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THE

SUNDAY-SCHOOL

IDEA:

AN EXPOSITION

OF THE

PRINCIPLES WHICH UNDERLIE THE SUNDAY- SCHOOL CAUSE,

SETTING FORTH

ITS OBJECTS, ORGANIZATION, METHODS AND CAPABILITIES.

By JOHN S. HART, LL.D.,

Senior Editor of The Sunday-School Times, Principal of the New Jersey State Normal School, author of " Thoughts on Sabbath-Schools," " The Golden Censer," "Removing Mountains " "Mistakes of Educated Men," "In the School Room," "Composition and Rhetoric" "English Grammar," etc., etc.

V PHILADELPHIA :

J. C. GARRIGUES & CO.,

No. 608 Arch Street. 1870.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by

J. C. GARRIGUES & CO., In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Preface

The intention of this book is to give a general survey of the whole subject of Sunday-schools. I have considered, first, the object of the institution, in its relations both to the individual scholar and to the great work of Christianizing the world. Next, the organization of the Sunday-school has come under review, and the true basis for such an organization has been defined. After this, I have discussed at great length the varied duties and qualifications of the Superintendent and of the Teacher, — the men and women by whose labors and counsels the organization is to be carried on and made effectual. Besides the work to be done by these in their separate individual capacities, is that dependent upon concerted action, and this has led to a general review of the various associations of teachers, whether for their own improvement, or for the promotion of the cause at large. The important topic of Sunday-school literature has been discussed at considerable length, and suggestions have been made as to the best methods of selecting Sun-

4 PREFACE.

day-school books and of managing the library. Sunday-school anniversaries, Sunday-school missions, the mode of starting a new school, the relations of the Sunday-school to the family, to the church and the minister, Teachers' Institutes, Teachers' Normal classes, with a large variety of other affiliated topics, have been passed under review.

The subject having for many years engaged no small share of my thoughts, there is in fact hardly any aspect of it which has not, at one time or another, come up for practical consideration. I have aimed accordingly in the present volume to give my whole rounded idea of what the Sunday-school is, and of what it is capable. I have aimed, however, to discuss principles rather than methods ; and in those instances in which particular methods have been advocated, they have always been given in connection with the principles which underlie them and govern them. To the intelligent workman, here as elsewhere, the rationale of what he does is more important than the particular mode of doing it. Methods change or die out, principles are eternal. J. S. H.

Trenton, N. J., October, 1870.

Chapter I. Objects Of The Sunday-school

PAGE

i. The Great Object— Conversion of the Scholars. 14

Building up the Converts in Holiness 15

Instructing them in Bible Knowledge 16

The Work before the Church 17

Duty in regard to Religious Instruction 18

What the Church must do 19

Alarming Deficiencies 20

2. The Mission Work of the Sunday-school Enterprise 21

The Aggressive Work 22

More than Missionaries Needed 23

Christianity essentially Aggressive 24

Duty to those without 25

Evangelization by means of the Sunday-school 26

Duty of Churches as such 27

The Sunday-school a Missionary Agency 29

Supporting Missionaries 30

Mission Work Everywhere 31

Chapter II. Sunday-school Organization

Basis of Organization 35

Appointment of Superintendent 37

PAGE

Appointment of other Officers 40

1. The Secretary 40

2. The Librarian 41

3. The Chorister 42

Relation of Teachers to Superintendent 43

Chapter III. The Superintendent

1. The First Qualification — Earnest Piety 50

2. Executive Ability 52

3. Things not Wanted 54

1. Not Fussy 54

2. Not Fretful 54

3. Not Noisy 55

4. Not a Talker 56

4. Putting Forth a Personal Influence 57

5. Knowing what is Going on in the School 61

6. Knowledge of the Lesson 64

7. Bestowing Attention upon all 66

8. Sympathizing with all 67

9. The Work of Classifying the School 69

Principles of Classification 70

2. Size 72

3. Social Condition 74

4. Intellectual Progress 75

5. Individual Peculiarities 76

10. Maintaining Order 78

1. Doing Things Quietly 80

2. Doing Things at the Right Time 83

3. Keeping Things and Persons in Place 84

1 1. Exercising Government 87

12. Making a Programme 93

13. Opening School Punctually 99

14. Preparation for the Opening 100

PAGE

15. Giving out Notices in School 101

16. Giving out the Hymn * . . . . 103

1. Waiting for the Scholars to Find the Place 103

2. Care in Announcing the Place 104

3. Grammatical Blunders 106

4. Reading just what is to be Sung 106

5. Giving the Key-note t 106

6. Looking while Reading 107

17. Reading the Scriptures 108

1. Avoiding Formality 109

2. Being in Earnest no

3. Studying the Passage Ill

4. Meditating over it 112

5. Reading to One's Self 113

6. Number of Verses to be Read 114

7. Keeping the School in your Eye 114

18. The Opening Prayer 115

1. An Example 116

2. Another Example 118

3. The Superintendent's Manner in Prayer 1 19

4. A Devout Pause before and after 120

5. Concluding Remarks 121

Chapter IV. The ^teacher

1. The First Qualification 124

2. Winning Souls 128

3. Help from the Great Teacher 131

4. Having an Aim 136

1. To Secure Regularity of Attendance 138

2. To Secure Study of the Lesson 138

3. To Maintain Order 139

4. To Teach Something 142

5. To Teach Something Additional every Sunday 143

6. To Teach Something to every Scholar 143

PAGE

7. To make your Teaching Scriptural 145

8. To get the Scholars to Commit to Memory 146

9. To Secure the Conversion of your Scholars. 147

5. Difference between Teaching in Sunday-school and in

other Schools 149

1. None of the Ordinary School Penalties 149

2. The Subject of Instruction more Practical 150

3. More Committing to Memory Required 152

6. Class-Teaching 153

7. How to Question a Class 157

1. A Conviction that the Power is Attainable 158

2. A Clear Idea of the Object of Questioning 159

3. The Mode of Questioning 162

a. The Teacher should not limit himself to the Book. 162

b. He must be thoroughly at home in the Lesson.. 162

c. He must make the Scholars give back all the

ideas he gives them 163

d. He must Skip about the Class 164

8. How to Conduct a Recitation 165

1. Closing the Books 165

2. Reciting the Verses 166

3. Finding the References 167

4. Skipping about 168

5. Keeping all the Class engaged 169

6. Making the Scholars do the Talking 170

9. Teaching out of Book 171

10. Holding the Attention of a Class 177

1 1. Keeping the Scholars busy 184

12. Gaining the Affections of the Scholars 189

13. Reaching the Comprehension of the Scholars 193

14. Variety in Teaching ' 199

1. In Manner 202

2. In Topics 203

3. In Illustrations 204

4. Necessity of Freshness 205

15. Assigning a Definite Lesson 206

PAGE

16. Preparation for the Lesson 210

1. Committing the Verses to Memory. 212

2. The Parallel Texts 215

3. Use of the Question-Book 215

4. Finding Additional Illustrations 217

5. Critical Study of Meaning 217

6. Providing Practical Thoughts 219

7. Beginning Early in the Week 220

8. Seeking the Aid of the Great Teacher 220

17. Getting the Scholars to Learn the Lesson 221

18. Acquaintance with the general Contents of the Scriptures 229

19. Irregular Attendance of Teachers 230

20. Visiting Scholars 233

21. Keeping up with the Times 237

1. He should take a Teacher's Paper 239

2. He should have a Teacher's Library 241

3. He should attend Conventions 241

Chapter V. Teachers In Council

r. The Necessity of Social Gatherings 244

2. State Conventions 248

3. County Conventions 252

4. County Institutes < 257

Institute Programme 260

5. Teachers' Weekly Meeting 265

Part I. — How to Selegt the Library. The Enormous Amount of Sunday-school Books 273

Useless Lamentations not Recommended 275

How shall the Selection be made ? 277 io CONTENTS.

PAGE

A Reading Committee 279

How is the Committee to be Appointed ? 280

Who are fitted to be on the Committee 282

1. Persons of Education and Culture 282

2. Persons well acquainted with Christian Doctrine. . 282

3. Persons having Sympathy with Children 283

What Sort of Books should be Selected 284

The Actual Selection , 286

What Books are Unsuitable 288

Part II. — How to Manage the Library. Difficulties in the Ordinary Methods. 292

1. Books Disappear 292

2. Inconveniences in the Manner of Selecting Books

from the Library 293

3. The Interruption to the Lessons caused by the usual

Methods of Managing the Library. 296

The Plan Proposed 298

1. A Printed Catalogue to be used 299

2. The Scholar's Library Card 300

3. The Use of a Register Number 301

4. The Selection of Books to be made at Home 302

5. Returning Cards and Books 302

6. Giving out Cards and Books 303

7. Mode of Numbering the Books 303

The Work of the Librarian 303

1. The Use of the Checks 304

2. The Use of the Register 305

3. Recapitulation of the Librarian's Work 309

Chapter VII., Relations Of The Sunday-school To Other Re- Ligious Institutions

1. The Sunday-school and the Church 310

2. The Sunday-school and the Minister 318

CONTENTS. II

PAGE

3. The Sunday-school and Parents 324

4. Attendance of Scholars in Church 328

5. School Accommodations 335

Chapter VIII. Miscellaneous Topics

1. Sunday-School Music 340

1. Mere Noise not Song 342

2. Mere Song not Sufficient 342

3. The Music of the School should be such as will be

Continued in the Church 343

2. Sunday-school Anniversaries 346

3. Closing Schools in Winter 355

4. Closing Schools in Summer 359

5. After Vacation 365

6. Treatment of New Scholars ; 368

7. Absenteeism 374

8. Uniform Lessons 379

9. How to Start a New School . . 385

1. Seek Guidance from above 385

2. Be Prepared to make Sacrifices 386

3. Read on the Subject 387

4. Study the Ground 387

5. Get together your Fellow-workers 387

6. Make a Family Visitation of the Neighborhood 389

7. Secure a Place for holding the School 390

8. The Cost of Starting a School 390

9. Choice of Superintendent 392

10. Opening the Meeting 392

1 1. Classifying the Scholars 393

12. Method of Classification 393

13. The Teachers making themselves Acquainted with

the Scholars. 394

14. The Superintendent to have a Class 394

15. The Secretary and Librarian not to have a Class 395

PAGE

16. The First Session 395

17. Constitution and By-laws 396

10. Are we making Progress ? 396

1. A Better Theory of the Object of the Sunday-school. 397

2. The Relation of the Sunday-school to the Church

better understood 398

3. Greater Facilities in the way of Books, Maps, etc 399

4. Improvement in Sunday-school Music 401

5. Better Machinery for Improving the Character of the

Schools 402

6. Better Understanding of the Functions of the Sunday-

School in Developing the Lay Talent of the Church 403

7. A Hopeful Discontent with the Present State of

Things 406

THE

SUNDAY-SCHOOL

IDEA.

Chapter I, The Objects Of The Sunday-school

j|N conducting any enterprise, it is important frequently to recur to first principles and to define clearly the objects for which the enterprise is undertaken. In the excitement of pursuit, it is not uncommon for men to forget what it is that they are pursuing, and to rush on from the mere love of the chase, regardless of the end. Few social agencies are more useful than the fire companies of our cities. Yet how frequently do we see more property destroyed by the exuberant and heedless energy of an excited fire company than by the fire itself!

I do not mean to compare the Sunday-school organization to the Fire Department. Yet Sunday- 2 13 school teachers, equally with firemen, need to have clear ideas of what it is that they are called to do. The teacher, equally with the fireman, for the want of definite aims may beat the air, or may even do harm where he seeks to do good.

What then is the aim of the Sunday-school ?

The First and Great Object,

The first, great aim, undoubtedly, is to bring the scholars to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ — to secure their conversion. The teacher should aim at this just as steadily and fixedly as the fireman aims, above and before all other considerations, to save the life of a forgotten sleeper from the flames of a blazing dwelling. To the accomplishment of this his first end, all other ends are to the teacher subordinate and secondary. Until the accomplishment of this, all other results are nugatory. For this he labors, studies, visits, prays, agonizes. The burden of his thoughts and desires is, How shall I compass the conversion of my pupils ? This, beyond all question, is the first and main end of the Sunday-school. The institution is not a missionary society, or a temperance society, or an anti-tobacco society, or a debating society, or a school for teaching history, geography, literature and antiquities, but a school to do for the young what the church is doing — to bring them to the knowledge of Christ. Nor is it an institution above, or below, or outside of, or in any way antagonistic to the church, but rather it is a particular mode in which the church itself is carrying out the behests of its Lord.

Building up Converts in Holiness. The church, while aiming primarily at the conversion of souls, does not stop at this naked result. When a soul is converted to God, the church does not then give up all care for it, and leave it to struggle on in its new career unaided and alone. As well almost might the mother abandon her new-born babe, and give her energies forthwith to other cares. The soul that is new-born into the kingdom needs continual watchfulness and fostering care. This is especially true of those regenerated in early youth. The tenderer the years at which they are converted, the greater the care and watchfulness required after their conversion. A teacher whose labors should be blessed by the conversion of all the members of his class would be strangely derelict in duty were he then to abandon his class as no longer needing his care, and go off in search of other scholars to be converted. Christ is glorified not only by the conversion of souls, but by their steadfastness in the faith and their growth in holiness. If a child, after being truly converted, is left to go astray and fall into sin, and to become through life a weak and puny Christian, though he may be finally saved, he yet misses much of the glory and brightness of the Christian life, and he brings much dishonor upon the cause.

We must aim, then, not only to bring the lambs into the fold, but to keep them there, and to give them due nurture and protection. The Sunday-school is an agency of the -church specially suited to do this part of the Christian work. The young Christian needs to be thoroughly grounded in doctrine. When a scholar is converted and joins the church, our work with him is just begun. We must patiently and faithfully teach him the doctrines of the Bible. The truths of the Holy Scriptures are the aliment by which the Christian grows. What the young disciple especially needs is, not only exhortation, but teaching. The pastor who is wise will spend much time in simple, instructive discourses, having for their aim to build up the young of his flock in sound Christian knowledge, and he will regard with peculiar satisfaction those of his helpers and fellow-laborers who in the Sunday-school carry out in detail, and apply to personal and individual cases, the portions of doctrine which he from the pulpit distributes in the mass and to the whole congregation.

Instruction in Bible Knowledge. Nor should the teacher wait until a child is converted before beginning to instruct him in the truths of the Bible and the duties of the Christian life. The doctrines of the Bible, it should be remembered, are not only useful for growth in grace, but they are the most efficient means of conversion. While the teacher should not neglect the duty of personal appeal and exhortation, yet let him not forget that there is a mighty power in God's word to pierce the heart and conscience. Let him unceasingly plant this divine seed in the minds of his scholars. It may lie long before it is quickened. But in time it will take root and grow. The work of grace in a heart thus thoroughly indoctrinated in Scripture truth is much more glorious than that fitful excitement sometimes wrought by mere passionate appeals to the feelings.

The great aim of the Sunday-school, then, is the conversion of the young and the building up of its converts in holiness of heart and life, and its great means are the indoctrination of the young, both before and after conversion, in the truths of the Bible.

But this is confining our views to a single school. Let us endeavor to look beyond this single point, and get a view of the Sunday-school enterprise in its broader and more general aspects.

The Work Before us.

It is for Christians to Christianize the world. This is among the plainest postulates of the gospel scheme. Another truth equally fundamental is that education is the main agency to be used in the work of Christianization. Children believe what they are taught to believe. They are what they are trained to be. After all necessary deductions and abatements for individual cases, this is the great fact in human history. As the twig is bent the tree is inclined. Teaching and training make the man. Teaching and training make the nation. There are no means more used and blessed by the Holy Spirit in the work of 2* . B l8 OBJECTS OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL.

turning men to Christ and of establishing his kingdom in the world than this of education. The church itself is only the school of Christ, in which all are alternately scholars and teachers, ever learning and teaching the truths which Christ has promulgated for the salvation of the world.

Duty of the Church to give Religious Teaching to the Toung. The Sunday-school is not an institution by itself, having an independent existence and organization of its own, but is only the church working in that particular way while carrying out its appointed mission of evangelizing the world. The duty of giving a Christian education to the young has been laid upon the church by the Master, and this duty, it has been found, can best be discharged by means of the Sunday-school. Children may indeed be taught the doctrines and precepts of the Bible privately at home by their parents or by others specially employed for the purpose. The same is true of all parts of a child's education. He may be taught the languages and the various sciences at home by his parents or by private tutors. Many persons prefer this method of education. But it is easy to see that not one in a thousand, perhaps not one in ten thousand, has the means to educate his children in this way. Few parents have themselves the education or the leisure to discharge the duty personally, and still fewer have the wealth to enable them to employ a private tutor. Religious teaching is no exception to this remark. It would be a sad day for the church and for the world if no children were to receive religious teaching and training but those who had educated and godly parents able and willing to do the work. To the mass of mankind, the ninety and nine out of the hundred, knowledge comes by schooling. The young learn the doctrines and precepts of the Bible most readily and effectually, just as they learn most readily the rules of arithmetic and grammar — namely : by going to school for the purpose, by making a business of it. Any other method is apt to be fitful, irregular and inadequate. If the great body of children in the community are to be instructed systematically and effectually in the doctrines of the Christian religion, and if this instruction cannot conveniently be given in the week-day school, then we must have a school especially for the purpose on Sunday, and this Sunday-school must be made as efficient as the talent, the education, the wealth and the fidelity of the church to her Master can make

it.

What the Church must do.

The church must aim, first, to bring into the school all the children in her borders who are of school age, and secondly, to give to the school the very highest efficiency of which it is capable. The church is not acting up to the exigencies of the case until it is found willing to expend upon this work an amount of energy and liberality commensurate with that which the State spends upon secular education. The city of New York alone spends annually upon her daily public-schools more money than is expended by all the Christians of the United States on Sunday-schools. So long as such a state of things exists, so long as the Sunday-school is sustained in this feeble, half-hearted way, let croakers and unbelievers cease to wail over its failings and short-comings. The Sunday-school is not accomplishing what it ought to accomplish. Nobody knows this more fully, nobody bewails it more truly, than I do. But I also as truly and fully believe that the Sunday-school may be all that is claimed for it, that it may accomplish all that is legitimately required of it, that it may teach its pupils the doctrines of religion and train them in habits of piety, just as thoroughly as these same children on the other days of the week are taught and trained in the daily schools how to read, write and spell. But to do this the church of course must use adequate means and must go about the work in good earnest.

Alarming Deficiencies. There is no disguising the fact that fully one-half the juvenile population of the community is out of the Sunday-school, and of this half all except the most inconsiderable fraction are outside of religious instruction and influence. The good people who go to church and to Sunday-school themselves, and who see with their own eyes the crowds of others who attend the church and the school, can hardly be made to believe the portentous fact which I have named. If they might with propriety on a Sunday morning, instead of going to church, take a stroll in the fields in the neighborhood of the village or town, and see the hundreds of idle boys and young men on almost every open lot engaged in the so-called sport of base ball, which has become such a national mania, they might perhaps realize a little better the startling facts revealed by the census. Is the church doing anything in reference to this evil at all commensurate with its gigantic character?

The Mission Work of the Sunday-school Enterprise.

The Sunday-school work of the country is clearly divisible into tw T o heads. The first contemplates the perfecting of the schools which exist, particularly of those which are connected with old and w T ellestablished churches. This undoubtedly is a great work. Of the more than one hundred thousand existing schools, how few are accomplishing all that they might accomplish ! What a power to the church this agency would be if its machinery were all complete and thoroughly efficient ! If our Sunday-schools had even the efficiency and the completeness of our week-day schools, though the latter are far from being models, what an impulse would be given to the healthful life and activity of the church, and to the growth of godliness among men ! Most assuredly, the perfecting of our existing schools is one great department of the Sunday-school work in this country.

The Aggressive Work. But the aggressive work of the Sunday-school enterprise is still greater and more important. If the four millions or more of children who attend the Sunday-school are very imperfectly taught, and receive comparatively little benefit, let it not be forgotten that not less than five millions attend no school, and are entirely without the means of religious instruction. The very poorest school that was ever kept together is better than no school. The child who attends most irregularly, and has a teacher of the very smallest qualifications, is better off than the child who goes to no school and spends his Sunday in roaming through the streets or the fields. Every well-conducted inquiry develops almost uniformly the fact that more than one-half of the youth of the land are growing up in ignorance of God and of Bible truth, attending neither school nor church, many of them unable to read, and even these, by reason of the vicious and depraving literature with which young minds are poisoned, being for the most part better off than those who can read.

This, then, is the aggressive work of the Sunday-school enterprise. The people of God have in hand the invasion of this vast outlying mass of neglected ignorance and vice. They aim at nothing less than to bring into the Sunday-school, and under religious influence, every child who is willing, or can be persuaded, to come. The Sunday-school has become a leading agency by which the church seeks to fulfil its mission of evangelizing the entire population. It is in the fullest sense of the word a missionary enterprise. It is a work in which every Christian who is in bodily health may give personal service. Not every one can personally preach Christ to the heathen. The most of us must content ourselves with giving our money to send others. But in bringing neglected children into the Sunday-school, almost the entire body of Christians can engage personally. It is a work which can be adequately accomplished in no other way than by the personal service of the great body of Christians.

More than Missionaries Needed. A few city missionaries scattered here and there, a few scores or even hundreds of missionaries in the West, cannot accomplish this work. The work is too great, too pervading, too widespread, to be effectually reached by any mere partial, or local, or transient effort. We must have, indeed, our city missionaries and our Western missionaries, and we must multiply them twenty-fold. But these, however multiplied, cannot do the work. As well might a few gardeners, with their watering-pots, undertake to supply the summer rain. The great work of Christian evangelization must be done by the great mass of God's people. To bring into the Sunday-school five millions of neglected children can be done only by the general co-operation of the six millions of professing Christians. It is a work for all. It is a work for every one. Deducting one-sixth for those physically disabled by ill health and the infirmities of age, there would still be left one professing Christian for every neglected child. What Christian loves his Lord so little, or is so poor in resources, that he cannot, byinquiry and persuasion and personal effort, in the course of a year, or of two years, or three years, bring one child into the Sunday-school? What church that will undertake this matter seriously and systematically cannot, in one, two, or three years, bring into the Sunday-school as many neglected children as it has church members? What Christian, what church, has not within reach neglected children on whom to operate ? We need not go to Bedford street, or to the Five Points, or to the far West, to find children that go to no Sunday-school. They are all around us, within stone's throw of our dwellings, living in the next street, perhaps in the next house. We meet them every time we go to our places of business. We see them on every street corner. We can hardly avoid them if we would.

Here, then, is the aggressive work in which we are engaged. The six millions of American Christians must, not by gifts of money, not by sending substitutes, but by personal service, bring into the Sunday-school and under religious influence the five millions of neglected children among us who are growing up in practical heathenism.

Christianity Aggressive.

Christianity is essentially aggressive. The man who is a true Christian himself desires to see all other men Christians. To this he looks, for this he labors and prays. "Thy kingdom come" is the burden of his prayer. To speed its coming is the object of his labor and effort. It is not in the nature of the case that he should be indifferent to this object. Neutrality in the case is not possible. Our Saviour himself expressly says, " He that is not with me is against me." Christianity is not like a scheme of philosophy, or a dogma of science, which a man may receive as his own belief, with unconcern as to what others believe about it. If a man believes Christianity to be true, he must needs be anxious that others should have the same faith. He is, by his very nature as well as by his profession, a propagandist. The church is an organization for this very purpose, to spread the doctrine it has received. The church has been planted in the world, not for the purposes of self-defence, but for aggression. It aims at no less than to bring all men within its pale. Duty to Those Without. If such be the nature of Christianity, and such the office of a Christian church, what should we expect in any community in which a number of churches are planted ? Should these churches be contented w T ith merely holding their own ? — with merely taking care each of its own flock? Surely not. Every church should consider itself bound to make aggressions, not into its neighbor's fold, but into the territory not yet reclaimed from the enemy. There are few communities in which at least one-third of the population is not out- 3 side of any church. In the United States, the proportion of those who attend no* church, and who are openly of the number of the ungodly, is reckoned at one-half the population. This may possibly be an exaggeration. There may- be particular communities in which the number of those who are outside of religious influences and connections is far less. Yet I have never known a community stirred up to make a thorough exploration of this subject who did not find the facts far more deplorable and alarming than they had imagined. The number of those w r ho in this Christian land live and die as heathens, if not one-half of the entire population, is appallingly large. The Christian church has a work to do in regard to this element of society, which it must look steadily in the face, neither disheartened by the magnitude of the evil, nor on the other hand ignoring its existence.