of bringing souls to Christ, and of building up souls in Christ. No. 2. The Sunday school should supplement the family, and the Sunday-school teacher should aid wise and godly parents to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; and he should also be the religious instructor of children whose parents neglect this important part of their duty. No. 3. The Sunday school should supplement the pulpit, and the Sunday-school teacher should induce his pupils regularly to attend the public and social services of the church, and he should also seek "to bring them to a hearty acceptance of Christ, and to membership in His church. No. 4. The Sunday-school teacher should be a Christian in ex- perience and profession ; a consistent Christian in life and deport- ment ; a Christian teacher in knowledge and tact, and a Christian friend in sympathy and helpfulness. No. 5. The Sunday school should be like a refined Christian home in attractiveness, comfort, beauty, cheerfulness, and in the mutual confidence and affection of its members. No. (>. The Sunday school is a part, a primitive method, and a product of the church ; therefore it should be controlled and sus- tained by the church, and its services should be characterized by the reverence and propriety and sanctity of a church service. No. 7. The Sunday school is a school, and it should be organized and conducted after the general methods which are approved by the wisest and most experienced secular educators, and its instruc- tions should be systematic, thorough, and enthusiastic. No. 8. The Sunday school is a Christian school, and it should possess the character and tone, and be followed by the fruits which belong to an institution under the direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. APPENDIX C. 321 No. 9. The Sabbath-school teacher needs a careful preparation — general and specific — for his work : 1. Because of the text-book he is to use; 2. Because of the pupils he is to teach ; 3. Because of the results he is to seek. No. 10. The Sabbath-school teacher's general preparation should comprise: 1. A knowledge of the construction and contents of the Bible; 2. A knowledge of the powers and peculiarities of his pupils; 3. A knowledge of the principles of teaching; 4. Some practice in teaching under wise and candid criticism. No. 11. The Sabbath-school teacher's specific preparation should comprise that arrangement of the contents of a Scripture lesson which will best aid the teacher in leading his pupils to earnest thoughtfulness and self-application in the simple reading of God's Word. No. 12. The proper preparation of a Scripture lesson comprises : 1. The collation of parallel passages of Scripture bearing on the lesson text ; 2. The careful analyzing of the lesson text ; 3. The thoughtful exploration of the lesson text ; 4. The wise adaptation of the lesson to each member of the class. No. 13. Parallel passages are those portions of Scripture outside of the lesson text itself, in which the same or similar sub- jects as those contained in the lesson text are treated. These pas- sages are to be sought by means of the Concordance and Reference Bible. No. 14. A careful analysis of each lesson may be made by look- ing for the following seven elements : 1. The time — of the record, occurrence, or counsel ; 2. The places ; 3. The persons ; 4. The actions or words of these persons in these places at the time speci- fied ; 5. The difficulties we encounter in the reading or explanation of the lesson ; 0. The doctrines or general principles taught ; 7. The duties to be drawn from the lesson. No. 15. The thoughtful exploration of the lesson text is that close, independent, devout, and persevering searching for the deepest and most essential truth or principle — the central doctrine ■ — which it contains; which doctrine will relate to God, to man, or to God and man, in the scheme of human redemption. No. in. A wise adaptation of the lesson to the class requires: 1. A looking at the lesson with each pupil in mind to see what is contained in it which the pupil most needs ; 2. A careful selection of these truths from the many thoughts which a gen'^ral prepara- tion may have elicited ; 3. The arrangement of these selected truths in a way calculated to arrest the attention of the whole class, and to render them permanent and effectual. 21 322 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. No. 17. There are four classes of teachers: 1. Those who leave with their pupils a general and good impression, but no definite knowledge ; 2. Those who at the time of the class exercises impart knowledge, but do not provide for its retention by the pupil ; 3. Those who so communicate knowledge that their pupils remember just what they have received ; 4. Those who so impart knowledge as to develop self-activity in the pupil, quickening his intellect to effort of its own. No. 18. Intellectual quickening is the process by which the teacher excites the intellectual power of his pupil to self-activity in the line of his teaching ; and to be effectual it must also lead to that course of thought, feeling, purpose, and action which are the proper products of the truth taught. No. 19. The teacher, in order to develop intellectual quickening, must be able to secure the attention of his pupils. This attention, which is the condition of successful teaching, must be: 1. Volun- tary; 2. Interested; 3. Intense; 4. Inquiring: 5. Persevering; and, t5. Effectual and obedient, leading the pupil to will and to do in the line of the truth to which he has given attention. No. 20. The teacher should so instruct and direct his pupils as that they shall feel it necessary to put forth some effort of their own in connection with every lesson, and this effort should be put forth to some extent at home during the week. No. 21. The teacher should induce his pupils to put forth some effort in connection with the lesson in the class. There must be in every class exercise something to hear, something to see, something to say, something to do, something to remember, something to report about, something to think out, and something to apply to their daily lives. No. 22. The teacher should seek to interest the pupils in the sub- ject-matter of every lesson, so that their curiosity shall be excited, their intellectual powers exercised, their consciences startled, if necessary their fears aroused, their affections won, and their wills brought to prompt and right decisions. No. 23. The teacher must never sacrifice his own individuality to any method, but by repeated experiment find out his own best way of working, and, without disregarding the suggestions which come from others, endeavor to render that way more and more effective. No. 24. The teacher should remember the power of a good repu- tation for tact and knowledge; the power of personal affection; the power of anticipative interest or expectation on the part of his pupils ; the power of a present purpose summoning himself to the APPENDIX C. 323 immediate duties of the hour ; and the magnetic power of the emancipated eye, enabling him to dispense with leaf, book, and notes, and to look into the faces of his pupils during the process of teaching. No. 25. It is the business of the teacher to arrest and to arouse the minds of his pupils, and to set them at the legitimate business of mind, which is to think — to think with a wise purpose — to think in order : 1. To feel their need of truth ; 2. To explore old truth ; 3. To get new truth ; 4. To grow by truth ; 5. To make a wise use of truth. No. 26. The teacher should learn the value of lesson illumina- tion, which is the employment of those elements in teaching by which the delighted attention of his pupils is attracted towards a lesson, and its instructions rendered more clear to his understand- ing. No. 27. There are four peculiarities of the pupil which the teacher should undertand and employ in attracting him towards a lesson : 1. The pupil's delight in seeing ; 2. The pupil's delight in imagining ; 3. The pupil's delight in comparing ; 4. The pupil's delight in knowing. Corresponding to these four peculiarities are the four great lesson lights : 1. Objects of sight ; 2. Exercises of the imagination ; 3. Comparisons ; 4. Knowledge — historical, sci- entific, etc. No. 28. The best light to shed upon a Bible lesson is Bible light. The teacher of the Bible should, therefore, be familiar with the history, geography, poetry, manners and customs of the Bible, and the present condition and peculiarities of the lands in which the events recorded in the Bible occurred. No. 29. The facts of everyday life with which pupils are most familiar are invaluable in the illumination of lessons. The teacher should, therefore, multiply his store of illustrations by the habit of observation, by the study of the masters of illustration in books, sermons, etc., and by accumulating and preserving illustrative material in scrap and note books. No. 30. The teacher should remember that facility in the use of illustrations comes from patient and constant practice, and that the best illustrations are those which come spontaneously while he is attempting to make clear to his pupils a truth which is clear to himself. No. 31. The teacher should never unnecessarily use visible and material things to illustrate spiritual truth ; nor should he use too many illustrations ; nor should he use them for the purpose of filling up the time, amusing the class, or displaying his own genius. 324 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. No. 32. The best illumination which a lesson from the Bible can receive is in the consistent life and spirit of the man who teaches it. No. 33. Word-picturing is a process of illumination which is always effective in attracting the attention of a class. The teacher should remember that in word-picturing the pupil will acquire no more definite and vivid view of the lesson than the teacher himself possesses. No. 34. Interrogation or questioning is the act or process of incomplete statement (of a fact or proposition) by which the mind is incited and directed to the examination of a subject in order to complete the statement of the facts or proposition suggested. No. 35. The design of interrogation or questioning in the work of teaching is: 1. To measure the pupil's knowledge and power for the teacher's and the pupil's information ; 2. To stimulate the pu- pil's desire for knowledge and his purpose to secure it ; 3. To assist the pupil in such purpose and effort, by questions put to him, and by questions elicited from him ; 4. To prove the teacher's work. APPENDIX D. 325 APPENDIX D. INTERNATIONAL NORMAL LESSONS. The committee appointed at the centenary in London, in 1S80, has published the following outline course of reading and study for Sunday-school teachers, and candidates for that oflBce : I. — The Sunday-school Teacher. 1. Readings concerning the highest aims of Sunday-school work ; conversion, spiritual culture, and formation of character. 2. The mental, moral, and spiritual qualifications of the teacher. 3. Principles and methods of teaching in their relation to class instruction. 4. Helps to the work of Sunday-school instruction. 5. Difficulties and encouragements of the Sunday-school teacher. II. — The Bible — the Sunday-school Text-book. 1. Readings on the evidences of the authenticity and genuineness of the sacred writings. 2. The canon of Scripture, how formed : characteristics of the books. 3. Language and style of Scripture. 4. The study of Scripture, with special references to Sunday- school instruction. 5. Examples of religious instruction, public and private, found in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. 6. The teaching process, as exemplified in the Bible : in ques- tioning, metaphors and similes, object illustrations, parables, prac- tical application. III. — The Modern Sunday School. 1, On the history and statistics of the Sunday school. Early and independent Sunday-school movements ; the work initiated by Raikes — its beginning and development in England and America ; the uniform lesson movement : the "International system." 2. On the advantages of the Sunday-school system as a means of reaching and instructing children and youth. 326 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 3. On the relation of adults to the Sunday school ; the difficulties in the way of their retention ; their peculiar necessities ; modifica- tion of the Sunday-school system to meet the demands of this class. 4. On the constitution, organization, and management of the Sunday school ; difference between church (or congregational) and mission schools. 5. On the mutual duties of school officers, teachers, and scholars. G. On associated effort ; conventions, institutes, preparation and training classes, etc. APPENDIX E. 327 APPENDIX E. The following additional hints are offered to teachers concerning methods of class work : 1. Reading the lesson — in concert by the class ; by alternate verses, each scholar reading one ; or responsively, the teacher tak- ing the first verse, the whole class the second, etc. 2. Elliptical reading of the lesson — the teacher alone using an open Bible. As he reads, let him omit principal words which must be supplied by the scholars, singly or in concert. 3. Loio concert responses in the class. Repetitious of the lesson, etc., by which all may be occu- pied at the same time. 4. Topical outlines; if prepared by the pupils themselves, all the better. 5. Review the preceding lesson, occupying but a very short time in so doing. Let a scholar give the substance of the lesson, and permit the rest, after he has fin- ished, to add omitted facts. 6. State the lesson for the day. This may be done by one of the scholars, the rest keeping their books closed. At the close of his statement additional facts may be given by the class. 7. Principal words and phrases. Let the teacher call them out, and request definitions and explanations from the class. 8. Analyze. What (1) persons, (2) places, (3) times, (4) actions, are alluded to in the lesson? What (5) difficult tvords or (6) phrases occur? What (7) doctrines and (8) duties are taught? 9. Parallel Passages. Where the same incident is narrated by two, three, or four of the Evangelists, let the class be divided into sections, and taking up the details of the occurrence, compare the terms employed by the Evangelists in describing it. 10. References. Sometimes in these lessons, and always in a good reference Bible, the several verses are illustrated and explained by other passages of Scripture. It may be profitable to study the les- son occasionally by consulting the references. 11. Dratving Les- sons. Let a verse be read. Then let a scholar state one of the facts it contains. From this fact let the class infer a theological or practical lesson. 12. Principal Lessons. Having drawn several lessons, let one, two, or three of the most important truths be se- lected for special investigation. 13. Topical Outlines. The lesson may be divided into a series of propositions, topics, or pictures. These may be memorized, and the facts and teachings of the lesson connected with them. 14. The Golden Text should always be committed to memorj-. It may sometimes form the topic of inves- 328 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. tigation, and lessons may be drawn from it. 15. Character. One or more characters in the lesson may be selected for examina- tion and description. This may sometimes be done in writing. IG. Map Exercise. Maps and diagrams may l)e drawn by the scholars at home, and thus the topography of the lesson illustrated. 17. Written Ansivers. A question announced the week before may elicit many brief written replies from the class. Freedom of ex- pression is often enjoyed by a scholar at home, with pencil in hand, not so easily secured in the presence of others. Should a teacher always ask the scholars the questions on the lesson help given to themV I answer frankly, Usually he should not. A good lesson help, prepared by a wise teacher, contains questions so arranged as to begin with the pupil's knowledge and guide him to knowledge he needs. Such questions are arranged in proper form, and the result of an intelligent answer should be to unfold the lesson fully to him who, by the guidance of such ques- tions, investigates it. At the same time the living teacher will be more likely to awaken the powers of his pupils by propounding questions that are then and there the outgrowth of large knowledge, of the teacher's tact, and of the exigencies of the occasion. If the teacher be conscious of his inability to form better ques- tions than those furnished in the lesson help, he may so master those as to put into them the heartiness of spontaneity, and. under the guidance of the mind who prepared the questions, lead his pupils to the same results as though he had himself prepared them. It may be asked, then. What special use is there in giving lesson helps to the scholars for their weekly preparation? I answer again, ^yhere the teachers and pupils prepare the lesson by the same guide, they may become masters of the siihjcct, and in this way converse about it, and other thoughts and questions will nat- urally grow out of the conversation thus developed. And it will not discourage the scholar not to ask him the specific questions of the help if he and the teacher become so much interested in the lesson that they can talk about it freely without the direction of any lesson help. AVhile discussing the general subject of questions, and commend- ing spontaneous conversation as the higliest form of teaching, let me call attention to a possible plan of conversation which will greatly tend towards mutual freedom and action in the class. A teacher may construct carefully a statement full of useful information, historical, geographical, doctrinal, or religious. This statement he may read to his class once, requiring them to give such close attention to the single reading that, when he reads it APPENDIX E. 329 the second time, pausing at salient words, they may be able to supply them. At every reading these ellipses may be increased, and thus the scholars trained to remember what they hear. Such reading, if the teacher masters the subject, may become a sort of convei;Fation between teacher and class, which he may take up at any time, and, by frequently repeating, may put well into the minds of his pupils. If, for example, he kept a little blank book with these statements written out in full and numbered, it would take but little time to go over a number of them every Sabbath. In the course of the year how much the scholars might be induced to remember ! The "International Sunday-school Lesson" might be taken up in the same way in a class every week. The preparation of the statement would be a good thing for the teacher. The following is a conversation statement on Bible geography. The words italicized are words which, on the second reading of the statement in their hearing, the class will be expected to supply : We propose a trip to Bible lands, especially to the land of Pal- estine, also called the Holy Land, Canaan, the Promised Land, the Land of Israel, and Judcea. In making this pilgrimage we must go toward the East, and across the Atlantic Ocean. From New York to Liverpool in a straight line is about three thousand miles. From Liverpool we may go to Paris, thence to Marseilles, from Marseilles to Malta, from Malta to Joppa, making the whofe dis- tance from New York to Joppa not far from six thousand miles. At Joppa we recall the vision of Peter as reported in the Acts of the Apostles, where he saw a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let doion from heaven. From Joppa we look northward and southward up and down the coast line of Palestine. Before us are the hills of Judcea, and among them, about thirty-four miles in a straight line from Joppa, a little south of east, is Jerusalem. Further east, sixteen miles, we come to Jordan and the Dead Sea. Beyond these are the table lands of Moah and Bashan. Simple lessons after this style may be prepared about the Book of books, the languages in which these books were written, their classification, and the principal events in the lives of leading Bible characters. 330 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. APPENDIX F. THE PALESTINE CLASS. A Circular: Proposing a New Department of Sunday-school Instruction* Every Bible reader should be acquainted with the outlines of sacred history and chronology, and with the details of Biblical antiquities and geography. A knowledge of these is essential to a proper understanding of the divine Word. We often overlook the force and beauty of many of its allusions through our ignorance of sacred antiquities. There is, moreover, an air of reality imparted to all history by familiarity with the geography involved in it. In view of the su- pernatural character of Bible history, acquaintance with Bible geography is particularly important. Once give its wonderful transactions an actual locality among hills, valleys, and cities which may still be found and visited, connecting and comparing them with the records of profane history, and our youth will read- ily distinguish the miraculous from the mythical, and discover in the Bible lands of to-day not only clear illustrations of many por- tions of the Bible, but strong and irresistible evidence in favor of its divinity. Our theological seminaries and Biblical institutes are the only places where these subjects are studied with anything like thor- oughness, and yet their importance to all readers of the Bible can scarcely be overstated. The incidental allusions and explana- tions of the pulpit do not effect much. The pulpit is not the place for historical and geographical instruction. The greater particu- larity of the Sunday school and Bible class affords only disconnected and fragmentary information. Excellent books in these depart- ments have been widely circulated, but are used as text-books only in colleges and seminaries, or for reference in the family, Sunday school, and Bible class. Sacred history, geography, and antiquities must be systematic- ally and thoroughly taught to our Sunday-school children. And * This circular was published and widely circulated in 1802. The first class was organized in 1855. APPENDIX F. 331 yet the sacred hours of the Sabbath usually devoted to Sabbath school cannot be appropriated to these topics, when truths so much more important — the doctrinal and practical — are to be especially considered. Now, by what method may we impart such knowl- edge in an attractive way to these our Sunday-school students? Why may we not have a Sunday-school department devoted es- pecially to these subjects? 1. Call such department the "Palestine class," or "Class of Bib- lical Antiquities," 2. Its meetings may be held on some week-day evening, or on Saturday afternoon. 3. All persons should be invited to attend — adults and children — parents, teachers, pupils. 4. The pastor, or other competent person, may be its president or teacher. A chorister may be employed to conduct the musical ex- ercises of the class. The secretary and treasurer may be elected by ballot, quarterly. 5. The church "catechism," which most pastors use in the cate- chumen class or Sunday school, may be introduced as a feature of this class. 6. The class to be divided into grades, through which scholars may pass successively, as they progress. This insures thorough- ness, and renders the class exercise interesting. 7. Select committees of examination and other oflScers from the highest grade at any time attained by the class. 8. For convenience and pleasure, the recitations are usually con- ducted by the concert method, but to insure personal thoroughness each pupil is examined separately and placed according to his advancement, successively in the grade — "Pilgrim," "Resident," "Explorer," "Dweller in Jerusalem," and "Templar." By this simple, practicable, and pleasant plan, the liveliest interest may be maintained in the class. It will prove both study and pastime. 9. Certificates may be given to the meml)ers of each grade. 10. Expenses for maps, books, and certificates may be met by occasional exhibitions, at which "conversations" on a trip to the Holy Land, Biblical incidents, songs, and recitations will insure novelty, profit, and entertainment. 11. Let the teacher keep a "record," in which to enroll names of scholars in each grade ; prepare his programme for each recitation in advance, and register the results of his private Biblical re- searches. Such a record will become a most valuable "cyclo- paedia." 332 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 12. Use a small tea "call-bell," by which order aud perfection of drill may be maintained. 13. Scholars should always bring Bibles with them for reading and reference. 14. An organ or melodeon will be of great value in the singing and map exercises. 15. Let each session be short, and introduce as much variety in the exercises as possible. 16. Take short lessons from the text-book, and secure prompt, spirited, concert responses. 17. Always read in concert some scriptural selection at the opening of the class. 18. Give all scholars an opportunity to present difficult ques- tions from the Bible, and let the same be answered by the class the week after their announcement. 19. Give descriptions of sacred localities, distances from Jeru- salem, size, present condition, sacred associations, etc. Let schol- ars often repeat these facts, and record in blank books for their own use. In this way they will soon become as familiar with the Holy Land as with their own neighborhood. 20. Give a specified time (two months or longer) to each grade. Members of lower grades may be examined at any time for the higher already reached by the class, but only at appointed times may the higher advance. For example: If the highest grade is "Explorer," any lower grade may be examined at any time to attain the "Explorer's," but not go beyond that until the appointed time for advance arrives. In this way new scholars can enter the class and overtake the advanced, w^hile the advanced, by frequent repetition of old lessons, become more thorough. 21. Let the teacher or president himself examine all candidates for the first or "Pilgrim" grade ; after that let him appoint "exam- iners" for the historical lessons, he himself conducting all map ex- ercises in every grade. APPENDIX G. 333 APPENDIX G. THE ASSEMBLY SERVICE. Directions. 1. It is the object of the present series of Assembly Services to enlist our older Sunday-school pupils, and the adult members of our Congregations in general, in doctrinal studies and in thought- ful public worship. 2. A monthly Sabbath evening hour may be appropriated to such Services. 3. The Pastor, the President of the Assembly (usually the Sun- day-school Superintendent), two Readers, a Choir and Chorus, with the entire Assembly or Congregation, may render this Service reverently and profitably. 4. The Readers should be carefully selected. They should have good voices, and be able to articulate distinctly, pronounce accurately, and to conduct their part of the Service in a becoming spirit and manner. Their places should be in front of the pulpit, before lecterns or tables — one on each side. 5. In addition to the regular Church Choir, there may be a large Chorus selected from the Assembly or Congregation, and under the direction of a good leader. The Assembly Chorus should be divided into two Sections, and seated on each side of the pulpit. The parts assigned to the "Assembly" are to be rendered by all present : Pastor, President, Readers, Choruses, Choir, and the entire Congregation. 6. The Service should begin promptly. The silence and reverent manner of public worship should characterize the Congregation. There should be no whispering in "Choir," "Chorus," or "Assem- bly," even before the opening exercises. The Pastor and President should strictly enforce this regulation. "The Lord is in His holy temple ; let all the earth keep silence before Him," 7. The thought should be emphasized, that this is not a "Sunday- school Concert," an "Entertainment," or anything less dignified and holy than a Regular Public Service, and that all must enter into it with solemn intent and devout hearts. Certainly without God's presence and blessing it would be but a mournful mockery. 334 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. THE ASSEMBLY SERVICE. NO. 1. Subject— GOD. 1. VOLUNTARY ON ORGAN. 2. SCRIPTURE LESSON. Read by the Pastor. Psalm 96. 3. HYMN. Luton. L. M. l:\xwe— So)i(js of Devotion, p. 185. 1 Come, O my soul, in sacred lays Attempt Thy great Creator's praise ; But O what tongue can speak his fame ? What mortal verse can reach the theme ? 2 Enthroned amid the radiant spheres, He glory, like a garment, wears ; To form a robe of light divine, Ten thousand suns around Him shine. 3 In all our Maker's grand designs. Omnipotence, with wisdom, shines ; His works, through all this wondrous frame, Declare the glory of His name. 4 Raised on devotion's lofty wing, Do thou, my soul, His glories sing ; And let His praise employ thy tongue. Till listening worlds shall join the song. APPENDIX G. 335 R. L. —\- =i: 4. PEAYER, BY THE PASTOR. 5. SONG. O WORSHIP THE LORD. Rev. Robert Lowrt. 4- iE?E =2=PS: worship the Lord in the beauty of ho - li - ness, in -m- -m- the ±S: Lt24: ±:: --^- ->IS- ~m S=i -^H-^ ^S-e m -- m =^=ii= beauty of ho -li- ness, in the beau-ty of ^—\ 1 1 MS ^. *— *- :=is: :iE3^=: Z^^ZI^ ho - li - ness ^- :^ =g — S — S±=Si -m m 1 — -m — —9 m- T- m^ 1. Glo - ry to the Fa - ther, a - bound-injr in mer - cy! Be 2. Glo-ry be to Je - sus, our gra-cious Re - deem-er! We 3. Glo - ry to the Spir - it, the Ho - ly Re - veal - er ! We m 1 --4- zm==zz I joy-ful, all ye peo - pie, and mag - ni - fy Je - ho - vah. praise Him, for He loved us, and bro't a great sal - va - tion. praise Him with the Fa - ther, and with the Son, our Sav - iour. ±=t From " Royal Diadem," by permission of Biglow & Main. 336 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Chords. H^^ ^E o glo - ry, Hal - le -^ ^ X- i^gj lu - jail, Hal - le - lu - jali, Hal - le _« •- -1 H -y — g— ' lu - jail ! come be-fore His pres-eiice and glo - ri - fy His Name. m _^_«. -m- fr- -jm^ S^- :»=fc 1S^-*L ^S^ 6. CALL TO THE SERVICE. Pastor. I now call upon this Assembly to meditate upon the being and attributes of the great God ; to praise His holy name, and in prayer to call upon Him for the grace we need, and which has been by Him promised to all who believe His Word and yield them- selves to His service. Congregation (sing). UxBRiDGE. L. M. Tune — ^ongs of Devotion, p. 178. :=r :^= — ^f- O Holy Father, Holy Son, And Holy Spirit, Three in One, Thy grace devoutly we implore. Thy name be praised for evermore. Pastor. An eminent and devout Christian theologian* thus speaks of God : "He is the eternal, independent, and self-existent Being : the Being whose purposes and actions spring from Himself, without foreign motives or influence ; He who is absolute in dominion ; the most pure, the most simple, the most spiritual of all essences : in- finitely benevolent, beneficent, true, and holy ; the cause of all being. *Dr. Adam Clarke (17C0-1832), quoted in "McClintock and Strong's Cycl." APPENDIX G. 337 the upholder of all things ; infinitely happy, because infinitely per- fect ; and eternally self-sufiicient, needing nothing that lie has made ; illimitable in His immensity, inconceivable in His mode of existence, and indescribable in His essence ; known fully only to Himself, because an infinite mind can only be fully comprehended by itself. In a word, a Being who, from His infinite wisdom, can- not err or be deceived, and, from His infinite goodness, can do noth- ing but what is eternally just, and right, and kind." 7. THE MAJESTY, GLORY, AND POWER OF GOD. President. The blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords ; First Chorus * Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto ; Second Chorus. Whom no man hath seen, nor can see ; President. To whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. 1 Tim. 6 : 15, IG. Asscmhly. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Tim. 1 : 17. President. From everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God. Ps. 90 : 2. First Chorus. How great are His signs ! and how mighty are His wonders ! Second Chorus. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation. Dan. 4: 3. Assonhli/. Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Al- mighty ; just and true are Thy ways, thou King of saints. Rev. 15: 3. President. Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment ; First Chorus. Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain; Second Chorus. Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters ; AssemhJi/. Who maketh the clouds His chariot; President. Who walkoth upon the wings of the wind ; First Chorus. Who maketh His angels spirits ; His ministers a flaming fire. Ps. 104: 2-4. Second Chorus. Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? Job 11:7. Asscmhli/. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out: * The parts by the "Chorus" are, of course, to be read, not sung. 22 338 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. President. He is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice : He will not afflict. J oh 37 : 23. First Chorus. O Lord God Almighty, which art, and w^ast, and art to come. Rev. 11 : 17. Second Chorus. Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods? Assemhly. Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Exod. 15: 11. President. O Lord my God, Thou art very great ; First Chorus. Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Ps. 104: 1. Second Chorus. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! Assemhly. How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out ! Rom. 11 : 33. 8. HYMN. Rockingham. L. M. Tune — Songs of Devotion, p. 179. J-^T — r g W 12^: ^- Eg=^ Choir. 1 O God, Thou bottomless abyss ! Thee to perfection who can know? O height immense ! w^hat words suffice Thy countless attributes to show? Choir and Chorus. 2 Greatness unspeakable is Thine ; Greatness, w^iose undiminished ray. When short-lived worlds are lost, shall shine, When earth and heaven are fled away. Assemhly. 3 Unchangeable, all-porfect Lord, Essential life's unbounded sea. What lives and moves, lives by Thy word ; It lives, and moves, and is from Thee. 4 High is Thy power nbove all height ; Whate'er Thy will decrees is done ; Thy wisdom, equal to Thy might, Oniy to Thee, O God, is known. APPENDIX G. 339 9. EEADINGS FROM THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM CONCERNING GOD. Reader 1. We read from many creeds in the church of Jesus Christ concerning the beings and attributes of God : "There is one true and living God, Creator and Lord of heaven and earth, almighty, eternal, immense, incomprehensible, infinite in intelligence, in will, and in all perfection, who, as being one, sole, absolutely simple and immutable spiritual substance, is to be declared as really and essentially distinct from the world, of su- preme beatitude in and from Himself, and ineffably exalted above all things which exist, or are conceivable, except Himself."* Reader 2. "We have a God who is one and eternal ; and always like and the same with Himself ; and besides Him no God exists/'f Reader 1. "He is eternal, absolutely without beginning or end ; He is good, omnipotent, creator, foreseeing the future; He looks through all things, is present to all things, fills all things ; is in- finite and uncircumscribed, and knoweth all things both hidden and manifest."! Reader 2. "There is one divine essence which is called and is God, eternal, without body, indivisible, of infinite power, wisdom, goodness, the Creator and Preserver of all things, visible and in- visible ; and that yet, there are three Persons of the same essence and power, who also are coeterual, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." § Chorus (sing). Holy, Holy, Holy ! Tune— Booh of Praise, p. 9. Holy, holy, holy ! Lord God Almighty ! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee : Holy, holy, holy ! merciful and mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity ! Reader 1. "We believe and confess that there is but one God, who is one sole and simple essence, spiritual, eternal, invisible, im- mutable, infinite, ineomprehensil)le, ineffable, omnipotent ; who is all-wise, all-good, all-just, and all-merciful." || * Dogmatic Decrees of the Vatican Council (1870). t Cyril of Jerusalem. t Orthodox Confession of the Eastern Church. § Augsburg Confession (1530). II French Confession of Faith (1559). 340 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Reader 2. "There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness ; the Maker and Preserver of all things, visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead, there are three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."* Reader 1. "God had all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which He hath made, nor deriv- ing any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them ; He is the alone foundation of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things."t Reader 2. "The mode of His existence is a subject far above the understanding of man. Finite beings cannot comprehend Him. There is nothing in the universe that can justly represent Him, for there is none like Him. He is the fountain of all perfection and happiness. He is glorified by the whole inanimate creation, and is worthy to be served and loved by all intelligences."! Chorus and Choir (sing). Holy, holy, holy ! all the saints adore Thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea ; Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee, Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be. Reader 1. "He made the luminaries that His works might see one another, and He conceals Himself in His power from all His works." § Reader 2. "Eternal in time, unlimited in space, unchangeable, pure in character. His serenity and His vastness arise from His own perfections." || Assembly (sing). Holy, holy, holy ! though the darkness hide Thee, Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see. Only Thou art holy : there is none beside Thee Perfect in power, in love, and purity. ♦Methodist Episcopal Articles of Religion, 1 (A. d. 1874). t Westminster Confession (1G47). $ Free-will Baptist Confession (1834, 18G8). §Melito. |] Robertson. APPENDIX G. 341 President. "In glory He is incomprehensible, Assembly. "In greatness unfathomable, President. "In height inconceivable, Assemhly. "In power incomparable, President. "In wisdom unrivaled, Assembly. "In goodness inimitable, President. "In kindness unalterable. Assembly. "If I say He is light, I name but His own work ; President. "If I call Him Word, I name but His sovereignty. Assembly. "If I call Him Mind, I speak but of His wisdom ; President. "If I say He is Spirit, I speak but of His breath ; Assembly. "If I call Him Wisdom, I speak of His offspring; President. "If I call Him Strength, I speak of His way ; Assembly. "If I call Him Power, I am mentioning His activity ; President. "If Providence, I but mention His goodness; . . . Assembly, "ff I call Him Judge, I speak of Him as being just; President. "If I call Him Father, I speak of all things as being from Him."* Assembly. "The eye cannot see Him, though He is (spiritually) visible ; President. ^He is incomprehensible, though in grace He is manifested. Assembly. "He is beyond our utmost thought, though our human faculties conceive of Him." f President. "Good without quality, great without quantity ; Assembly. "A creator, though He lack nothing; . . . President. "In His wholeness everywhere, yet without place, Assembly. "Eternal without time, making things that are changeable, without change of Himself." $ 10. SONG. GOD OF ETERNITY. Fanny J. Crosby. Rev. Robert Lowry. 1. God of E - ter - ni-ty, An - thor of Time, Giv - er and Source of Life, 2. Wondrous in Ma-jes-ty. Wisdom, and Migrht, Lo ! 'twas Thy voice that said, 3. Time is a per-fect law, Thy word is pure; Righteous are all Thy ways: From " Royal Diadem," by permission of Biolow & Main. t Tertulliau. * Theophilus. % Augustine. I 342 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. =]= ig: S^ -(S>- =S^F*S=S? ■t Kul-er sub -lime,— Thou un-cre - a - ted Lord, •'Let there be light;" Vastrealma and num-ber-less, Thy judgment sure; Mer - cy and truth a -bide, f=- -*- -*■ -^- -g- ^ -^ ' -«(- -- dS: ^ An-cient of Days, Lord are Thy own ; Ev - er with Thee; --«: « !a- ~l- =S=^5 -t 26.... Sept .2.... (» 9.... ti 16.... *( 23. . . . ii 80.... Oct. 7.... bb 14... bb 21... bb 28.... Nov . 4.... bb 11.... bb 18.... bb Dec. t::: bb 9... bi 16.... bb 23.... 4b 80.... The Babe of Bethlehem announced by angels.— Luke lb 8-14 .... and found by the shepherds.— Luke ii, 14-20 ITie Boy m the Temple : missed and found Luke li, 40-52 The Man at the Jordan: baptized by John.— Matt.iii,13-15 and approved by the Father.- Matt, iii, 16-17 . , 77ie Tempted One: The three trials.— Matt, iv, 1-9, and the three triumphs.— Matt, iv, l-li The Tra?2sflgnred C/t7-ut : ^sith the Saints.— Luke ix, 28^1 and with the Disciples. Luke 11, 32-36 The Griff of Gethsemane: the struggle. - Luke xxii, 39-44 and tne victory. - Luke xxii, 45-53 The Trial of (he Innocent: before Annas and Caiaphas. John xviii, 12-27 and before Pilate.— John xviii, 28-40 : xix, l-ifi The Crucified One: approaching.— Luke xxlii, 26-32 and on the Cross.— Luke xxiii, 33-56 Concert The CructHed alrve ac/ain, in Judea.- Luke xxiv and in Galilee.— John xxi The Ascending Lord : on Olivet.— Luke xxiv, 50-53 and in the clouds.- Acts i, 9-14 The Journeys of Jesus : in North Palestine.— Matt. Iv, 12-25 and in the South The Ci/ies of Christ's labor and residence. Trie Afountains of Jesus Jesus wrought Miracles in great numbers.- Matt.lv,23-25 and as proof of Divine authority.— John iii, 1-2 The First Miracle: the circumstances.— John ii, 1-11... and lesson.— John ii, 1-11 Concert Sight to the Blind, at Jerusalem.— John ix, 1-7 .. and at Bethsaida.— Mark viii, 22-26 Health to the Leprous, in Galilee. -Matt, viii, 1-4 and in Samaria- Luke xvii, 11-19 Food to the Famishing : the five thousand.— Matt, xiv, 15-21 and the four thousand.— Matt, xv, 32-39. . Hearing to the Deaf.— Mark vii, 31-87 and speech to tne dumb. -Mark vii, 31-87 Concert Calmed the Storm.— Matt, viii, 23-27 and in Matt, xiv, 22-.33 Cast out Devils, in Galilee.— Matt, viii, 28-34. and in Syrophenicia.-Mark xv, 21-28 . . . The Dead Girl: visited.- Matt, ix, 18-19. and raised from her bed.— Matt, ix, 23-26 . The Dead Youth : met.— Luke vii, 11-13 and raised from his bier.— Luke vii, 14-17. . TVie Dead Man : mourned for.- John xi, 17-32. . and raised from his tomb.— John xi, 33-48 . . The Sinner Saved : before.— Matt, ix, 1-8 and after Christ's death.— Acts xxvi, 13-20 . Concert *^ S3 C 'go !^ ll .s>. o A J ^ Pnnceion Theologic.il ^'■'"'"^7,'^Pni'i n I'll'*! 1 1012 01040 6231