Ul Ui '*», i iiliii »»'■ I I 1 1 1 ' 1 j t i i\ 1 MP i 1 , ' 1 1 ' 1 . ! 1 . ■ 1 } If!- 1 ■ 1 i i 1* II i ll Ij i .ilL. 1 1 .: ; C 1 t i ■ j \\ 'iiitiillillllllllllllijlliilliiliillitlilillil^ L APR 9 1912 ?=V*iV'!> BV 1520 .C65 1907 j Cope, Henry Frederick, 1870- 1923. The modern Sunday school in principle and practice The Modern Sunday School in Principle and Practice HENRY F. COPE Levels of Living 12nio, Decorated cloth, net $1.00 "Mr. Cope has a peculiar gift for plain thinking along with unconven- tional modes of statement and strik- ingly pat, telling phrase." — Chicago Tribune. The Friendly Life The Right Living Series ISmo, Boards, net 35c The Modern Sunday School in Principle and Practice 2nd Edition. I2ino, cloth, net $1,00 Hymns You Ought to Know ( Edited by Henry F. Cope. ) Decorated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50 A Selection of One Hundred Stand- ard Hymns with a short introductory sketch to each. The Modern Sunday School in Principle and Practice BY HENRY FREDERICK COPE GENERAL SECRETARY THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION APR 9 1912 New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Re veil Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1907, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. London : 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh : 100 Princes Street CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Inteoductoby — The Place op the School ..... II. The History of the Sunday School in THE First Period . III. The History of the Sunday School in THE Second Period. IV. Plan of Organisation . V. Officers and Their Duties . VI. The Pastor in the School . VII. Organising the School as an Educa TiONAL Agency VIII. Recruiting and Retaining Pupils IX. Building and Equipment X. Program ..... XI. Class Work XII. Manual Methods XIII. The Curriculum of the School . XIV. The Teaching of Missions . XV. Discipline ..... XVI. Giving and Finances , XVII. The Adult Bible Class Movement XVIII. Training the Working Forces XIX. The Library Problem . XX. Factors in Sunday School Success Index page 9 12 19 28 40. 51 61 74 86 95 105 112 12^ 136 143 151 161 169 184 195 203 INTRODUCTORY— THE PLACE OF THE SCHOOL The Sunday school no longer lies among the neg- ligible factors of life. Men and women do well to study its history and its present activities, not alone because such study is prescribed as part of the preparation for service in the institution, but be- cause the school has become one of the most im- portant forces in modern affairs, and particularly because to this school we must look, at least in large measure, for the solution of our great problem of religious education. It occupies a pre-eminent place as a character-forming institution in an age which is slowly coming to recognise the supreme place of character and the regnancy of righteous- ness. It owes its place to two causes, the force of necessity on the one hand, and the fact that it is fitting itself to meet that necessity on the other. The force of necessity has been on the Sunday school as an agency for religious education because no other institution is doing this work to any gen- eral extent to-day. Education has passed from a domestic to a civil duty, while the civil powers have decided, at least in the majority of the States, that 9 10 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL their institutions for education cannot include instruction in the Bible or in religion in their curricula. It has, therefore, fallen to the church, as the orgamsed communal force for religion, to undertake this work. If the training of the char- acter, the inculcation of right precepts, the leading to right moral choices, the cultivation of a good conscience, the learning of the way of truth, rever- ence and holiness; in a word, if the fear of the Lord be indeed the beginning of wisdom, the foundation of all personal, commercial, and na- tional success and happiness, then the institution having so serious a work in hand deserves our most serious consideration. N"o one who has observed the Sunday school in the last ten years can have failed to note the man- ner in which it has been fitting itself to meet this opportunity. When home and school and lyceum all taught religion the Sunday school may have felt that it could aiford to spend its time in playing at teaching, in giving a few individuals a chance to take the lesson text and from it to preach so many second-hand sermons to so many little sufferers on successive Sundays. But with the realisation of its responsibility for the work of religious educa- tion there has come an awakening and a determina- tion to be competent for the task. It is true that not all has been done that many had hoped ; tradi- tionalism and sloth, inefficiency and sentimentalism THE SCHOOL A DEVELOPMENT 11 still prevail in places. Nevertheless the school is coming to be worthy of its place as the great agency for religious instruction and education. •When it understands its mission and its task, its other deficiencies will be met. It might be asked, why include chapters on Sun- day-school history in a study of Management? Because nothing helps us to understand the present better than the past, and this is especially true of institutions. Perhaps the first step to effective service in the school is an understanding of its genesis and development; its genesis will reveal its genius. Only the briefest review can be at- tempted here; but that will be suflficient to show that this school is not an artificial, mechanical creation, but a natural development, adaptation and organisation of means to meet man's necessity for religious and moral guidance. As a movement the school has passed through an evolutionary- process; growth, development, and improvement have accompanied it from the very beginning, nor must we ever think that we have come to the day when it has reached its full perfection. Eather may we rejoice in ever}i:hing that stirs us up to new endeavour, to real progress and increased efficiency — even though the process by which we are stirred be not altogether pleasant to experience. II THE HISTORY OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL m THE FIRST PERIOD We find it hard to think very far in Sunday-school history without coming to the name of Robert Raikes ; indeed, it was for a long time the custom to speak of him as the Father of the Sunday school. Accepting, however, the definition of the Sunday school as an institution for teaching religious truth, commonly meeting on the day of rest, we find that Sunday-school history goes far back of the printer of Gloucester. It, in principle, antedates the church and is older than the Jewish nation. The movement begun by Robert Raikes marked an epoch in Sunday-school history; he stands at the dividing line between the old and the new, between the school as the informal fruitage of a basic religious necessity and the school as a recog- nised institution duly fostered by the church. We can then divide this history into these two periods, First, the period of the Informal Movement, up to 1780; second, the period of Formal Institutions, from 1780 on. This chapter concerns itself with the first period. Wherever there has been a revelation of God 12 THE MORAL OBLIGATION 13 and His truth men have felt the moral compulsion to tell the things they have learned to one another. This has brought together, either in the popu- lar assembly or in the study gtoup, those who were seeking and those who were declaring knowl- edge. The moral obligation growing out of the privi- lege of receiving truth cannot be discharged by its loose and general proclamation alone; there has been general recognition of the necessity for train- ing men in truth, for the work of the educator. As men have learned to know the manner and methods by which truth becomes the possession of the mind and the determining power in character they have applied these methods to the inculcation of religious truth. There has been the use, steadily growing, of the educational method. To trace the development of this idea, the coming of the Sunday school into its place as an educational institution, is to trace the history of the movement and to enter into an understanding of its principles to-day. These two features indicate the genius of the Sun- day school : the moral responsibility to impart re- ligious truth and the recognition of educational methods as the best methods in the discharge of this responsibility. I. In Old Testament Times. There are many instances of the working of this principle in the Old Testament. They are fairly 14 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL represented by the familiar injunctions in Dent. 4:9; 11:19-20. There is little mention of formal assemblies, outside of the family, for religious instruction, the most notable being that in II Chron. 17:7-9, in the account of the educational commissioners sent out by Jehoshaphat, and the discovery and endeavours made by Josiah, (II Kings 22, 23.) Failing to find definite, specific in- stitutions for the religious education of the youth we must not forget that this was the duty of every parent, a duty that in the best days was strongly emphasised, nor that in certain instances, as in the family of Ahab, tutors were provided for this pur- pose (II Kings 10:1-6.) But the most important event in Old Testament history directly connected with the development of the Sunday school is that narrated in Neh. 8. Ezra's popular assembly was the beginning of a propaganda for popularising the Scriptures. As it spread there appeared the necessity for places of meeting in which the people might be instructed in the writings ; then came the adoption of an insti- tution with which they had become familiar in their exile, the synagogue. This is the institutional link between the religious education of the He- brews and the Sunday school of to-day. " With its rise," says Wellhausen, " the Bible became the spell- ing-book, the community a school, religion an affair of teaching and learning." SCRIPTURAL PRECEDENTS 15 II. In Inter-Biblical Times. The synagogues increased in number until they were to be found in every village. It is said there were at least about four hundred in Jerusalem alone. They grew in importance and became the school-houses ; each having its teachers, until every village also had its teacher or " doctor of the law " ; see Luke 5:17 (R. V.) Fourteen different words are used by writers of this period for schools. A system of elementary schools was later established. In all these schools the principal text-book would, be, of course, the Scriptures. ///. In New Testament Times. Three kinds of religious schocfls are found amongst the Jews: elementary, synagogue schools, and the groups for higher instruction under such teachers as Hillel and Shammai. The curriculum embraced the Scriptures, the Mishna, interpreta- tions and traditions of the law, " Keeping the Commandments " and the Talmud. In this period we find Jesus, the founder of instruction in the Christian religion, who " went about teaching" (Matt 4:23), and who, in the training of the apostles, gave a wonderful exhibi- tion of a religious school, leaving us his final in- junction, " Go teach." The references to the manifestations of the prin- ciple which lies at the basis of the Sunday school in later New Testament times are too numerous to 16 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL recite. The student may consult, for example, Acts 5:42, 17:11, 28:31. IV. Early Christian Centuries. The Apostles were teachers. Christianity spread by teaching. Individual Christians went every- where " teaching the word.'' The synagogue plans were adapted to Christianity. Before the end of the first century classes and catechetical schools in the Christian religion were in existence. Children were brought into church relations as catechumens at the age of seven. The instruction of the young in doctrine became the duty of every church; we have but to mention the names of the leaders in this work, Clement, Origen, and Augustine. The Church Councils required pastors to maintain schools for religious instruction. (See Canon of the Sixth General Council of Constantinople.) In principle the school was, through this period, a missionary agency. V. The Mediaeval Period. Through the dark ages the church alone, by bib- lical and theological instruction, and later, through liberal education, kept the lamp of learning burn- ing. The outstanding features were, the rise of the Universities, the monastic schools, travelling teachers, the Bible schools maintained by the Wal- denses. It has been well argued that the decline of the teaching ministry of the church accounts for the general failure of her work. Certainly the HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 17 bright spots are those where teaching was main- tained. Through this period the school was a pre- serving agency. VI. The Reformation Period. Luther urged the need of schools in the churches and himself prepared two catechisms for their use. Calvin did the same. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in 1570, ordered the sec- ond service on each Sunday to be given to the in- struction of the children in classes and by means of catechism. The Church of England, in 1603, also required this of its ministers. The Roman Church was quick to see the value of this kind of work and to adopt it; they have since given more attention to the religious education of the children than any other body. Christopher Borromeo, bishop of Milan, established a large number of Sunday schools, some say 700, having 40,000 scholars. History now begins to record a very large number of schools for doctrinal instruction, meeting on Sunday and also in the week. It is difficult to separate many of them, as agencies, from the regular institutions for education; this will be understood when we remember how large a part of secular education was given to religious subjects, and how, indeed, the religious forces were the ones keeping all the educational agencies alive. In North America we recall at once the familiar 18 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL picture of the Puritans meeting on Saturday after- noons for catechetical instruction. But, not count- ing such activities as these, there are undeniable records of what may be properly called Sunday schools, since they met on that day and for the definite purposes of a religious school, studying the Bible, in over twenty different places in Eng- land and North America between 1670 and 1780. Tracing the gradual development of the essential principles of the Sunday school from the beginning we are able to see, First, the realisation of the need for popular religious instruction; second, the use of the Bible in this instruction; third, the gathering of people together in groups for religious instruction, the groups gradually forming them- selves into institutions organised for educational purposes; fourth, the use of the unusual oppor- tunities afforded by the day of rest; fifth, the recognition of the period of childhood as deter- minative in character, and, therefore constituting the period in which religious education must be received; sixth, the adoption of this work by the church. Ill THE HISTORY OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL IN THE SECOND PERIOD The second period of Sunday-school history may be called that of Formal Institutions. It began when the principle which was operative in the first period gave birth to a definite institution. The familiar date, 1780, and the work of Robert Raikes marks the beginning of the modern Sunday- school movement. For a century or more before this there had been many individual and some associated efforts to teach the Bible, both to chil- dren and to adults; but there was lacking any general conviction that this work was a part of the duty of the church; there had been no sense of a common Christian obligation. The efforts had been simply the results of individual convic- tion. The second period witnessed a gradual awak- ening to a sense of duty, to a responsibility for the religious education of the young. There are four easily distinguishable steps of progress in the history of the Sunday school in this second period. They are : First, the exploitation of the idea by Robert Raikes; second, the adoption of the school by the church; third, the develop- 19 20 THE MODERN SUN"DAY SCHOOL ment of the Bchool by means of associational or- ganisation, and, fourth, the recognition of the school as an educational institution. I. The Work of Robert Raihes. With Raikes (1735-1811) this work began where it ought to with all, in an interest in and concern for the untaught for their own sake; he simply desired to do them some good; it was some time before the plan of teaching religion developed in his schools. In Gloucester, England, he gathered destitute, unschooled children into a house on Sunday and began to teach them the elements of a secular education. In 1780 he engaged the house of a Mrs. King, securing her as his first teacher at the salary of one shilling and six-pence (36c.) per Sunday. Other teachers were secured, and for this sum they are said to have worked seven and a half hours. but the importance of the work of Robert Raikes did not consist in the inauguration of these schools in Gloucester; others had done the same thing elsewhere ; its value lay in the agitation which he began in 1783 for the establishment of such schools everywhere. He was a printer and pub- lisher, and used his press and paper in the service of his type of Sunday school. But he did not do this rashly; he worked three years with his own echools before he published an account of them in his paper, the Gloucester Journal. The many ROBERT RAJKES 21 inquiries he then received led to the publica- tion of his plans, first in the provincial papers and then in some London magazines. His plan was widely adopted. The schools were called *^ charity schools." They gave their attention prin- cipally to general instruction in the rudiments of learning, for they were obliged to take the place of any public school system. Without doubt these schools gave birth to the modern English system of common elementary schools. Many of his type of " charity Sunday schools " still exist in Eng- land; there are Sunday schools, especially in the North, where adults may learn to read and write, matters concerning which they would know noth- ing without these schools. The English people have never entirely overcome the notion that the Sunday school is for the destitute classes only. Raikes' schools met with bitter opposition in some quarters, especially from the clergy. But he advocated them everywhere by means of the press, and in 1785, in London, the Society for Promoting Sunday Schools was organised. This Society paid out in its lifetime $20,000 in wages to Sunday- school teachers. II. The School as a Church Institution. It is hard to trace in the United States any marked impetus given to Sunday schools through the work of Raikes. Schools were meeting before his day and continued to meet in growing num- 23 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL bers. Eecords are held of schools in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia even prior to 1780. Their distinctive features, however, were that they were more truly Bible schools; they met for pur- poses of religious instruction, using as text-books either the Bible or the church catechism. They early differed also from the schools of England in that they came directly under the fostering care of the churches and were soon adopted by them. While some of the bishops of England were fight- ing the schools in their country the Methodist Conference at Charleston, S. C, was adopting reso- lutions favouring the organisation of the schools. In the United States the classes gathered in the church buildings. Before long the need of definite courses of lessons was felt and these were prepared by the churches, first by separate organisations, and later by denominations. The idea of the school as a church institution, the particular instrumen- tality or activity through which the church could teach the Bible and train its children in the re- ligious life, was the most important single de- velopment ever made in Sunday-school history. It was for long peculiar to this country and may be properly called the American Sunday-school idea. III. Development hy Associational Organisation. The next important step in the United States was the result of a growing sense of unity which AMERICAN" SUNDAY-SCHOOL IDEA 23 brought the workers of the schools together in definite organisations for the promotion of their work. Many gatherings were held, particularly in the East, for the discussion of plans. These led to formal organisations, and from this time the development of the schools may be traced by the 'Progress of Organisation. The first general organisation was "The First Day or Sunday School Society of Philadelphia," constituted January 11, 1791. This body is still in existence. Later came The American Sunday School Union, organized in 1824. The American Sunday School Union is the out- growth of the " Society for the Institution and Support of First-day or Sunday Schools," and the Philadelphia " Sunday and Adult School Union." The former was organised in Philadelphia on Jan- nary 11, 1791, growing out of several conferences on the part of those most deeply interested in the moral and religious education of the ignorant and poor. Several similar organisations having come into existence, it was seen that they could well co- operate, and on May 27, 1817, the " Sunday and Adult School Union " was formed. This organisa- tion entered on a gradually extending work of founding and maintaining schools where the read- ing and writing of the Bible was taught on Sun- day, until it had in its care 723 schools. It was then determined at a meeting of delegates of this 24 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL and other societies, on May 25, 1824, to make the movement national and to organise it under the name of the "American Sunday School Union.'^ The interest of this phase of Sunday-school history lies in the rapid development of the school under these organisations from a school where destitute children were taught to read and write the Bible by paid teachers to schools for Bible study by all, and in the influence which these societies had in promoting the general organisation of Sunday- school forces. The most valuable work of the Sunday School Union has been its missionary enterprises. As it sprung into being from efforts to found schools in destitute regions, it has continued this work to this day. It gave birth to the Mississippi Valley movement; its schools are found, some of them strong churches to-day, in all the frontier regions, and through its literature it has been a promoter of Sunday schools in other lands. As a result of the meetings of the Philadelphia organisation a national convention to consider the promotion of Sunday-school work was called and met in New York City on October 3, 1832. This was the first of the five national conventions which preceded the International Convention; these five gatherings were held: New York, May 23, 1832; 'Philadelphia, May 22, 1833; Philadelphia, Feb- ruary 22, 1859; Newark, N. J., April 28^ 1S69; NATIONAL ORGANISATIONS 25 Indianapolis, April IG, 1872. This last conven- tion formally adopted the plan of uniform lessons for all schools to be issued by the different pub- lishers. This was the plan wrought out by Mr. B. P. Jacobs and by Bishop Vincent. It served an exceedingly valuable purpose in the days when the work of the schools was weak, when the organisa- tion was but coming to its own. It marked an important advance of methods that had gone be- fore, and met with as much opposition as improve- ments which have since been suggested also have had to meet. The sixth national convention, held at Baltimore, May 11, 1875, became also the first International Convention; the organisation widened its field to embrace all the North American continent. State organisations sprang into being during this period; probably the first to be formally or- ganised as auxiliary to the national conventions was the State of New York, in 1857. Prior to this a number of States had had organisations of their own under the American Sunday School Union. In process of time the plan of development ex- tended down until there are now many States hav- ing every county, city, and township organised with associations for interdenominational fellow- ship and co-operation. Certain benefits have come to nearly all schools through the organisations which have been created. 26 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL The first has been the making of a literature on the lessons, on Sunday-school work, and on meth- ods and pedagogy. Under the State and local or- ganisations Institutes and Conferences have been made available to all. This has meant constant stimulation of teachers and officers, the comparing of plans and the dissemination of wise and tried methods. IV. The Recognition of the School as an Educa- tional Agency. The Sunday school has come into a new place in the last few years. This has been due to several causes — to realisation of the importance of education, to the recognition of the primary and important place of religious education, to the dis- covery of and general acceptance of the findings of modern educational science, to agitation for the application of the settled results of this science to the Sunday school, to the determination to secure for religious education the very best methods and teachers and to make it fully as efficient as any other type of education. Concurrently with the organisation of the Eeligious Education Associa- tion there sprang up the widespread agitation for the training of Sunday-school teachers. Besides the training classes conducted by churches or by other organisations, there are many institutions which offer courses of study in religious pedagogy and in Sunday-school science, so that the workers THE SCHOOL m EDUCATIOlSr 27 in this institution may be as adequately prepared for their work as is the pastor of the church for his. Learned men and leading educators no longer consider it beneath their dignity to be seen in the school, but, on the contrary, they are giving their best thought to the improvement of its methods and its curriculum. The steps of development during the period of organisation may be traced, then, from a handful in a charity school to an institution for all classes, all ages, and enrolling about thirty milion students; from elementary, secular instruction to biblical instruction and to the whole curriculum of religious education; from a spasmodic or unre- lated movement to a generally recognised de- partment of church activity; from the loose aggregation to compact, well-organised and re- lated institutions, from many chaotic lessons, through the one lesson adopted for convenience, to an orderly, complete, graded curriculum. rvi (PLAN OF OEGANISATION By plan of organisation we mean the setting out of the relative places and duties of the workers, the gradations of the authority to be exercised and the divisions of the labour to be accomplished by those who are to carry on the activities of the school; the general scheme upon which all the work will be conducted. The plan of organisation for a factory will be different from that for a store, and both of these different from that for a school; but some definite plan will be necessary to all. Carefully prepared and properly executed plans of organisation have not a little to do with the success of any undertaking; they are essential to orderly, economical administration. Great corporations spend much time, money, and the highest skill in perfecting their plans of organisation- Elaborate charts are prepared showing the relative positions of all in authority and the route from the lowliest worker, by way of the officers, to the head of the concern. Different officers are made solely responsible for their de- partments and they are answerable only to their chiefs. A haphazard, unorganised order would 28 .VALUE OF CAREFUL ORGANISATION 29 result in confusion in a few hours; it would be business anarchy. But there are many Sunday schools still in a state of educational anarchy; without leaders or followers, every worker a law unto himself, with the result of confusion, friction and ineffective- ness. The Sunday-school organisation must not be a thing that has somehow happened. We owe it to the institution, first, to carefully, deliber- ately, with the best skill and experience available, work out its plan of organisation, to determine the part each individual shall play in view of the ends to be reached, and, second, to adhere, with scrupulous fidelity, with closest respect for the rights of others, and with growing intelligence as to our own duties, to the part and place assigned to us. Every worker must have his definite, clearly understood duty, place, and responsibility. Certain modifications enter in to determine the plan of the organisation: 7. The Plan of Organisation will he Modified hy the Purpose of the Institution. In the fullest sense of the word the Sunday school is an educational institution, remembering that education is the training and development of all the powers of the life to meet all the problems and to realise all the possibilities of the life. Next, its special function is education in re- ligion. If we remember that religion means right 30 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL relations with God, with man and with nature, that it means the perfect development of the character, bringing the man into his heritage and likeness as the child of God, then the dignity and the edu- cational importance of this institution is manifest. The school uses its first great text-book, the Bible, as its source of moral and spiritual informa- tion and inspiration. It may use other books and take other studies ; but in the main it is primarily a Bible school. By this means it carries out the educational purposes of the church. It is a defi- nite department of church activity, the school of the church, or the teaching agency of the church, obeying the commission, " Go teach." Its pur- pose may then be briefly stated as the execution of the duty of the church in religious education. //. The Plan of Organisation will he Modified "by the Basis of Authority. The manner in which the affairs of any institu- tion shall be administered depends on the au- thority governing it. If the Sunday school is a department of the church, having grown out of the church and ex- isting to serve the church and carry on its work, then the church must govern the school; the basis of authority will lie in the church. The church will pass on its plans, will elect or appoint its principal administrative officers, will constantly exercise oversight, will properly support, will as- DETERMINATIVE PRIlSrCIPLES 31 sist in every way, and will be the final authority regarding all questions arising in the school. III. The Plan of Organisation will he Modified by the Conditions of Operation. The conditions peculiar to the school are: it is manned by a corps of volunteer workers (except in instances at present rare) ; the attendance of its students is secured without physical, social or civil compulsion, and in the greater number of cases, without ecclesiastical pressure ; it is at work, in most cases, only once a week^ and then for but a short period. IV. The Plan of Organisation will he Modified hy the Method of Work. Since the school is the institution for carrying out the educational work of the church its method will have to be mainly that of teaching. Here the work of the school, the spiritual culture of the student and his equipment and training for ser- vice in the kingdom, is accomplished principally by teaching. Other divisions of the church will use other methods; but teaching is the method of the school. With these modifications in mind we may say that the Sunday-school is an educational institu' Hon, meeting once a weeh, under the direction of the church, engaged in teaching religious truth and training in Christian character and service. The characteristic of an educational institution 32 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL and the plan of work by teaching are the all-im- portant determinative factors in Sunday school organisation. Wherever, under these conditions, you have a group of persons engaged in teaching religious truth you have a Sunday school. Often, as in mission schools or those on the frontier, the factor of the church will be absent. Wherever you have a group of persons engaged in teaching one general subject there will be a Principal, a leader, or Principals directing the work. All other offices and officers grow out of, and are related to the work that these two. Prin- cipal and teachers, have to do. The order will be somewhat as follows, with substantial modifica- tions, according to individual conditions : The Superintendent^ or Principal^ as the director of the work of teaching, having general oversight of the exercises and activities of the whole school. Sometimes there are Assistant Superintendents; usually, however, this is an empty office, tending only to embarrass the school machinery. The Superintendent comes into di- rect relation to the Division Principals, each in charge of a Division, engaged in directing the teaching work thereof, and overseeing its activities. Directly reporting and responsible to these are : The Teachers. These are responsible for RELATIONS OF OFFICERS 33 their classes, each for his own little group alone. The teachers constitute the keystone of the school. The foregoing are the absolutely essential officers of the school, the number of each being dependent on the size of the school. There follow certain other officers, usually hav- ing relations to the school as a whole, the servants of its general activities. The Pastor^ as the representative of the church, is the pastor of the school. While the execution of the work is committed to others he has the same care for this department of church work as for any other. In some schools he is placed at the head of a strong committee on Church affiliation, or on Spiritual work. In others he teaches a class of teachers. Secretaries^ as assistants to the work of teaching, by keeping the records of attendance, work, standings, grades, etc., of all students, and the work of teachers. Treasurer, promoting the work of teaching by securing funds. Organist and Chorister directly contributing to teaching by leading in worship. Librarians^ supplementing work of teaching by literature. Ushers, Doormen, Messengers, aiding in work of teaching by care for physical comfort, order and economy. 34 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL Interwoven into these there will be such com- mittees as may be needed. All these, like the teachers, are directly respon- eible to the Principals, that is where they are Secretaries, Treasurers, etc., of divisions; where they serve the whole school they would report to the Superintendent. Departmental Officers. Certain phases of Sunday school work are usually correlated to the general work by setting up special depart- ments for them. Thus the extension work of the school, the study of the lessons in the homes, or in other places by those who are unable to at- tend the regular sessions, is in charge of the Home Department. This department will have a Super- intendent, reporting directly to the Superintendent of the whole school, with such assistants in mes- sengers and secretaries as may be necessary. This also applies to the Cradle Roll Department; the simple purpose here being to identify the children with the school as soon as they come into the world by enrolling their names, observing their birth- days, enlisting their parents and co-operating with them in bringing the child to the school when it has reached the proper age. Some schools have a Teacher-training Depart- ment which not only cares for the classes which, in the regular grades, are preparing for teaching, but also promotes the organisation and cares for EELATIONS OF DEPAKTMENTS 35 the conduct of such classes meeting during the week. This work is considered more fully in the chapter on Training the Working Forces. The organisation of these departments must not be confused with those divisions of the grades in the school which are sometimes called departments, as Primary Department, etc. To avoid confusion it is much better to call these larger divisions of th^ school by this name, that is, for example. Primary Division, etc. The Adult Department. Within the past few years there has sprung up a new force in the Sunday school, that of the organised activities of young men and young women. If there has been a decline in the direct value and activity of the young people's society it has been more than coun- terbalanced by the development of interest and service of young people in the school of the church. Perhaps the emphasis properly laid by the young people's societies on the necessity for trained serv- ice has led the force of the movement to apply itself to the school. There are, however, in what is known as " the Adult Bible Class movement " tendencies and promises so important to the Sunday school as to deserve our careful consideration ; a separate chap- ter is therefore devoted to this department or phase of Sunday school work. In considering the relative duties and responsi- 36 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL bilities of officers it is well always to remember that while there may be degrees of authority and differences in positions there is no difference in glory, if but fidelity mark the work. There must be degrees of authority and differences in position and duties if the work is to be accomplished effi- ciently and without friction. It may well be the duty of all to endeavour to bring all the working forces into right correlation, so that each may co- operate with all others and all together produce the best results. There are certain unifying forces which must run through all the organisation. Some of these are : First, A strong sense of a single, worthy aim, a truly noble esprit de corps. Second, A spirit of mutual forbearance, sympathy, and deference, the spirit of the great Teacher. Third, The use of practical means of bringing together the workers and organising the forces, such as (a) Frequent division conferences, for all the teachers and workers in each division; (b) Conferences for all the workers in the school; Teachers' Meetings; (c) Gatherings of the School Council, or Faculty, in which representatives of each division, or it may be all the teachers, discuss the work of the whole school; (d) The Pastor and the Superin- tendent as the personal unifying factors of every division and in every activity of the school; (e) The conception of the school as an educational UNIFYING FORCES 37 institution; recognising the great work it has to do, teachers must see the dignity of their positions ; they will cease to play at Sunday school and begin together to do real, painstaking work; they will endeavour to make all the parts of their work fit together for the properly proportioned develop- ment of the student's religious life. We have spoken only of organising the working forces of the school, the teachers and officers; but no organisation can be complete without the con- sideration of the scholars. So far as the greater number of the problems connected with their or- ganisation are concerned, they are discussed in the chapters on Recruiting Students^ and Grading THE School. It is, however, well to remember that in this organisation the student must grow into a part in its management and maintenance. This school exists not only to send out people who are well informed in biblical history, chronology, and ethics; it exists to lead into Christian life and train for service in the Kingdom of God. To accomplish the work of training for this life and service it must seek out and use every possible opportunity for the child's natural self- activities to express the things he is learning. There is such a thing as a pedagogical organisation of the school, one that provides for the child's learning by doing. Not alone may he learn by doing the different things devised and known as 38 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL *^ manual exercises," * all usually excellent in them- selves, but also, by doing service in the school. Each student can early be brought to feel his share in the activities of the school without at any time weakening its authority over him. Such a co- operation will have its effect on him in preparing him for yet larger usefulness and, also, in so identifying him with the institution that he will find it hard, should he ever be so inclined, to break the ties of association and service binding him to it. Good common sense, with some under- standing of child-nature, will be needed in so plan- ning the organisation that the student may have an educative share in its work; they must not be made to teach while still needing to be taught; they must not be given authority ; they must learn to obey, to serve, to appreciate the helpfulness of helping. Their place of service must grow larger as they advance in the school. The plan of organisation outlined above would appear on an " organisation chart " somewhat as follows : ♦ See chapter on Manual Methods. SCHEME OF ORGANISATION THE CHURCH GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT Assistant Superintendent General Secretary Principal of Div. I "Kindrgtn"! Assistant Secretary Teachers Secretary of Enroll- ment Supervisor Prii icipalof Div. II "Elem'ty" | ^of Instruction Pri Assistant Secretary Teachers Treasurer > ncipal Div. Ill " Secondary" Assistant Secretary Teachers Chorister Supervisor Pri ncipal of Div. '. V "Senior" ^of Instruction Librarian Assistant Secretary Teachers > Com- mittees Principal of Div. V "Adult "^ Supervisor .of Instruction Assistant Secretary Teachers Ushers, etc. Pri ncipal " Home Department" Secretaries Messengers V OFFICERS AND THEIR DUTIES The last chapter discussed the place of each officer in relation to all the others and in relation to the scheme of the whole school. Here we are to take ■up each officer separately and consider his qualifi- cations and duties. /. The Superintendent. A. His Qualifications. First of all will come high moral character. Nothing will take the place of this. At the head of an institution for the for- mation of Christian character he must show the Christian life as one of clear rectitude, transparent purity, ennobled manhood. He should be not without experience in the Christian life ; no matter how earnest and sincere the man may be this is not the place for the raw recruit; he must learn to follow before he can lead. He should be a graduate of a Sunday school, possessed of sufficient biblical knowledge to enable him to wisely direct its teaching, though it is by no means essential that he shall be a graduate of a theological semi- nary. He will certainly need an understanding of at least the elementary and fundamental prin- 40 THE SUPERINTENDENT 41 ciples of education. It should be his business to acquaint himself with the principles of teaching that he may be a sympathetic^, wise leader of teach- ers. It is scarcely necessary to speak of his need of executive ability, the power of organisation and execution, though this is often disastrously lack- ing. He should know how to lead, how to get others to work, how to smooth out ruffled feelings and reconcile differences. He needs the three ele- ments of good temper, self-control, sympathy and hopefulness. B. His Duties. To direct the general activities of all the divisions of the school. This will be accomplished through his division-officers, but not through them alone; he will seek a first-hand knowledge of every detail and of every individual. No time will be lost that is spent in learning to know by name and circumstances every scholar. He must be more than a cold, formal director of others. His life should run through every part of the school and all feel its power. Educational and executive qualifications are worthless without that love for folks that will force him to know and win all, while many other deficiencies can be supplied if this abound. He should visit every room and class, not to interrupt, but to familiarise himself with all and with the work of all. He must constantly watch for plans and opportunities of improvement. On him rests the duty of keep- 42 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL ing the school keyed up. He oils all the machinery. He must also keep in touch with the best approved educational methods. Nothing is too good for the Sunday school. Let him learn to seek the best, avoiding the meretricious, the spectacular, and lead his school into effective service. He must be the advocate of the school to the church, to- gether with the pastor presenting to the official meetings its claims on the financial and moral support of the church. C. His Dangers. He is in danger of an en- thusiasm as refreshing as the morning dew at the beginning of his term, but no more enduring when the day of difficulties sets in. A few superin- tendents are consumed with their own dignity. Others become petrified in themselves and ce- mented to their positions. Many are conducting the school under what would have been a good plan when they were young; they are a tfecade late. Still others spoil the best plans by too much at- tention to trifles; they are fussers, hurrying hither and thither, often making more noise crying " Order ! Order ! " than all the other disturbers put together. For these defects there is usually but one cure, retirement. No sentiment attaching to a superintendent should impair the efficiency of the school. D. How Chosen. Usually by the church ; never without careful consideration ; often upon nomina- THE SUPERINTENDENT 43 tion by the school faculty or the church committee on education; never by the vote of the school. E. Term of Office. If the church or the com- mittee selecting the superintendent but use proper care, seeking, with the good of the school as their sole motive, for the best man, there can be little danger in giving him at least a year in which to work out his plans and to " make good." The number of terms he should serve must depend principally upon his continued fitness, his growing ability. Never should a man be retained in this office for fear that failure to re-elect him would hurt his feelings. The efficiency of so important an agency as the school must ever be paramount to any man's feelings, no matter how large they may bulk in his perspective. A good man will not de- eire to retain an office as an honour when he can no longer discharge its duties properly. But a thor- oughly good man may not always know his weak- ness and failure; yet the school must not be sacrificed to him. The superintendency has been the training- school of some of the most capable and widely useful leaders of Sunday school service in the world. F. The Paid Superintendent. So large are the interests, so intricate the activities, so manifold the demands of many modern schools that few men are able properly to oversee them and to con- 44 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL duct their own affairs. Besides this there has come about a recognition that the work of the Sunday school as an educational institution calls for expert, specially trained ability, that in the larger schools the leader ought to be an educator especially trained in religious pedagogy and in modern Sunday-school science. We therefore find schools of religious pedagogy, giving courses in the special work of the superintendent and the school worker, while many theological schools are offering similar courses for those who desire to take up this work. Schools are engaging capable men and women, graduates of these institutions or of the school of experience and special training, and pay- ing them salaries for service as superintendents. Sometimes the school still retains its volunteer superintendent while employing the salaried worker as Sunday-school director. In other cases this po- sition is combined with that of Assistant Pastor. II. Division Principals. These officers, sometimes called Assistant Su- perintendents, or Superintendents of Departments, each have direct charge and oversight of one division of the school. For his division each is immediately responsible to the Superintendent. The qualifications of the office are about the same as for the superintendent, remembering that their duties lie in a smaller sphere. The office must not be regarded as a minor one, for the success DIVISIONS, PEINCIPALS, TEACHERS 45 and efficiency of the division will depend on its principal. He must know just what is being done in every class, at all times; he must foster every interest, inspire every teacher, and cause the machinery of his division to move smoothly and to turn out good work; he must be ever on the alert to institute improved methods, to raise the standards of teaching and increase the efficiency of his division. The position makes a splendid training school for the general superintendency, and from it the latter office should often be filled. The term of office should be of the same length as that of the superintendent, save that the latter should have the power to remove any principal after consultation with the pastor. Probably the wisest plan for the election of division principals is to have them nominated by the superintendent. III. Teachers. The qualifications of the teacher and his duties, so far as they concern the organisation of the school, are discussed in the chapter on Class Work ; of course the whole subject of the work of teaching could be fully treated only in a discussion of pedagogy. Teachers should be chosen or ap- pointed by the Superintendent in conference with his Cabinet. In a graded school their term of service with a class will be co-extensive with the stay of that class in the teacher's grade. The 46 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL term of service in the grade will depend on ability to do the work there. Superintendents ought not to hesitate to take the attitude that a teacher's continuance is conditioned on ability to do the work. It is true they are voluntary workers, but even that does not confer on them the right to offer in religious service that which would not be accepted elsewhere. Expect your teachers to fit themselves and they will meet your expectations. People are usually up to the mark we set for them. (See the chapter on Training the Working Forces.) Usually women should teach infants, young children, girls, and women; men should teach boys and men. Women may well, indeed, for many reasons, best teach all up to tlie begin- ning of the period of adolescence, say up to thirteen or fourteen. The nature of the child is best met by that of the feminine and maternal being. But, for boys from these ages on, there is deep and fundamental necessity for the virile life of a man. The best of women cannot meet the needs of the boy's nature; the best of women may work harm to him at this period. Only a woman can know the nature, the heart, and experience of a girl ; only the man those of a boy, and it is upon these that the teaching must be built. Very largely these arguments also apply to the adapta- tion of the teachers for young men and young SECRETAEIES 47 women. Under no circumstances should one of an opposite sex be placed in charge of such a class in the expectation that differences in sex will attract and hold. IV. General Secretary. The General Secretary should be elected or ap- pointed by the church. He keeps accurate record of all the business, statistics, and history of the school. In the large school the details for his records will come up to him through the Division Secretaries. He enables the Superintendent to keep his finger on the pulse of the school. He is able to render valuable service by readily fur- nishing accurate statistics to the larger Sunday school organisations, such as the state Association, or to others seeking information. He also keeps an accurate record of business transacted at the executive councils and similar meetings. Y. Corresponding Secretary. Many schools find it worth while to have one who will, without pay usually, do the work of a stenographer on school business, conducting not only the general correspondence of the school, but also that between the officers and the scholars, as sending out notices to absentees, sending reports to parents, etc. YI. Enrollment Secretary. This officer keeps the record of all who belong to the school, entering their names on their ad- 48 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL mission, often determining their grades or classes, and keeping the records of their standings and promotions through the school. VII. Division Secretaries. These are needed only in the large school, to gather the statistics from each division and report them to the General Secretary. 7777. Ushers. Not patriarchs in frock coats, but friendly young people who will welcome strangers and par- ticularly new scholars, conduct them to the En- rollment Secretary, assist in the movement of classes, the discipline of the school, the arrange- ment of seats and partitions, guard the doors dur- ing worship, and assist the Superintendent in opening and closing the school. The office offers fine opportunities for engaging the activities of young men, and keeping them in the school; they like the work. The Treasurer and the Financial Secretary are treated in the chapter on Finances ; the Librarian in that on Library; the Chorister in that on Programme. IX. Committees. The most important will be that which may be known as the Cabinet or the Council; the name is immaterial so long as it stands for the group of executive officers who counsel together on the in- terests of the school. Such a group is much more COMMITTEES 49 capable of settling many questions than the whole school of undisciplined minds; often it serves an excellent purpose in thinking out and setting be- fore the teachers plans for the school. It must never degenerate into a Star Chamber. Other useful committees would be such as Wor- ship, Benevolence, Instruction — having care for the course of study — Library, Edifice, Special Programmes, with such others as may be occa- sionally needed for special duties. These committees may usually be selected at a Teachers' Meeting. X. Departmental Officers. In such departments of work as the Home De- partment and the Cradle Eoll, with whatever others may be needed, there is usually work for a Superintendent or Director and a Secretary-treas- urer, each of these reporting directly to the Su- perintendent of the school. Under them there would be such assistants, as messengers and visit- ors, as their work may need. XI. Installation of Officers, The church can well afford to give one of its regular services to magnifying the office it confers on its Sunday-school workers. On the first Sunday of the school year all the officers and the teachers should be publicly installed. Let the exercises take place at the hour of the morning or the even- ing service; let them be thoroughly dignified in 50 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL character, with the pastor's sermon and all the service arranged to remind of the Sunday school, to deepen the sense of its importance and to turn the minds of the people to a sense of the need and value of religious education. VI THE PASTOR IN THE SCHOOL The best schools are usually those which the pastor understands best and serves most intelligently. The need of the present is pastors who will ap- preciate the school, who will realise that from the school comes the church, that the school is making Christians during the only time of life in which any large numbers are made, who understands that it is better to keep one young life, with its unused stores of usefulness for the kingdom, than to win back many worn-out lives. The seminaries are to-day training pastors who know these things and who, a matter of no less importance, under- stand the educational principles of the modern school. If the pastor appears indifferent to the school, let some one quietly make him a gift of a book or books that will quicken his appreciation of its importance, and lead to an understanding of its principles. Let others send him to the great conventions where such things are discussed. Let him be brought by every means into closest touch with the present widespread and mighty move- ment for modern, effective religious education. That he may give his best service to the school 51 52 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL it is not often necessary that the pastor be given a class regularly, neither is it wise for him to be- come the superintendent. His is the wider work of watching, inspiring, teaching others, being in- deed pastor of the school. I. The Pastor's Place in the School. It should be clearly understood that he has a place and that, first of all, and determinative of any work he may do in the school, his place is that of Pastor of the school. He is its spiritual head. The school is in the church, not outside ; he is as much its pastor as he is pastor of the church when it gathers for worship. It rests with him very largely whether he will take this position, and so unify the school with all other activities of the church. There are few schools unwilling to give the pastor every op- portunity to shepherd them, and to direct all their spiritual life. When we have passed through an examination of all the personal elements that go to determine the success or failure of the school, we come at last to the pastor ; the teachers may be the root of the matter, but the pastor has the busi- ness of nurturing the root. Given the pastor who thoroughly understands the business of the school and believes in it, he will find a way to organise it aright, and to discover and train the efficient workers. In nearly every case, the truly success- ful school has in its pastor a man who is truly the pastor of the whole school. THE PASTOE'S PLACE 53 The pastor should have literally a place in the school, that is he should be present whenever possi- ble. Since the school meets on his busiest day, it may not be expected that he will do the same work, nor always be able to give the same time to the school that can be given by those who have no other exacting duties. He may not always teach a class, or, if he does, he may not always be present at the opening and closing exercises. The school officers must not ask too much of him on this day. But the wise pastor will see in the school his larg- est opportunity. Nowhere does he come closer to developing lives; nowhere can he lead his people in more practical or valuable work. Here in the school the church of to-morrow is being deter- mined ; here also, through the service of its officers and teachers, the church of to-day is being moulded ; the best people in the school are the best people all through the church. With less effort, with greater economy, in a more natural manner the pastor may here build up his church. II. The Pastor* s Problems in Relation to the School. The truth is that the principal prob- lems that perplex the pastor here are due to his ignorance of the exact purpose of the school; he has never thought out carefully just what the school is for, and how it should be organised to carry out its purposes. He has accepted the insti- tution as one which he found on the ground; he 54 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL assists in its continuance because it would not do to disturb such a time-honoured institution. He often needs, much more than do his officers, a course of study in Sunday school principles, partic- ularly as to its organisation and management. Then, too, other problems arise because, while this is a teaching institution, the pastor has had no training as a teacher; he is ignorant both of general pedagogy and of religious pedagogy. He is trained to preach, and that is quite different from learning to teach. He, therefore, needs grounding in the elemental principles of pedagogy. No pastor can tackle the problems of his school, no pastor can successfully co-operate with the in- telligent workers in his school, unless he shall take the time to acquaint himself with these things. Sunday-school administration and even its spiritual oversight — for this cannot be divorced from its practical government, cannot be acquired by intuition — is not so easy as to be accidental. There are certain practical problems, however, which are not entirely settled by a knowledge of pedagogy or of administration. Eor example, there is the relation of the school to the services of the church, as to time, continuity and harmony. His own conduct of the church services must be so punctual in beginning, and so regular in closing, that he can properly demand of the officers of the school that they shall so open and close as not THE PASTOR'S PROBLEMS 55 in any wa}^ to infringe on the time for the church services, and in such a manner as not to disturb these services by the noise and confusion of scholars leaving the school, when it is held before the church, or assembling, when it is held after- ward. It is possible to utterly defeat the pur- poses of both departments of church work by lack of co-operation, in following clear-cut schedules and in securing orderly dismissal both of church and of school. No effort is wasted that secures harmony here. Closely related to the above is the general prob- lem of fitting the school into the whole life and work of the church, to make it definitely the great agency of the church for the spiritual development of the young and for the religious education of all. The pastor will find the school increasingly valuable as he realises and uses it as an opportunity for training his people, especially those who are young, in Christian service. An important problem is that of holding the balance of the school, keeping it to its true work and its right place in the church, watching to see that over zealous and often ignorant, or hard- working persons do not acquire power in the school. A man with some axe to grind, or with some pe- culiar notion which he has allowed to acquire al- most the sole control of his brain stock, even the evangelist or the missionary, may practically wreck 56 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL a school by being given full liberty therein. The pastor must not allow the school to drift along without his supervision, or he may wake up some day to find that it has been a school educating his people altogether away from the church. This suggests the responsibility of the pastor for the doctrines taught in the school. Practically this is not so serious a problem as it seems to be; it becomes acute only in cases where deluded per- sons deliberately seek to instil harmful, disrupting doctrines. But certainly, as the spiritual head of the school, the pastor ought to know what is being taught. He will find that if false doctrine is any- where being inculcated it will be the result of ignorance, as a rule, rather than of deliberate attempt to mislead. With those who come in as wolves in sheep's clothing he must cause severe measures to be taken. But it will be very seldom that he will need to move as in the prosecution of a teacher for heresy. Nowhere is there a greater demand made upon his tact, his Christian love and his powers of leadership than in this task of quietly, unostentatiously, almost imperceptibly, moulding the content of the teaching in his school. It is well to remember that it is much easier, as well as much better, to train your teachers in the truth than to have to undo and attempt to correct their errors; therefore the pastor will count it time and energy saved if he may conduct his THE PASTOE'S PEIVILEGE 57 teachers through their courses of study in Chris- tian Doctrines. There is one other point at which he may properly and wisely engage in the work of teach- ing, that is with the class or classes of those who are at the age of crisis and decision. This age is specially treated in the chapter on Curriculum. The pastors who have made a study of this age have had a new world opened to them ; they have come into the school, with a clearer conception of its whole work, to definitely engage in determining the lives of these adolescents. If there is anywhere that the pastor should be found teaching it is, not in the old people's Bible class, but in the class of boys and girls of fourteen to seventeen. The pastor of the church must be truly pastor to every pupil in the school. Whatever the official relation of the child may be to the church, whether regarded as a member from infancy or not, he must have over that child the closest, tenderest, unflagging pastoral care. It is not those who have learned to walk in the way by their own wills, but those who are yet weak, the little ones, for whom the church should have the largest, deepest care. Unless the child be central to all her interests she will never win or hold the man. There is a very practical side to this; the child in the Sunday school has the same right in need, sickness, dis- tress, anxiety, or trouble of any kind, to the 58 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL services of the pastor as belongs to any member in the church. How happy that relation where the pupils of the school regard the pastor as friend, confidant, trusted, well-loved, shepherd of their lives. ///. The Pastor's Preparation for Service in the School. One of the most promising signs of the times is the fact that the pastor is now being pre- pared in the theological seminary for his place as pastor of the Sunday school. A number of sem- inaries now have chairs of " Religious Pedagogy " ; some are entitled departments of Sunday-school Methods; others have regular courses of lectures given by specialists on the work of the school, the principles of teaching, etc. At these schools and at others institutes and conferences are also con- ducted on the general subject of religious educa- tion, or on the special work of the school. Some schools of theology endeavour to lead the students in practical work in the Sunday schools of the city. That all these things are but beginnings we can well believe. It will not be long ere it is rec- ognised that no man is fitted for the work of the pastorate who has not given to the work of the Sunday school an amount of time, study and prac- tice proportionate to the place which it must hold in the general activities of the church. The pastor may also widen his usefulness and continue his preparation — since all preparation THE PASTOR'S PREPARATION 59 must be practically perpetual as one's work devel- ops — by keeping in touch with the organised Sun- day-school work, by attending conventions and conferences. He is very unwise if he affects to despise gatherings of Sunday-school workers as being " perhaps useful but altogether amateurish." A pastor may often learn more by attendance on a conference or institute, where earnest, practical people are engaged in study and discussion, than he could acquire in many days of stretching his feet under a desk. He will be surprised to dis- cover the amount of work being done by the Sun- day-school people. There is being steadily built up a wonderful treasury of literature on religious education in general and on the problems and practice of the Sunday school in particular. The pastor cannot afford to neglect the modern works on religious psychology; there are half a dozen of these that ought to be in every minister's library. He cannot afford to go without the works discussing the moral and religious education of children; he needs the books which deal with the Sunday school as an educational institution. True, there are al- ways more " indispensable " books than a man could buy, even should he devote all his salary to literature. But he must select the best. The school would find it a good investment to present him with the best. Better still, purchase them for 60 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL the school library, asking the pastor to read them first. Then there is the current literature on the subject in good periodicals dealing with the prin- ciples of the school. If he would serve worthily, let him here, as in other departments, give at- tention to reading. The best preparation of all is that gained in the work itself; the pastor, like the pupil, must learn by doing. He who comes to the school willing to learn will soon be worthy to lead. Whatever in- vestment of himself he makes here will return to him many fold. He who sows in the Sunday school reaps bountifully all through the church. yii OEGANISING THE SCHOOL AS AN EDU- CATIONAL INSTITUTION /. The Educational Aim. Education is the leading of a life, through the development of its own powers and by the dis- covery of self, of fellow-beings and the universe, into the highest possible personal character and into perfect adjustment to and service in the world. The immediate aim of the Sunday school is the Christ-like service and character, the devel- opment of the growing life religiously, spiritually, into true character and worthy service. The educational aim does not invalidate the evangelistic aim; it completes it. Sunday schools may be roughly classed into three groups: First, those having the statistical aim, seeking only to gather great numbers and to be able to report growth in large figures; second, the so-called evangelistic, seeking only to bring every pupil on some " Decision Day '^ to commit himself to church membership; third, those with the Educa- tional spirit, seeking the full development of the pupil's religious life, which will certainly include the following of his Master and service in the 61 62 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL church. The school is the agency for educational evangelism, which is quite different from educa- tion instead of evangelism. The educational aim swings the Sunday school into that great advance movement, the impact of which every other agency of education is feeling, that for which Pestalozzi, Froebel, Spencer, and Horace Mann have stood. The Sunday school, while seeking to do the most difficult of all work in education, as well as the greatest, has been too long endeavouring to do this work in absolute in- dependence of the splendid contributions which reverent specialists and workers and investigators of long experience have been making to the science of education. But the Sunday-school worker to- day realises how much he has to receive from educational leaders, and how much help and ad- vantage may come to the school from them. The educational aim bridges the chasm which has existed in the child's experience between educa- tion in the day school and in the Sunday school. He learns that one is just as serious, as valuable, as serviceable as the other, that the day school is not the only one that means business. How much more the one may be worth to him than the other he may realise later. II. The Educational Aim Necessitates the Edu- cational Method. One great principle will lead in the educational THE ARGUMENT FOR GRADATION 63 Sunday school, that is, its adaptation to the life of the pupil, its obedience, seen in its methods, to the laws of the life of a child. We cannot teach until we have set the child in the midst and learned of him. We cannot lead a child out into life until we are ourselves willing to follow the laws of a child's life. You must follow the laws of steam if you would use a locomotive; and you must fol- low the laws of child nature if you would educate a child. If you want a later word for this prin- ciple you may call it the genetic method. This will involve the constant adaptation of the methods of the school and of the material taught in the school to the developing life of the pupils. In other words the distinguishing mark of this type of school will be that it is what we call a graded school. A. Why Grade the School? (1) Because the pupils are not all of one age, nor of one degree of attainment. Gradation is recognition of and adaptation to facts already ex- isting; the children are already graded by nature, by custom, and by school grades. (2) The pupils are steadily developing in knowl- edge and in character. To teach all grades the same things and to teach them always the same things is to do them a grave wrong. Grading must secure orderly progression in study. (3) In order that pupils and teachers adapted 64 THE MODEET^ SUNDAY SCHOOL to one another may secure the highest efficiency in each grade or division. (4) Grading makes the school a definite, busi- ness-like institution, approximating itself to the value of the public school. It correlates all the child's educational activities. (5) It makes possible definitely arranged courses of study in a cumulative, progressive order, cor- responding to the life of the student. B. What Grading Is. (1) The classification of pupils according to their ages and capacities. (2) The assignment of pupils to classes accord- ing to this classification. (3) The arrangement of these classes in larger groups or divisions. (4) The provision of teachers especially quali- fied for the work of each grade. (5) The provision of material for study selected according to the needs of each grade. (6) The promotion of pupils from grade to grade on the fulfilling of certain prescribed re- quirements. C. How GRADE THE SuNDAY SCHOOL. This is a problem not nearly so difficult as is usually supposed. Many fear to begin, their imagination conjuring up untold hindrances. Let the simple principle that gradation of the school is its adaptation to the fact of the student's gra- METHOD OF GEADATION 65 dations in life be once grasped and the rest is easy. Failures have come only when the attempt has been made to force on the school some me- chanical contrivance in a mechanical manner. Let the principle and the plan be fully understood by all workers ; talk it over with them until all are in line. Then group your school carefully into its larger divisions; in the greater number of schools this has already been done. Then, working in each of those larger divisions, group up the stu- dents therein on some previously accepted plan of classification. (1) Determine the Basis of Classification. Shall it be the pupil's or the teacher's whim (as in many schools), the pupil's age, his school grade, or his attainments in biblical knowledge? The principle of education being a principle of life, the basis of classification must be in the life of the pupil. For the great divisions of the school we find already marked out for us three great divisions of life: (a) Childhood, the period of subjection and re- ceptivity. (&) Youth, the period of awakening powers, struggle, and determination. (c) Manhood, the period of developed powers, experience, and usefulness. A study of child-nature reveals certain lines of cleavage in the first two of these broader divisions. 66 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL Certain changes in the functions and mental pow- ers seem to come at about the eighth year or the ninth, when children are in the second or third grade of the public school. A study of these changes would be possible only in a work on child- study. We can stop only to divide the first general period into two, which, for convenience, we may call the Beginner's and the Elementary. Then the second general period breaks itself up into the well-recognised periods of earlier and later ado- lescence, the line coming somewhere about eighteen years of age. This creates the divisions of the Secondary and the Senior. We have to remember in discussing these divi- sions that the years vary greatly; children enter these periods at different ages according to the rapidity or tardiness of their physical and general development. This fact makes the age standard of class arrangement an unsatisfactory one, for it throws together children of unequal develop- ment. It also breaks up the class groups to which they are accustomed in their daily education. It is a difficult matter to determine just the precise stage of a child's psychological development. But we shall find that the processes of the public school come very close to classifying children exactly, grading them as they do on general capacity and ability. A fairly good working basis for Sunday- CLASSIFICATION 67 school classification is found in the grade of the child in the public school. It has the advantage of strengthening the sense of harmony, orderliness, and unity — all important to the child — when he finds the same classification and general arrange- ment in the Sunday school as in the other school. Of course some modifications of gradation are nec- essary, owing to the latter school covering a longer period of life. But following this plan we have an arrangement somewhat as is indicated on the next page. (2) Determine the Basis of Promotion. Since the Sunday schools have, as yet, no commonly recognised standards of biblical knowledge, graded schools will receive from the ungraded, and from those graded, also, students of varying at- tainments ; and, since there will always be objection to purely intellectual tests, the advantage of grad- ing and promoting on public-school grades is evi- dent. It is w^ell to hold examinations in the subjects which have been taught ; it is well also, to give the scholar credit for regular attendance, for deportment, and for other items, and to make these credits count on his school standing. But do not attempt to promote on the basis of these markings, or you may shortly have confusion be- yond remedy. On some certain Sunday of each year promote, with appropriate exercises, every pupil according to his public-school grade. At the w pi < O m Ph o M H M Q ;«; o O >^ o o W o C/2 C/3 o H pei PUi O -M he ,5 3 ST! ■73 to (/i n: it; 0) aC--; e H o o c/2 e o OJ &C to s y > c/2 . cS cC be to CO P, (U ijj o s > to ^ .S « « c3 ♦- 'T- T5 _ to — < ^ -r- O CO '^ n == .^ -^ -5 CO ^ O to be > fTj rrj to 4J «^ fl s^ > P g to « ^'^H (U to to , d ^ lU be C 3 n3 C O o ^;>^ be^ C to ^ O 3 O to o -M ft o o CO o o o 3 Pk o v •4-> ho a CD o CO CO o 1^ o 2 o be X! .— ! 3 ft ffi OS a 8 v o o ■V 3 o o G* CO 0) CO -t-; hn 3 oj -^3 hn 2 c be 'za n n Ph ^ (/) ^ J5 be 'O X o 'S t/2 a-r 3 > > 05 in , x: fl) +^ >-!-> .c -t-i U-j >' lU r/l u5 c3 c a c ^ V-^ -1 ^ s Lh in o o M a C3 >.J3 tn l3 e 5 I 8^ o fl n 0) «,„ ^;S o o ea g (P 73 fl ^ CO '-' C CS (U So'' *^ . 4) «=> fl Sq° o >. i: Mfl (U o fl >. rt fli£-- rt o ^ S «^ o tN en o fl ^-d — OJ o tn S "J ^ c^ m c3 PROMOTION 69 same time you may award certificates, or " diplo- mas," to those who, by faithful work and regular attendance, have earned over a certain percentage of credits. Let these " diplomas " or " Honours," as some call them, have nothing to do with the promotion of the pupil; make them, however, things highly desirable on account of the honour they confer in their awarding. Promoting the pupils as they make progress through the public school, and on their graduation therefrom, regularly every year advancing them a class or grade, keeps the groups of pupils together through all their Sunday-school life. (3) Furnish the Machinery for a Graded School. Two new officers will be necessary. First, the Secretary of Enrollment and Classification, who will assign new pupils to their grades as they are enrolled in the school. No well-ordered school will tolerate for an instant the custom of allowing pupils of the first three divisions to select their own classes and teachers. Second, a Secretary of Class-Marking and Honours, who will care for the records of each pupil, his class work, examinations, and other markings. In his care also will be the arrangements for the promotions of all pupils. Of course there will also be included in the ma- chinery for gradation the separate class rooms and equipment discussed in Chapter IX, though these are not absolutely indispensable. 70 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL (4) The Educational Aim will also involve the selection of material of study adapted to the different stages of development in the life of the pupil. We have been too slow to recognise the principle of milk for babes and meat for men, in the Sunday school. We do not teach jurisprudence to babes elsewhere, nor compel adults to continue in simple addition. It will not do to say you can teach the same lesson to all and adapt it to each stage of development. That is a make-shift and involves unnecessary labour when there is at hand ample material well suited to each stage. Why twist a mature saint's lesson to a babe when the babe's lesson is equally accessible? The uniform lesson scheme did great things for the Sunday school by the economy it made possible in publi- cation of lessons material ; it put into every teach- er's hand the " help " — which has since so often become a hindrance, a crutch causing lameness. But the International Sunday School Association now recognises the principle of the graded school and its necessarily graded course of study, in the offering of the three courses of lessons now known as the Beginners, the " Uniform," and the Senior, or Advanced. Where each division of a school is small in itself, and where the facilities for better work are lack- ing, many will find in these three courses what they need. At any rate they mark an advance. But MATERIAL ADAPTED 71 the danger is lest departing from uniformity they still lack unity. Differing lessons for the grades is only a part of what is needed; the lessons must be adapted to each grade with a sense of orderly progression from one to another. It may some day he possible to have approximately uniform lessons for each grade, but the advantages of such a plan are in question. In the meantime, schools seeking the educational goal must work out their own graded lesson material, selecting from the great array of text-books offered those suited to each grade. After the Superintendent, the Pastor, and the Division Principals have determined on the grading of the school and the classification of pupils has begun, let a competent committee, con- sisting of persons who can be depended on both for good common sense and for educational sym- pathy and outlook, work out the whole course of study, carefully basing it on the developing life and needs of the pupils. They will find in ex- istence many excellent graded courses; they must select from these and adapt to their own school, for it seldom happens that any one can be laid on one school in precisely the form in which it is used in another. We must not be afraid of work here, nor must we expect to secure success in a single Sunday. Teachers will need to be trained in the use of a graded curriculum. For their direction and 72 THE MODEEN SU:NrDAY SCHOOL counsel a well-qualified leader should be provided, one familiar with modern pedagogy and psychol- ogy, fitted by religious experience, and able to secure unity through his direction of all the work of the teachers. (5) The educational aim will enable the school to meet all the needs of the pupils as to religious knowledge. There will no longer be a place for so-called " supplemental work " in a graded school. There are no things that are supplemental; if they are essential they must be integral. All such matters as the history, chronology, geography, even hymns, church history, and doctrine, will have their proper, natural places in a comprehensive course of study. The educational aim will not allow any part of religious knowledge and nurture to be neglected. (6) The educational aim will mean that the school foill in every possible way help its teachers to secure the best that modern psychology and pedagogy and biblical research has to offer. It will purchase and place at their disposal the best books; it will have a special library for its teach- ers. It will direct their reading; it will promote classes for their study. It will regularly examine them in their proficiency and their studies during the first years of their teaching. The Sunday school organised as an educational EESULTS OF EDUCATIONAL AIM 73 institution will mean the adoption of the prin- ciple of education as superior to mere instruction, of unity and development of study as superior to uniformity. It will mean the school pressing toward the mark instead of standing by some obsolete and long-since outgrown standard. VIII EECEUITING AND EETAINING PUPILS There can be no school without scholars. All that has gone before has been with them in mind ; organisation is futile except for the sake of those who are to be served by teaching. But organisation must have a place in attention ahead of the ques- tion of securing scholars; for it will be impossible to secure and hold pupils in a school which neglects its own efficiency; while the school which is well organised will, bT; its very power of usefulness, at- tract and hold. The Ideal. The ideal of enrolment is that every person in the parish, including the adults, shall be enrolled in some Sunday school, working or studying, either in the school proper, or in the Home Department, or under some similar plan of Sunday-school extension. The goal as to attend- ance is that every person enrolled shall be either present at the school or accounted for by excuse for sickness, absence from the city, or studying elsewhere; that this shall be the condition every Sunday; and that there shall never come a time in the life of any one in which the Sunday school 74 THE FIELD OF THE SCHOOL 75 shall not have a place in which he may cither serve or be served. The ideal is far from what most are expecting for the real ; set your ideals high ; the higher you aim the higher you will hit. But don't forget that ideals never realise themselves without much hard labour. The following are some suggestions on plans for realising this ideal in the matter of I. Recruiting Pupils. 1. Know Your Field. Let the church or the school deliberately decide just what area it ought to consider as its field, from which it will draw pupils. Let every teacher and officer know exactly what this area is ; talk of it as the field, or precinct of the school. Have a map of your field in the room where the teachers' meetings are held. Next, Know the People in Your Field. The school should have at least a directory of its own people, the attendants at its own church, in that field, together with the names of all who do not count themselves as belonging to any church. Such a directory may well be secured by the different schools of the district uniting to thoroughly can- vass that district, going to every house and securing the names of all therein, together with facts as to the ages, sex, and Sunday school affiliations of the children. By setting aside one day for this, set- ting a large number at work, and carefully map- ping out the area into small districts, this may be 76 THE MODERN" SUN"DAY SCHOOL done with ease. It should, however, be done also with accuracy, or it is without value. The public schools take an annual census of the children of school age ; why should not the Sunday schools do likewise ? 3. Cultivate Your Field. The tendency is to be satisfied with gathering the facts secured by a canvass; pigeonhole the list of names and let it rest there. (a) After the canvass divide your field up into smaller units, each consisting of several blocks, if in a village or city, or into some other convenient grouping of homes. Place each unit under the care of some person who will watch for families moving into his district, will have them invited to the school, and will also co-operate with teachers and others in care for the sick and needy in that district. (b) Invite to tJie school personally all not en- rolled. Do not leave this to the one in charge of the district; officers must make it their duty to invite pupils at all times. (c) Invite hy mail. As much as possible by personal letter; as often as possible by printed matter. Be sure your printed matter is worth scattering, and then sow it carefully. Do not call you;r school an educational institution, while you are littering the streets with handbills, or in any way circulating cheap, smudgy, trashy printed METHODS OF INVITATION" 77 matter. Study the methods of the brightest, most worthy advertising, and keep in mind the char- acter of your school when preparing matter for printing; see that taste and brains are mixed with the printer's ink. (d) Invite through the scholars. They make the most effective agents. You have a tremendous leverage over a home as soon as you have one member in the school; one within will draw the rest, when a hundred, from without would have failed. Go into the home with the scholar; that way you find entrance to hearts. (e) Many schools find it necessary to employ one or several visitors, who give all their time to this work. They should be persons of unusual tact, filled with high ideals for the school. Their work ought never wholly to supplant that of the volunteer, the teacher, or the officer. These latter need often to get into touch with the lives of the scholars, not only for the sake of securing their attendance, but to maintain their own necessary sympathy with those who are being taught. 4. Follow Up. Keep on reaching everyone. If one invitation fails, try another. No wise solicitor in business gives up at the first effort. Said one merchant, when asked how long he in- tended to continue sending " follow-up " letters to a prospective customer, " Until I get him.'^ If at first you don't succeed, do it again. 78 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 5. Cultivate the School Spirit. Colleges and universities know what this is, how great is the value of the attitude of mind which makes a student proud of his school, anxious to advertise it, to increase its glory and honour. Why should not the Sunday school stand for such things, and mean so much to the lives of its people, that they will be proud to wear its class pins, to bear its name, to invite others to its classes, and in every way to further its interests. The promotion of this spirit rests largely with the superintendent and the teachers ; it will come, not by talking about it, but by giving it worthy material to feed on, a character of which to boast and opportunity to honour and advertise the school. There have been harmful exhibitions of school spirit, fostered under such pernicious practices as the " colour contests," when the school is divided into " reds " and " blues," rival camps endeavouring each to secure the larger number of new students. The result is the fostering of rivalry, the service for an un- worthy motive — usually a banquet to be given by the losing side — and the enrolment of scholars in a wholesale fashion. It is possible to appeal to higher, and certainly to less harmful, motives in the scholars. By such devices the school becomes an agency educating in things that do not make for the best character. The best school-spirit is that which grows out of a sense of the value of EETATNINCr PUPILS 79 the school to the pupil. It grows by intensive work, and mere extension in numbers will not secure it. 6. Let the School Advertise Itself by Effi- ciency. This is the best advertisement. The really worth-while school will soon be known beyond its own parish. It will not have to do much urging; people will hear of it and come to it. People know the difference between a good school and a poor one as surely as bees know the difference between glucose and honey. Many a school that is blam- ing the people for their lack of spirituality needs to lay the blame for its empty benches on its own sloth and lack of ability. Let the school set effi- ciency first of all; let it teach things worth teach- ing in a worthy way, and it will have people to teach. II. Retaining Pupils. 1. Set a Standard of Eegularity. Expect the pupil to remain with the school, and to be regular in attendance; you will get what you expect al- ways. Cultivate in all pride in the regularity of all. Count any absence as abnormal. Eegularity is almost entirely a matter of habit. 2. Give Credit for Attendance. Unless you so arrange it that it makes a difference to the scholar whether he is there or not, he will soon cease to care. Attendance must count to his credit ; it should count so many points, or so much 80 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL per cent, toward his general standing, and on this standing his diploma should depend. Let the teacher, or whoever may keep the record, exercise the utmost care in securing its accuracy. There are no keener judges of fairness than children. Let the superintendent and every officer emphasise the importance of the record of attendance, not alone of the report on the whole number present, but more particularly on the record of each in- dividual. 3. Enlist the Home. Counsel with parents. Find out the cause of absence. Keep the home informed on the attendance and general standing of the pupil. Send every quarter a Eeport Card, something like that shown on page 81, securing the signature of the parent, and the return of the card to the school. On the back of the card there should be four lines ruled, and designated for the four quarters, the name of the parent to be signed on each one. By this means the home is reminded at least four times a year of what the child is doing in the Sunday school. 4. Meet the Needs op All. Make the school work so fit every age and condition that none shall fail to receive what they need, nor shall any ever come to the time when they can say, " The school has nothing more for me." When the school ha^ failed to hold the boy of fourteen it has laid the X H O H Pi O W H o o O a fl 3 1:R i H H 1 >!^ !^ CO a Pi » H P< •< ■^ a H r- 1 ■^ a « 1 0) B a 4-1 < o o ■u OS 3 • be •S O ■M a o * * O < ■M a O bo hi u c« -Q (3 O a bo bo 82 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL blame for the failure on the natural depravity of the boy ; the truth is that the boy leaves because he finds nothing in the school which meets his need. In many schools he has had precisely the same lesson, often taught in precisely the same manner, as he had when he was of the age of those whom he calls " the little kids." The graded school alone can meet the need of every age and period of development (see Ch. VII.), but it is well to re- member that grading the school pays in the in- creased power of the school to hold the scholars all the way through life. 5. Let the Leaders be Eegular. An irregu- lar, irresponsible superintendent cannot cultivate regularity in the school. Even greater is the power of the teacher's example. 6. Make Provision for Necessary Absences. Provide excuse cards, and accept written excuses for sickness. When scholars are out of town they may attend some other school and bring certificate stating where they have attended, and so secure credit for attendance as though they had been at their own school. 7. Follow up Absentees. Three persons should have a record of names of all absentees, the teacher, the secretary, and the superintendent. The teacher will have the record of the class ab- sentees and will visit them, or write to them, cer- tainly sending a short personal note; one line so THE ATTRACTIVE SCHOOL 83 written is better than a ream of printed matter. The secretary will send the school reminder-card in the name of the superintendent. The latter will keep the record handed him, so as to watch the movements of scholars, and be ready to check any tendency to drift away. Officers should es- pecially watch against the tendency to let this matter go by default, intending to gather back all those who are astray at the Rally Day, or some similar special occasion. The only way to keep them is to keep them all the time. Hold them. 8. Hold by Attraction. Do not scold those present for the faults of those absent. Examine your school and ask whether you would come your- self if an office and a sense of its obligation did not compel you ; ask whether there is in the school that which will attract and retain the indifferent. Endeavour to have such a school that people will want to come to it. The school that attracts by its character will hold. You do not have to beg children to stay close to the crock of cookies. Right organisation, good order, efficient teaching, studies suited to students, honest, unaffected human af- fection for them; these are important factors in the school that attracts. 9. Beware of Baits and Bribes. When the Sunday school was a charity institution, prizes may have had a legitimate place; they have none to- day. The effect of offering a prize or prizes is 84 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL to turn the pupil from the higher motive of learn- ing to the lower one of getting a book or a toy; to make him think that regularity of attendance or good conduct is not something he should give naturally, but that it is something to be bought from him with a prize; to appeal to the spirit of rivalry, with the result that he not only wishes to excel, he hopes others may fail. The plan is sure to cause bitterness, jealousies, and divisions. Still more deplorable is the custom of bribing attend- ance by turning the school into a vestibule to the circus, to excursions, entertainments, etc. Some schools are so surfeited with the attractions, side- shows, and " treats " which unwise officers provide in the hope of attracting great numbers, that the school comes to stand in the mind of the pupil for these things alone. Turn your school into an ice cream and peanut stand, and you will have nothing but dishes and shucks when the edibles are gone. The awarding of diplomas and honours must not be confused with the giving of prizes, nor is it meant that it is unwise for a school to provide en- tertainments and other meetings and times of social enjoyment for its pupils; all these things must, however, be evidently the natural outgrowth of the social life of the school, and the desire to provide for its interest and intellectual improvement, and not at all measures taken to induce attendance. HONOURS AND PRIZES 85 But diplomas and honours are simply the certifi- cates awarded for good work, presented on attain- ing certain definite standings; they have no intrinsic value ; they are within the reach of every one. Care should be taken so to award them that they do not even remind one of prizes, but that they act as incentives to all to do good work and stand for the facts that the school recognises such work, and that it is conducted on business principles. To sum up all that has been said as to recruit- ing and retaining pupils, let it be remembered that the strong school is not the one that first gathers a great number of people in, and then holds them by any and all devices ; the strong school is the one that first makes itself thoroughly efficient; does its work well, even when it is but small; it then becomes strong of itself. Attend to your school and you can almost say that your scholars will take care of themselves. IX BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT /. The Building The Ideal The ideal as to building would be a separate building designed and erected solely for the pur- poses of the school, as much a Sunday-school build- ing as that of the public school is a day-school building. This is something at present attainable in only a relatively small number of instances ; but the conditions under which such a building might be of the largest value are worth understanding, since they are important to any school. Some Principles 1. The building must be designed hy some one who thoroughly understands the work of the school, who knows the things which go to make a well organised school, and who grasps both the practical and the agsthetic sides of architecture. Evidently this will also apply to the remodelling or adapting of parts of the church building to Sunday-school purposes. 86 IDEALS AS TO BUILDING 87 2. It must be designed for definite purposes, with clear ideas as to the uses of its various parts ; it must be arranged for actual work; in other words, it must be practical. 3. Must be designed with reference to the pri- mary physical conditions of good educational work ; light soft and ample, scientifically ventilated, free from dampness, having all floors above the ground, with sound-proof walls, and good acoustic prop- erties to large room or rooms. 4. Build for to-morrow as well as for to-day. 5. By no means of least importance, have in mind the teaching, educational power of good architecture, of a dignified, well-proportioned building. Solid characters are not trained in gin- ger-bread houses. II. Borne Plans A Sunday-school building recently erected in one of our large cities carries out many of the more important principles of an edifice for reli- gious education. It provides, on the first floor, large rooms for the primary and the next grade, and also oSice rooms for the heads of the school; on the second floor, one large room with class rooms, each about 12 by 14, opening therefrom; on the third floor there are classrooms only, cor- responding to those on the second, the ceiling of the large room on the second being carried clear 88 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL through to the roof. The classrooms on the sec- ond floor are separated from each other by folding partitions, with glass in the upper part; they are separated from the large room by heavy linen cur- tains, which are folded back during general exer- cises. Those on the third floor open on a corridor running along the outer wall. There are in all twenty-three small classrooms, each fitted for from twenty to thirty pupils, three large classrooms, one being very large, for " Bible Class " purposes, and the others for large classes, and two division rooms. This building also has a large library room and a commodious gymnasium. The principle prevailing in the building de- scribed is that the lower grades shall meet in large rooms, the middle grades in classrooms which can be thrown together for general assembly, wdth separate classrooms for those advanced grades which do not need to come together. A very simple plan, susceptible of adaptation to schools of almost all sizes and means, is that of a building either circular or approximately octagonal in form, in which the first floor is divided into two large rooms for the first two divisions, the second floor has one large room, with fair sized class- rooms opening therefrom on almost all sides, while above is a gallery with smaller classrooms. Excellent work can be done in a plain, square two-story building, the first floor of which is TYPICAL BUILDINGS 89 divitled into two large rooms, the second into as many " classrooms " as possible, by means of heavy curtains drawn on gas pipe fixed at right angles to the wall and leaving a corridor down the middle of the room. In any case be sure that your first floor has good light and is above ground. Also provide a room in which the teachers' class can meet, and where its special eauipment can be kept. The familiar Akron plan is simply the design- ing of a room so that the outer parts are thrown into classrooms, radiating from the superintend- ent's desk, and all opening up so as to form one large room at will. The principal things to be secured in any build- ing are: separateness of classes for class work, unity of divisions at will for assembly, the fitness of all rooms for educational purposes. III. The Practical Problem The actual conditions as to building in the greater number of instances are that the school has to make the best it can of the main room or auditorium of the church, and such other smaller rooms as it may have for prayer meetings, etc. Many churches have provided for their schools by fitting up the basements, so that chil- dren who love the outdoor sunshine can learn to associate religion with a musty, dim, damp, and 90 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL ^ often cobwebby environment. It is taking the church a long time to get over the " ragged school " conception of its educational department. The Sunday-school workers must take what they can get; but let them get all they can and make the most and best of it. Much may be done by wise consideration of the space available, and a careful distribution of classes. See that all space is used to the best ad- vantage. Remember that all the space is wasted when classes are crowded close together. Where many classes must meet in one room, solid home- made screens, the kind that will stay where they are placed, will help to give separateness. In some churches screens could easily be made that would fit on the backs of the pews. Of course neither the curtains already mentioned nor the screens must be allowed to interfere with the church wor- ship. Many schools now struggling along in the single room of the church would have little difficulty in securing money to erect a plain, well-lighted addi- tion in which the two lower divisions could meet; the others could then be cared for fairly well in the church. The community will readily give to a Sunday-school building when it is seen that the church is with earnestness, enterprise, and ability meeting its educational problem. EQUIPMENT 91 IV. The Equipment The Ideal The ideal as to equipment would be such a con- dition of the treasury as would permit the pur- chase of everything that would really help the educational and religious ends of the school. The day is past when it was a matter of pride with the teachers to be able to say that they needed nothing but the grace of God in their hearts and Bibles in their hands. We cannot afford to despise any ac- cessory to perfect service. We recognise that chil- dren have other organs besides those of hearing; they have eyes and hands and mouths. They learn much more with their eyes or even with their hands than with their ears. Therefore the Sunday school must seek entrance to their minds through these other senses or avenues of perception. Beginning with the essential things, chairs will be needed. It makes no small difference whether they are chosen with reference to the size of the pupils and to the kind of work they are to do in the classroom. Then also, the chairs, together with all other articles of furniture, should be such as to train the child in self-respect and in rever- ence for the place of instruction. The uncomfort- able chair, the broken table, the furniture that is used in the Sunday school because it is of no use elsewhere, all constitute sins against the child's 92 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL character for which some persons must answer. Classes will be equipped according to their grade and work. The seating of the secondary or inter- mediate division in small groups about tables has been found to be very helpful. Each pupil then has his own place for books or paper, with facilities for manual work as writing, drawing, modelling, etc. In any case it is a good thing to furnish some grades with regular schoolroom desks. Let the walls of the room be a lesson in simple beauty, and in cleanliness and good cheer; avoid lugubrious and hypersanctimonious texts printed in lurid colours; let not the Word become an SBsthetic nightmare. Pictures have a place on the walls, and also in the work of teaching. Be sure they are worthy of their place. Do not buy them because they are cheap; one good carbon print of a masterpiece is worth a whole wall plastered with chromes. Re- member how hard it has been for you to overcome impressions made by pictures crude or historically false. There should be an abundance of good maps and charts. Let the wall maps be chosen for clearness, the outlines and principal names so printed as to be easily seen by all, but not crowded with names for which no one cares a fig. A few good maps will save your school much more than the value of many poor ones given away as premiums. Classes MAPS AND BLACKBOARDS 93 should also be provided with individual hand maps whenever these would help the work. Blackloards : Once you have trained teachers to use them they will never want to teach without them. So valuable is the appeal to the eye that a small board in the hands is far better than none at all. But it is best to have them fixed in the wall, made of composition, smooth, easily cleaned and, in particular, often cleaned. Have tablets or lap-boards for the pupils. Manual work materials: Although manual work is still in its infancy in the Sunday school, many wise teachers are finding ways of using the child's hands and his natural activities in his edu- cation in spiritual life. Let the school provide such teachers with all the materials they can use, such as sand tables, coloured paper, pictures and crayons for the little folks, clay and sand, blocks, drawing materials, blank books and outlines, for those of the elementary division. A boy who has helped build an oriental house and constructed its " roof," is not likely to forget the faith of those who bore the palsied man. For further treatment of " Manual Methods," see Chapter XII. Music: Ample provision should be made here, first in instruments to lead in song, using not only the stirring piano, but every other accordant in- strument available. Much depends on well-chosen song books, but a good deal more in wise choosing 94 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL of hymns from the books. Choose your hymn books for the school, not because you can get three hun- dred trashy ones given you by buying a dozen editions de luxe, nor because they contain the songs that are all the rage, nor because they contain those that the old saints dearly love, but because they have in them hymns which are fitted to ex- press the noblest aspirations, and the true worship of the pupils. Use the time-tested hymns, the honest, sensible, educational, live h3rtnns. See that you have enough books for all. In general, keep in mind the fact that the work of the Sunday school is as much more important than that of a purely secular institution as the spiritual interests are above all others, and that, therefore, the equipment should be at least ade- quate to the work to be accomplished. X PROGEAM By program we mean the schedule of the school's work at each session. Some schools are con- ducted; others meander and often get lost. The former have carefully prepared and definite pro- grams; the latter do not. A school on a schedule means a school that arrives somewhere. /. Characteristics of a Good Program 1. It will be Carefully Planned. Time must be spent on its preparation. The general form will be adopted by the officers of the school ; the items for each session will be selected by the officers who will have charge of the school or division of the school. The superintendent, therefore, will have his hymns, references and all other details chosen and set down before he comes into the schoolroom. 2. Eeverent, both as to matter used and as to manner of using. The program is no small part of the teaching. Let every hymn, reading or other exercise be selected with reference to its influence on the pupil's life; let every detail be carried out, even to the announcements, in such a way as to strengthen feelings of worship, of honour for 95 96 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL things divine^ and of desire for nobler life. Noth- ing counts for more in the education of a child than the extent to which and the manner in which he expresses himself naturally in such collective acts as singing, praying and reading. 3. Vaeied, that is, not using the same program every week. Change the order of items in the main parts of the program as well as the items themselves. Keep out of ruts. 4. Unitary. Avoid scattering. Make all parts fit together. Do not sing " Peace, Perfect Peace," when the reading or prayer should have aroused to action, to warfare for the right. 5. Bright. Avoid dirges. You can forever set the mind against some of the finest hymns, either by singing them before the child is ready for them, setting his expression ahead of his experience, or by droning them out to dreary music. The linked sweetness of song is lost when long drawn out. Arrange your program for warm blood, for young life; keep it wide-awake. This does not mean that the school must feel like a village street on the Fourth of July; alertness, vigour, life, and natural interest need never be rowdy or irreverent. 6. Brief. Limit each section of the program strictly to its allotment of time; let no section be so long as to weary any. The actual time will de- pend on the division for which the program is arranged. KINDS OF PROGRAMS 97 7. Suited to Each Special Division. Where separate programs can be used in each division those who best understand the division should arrange each one. Where one program must be followed by all, the interests of each must be con- sidered. Above all, avoid preparing the program to suit your adult tastes and experiences. There are certain hymns, certain psalms, very precious to 3^ou on account of certain experiences; remember the pupils have not had those experiences; it is a greater injustice to try to force that experience on them than it would be to make them wear their fathers' clothes. A healthy boy does not " long to rise in the arms of faith," and if he is sighing for " Peace, Perfect Peace," he needs a doctor. II. Kinds of Programs There should be a different kind of program for each division of the school. Some very small schools may find it necessary to have all the classes meet for the opening exercises in a common as- sembly. This should be avoided wherever possible. At least let the Primary meet altogether separate from the rest. It will be found a great advantage to have the three main divisions meet separately, each having its own program suited to its needs. 1. The Primary Program. Here there has long been a fuller recognition than elsewhere of the fact that the program is part of the teaching; 98 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL there is often no formal division into opening exercises and class period; it is all class, all exer- cise, all teaching. But the greatest care, sym- pathy, and skill is needed in mapping out the work of this division lest it become no more than a constant effort to interest by means of a variety of striking things without regard to the kind of interests that are aroused. There are too many Primary workers who think that the only equip- ment they need is a soft manner, a baby tone and a stock of infantile narratives, mostly apocryphal. Fortunately there are many others who fully un- derstand that here, if anywhere, the work done must be carefully based upon a study of the child's nature and with his spiritual culture steadily in view. It is folly to endeavour to put small chil- dren through the paces of a program prepared for adolescents or for the old saints' Bible class over in the corner. Let your Primary program be worked out by those who will take the nains to study the child. 2. The Elementary Program. Here you are leading boys and girls; the program affords splen- did opportunities for their religious self-expres- sion. Through it they can be allowed to do many things, to cultivate many excellent habits, to ex- press often the best in them, through the sense of team-work, of being one in an organisation, when all these things would lie dormant but for the ELEMENTARY PROGRAM 99 mass effect of a congregation. The program, then, should be constructed to give expression to wor- ship, to aspiration and noble resolution; it should also lift up its own ideals, just beyond the ex- perience of the participants, but not beyond their reach. Above all, let it be natural; let all things be expressed as far as possible as they would naturally express themselves. Don't ask healthy boys to sing " I want to be an angel," and to be sincere about it; they don't. Let the arrangement of the details of the program in order and length be suited to the activity and restlessness of this period. You can make your program over, but you cannot do that with the boys and girls. If in any place the program will need more attention and skill than in others it will be in the Elementary Division, and where the rest of the school, except the Kindergarten or Beginners, meets together the program must be built for the needs of the pupils in the Elementary Division. Here it is often well to open with a brief prayer, sometimes in silence, or with a sentence repeated by all; at other times with a bright processional song. Then responsive reading, preferably not of the lesson, but of some short impressive Psalm. Vary the method of responding, but not so as to spoil the effect. Repeat portions of former readings from memory. Select your hymns with great care; they are mighty teachers. Learn to know 100 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL what are the really great hymns, the splendid heritage of our faith. Let the school learn to sing these without books. The music should always be as reverent and educative as the rest of the pro- gram. Keep the best tunes for the best hymns. Eemember the law of appropriateness. Don't be deceived by the silly saying about the devil having all the best tunes; tunes appropriate to deviltry are not fitting to worship. The prayer should always be brief; especially endeavour to express yourself naturally, not in a "holy tone," nor in hackneyed phrases long since emptied of meaning ; use language at least such as a child could use. You are not praying for his edification; but you are praying with him. As to the Closing Program: certainly, if the divisions meet separately for class work it is un- wise to call them together for this every Sunday. Make your closing work brief. Under no circum- stances allow strangers and people who want to relieve their vacuous minds to address the school. Much harm may be done by numerous reports and announcements blurring the impression made by the lesson. All necessary reports may be placed, without comment as a rule, on the blackboard. There is no need to transact school business here ; keep it for the teachers' meeting. Have a hymn that strengthens the lesson taught, then dismiss either with a prayer or a recessional hymn, in SENIOR PEOGRAM 101 either case the classes going out in order, one at a time. If all the classes have had the same lesson and you feel you must have a general review, keep it down to five minutes; a brief review is the only good one. Distribute papers and other printed matter either by the teachers after dismissal, or by ushers in the vestibules; never in the classes if you have any desire to gain attention or preserve order. 3. The Senior and Adult Programs. These divisions will desire to give more time to the class work and will need a much shorter program of opening exercises, and will ordinarily dismiss di- rectly from their classes. The following general plan has many advan- tages: Let the Kindergarten and the Primary grades meet each in its own room and follow its own program. Let all the Elementary and Sec- ondary grades meet in the church and there follow a program embracing the features of both the opening and the closing exercises, any reports or reviews being for the Sunday foregoing. The Senior and Adult grades are at liberty to attend these exercises, but they are under no obligation to do so; they may, if they wish, as individuals, go directly to their classes which assemble at the time when these exercises close and the class work begins. All grades dismiss, on the ringing of an 102 THE MODEElSr SUNDAY SCHOOL electric hell, directly from their class or grade rooms. 4. Special Programs. Do not allow the regular work of the school to be interrupted and its sched- ule chopped up by the tendency to make almost every other Sunday some kind of a special day. But on rare occasions it is well to prepare special programs in order to deepen and to tie up to our religious life the best things in our social and na- tional life. Then there should be special programs for the anniversary day of the school, for the day when the pupils are promoted. It is seldom nec- essary for any of these to seriously interfere with the regular class work of the school. They must not be allowed to run over into the lesson period. Some schools have found it a very good plan to have an entirely different program through the vacation season. They lay aside the regular course of lessons in the upper grades and gather, either in one congregation, or in two or three division groups, to listen to addresses by speakers especially qualified to talk on such subjects as Settlement Work, What Our Church is Doing for the Indians, etc.; other programs take up The Great Hymn Writers, singing many of their hymns. Under this arrangement the school will either meet later or adjourn earlier than during the rest of the year. MAKING THE PROGRAM 103 III. The Preparation of the Program First see that it is the result of preparation, and not of accident. Few things need more at- tention and few will give better returns. The superintendent may well make this his constant study; it is his principal duty. Let him learn what others are doing. Let him frequently confer wdth his best advisers as to improvements in his schedule of work, and particularly in the items outside the class period. Let him secure the serv- ices of competent committees to prepare the opening and closing programs of each division. Such a committee should make up a large number of such programs, leaving the hymn numbers and Scripture passages blank; the superintendents would then select from these the one they wished to use, selecting different ones from Sunday to Sunday. There are many excellent books of programs for Sunday-school worship already publish; they contain a number of outlines of exercises in detail. But, on the whole, a better plan is to have a thoroughly good hymn-book, containing usable responsive readings, in the hands of every pupil; then have printed and pasted in this book a series of outline programs, so that you can say, " We will use Program No. 5 to-day," for example. The pupils will then know just what order will be 104 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL followed while their activities will be enlisted in finding the hymns and readings in the book. Keep your program out of the ruts; never rest satisfied with it. Keep it strictly to the great educational aims of the school. In the average school fully as much time is occupied with what are called the opening and closing exercises as with the lesson. The truth is, these exercises constitute often a greater lesson of deeper and more lasting power than the formal lesson itself. They should be arranged and de- signed with a view to their educational effect. No matter how reverent, how wisely and helpfully spiritual, nor how instructive your lesson may be in the class period, it is easy to undo all the good it may have done in a few minutes' careless, ir- reverent, undignified reading, singing, or praying. The reason is not far to seek; in the class the pupil is often no more than a listener; in the " exercises " he is a participant, nearly all his senses are brought into activity, and the impres- sion is thus the stronger and more enduring. XI CLASS WOEK .This is a study of the management of the class and the conduct of the school during the lesson period; it is concerned only with administration and not at all with the teaching, the latter coming properly in a course of study on Sunday-school pedagogy. Since teaching is the great function of the school the class is the sphere of its greatest work. By its effectiveness the whole school is to be measured, and to its service all other activities must bend. There is a tendency to forget this, to crowd the time with concerts and performances and speeches, and to make the school a weekly entertainment in which the lesson is pushed into a corner, or occupies a place only by sufferance. Let the lesson have the largest place in time, at- tention, interest, and effort. I. Requirements of Effective Class Worh 1. A Teacher Qualified. The first necessary qualification is moral character. This teaches most of all, and without it all other teaching is in- effective. Then the teacher should have Christian experience. You cannot lead in a road you have 105 106 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL never travelled. To-day every teacher may be also qualified with professional training, may be a graduate of a teacher-training course, at least in the art of teaching and in the material to be taught. The teacher must know at least three things, the one to be taught (this is of first im- portance), the things to be taught, and the method of teaching them. 2. A Teacher Prepared. This is specific prep- aration for the particular lesson, but it must involve the ample preparation of a great deal more than you expect to teach in that lesson; there must be a wide margin of safety in the material you have in hand. Learn how to prepare. The school ought to afford its teachers every facility for les- son preparation; it should provide a good library of reference, so placed that teachers may consult it at least on several evenings in the week. The teacher owes more, however, than the tech- nical or spiritual preparation of the lesson ma- terial; there is an essential personal preparation. Many of the problems of failures in Sunday teach- ing would be understood if we examined the Sat- urday night. Let the teacher come physically refreshed and ready, in good spirits. 3. Scholars Prepared. Constant, carefully planned effort will secure the study of the lesson at home by the scholar. Use printed slips con- taining questions on next Sunday's lesson, assign HOME STUDY 107 definite work, suggest interesting points to be looked up. Be sure to ask for the work you assign. Enlist the co-operation of the parents; send to them the work you wish to have done at home. Go to the home and show the pupil how to study. Test the scholar^s preparation in the class so that he will expect that you will expect him to be pre- pared. A HOME STUDY CARD To THE Parent (or Guardian) of Scholar Will you not aid in the work of the School by seeing that your child reads the following passages in the Bible for next Sunday's lesson ? Signed- Parent signs here when passages have been read These cards, given out on one Sunday, with the references for that following written in, should be taken up on the next Sunday. 4. A Place Prepared. The advantage of a classroom is conceded by all. It is an advantage that is multiplied manifold if the teacher will see that the room is prepared for the class. See that it is clean, orderly, ventilated, with books and class 108 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL materials in place, with, blackboard ready for business. Endeavour to have the room properly equipped with all things that will really help your work. Let scholars co-operate in this; they will be especially interested in collecting objects for an oriental museum. Even if you cannot have a separate classroom come early enough to see that your section of chairs or pews is ready for the class. 5. A Place Protected. It is the business of every officer in the school to co-operate with the teachers in the lesson period by staying away from the class, and by protecting it from distractions and interruptions. Even a room is of little ad- vantage if the door is to be opened every few minutes. The secretary has many things to answer for here; it is quite unnecessary to stand before a class and count noses, or even to appear at all during the lesson period. By using the en- velope shown in Chapter XVI the teacher may have all the work of class-marking, and the col- lection of Home Study papers, accomplished in less than a minute. The envelopes and papers can be placed in the box belonging to that class and set down outside the classroom, or in any place accessible to the secretary. Do not allow anyone to interrupt your teachers. The superin- tendents should visit, but never interrupt. 6. A Period Rightly Used. Let the teacher re- EFFECTIVE CLASS WORK 109 member that the whole organisation of the school, with all the work involved, has been for the lesson period. It is therefore a crime against the scholar, against those who conduct the school, against the Master to waste that time either in gossip, trivial- ities, mere visiting, or in ineffectual, haphazard, half-hearted playing at teaching. II. Aids to Effective Class WorJc (1) Class Organisation, wUh. officers, name and badge. This is valuable for the Elementary grades. (2) Class Meetings, interests, sports, studies, activities, excursions during the week. (3) Occupation or Manual Work by pupils, at benches or tables. Sand-maps, clay-modelling, writing, drawing, cutting, pasting pictures, mak- ing scrap-books on Bible stories, constructing chronological Life of Christ in blank books. All especially valuable, because based on great psycho- logical principles, for the Elementary grades. (See Chapter XIL) (4) Regular Recognition in the school records of effective work by the scholar. Unless it makes a difference whether one does the work or not, it will not be long that anyone does the work. If the school does not care enough to give credit and to record that credit, the scholar will not care enough to do the work. A good plan is to work 110 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL out a percentage basis of marks for certain required things for each Sunday, as, for example, Attend- ance 50 per cent.. Home study work 20 per cent., Bible at school 10 per cent., an Offering (not based on amount) 10 per cent.. Deportment 10 per cent., making 100 perfect. Of far greater importance than the accurate adjustment of the percentages, however, is it that whatever plan is adopted shall be faithfully followed, rigidly marked, and just credits always given. (5) Proper Examination will be found an ef- fective aid to class work. Certain reasons may be given in answer to the frequent question. Why have Examinations in the Sunday school? They give definiteness, intent, to the teaching work; they promote diligence on the part of the pupil; they serve to review the work accomplished, to strengthen weak points and to emphasise the im- portant ones; they enlist the pupil's activities; they test the teacher's work; the results give clues as to the character of the work that must follow. Many objections are urged against examina- tions : It is said that pupils do not like them ; they make the work more difficult, etc. The truth is the pupils do not fear work, but they do despise the slipshod methods and the school that is always pandering to their whims. Make the school more valuable to them and you will have no need to fear losing them. It is said that the examination EXAMINATIONS 111 sets up intellectual tests in spiritual things. But faith is founded on facts; truth is intellectually apprehended. You cannot disassociate the life from the things learned. Examinations are tests of knowledge and not of character. It is feared that examinations will create rivalries and feel- ings of envy if the standings are announced. Why should they do so here any more than in the public school? They will not if conducted with absolute impartiality and fairness. Suggestions as to Examinations: (1) Make them real testings of knowledge, but do not set up top-lofty academic standards; remember how small is the total of time given to the lessons. (2) Have them quarterly, oral for the lower, and written for the Secondary grades. (3) Let all the work of the quarter, attendance, study, deport- ment, etc., count toward final standing. (4) Do not promote pupils on their examination stand- ings, but on their public school grades, or their age (see Chapter VII). (5) Whatever you do, be al- ways absolutely square and honest to the least item in the questions and in the markings. XII MANUAL METHODS While it is not possible in treating of the man- agement of the Sunday school to deal fully with the whole question of method in teaching, there are certain points at which method will depend on management, on the material provision made for the teacher's equipment. This is particularly true in regard to the adoption of what are known as Manual Methods in the Sunday school. The wise teacher, recognising their pedagogical value and necessity, will desire to use them ; but it will also be necessary for the school as an institution to make provision for their use. 1. What is meant by ''Manual Methods." It ought to be understood that manual methods are no new, passing fad in the Sunday school; that they are familiar and regarded as fundamental in regular educational work. Reduced to the sim- plest terms manual method means the enlistment of the pupil's self-activities by the use of his hands in the work of the class. It is the applica- tion to the Sunday school of the methods so suc- cessfully used by the public school in the teaching of history, geography, mathematics, and literature, 112 MANUAL METHODS 113 such as reproducing the object mentioned, con- structing models, moukling or drawing maps, making books which retell the story told and, in general, handling the materials themselves, or symbols of the materials which are the objects of the class work. No one who has seen a class of boys or of girls, of the most restless, and, according to popular opinion, the most mischievous age, standing or seated about a table, wholly engrossed in building a model of the temple, moulding a relief map of Jerusalem, or tracing the details of some story of the Bible, or who has seen their evident pleasure and pride as they bring to the school some work done at home, such as reproductions of oriental garments, tents, weapons, etc., can doubt that here is a way of interesting them in that which other- wise has often been dull and forbidding. Manual methods must not be confused, however, with the plans of class exercises and entertain- ments which have the sole purpose of amusing the pupils, or restraining them from misconduct; they must not be adopted by the school and the teacher simply because they have the effect of " keeping the children still." The motive for their adoption must be their value in fulfilling the educational purposes of the school, the religious education of the pupils; that is their real spiritual value; and the only reason for considering these methods here 114 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL is that, though they are comparatively new to the Sunday school, they are of first-rate importance and value to its work. In practice manual methods may be classified as follows : 1. Outline work, including drawings of objects (may be very crude and conventionalised in lower grades), diagrams, illustrations of persons, places, events, reproductions of texts and passages in colour. 2. Object worlc, including models, as of houses, tents, carts, furniture, tools, weapons, facsim- iles of clothing, etc., figures representing char- acters and scenes; may be of paper, wood, pulp, fibre, clay. 3. Map worl; outline drawings, moulding re- liefs in clay, pulp, etc., building sectional or chron- ological maps along with development of the lesson story, colour work on map outlines, travel maps. Eoom for infinite variety here; one rough, hand-made map is worth a dozen finely finished printed ones. 4. Book work, including note books, written up on each lesson, illustrated with drawings by pupils, or with pictures pasted in, with water-colour or crayon work, or with diagrams; history retold by pupils; narratives reproduced; harmonies of life of Christ, Paul, etc., constructed by pasting in portions of the Gospels, or Acts, and Epistles, WHY MANUAL METHODS? 115 in chronological order and with explanatory notes ; pupils reproducing all class work; essays; travel books following footsteps of Paul or of Jesus; scrap books of masterpieces of Bible literature, classified under Poetry, Oratory, etc. 5. Museum work. The collection and the manu- facture of articles, such as coins, parchment scrolls, garments, weapons, relics, pictures, stones, photo- graphs, natural products, industrial objects of Bible times, to be installed in a permanent exhibit belonging to the grade or to the school. Especially helpful will be a collection of stereographs, to be used with stereoscope in geography or history work. II. Reasons for Manual Methods. Manual methods are the simple working out of sound educational principles. Not what the child takes in, but what he gives out determines char- acter. Froebel insisted that the child should do things for himself, should learn by doing, should give expression to his own self through his natural activities. " To learn a thing in life and through doing is much more developing, cultivating, and strengthening than to learn it merely through verbal communication of ideas." This is the man- ner in which the pupil develops his own powers while appropriating to himself all his heritage of the world of knowledge. Froebel also insisted that in this activity every power of the life should 116 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL have its part, not only the purely intellectual, but the whole and united self of feeling, intellect, and will. This is the principle used by the public school. Talk with the child when he comes from school and you will find his glowing enthusiasm concerns itself, not with what he has heard or been told in the schoolroom, but with what he has done at his desk, at the board, in the shop, or workroom. No longer does the teacher lecture or drill on names and numbers and dates; no longer is the pupil regarded as plastic clay to receive im- prints; he is living, a worker and creator to form himself, by his own powers, the conception in the teacher^s mind. III. Why in the Sunday school. The reasons for manual methods in the Sunday school may be briefly stated thus : it is the natural way of education through self-activity; it involves self-expression upon which the value of all im- pression depends; it enlists a larger proportion of the child's whole life; it follows the laws of his developing nature, his desire to do, to create; it accords with the play spirit which is really only the creation spirit; it secures co-operation through the whole class, teaching pupils to work with others, developing the social spirit; it never fails to secure interest, the basis of attention; it removes religion from the realm of the abstract and unreal to the practical, concrete and close-at- ADVANTAGES OF MANUAL WORK 117 hand; it co-ordinates the work of the Sunday school with that of the day school, tending to make the pupiFs education unitary. The simple advantageous result which will first appear from using this method will be that the problem of the restless, motor pupil is solved ; you have enlisted and are directing his activities. This advantage, at first appearing only superficial, though recognised as welcome, is really of greater value than we realise, for it means not only quiet and order, and therefore better class work and better work all through the school, but it also means that you have found the law of that boy's life. It is certain you can never come near enough to him to teach him until you do know and obey the laws of his life, until you find the plane of his interests and the pulse of his activities and begin to move with them. IV. Objections Considered. But there are serious difficulties in the adoption of manual methods. We meet, first, with popular prejudice against what seems to be so radical a change. Often the opposition is due to the folly of those who seek to introduce the methods; they would use them to the exclusion of all other school activities, or they would impose the method whole- sale on the school, compelling its adoption in every grade, regardless of the fitness of teachers for this work. No improvement can be secured very much 118 THE MODEEN" SUNDAY SCHOOL in advance of intelligence. Be sure that at least the school officers and the teachers understand the principles upon which these methods are based. Introduce them gradually; good methods, like all other truly educational processes, must grow. First allow some teacher, or teachers, who really under- stand both the philosophy and the practice to try the methods in classes. Then let these train others. Let the use of these methods, in so far as they constitute a change, justify themselves completely step by step in their introduction and use. Another apparent difficulty in the use of manual methods is that the school has, as a rule, so little time at its disposal for the lesson. The teacher asks, " Can I do more than get the class started and the material prepared in the space of twenty min- utes ? " It will be a fortunate thing if the use of these methods makes class work so interesting as to necessitate the extension of the time for the lesson. That this is one of the effects is the com- mon observation wherever they are tried. In many instances pupils voluntarily stay after school to finish some piece of work. Then the teacher must be willing to come before the school hour to pre- pare the materials and to lay out the work; she will find plenty of willing assistants among the pupils. The question of time will be answered from the experience of the teacher by saying that the usual lesson time is all too long for the dull DIFFICULTIES IN MANUAL WOEK 119 routine that often passes for teaching; necessity will compel the use of more time — which will seem like much less — when real teaching is being done. The truth is that manual methods which seem to consume more time really save much time; the pupil here learns more, gains more because he is giving more of himself to the work in hand. Then the teacher will find that the pupils are anxious to take this kind of work home; the les- son period naturally extends itself through the week. But, one asks, " Will not this work crowd out the spiritual application of the lesson?" If the teacher is filled with the sense that the house that is being built, or the map being made, is but the vehicle for the story of the Master who healed there or walked here, the spiritual application will take care of itself. Pupils learn things spiritual, Bot through their ears, but through their expe- riences. To build a house for Jesus is a long step toward living with Him. Deepest things spir- itual come out through service. The spiritual significances must permeate every act ; they are lost if we try to tack them on as something separate. It is well, also, to remember the moral and spir- itual power of environment, to avoid that untidi- ness, through paste or chips, which is real irrev- erence. '' But what of the cost of the material for man- 120 THE MODERN" SU^-DAY SCHOOL ual methods ? " asks the prudent officer. The cost must not be large, but it ought to be sufficient in view of the work to be accomplished. Beware of laying in a large stock of costly material. To do so is to defeat the end in view. Especially avoid the purchase of elaborate models and building mate- rials ; pupils learn only with those things that re- quire labour and thought for their adaptation and construction. The school should provide sand, clay, note books, paste, a few pairs of shears, some coloured paper, string, etc. The paper pulp, and also the trays, stands, and boxes may be made by the boys themselves, and the girls, too, either at home or in the church workroom; the work will serve to tie them to the school. " But the greatest difficulty of all, apparently, is that of finding those who are qualified to use these methods." Herein is a common error. Do not think you must have trained manual experts. For one thing, the school is not attempting to produce finished works of art for exhibition purposes. Be- sides this, the teacher does not have to spend time in instructing the pupils in the technique of the materials handled ; they acquire that in the public schools. Let the teacher get a working under- standing of the principles involved ; let her realise this is not for play or amusement, or some new fad ; the rest will be easy. Teacher and pupil will be learning together, and all can do this work NECESSITY OF MANUAL WORK 121 because its very purpose necessitates its being within the reach of the child, and therefore of the adult. But the training in the principles involved should be part of the regular work of the school; the use of these methods and their underlying philosophy will be part of the required work in the teacher-training course of every fully equipped school. The question to be considered before adopting manual methods is, Will this serve the purpose of the school? No intelligent student of the educa- tional process can give any other than an affirma- tive answer, and there will be no question but that this is one of nature's methods, one of the most effective and economical and that, therefore, the Sunday school must adopt it. Then follows the duty of informing ourselves as to what are the great principles governing this method, what are the means of its introduction and maintenance, and its proper place in the whole work of the school. It is a question that goes beyond the individual teacher; its use must be intelligently co-ordinated through the whole school, and the superintendent and officers must take time to grasp its principles and to come into full sympathy with its purposes. The time will come when the school will make a larger use of the child's play activities ; when we, having stopped our work long enough to under- 122 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL stand theirs, will cease to try to make them fit their muscles and minds to our ways, and will learn that if we are to teach them, if we would be truly pedagogs, we must walk in their ways. Then the school will, for one thing, use the pupiFs dramatic instinct. We will be able, with all rev- erence and with large educational advantages, to re-live the scenes and acts of sacred story. Note how serious is the child's part in the drama he plays when he thinks himself unobserved; how quickly he invests himself with the best charac- teristics of his character; he cannot play that he is a great man without acquiring something of greatness. Wise teachers will yet find the way to apply the wonderful powers for good that lie in the child's play to the educational purposes of the Sunday school. V. The Wider Application of the Manual Method. Eemembering the principles underlying the use of manual method and having in mind the purpose of the school, to develop Christian character and to train to Christian service, it will be evident that the method has a wider application than that of constructing maps and other material in the class. If the pupils are to be trained for Christian serv- ice they must early begin to do that service. The practice or laboratory method must be used, as far as possible, in the school. The pupils must be given ample opportunity to give expression to TRAINING FOR SERVICE 123 that which they learn. This will be found, first, in the work of the school itself. The service a pupil renders by way of work as usher, assistant secretary, sick visitor, monitor, page, musician in the orchestra, while worth much to the school means even more to him. It is the most valuable part of his religious education. Then the service must go outside the school; the Young People's Society affords opportunity for much useful work ; its activities should be correlated to the Sunday school, so that it becomes a part of the practice work of the school. The various meetings and organisations of the church all may be brought into this relation, so that the Sunday-school pupil becomes the trained servant of the church, and the school is not a separate thing, but a part of the whole church, carrying on its educational work through all its agencies. We will no longer hear the complaint that there is a lack of men seeking the ministry if the pupils begin their ministry with their studies and develop it naturally with their developing lives; this also will be true in regard to all the offices of the church. The pupils must learn by doing, entering into knowledge by the door the Master pointed out, " If any man willeth to do His will he shall know of the doc- trine." XIII THE CUERICULUM OF THE SCHOOL Even a superficial acquaintance with the problems of the curricula of the Sunday school will suggest that the subject is altogether too large for adequate treatment in one chapter. But there are certain relations which it holds to the questions of Sunday- school administration which must be briefly con- sidered, and, since the matter of curriculum is one of the most influential determining factors in school management, it is worth while to review the principles underlying the proper curriculum. For it makes all the difference whether the school be organised and conducted with certain definite purposes in relation to carefully constructed courses of study in mind, or whether it be allowed to drift into loose groupings of teaching agencies about incoherent collections of lessons. The of- ficers of the school are responsible for making the curriculum the best possible and for properly pro- viding for its institution and conduct; they there- fore do well to understand its principles. Some Characteristics of the Curriculum; cer- tain features which will be found in the course 194 BASIS OF CURRICULUM 125 of study where the school is regarded as an educa- tional institution. 1. The Course Will be Genetic. That is to say, it will be built upon the life processes and progress of the learner. It will be chosen with the needs peculiar to his particular stage of develop- ment in mind. It will be adapted to the child, as well adapted to him at seven or at ten, as at twenty, or at forty, when he shall be a man. This will mean that the subjects and material for study will be arranged into the same grades as are found in the school itself, each grade having provided for it the materials suited to its age and development. No one who knows the Bible and who knows the boy can possibly believe that the material suited to the class of mature saints over in the " heavenly rest " corner is equally well suited to the little lads or the growing youths still in the blessed period of earthly unrest. The course will especially have in mind and be prepared for the epochal periods in the developing life. It is impossible to do more here than call attention to the importance of the period of ado- lescence, with its deep-reaching physical and psychical changes, with its epochs of determination and of unrest. How lamentably is the school fail- ing and for how great opportunities must she answer if she neglects to meet the needs of this period, if she goes on blindly doling out grand- 126 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL motherly advice and sentiment to those who are feeling the full throb, the unrest, the stress, and strain of life's awakening. No man would think of managing a dairy farm without some clear, scientific knowledge of milch cattle; and shall we think that the knowledge of child life and the power to develop it rightly comes by intuition? It is a happy augury for the Sunday school that so much trained thought is being given to this whole question, and that it is not difficult for those who really desire to insure the effectiveness of their schools to learn and adapt the results of the studies of educational leaders and experts. As an example of the adaptation of the course of study to the epochs of the developing life it is worth while to note the importance of the work done by the pupils during the years from fifteen to seventeen inclusive. This is the age at which the greatest number of conversions are recorded. It is also the age at which the personal influence of the teacher counts for most. The custom has long been for the Sunday school to regard it as the hopeless period, when youths may be expected to drift from the school. The truth is that the work of the school should be organised with this as its crowning period ; the years of decision should be the goal of the work going before and the start- ing point for the larger and closer work to follow. By this time the disciplines gone before have laid ADAPTATION TO LIFE PERIODS 127 the general mental ground of the knowledge of religious truth; the pupil is reflecting on its sig- nificances to him; he is thinking deeply, strange as it may seem to many, on the questions of char- acter and destiny. It is the business of the school to help him to decide aright. Instead of paralysing the will power and rendering insignificant the act of determination by frequent, and at last mean- ingless "decision days," in which the least tots who have no conception of any but the right way, as a way, as well as those who may meditate de- cision are urged to " take a stand," let the school provide for a decision period, or determimtive grade, not calling it by this name, but arranging the studies so that the pupil is at the time of stress and determination helped and guided aright. At the age of fourteen or fifteen pupils should be brought close to the glowing ideals of Christian character concrete in the heroes of our history; they should see the significances and glory of the Christian way of living; they should understand what it is to be a Christian, and also what is involved in church membership; they should now become acquainted with the institutions of the church and with all that Christian philanthropy and service signifies. This is the time for appli- cation, action, determination, rather than for academic or elementary studies in literature, etc. To meet these special needs the school must make 128 THE MODERN- SUNDAY SCHOOL full provision, not only in the material for study, but also in the teaching force. Here the strongest teachers will be needed, those of the deepest in- sight. The pastor certainly ought to teach one of the classes, the one closest to church member- ship ; if not he, then some other person who would have an equal interest and familiarity in the rela- tion of the child to the church. The conscientious officer and teacher will not be satisfied until the school meets in a thorough and comprehensive manner the real needs of the pupils in every grade through its carefully pre- pared course of study. There will be the adapta- tion of the teaching to the pupil's life as well as that of the material taught. The pupil is the absolutely determining factor in the organisation of the school; he is not a block to be carved and fitted into an institution; he is a living being whose development the school is to foster, and that process of development can only be fostered by following the unvarying laws of his life. 2. The Course Will be Unitary. That is, it will be organised into a coherent whole, arranged so that the pupil passes, in going from grade to grade, in an orderly and logical manner through all those subjects and disciplines which go to make up the complete curriculum, the work which goes to fulfil the purpose of developing his character and usefulness. The studies which he meets in the BASIS OF CURRICULUM 129 first grade of the elementary school will require no intellectual leap across some chasm from those with which he was familiar in the kindergarten. And so with each grade; there will be, at least in the grades up to the Senior, no independent studies; all will be related to each other. There will be a definite purpose in mind, followed out in a logical manner, involving steady progress through related studies in every grade. Once a curriculum of this character is adopted for the whole school, its defects remedied under experience, and its plan understood and spirit entered into by the working forces, the school acquires the sense of unity, definiteness, and worthiness in its work. The course of study in the Sunday school must be unitary, as far as possible, with all other studies in the pupil's life. This will naturally follow so far as his public school work is concerned if the course is graded according to the grades of the pupil's development. It is important, however, in mapping out the course of study, to carefully consider what the child is learning through five days of the week, in order that with the least effort and the largest advantage and co-operation he may pass over to his studies on the one day. There must be unity also with every other study and exercise within the church itself. To-day, when the prayer-meeting may be offering a definite course of lectures and the Young People's Society 130 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL is almost sure to have several courses of study in operation, it is of first-rate importance that all these, and any other educational endeavours in the church, be properly co-ordinated, in order that no work may be duplicated, nor any possible prog- ress hindered through apparent conflict in studies. A growing child cannot, without serious disadvant- age, carry a course in the Wisdom literature under the Young People's Society along with a course in the Pauline epistles in the Sunday school. There are often, however, more serious burdens than this laid upon them by unthinking zealots. Let the officers in the various organisations come together with the proper officers of the Sunday school; let all together constitute the educational committee of the church; let this committee so arrange the various studies that each shall help the other and none shall hinder. And, since the Sunday school is the educational agency of the church, the courses offered by other departments should certainly be based on its curriculum. 3. The Course Must be Comprehensive. Its purpose should be " that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." That complete training, informing, discipline, and equipment of the whole life cannot be obtained by even the longest exegetical or homiletical study of fragmentary passages from the Scriptures; it cannot be acquired in the Sunday school so long EXTRA BIBLICAL STUDIES 131 as that institution is regarded and conducted as an infantile theological seminary. It is evident that in order that the curriculum of the school may be comprehensive it must in- clude many subjects which could not be properly taught in the course of the usual instruction in the Bible. These subjects would include church history, Christian institutions, evidences, mis- sions, social service, practical ethics, and Chris- tian biography. The reasons for what are sometimes called " extra-biblical " studies in the Sunday school must be clearly understood. Among the reasons are : such studies are evi- dently necessary to full equipment for life and for service; these studies are not treated, as such, in the Bible, nor do they properly grow out of the study of the Bible from the view-point of literature, history, or doctrine. This is most evi- dent in the case of church history; but it may be questioned in the case of practical ethics, until examination suggests that there are many prob- lems in practical ethics to-day on which the Bible has nothing directly to say, for while it does give the great fundamental principles, it does not de- velop their application to conditions which have arisen in more recent times. Again, these studies are not commonly taken in any other institution; to follow them in the Sunday school gives unity, completeness, and a unique value to the work of 132 THE MODERX SUXDAY SCHOOL the school, and gives to the scliolar adequate de« velopment in knowledge and equipment for service. It is worth while to note that in an important sense these studies are not extra-biblical; they are the normal developments in our times of the religious life and spirit portrayed in the Bible; they are based on the Bible, and are, indeed, es- sential to a full understanding of its content and its relation to our life to-day, in order that the Bible may not appear to be the subject of recondite inquiry alone, but may be vital and practical. As generally indicative of the method of such studies the whole question of the teaching of Missions in the school is separately considered in Ch. XIV. It is important that the authorities mapping out the curriculum of the school appor- tion places and time to each of these studies, ac- cording to the principle of adaptation to the developing life of the pupils. There is given below an outline of a curriculum intended only to be suggestive of the possible arrangement of all subjects with the developing life and the peculiar needs of the pupil in mind. The plan contemplates usually the use, in connec- tion with each specific subject, of a suitable sepa- rate text-book. This would, in the lower grades, be in the hands of the teachers only; in the upper grades, beginning with about Grade 3, in the Elementary Division, the text-book would be used A SUGGESTED CURRICULUM 133 by the pupil. Of course for that and the next several grades the book would be relatively simple, and would provide for much written and manual work. As an example of the application of this " text- book " plan, the teacher might use, in the Kinder- garten, " Kindergarten Stories for the Home and Sunday School " by Miss Cragin, in Elementary 1, "A Year of Sunday-School Lessons,^' by Flor- ence Palmer; in Secondary 3, the students could use "The Old Testament and Its Contents," by Robertson ; in Secondary 4, " Studies in the Gos- pel of Mark," by Burton. Other books could be used in any of these subjects, and suitable books can be found for any grade. Schools with unusual advantages are, in some places, working out their own text-books. AN OUTLINE OF A CURRICULUM, BY SUBJECTS KINDEBGAETEN Religious conceptions moulded by stories, games, and exercises ELEMENTARY Grade 1. Religious conceptions in detail, moulded by stories, manual work, memorizing of sim- ple passages, 2. Same work, with greater detail, introduction of biography, memorizing also of longer passages and short hymns. 134 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 3. Old Testament narratives ; into tliis may be woven geography ; using manual methods. 4. Life of Jesus, following plan similar to grade 3. Make picture-life of Jesus. 5. Lives of the Apostles. Use the travel inter- est, manual methods, collect museum material. 6. A general introduction to the Bible. A year's survey of the whole, using the Bible freely. Use manual methods freely. 7. (a) Biography in the Old Testament; be- ginning of hero study, (b) Christian biography, beginning with Jesus. Have pupils work on the heroes of Christian history as they would on Wash- ington or Lincoln. 8. Church History, beginning with the " Acts " (first half of year). Christian Missions (second half of year). SECONDABY Grade 1. Preparation for Church Membership. 1st half : The Christian life ; develop, in part, by biographical studies, 2nd half : Christian Service ; lead to enthu- siasm for service in the Church. Keep in mind that these are the " decision years." 2. (a) Christian Institutions. (&) Denominational life and Polity. 3. Old Testament Literature. 4. New Testament Literature. BENIOB Grade 1. Historical Study of Biblical Literature. 2. Advanced Life of Christ. A SUGGESTED CURRICULUM 135 3. (a) Christian Evidences. (b) Christian Doctrines. (c) Practical Ethics. 4. (a) Practical Christianity, Social Service. (&) Missions, Comparative Religions. TEACHEES Grade 1. Child Study. 2. Religious l*edagogy. 3. Sunday-School Organisation and Manage- ment. 4. Advanced Biblical Introduction. The approximate age for each grade is shown in the chart of the Graded School on page 68. // XlVi THE TEACHING OF MISSION'S A CONFERENCE of representative religions edu- cators was called by the Young People's Mission- ary Movement, at Silver Bay, N. Y., on July 17-19, 1906, to consider the questions relating to the teaching of Missions in the Sunday school. That conference, which by its very call admitted that, although the religion of Jesus is essentially missionary, the teaching agency of the church had neglected this aspect of its character and work, was decidedly epochal, marking also the beginning of new efficiency for the Sunday school. The fol- lowing statement was unanimously adopted by the representatives present : "1. Missionary instruction is an essential part of religious education and should he included in the curriculum of every Sunday school. "1. By the missionary treatment of such lessons of the International or other series as are clearly missionary in spirit or content. " 2. By the frequent use of missionary illustra- tions in Sunday-school instruction. "3. By the use of supplemental graded or un- graded lessons. " 4. By the regular or occasional use of care- 136 TEACIimG MISSIONS 137 fully planned missionary programs as closing ex- ercises for the school. " 5. By the organisation of mission study classes to meet special needs in the various departments of the school. ''11. A missionary atmosphere should he cre^ ated in the Sunday school through its worship. " 1. By the occasional selection for the opening exercises of passages of Scripture bearing directly upon missions. " 2. By missionary petitions in public prayer. " 3. By the use of missionary psalms and hymns. "4. By the cultivation among the pupils of habits of systematic, proportionate and individual giving to missionary objects. ''III. The agencies directly or indirectly af- fecting the Sunday school should co-operate to develop the missionary spirit." (Here are mentioned the International Lesson Committee, denominational boards, State Sunday- school Associations, theological seminaries, the press, summer conferences and institutes and Young People's Missionary Movement.) Throudi this conference and the issuance of this statement the matter has been brought before the Sunday schools. Several important questions follow. 1. Why teach Missions in the Sunday school? Partly for the same reasons that apply to all so- 138 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL called extra-biblical subjects, as given in the chap- ter preceding; particularly because the scholar needs for his own religious development in char- acter and efiSciency, wide knowledge of and fre- quent participation in this important and essential part of Christian service; also, because missionary endeavour must be maintained; it must be main- tained by intelligent, generous gifts and work; the future givers and workers are in the Sunday school, and their training to investment and co- operation must begin early, must continue right along, and must be of the nature of service as far as possible, as well as study. In a word, the fundamental principles of missions being essential to the full Christian life, they must have a definite place in the work of the institution devoted to the development of that life. 2. In what shall the teaching of missions con- sist? In leading the pupil to intelligent familiar- ity with the philosophy or principles of missions, and to acquaintance with the past history, the present extent, significance, social value, and prog- ress of this form of service. The studies should be with a view to quickening the interests, sym- pathies, and creating enthusiasm, based on in- formation. The school should not only tell about missions, nor only show objects of missionary in- terest; it should engage in missions, its teachings should be by the practical and laboratory methods ; TEACIimG MISSIONS 130 it should train the future missionaries, not that every pupil will devote his whole life to field work, but that everyone may consecrate himself to the extension of the Master's kingdom, so that, in this most important sense, all may become true missionaries. 3. How shall the school teach Missions? (a) The Agencies Employed: The regular organisation of the school, directed by the Superin- tendent, who clearly understands and enters into this work, inspired by the pastor, finding specific direction and assistance in a special committee on ^niissionary work and instruction," co-operating with any special societies in the church, such as the Woman's Missionary Society, and keeping in close touch with the denominational missionary boards or societies. The superintendent will find this a wonderfully rich, interesting and helpful field if he begins to plan to make his Sunday school truly a missionary training school; the teacher will find a wealth of literature at hand and a surprising response of enthusiasm and interest on the part of the scholars. (h) The Means Employed: First, teaching. Definite courses, properly fitted into the curric- ulum, covering definite periods, as three or six months, beginning with biographies and later taking hero studies, then the romance and the service of missions, then the study of mission 140 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL fields, missionary problems, support, schools, special work, etc.; adults might very well take a course in " Comparative Modern Eeligions." Another, though less valuable method, would be the introduction of occasional missionary lessons. (See on this the recommendations of the confer- ence cited above.) The important thing is the maintenance of the missionary spirit and the train- ing in intelligent missionary support and service. The school must not neglect its own opportunities to teach by service. This may be done through the regular systematic giving to the support of mis- sions, preferably devoting a certain proportion of the regular offerings, rather than making spas- modic appeals for special missionary objects. But it must be done also, and even more largely, through actual missionary work. It is unnecessary to emphasise the fact that missions includes every effort to bring men into the Kingdom, and to bring the Kingdom to this earth, whether the effort be directed to the man next door or the man in Manchuria. Therefore, the Sunday school may do important missionary work in its own neigh- bourhood in caring for the poor, educating the ignorant, improving the social and physical con- ditions in the city, preaching the Gospel, personally reaching and winning the unreached. Second^ another means will be hi/ special pro- grams and services, in the opening exercises, in missionary concerts, in addresses by missionaries TEACHIISrG MISSIONS 141 and others, and in lectures, illustrated by the stereopticon, given in the week. Here also is an opportunity to use the child's dramatic instincts; they may be, indeed, they will be, delighted to give little " plays,'' dramatic representations of life in other lands, or among the Indians in our own land. The costumes, setting and dialogue will all serve to teach the desired lessons in a manner much more lasting than mere lecturing could possibly be. Third, hy the circulation of missionary litera- ture. The missionary committee should select and suggest to the library committee the names of proper books on travel, foreign lands, home affairs and missionary interests and work. There is such a wealth of good, live, well-written books on these subjects that no child ought to have to com- plain of missions as dry reading. Let the librarian call special attention to the new books on this sub- ject; occasionally brief, lively extracts might be read in the closing exercises of the department. Circulate missionary magazines and secure letters from the men and women who are right in the work; watch for the items of interest regarding the field, either at home or abroad, in the daily newspapers, and read them to your class, or to the school. Fourth, "by an Exhibit or Museum, containing maps, native costumes, models of houses, imple- ments, weapons, etc., pictures and photographs, 142 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL " anything that will serve to make missions real and fascinating through the medium of the eye. Fifth, hy organisation. Groups of pupils may be organised into bands around some central in- terest, such as a particular field or even the sup- port of some native helper. There may be objec- tions to this personal-interest element; but it is better to be thoroughly interested in one man or one place than to have your interest in all so thin that it cannot reach any. Missions in the Sunday school afford an easy and practical opportunity for developing the school, not only as an institution for instruction, but as a truly educational agency. In fact the subject becomes of relatively little value if it be treated in an entirely academic manner, and not at all in the practical one. There is afforded the school the opportunity to interest the pupil and enlist his whole self in this in the same manner and to the same extent that he enters into the work of the public school when he studies the American Indian, or the Pilgrims, or the course of the flag to-day. He can be as patriotic for the Kingdom of Heaven as for the Eepublic; he can enter into the lofty enthusiasms that make the one mean so much more than even the other, and these en- thusiasms are the forces that determine his char- acter. XVi DISCIPLINE Why is it that in an age when none would claim that children are becoming liiore reverent or orderly, we hear much less of the problem of Sun- day-school discipline ? Once we were told at every gathering of teachers that it was the greatest of problems in the school. Is it not because we have gone beneath the surface of this problem to its roots ? We have realised that it was the poor school that made the bad boy. We have learned that you cannot discipline by rods and rules. So far as the individual is concerned, a well-ordered, worth- while school will mean an orderly pupil. The problem of discipline is not the problem of how to handle rough characters, how best to carry out a kicking boy in one hand and your Bible in the other. It is the problem of an organisation and a body, rather than of individuals. I. What is Discipline ? Discipline in the Sunday school means the main- tenance of good order, proper adjustments and co- operation through all the activities of the school; 143 144 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL it means every factor, the grades, the class, the in- dividuals, harmoniously working together, with such a sense of unity and common purpose that confusion is absent, noise is reduced to a minimum and friction is unknown. Discipline has an educational purpose; it is simply disciple-ing. We seek order, not alone that we older folks like quiet, nor alone that the quiet is necessary to the teaching of a lesson ; we seek order that the pupils may be trained in orderliness, in the laws of social adjustments, in self-control, in patience and meekness, in ability to co-operate with others, in reverence. II. Conditions of Disorder The things that break down the teaching power of the school in this direction are of two sorts. First, failures on the part of the management, and, second, breaches of ordinary good manners on the part of individuals. In the first list we find the failure to provide a scheme or schedule for the school, to either work out its plan or to determine its program ; the habit of beginning late and running behind time; per- mitting officers and servants of the school to rush about the room, to cause distracting noises, such as arranging chairs, etc., after school has opened; classes so close that teaching seems to all a pandemonium; disorderly dismissal and exit. CAUSES OF DISORDER 115 In the second group we find: coming late — a mere habit, — loitering in vestibules, church con- gregation gossiping after school has begun; non- participation of teachers in exercises; general conversation; intentional rudeness or rebellion. in. The Causes There are Definite Causes for These Con- ditions. They are : ( 1 ) A lack of respect for the institution itself — even then it often gets all it de- serves. You cannot create that subtle school spirit that makes a hundred or more one body, smoothly working together, unless it has some object worthy of its respect. (2) Officers and teachers do not ex- pect good order; they have made up their minds that all pupils are depraved — except a few fa- vourites. Pupils will be what you expect them to be. Officers have set up no standard, no ideal for the school. (3) Officers, etc., do not themselves set example of good order; they are anarchistic so far as the school is concerned; they come late and do as they please when there. A loafing officer is worse than a prancing pupil. (4) Distracting interruptions are permitted, from late comers, visitors, in classes from officers. (5) The hour sometimes is in part to blame; if, after church, many are quite tired; in afternoon, many are sleepy — owing to the great American Sunday din- ner — or they are sighing for the out-door sun- 146 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL shine and fresh air. (6) Long, monotonous pro- grams, giving pupils no chance to work off their energy, or to co-operate in any way; thin speeches which are always long. (7) By no means the smallest cause, dark, damp, overheated, or illy- ventilated rooms. Some people seem to think that the school has discharged its full duty if in some way it has brought the children within hearing of the Gospel. Confronted with the confusion of the school, they regard it as an incurable trait of childhood, one with which they are little concerned so long as they faithfully declare to these restless imps the word of life. But to declare the truth to ears inatten- tive, in conditions of confusion, shows a lack of respect for the truth. The fact is, we have a larger business in the school than the declaration of truth in so many phrases ; we have to transform truth into character. The school that permits con- fusion to reign becomes an agency educating in contempt of authority, in habits of irreverence and disorder; it is actually making criminals in so far as it fails to help pupils to live aright as members of their community — for the time being the Sun- day school — and by its silence seems to condone anarchy and absolute disregard for the rights of others. Church services soon feel the contact of a dis- orderly school; just as a well-organised Sunday SECURING GOOD OEDER 147 school soon feels it if the church is in its services lacking in reverence and order, IV. Conditions of Good Order There are certain simple conditions of good order: Discipline is essentially a simple matter of atmosphere and environment. Boys will stamp and shout in a barn as they will not think of doing in a parlour — ^unless the parlour looks and feels like a barn. If your school looks like a warehouse and you feel like a barrel, do not be surprised if the boys jump all over you. Therefore : 1. Study Carefully all the Conditions That Will Affect the Pupil. (a) The order of the officers and teachers, and their demeanour. Let everyone be in his place before school opens; everyone awake; everyone at his best in disposition and in service. (h) Secure best physical conditions. Do not rest till you have proper kind of rooms, good light, pure air, pleasant surroundings, good pictures, decorations; rooms rightly arranged and classes rightly arranged in relation one to another; have room, seats, books, etc., all ready before hour to begin. (c) Promote order through the program. Let its conduct and its content all help by example and by precept, by sustained interest and by en- listment of activities. 148 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL (d) Co-operate with pupils' activities. Don't repress them ; let them express themselves, but see they do it in your way. Better to say to a child, " Walk to the right," than to say, " Don't walk to the left." The Sunday school should keep all so busy they have no time to think up mischief, nor energy to expend on it. Boys and girls, live ones, never will sit still like tombstones. The secret of order is not in sitting still, but in all moving in harmony. The " hear-a-pin-drop " school is far from the ideal. 2. Study the Pupil Himself. Do not try to handle and govern material you do not understand. Do not think because you were once a boy that you know all about boys. Study child-nature; study individual temperaments. Study types of chil- dren. The more you think of the boy, the less you will think of discipline, and the nearer you will come to having it. Under all circumstances keep your faith in the pupils. Their tastes may be very different from yours, that is, yours now; they may love mice and bugs ; they may adore gum and follies ; but they are made in His likeness ; they are His children; they belong to God, for they have infinite and divine potentialities. Keep your eye on the good in them and it is wonderful how it will grow. 3. Study the Problem in the Class. The solution lies in the class in part ; if every class is in THE TEACHEE AS A FACTOPt 149 order, the whole school will be. Let the teacher then learn what discipline means. This will mean, not a study of the art of compelling silence, but of the art of winning interest and directing activity, that is the art of teaching. Eeally teach and you will have little trouble. Study the child. Learn to distinguish temperaments. Arrange in class accordingly; plajce the active, restless ones nearest you, the tricky, slow, subtle directly under your eye; then teach. Don't talk about order; don't beg or whine for it ; do not say, " I will be obeyed," for you will not; you have invited them to a contest of wills. Say nothing, but keep them busy, working together. The teacher is personally a factor in discipline. He cannot — and the same is true of the superin- tendents or directors — they cannot expect harmony when they are torn within with conflicting emo- tions or with physical distresses. The rich Sun- day dinner makes a poor Sunday school in the afternoon. Come in good health and humour. Stay awake and keep sweet. Don't scold; it acts the same as soda thrown into boiling soup. Yet there will remain the prohlem of the hoy or girl who seems determined to disturb. Make a special study of that one; discover the causes of his aberrations. With tact and sympathy try to think of it as a disease that you are to cure. Some- times it is possible to take such an one into a very 150 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL small class, in separate room, so that the motive of display, the attraction of an audience is missing. Let teacher study " case '^ there. Seek the door of friendship; that of force will never open to you. There is, somewhere, a button on every bad boy; it may be rabbits, it may be pegtops, it may be his mother; your business is to find it. The motor type of mischievous boy, the restless dynamo of disturbance, can usually be reached by securing the co-operation of his hands, his eyes, or almost any of his senses, except his ears. Put him to work, writing, drawing, modelling, moulding, building, or helping in class work. The sensory type, the boy who sits still and slowly works up a revolution, is harder to reach. Yet he is usually proud of his mental ability and delighted if you will set him a problem, or give him something to seek. Put him on his mettle and keep his mind occupied. In all problems of discipline it is well to re- member that you cannot afford to sacrifice the whole school or division for the sake of one in- dividual. XVI GIVING AND FINANCES The custom of taking an offering in the classes in the Sunday school has a more important basis than the mere attempt to imitate the usages of the church gathering. There are good I. Reasons for Taking Offerings The act has educational purposes. It is not a tax, and there is never need to apologise for it, provided it be properly done. It trains the pupils, whom the school is educating into Christian char- acter and service, in a definite Christian duty, that of the specific dedication of a part of his posses- sions to the service of God, the highly important duty of co-operating in the maintenance of reli- gious institutions. Churches are to-day financially embarrassed because their people have never learned to give; when they have come up out of Sunday schools, the schools did no more than per- functorily collect the pennies which the children begged from their parents. You cannot educate a church to giving by training it on penny offerings. The Sunday school must train the church of the 131 152 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL future in the duty and delight of true giving; it must ground the child in the principles, and train him in right motives. The act of rightly taking an offering is also training in the giving char- acter. The habit of giving is as hard to break as that of withholding. Besides this, the child who gives to the support of his own school is early learning that he must pay for the things he gets in this world. The Gospel may be free, but some one must pay for the means by which it reaches us and goes to others. To allow a child to take all that the school may offer, either in instruction or in literature, without thought of having a duty himself relative thereto, or a share in providing what is furnished, is to inculcate pauperism. To object that the child in the public school receives without giving is no answer; it is the business of the public school to reduce to the minimum the dependence of the pupils and to make them see that public education is not a charity, but a social duty. II. MetJiods of Taking Offering Magnify Its Place in the School. Not so as to make the pupils feel that it is of first importance, but so that they may know it is a part of school work, not at all something for which we need to apologise, or which we feel compelled to hide in a corner. Magnify it in the class. Distinguish EDUCATIONAL GIVraG 153 alwa5^s between emphasis on the amount given, and on the fact of giving. Do not talk about totals, dollars, drawing comparisons between the sums given in different classes. It is not a question of dollars; it is a question of cultivating a spirit and habit of giving. Beware of creating money rivalries between classes, and also between in- dividuals in the class; they but result in feelings of shame and mortification on the part of those who can give but little, and, what is more regret- able, in boasting and pernicious pride on the part of those who have plenty. A Carefully Kept Eecord in class book, or by whatever system is used, of the fact of the scholar giving, not the amount given ; the fact of the num- ber of givers is the important thing. Let class records be kept with utmost scrupulosity ; give first lessons here in right handling of money. Let your attitude be that this giving is part of the discharge of a high responsibility toward God and toward our fellows. Teach Pupils to Give Intelligently. Do not ask them to sacrifice for things of which they know nothing. Base appeals, when they must be made, not on the emotions primarily, but on thd emotions stirred by exact knowledge. It is better to give a dime to the wise alleviation of a need intelli- gently apprehended than a dollar on some blind impulse. Do not crush the impulses ; direct them. 154 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL The Sunday school has a sacred duty to inform its pupils on Missions, for example, before it asks for an offering for missions. Part of the Sunday- school course of study should be constructed so to cover the great enterprises of the church and the principles of Christian stewardship that it will train those who are to be church members to in- telligent giving and service. Train the Pupils to Give in Fact, as well as in form, that is, to give that which really belongs to them. We ought to co-operate with parents in an effort to break up the almost universal habit of the children acting as proxies for the parent's penny gifts. The custom usually is for the child to beg a penny or two of father or mother just be- fore starting to Sunday school. That makes the child only a messenger or agent for the parents. Let the children have their own money; let them decide on the proportion they will give to church and to school; let them give their own. Parents had better let them go without an offering than simply go through the form of sending their money to the school. Train the Pupils to Give Reverently. The careful record of giving, the intelligence as to the objects of giving and the practice of giving their own, all contribute toward reverence in the act. Then it may be made of itself an act of worship in the class. We must, even at the cost of stale METHODS IN GIVING 15i jokes and cheap wit, steadily avoid the joking atti- tude toward the offering. It is often well to have a brief prayer in the class before the offering is taken. Sometimes worth while to speak a word on the subject of the grace of giving, or on our share in God's work. Then, at the close of the session, all the offerings of the division can be taken to the principal's desk and, the school stand- ing, a prayer of dedication be offered. The use of the envelope shown here serves several excellent purposes. Each pupil receives THE BIBLE SCHOOL The First Baptist Church, Dillon, Montana "All things are thine, and of thine own have we given thee" HAVE YOU? An Offering? Attended Church? Brought Bible? Name May 12, 1907 No. 17 every quarter a package of thirteen of the en- velopes, all bearing his number, and each dated for successive Sundays. On each Sunday he brings one to the school, placing his offering therein, and checking in the squares his answer to the questions 156 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL on the face of the envelope. He places this, witH his Home Study sheet, in the class box at the be- ginning of the lesson period. The teacher does not need to ask him a question as to his record, neither does the teacher attempt to mark the record until the close of the school. Then the secretary brings to the teacher the class box, and from the envelopes and the Home Study sheets the teacher makes up the record, after the school has dis- missed. It will be seen that this method places the marking practically in the hands of the scholar; he is thrown on his honour to mark the envelope accurately. In actual test, running over several years, no instance was found of a pupil misrepresenting the facts, while the moral influ- ence of the system was excellent. A further ad- vantage lies in the fact that it eliminates from the class period the counting of noses and the asking of questions of the pupils regarding their records. ///. The Use of the Offering Be sure that the pupils are kept informed as to the use that is being made of the money received from them. Support the Work of the School. The school should not have to depend wholly on the gifts of its scholars; the church must bear a large share in this, her own work. The Sunday school has a definite place in every wise church budget. The THE USE OF THE OFFERmO 157 average church, liowever, is likely to pay fifty times as much " to make one proselyte/' or to save one sin-spent sinner, as it invests in keeping for the kingdom those, the children, who already belong to it by every right, and whose young full lives would be worth, in energy and service, ten times the lives of those who have given their best years to sin. But, while the school must feel that it has the full support of the church, it needs also to feel that it is doing something for itself, that it is more than an idle recipient of privileges and service. There is high moral and educational value in self-support. Local Church Support. It is a good thing to begin early to train all to a share in the work of the church. A definite, perhaps only a small propor- tion of the offering may go to the pastor's salary, because he is the pastor, the paid officer of the school as well as of the church. The support of the church gives the sense of unity with the church. It is of great importance to cultivate this, and to avert the danger of the school becoming an inde- pendent and even conflicting power. The school is not only an agency of the church; it is the church at work in religious education. Therefore, the school should have its natural part in church support. Local Benefice:n"Ces. The good works of the city or village, those which the pupils know directly, 158 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL make a very proper and helpful appeal to them. The school may well spend time in seeing that, by description and by visits conducted by the school officers, the pupils are made familiar with the hos- pitals, settlements and charities. Let the school also care wisely and with love for its own poor and needy. World-wide Missions. Some schools have cer- tain days set aside for missions, when the offering of the day will be devoted to a certain mission or a field ; others set aside a definite proportion of the whole offering through the year for their general Home and Foreign Missions. While the raising of goodly sums has a certain importance, the greater thing is to train to intelligence in what these societies and workers are doing and to cul- tivate the spirit that delights in a practical share in this work. (See Chapter XIV, The Teaching of Missions.) IV. General Financial! Methods Let all the financial affairs of the school be so conducted as to be to every pupil an object lesson, an effective first step in business ethics, in the ap- plication of religion to finance and to everyday business affairs. We greatly need the training of our young people to high religious and moral ideals in commercial affairs. The manner in which the school handles its pennies may determine the man- FINANCIAL METHODS 159 ner in which the magnate — now the little, observ- ant lad in the class — will handle both millions and men. Let the accounts then of treasurers and financial secretaries be kept at least as strictly as though in a bank. Then let there be at stated periods reg- ular audits made of the books, with a report from the auditors to the church and the school. The relation of the finances of the school to the church should be carefully adjusted. Unless the church polity forbids it, the plan of making the church treasurer the chief treasurer of the school, and the church treasury the depository of the school funds, seems to be a wise one. Cultivate everything that secures essential unity with the church. There is serious danger of divisions through conflicting financial machinery and agencies in the church, which would be obviated if there be but one chief treasurer, but one who signs checks and passes on vouchers finally. This will not mean that all the funds are merged; separate accounts should be kept and strictly held sacred for their own uses. For instance, if the school is lapng up funds for a new building or for better equipment — as it may well do — that fund should be deposited by the treasurer of the church, and carried on the books as a separate ac- count, while the amount is carried always in the bank balance. 160 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL V. Special Dangers Beware of special appeals for unworthy objects. There are always many travelling beggars who want to present their causes — usually devoted to their salaries — to the school. If the school intends to make giving educational, it will shun the prac- tice of appealing for enlarged offerings to buy Christmas candies, or to pay for school picnics. Unless such entertainments can be paid for by private subscription, it is better to sell tickets to them, planning quietly to give tickets to those who cannot possibly buy them. Keep always clear the distinction between giving to the Lord's work and begging for ourselves, or raising funds for our own fun. VI. The Motive Keep ever in mind the great motive: we give to Him who has given all good things, who has given Himself to us; we give, also, to learn the joy and enter into the high privileges of the fel- lowship of giving. XVII THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS MOVEMENT The Adult Bible Class Department in the Sunday school is simply the organisation of adult scholars for the promotion of the interests and the develop- ment of the value of their division of the school. It is the recognition of the school as an institution for adult life, as well as for infants, as suited to meet the religious needs of maturer years. The value of the department has been already demonstrated; there is a danger, however, as al- ways in any organisation, that it shall exist ex- clusively for organisation activities, and so fail of its true end of strengthening the school as, in this division, an institution for the religious education of men and women. T. Principles of 'Organisation The first essential to a successful Adult Depart- ment is a man or a woman, or, better, both, thor- oughly in sympathy with the life of young people, alive to their needs and interests, and enthusiastic as to their possibilities in Christian service and character. Such persons would respectively bring together all the young men and all the young 161 162 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL women in the school, organise them as classes, and then organise them as a department for promotion and fellowship. All those methods found wise in organising young people can be used here, such as officers, committees, buttons, special duties for them to perform ; but the essential thing to do is to grasp the spirit and possibilities of the young man's or young woman's life and, on one side, to minister to its true development through the school and, on the other, to enlist its service in the work of the school, and thus to really educate these young people in active living religion. It is well to organise for games, for sports, for such things as baseball, football, tennis, rowing, etc.; it is well to cultivate the social life, the aesthetic inter- ests — all these may stand for education by doing; but the essential thing is the fact of the school fitting itself and its method to the life of the young man or young woman, and enlisting their activities in its service. The important considera- tion for any school, so far as any department of its activities is concerned, is not, as we too often think, what can we get out of these people ? It is, what contribution can we make to their lives? what service can we render them? Sunday-school success hinges on the answer we give to this, and the manner in which we render the service. In the organisation of this, as of other depart- ments, the greatest care must be exercised to see ADULT OKGANISATION 163 that their officers work harmoniously into the scheme for the whole school. Departmental of- ficers must not forget that the superintendent is the head of the school, that there are those who are in authority over them; there is always danger of these facts being forgotten when a new form of organisation meets with unusual popularity and success. II. Plans of Organisation There are two aspects of the Adult Bible Class Movement: First, the organisation of this de- partment in the individual school, and, second, the inner-relation and organisation of the Adult De- partments in many schools in connection with the city, county, or State Sunday School Associations. 1. The Department in the School. So far as the general organisation of the school is concerned, this department simply corresponds to the Adult Division, and should embrace all those persons therein who are willing to be identified with its activities. It is the special organisation of this division of the school, in recognition of the special needs of the lives of young men and women, in order to meet these needs, to make religious educa- tion in the Sunday school something much broader than instruction, as broad as the life of man, and also, recognising the gregarious instincts of the period of life for which it provides, to give men 164 THE MODEEN" SUNDAY SCHOOL and women the enriching and toning np that comes from association together. In the individual school the first step will be the creation of a sense of unity, of community of interests among the people between about twenty and forty years of age, bringing them to group self- realisation. This should be done even though the number of such persons in the school be quite small. The man must come to know that the Sun- day school is for men; the time was when it seemed to be for milk-sops, and among adults, either for monks or milliners. Group your men together; create a masculine atmosphere. Noth- ing wins men like manliness; get organised, asso- ciated manliness in the Sunday school. The next step in the school, certainly an im- portant one, will be to see that the material and the method of instruction do not run counter to and undo the good of such an atmosphere. The milk for babes must not be fed to men, even though attempts be made to adapt it to them by souring it into curds or making it into cheese. There must be meat for men in the course in this depart- ment. And this meat must be that which they need for their actual lives, not designed for saints of long ago alone, nor for theological students, but designed for those who desire to know how to live as sons of God, as brothers, one to another, as parents and citizens. It may be important that a THE ADULT DIVISION 165 man shall be able to set the tribes in their order in the promised land; but it is of vastly greater im- portance that he shall learn to set justice, truth, honour, duty to his fellow-men in their order in relation to all life's interests. In order, too, that this department may meet the needs that lie beyond formal instruction, it may well be organised within itself, independently of its usual grouping into classes in the school. It should meet and elect its own " departmental " officers, it may adopt its own badge or button; it may have its own treasury. The conduct of the department outside the class work of the school should be in the hands of a committee. Perhaps the best plan is to have a committee of four, the chairman being the general director of the depart- ment, the other members being a social director, a spiritual director, and a physical director. The general director has work separate from the prin- cipal of the Adult Division; the latter cares for all the affairs of that division during the school session; the former co-operates with him in this, but his special work is the development and care of the department outside the exercises of worship and instruction in the school. He promotes the organisation and effectiveness of the department as a whole. The social director cares for the social life of the department, its social gatherings, re- ceptions, banquets, excursions, etc. The spiritual 1G6 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL director promotes the meetings for worship, prayer meetings, classes for Bible study and for other educational purposes. The physical director or- ganises and conducts the athletic sports, the tennis, baseball, rowing, and all other clubs. The activities of the department may be mani- fold. Through all, the principal purpose must be held foremost, that is educational, the bringing of young men and young women into the Sunday school and training them in the Christian life. It designs its activities to, first, bring together those adults who are now in the school, to adapt it to their needs, to organise them for study and for service, and, second, to use these as a force to bring others into the school, train and organise them also ; keeping all, in all their interests, and in all the activities, so close to the church that reli- gion will become all-pervasive and always pre- dominant in their lives. This department will endeavour to meet all the needs of the lives of its people by (a) grouping together all the adults in the school into appropriate groups and into one organisation, (h) Eecruiting to itself as many other young men and women as possible, (c) Meeting for religious and devotional services at stated times outside the Sunday school. (d) Conducting classes in special subjects of religious and educational interest, conducting lecture courses, conferences, etc. (e) Organising and DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES 167 engaging its members in athletic sports and con- tests. (/") Conducting excursions, social gather- ings, entertainments, etc. (g) Engaging in specific services for the church and the school; raising funds for certain objects; doing certain pieces of work, as decorating, cleaning, providing ushers, circulating literature, keeping church notices in stores, on bulletin boards, sending invita- tion to hotels, boarding houses, etc.; inviting in- dividuals to church, (h) Undertaking other re- lated work, as the conduct of Boy's Clubs, Girls' Societies; the maintenance of missions, the care of relief stations, ambulance societies. Through the Adult Department a school may relate itself helpfully and beneficially to itself to the many philanthropic and social movements and agencies that often lack the close relation to the church which they ought to have. It is hardly necessary to say that this depart- ment ought to have its own classrooms. It ought also to have its departmental quarters; some al- ready have separate buildings of their own, much like church or parish houses, in which they can carry on a great deal of useful work during the week as well as meet in classes on Sunday. 2. The Departments Organised in Relation TO Sunday School Associations. This is simply the federation of all such departments within a given territory, as city, county, or state, into the Adult 168 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL Bible Class Department of the general Sunday- School Association covering that territory. This loose federation meets in connection with the con- ventions of the Association, elects its special of- ficers, often conducts a special program, generally carries on the activities of a department of the Association, and promotes its work through the year by conferences, banquets, special services and by the arrangement of athletic meets and contests. An important development of large educational value has been the organisation of what are called "Adult Bible Class Baseball Leagues," bringing together the ball nines of a number of adult de- partments. Similar groupings are arranged for other athletic interests. These leagues, having regular schedules and working for pennants, suc- ceed in raising the moral tone of the game, purify- ing the atmosphere of the field and relating reli- gious life to the natural love of outdoor life and sports. 1 Perhaps the most complete development of the organisation of adult Bible classes has taken place in the State of Illinois, and particularly in Chicago, under the auspices of the Cook County Sunday School Asso- ciation. Helpful literature may be obtained by ad- dressing the office of the Association at 140 Dearborn St., Chicago. XVIII TEAINING THE WORKING FOECES There are signs that religious workers are re- covering from one of the most dangerous delusions that ever afflicted the church, the belief that ignorance and inefficiency were indications or con- ditions of consecration. Work for the souls of men, the great task of training men in the art of living as the children of God, is not only the highest and noblest that can engage human hands and hearts, it is also the most difficult. The greater the difficulty of any task, the greater the need of strength and preparation. The recogni- tion of the need of expert and duly qualified work- ers in public education led to the building up of the present system of splendid normal col- leges and teachers' schools. The recognition of a parallel need, one standing on yet higher ground, in the case of the minister of the Gospel, has led to an educated ministry. Does not the same need exist for the teachers and the administrative of- ficers who have to do with the religious education of the child, with the most delicate material in the world, the soul, at the determinative period of life? Some of the qualities that make successful 169 170 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL Sunday-school people may be inherent in some, and to that extent the teacher or the officer is born to his vocation; but in the greater number of respects they have to be made. Teachers and of- ficers do not happen; whatever they know they have acquired by observation and experience, ex- perience often bought at the price of years of failure and wasted opportunities, at great cost to those who were being experimented on. We will never meet the task laid on the Sunday school until we appreciate its difficulty and pre- pare to meet it with workers duly trained and qualified. True, we must keep the spiritual quali- fications and the personal equipment first; but we must bring education, technical training and pro- fessional equipment, and recognising them neither as ends in themselves, nor as sufficient in them- selves, make them all the servants of this high and holy service. 7. The Problem It is not only difficult to secure trained officers and teachers, it is often difficult to secure a suffi- cient staff of any kind. Those secured are fre- quently inexperienced, without special training, often inefficient and devoid of any sense of need for better preparation or at least of willingness to make the sacrifices necessary to obtain it. There has been some improvement in the matter of train- TEACHER-TRAINING 171 ing teachers; in many cities large number of special classes are being held for this, some schools conduct such classes regularly, some institutions of learning provide special courses in religious pedagogy, and there are opportunities for teachers at Bible Institutes and at Conventions and As- semblies. State and local organisations of Sunday schools foster this excellent work. There is need of similar pressure being brought on officers to lead them to secure proper training. It would be hard to find a better example of the conceit of ignorant inefficiency than one can see often in the super- intendents who are busily, fussily engaged, amidst dusty clouds of their own glory, in turning the wheels of institutions which are, in the last analysis, neither religious nor educational. There are certain definite factors which compli- cate the problem of training the working forces of this school. There is the greater need of this training because of the difficulty of the task of teaching religion, because of the difficulties of working with a volunteer force, of meeting for only a brief period once a week, and of working with inadequate equipment. These reasons also make it unfair to institute an exact comparison between the work of the day school and that of the Sunday school. We may expect as much of one as of the other when we give both the same opportunity and equipment. 172 THE MODERN" SUNDAY SCHOOL II. A Solution Suggested (1) Train up Your Own Officers and Teachers ; bring them up in your own school. Do this through the agency of the school itself, that is, let the school be so efficient, so well organised and capable that it shall, as an object lesson, be con- stantly educating its own pupils in the best school methods. Then let the course be so complete in itself, covering not simply smatterings from the Bible, but comprehensively and in proper order taking in the whole range of religious truth, so that when a pupil has completed this course he has already received that knowledge which is recognised as essential to a teacher's equipment. It is an indictment of the folly of the general curriculum of the Sunday school that we find it necessary to give its graduates courses of study in Biblical Introduction and History and Doc- trine before they are ready to teach. These courses should be acquired in the classes before one reaches the age of twenty-one. Let the superintendent have in his mind those pupils who give indications of making good work- ers and teachers ; let him plan to bring them ulti- mately into special classes provided for their train- ing in methods. (2) Maintain a Class or Classes as Part of THE Eegular Work of the School, preferably in TKAINING CLASSES 173 the adult division, in which persons shall receive instruction in whatever parts of religious truth (in- cluding history, geography, literature, etc.), may be necessary to make up for the deficiencies of the reg- ular school course, and also receive training in the special methods of Sunday-school administration, teaching, etc. Let this class or these classes meet on Sunday, under the direction of a competent pedagog. Set before you the end of making this course, or an equivalent, necessary, required of those who would teach or hold executive oflSce. Let the class follow carefully, not with haste, a regular course of teacher-training lessons. On completion of this course, award certificates or diplomas, and give special emphasis to the public recognition of the work of the graduates, making the occasion such as will impress others with the importance of such training and will serve to show that the school is endeavouring to do its great work in a worthy manner. It is worth while to maintain such a class as this, even though the number of students dwindles down to one. (3) Use Your Teachers' Meeting as a train- ing school. Every teachers' meeting ought to do at least three things: (1) Serve by cultivating the sense of unity through all the school forces. (2) Serve as a conference on school problems, and an agency for the transaction of much school busi- 174 THE MODERK SUNDAY SCHOOL ^ ness. (3) Afford opportunity for the definite training of officers and teachers in their duties. If the school maintains the Sunday class men- tioned above, the training at the teachers' meeting would be for those in active service who cannot attend such a class. The conception of the teachers' meeting as a means of preparing the teachers for the teaching of their lesson week by week is impossible, where a graded course of study is followed ; very few will be teaching the same lesson. Even with a uniform lesson it is a mistake; every man must here make his own preparation. Teachers have two things to learn: that there is no proxy preparation, and there is no post preparation. To allow another to do the hard work on a lesson and think you can fit yourself by listening to him on some night — preferably late in the week, so you may not forget — is a serious mistake. Better the little you dig out and digest for yourself than the vast amount presented by another either in a class or in a " help." Beware of the helps that hinder by making you unable to walk alone. III. Suggestions on Training in the Teachers Meeting (1) Magnify this Meeting. Make it worth while. Make it distinct in character from all I TEACHERS' MEETING TRAINING 175 other meetings. Then require attendance of teachers, prospective teachers and officers. (2) Have a General Meeting of all the force. But make it brief. Present in it those matters which concern the school as a whole. Despatch the business promptly; shut off verbose meander- ings. The superintendent must really preside. At close of general session let teachers and officers divide up into groups according to the divisions in which they work. (3) Division Groups. Let each meet m its special classroom, equipped with maps and refer- ence library. In these group meetings they will discuss the problems peculiar to each division. The graded system tending to make both teachers and officers specialists in their departments, this arrangement is much better than a general con- ference on individual class or pupil problems. These gatherings, if held weekly, need not last long. But they may be of great value to all. Following them, at a definite hour, the teachers will again group themselves into study classes. (4) Study Classes. Here the teachers will be arranged according to the work they have done in the teacher-training courses. The classes will fol- low a carefully prepared course of study, making progress to higher branches from year to year. Work in these classes will be, upon examination, recognised. Certificates or diplomas awarded as in the other training classes. 176 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL IV. The Teacher's Curriculum These courses of study ought to include at least the following subjects: Sunday-school history, Sunday-school organisation and management, the principles of religious pedagogy, the study of child nature — all these on the side of method; on the side of material: Old and New Testament intro- duction, biblical history, biblical geography, out- lines of church history, development and scope of Christian institutions and modern philanthropy. The International Sunday School Association, through its committee on education, set up two standard courses of study for teacher-training classes, an Elementary and an Advanced Course. The Elementary Course covers four subjects, namely : (a) An outline study of the Old Testament. (b) An outline study of the New Testament. (c) A study of Sunday-school Organisation and Management. (d) A study of the Essential Principles and Methods of Teaching. In order that students in teacher-training classes may become eligible for the certificates and diplomas awarded by the International and the State Associations, it is required that a minimum of ten lessons must be given to each of these sub- jects, making a total of at least forty lessons for TEACHER-TRAINING COURSES 177 the full Elementary Course. Upon completion of any course, a course certificate is awarded by the State Association, usually after passing an exam- ination; upon completion of all four courses an International Elementary Diploma is awarded. The Advanced Course embraces these four sub- jects, studied in fuller detail and in a more thor- ough manner, as well as the subjects of Church History and Christian Doctrine; it requires more time than the Elementary. Certainly this standard is not too high. Yet it is not often reached. Although there are thou- sands of teachers who have received the Interna- tional Elementary diploma, what are they among so many who still sit in blissful unconsciousness of their deficiencies, unthinking of the responsi- bilities of teaching the young, and the account which they must give of their work. This stand- ard has its serious defects; but it will be a great deal better for all schools if everyone will seek to reach it instead of wasting breath discussing its pedagogical defects. In the case of schools where teachers are really being trained, and where these elementary condi- tions are already met — and it will be evident that the work of the first two subjects mentioned above will be thoroughly covered in the course of the school work in the regular classes of a properly graded school — ^then it is time to consider a better course for the training of teachers. Certainly 178 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL there must be place in such a course for the study of the nature of the child, the one to be taught; Child-psychology ought to be the first subject in a teacher-training course. The teacher cannot possibly teach the child unless she knows him, knows him not only as a " dear little fellow/' but knows his nature, the laws of that nature, the emotions, faculties, instincts, the whole dynamics of his being. No matter how learned you may be in the Scriptures, you cannot carry that learning into his being and the roads in his soul country, unless you also know the rules of the road there, for they are quite different from the rules that prevail in your own self. There is a whole world of power waiting the teacher and officer of the school who will take the pains to enter into it. The failure, or breakdown, of the school, wherever it occurs, is not due to the depravity of the pupil, nor to the inadequacy of the equipment; it is due to the fact that we are blindly blundering around among the delicate souls of children; we are with the fingers of a blacksmith touching the most delicate mechanism in nature, and creating discord and even war- fare where harmony and efficiency were meant to be. The powers of nature, the forces of the child life are not opposed to religion; if we but sit down patiently to learn the laws of these lives, we will find that the great powers within them are CHILD-STUDY 179 with us and not against us; we have but to obey them in order to use them. We must learn the laws of the child life. Let the teacher or any Sunday-school worker begin this study; let them once taste the delights of this well of knowledge, and an appetite is created that never will be satisfied, but will go on seeking more light, more power and coming into larger usefulness and beauty of service. Sunday- school teachers only need to get started right; the solution of the teacher-training problem at its root is this creation for an appetite for knowledge of and ability to follow the way of truth, the scientific way, the only sacred way of service. The course of study in question ought to meet the needs of the officers as well as the teachers; while each ought to be acquainted with the funda- mental principles in the work of the other, all following an elementary course, there ought to be a point at which officers and teachers each begin to specialise on their own work. It may appear to some that this means the un- dertaking of business so serious that teachers will be unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices and to do the necessary study. The mistake we have too long made in the school is that of attempting to persuade teachers that their task is much easier than it ought to be; we have attracted the sloth- ful, the superficial; we have urged men, and es- 180 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL pecially women, to teach, and when they have raised the very proper objection that they were not prepared or were not trained or equipped, we have answered, saying that this work was such that practically one needed neither training nor special preparation for it. It is a good deal easier to get people to do hard things than it is to secure effi- ciency by setting up standards of mediocrity. Let it be so dignified and worthy a thing to be a teacher in the school, a thing requiring training and toil, and you will find the best people you have attracted to it; they want to do things worth the doing ; they care nothing for those things done without effort or in one's sleep. In designing teacher-training courses of study, however, there must be ample provision made for the most elementary work. Such courses often fail because they are designed either wholly for academic ends, or because they begin a great distance ahead of where the average teacher stands. Find out just what your teachers do know in any- thing like a systematic manner about the Bible, or about the art of teaching, and you will be per- suaded that it is wise to begin at the beginning with them. Schools should not be satisfied, however, with elementary courses alone. Provision must be made for advanced studies. The day will come when the elementary courses will be required be- NEIGHBOURHOOD CLASSES 181 fore a teacher can have charge of a class; the courses that follow should be continued along with the work of teaching. V. Neighbourhood Training Classes Where it is impossible to find the people and the interest to maintain these classes in the in- dividual school, it is often possible to arrange to have the teachers from the neighbourhood group of schools, all the churches in the village uniting perhaps, gathering weekly for a Union Teacher- training Class. Perhaps two classes can be ar- ranged, one doing the elementary, and the other the advanced work. Such classes are often able to secure the services of expert teachers from some other place. The various Sunday School Asso- ciations, as well as other organisations for pro- moting religious education, outline courses of study and often provide teachers for classes. But it must be steadily borne in mind that "union" classes do not represent the best nor the normal method of training teachers, for this work is part of the duty of the separate school; it should be regarded just as much a part of the activities and the regular curriculum of the school as its Ele- mentary division, for instance. VL In General. The school should also aid its teachers in their 182 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL general preparation by stimulating their reading along lines helpful to their special work. A school may well have a general educational committee which shall not only supervise the curriculum of the school, including the courses of study for teachers, but shall also from time to time set forth courses of reading for the teachers, shall call to their attention each new and worthy book that appears on their work, or on the subjects which they are teaching. If you have teachers careless and indil?erent, willing, apparently, to continue in their incompetency, you may often arouse them and begin the process which shall result in their steady labour of improvement, by giving them one of the many excellent, stimulating books on the modern Sunday school and its methods, or on the art of teaching in the Sunday school. Another means that has been found very help- ful in stimulating teachers to make more adequate preparation is that of holding Institutes or Con- ferences on Sunday-school methods and problems. Many a teacher and worker, now by training and efficiency noted as a leader in religious education, has received his first impetus to improvement by attending a gathering of this kind. Keep the teachers steadily in touch with the best that is being thought and accomplished in every department of Sunday-school endeavour. Intelligence is certainly one of the parents of effi- STIMULATING TO IMPROVEMENT 183 ciency. Schools do not waste their money when they spend some of it on papers, magazines and books which bring their workers into touch with and knowledge of the methods, experiences and plans of others. It is a good plan to lay aside the regular pro- gram of the teachers' meeting through the sum- mer months, and have for at least part of the time addresses from experts and leaders in differ- ent departments, from those who have acquired the right to speak with authority on the methods and the principles of Sunday-school work. Do not be ashamed to ask such an one to address the little group of your corps of teachers; the best work is not usually done in great gatherings, but in close touch with the little groups of workers; conven- tions have inspirational value; but for instruc- tional value the conference is to be preferred. Let each school, then, be governed by the prin- ciple, first, that so great a work as that of reli- gious education demands the very highest class of service and the most highly developed efficiency, and, second, that such efficiency will not be secured by accident; it must be attained by definite and wisely directed efforts. If you would have the work well done by capable people you must train and direct them. XIX THE LIBRARY PROBLEM The average Sunday-school library is not a shining success. But it is quite generally assumed that every school must have a collection of books and a librarian. The impression prevails that such an annex is essential to the orthodox organisation of the school. And it seems to be the popular belief that, given so many shelves filled with books and some plan of charging them to scholars as they are distributed and crediting their return, you have a valuable adjunct to Sunday-school work. 7. Shall We Have a Library? In view of the value of the work of public libraries no word needs to be said in support of the maintenance of libraries in general; the pres- ent question is whether the Sunday school needs a special library ? That, if answered in the affirma- tive, leads to the further questions : In what shall it consist? How shall it be selected? How main- tained ? How conducted so as to be of the largest spiritual and religious educational value? 1. Shall the Sunday School Have a Gen- eral Library f Yes, if there is need of one; no, 184 THE GENERAL LIBRARY 185 if there is not. Every comiminity, no matter how small, needs an agency or organisation for the col- lection and distribution of good literature, for the promotion of its reading and study, and, if possi- ble, a centre or centres of the literary, artistic and social educational life of its people. If that need is not met for all the people by any other agency, or is not met so well as the Sunday school can meet it, then let the school proceed to meet it, if it is able to do so. But in nearly every community to-day is found the public library with greater resources, higher development, better equipment and larger field of operations than would be possible to all the Sun- day schools banded together. The average Sun- day-school library with its pitiable collection of ragged books, selected by aged saints on account of their painfully pious platitudes or their im- possible puerile martyrs — or, it may be, purchased under the pressure of a denominational publish- ing house — such a library presents a damaging contrast to the splendid collection and the wise organisation one is likely to find in the public library. It is but folly for the Sunday school, where there is a good public library, to waste its time and money duplicating in a feeble way the work of the latter in providing general literature, the classics of English, and the popular crazes in 186 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL modern novels, or meeting the need for history, biography, fiction, poetry, essays, etc. 2. Granting this. Shall the Sunday School Provide " Eeligious Literature " ? If by this is meant the old type of " Sunday-school-Library " book, with its pitiable caricatures of fine Christian character, it is scarcely necessary to say that such literature is worse than none at all, that it may do fully as much harm as the trashy " Diamond Dick " type. But, if one means to include in this all those books which deal directly with religious subjects, such as religious history, biography and philosophy, biblical exposition and introduction, together with text-books on religious and eccle- siastical subjects — including in all these those writ- ten from the view points of both children and adults, there is no doubt that this is the proper field of the Sunday-school library, one which it must cultivate, provided others are not already properly doing the work therein. It is a rare thing to find a public library which does not con- tain a better collection of books strictly religious and suited to children and adults, than could be found in all the Sunday schools of the neighbour- hood. More than this, it is the settled policy of a large number of public libraries to place on their shelves the best works on the history, activities and polity of each denomination represented in the community. The librarians frequently ask RELATION TO PUBLIC LIBRARY 187 pastors and others to recommend such books. The Sunday-school officers may often accomplish more by recommending the right books to the pub- lic library than by putting them on the shelves of the school library. They will thus secure for them a wider reading. Let the school co-operate with the public library, then, whenever the latter is willing to do the work which the former initiated, and in which it must be confessed it very largely failed, that of providing religious literature for the people. The plan has been tried, with success, of making the Sunday schools substations for Sunday deliv- ery of books from the public library; it would be well if arrangements might be made for distribu- tion from the Sunday-school rooms on week days also. The superintendents may from the desk, or the teachers in their classes and in connection with the lessons, call attention to helpful books in the library. The school ought to send to the public library at the beginning of each year's work a statement of what the work will be in each grade, with recommendations of suitable books. 3. Does the Public Library then" Make THE Sunday School Library Unnecessary? Even where we find the utmost liberality on the part of the public library and the most perfect provision made therein for the needs of Sunday-school people, both for pupils and for 188 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL teachers, we are likely still to need a Sunday- school library of some sort. But it will not be at all like the promiscuous, heterogeneous aggregation of books, selected solely for their piety, to which we have been used. If the public library furnishes the general literature. Christian literature, religious history, biography, church his- tory and even denominational history and institu- tions; even if it goes further and makes provision for the special subjects being studied in the school, there will still be need of a special library for the Sunday school. This would be a collection of the technical books on the teachers' and officers' work, together, in many instances, with books on the study and interpretation of the biblical text. Such works of this kind as cannot be found in the public library ought to be provided for its workers by the school. These would be of greater value to the usefulness of the institution than thousands of volumes of stories and mawkish trash for the reading of the pupils. Let the school officers select the best works, not necessarily the most learned alone, but the best for each grade of teachers and workers, on Sunday-school history, organisation, methods, on religious pedagogy, on religious education in general, on psychology, on the study of the spiritual life and the religious nature. Besides many standard and absolutely essential books on these subjects there are appear- A WORKERS' LIBRARY 189 ing new and valuable works. They should not be selected at random, nor on specious advertise- ments alone. Let a committee, which shall include some well-qualified general educators, be appointed to recommend books for this " Worker's Library." Having installed such a library, there comes the duty of seeing that it is used. Once you are able to start a teacher's interest in her work, there will be no trouble in sustaining the interest. Teachers will realise their own needs and imperfections, and go on from stage to stage of study and improve- ment through the use of this library. It should fit into the Teacher-training courses being con- ducted by the school, so that teachers find in it the general or supplementary reading required in con- nection with their text-books. It would not be an unwise provision to make it include the text- books themselves, at least for those who were at first unwilling to buy their books. II. How to Have a Library So that the course where a good public library is in the city or village would seem to be, not to give up the Sunday-school library altogether, but to turn it, first, from an empty and often futile organisation into a force to supplement and assist the public library. Use your best endeavours to 190 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL guard the public library from becoming an irreli- gious or an anti-religious force, urge the purchase of the best books and the exclusion of those that are positively damaging, co-operate in the selection of the best books ; advise on the proper and worthy works on such subjects as Christian, or general religious biography, missions, Christian, ethics, etc. Use the public library just as far as you can, for it is always better to do things together when you can than to do them apart. Then, if there are books needed for either scholars or teachers which the public library does not and will not supply, get them yourselves and see that they are properly kept and circulated. Now as to the principles of selection, conduct and circulation, which will apply either to this smaller special library or to those larger libraries which the school must maintain where there is no accessible public library: 1. Content of the Sunday School Library: Having determined the purpose of this library, which is seen to be the religious education of the pupils of the school by means of suitable literature, and having decided on the limits of the range of this literature, a matter we have seen to be deter- mined by the extent to which library needs are met by other institutions, it ought not to be difficult to select suitable contents for the library. Its pur- pose would generally exclude all books of an irreli- gious character. Generally speaking, it will, at CONTENT OF THE LIBRARY 191 first at least, exclude those of recreation and amusement only, as well as works of pure science and of general instruction in arts and industries. Of course it can be seen that there will be situations in which the Sunday-school library must provide for the whole range of the literary life of the community. But wherever this need can be met by other agencies, it is folly for the school to ex- pect its library to include all the types of litera- ture; it would be as reasonable to say that the Sunday-school course must cover the whole range of general knowledge. The library of this school must be in harmony with and correlate itself to the specific purpose of the school. It will contain those books which build up or which lead to moral and religious character. It will include biography, history, fiction, travel, philosophy, sociology, biblical interpretation, Christian doctrine and religious methods of work. It ought to meet the needs of every age and of every grade of in- telligence and intellectual and spiritual develop- ment in the school. The books for young children should be not only those that they ought to read, but those they both ought to read and will read. The library ought not to consist of those books which no bookseller could possibly sell to any others than Sunday-school library committees, but of such an array of titles as will make the mental appetite to desire more time in which to read, as will effectively answer the trite sneer 192 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL against the Sunday-school library. This institu- tion has the greatest work to do; it should ha-'.^e the best tools. A division of the library of no small value is that for reference works, and books for the special use of the teachers and officers. Every library ought to have such a section, consisting of such books as will help the teachers to adequate, proper preparation of the lessons they must teach, and will fit them for their tasks as teachers or officers by instruction in their duties, and the underlying principles of these duties. This section of the books ought to be so placed as to be accessible to those who will use it at any time. 2 The Selection op a Sunday School Li- brary. Practically the content of the library de- pends on this, and this on the persons or person having it in charge. Let the chairman of the com- mittee on selection be chosen for familiarity with books, for literary taste and religious knowledge, and also for sympathy with the life of the pupils. Let the committee really select the books individu- ally, not by the quantity, nor often by the set. They may secure excellent lists of suitable books from the larger public libraries as well as from publish- ers. A box or blank book should be accessible to all pupils by means of which they may make request for new books. Have a care lest even the best committee you can secure becomes lop-sided, buy- MAINTAINING THE LIBRARY 193 ing only books of a certain type, or on a particular subject; beware, also, lest the personal tastes of its members become the sole criterion for the judg- ment of books. 3. Maintaining the Library. Where it seems wise to limit the library to a selection of books for workers, the expense will not be very great. The general library must be maintained by the appropriation of a certain proportion of the school income for this purpose. In some schools it is possible to do even better by securing a few generous gifts for this division of the work. In any case do not let it depend on sporadic interest, nor on the chance, unregulated donations of worn- out or still-born books. 4. Conduct of the Library. The suggestions given below will not need argument or elaboration for those who have had experience in library work ; those who have had none will be persuaded of their value by trying them. (1) All books on open shelves, accessible to pupils. (2) Librarian in charge of all; assistants in charge of divisions of necessary labour. (3) Books returned by pupils at one door or window, on entering library, and credited to pupil there; selected from shelves, and then charged at another door or window on leaving. Be sure to adopt and closely follow a comprehensive system 194 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL of charging and crediting books. Keep the library activities and business out of the classes. (4) Library closed to pupils during school ses- sions ; open for circulation at certain fixed periods, after school and if possible during week, in charge of proper officer when open for reference purposes. (5) Absolute impartiality as to distribution of books; librarians must have no favourites for whom the new books are reserved. (6) Bulletin interesting, new and timely books. Encourage pupils to advise with teachers as to selection. Under the plan above teachers can go with class and aid in choice of books. No library at all is better than one so poor or so illy conducted as to reflect discredit on the school, especially if it be thrown into comparison with a public library. Practically almost everything depends on the librarian, the one who knows why you have a li- brary, who knows and respects the tastes and needs of the pupils, who knows the contents and possibili- ties of the books, who understands the science, the technical aspects, of their selection, arrangement, preservation and circulation. A library is worth what it costs, multiplied by the intelligence, sympathy and self-denial put into it or divided by the ignorance and indifference of its officers. XX FACTOES m SUNDAY-SCHOOL SUCCESS So far we have concerned ourselves almost ex- clusively with methods of work ; but, back of these and of far greater importance as determining the value of the work, lies the dominant motives. The best machinery, most perfectly adapted to its purposes, may be worthless if the dynamic of high and worthy purpose be lacking. There is need of : /. Clear and Inspiring Ideas as to the Purpose of the School and the Nature of Its WorTc Every officer, teacher and supporter should have a conception of its 1. Lofty Purpose. Character is basic to so- ciety, is the noblest fruit of the universe, is, so far as we know, the purpose of all the divine activities. It is the purpose of the Sunday school. This school is the one agency directly, exclusively en- gaged in its culture, in building up religious char- acter. There is no greater work in the world. If any seek to deride it, then, take an inventory of what the church, the city, the nation owes to the Sunday school as a character-building institution. 2. Definite Purpose. To see the Sunday school, 195 196 THE MODEEN" SUNDAY SCHOOL not as a plaything, nor merely as an inherited or acquired habit, not as a weekly religious perform- ance, nor as an unwelcome duty, but as an organ- isation, perfected through testing and experience, seriously designed and conducted for certain specific purposes, all of which come under the general head of religious education. In detail some of these purposes are: (1) Laying the foundations of Christion char- acter in the knowledge of its high ideals, its laws, its mighty forces, the facts of its history and all the story of God's work in His world. (2) Eevealing the forces of Christian character, as seen in the life of God's Son, in the lives of all His saints, as found in the presence of God with men, in the possibilities of prayer, in the power of the spiritual life, in the power of the Bible over character. (3) Cultivating the habits of the higher life. By atmosphere, environment, drawing out the soul as the dominant force and the true end of living; by repeated action, emphasis on attitude and trend of thought, teaching, training, to live to the things above. (4) Persuading to follow the great example of Christian character, leading to loyalty to and con- fession of Christ as Lord. Here the teacher must beware of setting up individualistic standards of " conversion.'^ IDEALS OF THE SCHOOL 197 (5) Training in Christian character. Conver- sion is but the beginning. The Sunday school must be the training school for service; here men and women must, while life and habits are in the making, learn to become active, useful Christians. It will be the training school of the church, ac- quainting its people with the history, principles, problems and methods of this institution. All the activities of a well-organised school will have the church in view; they will lead to church member- ship, to useful, fruitful church membership. II. Fitting and Worthy Means to Accomplish the Purpose 1. In the School. (1) The best educational methods, causing the splendid work done by care- ful, devoted students of the problems of general education, to bring tribute to this greatest of edu- cational agencies. If the work is so important the methods should be commensurate. We have no right to expect to mould character "wdth a meat axe, nor have we any right to complain if failure awaits ufi when we fail to use the best methods. (2) The effect of high moral and Christian character on the part of all officers and teachers. Under no circumstances allow the work of the school to be undone by the contagion of immoral character. Keep in mind the effect of absolute 198 THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL sincerity, reverence and seriousness of purpose. Solid character cannot be built by the hands of shams. Strong as must be the emphasis on right methods and right matter in teaching, still stronger must it be on the personal element be- tween teacher and pupil. There is a subtle some- thing that reaches the pupil when you are honestly, sincerely, deeply interested in him as a human be- ing — not as a pupil only, not as a problem only, not as one who may be made to bring you credit as a teacher — that is mightier with him than all argument or force. Gain his confidence and de- serve to keep it; know his real life, his home, his habits, his pets, his tastes. Don't talk of love, just let yourself go out after him; keep his respect. (3) The value of the appeal to the pupil's in- tellectual life. The school and its work and its message must win his respect; there must be in- tellectual assent on his part. (4) We cannot ignore the deepest need, that of an all-persuading passion for people, for boys and girls, for men and women, a desire to lead them to Christ for their own sakes, not to increase our own numbers, nor for the sake of the church or any other motive save love for them. This high motive will find expression, not in sentimental statements of affection, nor in moonings of love, but in the spirit that sacrifices, that studies, that serves, that brings its best of body and intellectual EELATION TO OTIIEE AGENCIES 190 life and inner spirit to the service of the child life. 2. In the Agencies Outside the School. •The success of the school will depend very largely on its right correlation to all the other forces that are determining the characters of its pupils. (1) The church must co-operate in every way. Its worship, meetings, societies and activities should be studied in an endeavour to fit their work to that of the school, to make them supplement where the school is incomplete, to co-ordinate all the work of the church to the development of Christian character and efficiency in service. (2) In the home it may be possible to secure the aid of parents, to consult with them, to sug- gest family prayers, to have a watch-care over the child's prayers and everyday reading, to know something about and to influence his recreations and to direct the use of his leisure. (3) The public school teachers desire the spiritual welfare of their pupils; the moral pur- pose of the school is becoming evident. There might often be profitable conferences between the teachers of these two institutions. III. Paying tlie Price So great a work cannot be done in a cheap way ; the making of life will cost life. 1. Paying the Price in Money. The school 200 THE MODEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL offers an opportunity for the most direct, effective, profitable form of church service; nowhere can a better investment be made than here. Yet the tendency has been to think that a Sunday school needed money not at all. We spend millions on attempts to induce a handful of wandering old sheep to bring their worn-out lives back into the fold, to the hundreds we invest in keeping all the lambs therein. 2. Paying the Price in Materials. It is a strange commentary on selfish blindness, a revela- tion of a suicidal policy, when one passes from the church auditorium with soft carpets, stained windows and pealing organ, to the bare, cold, harsh Sunday-school room. It means that we are willing to do much for our own ease, but nothing for the things we profess to regard as the chief purposes of the church. The church that does not provide its school with the best materials in the way of general facilities and equipment is simply draining the stream of its own life at the very source. 3. Paying the Price in Life, in manhood and womanhood. It takes lives to make life. The successful schools, after all, are successful just in the measure in which men and women are putting themselves, their own lives, their physical, intel- lectual and spiritual energies, into them. The schools are finding lives where their workers are THE MOTIVE 201 losing theirs. It costs pain, fatigue, loss, weari- ness of body and of mind ; it takes flesh and blood and soul to make a Sunday school. It takes heroes and heroines, folks who do not fear storm, or darkness, or the loss of social pleasures, if but they may serve the souls of men. For all, the higher the education, the more perfect the methods, the finer the training, the wider the experience, the better; but all these are wholly worthless without the offering of the real self to this service, in simple love for those for whom He died, while all these are glorified a thousand times when consecrated to such an end. THE END INDEX Absences, providing for, Classroom, 107 32 Classification of pupils, Adolescents, curriculum 65 for 126 Closing program, 100 Adult Bible classes, 161 Committees, 48 Division, 68, 161, 165 Contests, harmful, 75 Program for, 101 Correlating school to American Sunday-school other educational idea, 22 agencies, 129, 199 Announcements and re- Corresponding secretary, ports, 100 47 Apostolic religious Curriculum. 124 schools, 16 Need of graded, 70 Associational organisa- Outline of, 134 tions, 22 Range of, 131 Attendance of pupils, 74 Scientific basis of, 125 Authority, basis of, 30 -i^o Decision, age of, 57, 126 " Bad boy problem, 149 definitions of Sunday Bible, place in Sunday school, 31 school, 109 Departments, 34 Studies outsiae of, 131 departmental officers, 49 Biblical precedents to i^evelopment of the Sun- the Sunday school, 15 ^^y school, 10, 18, 27 Blackboards, 93 Discipline, 143 Book-work for pupils, 114 disorder, causes of, 144 Buildings, for Sunday Diyjsions of the school, school, 86 39 ^ ^x, irro Principals of, 44 Child, study of the, 178 secretaries of, 48 Church, relation to Sun- £)octrines taught, and the day school m his- pastor, 57 tory, 21 Drawing by pupils, 114 And school to-day, 53 Service and Sunday school, 53, 55 Edifice, 86 Class work, 105 Education and Evangel- Aids to, 109 ism, 61 203 204 INDEX Educational aim In dis- Ideals of the Sunday cipline, 144 school, 195 Aim in the offering, 151 Institutes and Confer- Aim of the school, 61 ences, 182 Effect of disorder, 146 Invitation, methods of, Effect of program, 104 77 Organisation, 61 Plan in adult depart- Lessons, graded against ment, 49 uniform, 70 Election of oflBcers, 45 Library, conduct of, 193 Superintendent, 42 Contents of, 190 Teachers, 45 Problem of, 184 Elementary program, 98 Selection of, 192 Enrolment secretary, 47 For teachers and Equipment of the Sunday workers, 188 school, 91 Literature, religious, in Evangelism and educa- the Sunday school, tion, 61 186 Evolution of the Sunday General and the Sun- school, 11 day school, 187 Examinations, 110 Exhibits and museums. Manual methods, 112 141 Argument for, 115 Extra-biblical studies, Maps, 93 131 Map-work, 114 Men in the Sunday Field of the Sunday school, 161 school, 75 Mediaeval religious Finances of the Sunday schools, 16 school, 156 Methods (see class- work. Furniture, 92 etc.) In giving, 154 General secretary, 47 Financial, 158 Genetic basis of curric- Missions, literature on, ula, 125 141 Method, 63 Teaching of, 136 Giving and finances, 151 Music, 94 Grading the school, 63 Plans for, 69 National organisations, 25 History of the Sunday New Testament times, school, 12 religious instruction Home and Sunday school, in, 13 80 Home study, 107 Offering in Sunday Hymns in Sunday school, school, 151 97 Use of the, 157 INDEX 205 Dangers relating to, IGO Officers, departmental, 34 Of divisions, 44 Duties of, 40 Relations of, 32, 36, 39 Organisation of adult de- partment, 161 Chart of, 39 Of classes, 109 Pedagogical, 37 Plan of, 28 Principles, 29 Parents and Sunday school, 80 Pastor in Sunday school, 51 Pedagogical principles of Sunday school, 28 Of manual work, 115, 122 Of curriculum, 124 Purposes of discipline, 144 Pictures 1 n Sunday school, 92 Preparation of the teacher, 106, 169 Price of Sunday-school success, 199 Primary program, 97 Principals of Divisions, 44 Prizes, baits and bribes, 83 Program, principles and plans of, 95 Promotion, basis of, 67 Public library and Sun- day school, 187 School grades and Sun- day school, 67 Pupil's activities, in class work, 148 In discipline, 148 In school work, 38, 109, 113 Pupil's preparation, 105 Pupil, study of, 148, 178 Puritan Sunday school, 18 Purpose of the Sunday school, 31, 61, 196 Recruiting pupils, 74 Reference library, 188 Religious Education As- sociation, 26 Religious education, problem of, in Sun- day school, 9 Reformation, schools in, 17 Reports and announce- ments, 100 Report cards, 81 Retaining pupils, 79 Robert Raikes, service of, 20 Schedule of school work, 95 School, Sunday, among educational agencies, 9, 61 Scholars (see pupil) Scholars, securing and keeping, 74 Training for Christian work, 123, 172 Secretaries, 47 Senior program, 101 Service, training pupils for, 123 Special occasions and programs, 102 Sports and recreations for adults, 167 Studies (see Curriculum), Range of, 131 Success, factors in, 195 Superintendent, 40 306 mDEX Superintendents, paid, 43 Theological Seminary Supplemental or integral and pastor's prepa- lessons, 72 ration, 58 Synagogue and Sunday Training the workers in school, 14 the school, 123, 172 Classes, 173 Teacher, place in school, Prtnaratlon of the 105 ^^^^^^ ^^^*^^' Sunday I'reparation or tne, lUb school development Qualifications of the, j^ 22 Tra^inine of the 169 Unifying forces, 36 1 raining or tne, iby ushers, 48 Teacher s curriculum, And worker's library. Women, adult, classes 188 fo^' 161 Teaching, the first func- tion o f Sunday Young People's Mission- school, 32 ary Movement, 136 s BIBLE STUDY HELPS. ETC. 'An^us-Green Cyclopedic Handbook of the Bible tf^^ LowPrUtd PopuUr Edition An introduction to the study of the Scriptures by the late Joseph Angus, M. A., M. D. Thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Samuel G. Green, D.D. Cloth, $1.50 net. Useful for all Bible students, it is invaluable for the Sunday-school teacher, answering as it does the innumerable questions that rise in the class as to the books of the Bible, the different versions, the geography, history and customs of Bible times and Bible characters. More comprehensive than a Bible Dictionary; it will prove a library in itself to all students of the Bible. TThe IVleSSi