m\^ 
 
JUN 17 1905 * 
 
 BV 1520 .P4 1904 
 Peloubet, F. N. 1831-1920 
 The front line of the Sunday 
 school movement 
 
The Front Line 
 
 of the 
 
 Sunday School Movement 
 
 THE LINE OF THE VANGUARD OF SUNDAY 
 
 SCHOOL PROGRESS, WITH A GLIMPSE 
 
 OF IDEALS BEYOND 
 
 Rev. F. N. PELOUBET, D.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF *' SELECT NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 LESSONS," ** teachers' COMMENTARIES," AND ** SUGGESTIVE 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT," ETC. 
 
 W. A. WILDE COMPANY 
 BOSTON . . AND . . CHICAGO 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1904 
 By W. a. WILDE COMPANY 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 THE FRONT LINE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL MOVEMENT 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 When my long-time friend the president of Bangor 
 Theological Seminary requested me to give a course of 
 Lectures on the Sunday School to the students, two rea- 
 sons were especially influential in deciding me to accept 
 his invitation. 
 
 The first was a desire to express in some degree the 
 gratitude I owe to this Seminary for the training I re- 
 ceived at its hands. Not the least of the providential 
 blessings which have come unexpectedly into my life was 
 the loving guidance which brought me to Bangor and its 
 Theological Seminary. 
 
 I congratulate the Seminary for its high ideals, for 
 setting them before the students and saying : "• There is 
 the portrait of the minister whom the churches need, and 
 whom they want. He stands continually before you — 
 study him ; set your faces in that direction ; the whole 
 training of the seminary course is to help you to become 
 that man." 
 
 I congratulate the students on their privilege of enter- 
 ing the ministry. 
 
 The greatest joy a life-work can bring belongs to the 
 Preacher who preaches the Gospel because he loves the 
 Gospel, loves its Giver, and loves his fellow-men. 
 
 The greatest joy of the Preacher is that, like his Master, 
 he can also be a Teacher. 
 
 8 
 
4 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL MOVEMENT 
 
 The greatest joy of the Teacher lies in the teaching 
 of youth. 
 
 The other reason Avas a desire to express in book form 
 some things that lay upon my heart. 
 
 One of the largest elements in the ideal of the Preacher, 
 as of the Teacher, is the shepherding of the lambs of 
 the flock ; and by learning how to shepherd the lambs 
 he learns how to shepherd the whole flock. It has been 
 said that if you convert an adult you convert a unit ; but 
 if you convert a child you convert a multiplication table ; 
 that the star of Bethlehem, the star of hope, still stands 
 over the Child and the Home ; that " man was the conun- 
 drum of the eighteenth century, woman the conundrum 
 of the nineteenth century," but the problem of the twen- 
 tieth century is the child. 
 
 " Columbus," said Chauncey Depew, " was a dreamer, 
 but he dreamt of new worlds. He was admiral of the 
 ocean because he was made Christopher Columbus to carry 
 Christ across the sea." Columbus found the new world 
 of which he dreamed ; and it is through the child — the 
 child in the Home, the child in the Sunday School, the 
 child in the Church, that we whose work it is to be 
 Christophers, bearers of the Christ to the children, shall 
 find the new earth and new heavens of John's apocalyptic 
 vision. 
 
 One of the chief dangers of the scholarly temperament 
 as distinguished from the teaching temperament, and of 
 young ministers fresh from their seminary studies, lies 
 in the living, moving, and having their being in a differ- 
 ent atmosphere from that in which their people live and 
 move and have their being ; with different subjects of 
 intellectual interest, seen from different standpoints and 
 
FOREWORD 5 
 
 with a different terminology. Their sermons are not, as 
 is sometimes said, " over the heads of the people " ; they 
 are simply one side of them, outside of their sphere of 
 interest and thought, on another plane, and therefore inef- 
 fective. Thus Ian Maclaren in the British Weekly describes 
 " one of the chief futilities of the pulpit, — preaching on 
 academic subjects, which interest the preacher very much 
 and about which the people do not care one brass pin, or 
 wearying himself with vain controversies which he thinks 
 are most exciting, but which bore the people to death." 
 
 There is not the slightest danger of being too learned 
 or too intellectual. The preacher, as the teacher, must 
 gain all the knowledge he can, fill his treasure-house with 
 things new and old, search every realm of thought for the 
 very best, have the holiest and highest experiences, see the 
 loftiest ideals ; but his real business is to bring these things 
 into contact with the daily life of his people, translate them 
 into their vernacular, and adapt them to their needs. The 
 choice little volume of Patterson Du Bois on the Point of 
 Contact in Teaching is equally good for the preacher and 
 the teacher. 
 
 Now the children are among the best means of getting 
 at this "point of contact," through the Sunday School, 
 through the Christian Endeavor Societies, Epworth 
 Leagues, Young People's Unions, the Pastor's Class, the 
 Home ; just as it has been said that the " Kindergarten 
 is the leaven that has been transforming all elementary 
 education." 
 
 " The science of the century kneels by the cradle of the child." 
 " And a little child shall lead them." 
 
 If I were just entering upon my ministerial work, I 
 would as a rule go to the Sunday School, and remain 
 
6 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL MOVEMENT 
 
 through the session ; I would teach the classes of chil- 
 dren rather than adult Bible classes ; I would not usu- 
 ally become the regular teacher of any one class, but 
 would be a substitute teacher, teaching every class in the 
 school as opportunity offered, thus becoming acquainted 
 with every scholar in the most helpful way. 
 
 As I now look back over my uneventful life, more and 
 more clearly does the Sunday School Work flow through- 
 out its whole length like a river of light. Its tiniest rill 
 in the mists of years gone by I still see in one of the 
 earliest pictures my memory holds, as I behold myself a 
 little boy of four years sitting beside my father, while he 
 taught a class of young men in the old Brick Church in 
 New York City. 
 
 One of nine children, brought up in an atmosphere 
 intensely religious, literary and educational, both theoreti- 
 cal and practical, with a mother who had a gift for telling 
 Bible stories, with plenty of manual training in my father's 
 factory and garden, with Bible reading and prayer five 
 times a day, with children always in my own family even 
 till to-day, there has been at least an opportunity of know- 
 ing something about both children and the Bible. 
 
 Then I had some of the best academy teachers boys 
 could enjoy, some experience in teaching in a boys' school 
 and as school committee in village schools for many 
 years. 
 
 Always teaching in the Sunday School, at times teach- 
 ing the same lesson three or four times in a week to old 
 and young, with growing Sunday Schools in each parish, 
 where the authorities permitted me to experiment freely, 
 I at length came to the time, twenty years ago, when I 
 was compelled to make a choice between being the pastor 
 
FOREWORD 7 
 
 of a single church, or of giving myself up wholly to work 
 for the Sunday School. 
 
 Since then that has been my life's work and joy. At 
 home and abroad, through books and observation, through 
 continual practice in teaching, through a study of every 
 variety of school within my reach, through an unusual op- 
 portunity for acquaintance with Bible scholars and secular 
 educators, I have tried with open mind and eyes to learn 
 the best things for the Sunday School. The work itself 
 has been my "Schools and Schoolmasters." I have tried 
 to put in practice the theories I have held, unlike a good 
 friend of mine who kept his watch with scientific exact- 
 ness to the second, but was never known to be on time. 
 
 Therefore, what I bring in these lectures is peculiarly 
 the outgrowth of experience gained through long years of 
 study and observation and never ending toil. The book 
 is almost an autobiography of one whose life has been 
 spent in slowly climbing toward ideals not yet realized, 
 and who is still climbing toward the distant goal. 
 
 No one can be more conscious than myself of how im- 
 perfect are the results, of what better things are near at 
 hand, of the fact that all the results here given are but 
 the lower steps of the golden stairway reaching into shin- 
 ing clouds which hide the unknown heights. May you 
 
 " read between the lines 
 The finer grace of unfulfilled designs." 
 
"Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended, but one 
 thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching- 
 forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal 
 unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
 
 " Domine Deus, quaecumque dixi de Tuo, agnoscant et tui. Si qua 
 de meo, et Tu ignosce et tui." 
 
 "Ta TTaBrjfiaTa fxaOrjfxaTa. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FOREWORD 3 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. THE FRONT LINE 11 
 
 II. A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF SOME OF THE STRATEGIC 
 
 POINTS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL FRONT LINE . 24 
 
 III. THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 47 
 
 IV. HOW CAN BUSINESS MEN AND BUSY WOMEN BEST 
 
 PREPARE THEIR SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON ? . . 70 
 V. TEACHER-TRAINING, "AN EDUCATION FOR THE EDU- 
 CATOR" 90 
 
 VI. A STUDY IN GRADING 125 
 
 VII. SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE, AND ITS 
 
 REMEDY . . 159 
 
 VIII. SIGNS OF GROWING INTEREST IN BIBLE STUDY EX- 
 PRESSED IN ORGANIZATIONS FOR THAT PURPOSE . 179 
 IX. METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
 THE HISTORIC METHOD 195 
 
 X. BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. PART II. 
 
 VARIOUS METHODS . 220 
 
 XI. SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT . . .252 
 
 9 
 
THE FRONT LINE OF THE SUNDAY 
 SCHOOL MOVEMENT 
 
 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 The Front Line of the Sunday School is the line formed 
 by the best things which in its every department have 
 been tried and proved successful. Not the best untested 
 theories, not the loftiest millennial imaginings, not the 
 brightest ideals for ideal circumstances, but the best 
 things actually attained in some schools, the brightest 
 ideals that have been made real, the actual encampments 
 of the vanguard of the Sunday School army. 
 
 The work of the Sunday School is carried on under an 
 almost infinite variety of circumstances, — in city and in 
 country, in large schools and in small schools ; in schools 
 with every advantage money and talent can give, and in 
 schools where poverty, ignorance, neglect, and opposition 
 place every conceivable obstacle in the way ; with every 
 variety of talent, with different ideals, with diverse prob- 
 lems worked out with differing results, with emphasis on 
 different methods, some having attained to great profi- 
 ciency in one direction, others in another. All these 
 
 11 
 
12 THE FRONT LINP: 
 
 inultipliecl togetlier in geometrical progression produce an 
 endless variety of methods and results. The best of all 
 these things form the Front Line. 
 
 The greatest need of the Sunday Schools as a whole is 
 not the invention of new methods and theories, neces- 
 sary as these are, but that they should all be made to 
 see the Front Line, and that they should all begin their 
 march up toward it. They often do not move on be- 
 cause they do not know the existence of good things 
 toward which they might go, and which are easily within 
 their reach. 
 
 Almost every Sunday School I visit has worked out 
 something of value. But almost without exception there 
 are things which other schools could teach them to their 
 advantage if only they had their eyes open to the Front 
 Line along the whole horizon. 
 
 A bright and most devoted superintendent of one of 
 the largest and best-equipped Sunday Schools in London 
 told me that he had been in that school as scholar, teacher, 
 or superintendent almost all his life, and had rarely seen 
 another school. His school, admirable as it was, told the 
 same story. I have heard of other superintendents nearer 
 home who have been equally faithful, whose praises have 
 been sung to the same tune. While this may be safe for 
 some men of remarkable genius, yet for the great body of 
 superintendents it is a knell rather than a paean. How 
 are they to know what is best for their own schools unless 
 they see what others have done ; and how are they to 
 train up successors unless they sometimes throw the 
 burden on their assistants. The prayer for them and for 
 most Sunday Schools is that of Elisha at Dothan : Lord, 
 open Thou their eyes, that they may see — 
 
THE FRONT LINE 13 
 
 " See the helpers God has sent, 
 
 And how Life's rugged mountain side 
 Is white with many an angel tent." 
 
 The Power of the Front Line is admirably illustrated 
 by the Christian Endeavor Movement. Before that move- 
 ment was begun, the training of the young people in the 
 prayer meeting and church work was done chiefly by the 
 individual pastor with little help from the experience of 
 others. I well remember what hard work it was. Now 
 every one, whether belonging to the Christian Endeavor, 
 Epworth League, or the Union, or not, can have help from 
 the experience of thousands of others in every part of the 
 land. Books and papers reporting these experiences are an 
 inspiration to better things ; and the fact that they have 
 been tried and proved removes many objections which 
 would otherwise obstruct their adoption. 
 
 The most successful way of introducing a new measure 
 is to be able to say, " This has been tried in place after 
 place, and proved a success." I remember well when 
 I first stood at the foot of the Eiffel tower, and gazing 
 up the dizzy height saw the elevators running up and down, 
 a thousand feet, how I hesitated whether to trust myself 
 to them. But wlien I learned that they had already car- 
 ried thirteen million passengers without a single accident, 
 I said to myself, " This has been tested and proved thirteen 
 million times ; I will trust myself to it without a question." 
 
 Mr. Bryce, in his fair-minded and illuminating book on 
 America, states that the best things in that wonderful 
 and noble instrument, the Constitution of the United 
 States, are the ones which had been previously tried in 
 the state constitutions, and proved good by the test of 
 experience ; while the least valuable portions were those 
 
14 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 that were thought out for the first time at the assembly 
 for the making of the constitution. 
 
 According to William T. Harris, United States Com- 
 missioner of Education : — 
 
 ^' It is only in the history of education that one sees the 
 outcome of reforms, and can understand their strong and 
 weak points. Nearly all present practices that have be- 
 come established have a history of trials and experiments, 
 and one who studies their growth in the past is taking the 
 best way to discover what reforms should be taken up as 
 the next best step in the present. 
 
 " It is not likely that more than five per cent of new 
 experiments initiated in education will succeed in estab- 
 lishing themselves as of value to educational methods ; 
 the remaining ninety-five per cent will fail. It is so in 
 new business ventures ; . . . but the five per cent of new 
 experiments which succeed may add, and do add, enough 
 of value to compensate for the waste involved in the 
 other ninety-five per cent of experiments. Even if we 
 grant that of all criticisms and suggestions of reformers, 
 only five per cent bring fruit in the form of experiments that 
 prove anything either positive or negative, it still remains 
 an important fact that criticisms and new experiments 
 keep alive the work of education, just as in other matters." 
 
 The Front Line is the record of this five per cent result- 
 ant from all experiments in improving the Sunday School. 
 It is like the small Isaian " Remnant " sifted from the 
 Jewish nation by conflict and trial, but which in the end 
 was the means of realizing his prophecies of the New 
 Nation. 
 
 Cross-fertilization. — In that most enlightening book. 
 The Ideal School^ by Preston W. Search, there is much 
 
THE FRONT LINE 15 
 
 that is peculiarly applicable to those who are seeking the 
 Ideal Sunday School. 
 
 He says : — 
 
 "There is scarcely a single feature of all these ideals 
 presented, no matter how inaccessible they may seem, 
 which is not supported by something tested and proven, 
 to a greater or less degree, in the experience of Schools. 
 If these fragments of success can be found, no matter how 
 scattered, then an Ideal Scliool is the direct product of 
 their coordination in a single system. 
 
 " The ideal School will never be the product of any 
 one person, nor will be of any one system, nor any one 
 point of view." 
 
 For as Mr. Search says again, " It is cross-fertilization 
 and not grafting which has given us our richest varieties 
 of fruits and flowers." 
 
 This cross-fertilization, which has had such a develop- 
 ment within the last few years as almost to revolutionize 
 the progress of horticulture, is the method of the Front 
 Line. 
 
 Great things have already been attained in various 
 lines and various places, much more than is easily realized 
 by those who are in the midst of the process, who do not 
 remember the contrast between the best of the old and 
 the best of the new in the midst of the conflict of the 
 slowly dawning day. 
 
 " ' Oh, where is the sea? ' the fishes cried, 
 As they swam the crystal clearness through. 
 ' We've heard from of old of the ocean's tide, 
 And we long to look on the waters blue. 
 The wise ones speak of the infinite sea ; 
 Oh, who can tell us if such there be ? ' " 
 
16 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 This is almost universally the case in great moral and 
 intellectual progress. It was for this reason the disciples 
 were unable to recognize the " times and seasons " of 
 the coming of the Kingdom of God. So Green's Sliort 
 History of the English People shows that while in the 
 Wars of the Roses the battles and contentions of the two 
 parties filled the visible horizon that made the records 
 of history, there was going on unnoticed at the time 
 the might}^ undercurrent which was the making of 
 England. 
 
 The Front Line is the best condition for further advance- 
 ment. The loftiest mountains do not rise abruptly from 
 the plains, but out of table-lands and foothills. The great 
 literature and art of Greece, the brilliant writings of the 
 Augustan age, Shakespeare and Milton the great lights 
 of the Elizabethan age, the best things of the world, have 
 not grown out of ignorant, uncultured ages, but were 
 mountain peaks rising out of intense literary activity, 
 and eras of a revival of letters. Among a vast number 
 of great and noble men, they towered above all, and 
 overlook the centuries. What others did in the past 
 made them possible. 
 
 It is said that once the elder Professor Silliman of Yale 
 was sitting in the audience while his son was delivering a 
 lecture, when an enthusiastic man close behind him whis- 
 pered, '^ Why, he beats the old gent." The "old gent" 
 turning toward him whispered in reply. " He ought to ; 
 he stands on my shoulders." The Present is so great 
 because it stands on the shoulders of the Past. " We are 
 heirs of all the ages." 
 
 Renan, not long before his death, said, " I fear that the 
 work of the Twentieth Century will consist in taking out 
 
THE FRONT LINE 17 
 
 of the waste-basket a multitude of excellent ideas which 
 the Nineteenth Century has heedlessly thrown into it." 
 That is true partly because in our eagerness after new 
 things, we are apt to go to extremes and forget the other 
 essentials which the past has evolved ; and partly because 
 the previous century had not climbed high enough to 
 make it possible to realize its ideals, and materialize its 
 visions. According to Professor Home in his recent 
 book on The Philosophy of Education^ " Progress in 
 knowledge of whatever kind must always come only 
 from him who is already familiar with what has been 
 done in his own field : In our universities scholars become 
 abreast of their fields, they thus know where to begin 
 original work, and so human knowledge grows." 
 
 Like the rower in a boat, we look backward that we may 
 go forward. 
 
 The reason therefore for emphasizing the Front Line is 
 not simply because of its immeasurable advantage to the 
 Sunday Schools, but also because it is from this vantage- 
 ground that the greatest progress in Sunday School work 
 can be made. The object lessons of the best things 
 already accomplished, made known throughout the whole 
 Sunday School world, will continually suggest, to one or 
 another, new and better things, to be proclaimed to all. 
 There will thus be a steady, continuous, onward move- 
 ment of the Front Line. 
 
 " The goal of yesterday shall become the starting-point 
 of to-day." 
 
 From these Pisgah heights we can gaze upon the Prom- 
 ised Land of the Sunday School of the future. From these 
 Bethels rises the dream ladder toward heaven with the 
 angels of grace and glory upon it, and 
 
18 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 " Still, through our paltry stir and strife, 
 Glows down the washed ideal, 
 And Longing moulds in clay what Life 
 Carves in the marble real." 
 
 It is our business to see visions and dream dreams, as it 
 
 was a necessary element in the progress of the early 
 Church. To Kenan's "At bottom every ideal is Utopia," 
 a baseless dream, Martineau replies " At bottom every ideal 
 is an inspiration." And Ruskin says: '' Utopianism is 
 one of the Devil's pet words . . . whenever you hear 
 a man dissuading you from attempting to do well on 
 the ground that perfection is Utopian, beware of that 
 man." 
 
 For the best things you have ever done, your highest 
 experiences, your greatest sacrifices, the noblest ecstasies 
 of love, the seasons when your soul like Paul's has been 
 lifted to the third heaven, — these are Front Lines of 
 your life, keeping before you the ideals which are possible 
 to you, and from w^hich you can see visions beyond. 
 Revivals of religion, fresh enthusiasms for education and 
 for missions, new devotion to character and to Christ and 
 to the Kingdom of God, are for the Church, as the greatest 
 men and best deeds, the victories over wrong, the noblest 
 enthusiasms of righteousness, are for the country, heights 
 gained by some, and therefore inspirations for all, once 
 attained and therefore to be attained again. Carlyle 
 was right when in his Frederick the Great he said : 
 " Once risen into this divine white heat of temper, were it 
 only for a season and not again, it is henceforth consider- 
 able through all its remaining history. Nations are bene- 
 fited for ages by being thrown once into divine white heat 
 in this manner. And no nation that has not had such 
 
THE FRONT LINE 19 
 
 divine paroxysms at any time is apt to come to much." 
 Revival heights bless us evermore ; and when they have 
 passed away, and we have come again into our ordinary 
 routine, a new light still shines on the daily life, the level 
 is higher, the ideal is nobler. 
 
 We will save ourselves from many an hour of dis- 
 couragement, if we will keep in mind Matthew Arnold's 
 separation of the hour of insight from the hours of labor. 
 
 " We cannot kindle when we will 
 
 The fire that in the heart resides ; 
 The spirit bloweth and is still, 
 
 In mystery our soul abides ; 
 But tasks in hours of insight icilled 
 May he through hours of gloom fulfilled.'* 
 
 The glimpses of the mountain top will come only now and 
 then as we toil up the rocky slopes, through dark forests, 
 but we know the summits are there, and every step is 
 bringing us nearer the goal. 
 
 The whole world has been inspired, and moved upward 
 and onward by the glorious visions of Isaiah, by the 
 ideal of Christ as well as by the atoning power of his 
 death, and by the pictures of the New Heavens and the 
 New Earth revealed to John, toward which the world is 
 ever moving more rapidly as each century rolls on. 
 
 In lesser degrees, but still with power, have the ideals 
 of Plato's Republic, the Garden of the Hesperides of the 
 Greeks, the New Atlantis, Richardson's City of Health, 
 and all ideal pictures of the Golden Age, helped to hasten 
 on the good time coming. 
 
 In the words of Maxwell, " No poet's dream has ever 
 yet embodied the climax and consummation of human 
 
20 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 capabilities ; but each new dream is a prophecy of the 
 future, and is freshly watering the seeds of realization. 
 It has been truly said, ' The poetic idealism of to-day will 
 be the prose reality of to-morrow.' " 
 
 The same truth is expressed in ^Irs. Preston's poem : 
 "God never permitted us to form a theory too beautiful 
 for His power to make practical." 
 
 " Men take the pure ideals of their souls, 
 
 And lock them fast away, 
 Nor ever dream that things so beautiful 
 
 Are fit for every day ; 
 So, counterfeits pass current in their lives, 
 
 And stones they give for bread ; 
 And starvingly and fearingly they walk 
 
 Through life, among the dead ; 
 Though never yet was pure ideal 
 Too fair for them to make the real. 
 
 " Thine early dreams, which came in ' shapes of light,' 
 
 Came, bearing prophecy — 
 Commissioned sweetly to unfold 
 
 Thy possible to thee. 
 Fear not to build thine eyrie in the heights. 
 
 Bright with celestial day ; 
 And trust thyself unto thine inmost soul 
 
 In simple faith alway. 
 And God shall make divinely real 
 The highest forms of thy ideal." 
 
 All this, applies to the Sunday School not only because 
 it illustrates a principle but because for the most rapid 
 progress of the Sunday School all agencies for education 
 must move together, create an atmosphere, a trend, a cur- 
 rent, all pressing toward the same great end, — the day 
 school, the church, the home, the press, the young people's 
 
THE FRONT LINE 21 
 
 societies, the Christian associations of the colleges. One 
 cannot do its best except in cooperation with the others, 
 A dead church cannot long have a live Sunday School, for 
 either the Sunday School will join the dead, or the church 
 will become alive. Interest in secular education is sure to 
 create interest in religious education ; and equally certain, 
 yea, more powerfully, will deeper interest in the religious 
 life and education of the young impart new interest to the 
 day schools. 
 
 One of the most hopeful signs of the times is that feel- 
 ing of unrest and criticism of the Sunday School, and 
 dissatisfaction with things as they are, which may be char- 
 acterized by the motto of an organization of men, referred 
 to by one of the speakers at the first convention of the 
 Religious Education Association, called The Restless 
 
 Club : — 
 
 " Anywhere but where we are." 
 
 " Nothing could be worse than this." 
 
 " The best is good enough for me." 
 
 Any one who has been in close contact with educators 
 and educational matters during the last ten or fifteen years, 
 can recognize the truth of the description. Never before 
 has there been such a conflict of opinions, such a storm of 
 criticism, such a condemnation of the established order, 
 such a whirl of new theories, such a battle of ideas, such a 
 series of experiments. It seems as if there had returned to 
 earth the spirit of the Greek god Momus, who found fault 
 with everything in heaven above and the earth beneath, 
 even with Venus because her golden slippers made so much 
 noise when she walked. Every new scheme condemns the 
 old. The next condemns them both. " Whatever is is 
 wrong." 
 
22 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Then we turn to the literature and listen to the critics 
 of secular education, and hear what is said about our 
 world-renowned Day Schools, and lo, the criticisms of the 
 Sunday School are but a summer breeze compared with 
 the storm hurled against secular education and its methods. 
 It would not be fair or true to quote the Oriental proverb, 
 " The dog barks, but the caravan passes on," for the critics 
 and reformers are among the greatest and wisest men of 
 the age. But it is true that the caravan must pass on till 
 a better is prepared, the railroad must continue to carry 
 its passengers till the new one is built. 
 
 Now the first thing to be noted concerning this state of 
 things is, that it is apt to give a false impression, as if the 
 storm-cloud were sweeping away the whole landscape 
 instead of vitalizing and improving it. President Lin- 
 coln saw the fixed stars through the showers of meteors 
 which the farmer thought presaged the end of all things. 
 There has been and still is a wonderfully good work 
 going on in Sunday School and day school, better work 
 and with greater success than ever before. They had 
 their part in making all the Christian men and educated 
 men in the countr}^ The sun has spots, some of them 
 large enough to take in several worlds as large as ours, 
 but the sun shines serenely on, bestowing its light and 
 heat, creating power and beauty, as if no spot had ever 
 been known. 
 
 The other thing to be noted is, that all this restless 
 criticism means life, means that the Sunday School and 
 day school are not dead, but living, not standing still, but 
 marching side by side toward better things. They are 
 not behind the age, only as the wind is behind the ship 
 that makes it go, only as the sun is behind the dawn and 
 
THE FRONT LINE ,23 
 
 brings the clay. They are in the vigor, and stir and 
 change of springtime that promise summer flowers and 
 autumn fruits. 
 
 " They must upward still and onward who would keep abreast of 
 
 truth. 
 Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ; we ourselves must Pilgrims be ; 
 Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter 
 
 sea, 
 Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key." 
 
II 
 
 A BIRD'S-F.YE VIEW OF SOME OF THE STRATEGIC 
 POINTS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL FRONT LINE 
 
 Before taking up in greater detail a few subjects which 
 seem most important and are now receiving earnest dis- 
 cussion in Sunday School circles, I desire to stand by your 
 side and show you, as in a panorama, the whole long Front 
 Line of the Sunday Scliool, the vanguard of its advancing 
 army. At best the view will be imperfect ; others, from 
 different standpoints, will wish to add or subtract ; and 
 the line is continually changing so rapidly that new 
 tilings have come within my vision since I began these 
 lectures. 
 
 Still it is well to see as accurately as we can in one 
 bird's-eye view Avliat seem to be the best things as yet 
 attained by the Sunday School, adopting as our own a 
 toast given to Wellesley College, " May her ideals always 
 be just beyond her grasp.'' 
 
 In seeking to bring the schools up to the Front Line, it 
 is possible that some notes from the log-book of my experi- 
 ence may be of service in helping the reformer to avoid 
 certain rocks on which more than one has been wrecked 
 or suffered loss. 
 
 1. It is wise to show the possible good to be attained, 
 and to lay but small emphasis upon the condemnation of 
 the past. 
 
 24 
 
A bird's-eye view 25 
 
 Proctor the astronomer, in his Familiar Science Studies^ 
 relates the story of an Oriental potentate who " dreamt 
 that all his teeth fell out, and when he was told that he 
 was to lose all his relatives, he slew the indiscreet inter- 
 preter ; but when another and cleverer interpreter told 
 him that his dream promised long life, and that he would 
 survive all his relatives, he made the man who thus pleas- 
 antly interpreted the omen many rich and handsome pres- 
 ents." Both counsellors said the same thing except that 
 one pointed out the evil and the other the good. And 
 you will find that very often the success or tlie failure of 
 your plans for reforming men or Sunday Schools depends 
 on whether you place your emphasis on the bad to be 
 removed or on the good to be cherished ; on the errors 
 and mistakes of the past, or on the picture of better 
 things ; your back to the night and your face to the 
 dawn. 
 
 2. It is best not to make too sudden and revolutionary- 
 changes. The opinions of most men are changed as a 
 ship reverses its course by so large a circle that the pas- 
 sengers have no idea that they are sailing in exactly the 
 opposite direction from that in which they started. 
 
 When I was expecting to preach in foreign lands, a wise 
 missionary gave me this good advice, " Do not make any 
 criticisms on what you see in the mission field for at least 
 a year." That advice has stood by me ever since. It is 
 good advice for every minister when he enters upon a new 
 field. 
 
 3. Be both conservative and radical, but have a clear 
 idea of what these terms really mean in practical life. 
 A conservative is not one who merely stands still. He is 
 not a mummy ; he is not typified by Sancho Panza asleep 
 
26 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 on his saddle, propped up by four sticks, while the robbers 
 had driven his beast from under him. The conservative 
 is one who moves along the regular roads, the beaten 
 paths which the wise men of old have trod, and he can go 
 as fast as he will. The radical is one who is seeking out 
 new ways, exploring the forests for better paths, experi- 
 menting for something new and better. And though the 
 pathway of progress is thickly strewn on either side with 
 radical failures, yet the radicals are also continually show- 
 ing us better ways, and when they are found, the conser- 
 vative walks therein. 
 
 4. Another great secret of success in hastening the adop- 
 tion of better things is found in hiding yourself behind 
 the cause. Let others have the honor while you do the 
 work ; let others be the figurehead while you are the 
 unseen screw that makes the ship go. There are those 
 who never work earnestly unless they carry the flag at 
 the head of the procession ; let them carry it, while you 
 secretly suggest the line of march. Work through the 
 constituted authorities. The failure to do this has 
 wrecked many a good cause. Keep yourself out of sight. 
 Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and 
 then all these things shall be added unto you. 
 
 In surveying the Sunday School world for the strategic 
 points in its front line Ave would note : — 
 
 I. That it is Open-minded to Everything Good. — It de- 
 sires to learn, it is seeking the best. As a whole the 
 Sunday School does welcome every experiment and every 
 effort to discover better things, and bids Godspeed to all 
 the prophets who see the possibilities of the future, and 
 are taking " advanced steps " toward their realization. 
 The learned man wanted " I die learning " for the epitaph 
 
A bird's-eye view 27 
 
 on his tombstone. The Sunday School will have no tomb- 
 stone, for its motto is " I live learning," or in the words 
 of Paul burnt into his very soul: ''Not that I have already 
 obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if 
 so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid 
 hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself 
 yet to have laid hold; but one thing I do, forgetting 
 the things which are behind, and stretching forward to 
 the things which are before, I press on toward the goal 
 unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 II. It is Well-balanced in its Progress. — It is not like 
 Dickens's Skitzlanders in that strange land, the peculiarity 
 of which was that, while every person there was born 
 physically perfect, yet at a certain age any part of the 
 body which had not been used was lost entirely so that 
 nearly every inhabitant was deformed. 
 
 The good Sunday School develops in every direction ; 
 it moves forward in every line of progress with equal 
 step. 
 
 III. It has One Great Aim: Conversion and Culture in 
 the Christian Life and Character. — It is vastly more than 
 Zoroaster's doctrine that "the one thing needful is to do 
 right." "All good thoughts, words, and works lead to 
 paradise ; all evil thoughts, words, and works lead to hell." 
 It is first of all to lead the young to make their life choice 
 of God and right ; to inspire them through the life of 
 Christ, through the cross of Christ, and through the Holy 
 Spirit, with right principles, with a new heart, with a love 
 to God with all the heart, and a love for their neighbor as 
 for themselves. 
 
 Then follows the training into the perfect Christian life, 
 
28 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 into the practice of every virtue, and in the best social 
 service. The late Professor Davidson conceived of educa- 
 tion as " the process of transforming the original nature of 
 man into his ideal nature." 
 
 And everything in the school — the teacher, the teach- 
 ing, the devotional exercises, the music, the reverential 
 order, the organization, the giving — must focus on this 
 end and aim. 
 
 IV. It is a Bible School. — A real school for the study 
 of the Bible, as the divine means for attaining the aim of 
 the Sunday School. 
 
 There are many instrumentalities, which in various de- 
 grees are seeking this end, but the Bible as an educating 
 force is the principal one in the work of the Sunday School, 
 and should be aided by everything that can illustrate and 
 impress its truths. 
 
 This means real study. 
 
 It means a Bible in every scholar's hands. 
 
 It means the best methods of Bible study. 
 
 It means nearly everything in the Front Line of the 
 Sunday School. 
 
 V. It is a Bible School for the Whole Church.— There is 
 a familiar ideal, originating, in its form, with Bishop 
 Vincent : — 
 
 " ALL THE CHURCH IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL ; 
 "ALL THE SUNDAY SCHOOL IN THE CHURCH; 
 "AND EVERYBODY IN BOTH." 
 
 Dr. C. R. Blackall, the wise and efficient editor of the 
 Sunday School literature of the Baptist denomination, 
 places, on the title-page of his capital little volume Our 
 Sunday School Work and how to do It^ a variation of this 
 as his ideal : — 
 
A bird's-eye view 29 
 
 "A HOME SCHOOL AND MISSION FOR EVERY BAPTIST 
 
 CHURCH; 
 "EVERY MEMBER OF THE CHURCH IN THE SUNDAY 
 
 SCHOOL SERVICE; 
 "EVERY MEMBER OF THE SCHOOL IN THE CHURCH 
 
 SERVICE ; 
 "ALL AND ALWAYS FOR JESUS CHRIST, OUR LORD 
 
 AND KING." 
 
 The Sunday School is the Church studying the Word of 
 God. 
 
 The emphasis of the morning service is on the inspirational. 
 
 That of the Sunday School service is on the educational. 
 
 That of the evening service is on the evangelistic. 
 
 The Sunday School is primarily for the children. When 
 Jesus laid his last threefold command on the penitent 
 Peter, once he says "Shepherd my sheep," but twice he 
 emphasizes the young, " Feed my lambs," " Feed my young 
 sheep." ^ The church can do no better than to use the 
 same emphasis in its services. 
 
 But there is danger in making the school exclusively 
 for the young. I have heard of a Parisian lady who had 
 found the elixir of youth, and by using a few drops each 
 day had retained her youthful beauty and vigor. But her 
 maid found the elixir, and, taking a large draught, became 
 a tiny child like Alice in Wonderland. 
 
 The whole adult membership needs the Sunday School. 
 They need it for themselves ; need it for their own train- 
 ing and spiritual growth ; need it for the renovation and 
 freshness of life which contact with the children gives; 
 need it for its home influence on the children. 
 
 1 dppia, lambs ; irpo^aTa, sheep ; Trpo/Sdna, diminutive, little sheep, 
 young in years or in experience. 
 
30 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 They are needed in the school to give it character and 
 tone. They are needed as a means of retaining the young 
 men and women under its influence. 
 
 Both children and adults will be better trained, better 
 instructed, more deeply influenced, when all study the 
 Bible together. Mr. J. W. Axtell in his Organized Sunday 
 School declares that " the making of the Church roll and 
 the Sunday School roll so nearly identical that the latter 
 shall practically embrace the former, is the first condition 
 of the very best type of school." 
 
 VI. The Church will make the best possible provision 
 for the needs of the children, as the wise motlier does in 
 the household. At the Front Line, in the distribution of 
 the finances, the needs of the children will never be neg- 
 lected or scrimped. In the arrangement of the services 
 the children will never be forgotten. Never will the Church 
 or pastor let sermon or service trespass on the hour set 
 apart for the children ; never will they be willing to climb 
 to their highest experiences on a ladder made of the losses 
 of their children. 
 
 VII. The Sunday Schools on the Front Line will have 
 the best buildings, rooms, and apparatus within reach of 
 the Church. Everything that can aid in the work will be 
 provided. See Chapter XL 
 
 VIII. The teachers will be chiefly from the members of 
 the Church ; the choicest and the best people in it working 
 for love. Thus they will be teaching by example seven 
 days in the week what they teach in the school one hour a 
 week. Except for some primary classes, and some special 
 adult classes, nothing can be as good for the school or the 
 Church as this plan. The Church needs it as much as the 
 children. And for the children, no knowledge, no train- 
 
A bird's-eye view 31 
 
 ing in teachers from without, can weigh for one moment 
 against a band of teachers selected from the best members 
 in the Church for character-making power. See Chap- 
 ter V. 
 
 IX. The Teachers will be trained for their Work. — The 
 Educator will be Educated. He will be educated to ac- 
 complish the aim for which the Sunday School stands. 
 He will be educated in character, in knowledge of the 
 Bible, in the study of the child, in the art of teaching, and 
 in the art of living. See Chapter V. 
 
 X. Provision will be made by the Church for the Train- 
 ing of its Teachers. — It will provide Reference Libraries, 
 courses of lectures, normal classes, teachers' meetings; 
 and, as far as possible, open the way for them to attend 
 the institutes, conventions, lectures, classes, correspond- 
 ence schools, and all means abundantly provided for this 
 purpose. 
 
 This they will do the more willingly because the parents, 
 the young people, and the community in general need 
 these things almost as much as the teachers. See Chap- 
 ter V. 
 
 XL The Teacher's Pastorate. — Sunday School classes 
 have been called '' Little Parishes of Eight." Every good 
 teacher is the pastor of his class. He has an unusual 
 opportunity of giving to his class the shepherding which 
 a pastor gives his flock. He can often gain the intimate 
 confidence of the boys and girls, in some cases even more 
 than parents can, and guide them with wise counsels. 
 See Chapter III. 
 
 XII. Organized Classes. — Every class above the primary 
 will be organized with regular officers, and be largely self- 
 governing. It can thus do much practical work like the 
 
32 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 ^yhatsoever Committee in the Junior Endeavor. The 
 members can invite others that would naturally belong to 
 their grade to join them, the social meetings giving a spe- 
 cially good opportunity for this purpose ; they can supple- 
 ment the Sunday School work by meeting on week-day 
 evenings, with the stereoscopic pictures or special studies ; 
 they can give mutual help in various ways. 
 
 Especially among boys is the organized class of great 
 value. One of the brightest of our younger Sunday 
 School writers, Rev. William Byron Forbush, Ph.D., in 
 his Boy Problem^ gives some figures from a Questionnaire 
 by Dr. Sheldon. Of the 1034 boys of ten to sixteen 
 years, who responded, 851 were members of societies 
 formed among themselves. " From 1022 papers collected 
 there were reported 862 societies, more than half of which 
 were athletic or game clubs," the greatest period of 
 activity being between the ages of ten and fifteen. Older 
 classes are organized in a different w^ay, but are quite 
 as useful and necessary. They look out for the sick, 
 the stranger, the neglected. They carry the invitation, 
 they arrange socials, they plan for mutual improvement 
 and help. 
 
 XIII. The classes will usually consist of from six to ten 
 scholars, except in the cases of the primary and the adult 
 Bible classes, and those classes where some teacher has 
 peculiar power of attracting and teaching. Many a teacher 
 can succeed with six scholars who would fail with ten. 
 Yet it is seldom wise to divide a class which has gathered 
 around a teacher whose attraction has drawn the scholars 
 to her. 
 
 XIV. The study hour will not be less than forty minutes, 
 but in the younger classes there will probably be more 
 
A bird's-eye view 33 
 
 than one kind of lesson. To them belong the Supple- 
 mental Lessons. 
 
 XV. The School will begin and end promptly. — The 
 opening exercises will never infringe on the study period. 
 If for any reason something must be shortened, it will be 
 something besides the study hour ; that will be as sacred 
 and unalterable as the laws of the Medes and Persians. 
 Once a minister, coming to preach to a regiment of 
 soldiers, saw this motto in large letters before him on 
 the wall of the tent : — 
 
 " The New Beatitude : Blessed is he that is short for 
 he shall be asked to come again." 
 
 So on the successful Sunday School is written : Blessed 
 is the superintendent that is short, and prompt, and busi- 
 nesslike, and does everything on time, for he shall be asked 
 to serve again and again. 
 
 XVI. The Devotional Exercises will be truly devotional, 
 producing the best possible atmosphere for the culture 
 of the spiritual life, for the study and the practice of 
 the Word of God. The forms of devotion, those that 
 naturally express the devotional spirit, Avill be universal 
 throughout the school. President Hopkins wisely taught 
 his classes that where the natural forms of devotion are 
 disregarded, the spirit of devotion itself will die. Closed 
 eyes and bowed heads are essential during the prayers. 
 " The Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep 
 silence before him." Let every worldly thought and 
 feeling be hushed, that " the still, small voice " of God 
 may be heard. No one, however saintly, will be allowed 
 to lead the Sunday School in prayer who does not express 
 the devotional spirit, the longings and desires which chil- 
 dren can feel, and enter into from the heart ; for other- 
 
34 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 wise he is not only tempting them to irreverence and 
 discourtesy to God and his worship, but is training them 
 into the hypocrisy of using forms without the spirit. 
 
 This is the time also when the most devotional portions 
 of the Scripture shall become so familiar by continued 
 repetition from Sunday to Sunday that they will become, 
 like the Lord's Prayer, the natural medium for the ex- 
 pression of the religious feeling. 
 
 My long-time friend, the Rev. Alford A. Butler, D.D., 
 Dean of the Faribault Episcopal Divinity School, gave at 
 the Crypt Conference some wise advice which all denomi- 
 nations would do well to adapt to their own conditions. 
 
 "The worship of the Sunday School should train the 
 children to understand and love the services of the 
 Church. Yet some clergymen, ignorant of the first prin- 
 ciples of pedagogy, do the opposite thing. They so plan 
 their Sunday School worship as to educate the children to 
 be unfamiliar with the Church's prayer and praise, and 
 strangers to their devotional helpfulness. Do you won- 
 der that such children drop out between Sunday School 
 and Church ? " On the other hand the spirit of worship 
 will make the school " the house of God, and the gate of 
 heaven." 
 
 XVII. The School will be graded both in material and 
 in method, with distinct upward steps, and a final gradua- 
 tion, not out of the school, but into the great adult de- 
 partment where the scholars will pursue post-graduate 
 courses till God calls them to his Heavenly Home. See 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 XVIII. The Regular Lessons will be the continually 
 improving and modified International Lessons, at least 
 till some of the many active experimenters on the Front 
 
A bird's-eye view 35 
 
 Line shall see a vision and present a workable ideal of 
 something better, not merely in certain directions but as 
 a whole. For I have as yet seen none — even in the 
 light of the present scientific child study and pedagogy — 
 which combines so much of the best, with so few " outs," 
 as that system, with optional lessons for the children at 
 the one end, and unlimited elective lessons for certain 
 adult classes at the other, according to the latest plan. 
 See Chapter VI. 
 
 XIX. Supplemental Lessons and Reviews. — Supple- 
 mental lessons are drills in condensed statements, and 
 various things to be learned by heart, which are essential 
 to the best understanding of the Bible, and of each sepa- 
 rate lesson. They do not pertain to one system of lessons 
 more than another. There is no conceivable system in 
 which they are not needed. They keep in view the whole 
 scheme of which each separate lesson is a part, and in 
 which the lesson finds its place and unity. They belong 
 chiefly to the lower grades, up to fourteen or fifteen years. 
 They should be used in general exercises wherever pos- 
 sible. They should include summaries of geography, of 
 history, of chronology, of biography, of facts about the 
 Bible, of the great truths of Christianity, and of the dis- 
 tinctive doctrines of the denomination to which the 
 school belongs. 
 
 Reviews, if made not a mere repetition of the detailed 
 lessons, their titles and golden texts, or special teachings, 
 but a broad view of the movement of the history, can 
 accomplish a part of this purpose, but only a part. Ac- 
 cording to Professor Hamill, the review is " the completion^ 
 test, and confirmation of teaching.'' The Review " is one of 
 the seven essential conditions of all true teaching. Other 
 
36 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 things being eqnal, he is the ablest and most successful 
 teacher who secures from his pupils the most frequent, 
 thorough, and interesting reviews." 
 
 XX. The Sunday School will be a Part of a Great System 
 of Cooperation. — It will cooperate with the other depart- 
 ments of the Church in giving aid in lectures and educa- 
 tional classes ; with the organized young people's societies 
 in many directions. It will be in closest relations with 
 parents and the home ; with pastors' classes and with the 
 work of the day school. 
 
 It will cooperate with other Sunday Schools ; as, for in- 
 stance, in taking a Sunday School census, so that no one 
 can fail of receiving an invitation to some Sunday School ; 
 in teachers' meetings and normal classes ; in an inter- 
 change of teachers of Bible classes and experts in differ- 
 ent departments of Bible study. It will cooperate with 
 the town libraries; as, for instance, in New York City 
 and in the cities of Newton and Somerville (Mass.). 
 
 It will cooperate, both by personal attendance and finan- 
 cial support, with the great organized work of the Inter- 
 national Committee in extending Sunday School interests 
 throughout the state and the country ; and with the Sun- 
 day School work of the Religious Education Association 
 and all other organizations which aid the cause of Bible 
 study. 
 
 Two cooperating with another two are much more than 
 two and two ; separate, single notes are sweet sounds, but 
 single notes multiplied are an anthem ; separate colors are 
 lovely, but multiplied together they become a cathedral 
 window. 
 
 One of the speakers in the Parliament of Religions re- 
 lates the legend that "when Adam and Eve were turned 
 
A bird's-eye view 37 
 
 out of Eden, their earthly paradise, an angel smashed the 
 gates, and the fragments, flying over the earth, are the 
 precious stones." These stones, he says, were picked up 
 by the various sects and philosophies, each claiming that 
 " his own fragment alone was the true material out of 
 which the Paradise Gates are made." By making all the 
 Sunday School units " cooperant units," by blending to- 
 gether all the jewelled fragments scattered over the Sun- 
 day School world, there will at last be constructed the 
 Paradise Gates to the Sunday School ideal. 
 
 XXI. The Sunday School and the Home. — Since the de- 
 cline of morning and evening family prayers, the Sunday 
 School is the most effective means of cultivating Bible study 
 in the home. Where the whole family have the same lesson, 
 they have a centre of attraction for Bible study, a supply 
 of helps, increasing interest, a topic of conversation and 
 discussion, of which there is now nothing to take the 
 place. 
 
 It is especially valuable in introducing Bible study into 
 families not connected with any Church. 
 
 A large part of Bible study at home is occasioned and 
 stimulated by the necessity of teaching a class in the Sun- 
 day School, or of helping the children to prepare their 
 lessons. 
 
 The home is the best place for children to learn the 
 Bible by putting their Sunday School lessons in practice. 
 
 The principles which train teachers are almost equally 
 valuable to parents for training their children. 
 
 The Daily Bible Readings which accompany each lesson 
 are a great stimulus to Bible reading at home. Especially 
 so is the great International Bible Reading Association 
 of nearly one million members in all parts of the world, 
 
38 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 having its fountain head in London, 57 Ludgate Hill, Mr. 
 Charles Waters being its founder and Honorary Secretary. 
 
 Most of the ignorance of the Bible on the part of the 
 young, of which so much has lately been said, lies at the 
 door of the neglect of Bible reading in the home. If 
 modern children read the Bible as I have told you I was 
 trained to read it, there would not be much danger of those 
 children failing in the Bible tests Avhen they entered col- 
 lege. The Home will never be at its best till in each one 
 is obeyed the Lord's command to Israel of old, concerning 
 His Holy Words : " Thou shalt teach them diligently to 
 thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in 
 thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when 
 thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou 
 shalt bind them for a sign upon thine head, and they shall 
 be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write 
 them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates." 
 
 XXII. A wide-awake Home Department will always be 
 an efficient agency of the Front Line Sunday School. 
 Most schools cannot be on the Front Line without one. 
 The Home Department idea was almost a stroke of genius. 
 It is one of the most important developments of the Sun- 
 day School work which has appeared for many years, and 
 the greatness of its possibilities, when the whole Sunday 
 School world shall have come up to the Front Line of an 
 efficient, well-worked, improved Home Department, has 
 but begun to be realized. 
 
 The movement is increasing. There are already more 
 than three hundred thousand members. Every year 
 new schools adopt the plan. It is a tried and proved 
 success. Its numbers should be added to the Sunday 
 School roll. 
 
A bird's-eye view 39 
 
 It has been found that, in addition to its values to the 
 Sunday School work, the social power of the Church can be 
 increased by appointing prominent women of the Church 
 to be visitors. They have a reason for visiting strangers, 
 and a topic by which most easily they can introduce the 
 work and the fellowship of the Church, and give the 
 invitation to its services. 
 
 XXIII. It will be a missionary school, deeply interested 
 in spreading the Gospel, widening the horizon even of the 
 younger scholars, and building them up in an unselfish 
 desire to help others. This is another field in which to 
 put in practice the truths they have learned, and in which 
 to join in the great work of the Church. The missionary 
 interest is the saving of the Church, the enriching of the 
 Church, the broadening of the Church. Thus we talk of 
 the Broad Church and the Narrow Church. There are 
 two infallible tests which, like Ithuriel's spear, pierce 
 through all claims and names ; Are you broad enough 
 to take this life and the future life into your calculation ; 
 and are you broad enough to take the welfare of all men, 
 far and near, of every race and name, into your labors, 
 your giving, and your prayers ? 
 
 XXIV. It will be flexible, adapting itself to all circum- 
 stances, of wealth or poverty, in city or in country, for family 
 life or mission ground. Great success and usefulness can 
 be obtained under the most adverse circumstances, if the 
 work is inspired with the right spirit and a determination 
 to do the best possible. 
 
 In the cemetery among the beautiful hills of Williams- 
 town stands a monument to one of my college classmates. 
 While wrestling in his freshman year he injured his knee. 
 Lameness, pain, and ill-health were his guardian angels 
 
40 THE FllONT LINE 
 
 through study and travel, till he became a professor in the 
 college and a saintly man, whose face shone almost like 
 that of Moses when he came from the presence of God. 
 On that monument are carved the words which his life had 
 wrought out : Meine Trubsal war mein Crluck^ My misfor- 
 tune has been my good fortune. My trouble has been my 
 blessing. This is a good motto for every Sunday School 
 that works under disadvantages. It is possible for them to 
 make it the expression of their whole experience, written 
 in letters of heavenly gold, Meine Trubsal war mein Glilek. 
 XXV. The Front Line Sunday School will be interest- 
 ing and enthusiastic. — According to President Schurman 
 '' Interest is the greatest word in Education." The Sunday 
 School must be rendered interesting, or it will fail both in 
 numbers and usefulness. This does not mean that its 
 business is to please, to make things easy, to lay no bur- 
 dens on the scholars. That is always a failure. It defeats 
 itself. As Professor Home well expresses it, " It is not a 
 class-room vaudeville, it is an engrossing occupation ; it is 
 not an amusing entertainment of the pupils, it is a joyous 
 attainment by the pupils ; it is not play, it is attractive, 
 compelling work ; it is not pursuing the line of least 
 resistance, it is discovering the line of greatest attraction. 
 The true opposite of interest is not hard work, but drudg- 
 ery." It means that there is something worth while, 
 something the child needs, something connected with his 
 daily life, something which he wants to know or do. Boys 
 are attracted to athletics, not because foot-ball and row- 
 ing and tennis and golf are easy, but because they are 
 hard. Compare Ruskin's wonderful words in the last 
 chapter of the last volume of Modern Painters^ where 
 he pours out his very soul on fire with intensest feeling. 
 
A bird's-eye view 41 
 
 The subjects of study must, however, be so presented 
 that they will not be drudgery, but will be so interesting 
 that the scholars will love to study. " A good Teacher," 
 says De Garmo, "can make the driest sort of material 
 glow with life and interest." I once went nearly two 
 hundred miles to hear President Harper, then a professor 
 at Yale, teach Hebrew, in order to learn how to teach in 
 the Sunday School. He taught Hebrew in so interesting a 
 manner that he made its dry bones charm one like a story. 
 He is the best language teacher I have ever known. 
 
 Everything about a Sunday School, from beginning to 
 end, while never deviating in the least degree from its 
 great purpose, never lessening its real work, should yet be 
 so enthusiastic, so attractive, that it would be a punish- 
 ment to a child to compel him to stay away. 
 
 XXVI. The Front Line Sunday School will be an 
 Evangelizing Power. — It is the business of the Church to 
 bring the Gospel within reach of every person in its com- 
 munity, and one of the three great agencies for this end, 
 and not the least, is the Front Line Sunday School. You 
 can reach parents through the children. You can bring 
 the Bible and its words of life into the home through the 
 children's Sunday School lessons. The superintendent of 
 one of the largest Sunday Schools in the country said to 
 me that he reached many mothers through the cradle roll. 
 
 No greater problem faces this country of ours than arises 
 from the mighty inflow of peoples from every land under 
 the sun ; and the numbers who are so far away from the 
 churches as to be only slightly touched by their influ- 
 ence. Some one has said that he who does not see the 
 danger is blind, and he that is not willing to face it is a 
 coward. 
 
42 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 I thank God that he has brought these people to our 
 doors where we can reach them, where we can put them 
 under the best influence, and has said to us, '' Educate, 
 Christianize, these peoples or perish." 
 
 There is a great cry "America for Americans." Very 
 well. I believe in " America for Americans," if you will 
 interpret it aright; that is America to make Americans. 
 We have the instrumentality and the power, and it is our 
 business to turn every one that comes to our shores into 
 a real, true, earnest, patriotic, loyal. Christian American. 
 I heard once the motto given, "Our country, right or 
 wrong " ; and I still believe in that, if you will interpret 
 it aright. "Our country, right or wrong"; if she is 
 right, to keep her right ; if she is wrong, to make her 
 right. " Our country, right or wrong ! " And every coun- 
 try, English or French, Chinese or Japanese, may say the 
 same thing if they will. 
 
 Now the Sunday School is the right hand of the Church 
 in this work. The children are the ones to carry the 
 invitation to other children. The Sunday School should 
 make a census of the field. From the town or city 
 authorities can be found the name and address of every 
 child between five and fifteen years old. It is easy to 
 learn from each Sunday School which ones belong to its 
 care. The residue can be seen and invited to go to which- 
 ever school they prefer. 
 
 As a rule it is better to make the one central school as 
 attractive as possible, and then furnish transportation for 
 those at a distance, than to sustain a separate school in a 
 small neighborhood. This plan is becoming popular in 
 the day school. 
 
 One of the real dangers in wanting a model school is 
 
A bird's-eye view 43 
 
 that it shall be made good by exclusion rather than by 
 transformation, that it shall be like the Pharisee's feast, 
 which failed of the blessing because to it were invited only 
 ''friends, brethren, kinsmen, rich neighbors." Jesus de- 
 scribes the model feast thus : " But when thou makest a 
 feast, bid the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and 
 thou Shalt be blessed." The model Sunday School is not 
 one where, merely because others are excluded or unsought, 
 all behavior is perfect, every scholar has his lesson, is 
 always on time, and gives no trouble to his teacher. 
 The model school is after the bad boy, the untrained 
 girl, the disobedient child, the wayward and the erring, 
 the poor, the spiritually blind. Thus only can it be 
 blessed. 
 
 There was a period in my ministry when the Sunday 
 evening meetings were thronged, not to hear me preach, 
 for the meetings were simply well-organized prayer meet- 
 ings ; and among the young people came a number who 
 disturbed the meeting, whispered during prayers, threw 
 peanut shells, and made themselves a nuisance. It must 
 be stopped ; but how? One of my ministerial friends had 
 driven nearly all his young people away from his meeting 
 by scolding them for such conduct. This we would not 
 do. Shut out the deacons, if need be, keep the saints at 
 home, if you must, but never those who do not know 
 enough to behave, for, if any one needs the prayer meet- 
 ing or Sunday School, it is they. We cured the trouble 
 in a very simple way, by offering a prize to the member of 
 the day school who should write the best essay on how to 
 behave in prayer meeting. For nearly two months I be- 
 gan every meeting with such an essay, and after the first 
 one the meeting was so still and solemn that one of the 
 
44 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 deacons said to me afterward that it seemed like a revival. 
 The principal of the most perfect day school I have ever 
 seen said to me that he never refused a boy because he 
 was bad. But he urns not alloived to stay had. I heard a 
 man in a convention say, " The larger the school, the larger 
 the failure." True ; provided it is a failure at all. But if 
 a school does not get in everybody, if it is not welcoming 
 even the publicans and sinners, as Christ did, it is more than 
 a failure, it is a crime. " Not failure, but low aim is crime." 
 
 I have been presenting to you, as clearly as I can, some 
 glimpses of the Front Line of Sunday School work. Dimly 
 and imperfectly as it is seen, it is yet full of encourage- 
 ment and hope. It is like the sunrise from my mountain 
 home in the lovely White Mountain valley, wliere I am 
 writing these words and am looking at the front line of 
 the coming day. The sun is still behind the eastern hills ; 
 the darkness and light are having their battle in the val- 
 ley below; the shadows linger, dark and dismal, in the 
 ravines ; the mists cover the course of the streams. But 
 I know that the day is coming, because I can see the 
 whole circle of the western mountain tops glowing in the 
 light of the rising sun. 
 
 John Fiske, in his Critical Period of United States His- 
 tory^ tells a story of the stormy Constitutional Convention 
 of 1789. On the back of the President's quaint, black 
 arm-chair there was emblazoned a half sun, brilliant with 
 gilded rays. As the meeting was breaking up and Wash- 
 ington arose, Franklin pointed to the chair and made it 
 the text for a prophecy. " As I have been sitting here 
 all these weeks," he said, " I have often wondered whether 
 yonder sun was rising or setting. But now I know that 
 it is a rising sun." 
 
A bird's-eye view 45 
 
 I have long looked at the Sunday School. I know 
 something of its darkness, its difficulties, its discourage- 
 ments, its comparisons with the day schools. There are 
 those who look only at its shadows, whose eyes are fixed 
 on its failures, on the slowness of its development com- 
 pared with its ideals, who " expect the Sunday School 
 work to advance with strides befitting a Hiawatha remov- 
 ing obstructions as by a blow from his magical mittens," 
 who have never learned " Phillips Brooks's winning com- 
 bination — ' Certainty of final issue and patience with the 
 lingering means.'" These can say hard things without 
 number and with truth. And usually they do it sincerely, 
 in order to spur us on to labor and ]3ray and wait as *' they 
 that watch for the morning." 
 
 But whosoever looks at the actual Front Line, who sees 
 the light on the mountain tops, knows that the Sunday 
 School is not a setting but a rising sun. 
 
 The Day School has made wonderful advances., but the 
 Sunday School has made more. ExcejDt the marvellous 
 progress of the Christian Endeavor movement, meeting as 
 it did a great hunger and need, I know of no educational 
 movement that has made such rapid strides as the Sunday 
 School in the last third of the last century. Where has 
 there been in educational lines anything that has flashed 
 out new light and new power all along the whole horizon 
 like the International Lesson System thirty years ago. 
 It met a great need, and it, with the best helps and 
 methods connected with it, has ever since grown better 
 with great rapidity. The whole country is organized 
 for Sunday School progress and teacher-training. The 
 press is busy aiding its work, with an output exceeding 
 all periodicals except the daily newspapers. The great. 
 
46 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Religious Education Association is sustained by the most 
 learned men in the country, who give their time and 
 strength to it. Science is flashing new light on Bible 
 study, and child study, and principles of teaching. The 
 Bible League, the Young Men's Christian Associations, 
 Cliautauqua Assemblies, and Summer Schools have joined 
 the great army of helpers. The colleges and universities 
 are furnishing courses on the Bible and pedagogy. Every 
 advance in secular education gives light and help and 
 example ; while many and many an experiment is made, 
 on a larger or smaller scale, by practical men as well as by 
 seers of visions and dreamers of dreams. All these mean 
 that light is dawning all along the horizon. 
 
 " Many times quailing, never once failing 
 So the new day came out of the night." 
 
 " Day boils at last, and overflows the world." 
 
Ill 
 
 THE TEACHER AXD HIS CLASS 
 
 It is Sunday morning, and I am on my way to the 
 Sunday School to teach my class. As I walk slowly and 
 thoughtfully along I ask myself certain questions. First 
 of all : — 
 
 What am I going for ? What do I propose to do ? — One 
 cannot hit a mark unless he has a mark. He will be like 
 the famous Roman soldier who received a leather medal 
 for missing the mark sixty consecutive times. Before the 
 artist begins his work on a marble block he has a clear 
 vision of just what he desires to accomplish, or every blow 
 of his hammer might be a mistake. He whose work is 
 the training and guiding of immortal souls needs to have 
 a vision of what he wants each boy or girl in his class to 
 become, and to make every lesson he teaches tell upon 
 that result. 
 
 A professor in one of our largest institutions of learn- 
 ing, himself a very notable teacher, said to me the other 
 day that one great mistake made by teachers was the fail- 
 ure to realize that teaching was a business, just as much 
 a business as banking, or railroading, or manufacturing. 
 Their business was to accomplish certain results with 
 young people, and they failed in business if they failed to 
 produce those results. The Sunday School teacher must 
 say, as the young Jesus said to his parents, " Wist ye 
 
 47 
 
48 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 not that I must be about my Father's business?" There- 
 fore I make clear in my mind what is the business I am 
 to do in my class to-day. 
 
 Again I say to myself : — 
 
 I am only an Ordinary Person, and how can I do this 
 Great Work ? — For what I am set to do is a great work 
 and difficult. It is harder to learn how to teach than how 
 to preach. There are more good scholars in the school of 
 Demosthenes than in the school of Socrates. It is easier 
 to preach with Emerson, " Hitch your wagon to a star," 
 than to inspire and guide the boys in the process of hitch- 
 ing their own wagons to a star, even the Star of Bethlehem. 
 How I used to dislike biographies because most of them 
 were written in the easy way of telling what their subjects 
 had become, but failed in the teaching element of showing 
 how these men — 
 
 " Toiled along the climbing way 
 With painful steps and slow." 
 
 I never enjoyed biography till I read Hugh Miller's 
 My Schools and Schoolmasters^ where he not only pictures 
 the height attained, but shows us the " blazed trail " 
 through the forest, the very steps by which he climbed the 
 Hill Difficulty to the Palace Beautiful on tlie top. 
 
 Bat as I walk along some consoling thoughts come to 
 me like the angel to Elijah under the juniper tree. I re- 
 call the saying of Bishop Phillips Brooks, that " the larger 
 part of the Christian work through which the Millennial 
 days are coming, is done not by the people of ten talents, 
 but by those of one or two talents faithfully used." 
 
 Then I recall the saying that " a little man with a great 
 Gospel is greater than a great man with a little Gospel." 
 
THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 49 
 
 I may have but few talents but I have a great Gospel, 
 and the might of the Holy Spirit is mine, — the same 
 powers which, through imperfect men, common fishermen 
 and their successors, liave wrought wonders and victories 
 to which, in all secular history, there is no parallel. Those 
 powers are mine for the work I am to do with my class, 
 and I am comforted. 
 
 Naturally follows the next question : — 
 
 Am I Prepared ? — You might as well bombard Gibraltar 
 with unloaded cannon, as teach a class when you are 
 unprepared. The old comparison that the best of cannon 
 and powder and shot, most carefully loaded, is useless 
 unless touched with the fire, is true now and always ; but 
 the converse is also true, that all the lightnings of heaven 
 cannot fire off an unloaded gun. 
 
 I used to be indignant at my church members because 
 one after another they refused to take a class when called 
 unexpectedly from the Bible class or visitors' seats. 
 How can good Christian men, the saints, the salt of the 
 earth, refuse to teach a Sunday School class ! I wanted to 
 launch all the thunderbolts of Sinai at them for their 
 neglect of duty. But T changed my mind, and wanted to 
 aim the thunderbolts at the officials who did not see to 
 it that there was always on hand a supply of substitute 
 teachers who were prepared. Of course in an emergency 
 almost any one can take a class for once and make the 
 service helpful to the children on some subject. 
 
 Dr. Schauffler wisely says : — 
 
 " When you have arrived at Saturday night you have 
 reached this point : — 
 
 " Plan Your Work ! All the week you plan 
 
 your work. When you come to Sunday School you, — 
 
50 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 u Work Your Plan." 
 
 But how can you " work your plan " unless you have 
 " planned your work " ! 
 
 I am not now speaking of that general preparation of 
 knowledge and spirit and character to which Dr. ^Meyer 
 refers when he says that the important question is not, 
 " Is the sermon prepared? " but, " Is the man prepared? " 
 but of the special preparation of the lesson for the day. 
 Am I full of the subject? Am I satisfied with it? Has it 
 taken possession of me till it has culminated in a tingling, 
 controlled, poised enthusiasm for the truth I am to teach? 
 Has my being been vitalized by it, till I have tried to 
 practise it, or experience it as a part of my own life, till it 
 seems the one thing to teach, the one message my whole 
 soul yearns to give? 
 
 I am now drawing near the place, and I ask myself : — 
 
 Who is My Assistant Teacher ? — One's assistant teacher, 
 according to a bright article by Mrs. Harris in the 
 Sunday ScJiool Times several years ago, is his own per- 
 sonal hearing^ character^ and example. 
 
 One of the brightest of Edward Everett Hale's immortal 
 stories is "My Double and How He Undid Me." Every 
 teacher has his double, and it will either undo him or 
 double him. It will double his power and influence, or 
 it will undo him. 
 
 Who is your assistant teacher? What is he doing? 
 What is his influence as he stands with you before the 
 class? 
 
 Do you think that you can get your class to obey the 
 superintendent's bell if you do not obey it ? If you keep 
 on talking while he talks, will not they whisper while you 
 are talking? 
 
THE TEACHEK AND HIS CLASS 51 
 
 Do you think that you can get all the members of your 
 class to sing if you do not sing ? 
 
 Do you think that you can hold the attention of your 
 class if you do not hold your own thought to the lesson ? 
 
 Do you think that you can make your scholars prepare 
 their lesson at home if they know that you come to the 
 class without preparation ? 
 
 Will tliey be prompt if you are not prompt ? 
 
 Can you make your scholars bow their heads in prayer 
 if you stare around the room during the time of devotion, 
 as though you were ashamed to worship God, or even if 
 you open your eyes to see whether they are closing theirs ? 
 
 Never. You can never be successful with the class 
 until your assistant teacher shall do and be exactly that 
 which you wish your children to do and to be. 
 
 The " masterpiece of all eloquence " is the oration of 
 Demosthenes when he pleaded before the Athenians that 
 they should crown him because of his wise counsels and 
 his deeds. 
 
 The next greatest oration in history is that of iEschines 
 in his reply to Demosthenes, arguing that to crown one 
 who had fled from battle, and by his counsels had brought 
 the city to ruin, was to corrupt the young men by present- 
 ing such a bad example for their admiration. For, he 
 says, " You know well it is not music, nor the gymnasium, 
 nor the schools that mould young men ; it is much more 
 . . . the public example," it is the men you honor, the men 
 for whom you vote, for the character of a city is deter- 
 mined by the character of the men it crowns." 
 
 And you will find that your assistant teacher is the 
 great teacher of your class ; and he has so much to do 
 with your success, that at home, in your business, in your 
 
52 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 class, everywhere, your assistant teacher and yourself 
 must be at one, if you would be a successful teacher. 
 
 The Greeting. — And now I have reached the class a 
 little early, and welcome each member of the class. My 
 neighbor, Rev. Dr. F. E. Clark, " Father Endeavor," has 
 upon the porch of his house the word '' Welcome " in 
 twenty-three different languages in which Christian En- 
 deavor Societies are formed. In every form in which 
 language or action can express the feeling, we bid our 
 class a welcome warm from the heart. 
 
 While the school is gathering, let us look around a little 
 together and see what tools we have to work with. Look 
 into our class room. Pictures give a homelike appearance 
 to the room ; a hat-tree is in one corner, and in another a 
 shelf with Bibles and hymn-books. On one wall is a 
 double, hinged blackboard, and by its side a home-made 
 cornice containing maps and charts mounted on rollers. 
 In the centre of the room is a table, around which the 
 chairs are placed in a circle. In the drawer of the table 
 are paper pads, chalk, pencils, small maps, quarterlies, 
 charts, pictures. 
 
 Two or three articles are there from Palestine, which 
 illustrate one point in the lesson. A couple of stereo- 
 scopes are on the table, with some choice stereographs of 
 the scene in which our lesson story took place. The boys 
 are studying there while we are looking around waiting 
 for the session to open. There is a Bible for every boy, 
 though we prefer that each should bring his own, together 
 with his Quarterly. 
 
 Each boy has also a blank-book in which he places 
 penny pictures of scenes in the Life of Christ, and is to 
 write out a description of the scene when he reaches home. 
 
THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 53 
 
 But you ask what you would do if you could not have 
 all these things. That is just the question I wanted you 
 to ask. The description above is not a fancy picture, but 
 a photograph of a room in an ordinary village church, 
 and almost everything is, in some form, within the reach 
 of most teachers. If you cannot have a room, screen off 
 some corner of the large room ; if you have no large 
 maps, use the maps in the Quarterly; if you have no 
 blackboard, you can get ten large sheets of paper for a 
 cent ; a table can be bought cheap, or you can make one ; 
 if you cannot buy penny pictures, cut them out of the 
 papers or magazines ; if you have no articles from Pales- 
 tine, think up some simple object lesson to illustrate with, 
 and you will find that even " pails, animals, waterpots, are 
 glorified when set in signs of the Zodiac in the sky." 
 
 I think it was President Garfield Avho said that a log 
 of wood in the forest, with President Hopkins on one end 
 and a student on the other, was a college. All history is 
 full of remarkable things done with the poorest tools and 
 in the most unfavorable circumstances. I praise the Lord 
 for it with all my heart. 
 
 But, mark you, this is never true of those who might 
 have had better tools and were unwilling to take the 
 pains and make the sacrifices necessary to obtain them. 
 The one essential thing is the earnest spirit that realizes 
 the importance of the work, that is willing to make sacri- 
 fices to get the best things possible to do it with, and 
 then does its level best with what it has. 
 
 No Sunday School teacher in any circumstances, with 
 this spirit, ever failed of success. 
 
 The opening devotional service is over and the teacher 
 is alone with his class, even if he is in the main room sur- 
 
54 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 rounded with other classes. We will not disturb him, 
 but we will watch him closely, and after the school is 
 dismissed we ask him questions about some things that 
 puzzle us. 
 
 First, about his use of Bibles and Quarterlies in the class. 
 We say to him. We notice that you, as teacher, and all 
 your class, have both Quarterlies and Bibles open before 
 you. But we have been told that this is all wrong. We 
 know Sunday Schools where the " helps " are shut out 
 entirely. They must be left at home. A great Sunday 
 School convention passed resolutions to the effect that 
 " the ' helps ' and not the Bible are as a rule used both by 
 teachers and scholars in the Sabbath School classes ; and 
 the consequence is [that] our Sabbath School children, 
 while they read and learn a great deal about the Bible, do 
 not grow up in that familiarity with the Bible itself which 
 is essential to their becoming strong and steadfast Chris- 
 tians." 
 
 The teacher replies : I use both as the best way of 
 growing up in familiarity with the Bible, the purpose 
 these others are seeking. I have tried every possible way, 
 and learned what I could from others, and I have settled 
 down upon this plan. You will notice, however, that my 
 Bible and Quarterly were lying on the table, and that I 
 was so familiar with my lesson that for the most part 
 I did not have to look at either. Many years ago I read 
 a book on extempore preaching (Bautain's) of which I 
 remember only two things, one of which has stood me in 
 good stead ever since. 
 
 It is this : There are two mental processes in preach- 
 ing and teaching ; one, the main thought to be presented, 
 the other, the subsidiary processes, like recalling the 
 
THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 55 
 
 thoughts and their order in extempore preaching, or re- 
 membering the words in reciting from memory, or keeping 
 to the manuscript in reading. 
 
 Now each of these three methods, extempore, memoriz- 
 ing, and reading, can be made equally effective, provided 
 the subsidiary processes are unconscious^ so that the whole 
 mind can be given unfettered, absolutely free, to the sub- 
 ject to be impressed. The same principle holds true of 
 ease in writing when we spell automatically ; and in music 
 when the piano keys are struck without a conscious effort 
 of will for each note. 
 
 Of course one of the lessons to be learned incidentally 
 in the Sunday School is the use of the Bible ; but the way 
 to learn that is chiefly by continual references to it. The 
 good Quarterly has many carefully selected references, 
 and it is easier both for teacher and scholar to use the 
 Quarterly for this purpose. If you trust to your memory 
 alone you will make comparatively little use of the Bible. 
 If you take pains to select references yourself at home, 
 and note them down on paper which you bring to the 
 class, then you simply use a little self-made Quarterly 
 instead of the printed one. 
 
 Moreover the scripture in the Quarterly is as real Bible 
 as if it were bound in the full Bible form ; and in a form 
 very convenient to use for some purposes. In the major- 
 ity of cases, not only in other schemes but in the Inter- 
 national Lessons, the whole of the lesson is not usually 
 printed in the Quarterly, so that to study the whole les- 
 son one must have his Bible ; though some critics seem 
 never to have recognized this fact although for the last 
 ten years noted at the head of each lesson. 
 
 Again, the Quarterly is very convenient for reference 
 
56 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 to maps and charts in the class and to its pictures. Then 
 it is a great help in keeping teacher and class together to 
 have the lesson scheme before them. 
 
 Although no good teacher ever confines himself to the 
 printed questions, yet, in order to induce the class to 
 study the lesson at home, some, at least, of the questions 
 they study at home must be asked in the class. 
 
 There are apt to be some in the School who have not 
 studied the lesson, and for them it is almost essential to 
 have the Quarterly before them, that they may learn in 
 the school what they neglected before they came. A 
 Greek professor in one of our best universities was cor- 
 recting the proof of a new Greek text-book for his class, 
 and I noticed that he put the explanatory notes on the 
 same page as the text, a thing that was tabooed in my 
 college days. But he said that while the former way 
 was theoretically better, yet, for practical purposes, 
 with so little time for the study, he did not care where 
 or when they learned the facts if only they learned 
 them. 
 
 Thus I use both Bible and Quarterlies in my class, 
 because in that way we get the greatest knowledge of the 
 Bible into the scholars. 
 
 Next we asked. How do you govern your class? In 
 every school and in many classes are active, restless, mis- 
 chievous boys and girls, who make one think of a late 
 picture in Life^ where " plain Willie Jones " stands before 
 you as an ordinary, wide-awake, active boy. Then we 
 see Willie Jones as he appeared to his teacher, a little 
 wild, black demon with horns and bats' wings, spear- 
 pointed tail, and long, sharp claws. And lastly, we see 
 him as he appeared to his mother, a heavenly-faced 
 
THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 57 
 
 cherub, in saintly attitude, with seraph wings, a halo, and 
 a crown. 
 
 On the other hand, there are most excellent teachers, 
 among the very best, who have little governing power. 
 It is wise to keep these two classes apart. 
 
 Here are some of my rules for governing a class, for 
 good order there must be : — 
 
 1. Make your scholars see that you are their friend 
 and helper. 
 
 2. See the best in each scholar and cultivate it. 
 
 3. In the words of Professor Seeley, in his Foundation 
 of Education : " Good order does not require the teacher 
 to see every piece of innocent mischief. I have known 
 teachers to make themselves and their pupils miserable 
 because they saw every mischievous act, and felt con- 
 strained to call the culprit to account. I have found 
 that the fault was chiefly with the teacher, who was ner- 
 vous, fussy, and falsely conscientious. Good order does 
 not mean absolute stillness " in the class, as it does in the 
 devotional exercises. A certain amount of noise means 
 work. (Study Professor Seeley's whole chapter on this 
 point.) 
 
 4. Keep things moving. The best teacher I ever had 
 imposed no rules, but simply insisted on each scholar 
 attending to his study. 
 
 5. Give the scholars something to do, and especially 
 set the restless ones to doing it. Let them point out 
 places on the map or write an answer or see a picture. 
 Cultivate the self-activity of the child. (Study Dr. For- 
 bush's Boy Problem.') 
 
 6. Throw questions rapidly at an inattentive scholar, 
 and keep at it till he becomes attentive. 
 
58 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 7. Find the " point of contact " between the lesson and 
 the things that the boy is interested in, needs, and knows 
 he needs. 
 
 8. Use variety in teaching. The Self-made Merchant^ 
 in his Letters to His Son, says, "I don't care how good 
 old methods are, new ones are better, even if they are 
 only just as good." 
 
 9. I have two beloved friends, one the head of a large 
 preparatory school for boys, the other a professor and 
 dean of a great university, who, of all men within my 
 knowledge, come the nearest to the ideal governing of 
 boys and young men. Both practically use the Rarey 
 system of controlling horses — perfect kindness united 
 with absolute power of control. I believe what a wise 
 man has said, that " of all the tools on God's work-bench, 
 he uses kindness a thousand times to any other's once." 
 
 10. Here is a bit of experience from some one whose 
 name I cannot recall : — 
 
 " At Boston a little girl was entertaining me very pleas- 
 antly in the parlor, while I was waiting for a friend to come 
 downstairs. I said to her, 'You go to Sunday School?' 
 'Oh, yes.' 'You have a good teacher?' 'Yes, indeed, I 
 have a splendid teacher, a magnificent teacher.' ' Then 
 I suppose you prepare your lessons during the week?' 
 'Certainly,' she answered, 'teacher makes us do that.' I 
 said, ' Give my compliments to your teacher. A teacher 
 who makes her scholars prepare their Sunday School les- 
 sons during the week must be a very good teacher.' 
 ' Well,' she said, ' I don't mean she makes us,' thinking 
 her way of stating it had reflected on the spirit of the 
 teacher. ' I don't mean she makes us get our lessons, but 
 she teaches us so that we love to get our lessons.' " 
 
THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 59 
 
 11. Another teacher, a lady whose control over a large 
 school is marvellous in its simplicity and perfection, uses 
 chiefly self-government by the scholars themselves. This 
 is especially effective where there is a class organization. 
 
 Rev. C. D. Meigs, editor of the World- Evangel, once 
 wrote for Sunday School teachers the following lines, 
 which are as sharp as the diamond he describes ; — 
 
 " A diamond ' in the rough ' 
 Is a diamond — sure enough, 
 For, before it ever sparkles, 
 It is made of diamond stuff. 
 
 " Of course some one must^nc? it, 
 Or it never will be found, 
 And then some one must gi-ind it, 
 Or it never will be ground. 
 
 " But when it's found, and when it's ground, 
 And wdien it's burnished bright, 
 That diamond's everlastingly 
 Just Jlashing out its light. 
 
 " O ! teacher in the Sunday School, 
 Don't think you've ' done enough/ 
 That worst boy in your class mag be 
 A diamond in the rough. 
 
 " Perhaps you think he's ' grinding ' gou ! 
 And possibly you're right, 
 But it may he you need grinding. 
 To burnish you up bright." 
 
 Again we ask our teacher, What do you do for your 
 class outside of the Sunday School ? 
 
 A single hour once a week with his class is far too brief 
 for the work a teacher is privileged to do. It is the 
 
60 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 centre of a larger field, the source of many streams of 
 helpful influences, the door to many opportunities. The 
 class is the teacher's parish. He often can help his 
 scholars more effectually in some aspects of their reli- 
 gious life than either parents or pastor. A pastor is a 
 shepherd. The good shepherd knows his sheep by name ; 
 he knows their peculiarities, their relationships, their ten- 
 dencies. He knows them as individuals. 
 
 "Attempting to teach even little children, without know- 
 ing their temptations and surroundings," said the late 
 Israel P. Black, " is somewhat like a game of blindman's- 
 buff, — the teacher having the bandage over the eyes ; 
 but, unlike it, it is not a game of innocent sport, but a 
 sad and hopeless struggle to find souls." 
 
 The good teacher visits his class at their homes. He 
 praises his scholars as much as he can. He may consult 
 parents about their children's special needs and dangers, 
 but very rarely, if ever, does he report misdemeanors. 
 Professor James tells us, " Everything that a man can 
 avoid under the notion that it is bad, he may also avoid 
 under the notion that something else is good." Cultivate 
 the good side. He has some form of class organization, 
 through which he can become acquainted with his scholars, 
 set them to work practising their lessons, and creating 
 a class atmosphere which can make right things popular, 
 and frown down all that is mean and unworthy. 
 
 We will ask our teacher only one more question, and 
 then let him go home and rest. What is your method of 
 making the application of the lesson teachings ? 
 
 This is the business end of the whole Sunday School 
 machinery, — its point of contact with the spiritual 
 nature, the character, and conduct. If it fails here, it fails 
 
THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 61 
 
 in its chief end and aim. Professor Alexander R. Merriam, 
 of Hartford Theological Seminary, has written a little 
 tract, costing only three cents, which would be a great 
 blessing to the whole Sunday School world if every Church 
 in the land should put a copy into the hands of each 
 of its teachers. He says : — 
 
 "Despite much criticism upon the Sunday School, it 
 yet stands, to-day, as the most direct agency we have for 
 personal religious impression. In much discussion to-day, 
 its evangelistic worth is entirely slighted, and attention 
 wholly directed to the pedagogical features of the Sunday 
 School, as if this were all it stood for. It does stand for 
 instruction. But I wish to vindicate one of the functions 
 of the Sunday School which it has always exemplified, 
 and which it must keep vital if it have any distinctive 
 place at all in our educational system. The mere educa- 
 tional feature is distracting our teachers from one feature 
 which has been for years the Sunday School's distinctive 
 field, which still is, and which, even after changes come, 
 still must be our great object : to bring our scholars to 
 personal religious decision, and distinctive training in 
 the Christian life. . . . Let the Sunday School never 
 abdicate its throne." 
 
 How shall we attain this end ? 
 
 1. Not largely by preaching in the sense of exhorta- 
 tion. " An ounce of preacher and a pound of teacher 
 make a good mixture," said a speaker at the last World's 
 Sunday School Convention. 
 
 2. The lesson should be so presented that " out of the 
 facts the truths must grow inevitably as the blossom 
 bursts out of a tree because of the life that is within." 
 
 A great many teachers stop with the facts, and do not 
 
62 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 go through with the application by showing the relation 
 of the truth to the life. 
 
 It is your business to get that spiritual truth lodged 
 in the heart and in the mind so that it never can be for- 
 gotten again. But that is not all. You must see to it 
 that that principle is applied in the life, and in making the 
 application, the first step — in a sermon, in personal work, 
 or in Sunday School work — is to make your truth concrete. 
 A principle is always an abstract thing, and that abstract 
 doctrine must be clothed in the terms of everyday life, 
 flesh and blood, must be told in the shape that it is to be 
 lived. It must be made concrete by illustrations, pictures, 
 symbols, the story form, testimony, etc. 
 
 Then the man is left to himself ; he must reach out his 
 own hand and lay hold of the truth and take it into his 
 heart by a voluntary choice. Then when he has chosen 
 the truth he must turn it into action, voluntary action, 
 and if he does that continually, the truth becomes a virtue 
 of his character because he habitually lives it. Habitually 
 living the truth is virtuous character. ^ 
 
 3. Three-fourths of the Bible is history and biography. 
 It teaches not only by precept, but by life, by the divinely 
 interpreted picture of the way men and nations were 
 struggling to work out the commandments and purposes 
 of God. While discussing these things the other day, a 
 prominent minister and university professor said to me 
 that American history was better material for Sunday 
 School study than Jewish history, for God is in modern 
 
 1 Extracts from one of the most thoughtful addresses I ever read, on 
 "The Secrets of Good Bible Teaching," by Professor Albert C. Wieand, 
 delivered before the Bible Teachers' Training School of New York, and 
 printed in Tlie Bible Becord of September, 1904. 
 
THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 63 
 
 history as really as in the history of the Jews, and it is 
 closer to our modern life. 
 
 God is in our history; God is as really guiding the 
 Church now as in the days of the apostles. This is what 
 Christ promised his disciples. But there is this differ- 
 ence, — the Bible is not only divinely guided but divinely 
 interpreted history. It is written by inspired prophets 
 to show us the meaning of the history and of all history. 
 And whenever we have a modern history written and 
 interpreted by an inspired prophet, then modern history 
 can be placed in the Sunday School alongside of Jewish 
 history, and the later Church history beside the Acts. It 
 is from close contact with divinely interpreted life that 
 we are learning the applications to our own life and to 
 modern history. 
 
 I cannot express this truth better than in the words of 
 Miss Marianna C. Brown in her Sunday School Movements 
 in America : " Each child *must, to some extent, live over 
 again the world's struggles. If happily he is brought up 
 as a spiritual plant and expands easily year by year, he 
 needs the study of man's spiritual development as shown 
 in sacred history and literature, in order to enrich his life, 
 to give him fuller appreciation of why others differ so 
 much from him, and to make him understand the historic 
 force of much that is about him, and is comparatively 
 worthless except as commemorating struggles dear to the 
 human race. . . . Bring him at least once a week into 
 close personal contact with those who in person or sym- 
 pathy have passed through rough waters, and stand firm 
 on the Rock to ' stretch out a loving hand to wrestlers 
 with the troubled sea.' " 
 
 4. The life we live is " a motived life," and the teacher 
 
64 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 is accomplishing liis purpose wlien he presents, makes 
 clear, distinct, vivid, inspiring, tlie motives to a Christian 
 life presented by the lesson of the day. He desires to 
 lead his scholars to that deep, soul-wide choice of good, 
 of obedience to God his Father, and of allegiance to his 
 Leader Jesus Christ, which is called conversion. It is 
 the underlying choice Avhicli decides his whole life for 
 good or for evil. 
 
 But the teacher realizes that there are as many ways 
 to this experience as there are gates to the City of God, 
 which symbolizes the results of this experience. 
 
 " Decision day " is helpful in many cases, if it is re- 
 membered that in every life there are many decision days, 
 decisions made in view of small duties, and daily tempta- 
 tions, in which the one that makes them does not realize 
 or dream that he is really making a life choice, as the 
 slightest turn of the rudder in view of some obstacle may 
 unconsciously in time circle the ship into an opposite 
 course. 
 
 5. The more personal application can best be made to 
 each scholar alone, or when only two or three of the same 
 mind are together. 
 
 The wisest day school teachers I know are careful to 
 avoid the effect on boys of what may be called the audi- 
 ence. The head of a great Insane Asylum said to me that 
 in managing his nervous patients he always avoided the 
 effect of "the audience." A boy will steel himself against 
 yielding when other boys are looking on, who will be 
 quite amenable to reason when alone. Few are willing 
 to express their inmost feelings and desires within the 
 hearing of others. Get the boy alone ; let him feel that 
 you are not a critic but a friend, that you are like your 
 
THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 65 
 
 Master, who came " not to condemn the world, but that the 
 world through Him might be saved." A very interesting 
 and instructive example was given by Mr. John T. Prince, 
 of the Massachusetts Board of Education, in an address 
 before our Boston Superintendents' Unions. 
 
 " A Sunday School teacher had a class of boys from 
 twelve to fourteen years of age, who had greatly troubled 
 the teachers for some time. Disorder and confusion had 
 prevailed with every teacher, no teacher being willing to 
 continue for any length of time. The person alluded to 
 was a trained and experienced teacher, and it was con- 
 fidently hoped that he could control them. This he did, 
 but he was compelled to be severe in his attitude toward 
 them, stopping by stern command any disposition on the 
 part of members of the class to disorder or diversion of 
 interest. He left his class each Sunday in an unhappy 
 frame of mind, and approached each new recitation with 
 an indefinable dread. . . . On one Sunday only three 
 members of the class were present, and he was surprised 
 to find how much more attentive and interested they were 
 than they had been before. Moreover, the boys seemed to 
 be more free in their responses and expressions of opinion. 
 The teacher was encouraged to believe that there was a 
 change for the better, but when a larger number of mem- 
 bers were present there was the same restraint and ten- 
 dency to disorder. The experience with the smaller 
 number was repeated on several occasions, and on one 
 Sunday it was repeated in such a way as to leave no doubt 
 in the teacher's mind as to the cause of the difficulty. It 
 was the occasion of a very stormy day when only one boy 
 was present — the one who had given the most trouble in 
 the class. On this day the teacher was much surprised 
 
6Q THE FRONT LINE 
 
 to find how thoughtful and interested the boy was in the 
 subject of the lesson. He gave freely of his understand- 
 ing of the subject, and asked pertinent and thoughtful 
 questions. In short his entire attitude toward the Bible 
 lesson Avas changed." 
 
 6. Another most important method is to aid the scholar 
 m applying the lesson immediately to his own conduct. 
 Professor William James of Harvard, both in his latest 
 book. Talks to Teachers on Psychology, and in his famous 
 chapter on " The Psychology of Habit," urges this with all 
 his power. These are good books for the teacher to study. 
 His advice is, *' Don't preach too much to your pupils or 
 abound in good talk in the abstract. Lie in wait rather for 
 the practical opportunities, and thus at one operation get 
 your pupils to both think, and feel and do. The strokes 
 of behavior are what give the new set to the character. 
 
 " Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every 
 resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting 
 you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire 
 to gain. It is not in the moment of their forming, but in 
 the moment of their producing motor effects, that resolves 
 and aspirations communicate the new ' set ' to the 'brain. 
 Novel reading or theatre going, or even music, can pro- 
 duce monsters in the way of people who feel but do not 
 act. The remedy would be never to suffer oneself to have 
 an emotion, say at a concert, without expressing it in some 
 active way. Let the expression be the least thing in the 
 world, — speaking genially to one's aunt, or giving up one's 
 seat in the horse-car, if nothing more heroic offers, — but 
 let it not fail to take place ! ^ 
 
 1 See also Butler's Analogy, Part I, Chap. V, December 2, on active 
 and passive habits. 
 
THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 67 
 
 " Remember that every resolve you make, every good 
 impulse thought of, but not acted upon, every intention 
 to do good or to help the poor or to make some sacrifice, 
 every motive that ends simply and solely in the pious 
 wish, does infinite harm. Stamp the new ideal into the 
 mind strongly and so vigorously that it remains fastened 
 there, and even crops up at times when no need occurs. 
 This is the point in pledge-signing, in oath-taking, in 
 going before God's altar for impressiveness, etc. It 
 makes a strong and powerful initiative ; it stamps in a 
 vivid, never-dying, ineffaceable impression." 
 
 7. Cause your class to learn by heart some choice pas- 
 sage of Scripture which teaches in immortal words the 
 main truth of the lesson. 
 
 I once heard a musician lecture on the violin. He 
 described the rare woods from which it was made, the 
 half century or more it took to dry out all its sap, the 
 seventy-two pieces of which it was composed, all strangers 
 at first and requiring a century to become acquainted, 
 like Kipling's "sweetening of the ship," till at last the 
 whole instrument vibrates in harmony; and so for an hour 
 of intense interest. I shall never forget it. But the end 
 and aim of all this is the music. As another has said, 
 "This is all well, but give us the music." There are a 
 thousand things about the Bible that are of intense inter- 
 est, that awaken enthusiastic study. But we cry out, 
 "Give us the music." Give us the harmonies of charac- 
 ter, and of life, the heavenly experiences, for which all 
 these things exist. 
 
 Many a teacher has lain down under Elijah's juniper 
 tree utterly discouraged at his seeming failure. Yet as the 
 Lord saw seven thousand faithful ones where the prophet 
 
68 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 saw none, so the Lord sees rich fruits of the teacher's 
 labors where the discouraged heart sees "nothing but 
 leaves." 
 
 Let a poem, with which Mead, in his Modern Methods in 
 Sunday School Work^solutes his readers, be the angel of com- 
 fort to help the wearied teacher to go on in his journey to 
 the mount where he shall see the vision of God, and hear " the 
 still small voice " which says, " Well done, good and faith- 
 ful servant, . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 " I wonder if he remembers — 
 
 Our sainted teacher in Heaven — 
 The class in the old gray schoolhouse 
 Known as the ' Noisy Seven ' ? 
 
 " I wonder if he remembers 
 How restless we used to be, 
 Or thinks we forget the lesson 
 Of Christ and Gethsemane? 
 
 " I wish 1 could tell the story 
 As he used to tell it then ; 
 I'm sure that, with Heaven's blessing, 
 It would reach the hearts of men. 
 
 " I often wish I could tell him, 
 
 Though we caused him so much pain 
 By our thoughtless, boyish frolic, 
 His lessons were not in vain. 
 
 <' I'd like to tell him how AVillie, 
 The merriest of us all, 
 From the field of Balaclava, 
 
 Went home at the Master's call. 
 
 " I'd like to tell him how Ronald, 
 
 So brimming with mirth and fun, 
 Now tells the heathen of India 
 The tale of the Crucified One. 
 
THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS 69 
 
 " I'd like to tell him how Robert, 
 
 And Jamie, and George, and ' Ray/ 
 Are honored in the Church of God — 
 The foremost men of their day. 
 
 « I'd like, yes, I'd like to tell him 
 What his lesson did for me ; 
 And how I am trying to follow 
 The Christ of Gethsemane. 
 
 " Perhaps he knows it already, 
 For Willie has told, maybe, 
 That we are all coming, coming, 
 Through Christ of Gethsemane. 
 
 " How many besides I know not 
 Will gather at last in Heaven, 
 The fruit of that faithful sowing. 
 But the sheaves are already seven." 
 
 — Anonymous. 
 
 It is recorded of one of the most distinguislied painters 
 of former days that when he was a mere boy, after view- 
 ing a painting by Raphael for some time with silent trans- 
 port, he suddenly broke out, with joy beaming in his 
 countenance, as if he had found a treasure, " I, too, am a 
 painter." 
 
 Dr. Payson of Portland once said that if ministers 
 realized the blessing and the opportunity God had con- 
 ferred upon them, they would leap and shout for joy, cry- 
 ing, "I am a minister of Christ ; I am a minister of 
 Christ." 
 
 If Sunday School teachers realized their privilege, the 
 blessedness of teaching, of guiding children into the ways 
 of life, they would exult, and glory, and give thanks, for 
 " /, too^ am a teacher of children ; I have a class in the 
 Sunday School. " 
 
IV 
 
 HOW CAN BUSINESS MEN AND BUSY WOMEN BEST 
 PREPARE THEIR SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON? 
 
 A NEIGHBORING pastor once asked me to come up to 
 his church and talk to his Sunday School teachers, and 
 the subject he wished me to speak upon was, " How can 
 Business Men and Busy Women best Prepare their Sunday 
 School Lessons?" 
 
 I was then, as I always have been, a very busy man, 
 and was just entering upon my present work, while at 
 the same time pastor of a large and growing Church and 
 Sunday School. I had, therefore, been compelled to study 
 how to do the most work with the least friction, and to 
 find out every possible labor-saving device that would 
 give the best results. 
 
 Some of these I will mention in this discussion, and 
 will consider others when we come to Bible study for the 
 Sunday School. 
 
 Most ministers are the busiest of men, and nearly all 
 the Sunday School teachers are taken, or ought to be 
 taken, from the busiest men and women of their Churches. 
 I am not speaking to you as ministers, but as those who 
 are to help these busy men and women to do the best pos- 
 sible work for their scholars. If you can gain from the 
 simple things I may say any hint to busy men and women 
 untrained in this direction, so much the better, but in the 
 
 70 
 
PREPAKING THE LESSON 71 
 
 main you will doubtless work them out for yourselves, 
 just as I have done. My chief qualification for helping 
 teachers lies in the difficulties that I, as one of no special 
 talents, have experienced and have been compelled to 
 overcome as I could. You will learn in time, as I have 
 learned, the truth of that Greek proverb, old as Herodotus 
 and JEschylus, Ta pathemata mathemata^ — The things 
 we have experienced, our burdens, our difficulties, our 
 struggles, our sufferings, are the things that teach us. 
 I have always .written slowly ; my thoughts do not easily 
 crystallize into the best form ; but always I have tried to 
 do "my level best." This standing on the level of the 
 great majority is not without its advantages and consola- 
 tions. I hear teachers, when some teaching genius speaks 
 to them, say, Your words and plans are all right for a 
 genius, but what help is there for us who are not geniuses, 
 but just common people of ordinary talent? Please tell 
 us what we can do. 
 
 I think that for the teacher, and for the preacher so far 
 as he is a teacher, the parable of the Pounds is more help- 
 ful than the parable of the Talents ; that it is better for 
 him to be one of the multitude to whom one pound is 
 committed, provided he multiplies that one into ten, than 
 to be one of the few who receive five talents, and only 
 doubles them into ten. 
 
 When I was pastor of a village church I used to try to 
 keep the small grounds around my house as neat and 
 beautiful as I could, and I experimented with various 
 plants and methods to see how much could be done with 
 the least labor and expense, hoping that others would 
 take the hint and the appearance of the village be im- 
 proved. Among other things I arranged a flower-bed in 
 
72 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 front of the house and placed a fountain in the centre. 
 One bright Saturday afternoon a minister, a stranger, came 
 up the street to see me, and, seeing a fountain in front 
 of the house to which he was directed, said to himself, 
 " This cannot be the place ; a minister cannot afford to 
 have a fountain," and he passed on to the next house. 
 An hour later another minister did the same thing. And 
 yet that fountain had an old paint keg for a base; on 
 the top was nailed a large, discarded dishpan; through 
 them was placed a piece of rain-conductor left over when 
 building the house; the whole was painted with some 
 left-over paint, and the hose with an ordinary sprinkler 
 was passed up through it. An old paint keg, a leaky 
 dishpan, and a waste piece of conductor made a fountain 
 that a minister could not afford to have ! 
 
 That is a good illustration of what I propose to bring 
 you to-day, so that no teacher need go away discouraged, 
 as I have known teachers to be after hearing the ideal 
 teacher portrayed at conventions. They determined to give 
 up their classes because the star to which they were told 
 to hitch their Sunday School wagons was too far beyond 
 their reach. 
 
 I. It goes without saying that every teacher means to 
 be prepared. I am now speaking of special preparation 
 for a particular lesson, not of that kind of preparation 
 to which the minister referred " when he truly said he 
 had been thirty years preparing his sermon, although, 
 perhaps, the immediate preparation of the discourse had 
 taken but a few hours. Thirty years' life, with its ex- 
 periences, had gone into the sermon. According to 
 Mr. Spurgeon, " a minister once said, ' Sir, I go into the 
 pulpit and preach and think nothing of it,' and the one 
 
PREPARING THE LESSON 73 
 
 to whom he made that remark said, 'And that is just 
 what your people think of it.' If you can go to your 
 class and teach as easily as possible without any prepara- 
 tion, depend upon it as you think nothing of it your chil- 
 dren will think nothing of it." Such men ''toil not, but 
 they spin." There is little use in talking to that teacher 
 — rare as the dodo, I trust — who thinks that the Lord 
 can or will do as good work through his ignorance as 
 through his knowledge ; or who does not see the common 
 sense of the farmer who advised his son to load his gun 
 before he fired. 
 
 II. Neither is it necessary to dwell upon the necessity 
 of opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit, who alone can 
 make our teaching effective. 
 
 III. The keynote of the time-saving process is to fill the 
 mind with the subject and main points of the lesson early 
 in the week^ preferably Sunday afternoon. Read over the 
 lesson, read it in different translations, in the original if 
 you can, or in the different languages you may know, each 
 one flashing out light on some point or facet not seen so 
 clearly in the others. Some truths, too, are brought out 
 more distinctly by reading the passage aloud. 
 
 Note that it is important to read the whole lesson and 
 not merely the verses selected for printing in the Quarter- 
 lies, "the gist of the lesson." The International Lesson 
 Committee has always implied, and for a number of years 
 has expressly stated with each lesson, that the lesson is 
 more than the verses selected for printing and detailed 
 study, but is a whole section of the history. And yet, 
 there are not only teachers, but even lesson writers and 
 wise critics who have "an acute attack of inadequate 
 information " on this point. But no good teacher does 
 
74 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 confine himself to the verses printed in the Quarterlies, 
 nor do the best ''helps." Read the whole lesson section 
 carefully, if the lesson be historical ; and remember, if the 
 lesson is doctrinal, that every great doctrine is revealed 
 in several forms, in didactic statement, in history, in 
 parable, in life, and in song, — and we need them all in 
 order to see the doctrine as it really is. 
 
 IV. The next time-saving, and at the same time soul- 
 blessing, means is to use the next Sunday's lesson for some 
 part of your daily devotional reading every day in the week. 
 Use it for family prayers with your children. I have 
 great faith in the power of looking — looking intently, 
 steadily, continuously — at a single passage of Scripture 
 till it is illuminated, transfigured. That is what Agassiz 
 told his students to do in studying even a fish. That 
 is what Professor Drummond said a naturalist must do 
 in studying nature. " To watch uninterruptedly the 
 same few yards of universe unfold its complex history ; 
 to behold the hourly resurrection of new living things, 
 and miss no change or circumstance, even of its minute 
 parts, to look at all, especially the things you' have seen 
 before a hundred times, to do all with patience and rever- 
 ence — this is the only way to study nature." ^ 
 
 I have heard two opposite opinions concerning such a 
 use of one's devotional hours, from men known through- 
 out the whole country. One declared that we should 
 never take for our devotional reading the lesson we are to 
 teach. The other said that it was the very soul and glory 
 of devotion to do that very thing. My whole experience 
 favors the latter view. Whenever a passage of Scripture 
 touches my soul and sets it on fire, then I am prepared to 
 1 Tropical Africa, p. 110. 
 
PEEPARING THE LESSON 75 
 
 kindle with it the souls of my pupils or my people. When- 
 ever I have studied a scripture till I see in it a new mean- 
 ing, till it inspires and uplifts me, makes me love God 
 better, and my fellow-men, reveals to me a new vision of 
 truth, then only am I best fitted to preach or to teach. 
 Every powerful sermon is preached first to the minister 
 himself, and after that to his congregation, and it tells on 
 other people because he can say, " We speak that we do 
 know, and bear witness of that we have seen." 
 
 In one of his poems Browning relates a parable of the 
 Two Camels, which needs no further interpretation than 
 the telling. The two camels, beasts of price, both dedi- 
 cated themselves to their master's service ; both were to 
 carry for him precious burdens across the desert. One 
 did all he could to save his master expense; he ate the 
 poorest food, and as little of it as possible, and then, by 
 his lack of strength, he fell dead in the desert, thieves 
 stole his pack, and his master had neither camel nor mer- 
 chandise. The other camel ate the best food and ate all he 
 needed, — " no sprig of chevril must I leave unche wed," — 
 and was able to pass through the desert safely with his 
 burden, and his master had both camel and burden. Feed 
 yourself, if you would be strong to feed others. 
 
 "Just as I cannot, till myself convinced, 
 Impart conviction, so, to deal forth joy 
 Adroitly, needs must I know joy myself." 
 
 V. Next in order, still at the very beginning of the 
 week, the right use of the best helps you can obtain, usu- 
 ally of more than one kind. It is curious to note how 
 some people object to Bible helps even for children, 
 calling them crutches for the lame, in the very addresses 
 
76 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 and books which they use to help people toward their 
 views, and for which they have used helps all their lives. 
 
 Everybody has to use helps ; the disputed question is at 
 what period of our study we are to use them. 
 
 My father taught me when a schoolboy, that in writing 
 a composition I should think out the subject for myself 
 before reading what others had said concerning it. Pro- 
 fessor Amos R. Wells, one of the wisest men I know, says 
 in his richly suggestive book on Sunday School Success, 
 which all ought to study, and says with the emphasis of 
 italics, " Let me emphasize this statement : Not a single 
 lesson help should be touched until everything possible to 
 be learned about the lesson from the Bible directly has 
 been learned." 
 
 Another writer expresses himself thus : " One reason 
 why I have been myself averse to using the lesson journals 
 is this ; The matter is too convenient ; it tempts me to 
 ignore the Bible, from which all inspiration for the work 
 is derived ; it comes easily and I forget it as readily, and 
 so the preparation is not clear and definite. The place 
 for the Sunday School paper comes after you have mas- 
 tered the knowledge in other ways." 
 
 Now the teaching of my whole experience and observa- 
 tion is this : Do not wait till you have thought out your 
 subject, but begin early in your thinking to use what 
 others have learned, and let the two processes go on to- 
 gether. I am aware that this is somewhat heterodox, but 
 it is both wisdom and truth for the persons whom I am 
 advising. 
 
 I am not writing for theological professors, nor for 
 students who have unlimited time at their command, nor 
 for men of genius who can use the above advice, but for 
 
PREPARING THE LESSON 77 
 
 busy men and women, and for some busy ministers who may 
 "taste the spices of Arabia, yet never feel the scorching 
 sun which brings them forth." For them I can see only 
 one wise way in which to get the most out of their time. 
 
 Of course the Bible is to be first read, and its state- 
 ments made familiar. I have no sympathy with the 
 young man who some years ago came into a Sunday School 
 bookstore in Boston and said he wanted to purchase a 
 book called The Bible Wholly Commentary. He meant 
 The Commentary Wholly Biblical. 
 
 But in the early part of the week the busy man should 
 use some good explanatory and suggestive helps. It is 
 like a personally conducted tour of Europe. A wise and 
 trained conductor, with a small party, will give the great 
 majority of people, on their first tour, twice as much of 
 the best things, in the same time, as they could gain by 
 going alone. After that experience each one can go 
 alone and make a detailed study with advantage. A man 
 of wealth came to a period of leisure and tried to under- 
 stand art. He went to art galleries, but returned unable 
 to distinguish a good picture from a bad one. He said, 
 "The idea that there must be a real, true value in art, 
 and that I could not find it, took so strong a hold of me 
 that I became restless, nervous, irritable." He went to 
 an artist, who taught him, not how to paint, but how to 
 see. He had the same experience with music, till a musi- 
 cian taught him, not how to sing, but how to hear. They 
 gave him what he could not obtain alone, — the way to a 
 never-dreamed-of delight. 
 
 1. It is necessary to get the true interpretation of the 
 passage in order to think correctly at all. Then there 
 are whole ranges of thought that the busy man is likely 
 
78 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 to omit because he does not even know that they exist. 
 He may easily miss the new light thrown upon the text 
 by the study of the Bible as literature ; by the historic 
 study which places each prophecy or event in its native 
 historical setting ; by the meaning of particular words, 
 such as " conversation," " instant," '^ offend," which is 
 different from their meaning as used to-day. 
 
 What is the use of going on thinking in the wrong 
 direction and gathering materials which, as soon as one 
 uses his " helps," must be discarded ? 
 
 In our family, where there are no young children, we 
 have found it both interesting and helpful to use the 
 introductions in Moulton's Modern Reader 8 Bihle^ some- 
 times spending a whole week on the introduction to a 
 single book before we read the book itself. Of course, 
 before that we have a general knowledge of the book ; 
 but the reading the book in the light of his words has 
 added greatly to its beauty and power. 
 
 2. In the next place, the more material for thought one 
 has the more valuable his thinking. Fill up the wells, 
 and then you will no longer have the 
 
 " Toil of dropping buckets into empty wells 
 And growing old in drawing nothing out." 
 
 8. Most of us can think better under the inspiration of 
 others' suggestions. In the words of another : " Reading 
 is really an invaluable help to the best thinking. It fur- 
 nishes both the materials and an incentive to thinking. 
 It stimulates the mind to put forth its best energies, while 
 it broadens the field for thought ; and, in general, it may 
 be said truthfully that he who does not read does not 
 think much." 
 
PREPARING THE LESSON 79 
 
 I well remember how, after I had wandered over the 
 British Museum, especially those parts which throw light 
 upon the Bible, I found a person who in a few moments 
 pointed out things of great value, which I could not have 
 learned by myself had I stayed there a year. After that 
 I studied them for myself. Every reader and thinker has 
 read books which have been to him almost like a new 
 revelation. Every little while in my life I have come 
 across such books, which have marked almost epochs in 
 the development of thought and work. They have been 
 like the secret doors in an old castle, unnoticed till pointed 
 out by some one acquainted with them, and then opening 
 into treasures of gold and art. 
 
 4. Some wise man, in giving advice to writers, says : 
 " Be original. ... In order to become original, one must, 
 as a rule, go through a period of being deliberately imita- 
 tive. One must soak one's self in the great stylists, 
 Keats, Tennyson, Rossetti, etc., and then consciously adapt, 
 borrow, and copy, until one finally learns to stand alone. 
 The period of needing masters will pass in time, but one 
 cannot be too teachable at first." 
 
 This is wise advice for Sunday School teachers. Be 
 original. Work out your own plan, according to your 
 own natural bent and the kind of scholars you are teach- 
 ing. But first saturate yourself with the text and the 
 theme, and all the knowledge you can gain concerning 
 them from every source. " Imitation," says Professor 
 Home, " is a mere schoolmaster to bring us to originality." 
 
 It is a waste of time to learn everything for one's self 
 from the very beginning. The architect studies all the 
 architecture of the world. The artist goes to all the great 
 galleries and sees the best paintings genius has been able 
 
80 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 to paint. Then, and only then, can each do his best 
 original work. 
 
 You must do your own work, you must be an original 
 thinker, and work out the problems for yourselves ; you 
 cannot be " carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease " 
 which others have made. But you can be most original 
 when you know what others have done before you, and 
 you stand on the mountain tops the heir of all the ages, 
 and climb higher and enjoy a wider vision. 
 
 But if you cannot be original, you can choose from the 
 best set before you by others, and standing on the moun- 
 tains they have built is far better than to remain in the 
 shadows of your own valley. 
 
 VI. While using the Helps, still early in the week, you 
 can form a clear idea of the framework or setting of the 
 lesson. The more vivid it is to you, the better for those 
 you are intending to teach. 
 
 There are various simple methods of accomplishing this 
 end. Mark in the Bible history the place where the 
 prophets belong, writing their names on the margin. 
 Make the geography clear by locating the places in your 
 own neighborhood which have the same relations. Using 
 your church as the centre, as symbolizing the Temple, you 
 can in your own town represent every location in Jerusalem 
 which Jesus has hallowed, by places or buildings at the 
 same distances and in the same directions, making real 
 how far Jesus went to Olivet, or the upper room, or the 
 pool of Siloam, or to Calvary. You can realize the travels 
 of Jesus, and of Paul, of the Exiles and their return, by 
 distances and towns in your own state. 
 
 In Tom Broivn at Oxford the leading scholar is repre- 
 sented as learning his Greek history b}^ means of a map on 
 
PREPARING THE LESSON ' 81 
 
 the wall, and pins with large heads made of sealing-wax 
 of different colors. One army was represented by pins 
 with red heads, the other by pins with black heads. Thus 
 in the famous retreat of the ten thousand, wherever the 
 armies encamped there the pins were placed, and were 
 moved with every movement of the troops, so many para- 
 sangs to this city, and so many to that, till the whole line 
 of march was traced visibly on the wall. Not only was 
 the history remembered better, but the distance, the direc- 
 tions, the reasons for changes, the difficulties overcome, 
 the skill and courage required, were seen as in no other 
 way. 
 
 During the Civil War, several ministers in my neighbor- 
 hood carried out the same plan. Whenever any report 
 came of a march or a battle, the pins were changed to cor- 
 respond. We might easily have added pins with card- 
 board fliers to indicate battle-fields. 
 
 I once tried a similar experiment with the Intermediate 
 Department of our Sunday School, following on the map 
 the footsteps of Jesus. Some one of the scholars moved a 
 large-headed pin to mark the places and directions where 
 he went when teaching in Galilee or walking to Judea.^ 
 
 1 Mr. Marion Lawrance, who has built up an almost ideal school in 
 Toledo, Ohio, describes a very interesting plan used there : " We had a 
 map of the Holy Land and Asia Minor. We were illustrating the mis- 
 sionary work of Paul. The idea that the church was a bright light, and 
 every Christian a light, was emphasized. The map was put upon a large 
 soft pine board. Wherever there were churches, — for instance, at Jeru- 
 salem, Antioch, Ephesus, etc., — a number of holes were punched into the 
 board with an awl. In these holes were set parlor matches with the heads 
 up. A row of holes marked out the pathway Paul travelled, first to Anti- 
 och, then across to Asia Minor, and back and forth. Have the board set 
 at a slight angle, so that it can be seen by the people in the room. The 
 matches should be close enough together so that one would set fire to 
 
82 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 This same plan, with some additions, may be followed 
 with reference to any history in the Bible, either in the 
 home or in the class, or before the whole school. Pins 
 with sealing-wax heads of different sizes and colors may 
 represent the apostles and missionaries whose work is 
 recorded. A box of cardboard letters, such as are 
 used in the familiar letter games, can be obtained for 
 a trifle, and the initial letters of the chief places can 
 be fastened as fliers on pins, and mark the spots where 
 the leading events take place as they are reached in 
 the history. 
 
 I well remember the first Chautauqua Reading Circle 
 formed in my parish. We were reading Merivale's His- 
 tory of Rome, We were meeting one evening at the house 
 of a large farmer. We were trying to realize the scenes 
 and events at Rome, which, at that time, none of us had 
 seen. But we took a long woollen tippet, and curved it 
 on the parlor floor as the Tiber curves through Rome. 
 Milk pans placed bottom upward represented the Seven 
 Hills of Rome — Capitoline, Aventine, Pincian, and all 
 the rest. We marked the places where the historic events 
 occurred. A piece of wood across the woollen Tiber 
 shoAved where Horatius kept the bridge. We saw the 
 Tarpeian Rock, the Forum, the Appian Way. So vivid 
 
 another. At the right time in the exercises speak of what a great light in 
 the world the Jerusalem Church was. If you have a dozen or more 
 matches representing that church, the flame will rise a foot high. Pres- 
 ently the line of matches will catch fire, and this will represent Paul 
 starting out to Antioch, When he arrives there, there is another bright 
 light representing the church at Antioch. Then he starts across to Cy- 
 prus, etc., and to Asia Minor. Everybody in the room will be intensely 
 interested to notice his travels as he goes. I would not recommend this 
 indiscriminately, but it did well with us." 
 
PREPARING THE LESSON 83 
 
 was the picture that when, later, I went to Rome, that 
 crude Rome on the parlor floor helped me to more easily 
 understand the great city. 
 
 Take another instance. George Adam Smith, in his 
 G-eography of the Holy Land^ pictures the scenery around 
 the Well Harod, where Gideon and his three bands over- 
 came the Midianites, so that it is easy to see the reasons 
 for the choice of the three hundred. The well and the 
 little stream that divided the armies are bordered with a 
 thicket of tall reeds, so that any number of the enemy 
 might be lurking there in ambush. The great majority 
 of the citizen soldiers never thought of the danger, and 
 kneeled down and drank from the stream where they 
 would be helpless in a sudden attack. But there were 
 three hundred, sharp, shrewd, wide awake, who, with their 
 eyes on the forest of reeds, holding their Aveapons, merely 
 stooping, threw the water with their hands into their 
 mouths, and were never off their guard. 
 
 These were the men Gideon wanted for his dangerous 
 expedition. The dullest boy in the class will wake up 
 and understand, when the teacher, who sees the picture 
 himself, describes and gestures that scene. ^ Note how 
 beautifully Whittier, in his Chapel of the Hermits^ uses a 
 similar method : — 
 
 1 Bishop Vincent, in his Modern Sunday School, gives another ilhis- 
 tration of this method : " A minister once located the principal characters 
 of universal history on a single street, — a long street, many miles long, — 
 chronologically so divided that his pupils could locate ' Alexander's house' 
 and the ' house of Moses ' and the ' house of Napoleon,' so that the street 
 became a constant reminder of not only illustrious names in history, but 
 a chronological guide always present. 'I passed,' said a little fellow, 
 ' Alexander's house this morning on the way from the post-office, and it 
 was not very far from the house of Aristotle.' " 
 
84 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 "This maiole ridge shall Iloreb be, 
 Yon green-banked lake our Galilee. 
 
 " The heavens are glassed in Merrimac, 
 What more could Jordan render back ! 
 
 " We lack but open eye and ear 
 To find the Orient's marvels here ; 
 The still, small voice in autumn's hush, 
 Yon mai3le wood the burning bush. 
 
 " Our common daily life divine, 
 And every land a Palestine." 
 
 So much time has been consumed in describing these 
 things that it may seem as if too hirge a proportion of the 
 study hour had been devoted to them, to the exclusion of 
 the spiritual and practical lessons. But, in fact, the very 
 briefest time is taken up in any one lesson. They are 
 the black wires which conduct the electricity to the lamps, 
 of no use unless the current flows through them and the 
 lamps are lighted. It is the teacher's business to light 
 them. But they cannot be lighted without the wires. 
 It is only dead pipes and wires painfully built up into 
 the glass cross on the tall spire at Cohoes; but when 
 lighted, that cross shines in symbolic glory over the 
 whole landscape. 
 
 VII. Early in the week must be formed a tentative 
 plan of the lesson, in which the leading topics or thoughts 
 shall stand out clear, distinct, vivid, living, all bearing 
 on the one principal theme, which should be like the 
 golden milestone of ancient Rome, the central focus of 
 roads from every province of the Empire. 
 
 Until this takes place the lesson is like the man in 
 bottles in South Kensington Museum, or rather the rep- 
 resentation of a man resolved into the chemical elements 
 
PREPARING THE LESSON 85 
 
 of which his body is composed, each element there, in its 
 due proportion, in a separate bottle, but not a man. The 
 teacher is to be a new Frankenstein to recreate the ele- 
 ments into a living, organized being. 
 
 VIII. We are now prepared for that unconscious cere- 
 bration, and what may be called crystallization, which are 
 tlie chief time-saving processes in preparing the lesson. 
 As a string in a saturated solution at rest will gather 
 about itself crystals of that which is dissolved, so will a 
 living thought in a fall mind gather to itself other 
 thoughts from every source and form definite crystals 
 of truth. If you wish good flowers from a hyacinth 
 bulb, you must put it aw\ay in the dark for weeks in 
 order that it may become thoroughly rooted before the 
 flower stalk rises into bloom. You will notice on the 
 trees in autumn the buds which after sleeping all winter 
 burst into leaves and blossoms in the spring. Why this 
 long winter sleep is necessary I do not know. But it has 
 its parallel in the operations of the mind. 
 
 "When a man takes up a subject and holds it in his 
 mind, now and then recurring to it and calling it up and 
 looking at it, and then putting it back to sleep over it, he 
 comes at length to its thorough mastery. It is a good 
 thing to sleep over a subject." 
 
 I am always glad to have the testimony of successful 
 men to the things my own experience has taught me. Dr. 
 William M. Taylor, in showing ministers how to prepare 
 their sermons, gives his experience thus : " He will have 
 work enough for two mornings at least in reading over in 
 the original the passage that is to come in course on the 
 next Sunday, and in carefully weighing all that has been 
 written upon it by the commentators whose works are on 
 
86 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 his shelves. Let him mark the thoughts that are of special 
 importance in each, and read on until he is, as it were, 
 saturated with his theme. Then in a wonderful way — 
 which I can never explain to myself — he will find that, 
 by the time he has read all his books of reference, his own 
 thoughts have begun to crystallize, and perhaps all at 
 once, almost with the rapidity of an electric discharge, 
 the whole plan will open up to him, and he will see his 
 way from the beginning to the end of his discourse. Let 
 him take a note of that plan, and then leave it to simmer 
 for a season." 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his Autocrat of the Break- 
 fast Table, gives his experience thus : " Physiologists and 
 metaphysicians have had their attention turned of late to 
 the automatic and involuntary actions of the mind. Put 
 an idea into your intelligence and leave it there an hour, 
 a day, a year, without ever having occasion to refer to it. 
 When, at last, you return to it you do not find it as it was 
 when acquired. It has domiciliated itself, so to speak, — 
 become at home, — entered into relations with your other 
 thoughts, and integrated itself with the whole fabric of 
 the mind." 
 
 Amos R. Wells, in Sunday School Success, bears a like 
 testimony : " These verses should be running through our 
 heads as we run on all our six-day tasks, and should sing 
 themselves to all our labor tunes. But chiefly, it is only 
 in this way that we can accumulate hints, and grow into 
 the truths of the lesson by experience. With the lesson 
 theme for a nucleus, it is astounding to see what a wealth 
 of illustration, of wise and helpful comment, each day's 
 living thrusts upon us. Every event is a picture of some 
 truth which needs only a sensitive plate to be photo- 
 
PREPxVRING THE LESSON 87 
 
 graphed forever. That sensitive plate is a mind which 
 is studying that particular truth." 
 
 I always have some of these living magnet-truths in my 
 mind, and they are continually gathering around them- 
 selves something from every source. They make one's 
 mind not like the Nile which flows two thousand miles 
 without a tributary, but like the Amazon which drains a 
 continent for its waters. Every book I read, on what- 
 ever subject, every experience, all intercourse with others, 
 travel, picture galleries, factories, fields and forests and 
 cities, — everything contributes something to the subjects 
 in mind. P"'or this reason I hate to read a book that I do 
 not own, for I want to mark its margins, and note special 
 pages on the fly-leaf for easy reference and review.^ 
 
 IX. Another method for making the most of a limited 
 time and opportunity is to make your class co-laborers, 
 working partners, with you. Enlist their services. Give 
 them something to look up, or to think upon. Show them 
 
 1 " Some time ago I heard the following definition of a true scholar. 
 A scholar, it was said, is a man who knows something of everything and 
 everything of something. By all means let our ministers know some little 
 about everything. A quaint divine some years ago was bidding good-by 
 to one of his students whose stock of information on some subjects was 
 very meagre, and he said : ' Now, young man, take care you keep the 
 door of your empty rooms carefully locked.' Oh, those empty rooms ! 
 When iron is magnetized it attracts other fragments of iron. So, if there 
 is any one subject on ivJiich the mind is always brooding^ the mind becomes, 
 as it were, magnetic on that subject. All kinds of facts, truths from every 
 field, jump to it and stick to it. This is the secret of success in every 
 department of learning, and emphatically is it true of the Christian 
 minister. Every preacher to be successful must have his mind magnetized 
 by Gospel truth, and then whatever he reads will be attracted to some 
 Scripture text or other to illustrate or explain it. There can be no success 
 in any other way." -I. T. Marshall. 
 
88 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 where they can find a good example or illustration. Let 
 one look up the geography, another draw a map, another 
 find the best verse, another can suggest what the class can 
 do in practising the lesson. 
 
 For many years I was a member of a Shakespeare class 
 in my parish (I am still an honorary member). We were 
 busy men and women, ministers, lawyers, judges, doctors, 
 teachers, business men, and busy women. We met to 
 study, but had scant time for special preparation. Each 
 one was appointed to do something to bring to the class, 
 look up the history of the play, its sources, the historical 
 facts upon which it was founded, the characteristics of 
 the persons, etc., so that while each of us could do but 
 little, there was some one with fresh information on every 
 point, and I learned more literature in that club than in 
 my whole college course. 
 
 X. Lastly, a Teachers' Meeting is a great saving of time. 
 There is something in the contact of soul with soul that 
 no reading of books can give. It is life that kindles life. 
 There are people who never suggest anything, who are 
 like a wet blanket, and make you feel dull, and wonder 
 whether you are not losing your intellect. Another man 
 will wake you up, kindle new thoughts, suggest bright 
 sayings till you are surprised at your own brightness and 
 fertility of thought. Those are the ones you wish to 
 meet at the teachers' meeting. There is truth, too, in 
 O. W. Holmes's statement that he often talked in order 
 to crystallize his own thoughts. Separate embers will 
 die out, but when piled together they will kindle into 
 a blaze. An artist wishing to paint a portrait of Shake- 
 speare had his death-mask photographed from twenty 
 points of view. We need other minds to present a 
 
PKEPARING THE LESSON 89 
 
 subject from all points of view in order to see it as it 
 really is. 
 
 The methods described above are among the greatest 
 educating forces for busy men and women. No one can 
 have these great subjects living in their minds, and 
 gathering other thoughts to them, and be compelled to 
 make them so vivid, so accurate, so practical that they 
 can teach them, without himself becoming educated. 
 The Sunday School is the teacher's postgraduate course. 
 
 In the new Congressional Library at Washington this 
 motto is written over one of the alcoves, — " To the 
 souls of fire, I, Pallas Athense, give more fire, and to those 
 who are manful a might more than man's." 
 
TEACHER TRAINING, "AN EDUCATION FOR THE 
 EDUCATOR" 
 
 I. The Most Urgent Problem before the Sunday School 
 World of To-day is how to obtain Teachers trained for 
 their Work; which practically means, How to train for 
 their work, those in our churches (1) who are teachers 
 in the Sunday School, (2) those who ought to be teachers, 
 and (3) those who are growing up to become teachers. 
 
 There is no discord among educators on this point. We 
 can say of it as Emerson said, when some one spoke in his 
 presence of the ideas of the Declaration of Independence 
 as " Glittering generalities." " Glittering generalities ! " 
 said Emerson, ''They are blazing ubiquities." 
 
 The need of better-trained teachers is " a blazing ubiq- 
 uity." It is present in every school, in every college, in 
 every Sunday School. It is omnipresent in books on edu- 
 cation, secular or religious. 
 
 Professor Seeley in The Foundations of Education: "It 
 is a well-established pedagogical maxim that the most im- 
 portant element of an educational system is the qualified 
 teacher." 
 
 B. F. Jacobs: "Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson tells us 
 that the childhood of this generation is crying out ^Edu- 
 cate my mother ! ' If transposed to read, ' Educate my 
 
 90 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 91 
 
 teacher,'' it will voice the heart and life cry of many chil- 
 dren who do not yet know of their great need and how to 
 ask for it." 
 
 Resolution adopted by the Fourth World's Sunday School 
 Convention held at Jerusalem in the spring of 1904 : — 
 
 " While reaffirming that the first essential work of the 
 Sunday School teacher is to bring the pupil to a saving 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ and to strengthen his life in 
 him, this convention declares its conviction that one of the 
 greatest needs of the Sunday School is a higher efficiency 
 on the part of our teachers, and it greatly desires to see 
 improved plans of teacher-training more widely extended. 
 We heartily commend the plan of the International Exec- 
 utive Committee in appointing a special educational com- 
 mittee to promote this work. 
 
 Dr. Arnold of Rugby : " It is clear that in whatsoever 
 it is our duty to act, those matters also it is our duty to 
 study." 
 
 President Eliot : " The actual problem to be solved is 
 not what to teach, but how to teach." 
 
 Shakespeare : — 
 
 " Ignorance is the curse of God, 
 Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven." 
 
 — 2 Henry IV. 
 
 Professor Miinsterberg, in his American Traits : " Just 
 as it has been said that war needs three things, (1) Money, 
 (2) Money, (3) and again MONEY, so it can be said with 
 much greater truth that Education needs not forces, and 
 buildings, not pedagogy and demonstrations, but only Men, 
 Men, and again MEN — without forbidding that some, 
 not too many of them, shall be women." 
 
 Professors Burton and Mathews in Principles and 
 
92 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Ideals : " If the Sunday School is a real educational insti- 
 tution, can it be carried on by untrained teachers ? " 
 
 This is not a new movement. Training classes for 
 Sunday School teachers were instituted in England as 
 early as 1856, and in the same year Mr. Frater " urged the 
 establishment of Sunday School colleges in all large towns 
 for training senior scholars to become teachers." The 
 movement in this country began at least as early as the 
 International Lessons, and has been earnestly urged by 
 the committee from the beginning. 
 
 But in the present age there is a greater emphasis upon 
 it, a deeper feeling of its need, and a vastly greater oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 II. The Present Status. — It is quite impossible to deal 
 wisely with the present situation without a fairly accurate 
 knowledge of what that situation is. 
 
 One of the most difficult things is to discover just what 
 is the real character of the teaching in the Sunday School. 
 When I hear from ministers in conventions and read the 
 characterizations of the Sunday School teachers made by 
 editors and learned college professors, which all my obser- 
 vation declares to be caricatures, or at best like the huge 
 genie towering from the tiny box of the fisherman, I can- 
 not help inquiring how many of their facts are derived 
 from imagination or childhood's memories, and how much 
 from actual knowledge of the present-day Sunday Schools. 
 In how many classes have they, within the last few years, 
 sat and heard the teaching? 
 
 Without doubt the severe indictments of Sunday School 
 teaching are made by contrasting the good average teach- 
 ing with the highest ideals ; just as the best saints confess 
 their sins, far more earnestly than bad men do theirs, be- 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 93 
 
 cause the saints have vastly higher ideals. But as Theo- 
 dore Parker once said of these same saints that if their 
 confessions were true, they ought to go to state prison, 
 so these contrasts between the actual teaching and the 
 loftiest ideals, which the best teachers feel the most, give 
 a wrong impression to the common mind. 
 
 It is well known that Dr. A. J. Gordon, late pastor 
 of the Clarendon Street Baptist Church of Boston, early 
 in his ministry had a dream or vision as real as Peter's 
 vision on the housetop in Joppa.^ He saw Christ in his 
 congregation, and looked as through Christ's eyes upon 
 everything pertaining to his preaching, the services, and 
 the Church. That vision changed his preaching and the 
 whole atmosphere and work of his Church. 
 
 Now if Christ came to our Sunday Schools and sat be- 
 side the teacher, what would he see ? He would see the 
 evil, of course, as Stead saw the evil in Chicago, in his 
 book. If Christ came to Chicago. But he would look at it, 
 not as a policeman looking for crime, but as a good physi- 
 cian looks at disease, as something to be lovingly cured. 
 Under such a look as Christ gave to Peter, the unfaithful 
 teacher would go out and weep bitterly. 
 
 But I am sure that Christ would look at the Sunday 
 School far more as Edward Everett Hale represents him 
 in How Christ came to Boston, looking chiefly for the good. 
 
 He would see I know not how many teachers who do 
 not know what to teach nor how to teach. How they 
 came to be teachers it is hard to tell. They may have 
 been the only ones available. They may have wanted to 
 do some good for which they were not fitted by nature or 
 by grace. They may have had a dim idea of duty, with- 
 ^ See Hoio Christ came to Church, Baptist Publication Society. 
 
94 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 out any real will to do their best. I trust there are not 
 many. We can only say of them the couplet some one 
 has written in answer to Whittier's lines — 
 
 " Of all sad words of tongue and pen, 
 The sadd'st are these, ' it might have been,' '* 
 
 suggesting that 
 
 " A sadder thing we sometimes see, 
 It is, but it ought not to be ! " 
 
 And yet in my own heart I cannot but feel that even for 
 these Whittier's following lines are not only better poetry, 
 but deeper truth : — 
 
 " Ah, well ! for us some sweet hope lies 
 Deeply buried from human eyes, 
 And in the hereafter angels may 
 Roll the stone from its grave away." 
 
 Again he would see a large number of the best and 
 most intelligent people in the community, educated men, 
 teachers in the day schools, saints who have lived on the 
 Bible, skilled business men, mothers who have trained 
 their own children well, and thus learned to train the 
 children of others, women who give time and strength 
 and brains to teaching, the leaders of thought and influ- 
 ence. There is a large amount of truth in the words of 
 B. F. Jacobs, than whom few knew more about Sunday 
 School teaching, that " God had skimmed the cream of 
 the Church and put it into the Sunday School." I would 
 go farther, and say that by means of the Sunday School 
 God was transforming the skim-milk of the Church into 
 cream. 
 
 Then Christ would see the great body of Sunday School 
 teachers, men and women of medium intelligence and abil- 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 95 
 
 ity, of moderate education and opportunity, of fair faith- 
 fulness, and a general desire to do their best for their 
 scholars. The great majority of these have had compara- 
 tively little training in how to teach, and incomplete train- 
 ing in what to teach. But most of them are not entirely 
 untrained for their work. Technical training is only a 
 part of teacher training, as we shall see. And it is impos- 
 sible for the Sunday School work to be done without these 
 teachers, and most of them do good work, often very good 
 work, though not the best possible. 
 
 The most hopeful element in the situation is the large 
 and rapidly growing interest in the training of teachers, 
 and the increasing opportunities for that training. The 
 better the teachers, the more they feel the need of train- 
 ing. The same spirit is abroad to-day which a late ad- 
 dress describes as inspiring our forefathers. " Six years 
 after the founding of Boston, our forefathers, only a few 
 thousand in number, scattered thinly from Ipswich to 
 Cohasset and Watertown to Boston, while still in danger 
 of starvation and, as one chronicler puts it, ' of rattle- 
 snakes by day and savages by night,' founded Harvard 
 College ' Christo et Ecclesiae.' They determined that 
 the culture of the mind should begin with the culture of 
 the soul." 
 
 And still more hopeful is the fact that the training of 
 teachers means the training of the whole Church. Parents 
 need the training as really as teachers, and the means by 
 which teachers are trained are largely open to the whole 
 community. 
 
 III. The Kind of Training depends on the Purpose and 
 Aim of the Teaching in the Sunday School. — This is so 
 obvious a truth that it needs but to be stated to be 
 
96 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 accepted as true. And yet not a little of the criticisms 
 of the teaching force, and not a few of the discussions of 
 teacher training ignore this obvious truth, or lay wrong 
 emphasis upon the different elements of the training. 
 
 Bishop Vincent is right in saying, "As nearly every- 
 thing in the School depends upon the teacher, so nearly 
 everything in the teacher depends upon his aims." 
 
 IV. The Next Step therefore is for the Teacher to have 
 Clearly and Definitely in Mind what he means to accomplish 
 by his Teaching. What is the supreme end of Sunday School 
 teaching, and what subordinate aims minister to it, or have 
 a value in themselves ? I will name them in the order of 
 their supremacy, of their dependence one on the other. 
 
 (1) The supreme and ultimate aim of Sunday School 
 teaching is perfect Christian character and the life which is 
 its natural expression. It is the attaining "unto a full- 
 grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness 
 of Christ." 1 The forming of the best character is now 
 regarded by educators as the highest aim of all educations. 
 Let me put it before you from four points of view stated 
 by four men of both experience and power : — 
 
 "In the contrast so often made to-day between the 
 day school and the Sunday School, remember this," says 
 Professor Merriam, "that what is primary in the day 
 school is secondary in the Sunday School, and what is fun- 
 damental in the one place is only incidental in the other ; 
 that is, your main purpose is moral and spiritual. The 
 main purpose of the day school is intellectual. What the 
 day school does indirectly in ethical influence is your 
 direct object — to form the spiritual character of that 
 group of young people." 
 
 1 Eph. 4 : 13. 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 97 
 
 " It is an admirable thing," said President Roosevelt, 
 the other day, in addressing a school, " a most necessary 
 thing, to have a sound body. It is an even better thing 
 to have a sound mind. But infinitely better than either 
 is it to have that, for the lack of which neither sound 
 mind nor a sound body can atone — character. Character 
 is in the long run the decisive factor in the life of 
 individuals and of nations alike. Sometimes, in rightly 
 putting the stress that we do upon intelligence, we for- 
 get the fact that there is something that counts more. 
 It is a good thing to be clever, to be able and smart ; but 
 it is a better thing to have the qualities that find their 
 expression in the Decalogue and the Golden Rule." 
 
 Professor Sanders's : " The aim of all Sabbath School 
 work is, or ought to be, the building up of character. 
 This gives a wider and truer range to it than that 
 which is given by the usual definition. It includes the 
 forming of the being, the reaching of the mind in all 
 its departments, and treats it as a single entity." 
 
 In the words of the lamented Professor Henry Drum- 
 mond : " The image of Christ that is forming within us — 
 that is life's one charge. Let every project stand aside 
 for that. ' Till Christ be formed,' no man's work is 
 finished, no religion crowned, no life has fulfilled its 
 end. Is the infinite task begun ? When, how, are we 
 to be different? Time cannot change men. Death 
 cannot change men. Christ can. Wherefore ' put on 
 Christ.' " 
 
 (2) The supreme choice of righteousness^ of Grod as our 
 Father^ and of Christ as Saviour and as the embodiment of 
 all that is good, that is, a supreme love of God, of Christ, 
 and of duty, is an essential condition of obtaining the 
 
98 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 highest character. That is conversion, the new birth, 
 the beginning of a new life which is to grow unto perfec- 
 tion, a continued and eternal living of the heavenly life. 
 
 Education cannot take the place of this new life. 
 " Education alone," says Herbert Spencer, in his Social 
 Statics^ " never makes a man better. Creeds pasted on 
 the memory, good principles learned by rote, lessons in 
 right and wrong, will not eradicate vicious propensities. 
 . . . All history, both of the race and the individual, 
 goes to prove that in a majority of cases precepts do not 
 act at all. . . . But if you make virtue loved and vice 
 loathed, if you arouse a noble desire, if you bring into 
 life a previously dormant sentiment, ... if, in short, 
 you produce a state of mind to which proper behavior 
 is natural, spontaneous, instinctive, you do some good." 
 This expresses the need of religion behind education, 
 the value of revivals, of decision days, of believing on 
 Christ. 
 
 After that, education and culture have almost unlimited 
 power. Inoculate the wild brier with the rose, and all 
 the culture which would only make the wild brier a more 
 luxuriant brier, but never a rose, will make it bring forth 
 more beautiful roses more abundantly. '' Golden conduct 
 does not proceed from leaden instincts." 
 
 In a late story we read: " ' You can educate men, mon- 
 keys, and pigs,' said the young professor of English 
 Literature, ' but when you have done, you still have men, 
 monkeys, and pigs. College cannot change the nature of 
 the trainee, but it does rub off one husk, and show one 
 central kernel. If there be a man there, college training 
 but brings out the man.' " 
 
 A teacher said, '' I would rather, a thousand times 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 99 
 
 rather, any pupil of mine should fail in every examination 
 than to fail once in honor or chivalry." 
 
 It is this supreme motive that transforms all that is 
 secular into the sacred for them that have it. 
 
 (3) The training of the will is therefore one of the 
 essential elements of education. The child is to be trained, 
 guided, to make right choices, in all the hourly matters 
 which present themselves for a decision between right 
 and wrong, between good and evil. 
 
 It is by these acts of choosing that character is formed 
 and confirmed. According to Dr. Forbush in The Boy 
 Problem., " the public school fails in will-training because 
 it gives the will no exercise. ' Our schools,' says William 
 I. Crane, ^ permit us to think what is good, but not to do 
 what is good.' " 
 
 I cannot do better than to state the case in the words 
 of Professor R. Sanderson, superintendent of the city 
 schools of Burlington, Iowa, in a remarkably clear and 
 able address before the city Sunday School Union : — 
 
 '^ This is the preordained path by which the individual 
 attains to Christian character, determined by the natural 
 workings of the human mind, — thinking, feeling, willing, 
 — and in this order. It is impossible for a man to feel 
 unless there is an object presented ; it is impossible to will 
 unless the intellect has taken cognizance of a fact, and 
 a sufficient amount of feeling is aroused in the contem- 
 plation of it. Before an intelligent act becomes possible, 
 there must be knowledge, feeling, and willing. It is not 
 necessary that the knowledge be either exhaustive or com- 
 plete ; still there must be enough to make the affections 
 prompt the will to choose actively the ' doing ' or ' not 
 doing.' ... 
 
100 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 " Theoretically, that man has a perfect character whose 
 intellectual perceptions arouse corresponding affections 
 and terminate in appropriate willing and acting. This 
 places character not in intelligence, not in large-hearted- 
 ness, not alone in acting, but in a happy harmony and 
 equipoise of all these. And the difference between men 
 chiefly consists in the infinitely various ways in which these 
 three departments of our nature act, interact, and react. . . . 
 
 *' That man alone has a right character whose right 
 thinking terminates in right acting, whose every thought 
 has its appropriate emotion and willing." 
 
 Note that while in the Sunday School there is but 
 moderate opportunity for giving the will exercise, as in 
 attention, faithfulness, reverence, kindliness, obedience, 
 yet the Sunday School teaching is geared on to the daily 
 life at home, and the teaching is scarcely done before the 
 child has abundant exercise for his will in putting the 
 teaching into practice. 
 
 Note that through the minor choices the child is trained 
 to make the supreme choice of his life. 
 
 Note that the supreme choice is often made in view of 
 some small act close at hand in everyday experience, when 
 the chooser does not at all realize the full measure of its 
 content. He makes a choice of a right instead of a wrong 
 act, and it is the beginning of a new life of serving and 
 obeying Christ, the sum of all righteousness. Hence it 
 so often happens that people brought up under Christian 
 influences are not conscious of any definite time when 
 they became Christians, while those before whom came 
 the clearly defined choice of Christ or the world know 
 definitely when they made their life decision. 
 
 Note again, that while every day is a *' decision day," 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 101 
 
 yet it is of great value to a young person to come face to 
 face with some question when he must decide openly and 
 positively where he will stand, through which decision he 
 shall become conscious of his real position, and confirmed 
 in it. Professor E. W. Scripture of Yale, in his book 
 of psychological experiments, Thmklng^ Feeling^ Doing^ 
 proves that in order to realize feelings, as of hot and cold, 
 there needs to be a sudden change. In holding a spoon 
 on the flame of a lamp, " when the heat was gradually 
 increased it was scarcely noticed, but when suddenly in- 
 creased it was clear at once." Although a frog jumps 
 readily when put in warm water, yet a frog can be boiled 
 without a movement if the water is heated slowly enough. 
 " From psychological writers we have heard it repeated 
 ad nauseam that there is no consciousness without change. 
 These facts illustrate the necessity of sudden impulses, of 
 great revivals, reformations, political excitements, unex- 
 pected results, to awaken a community to its needs or its 
 dangers." Decision days are coming into use for the same 
 reason. 
 
 (4) The will is trained hy presenting the motives which 
 lead to action. The will always acts in view of motives. 
 
 "The driving power which brings to the point of de- 
 cision may be vivid emotion, or keen sorrow, or painful 
 repentance, or the impulse of a high resolve, or the woo- 
 ing of a great love, or a kindled passion after good and 
 purity. But all the roads converge to this point of solemn 
 reflection, when a man considers his life in the light of 
 God's presence." ^ 
 
 The work of the Sunday School is like the work of the 
 Church, as expressed by Professor Peabody of Harvard. 
 1 Rev. Hugh Black of Edinboro. 
 
102 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 '' It is not one more machine of social service ; it is a 
 source of power for social service. That is the place of 
 a true Christian Church. It is a power-house." Mark 
 Twain hit it when he said, "The art of preaching is to 
 influence you." The work of the teacher is to so present 
 motives that his scholars will make the right choice and 
 form the best characters. 
 
 Hawthorne, in one of his stories, describes a character 
 which was paralyzed in the realm of motives. The man 
 would look out of his window at the world, but felt him- 
 self as utterly detached from it as a door detached from 
 its hinges, and as useless. The sign in the window, "To 
 let," describes exactly the state of the man's motives ; and 
 the words Qui bono ? — " What is the use ? " were fastened 
 upon every rising intention. The teacher is to give life 
 and action to the realm of motives. 
 
 "Inasmuch," says Commissioner W. T. Harris, "as the 
 child is self-active, and grows only through the exercise 
 of self-activity, education consists entirely in leading the 
 child to develop this power of doing. Any help that does 
 not help the pupil to help himself is excessive." 
 
 (5) " The prescribed way — prescribed by nature — of 
 reaching the will is, as related above, by presenting to the 
 intellect facts which shall arouse the emotional nature." 
 These facts, for the teacher of the Sunday School, are 
 chiefly the teachings of the Bible, illustrated in Bible 
 history, *biography, and literature, and experienced by 
 the teacher himself. The Bible is the teacher's text-book. 
 No other book has had or can have the power which this 
 Book has, presenting as it does the greatest truths revealed 
 by God and adapted to man, meeting every need, quench- 
 ing every thirst ; the bread of life to the hungry ; forgive- 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 103 
 
 ness for the sinful ; hope, life, immortality for all. It is 
 the great, abiding, inspired truths of redemption, em- 
 bodied in Jesus Christ, made mighty by His atoning love, 
 and illuminated and enforced by the presence of the Holy 
 Spirit, that can present the motives which lead to right 
 choices and thence to Cliristian character. " The Church 
 should never forget the saying of Coleridge, that no reli- 
 gious emotion is profitable except such as is produced by 
 the view of some truth." But most of all by a clear vision 
 of Him who was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of 
 grace and truth. 
 
 (6) In addition to the character forming truths^ there is 
 very much to be taught from the Bible, that belongs to the 
 divine setting of these truths, and therefore of great im- 
 portance to the right understanding of them, and to their 
 impression on the minds of our scholars. The geography, 
 the history, the forms of literature, the connection with 
 secular history, the location of the Prophets and Epistles 
 in their historical environment, and all that is referred to 
 in the chapters on Methods of Bible Study for the Sun- 
 day School belong under this category. 
 
 V. Having accepted the necessity for trained teachers, 
 observed the present teaching force, realized that the kind 
 of training depends on the aim of Sunday School instruc- 
 tion, and having studied that aim in its various aspects, 
 we are now prepared to consider — 
 
 What are the kinds of training which prepare the Sunday 
 School teacher for his work, and what is the proper empha- 
 sis to be laid upon each of them ? 
 
 First. Character training stands far above all others, 
 for character is the greatest human agency known for 
 inspiring character in others, and tliat is the supreme 
 
104 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 object of Sunday School instruction. Character produces 
 character ; love awakens love ; life is the only known 
 source of life ; religious life kindles religious life in 
 others ; and there is nothing can take its place for this 
 end: Bible truth lived, Bible truth expressed in human 
 character, Bible truth illustrated and explained in daily 
 life, in "living epistles known and read of all." Souls 
 grow by contact with other souls. The larger and fuller 
 the spirit with whom we come into touch, and the more the 
 points of contact, the more free and strong is our growth. 
 Plautus says that "an eye witness is worth more than 
 ten thousand ear witnesses." 
 
 Hon. S. B. Capen says, " Fellow-teachers, let us never 
 forget in all our work that our words will never go any 
 farther than our own lives will carry them. Back of the 
 teacher and the teaching is the man himself, and not what 
 we say but what we are will determine the force of our 
 message. Emerson's words are forever true, ' What you 
 are speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say.' " 
 
 I know of no discordant note among educators in the 
 testimony that " the greatest thing a teacher ever brings 
 to a child is not the subject-matter, but the uplift which 
 comes from heart contact with a great personality." ^ 
 
 Professor Luther H. Gulick of New York, after a per- 
 sonal inquiry among leading men of the city as to the 
 source from which they had gained most from their Sun- 
 day School experience, found that the scheme of lessons, 
 the age or sex of teachers, had small influence compared 
 with the character of the teachers. ^ 
 
 1 An Ideal ScJiool, Chap. XII. 
 
 2 Proceedings of the second annual meeting of the Religious Education 
 Association, 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 105 
 
 In the Forum for March, 1896, President Charles F. 
 Thwing records the results of " a very interesting study 
 of fifty representative men to questions involving the best 
 thing college does for a man. The entire drift of the testi- 
 mony was that the most these men got from the college 
 was inspiration from life contact with great leaders. The 
 subject-matter of the college received a very small per- 
 centage of credit." 
 
 Dr. Parkhurst remarks, " While books can teach, per- 
 sonality only can educate." 
 
 "The most influential thing in the world," says Pro- 
 fessor Whitney, " is, we suppose, what men see in other 
 people's lives." 
 
 " No nobler feeling," says Carlyle, " than admiration 
 for one higher than himself dwells in the breast of man. 
 It is to this hour, and at all hours, the vivifying influence 
 in man's life." 
 
 President Hadley, of Yale, says in a late article, " All 
 the moral precepts which are taught, even by those great 
 head masters who have the greatest reputation as moral 
 teachers, are of little consequence as compared with the 
 personality of those teachers themselves." 
 
 The ancient Persian monarchs acted on this principle 
 when, according to Xenophon's Memorabilia, they selected 
 for the training of their princes the four best men in their 
 kingdom, — the wisest man, the most Just man, the most 
 temperate man, and the bravest man, — men who could 
 teach the virtues well because they had experienced them, 
 men who could illustrate them by living examples. 
 
 In his Mosses from an Old Manse Hawthorne tells a 
 weird story of a chemist named Rappacini, who was in- 
 vestigating the nature of poisons, and had a charming 
 
106 THE niONT LINE 
 
 garden in which every plant and flower was poisonous. 
 His beautiful daughter lived in this poison atmosphere 
 till her whole nature became poisonous, so that at length 
 flowers withered at her touch, insects flitting before her 
 fell dead in her breath, and even spiders and reptiles per- 
 ished, scorched and convulsed by her presence. And a 
 young student, attracted by her beauty to walk in that 
 Eden of poisons, was at length astonished and enraged to 
 And himself, even by this partial abode there, so impreg- 
 nated with the poison that the flies and spiders of his 
 room withered in death when he breathed upon them, and 
 this poison fragrance surrounded him everywhere like an 
 atmosphere. 
 
 The reverse of this is still more true. Ingersoll is re- 
 ported to have said that if he had been God, he would 
 have made health catching instead of disease. But God 
 has made moral good more catching than moral evil. 
 Life has vastly more propagating power than death. We 
 cannot communicate to others what we do not possess 
 ourselves. The power of the preacher lies in the man 
 behind the sermon. The power of the teaching lies in the 
 teacher behind the teaching, so that the scholar can find — 
 
 " His being working in my own, 
 The footsteps of his life in mine." 
 
 Here, then, is the supreme sphere of teacher training. 
 Let us note several things in reference to it. 
 
 (1) This kind of teacher training is too often left out 
 of the account or taken for granted, with the result of 
 discouragement to good teachers, of a wrong emphasis on 
 the work of training, and of a wrong principle of selec- 
 tion. The greatest danger in that excellent and neces- 
 sary training so much insisted upon is well expressed by 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 107 
 
 Spurgeon's illustration of a " servant wlio was desired by 
 his master to carry a present of fish to a friend and to do 
 it as quickly as possible. In all haste the man seized a 
 basket and set out; but when he reached his journey's 
 end he became a laughing-stock, for he had forgotten the 
 fish ; his basket was empty. Teacher ! Preacher ! let not 
 the like happen to thee." We cannot carry the fish with- 
 out the basket, but the basket is of no use if it is empty. 
 
 (2) It is a teacher training that all can enjoy. 
 
 (3) It is gained through faithfulness in ordinary daily 
 life, in business, in the home ; amid cares and burdens 
 and sorrows, personal trials and victories; through pri- 
 vate communion with God and daily study of His Word. 
 
 (4) It is the preparation and training which uplifts 
 the Church as well as the Sunday School. 
 
 (5) It furnishes a new inspiration for better living, for 
 leaving off doubtful habits, for more earnest efforts for 
 the better life, for larger victories over evil, because all 
 these things are to have an effect upon the scholars under 
 our care. 
 
 (6) And lastly this kind of training naturally leads to 
 all other kinds of training which will make this kind most 
 effective. A well-balanced character will never expect 
 results without means, nor the best results without the 
 best means at hand. The Holy Spirit continually uses 
 means. The twelve fishermen Apostles were mighty 
 when filled with the Spirit, but they had first been two 
 or three years in the school of Christ. 
 
 "When one claimed that education was unnecessary 
 because the Holy Spirit would guide into all truth, and 
 added, ' The Lord can do without my knowledge,' a fitting 
 rebuke was administered in the reply, ' Yes, but the Lord 
 
108 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 can do still better without your ignorance.' ' Pour your 
 teaching out of a full reservoir, not out of a pint cup.' " 
 
 Second. The teacher is to he trained in hnoivledge of the 
 Bible, the intellectual and spiritual material he is to teach. 
 He needs a thorough acquaintance with it in every respect. 
 He must know Christ, in order to teach Him, and under- 
 stand the very soul of His teachings in order to teach these. 
 
 The queen bee is produced from a common worker by 
 being placed in a larger cell and fed with richer and more 
 abundant food. The soul of the teacher expands, grows 
 more beautiful, more powerful for good by more abundant 
 feeding on the Bread of Life. 
 
 Third. The teacher needs a training in the art of teach- 
 ing in the best methods of presenting, enforcing, illustrat- 
 ing, and applying the Bible truths. For teaching is an 
 art to be learned. It has its laws and principles, and new 
 light is being thrown upon the subject every day. 
 
 Some people are born with a genius for teaching ; all 
 the more will they gain from training, and all the more 
 earnestly will they seek the training. But most have 
 merely possibilities and need training in the art of teach- 
 ing in order to make the possibilities realities. The How 
 to teach is secondary in importance only to the What to 
 teach in the work of religious instruction. "Education 
 is not less a science, nor is teaching less an art because 
 the exclusive subject of instruction is moral and religious 
 truth." 1 
 
 The most learned men are often very poor teachers. I 
 frequently hear of men like the following : — 
 
 " One of the best Bible scholars that the writer has ever 
 
 1 Henry Dunn, 1837. See Mr. W. H. Groser's A Hundred Years' 
 Work for the Children, p. 103. 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 109 
 
 been privileged to meet was one of the worst teachers that 
 ever plagued a class." 
 
 And this from A. H. McKinney, Ph.D. : — 
 
 " My friend, the professor, is a veritable encyclopaedia. 
 His fund of information is seemingly inexhaustible. His 
 knowledge of, and fluency in, several languages is aston- 
 ishing. But he cannot teach. He descended as instruc- 
 tor from college to high school, to public school, to night 
 school, but in every position he was a failure. There was 
 no question concerning either the quantity or the quality of 
 his book learning, but he did not know how to teach. This 
 was the fatal defect that resulted in his professional death." 
 
 The How to teach is so important that I can scarcely 
 conceive of any teacher's not making it his most earnest 
 study. Not only must there be pure water in the reser- 
 voir, but the best possible distributing system. 
 
 Fourth. The teacher 7ieeds training in the study of the 
 child^ in which study such great advances have been made 
 within the past few years. 
 
 What my friend. Dean Alford A. Butler, writes con- 
 cerning the pastor is equally true of the teacher : ^' The 
 pastor who knows books and not men, who understands 
 inspired truth but not human nature, is like a man in the 
 desert throwing precious water at a collection of bottles 
 that are securely sealed. He may enjoy his own activity, 
 but the bottles are as empty at the end of the performance 
 as they were at the beginning. Talking is not teaching, 
 and preaching is not edification, though the torrent be as 
 large and as loud as Niagara." ^ " The deeper study of 
 
 1 The Sunday School Outlook. The Crypt Conference. Address by 
 Alford A. Butler, D.D., Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, Faribault, 
 Minn. 
 
110 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 child nature holds in it large promise of better work for 
 the future."^ Many a Sunday School teacher fails in 
 governing, as well as in teaching his class, because he 
 does not know his scholars. 
 
 Jesus attracted men because He understood them, He 
 knew them through and through, He felt their difficulties, 
 He sympathized with their struggles. He saw them as 
 worse than they saw themselves, yet He showed no loath- 
 ing, no scorn ; He felt no hate, no contempt ; He did not 
 despise them as outcasts. But He loved them. He knew 
 the good in them, He showed them that they were not 
 hopeless. For the first time they heard a teacher who 
 saw the possibilities within them, and treated them accord- 
 ing to what they were, and flung wide open the door of 
 repentance and hope and heaven. 
 
 Some wise thinker, whose name has escaped me, enforces 
 the duty of child study in these earnest words : " There 
 is a sense, a real and awful sense, in which you stand 
 between God and the children, and must communicate 
 Him to them. Every teacher is in the highest sense of 
 the word a priest, for God reveals Himself through men 
 and women. It is one of the ways He has chosen, and 
 we, who are all His servants, must try and be equal to 
 the responsibility. And if we stand between God and 
 the children, our hope of efficiency lies in our sharing 
 alike the soul of the Eternal and the spirit of the little 
 child. This latter is more important than we think, and 
 there is no good teacher who is not also a child. I do 
 not say we must be childish. I say we must be children 
 when we are face to face with the little ones, for only the 
 child-heart can communicate with the child-heart. There- 
 1 Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D.D., in Pastoral Leadership, p. 64. 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 111 
 
 fore, amid all the pains that some of you are taking by the 
 study of methods and systematic reading to fit yourselves for 
 your task, do not forget the duty of a perpetual childhood." 
 
 VI. In view of these facts and principles, and in appli- 
 cation of them to the present situation, our next inquiry 
 is. Who should be the teachers in the Sunday School ? 
 
 Concerning Paid Teachers. — There is a tendency in some 
 quarters to advocate the employment of paid teachers in 
 the Sunday School, as being better Bible scholars, and 
 better trained in the methods of teaching ; while of neces- 
 sity the classes would be larger and the teachers fewer 
 than in the ordinary Sunday School, it being claimed that 
 it is more effective to have one large class under a trained 
 teacher than several small classes under the ordinary 
 teacher. 
 
 That depends. 
 
 In very large schools, especially those that are Mission 
 Schools, a paid superintendent is often of great value. He 
 becomes the pastor's assistant. He can do a great deal of 
 work for the children during all the week, and become a 
 power in the community. He needs to be as well educated 
 as the pastor, but with special emphasis on this kind of 
 work. Such paid assistants will doubtless increase in 
 numbers, especially in cities, and they ought to. Smaller 
 churjches will very likely unite in employing such assist- 
 ants. Where it is possible to have a business man, like 
 Wanamaker at the Bethany Sunday School, in Philadelphia, 
 or like Mr. Frank L. Brown, a man of wealth who gives his 
 whole time to the Bushwick Avenue Methodist Episcopal 
 Sunday School, Brooklyn, then this is the better way. 
 
 In these large schools, the primary or kindergarten 
 teacher, who requires a costly two-years' course of train- 
 
112 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 ing, may well be paid, and then give her whole time to the 
 younger children. 
 
 Then there are special adult classes who wish to take up 
 subjects which demand expert scholars ; these may well 
 employ for shorter or longer courses such scholars as may 
 be obtained. 
 
 But beyond this, for the great body of Sunday Schools, 
 and for the great majority of classes in any Sunday School, 
 the substitution of paid teachers, with large classes, instead 
 of the present plan perfected, would be nothing less than 
 a calamity to the Churches and the Sunday Schools. It 
 would be like going back to Plato's ideal Republic, where 
 the children were to be taken from their parents and 
 placed under trained nurses and teachers, where, whatever 
 else they gained, they lost the mother love and its heavenly 
 power. 
 
 Practically, this question is, for most schools, of little 
 importance except as an ideal. For there are not enough 
 of the talented, completely trained teachers to go round. 
 And it would be impossible for most Churches to pay 
 teachers in addition to their other expenses, at least sufifi- 
 ciently to attract real talent. It would be much better 
 to make a liberal provision for training their own members 
 to be good teachers. The Report of the United States 
 Bureau of Education on Sunday Schools, 1896-1897, quotes 
 the following : — 
 
 " Hireling teachers can scarcely be expected to possess 
 either the zeal or the ability of those who now engage in 
 the work from motives of pure benevolence. Gratuitous 
 instruction was an astonishifig improvement of the system.^"* 
 Only in some small degree is it wise, even if possible, to 
 return to the earlier plan. 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 113 
 
 Who then are the best available persons for our Sun- 
 day School teachers ? 
 
 1. It is evident that both men and women teachers are 
 needed, with no great preponderance of either. 
 
 2. The best men, the business men, the educated men, 
 the men of character, the men of thought and action, in 
 the Church. These help to give character to the Sunday 
 School, as not an institution merely for the children and 
 the uneducated, but one worthy of the best talent and 
 best men. It is the presence of these men as teachers or 
 scholars that furnishes the strongest attraction for keeping 
 the young men in the Sunday School. The unofficial lay- 
 men's example can do what the pastor himself, or any paid 
 official, cannot do. It is a sad thing for any Church when 
 its leading men ignore the Sunday School. 
 
 3. The best women, the women of character, of gra- 
 ciousness, of culture, of influence. Let me speak to them 
 in the glowing words of Ruskin : " You have heard it 
 said that flowers only flourish rightly in the garden of 
 some one who loves them. I know you would like that 
 to be true ; you would think it a pleasant magic if you 
 could flush your flowers into brighter bloom by a kind 
 look upon them: nay, more, if your look had the power 
 not only to cheer but to guard them — if you could bid 
 the black blight turn away, and the knotted caterpillar 
 spare — if you could bid the dew fall upon them in the 
 drought, and say to the south wind, in frost, — ' Come, 
 thou south, and breathe upon my garden, that the spices 
 of it may flow out.' This you would think a great thing ! 
 And do you not think it a greater thing that all this (and 
 how much more than this !) you can do, for fairer flowers 
 than these, — flowers that could bless you for having 
 
114 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 blessed them, and will love you for having loved them, — 
 flowers that have eyes like yours, and thouglits like yours, 
 — which once saved are saved forever ? Is this only a 
 little power ? " i 
 
 4. Parents who have had experience with children 
 know their nature, their faults, and their virtues, and 
 know how to overcome their faults and cherish their vir- 
 tues, who obey the Talmud's admonition that " children 
 should be punished with one hand but caressed with two.'* 
 Though they know as little of the theories of child-train- 
 ing as the great poets knew of the theories of the poetic 
 art, yet the best men and women in the world have grown 
 up under their training. God, through nature, has taught 
 us where to find the best teachers of children. 
 
 In a note to Kant's Educational Theory^ Professor Buch- 
 ner says, "Modern pedagogy is coming more and more 
 to ally the fundamental qualities of the real teacher to 
 the characteristics of the maternal instincts, an extension 
 of which should pass upward into the work of educa- 
 tion." 
 
 In like manner an English writer tells us that a large 
 number in our Sunday Schools do not have what he 
 calls "moral mothering." "We never see the true work 
 of the Sunday School while we regard it as only teaching 
 the Bible. It is teaching the Bible as the agency for the 
 moral mothering of our scholars. What the young peo- 
 ple in our Sunday School lack, as the equipment for a life 
 of relationships and duties, we — teachers — are called 
 upon to supply ; and for our work we shall have to de- 
 velop systems and methods which will not follow the 
 pattern of the day school, but the pattern of the Christian 
 1 Sesame and Lilies. 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 115 
 
 mother, of a Christian home. Our ideal is not the cul- 
 tured day school teacher, but the skilful home-mother." 
 
 5. Intelligent young people, bright, active, and earnest, 
 who are striving to be better, struggling upward with 
 many a failure and many a victory, are within easy mem- 
 ory of their childhood's experience, in close sympathy 
 with the young. These often are looked up to and 
 admired by their juniors, and frequently have more in- 
 fluence over the young, especially over boys, than their 
 wiser and more learned elders. 
 
 6. Christian day school teachers are very useful in the 
 Sunday School. It is something like their usual work, 
 and therefore more valuable in Sunday School. And it 
 would be better for them to neglect some other service 
 than the hour with the children, for which they have been 
 specially trained, and through which they may have a 
 good influence over other teachers. 
 
 These are the best available material for the teaching 
 force of the Sunday School. 
 
 These people need a continual training in the material 
 for teaching and the methods of teaching ; exactly what 
 would be best for them as Christians, even if they were 
 not teachers. 
 
 There is nothing that so much aids the study of the 
 Bible among Christians as the work of teaching in the 
 Sunday School. It is the surest road to Christian cul- 
 ture. It is the greatest educational force for the whole 
 Church. 
 
 This fact gives an additional reason for small classes, 
 and many of them. It is best for the scholars to have 
 classes only large enough to be enthusiastic and mutually 
 helpful, not so large but the busy teacher can know them 
 
116 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 all, visit them all. There are exceptions, but the whole 
 tendency of Educational Science is in favor of smaller 
 classes. Many a teacher is a success with six or eight 
 scholars, who would be a failure with ten or twelve. It 
 gives many definite Christian work to do. A large part 
 of the training of adults comes from dealing with children. 
 " I am sure that Victor Hugo was right when he said that 
 God's — 
 
 " * . . . speech is in their halting tongue 
 And His forgiveness in their smile.' 
 
 Look on your children as in part a revelation of God, and 
 your very teaching work itself shall create something of 
 its own spiritual energy, and hence provide you from 
 itself with Divine momentum and spiritual dynamic." 
 
 This training of the Church reacts on the home and on 
 the Sunday School. No specially trained teachers from 
 without can begin to have as much influence for good as 
 a trained Church in the Sunday School. There is an 
 immense amount of nonsense uttered about the scholars 
 despising those teachers who are not as technically trained 
 as their day school teachers. I cannot find that there is 
 as much of that feeling in the Sunday School as in the 
 day school and college. Of course there is apt to be a 
 stage in the development of young people when, accord- 
 ing to Professor Stalker, they agree with Carlyle in think- 
 ing mankind mostly fools and those older persons who do 
 not agree with them old fogies. But children do not 
 usually despise those who love them, and have real char- 
 acter, even if they have not every detail of knowledge at 
 their tongue's end, any more than a freshman despises a 
 college president because he may not be able to pass his 
 own entrance examination. 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 117 
 
 It is not very uncommon for teachers, when they have 
 heard a convention lecture on the ideal teacher to be so 
 discouraged at their distance from the ideal that they 
 want to give up their classes, and the better teachers they 
 are, the more modest they are apt to be about their own 
 attainments. 
 
 If the twelve apostles, "unlearned and ignorant men," 
 should come incognito and apply to be teachers, they 
 would be ruled out by many theorists, and yet by going 
 to the School of Christ, and receiving the baptism of the 
 Holy Spirit, they have transformed a large part of the 
 world. Just such men and women are in our Sunday 
 Schools to-day, and what they are to do is not to leave 
 the school, not give up their teaching, but to do exactly 
 what the apostles did, — go to school to Christ and open 
 their souls to the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The school is improved, not so much by exchanging 
 poor teachers for better ones as by changing them into 
 better teachers ; changing the hot-blooded Simon into 
 Peter the rock, and the "son of thunder" into Saint John. 
 
 It is helpful to know that almost all the good work in 
 the world is done by imperfect men and imperfect instru- 
 ments. Every hero has been vulnerable at some point ; 
 every saint has failed in one direction at least. 
 
 ^' There's a fleck of rust on a flawless blade — 
 On the armor of price there's one ; 
 There's a mole on the cheek of a lovely maid — 
 There are spots upon the sun. 
 
 " But the blade of Damascus has succored the weak, 
 The shield saved a knight from a fall ; 
 The mole is a grace on my lady's cheek — 
 The sun, it shines for all." 
 
118 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 The most entrancing vision of beauty I ever beheld was 
 the view from the Eiffel Tower, looking clown at night 
 upon the enclosure of the Exposition buildings in Paris. 
 The architecture of tlie buildings themselves was outlined 
 in golden and silver light. The very trees bore fruit of 
 electric lights. Tiie groups of statuary were illuminated. 
 The lawns were like immense emeralds surrounded by 
 frames of golden light. The illuminated fountains, not 
 from light thrown upon them as often seen at Saratoga 
 and Niagara Falls, but from light underneath, threw up 
 their waters in a glorious changing harmony of brilliant 
 colors, like variegated fireworks. It was like a dream of 
 Paradise, a vision of fairy-land. Then it came to me 
 that all tliis beauty was made from the grass and water 
 and light of our common, everyday life ; and that so 
 God can take the materials now in our souls, and 
 in society, and transform them into the glories of his 
 new Jerusalem. 
 
 The last thing for us to do is to be discouraged by high 
 ideals. 
 
 " If only we strive to be pure and true, 
 To each of us there will come an hour 
 When the tree of life shall burst into flower, 
 And rain at our feet the glorious dower 
 Of something grander than ever we knew." 
 
 VII. The Church should provide the Means for Teacher 
 Training. — First, there should be a Reference Library, 
 always open to all at all times. It should contain not 
 only books on the Bible, and on the lessons as they come, 
 but books on the art of teaching, pedagogy, on child 
 nature, and child training, as Carlyle says, " The true 
 university of these days is a collection of books." 
 
TEACHEii tkai:ning 119 
 
 Second. Courses of Study. — The Churches, as part of 
 their regular expenses, should furnish courses of instruc- 
 tion on the Bible, on pedagogy, and on child study, for 
 the teachers, and equally for all the community. They 
 will create a general interest, and furnish instruction 
 which will be a benediction to the home, and thus react 
 upon the Sunday School. 
 
 In the Sunday School of which I am a member, we have 
 tried various tentative ways of carrying out this plan. 
 The speakers have been, as far as possible, experts in secu- 
 lar education, who also have experience in Sunday Schools, 
 teachers and head masters of large schools from our own 
 and other cities, state agents of our educational system, 
 supervisors of schools, professors in theological seminaries, 
 and in normal schools, and some from our own church 
 and school. These all have received payment with the 
 invitation, except our own members. 
 
 We have held the meetings on Sunday afternoons, on 
 Sunday evenings, after the weekly prayer meeting, and in 
 place of the weekly prayer meeting on alternate weeks, 
 with special music. I very much incline to favor this 
 latter plan, alternating the religious experience meetings 
 with educational study of the Bible. It is very difficult 
 in these times of many interests to make a success of such 
 a course of study on a separate evening. 
 
 These courses have all been free since the first one, 
 when a class was formed. They have been advertised by 
 programmes, and as far as possible there has been union 
 with other churches. 
 
 Third. Specimen Teaching. — There should be much 
 more learning from others than has been common. It is 
 often almost a revelation. Take pains to go into the classes 
 
120 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 of the best teachers in your own and in other schools. 
 In normal schools there are model schools, where the 
 students, having learned principles and theories from 
 other teachers, go to see these principles and theories put 
 into practice. All efforts to form an idea of the Golden 
 Candlestick from the descriptions were failures till a 
 model of it was found on the Arch of Titus. 
 
 Bishop Vincent, in his Modern Sunday School^ has some 
 admirable suggestions on this point. 
 
 " One can do any piece of work the better for having 
 first seen the same thing done by another. Young teachers 
 of the Bible should enjoy frequent opportunities of this 
 kind in their special work. We place such observation 
 of actual teaching only second in practical value to the 
 young teacher's practice under the eye and subject to the 
 keen criticism of the accomplished instructor. The very 
 best use of specimen teaching is that proposed some years 
 ago by an efficient Sunday School superintendent, who, 
 feeling the need of raising up a better class of young 
 teachers, thus proposed to utilize the weekly services of 
 his very best teachers : — 
 
 " I propose to appoint in my school a corps of assistant 
 teachers. These assistant teachers are to be selected from 
 our oldest scholars, and are each to sit and recite with 
 some one of the classes for two or three Sundays, and 
 then with another class, and so on, until each assistant 
 shall have had an opportunity of noting the methods of 
 management and instruction adopted by a majority of the 
 regular teachers. They are always to recite and take part 
 in the lesson in the class with which they sit, so as not to 
 embarrass the teacher. They are to take private notes, 
 and compare for themselves the different methods of 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 121 
 
 instruction, culling out the best features in each. With 
 the practical information thus obtained, revised and 
 strengthened by a further comparison with the systems 
 reported in the published works upon the subject, these 
 assistants will be prepared to enter upon their work with 
 great advantages, and we shall never be at a loss to sup- 
 ply a class with an efficient instructor, nor to provide a 
 substitute for an absent teacher. 
 
 " These assistants are to pledge themselves never, either 
 publicly or privately, to make comparisons between the 
 methods of the teachers whom they watch, but are to 
 keep wholly and sacredly to themselves the result of their 
 observations. They may, at the end of their probation, 
 give' a synoptical memorandum of the different modes 
 noticed, and of the excellences and deficiencies observed, 
 provided it is done in such a manner as not to connect 
 the one or the other with any individual. These precau- 
 tions seem necessary, in order to prevent the possibility of 
 ill-feeling or embarrassment among the regular teachers 
 from a criticism of their efforts." 
 
 It seems wise to have, more frequently than of late, model 
 classes in our Sunday School institutes and conventions. 
 
 Fourth. Teachers' meetings impart knowledge, inspire 
 interest, and awaken suggestions. (I knew well the head 
 master of a city school, who said that the most he gained 
 from a certain Saturday afternoon Bible class was that he 
 taught on Sunday just the opposite ideas with a great deal 
 of enthusiasm.) Teachers' meetings give real specimen 
 lessons and show the other teachers not only what to teach, 
 but how to teach. 
 
 It is a great thing in any city to have a Union Teachers' 
 Meeting taught by tlie best teacher within reach. 
 
122 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Each Sunday School should have a teachers' meeting 
 of its own for various purposes. But there should be 
 great variety in its methods. Unless there is some teacher 
 who stands far above all others, it is better to have more 
 than one teacher, not only because it is difficult to find 
 any one person 'who can give the time to it, but also be- 
 cause it gives more examples of teaching methods. 
 
 An adaptation of this method shown me by Mr. Charles 
 G. Trumbull of The Sunday School Times, in the Walnut 
 Street Presbyterian Sunday School of Philadelphia, is 
 remarkably ingenious, and equally successful. For the 
 second quarter there were nine leaders, and thirteen 
 " angles " or points of view, each of them under the 
 charge of a separate person, as " approach," " Lesson 
 story," "Orientalisms," ''difficulties," "primary," each 
 leader notifying in advance those of them who would be 
 needed for his particular lesson. This meeting was held 
 just before the weekly prayer meeting. 
 
 Fifth. The Normal Class, the Teachers' Class. — The 
 study of children under our care, the note-book like Emer- 
 son's which he called his Savings Bank — all are helpful 
 means of training ourselves to become good teachers. 
 
 " It is the truth which has become a personal convic- 
 tion, and is burning in a man's heart so that he cannot 
 be silent, which is his message." 
 
 " The number of such truths which a man has appropri- 
 ated from the Bible and verified in his own experience is 
 the measure of his power." ^ 
 
 " The gold of thought has generally to be collected as 
 gold dust." 
 
 "It takes a bushel of charcoal to form one diamond." 
 1 Rev. James Stalker in The Preacher and his Models. 
 
TEACHER TRAINING 123 
 
 Sixth. Learning by Teaching. — " Aristotle long ago 
 said that playing on the harp was learned by playing 
 on the harp.'' All the lessons in grammar and the the- 
 ories of poetry never made a good writer or a good poet, 
 except as he consciously or unconsciously put them into 
 practice. 
 
 " The Church has an advantage here which few public 
 schools possess. It is a community of men and women 
 who are learning to live together. Its object is not 
 merely to know, but to do, and to learn by doing. The 
 laboratory method may be slowly and painfully intro- 
 duced into our schools; it is the very life of our 
 Churches." i 
 
 "Theory," says Professor Hamill, "is a good thing; 
 practice is its coordinate — not a better thing, but another 
 good thing. ... I believe in practice, but take care 
 that you do not practise blunders, else you may become 
 successful only as a blunderer. I have known teachers 
 who persisted in practising with great diligence and 
 patience, but in the end it was a blunder which had 
 been the subject of practice. Be not discouraged if you 
 make mistakes in your practice. I believe it was Carlyle 
 who said, ' Heaven was made for those who blundered on 
 earth.' The man who blunders but turns his blunders 
 into steps heavenward, is the man who succeeds. If you 
 do not practise your blunders, but practise your own suc- 
 cesses and the successes of other people, you will surely 
 acquire the art. . . . 
 
 "It needs to be impressed upon those who desire to 
 teach yet are reluctant to assume the teacher's obligations, 
 that the way is open, by practice, and through the helpful 
 1 President Faunce at the R. E. A. meeting in Philadelphia. 
 
124 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 experiences of other teachers, to certain efficiency in the 
 art of Sunday School teaching." ^ 
 
 We learn not only how to teach, but the substance of 
 the teaching, by teaching. Imparting knowledge is one 
 of the greatest helps toward gaining knowledge. 
 
 Why is a city richer than the same number of acres of 
 pasture land ? It is because it is the centre into which 
 all things flow, and are poured out again by every avenue 
 of commerce. There is no other way for the soul to grow 
 rich except by making it the highway through which knowl- 
 edge and life and love come from God, and are sent on to 
 help and bless others. 
 
 " For the heart grows rich in giving : 
 All its wealth is living grain. 
 Seeds which mildew in the garner, 
 Scattered, fill with gold the plain." 
 
 In the words of Archbishop Trench : — 
 
 "Dig channels for the streams of Love 
 Where they may broadly run ; 
 And Love has overflowing streams 
 To fill them every one. 
 
 " But if at any time thou cease 
 Such channels to provide, 
 The very springs of Love for thee 
 Will soon be parched and dried. 
 
 " For we must share, if we would keep, 
 That good thing from above ; 
 Ceasing to give, we cease to have. 
 Such is the law of Love." 
 
 May we all join tlie glorious company of the trained 
 teachers. 
 
 1 Professor Hamill in TJie Sunday School Teacher. 
 
VI 
 
 A STUDY IX GRADING 
 
 The Necessity for Grading. — That the Sunday School 
 should be graded not only " goes without saying," but it 
 has been going with saying for many years. Child-study, 
 pedagogy, psychology, common sense, present experience, 
 and past experience all unite in demanding it, with no 
 discordant voice. 
 
 Grading is no late discovery. No new Columbus, sail- 
 ing over unknown seas and steering by the compass of 
 pedagogical principles, has suddenly discovered a hitherto 
 unknown continent in the Sunday School world. No 
 modern Kepler has worked out by scientific principles 
 what ought to be, and, pointing his telescope to the Sun- 
 day School heavens, has revealed a new planet there called 
 Grading. Progress is seldom made in that way. 
 
 What is New in Grading. 
 
 1. A new emphasis is laid on Grading, urging its neces- 
 sity, and creating a wider realization of its value, necessity, 
 and possibility, and arousing a deeper interest in the 
 movement. 
 
 2. New methods of Grading are peopling and develop- 
 ing the old continent, as America has been developed in 
 the last century. It is removing the fogs and clearing 
 the atmosphere so that the old stars shall shine with more 
 enlightening radiance. 
 
 125 
 
126 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 3. A new opportunity is made possible by the progress 
 of the past. 
 
 4. There is a wider extension of its practice and an 
 increasing number of experiments. 
 
 5. There has been a new development of the sciences 
 which enforce the necessity and guide by their principles. 
 
 '' The authority for such a plan is abundant," says Pro- 
 fessor E. P. St. John. "The Sunday School is the edu- 
 cational department of the Church, and every educator 
 stands as a champion of gradation. Every study of child- 
 hood indicates its value. Every systematic and progressive 
 course of Bible study requires it. The laws of teaching 
 make it essential, and the methods of teaching are adapted 
 to it." 
 
 Here, as in other departments, there is an imperative 
 need that the Sunday Schools all over the land should see 
 the Front Line and come up to it and march on with it ; 
 for the Front Line itself is hourly moving forward. All 
 the Sunday School leaders desire a better grading than 
 exists in most schools. They "are stretching forward 
 to the things which are before." They are pressing "on 
 toward the goal." 
 
 " He who says ' I want no more,' 
 Confesses he has none." 
 
 Dean Swift, in a reform address, illustrated his point 
 by the story of one of his neighbors who, by his industry 
 and skill, was becoming rich. It happened that during 
 the process he had been " troubled by violent stomachic 
 pains, for which he had found no relief and which were 
 the bane and torment of his life." 
 
 "Now," continues the Dean, "if my excellent laborer 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 127 
 
 were to send for a physician and to consult him respect- 
 ing this malady, would it not be very singular language 
 if our doctor were to say to him : ' My good friend, you 
 surely will not be so rash as to attempt to get rid of these 
 pains in your stomach ! Have you not grown rich with 
 these pains in your stomach ? Have you not risen under 
 them from poverty to prosperity? Has not your situa- 
 tion, since you were first attacked, been improving every 
 year? You surely will not be so foolish and indiscreet as 
 to part with the pains in your stomach ! ' 
 
 " What would be the answer of the rustic to this non- 
 sensical monition? 'Monster of rhubarb ! ' he would say, 
 ' I am not rich in consequence of the pains in my stomach, 
 but in spite of the pains in my stomach ; and I should be 
 ten times richer and fifty times happier if I had never 
 had any pains in my stomach at all.' " 
 
 Sunday Schools have prospered with the evil of very 
 imperfect grading. They have done a vast amount of 
 good. They have educated and sent forth a multitude of 
 noble men and women. But, like Dean Swift's parish- 
 ioner, they have reached this degree of prosperity and 
 noble fruitage, not on account of bad grading, but in 
 spite of it. For there is no question that a wise grading 
 makes the teaching easier, the instruction more efficient, 
 and the results more fruitful. 
 
 Grading is the systematic adaptation of the school, 
 including, — 
 
 the lessons taught, 
 
 the classification of the pupils, 
 
 the fitness of the teachers, 
 
 the methods of teaching, 
 
 the equipment required. 
 
128 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 to the age, the intelligence, the different stages of growth 
 and development of the various members of the school. 
 
 " It is really an attempt to do God's work in God's way, 
 to do the right thing in the right way for every pupil in 
 the school."^ 
 
 All the above five parts of the school must join in 
 harmony, if we would have the best work. " Graded 
 teachers will not atone for ungraded courses of study. 
 Graded teachers and graded courses will not atone for 
 ungraded pupils. And graded teachers and graded pupils 
 combined cannot atone for the lack of properly graded 
 courses of study." ^ 
 
 I. The graded course of lessons must be graded both in 
 Material and in Treatment. 
 
 II. The pupils are to be graded by putting them into 
 classes or groups of classes of the same general age and 
 acquirements, especially those accustomed to be together 
 in day school classes. 
 
 In very large schools there are many advantages in 
 having a separate room for each department, with its own 
 opening exercises and methods. In every school the 
 Primary department should have a separate room when- 
 ever possible, because everything connected with its man- 
 agement differs from those in the other grades far more 
 than the other grades differ from one another. 
 
 In smaller schools it is much better to have the whole 
 school (except the primary and an occasional special class 
 of adults, who need all the hour for the lesson) meet 
 together for the devotional exercises, reports, and neces- 
 
 1 Professor E. P. St. John, Superintendent of the N. Y. State S. S. 
 Association. 
 
 2 S. B. Haslett, Ph.D., in The Pedagogical Bible School. 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 129 
 
 sary business, and then retire to class rooms, if such rooms 
 can be obtained. In small schools it is often better to 
 have even the primary class meet for a part of this time 
 with the rest of the school, and give some of the songs or 
 responses. 
 
 Many a school loses interest and power and enthusiasm 
 because of too great a separation of departments. I have 
 known schools where the Intermediate and lower depart- 
 ments were intensely interesting, but the Senior depart- 
 ment dull and lifeless and unattractive, because of its 
 entire separation from the children ; and the seniors com- 
 plain of this state of things. It is unwise to exploit a 
 part of the school at the expense of the others, for this 
 injures all departments ; it prevents the older scholars 
 from remaining in the school. 
 
 The fact is, that all things in the school — courses of 
 study, classification, methods — are compelled to be modi- 
 fied from the pure individual ideal, in order to work 
 well together. You cannot have even the best poetry 
 or the best music in the world without modifying its 
 various elements from what would be ideal for each 
 separate element. In music, for instance, no organ or 
 piano can be perfectly tuned in each octave without mak- 
 ing horrible discords when different octaves are played 
 together. 
 
 Many of the criticisms of the Sunday School are unfair, 
 and many idealists' plans and experiments fail from ignor- 
 ing this fact. 
 
 Rev. E. Morris Fergusson, of Trenton, New Jersey, one 
 of the most wide-awake, talented, and progressive of state 
 Sunday School secretaries, wisely says : " The social and 
 spiritual benefits of gradation are of more importance than 
 
130 '' THE FRONT LINE 
 
 the strictly educational benefits. The advantage to the 
 primary child of being in a well-organized Primary De- 
 partment comes partly from the good lessons taught by 
 the primary teacher, but much more from the fact that 
 the child is a member of a department that is run for the 
 benefit of children from six to eight years of age. The 
 teaching is much ; but the life, the social atmosphere, the 
 spiritual stimulus and opportunity, the chance to live out 
 the child's whole natural life during the primary period, 
 — these are far more. Establish a Junior Department for 
 the children from nine to twelve, and give it the best 
 makeshift you can find for a separate room, and you begin 
 to create the same kind of a helpful atmosphere for the 
 juniors to grow in, before you have touched the lessons at 
 all. So with the big intermediate boys and girls ; so with 
 the young ladies and gentlemen of the Senior Department ; 
 so with all." 
 
 III. The grading of teachers means the finding or train- 
 ing of teachers who are peculiarly adapted to certain 
 stages of the child's development, and keeping them in 
 the same department from year to year, while the pupils 
 they teach pass from grade to grade, changing teachers as 
 they advance. 
 
 Mr. Fergusson continues : " Teachers who belong to the 
 grade, and who are willing to devote their Sunday School 
 lives, for Christ's sake, to the study of the problem of 
 teaching boys and girls of junior or intermediate or senior 
 age, these are what our Sunday Schools need more than 
 separate rooms or graded lessons. . . . But first we need, 
 for each grade, a permanent force of teachers." 
 
 This grading of teachers, though in actual use for many 
 years in the Primary Department, needs such a widening 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 131 
 
 of scope as Mr. Fergusson suggests. But the grading of 
 teaching should be by departments, and not by annual 
 courses or by a particular kind of lessons, as the Old 
 Testament, or the Gospel story, because a continued dwell- 
 ing in one portion of the Bible alone is narrowing, and 
 needs the broadening effect of wider study and wider 
 teaching. Leading educators are condemning the method 
 of keeping teachers too long in any one small grade in 
 the day schools, but advocating the retaining of them in 
 the larger departments. 
 
 To quote from Dr. Charles Roads, in a manual issued 
 by the Pennsylvania State Sabbath School Association: 
 "Experts with each period are required, and to produce 
 these experts the teacher must be joined to the depart- 
 ment rather than to one class for a long term of years. 
 A teacher takes a class for four or five years through a 
 department, then remains to carry another class through 
 it, while the students receive the benefit of another expert 
 teacher in the next grade. The peril of having only one 
 teacher in a child's whole Sunday School life, and he or 
 she with one-sided character or unhelpful spirit, is very 
 great. All of us are imperfect, and the best character 
 development comes from three or four good teachers influ- 
 encing successively; and when each teacher becomes an 
 expert in a department the power of the influence exerted 
 is multiplied. We actually can report that the personal 
 ties become stronger, the personal influence more power- 
 ful, and no complete breaking of old ties is necessary 
 when promotion occurs. The former teacher continues 
 helpful." 
 
 For the intermediate and senior grades a very large 
 proportion of teachers can adapt themselves to any of the 
 
132 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 grades at will, with some special study and good common 
 sense. 
 
 But in every place we find those who have peculiar 
 gifts, sometimes undeveloped till put into use. One has 
 a great gift in teaching boys ; give him boys to teach, 
 and put no limit to the numbers except the limit of his 
 ability. Some can teach boys or girls of college age with 
 great acceptance and power. For special adult classes 
 there are required experts in different directions. For 
 many of them different teachers are required for the same 
 class at different times. In all cases use graded teachers 
 whenever they can be found. 
 
 But do not let your good teachers be discouraged be- 
 cause they feel that they have no special talent. In the 
 day school the average intelligent person is trained for 
 almost any position in the schools. The same is true of 
 Sunday School teachers. 
 
 Schemes of Grading 
 
 The simplest, most natural, and abiding scheme, adapted 
 in a way to all schools, is that of Three Great Depart- 
 ments, each of which may be subdivided into courses or 
 grades, according to circumstances. 
 
 Cradle Roll. — Not meeting with the school, but belonging to it. 
 1. Primary. Eight or nine years of age and 
 
 under; same as Primary in 
 day schools. 
 Departments ^ 2. Intermediate or Equivalent to Grammar Schools. 
 general school. 
 3. Senior. Equivalent to High School 
 
 grade and upward. 
 Home Department. — Not meeting with the school, but members 
 of it. 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 133 
 
 . Note that in a broad way these correspond to the larger, 
 distinctive divisions of the day schools, — Primary, Gram- 
 mar, and High. 
 
 They make a distinction between the grades and de- 
 partments. 
 
 All kinds of Sunday Schools have something of these 
 grades, "whether or not blind eyes perceive them." I 
 have never seen an entirely ungraded school. Even the 
 poorest are not fairly compared with the old ungraded 
 day schools, where one teacher taught all grades and all 
 kinds of lessons. Yet there needs to be a more clear dis- 
 tinction and a better use of these grades to make a school 
 fully graded. But the method of promotion is not a test 
 as to the fact of gradation. 
 
 It is between these departments that there should be 
 some definite mark of promotion. The scholars should be 
 made to perceive that in going up from one to another, 
 an advance is made to a distinctly higher position, like 
 the change from the Grammar School to the High 
 School. 
 
 This is a distinction of no small importance if we would 
 keep the young men and women in tlie Sunday School. 
 Professor Irving F. Wood of Smith College made a 
 strong point of this in a late address. He says truly that 
 we must do one of two things if we would keep the young 
 men in the Sunday School, and thus preserve the spiritual 
 results of the long years that have gone before. 
 
 One method is for the parents and grandparents to 
 attend the school, in which case there is no special danger 
 of the children's feeling that they have outgrown it. 
 
 The other method is "to give the upper grades the 
 relative dignity which the High School has in the public 
 
134 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 school system," and we might add, to give wherever possible 
 something of the college grade to selected classes. Pro- 
 fessor Wood enforces this principle from his own experi- 
 ence. "I confess that it is usually painful to attend a 
 service on Children's Sunday, because, when the children 
 march in, one so pities the big boys who end the long line. 
 They cannot be called children by any figure of speech, 
 and yet their loyalty to the Sunday School drives them to 
 this position. I take off my hat to their heroism. At the 
 same time I recall an overgrown lad who refused, on a like 
 occasion, to march or sit with his class, and fled to a safe 
 retreat in the gallery. My recollection is without either 
 shame or penitence. I stand ready at any time to aid and 
 abet a rebellion of that sort. No one has a right, at the 
 very time when we want to make the strongest spiritual 
 impression, to submit the pride of growing youth to such 
 humiliation. Our general system of classification will get 
 rid of that by and by." 
 
 Margaret Meredith adds this testimony : " It is felt that 
 grown persons are very hard to induce to attend Sunday 
 School. I cannot believe that, for the only school in which 
 I ever saw the same steady effort made to invite them 
 which is made for children was entirely successful. . . . 
 
 " Grown people, both men and women, can only be drawn 
 into Sunday School if the ideas of childishness and igno- 
 rance be carefully disassociated with their attendance 
 there ; to this end one easy and efficient measure is scru- 
 pulously to call all your adult classes 'Bible Classes.' 
 Also, in providing lesson helps for them, provide Bible 
 class helps if such are given to any scholars." 
 
 This distinct advance is usually made in transferring 
 scholars from the Primary department to what is usually 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 
 
 135 
 
 the main school. Let the same be done now for those 
 who go up to the High School grade. 
 
 An advance on this scheme which the majority of schools 
 can adopt consists of the following grades, the names of 
 which were agreed upon unanimously by the Editors' 
 Association last June, in the following order, — 
 
 1. Primary, 3. Intermediate, 
 
 2. Junior, 4. Senior, 
 
 5. Advanced. 
 
 the Cradle Roll and Home Department being understood. 
 The three large departments are the basis of a more com- 
 plete grading : — 
 
 Departments 
 
 
 Grades 
 
 
 Psychological Divi- 
 sion: Average Ages 
 
 
 
 Cradle Roll. 
 
 
 
 I. Primary 
 
 1. 
 
 Kindergarten. 
 
 
 3 to 6 years ; those 
 unable to read. 
 
 
 12. 
 
 Primary. 
 
 
 6 to 8 or 9 years. 
 
 II, Intermediate or 
 
 r3. 
 14. 
 
 Junior. 
 
 
 9 to 11 years. 
 
 main school. 
 
 Intermediate. 
 
 
 11 or 12 to 15 or 16. 
 
 III. Senior, or ad- 
 
 '5. 
 
 6. 
 
 Young people. 
 
 
 15 years and up- 
 
 vanced, or 
 Bible classes 
 
 Adults or Advanced. 
 
 wards. 
 
 17. 
 
 Special elective 
 
 classes. 
 
 
 
 ^8. 
 
 Normal and teacher-train- 
 
 
 
 
 ing classes. 
 
 
 
 Home Department. 
 
 
 
 
 
 There are schools which are experimenting with schemes 
 of grading with a different grade for each year, but in the 
 schools with which I am acquainted the experiment has 
 not been going on long enough to test its value. 
 
136 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Observations 
 
 1. These grades must be very flexible. In the best day 
 schools there is a strong tendency to modify strict grading. 
 Professor Search in his Ideal School contends that years 
 are lost in the common graded school by the brighter 
 scholars being kept down to the average. " There is no 
 objection to classification, provided it is of flexible charac- 
 ter. Certainly there is some advantage in gathering into 
 working sections pupils of kindred interest, and, to a cer- 
 tain extent, of the same general working strength. What 
 is contended against is the assumption that the graded 
 organization as operated almost universally in the public 
 schools meets the requirements of the needs of individual 
 schools. . . . The graded school does not grade." 
 
 A professor in a great University tells me, at the time 
 of this writing, that the danger of the Sunday School is 
 the adoption of day school systems which are being dis- 
 counted already by the best day schools, and especially of 
 the attempt to 
 
 2. Grade the Sunday School by the Grammar School 
 grades of the same scholars, which is pedagogically wrong, 
 except in the general way referred to above. The subjects 
 of study are too different to apply the same grading to 
 both Sunday and day schools. One scholar may be 
 advanced in historical, or thoughtful subjects, several 
 degrees beyond the arithmetic or geography by which he 
 is graded in the grammar school. There are many other 
 things which should be used in making tests for the grades 
 to which a Sunday School scholar should belong. 
 
 3. The tests of grading must also, of necessity, be very 
 flexible. I know of no Sunday Schools, even those which 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 137 
 
 pride themselves on the completeness of the grading, 
 where the test of advancement to a higher grade is purely 
 the scholar's knowledge of the regular lessons of the pre- 
 vious year. Mere age is not a scientific test, but it must 
 be one of the considerations, or some of those who most 
 need the Sunday School will be driven away, with no 
 advantage to scholar or school, but only to an imperfect 
 theory. 
 
 In quite a number of schools, using different courses of 
 lessons, the grading is in accordance with certain supple- 
 mental lessons. This is good for the advancement from 
 the Primary to the Intermediate, because such lessons 
 form part of the regular course there ; but beyond that 
 the supplemental lesson test is unpedagogical except as 
 one means of ascertaining the scholars' fitness for higher 
 grade material and methods. 
 
 The scholar's general fitness for a grade is the real test, 
 however that fitness is ascertained, modified by the value 
 to him of various kinds of knowledge taught only in cer- 
 tain grades, or of finishing a course he has begun. 
 
 There is no little incentive to good work arising from 
 the privilege of advancement whenever prepared for it. 
 Since the younger Sunday School scholars are also in the 
 day schools, there must be the same variations of prog- 
 ress in both ; and Professor Search gives tabulated experi- 
 ments, in which, in a course of Latin, the scholars' progress 
 varied in the proportion of 40 for the lowest to 140 for 
 the highest, and in arithmetic from 140 for the lowest to 
 479 for the highest, i.e. in each study the highest was 
 about 3i times beyond the lowest. 
 
 It is plain that throughout the school there must be 
 great flexibility in grading and grading tests, or the 
 
138 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 history of the school will be but a parallel to Hawthorne's 
 short story of The Birth-Marh^ where the professor had a 
 wife of exquisite beauty, the only imperfection in which 
 was a birth-mark on her cheek. By means of chemicals 
 and various experiments he had succeeded in gradually 
 reducing the marring color and the size of the spot ; but 
 when the last experiment had succeeded, the disfigure- 
 ment had vanished and he had a perfect wife, but she was 
 dead. 
 
 4. Another reason for this flexibility lies in the fact 
 that the scholars in every school are changing, some fall- 
 ing out and others entering; and part of the mission of 
 every Sunday School is to reach out a helping hand and a 
 cordial welcome to those who are neglected. 
 
 5. This flexibility does not mean that grading is to be 
 neglected. On the contrary, it is absolutely necessary to 
 every good Sunday School. 
 
 But the improvement of the grading or the introducing 
 of a good graded system into any school is a difficult 
 matter for most pastors and superintendents, and is usu- 
 ally dreaded by them. I commit them to the wise and 
 helpful words of that prince among Sunday School work- 
 ers. Rev. Dr. A. F. Schauffler of New York, in his Ways 
 of Working. Whosoever will follow his advice and enter 
 in earnest upon the attempt, though he will be discouraged 
 at times, will find at last that, " like Alice in the Looking- 
 Glass Country, when he thinks that he has at last got 
 out of sight of the house, he is just walking in at the 
 front door." 
 
 6. It has been well said that "in secular schools the 
 lowest and the highest, the Kindergarten and the Uni- 
 versity, are best equipped, and the middle ranges need 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 139 
 
 reform. Here only the lowest has yet received adequate 
 attention." The early child-life has received the most at- 
 tention from psychologists. The adult grades have always 
 been studied, and the grading of the lesson for them is 
 easier than for the lower grades. Very much is being done 
 for Bible classes, normal classes, men's elective classes; 
 and more remains to be done in the development of 
 this higher grade. But in the Sunday School, as in 
 the day school, the middle ranges now need the largest 
 attention. 
 
 I would adopt the words of the preface of Professors 
 Burton and Mathews' Principles and Ideals^ " We ven- 
 ture to hope that what we have written will be of value 
 for teachers of those classes whose joupils constitute what 
 is perhaps the greatest problem of the Sunday School, the 
 boys and girls of grammar-school and high-school age." 
 
 Courses of Study. — Before the International system was 
 introduced in 1872, the Sunday School courses were in a 
 very chaotic condition. A great deal of good work was 
 done. Individual systems were some of them very good. 
 But I found it almost impossible to take the Sunday 
 Schools, very much of the time, out of the Gospels. Once 
 or twice my schools began on Genesis, but refused to con- 
 tinue through the year. There was almost nothing in 
 this country for real help for scholar or teacher. The 
 English Sunday Schools were in advance of ours in that 
 respect. 
 
 That the International system met a great need was 
 shown by its sudden spreading like wildfire over the 
 entire country. I remember it well because just at that 
 time, while an active pastor, feeling deeply the need of a 
 change, I prepared a semi-graded course on the Gospel in 
 
140 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 the Old Testament. Early in the first year of the actual 
 use of the International system, I presented my manu- 
 script to the publishers, and they all refused even to look 
 at it, because, as they said, nothing was selling except the 
 International helps. 
 
 That system created a new era in the Sunday School 
 w^orld. It is hard for one to realize the greatness of the 
 change, who has not worked under the older plan ; and as 
 a burnt child dreads the fire, so such a one dreads the 
 modern tendency toward a similar chaos. 
 
 The International system has been under the fire of 
 criticism from the beginning. Most of the earlier criti- 
 cisms have passed away, partly because of their nature, 
 and partly because they had accomplished their mission of 
 improving the system. None of them were embodied, to 
 any extent, in working forms. 
 
 Within a few years a new series of criticisms has arisen, 
 partly from the success of the prevailing system in uplift- 
 ing the whole Sunday School movement, so that its very 
 atmosphere has changed as from April to June; and 
 partly because of the marvellous development of the 
 sciences on which both Bible study and the art of teaching 
 depend. The whole educational world has received new 
 light from both science and experience. 
 
 These criticisms have taken form in new courses of 
 study of various kinds, some of them still in the theoretical 
 stage, and some tested by actual use. 
 
 The Bible Study Union Graded Lesson system, the 
 earliest and the most widely extended of all these systems, 
 was conceived and has been built up by my neighbor and 
 friend Rev. Erastus Blakeslee. By his teaching genius, 
 his intense energy, and the organizing skill through which 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 141 
 
 he won his spurs in the army and the military title of 
 General, he organized success for his new scheme, which 
 is now so well known. 
 
 The Lutheran General Council have issued an interest- 
 ing series of graded lessons in the form of bound books, 
 one for each grade (published also in quarterly form), — 
 Pictureland^ Workland^ Bible Story^ Bible History^ Bible 
 G-eograpliy^ Bible Biography^ Bible Teachings^ and Bible 
 Literature. " The General Council Graded System for 
 Sunday and Church schools covers all ages of Biblical in- 
 struction in simple and definite stages from the Kinder- 
 garten to the College, from the Infant school to the Bible 
 class, with full text-books and apparatus, each a complete 
 unit in itself." 
 
 "The Young Churchman Co., Milwaukee, publishes a 
 series of a dozen or more graded courses which are com- 
 ing into general use in Episcopal schools." 
 
 Beyond these I know of no complete series of graded 
 lessons (aside from the International) that have been 
 tested in any large number of schools; and these have 
 been subjected to severe criticism, in proportion to the 
 time they have been used. It makes a great difference 
 whether a system is in the theoretical stage or in the 
 working stage. " It is a useful experience to change from 
 the position of the criticiser to that of the criticised." 
 
 Besides these a considerable number of Sunday Schools 
 are making their own courses. " The lesson woods are 
 full of new sprouts of this kind, some of which may yet, 
 by careful and assiduous cultivation, branch out in great 
 breadth and power." — Dr. Blackall. 
 
 Quite a large number of theoretical courses have been 
 prepared and published. 
 
142 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 And lastly there are partial courses, chiefly for the 
 Primary or adult departments. 
 
 The Chicago University Press is preparing a graded 
 course of Constructive Bible Studies, of which some of the 
 books for the Academy and College and Universities are 
 published, and also a very interesting volume for the Ele- 
 mentary grades by Miss Georgia Louise Chamberlin, who 
 has a very successful children's department in the Hyde 
 Park Baptist Sunday School of which President Harper 
 is superintendent. 
 
 The International Committee of the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association has three courses ; the United Society of 
 Christian Endeavor has a course ; Christian Nurture^ New 
 Haven, Connecticut, has four courses ; The Rainbow Pub- 
 lishing Co., Manchester, New Hampshire, has six courses; 
 Bihle Studies^ Elyria, Ohio, has three or four courses. 
 
 The American Institute of Sacred Literature, Chicago, 
 and the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, each have a 
 number of correspondence courses for non-residents. 
 
 The Good in these Systems. — 1. They have great virtues 
 in themselves. They mark a real and strong movement 
 of progress toward better Sunday School work. 
 
 2. They do a still greater good in pioneering improve- 
 ments in the International Lesson System, used by nearly 
 thirteen millions of people in this country and about half 
 as many more in other lands. 
 
 During the late war in South Africa the eight-year-old 
 grandson of Hon. John W. Foster, ex-Secretary of State, 
 wrote a little book on the Boer War, the sale of which 
 added several hundred dollars to the relief fund. One of 
 the brightest things in this bright book is the story of 
 some soldiers practising gunnery, and using for their mark 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 143 
 
 a flock of ten goats in a distant field. When they had 
 fired twenty sliots tliey went to see tlie results of their 
 marksmanship, and found that there were eleven goats 
 instead of ten ; 07ie had been horn during the firing. 
 
 A similar result has followed the practice firing of criti- 
 cism, both by speech and by example, upon the International 
 Lesson System. It has more virtues than it had before. 
 
 As in the day school about 95 per cent of new edu- 
 cational experiments fail to establish themselves,^ so 
 a certain number, but much smaller, of these Sunday 
 School experiments will prove fruitless. But the large 
 valuable remainder will do a considerable part of its work 
 in improving the system now in largest use, and the best 
 in them will be absorbed in it. 
 
 In official document No. 2, containing the programme 
 of the first Religious Association convention, is this state- 
 ment : " The Sunday School situation is at present this : 
 The mass of the schools are moving along on the lines 
 which the International Association has developed, and 
 are not ready to conform themselves at once to a higher 
 ideal of substance and method in religious and moral 
 instruction ; while, on the other hand, about 25 per 
 cent of the Sunday Schools of the country are seeking 
 to adjust their work to this higher ideal by securing a 
 better substance of instruction in accord with modern 
 knowledge, and by using lessons constructed on modern 
 educational principles." This has frequently been re- 
 peated. 
 
 I protest against that line of cleavage in the Sunday 
 Schools as not in accordance with fact. It is impossible 
 
 1 United States Commissioner W. T. Harris, iu Search's Ideal School. 
 See also Chap. I of this volume. 
 
144 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 for me to know what percentage of the schools are or are 
 not seeking a higher ideal of religious and moral instruc- 
 tion. But so far as my acquaintance extends, and so far 
 as I can read the signs of the times, the great majority, 
 especially of the leaders, are not "unready to conform 
 themselves to a higher ideal," but are continually seeking 
 the higher ideal of instruction in accordance with modern 
 knowledge and modern educational principles. 
 
 The real line of cleavage is between those who believe 
 the highest ideals can best be attained by the present 
 modified International Lessons, and those who believe that 
 they can be attained only by a different system of graded 
 lessons. 
 
 The defect of these new systems is that they lay too 
 large a proportion of emphasis on some of the needs of 
 the Sunday School, and neglect some others that are 
 necessary for its best results. It is like the present ten- 
 dency of florists to develop the most exquisite beauty in 
 roses at the expense of the old-time fragrance. Illustra- 
 tions of this tendency are found in life, in business, in 
 school and college curricula, in reforms of every kind. 
 
 The Front Line System, the ideal that is largely becom- 
 ing real, combines the good in both. There is as real 
 scientific pedagogy in the prevailing system as in the new 
 one. And any new system that cannot say 
 
 " All the good the Old Time had 
 Remains to make the New Time glad." 
 
 cannot have general success, and does not deserve to 
 have it. 
 
 Criticisms of the International System. — For many years 
 I have kept a file of the criticisms on the International 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 145 
 
 Lessons, as well as on Bible study in general, in order to 
 see the subject from every point of view, and to discover 
 the needs and the directions of real improvement. 
 
 Here are some specimens. ''This plan of study has 
 been deliberately stigmatized — stigmatized by prominent 
 religious editors and by eminent clergymen and laymen 
 — as ' scrappy,' as ' hash,' as a ' hop, skip, and jump series,' 
 as a 'sparrow plan,' 'a grasshopper plan,' 'a kangaroo 
 plan.'" 
 
 "The International Lesson System, consisting of seven 
 or eight verses selected disconnectedly here and there in 
 the Bible." 
 
 "The pestiferous practice in the Sunday School series 
 of jumping all about from Galilee to Gibeon." 
 
 " Disconnected hodge-podge of facts and principles un- 
 worthy the name of Biblical learning." "Not orderly or 
 connected in such a way as to afford a comprehensive and 
 intelligible view of the Bible." 
 
 " Out of harmony with the principles of modern educa- 
 tion." 
 
 It " pays little or no regard to fundamental and well- 
 known pedagogical principles applied in all modern public 
 instruction." 
 
 "Beginning anywhere and ending nowhere." 
 
 "The system is ungraded." "The distinctions of age 
 and capacity in the scholars are not recognized in the 
 present system. The same lesson is intended for infant, 
 youth, and adult. This does violence to the law of natural 
 progress and development." 
 
 One of its " most fatal defects ... is the fact that it is 
 framed, prepared, worked out, built up from the adult 
 point of view almost entirely, if not entirely. ^^ 
 
146 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 It " tends to limit the pupil's knowledge of the Bible by 
 inviting a dependence upon the helps that accompany the 
 lessons, and causing a neglect of Bible study." 
 
 " There are too many helps," and they are too good, for 
 "not a single line is left uncovered (except, as another 
 remarks, the difficult points which are passed by on the 
 other side, as the man on the Jericho road by the Levite), 
 nothing remains for individual research and study. It is 
 simply a cramming process that dwarfs the mind and 
 destroys the power of mental application." 
 
 By this system the Bible " has now been travelled over 
 again, and again and again, through thirty years, until no 
 nook or corner has been left unexplored." 
 
 " The old system is, in general, homiletic, and the new, 
 educational. This does not mean that the one is exclu- 
 sively homiletic and the other exclusively educational, 
 for both are to a greater or less extent homiletic, and 
 both are more or less educational. What it does mean 
 is, that the one depends chiefly on homiletic methods 
 to accomplish its purpose, and the other on educational 
 methods." 
 
 " It has been used chiefly for devotional and hortatory 
 purposes." 
 
 '* Under such a system, progress in education is impos- 
 sible — indeed, it is hardly too much to say that it is not 
 even sought." The pupil after ten years of this system 
 " knows very little about the Bible ; its history and chro- 
 nology, and the spiritual development of the people whose 
 history it narrates, have not been, could not have been 
 under the system, made intelligible." 
 
 " We are all feeling how antiquated, uninteresting, and 
 ineffective present Sunday School instruction is." 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 147 
 
 We stand in the presence of this word-picture by a com- 
 posite artist of high degree and dignity, supposed to know, 
 and wonder where, in the present time, we can find the 
 original. He must have been dead these many years. 
 
 I have taken my Diogenes lantern and have found im- 
 perfect systems and growing systems, but no system to 
 which the above description belongs. 
 
 One morning years ago at Chautauqua, 1 heard an aged 
 and learned Methodist minister, " who had a brilliant 
 future behind him," discourse on Calvin and Calvinism. 
 It was a fearful picture. The next morning Dr. Hodge 
 of Princeton, who spells Calvinism with a very large C, 
 began his lecture by saying, " If what the speaker yester- 
 day described as Calvinism is Calvinism, then I am not 
 a Calvinist." So I am inclined to say that if what has 
 been repeated many times of late as a characterization of 
 the International Lesson system is a true picture, then I 
 have not been teaching the International Lessons these 
 past years. 
 
 I never hear such statements about the International 
 Lessons without recalling a story I once heard. A gen- 
 tleman had the cheerful custom of saying about whatever 
 happened to him, "It might have been worse." He lost 
 his property ; " It might have been worse." He was sick, 
 he lost friends, he was disappointed in business, and always, 
 "It might have been worse." 
 
 At length a friend thought he would make up a case 
 where this favorite saying would be impossible. "I 
 dreamed last night," he said, "that you and I and our 
 entire families were out in a yacht when a cyclone struck 
 us, and every one of us were drowned and went to eternal 
 
148 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Still the response was, *' It might have been worse. '^ 
 
 '' Worse ! really worse I ! " 
 
 "Yes. It might have been true,'^ 
 
 The International Lesson System. — It is necessary first 
 to possess a clear idea of what the International Lesson 
 System is to-day ; not as it was once, not as a mere 
 theory, but as it is actually doing its work in the best 
 present day Sunday Schools. 
 
 No brief sentence can set it out fully, without certain 
 explanations such as are given below. For instance, the 
 word " uniform " has misled many because they have ap- 
 plied it to the lessons taught, and not to the Scripture 
 selections where it belonged. 
 
 The International Lesson System is a system of uniform 
 central selections of Scripture for the whole school^ with 
 optional or elective lessons at both ends. 
 
 It may be represented thus : — 
 
 Uniform central selections for the whole school. 
 
 c^ =1 
 
 Optional Primary Lessons. Elective courses for special 
 
 adult classes. 
 
 The phrase central selections is used because for many 
 years the International Committee have plainly designated 
 as part of each lesson a longer section of the Bible than the 
 verses selected for printing and for more detailed study. 
 
 The Optional Lessons for the younger scholars at the 
 beginning of the course have been endorsed and selected 
 by the Committee for several years ; but have been in use 
 much longer by many schools, and have been practically 
 a part of the system for a long time. 
 
 But wise parents, with children of different ages in the 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 149 
 
 Sunday School, have frequently felt that the disadvantages 
 of some lessons less adapted to the youngest children were 
 a far less evil than the separation of the younger members 
 from the family Bible study, and its educational atmosphere. 
 
 The elective courses at the adult end of the system have 
 long been in use in connection with the International 
 Lessons. The Editors' Association and the International 
 Lesson Committee are unanimously in favor of them. 
 The Committee were unanimous several years ago, so 
 were most of the editors. It is not wise to explain here 
 why the Editors' Association at Clifton in 1903 did not 
 vote on the question, and so were represented to the pub- 
 lic as opposed. But that a great majority of them were 
 then in favor of it is shown by the fact that at the next 
 meeting at Richmond there was not a dissenting voice. 
 Toronto in 1905 will interpret Denver, with a different 
 result from the interpretation of its action by many at the 
 time of its meeting. 
 
 Several denominations, believing in the International 
 Lesson System, have also published elective courses for 
 adult classes. 
 
 I have no question that it is better every way for the 
 majority of adults to use the regular lessons of the rest of 
 the school. Yet there is a continual need and call for 
 special classes for the study of the Bible in other ways, 
 and to take up practical religious questions. Some make 
 a study of individual books of the Bible, of the historic 
 method, doctrines of the church. Christian ethics, church 
 history in the light of the Bible. In most of our large 
 schools such classes are formed. It is said that 49 per 
 cent of the pastor's classes among the Congregationalists 
 take some such courses. 
 
150 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 These classes are so various, their needs and desires are 
 so manifold, that it may be wise to let the private experi- 
 mentation go on a little longer, though there is no body 
 of men in the country better fitted to prepare such courses 
 than the select company of choice Sunday School men 
 who compose the International Lesson Committee. 
 
 This plan of elective courses for adults leaves the com- 
 mittee free to confine themselves to the general movement 
 of Bible history which is adapted to all ages above the 
 early primary, and to the great majority of the busy men 
 and women of our committees in city or in country. 
 
 The International Lessons are graded in material as well 
 as in treatment. 
 
 The most urgent educational indictment of this system 
 is what is called its failure to grade the material of the 
 lessons to the different stages of the child's development. 
 
 The phrase " uniform selections " has been confounded 
 with "uniform material." 
 
 That different material is found in the same passage is 
 plain from the selections made in systems claimed to be 
 peculiarly pedagogical. All but one of the professors of 
 pedagogy I have met say that different material is found 
 in the same passages. 
 
 The wider sections connected with the special selections 
 (as arranged by the committee) enable us to find different 
 material for different ages in the same section of Bible 
 history. For instance, when we had printed a few verses 
 from Amos, those who studied only those verses had reason 
 to complain of their difficulty in teaching, but those who 
 took the book of Amos, as was designed^ found a story that 
 would fire the enthusiasm of any junior boy. "^ 
 
 In my mountain home not long ago I met four men from 
 
A STUDY IN GKADING 151 
 
 the forestry department of the government, and each one 
 found entirely different material in the same forest. One 
 learned who owned each parcel, and went his way ; another 
 learned the various kinds of wood that made up the forest ; 
 another measured the trees and found the commercial value 
 of the forest; and the fourth studied the botany of the forest. 
 
 When there is a comparison made with day school grad- 
 ing there is usually the error of not distinguishing between 
 the different kinds of study in the different kinds of school. 
 We are asked, " What would be said of the argument that, 
 because it is possible to teach something about geometry 
 to any pupil from five to twenty years of age, therefore 
 geometry ought to be made in a given year or term the 
 subject of study from the top to the bottom of our public 
 school system ? " I should say that to apply such an argu- 
 ment to the International Lesson study of the Bible was 
 neither logic, nor pedagogy, nor science, nor fact. Pro- 
 fessor Winchester is right when he says that most of the 
 best literature in the world is not beyond the apprehension 
 of a boy in his " teens." " He may not fully comprehend 
 it. . . . As a rule, all the great epic writing, the litera- 
 ture of great action, based on broad and obvious motive, 
 appeals to sympathies that are strong at an early age.''^ 
 I have seen the truth illustrated over and over again 
 among children. 
 
 So Oliver Wendell Holmes says : '' You talk about read- 
 ing Shakespeare, using him as an expression for the high- 
 est intellect, and you wonder that any common person 
 should be so presumptuous as to suppose his thought can 
 rise above the text which lies before him. But think a 
 moment. A child's reading of Shakespeare is one thing, 
 1 Address at the Religious Education Association meeting at Philadelphia. 
 
152 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 and Coleridge's or Schlegel's reading of him is another. 
 The saturation point of each mind differs from that of 
 every other. "^ 
 
 The Bible is literature, and history, and story, and 
 biography, and the kind of grading for these studies is 
 entirely different from the grading for mathematics or 
 languages. 
 
 Moreover, there are no day schools beyond the Kinder- 
 garten age where nothing is taught but stories for one 
 age, and history for another, and biography for another. 
 And there are no boys and girls existing for whom these 
 alone are the best or most natural material for their entire 
 studies. 
 
 Again, it is simply a fact that there are many schools 
 really graded in the International Lessons according to 
 material as well as treatment. This grading has been 
 becoming more and more perfect through the discus- 
 sions that have been going on, and the examples set, 
 and the scientific study of the child and of the art of 
 teaching. 
 
 There are still imperfections in details, perhaps some of 
 them necessary, but these are far more than overbalanced 
 by the advantages of the general system. 
 
 Again, the International Lessons are an orderly, connected 
 scheme of lessons. Through each Testament it moves con- 
 secutively according to the order of the history as given 
 in the Bible, with the Prophets and Epistles set in their 
 places in the history. 
 
 The movement does not, and never did, consist of seven 
 or eight verses selected disconnectedly here and there in 
 the Bible, but sections of the history joined in consecutive 
 1 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, p. 133. 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 153 
 
 order, just as one travels through a country, not by stop- 
 ping at every interesting village, but by making great cities 
 and noble natural scenes the centres of a whole region. 
 Thus it moves through the Bible once in six years. This 
 method gives a better general knowledge of the Bible than 
 any other scheme yet presented. It is more connected 
 and less "hop, skip, and jump" than other schemes. 
 
 It is a very curious objection that the International 
 Lessons have been going over the Bible every six or seven 
 years for thirty years. How else can the young get a 
 full knowledge of the Bible at all? I pity the Christian 
 that does not read his Bible through as often as once 
 in six years. And as to its being monotonous, those 
 of us who have gone over it many times find it more 
 radiant each time, revealing new aspects, setting out the 
 truths in fuller light, — the last time far better than 
 the first. 
 
 The Advantages of the International System. — Pro- 
 fessor Sanders in his president's address before the Reli- 
 gious Education Association, and Professors Burton and 
 Mathews in Principles and Ideals for the Sunday School, 
 have very frankly and fairly stated these advantages. 
 But I wish to recall, to emphasize, and to add to their 
 presentation. 
 
 1. Nearly all the advantages claimed for other systems 
 are equally adapted to the International system. I have 
 before me a small volume presenting a new graded system 
 and a pamphlet presenting the most popular of the sys- 
 tems which claim to be graded according to pedagogical 
 principles, and there is scarcely one of their principles 
 which cannot be adapted to the uniform system as de- 
 scribed above. 
 
154 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 The International system is a flexible system and a live 
 system, and in its desire to grow into ''the stature of a 
 perfect man in Christ Jesus," absorbs good from every 
 source. "Whatever lion eats becomes lion." Epictetus 
 says that sheep eat grass, but it is wool that grows on 
 their backs. I am delighted to acknowledge my personal 
 indebtedness to other systems. 
 
 It is easy to prove the superiority of one system by 
 comparing its possibilities with what is actually put in 
 practice by another, or the best use of one by the worst 
 use of another. But time and use decide in the end. 
 Most methods can be adapted to any scheme of lessons. 
 
 Take, for instance, the seven " next steps forward " 
 named at the first meeting of the Religious Education 
 Association (see p. 183) ; and " the Characteristics of the 
 Best Lesson Systems," from Dr. Smith's book : — 
 
 (a) Subject- G-raded, i.e. the Right Subject at the right 
 stage of the child's Mental Development. 
 
 (5) Source or Heuristic Method. Actual, tangible use 
 of Bible, Prayer Book, History, etc., as the Source of 
 Knowledge. 
 
 (c) Wintten Home Work and Home Study. 
 
 (d) New Material in Class Work and New Foints-of- 
 View in Reviewing Home Work. 
 
 (^) An Intimate Knowledge of Bible G-eograpTiy. 
 (Physical and Historical.) 
 
 (/) Abundant Use of Pictures and Religious Art. 
 
 {g) Use of " Means of Expression. " Hand Work, Maps, 
 Modelling, Written Work, Picture Scrap Books, Model- 
 Making, etc. 
 
 (A) Wise Correlation with Secular Subjects and Day 
 School Knowledge. 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 155 
 
 (i) Thoroughly Churchly and Doctriiially sound and 
 definite. 
 
 2. The International system beyond all others favors 
 Bible study in the home. The lessons and daily readings 
 are used at family prayers. The parents are prepared to 
 answer questions of children in different grades. The 
 subjects and characters are discussed together, instead of 
 mothers having to study several different lessons as I 
 know mothers to do. 
 
 3. No other system gives such unity to the school it- 
 self, — in its devotional atmosphere, in its reviews, in its 
 general exercises, in its use of pictures, stereopticons, in 
 obtaining prepared teachers in emergencies. 
 
 4. Under no other system can so much be done for 
 training and preparing teachers, by teachers' meetings for 
 the school, by union teachers' classes for a whole town or 
 city, under the most expert teachers, by a comparison of 
 views as teachers meet incidentally, by public lectures and 
 normal classes under expert Bible scholars and teachers, 
 which can be immediately put into practice. 
 
 5. Under no other system is it possible to have so 
 much of the power which comes from a magnificent unity 
 and concentration of religious forces, uniting nearly all 
 denominations, impressing the whole community with its 
 power, interacting for mutual improvement. Rev. Dr. 
 William Walter Smith, Secretary of the Sunday School 
 Commission, Diocese of New York, writes thus in his 
 excellent book on Sunday School Teaching : — 
 
 " There are over two hundred various Text Books and 
 Systems now being used in the Episcopal Church alone. 
 There are forty in one Diocese. There is no likelihood 
 that a child going from one School to another will have a 
 
156 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 similar system or grading. Every change of Assistant 
 Minister or of Superintendents means a new experimenta- 
 tion in lessons. Confusion and despair reign supreme in 
 the Sunday School world. 'This ought not so to be.' No 
 local movements for Sunday School Betterment can accom- 
 plish much without cooperation, federation, and extra- 
 parochial interest." 
 
 This is equally true of the Sunday School world as a 
 whole. The power of this unity is nobly illustrated by 
 the Christian Endeavor movement, which has multiplied 
 the power and usefulness of the young people's meetings 
 and work a hundredfold over the old plan of separate 
 independent meetings in each church, insomuch that it 
 has distinctly changed the religious atmosphere of the 
 whole country. 
 
 6. No other system can provide such good helps for 
 the teacher and the scholar. The great number of per- 
 sons employed brings out the best by natural selection. 
 The greatness of the competition urges every one inter- 
 ested to do his very best, lest he be left behind in the 
 race. The immense number of helps published reduces 
 the price to the very lowest terms. "The good" may 
 sometimes be " the enemy of the best," but more often it 
 is the means of making the best better. 
 
 It is said that there are too many helps, just as there 
 are too many books. But there are seventeen millions of 
 people to use them. No one need use any more of them 
 than he desires ; and he gains the opportunity of select- 
 ing the ones he can use to most advantage. 
 
 The helps in no way prevent research, but are a con- 
 tinual inspiration to further research. Leigh Hunt named 
 one of his books The Indicator^ from the bird which indi- 
 
A STUDY IN GRADING 157 
 
 cates to the honey-hunters where the bees have laid up 
 their treasures. The lesson helps are indicators pointing 
 out the treasures in God's Word, sweeter than honey and 
 richer than fine gold. 
 
 There are very few teachers who can possess all the 
 needful books for complete research on the whole Bible, 
 and fewer still have time to use them to advantage. 
 They no more "cram" than all books, sermons, or lec- 
 tures cram. A reviewer in a late Outlook truly says, "A 
 good illustration borrowed is better than a poor illustra- 
 tion which is, or is thought to be, original." For the 
 great majority of teachers the choice lies between poor 
 teaching with imperfect or meagre helps and good teach- 
 ing with the best and most suggestive helps available. 
 For good helps are not a well, but a fountain; and not 
 merely a fountain, but one like that of the Oriental legend, 
 each drop from which opened a new fountain from the 
 sands on which it fell. 
 
 Thus the true use of helps is : — 
 To furnish the facts. 
 To teach them correctly. 
 To show them from all sides. 
 
 To enable us to digest them and make them our own. 
 To awaken thought. 
 To suggest new truths. 
 To suggest new applications of old truths. 
 To suggest methods of teaching. 
 To give inspiration and interest in the subject. 
 
 7. In conclusion, no system has yet exhausted its possi- 
 bilities. I rejoice with all my heart in the new awakening 
 and in all that is being done in every direction. Which- 
 
158 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 ever one succeeds best will embody the most of the princi- 
 ples which are necessary to the best Sunday School work. 
 
 No system can work the miracle of the religious educa- 
 tion of the young through sessions of one hour a week. 
 The Sunday School must be supplemented by pastors' 
 classes and normal classes at other times and by supple- 
 mental lessons and longer study hours. 
 
 But the best way toward improvement is through put- 
 ting the various theories into practice, and determining 
 what is really best by actual experiment. In the words 
 of Rev. John L. Keedy, in the July Biblical World: "For 
 myself, I do not believe that any curriculum, however 
 well graded, or any courses of study, however well pre- 
 pared, by any group of men with a scholarly knowledge 
 of the Bible and with a theoretical knowledge of our 
 Sunday Schools, will meet the needs as well as those 
 which are the outgrowth of experiment and experience. 
 While I am sure a graded course well chosen and well 
 wrought out would meet a real need and be a great gain, 
 yet I am quite as certain that nothing can so surely solve 
 the problem as an interested and competent teacher who 
 works out his own course and communicates his own in- 
 terested and eager spirit to his pupils. If by all of our 
 addresses and discussions and committees and inquiries 
 we disseminate knowledge about material and method, 
 and impart the spirit of eagerness to superintendents and 
 teachers, we have furnished that which the Sunday School 
 situation most needs." 
 
VII 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE, AND ITS 
 
 REMEDY 
 
 That there is a most lamentable ignorance of many- 
 things in the Bible on the part of many of the children 
 and youth of to-day, as well as of their elders, is frequently 
 stated by persons who ought to know what the facts are. 
 Says the Journal and Messenger^ '* It comes from various 
 sources that the boys and girls of to-day are amazingly 
 ignorant of the Bible." Rev. J. T. Briscoe began an 
 address at a Sunday School convention in England thus : 
 " The Sunday School system to-day is crucified between 
 two thieves — sacerdotalism on the one hand, and secular- 
 ism on the other, and of the two the sacerdotalist is 
 likely to prove the impenitent malefactor." We all know 
 instances of this Bible ignorance, and deplore it. It is 
 exploited in many addresses, and many tests are made, 
 and the sad results are reported on the principle stated 
 by Mr. Ruskin in his Seven Lamps of Architecture : " There 
 is a crust about the impressible part of men's minds 
 which must be pierced through before they can be touched 
 to the quick ; and though we may prick at it, and scratch 
 at it in a thousand separate places, we might as well have 
 let it alone if we do not come through somewhere with 
 a deep thrust ; ... it need not be even so wide as 
 
 159 
 
160 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 a church door, so that it be enough." The facts reported 
 do make a deep thrust through the crust of indifference 
 as to what our children are learning and gaining in the 
 Sunday School, enough to startle into wakefulness " the 
 seven sleepers of Ephesus." It is interesting and profit- 
 able for us to study some of these tests, as they not only 
 impress us with the need of removing the ignorance, but 
 are themselves a means for doing it. 
 
 President Thwing, of Western Reserve University, at 
 the first Bible exercise of the freshman class of 1894-1895, 
 gave a test to thirty-four young men, all but one of whom 
 was connected with some one of nine religious congrega- 
 tions in the Central States. He wrote out on the black- 
 board twenty-two quotations from the writings of the 
 most noted English-speaking poet of the present century, 
 Alfred Tennyson, with whose writings all educated persons 
 are more or less familiar. These twenty-two extracts all 
 contained references or allusions to the Holy Scriptures, 
 and were as follows : — 
 
 " My sin was a thorn 
 Among the thorns that girt Thy brow." 
 
 — Supposed Confessions. 
 
 " As manna on my wilderness." — Ibid. 
 
 *' That God would move, 
 And strike the hard, hard rock, and thence, 
 Sweet in their utmost bitterness. 
 Would issue tears of penitence." — Ibid. 
 
 " Like that strange angel which of old. 
 Until the breaking of the light. 
 Wrestled with wandering Israel." — To . 
 
 " Like Hezekiah's, backward runs 
 The shadow of my days." — Will Waterproof. 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE 161 
 
 "Joshua's moon in Ajalon." — Lockdey Hall. 
 
 " A heart as rough as Esau's hand." — Godiva. 
 
 " Gash thyself, priest, and honor thy brute Baal." — Ayhner's Field. 
 
 " Ruth amid the fields of corn." — Ihkl. 
 
 " Pharaoh's darkness." — Ihid. 
 
 " A Jonah's gourd, 
 Up in one night and due to sudden sun." — The Princess. 
 
 " Stiff as Lot's wife." — Ihid. 
 " Arimathsean Joseph." — The Holy Grail. 
 
 " For I have flung thee pearls and find thee swine." 
 
 — The Last Tournament. 
 
 " Perhaps, like him of Cana in Holy Writ, 
 Our Arthur kept his best until the last." — The Holy Grail. 
 
 " And marked me even as Cain." — Queen Mary. 
 
 "The Church on Peter's rock." — Ibid. 
 
 " Let her eat dust like the serpent, and be driven out of her Paradise." 
 
 — Becket. 
 "A whole Peter's sheet." — Ibid. 
 
 " The godless Jephtha vow^s his child. . . . 
 To one cast of the dice." — The Flight. 
 
 " A Jacob's ladder falls." — Early Spring. 
 
 "Follow Light and do the Right — for man can half control his 
 
 doom — 
 Till you find the deathless Angel seated in the vacant tomb." 
 
 — Locksley Hall, Sixty Years After. 
 
 It is to be noticed that the allusions contained in these 
 extracts are not at all recondite. 
 
162 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 The President published the record of the answers, as 
 
 follows : Of the 34 students 9 failed to understand the 
 
 quotation, 
 
 " My sin was as a thorn 
 
 Among the thorns that girt Thy brow." 
 
 11 failed to apprehend the "manna on my wilderness." 
 
 16 were likewise ignorant of the significance of " strik- 
 ing the rock." 
 
 16 also knew nothing about the " wrestling of Jacob 
 and the angel." 
 
 32 had never heard of " the shadow turning back on the 
 dial for Hezekiah's lengthening life." 
 
 26 were ignorant of " Joshua's moon." 
 
 19 failed to indicate "the peculiar condition of Esau's 
 hand." 
 
 22 were unable to explain "the allusion to Baal." 
 
 19 had apparently never read " the idyl of Ruth and 
 Boaz." 
 
 18 failed to indicate the meaning of " Pharaoh's dark- 
 ness." 
 
 28 were laid low by the question about "Jonah's 
 gourd." 
 
 9, and 9 only, were unable to explain the allusion to 
 "Lot's wife." 
 
 23 did not understand who was meant by " Arimathsean 
 Joseph." 
 
 22 also had not read the words of Christ sufficiently 
 to explain " For I have flung thee pearls and find thee 
 swine." 
 
 24 had apparently not so read the account of " Christ's 
 first" miracle " as to be able to explain the reference. 
 
 11 did not understand "the mark which Cain bore." 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE 163 
 
 25 were as ignorant as a heathen of ^Hhe foanclation of 
 the Church on Peter." 
 
 12, and 12 only, had not gathered up knowledge suffi- 
 cient to indicate certain truths about ''the serpent in 
 Eden." 
 
 27 were paralyzed by the allusion, ''A whole Peter's 
 sheet." 
 
 24 were unable to write anything as to "Jephtha's 
 vow." 
 
 11 only, however, were struck dumb by the allusion to 
 "Jacob's ladder." 
 
 But 16 were able to write a proper explanation of " the 
 deathless angel seated in the vacant tomb." 
 
 In a word, to each of these 84 men 22 questions were put 
 which would demand 748 answers. The record shows that 
 out of a possible 748 correct answers, only 328 were given ; 
 not quite 44 per cent. 
 
 These quotations were given to a senior class of 38 
 negro and Indian students at Hampton, Virginia, none of 
 whom could enter college without three years' further 
 study. Of the 836 possible answers, 645 were given cor- 
 rectly, or 77 per cent. One student answered all the 
 questions; three, all but one.i 
 
 Dr. George A. Coe, the well-known Professor of Phi- 
 losophy in the Northwestern University, in order to test 
 the Bible knowledge of his students, seized the opportu- 
 nity " to put a few simple queries about the Bible to nearly 
 one hundred college students. Most of these persons, no 
 doubt, were brought up in Christian homes and had en- 
 joyed such instruction as the average Sunday School or 
 pulpit of our day affords." The questions were : — 
 1 See Century Magazine for December, 1900. 
 
164 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 1. What is the Pentateuch? 
 
 2. What is the Higher Criticism of the Scriptures? 
 
 3. Does the Book of Jude belong to the Old Testament 
 or to the New? 
 
 4. Name one of the Patriarchs of the Old Testament. 
 
 5. Name one of the Judges of the Old Testament. 
 
 6. Name three of the Kings of Israel. 
 
 7. Name three Prophets. 
 
 8. Give one of the Beatitudes. 
 
 9. Quote a verse from the letter to the Romans. 
 
 Ninety-six papers were returned. 
 
 8 answered correctly all 12 answered correctly 4 
 13 answered correctly 8 11 answered correctly 3 
 11 answered correctly 7 13 answered correctly 2 
 
 5 answered correctly 6 11 answered correctly 1 
 
 9 answered correctly 5 3 answered correctly 
 
 The number out of 96 giving the correct answer to the 
 first question was 60 ; to the second, 16; to the third, 56; 
 to the fourth, 61 ; to the fifth, 45 ; to the sixth, 47 ; to the 
 seventh, 52 ; to the eighth, 76 ; to the ninth, 31. 
 
 As the number of papers was approximately 100, these 
 figures may substantially be taken as percentages. The 
 total number of correct answers was 444, out of 864, or 
 nearly 52 per cent, a little more than half. 
 
 Dr. Schauffler of New York on reading this statement 
 was '•' filled with wonder at the crass ignorance of so many 
 college students." It occurred to him "to try the same 
 set of questions in a large young women's Bible class in 
 Olivet Sunday School, the conditions of examination being 
 exactly the same as those for the Northwestern University 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE 
 
 165 
 
 students." In his Pastoral Leadership of Sunday School 
 Forces lie gives the results. They are as follows : — 
 
 Question. 
 
 Northwestern 
 University. 
 
 Olivet. 
 
 Correctly 
 answered. 
 
 Correctly 
 answered. 
 
 What is the Pentateuch? 
 
 What is the Higher Criticism of the Scrip- 
 tures? 
 
 62+% 
 16.6 
 
 58+ 
 
 63.5 
 
 47- 
 
 49- 
 
 54+ 
 
 80 
 
 32.5 
 
 80% 
 
 
 Does the Book of Jude belong to the Old 
 Testament or to the New ? 
 
 Name one of the Patriarchs of the Old Testa- 
 ment 
 
 80 
 70 
 
 Name one of the Judges of the Old Testament 
 Name three of the Kings of Israel .... 
 
 Name three Prophets 
 
 Give one of the Beatitudes 
 
 Quote a verse from the letter to the Romans 
 
 60 
 100 
 100 
 
 90 
 
 70 
 
 Percentage correctly answered .... 
 
 51.4 
 
 72 
 
 " Professor Coe gives some strange facts with regard to 
 blunders made by his students. As for example, among 
 the judges were named Solomon, Jeremiah, and Leviti- 
 cus; among the prophets were Matthew, Luke, and John; 
 Herod and Ananias appeared as kings of Israel; Nebu- 
 chadnezzar figured both as judge and king of Israel ; the 
 Pentateuch was confused with the Gospels and in one 
 case with 'the seven Gospels.' Among the Beatitudes 
 were the following : ' Blessed are the poor in heart, 
 for they shall see God ; ' ' Blessed are the law-givers ; ' 
 'Blessed are the hungry, for they shall be fed.'" 
 
 It should be noted that questions 2 and 9 are very diffi- 
 
166 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 cult for young people, or even for educated people who 
 have not a very good memory. At the Congregational 
 Superintendents' Union in Boston the following state- 
 ment was made by Mr. Southworth, the head-master of 
 a city school, and afterwards superintendent of schools in 
 the city, and a superintendent of a Sunday School : — 
 
 " Do you think," said he, " that the essentials of Bible knowledge 
 are taught in our Sunday Schools? Let me give you a bit of my 
 experience. I asked a large number of Sunday School scholars 
 from 15 to 17 years old to write for me a little life of Christ, just 
 as I might have asked them, had they been public school scholars, to 
 write a life of Washington or Lincoln. Here are some paragraphs 
 taken from the compositions I received in response to that request : — 
 
 " ' There were no years before Christ, therefore he was born in the 
 year 1.' 
 
 " ' Jesus was the father of Christ. He was born in Jerusalem in 
 the year 1.' 
 
 " ' Jesus was born in an old barn of Jerusalem.' 
 
 " ' Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. His parents were very 
 old.' 
 
 " * Christ went to work when 31 years old, in the same field with 
 his father. After a while he began to teach the Bible and made the 
 Ten Commandments on a mount.' " 
 
 Such answers can be multiplied to almost any extent. 
 A young man objected to the Bible as inaccurate because, 
 as he said : — 
 
 " In one of the Gospels we are told that Joseph was the husband 
 of Mary, while we are carefully informed elsewhere that he married 
 the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On. I don't want to pin my 
 faith to any of the statements of such a book." 
 
 Another could not believe that the children of Israel car- 
 ried Noah's ark forty years through the wilderness. And 
 again, here is a literal copy from Miss Graham of what 
 one pupil wrote : — 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE 167 
 
 " Esau was a man who wrote fables and sold the copyright to a 
 publisher for a bottle of potash." 
 
 It looks more like a joke made on purpose. 
 
 Our first inquiry should be, How much do these things 
 signify ? What value shall we put upon them as tests of 
 the work done in school ? 
 
 1. I have made a good many tests and experiments, 
 and the average results in every case are better than those 
 given. A large number of Sunday Schools in Newton, 
 Massachusetts, took an examination, unannounced before- 
 hand, on the Life of Christ, and "the percentage of right 
 answers was at least 75 per cent (I have not the exact 
 figures now). Several times in our own school we have 
 given tests on the Life of Christ like the one which Mr. 
 Southworth used and always Avith results much better 
 than he claimed. 
 
 In the Outlook some years ago a lady wrote her experi- 
 ence with a class of girls twelve years of age, in which 
 was included the daughters of the minister and deacons. 
 She asked them, Who was Moses, and then other Old Tes- 
 tament characters, and not one of them knew the answers, 
 except to '' Who was the first man? " the most disputed of 
 all. Frequently, after that, in visiting Sunday Schools, 
 I selected a class of about the age she tested, and with 
 the permission of the teacher to whom I told the above 
 experience, asked the scholars. Who was Moses? I said 
 the form of the question was very bad, for no one could 
 know which of a dozen answers was desired, and I ex- 
 plained what I wanted, but gave no clew. Nearly every 
 scholar in each class knew something about Moses. Then 
 I asked them. Who was George Washington ? and with 
 the exception of a class of boys who had just been study- 
 
168 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 ing United States history, I did not find one who did not 
 know as mucli about Moses as about Washington. 
 
 At the close of the study of the Life of Christ this 
 year (1904) I gave for the Review^ in my Select Notes 
 and in the Quarterlies, a test similar to that of President 
 Thwing, consisting of references in literature to events in 
 the Gospels we had been studying. I have heard so many 
 expressions of interest in the plan that I give the refer- 
 ences for the benefit of any who may wish to test their 
 scholars or themselves. I asked teachers to send me a 
 report, and the results as collated by my assistant are, 
 that of 89 persons reported, 28 answered all the references 
 correctly, and of the 2444 questions answered 74 per cent 
 were correct. 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 1. " My sin was a thorn 
 Among the thorns that girt Thy brow." 
 
 — Supposed Confessions. 
 
 2. " Arimathsean Joseph." — The Holy Grail. 
 
 3. " For I have flung thee pearls and find thee swine." 
 
 — The Last Tournament. 
 
 4. " Perhaps, like him of Cana in Holy Writ, 
 
 Our Arthur kept his best until the last." 
 
 — The Holy Grail. 
 
 5. " The church on Peter's rock." — Queen Mary. 
 
 6. "Follow Light and do the Right — for man can half control his 
 
 doom — 
 Till you find the deathless Angel seated in the vacant tomb." 
 — Locksley Hall, Sixty Years After. 
 
 WniTTIER. 
 
 7. " Whispering, by its open door : 
 
 ' Fear not ! He hath gone before.' " — My Dream. 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE 169 
 
 8. " Whate'er hath touched his garment's hem." 
 
 — World's Convention. 
 
 9. " And broke with publicans the bread of shame." — The Gallows. 
 
 10. " He who cooled the furnace and smoothed the stormy wave." 
 
 — Cassandra Southwick. 
 
 11- " * Cast thyself down,' the tempter saith, 
 
 'And angels shall thy feet upbear.' " — The Anstver. 
 
 12. " But where are the sisters who hastened to greet 
 
 The lowly Redeemer, and sit at his feet." — Palestine. 
 
 13. " O Thou ! at whose rebuke the grave 
 
 Back to warm life the sleeper gave." 
 
 — The Human Sacrifice. 
 
 14. "When 'get thee behind me, Satan' was the language of my 
 
 heart." — Cassandra Southwick. 
 
 15. " And the voice that breathed peace to the waves of the sea." 
 
 — Palestine. 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 16. " Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands." 
 
 — Richard II. 
 D. M. MuLOCK Craik. 
 
 17. " Only, — O God, O God, to cry for bread, 
 
 And get a stone ! " — Only a Woman. 
 Longfellow. 
 
 18. " And each face did shine like the Holy One's face at Mt. Tabor." 
 
 — Children of the Lord's Supper. 
 Buskin. 
 
 19. " The house unroofed by faith.'' — Stones of Venice. 
 
 20. " Our Father's business." — Ethics of the Dust. 
 Milton. 
 
 21. " The Pilot of the Galilean Lake ." — Lycidas. 
 Browning. 
 
 22. " Who went and danced, and got men's heads cut off." 
 
 — Fra Lippo Lippi. 
 
170 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Mrs. Browning. 
 
 23. " The star is lost in the dark ; 
 
 The manger is lost in the straw." — Christmas Gifts. 
 
 24. " Come forth, tread out through the dark and drear, 
 
 Since he who walks on the sea is here." 
 
 — View across the Roman Campagna. 
 
 25. *' Griping the Bag of the traitor Dead." — Ihid. 
 
 26. " Couldst thou not watch one hour ? " — Casa Guidi Windows. 
 
 27. " It went up single, echoless, ' My God, I am forsaken.' " 
 
 — Cowpefs Grave. 
 Thackeray. 
 
 28. " Who bade the mud from Dives' wheel, 
 
 To spurn the rags of Lazarus." — The end of the Play. 
 
 Jane Taylor. 
 
 29. " The torn scrap of a leaf, 
 
 Containing the prayer of the penitent thief." 
 
 — The Philosopher's Scales. 
 
 30. " Yet not mountains of silver and gold could suffice 
 
 One pearl to outweigh, — 'twas the pearl of great price." — Ibid. 
 
 2. In order to estimate the value to be put on such 
 tests, it should be noted that every case of ignorance in 
 the Sunday School can be matched and more than 
 matched in the day schools on the subjects taught there. 
 For years I have kept two large envelopes, one labelled 
 Sunday School Ignorance, and the other Day School 
 Ignorance. 
 
 Dr. Schauffler says that in some examination papers 
 presented to him as showing Sunday School ignorance, 
 there were more failures in tlie things, like spelling and 
 grammar, which belong to Day School ignorance. Just 
 the other day the head of a department in a Brooklyn 
 High School complained bitterly of the Grammar Schools 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE 171 
 
 that the scholars from tliem did not know how to spell, 
 nor even know the alphabet so as to be able to look up 
 words in the dictionary. 
 
 " Complaint is heard on the New York side of the river, 
 among mercliants and other business men, that boys sent 
 out from the city schools come to the store and the shop 
 densely ignorant in the commonest branches of learning ; 
 that often they cannot write a simple letter without atro- 
 cious blunders in grammar and spelling, and are unable to 
 cast up a column of figures correctly." 
 
 Here is a report from a professor of English at Williams 
 College. " Recently, finding that his elective classes knew 
 little about the best-known writers in English literature, 
 he addressed a series of questions to a class of forty sopho- 
 mores. These students may be assumed fairly to repre- 
 sent the average acquirements of college undergraduates 
 at that stage. Out of the forty, ten were unable to men- 
 tion six plays by Shakespeare ; fourteen did not know who 
 wrote In Memoriam ; twenty-two had never heard of 
 Sam Weller ; twenty-three could not tell Avho wrote The 
 Mill on the Floss ; twenty-six could not mention a work 
 by Ruskin ; thirty -four could not tell who Falstaff was, and 
 thirty-five could not mention a single poem by either 
 Wordsworth or Browning." 
 
 A writer in a late number of the Outlook reports some 
 conversations with boys ranging in age from ten to fifteen 
 years, and also with some voters, all educated in the public 
 schools of New York City. They did not know the mean- 
 ing of common things reported in the newspapers, as 
 municipal, municipality, the President's cabinet, ambas- 
 sador, federal. Their answers were some of them very 
 curious. 
 
172 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Mr. Cleveland and other eminent politicians will be 
 surprised to hear that the Philippines " are islands of fugi- 
 tive savages, most of whom are democrats and cannibals." 
 
 Whole books have been written exploiting these blunders. 
 
 Before we undertake to estimate the meaning and bear- 
 ing of these facts on both day school and Sunday School, 
 let us go on a little farther in our search for facts. 
 
 3. It is well to remember that very few adults, even 
 educated men, — men of talent, and power, and usefulness, 
 — can remember definite facts, or quote word for word. 
 " A London paper says that barristers hold that the pro- 
 portion of persons who can state a fact or quote a con- 
 versation with complete correctness is about one in a 
 thousand, and concludes an article with the assertion that 
 'Man is not a text-quoting animal.' " 
 
 I have before me statements concerning Harvard pro- 
 fessors and even President Roosevelt, who misquoted 
 Scripture. It is related that in setting up a plea of self- 
 defence in a murder case Gen. B. F. Butler quoted from 
 Satan's words in Job, saying, " We have it on the Jiighest 
 authority that all that a man hath will he give for his life." 
 
 The Evangelist Munhall used frequently in his addresses 
 to offer a finely bound Bible to any one present who would 
 repeat correctly twelve verses from twelve different books 
 of the Bible, and state the chapter and verse. I was told 
 that he had never found a person who could do it. The 
 only time I ever met him was in Paris in 1894, and I asked 
 him if this was true. He said that he had lately found 
 one colored boy who could do it, but never any other. I 
 have tried the experiment with educated persons familiar 
 with the Bible, and I have never yet found a person who 
 could stand that simple test. 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE 173 
 
 A few years ago while making a Sunday School tour 
 through the principal cities of Ohio, I said to a very in- 
 telligent man in the hotel dining room : " I do not believe 
 that one-quarter of the people in this room can tell how 
 many states there are in the Union. He was sure he could, 
 and he named forty-two states and ten territories. As we 
 were leaving we noticed in the morning paper a statement 
 that the government were questioning how to arrange the 
 forty-three stars on the flag ; and the evening paper of the 
 same day at Toledo stated that it was finally decided how 
 to arrange the forty-four stars. 
 
 Only a day or two ago, desiring to be certain before I 
 wrote it down, I asked a number of people in an unusually 
 intelligent company, whether there had been fifteen or 
 sixteen amendments to the Constitution of the United 
 States. There was no certainty in the answers till I came 
 to some teachers, one of whom, a teacher of history, con- 
 firmed their statement by the history. How many of you 
 can tell which is the right number, or how many states 
 there are in the Union? 
 
 It has been said that no college president could pass the 
 entrance examination to his own college, though he really 
 knows a thousand times as much as those who can pass. 
 
 4. It is hardly fair to judge of the results of any sys- 
 tem of instruction by its poorer scholars, or of a fruit tree 
 by its wormy fruit. We know that a marvellous amount 
 of good education is obtained in many directions in spite 
 of imperfection in other directions. It will be seen from 
 these examples that memory tests are not in any case a 
 complete test of knowledge of any subject, much less of 
 the knowledge of the details of the Bible, which it takes 
 several years to go over in one half hour once a week. 
 
174 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Who is SO educated that he does not have to turn con- 
 tinually to reference books and dictionaries? I keep a 
 number always at hand so that when persecuted in one 
 dictionary I can flee to another. 
 
 Then in most school examinations, these follow close 
 upon the study of the subjects, the colleges giving pre- 
 liminary examinations for this purpose. 
 
 We must always consider, in the results, the fact that 
 many persons may know the fact, while ignorant of terms 
 familiar to us expressing those facts. For instance, in 
 a late examination paper, or rather test paper, in our 
 Sunday School, one of the questions was. Name the four 
 evangelists. One of the scholars came to me and asked 
 who were meant by " evangelists," he never having heard 
 the term. Speaking of this to a college student who has 
 been brought up all his life in a Bible atmosphere, he 
 declared that he did not recognize the term as referring to 
 the Bible. But he knew who were the authors of the 
 four Gospels. One might know the whole Bible by heart 
 and not know how to define the Higher Criticism. 
 
 "Mr. John Tetlow, of the Girls' High School in Boston, 
 whose name carries as much weight as that of any one 
 educator engaged in fitting girls for college, last year 
 wrote a letter to the Boston Transcript^ stating his experi- 
 ence with a Harvard examination paper for which an hour 
 was allowed. JNIr. Tetlow took fifty -six minutes to write 
 the paper, so he had only four minutes to look it over. 
 On re-reading it at leisure the next day, he felt that he 
 should be ashamed to have his spelling, punctuation, or 
 rhetoric judged by it." 
 
 It is reported that a martinet school teacher, after hear- 
 ing a sermon by Henry Ward Beecher, went to him with 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE 175 
 
 gratitude for his teaching and preaching power, but also 
 said, " Why, Mr. Beecher, I counted eighty-three gram- 
 matical mistakes in your sermon this morning." "Is 
 that all?" replied Mr. Beecher, "I'll bet you there were 
 a hundred." 
 
 One of the most brilliant professors in Boston said to 
 me that when he saw the stenographic report of one of his 
 extempore addresses, he tore it up in disgust and wrote 
 out what he wanted to say. 
 
 I never was more surprised in my life than the first time 
 I saw one of my extempore addresses reported verbatim. 
 
 Once more the memory tests are no test of the main 
 results at which the Sunday School is aiming. The spir- 
 itual and character results are largely, not entirely, inde- 
 pendent of the exact memory of details. 
 
 In the charming illustrated book, The Holy Land^ by 
 Fulleylove and Kelman, the author writes : " In Syria 
 . . . the most skilful dragoman cannot understand a map, 
 nor guide you to your destination by geographical direc- 
 tions. . . . On unknown ground a Syrian is of little use 
 as a guide. . . . He finds his way partly ... by the 
 habit of noticing minute features of the road which entirely 
 escape the ordinary observer. A story is told of a thief 
 in a certain town in Palestine who entered a house and 
 stole nothing. He simply went out and claimed the house 
 before the judge. When the case came to trial, the thief 
 challenged the owner to tell how many steps there were in 
 the stair, how many panes of glass in the windows, and 
 a long catalogue of other such details. This the owner 
 could not do, and when the thief gave the numbers cor- 
 rectly, the house was at once given to him as its obvious 
 owner," although the real owner had lived there all his life. 
 
176 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 A man may live all his life in the Gospel spirit, obeying 
 its precepts, at home in its teachings, and yet be unable to 
 tell how many chapters or verses there are, or how many 
 miracles they record, and many other details. 
 
 At a convention some one said that in our Sunday 
 School we failed to teach the commandments and Bible 
 facts to the children, while in the Episcopal and Catholic 
 schools all the children knew them. The following Sun- 
 day I went into a Sunday School and when asked to speak 
 I requested permission to ask some questions. "How 
 many of you know the Ten Commandments?" About 
 one-fourth held up their hands. But, I said, I do not 
 mean how many can say them word for word, but how 
 many can tell what is the first commandment, or the third, 
 or the fifth, etc. Three-fourths of the school held up their 
 hands. But the minister and the superintendent came to 
 me to explain why they had not held up their hands. I 
 had not expected them to, of course. But they said that 
 they had learned the Ten Commandments out of the 
 Bible, and they were not numbered there. They knew 
 the commandments and kept them, without knowing them 
 by number. 
 
 Thousands live the commandments who cannot repeat 
 them word for word. Many gain power from literature 
 who do not know much of what is taught in the schools 
 concerning the books and their authors. 
 
 Now, I am not saying these things to excuse ignorance 
 of ordinary Bible facts, for I believe it is important to 
 know them, and that they are a real help to knowing, 
 remembering, understanding, and living the great spirit- 
 ual and character-forming truths of the Bible. 
 
 It is the edge of the axe that does the cutting, and is 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE 177 
 
 the most important thing about the axe ; but the heavy- 
 iron back of the edge multiplies its cutting power. All 
 Bible knowledge, especially an accurate knowledge of its 
 main facts, are essential to the best character-forming 
 work of the Sunday School. 
 
 There are several things which can greatly diminish the 
 amount of Sunday School ignorance of the Bible, all of 
 them simple and easily possible. 
 
 1. The right kind of Reviews, in which the main facts 
 of the quarter's lessons are clearly set forth and drilled 
 into the memory. 
 
 2. The right kind of supplemental lessons can do for 
 the Intermediate classes what is done to some extent now 
 in the Primary grade. They must largely consist of ques- 
 tions with definite answers, covering the points most 
 needed to be known, and in which failures are most often 
 shown. 
 
 3. But the greatest means is the daily reading of 
 the Bible at home. A part of the time the whole 
 Bible in course. At the door of neglect of daily Bible 
 reading lies the chief cause of the ignorance of the 
 Bible, so often charged to the account of the Sunday 
 School. 
 
 " Of about forty students in the freshman class in a 
 certain college, six of whom were ministers' sons, the 
 president found that not one had read the Bible through; 
 only five had read the New Testament, one had read the 
 Bible as far as Proverbs, few had read through the books 
 of Moses, all were ignorant of the Prophets, and not one 
 could give the names of the books of the Bible. And these 
 were educated young men, fitted for college." In mak- 
 ing tests on this point I have found a larger proportion 
 
178 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 of adults than of young peojjle who have read the whole 
 Bible. 
 
 The Young People's societies are doing much, but the 
 Sunday School teachers can do still more by persuading 
 their scholars to daily home study and home reading of 
 the Bible. And the parents can do most of all. 
 
VIII 
 
 SIGNS OF GROWING INTEREST IN BIBLE STUDY EX^ 
 PRESSED IN ORGANIZATIONS FOR THAT PURPOSE 
 
 Arthur Helps, in his Friends in Council^ makes the wise 
 man of affairs say that the prophet whose range of vision 
 is narrowed to a few years is apt to be a pessimist, while 
 he whose vision sweeps over centuries is full of joy and 
 hope. So he who sees only certain phases or forms of 
 Bible study, under certain conditions, in certain localities, 
 in some narrow vista of the years, is apt to abide in that 
 discouraged condition best expressed by the words in 
 which Emerson is said to have characterized his visit to 
 Ruskin, " Solid gloom." 
 
 But a larger vision, a longer period for comparison, a 
 wider range of methods and forms of study, a broader 
 extent of territory, will change the whole aspect of the 
 spiritual landscape. The " seven fears " will be changed 
 into " seven joys," as, to the king in the Light of Asia, 
 the old flag rent by the blast was but the rending of 
 false superstitions, the flinging away of the gems like a 
 shower was but the scattering of precious truths to the 
 people, the ten elephants that shook the earth with their 
 tread were the ten great gifts of wisdom, and the drum 
 that pealed like a thunderstorm was but the sound of the 
 preached word "heard round the world." 
 
 I. Let us first take a glimpse at the growth of Bible 
 study in the Sunday School as the leading Bible study 
 
 179 
 
180 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 department of the Church. One does not need to listen 
 very intently to hear a dirge in a minor key to which is 
 set such monotonous refrains as : — 
 
 "The decadence of the Sunday School." 
 
 "Dying at the top." 
 
 "Sunday School ignorance of the Bible." 
 
 " The decline in numbers." 
 
 "The Sunday School failure." 
 
 " The Christian Endeavor waning." 
 
 Men of wisdom and science see these things, for they 
 are there to be seen ; and we ought to see them till they 
 
 " Stir a fever in the blood of age 
 And make the infant sinew strong as steel." 
 
 But such views are for the most part partial and local 
 and narrow. No cause ever triumphed when its soldiers 
 marched to dirges, but only when they were inspired and 
 stirred to the very depths by songs of courage and hope. 
 Of all the Psalms there is but one that has not in it 
 the note of hope of better things. There is not one of 
 the prophets, however earnest in his warnings, and terri- 
 ble in his pictures of the fruit of sin, but has also bright 
 visions of the good time coming. The glory of the Greeks 
 waned, for its age of gold was in the far past. Prophets 
 and Gospels are succeeding, for their age of gold is always 
 before them. 
 
 The very abundance of the criticisms is a sign of the 
 value and power of the Sunday School. It is the blooded 
 horse, not the worn-out hack, which is padded and 
 patched and spurred on to a faster gait. It is the good 
 man whom the preachers most berate for not doing better. 
 It is the best fruit tree that is most trimmed and scraped. 
 
GROWING INTEREST IN BIBLE STUDY 181 
 
 There has never been an International Triennial Con- 
 vention which has not shown a large increase in the 
 Sunday School membership, even without adding the 
 325,000 in the Home Department. The fourteen mill- 
 ions in the Sunday Schools represent one-sixth of the 
 whole population. Dr. Mead, in his excellent Modern 
 Methods in Sunday School Work, says that " Thirteen mill- 
 ions of children and youth in our country never cross the 
 threshold of a Bible school, either Protestant or Roman 
 Catholic." How can this be when, according to the United 
 States census of 1900, the total population attending day 
 schools is only 13,367,147, and the total population of 
 school age, 5 to 17 years, including Negroes, Indians, and 
 Mongolians, is only 21,538,024. 
 
 Some time ago General Butler, when he was candidate 
 for the governorship of Massachusetts, and was showing 
 the need of reforming our day school system, stated that 
 there were in the state 104,206 persons who could not read 
 and write. But a look at the government statistics showed 
 that 93,272 of these were born in foreign countries, 6934 
 were natives of other states, and only 2486 were natives 
 of this state and brought up under its school system. 
 
 One is continually tempted to repeat Edward Everett 
 Hale's famous hon mot, ''Positive, ' lie ' ; comparative, ' liar ' ; 
 superlative, 'statistics.'" I have never yet known an 
 accurate census taken in any city or town which did not 
 present a better showing than had been claimed. Most 
 Sunday School statistics, especially those given at the 
 Triennial International Conventions, are remarkably ac- 
 curate on the positive side for Evangelical schools, but 
 they do not include the Roman Catholics and several other 
 denominations. Hence the inferences that many draw 
 
182 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 from thein are very far from the actual facts, for by 
 merely subtracting the given Sunday School figures from 
 the figures of the United States census, they count as 
 unreached all the infirm and the sick, all who have been 
 to Sunday School some part of the 12 years between 
 5 and 17 but are not in the schools at the time the census 
 was taken, and all members of Roman Catholic and some 
 other schools. It is to be hoped that hereafter the whole 
 Sunday School population will be included in the statis- 
 tics, because so many make the facts appear much worse 
 than they are by using the International statistics as if 
 they were inclusive of all. 
 
 In connection with the Sabbath School there has been a 
 marvellous increase in the number of Bibles used. The 
 annual sale was never so great. The two Bible societies, 
 the British and the American, circulate 6,000,000 a year, 
 and there are 42 private publishers besides, one of which 
 alone sells 750,000 annually. The Bibles are published 
 in a great variety of forms, and are far superior to the 
 Bibles of half a century ago. The maps, concordances, 
 pictures, text-books, and all kinds of helps are the best 
 that can be obtained, while formerly there were almost 
 none of these things. 
 
 Again the literature published to help children and 
 others to get at the meaning and applications of Scrip- 
 ture, including pamphlets like lesson quarterlies and 
 teachers' monthlies, as well as solid volumes, amounts to 
 several tens of millions annually, next in amount to the 
 secular newspapers. 
 
 Never has there been so much done in the exploration 
 of Bible lands for recovering the relics of the past ; never 
 so much written about the Bible in secular newspapers 
 
GROWING INTEREST IN BIBLE STUDY 183 
 
 and in popular magazines ; never so many books published 
 relating to the Bible ; never so- many courses of Bible 
 study in our Colleges and Universities. It seems as if 
 the moral atmosphere had been so changed that the dif- 
 ference could be read from the stars. 
 
 II. The International Sunday School Executive Commit- 
 tee. — The work of this committee has been so quietly 
 done, and so overshadowed by the work of the Interna- 
 tional Lesson Committee, that few seem to know how vast 
 is its work, how complete and extensive its organization, 
 how great its working forces, how much it has accom- 
 plished. Great men have summarized the religious move- 
 ments and educational forces of the country without 
 recognizing its work, or seeming to know that it exists. 
 
 At the remarkable gathering of religious educators 
 at Chicago in the spring of 1903, at which the Religious 
 Education Association was formed, the first public meet- 
 ing had for its subject, " The Next Step Forward in Reli- 
 gious Education." The seven chief answers presented by 
 the speakers as to what this next step should be were : — 
 
 1. Manual training of the young in all forms of reli- 
 gious activity, in preparation for their work in the church 
 and in life. 
 
 2. Making the present teachers better, and the future 
 teachers better still. 
 
 3. Greater emphasis on the teaching function of the 
 ministry. 
 
 4. An organized and aggressive campaiign of universal 
 Bible study according to the best educational methods. 
 
 5. Better provisions for the training of teachers ; the 
 best apparatus of all kinds, libraries, normal classes, train- 
 ing schools, and the like. 
 
184 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 6. Emphasis on the duty of the religious training of 
 the children in the home. 
 
 7. Bible study in colleges in the regular curriculum. 
 Now the International Association for years has been 
 
 taking the first six of these seven great steps, and urging 
 them on the Sunday Schools all over the country. 
 
 The whole country has been divided into nine great dis- 
 tricts, each with an executive committee and officers. 
 
 Every state and territory in the Union (except Alaska 
 and Indian Territory) is organized to carry on this 
 work. 
 
 Each state is subdivided into smaller districts, so as to 
 reach as far as possible all the Sunday Schools, and inspire 
 them to better Bible work, better teaching, better grading, 
 better organization. 
 
 The general organization employs the best available 
 talent. Besides the chairman, a business man who gives 
 four-fifths of his time and six or seven thousand dollars a 
 year to forwarding the work, there are six paid workers 
 who give all their time, and a number of other special 
 workers who give a portion of their time. The annual 
 expenses are now about $20,000, in addition to what is 
 done by the chairman. 
 
 Besides this, there are from one to seven paid workers 
 in each of the states of the Union, except seven, making 
 over one hundred people employed on full time by the 
 various state associations, at an expense of nearly 
 1200,000. New York this year spends 116,000 ; Pennsyl- 
 vania 121,000; Illinois over 110,000. All this to bring 
 the best training to superintendents and teachers, and to 
 make the best Bible knowledge available to all the Sunday 
 Schools of the land. 
 
• GROWING INTEREST IN BIBLE STUDY 185 
 
 This organization stands : — 
 
 1. For the betterment of the Sunday School all along 
 the line. 
 
 2. For teacher training, one college professor giving 
 his whole time to this work. 
 
 3. For " the assimilation of the best results of modern 
 educational science." 
 
 4. For Bible study, leaving such methods as the Higher 
 Criticism and special doctrinal teaching to denominational 
 and individual writers. 
 
 5. For the graded Sunday School, along International 
 lines, as containing the best possibilities for the Sunday 
 School, but revised and improved as fresh light and 
 experience may guide. 
 
 6. For the widest spreading of every good thing in 
 Sunday School lines throughout the whole Sunday School 
 world, especially to the smaller schools which would other- 
 wise be unable to come in contact with them. 
 
 In the words of Rev. E. Morris Fergusson of New 
 Jersey, one of the wisest, most progressive, and most suc- 
 cessful of the state secretaries : " There are teachers and 
 leaders thoroughly conversant with actual conditions in 
 the average Sunday School, trained in the methods of the 
 new education, and busy in the work of constructing 
 plans, evolving literature and standards of method, and 
 perfecting local organization among the teachers, through 
 which not this and that favored school, but a large per- 
 centage of all the Sunday Schools, are being brought into 
 line for effective and spiritual teaching of the children." 
 In addition to this general organization, many of the 
 denominational houses are carrying on the same work 
 separately for their own churches and Sunday Schools. 
 
186 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 III. The Religious Education Association. — This great 
 association grew out of a very deep, growing, and almost 
 universal feeling that "the religious and moral instruc- 
 tion of the young is at present inadequate, and imperfectly 
 correlated with other instruction in history, literature, 
 and the sciences ; that the Sunday School, as the primary 
 institution for the religious and moral education of the 
 young, should be conformed to a higher ideal," and 
 made more efficient for its work ; and that there should 
 be a more perfect and widely extended Bible study and 
 Bible teaching. As the electricity pervading clouds and 
 earth is condensed into a flash of lightning, so this deep 
 and broad feeling was crystallized into visible form in 
 February, 1903, at Chicago, in this much-needed and 
 remarkable movement. 
 
 The personnel of the Convention when it came into 
 being was remarkable. Of those who took part in the 
 six sessions 15 were or had been college presidents, and 
 12 were college professors ; on the preliminary commit- 
 tees 25 were college presidents and 62 college professors ; 
 and of the 60 members of the committees appointed to 
 carry out the plans of the new organization, 18 are or 
 were college presidents and 13 college professors. The 
 influential majority of persons connected with the organi- 
 zation consists of eminent educators, whose work is with 
 young men and women rather than children. The con- 
 stitution is almost identical with the long-tried and proved 
 constitution of the National Education Association. 
 
 While in its first call the Sunday School was the most 
 prominent factor, the Convention immediately overflowed 
 those narrow banks far and wide, like the Jordan in its 
 spring floods. 
 
GROWING INTEREST IN BIBLE STUDY 187 
 
 Its purpose is very much wider than Sunday School teach- 
 ing. It proposes to conduct its work under seventeen de- 
 partments, as follows : (1) The Council, (2) Universities 
 and Colleges, (3) Theological Seminaries, (4) Churches 
 and Pastors, (5) Sunday Schools, (6) Secondary Public 
 Schools, (7) Elementary Public Schools, (8) Private 
 Schools, (9) Teacher Training, (10) Young Men's and 
 Young Women's Christian Associations, (11) Young Peo- 
 ple's Societies, (12) The Home, (13) Libraries, (14) The 
 Press, (15) Correspondence Instruction, (16) Summer 
 Assemblies, (17) Religious Art and Music. 
 
 Its plan is very broad. Its purpose is to "include 
 within its cooperation all types of religious thought, all 
 schools of criticism, and to give its adhesion to no sect or 
 party or institution or geographical section or school of 
 criticism." This was wise, for any other course, "in an 
 age which demands economy of forces and the prevention 
 of waste, and whose religious watchword is federation, 
 would be a blunder." 
 
 In September, 1904, there were 1825 members belong- 
 ing to 37 denominations, and located in 43 states, 3 ter- 
 ritories, the District of Columbia, the Philippine Islands, 
 and Hawaii; Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova 
 Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec ; Argentina, the British West 
 Indies, England, Germany, India, Japan, and Turkey. 
 
 1. This association stands for a very wide and deep inter- 
 est in Bible study, especially in our institutions of learning, 
 and for religion as "one of the great permanent, living 
 forces that make for individual and social well-being." 
 
 2. It stands for an emphasis on the historic study of 
 the Bible, and for the Higher Criticism, but without any 
 endorsement of any particular views and results. 
 
188 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 3. It stands for the sixteen subjects rehearsed above, 
 in addition to the Sunday School ; and in this direction 
 there is no other organization which includes and corre- 
 lates the religious forces connected with so many depart- 
 ments of education. 
 
 4. It stands for emphasis on the new psychology, peda- 
 gogy, and child study, in their relation to the Sunday 
 School, and especially on the grading of the Sunday 
 School according to right principles, thus being coordi- 
 nated with the International system, though teaching that 
 the best way to improve that system is to substitute some- 
 thing better in its place. 
 
 5. Its emphasis is more on the theoretical side of Sun- 
 day School teaching, the investigation of principles and 
 ideals, the larger part of its leading men being practically 
 conversant more with the youth of college age. 
 
 6. It has a large mission in the correlation of the edu- 
 cational forces of the time. 
 
 7. It has a wide and noble field as a " clearing-house 
 of ideas," an " experiment-station " ; a centre of scientific 
 investigation in respect to everything relating to moral 
 and religious education. 
 
 It can conduct experiments over a series of years, and 
 test the various theories and schemes. It can find enough 
 schools which will be willing to be the subject of these 
 investigations under their guiding hand, in new schemes 
 and old, in modified forms of many kinds for a period 
 long enough to ascertain the results, not in one direction 
 only, but in many : as to Bible knowledge, as to spiritual 
 results, as to the effects on the home and the famil}^, as to 
 its influence on the Sunday School in gathering all the 
 children of each community into the Sunday School, as 
 
GROWING INTEREST IN BIBLE STUDY 189 
 
 to the training and preparation of teachers for their work. 
 There is no other instrumentality now in existence which 
 can as well conduct in a truly scientific spirit these inves- 
 tigations and experiments. 
 
 IV. The American Bible League. — Planned several 
 years before the R. E. A., but not materializing till the 
 year following that organization, — in the spring of 1904, 
 — the American Bible League was formed, " not to oppose " 
 the work of the R. E. A., but "to place positive, aggres- 
 sive, constructive study of the Bible in the path of de- 
 structive criticism." It does not stand opposed to the 
 " historic spirit " or to Biblical criticism, but to some of 
 the results which are given to the public in their name. 
 President Patton of Princeton, in his opening address, 
 says : — 
 
 " We want criticism, intelligent criticism, of the Bible. 
 We can't shut it up in a glass case ; we can't make an 
 expurgatorius of books against it. Unless the Bible can 
 stand in the daylight, there is no use keeping it in the 
 dark, and it ought to go down. We all admit that this 
 controversy must be managed by minute experts of the 
 Bible on each side. We are willing to submit our case 
 to the court, and we expect a verdict." 
 
 Professor Robert Wilson, also of Princeton Theological 
 Seminary, spoke as follows : '' The only way in which the 
 conservative party can maintain its position in the field of 
 Biblical criticism is by showing that the premises of the 
 radical critics are false; by showing through the more 
 thorough investigation of the facts that the foundations 
 upon which the magnificent structures of the critics rest 
 are, indeed, groundless, unscientific, and illogical, un- 
 proved, and often incapable of proof." 
 
190 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 The American Bible League stands for the historic 
 faith. Every member of the American Bible League is 
 required to subscribe to the following : " Believing in the 
 divine origin, inspiration, integrity, and supreme author- 
 ity of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, 
 I desire to become a member of the American Bible 
 League." 
 
 '' In carrying out our great work we shall meet biblical 
 experts of the highest rank with experts of the highest 
 rank, and a negative, destructive scholarship with a posi- 
 tive, constructive scholarship that, please God, shall Avin 
 the day." 
 
 For this end it will publish a magazine, called the Bible 
 Student and Teacher^ and a series of Bible League Primers. 
 It proposes the organization of branch Leagues in various 
 centres, and within them League circles in colleges, schools, 
 Christian associations, and in Sunday Schools. 
 
 V. The Bible Teachers Training School, of which Dr. 
 Wilbert W. White is the indefatigable originator and 
 president, has entered its new and beautiful home on 
 Lexington Avenue, New York. It is doing a noble work 
 in training teachers in Bible knowledge and thorough 
 methods of Bible study. Dr. White is a genius in this 
 direction. It publishes the Bible Record for ten months 
 in the year, and has for its goal " a Bible Teachers Col- 
 lege, which shall open its doors to all who can secure 
 enough leisure to study the Bible for three months, for a 
 year, for two years. The college must have the most 
 eminent scholars, the most aggressive Christian workers, 
 the most devout and spiritual assistants upon its teaching 
 staff. It must have a library of the best books upon the 
 Bible, and upon all phases of its history and influence. It 
 
GROWING INTEREST IN BIBLE STUDY l9l 
 
 must own the best maps and the best pictures of the 
 Orient, in which the Bible was written. It deserves and 
 could wisely and profitably use buildings as imposing as 
 those in which the Teachers College now does its inspir- 
 ing work." 
 
 VI. Extension courses for lay students are given by the 
 Union Theological Seminary, New York, under the direc- 
 torship of Professor Richard M. Hodge. Courses on Bible 
 study and religious education are given at the seminary, 
 at the Teachers College, Columbia University, and at 
 churches. A syllabus of Religious Education, of Old Tes- 
 tament Literature, of The Teaching of Jesus, and of The 
 Prophets of Israel, are issued by the department. 
 
 VII. The International Bible Reading Association was 
 originated in 1882, and the honorary secretary, Mr. 
 Charles Waters, of 56 Old Bailey, London, suggested the 
 plan to a committee of the Sunday School Union, and 
 ever since has promoted it with unflagging energy and 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 The object is to promote the constant use of God's 
 Word as a daily companion and guide, through Bible 
 reading in the home, by providing a method whereby the 
 reading may be rendered intelligent and profitable. It 
 also aims to help teachers and scholars in their study 
 of the Sunday School lesson. It presents a series of 
 daily readings on the subjects of the International 
 Lessons. 
 
 Members include all ages and classes without limit, the 
 conditions being an intention to read the portions regu- 
 larly, and the payment of three cents annual membership 
 subscription if connected with a branch, or six cents if 
 not. Members are supplied monthly with leaflets con- 
 
192 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 taining brief "hints " on the daily readings, and quarterly, 
 with an illustrated circular letter, which, with circulars, 
 etc., amount to more than 12,000,000 a year. There 
 were, in 1903, more than 800,000 members in 60 different 
 countries. Mr. W. Shaw, Tremont Temple, Boston, is 
 one of the honorary secretaries. 
 
 VIII. The Young Men's Christian Associations have a 
 Bible study department, in which, according to the last 
 annual report, there were 1693 classes. The secretary 
 writes me, under date of June 23, that "there are ap- 
 proximately 35,000 students in the Bible classes of our 
 city, town, and railroad associations, and 25,000 jn the 
 Bible classes of our Student Associations." 
 
 IX. The Baraca Movement was started at Syracuse, 
 New York, in 1890, by Mr. M. H. Hudson, a business man 
 of that city, with a class of 18 young men, and the desire 
 to bring young men under the influence of Bible study. 
 Its platform is " young men at work for young men, all 
 standing by the Bible and Bible School." 
 
 "We aim in our organization to make each man feel 
 that it's his class, not the property of the teacher. We 
 try to arouse a strong class spirit, an enthusiasm for the 
 Baraca, and pride in its success." 
 
 The movement has spread rapidly till there are now 
 1200 classes, numbering 30,000 members, in every state of 
 the Union, in England, and in Canada. And Mr. Hud- 
 son writes me that 145 men have joined his Church from 
 his class alone. 
 
 Add to these, the American Institute of Sacred Litera- 
 ture, centred at the University of Chicago, with branches 
 in other cities, publishing books and reaching a large 
 number of young people. 
 
GROWING INTEREST IN BIBLE STUDY 193 
 
 Correspondence Schools, of which that by the American 
 Institute of Sacred Literature, and the Moody Institute in 
 Chicago, are among the leading ones, are giving training 
 courses for Sunday School teachers through instruction 
 by correspondence. 
 
 The Christian Endeavor and other Young People's Unions 
 and Leagues, with their 2,700,000 young people pledged 
 to read the Bible and aided in its study. 
 
 Summer Assemblies, of which there are many all over 
 the country. 
 
 Summer Schools for Bible study for ministers and teach- 
 ers, held at university centres and at theological semina- 
 ries. 
 
 Courses of Lectures on the Bible, such as were given 
 Saturday mornings by the Twentieth Century Club of 
 Boston to crowded audiences in the Colonial Theatre; be- 
 sides lectures, readings, and class lessons in their own 
 rooms in the afternoon. 
 
 Courses of Lectures in Individual Churches, and Bible 
 Institutes, and great Teachers' Meetings in cities and 
 towns. 
 
 All these are but a portion of the organizations working 
 for more and better Bible study. 
 
 Now who can look with open eyes upon these signs of a 
 fresh and increasing interest in Bible study, which recall the 
 great outburst of Bible reading in the times of the Refor- 
 mation, both in Germany and England, — and yet talk 
 of " the decline of Bible study " ! We are reminded of the 
 letter Chaplain McCabe once sent to Colonel Ingersoll : — 
 
 "Dear Colonel, — Ten years ago you made the 
 following prediction: 'Ten years from this time two 
 theatres will be built for one church.' The time is up. 
 
194 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 The Methodists are now building four churches every 
 day, — one every six hours. Please venture upon another 
 prediction for the year." 
 
 " Lo ! there breaks a yet more glorious day; 
 The saints triumphant rise in bright array ; 
 The King of Glory passes on His way! 
 From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, 
 Thro' gates of pearl streams in the countless host. 
 Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 * Hallelujah!'" 
 
IX 
 
 METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 There is one best purpose in studying the Bible, the 
 one for which John wrote his Gospel, — "that ye may 
 believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and 
 that believing ye may have life in His name." But there 
 is not one best way of studying the Bible ; there are many 
 best ways, all of them aids in reaching the supreme end ; 
 just as there are many ways of studying nature, — the 
 scientist's way, the poet's way, the artist's way, the 
 farmer's way, and the way " that leads through nature up 
 to nature's God." There is a tendency for each age to have 
 its own favorite way, and to claim that it is the way, the 
 best way ; like the different animals in Professor Amos R. 
 Wells's bright fable of their convention to choose a king: 
 
 " They held a great meeting a king to select, 
 
 And the kangaroo rose in a dignified way, 
 And said, ' I'm the one you should surely elect, 
 
 For I can outleap every beast here to-day.' 
 Said the eagle, ' How high can you climb toward the sky ? ' 
 
 Said the nightingale, ' Favor us, please, with a song ! ' 
 Said the hawk, ' Let us measure our powers of eye ! ' 
 
 Said the lion, ' Come, wrestle, and prove you are strong ! ' 
 But the kangaroo said, ' It would surely be best, 
 In our choice of a king, to make leaping the test ! ' " 
 
 So each method of Bible study presents its claim. One 
 can do this ; another can do that. One says. Mine is the 
 
 195 
 
196 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 royal way of studying the Bible ; another declares, Mine 
 is the "open sesame" to the divine treasure-house. But 
 many methods are good. They are all kings, all " open 
 sesames." Each one contributes its share to the knowl- 
 edge and power of the Word. Each one has its share in 
 building the spiritual temple. And the temple can be 
 perfected only by the correlation and mutual help of all. 
 
 Part I 
 
 THE HISTORIC METHOD OF BIBLE STUDY AND THE 
 HIGHER CRITICISM 
 
 Although this method is old, and is in some form used 
 by all scholars, yet within a few years its newer forms 
 and proclaimed results have been brought into such 
 prominence in this country, accepted by so many, opposed 
 by so many, explained in learned volumes, exploited in 
 popular literature, taught in the colleges, so urged or con- 
 demned in public and in private, that they have knocked 
 at the door of the Sunday School. And the question 
 must be decided by Sunday School teachers, — what shall 
 be their attitude towards the historic study of the Bible 
 and its daughter the Higher Criticism, and what use can 
 they make of it in teaching their classes ? 
 
 Not many years ago in the town of Hamath in Northern 
 Syria was discovered a sacred stone with Hittite inscrip- 
 tions throwing light upon that ancient race referred to in 
 Genesis, but for many centuries unknown to history, inso- 
 much that many believed that the Bible story of the Hittites 
 was legendary. This stone was with great difficulty pur- 
 chased for a museum, and was being carted away to the 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 197 
 
 Euphrates to be shipped, when there occurred an unusual 
 display of November meteors. This frightened the people 
 of Hamath ; they thought that God was angry with them 
 for selling the sacred stone, and that he was throwing the 
 stars about in his wrath. They sent a deputation after 
 the stone and demanded its return. The old Turk who 
 had it in charge, after a long conference, told them that 
 they had completely misunderstood the meaning of the 
 falling stars; that so far from expressing God's anger, 
 they meant, on the contrary, that God was so glad on 
 account of their self-denial in yielding the stone to 
 science that he was setting off fireworks in heaven for 
 
 joy- 
 
 This is a pretty fair picture of the present situation in 
 regard to the Higher Criticism. Men of the more moder- 
 ate, constructive, and devotional school of the higher 
 critics, of which Professor George Adam Smith is a fair 
 representative, believe most sincerely that they are doing 
 a great service to God and to the Bible. They believe 
 that they have removed what Goldwin Smith calls " Chris- 
 tianity's millstone, fertile in casuistry, bigotry, and cruel 
 oppression " ; that they have saved many from the disas- 
 ter of being unable to reconcile a belief in the goodness 
 of God with what they term " the rigorous laws," " the 
 pitiless tempers," and " the atrocities which are narrated 
 by the Old Testament histories, and sanctioned by its 
 laws." 
 
 Professor George Adam Smith says : " I know no sad- 
 der tragedy than this innumerably repeated one, nor any 
 service which it were better worth doing than the attempt 
 to help men out of its perplexities. The most advanced 
 modern criticism provides grounds for the proof of a 
 
198 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Divine Revelation in the Old Testament at least more 
 firm than those on which the older apologetic used to 
 rely." Professor Budde, one of the most eminent of 
 German critics, writes to Professor Smith that as for 
 himself his " belief in a genuine revelation of God in 
 the Old Testament remains rock-fast." Even Professor 
 Cheyne protests that " Our ambition as interpreters is 
 nothing less than to get to the heart of the Old Testa- 
 ment ; . . . that our critical freedom is not the freedom 
 of scepticism, but of a purified faith ; . . . tliat faith, as 
 the Oxford of to-day knows full well, is the jewel of the 
 soul alike to the critic and to the simple-minded Chris- 
 tian." 
 
 I quote these words of the higher critics, not as endors- 
 ing all the results to which they have come in respect to 
 the Bible, for I differ decidedly from many of their views, 
 but that all may recognize them not only as great schol- 
 ars but as devoted Christian men of deep piety and rever- 
 ence for the Scriptures, as earnest seekers after the truth, 
 and fellow-laborers for the coming of the Kingdom of God ; 
 in order that all personalities may be eliminated, and the 
 only questions with all shall be. What is true ? and What 
 is the best way to promote the study and the influence of 
 the Word of God? 
 
 But when the results claimed by even the moderate 
 higher critics are plainly stated, they strike the ordinary 
 believer in the truth of the Bible with a shock. There is 
 a strong feeling that many of the claimed results are not 
 true, that the critics' " reasoning can be shown to be un- 
 scientific and misleading ; that, almost without limit, they 
 assume, as fundamental facts, things which are not facts, 
 but theories." And that even their theories may be 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 199 
 
 wrong; that of possible*conjectures and inferences from 
 facts they have chosen certain ones from among others 
 equally good and treated them as facts. Indeed, most of 
 the contradictions spoken of are not in the Bible as it 
 stands, but are created by the working theories of the 
 critics, who bid us '' beware of the siren voice of the har- 
 monizer." And the scheme seems to be full of inferences, 
 which are not borne out as necessarily true by well-known 
 facts in life, in literature, and in history, which can be 
 tested, and where " the voice of the harmonizer " must be 
 heard. 
 
 By the prevalent school of higher critics, the earlier 
 books of the Bible are not regarded as true history, but 
 as a "framework woven from the raw material of myth 
 and legend," as "an Epic of Humanity." ^ 
 
 1 They say that " on the present evidence it is impossible to be sure of 
 more than that." 
 
 "The narratives of the patriarchs contain a substratum of actual per- 
 sonal history." The transactions betv^een individuals, such as Jacob, 
 Esau, Israel, may often most naturally be explained as transactions 
 between tribes. The first chapter of Genesis is not a revelation but a 
 poem or legend. All have been written at a late date, and are "full 
 of conceptions of a later date." 
 
 According to Professor Driver, in the words of the Sunday School 
 Times, "it is an essential and inseparable part of the theory advocated 
 in his volumes that the earlier strata of the history recorded in the Old 
 Testament are a mixture of fact and legend, while in the later strata 
 the history has been systematically falsified, either through ignorance 
 or with the intent to deceive, in the interest of the political and religious 
 opinions of their authors. This applies, not to the books of Chronicles 
 alone, but to every part of the Old Testament that contains statements of 
 historical fact. And this theoretical presupposition is consistently ac- 
 companied by the practical habit of finding contradictions and other 
 incredible statements everywhere, even at the cost of forced and unnatural 
 interpretation." 
 
 Jehovah, according to their theory, was a tribal God at first, and 
 
200 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 Now it is not strange that not only the general body of 
 Christians, but scholars equal in scholarship to these 
 others, familiar with the historic study of the Bible, with 
 minds equally open to receive light from all sources, should 
 feel that these teachings are undermining the very foun- 
 dations of belief in God's Word ; that much power is lost, 
 that the glory of divine revelation is dimmed, and that 
 these views have been the means of undermining the 
 faith of some in the Word of God, as even Professor 
 Nash in his History of the Higher Criticism sorrowfully 
 acknowledges, though he believes that their faith in 
 the end will be built on a rock-foundation instead of on 
 sand. 
 
 Professor Marvin R. Vincent, in a little brochure called 
 That Monster The Higher Critic^ illustrates one aspect of 
 the popular attitude toward biblical criticism by the 
 " story of a wag who laid a wager that he would break 
 up a country menagerie and circus. Accordingly, when 
 the rustic crowd had duly inspected the elephant and the 
 hyenas, and were seated round the arena eagerly await- 
 ing the entrance of the clown and the bareback rider, he 
 rushed into the ring, waving his hat, and shouting : — 
 
 " ' Ladies and gentlemen, save yourselves ! The Gyas- 
 cutus has broke loose ! ! ' 
 
 " Dire was the panic that followed ; numerous the bruises 
 and scratches ; appalling the damage to bonnets and drap- 
 eries ; but the tent was emptied at last, and the farmers 
 and their wives and daughters were jogging homeward 
 
 monotheism was a late evolution from polytheism, through the inspi- 
 ration of God, which transfigured the legends, myths, and traditions, 
 and made them the medium of teaching the great truths of Divine Reve- 
 lation. The whole structure of the Old Testament is changed. 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 201 
 
 and congratulating each other on their escape, when it 
 occurred to some of them to ask, 'What is a gyascutus, 
 anyway ? ' ^ 
 
 " Upon the settled faith and tranquil content of a large 
 body of Christians breaks the cry, ' The higher criticism 
 has broken loose ! ' It is charging, head on, with smoking 
 nostrils, against the Bible ! It means destruction to the 
 faith once delivered to the saints. 
 
 " Meanwhile few stop to ask, ' What is higher criticism, 
 anyway?' The majority run; that is, they evade the 
 question with some such irrelevant platitude as ' The old 
 Bible is good enough for me.' " 
 
 Now, there is no panic in the Church about the Higher 
 Criticism. But there is a hesitation about receiving 
 such revolutionary ideas, without the most positive proof. 
 There is a questioning whether " the present is but a new 
 gust of the old tempest." There is a determination to 
 wait awhile, in a time when dead theories, scientific far 
 more even than theological, are strewn thick along the 
 path of Progress. 
 
 There is an intention to search out the truth by equal 
 scholarship, equal scientific research, equally open minds, 
 and learn whether there may not be found truer inferences 
 from the facts, a wider horizon, an interpretation which 
 will embody the good, and avoid the dangers, of both 
 views. In a word, whether the Higher Criticism is an 
 imaginary monster, or an angel with healing in his 
 
 1 Professor Vincent does not tell us what a Gyascutus is, but the Cen- 
 tury Dictionary says that it is either a beetle about an inch long, or an 
 imaginary animal of tremendous size, with two short legs on one side and 
 two long ones on the other, adapted to feeding on the side of a very steep 
 mountain. Compare Poe's story of the Sphynx. 
 
202 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 wings; or whether there will emerge a human saint, 
 better adapted than an angel to be the divine instrument 
 in transforming the world into the Kingdom of God. 
 For the particular theories of which we have been speak- 
 ing are but a small part of the work the Higher Criticism 
 is doing. 
 
 Thus the present situation reminds us of the gathering 
 to celebrate the laying of the foundations of the new 
 Temple by the returned exiles from Babylon, when 
 
 " All the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the 
 Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 
 
 " But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who 
 were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation 
 of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice ; and 
 many shouted aloud for joy : 
 
 " So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy 
 from the noise of the weeping of the people." 
 
 Then the prophet Haggai came upon the scene, and 
 cheered both parties by foretelling that though the new 
 Temple was far inferior to the old, yet in some way, un- 
 realized by either party and inconceivable at the time, by 
 unexpected changes, " The glory of this latter house shall 
 he greater than of the former^ saith the Lord of hosts : and 
 in this place ivill I give peace^ saith the Lord of hosts.'^ 
 
 Thinking of '' dogma " not as one of the great doctrines 
 which never die, but rather as an opinion or theory about 
 them, we would join with John Hooker : — 
 
 " A worn-out Dogma died ; around its bed 
 Its votaries wept as if all Truth were dead. 
 But heaven-born Truth is an immortal thing ; 
 Hark how its lieges give it welcoming : 
 ' The King is dead — long live the King ! ' " 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 203 
 
 Now the teacher who has come in contact with the 
 modern views cannot be indifferent as to which school 
 is right, and how far each is right. By his birthright as 
 a Christian he wants the truth, '' though the sky should 
 fall, sun, moon, and stars and all." In no case is there 
 danger that the Bible will be destroyed, however much 
 individuals may suffer. Divine Revelation will not be 
 taken away. Not one of the great truths of the Gospel, 
 their form of. statement purified and brightened by the 
 conflicts of the ages, will perish. Either the theories will 
 die, or they will be modified into some helpful form. 
 
 And 3^et it does make a difference which view one takes 
 in teaching the Old Testament. 
 
 On the one hand, he will have an easy way to avoid 
 some moral difficulties, which can be as easily avoided in 
 more natural ways, but, on the other, he loses no small 
 power in his teaching. 
 
 A divine revelation, based on the spiritual illumination 
 of legend and myth, cannot have the same power or give 
 the same assurance of faith as one based on actual history 
 and biographic fact. 
 
 It may be true that " if we realize that the Bible is the 
 story of the lives of men who were groping after God, 
 wishing to find God, trying to understand God, and com- 
 ing in various degrees to knowledge of Him and fellowship 
 with Him, he will find many, if not most, of his difficulties 
 about the interpretation of the Bible removed." But it 
 does make a vast difference whether the story is true or 
 not. The deeds, the victories, of an imaginary character 
 cannot have the same moral force in character-building 
 nor the same power over the conscience as the same deeds 
 of faith and heroism and self-sacrifice actually wrought by 
 
204 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 real men like ourselves, and therefore possible to us, and 
 imperative upon us. 
 
 The victory of Jack the Giant Killer has no such moral 
 power over a child as David's faith-victory over Goliath. 
 Shakespeare's immortal characters have power just as far 
 as we recognize them as true to actual life. Not one of 
 them can touch the true Bible stories in character-building 
 power. Jesus Christ as a mere idealized man, a picture 
 of the imagination, could never have even begun to do 
 what the real Christ, the Son of God, actually coming 
 from heaven as bearer of good tidings from God, and 
 actually giving His life in loving atonement for the sins 
 of man, has wrought in this world. A " human Christ " 
 has always been a failure. A providential guidance of 
 persons or of nations shown in a history that is largely 
 legendary, although "immortal with truthfulness to the 
 realities of human nature and of God's education of 
 mankind," cannot have the teaching power of a true 
 story of the actual education of mankind wrought out 
 by God. 
 
 Professor George Adam Smith says that Butler, Foster, 
 Maurice, Kingsley, Newman, Robertson of Brighton, 
 Candlish, Arnot, Spurgeon, and Beecher have all used 
 the Old Testament chiefly for its characters. It was not 
 the miracles of Old Testament history nor the national 
 events upon which the preaching of our fathers fed and 
 grew strong, but the personal elements ; the development 
 of character, the moral struggles, checks, catastrophes, 
 and recoveries in which so many of the books of the Old 
 Testament are so very rich. That is true. But all these 
 great preachers presented those characters as having actu- 
 ally lived, as does the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 205 
 
 the names in his catalogue of the immortal heroes of 
 faith. The beautiful legends of the Knights of the Round 
 Table, the hero-tales of The Light of Asia, the Sagas of the 
 Norsemen, helpful and uplifting as they are, never had, 
 and never can have, such power as the heroic deeds of 
 actual men of like passions with ourselves. 
 
 Now what course shall Sunday School teachers take 
 under these circumstances ? Remember that I am not 
 speaking to specially prepared teachers of adult classes, 
 who rightfully discuss more fully these questions. Nor 
 am I speaking to or for expert scholars, lifelong students 
 of the Bible, professors and scientific investigators. God 
 speed them in their work. It is not for me to imagine 
 myself competent to offer any advice or suggestion to 
 such men, whom I admire and love. But it may be right 
 for me to give the results of many years of study and 
 thought and reading and experience to the average teacher 
 in the Sunday School. 
 
 1. Avoid all personalities and all slurs upon those who 
 differ from you, and especially all bitter attacks on that 
 which is not fully understood. There is nothing which 
 hurts a cause more than to pour hot shot into a man of 
 straw, imagining and representing it to be the enemy, 
 who, meanwhile, looks on in safety and smiles. I once 
 heard Henry Ward Beecher, during his great trial, relate 
 in self-defence at one of his prayer meetings how he and 
 his friend were mobbed at an anti-slavery meeting in 
 New York. He escaped through a back entrance, but 
 the mob followed him, and, thinking him in a certain 
 house, attacked it with stones, rotten eggs, and all man- 
 ner of missiles. But Mr. Beecher was in the opposite 
 house, and looked upon the attack witli smiling cheer- 
 
206 THE FKONT LIKE 
 
 fulness. "It did me no harm," he said, "for I wasn't 
 there." 
 
 Nor is it wise for any one to expose himself to the 
 retort which that bright book Collections and Recollections 
 says that an English bishop made to a man who boasted 
 that "he had only contempt for Aristotle." "One thing 
 is certain," retorted the bishop, "it is not the kind of 
 contempt which familiarity breeds." 
 
 2. Be receptive, open-minded to all truth from every 
 source, let all the windows of your soul be open in every 
 direction. The bee sucks honey from every flower, even 
 the poisonous ones. Learn wisdom from your enemies as 
 well as your friends, for they may point out something 
 you would otherwise fail to see. There is no impassable 
 barrier between the divergent views. There is no case 
 where "one is infallible and the other always right." 
 
 Jean Ingelow in one of her later poems. The Monitions 
 of the Unseen^ pictures a faithful and earnest young min- 
 ister, who became utterly discouraged at the seeming fail- 
 ure of his work for the poor and suffering. One day he 
 had a vision which revealed to him the cause of his 
 failure. He had acted upon the theory that the whole 
 world was sharply divided into two distinct classes, — on 
 the one hand those that helped, on the other those who 
 needed help, while, as a matter of fact, all needed to help 
 and all needed to be helped. 
 
 To imagine that there is a sharp division, as some have 
 claimed, between the more conservative and the more 
 radical school, that there is no " perfect day in June " be- 
 tween arctic winter and tropic summer is simply to invite 
 failure, and to defy facts. 
 
 Every one needs for his spiritual vision the magical 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 207 
 
 qualities of Mr. Titbottom's Spectacles described in 
 Prue and I. When their owner looked through these 
 glasses at people, he ceased to see them as they ordina- 
 rily appeared on the street; he saw their real essential 
 character. Wonderful were the revelations that were 
 made.i 
 
 Blessed are those who see with such vision the truths 
 that lie hidden beneath unfavorable circumstances; who 
 take the Court witnesses' oath, and see "the truth, the 
 whole truth, and nothing but the truth." 
 
 3. Distinguish between the Historic Method and the 
 things which various persons claim as the results of the 
 Method. As a matter of fact the ideas which usually pres- 
 ent themselves to the mind when the Higher Criticism is 
 mentioned are really but a portion of what the Higher 
 Criticism has done for the study of the Bible. 
 
 The Historic method has come to stay, rather in some 
 measure it has always been with us, because it is a right 
 method, full of enlightening results. 
 
 When Madame Roland stood upon the guillotine in 
 
 1 He looked at one man and saw nothing but a ledger. Another was 
 simply a billiard cue, another a bank bill, another a great hog, or a 
 wolf, or a vulgar fraction. On the other hand, he saw the good that 
 others failed to see. One of his school teachers was a deep well of living 
 water in which he saw the stars. Another was a tropical garden full of 
 fruits and flowers. In one woman's heart lay concealed in the depth of 
 character great excellences like pearls at the bottom of the sea, little sus- 
 pected by most, but perhaps love is nothing else than the sight of them by 
 one person. Another, called an old maid, was a white lily, fresh, luminous, 
 and fragrant still. Another's nature was a tropic in which the sun shone, 
 and birds sang, and flowers bloomed forever. His wrinkled grandmother 
 appeared as a Madonna, " and I have yet heard of no queen, no belle, no 
 imperial beauty whom in grace, and brilliancy, and persuasive courtesy 
 she might not have surpassed." 
 
208 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 what is now the Place de la Concorde in Paris, she looked 
 at the statue of Liberty, which stood where now stands 
 the Egyptian Obelisk, and exclaimed, " Oh, Liberty, how 
 many crimes have been committed in thy name! " Then 
 the axe fell, and another crime was committed in the name 
 of Liberty. But Liberty is just as sweet and precious, to 
 be longed for and fought for, as if no crimes had been 
 committed in her name. 
 
 So the Historic method is just as good, as helpful, as 
 enlightening, as if no mistake, no false inference, had been 
 made in its name. 
 
 Some wise writer warns us " not to throw away the baby 
 with the water in which it has been washed." 
 
 To me the new emphasis on the Historic method has 
 been a real blessing. The words and messages receive a 
 new meaning from their historic setting. The books of 
 the prophets have a new meaning when we read them not 
 as isolated themes, but as sermons and orations spoken in 
 times of great need in order to accompli'sh great purposes. 
 Every far outlook into the future shines clearer on account 
 of its setting in the present, and becomes more full of 
 instruction for all lands, and of hope for all time. Proph- 
 ecy is thus seen to be, in the words of the late Professor 
 Davidson, " the philosophy of history. Prophecy is his- 
 tory become conscious, history expressing its own mean- 
 ing. But prophecy is not the philosophy of ordinary, but 
 of Jewish history. Now Jewish history consisted of two 
 factors, — human activity, as in ordinary history, and a 
 supernatural divine guidance ; and therefore prophecy 
 must partake of two factors also, human insight and 
 divine illumination." 
 
 In like manner the epistles are transfigured with fresh 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 209 
 
 meaning. The history, on the other hand, is made more 
 clear, more vivid, more instructive by means of the proph- 
 ets and epistles. The whole Bible is thus made more ef- 
 fective for teaching, and more attractive to young and old. 
 
 4. The Sunday School teacher should dwell in the 
 atmosphere of the devotional, character-forming, life- 
 guiding elements of the Scripture. All teachers, higher 
 critics or not, advocate this. There are just as distinct 
 atmospheres of Bible study as there are in families and 
 churches, which form the most important part of their 
 influence over others. 
 
 Every one recognizes that there are distinct atmospheres 
 in the study of literature. The discussion of the questions 
 whether Bacon or Shakespeare wrote the dramas attrib- 
 uted to Shakespeare; whether one author or many wrote 
 the Iliad or the tales gradually grew, and were moulded 
 into their present form by the genius of Homer, or whether 
 the author was Homer or another man by the name of 
 Homer, as some critics claim that the Gospel of John was 
 not written by the apostle John, but by another man by 
 the name of John — all these and similar discussions 
 belong to an entirely different literary atmosphere from 
 that created by the study of Homer and Shakespeare as 
 literature. 
 
 So in Bible study there are several distinct atmospheres 
 — an atmosphere of criticism, a literary atmosphere, a de- 
 votional atmosphere, an atmosphere of conscience and of 
 right living. " A work of art is an object seen through 
 a temperament," says some one. Our view of the Bible 
 is usually seen through a temperament. No one really 
 understands the positions of the higher critics till he has 
 dwelt in their atmosphere for a time. There is a literary 
 
210 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 atmosphere as unrecognized by many as the bright skies 
 beyond the clouds. There is an atmosphere that belongs 
 to the religious life, inspiring, invigorating, converting, 
 transforming. 
 
 And as this is the influential atmosphere of the teacher's 
 own life, of every Christian's life, as it is that in which the 
 main work of the Sunday School as of the church is to be 
 done, it is necessary that the Sunday School teacher should 
 live and move and have his being there ; while he visits 
 and explores the others as thoroughly as possible chiefly 
 that he may clarify, invigorate, make life-giving the 
 atmosphere in which he teaches and lives. 
 
 I once asked an agent of the Tiff any s why they, with 
 all their skill and modern inventions, did not put into 
 their windows such beautiful colors as we find in some of 
 the old cathedrals, the glory of which, when once seen, 
 will never fade from the memory. He said that only age 
 could give such charm to the colors ; that the dust was 
 an inch thick on some of these windows. An English 
 rector desiring to renovate his church had the dust 
 cleaned from its windows, with the result that the tone 
 of their beauty was ruined. 
 
 There are some great essential truths, tried and tested 
 by centuries of experience, to which the dust of the ages 
 gives beauty and power, and however we change, the 
 philosophy which underlies them, and the words in which 
 they are expressed are as fixed and eternal as the soul 
 which outlasts the stars. 
 
 The atmosphere of these is the atmosphere of the 
 Sunday School. 
 
 5. The teacher should recognize that many of the results 
 claimed as settled with a certain unanimity by one school 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 211 
 
 of the higher critics are still under fire. The conflict of 
 ideas, "the battle of the books," is not ended. ^ There 
 are questions on each side that have not yet been an- 
 swered by the other. There are difficulties not yet 
 solved. New books are coming out every year. One of 
 the best and best known of all the higher critics said to 
 me not long ago that it was only the second-rate critics 
 who were so infallibly sure ; and another agreed with me 
 when in a discussion I said that no one could possibly tell 
 just what position would be taken ten years from now, or 
 what new light might rise above the horizon. 
 
 It is repeatedly said that we ought not to teach the 
 children as true those things they will have to unlearn ten 
 years later. Exactly. But it is well to be sure what 
 things, traditional or critical, will not change in ten years. 
 Teach what you believe to be true and adapted to the 
 children's needs. But do not teach as true what is doubt- 
 ful, nor as settled what is still in the conflict. Whatever 
 you teach on some of these questions will be likely to 
 meet with some changes in ten years ; but that will not 
 injure the children of the present any more than similar 
 
 1 Professor Robert W. Rogers, the Assyriologist, speaking of Professor 
 Delitzsch's Babel und-Bihel writes from Berlin: "To those who are 
 unable to keep close watch upon German thought it would be impossible 
 to imagine the effect produced by these two lectures. The first lecture 
 contained only thirty pages, the second but twenty-nine. In reply to 
 these brief papers there had appeared up to a few weeks ago (May, 1904) 
 no less than one thousand three hundred and fifty small articles, more 
 than three hundred lengthy papers and twenty-eight brochures, some big 
 enough to be reckoned as books, and this in Germany alone. In addition 
 to these, all of which were more or less valuable, there were published 
 many thousands of worthless performances. Let this stand as a proof of 
 the undying, unconquerable interest in the Bible. Let one man attack it, 
 and thousands spring to its defence." 
 
212 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 changes have harmed the vigorous generations of the 
 past. 
 
 The conflict of argument and discussion is sure to bring 
 out more clearly the real truth, differing from what either 
 side argued for, or expected. When Gareth of the Knights 
 of the Round Table met what seemed to him the last 
 enemy of humanity and " Through the dim dawn advanced 
 the monster," and with one mighty stroke the Knight split 
 his skull, out there 
 
 " Issued the bright face of a blooming boy 
 Fresh as a flower new born." 
 
 So Tennyson, in The Ancient Sage^ declares that faith 
 
 " Reels not in the storm of warring words, 
 She brightens at the clash of ' Yes ' and ' No,' 
 She sees the Best that glimmers through the Worst, 
 She feels the sun is hid but for a night, 
 She spies the summer through the winter bud, 
 She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls. 
 She hears the lark within the songless egg^ 
 She finds the fountain where they wailed ' mirage.' " 
 
 The history of the progress of the church has been the 
 history of conflicts and discussions. In times of quiet, 
 the quiet of indifference, of neglect, of coldness, or of 
 compulsory unity, — the great doctrines, the institutions, 
 the teachings of the Bible have a tendency to attach to 
 themselves various accretions and imperfections derived 
 from their secular surroundings, from the sciences and 
 philosophies of the day, and from the moral practices and 
 trends of the times, like the Sabbath rules of the Pharisees 
 in the time of Christ. For the " warfare of science with 
 theology " is at heart chiefly the warfare of new science with 
 old science, and new philosophies with old philosophies. 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 213 
 
 Plato's description of the soul as like the marine Glaucus 
 \Yho cast himself into the sea, and cruised along the shores 
 with the whales, is not an altogether unfair picture of 
 many of the Christian teachings and practices as seen in 
 past ages. " His ancient nature cannot be easily perceived, 
 because the ancient members of his body are partly 
 broken off, and others worn away ; and besides this, other 
 things are grown to him, such as shellfish, and seaweeds, 
 and stones." It is by conflict, by discussion, by criticism, 
 that the doctrines and the institutions of the church, yea, 
 even the soul itself, become freed from their imperfections 
 and false accretions, and stand before the world in their 
 true nature. 
 
 " Agitation," said Wendell Phillips, " is not a disease 
 nor a medicine ; it is the normal state of a nation. . . . 
 Agitation is not the cure, but the diet of a free people ; 
 not the homeopathic or allopathic dose to which a sick land 
 has recourse, but the daily cold water and the simple bread, 
 the daily diet and absolute necessity, the manna of a peo- 
 ple wandering in the wilderness. ... If the Alps, piled 
 in cold and still sublimity, be the emblem of despotism, 
 the ever restless ocean is ours, which, girt within the 
 eternal laws of gravitation, is pure only because never 
 still." 
 
 Freedom of discussion is the atmosphere wherein truth 
 thrives with vigor and gains its victories. " To sit on 
 the safety valve is simply to invite an explosion." Or as 
 Lord Rosebery once said, " You cannot prevent a storm 
 by sitting on the barometer." Professor Rogers rightly 
 holds that " Protestantism owes its very existence and 
 certainly its dominating power among men to its abso- 
 lutely untrammelled study and exposition of the Scrip- 
 
214 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 tures. True Protestantism has never feared scholarship 
 and never will. If scholarship has attacked its Bible, it 
 has in the next moment supplied for it a new and better 
 defence. . . . The brilliant and learned De Tocqueville 
 used to say that 'the cure for the evils of democracy is 
 more democracy,' and we say here that the cure for the evils 
 of this new Assyriology is more Assyriology." And the 
 remedy for any errors of scholarship is more scholarship. 
 
 " The only method," says Professor William M. Ramsay, 
 "is to hold fast to the scientific principle, and to walk 
 along the narrow path between dangers and uncertainties 
 on either hand as unswervingly and unhesitatingly as does 
 the pious Mohammedan across Al-Sirat, which bridges 
 with its spider-thread breadth the chasm between him and 
 heaven." 
 
 I do not know what form the resultant of the divergent 
 views will take, but I believe that the trend will be in the 
 following direction. 
 
 1. That the Biblical order will be found to be the true 
 order ; that as the divine revelation of God as Creator, 
 and of a day set apart for His worship stands at the 
 beginning of the Bible, so it stood at the beginning of 
 the human race ; that polytheism is a degeneration from 
 monotheism, and not monotheism an evolution from poly- 
 theism ; that the Babylonian stories are polytheistic de- 
 generations from a divine revelation, and not revelation 
 a transfigured Babylonian legend. 
 
 Professor Rogers, in a late article on the New Assyri- 
 ology, speaking of the Flood stories, writes, " Is the He- 
 brew narrative borrowed from the Babylonian story ? So 
 many think. But the facts before us seem to demand 
 another explanation." 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 215 
 
 Professor Delitzsch states in his Bahel und Bihel that 
 monotheism existed in early Babylonia, and that one of 
 the Babylonian gods was Jahve, the Hebrew Jehovah. 
 
 2. The history of mankind has been the history of an 
 evolution or development, with God in it all and behind it 
 all. If early men were savages in outward culture and 
 knowledge, they were at least "savages in training for 
 angels," and in training by God their heavenly Father. 
 
 Evolution does not exclude God's personal action in 
 providence or in miracle. In connection with a discus- 
 sion on this point I asked a most distinguished professor 
 of biology if the introduction of the personal will of 
 Darwin in the evolution of doves, or the personal will of 
 breeders in the swift evolution of better horses, or of gar- 
 deners in the evolution of fruits and flowers, was contrary 
 to the doctrine of evolution. He replied that it was not. 
 Then I asked. Is the teaching that God has in the past, 
 or does now, put his personal will into the evolution of 
 the world and of man, exactly as his children are doing 
 every day in their small way, — would this be contrary to 
 scientific evolution ? The reply was, Not at all. 
 
 This is the way we read the biblical story of mankind. 
 It is the story of an evolution according to God's own 
 laws always acting, but with an occasional putting of his 
 personal will into the chain of events, and doing what 
 would not have come to pass without that intervention 
 and change. This seems to me the only tenable definition 
 of a miracle. And I cannot see how in any other way 
 God can make himself known as a personal God above 
 nature, as a father more real and helpful than any earthly 
 father, except in this Bible way ; nor prove that the picture 
 is false which is described in Zola's Le Bete Humaine of a 
 
216 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 railway train dragged by an engine whose driver has been 
 killed, dashing at headlong speed into the midnight. " The 
 train is the world, we are the freight, fate is the track, 
 death is the darkness, God is the engineer, — who is 
 dead." 
 
 3. This evolution, recorded in the Old Testament history, 
 up to the time of Christ, is of the same kind as has been the 
 evolution of the race since the time of Christ, and as the 
 evolution of every child, which, according to a favorite 
 and doubtless true theory, is a repetition of the evolution 
 of the race. 
 
 What is this kind of evolution ? 
 
 The child does not evolve the ideas and the ideals 
 toward which he is being trained. They are taught him 
 from without, and then, by a long series of struggles, of 
 ups and downs, of errors and failures, of new light and new 
 powers, he grows up toward the ideas and ideals, and also 
 toward the capacity of receiving further revelations and 
 higher ideals. 
 
 Of the same kind has been the evolution of the Kingdom 
 of Christ. Christians did not evolve the Gospels, nor an 
 ideal Christ, by slow growth of mind and character. The 
 whole evolution of Christianity has been under a revela- 
 tion from heaven of the highest truths, of a perfect char- 
 acter in Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. It 
 began with a divine revelation of God and His commands. 
 New revelations were given in special eras. New under- 
 standing of the treasures of the revelation came to men 
 as they were able to receive it ; just as there have come 
 from the Book of Nature — ever the same, always full of 
 unexplored regions and undeveloped resources — a gradual 
 revelation of its powers and glories, of which even we in 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 217 
 
 the twentieth century have received but a few drops from 
 its mighty ocean. 
 
 Its history has been one of conflicts, of slow growth, of 
 strange errors, of reactions, of contradictions in practice 
 of some of the essential principles of the Gospel, of losing 
 or marring parts of the truth and of recovering it again 
 as if freshly revealed, of a zigzag progress often running 
 to extremes in some directions and then in others. 
 
 At the same time, its history has been one of continued 
 general progress toward the ideals of the Gospel. Great 
 prophets and preachers have arisen to condemn the errors 
 and bring back the people to the Gospel ; and great 
 religious poets like David and his successors, who have 
 cherished the deepest spiritual life. There have been great 
 revivals, marvellous victories, new impulses to righteous- 
 ness, fuller revelations, and clearer views and truer under- 
 standing of the old Revelation. 
 
 On the whole, there has been a steady movement toward 
 the promised consummation of the Kingdom of God, the 
 new heavens and new earth described in the last chapters 
 of the Bible. 
 
 I have sometimes represented the evolution by a diagram 
 like this : — 
 
 ,4t^.e^^^*' 
 
218 THE FliONT LINE 
 
 Now this growth of Christianity, which is plainly seen 
 in the history we know, is a very good picture of the 
 history of the Jews as related in Old Testament history. 
 And this fact renders it probable that the order given in 
 that history is the true order of the events themselves. 
 It relieves us from most of the difficulties which have led 
 the Higher Criticism to rearrange the order of events. 
 
 But we are still in the midst of the discussion, and all 
 each one can do is to throw some little ray of light on the 
 
 problems. 
 
 " This day the sound of battle, 
 
 The next the victor's song." 
 
 In the old Greek legend of the founding of Thebes, Cad- 
 mus found the appointed site held by a great dragon 
 which he must slay before he could build the city. Then 
 he took the dragon's teeth and sowed them in the field 
 like wheat, when lo, from each one sprang an armed giant. 
 
 " The clods grow warm and crumble where he sows, 
 And now the pointed spears advance in rows ; 
 Now nodding plumes appear, and shining crests, 
 Now the broad shoulders and the rising breasts ; 
 O'er all the field the breathing harvest swarms, 
 A growing host, a crop of men and arms." 
 
 Cadmus found himself surrounded by a great army of 
 fierce and warlike giants. He took a rock and threw it 
 among them, striking one of them on the breast. Then 
 instead of slaying him they went to fighting one another. 
 And they slew one another till only one tall giant re- 
 mained, and he became the helper of Cadmus in carrying 
 stones for the walls of the hundred-gated city of Thebes. 
 So will it be in this present conflict of theories and opin- 
 ions. They are slaying one another as in the conflicts of 
 
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 219 
 
 the past. The whole field of the past is strewn thick with 
 dead theories and systems and philosophies, scientific, 
 educational, religious. But in every period of conflict 
 there stands forth after the battle some truth purer, 
 clearer, shining down the ages like a " beautiful tall angel '' 
 warrior, with a spear like that of Milton's Ithuriel which 
 revealed the true nature of what it touched; and this 
 resultant truth will now, as in the past, help to build the 
 jasper-walled City of God. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 Part II 
 
 VARIOUS METHODS 
 
 I. Reading the Bible through in Course. — Mr. Pycroft, 
 in his work on how to read Englisli history, advises his 
 readers to gain first an. outline or skeleton view of the 
 whole course of the history, and to learn it by heart. 
 Then every reference to the history, in book or current 
 literature, and every study of details will immediately 
 find their places in the progress of events, and gradually 
 build up a well-balanced knowledge of the history ; while 
 otherwise a large portion of one's reading and study will 
 be almost wasted as disconnected fragments, and have 
 little part in one's intellectual equipment. 
 
 This principle is equally true of Bible study. The first 
 thing to be done, and it should be begun in childhood, is 
 to read the Bible through from beginning to end, and to 
 repeat this course all through life in order to keep it in 
 the memory ; and then to learn by heart an outline of the 
 course of history as a concrete whole. 
 
 The result will be that all other forms of Bible study 
 will have a double value. All references to the Bible in 
 literature will find their place in the Bible history, recall 
 and illuminate it along its whole course. For literature 
 
 220 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 221 
 
 is full of the Bible. Shakespeare alone has more than 
 five hundred and fifty quotations, allusions, or senti- 
 ments from the Bible ; Tennyson has four hundred and 
 sixty ; and Farrar says that ^' the hundred best books, the 
 hundred best pictures, the hundred greatest strains of 
 music are all in it, and all derived from it." 
 
 " And, weary seekers of the best, 
 We come back laden from our quest, 
 To find that all the sages said 
 Is in the book our mothers read." 
 
 So that whosoever is able to locate these, and all the 
 daily references to the Bible in magazines, papers, con- 
 versations, will in time have an illuminated Bible. 
 
 The value of this movement through the Scriptures is 
 well illustrated by President Slocum's words to the vis- 
 itors at the great St. Louis Fair : *^ Much may justly be 
 said of the unwisdom of superficial work in sight-seeing, 
 as well as in the class room and laboratory, and there is 
 danger of thinking ' a ramble through a World's Fair is 
 an equivalent for a liberal education.' But too much 
 emphasis cannot be laid on the value of such a ramble to 
 the open-eyed and open-souled thousands who have Avaited 
 for this event to gain their first vital knowledge of the 
 way other workers do their work." 
 
 It is only by a knowledge of the whole Bible, a knowl- 
 edge possible to every one, that the teacher can do his 
 best work. He cannot teach any lesson well unless he 
 regards it as part of a great whole ; not as a single note, 
 though sweet as an angel's voice, but as a part of an 
 anthem ; not as a single stone, but as part of a temple ; 
 and unless he can say with George Herbert, — 
 
222 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 " Oh, that I knew how all thy lights combine 
 And the configurations of their storie, 
 Seeing not only how each verse doth shine, 
 But all the constellations in their glorie." 
 
 The teacher, too, without a knowledge of the whole 
 Bible, will miss many an illustration and suggestion which 
 would impress the truth; and as one whose work is to 
 cure souls, he will be like one in an apothecary shop 
 wherein are medicines for every disease, who yet does not 
 know what is in it or where to find the remedy he needs. 
 
 II. The Literary Study of the Bible. — Professor Rich- 
 ard Moulton, of Oxford and Chicago Universities, has 
 made all Bible readers his debtors by pressing upon their 
 notice the great number of literary forms in which the 
 Bible truths are expressed, including every known form 
 of literature, by showing their effect upon its interpreta- 
 tion, and by his genius in applying his wide knowledge 
 of literature to our English Bible. 
 
 Almost equally with the modern expansion of the 
 historic method has the literary study of the Bible, as 
 Professor Moulton has presented it in his books, in the 
 introductions and arrangements in his Modern Reader s 
 Bihle^ and most expressively of all in his spoken lectures, 
 been to me almost a new revelation. 
 
 Consider the variety of literary form in our Bible, — 
 history, story, biography, autobiography, arguments, ora- 
 tions, sermons, conversations, poetry in lyric, dramatic, 
 idyllic, and epic forms, hymns, songs, epistles, parables, 
 proverbs, fables, enigmas, metaphors, hyperboles, epigrams. 
 These, written by all classes and conditions of men, are 
 adapted to all conditions and all ages, to all classes of 
 mind, all degrees of culture. They meet every need. 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 223 
 
 Moreover, we often have to consider the form of the 
 literature before we can, in many cases, determine the 
 meaning and application. 
 
 Every great essential doctrine of the Bible is presented 
 to us in a variety of literary forms, — in prose statement, 
 in story, in parable, in poetry, in dramatic presentation, 
 in symbol, in metaphor, and especially in history and biog- 
 raphy as actually lived out by men and nations. And 
 this is necessary in order to guard against mistaken in- 
 terpretations, errors, and half truths, which are sure to 
 arise from any single presentation. That Massachusetts 
 governor who quoted Satan's words in Job as divine 
 truth, would never have done so if he had realized that 
 the book of Job was a dramatic poem. The pessimism 
 in portions of Ecclesiastes, which Omar Khayyam has ex- 
 aggerated, would never have been regarded as divinely 
 authorized if its literary structure had been understood. 
 New light is thrown on the Sermon on the Mount and 
 some of its hard sayings by seeing how Christ expressed 
 them in actual living. 
 
 Brandeis has well said that " nine-tenths of the serious 
 controversies which arise in life result from misunder- 
 standing ; result from the fact that men do not know the 
 facts which to the other party seem important, or other- 
 wise fail to appreciate his point of view." 
 
 In revising for the Oxford University Press the helps 
 in their Bibles, bringing them up to date, and transform- 
 ing them into their Cyclopedic Concordance^ my attention 
 was repeatedly called to the variety of meanings a single 
 word conveyed. The denarius, the unit of Roman coin- 
 age, or its equivalent, the drachma of the Grecian, varied 
 at different periods and in different places. The " talent" 
 
224 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 and the '' pound " had always two or more different 
 values. Gopher represents six different animals in dif- 
 ferent parts of our own country ; there are four kinds 
 of quart measures, and two kinds of ton, in use to-day in 
 our country, to say nothing of other lands. 
 
 This is but an illustration of what is continually occur- 
 ring in the intellectual world. Mr. Ruskin is right when 
 he says : " There are masked words abroad, which nobody 
 understands, but which everybody uses, and most people 
 will also fight for, live for, or even die for, fancying they 
 mean this or that or the other, of things dear to them : 
 for such words wear chameleon cloaks — 'ground-lion' 
 cloaks of the color of the ground of any man's fancy. . . . 
 There were never creatures of prey so mischievous, never 
 diplomatists so cunning, never poisoners so deadly, as 
 those masked words." 
 
 For instance, in our day, " Conservative " has not al- 
 ways the same meaning to different people. Speak the 
 word "Higher Critic," and the picture presented varies 
 in different minds from an angelic messenger to a devour- 
 ing dragon, from the mere insect crawling on the window- 
 pane in Poe's story, to the monster rushing down the 
 mountain side, as it appeared to his friend on the lounge. 
 Years ago, if one said " Election," to one it was as a red 
 rag to a wild bull, to another a red rose from the garden 
 of God. Now, the study of the Bible is one of the influ- 
 ences which is modifying all this. I well remember how 
 I was enlightened by seeing how Paul's doctrine of elec- 
 tion was illustrated by his own words and experience in 
 his shipwreck on the coast of Malta. 
 
 The churches are growing more and more united on 
 the great practical doctrines of religion, because they are 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 225 
 
 modifying and correcting their views through the liter- 
 ary study of the Bible and attaching more nearly the 
 same meaning to the same term. They have often gone 
 through the Bible as if riding in an Irish jaunting car, 
 back to back, each seeing an opposite view ; now they are 
 in a modern car, facing to the front and looking out on 
 both sides. Oliver Wendell Holmes says that when John 
 and Thomas are talking together there are always six dis- 
 tinct personalities taking part in the dialogue, — the real 
 John and the real Thomas, John's ideal of himself and 
 Thomas's ideal of himself, and each one's ideal of the 
 other. There has been a similar experience in the rela- 
 tion of different denominations ; but they are coming to 
 understand one another better and see each other more 
 nearly as they really are in the sight of God, partly, at 
 least, through the light which comes from the literary 
 study of the Bible. 
 
 " If I could see 
 As in truth they be, 
 The glories that encircle me, 
 I should lightly hold 
 This tissued fold, 
 With its marvellous curtain of blue and gold. 
 
 " For soon the whole. 
 Like a parched scroll,- 
 Shall before my amazed eyes uproll, 
 And without a screen, 
 At one burst be seen 
 The Presence in which I have always been." ^ 
 
 III. Concentrated Study on Particular Books or Periods 
 or Sections. — The value of this kind of study is closely 
 
 1 Whytehead. 
 
226 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 allied to the reading of the whole Bible in course, and 
 should be conjoined Avith it. The same principles that 
 apply to literary studies, to travel, and to general culture, 
 apply here. It is no longer possible to acquire all knowl- 
 edge thoroughly, but it is wise to learn some few things 
 as completely as possible, while we know a little of many 
 other things. It is like making a garden in the midst of 
 a great farm. It is like the experiment station at Orono, 
 Maine. It is mining deep and finding treasures which we 
 had walked over again and again, unconscious of what 
 was beneath the surface. 
 
 One of my brother ministers was near-sighted in his 
 younger days. He had never seen a distant prospect. 
 He did not know that there was any view beyond his 
 narrow range of sight. When he was twelve years old, 
 his father gave him a pair of near-sighted spectacles, and 
 behold a new world was spread out before him, of which 
 hitherto he had no conception. It was almost like the 
 creation of a new world. 
 
 Such a widening of the horizon, such an illumination 
 of certain passages of Scripture, such a revelation of hid- 
 den treasures, have come to me both while studying single 
 lessons again and again as they have been repeated in 
 our International Lesson courses and while pondering on 
 entire books or on the whole period of a course for the 
 sake of perfecting a review. Each time the illumination 
 from within has increased, and I have almost seen in the 
 passage the transformation described by Goethe in his 
 Tale of Tales, where the plain form and rough beams of 
 the fisherman's hut were transformed by the inner light 
 into a silver temple of most exquisite workmanship. 
 
 We have found something of the same experience at 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 227 
 
 family prayers by sometimes studying a single book of 
 the Bible for a long period, montlis or even years in suc- 
 cession, with various helps, translations, and sidelights, 
 till the book was almost transfigured. In the words of 
 another : " A new lesson or fresh subject never reveals 
 all its truth in a first study of it. It is the ripest student 
 of Shakespeare or of the Bible who finds most of freshness 
 in the great book." 
 
 IV. Word Studies. — We must be careful to avoid the 
 narrowness which imagines that because the broader Bible 
 study is good, and needs to be emphasized because it had 
 been too much neglected in the past, therefore there are not 
 other ways as good and as necessary to the best Bible study. 
 
 The Scientist's Way. — Professor Henry Drummond, in 
 his Tropical Africa^ says that he has " lain a whole week 
 without stirring from one spot ; . . . for this is the only 
 way to find out what really goes on in nature. ... To 
 watch uninterruptedly the same few yards of universe 
 unfold its complex history, to behold the hourly resur- 
 rection of new living things, and miss no change or circum- 
 stance even of its minuter parts, to look at all, especially 
 the things you have seen before, a hundred times, — to do 
 all with patience and reverence, this is the only way to 
 study nature." Professor Agassiz used to teach his stu- 
 dents to look at a single fish for days at a time. 
 
 The Poet's Way. — Tennyson says : — 
 
 " Flower in the crannied wall, 
 I pluck you out of the crannies ; — 
 Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
 Little flower — but if I could understand 
 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
 I should know what God and man is." 
 
228 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 The Literary Man's Way. — Mr. Ruskin gives, in his 
 Sesame and Lilies^ one of the best examples of word study 
 in all literature. It is well for every Bible student to 
 study it. " First of all," he says, " I tell you earnestly 
 and authoritatively (I know I am right in this), you must 
 get into the habit of looking intensely at words, and 
 assuring yourself of their meaning, syllable by syllable — 
 nay, letter by letter. . . . You might read all the books 
 in the British Museum (if you could live long enough) 
 and remain an utterly illiterate, uneducated person ; but 
 if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter, — 
 that is to say, with real accuracy, — you are f orevermore 
 in some measure an educated person." 
 
 The Mining Way. — Any one who has read the four 
 large volumes of Word Studies on the New Testament^ or 
 Trench on the Study of Words^ will have no question 
 concerning the value of such studies. 
 
 Many of our words contain whole poems; others are 
 volumes of history or philosophy. In the words of Pro- 
 fessor Burton: "Take up the commonest words of daily 
 speech, and put them to your ear, and they will sing like 
 shells from the sea. There are whole poems in them, 
 epics, idyls of every sort." 
 
 For instance, take the common word " help " in Luke 
 10 : 40, where Martha asks Jesus to bid her sister that she 
 " help " her. This word in the Greek is a long compound 
 word, sunantilab'etai^ — sun^ ''together with"; anti, "over 
 against, on the other side " ; and lah'etai^ " to take hold 
 of." So that Martha's request was that Mary take hold of 
 the burden of housekeeping with her, on the opposite side, 
 and bear it with her. The same word is used but once 
 more in the New Testament, in Romans 8:26, where we 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 229 
 
 are told that the Spirit " helpeth " our infirmity. The 
 Holy Spirit takes hold of one side of the burden of our 
 infirmity and bears it together with us. We are not left 
 to bear it alone. 
 
 Take the word "tribulations," threshings to separate 
 the chaff from the wheat, as described by Archbishop 
 Trench, and still more forcible when we see the threshing 
 instrument like a harrow with sharp pieces of flint for its 
 teeth. 
 
 Again, in Acts 2 : 26, " my flesh shall rest in hope," the 
 word for " rest " means to divell in a tent or tabernacle. " It 
 is a beautiful metaphor," says Professor Vincent. " My 
 flesh shall encamp on hope; pitch its tent there to rest 
 through the night of death, until the morning of resur- 
 rection." 
 
 When Paul speaks of his death as a " departure," the 
 Greek word presents a picture of a ship about leaving 
 port, loosing the ropes that bind it to the dock, drawing 
 up the anchor, hoisting the sails, and all the preparations 
 for starting from the harbor over an unknown sea to the 
 desired haven. 
 
 When it is said ye are God's " husbandry," we get little 
 idea of the meaning. The Revised Version makes it 
 plainer when it translates the word "tilled land." But 
 the expression becomes fuller of meaning when we see it 
 in our ordinary language as God's "farm," God's "gar- 
 den" or "orchard," with the picture of the methods of 
 cultivation, the flowers and trees bearing all varieties of 
 the fruits of the Spirit. 
 
 Read how William Burnet Wright in his Master and 
 Men^ a work on the Sermon on the Mount, unfolds the 
 meaning of the words " comfort" and "Comforter." 
 
230 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 We have given more than enough examples to show 
 how rich a mine word studies may become. 
 
 I cannot close what I have to say on this point in a 
 better way than by sustaining it with the glowing words 
 of Farrar, '' So in Holy Writ : words of it, expressions of 
 it, separate points of it, by themselves, may sometimes 
 create an indelible impression. The Jewish high priest 
 wore on his Ephod a breastplate, ' ardent with gems oracu- 
 lar,* to which was, in some mysterious way, attached an 
 oracle, the whole being called Urim and Tliummim^ or 
 'Lights and Truths.' The old Rabbis said that the way 
 in which the high priest ascertained the will of God from 
 the Urim was that he gazed on the graven names of the 
 tribes of Israel, until a fire of God stole in mysterious 
 gleams over the letters, and spelt out words of guidance. 
 The Holy Scriptures are, if we make them so, such a Urim 
 and Thummim^ such manifestations of truths, such gleams 
 and flashes of Holy Light. Sometimes the Spirit of God, 
 without our desire, may, as it were, flame out before 
 us, in letters of intense revelation, on the emerald or 
 chrysolite of some familiar text ; sometimes, in the night 
 of meditation, it may vivify with celestial glimmer- 
 ings some long-remembered, but hitherto inoperative, 
 words." ^ 
 
 V. Learning by Heart. — The last time I ever saw 
 Professor Andrew P. Peabody of Harvard, and Bishop 
 Phillips Brooks, at a college dinner only a brief time 
 before their death, both deplored the neglect of memo- 
 rizing the Scriptures, and urged the revival of the cus- 
 tom in the Sunday School. And they were right. Any 
 system of education, however progressive in other things, 
 1 The Bible and its Supremacy. 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 231 
 
 will fail of its best results if it overlooks the laying up of 
 treasures in the memory. 
 
 There are two seemingly opposite views advocated by 
 wise and experienced teachers and educators. 
 
 One class advocates the memorizing of catechisms and 
 verses of Scripture and filling the minds of children with 
 the forms of sound words, although their meaning is not 
 comprehended by them, because they believe that the 
 truths enfolded in these seeds of knowledge planted in 
 the mind will in after years spring up into plants and 
 trees bearing fruit in character and life. 
 
 The other school objects to memorizing because it 
 not only "gives in itself no knowledge, but is in a 
 sense a barrier to knowledge," "not a help, but a hin- 
 drance," and they especially object to memorizing church 
 catechisms. 
 
 As usual in such cases, both are right, provided each is 
 modified by the other ; for the extreme statements, though 
 possible, are rarely realized in actual life. As one has 
 said : " The memorizing is all right. The failure to ex- 
 plain what is memorized is all wrong." 
 
 Let us get clear ideas on this subject. 
 
 1. As a rule, it is of little value to memorize the words 
 of long historical passages, as was once the custom in 
 Sunday Schools. Through such memorizing it is possible, 
 although extremely rare, to have such instances as that of 
 the well-attested case of " Blind Alec " of Scotland, a man 
 "of mature years, and of average intelligence, who had 
 committed to memory the words of the entire Bible. For 
 years he had been in the daily habit of recalling and recit- 
 ing passages of Scripture thus memorized. Yet he was 
 ignorant of every truth or fact in the Bible. His great 
 
232 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 memorizing of words had been no help to him in the gain- 
 ing of truth." 
 
 What should be memorized is not the words, but the 
 general ideas and movements, of history. 
 
 2. It is also true that memorizing the words of a 
 mathematical demonstration is a hindrance to learning 
 mathematics, and is the worst possible way of studying 
 them. " There is a well-autlienticated instance of a stu- 
 dent who actually learned the six books of Euclid by 
 heart, though he could not tell the difference between an 
 angle and a triangle." 
 
 What should abide in the memory is the process of 
 reasoning. 
 
 3. There is little use, perhaps sometimes a real injury, 
 in committing to memory anything entirely disconnected 
 from the ideas the words express, anything ungeared to 
 previous knowledge or experience. It is like storing seeds 
 in a warehouse, where, though they fill it to the roof 
 and endure for ages, they can never produce fruits or 
 flowers. 
 
 4. But it should be remembered that this rarely occurs ; 
 for in most cases of memory work, even of catechisms, and 
 much more of the best Scripture truths, there is some 
 connection with previous knowledge or with life. It is 
 not necessary that any truth should be fully compre- 
 hended, but only that there should be an open door into 
 it, some ray of real meaning although that meaning reaches 
 to heaven, some thread of attachment to the needs of the 
 soul. The seeds planted thus in the soil of the mind are 
 likely to germinate at some time. And this is the usual 
 experience ; certainly in almost all cases beyond the 
 Primary Department. I believe you will find a thousand 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 233 
 
 cases of injury from the failure to commit enough Scrip- 
 ture to memory, to one where committing to memory has 
 done harm, if committing choice Scripture truths ever 
 does harm. 
 
 Ruskin was taught not only to read the Bible daily, but 
 to learn a few verses by heart each day. " It might be 
 beyond me altogether ; that she did not care about ; but 
 she made sure that as soon as I got hold of it at all, I 
 should get hold of it by the right end. It is strange that 
 of all the pieces of the Bible that my mother thus taught 
 me, that which cost me most to learn, and which was to 
 my child's mind most repulsive, — Psalm 119 — has now 
 become of all the most precious to me in its overflowing 
 and glorious passion of love for the law of God."i And 
 he expresses the utmost gratitude to his mother for the 
 " consistent lessons which so exercised me in the Scrip- 
 tures as to make every word of them familiar to my ear 
 in habitual music — yet in that familiarity reverenced, as 
 transcending all thought, and ordaining all conduct." If 
 I were to live my life over again, I would learn much 
 more by heart than I did in my youth, — the best hymns, 
 the choicest passages from the poets and other literature, 
 and especially the most surpassing spiritual, life-giving, 
 and life-guarding portions of Holy Scripture. There are 
 no better companions, no better teachers, than an intimate 
 communion with the best people, the best thoughts, the 
 most glorious truths in the world. I cannot tell you how 
 much of an educating power has been what little I did 
 learn. The best and richest words and thoughts continu- 
 ally in the mind become channels for our own thoughts 
 to flow in, till they become a second nature. 
 
 1 Prceterita. 
 
234 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 " Those are never alone who are accompanied by noble 
 thoughts."! 
 
 " Recollection is the only Paradise from which we can- 
 not be turned out." ^ 
 
 " A Land of Promise, a land of memory, 
 A Land of Promise flowing with the milk 
 And honey of delicious memories." ^ 
 
 Out of Delphi came the oracle, " If the Athenians desire 
 good citizens, let them put whatsoever is most beautiful 
 into the ears of their sons." 
 
 So they put into their ears golden earrings, as the Jews 
 wear phylacteries. 
 
 But Pericles told them that the oracle meant jewels of 
 thought set in words of gold. 
 
 The teacher has done the best neither for himself nor 
 for the pupils under his care, unless he first fills his own 
 mind, and then the memories of his pupils, with the most 
 precious passages of the Bible, so that he and they can go 
 through life accompanied by a host of angelic truths which 
 fill the atmosphere around him like the angel faces in 
 Raphael's Sistine Madonna. 
 
 " Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, what- 
 soever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 
 whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
 whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any vir- 
 tue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." * 
 
 VI. The Magnet Method. — Under this head I wish to 
 present some of the time-saving and labor-saving methods 
 of enriching your Bible studies, which, from long experi- 
 ence and necessity, I have found most helpful in gather- 
 ing about the Bible for easiest and most effective use 
 1 Sidney. 2 Richter. ^ Tennyson. * Paul. 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 235 
 
 the great mass of materials which present themselves from 
 day to clay. 
 
 Dr. Holmes, in the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, rep- 
 resents the Divinity-student at the table as saying, after 
 listening to one of the doctor's famous illustrations, — 
 " There is no power I envy so much as that of seeing 
 analogies and making comparisons. I don't understand 
 how it is that some minds are continually coupling 
 thoughts or objects that seem not in the least related to 
 each other, until all at once they are put in a certain light, 
 and you wonder that you did not always see that they 
 were as like as a pair of twins. It appears to me as a sort 
 of miraculous gift." "You call it miraculous!''' Then 
 the doctor pictures a man by the ocean with a tin cup 
 taking up a gill of sea-water, " and you call the tin cup a 
 miraculous possession ! It is the ocean that is miraculous, 
 my infant apostle ! " Then, picturing all the fancies that 
 poetry has dreamed or humanity has felt, he goes on to say 
 " the Epic which held them all, though its letters filled the 
 zodiac, would be but a cupful from the infinite ocean of 
 similitudes and analogies that rolls through the universe." 
 
 Almost the same may be said of literature, and of life 
 of Avhich literature is the expression. Not only from 
 books, but from the weekly papers, religious and secular, 
 from magazines of almost all kinds, scientific, secular, 
 literary, educational, and Biblical, there flock, like doves 
 to their windows, thoughts, facts, illustrations, explora- 
 tions, to the reader of the Bible. 
 
 " Come and wander with me, 
 Into regions yet untrod, 
 And read what is still unread 
 In the Manuscripts of God." 
 
236 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 After trying almost every conceivable way of utilizing 
 these things, I have settled down upon certain methods as 
 the most helpful to me, and therefore probably to the 
 teacher and minister. 
 
 1. Use the margins of your Bible for noting references 
 to illustrations or facts in the books you read, putting the 
 name of the book and the page opposite to the verse on 
 which it throws light, also marking the passage in the 
 book itself, if the book is your own. It is quite an advan- 
 tage to own the books you read, on account of this privi- 
 lege of marking them, and also noting on the blank leaves 
 the marked pages which throw especial light on the Bible. 
 
 For instance, in one of my Bibles I find on the margin 
 against Exodus 12 : 3, " borrowed," "see Trumbull's Orien- 
 tal Social Life^ p. 319, etc.," and on the next chapter a ref- 
 erence to his Kadesh-harnea, the best help in understanding 
 the route of the exodus. I turn again to Matthew 27 : 36, 
 and find recorded opposite it " Sidney Lanier's Poems, A 
 Ballad of Trees and the Master''; against Matthew 23 : 29, 
 " Lowell's Essays on Dante, p. 141 " ; at Matthew 24 : 36, 
 37, " Kidd's Social Evolution, p. 134, Lecky's History of 
 European Morals, I, 359"; against Mark 6:3, '^Brown- 
 ing's Poems, The Boy and the Angel, p. 256 " ; opposite 
 " under the shadow of his wings," Psalm 17 : 8, I would 
 write " Bowl of Prseneste," to remind me of that beautiful 
 illustration in a series around the rim of that famous bowl 
 from Southern Italy, which was told me by a learned man, 
 and which I can find pictured and described in some vol- 
 ume of my Notes. In this way there is a very helpful 
 correlation between the literature we read and the Bible. 
 2. Another method is quite as helpful in some ways 
 and requires less time. I have always great reason to 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL - 237 
 
 be thankful to Mr. Joseph C. Thomas, of The Methodist 
 Book Concern, New York, for showing me, several years 
 ago, among his many ingenious plans for libraries, his Index 
 Bible. It consists simply of heavy manilla-paper files, 
 folded thrice in a kind of open envelope, one for each 
 book of the Bible. The name of the book is placed on 
 four corners, so that, however it is put in the bookcase, it 
 is easy to find the book you w^ant. These are placed on a 
 shelf close to my desk, and into them are put cuttings of 
 all kinds that illustrate any particular text, marking the 
 chapter and verse on the cutting, and, at first, putting on 
 the outside of each envelope the chapter and verse to 
 which there was a reference. But this became too bur- 
 densome. I have also been inclined of late to use this 
 Index Bible for references to literature, simply noting 
 down the book, the page, and the point illustrated, on a 
 slip of paper and placing it in the folded envelope to 
 which it belongs. It is perfectly simple for any one to 
 make these folders out of heavy manilla or leather board 
 to be found at bookbinders'. 
 
 I have found it useful to make a distinction between 
 illustrations of subjects, and those that add some knowl- 
 edge to particular verses. The latter I put in my Index 
 Bible ; the illustrations I simply throw into a drawer 
 without classification, because in many cases the same 
 illustration will fit several related subjects ; and it is good 
 once in a while to run through the whole list, both to sift 
 them, and to become acquainted with the contents of the 
 drawer. 
 
 3. There is a use of magazine articles which is a great 
 improvement over the old way of keeping them in yearly 
 bundles stored away in some odd corner of the house. I 
 
238 THE FKO^T LINE 
 
 found this way almost entirely useless for Bible helps. 
 Even binding them was not much more convenient. It 
 took too long to find the articles on any particular sub- 
 ject. There are continually coming out long articles by 
 biblical experts and explorers in Bible lands, which are 
 more thorougli than commentaries can be, and later than 
 most books on the subjects of which they treat. These 
 articles I cut out and placed in home-made folders like 
 those of the Index Bible, marked with the names of the 
 books of the Bible, and also with two or three other sub- 
 jects, such as Education, the Sunday School. Thus every- 
 thing on any book of the Bible is ready for immediate use. 
 
 4. The card catalogue can be used with great advan- 
 tage ; not for cataloguing the books in one's own library, 
 for though that library may mount up into several thou- 
 sands, one ought to be so acquainted with it as to know 
 how to put his hand upon any book on any particular sub- 
 ject ; but for keeping up a knowledge of the best books of 
 the past, and of those that are continually being issued. 
 
 The most difficult part of my work has been to know 
 what there is, all there is, and the best there is, on every- 
 thing pertaining to the Bible. By watching the book 
 notices and cutting them out, by studying not only the 
 great libraries, but every minister's library you can reach, 
 and by conversing with experts as you meet them, and 
 then putting the results on the cards of an ordinary card 
 catalogue arrangement, under each book of the Bible, sub- 
 divided as often as may be convenient, you will soon have 
 a knowledge of the chief literature on the Bible available 
 for buying or research in the great libraries. 
 
 VII. Studying the Bible in Different Versions and Lan- 
 guages. — While comparatively few Sunday School teach- 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 239 
 
 ers can make an exhaustive study of the Bible, which is 
 the work of a lifetime and more, yet while they are pass- 
 ing through life it is well to make the best use of the 
 opportunities they have. The hours of lesson study, the 
 times of devotional reading, the seasons of family prayers, 
 may be rendered more effective and more interesting by 
 studying and reading the Scriptures in a variety of ways. 
 This is especially true of family prayers, which give the 
 characteristic atmosphere to the family, and through social 
 reading gives an especially good opportunity to gain the 
 advantage which comes from reading in different versions 
 and in as many languages as he can understand. 
 
 The advantage of reading various versions arises from 
 the fact that some of the Hebrew and Greek words have 
 no exact synonyms in English. The words do not cover 
 exactly the same territory. For instance, a Greek word 
 is translated "power" in the Authorized, and "authority" 
 in the Revisions. But both meanings are included in the 
 Greek word, and neither version gives the full meaning. 
 So "patience" in "tribulation worketh patience," is trans- 
 lated " steadfastness " in the American Revision, emphasiz- 
 ing endurance while " patience " emphasizes the burden, 
 but the Greek word includes both meanings. 
 
 Thus every translation, however perfect, comes short of 
 giving the whole meaning. In the words of Professor 
 Henry M. Whitney : — 
 
 " While all translation, outside of science or other exact 
 knowledge, is difficult and in some sense impossible, the 
 translation of the Bible is one of the most difficult things 
 to which the hand of man has ever been set. The best- 
 qualified can achieve it only imperfectly, and, almost while 
 they are printing their version, new discoveries come to 
 
240 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 make them regret some decision, and the English language 
 has shifted a little, so that some word that fitted exactly 
 now fits no more. . . . No translator is perfect or makes 
 a perfect work ; there are always words and passages that 
 are open to doubt ; the terms of no language exactly cover 
 those of another. 
 
 " Hebrew is probably as different from English as any 
 other language, living or dead. It is dead, and dead in a 
 far distant past. . . . Imagine a language having no 
 present tense, no perfect, no imperfect, no pluperfect, no 
 future-perfect, no subjunctive, no optative, no infinitive ! 
 ... Its prepositions often put one into painful perplex- 
 ity as to which, among the delicately differentiated Eng- 
 lish prepositions, is the one that ought to be used. . . . 
 
 " Hence the cases are frequent where there is a wide 
 range of possible translation : many of these are noted in 
 the margin of the English Revision (that of 1885), and 
 still more in that of the recent American Revision, but a 
 still larger proportion are left unmarked." 
 
 Hence the advantage of different versions which enable 
 us to see the truth from several points of view. 
 
 Again, there is in each translation a somewhat different 
 atmosphere arising from the temperament or circum- 
 stances of the translators, or the purpose they have in 
 view, whether to meet the views of the scholarly, as in 
 the English and American Revisions, or to reach and at- 
 tract the general reader, as in the Twentieth Century 
 New Testament. 
 
 Moreover, there is a wide difference in the literary ar- 
 rangement, in the paragraphing, in verses, in numbering 
 the verses, in the forms of printing poetry, and even decid- 
 ing what is poetry, in the arrangement of the dramatic 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 241 
 
 portions, and dialogues, in the divisions into chapters and 
 sections, in the printing of quotations from the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 We will take a brief glance at some of the modern ver- 
 sions and forms in which the Bible is presented to us. 
 
 1. The Authorized Version of 1611, in which most of our 
 Bibles in common use are presented. No other English ver- 
 sion has equalled it in the perfection of its style and the 
 beauty and nobility of its language. More than any other 
 book or books has the common English Bible been the 
 maker of the best English prose. " It is written in the 
 noblest and purest English, and abounds in exquisite 
 beauties of a merely literary form." "It lives on the ear 
 like a music that can never be forgotten." "Because of 
 its grandeur and its beauty it has a wonderful spell for 
 the heart; it still rings in the heart like the peal of 
 remembered bells." 
 
 2. The Revised Version of 1881 and 1885, by a selection 
 of the best scholars in Great Britain and America, a mon- 
 ument of exact scholarship, surpassing the Authorized in 
 its fidelity to the originals, and with a more correct text 
 from which to translate, but not so musical and perfect 
 in its English. But Dr. Curry, the President of the 
 School of Expression, says that " with practice and famil- 
 iarity in reading it aloud the sense of its imperfection 
 disappears, and the reader will soon grow to feel its 
 superiority over the Authorized Version." 
 
 3. The American Revision of 1901, in which are incor- 
 porated the changes desired by the American section of 
 the Revision Committee, but rejected by the English sec- 
 tion; together with such other changes as the American 
 Committee after long and careful study deemed it wise to 
 
242 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 make. On the whole a decided improvement on the 
 Revision of 1881 and 1885. 
 
 These are the three most important English versions. 
 While it is true that the two later versions have made not a 
 few decided improvements, and have corrected some real 
 errors, and are nearer to the original Greek than the 
 Authorized, yet these later versions have not become pop- 
 ular reading, and few are being sold annually compared 
 with the immense sales of the common version. At two 
 very large Bible publishing houses I was told that only 
 about 5 per cent of the Bibles sold were of the Revisions, 
 and 95 per cent were the Authorized. 
 
 It is well to look the reasons for this squarely in the 
 face, so that something may be done toward a remedy. 
 
 First, — to begin with the lesser reasons, — the difference 
 between the versions is not sufficiently great, in the opinion 
 of ordinary readers, to cause them to put away the Bibles 
 they have been using, and all go over together to the new; 
 which they would need to do, because in all public respon- 
 sive use it is very confusing to have different texts. No 
 great doctrine or truth is changed by the changes in the 
 new versions. 
 
 Second. The old version is familiar, much of it learned 
 by heart, in musical English, and there is a natural hesita- 
 tion before choosing a different version, less perfect in 
 these ways, so long as they can correct the old by using 
 the new for sidelights and necessary changes. 
 
 Third. There are some changes in those passages which 
 have been long used almost as liturgies, which seem un- 
 necessary and are very trying. Professor Whitney thinks 
 that the change in the Lord's Prayer from the large range 
 of " Deliver us from evil " to the narrow " Deliver us 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOK THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 243 
 
 from the evil one " has been one of the serious obstacles 
 to the popular acceptance of the new versions. I would 
 add the leaving out of the benediction from the Lord's 
 Prayer ; and the taking away a large part of the power 
 and blessing of the Christmas song of the angels in Luke, 
 by changes in the translation due to a single letter in one 
 word of the Greek. It would not have required much of 
 a strain on the principles of the translators to have put all 
 these changes in the margin, and let these and other litur- 
 gical portions remain as they were. 
 
 Fourth. There is a strong feeling that we have not yet 
 reached the final Revision, and this is confirmed by the issue 
 of the American Revision, and of the several versions de- 
 scribed below, besides many tentative versions of individ- 
 ual books. Hence the great expense of a general change 
 will not be likely to be incurred. The two kinds are not 
 easily used together, nor will they be till some change is 
 made in the form in which they are printed. 
 
 Fifth. The one great hindrance to the general popular 
 acceptance of the Revisions lies in the exceedingly cum- 
 bersome and solid method of paragraphing, rendering 
 them difficult of use for many purposes, and repellent to 
 the popular mind, as well as to many scholars. If Shake- 
 speare were paragraphed in the same solid way, even the 
 dialogues and conversations being run together in solid 
 form, he would lose half his readers. A large part of the 
 fascination of the Tiventieth Century New Testament^ and 
 of Lasserre's Gospels in French, — which created so much 
 enthusiasm in France that the Pope retracted his permis- 
 sion for its circulation, — is created by their almost perfect 
 paragraphing. 
 
 The verse numbers on the margins of the Revision are 
 
244 THE FKONT LI^E 
 
 some relief. The verse numbers in the text of the Ameri- 
 can Revision are more opposed to what is sought by 
 paragraphing than is even the old versification. The 
 printing of the Psalms and all poetry in poetic forms is a 
 great gain. But on the whole, the verse form of the old 
 version is preferred by most people, not because it is use- 
 ful for proof texts, as one man says, nor for the conven- 
 ience of commentators, as Professor Moulton says, but 
 because it is so convenient for reference, so open faced to 
 read, so helpful in responsive reading, in the public ser- 
 vice and in the family, so referred to in thousands of books, 
 so attractive in form as to far overbear any gain from the 
 solid paragraphing, which can easily be retained in some 
 other way. 
 
 It was a pleasure to find that Professor Henry M. 
 Whitney, now Librarian at Northampton, Massachusetts, 
 has expressed the same feeling in a series of enlightening 
 articles in the Bihliotheca Sacra^ which I hope will appear 
 in book form, for they are the best literary discussion of 
 the various revisions and translations I have seen. He 
 says: "In this respect the English Committee certainly 
 made a grave mistake. It was here that they were expected 
 to make one of their greatest improvements, — an improve- 
 ment for which the way had been prepared by the para- 
 graph Bibles ; and yet dismay is hardly too strong a word 
 for the effect of their changes upon the public mind. A 
 paragraph to a verse, as in the Authorized Version, was 
 not right, of course ; " but a paragraph to a page or more 
 was a great deal worse. The translator who wishes to 
 make the Bible interesting to those who are not scholars, 
 whether young or old, will make as many paragraphs as 
 the matter will bear : the best proof of this is to watch 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 245 
 
 such persons turning overbooks to find one that 'looks 
 interesting,' and deciding which to try by the openness 
 of the page. The long paragraphs of the English Revi- 
 sion were a distinct loss to the hold of the Bible upon the 
 mass of the English-speaking peoples ; the American Com- 
 mittee have come part way back to the attractiveness of 
 the Authorized Version in this respect. 
 
 " Taking at random the first five chapters of Acts, we 
 find that the English and the American Revisers make 
 the same number of paragraphs, besides the poetry,— 
 twenty-two in all : but that the Twentieth Century New 
 Testament makes fifty-one, besides frequently using Her- 
 bert Spencer's device of the sub-paragraph, or a break 
 of half an inch in a line. It is easy to tell which of the 
 three bodies of translators are by their work the most 
 skilful fishers for men. It is a good thing for a trans- 
 lator, a scholar, to work from the standpoint of the tender- 
 ness, the condescension, of Christ." 
 
 In conversing with Mr. Frowde, the head of the Oxford 
 University Press, I asked him why he did not print the 
 Revision in a better-paragraphed form, like the Twentieth 
 Century New Testament, He replied that he had long 
 wanted to print an edition in verse form, but the Revisers 
 were unwilling to have it done. 
 
 The time is coming when there will be a paragraphed 
 Bible which will contain the advantages of all the systems. 
 Whatever publisher shall accomplish this with the Revi- 
 sions will do more to increase their circulation than all 
 other influences combined. 
 
 In our prayer meeting and Sunday School we supply 
 for general use a versified form of the Revision (1881 to 
 1885), and it makes little clashing with those who bring 
 
246 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 the Authorized Version with them. And whatever pub- 
 lisher shall put the Authorized Version in the best-para- 
 graphed form, as finely paragraphed as possible, but 
 making the verse references as easy as in the common 
 form, will be on the way to a fortune. 
 
 4. Holman's Interlinear Parallel Bible is an ingenious 
 but simple method of presenting the two versions in such 
 a way that the differences are seen at a glance. The 
 work is done with great technical excellence, and with a 
 carefulness which notes the most minute variations. 
 
 It is very handy for use in the study, in the home, or 
 in the class. Professor George E. Day of Yale Univer- 
 sity commends it as a means of obtaining most promptly, 
 and with the least labor, a comprehensive and at the same 
 time particular view of the agreement on the one hand 
 and the differences on the other between the so-called 
 Authorized English translation of the Bible and the 
 more accurate renderings adopted by the Anglo-Ameri- 
 can Revision Committee. 
 
 5. The Modern Reader's Bible is the Revised Version 
 arranged and paragraphed in such a manner as to make 
 that version very attractive and readable. It is published 
 in a series of small volumes, in plain, but neat binding, 
 and each book of the Bible has a most enlightening and 
 suggestive introduction by Professor Moulton. This Bible 
 is one of the most helpful now in existence for private 
 reading. It is difficult to use at family prayers, or in any 
 social way, because there is nothing in the text to connect 
 it with the chapters and verses of the common version. 
 
 I only wish there was an edition as beautifully bound 
 as the Temple Bible, and with headings referring to the 
 Authorized Version's chapters and verses. Then the 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 247 
 
 wliole set, or particular volumes of it, would be an attrac- 
 tive present for Christmas and other times. 
 
 6. The Temple Bible, also in small volumes, is the 
 Authorized Version finely paragraphed, with introduc- 
 tions from the higher critical standpoint, with notes. Bib- 
 lical references in English literature, and other helps. 
 Each volume is beautifully bound in the same form as the 
 charming Temple Shakespeare. One difficulty in using 
 it with other translations is that the connection Avith the 
 Authorized Version is noted only at the head of each 
 page. 
 
 7. The Twentieth Century New Testament is a new trans- 
 lation from the Greek into modern English, presented in 
 modern form, fully paragraphed, with indented headings. 
 It puts the Gospels in so attractive a form that one reads 
 it with the charm of a story-book or drama. It is the 
 best paragraphed of all the English versions. 
 
 The translation is by twenty Greek scholars in Eng- 
 land and is remarkably well done, except that sometimes 
 it fails in dignity, and uses trivial words by preference, 
 where nobler words would have been equally understood 
 by all. 
 
 " In this translation not only every word, but also the 
 emphasis placed upon every word, has been carefully 
 weighed, and an effort made to give the exact force and 
 meaning in modern English." ''The reception given to 
 this version shows not only that its serious intent has 
 been recognized, but that, in some degree at least, it meets 
 a want that is felt." 
 
 It can often be made very attractive in a class, and will 
 interest them like a story-book, as no verse form and no 
 solid paragraphing can do. 
 
248 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 " To quote a case in point ; lately a copy of this Twenti- 
 eth Century New Testament was missing and it was found 
 that a servant had carried it away to read in the kitchen. 
 When she handed it back she remarked, 'I have never 
 seen it so plain before.' " 
 
 8. The New Testament in Modern Speech, an idiomatic 
 translation into everyday English, by Headmaster Rich- 
 ard F. Weymouth, edited by E. Hampden Cook, M.A. 
 (England). 
 
 This is a sincere attempt to make the New Testament 
 attractive to the common people, in order that " the com- 
 mon people may still hear the ' Gospel gladly,' because in- 
 telligently, and because not shrouded in a tone which is 
 now to them out of date. What Luther wrote in 1534 
 is surely true to-day, and may his longing be ours, ' That 
 the husbandman should sing portions to himself as he fol- 
 lows the plough . . . and the Scriptures be read by the 
 clown and mechanic' " 
 
 It has many good points and choice translations. But 
 its paragraphing is too solid (even its conversations are 
 run together) for it ever to be popular to those for whom 
 it was intended. If the editor, who was one of the trans- 
 lators of the Twentieth Century New Testament^ should 
 paragraph it like that translation, it would add greatly to 
 its usefulness, and aid the cause for which it was made. 
 
 9. The Modern American Bible, The Books of the 
 Bible in Modern English for American Readers, by the 
 Rev. Frank Schell Ballentine, Scranton, Pennsylvania. 
 Revised edition. This has the same purpose as the Wey- 
 mouth-Cook translation : to be an idiomatic translation 
 into "Modern American" form and phrase. The new 
 edition leaves unchanged all those portions which have 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 249 
 
 become so familiar as to be almost liturgical in use and 
 in love, as the Lord's prayer, and all the hymns in the 
 first chapters of Luke. The work is well done, and de- 
 serves high praise. But though better paragraphed than 
 the English New Testament in Modern Speech^ it still 
 lacks much, in that direction, of its possibilities for popu- 
 lar use. 
 
 10. The New Testament in Modern English, by Ferrar 
 Fenton, M.C.A.A. (London). This has many of the 
 qualities belonging to Numbers 8 and 9, but is not so 
 well known. 
 
 None of the versions by individuals, or by a self-chosen 
 company, however useful for other purposes, can ever take 
 the place of authoritative Versions made by the widest 
 range of scholarship in the English-speaking countries. 
 
 11. Bibles for children, in which are omitted those por- 
 tions of Scripture which are not adapted to children, and 
 not written for them, nor interesting to them. These find 
 their best use in families where there are small children, 
 for reading on Sundays and at family prayers, and for 
 bed-time stories. 
 
 12. Translations of separate books, such as the Poly- 
 chrome Bible, of which only Joshua, Judges, Psalms, Isaiah, 
 and Ezekiel are out in English; various translations of 
 the Psalms, of Job, of Isaiah, and other books ; Delitzsch's 
 New Testament in Hebrew. 
 
 13. Polyglot Bibles, such as the Polyglotten-Bihel in five 
 volumes. The Old Testament is given in Hebrew, Greek, 
 Latin, and German, in parallel columns ; the New Testa- 
 ment in Greek, Latin, and German. The Parallel New 
 Testament in Greek and English. The Greek is the text 
 followed in the Revised Version, and the English in two 
 
250 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 versions, the Authorized and Revised, all in parallel col- 
 umns, with one column for references and for writing 
 notes in a fuller way than even the wide margin Bibles 
 allow. 
 
 14. Diatessarons of the Gospels. — The Diatessaron 
 (made from four), called also Monotessaron (four in one), 
 consists of the Four Gospels, woven into one continuous 
 narrative. The earliest is Tatian's Diatessaron, about 
 170 A.D. There are many others. While for ordinary 
 reading the Gospel narrative in its four separate forms is 
 by far the best arrangement, and Macaulay asks, "Who 
 would lose in the confusion of a Diatessaron the peculiar 
 charm which belongs to the narrative of the disciple 
 whom Jesus loved?" yet its occasional use at home or in 
 the class will give to many the experience which Amos R. 
 Wells in his excellent Sunday School Success records as his 
 own : " It has given the life and person of Christ marvel- 
 lous vividness, setting facts in their due order, location, 
 relations, and proportions, while the facility it affords is 
 constant inspiration to fresh, delightful study. . . . Not 
 only every Sunday School teacher, but every Bible scholar, 
 should own one." 
 
 The Ideal Bible Version. — All these Bible versions are 
 tentative ; they are preparing the way for something bet- 
 ter ; they are " the multitude of counsellors " through 
 whom is " safety " and " wise guidance " ; they are the 
 foundations on which shall be built the ideal version which 
 will abide for many generations, and for which the present 
 generation is waiting. 
 
 (1) The Ideal Version will be made as were the Author- 
 ized and the two great Revisions, by a large number of 
 persons selected for their especial fitness for this work. 
 
BIBLE STUDY FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 251 
 
 But they will be selected from a wider field, including the 
 very best scholars in English as well as in Hebrew and 
 Greek, and some of those few who have the gift of stating 
 the greatest truths in the best popular language, and some 
 of true poetic feeling who can give the charm of the most 
 perfect musical rhythm to the words. 
 
 (2) It will first be issued in tentative form, in order to 
 have the light which the whole English world can cast 
 upon it before it is put into its permanent form. 
 
 (3) It will embody all the best that has been gained by 
 all previous versions. 
 
 (4) It will embody the very best scholarship, but will 
 be made so that the common people will understand it, be 
 attracted to it, and love it. It will be a Bible for children 
 and the home. 
 
 (5) It will be so paragraphed and arranged as to em- 
 body the best of all literary forms. It wdll be better 
 paragraphed than the Twentieth Century New Testament. 
 It will contain the larger subject paragraphs of the Revi- 
 sions. It will embody all the conveniences for general 
 use now employed in the verse and chapter arrangement 
 of the Authorized Version. It will make it easy to recog- 
 nize the present arrangement of chapter and verse, to 
 which all literature for more than a thousand years is 
 adapted. 
 
XI 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 
 
 One of the strongest motives which induced me to 
 undertake the writing of this book has been the desire 
 to promote to the uttermost of my ability a wider knowl- 
 edge and more extensive use of the best rooms, the best 
 apparatus, and the best general equipment for the Sun- 
 day School work. There is hardly a Sunday School I 
 visit, even the best, the most up-to-date ones, but could 
 easily make decided improvements if they knew what some 
 other schools are doing. And most schools have some- 
 thing they can teach to others. 
 
 I continually observe the building of large and expen- 
 sive churches in cultured communities, which provide 
 everything most beautiful, most helpful, and most con- 
 venient for the adult worshippers; but not only fail to 
 give the children that come to the church comfortable 
 seats, where their feet can reach the floor, but give far 
 from equal accommodations for the Sunday School and 
 the children and the adults that attend the Sunday School 
 service. 
 
 I do not know whether this is due to a want of knowl- 
 edge of what is best and of what others in like circum- 
 stances are doing, or to a lack of realization of its value 
 and necessity. 
 
 When, only ten or twelve years ago, it was proposed to 
 
 252 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 253 
 
 transform the outgrown chapel and Sunday School rooms 
 in a beautiful and cultured suburb of Boston, not one in 
 our church was found, except Rev. Dr. F. E. Clark and 
 myself, who had even seen one of the modern model Sun- 
 day School rooms. It is but a few years since there was 
 but one such building, so far as I know, in the whole state 
 of Massachusetts. The number is gradually increasing, 
 and many more are approximating it, being modified by 
 the idea ; and in many parts of the country the number is 
 growing with comparative rapidity, and most large, new 
 churches are influenced by the plan. 
 
 The elder Dr. Tyng was right when, in a public ad- 
 dress in Henry Ward Beecher's Church, he said : " For 
 years, if the choice before me in my work as a pastor has 
 been between one child and two adults, I have always 
 been ready to take the child. It seems to me that the 
 Devil would never ask anything more of a minister than 
 to have him feel that his mission was chiefly to the 
 grown-up members of his congregation, while some one 
 else was to look after the children." Then, pointing to 
 the main entrance of the Plymouth Church auditorium, 
 he continued, with that peculiar intensity of his : " I can 
 see the Devil looking in at that door, and saying to the 
 minister on this platform, ' Now you just stand there and 
 fire away at the old folks, and I'll go around and steal 
 away the little ones, — as the Indians steal ducks, swim- 
 ming under them, catching them by the legs, and pulling 
 them under.' " ^ 
 
 I do not mean that the church edifice, which is for all, 
 both old and young, should not be more beautiful, more 
 
 1 See the whole dramatic story, as told by H. C. Trumbull in his Yale 
 Lectures on the Sunday School. 
 
254 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 expensive, more adapted to cultured tastes than the Sun- 
 day School rooms, but that these latter should be as per- 
 fectly adapted to the work to be done in them as the 
 Church is for its purposes. No Church can afford to 
 neglect in any degree the best training for the young, 
 who are to become the Church of the future. 
 
 The best machinery for its purpose in the whole world 
 should be that which enables religious education to accom- 
 plish its purposes. More rapid than the improvement of 
 all methods and means for carrying on the business of the 
 world should be the improvement in the means of educa- 
 tion; and swifter than the progress of school buildings 
 and apparatus for the day schools should be the progress 
 in Sunday School buildings, and all the aids to teaching 
 the Bible and training children for the Kingdom of God. 
 
 The heart, the soul of the Sunday School is the teach- 
 ing, — the teacher, the persons taught, and the lesson 
 taught. There is no limit to what this soul of the Sun- 
 day School can become and can do under any circum- 
 stances, however adverse. 
 
 But it does make a difference in what kind of a body 
 this soul lives, whether the body is the best instrument 
 for the soul's activities, or whether the soul must be ham- 
 pered and hindered by using its energy in contending 
 against weakness and sickness and pain, bad food, and 
 imperfect senses. 
 
 There have, indeed, been saints in lonely deserts and 
 in the very purlieus of sin. There have been souls of the 
 greatest usefulness and power in feeble, pain-racked, bed- 
 ridden bodies. Marvellous works have been accomplished 
 by the blind, which few with seeing eyes could have done. 
 These facts go — like the strains of music heard in war- 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 255 
 
 time, thrilling the soldiers' hospital — through this weary 
 world, singing songs of comfort, of hoj^e, of triumph, to 
 those who cannot have the best, who are distracted with 
 care, wrestling with poverty, burdened with infirmities. 
 
 " O ye beneath Life's crushing load, 
 
 Whose forms are bending low, 
 Who toil along the climbing way, 
 
 With painf al steps and slow ! 
 Look now, for glad and golden hours 
 
 Come swiftly on the wing ; 
 O rest beside the weary road, 
 
 And hear {these) angels sing." 
 
 But the bass to this triumphal air is that only the soul 
 that does its level best with what it has can join in that 
 song ; that whosoever rests content with the poorest in- 
 strument when a better is within its power, is not fit to 
 do the best under disadvantages, fails in the very power 
 by which triumph can be won. A great musician can 
 produce fine music on a common violin ; but he that uses 
 such a one when he can have a Stradivarius proves not 
 only that he is a fool, but that he is not a good musician. 
 Now this is a fitting parable for the Church and the 
 Sunday School. It is a chorus of angels singing songs 
 of cheer, of encouragement, of deliverance from the 
 Slough of Despond, to the numberless churches and Sun- 
 day Schools who are doing God's work in the midst of 
 poverty and scanty numbers, contending with every dis- 
 advantage. For whatever belongs to spiritual preparation 
 — the Bible, the Gospel, the Holy Spirit, the Kingship of 
 Jesus, the power of the Grace of God — is always theirs. 
 With these they can do magnificent work for the Kingdom 
 of God, in rude schoolhouses, in barns, in hovels, in the 
 
256 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 wilderness, in prisons, as has been done over and over 
 again in the history of the Church. 
 
 But never when it could have had better instruments, 
 never when the world was first and religion second, never 
 when it builds beautiful houses for itself and lets the 
 church and Sunday School buildings decay. 
 
 The spirit that uses the latest machinery in its factories, 
 but the old and worn-out for its churches and Sunday 
 School, is not the spirit that can triumph over disadvan- 
 tages, or do good work anywhere. It signals its own 
 defeat. David slew Goliath with a sling, but he that 
 should undertake to-day to capture Fort Arthur or Gib- 
 raltar with David's sling would simply show his want of 
 patriotism and tell the world that he is not even a soldier. 
 
 The Situation. — There are two kinds of Sunday School 
 buildings^ from this point of view, — 
 
 The old and the new. Or rather, 
 
 The old and those about to come into being. 
 
 There are two kinds of Sunday Schools, — 
 
 The small and the large. 
 
 There are two kinds of communities, — 
 
 The wealthy and the poor. 
 
 There are endless degrees and combinations of these. 
 All these six things must be considered in deciding what 
 is best in any given case. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin is right when he contends that the public 
 buildings — the church, the schoolhouse, the library — 
 should be the best, the most beautiful, the most expen- 
 sive buildings in any community. The church build- 
 ings should tower in quality above all business blocks, all 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL KOOMS AND EQUIPMENT 257 
 
 houses, as does its heaven-pointed spire, because they are 
 for all, because they symbolize the highest, the noblest, 
 the most important influences in the community, and 
 because the recognition of these is an educating power. 
 The Sunday School room and its equipment in a wealthy 
 community should be as complete and perfect as wealth 
 and talent can make them. 
 
 1. Because they express the comparative value which 
 the community sets upon religion and upon religious edu- 
 cation and upon the training of the children. 
 
 2. They are an "ideal made real" toward which all 
 less-favored communities can grow ; from which they can 
 take whatever of good is within their power, or adapt 
 them in less expensive ways to their needs. Thus they 
 become " a city set on a hill." 
 
 Every community can take to heart some words spoken 
 concerning one of the noblest characters in Stephanie the 
 Uncrowned: "From boyhood he had had an object and 
 an ideal. If every man and woman started in life thus 
 armed, there would be surely less sin, less sorrow, in the 
 world. It matters little what that ideal be, if only it 
 partake of the nature of an aspiration, a soaring upwards! 
 It may be impossible of realization, a thing which an ordi- 
 nary human being would not recognize as feasible ; never- 
 theless it will suffice to save that human soul alive; to 
 prevent it from drifting into utter darkness." 
 
 3. By this means those who contemplate new buildings 
 can make them as near the ideals as means and disposi- 
 tion will allow. The well-known Akron Sunday School 
 rooms, the first made on this modern plan, have influenced 
 the church and Sunday School architecture throughout a 
 wide region, if not the whole country. 
 
258 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 4. In the case of old and established buildings, it may 
 not be feasible in some cases to remodel them, but there 
 are almost none which cannot be improved at small ex- 
 pense, and made more convenient, more adapted to their 
 purpose, by simple devices, and by various means of equip- 
 ment, such as will be described below. Many of them 
 can be home made. 
 
 5. The rooms and general arrangements need to be 
 quite different for large schools from those which are best 
 for small schools, though rather by additions than by 
 changes of principle. As a rule, too large a number in 
 any one room is a disadvantage, and renders it more 
 difficult to keep order. The President of the Teachers 
 College of Columbia University told me that one great 
 difficulty in some of the large New York Sunday Schools 
 was that the boys who in a day school with fifty in a room 
 behave well are almost sure to be more disorderly and 
 more difficult to control where five hundred are in a room 
 together. 
 
 Exhibits are a most important factor in every Sunday 
 School Convention, but it is a difficult and laborious work 
 to collect a complete and satisfactory exhibit for each one, 
 or for even the annual State Conventions. 
 
 But it is possible for the State Associations to gather 
 gradually such an exhibit at its headquarters. It will 
 contain plans and samples of everything that pertains to 
 the ideal Sunday School, so that whoever wishes to know 
 what there is, or to gain hints for his own school, can find 
 the best that is known. 
 
 Plans of the best schools will gladly be sent by the 
 architects. The publishers will send copies of their books 
 and periodicals. The map makers will send maps and 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 259 
 
 charts, those who publish pictures will put them on exhibi- 
 tion. Makers of tables, kindergarten materials, blackboards, 
 will send samples. Every kind of book on the Sunday 
 School, on pedagogy, on child study, can be collected. The 
 Sunday Schools will send specimens of their map work, 
 picture and written lives of Christ, examination papers. 
 
 The only instance of such an exhibit of which I am 
 aware is that of the Sunday School Commission of the 
 Diocese of New York, at 29 Lafayette Place, under the 
 charge of Rev. William Walter Smith, M. A., M.D. This 
 embraces over nine thousand articles, and was sent to the 
 R. E. A. Convention at Philadelphia and to the Episcopal 
 General Convention at Trinity Church, Boston. 
 
 Whatever exhibit is prepared for the State Sunday School 
 Associations should be lent, in whole or in part, wherever 
 desired, and its teachings be made known as widely as 
 possible. 
 
 Model Sunday School Buildings 
 
 The Akron Plan. — Almost simultaneously with the 
 adoption of the International Lessons, there naturally 
 arose out of the same earnest desire to improve the 
 Sunday School, a deep and growing interest in the grad- 
 ing of the classes and the teaching. But the development 
 of the graded system was, and still is, greatly hampered 
 by the want of buildings and rooms especially adapted to 
 the purpose. 
 
 No adequate building existed till about 1866, when an 
 idea which has created a revolution in Sunday School 
 architecture, sprang out of the fertile brain of Mr. Lewis 
 Miller, the financial founder of the Chautauqua Move- 
 ment, as Bishop Vincent was the educational founder. 
 
260 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 The Sunday School Superintendent put into his Sunday 
 School work all his business ability, and that inventive 
 power by which he put three hundred and twenty of his 
 own patented appliances into a single one of his great 
 reaping machines. He was testing that machine on the 
 very day I arrived at his house to spend a Sunday at 
 Akron, to study the only ideal Sunday School building 
 then in the world ; and putting the great reaper and the 
 model Sunday School together, I thanked God for the con- 
 secrated talents of a business man, who will be remembered 
 longer for his Sunday School than by his business inge- 
 nuity. He secured the services of Jacob Snyder, an archi- 
 tect of Akron, and the result was the Sunday School 
 rooms of the first M. E. Church of that city. 
 
 Several examples of this general plan are given below 
 to show how widely it can be adapted to differing condi- 
 tions and circumstances. The original Akron building 
 is in general like the following cut, except that a bal- 
 cony is in front of the class rooms instead of the foyer 
 in the rear, and there are no sliding doors between the 
 Sunday School rooms and the church auditorium. 
 
 B. Rotunda, for the intermediate grades. 
 
 (7. Class rooms, each one named after some mission. 
 
 T. Balcony. 
 
 W. Kindergarten and primary rooms, larger than the 
 class rooms. 
 
 J. Vestibules. 
 
 E. Library. 
 
 It will be noticed that the partitions of the class rooms 
 all radiate from the superintendent's desk, so that he can 
 be seen and heard by every one in all the rooms. 
 
 There are two stories of class rooms, the upper one with 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL EOOMS AND EQUIPMENT 261 
 
 a balcony in front, into or toward which the scholars can 
 come for the devotional exercises. The singing is bet- 
 tered by this forward movement of the class. The class 
 rooms make an excellent and definite distinction between 
 the lower grades and the senior and adult grades, as well 
 as between the primary and the intermediate grades. 
 
 The main room is lighted from above, either by a dome 
 or skylight or by clerestory windows at the top of the 
 room. 
 
 A Modified Akron Plan. — " The necessity of maintaining 
 the Sunday School as an auxiliary of the church and as 
 a part of the church service, suggested the necessity of 
 maintaining the various services in one building, provid- 
 ing departments for the accommodation of each, and for 
 the purpose of accommodating audiences varying in num- 
 
 FiRST Floor Galleries 
 
 An "Akron" Sunday School room, at rear of auditorium " in combination." 
 Note the omission of balcony, and the Foyer passage to class rooms from 
 rear. This plan is reproduced by the kind permission of George W. 
 Kramer, Architect, No. 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 
 
 bers, so locating the rooms and connecting them that they 
 might reinforce each other to their full capacity. This 
 principle of advantage — first suggested by Mr. Miller — 
 soon assumed tangible form and resulted in the now popu- 
 lar combination church, which has been developed in many 
 forms." 
 
262 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 The Sunday School rooms are separated from the 
 church auditorium by Large sliding doors, so that on 
 special occasions the audience room can be almost doubled. 
 
 Changing the balcony from the front to the back of the 
 class rooms, brings the scholars in them closer to the 
 superintendent without changing the seats. It also en- 
 ables the class rooms to be entered without disturbing the 
 rest of the school. The Sunday School rooms by this 
 arrangement are not so good as an audience room for 
 lectures, socials, stereopticon, and other purposes. But 
 this arrangement is not an essential part of the com- 
 bination plan. 
 
 The combination plan has many advantages, especially 
 for small or medium-sized churches. 
 
 Examples of this general plan may be seen in many 
 places. For instance, in the large and beautiful First 
 Baptist Church at Maiden, Massachusetts, and for a 
 charming small church, the Congregational Church in 
 Wellesley Hills, near Boston. 
 
 Another form of the combination plan is one "with 
 which Lawrence B. Valk, of Los Angeles, California, is 
 identified. Among the interesting churches built on 
 this plan is a new church in Detroit, Michigan. It cost 
 $20,000. It is on a lot 110 x 150, and built of pressed 
 brick and stone trimmings. It can be said that these 
 churches are started with the idea of a distinctly church 
 effect. Mr. Valk says, ' I have been guilty of designing 
 many of these auditoriums where the pulpit is located in 
 the corner, but it is impossible to get a reverent appear- 
 ance with a corner pulpit.' In these new plans the inte- 
 rior is based on the form of a cross with nave and transept. 
 The platform is so located that the speaker commands the 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 
 
 263 
 
 Sunday School as well as the church. On the platform is 
 a rood screen with sliding panels. It stands from 12 to 18 
 feet high, dividing the church from the Sunday School. 
 
 This plan and description is furnished hy the Church Economist, 31 Union 
 Square, New York, the most suggestive paper I have ever seen for work- 
 ing plans and methods for pastors and churches. 
 
 The Sunday School room is planned with radiating class 
 rooms, so that the superintendent's platform is the focus 
 of every eye. 
 
 " When the panels of the screen are opened the speaker 
 can survey the entire audiences of both rooms with choir 
 and organ at his rear. Under the Sunday School are the 
 dining halls, kitchen, and toilets. This arrangement will 
 be understood more clearly by the accompanying plan." 
 
 A Plan for Remodelling Old Rooms. — There are many 
 instances in which the Sunday School and prayer-meeting 
 
264 
 
 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 rooms are outgrown, but where they can be remodelled 
 and adapted to the uses of both in greatly increased use- 
 fulness. 
 
 An example is given below of the change made in 
 the Congregational chapel at Auburndale, Massachusetts 
 (Ward IV of the city of Newton), as one instance of what 
 may frequently be done. The former accommodations 
 had been outgrown, and were transformed into a suite of 
 rooms as nearly like the Akron plan as was possible under 
 the circumstances. 
 
 X 
 
 o 
 
 / 
 
 
 _J 
 
 _l 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 X 
 
 
 Original Chapel 
 S, S. Folding doors. P. Primary room 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 
 
 265 
 
 The Chapel as Remodelled 
 
 B. Bible class room on the main floor, with Primary room and ladies' parlor 
 
 over it. 
 
 C. Six class rooms in two stories. 
 S. Stereopticon. 
 
 M. Cornice case for maps, stereopticon curtain, with blackboards beneath. 
 P. Piano and orchestra. 
 
 The added rooms are all separated from the main room 
 by sliding or folding doors. 
 
 The light comes from the north windows, cathedral glass 
 in the class-room doors, and from a skylight. 
 
 The ceiling was raised a few feet into the slant of the 
 roof, in order to give height enough for two stories. 
 
266 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 The main room, as well as the class rooms, is furnished 
 with a table for each class. 
 
 The result has been not only a suite adapted to the 
 Sunday School, but a most delightful room for the prayer- 
 meeting, Sunday evening services, lectures, socials, and 
 committees of every kind. It gives many cosey corners, 
 and can be adapted to any size of audience. 
 
 What is needed still is another addition on the north 
 side, opening into the main room, but separated by a 
 double set of sliding doors to intercept the sounds, for the 
 Primary classes, and for the Junior Endeavor, each of 
 which needs a permanent room equipped especially for its 
 own work. 
 
 Additions for Large Schools. — The Akron model school 
 buildings, with many variations in detail, are the best yet 
 devised for Sunday Schools of moderate numbers, up to 
 several hundreds, and for a considerable proportion of 
 scholars in the largest schools. But when a school is 
 large enough to make each of the several grades a distinct 
 school by itself, with sufficient members to give enthusi- 
 asm and interest to each grade without creating a loss in 
 others, then certain additional rooms should be provided. 
 
 If the school is small, the separation brings a distinct 
 loss, except in the case of the Primary department, which 
 cannot do its best work in connection with the main 
 school. I have known adult departments to suffer great 
 loss, to be disaffected, to lose interest, because they were 
 separated from the enthusiasm and methods of a flourish- 
 ing Intermediate. 
 
 To quote from an article lately published in the Church 
 Economist by Rev. E. Morris Fergusson, the indefatigable 
 Sunday School secretary of New Jersey : — 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 267 
 
 "The Junior department is also rapidly coming into 
 being under the leadership of primary workers ; and it 
 also demands and can profitably use a well-located sepa- 
 rate room for the upper years of elementary Bible instruc- 
 tion. We have thus in operation a new principle of 
 Sunday School work, the curriculum or progressive course 
 of study, long advocated and essayed by leading Sunday 
 School workers, but here, in the modern, well-organized 
 Primary and Junior departments, embodied and standard- 
 ized. 
 
 " For the Sunday School work of the incoming genera- 
 tion, therefore, we need to evolve a third type of building, 
 of which the totally separate and perfectly situated and 
 appointed department room shall be the distinctive factor. 
 And that the undoubted gain of a periodic joining to- 
 gether of all parts in one great assembly may not be lost, 
 these department rooms must connect, by wide passages 
 and easy stairs, wdth that adequate, appropriate, and 
 worshipfully suggestive gathering-place, the church audi- 
 torium ; which might, by means of a solid but movable 
 partition, be made capable of enlargement for such special 
 occasions." 
 
 Three plans of these large schools are given below. 
 
 The Kumler Memorial. 
 
 This building is for a school with an enrolment of over 
 1000 members. 
 
 The Intermediate department is over the Junior, and 
 the Senior over the Primary. 
 
 It will be noted from the plan on page 268 that it is built 
 on the plan of segregation of its seven departments, no 
 two of which can be thrown together. Its Primary and 
 Junior departments can care for about 200 scholars each, 
 
268 
 
 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 the Intermediate and Senior about 175 each. The Adult 
 department can accommodate about 350 at one time, while 
 the Normal department will hold 75, and the Chinese 50. 
 
 KUMLER MEMORIAL S. S. BUILDING— GROUND FLOOR. 
 East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 
 
 When asked for his reasons for this segregation of de- 
 partments Mr. Samuel E. Gill, the superintendent, replied 
 to the Pennsylvania Herald : — 
 
 (1) " The trend of improvement in teacher training and 
 Sunday School methods is in the line of specialization and 
 separation, so as to adapt the entire service to the age 
 and capacity of the pupil. Logically we should follow 
 the same plan in our Sunday School architecture. 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 269 
 
 (2) " This plan enlists and develops a larger number 
 of workers, making a more efficient force for the advance- 
 ment of the Kingdom. 
 
 (3) " In large schools it enables the officers to main- 
 tain easily a much closer supervision of the work, secures 
 better order, saves time, tends to thoroughness, and can be 
 adapted to small schools to their very great advantage." 
 
 Model Plan Combining all Departments. 
 
 The arrangement is such that all the departments, as 
 well as the class rooms, can be thrown together and 
 every scholar be within view of the superintendent's 
 desk. 
 
 The church auditorium is separated from the Sunday 
 School room by a wide partition of sliding doors, which 
 can be entirely removed from sight. 
 
 The class rooms A^ B, C, D on the lower floor are en- 
 closed by portieres, making the main room, when desired, 
 one open unobstructed auditorium. 
 
 The class rooms in the gallery (except U and F) are 
 separated alternately with solid and with removable parti- 
 tions, so that each pair can be thrown together for a large 
 class if required, while in each one there is solid wall space 
 for maps, blackboards, pictures, etc. 
 
 The kindergarten and primary rooms can be shut off 
 from the main room by double sliding doors. All sliding 
 doors to be sound proof. 
 
 Each department, the kindergarten, the primary, the 
 upper and the lower senior rooms, and the upper series of 
 class rooms, has its own separate exit independent of the 
 main room. 
 
 The main room is equipped with chairs and tables for 
 each class, and is lighted by a skylight. 
 
270 
 
 THE FKONT LINE 
 
 • CLA»j,EOQn/-AB C»0 are 
 
 Lnchs&d in'Pariiere.J— 
 - ADULT-PUy^AEY & KIKDER.- 
 CARTE7A- ore. 3&t«r<3L«d 
 
 • Church & /J Room- is enlirejy 
 
 • remcM^ble - .so fhal J" J and 
 Churoh may b«. "ihrown 
 l/ogeiher 
 
 •aourid-Jjr 
 
 *7^DE,L*PLANv5*or. 
 
 ■AJfajl«.<jf-Fe«.-C- 
 
 A model plan for Sunday School rooms, by C. H. Blackall, architect, 
 120 Beacon St., Boston. 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL KOOMS A^D EQUIPMENT 
 
 271 
 
 •slldiog-or roULl-g Partition* 
 
 • THE. -ZJATRA ACL^J■■ to raomj 
 -on tfiij rfoor <5re. Indebcnd'i 
 
 •or/VMr\-Koon- 
 
 •Partition.- between church 
 '■^•^■J- -|» c.nilr&lyi 
 
 •C'H-bldckdll-Archtiect- 
 
 A model plan for Sunday School rooms, by C. H. Blackall, architect, 
 120 Beacon St., Boston. 
 
272 
 
 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Separate Department Plan with Combinations. 
 
 Ground Floor 
 
 Galleries and Class Rooms 
 
 Plan of separate department Sunday School room, by George W. Kramer, 
 architect, New York. 
 
 In this plan all the departments open together in one 
 large room. 
 
 Each department has its own class rooms. 
 
 The first floor is given entirely to the children; while the 
 seniors are all in the second story in four departments, with 
 sliding doors in front, except the large Bible-class room. 
 
 The largest Sunday School in the World, in the largest 
 Sunday School building in the world, holding a member- 
 ship of over 5000, is the Stockport Sunday School, in 
 Stockport, a large city near Manchester, England. It 
 stands on a hill in the centre of the city, and for more than 
 a hundred years has been the Sunday School for all the 
 children of the city of all denominations. There are a 
 very large number of rooms, each the home of a separate 
 class. There are larger rooms containing several classes. 
 There is a great hall in which once a quarter the whole 
 school assembles for general exercises. It is a kind of 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 273 
 
 " Institutional Sunday School," with improvement socie- 
 ties, libraries, teachers' meetings, and a great variety of 
 interesting and peculiar methods. I know of no other 
 instance where the Sunday School is the most prominent 
 religious institution, if not institution of any kind, in a 
 city of 100,000 inhabitants, and of which it could be said 
 that " Sunday School scholars are the staple product of 
 Stockport." 
 
 Class rooms. See one described on page 52. 
 
 Raised seats like those in rear galleries are used in some 
 schools in the second story but not generally, because 
 while they are excellent when used as galleries to an 
 audience room, they are not convenient for class rooms. 
 They are sometimes used with good effect in Primary 
 rooms, as, for instance, in the Sunday School at Stockport, 
 England. 
 
 Partitions between class rooms are a matter of some 
 importance. 
 
 1. Solid walls as usual in a house. The special advan- 
 tages are that they prevent the class from hearing what is 
 going on in the next room. 
 
 They make a homelike room, which can be used for 
 class meetings, etc. 
 
 They give the best opportunity for maps, charts, black- 
 boards, pictures, and book-racks for singing-books and 
 Bibles, and all that is needed for the best teaching. 
 
 2. Rolling partitions, simple, enabling two rooms to be 
 joined in one when a larger room is needed. Sometimes 
 these are very useful, provided only two rooms adjoining 
 are thus separated. 
 
 These partitions may be made to roll up or sideways, as 
 most convenient. 
 
214: THE FKO^JT LINE 
 
 Class-room doors. 
 
 1. In some cases the class rooms on the lower floor 
 have no doors but are open recesses of the larger room. 
 For instance, the great Bush wick Avenue M. E. Sunday- 
 School. 
 
 2. Rolling partitions, rolling up and down, or sideways, 
 easy, simple, comparatively inexpensive, but allowing no 
 light to come through for the main room. 
 
 The same, made with blackboard surface. Easily oper- 
 ated and durable. 
 
 3. Portieres or curtains, which fairly well exclude the 
 sounds of the main room, as in two schools in Brockton, 
 Massachusetts, and the Congregational school in Mont- 
 clair, New Jersey. 
 
 4. Shades on rollers, like window shades, only larger, 
 large enough to cover the whole front of the room. Made 
 of the same color as the tinting of the walls, they have 
 much the same effect as part of the walls of the room. 
 For example, the new Congregational Church of Nashua, 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 5. Double folding doors, the panels of which are of 
 cathedral or other kinds of glass which give light, but as 
 also in the following methods. 
 
 6. Patent sliding and folding doors and partitions, 
 easily operated, and requiring no pocket, and occupying 
 almost none of the front space, are announced by Roof & 
 Co., Franklin, Ohio. 
 
 7. Sliding doors made in several ingenious ways, some- 
 times running into pockets, sometimes moving toward one 
 side, and filling up a small part of the space. 
 
 8. Window partitions, hung like the windows of a 
 house, but wider. Sometimes they run below into the 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 275 
 
 cellar, sometimes up into the attic, more often, divided 
 into three sashes, they are raised up side by side to the 
 top of the room, and hide the view from none. 
 
 These are best when they do not occupy the whole front, 
 but a single door for easy entrance fills up the space at one 
 side. This side door is a great convenience in all cases. 
 In sliding or folding doors one of these takes the place of 
 a separate door. 
 
 In all cases there should be ventilating windows over 
 the whole front. 
 
 Class Rooms made by Portieres. — A number of Sunday 
 Schools make their class rooms by means of large, elon- 
 gated semicircles of iron piping, on which are hung por- 
 tieres or curtains, something after the accompanying plan. 
 When the curtains are drawn back during the opening 
 and closing exercises, there is one large, open room. 
 During class study the curtains are drawn around the 
 
276 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 classes, and they are enabled to pursue their work undis- 
 turbed. These may be arranged in abnost any room. 
 They are said to be very satisfactory. The chief diffi- 
 culty lies in the lack of the class home-feeling, and the 
 absence of the best opportunity for the various maps, 
 blackboards, and other equipment that the teacher needs. 
 
 Excellent examples may be found in the Congregational 
 Church at Campello and the new M. E. Church of Brock- 
 ton, Massachusetts. 
 
 Class-room Substitutes. — Where there is no opportu- 
 nity for a full class-room equipment, there are substitutes 
 of great value used in the ordinary simple rooms in the 
 basement of the church. Some cosey nook or corner may 
 be secluded by the portiere arrangement, either on the 
 iron piping frame, or on simple wires strung across the 
 main room, as is done, at least was done a few years ago, 
 in the great Sunday School of Mr. Moody's church in 
 Chicago. In not a few Sunday Schools folding screens 
 are used for separating the classes. 
 
 The Seating. — Chairs are the best for all purposes. 
 There are several kinds which have book-racks and places 
 underneath for hats. Where settees are used, some of 
 them should be reversible and some should be short, so 
 that the classes can be gathered around a common centre. 
 Where there is no carpet, the chairs can easily be made 
 noiseless by rubber tips. 
 
 Tables. — One of the greatest physical aids for the 
 teacher is a table around which his class gathers as a 
 focus. It should have a drawer deep and large enough 
 to contain books, pencils, paper blocks, chalk, maps, and 
 anything the teacher needs in his work. They are espe- 
 cially useful as a kind of desk, on which he can place his 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 277 
 
 Bible, Quarterly, written notes, etc., so as to leave his 
 hands perfectly free for the teaching process. Some, in- 
 stead of a drawer, have the top hinged, with a receptacle 
 beneath. This gives more room, but is not quite so con- 
 venient as a drawer. Tables are made round or square 
 or oblong. The latter kinds are more easily stowed away 
 around the sides or in some corner, when the rooms are 
 used for other purposes. These tables are of special use 
 in sociables and receptions, as, for instance, to the Home 
 Department. A prominent teacher once said to me that 
 if she were compelled to make the choice, she would 
 rather have a table without a class room than a class 
 room without a table. 
 
 Blackboards are essential for many purposes. While 
 the puzzle and alliterative methods of blackboard use are 
 wisely declining, there is an increased use for notices, 
 diagrams, records, subjects, reviews, etc. They are use- 
 ful also for prayer-meetings, missionary meetings. Chris- 
 tian Endeavor, and in many cases. 
 
 Every class room should have one, in addition to more 
 than one in the main room. 
 
 Portable blackboards of many sizes and arrangements 
 for holding are very common. 
 
 But a series of boards behind the superintendent's desk 
 is a far superior arrangement. These must run up and 
 down in grooves, like window sashes. 
 
 The simplest arrangement consists of two boards con- 
 nected by cords running over pulleys, so that when one 
 goes up the other comes down. The writing is done 
 within reach of the platform, and then the board is drawn 
 up within sight of the whole school. 
 
 Another beautiful arrangement is that of the Dwight 
 
278 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 Place Congregational Church at New Haven, Connecti- 
 cut, where, in a panel behind the desk, are four large 
 crayon boards, black, blue, green, and ground glass, hung 
 like separate window sashes, any one of which can be 
 brought into view at pleasure. 
 
 A very good arrangement especially for class rooms con- 
 sists of two medium-sized blackboards hinged together, 
 one of which is screwed to the wall. In this way there 
 are three boards in the space of one, and when open the 
 blackboard space is doubled. 
 
 Endless Flexible Blackboards are by far the most con- 
 venient of the portable blackboards. They consist of an 
 endless wide band of blackboard cloth running over 
 rollers at the top and bottom. Whatever is written on 
 these can be moved up to the top in full sight, or run 
 over behind out of sight. It gives double the amount 
 of surface of an ordinary board. These blackboards are 
 made in many styles and arrangements, walls on portable 
 frames, and in a folding arrangement for lecturers to 
 carry with them. These light arrangements are equally 
 good and more convenient for common portable use. 
 (American Blackboard Company, St. Louis.) 
 
 Maps and charts are best arranged on spring rollers in a 
 cornice case which hides the maps when rolled up, but allows 
 perfect ease in drawing down whichever one is needed. 
 
 Special Arrangements. — The following description from 
 the Congregatio7ialist is fuller than the notes I took when 
 I visited the new D wight Place Sunday School rooms at 
 New Haven, Connecticut : — 
 
 " Among the features are many Avonderful contents of 
 that double wall, which, like a magician's palace, opens its 
 treasures to the touch of secret springs. In the middle 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 279 
 
 are four large crayon boards, which may be drawn out 
 at the will of the operator, — black, blue, green, or ground 
 glass. Above this is a frame where nestle wonderful 
 charts and song rolls, and to the right a large closet where 
 are stored more song rolls hung conveniently for refer- 
 ence, and drawers for collections, books, and records. 
 Here is a panel which swings down and becomes a baize 
 board adjustable at any height or angle, and beside it a 
 secret treasure house of objects and figures to be exhibited 
 on it. On the other side a similar panel miraculously 
 transforms itself into a sand table, and adjoining it a 
 cupboard has galvanized iron drawers filled with damp 
 clay and sand which may be used to illustrate anything 
 from creation to the final judgment. Other panels con- 
 ceal the music, the many-colored crayons and all possible 
 devices to interest and instruct the little folks, who must 
 come to regard this room as a veritable paradise." 
 
 Some of these may be found in the Westminster Pres- 
 byterian Church in Bloomfield, New Jersey, together with 
 a special interesting arrangement of sliding doors. 
 
 The Newspaper Exchange is a table with raised edges, 
 placed in some convenient place in the vestibule or other 
 entrance to the Sunday School rooms. Over it is placed 
 in large letters — 
 
 NEWSPAPER EXCHANGE 
 
 Please bring the Religious papers, magazines, 
 books, pamphlets 
 
 Take Freely Whatever You Wish 
 
280 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 This is free to everybody. The previous week's reli- 
 gious papers and good magazines of the previous month 
 are brought in. 
 
 Once a month or so the young lady who has it in charge 
 sends whatever is left to the hospitals or poorhouse or 
 the places where men are at leisure waiting for work, as 
 at engine houses, electric-car stations, etc. 
 
 Attendance Tablets are sometimes made permanent on 
 one side of a blackboard. In other cases they are fixed 
 separately upon the wall. There are several varieties of 
 these, as well as of Cradle Rolls. 
 
 Reference Library. — This should be in the main room, 
 free of access, never locked, with a supply of cards on 
 which any one who takes a book writes his name and the 
 date. It contains books on the Sunday School, on Teach- 
 ing, on Missions, on Christian Endeavor, on the Bible, 
 Cyclopedias, Concordance, Commentaries, etc. It should 
 always be replenished whenever a new portion of the 
 Bible is to be studied. 
 
 Bible Museum. — It would be a good thing for every 
 school to get together whatever from Oriental countries 
 illustrates the Bible. In many cases there are imitation 
 coins, collections of seeds, woods, and flowers from Pales- 
 tine, models of ancient tombs, of the Tabernacle and the 
 Temple, like Fisher's model of Herod's Temple, with full 
 description. One can gradually assemble many illustra- 
 tive objects, as sandals, rolls, phylacteries, shepherd's rod 
 and staff, clay tablets, seals, coins, grains, woods, ploughs, 
 winnowing fans, etc. I find a great many times when 
 I can bring to the Sunday School from my collection 
 objects of interest that illustrate the lesson. 
 
 A Stereopticon is a good means of instructing and inter- 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 281 
 
 esting the children, and older people as well. It can be 
 a permanent fixture, and wherever there is electricity, it 
 can be run with ease at mid-day, and with real success. 
 The oxyhydrogen lamps will also show pictures at the 
 noon session, but require more care in the using. Mis- 
 sionary meetings, and special services and reviews, can 
 use this instrument with great advantage. 
 
 Pictures. — The Sunday School room will be made more 
 attractive, as well as helpful, by means of Bible pictures 
 on the walls. A dado of the penny pictures can make a 
 permanent history of the life of Christ, or of the Acts, or 
 of the Old Testament story, around the main room, or 
 any class room, but especially the Primary rooms. They 
 can be, if desired, formed gradually as the lessons progress. 
 W. A. Wilde and Company have a fine and growing se- 
 lection of the best pictures illustrating the Bible. 
 
 The Wilde colorgraphs of great paintings are very 
 beautiful for this purpose. A border of the Detroit col- 
 ored photographs of Palestine scenes around one of my 
 study doors has been greatly admired. The Sunday 
 School, next to his own home, should be the most attrac- 
 tive and homelike place the child knows. 
 
 The Card System of Enrolment is the most convenient 
 and time-saving method. " It is especially handy and 
 time-saving in looking up statistics or keeping track of 
 the active membership. All absentees or non-residents 
 can be grouped by themselves, and the different grades 
 may be classified by using cards of different colors, as 
 white for Primary, huff for Intermediate, and blue for 
 Senior members." The Pilgrim Press, Boston, furnishes 
 an excellent outfit. 
 
 For Individual Classes, both at the school or at class 
 
282 THE FRONT LINE 
 
 gatherings during the week, there are many interesting 
 helps which can combine interest with instruction in the 
 Bible. 
 
 Stereoscopic Photographs are again becoming popular, 
 because the pictures are incomparably better than those 
 of a few years ago. They are such lifelike representa- 
 tions of the places where our Lord lived and walked and 
 taught, the figures and the scenes are brought out so 
 clearly, that it is almost the same as if we were actually 
 travelling in the Holy Land. People are more and more 
 waking up to the likeness of the experiences that may be 
 gained in the stereoscope to those gained by viewing them 
 on the spot. The Underwoods of New York have some 
 special features in this line. 
 
 Games, such as the Game of the Kings of the Jews (C. F. 
 Marston, Worcester, Massachusetts), and Games of Bible 
 Characters (Colby, Chicago), will in a few evenings give 
 a better preparation than years of ordinary Bible study 
 under any system of lessons in the Sunday School half 
 hour, for such Bible knowledge as is given in the favorite 
 tests which show up the ignorance of the Bible among the 
 young people of to-day. 
 
 The Royal Scroll accomplishes the same purpose of 
 intimate acquaintance with the facts and characters of the 
 Bible, for the family circle and meetings of the class. I 
 know children who have actually worn one out by con- 
 stant and interested use. It is an ingenious and complete 
 arrangement of maps, colored pictures, charts, descriptive 
 of customs and modes of dress in Palestine, and an illumi- 
 nated Life of Christ. Bishop Vincent voices the senti- 
 ment of many when he says : " It is a picture gallery, a 
 panorama, a guide to sacred geography, a treasury of 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOMS AND EQUIPMENT 283 
 
 sacred art, a text-book, an atlas, a lesson-help, all in one. 
 It is the most ingenious, charming, and complete appa- 
 ratus ever offered for the home." 
 
 Teachers' Roll of Bible Illustrations embodies in an ex- 
 cellent form, for use in the Sunday School class, the long 
 list of illustrations made for Eyre and Spottiswoode's 
 famous Variorum Bible. 
 
 Working Methods. — For a large number of administra- 
 tive methods, and specimens of printed matter in actual 
 use in progressive Sunday Schools, in various parts of the 
 country, such as "Ways of awakening and maintaining 
 interest in Bible study," " Ways of securing regular and 
 punctual attendance," "Ways of reaching and securing 
 new scholars," " Ways of securing Church attendance," 
 etc., see Mead's Modern Methods in Sunday School. 
 
 Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture^ the lamp of 
 Sacrifice, the lamp of Truth, the lamp of Power, the lamp 
 of Beauty, the lamp of Life, the lamp of Memory, the 
 lamp of Obedience, are excellent lamps, in the light of 
 which Sunday School architecture may attain its highest 
 usefulness and glory. 
 
INDEX 
 
 " A diamond in the rough " .... 
 
 Advantages of the International System 
 
 Adverse circumstances, good results . • 
 
 ^schines : replj' to Demosthenes . . 
 
 " A fleck of rust on a flawless blade " . 
 
 Agitation, Value of 
 
 " A great meeting, a king to select " 
 
 Aim of the Sunday School 
 
 Akron plan : S. S. buildings 
 
 Akron plan modified 261- 
 
 American Bible League, The .... 
 
 American Revision, The 
 
 Application of the lesson. Methods of . 
 
 Application, Personal, to scholar alone . 
 
 Aristotle on learning by teaching . . . 
 
 Arnold : Light of Asia 
 
 Arnold of Eugby 
 
 Art of teaching,'Teacher trained in the . 
 
 Assistant teacher, Who is my .... 
 
 Authorized Version, The 
 
 Axtell : Organized Sunday School . . 
 
 " A worn-out Dogma died " . . . . 
 
 Baraca Movement, The 
 
 Best machinery for education of chil- 
 dren 
 
 Bible History as affected by the Higher 
 Criticism 
 
 Bible Museum 
 
 Bibles and Quarterlies in the class . . 
 
 Bibles for children 
 
 Bibles, Marvellous increase of ... . 
 
 Bible study by the historic method • . 
 
 Bible study in different languages . . . 
 
 Bible study: the magnet method . . . 
 
 Bible Study Union System 
 
 Bible Teachers' Training School . . . 
 
 Bible, The : abiding in its character- 
 forming elements 
 
 Biblical allusions in literature . . . . 
 
 Black, Rev. Hugh, on Will-training . . 
 
 Blackall, C. H., Architect. Plans 269 
 
 Blackall, C. R., D.D., new courses . . 
 Ibid., Our Sunday School Work 
 
 Blackboards 
 
 Boer War, Story of 
 
 Briscoe, Rev. J. T., on the S. S. System 
 of to-day 
 
 Brown, Marianna C, Ph.D., on produc- 
 ing religious impression. In S. S. 
 Movements in America . . . . 
 
 Bryce on the Constitution of the U.S. . 
 
 Burton and Mathews, Profs. : Prin- 
 ciples and Ideals ... 91, 139, 
 
 Busy Men and Women : How they can 
 best prepare their S. S. lesson 
 
 Butler, Dean Alford A., D.D., on know 
 
 ing men as well as books . . . 
 
 Ibid., on worship in the S. S. . . 
 
 Capen, Hon. S. B., on the character 
 forming power of the teacher's life 
 
 Card system of enrolment ..... 281 
 Caricatures of the Sunday School ... 92 
 Carlyle on enthusiasm : {^Frederick 
 
 the Great) 18 
 
 Ibid., on the personal power of the 
 
 teacher 105 
 
 Cathedral glass. The glory of old . . . 210 
 
 Changes : not too sudden 25 
 
 Character-forming truths 103 
 
 Characteristics of best lesson system . 154 
 
 Character-training 103 
 
 Cheyne : objects of the Higher Criticism 198 
 Chicago University Press, Graded 
 
 Course 142 
 
 Children need the best equipment . . 253 
 Choice, Supreme, determines character . 97 
 Choice, The Supreme, made in view of 
 
 some small act 100 
 
 Christian Endeavor 13, 193 
 
 Church, a power-house 102 
 
 Churches and Sunday Schools should 
 
 have the best equipment in the 
 
 community 253 
 
 Clark, Rev. F."E., D.D. : his welcomes . 52 
 
 Classes, Number in 32 
 
 Classes, Value of small 115 
 
 Class, Good order in 57 
 
 Class, How to govern a 56 
 
 Class-room doors and partitions 
 Classrooms: a picture of one . . 
 Class rooms, bj^ portieres .... 
 Class rooms. Substitutes for . . 
 Class. Work for, outside of the S. S. 
 Coe, Prof. : test of College students 
 Colored photographs of Holy Land 
 Colorgraphs of celebrated paintings 
 'Come and wander with me " 
 
 273, 274 
 52 
 274^ 275 
 . . 275 
 . . 59 
 . . 163 
 . . 281 
 . . 281 
 . . 235 
 
 Conservative vs. Radical 25 
 
 Cotistructive Bible Studies .... 142 
 Convention at Jerusalem : resolution 
 
 on teacher-training 91 
 
 Correspondence Schools 193 
 
 Courses of lectures in churches . . .193 
 
 Courses of study 139, 144 
 
 Courses of study for teacher-training . 119 
 Criticism a sign of progress . . . .22, 180 
 Criticism of the Sunday School, Value of 21 
 
 Cross-fertilization 14 
 
 Crypt Conference, The : Addresses . . 109 
 Crvstallizing thought bv talking ... 88 
 Curtis, Geo. William: Frue and I . . 207 
 
 Decision day 64, 100 
 
 De Garmo : Interest in Education . . 41 
 Delitzsch, Prof., Babel und Bibel . . 211 
 Departmental S. S. rooms . . . 266-272 
 
 Departments vs. courses 131 
 
 Devotional exercises 33 
 
 Devotional reading of S. S. lesson . . . 74 
 Diagrams of modern S. S. rooms . 261-272 
 Diatessarons of the Gospels ..... 250 
 
 284 
 
INDEX 
 
 285 
 
 Dickens's Skitzlanders 27 
 
 " Dig channels for the stream of Love" 124 
 
 Discouraged teacher, The 67 
 
 Driver, Prof., on Old Testament history 199 
 Drummond, Prof. Henry, on the aim of 
 
 the Sunday School ' 97 
 
 D wight Place Sunday School . . . .278 
 
 Education and the new life 98 
 
 Education for the educator 90 
 
 Eiffel Tower, Vision from 118 
 
 Eliot, Pres., on the teacher problem . .91 
 Emerson on "glittering generahties " . 90 
 Encouragement for those who have few 
 
 advantages 254 
 
 Enrolment, Card system of 281 
 
 Enthusiasm for education 18 
 
 Episcopal Ch., Textbooks and S3'stems . 155 
 
 Ep worth Leagues 193 
 
 Equipment of the Sunday School . . . 252 
 
 Evolution of God's people 216 
 
 Examination tests 167 
 
 Exhibits, Value of 258 
 
 Experiments : percentage that succeed . 14 
 Extension courses for lay students . . 191 
 Farrar on Urim and Thummim . . . 230 
 Fergusson, Kev. E. Morris, on gradation 129 
 
 Ihid., on S. S. progress 185 
 
 Ibid., on S. S. rooms 266 
 
 Fine churches and poor S. S. rooms . . 252 
 Fiske, John : Critical Period of United 
 
 States History 44 
 
 Ibid., Story of rising and setting sun 44 
 Flexibility of the Sunday School ... 39 
 Forbush, W. B. : The Boy Problem . 32, 99 
 Forefathers of Boston and religious edu- 
 cation 95 
 
 •' For the heart grows rich in giving " . 124 
 
 Fountain Experiment, My 71 
 
 Framework of the lesson, How to make 80 
 
 Frog, Experiment with a 101 
 
 Front Line, The: definition 11 
 
 Front Line, Power of the 13, 16 
 
 Games for Bible study 282 
 
 Gates of Paradise, Fragments of ... 37 
 Geography, Use of, in teaching . . 81-83 
 Gideon and his three hundred .... 83 
 
 "Give us the music" 67 
 
 Goethe's Tale of Tales 226 
 
 Good results under disadvantages . 53, 254 
 Gordon, Rev. A. J., D.D. : Dream in 
 IIoic Christ came to Church . . 93 
 
 Graded, Pupils are to be 128 
 
 Graded, Teachers to be 130 
 
 Grades must be flexible 136 
 
 Grading, A study in 125 
 
 Grading by the Grammar School grades 136 
 
 Grading, Necessity for 125 
 
 Grading, Schemes of 132 
 
 Grading, What is 127 
 
 Grading, What is new in 125 
 
 Gratuitous instruction. Value of . . . 112 
 Greek legend of the founding of Thebes 218 
 Green : History of the English People 16 
 Groser, W. H. : Hundred Years' Wort 
 
 for the Children 108 
 
 Grown people. Inducing, to attend S. S. 134 
 
 Gulick, Prof. L. H., on the character- 
 forming power of the teacher's life . 104 
 " Gyascutus has broke loose. The " . . 200 
 Hadley, Pres. Arthur T., on the personal 
 
 power of the teacher 105 
 
 Hale, Kev. E. E. : famous bon ')iiot . . 181 
 
 Ibid., How Christ came to Boston . 93 
 Hamill, Prof. H. M. : TheS.S. Teacher 123 
 Harris, W. T. : experiments in education 14 
 
 i&/(Z., Self-activity in education . , . 102 
 Haslett : Pedagogical Bible School . 128 
 Hawthorne: 3Iossesfrom an Old Manse 105 
 
 76i(?., Story of the birthmark . . .138 
 Health catching instead of disease . . 106 
 Helps, Arthur: Friends in Council . 179 
 
 Helps, True use of 75-79, 157 
 
 Higher Criticism, Attitude of the S. S. to 205 
 Higher Criticism, The present situation 197 
 Historic method of Bible study . . . 196 
 
 Historic method. Value of 208 
 
 History of mankind an evolution . . .215 
 Hittite sacred stone at Hamath .... 196 
 Hodge, R. M., D.D. : extension courses 191 
 Holmes, O. W. : Autocrat of the Breaks 
 fast Table 86,235 
 
 Ibid., on analogies in nature . . . 235 
 
 Ibid., the three Johns and Thomases 225 
 
 Home Department 38 
 
 Home, Prof. : Philosophy of Education 17 
 
 Ibid., on progress in knowledge . . 17 
 House claimed by a thief in Palestine . 175 
 
 Ideals, The power of 19 
 
 Ideal version of the Bible 250 
 
 " If I could see as in truth they be " . . 225 
 " If only we strive to be pure and true " 118 
 Ignorance of the Bible and its remedy . 159 
 
 Index Bible, The 237 
 
 Ingelow, The Monitions of the Unseen 206 
 Interest in Bible study. Signs of growing 179 
 
 Interest in education 40 
 
 Interlinear Parallel Bible, Holman . . 246 
 International Bible Reading Association 191 
 International Executive Committee, Ex- 
 tensive organization of 183 
 
 International Lessons, a connected 
 
 scheme 152 
 
 International Lessons, graded in material 
 
 as well as treatment 150 
 
 International Les. Svs. : What is the 
 
 139, 148 
 International System, Advantages of. . 153 
 International System, Criticism of . 140, 144 
 Introducing a new measure, Best way of 13 
 " It might have been worse " .... 148 
 " I wonder if he remembers " .... 63 
 James, Prof William : applying the lesson 66 
 
 Ibid., Psychology . '. 66 
 
 Ibid., Talks to Teachers on Psychol- 
 ogy 66 
 
 Kant's Educational Theory .... 114 
 Keedy, Rev. J.L., on a graded curriculum 158 
 
 Kelman's The Holy Land 175 
 
 Kramer, Geo. A., Architect. Plans 261, 272 
 Kumler Memorial S. S. rooms . . . .267 
 
 Learning by heart 230 
 
 Lectures on the Bible, Courses of . , . 193 
 
286 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Leigh Hunt : The Indicator .... 156 
 Lesson, Forming the plan of the ... 84 
 Lessons graded iu material and treatment 12S 
 
 Literary study of the Bible 222 
 
 Literary test in iSe^ec^ JVo^es . . . .168 
 Lutheran General Council, graded system 141 
 Maclaren, Ian, in the British Weekly . 5 
 
 Madame Koland on liberty 207 
 
 Magazine articles, How to use .... 237 
 
 Magnetic, Making the mind 87 
 
 Maps and charts 81, 278 
 
 Margins, Use of, in the Bible .... 236 
 Marvellous work with poor machinery . 254 
 
 Matthew Arnold : poem 19 
 
 McCabe, Chaplain : letter to Ingersoll . 193 
 McKinney, A. H., Ph.D., on great learn- 
 ing t's. the art of teaching . . . .109 
 Mead's Modern Methods in S. S. Work 68 
 
 Meigs, Rev. C. D. : poem 59 
 
 " Meine Trubsal war mein Gliick " . . 40 
 Memorizing the Scriptures, Value of 282-234 
 " Men take the pure ideals of their souls " 20 
 Meredith, Margaret, on grown people 
 
 and the Sunday School 134 
 
 Merriam, Prof. Alexander R., on religious 
 impression in the Sunday School . 61 
 
 Methods of Bible Study 195 
 
 Miller, Hugh : My Schools and School- 
 masters 48 
 
 Miller, Lewis, inventor of Akron plan . 259 
 Model Sunday School buildings .... 259 
 Modern American Bible, The, . . . 248 
 Modern methods. Mead's collection of . 283 
 Modern Reader's Bible, The .... 246 
 
 Moral mothering 114 
 
 Moulton, Prof. Richard G. : Modern 
 
 Reader's Bible 78, 222, 246 
 
 Mr. Titbottom's Spectacles 207 
 
 Miinsterberg, Prof.: American Traits 91 
 " My double and how he undid me " . . 50 
 Nash, Prof. Henry S. : History of the 
 
 Higher Criticism 200 
 
 Near-sighted spectacles 226 
 
 Newspaper Exchange 279 
 
 New Testament in Modern English . 249 
 New Testament in Modern Speech . . 248 
 Next step forward in religious education 183 
 
 Old buildings improved 258 
 
 One child or two adults 253 
 
 Ordinary person. Power of the .... 48 
 
 Organized classes 31 
 
 Oriental Potentate, Dream of .... 25 
 
 Original, How to become 79 
 
 " O that I knew how all thy lights " . . 222 
 Parables of the Pounds and the Talents 71 
 
 Paragraphing the Bible 244 
 
 Paralyzed in the realm of motives . . .102 
 Parkhurst, Dr. C. H., on the personal 
 
 power of the teacher 105 
 
 Partitions between class rooms . . . 273 
 Patterson Du Bois: The Point of Con- 
 tact in Teaching 5 
 
 Patton, Pres. F. L., on Biblical criticism 189 
 Payson on the blessedness of preaching . 69 
 Pennsylvania State S. S. Association, 
 Manual of 131 
 
 Persian princes, Training of .... 105 
 
 Personally conducted 77 
 
 Pictures, Wilde's penny 281 
 
 Plans for large schools 266-272 
 
 Plans for small schools 261-265 
 
 Polyglot Bibles 249 
 
 Portidres for class rooms 279 
 
 Preparation of the teacher, Need of . .45 
 Preparing the lesson. Time-saving pro- 
 cess in 73 
 
 Preston, Mrs. Margaret: poem ... 20 
 Prince, John T., Massachusetts Board of 
 
 Education, on order in the S. S. . 65 
 Proctor, Prof. Richard A. : Familiar 
 
 Science Studies 35 
 
 Pycroft on reading English history , . 250 
 
 Queen Bee : how evolved 180 
 
 Ramsay, Prof. Wm. M./ on holding fast 
 
 to the scientific principle .... 214 
 Ra})pacini's daughter. Story of . , . . 105 
 Reading the Bible through . . . 177, 220 
 " Reels not in storm of warring Avords " 212 
 
 Reference Library 118, 280 
 
 Religious Education Ass'n. 143, 154, 186-188 
 Religious impression, How to effect . . 61 
 Remodelled S. S. rooms .... 263-266 
 Renan on the twentieth century ... 16 
 
 Resolve, Acting on 67 
 
 "Restless Club, The" 21 
 
 Revelation, Different effects of, when 
 based on myth and on fact .... 203 
 
 Reviews 35 
 
 Revised Version of the Bible .... 241 
 Revisions, Hindrances to the popular 
 
 acceptance of 243 
 
 Revivals, Necessity of 101 
 
 Roads, Rev. Charles, on graded teachers 131 
 Rogers, Prof, on Bahel und Bibel . .211 
 
 Rolling partitions 273 
 
 Rome on the parlor floor 82 
 
 Rooms for the Sunday School, The best 252 
 Roosevelt, Pres. : address to a school . 97 
 
 Royal scroll, The 282 
 
 Ruskin : Modern Painters 40 
 
 J bid., on public buildings .... 256 
 
 Ibid., on word study 228 
 
 Ibid., Sesame and Lilies .... 22S 
 
 Ibid., Experience in reading Bible . . 233 
 
 Sanders, Prof., an the aim of the S. S. . 97 
 
 Sanderson, Prof., on character-forming . 99 
 
 Schauffler, Rev. A. F., D.D. : Pastoral 
 
 Leadership of the S. S. . 49, 165, 170 
 
 Ibid., Ways of Working 138 
 
 Schemes of grading 132 
 
 Scholarly vs. the teaching temperament 4 
 Scholars : getting to study the lesson . 58 
 School of Christ, Apostles in the . . .107 
 Schools and schoolmasters, My . . . . 6, 7 
 Scripture, Prof. E. W. : Thinking, Feel- 
 ing, Doing 101 
 
 Search, Prof. Preston W. : The Ideal 
 
 School 14, 186 
 
 Seatingof the Sunday School . . . . 276 
 Seeing visions and dreaming dreams . . 18 
 Seeley, Prof. L. : Foundation of Edu- 
 cation 57, 90 
 
INDEX 
 
 287 
 
 Seeley, Prof. L. . on good order ... 57 
 Seven fears changed into seven joys . . 179 
 Shakespeare class, Methods of .... 88 
 Signs of the times, hopeful for the S. S. 21 
 Silliman, Prof., Story concerning ... 16 
 Skim-milk transformed into cream . .' 94 
 Slocum, Pres. Wm. F., advice to visitors 
 
 to St. Louis fair 221 
 
 Smith, Prof. Geo. Adam, Hitstorical 
 Geography of the Holy Land . . 83 
 Ibid., 3fodern CriticiHin and the 
 
 Preaching of the Old Testament . 204 
 IMd., Effect of the Higher Criticism . 197 
 Smith, Rev. Wm. Walter, M.D., Sunday 
 
 School Teaching 155 
 
 Special S. S. arrangements . . . . ' 278 
 Spencer, Herbert, Social Statics . * 98 
 
 Stalker, Rev. James, D.D., The 
 Preacfier and his Models . . 122 
 
 Statistics, Misleading .' .* 181 
 
 Stead, If Christ came to Chicago '. '. 93 
 
 Stereographs 282 
 
 Stereopticon for the Sundav School " * 281 
 St. John, Prof. E. P., on gi-ading . 126, 128 
 
 Stockport Sunday School 272 
 
 Study of particular books or periods , 
 Summer Assemblies and Schools . , 
 Sunday School a Missionary School . 
 Sunday School and the Home . . 
 Sunday School an evangelizing power 
 Sunday School buildings, Akron plan 
 Sunday School Cooperation .... 
 Sunday School for the whole church . 
 Sunday School, largest in the world . 
 S. S. rooms and equipment .... 
 S. S. rooms : modified Akron plan '. 
 Sunday School steadily increasing in 
 
 numbers 181 
 
 Sunday School, Supreme aim "of, Teaclier- 
 
 training depends on 96 
 
 Sunday School teacher. Training for '. \ 103 
 Sun. Sch. the right hand of the church .' 42 
 Supplemental lessons and reviews ... 35 
 Swift, Dean : Illustration on reform . '. 126 
 
 Tables for classes \ 276 
 
 Ta pathemata mathemata . . . ^ ! 71 
 
 Teacher and his class .'47 
 
 Teachers, Concerning paid . . . . in 
 Teachers in the S. S., Who should be 11 i, 113 
 
 Teachers' meetings 88 121 
 
 Teachers' meetings, Mr. Chas. G. Trum- 
 bull's plan for 122 
 
 Teacher's Pastorate, The ...'."' 31 
 Teachers, Poor: What to do with them 117 
 Teacher's preparation. Necessity of . 72 
 Teacher's, tools, The ....... 52 
 
 Teacher trained in knowledge of Bible 
 
 Teacher-training 
 
 Teacher-training, Growing interest in .' 
 Teacher-training in the art of teaching . 
 Teacher-training in study of the child . 
 leacher-training, Present status of 
 Teacher-training, The church should pro- 
 
 vide the means for 
 Teacher-training, The kind of, 'depends 
 
 on the aim of the Sunday School . 
 
 95 
 
 Teaching, Learning by 123 
 
 Teaching, Two mental processes in . 1 64 
 
 Temple Bible, The . 247 
 
 Tennyson : The Ancient Sage . . .212 
 Test of a Bible class in the Olivet S. S. 164 
 Test of Bible knowledge by Dr. Munhall 172 
 Test of Bible knowledge by Pres. 
 
 Thwing ' igo 
 
 Test of boys in New York City . . .' 171 
 Test of college students bv Prof. Coe .' 163 
 Test of students at Hampton . . 163 
 
 Tests, False, of a system . . . . 173-177 
 !! J^^''^ breaks a yet more glorious day " 194 
 They must upward still and onward " 28 
 " This maple ridge shall Horeb be " . 84 
 Thomas, Mr. Joseph C: The Index 
 
 Bible 237 
 
 Thwing, Pres. Charles F., on 'the best 
 thing college does for a man . . I05 
 
 Tom Brown at Oxford 80 
 
 Training by specimen teaching . '. ! 119 
 Training of teachers. Provision made for 31 
 
 Training of the will 99 
 
 Trench, Archbishop : poem ....'. 124 
 
 Triumph of the right spirit over obstacles 255 
 Trumbull, Charles G. : S. S. Times . 
 Twentieth Century Ne^v Testament '. 
 Two camels, Browning's parable of the . 
 Tyng, Rev. Stephen, D.D., address in 
 H. W. Beecher's church .... 
 
 Unconscious cerebration ...... 
 
 United States Bureau of Education : Rel 
 
 port on Sunday Schools 
 
 Urlm and Thummim : " Lights and 
 
 Truths" 230 
 
 Valk, Lawrence B., Architect : Plan ! .' 262 
 Vincent, Bp.: The Modern Sunday 
 
 School 83, 120 
 
 Vmcent, Prof. Marvin R. : That Mon- 
 ster the Higher Critic .... 200 
 Waters, Mr. Charles, Hon. See. of the 
 
 International Bible Readers' Assoc. 191 
 Wells, Prof. A. R. : S. S. Success . . 76, 86 
 Wendell Phillips, on agitation .... 213 
 What Christ would see in the S. S. . 94 
 White, Wilbert W., D.D.: Bible Teach- 
 ers' Training School 190 
 
 Whitney, Prof. H. M. : Bible translations 239 
 
 /fv/cA, paragraphing the Bible . . .244 
 
 Ibid., personal power of the teacher . 105 
 
 Whittler: Chapel of the Hermits . . 83 
 
 Will, The training of the 99-102 
 
 Wilson, Pres. Robert: Biblical criticism 189 
 Wood, Prof. Irving F., on grading . . 133 
 Word studies. Examples of . . . 228-229 
 Word studies: The Literary man's way 228 
 Word studies : The Mining way . . .228 
 Word studies : The Poet's way . . .227 
 Word studies : The Scientist's way . . 227 
 Working methods, in Mead's 3Iodern 
 
 Methods 283 
 
 Wright. William Burnet, D.D. : Master 
 
 and Men 229 
 
 Young Churchman Co. : graded courses 141 
 Young Men's Christian Associations . 192 
 Young People's Unions 193 
 
 122 
 
 247 
 
 75 
 
 253 
 85 
 
 112 
 
REVISED AND ENLARGED 
 
 WAYS OF WORKING 
 
 OR, HELPFUL HINTS TO SUNDAY- 
 SCHOOL WORKERS OF ALL KINDS 
 
 By Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D.D. 
 232 pp. Cloth, $1.00 
 
 The new edition contains a chapter on the Relation of the Pastor to 
 the Sunday School, a supplementary chapter on The Blackboard (illus- 
 trated), and one on the Home Department. Everybody should have 
 this book. It covers every phase of Sunday-school work in a clear, 
 instructive manner, and cannot fail to be of marked benefit to every 
 worker. It has received the highest commendations from the relig- 
 ious press and the leading Sunday-school men. Below we give a 
 proof of them. 
 
 *' The appearance of a really helpful manual for Sunday-school teachers 
 or superintendents is a noteworthy event. Dr. Schauffler has given us the 
 ripe results of his experience as superintendent and a teacher of teachers. He 
 takes up the various phases of a superintendent's work, and shows what 
 constitutes success, how success is often lost, and how it may be won." — 
 ^. S. Times. 
 
 " This is a capital book. So far as the teacher and the method go, it 
 leaves nothing unsaid. Dr. Schauffler's book is the very best book for 
 teachers, and on teacher's methods, that we have seen." — The Indepe7idejit, 
 New York. 
 
 " It unlocks the door to the treasure-house of Sunday-school success." — 
 F. N. Peloubet, D. D. 
 
 "The best all-around book for a Sunday-school worker I know of." — 
 Marion Lawrence, Sec'y Ohio State S. S. Association. 
 
 " Cannot fail to be of value in the hands of all Sunday-school workers." 
 — W. H. Hall, Sec'y of Conn. State S. S. Association. 
 
 " Dr. A. F. Schaufifier, who is widely known as one of the most expert 
 and distinguished Sunday-school men of our time, has prepared a book en- 
 titled ' Ways of Working.' 
 
 ^ " As the title suggests, it is a statement of methods, and abounds in prac- 
 tical suggestions concerning all departments of Sunday-school work, the 
 duties of every officer, and all particulars which are likely to suggest them- 
 selves. It is based upon long and varied personal experience and observa- 
 tion. It is written in a clear, simple, telling fashion, and will take rank at 
 once in Sunday-school literature as a standard publication." — The Congre- 
 gationalist. 
 
 W. A. WILDE COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON AND CHICAGO 
 
^ir"iii^M?im iirn,?.'??'^^' Seminary Libraries 
 
 iemrnary L 
 
 1 1012 01237 6l"92 ' 
 
 
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 Q^fm^z 
 
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