How to conduct a Sunday-school

Preface

This book is intended to contain in embryo the essential elements of success. Its objects are to stimulate systematic effort in the Sunday-school and to encourage thoroughness in teaching.

To some the book may seem too simple, to others too complicated; but this will depend somewhat upon the reader's view-point. To the experienced Sunday-school worker it may seem too elementary, but to the beginner, for whom it is primarily intended, it will doubtless seem sufficiently advanced.

There is a certain satisfaction in working out things for one's self. I have, therefore, presented the subject of this book in principles, leaving the reader to apply them and to get results for himself.

D. O. Teasley.

Anderson, Ind., August 17, 1911.

Introduction

CHAPTEE I.

Origin and History of the Sunday-school. — 15

CHAPTER H.

Organization and Government 29

CHAPTEE in.

Leaders of the School 49

CHAPTER IV.

The Pupil. 87

CHAPTER V.

The Lesson 101

CHAPTER VI.

Methods and Equipments 128

INTRODUCTION.

Purpose. The purpose of the Sunday-school is to teach the Word of God. The central theme of its teaching should be the great moral law of supreme love to God and equal love to men, the principle on which hung the law and the prophets and on which, also, is based the new covenant.

While the purpose of the Sunday-school is to teach the old as well as the young, its primary object is to teach the young. The home is the beginning-place of religious education as well as of secular education, but it is the province of the Sunday-school to take up the more technical education of our children in religion and complete the education begun at home. In many instances it falls to the part of the Sunday-school to give to the child all the religious education it ever gets, for often religious education at home is neglected.

The Sunday-school is the school of the church. As such it should teach the doctrine of the church, or the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Sunday-school, therefore, should teach the great fundamental truths of the creation, temptation, and fall of man; of the universal depravity of the human heart; and of the atonement of Jesus Christ, — presenting these truths in such ways as to make them comprehensible to the various grades. If the underlying truths of human redemption are presented in the right way, they may be comprehended by the child at a very early age. The great centers around which are grouped the doctrines of the Bible are God, man, Satan, sin, the Savior, and salvation.

In a negative way it is the purpose of the Sunday-school to combat the powers of sin and to counteract the evil influences of pride in the world and in the hearts of the young. Satan is ever ready to lead the young hearts astray, and the Sunday-school, with the church, should wage relentless war against the encroaching powers of evil and plant in the hearts and minds of the young the precious seed of the kingdom of God.

First, last, and always, it is the purpose of the Sunday-school to lead the soul to Christ, and hence every lesson, from the infant class to the highest grade, should point to Christ as the central theme and as the Saivor of the world.

Importance of the Sunday-school. The importance of the Sunday-school can be estimated only in the light of its high purpose and by its marvelous achievements in the past. Every man and every woman whose privilege it has been in childhood to attend a well-conducted Sunday-school has but to consult his or her own experience in order to realize the vast importance and the inestimable value of the Sunday-school.

Solomon said, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Prov. 22 : 6. This text has, by many, been restricted to home training; but in the margin of our Authorized Version it is rendered, "Catechise a child in the way he should go." Like Jewish parents, we should not merely tell the child to do this and not to do that, that this is right and that is wrong;

but we should catechise it in the principles and the precepts of religion. With a Hebrew, religious ceremony begins at birth and never ends until death, and no people have ever clung with more tenacity to the principles of their religion than have the Jews. Though often backslidden, they would remember, in their oppression, the Holy One of Israel, and even when surrounded by the magnificence and splendor of wealthy Babylon, they remembered Zion.

One of the strongest reasons for early religious training is that the things learned in childhood stay with us the longest. Older people may learn a lesson today and forget it tomorrow, but many of the lessons of childhood are never erased from the memory. Little sentences and striking lessons learned in the Sunday-school have followed many a man through all the trying scenes and vicissitudes of life and have protected his honor and strengthened his soul when men and devils would have cast him down, and, following him still, have shed a ray of light upon his mind and soul when he entered the shadows of death.

The Success of Roman Catholicism. It is a well-known fact that the success attained by Roman Catholics is accomplished through the training of children. Catholics are often quoted as saying, "Give me a child until it is seven years old, and ever after it will be a Catholic." The fact that comparative few who are indoctrinated in Catholicism escape the deception seems to verify the statement. Not only do they teach their own children, but they teach every child within their reach. The adherents of Rome outnumber the adherents of any other so-called Christian church. How is their membership obtained? By great revivals wherein thousands are converted? No, but from the children that have been taught in their youth that the Holy Catholic Church is the church founded by Jesus Christ and perpetuated by his apostles and their successors. The Church of Rome has never forgotten a sad lesson she learned in a critical hour of her history, when the power of the reformation broke in upon her and found her adherents in ignorance. The Roman Catholics of today are therefore very diligent in instructing the young, not in the Holy Scriptures, but in the doctrines of the Romish church.

The words of a Roman Catholic priest to a bishop of a Protestant Episcopal church is an expression of the Catholic attitude toward the training of children. "What a poor, foolish people are you Protestants! You leave the children, until they are grown up, possessed of the devil; then you go at the work of reclaiming them with horse, foot, and dragoons. We Catholics, on the other hand, know that the children are as plastic as clay in our hands, and we quietly devote ourselves first to them. When they are well instructed and trained, we have little fear as to their future." May we not from this learn a lesson of diligence and be more zealous in teaching the young?

The Young Heart a Fertile Soil The hearts of the young are a vast and fertile field in which something must grow. This vast field lies open to us today and invites us to sow the good seed of the kingdom of God and reap a hundred fold. If we do not grasp the opportunity, Satan will. He will sow the evil seeds of pride, of malice, of greed, and of lust where we ought to sow the precious seed of the kingdom of God — love, joy, and peace. The children of today will be either the wayward boys and girls of tomorrow or the devoted young worshipers at the shrine of holy love. Which shall be? Our neglect or our Sunday-school will answer the question.

HOW TO CONDUCT A SUNDAY-SCHOOL.

Chapter I. Origin And History Of The Sunday-school

Name. The name Sunday-school has come to be almost universally applied to these religious schools of the Christian church which, on account of convenience, are held on Sunday. The name is derived, therefore, from the day on which Christians meet to teach the Bible, and not from the nature of the institution. Some have adopted the name Bible-school, which in some respects is preferable. Since, however, Sunday-school is more widely used, it will be employed throughout this course of lessons.

Definition. Many definitions of the Sunday-school have been given. One author defines is as "the Bible-study and Bible-teaching service of the church." Another author definies it thus: "The Sunday-school is a department of the church of Christ, in which the Word of Christ is taught for the purpose of bringing souls to Christ and of building up souls in Christ."

There are two distinctive methods of getting the gospel to the world; that is, preaching and teaching. Probably the simplest way of denning the difference between the two is to say that preaching is a continuous discourse, in which only the speaker, or preacher, speaks and others listen, and that teaching admits of questions and answers, in which both the teacher and the scholar may freely take part. The simplest definition of the Sunday-school, therefore, is, the teaching or school department of the church.

Origin. The Sunday-school is not, as is often supposed, entirely a modern institution. From a very remote period the subject of religious education has engaged the earnest attention of thoughtful minds. The nucleus of the Sunday-school is found in the Jewish religion. Long before there were any schools in the strict sense of the word, we discover a diligence among the people of God to teach their children the principles of true religion. Abraham was commended and chosen because he would teach his children the law of God (Gen. 18: 19). It is very probable that Abraham's 318 trained servants (Gen. 14: 14) were not only trained in the handling of the sword but also instructed in religion. Moses commanded the Israelites to teach their children diligently in the law of the Lord (Deut. 6: 6-9). EJisha established schools for prophets, and Jehoshaphat sent princes, priests, and Levites to teach the people the things of the Lord (2 Chron. 17: 7-9). Nehemiah was diligent in teaching the people the law of their God after the return from the Babylonian captivity (Neh. 8: 1-8). In the later Jewish writings outside of the Bible frequent mention is made of schools which were maintained for instruction in the Scriptures. The scribes, or men of the Book, made it the sole purpose of their lives to interpret and transcribe the law, so as to bring it within the reach of the people.

Attached to almost every synagogue was a school devoted especially to religious learning. In different ages these schools were conducted very differently. The teaching in some of them was extremely mechanical, since the schools did almost everything by rote; but many improvements were made from time to time in these Jewish schools. Down to our own time the Hebrew people are strong advocates of religious education.

ChrisU the Great Teacher. Nicodemus said to Christ, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God." The followers of Christ were called disciples, or learners, and Christ, the Great Teacher, and his twelve apostles and other disciples, formed the first great Bible-school of the church of God.

As we might naturally suppose from his Jewish teaching, Jesus taught as well as preached. In the Gospels he is repeatedly represented as both preaching and teaching. Matthew says, "Jesus went about in all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom." Matt. 4: 23. By preaching is meant the heralding of a message, while by teaching is meant that form of instruction which admits of the free interlocutory play between teacher and pupil. Throughout the four Gospels Jesus is represented as pursuing his work of teaching wherever he might be. We see him teaching by the wayside (Mark 6: 16, 34; 10: 1; Luke 13:22; John 4: 1- 42), by the sea (Mark 2: 13; 4: 1, 2), in private houses (Matt. 13:36; Mark 9:33- 50; Luke 37:36-58), in the temple court (Matt. 21 : 23, 24; Mark 12: 35; Luke 19: 4-7; John 7: 14), and in the synagogue (Matt. 13:54; Mark 6:2; Luke 4: 15; John 6: 59). In instances too numerous to mention, we find Jesus teaching after the manner of the Jews, both asking them questions and answering the numerous questions brought to him, especially by the Scribes and Pharisees.

Busy as he was, Jesus found time to give attention to children. At one time when children were brought to him, his disciples would have turned them away lest they should trouble the Master; "but Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 19: 14.

Jesus trained his twelve disciples to teach and commanded them thus : "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations"; "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."

Religious Training in the Early Church. From its earliest existence the Christian church took an intense and active interest in the education both of its own members and of all within its reach. Following the commands and the example of their Master, the apostles preached and taught in the Jewish synagogues and in private houses. For the first few years their work was exclusively among the Jews and their principal places of worship were the synagogues. We read concerning Peter and the other apostles in Jerusalem, that "daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." Acts 5 : 42.

"Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also." Acts 1 5 : 35.

Paul had been a scholar in the Beth-hamidrash ; he had been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. Being schooled in the teachingmethods of the Jewish Bible-schools, he was frequently found in the synaguges preaching and teaching the gospel of Christ. "Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few." Acts 1 7: 1-4. At Athens, Paul "reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons." And he "disputed" not only in the synagogue but also "in the market daily, with them that met with him."

In the foregoing texts and in many others too numerous to cite here, we find the apostles preaching and teaching in the synagogues of the Jews. When the Jews rejected the gospel, and began to persecute its advocates, the apostles and other Christians gathered themselves from the Jewish synagogues. Thus was formed the first congregation at Rome. "And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him." Acts 28: 30, 31.

The teacher was a recognized worker in the apostolic church, and he was exhorted to give attention to his work (Rom. 12: 7). Among the other qualifications of a bishop was that he be "apt to teach" (1 Tim. 3:2). While every bishop was required to possess an aptitude to teach, it nevertheless appears from Eph. 4:11 and Rom. 12: 7 that there were other teachers besides the "ministers and pastors," whose duty it was to "wait on their teaching."

It is significant that children are specifically included in the number of those to whom the apostolic epistles were written (Eph. 6:1; Col. 3: 20; 2 John 1).

Thus we see that the Bible-schools, like so many other good things of the Jewish religion, were, in a modified form, brought over to the New Testament church.

Religious Education; and the Sixteenth Century Reformation. At the time of the Sixteenth Century Reformation great ignorance prevailed among the common people. Rome had neglected to teach the people the Holy Scriptures. With the Reformation came a great revival of learning, both secular and religious. The religious instruction, however, soon retrograded into polemic discussion of theological doctrines and therefore in a great measure failed to take the place of the Sunday-school of the early church. Unfortunately, the great spiritual revival of the sixteenth century gleamed with the rays of divine light and surged with Christian zeal and piety against the error of the world but for a short time; for, despite the occasional checks by religious revivals, morals and spiritual power continued to decline until the latter part of the eighteenth century. Beginning with the dissensions that arose between the reformers on the one hand, and with the fury of the wounded beast of Catholicism on the other hand, slowly but surely the moral decay, religious dissensions, and the power of infidelity went on until the gathering storm broke in volcanic outbursts in the French Revolution and the accompanying upheavals in the moral and religious world. A German historian, Kurtz, characterizes the rationalistic cyclone which burst upon his country at this period as "the years of spiritual famine."

In America the last quarter of the eighteenth century exhibits a state of morality not less deplorable than that in Europe. This unsettled state of affairs finally led to the French and Indian War and to the Revolutionary War with their usual depraving influences ; and the infusion of European skepticism and manners brought on a sad state of morals. The revivals of such men as Edwards and Whitefield, however, were a great blessing to the Colonial churches and communities, serving for a time to check the spread of immorality. Concerning the period following the Revolutionary War, Rev. Thomas Williams — cited in "Yale Lectures on the Sunday- school" — makes the following comment: "The scenes and events which arose after the establishment of our national independence, in this country, in the church of God on earth, and among the nations of the world, during his [Dr. Emmon's] ministry, were the most astonishing that have occurred in the records of uninspired history. In his day, the conspiracy of infidels and atheists against religion, government and humanity, against truth and peace, order and liberty, shook the foundations of kingdoms and nations; and attempted to destroy from the earth the church and kingdom of God, and the name and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ." The Modern Sunday-school. Amidst the confusion, wars, and moral decline, the Sunday-school and the religious training of the young were much neglected, though in spite of the spirit of the times a few such men as Zinzendorf in Germany and Wesley in England gave some attention to a form of Sunday-school work. The origin of the modern Sunday-school, however, dates from the time of Robert Raikes; the editor and proprietor of a journal in Gloucester, England. In July, 1 780, Mr. Raikes, who had already taken an active interest in prison reform work, gathered the poorer children from the manufacturing quarter of Gloucester into the private house of a Mr. King to receive instruction in reading and the elementary truths of religion. For teachers he employed four women, paying them a shilling (twenty-five cents) a day. Thus was formed the nucleus of what today we call the modern Sunday-school, in which thousands of children in all Christian lands and in many mission fields are studying the Holy Scriptures. Though many conflicting doctrines and opinions are prevalent in Sunday-schools, and though the children are taught the peculiar doctrines of the various churches, yet we can not give this as an objection to the Sunday-school itself. As well might we conclude that there is no true divine organization governing the church of God because there are so many sects and schisms.

The Sunday-school, like the church of God and many other things that have been ordained of God, had a lowly beginning. Mr. Raikes and his school were referred to as "Bobby Wild-goose and his regiment." Nevertheless, his work met with popular favor, and in a few years thousands of children were attending Sunday-school throughout Great Britain.

The beginning of the Sunday-school in America is not so distinctly marked.

The International Sunday-school Lessons. The international lesson system was formally inaugurated in 1873 by an undenominational assemblage of Sunday-school workers in a national convention for the United States of America. The plan was later approved by Sunday-school workers in both Canada and England. Like many other good things, the plan, when first introduced, met with considerable opposition; but it has gradually gained in favor until at the present time it is almost universally accepted. The Episcopalians are the principal denomination that has not fully adopted the system.

The International Sunday-school system lays out a plan whereby the entire Bible is studied in the course of seven years. This system has nothing to do with the interpretation of the text ; it is simply a plan agreed upon whereby the same portions of Scripture are studied on the same day by all who adopt the system, each denomination being left to publish its own lesson commentaries, lesson helps, and other Sunday-school literature.

The International Sunday-school Committee consists of fifteen persons. Their main work is to select from the Bible and arrange a system of Sunday-school lessons. They have nothing to do with Biblical interpretation or with the government of Sunday-schools.

Chapter II. Organization And Government

I. ORGANIZATION CONSIDERED GENERALLY.

Importance. No undertaking in which several persons are engaged can be well accomplished without some form of organization. Organization, however, does not create power; hence the power of the Sunday-school does not lie in its organization; the power lies in the energy and the diligence of its workers. But organization does centralize, direct, and focalize energy; above all, it unifies effort. Without organization, therefore, any attempt at conducting a Sunday-school will, for lack of united effort, fail of any great degree of success.

In the Sunday-school, as in all other things, there are two extremes — lack of organization and too complicated an organization. No rules, except most general ones, can be laid down for the organization of a school. Conditions vary so widely — from the large city school of several hundred members, with convenient meetingrooms, to the rural school, with ten or twelve scholars and only one small room in which to meet — that the rules here laid down will, in many instances, have to be considerably modified.

Not the Organization of the Church. The organization of the Sunday-school is not the organization of the church. Though the interests of the Sunday-school are similar to those of the church in the sense that both organizations strive to teach the Bible and to save souls, yet there is a wide distinction in their organization and government. The church is a divine organization, and its membership is composed only of those who have salvation. The Sunday-school, on the contrary, is a human organization for a divine purpose, and its membership includes all who wish to know the truth, whether they are saved or unsaved. Just as we organize and incorporate a body of trustees to attend to the financial interests of the church, so we organize a Sunday-school to attend to the teaching interests of the church. Probably no one would think of confounding a body of trustees organized to hold property for the church with the church itself, nor think of such an organization, if rightly conducted, interfering in any way with the organization and the government of the church. No more should the Sunday-school be confounded with the church nor with its organization and government. If rightly conducted, the Sunday-school will in no way interfere with the divine organization and government of the church. The board of trustees, or a local organization for the purpose of holding church property, is a human expediency instituted for a divine purpose; such, also, is the organization of the Sunday-school.

Not a Sectarian Principle. The organization of a Sunday-school does not make a sect. Though varied in the extent of its organization and in the method of its government in different periods of its history, the Christian church in all ages has employed methods of teaching similar in some respects to those of what we call the Sunday-school. The Sunday-school, therefore, is not the invention of any sect, but is the birth-right of the church of God. Each denomination adheres to peculiar doctrines and tenets of its own, which distinguish it from all other denominations and from the body of Christ. Such doctrines and tenets are sectarian principles. There are certain institutions, however, among them the Sunday-school, which are common to the Christian church. These belong to Christianity, and not to any one sect ; and whatever belongs to Christ or to Christianity we are justifiable in employing, regardless of what others may or may not do.

Not the Formation of a Sect. Inasmuch as the Sunday-school is not sectarian in its nature, the organizing of such a school is not the forming of a sect. A sect means a section, or a part cut off and separated from the whole. A sect excludes from its membership those who do not conform to the system of doctrine it prescribes. A Sunday-school is quite different ; it does not exclude from its membership any who wish to know more about God and the

Bible, whether saints or sinners. Conversion, or salvation from sin, is necessary to church membership ; only a desire to learn is necessary to Sunday-school membership. Since, therefore, the Sunday-school neither takes the place of the church nor interferes with it, and since the Sunday-school does not require prescribing to a creed, does not create a faction, does not exclude from its membership any one who desires to learn, whether saint or sinner, it can not be said to be in any sense a sect. It is not the church, but the work of Christian people; and in order to be successful as such it must be organized. In fact, there can be no Sunday-school without some form of organization; for as soon as we have classes and teachers, we have organization.

Extent of Organization. The extent of organization in any case depends upon the work to be done. The lower and less active forms of animal life, for instance, are much less complicated in their organism than are the higher forms. An amoeba, for example, is only a lump of jelly about one one-thousandth of an inch in diameter; yet it moves, eats, grows, and reproduces itself. It goes about in its home of stagnant water until it finds a particle of food, and then it wraps itself around it about as a baker rolls a mass of dough around a raisin. After assimilating whatever of the food it can, it unwraps itself from the waste. There is a vast difference between the needs, activities, and accomplishments of the amoeba and those of the highly organized animal we call man. The amoeba has no need of legs, arms, mouth, eyes, ears, and the various other organs of the human body. Hence they have not been given to it. God has followed this law throughout all nature; he gives to each living thing just the amount of organism required to accomplish the work it is expected to do and to fill the office it is expected to fill. The ideal of perfection in organism, then, is just enough organs to do the work, no more and no less.

An amoeba can not be expected to do the work of a man, so a Sunday-school under-organized, without the proper division of classes, without the necessary officers to attend to the church interests of the school, can not be expected to accomplish as much as a Sunday-school well organized. But too much organization, or more than is required by the number of scholars and the work to be accomplished, is quite as objectionable as too little. There should be sufficient to serve effectually the actual needs of the school ; but when the organization becomes so complicated that so far in excess of the needs of the school that the officers, teachers, and pupils become the servants of the organization instead of its being the servant of the school, there is a decided need for a simpler form of organization. By the exercise of sound judgment the leaders of the school should be able readily to determine the extent of organization required to make their efforts most successful.

II. ORGANIZATION DEFINED.

Simply stated, to organize is to supply with organs and to set in order, so that the various parts may act as one body. To organize means to systematize; to set into working order; to arrange or constitute the parts of a whole so that each will have a special function, office, or relation. In the organization of the Sunday-school there are two classes of members: the leaders and the scholars. Each of these classes of members is in turn divided according to their respective duties and positions in the school. We shall consider first the leaders of the Sunday-school and their offices; secondly, the scholars of the Sunday-school and their division into departments.

OFFICES OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL.

Leaders of the Sunday-school. In this place we shall merely mention the necessary officers, leaving to a future lesson the consideration of their qualifications and duties.