The model Sunday-school, a handbook of principles and practices

Introduction

The aim of this book, which was suggested at the close of a long conference between the Secretary and the Missionary Superintendents of the Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, is altogether practical. It has in mind, first of all, the hundreds who are called upon each year to superintend and to teach', who have had no experience in the work and little opportunity for observation. Many of these are in the newer places where this is the first Christian work attempted and where there are no surrounding supports from sympathizing pastors or warm-hearted Christians. Others are in the older and larger places suddenly called to new positions of responsibility, and where they long for advice which may not be at hand just when they want it.

The Sunday-school Conventions or Institutes cover this same ground, or parts of it, whenever they meet, but they meet only occasionally and can reach but a small fraction of those who need most the help they bring. This little book may aid in supplying the information and advice which come from such gatherings of earnest Christian workers. Of course it cannot arouse the enthusiasm which comes from personal contact with those who are both wise and zealous and who "shed both warmth and light. And yet these pages have not been prepared without earnest sympathy with those who are trying to do what they can in this important department, nor witiiout a constant prayer that it may help to the great end for which alone the Sunday-school has a right to be.

G. M. B.

Conclusion 163-164

A Summary, a Counsel, and a Prayer 163

CHAPTER I. Ori^ii? ai?d progress of tlpe Su^day-setyool

I. IN ITS ORGANIZATION.

There can be no doubt that the elements essential to the Sunday-school are all to be found in the Old Testament Scriptures, that is, there were schools, or classes, therein referred to for the study of the Scriptures. Of course they did not meet, except incidentally, on the first day of the week, and probably not on the Jewish Sabbath. From Abraham to Ezra there are distinct traces of this kind of teaching as the family church broadens into the national church. Gen. 18 : 19 ; Deut. 6:6-9; Neh - 8 : 8 -

It is clear that, in the first centuries of the Christian Church, there were classes for catechumens, that is, for the systematic instruction of those who were preparing for full admission to the Church, and that these classes were largely composed of children and youth.

It is equally evident that with every period of the revival of spiritual life in the Church there has been a revival of interest in this department. Luther, Calvin, and Knox each insisted on these training schools for the young, and the first two prepared catechisms for their use. The

During the seventeenth century only here and there do we come upon the traces of such organizations. In England there seem to be but one or two claimants to this honor. In New England, Roxbury, Mass., in 1674, Norwich, Conn., in 1676, and the original Church of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,, Mass., in 1680, show this honorable record.

The earliest Sunday-school of which any authentic account remains was established at Ephratah, Penn. y by Ludwig Hacker, in 1 740, and continued until its building was taken for military uses during the war of the Revolution.

It was in July, 1780, in Gloucester, England, that Robert Raikes opened a Sunday-school, in the house of a Mrs. King, for the neglected children of that neighborhood. It is claimed that, in answer to a question, this form of help for them was suggested to him by Miss Bradburn, a Methodist lady of that city. Mr. Raikes was himself a member of the Church of England. The original suggestion seems to have been followed that they be taught to read and taken to church. Three other women, besides the Mrs. King at whose house they met, were engaged to teach, and paid a shilling each Sunday.

But why does our modern system of Sunday-school organization and instruction date back to this rather than to other beginnings? Mainly because this special work became known through The Gloucester Journal, of which Mr. Raikes was the editor and proprietor, though he did not publish the methods of his work until he had carried it on successfully for three years. The article which then appeared attracted attention, induced inquiries, and was republished variously.

Though opposed by some of its highest dignitaries, his work received the approbation of several of the bishops of his own church. John Wesley caught at the idea and urged it vigorously upon the Methodist churches.

Its rapid growth is evidenced by the fact that within four years after the public announcement of this work in Gloucester the Sunday-schools of Great Britain included more than 250,000 members — among all denominations of Christians,

There are now estimated to be about 20,000,000 members enrolled in the Sunday-schools of the world, about one half of these being in our own land.

II. IN ITS SYSTEMS OF STUDY.

The first of the modern Sunday-schools were devoted mainly to teaching otherwise neglected children to read and to repeat the catechism of the English Church. Our Chinese schools to-day begin where Robert Raikes did, with, the English alphabet.

The next period seems to have been especially devoted to memorizing the words of the Bible. Important as this is in its place, it by no means is a substitute for understanding its truths. It was overdone in its time both in the day and Sunday-schools, to the mental and physical injury of many children. It is unfortunate that so little of it is attempted or accomplished now.

Catechism study with proof texts has had its day also in the Sunday-school. A good catechism may be of great value — one which states biblical truths in exact and intelligible form, one which confines itself to the things which are revealed, one which makes not merely a line but a broad chasm between the truths which the Holy Spirit has taught and the inferences which men have drawn from them. Such catechisms are very rare. The great historic catechisms are

IO The Model Sunday-school.

not of this sort. Nor were catechisms ever designed to be merely committed to the memory without also being commended to the mind.

Proof texts are of value also if rightly used ; but not as they have been handled, even in recent controversies. It is a sacrilegious and degrading use of holy words to use detached sentences because they sound like proofs, without regard to their real meaning or their connection as they were originally spoken or written. The verse study of Scripture is out of date, at least in the Sunday-school.

We are in the day of the paragraph study of the Bible. This is a great advance on all that has preceded it, especially as it is laid out in the uniform lesson system. This had its origin in a general desire to which the International Sunday-school Convention, held at Indianapolis in 1872, gave expression and form. Since that time the committees appointed at this and succeeding conventions have selected the lessons and Golden Texts. They have been in use by schools aggregating probably 8,000,000 in membership. Their plan has been to lead the schools in seven years, and later in six years, through the main parts of Bible history and doctrine ; selecting as lessons those paragraphs containing its more important events and teachings. They have not been able to do more than this. They have been obliged to leave the general drill on Bible books, history, and geography, and a systematic study of doctrines and duties to superintendents, teachers, pastors, and normal classes. That a great stimulus has been given to the study of the Word of God by this movement there can be no question. That it has been adopted by the leading denominations of Christians on both sides of the ocean is a tribute to the general satisfactoriness of the scheme. That it has aroused a sense of further need, of deeper and more general knowledge of the Bible, is one of the best tributes to its value. When that superior system is prepared which will reach more surely than this can the aim and purpose of the Sunday-school, it will either take the place of the uniform lesson or take a place by its side. What it will be the future alone will show.

All this has led up to a book study of the Bible : to the inquiry in each case not mainly as to who wrote the book, but from what standpoint, at what time, to whom, and for what purpose, it was written. No other line of study can lead to such rich, corrected, and suggestive views of the meaning of special paragraphs and texts as this. Indeed we do not doubt that it is the best method of study or the best atmosphere in which to study. It is better than harmonistic or strictly historical study. These give a good setting for the picture or a good catalogue of the gallery. But as the Bible is a collection of books and each was written separately and in the main without reference to any other, they can be better studied in this way.

The Gospels give us each a special view of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it not well to look long and lovingly at these photographs, rather than to try to make a better picture of the Master by a modern process of composite photography ? Can we study the sacred library better than as it was given to us through its books?

III. IN ITS RELATION TO THE CHURCH.

The modern Sunday-school was in its origin outside the Church, its object to make up somewhat for the lack of other training ; its tendency of course was toward the Church.

As it came to be more and more a school for Bible teaching, the Church and its authorities assumed in general a hostile attitude. Here and there were marked exceptions to this rule. The authorized and official teachers of the Church feared the effect of this unauthorized and unofficial teaching. This was true both in England and in this country. Then came a time when it was tolerated, though not much more than tolerated, in the Church : when many pastors looked upon it with suspicion and granted it a place with apprehension. Still it had taken too strong a hold of the mass of the people to be refused. Godly men and women saw the opportunity to do good and many parents desired it for their children. The need was of course most evident where there was no such desire.

The chasm which was allowed to grow up between them is due, we think, to this opposition and reluctance on the part of the Church to receive the Sunday-school as one of its own agencies. If the school had been born within the Church and of it ; if from the first it had been recognized and treated as its own, there could not have been that amount of separateness which exists even to-day between them. It would have been a child of the house. The pastor would have held his right relation to it. The Church would have sustained and controlled it. But as it forced itself upon the Church, and was compelled to make its claim good to recognition, its adoption has not yet been made complete in all bodies of Christian people.

Now the Sunday-school is recognized and adopted as an effective agency of the Church both for the education of its ow r n wards and for the extension of its influence to those without. All intelligent Christian churches value and use it in their work, not as a substitute for parental or pastoral instruction, but as a supplement to them ; not to take the place of other Home Missionary agencies, but to take its place with them as a forerunner, an explorer, a tester of new fields. In both these relations its proper work is set forth in other chapters.

IV. IN ITS ORGANIZATION FOR EVANGELISTIC WORK.

The Sunday-school first for those without. The

Sunday-school in its modern life began, not for the Christian education of the children of the Church, but altogether with reference to those who were growing up outside of its influence. In England, indeed, it has continued to work far more on this line than in our own land. Since its adoption by the Church it has been gradually organizing to renew this work for those without.

Origin of Sunday-school unions. The earliest of these organizations was not the outgrowth of any denomination, but as the work was largely done, not by the churches as a whole, but by individual members of them, these persons from various denominations formed unions for its prosecution. The two departments of their effort were to furnish books, both to guide in Bible study and for libraries of religious reading ; and to send out missionaries to organize schools in new or religiously neglected places.

English organizations. A " Sunday-school Society " was organized in London in 1785, under which paid teachers were employed. When volunteers were substituted for these the London Sunday-school Union was organized, in 1803. This is a union of Sunday-schools, and not of cooperating individuals as in our country.

American organizations. Sunday-school Unions were organized in New York and Boston in 18.16, and in Philadelphia in 181 7. These were for local work.

The American Sunday-school Union followed in 1824, for both the purposes already named. In October of the same year the Massachusetts Sabbath-school Union was formed in Boston, including delegates from Congregational, Baptist, Episcopal, and Methodist Sunday-schools. Only the first two of these denominations were interested or active members of the Union, and they were soon left alone by the withdrawal of the other two. In 1832 it was thought best to separate amicably with a fair distribution of the property. The Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society is the legal and spiritual successor of its part of this work. This same work is also vigorously prosecuted by the other denominations, the American Sunday-school Union also keeping up a large and important work.

Union in sentiment and separation for work* The last fifty years are witnesses to two important facts in the history of the American churches. The first is that they have been growing towards each other in their sympathies, in their kindly feelings, in their sense of oneness. The second is that they have been withdrawing from each other for the prosecution of their aggressive religious work. These two movements are by no means contradictory. There is less friction and more freedom in the working together of those who are wholly at one. There is a greater feeling and assumption of responsibility in the division of the work. What is yet needed is that this sense of oneness shall grow until it leads to a practical denominational comity, which will respect the claims of previous occupancy ; and which, .on the other hand, will cheerfully give up a field which cannot be efficiently occupied. The prayer of Christ for the oneness of his disciples cannot be even measurably answered until as much as this is recognized in principle and secured in practice.

Advantages of denominational work. Meanwhile, the Union Sunday-school missionary work has its place, especially in those sections where there are many church organizations but no Sunday-schools, or where, from the conditions, no church organizations can be formed. In other regions the advantages of denominational work are evident and proved by experience. They are : —

The fostering care that is behind the newly formed school, a family into which it may be adopted, and which can care for it until it has become a church ; the avoidance of the denominational question which is so apt to be divisive when the question of a church arises, but which is so easily settled at the start \ the connection early made with some church or pastor who agrees occasionally to visit the school, to preach to the people, and to have a general oversight of the work. These practical results of greater permanence and peace commend the denominational work to all who are familiar with it.

Methods of Sunday-school missionary work. Its methods are simple. On the basis of all attainable information in regard to the place to be visited, its school population^ ascertained often from the official records of the county or state, it usually begins with a house-to-house canvass. In this, while the main inquiry is in regard to the children, other facts which concern the religious condition of the family are brought to light. A meeting is appointed, at which the question of a Sunday-school organization is discussed. A vote is taken ; officers are elected \ helps are given in whole or in part ; the school is launched. A preaching service follows of an earnest, evangelistic nature ; the few scattered Christians in the place, if there are any such, are brought to each other's knowledge, and the responsibility for the new Christian enterprise is thrown on them.

The continued oversight of some church or pastor within reaching distance is secured if possible, he agreeing to visit this field at stated or irregular intervals. Correspondence is kept up with them, as far as possible, by the superintendent who has organized them. If the school dies or is suspended, the place is revisited, and it is reorganized ; and this constant supervision is maintained until at length a church is called for, when, under the proper auspices, either the Home Missionary

Superintendent or a council of neighboring churches, a church is fully organized, of which the Sunday-school out of which it has grown remains an important part.

Instruction in administration and teaching. The next work of the Sunday-school missionary is to do all he can to make this a good school ; to advise its superintendent as to methods of administration, and its teachers as to the best ways of teaching. To this end institutes are often held, if possible, of groups of neighboring schools, in which they may receive such instruction. Evangelistic services are held, where there is no church, or where the center of this work is the school.

Aid, and its limits. Aid is continued in the supply of lesson helps and other material to keep up the interest *)f the school, it being encouraged to assume self-support as rapidly as it may be able. In fact, everything is done which can be to foster the religious life of the community, and to make the work begun both organically permanent and spiritually fruitful.

With the variations implied in the conditions, this is the general working plan in city and in country — a canvass, an organization, pastoral oversight, instruction and advice, and aid diminishing until self-support is possible and actual.

Chapter II

5l?e Supday-setyool Defied : its fi\(i\ apd its Orders.

I. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL DEFINED.

What is the Sunday-school? It is an organization which meets regularly on the Lord's Day for the social study of God's Word.

It is on the Lord's Day because (i) there is leisure on that day for such a gathering; (2) because the study of the Bible is an appropriate use of holy time.

It studies God's Word because the truth contained therein is able to make us wise unto salvation; to fit us to live wisely here and to save us from sin and death.

Its teaching is distinguished from that of the pulpit in that it is by question and answer; that it is conversational rather than oratorical ; that it is flexible as directed to topics which may prove to be of special value by the interest excited ; and that it is guided by the text of the Scripture rather than by selected topics.

Its main work is teaching : on this it is to depend for the accomplishment of its purpose. Its leading work is not exhortation : that belongs rather to the more general service or to private conversation. Exhortation soon wears out and loses its power by too frequent repetition. The Sunday-school is not chiefly for the personal application of the lesson to the class or to the individual pupils. Its work is the study of the Bible as a whole and in its parts, its history, its doctrines, and its duties. The Bible well taught may be trusted largely to make its own impression and application.

It is not a substitute for the religious instruction of the home. God has said to every father and mother, "Take this child and nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages,' * No individual or institution can relieve the parent of this responsibility and privilege. The Sunday-school may, however, help the parent in this work.

It is not a substitute for the other services of the church. It differs from them in its methods and means, while it works to the same end. It is incomplete without them, as they are without it. It may and ought to help them all.

II. ITS AIM

is to lead all who are engaged in it to an intelligent Christian faith and life. Nothing less than this would be a sufficient reason for giving to it a part of the Lord's Day. Nothing less than this consists with the purpose for which the Bible was given to and has been preserved in the world. What is its aim?

(i) Not mere entertainment. That is the lowest possible thought that can be connected with this work. To make the hour pass pleasantly is as insufficient a motive as to make the teacher or superintendent popular is an unworthy one. While both of these are important and desirable to be attained, in the Sunday-school as in the public worship of the church, it is merely as aids to the only worthy purpose for which the school or public worship is held.

(2) It is by no means a mere knowledge of the Bible either in its general character, its history, the relation of its different parts, or even an intellectual apprehension of its doctrines or the character of the Divine Man who is its central and commanding figure. The Bible was given for a

The Sunday-school Defined, 19

purpose and it is that which has been named as the object of its study. It is not a mere history, though it is that ; but it is the history of the revelation of God to us that he might be the object of our faith and love and obedience. Mere knowledge has no saving power. It must stir the heart and move the will or it only adds a burden of responsibility and an emphasis of condemnation.

(3) It is not simply conversion which should be its aim : but more than that. Conversion is only the beginning or rather the preliminary to a Christian life. It is the turning from sin to serve the living and true God. The life and the service are beyond it. It is the vessel casting off from the dock where it has been lying ; but the voyage is before it, the use of chart, compass, and rudder must be mastered, with a daily taking of the sun besides.

III. WHOM SHOULD IT INCLUDE?

All who desire or are willing to study and learn more of God's Word. This naturally includes all the children and youth. They are learning in all departments, and ought to desire and certainly need to be instructed in the Bible. It should include all who have not enjoyed or improved these advantages in their childhood and youth, and who therefore need to make up for that deficiency. It should include all who are not sure that they know all that it is important or possible for them to know of the Book which contains the revelation of our heavenly Father's character and will and purposes for us.

Not only the pupils should be in the Sunday-school for this purpose, but the officers and teachers as well. They too are there not only to teach but to learn. And there is no incentive to learn like learning to teach. There is no study which is so fruitful as that which is done with this motive.

It should include parents who have a motive in addition to their own needs in their preparation to minister to the needs of their children and to aid them in their study of the Bible.

It should certainly not omit the earnest pastor who will wish to be in the study with the rest for his own sake and that he may help to guide the study of all in the best direction.

Who are left out then ? None who are able to and can be persuaded to come, or to join the study at home.

IV. VARIOUS ORDERS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.

There are several kinds of schools, some of which are more complete than others. Some are permanent and some temporary in their forms.

i. The Church Sunday-school. This is the ideal school. Where there is an organized Christian church, this is the only form in which it ought to exist. The school is one of the forms of organized activity of the local church. This will be the idea in mind in the general counsels which occupy this book. The modifications necessary to apply them to the temporary forms of its existence will be generally obvious, and only occasionally expressed.

2. The mission or branch school. This is naturally the outreaching of the church to those who are too far away to attend the church school. It ought not to be a reaching down to a different class of those poorer in wealth or intelligence and who are therefore separated from the families who make up the home congregation. They ought to be welcomed to all that the church provides for its own, even if it must provide a little less for them in some regards. The church is all a mission, not a club, and it will best provide for its own by imbuing them all with the spirit of the Master. But there

Tlie Sunday-school Defined. 21

are those too far away to come ; to them it goes with the same advantages it offers to its own.

The distinction stated. The mission school may be more or less connected with the church. If the church assumes to supply a place for its sessions, money for its expenses, and teachers and officers for its work, it is essentially a part of the church — a branch.

If it is taken care of in these regards by individual members of the church, then it is a mission, or independent school, having only the moral support of the church and its pastor. The closer it can be tied to the home church the better, during the period of its dependency ; but the sooner it can be supplemented with other services of public worship, preaching, and prayer-meetings, the better ; and the sooner it can be graduated as a fully organized and independent church the best of all. Then, what was the branch or mission school will have become a church school in the full and ideal sense.

3. The pioneer school. In the newer parts of the country where religious institutions have not been organized, and in the newer parts of growing cities, the easiest way to begin Christian effort is with the Sunday- school. A simple organization may be effected, a superintendent and teachers selected as carefully as possible, and the aid, as may be absolutely necessary, given. To insure the permanence of such beginnings is more difficult than to begin them. A patient oversight is necessary. The best way is to place the school in relation to some particular branch of the Church of Christ, so that it shall be cared for, and above all so that it shall be developed in time into a church fully organized. It is important to hold the ground, but it is not sufficient in itself.

4. The union school: where needed. The place for this is where nothing else will grow ; where the people refuse to gather under the name or care of any organized denomination ; where there are temporary populations and no church can be planted and prosper. Here the people may unite to study the Bible and to pray and praise and to hear such preaching as they can secure.

Why seldom needed. There are few new communities, however, where it is not possible to organize a Sunday-school under the care of a particular branch of the Church, provided it is one which has no prominent and divisive peculiarities, and that the work is begun in a kindly and Christian spirit : and where if this body commends itself by its liberality and catholicity, there will not probably grow up a church of the corresponding order. It is an easy matter, and is often done, to turn such a school over to the care of another denomination if it shall be able to come to church organization first. " The best union school is a denominational school " has been often said by those at the front.

What it lacks. The difficulties of the union school are the lack of responsible supervision, the lack of connection with any organized church, the division which arises often with the question of organizing a church, and the fact that a much larger proportion of such schools fail to result in churches than of those planted and cared for by a denomination.

When injurious. A union school which hinders the organization of a church is an injury. A school which insists on remaining union after the organization of a church is an injury and limits the usefulness of the church and its minister.