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There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031386323 TEACHING AND TEACHERS THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER'S TEACHING WORK THE OTHER WORK OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. BY H. CLAY mUMBULL, D.D. EiJitor of The Sunday Scho()] Times; Formerly Normal Sccretai-y of The American Sunday School Union. PlIILADELPPIIA . JOHN D. WATTLES, Publisher. 1884. PrcBi of TrMES Printing HorsB, '•Jb and 727 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Copyright by H. Clay Trumbull. 1884. CONTE-NTS. Page PREFACE PART I. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER'S TEACHING WORK. THE TEACHIITG PROCESS. CHAPTER 1. ITS NATURE. PRELIMINAB Y STATEMENT, . .... SECTION I. NOT ALL TEACHINa IS TEACHING. Teaching and Teaching; Vague Notions of Teaching ; One Hindrance to Knowledge: Claiming is not Having ; How Many " Teachers'" are Teachers f . . . . ... 5 SECTION II. TELLING IS NOT TEACHING. A Common Error; No Teaching Without Learning; Ignorance of Long- time Hearers; A Good Teacher's Great Failure; The Pump and the Bellows ; What Telling may do . . . ... 9 iv Contents. SECTION III. BEARING A RECITATION IS NOT TEACHING. Page Hearing is not Teaching; Reciting is not Learning; Rote-questions bring Rote-answers; Buying Books does not Bring Knowledge; Blind Alec of Stirling ; Parrot Mathematicians ; What Memorizing cannot do 16 SECTION IV. WHAT TEACHING IS. Showing Errors is not Showing the Truth ; Indejiniteness of the Definitions ; The Essence of All Teaching ; Teaxhing Includes Learning; Other Meanings for Teaching, than Teaching ; Two Persons Needed to mahe One Teacher ; A Teacher's Other Work than Teaching . . . 26 CHAPTER 2. ITS ESSENTIALS. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT ■ . . . 35 SECTION I. YOU MUST KNOW WHOM YOU ARE TO TEACH. Why You should Know Your Scholars; Absurd Teaching ; Well-informed Ignorance; Children's Lack of Knowledge; All Things to All Men ; Giving a Prescription .... .37 SECTION II. YOU MUST KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TO TEACH. Scholars may Study , but Teachers must; A Boston Blunder; Knowing about the Lesson, without Knowing the Lesson; A Yorkshire Method; Wliat you must be Sure of . . . 52 Contents. v SECTION III. YOU MUST KNOW HOW YOU ABE TO TEACH. Page Knowing How is Essential to Well-doing ; A Doctor with all Kinds of Knowledge hut One ; The Need of a Vent-hole ; Choosing your own Method .... . . . .... 60 CHAPTER 3. ITS ELEMENTS. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT . . ... 68 SECTION I. HAVING THE ATTENTION OF THOSE YOU WOULD TEACH. No Teaching without Attention ; What Attention is ; Attention on the Flay-groiind ; Attention in the Army; Attention in the Sunday- school; Attention at Family Prayers; The Necessity of Holding Attention as well as Getting it ... . ... . . 70 SECTION II. MAKING CLEAR THAT WHICH YOU TEACH. Making Truth Clear is More than Declaring Truth; Intermediate Agencies in the Transfer of Ideas; Words Less Expressive than Visible Objects; Signs have not Always the Same Meaning ; Speaking in Unknown Tongues; Children's Impressions from Unfamiliar Words; Cultivating Stupidity ; Getting the Return Message . . 79 SECTION III. SECURING YOUR SCHOLARS' CO- WORK. Need of the Scholar's Help ; The Learner must Give, to Keep ; Telling, a Part of Learning; The Difference between Teaching and Preaching ; Contents. Influence and Instruction ; Oleansing a Mind, not Furnishing it , Teaching not the Teacher's only Worh; Philosophy of the Teaching- process . .... 92 CHAPTER 4. ITS METHODS. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. . . . . . 103 METHODS: IN PKEPABATION. SECTION I. HOW TO STUDY YOUR SCHOLARS FOB TEEIR TEACHINO. Difficulty of Showing how to Know Human Nature ; The Science and the Art of Teaching ; Color-blind Teachers ; Old Sermons for New Hearers ; Aptness to Teach ; The Child and the Chinaman ; Knowing a Child's Character; Knowing his Surroundings; Knowing his Attainments; How to Compass All This 105 SECTION II. HOW TO STUDY A LESSON FOR ITS TEACHING. What Solomon and Paul would Need ; What Studying a Lesson Means ; Having u, Plan of Study ; Old- Time Plans and Later Ones ; The Order of True Study ; Not Attempting Too Much; Testing One's Preparation ... . ... . . . 116 SECTION III. HOW TO PLAN FOR A LESSONS TEACHINO. Necessity of a Teaching Plan ; Tantalus and his Successors ; Bugbear Methods of Teaching ; Being Scientific without Knowing it ,- Various Contents. vii Page Lights from one Orystal ; Ananias and Sapphira ; A Beginning, a Middle, and an Ending ; Keeping within Time ; One Teacher's Way of Doing . . . . . 125 METHODS: IN PEACTICE. SECTION I. SOW TO GET AND HOLD YOUR SCHOLARS' ATTENTION. The Teacher R esponsille for his Scholar' s Duty ; Forcing Another' s Incli- nations; The Eyes and the Tongue : Lessons from the Pulpit : Begin Right; The Blackboard, Seen andUnseen; A Sheep-shearing Utilized; Holding as Well as Getting . . . . 138 SECTION II. HOW TO MAKE CLEAR THAT WHICH YOU WOULD TEACH. The Main Point Now ; Starting at the Bottom ; Working Patiently ; Using Illustrations; A Pattern Example; Avoiding Symbolic Language; Miracles Simpler than Parables ; The Help of the Scholar's Eye . . 150 SECTION III. HOW TO SECURE YOUR SCHOLARS' CO -WORK IN LESSON- TEA OHING. Finding the Scholar's Level; Knowing Too Much to Teach; Putting Chil- dren at Ease ; Giving Them Something to Do ; Naaman and Gehazi ; Modes of Questioning ; Gall's System; Fitch's Mistake; How Not to Do It; Scholars' Questions; Class Slates; Inter-working Plan . . . 167 METHODS: IN REVIEW. SECTION I. TESTING THE SCHOLAR'S KNOWLEDGE. Examinations Needful in all Schools ; A New Application of Pharaoh's Dream; Necessity of Frequent Testings; Elijah and Ahab; One yiii Contents. Page Scholar's Progress; Methods of Test Questioning; Father Paxson's Trouble; Getting What You Want; The Test in Testing ... .199 SECTION 11. FASTENING TEE TB UTS TA UGHT. Over and Over Again; A Lesson from, the Jesuits; Sow Much Reviewing is in Order; Our Liability to Forget; The Method of Jesus; Paul's Method; Repetition as a Pulpit Power; Repetition in Literature; Glass Methods of Repetition . . . . . ... . 210 SECTION III. NEW-VIEWING THE WHOLE. A Threefold Work in Reviewing ; How a Child Learns to Read ; Gain of a Perspective ; Three Lessons New-viewed ; The Thirteenth New Lesson ; Specimen New - Views. . .... 221 RECAPITULATION . . . 236 PART II. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER'S OTHER WORK THAN TEACHING. THE SHAPING AKD GUIDrnG OF SCHOLARS. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT . . -. 241 SECTION I. HAVING AND USING INFLUENCE. The Meaning of "Influence;'' From the Heavens; Voluntary and In- voluntary ; A Right Purpose ; Uncle John Vassar ; A Remembered Contents. ix Teacher; Specimen Superintendents; Thomas Arnold's Power; The Power of Character; The Church Window; The Incarnation; Unconscious Tuition; Losing an Ideal ; A Teacher's Responsibility; Now, and By and By ... . .... 243 SECTION II. LOVING, AND WINNING LOVE. What Love is ; No Power Like Love ; Love in a Oarret ; Every Man Has a Heart ; Love as a Duty ; Instances of Love ; All Can Love ; Christ's Image Reproduced in Love ... 284 SECTION III. MANAGING SCHOLARS WHILE PRESENT. Practical Details to he Considered ; What Managing Means ; Gain of a Great Need ; A Troublesome Class ; A Teacher's Sufficiency ; Testing the Teacher ; Preparation Needful ; At the Teacher's Home ; A Word in the Ear ; Specimen Scholars ; A Class as a Class ; A Teacher's Helpers; Having What You Want; A Slow Work; The Bronze Finishers . . ... 297 SECTION IV. REACHING SCHOLARS WHEN ABSENT Danger of Losing the Absent; Causes of Absence ; Gain of Work for the Absent; The Apostle John and the Robber ; Calling Bach the Truant; Writing Letters to the Absent ; Gain through Letter- Writing . . . 327 SECTION V. HELPING SCHOLARS TO CHRISTIAN DECISION. The End and Aim of Sunday-school Work ; Confounding Conversion with Regeneration ; Urging the Wrong Child ; Mistaking the Spiritual State of Others ; Seeking to Learn a Scholar's Needs ; Helping a Scholar to the Right Stand 340 X Contents. SECTION VI. COUNSELINQ AND AIDING AT ALL TIMES. Page General Duties of a Teacher: The Sunday-school in the Plan of God; The Family, the School, and the Pulpit; Advantages of the School over Family and Pulpit; The Clergyman over All; Helping Scholars in Secular Concerns; Helping into the Ministry; Duties Never Con- flict; Guiding a Scholar s Beading ; Oaring for Christian Scholars ; A Lesson from the Looms ; The Final Judgment 352 INDEX 379 PREFACE. The special characteristic of this volume on the Sunrlay- school teacher's work, in contrast with the many other books on the same general subject, is its attempt at com- pleteness in a systematic order, with the avoidance of purely technical terms. Its style is adapted to the ordinary teacher's comprehension, and its aim is to be readable ; while the whole structure of the work is based on sound philosophical principles. The writer has had some advantages for this service, in that he has had not a little experience in Sunday-school teaching in both church and mission schools, in city and in country, and has long had occasion to study and to write on the principles and the methods of Teaching. In lectures and addresses, and in colloquial discussions, for a series of years, on the various phases of this general theme, before Sunday-school conventions and institutes, teachers' meetings, normal classes, and theological semi- naries, he has been compelled to test his theories and his opinions, by comparison with other experts, and under the pressure of keen criticism from bright thinkers and xii Preface. sharp doubters ; so that what he now gives to the public is the matured result of the experience, the study, and the discussions, of years. Much that is in these pages has, in one form or another, already seen the light, in the columns of The Sunday School Times, The ISTational Sunday School Teacher, The Sunday School "Workman, The Sunday School World, The Sunday School Journal, The Independent, The ~Ee\y York Observer, The Congregation alist. The Advance, and other religious papers. Much of it, however, is quite new ; and all of it has been re-cast for this work. That there is a place for such a volume, the writer has not a doubt. That this volume will fill that place, is his desire. It is for the readers to ascertain how far it meets their needs in the direction of its aim and endeavor. Philadelphia, September, 1884. I. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER'S TEACHING ¥ORK THE TEACHING PROCESS. 1. ITS NATURE. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. All Sunday-school teachers ought to be teachers in the Sunday-school. Being teachers in the Sun- day-school, they ought to teach in the Sunday- school. In order to teach in the Sunday-school, they need to know what teaching is. An initial purpose of this volume is so to designate and define the nature and methods, and so to indicate the comparative rarity, of proper Sunday-school teach- ing, as will enable Sunday-school teachers to know whether or not they are, or ever have been, teachers in the Sunday-school. The practical need of this inquiry, on their part, will best be made apparent by an exhibit of the fact and of the causes of honest doubt at this essential point. This may, indeed, seem to be a confusing and a discouraging way of approaching so important a subject; but there is sometimes again through one's beinsr confused and discouraged. If one is in serious Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Gain through confusion. Teaching and Teachers. Paet I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. error, it is important to find it out. If one is on the wrong track, it is well for him to be discouraged in and from his purpose of continuing on that track. And, in such a case, confusion of mind may be a necessary preliminary to a new clearness of appre- hension. And first, in this instance, it is well to note, that not all teaching is teaching. Vague Actions of Teaching. NOT ALL TEACHING IS TEACHING. Teaching and Teaching ; Vague Notions of Teaching ; One Hindrance to Knowledge; Claiming is not Having; How many "Teachers" are Teachers f Everybody will admit that not all teaching is what it ought to be. Everybody might fairly admit that not all teaching is what it is supposed to be. Whether it be generally admitted or not, it is cer- tainly true, that a great deal that bears the name of " teaching" is by no means entitled to that name ; that although it is "teaching," in name, it is not teaching, in fact. There are even those who call themselves " teachers" who do not know whether they are teachers or not. They actually cannot tell what teaching is. The very word " teaching" has a vague and undefined meaning in their minds; and they would be puzzled to give it any fair explana- tion. It is, indeed, often the case, that our familiarity with a word stands in the way of our knowing that word's meaning. We are so accustomed to the word itself, and have freely used it so long, that we Part I. The Teacher's Tt'aching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Acquaint- ance often hinders knowledge. Teaching and Teachers. Pabt I. The Teacher's Tenchiug Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Define leaching. do not stop to consider its real scope and limitations, as we employ and apply it ; nor would it alwaj-s be easy for us to express our understanding of the idea which it is designed to convey. In many cases, therefore, there is a decided gain in our putting our- selves directly at the task of settling the meaning of a word which is on our lips every day of our lives. "We may find that we have had an entirely wrong conception of its signification and purport; or, again, we may find that we have had no specific conception of its signification and purport, but have merely taken it as the current designation of a fact, or a thing, with Avhich we are in a general way familiar. That " teaching " is a word of this sort, will be plain to almost any one who gives the matter a mo- ment's reflection. What is " teaching" ? You say that you are a " teacher : " what do j'ou mean by that ? You say that jon are " ready to teach " your class: what do you mean by that? You say that you " have taught " your class : what do you mean by that ? How many of those who call themselves, or who are called by others, " Sunday-school teach- ers," have a clear idea of what " teaching " is, — Sunday-school teaching or any other kind of teach- ing, — or, can define their understanding of that term ? Yet how can a person fairly be called a teacher, when he does not as yet know what teaching is ? There would certainly seem to be very little hope of a man's success in any line of endeavor, so long as he is igno- Counted on the Bolls. rant as to what he has undertuken to do ; or, so long as he is in douht as to the nature of his undertaking. It is obviously true that a man may be called " a teacher " without being a teacher. A superin- tendent may designate a person to the office of teacher in the Sunday-school, or the church authori- ties may duly designate him as such, without his being competent to teach. That makes him " a teacher" — by the record; but it does not make him a teacher — in fact, ITor does his acceptance of the position tendered him, make the selected " teacher " a teacher. His saying that he is " a teacher," no more gives him a fitness to teach, than does the similar saying of those who are in authority over the school. "How many legs does a calf have, if you count his tail one ? " is a boy's conundrum. " Five," answers one. " Not a bit of it," says the other. " Counting a calf's tail a leg, does n't make it one. A calf has only four legs, however you count them." How many real teachers are there in all the Sunday- schools of the United States, "counting" all who are on the rolls as teachers? There are two ways of answering that question ; and the answers would bo a long way apart. Until each one of those " teach- ers " knows what teaching is, he is unable to decide for himself whether he is a teacher in fact, or only " a teacher " by the record. Yet it makes a vast dif- ference to a Sunday-school, whether it has teachers vfh.0 fill their places, or only teachers who hold them. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter]. Nature of the Teaching Process. A teacher may be no teacher. Teaching and Teachers. Paet I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Kature of the Teaching Process. Poor substi- tute.s for teaching. As an evidence of the prevalent uncertainty and indefiniteness in the use of this term, it may be well to look at two or three of its common and improper uses, by referring to certain processes which often pass for teaching, but which are not teaching. The considering of these misuses of the term, will pre- pare the way for a more intelligent examination into its strict and proper meaning. Talldng to the Deaf. n. TELLING IS NOT TEACHING. A Common Error ; No Teaching without Learning ; Ignorance of Long- lime Hearers ; A Good Teacher's Great Failure; The Pump and the Bellows; What Telling may do. One of the commonest mistakes of a Sunday-school teacher is in supposing that telling a thing to a scholar is teaching that thing to the scholar. Tell- ing a thing may be a part of the process of teaching ; and again it may n.ot he ; hut telling, in and of itself, never is teaching — it cannot be. Until a teacher realizes this truth he is not prepared to be a teacher ; therefore I would like to tell this truth to all teach- ers and to all who waijt to be teachers, although I am very well aware that merely telling it in this way will not teach it to anybody. If the scholar is deaf, and you tell him a truth by word of mouth, with your head down so that he cannot see the movement of your lips, it is very clear that you have not taught him what you have told him. If he has ears, but they are intent on some- thing else than your words while you are talking to him ; or, if you talk in a language whida he docs not Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Speaking to closed ears. 10 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapteb 1 . Nature of the Teaching Process No teaching without learning. If only tell- ing would teach t understand, — it is equally clear that your telling is not teaching, so far as he is concerned. Thus far all will agree; but the principle involved has a pro- founder reach than this. ISo person learns at once everything that is told to him; and no person is taught until he learns ; nor more than he learns. To tell a child for the first time all the letters of the alphabet does not teach him his alphabet. To tell a scholar all the rules of grammar or of arithmetic, all the boundaries of all the states of the Union, or all the principles of natural or moral philosophy, does not, by any means, teach him all those things. Teaching would be a very simple matter, if telling were teaching; but no one thinks of counting the two processes identical — except in the sphere of purely religious truth ; as in the church and Sunday- school. Who would think of teaching an apprentice to shoe a horse, or to set type, or to make a watch, by simply telling him how ? Who would expect artists, or authors, or soldiers, to be taught in their profession by the mere telling of their duties ? If men and women knew all the valuable truths which have been told them, from the lecture platform, in social con- verse, and by direct personal instruction, how wise the world would be ! If children had been taught all the good things that have been told to them at home and elsewhere, how much more they would know than their parents — ^who have not always been taught An Ignorant Hearer. 11 by simply being told ! And what learned congrega- tions we should have, if all that some of these wise and venerable preachers have told their people, had been learned by their people ! That telling has not been teaching in every case, all will see at a glance, whether they are ready or not to agree that telling is never teaching, nor ever can be. How common it is for a preacher who has been faithful in proclaiming the truth from the pulpit, to bemoan the fact that persons who have sat under his preaching for years are found to be in woful igno- rance on points which he has pressed most plainly and earnestly, until it seemed to him that every hearer must understand them perfectly ! A preacher of rare ability and of rare faithfulness, who was a pupil of Dr. Thomas Chalmers, and who remained the pastor of a single Ifew England church during the period of nearly a full generation, gave me this testi- mony : " There was in my congregation a woman of more than average intelligence, who seemed to me one of my most interested hearers, as, foryears, she was one of the most regular attendants at our church services. I was often encouraged by her attentive and responsive appearance as I preached, although she was not a member of the church. But by and by she fell sick, and I visited her to press home the subject of her personal needs and duty as a sinner. To my amazement, I found her hardly less ignorant of the great fundamental truths of the gospel than Paht I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Ignorance of many good Listeners. 12 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Hearing ali and learning uoihing. Teachers and preachers. if she had been brought up in a heathen land. I tell you, that as I stood by her bedside trying to make plain to her, in that late hour of her probation, those simple truths -which I had repeated to her from the pulpit over and over again, and v^'hich I had sup- posed she knew all about, I had a new sense of the fact, that to say a thing explicitly and Repeatedly is not necessarily to make that thing the possession of those who hear it." Or, in other words, that preacher had then and there found out, what many a preacher before and since has discovered, and what many another, unfortunately, has not yet perceived — that telling a thing is not teaching that thing. ISTor is it merely because the preacher stands off at a distance, and talks to the whole congregation instead of to a single individual, that his telling is, in itself, no teaching. A teacher's talk is no more teaching, than is a preacher's talk. A scholar may be as ignorant of the truths which his teacher has repeated to him plainly, and pressed home on him individually, many times over, as was ever a passive listener in the congregation to a preacher's words from the pulpit. I, certainly, can testify, out of my personal experience, that one of the godliest and most learned men who ever occupied a place as a Sunday-school teacher was a marked illustration of. failui-e just at this point. That man was a distin- guished jurist; one whose praise was in all the churches — and whose memoir is in the Sunday- The Passive Bucket. 13 school libraries. He prepared himself most elabo- rately on his lesson. He came to the class with full notes. He talked wisely, plainly, directly, from the beginning to the end of the lesson-hour — although commonly with his eyes closed, and always without asking any questions. He taught much by his punctuality, and his fidelity, and his Christ-like spirit — in their admirable example. He was loved and honored by his class ; and he is remembered by his scholars gratefully. But if he ever taught a single truth by his telling it in that class, — here, in my case, is one scholar who is not aware of it. I do not recall a single fact, a single precept, a single doctrine, taught directly by the words of that Sun- day-school teacher. Nor is this a solitary or an ex- treme case in illustration of the fact that telling a thing in a Sunday-school class is not teaching that thing. The wisest preachers and teachers have recognized this truth, even though it has, by no means, found general acceptance as yet. " Nothing is more ab- surd," says an eminent English teacher, " than the common notion of instruction, as if science were to be poured into the mind, like water into a cistern." It ia as if in comment on this figure, that Thomas Carlyle has said : " To sit as a passive bucket, and be pumped into, can in the long run be exhilarating to no creature, how eloquent soever the flood of utter- ance that is descending." So brilliant and witty a Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1 . Nature of the Teaching Process. A good teacher who talked with- out teaching. The passive bucket and the pump. 14 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Namreofthe Teaching Process. Pharaoh's lean kine. The Sunday- school bellows. A poor preaching service. preacher as Dr. Robert South put the same truth, although by a different figure, two centuries ago, when he described preaching to passive hearers aa " a kind of spiritual diet upon which people are always feeding, but never full; and many poor souls, God knows too, too like Pharaoh's lean kine, much the leaner for their full feed." And of the teaching or training process aimed at in the church, he adds : " To expect that this should be done by preaching or forceof lungs, ismuch asif a smith or artist, who works in metal, should expect to form and shape out his work only with his bellows." Yet, how large a place the bellows tills at the modern Sunday-school forge ! A vast deal of what is called " Bible-class teach- ing " is talking, but not teaching. It might pass for fourth-rate, or third-rale, or second-rate, or — at the very best and rarest — as first-rate preaching, or lec- turing; but it never ought to be called teaching. The teacher talks ; the scholars listen. The teacher is, doubtless, a gainer in his mind and heart by what he says; but not so his silent scholars. They hear, but do not learn. The " exercise " is an exercise only to the exerciser. The whole thing is a pocket-edition, in poor type, of a pulpit-led service, with many of the disadvantages and few of the benefits of the large- page edition. And not a little of the ordinary class-teaching in the Sunday-school is of the same character. The teacher talks; the scholars listen. Telling has its Place. 15 There is a " teacher," but no teaching. There are " learners," but no learning. It is not a pleasant thing to face such a fact as this ; but since it is a fact, it ought to be faced by those interested. Telling a thing may be an important part of the process of teaching a thing. The telling may iu itself interest or impress even where it fails to in- struct. A teacher may teach in other ways than by his telling truths that are worthy of his scholars' hearing and learning. However this may be, it is important that every teacher should understand, at the first and at the last, that telling a thing, is not in itself teaching a thing ; and that, if he is a teacher at all, it will be through the use of some other method than mere talking. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. What telling may do. 16 Teaching and Teachers. PXKT I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. A clear distinction. in. HEARING A RECITATION IS NOT TEACHING. Hearing is not Teaching; Reciting is not Learning; Role-questions bring Rote-answers; Buying Books does not bring Knowledge; Blind Alec of Stirling ; Parrot Mathematicians ; What Memorizing cannot do. Another common mistake of the Sundaj^school teacher, is in supposing that hearing a recitation is teaching; nor is that error, by any means, confined to the Sunday-school. Recitation may, it is true, have an important part in the process of teaching. It may in itself advantage the scholar, and the teacher may have a duty of listening to it; but the hearing of a recitation is not in itself teaching ; nor is it always an essential in the teaching process. As Professor Hart states it: "A child recites lessons when it repeats something previously learned. A child is taught when it learns something from the teacher not known before. The two things often, indeed, go together, but they are in themselves essen- tially distinct." If merely hearing scholars recite were in itself teaching, then all who are in the neighborhood Parrot Recitations. 17 of an Oriental school would be teachers; for the scholars in the Easb study aloud, and all recite to- gether, and their recitations can be heard by the passers-by, and sometimes by all the dwellers within half a street's length. Not even the Orientals, how- ever, would claim that their hearing the clatter of these recitations made teachers of them. Wor would it be teaching, if one, hearing the recitation, should hold the book of the learner in his hand, observing the correspondence of the words recited with those recorded. A fellow-pupil ■could do that, without becoming thereby a teacher. There is an immense deal of mere rote recitation by scholars, younger and older. Scholars fasten in their memory words to which thej' attach no mean- ing — or a wrong meaning; and these memorized words, or sounds of words, they rattle off upon call, without having any correct or well-delined idea of their signification. Under these circumstances, who would claim that these scholars are taught anything, or that their knowledge is tested, by reciting Avhat they have memorized — even to an exceptionally skilled and intelligent teacher? A lady told me, that for years, while a child, she recited the first answer in the Westminster Catechism as " Mansche- fand is to glorify Grod and to joy him forever." What that word " manschefand" meant, she did not understand, nor was she taught either the word or its meaning by reciting it to a " teacher." She had Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Hearing is not teaching. Rote recita- tions. What Is " Mansche- fand"? 18 Teaching and Teachers. Past I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptek 1. Nature (*1 the Teachiug Process. Lord Byron's beginning. memorized the answer by having it told to her before she could read, and its repeated recitation gave no help to its understanding. Similar failures to understand words in the catechism, or the ques- tion-book, or to get any help in their understanding through their mere recitation, could be instanced by parents and teachers on every side. Even where the scholar understands the meaning of the words memorized by him, it may be only a rote-recitation that he gives to a teacher. An Eng- lish educationalist has cited, in illustration of the frequent senselessness of rote-recitations, an incident from the life of Lord Byron. Referring to a school where he was a pupil at tive years of age, Byron said : " I learned little there except to repeat by rote the first lesson of monosyllables, ' God made man, let us love him,' etc., by hearing it often re- peated, without [my] acquiring a letter. "Whenever proof was made [or was asked] of my progress, at home, I repeated these words, with the most rapid fluency; but, on turning over a new leaf, I continued to repeat them, so that the narrow boundaries of my first year's accomplishments were detected, my ears boxed (which they did not deserve, seeing that it was by ear only that I had acquired my letters), and my intellects consigned to a new preceptor." And a similar shortcoming might be found in the work of a scholar who could read intelligently, and who had memorized faithfully, but whose teacher had mis- An U7ilooked-for Journey. 19 taken the hearing of a recitation for teaching. His answer may have no proper relation to the question asked of him. Another question would have brought the same answer, and the same question given a second time would bring another answer. His memorizing has been of ihe words of the answer, without any thought of the words of the question to which they wore designed as an answer. This truth was forced on my mind in my earliest teaching experience. While yet but seventeen, 1 had a class in the Sunday-school, of wide-awake boys, keen enough in matters of thought and action, but naturally conforming to the methods of study which met their teacher's idea of teaching. The book used in that class was one in which every answer was printed out in full, just below its question. The ordinary practice of the scholar was to fasten the answers in memory; and the ordinary practice of the teacher was to ask the questions in the words .of the book, and hear the scholars recite the answer. Now for the working of that plan ! One Sunday, the lesson for the day was The Walk to Emmaus. The first question on the page was " Where is Em- maus?" As I took my book in hand for the "teach- ing exercise," I recalled that the scholar at my right hand was a boy who had been absent the previous Sunday. Accordingly I asked in kindly interest, " Where were you last Sunday, Joseph ? " Quick as a flash the answer came back, " Seven and a half Paet I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. The teacher taught. The scholar at Emraaua. 20 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Many boolcs, but no knowledge. miles north-west of Jerusalem." " Well, you are certainly excusable for not being here," was my mor- tified response; for then, for the first time, I realized that that scholar might as well have been north-west of Jerusalem or south-east of Tinibuctoo, for all the good he gained from a class where hearing a recita- tion had been looked at as teaching. That was a long while ago : it would be pleasant to believe that no illustration of this error in the teacher's work could be found in these days of improved Sunday- school methods and normal-class instructions. The memorizing of words is in itself no more the securing of ideas, than is the buying of books the securing of knowledge. A man may have his li- brary shelves stored with the most choice and valu- able works in every department of literature, science, and the arts, and yet be ignorant, not only of the knowledge covered by any one of those volumes, but also of the advantage which would come from the possession of such knowledge. Nor would bis knoM'l- edge be increased in the slightest degree, if he had ten such libraries instead of one. So, also, a child may have fully memorized all the answers in his catechism, or his question book, including the choicer words of Scripture, without having received a single idea covered by those words ; nor would any multiplication of similar words in his memory neces- sarily convey an added idea to his mental posses- sions. This is obviously true where the words are The Blind Led Blindly. 21 in another language than the pupil's own. It ia equally true where the words are in the pupil's lan- guage, but utterly beyond his comprehension. It is none the less a truth in any case ; for the receiving of ideas is quite another matter from the fastening of mere words in the memory : the two processes may go on at the same time, and again they may not ; but in no case are they identical. That this truth is as true practically as it is philo- sophically, has been shown by experiment many times over; and its truth finds fresh illustration under the eye of every intelligent and observing parent or teacher. A notable and well-authenticated case of its testing, is that of " Blind Alec " of Stir- ling, in Scotland, as recorded in all its det:iils in Mr. James Gall's "Nature's Normal School." This was more than fifty years ago. Alexander Lyons, or " Blind Alec" as he was called, was a man of mature years and of average intelligence. He had actually committed to memory the words of the entire Bible. " Any,sentence, or clause of a sentence, from Scrip- ture, which another began, he could not only finish, but tell the particular verse in the Bible where it was to be found ; and, what was still more remark- able, the number of any verse in any chapter and book being given, he was able immediately to re- peat" the verse. Moreover, he had for years been in the daily habit of recalling and reciting passages of Scripture thus memorized. This man, thus sup- Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Blind Alec's blind memorizing. 22 Teaching and Teachers. Paet I. The Teacher's Teaching Work Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaf'hing Process. Knowing the words is not Icnowing their senbe. Parrot recita- tions in geometry. plied witli Bible woi-ds, was thoi-oughly tested, not only by Mr. Gall, but by the more intelligent citi- zens of Stirling, lay and clerical, at a public meeting, called for the express purpose of ascertaining his knowledge of the truths clearly covered by the words in his memory. He was first questioned in the facts of English history, which he had been taught by the conveying to him of its ideas rather than by any set form of words covering those ideas; and he was found intelligently familiar with its truths in the field he had traversed. But in not a single instance could he quote a Bible text in explanation, in proof, or in enforcement, of the simplest doctrine or duty. The conclusion was irresistible, in his case, that by all his Bible word-memorizing, in his early life and in his later, he had never, at the first or afterward, acquired a single Bible idea, that "there was in Alec's mind no connection between the truths or duties of Scrip- ture, and the words which taught them." Nor has it, so far, been different with any other person than "Blind Alec" from that day to this; for the mere meixiorizing of words is never, in itself, the gaining of ideas. " There is a well-authenticated 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." A Scotch friend tells me of a fellow-student of his, who was accus- tomed to memorize the demonstrations from Euclid Supplied, hut not Informed. 23 for liis lessons, day by day, without any understand- ing of their naeaning, and who would rattle them off as if in explanation of the diagram on the black- board in the recitation room. His comrades would sometimes mischievously change the lettering on the diagrams before his recitation hour; and then he would push ahead with his memorized demonstra- tion, pointing out the alphabetical signs as he named them, in utter ignorance of the mathematical absur- dities he was insisting on. Thus he furnished to his teacher a good illustration of the fact that hearing a recitation is not teaching, and that there is no neces- sary connection between memorizing and learning. Let me not be misunderstood just here. I am not claiming that no gain is possible from storing words in the memory, any more than I am claiming that no gain is possible from buying books for one's library, or from having one's library shelves stored with volumes in every department of knowledge. I am claiming, however, that neither the buying of books nor the memorizing of words and sentences is in itself the acquisition of knowledge. At the best, in either case, this is only the gathering of the materials of knowledge, or of instruments for its acquisition. And since memorizing words is not in itself knowledge, it can no more be made knowledge through the recitation of those words, than the pos- session of books can be made the acquisition of knowledge through their cataloguing. Memorizing Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Having a library is not having linowledge. 24 Teaching and Teachers. Paet I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. The possible gains of memorizing. It may be memorizing that you want. words has an important place in a pupil's life. In secular school training there are rules and tables and lists that can profitably be fastened in the scholar's memory by rote, for convenience of future reference. In the Sunday-school, and in home reli- gious training, there should be a wise measure of memorizing, by the scholar, of the very words them- selves, of Bible passages, of hymns, and of accurate statements of important doctrine. But, whatever place or prominence is given to such memorizing, let not the mistake be made of supposing that the mere memorizing of these words in itself gives the scholar the possession of the idea covered by them. That idea could be conveyed without such memoriz- ing. It may be conveyed in connection with such memorizing. Again, such memorizing may be in connection with the wrong idea, or with no idea at all. Under no circumstances, however, nor in any instance, will the memorizing of the words and the reception of the idea be one and the same thing. That cannot be. Jfor can the wisest teacher in the world make the two things one, by simply hearing the recitation of what has been memorized. If you think that the memorizing of words is the great thing in your scholar's preparation for the " class exercise," by all means insist upon it. If you want to ascertain how much and how accurately he has memorized, hear him recite the words he has committed to memory. If particular questions upon Grindstone Exercises. 25 the lesson have been given him, to which he is to find answers, and you desire to know whether he has found the precise answers to those specific ques- tions, then ask him those questions and hear him give the answers. If this is your idea of a " class exercise," the way to secure it is as simple as turn- ing a grindstone crank. This may he all that you deem essential in a teacher's work; hut how- ever desirable and important it may be, it cannot be called teaching ; nor would it he teaching if it were called so. It is hearing a recitation ; but hear- ing a recitation is not in itself teaching, nor ought it to pass for teaching. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. 2G Teaching and Teachers. Part I. Tlie Ti'flCher's Teacliing Work. Chapter 1. Nature, of the Teaching Pioee^s. "Teaching" ill the rlie- tioiiaries. IV. WHAT TEACHING IS. Showing Errors is not Showing the Truth; Indejiniteness of the Dejlni' tions; The JEssence of All Teaching ; Teaching Includes Learning ; Other Meanings for Teaching, than Teaching ; Two Persons Needed to make One Teacher ; A Teacher's Other Work than Teaching. It is evident, however, that the definition of " teaching" is not to be arrived at by merely show- ing that certain processes which too often pass for the teaching-process are by no means entitled to that designation. It is not enough to indicate what is vot teaching ; the inquirer is still left in doubt as to what teaching is. It being shown that " tell- ing is not teaching," and that " hearing a recitation is not teaching," the question recurs with added force and importance, What is teaching ? Nor is it easy for the inquirer to obtain a clear and competent understanding of the term " teach- ing." The dictionaries will give him little aid on this point. Their definitions are varied, vague, and unsatisfactory. If he turns to the technical treatises and manuals on the subject, he will not be likely to gain a much clearer impression of the scope and Vagueness of Terms. 27 purport of the term. Out of an extensive study of the literature of teaching, for now more than twenty years, I can say with positiveness that, from the days of Roger Ascham down to the latest European and American educational writers, hardly one writer in fifty has even attempted to tell his readers what he means by the term " teaching," or to indi- cate the precise nature and limits of the teaching- process as he understands that process. Commonly, indeed, the term " teaching " is employed by such writers as though its meaning were well understood ; yet, in man}' cases, their own uses of it, at difterent times and in diiferent connections, would go to show their own lack of a well-defined meaning at- tached to it, which should sharply distinguish it from " educating," " training," " giving informa- tion," " exhibiting impressively," " instructing," " in- culcating," and other terms variously used as indi- cative of educational processes. In hardly more than half a dozen instances have I found an educa- tional writer attempting to explain his understand- ing of this term " teaching," on which pivoted all the value of the instruction and guidance he essayed to give to his readers. It is, therefore, by no means a needless task for us to seek an intelligent under- standing of the nature and elements of the teaching- process, as preliminary to an inquiry into its wise methods. Jaeotot claimed, that " to teach is to cause to learn." Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptek 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Indefinite definlngs. 28 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching ProeesSi Teaching is causing to know. Teaching meant learning. Professor Hart improved on this definition by claiming, that "teaching is causing anothertoknow." Probably no more simple or accurate definitions than these two have ever been suggested. They certainly indicate the essence of true teaching. Teaching involves the idea of knowledge obtained by a process. One may, in- deed, teach himself, may be hie own teacher, through reaching out after knowledge by an intelligently directed effort ; but no one can teach — and tc that extent be a teacher of — either himself or another, without the obtaining of knowledge by the person taught. Teaching, in fact, includes the idea of learn- ing, not as its correlative term, but as one of its con- stituent parts. There can really be no such thing as teaching without learning ; the process of learn- ing must accompany the process of teaching, and must keep pace with it. Just to the extent of the learning on the one pai-t, is there the teaching on the other part. If the learning-process halts, so halts the teaching-process. If the learning-process ends, the teaching-process has ended. Originally, in our English language, as in accord- ance with the analogy of other European languages, the word " learn " was used in the twofold sense of teaching and learning; one could learn by himself, or he could learn another — could cause another to learn. Thus, the poet Drayton makes a royal guide tell of the instructed king : " Who, till I learned him, had not known his might." Teaching Includes Learning. 29 And Shakespeare's queen, in Cjmbeline, asks of her court physician : ..." Have I not been Thy pupil long ? Hast thou not learu'd me how To make perfumes? distil? preserve?" In the natural progress of language, there came to be a subdivision of the twofold idea of the word "learn; " and the distinction between the objective and the subjective phases of the learning-process was indicated by the use of the term "teaching " for the one, and "learning" for the other. ~Sow, therefore, "teaching" is that part of the twofold learning-pro- cess by which knowledge which is yet outside of the learner's mind is directed toward that mind; and " learning " is that part of the same twofold process by which the knowledge taught is made the learner's own. Still, as before, however, there can be no teacher where there is not a learner; although, on the otlier hand, there may be a learner where there is no one else than himself to be his teacher. If this truth be borne clearly in mind, there is a decided gain in the verbal distinction of the two component parts of the learning-process, as made by our modern use of the words " teaching " and " learning ; " but if this distinction should lead us to suppose that there can be any teaching where there is no cor- responding learning; that it is possible, in fact, for one to teach while no one learns ; — then indeed it would be far better for us to go back to the old Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1 . Nature of the Teaching i'rocess. The relation of teaching to learning. 30 Teaching and Teachers. Part I, The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Other uses of the term " teaching.' What we mean by Sunday- school teaching. terminology, and to insist in very phrase that no one is taught until he has learned, and that no one teaches another until the other learns ; that, in short, teaching another is ever and always learning another, causing another to learn. It is, of course, not to be denied, that the term " teaching " is often fairly employed in other senses than a technical one. Thus, we speak of the teach- ing of our example ; of our teaching others by the spirit which we manifest, or by the conduct which we display ; of our causing others to know, from what they see in us, that our way is desirable, or that it is undesirable ; of our thus leading them in the path we pursue, or impelling them toward another path than that. To teaching of this kind, all of us are given, at all times. In this sense, we all are teachers, always. We are continually caus- ing those about us to know the better way, or the worse. But it is not of this kind of teaching that we speak, when we say that we are Sunday-school teachers; that we are engaged in Sunday-school teaching; that we expect to teach our class next Sunday; or, that we taught our class last Sunday. We have in mind, in such phrases, an active and pui-poseful service, rather than that unconscious teaching of oui;s Avhich is inevitable, whether we de- sire it or not. It is the causing another to know that which we know, and which he does not ; that which we want him to know, and which we seek to A Scholar's Help Essential. 31 have him know, — which is " teaching " in its tech- nical sense ; teaching in the sense in which we use the term, when we say that we have been teaching a particular lesson to a particular scholar or class. In this sense, " teaching " obviously involves the three- fold idea of a teacher, a lesson, and a learner ; it in- volves knowledge on the teacher's part, and, at the start, the lack of it on the part of the scholar; also, an actual transfer of that knowledge from the teacher's mind to the scholar's, before the teaching- process is concluded. Hence, to say that you have " taught a lesson," includes the idea that some one has learned that lesson ; for unless there is learning by a learner there can be no teaching by a teacher ; and until the teacher has caused a learner to know a lesson, or a truth, the teacher has only been trying to teach — so far without success. Intelligent, purposeful teaching includes the idea of two persons, both of them active. ISTor is it enough that there be two persons, both of them active ; both active over the same lesson. This may be secured by hearing a recitation, and commenting on it; but that is not, necessarily, teaching. The scholar, in such a case, may be merely exercising his memory, reciting what he has memorized ver- bally without understanding a word of it; he learns nothing; he is not taught anything ; he is not caused to know a single fact or truth, by his teacher's hear- ing him. recite; nor docs he learn anything by his Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapteb 1. Nature (if the Teaching Prucess. Threefold idea of teaching. Two must combiiu" to make one teacher. 82 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. The teacher's other work than teaching. teacher's wisest comment, if he pays no attention to that comment, or if he is unable to understand it. " Teaching," as causing another to know, includes the mutual effort of two persons to the same end. The teacher must endeavor to cause the pupil to learn a particular fact or truth which he wants him to know; the learner must endeavor to learn that particular fact or truth. Until the two are at this common work, the process of teaching has not begun : until the learner has learned, the teacher has not taught. Teaching is by no means all of a teacher's work.; nor is it always the most important work of a teacher. Impressing one's pupils, and influencing them, are important factors in a teacher's work, when we speak of " a teacher," as one having children in charge, in a school — on a week-day, or a Sunday. A teacher's spirit, a teacher's character, a teacher's atmosphere, and a teacher's life, impress and influ- ence a pupil quite as much as a teacher's words. It is a teacher's duty to love his scholars, and to show his love for them; to have sympathy with them, and to evidence it; to gain a hold on their affections, outside of the class-hour, as well as during it; and to pray for them specifically and in abiding faith. There is no technical "teaching" in all this; but what would technical teaching be worth without this? There are teachers in the Sunday-school who do a great deal of good without teaching; No Teaching Without Teaching. 33 they perhaps do a better work in the Sunday-school than many of their fellows, who do teach. Their work ought not to he undervalued because it is not teaching; neither ought it to be confounded with teaching. Impressing and influencing members of a class is one thing ; teaching a Bible lesson is another thing; the two may go on together, or again there may be the one without the other. Whether the one or the other is wanted, or both together are desired, it is important to bear in mind what teaching is, as distinct from any other desirable work of a teacher. If a Bible lesson is worth teaching, it ought to be taught: if it is taught, it must be by the process of teaching; and there is no such thing as teaching by a teacher, unless at the same time there is learning by a learner. The question, there- fore, at the close of each Sunday-school hour, is — not, "Were you with your class ? not, Did you prepare yourself on the lesson of the day before coming to your class ? not. Did you state and illustrate important truths which it would have been well for the mem- bers of your class to know ? not. Were your hearers attentive, and seemingly impressed ? but — Did you cause anybody to know anything about the lesson of the day? That question you cannot properly answer, unless you have proof that some one of your hearers learned what you tried to make him know. Until you can speak with positiveness on this point. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptee 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. The question fur you. 34 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. ihe Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 1. Nature of the Teaching Process. Where the proof rests. you cannot say whether or not you have taught the lesson, or any part of it, to all of your class, or to any one scholar. Although teaching is by no means the exclu- sive, nor yet always the foremost, duty of a teacher, yet teaching is teaching; and no preva- lence of popular opinion can make anything else than teaching, teaching. And let it be remembered that the proof of the teaching-process always rests with the learner; not with the teacher, whether the scholars be young or old. The teacher can prove that he tried to teach ; the scholar alone can show that the teacher succeeded. THE TEACHING PEOCESS. 2. ITS ESSENTIALS. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Having ascertained the nature of the teaching process, the next step is to consider its essentials. It being seen that the teaching process is twofold, including both learning and teaching; that teaching involves the idea of a person who is io learn, a person who is to aid the learner in his learning, and a truth to be learned, — it would seem to be obvious, that he who would teach intelligently must know whom he would teach, what he is to teach, and how he is to teach, before he can fairly begin his teach- ing. Knowledge at these three points is not merely desirable ; it is essential. Without such knowledge, intelligent teaching is an impossibility. It is not to be denied that there are Sunday- school teachers who retain their places for years, and who attend to what they understand to be their duties, week after week, during all that period, with- out having any fair knowledge of their scholars Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptee 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Teachers who never teach. 36 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teachiug Work. Chaptee 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. individually, of their lessons in detail, or of wise methods of teaching; but all this does not make these "teachers," teachers; nor does it make their " teaching," teaching. No teaching can be true teaching which lacks any one of the three essentials of teaching which are above indicated, and which are now to be considered in their order. Knowing Scholars as they Are. 37 YOU MUST KNOW WHOM YOU ARE TO TEACH. Why you should Know your Scholars ; Absurd Teaching; Well-informed Ignorance ; Children's Lack of Knowledge ; All Things to All Men ; Giving a Prescription. To begin with, as a teacher, you must know whom you are to teach; not merely know your scholars by sight, know them by name, know them so 'that you can greet them as acquaintances, but know them in their individual capacities, attain- ments, and needs. On the face of it, this knowledge of your scholars is essential as preliminary to any intelligent teaching on your part. It may be, they are blind. That fact does not forbid your teaching them ; but it does forbid your reliance on ordinary maps, pictures, and the blackboard, as teaching agencies. Possibly your scholars are deaf and dumb. If that be the case, the agencies which you would reject for the blind come up into added promi- nence as helps to teaching. Even though you are sure that your scholars can both see and hear, you need to know also that they are capable of under- Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Your neces- ^ity of Icnow- ing. 38 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptkr 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. A sheer absurdity. standing your language, and that they are reasonably familiar with the words yon employ; otherwise their eyes and ears might as well be closed, for all the good they get from your utterances. It is a sheer absurdity for you to attempt to teach another, unless you and your scholar are acquainted with a common language. It is a literal "absur- dity" — more literally than, perhaps, you have had occasion to consider. "What is an " absurdity " ? The root idea of that word is ab and surdus — from a deaf man ; such responses as would come from a man who could not hear your remarks, but who wanted it to appear that he did. All of us have had, or have heard, " absurd " conversations of this sort. You meet a man on a country road, and, say- ing, " Good day " to him, you ask, " How far is it to Wilton, please ? " He nods back a good-day, with the " absurd " response — for he is a deaf man — "Well, no; I haven't got any Stilton cheese, but I've been making some good Young Americas." That man understood your question quite as well as many a scholar in the Sunday-school understands his teacher's ordinary language ; and if there were more outspoken answering in our Sunday-school classes, there would be more of these absurdities apparent to all. Socrates said that a knowledge of our own igno- rance is the first step toward true knowledge ; and it was Coleridge, I think, who supplemented this truth Recoiling from Goodness. 39 with the suggestion that, " we cannot make another comprehend our knowledge, until we first compre- hend his ignorance." So long as we suppose a scholar to know what he does not know, we shall refrain from causing him to know that, and in conse- quence we shall be unable to cause him to know anything beyond that — anything to an understand- ing of which that is a prerequisite. Woful mistakes are constantly making in the Sunday-school, because of a teacher's failure to know his scholar just at this point — to know his scholar's ignorance. A good illustration of the danger of a lack just here, is that given by Mrs. Horace Mann, in her story of a dis- trict school where, on the occasion of her visit, those boys who wanted " to be good " were asked to rise in their places ; and all but one stood up. When that solitary little fellow was urged by his teacher to rise with the others, he began to cry, with a whim- pering " No " — " no " — between his childish sobs. At this, Mrs. Mann stepped down alongside of him, and putting her arm oyer his shoulder tenderly, she asked, " What do you think it means to he good, my boy?" " Ter — be — whipped!" was the sobbing answer. The poor boy had been told when he was flogged, that it was to make him good; and his untutored mind recoiled from an added supply of that kind of " goodness." That boy understood his teacher quite as well as many a scholar has under- stood your wisest words spoken for his teaching. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapteb 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. A knowledge of ignorance as a means of more knowl- edge. A boy's reluctance to be good. 40 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. What a Bible class did not know. There is no mistake about this. The experience of the best teachers abundantly confirms this truth. An intelligent Bible class teacher in a ifew Eng- land church had before him ten or twelve adults, all of whom were church-members, and one of whom had long been a church-officer. In considering the opening verses of the Book of Acts, the teacher asked what was meant by the " passion " of Jesus there mentioned. ITot getting an answer at once, he repeated the question in a leading form, " Why, what events -in the story of Jesus are referred to, when he says here that ' he showed himself alive after his passion ' ? " — but that also failed to bring an answer. Thinking that the lack must be in his mode of questioning, or in the hesitation of his scholars to speak out, he set himself to get an answer to that question. After following the- matter until he was satisfied, he found that not a scholar in his class had any proper understanding of the term " passion " as applied to the closing sufferings in the human life of Jesus. That discovery changed utterly the methods of that teacher in his teaching work. He now for the first time comprehended the measure of his scholars' ignorance; and thus, for the first time, he was ready to begin their teaching. And his class was, iu general intelligence, far ahead of the average class in the Sunday-schools of America. ]^ot all scholars would stumble at the same term, but most of them would be ignorant of the mean- Unknoion Tongues. 41 ing of some worci in quite as familiar use as " pas- sion." An observant and faithful teacher m a Philadelphia Sunday-school, told me of his being surprised by the question, from a bright scholar who was about twenty-five years old, "Who was 'the despised Gali- lean ' ? " On one occasion I found myself, as a visitor for the day, teaching a class of New York City lads, from fourteen to seventeen years old; bright lads, out of the better class of Christian homes in that city. In the lesson for the day, the differences between the teachings of Moses and the teachings of Christ — the Law and the Gospel — were touched upon. I questioned those lads familiarly as to their understanding of the terms " Law " and " Gospel," and, to my surprise, I found that not one of them had any other idea, m either case, beyond a statutory' civil enactment on the one hand, and certain books of the E"ew Testament on the other. Is it strange that there are " absurd " answers, or no answers at all, to questions put by Sunday-school teachers, to scholars who have no better understanding than in these cases, of the words employed in their ques- tioning? There are none of us but are using words con- tinually, in ordinary conversation, which are not understood by those whom we address by means of those words. Thus, at another time, I was pointing out to one of my little daughters the beauty of the Part I. The Teaohert TeHChing Work. CHAPT.EK 2. fssentidls of, the Teaching Process More cultured ignorance. Using strange words. 42 Teaching and Teachers, Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptek 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Where are the woods? Where is the text? woods beyond the meadow we w€re passing, on a summer ride. The child looked puzzled, but said nothing. When another reference was made to the distant " woods," she ventured the inquiry, " Papa, where are the woods f Are they back of those trees ? " The meadow she knew, and the trees she knew, but where were the woods ? She had never been told, in so many words, that a great number of trees together were called " woods." I was then taught a lesson, when I thus learned her lack. Yet again, when I was leaving home for a brief absence, I asked another of my daughters to note her pastor's text on Sunday morning, and report it to me when I came back. She failed to do this. As I was going away for another Sunday, I repeated my re- quest. Again my daughter failed me. "When this had happened the third time I proposed, like ]SIrs. Horace Mann, to look into the cause of this trouble; for I was sure that my loving daughter would have reported the text, if a willing mind were the only need. " Ifow what is the trouble, my dear child ? " I asked her tenderly. " Why didn't you remember the text, or something about it ? " Encouraged by this, the little girl looked up and asked a question for herself: " Papa, what is the text ? " Another " ab- surdity " ! I had simply taken it for granted that my daughter knew what was the " text " in our pastor's morning service ; and she would have known it if I had been a better teacher. I was tell- Common Ignorance. 43 ing this incident soon after to a friend, and that friend told me of a similar " absurdity " in a home with which he was connected. A lad, who had been taken into that family as a farm boy, was told ou Sunday, as he started for church, to be sure and remember where the "text "was. On his return he was questioned by his mistress : " "Well, John, where was the text this morning ? " "I don't quite know, ma'am," he replied doubtingly; " but I think it was somewhere down by the door." All in be- wilderment over that mysterious term " text," the well-intentioned but ill-taught lad had devoted his morning hour in church to finding out where that thing could be, any way ; and he was unwilling to confess his failure. That was an absurdity; just such an absurdity as every teacher is liable to have in his class, unless he measures wisely the knowledge of those whom he essays to teach. Children, generally, lack a knowledge of things, and an understanding of words, with which they are supposed to be familiar, to an extent far beyond the conception of those who have nut given particular attention to this matter. In evidence on this point. Professor G. Stanley Hall, a keen observer of child nature, published, not long ago, the tabulated results of his careful examinations into the knowledge of common things possessed by children who were just entering the Boston primary schools. Out of some two hundred of these children, he found Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials iif the Teaching Process. Near the door. Children's li£iiorance of common things. 44 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Asfnime nothing. Yonnger teachers are better. that one-fifth did not know their right hand, or their left ; one out of three had never seen a chicken ; two out of three had never seen an ant ; one out of three had never consciously seen a cloud ; two out of three had never seen a rainhow ; more than half of them were ignorant of the fact that wooden things are made from trees ; more than two-thirds of them did not know the shape of the world; nine-tenths of them could not tell what flour is made of. And so on through a long list of lesser and larger matters in the realm of common things. A conclusion to which Professor Hall arrived, was • " There is next to nothing of pedagogic value, the knowledge of which it is safe to assume at the outset of school life." Unless the Sunday-school teacher has been at the pains of testing his scholars' knowledge at the point where he would begin his teaching, he is pretty sure to be in error as to the measure of their ignorance, and to be unfitted, in consequence, to teach them wisely. It is because of this liability of one, who well knows what he would teach, to fail of knovsang accu- rately the measure of him luhom he would teach, that many a learned man has proved to be among the poorest of teachers. Professor Payne, an eminent English teacher, has said, in recognition of this truth : " A man profoundly acquainted with a sub- ject may be unapt to teach it, by reason of the very height and extent of his knowledge. His mind Still Young in Feeling. 45 habitually dwells among the mountains, and he has therefore small sympathy with the toilsome plodders on the plains below. It is so long since he was a learner himself, that he forgets the difficulties and perplexities which once obstructed his path, and which are so painfully felt by those who are still in the condition in which be onc3 was, himself. It is a hard task, therefore, for him to condescend to their condition, to place himself alongside of them, and to force a sympathy wliich he cannot naturally feel, with their trials and experience." Commonly, in- deed, he is unaware of the gulf Mdiich separates him from his scholars, because, while knowing what he would teach, he does not know, nor has he sought to understand, those whom he would teach. For this reason, also, young teachers in the Sunday-school are commonly more successful as teachers than older persons. The young teacher knows tlie scholar, by his very sympathy with the scholar in that scholar's lack of knowledge. When, indeed, you find a successful old teacher in the Sunday-school, you find one who has kept young, and who still feels young. Being young in feeling, he knows how the young folks feel ; and knowing their feelings, he more nearly knows them as they are. It is not alone in the measure of his knowledge, that a scholar is to be studied, and to be known by his teacher. It is in his personal tastes and pecu- liarities, in his feelings and desires, in his methods of Part I. The Teacher's' Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. A great gulf. Using fly- poison wisely. 46 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptee 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. A safe dose. Different worit in different metals. thought and his modes of action, in his characteristics and tendencies, and in the nature of his home and M'eek-day suiToundings, that a scholar must he known before he can be taught intelligently. It is related of Professor Orfila, the great French toxicologist, that when he was testifying, in a court of justice, of the relative power of minute doses of a particular poison, one of the lawyers in the ease inquired of him derisively, " Could you tell us. Professor, the precise dose of this poison which a fly could take safely?" " I think I could," was the cautious answer ; " but I should need to know something about the particular fly under treatment. I should want to know his size, his age, his state of health, his habits of life, whether he was married or single, and what had been his surroundings in life so far. All these things bear on the size of the dose to be administered in any case." Surely a scholar deserves as much study, and as wise and as cautious treatment, as a fly. But not every teacher is as wise or as cautious as Professor Orflia. A wise Connecticut teacher illustrated the neces- sity of a careful study of each scholar individually, in order to his Avise teaching, after this fashion: " Suppose that you were a worker in metals, and had a foundry and a forge in which you cast all manner of curious things, or at which you wrought all manner of cunning devices. Suppose a stranger should come to you, bringing sealed packages, and Know your Material. 47 should say, ' Here are various kinds of metals. Without unsealing them, put them at once into your furnace, run them into your mould, work them at your forge, treat them all alike, and produce for me a set of images, each the exact counterpart of the others. Would you not reply ? ' The thing is im- possible. Let me know what I am working on. Brass will not melt as readily as lead. Iron is not as malleable as copper. Steel is not as ductile as gold. One process for one, another for another, is the rule of my trade.' ' But,' he urges, ' metal is metal, heat is heat, a forge is a forge, a mould is a mould. Is not that enough?' Your answer is, 'Metals diifer. The heat that melts one would sublime another. The mould that is strong enough for one is too weak for another. The blow that would crush the one would rebound from the other.' " And that wise teacher's enforcement of this telling illus- tration is worthy of the attention of every teacher : " My brother teachers, are we not too apt to think that the iron will, the leaden insensibility, the brazen defiance, and the golden sincerity, which exist in our classes, will, if put into the same furnace of appeal, shaped in the same mould of instruction, and ham- mered at the same forge of argument, all conform to the same image ? Do we take pains enough to learn the nature of the peculiar metal on which we are working? and to adopt wisely the means to the end, the process to the result?" Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptee 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process, Metals difler. 48 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's. Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. A different teacher to every scholar. Dean Stanley says of the teaching-method of Dr. Thomas Arnold, " His whole method was founded on the principle of awakening the intellect of every individual boy." And that ought to be the basis of every good teacher's method. The distinguished principal of one of the l^ew York state normal schools has said, that if he had a class of fifty scholars, he would try to be fifty dif- ferent teachers, as h« turned from one to another of those scholars to instruct them severally. In doing this, that principal would simply be doing a teacher's duty; but it is a duty which can never be done intelligently until the teacher knows the differences which distinguish his scholars one from another. No wise adaptation of instruction is possible, unless the teacher understands the peculiarities of each- scholar whom he is to instruct. If the scholar is already a consistent church-member, he certainly requires very different teaching from that suited to a young reprobate. If he is of a tender, loving heart, and of a mercurial temperament, his share of instruction should be another than that for a lad of a cool and calculating disposition. One scholar is to be reached through his feelings ; another through his reason. One likes pictures and stories ; another prefers to follow a thread of new thought. Each scholar has his individuality ; it is for the teacher ta know what that is, as preliminary to any hopeful effort at teaching the scholar. Inspired Methods. 49 Jesus Christ, the Model Teacher, distinctly af- firmed his recognition of different classes of hear- ers, when he discoursed to the multitudes ; and he told his disciples plainly, that his manner of pre- senting truth was chosen in view of the fact that they were privileged to understand what his other hearers did not. His telling the truth in the form of parables, did not in itself teach his hearers ; but afterwards he taught to his disciples, that which not even they had learned from its mere telling. " There were gathered unto him great multitudes ; . . . and he spake to them many things in parables. . . . And [afterward] the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered and said unto them. Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. . . . Therefore speak I to them in parables. . . . Hear you [now] therefore [the explanation of] the parable." Paul, also, had regard to the individual peculiarities of those whom he would teach, and adapted himself to them accordingly. " To the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews," he says. " To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak : I am become all things [by turns] to all [the different sorts of] men, that I may by all [these different] means save some." Paul would never have attempted to teach all the scholars in one class after the same pattern. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. The model teacher's method. All things to all. Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Giving a pre- scription. Solomon's idea of wise training. A teacher's study of his every scholar is quite as important as his study of his every lesson ; and the former study ought, in fact, to precede the latter study ; for until you know whom you are to teach, how can you judge what is to be taught to him ? It has been wisely said on this subject, that " a sick soul needs not a lecture on medicine, but a prescription." K you are to prescribe for a moral patient, you need to get down alongside of that patient, and to feel his pulse, and to look at his tongue, in order to know what is his precise condition, and what are his present requirements. With the highest attainable medical skill, and with a well-supplied apothecary's shop at his service, no physician could administer a prescription intelligently unless he knew who was his patient, and what were the nature and the stage of his disorder. Nor is a teacher more potent in his sphere, than is a physician in liis. The best teacher in the world is not prepared to teach a Sunday- school class, until he knows the members of that class. He must know whom he is to cause to know a truth, before he can fairly begin to cause that truth to be known. Solomon was wise enough, and even under Divine inspiration he was not too wise, to perceive and to point out the duty of treating each child as an individual personality, in all attempts at his training. " Train up [or, from the start, teach] a child [any child, every child] in the way he should go [not A Child's Own Way. 51 necessarily in the way of the other children; not in one and the same way for all children, but in his particular way, the way in which Ae, out of all the mass of humanity, ought to go ; whether any other child ever went that way before, or whether any other child will ever be suited to go that way again] : and [then] when he is old, he will not depart from it." That is Solomon's idea; although that is not the idea M'hich popular error has twisted from that inspired injunction. As The Speaker's Commentary pays on this passage : " Instead of sanctioning a vigorous monotony of discipline under the notion that it is ' the right way ' [for all children, for all our scholars], the proverb enjoins the closest possible study of each child's temperament, and the adapta- tion of his way to that." And as it is in training, so it is in teaching. Knowing the scholar individu- ally is essential to teaching the scholar fittingly. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of Ihe Teaching Process. One way for each. 52 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptee 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Suppose the scholar does not study? n. YOU MUST KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TO TEACH. Scholars may Study, but Teachers mvM; A Boston Blunder; Knowing about the Lesson, wUhout Knowing the Lesso%; A Yorkshire Method ; What you must be Sure of. "When you fairly know whom you are to teach, then comes the question, What are you to teach him? And until you know for yourself what you would cause your scholar to know for himself, you are, obviously, in no state of fitness to begin your work of causing him to know anything, of beginning your part in the twofold teaching process, the twofold learning process. You will ten times hear a teacher's complaint that his scholars do not study, where you once hear a teacher's admission that he goes to his class without knowing that which he seeks to cause his scholars to know. Yet a scholar's study in advance of the school -hour is not indispensable to a teacher's teach- ing, whereas a teacher's knowledge of that which he is to teach, is indispensable. Study on the scholar's part is very important in its place, important to the scholar in the exercise of his mental faculties, and Ears do not Make a Teacher. 53 ill the storing of liis mind ; but the scholar's pre- liminary study is no part of a teacher's teaching : it is not an element of the teaching process. That which a scholar has learned all by himself, before ho and his teacher came together, the scholar deserves all credit for ; that which the teacher is to cause a scholar to know, must be the teacher's possession before he can make it the scholar's possession. If hearing a recitation were teaching, then it would not be necessary for a teacher to know in advance that which his scholar is to recite in the class. The real work in such a case would be the scholar's, in his preliminary study of the matter to be recited. The teacher's duty might be performed by a vigor- ous hold on the catechism, or the question book, or the Bible, in the class hour; and by the exercise of his lungs in asking the questions, or in giving the word for a start, the exercise of his eyes in following the lesson text and by the exercise of his ears in noting the recitation. Such " teaching " as that would not require any special preparation by the teacher for his class work, week by week. Much that is called teaching is, however, just that and no more; but calling it teaching does not make it teaching. It is not teaching, even if it is called that. Teaching involves and necessitates both a teacher and a scholar, and also a preliminary knowledge by the teacher of that which he is to cause the scholar to know by the aid of his teaching. Pakt I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. If only hearing were teaching. 54 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2 . Essentials of the Teaching Process. The way Into the ditch. Ships and religion. It is obvious that we cannot intelligently cause another to know what we do not first know ourselves. The blind may, it is true, kindly undertake to lead the blind, but it is more than probable that both leader and led in such a case will, sooner or later, land in the ditch. There is a good deal of such leading, and a good deal of such landing, along our Sunday-school highways, at the present day; but that does not, by any means, increase the desirable- ness of the method or of its results; nor does it change the nature of either. An inspired writer said of some would-be teachers, eighteen centuries ago : " For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the ora- cles of God; and ai-e become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food." And that suggestion would have as much force in the case of a great many teachers now as it had then. In Boston Harbor th-ere is a reformatory scliool-ship, on which boys are placed to learn the rudiments of navigation, and of mental and religious knowledge. One day, wiiile the super- intendent of that school-ship was on shore, a stranger visited the vessel, and, according to custom, he ad- dressed the boys collectively. According, also, to a too common custom of talkers, if not of teachers, the stranger attempted to make use of illustrations with which he was unfamiliar, by indulging in nautical figures of speech, where he was at every disadvantage What is the Lesson ? 55 with his bright sailor-boy hearers. "When the super- intendent returned, he said to the boys, at their evening gathering for prayer, " Boys, I understand you had a stranger to talk to you to-day." "Yes, sir ! " " Yes, sir ! " came up from a hundred voices. " Well, what did he talk to you about? " " About two things that he didn't understand ! " was the unexpected response frotu one sharp boy. " Why, what two things were those ? " " Ships and religion ! " was the witty answer, as giving the measure of that talker's knowledge of the topics he attempted to handle deftly. It would be well if no one since that stranger had attempted to teach what he did not understand. You are going to teach. Well, what are you going to teach ? " To teach Bible truth." But Bible truth is a large subject. You can hardly teach all of it at once. What part of it are you going to teach now ? " Oh! to-day's lesson, of course." What is to-day's lesson ? " It is Mark 5 : 21-43." I did n't ask where the lesson is, but lohat is it ? " It is ' Power over Disease and Death.' " I didn't ask what the lesson is called, or what it is about, but what is the lesson? " Why, the lesson is a number of verses out of Mark's Gospel, telling certain facts in the life of Jesus, showing his power to heal the sick and to raise the dead, and including several points of interest bear- ing on his knowledge as well as his power, and on the spirit of faith which he approved." Well, now Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Ebseiit als of the Teaching Process. What will you teach? 56 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Are you ready ? the facts of this lessoa clearly involve some points of geography and chronology, and of Jemsh man- ners and customs in the days of Jesus ; are you thor- oughly familiar with all of these ? " Oh no ! I look upon such matters as of minor consequence." Very good, what do you look upon as of chief importance in this lesson ? Do you propose to teach the mere word^ of the lesson, so that all your scholars can recite them ? or, the facts? or, the involved doctrines? or, the practical applications of both facts and doc- trines? "Oh! I wouldn't confine my teachings to the mere memorizing of the words ; nor to the mere facts; yet I should want both words and facts to have a place in the teaching. And I should have in mind the doctrines and their applications, and I should try to teach more or less of them." Well, have you now fnlly in your mind the facts of this lesson, and the implied doctrines, and their applica- tions, which you propose to teach to your scholars as a class, and to one scholar and another of that class, as individuals ? Until you have all this in your mind, you are not fitted to teach all this to your scholars. If you have it in mind, it is because you as a teacher have made wise preparation so far for to-day's lesson teaching. One thing is sure, unless you know, before you begin to teach, just what jo\i would cause your scholars to know by your teaching, they are not likely to know, when the class hour is over, just what you have caused them to know by your teaching. Examining the Patient. 57 If telling a thing were teaching that thing, the necessary preparation of a teacher for his teaching work would be gi'eatly diminished. He would only have to fill his mind with such things as he deemed worth knowing, or worth telling, and then pour them out to his class in a stream of resistless elo- quence. He might then talk to his class about Bible geography, or Bible chronology, or the man- ners and customs of Bible lands, or the facts of the day's lesson, or the chief doctrines involved, or the applications of both facts and doctrines, just as he happened to think of these things, or as his class seemed to be interested in what he was saying. But all this could be done without any teaching whatsoever. There can be no teaching where nothing is learned. Until some one has been caused to know, the teaching attempted has not been a suc- cess — is not a completed fact. Hence a teacher cannot know what he is to teach until he knows what he can teach — at that time, to the scholar, or to the scholars, before him. He must not only know what he would tell to his class, but he must know what he can cause the members of his class to know with the help of his teaching. Because the sick soul needs not a lecture on medi- cine but a prescription, therefore it is essential, that he who would prescribe for a sick soul should not only know the peculiar capabilities and needs of his patient, but be familiar also with the nature and Paet I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. What goes to complete teaching. 58 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Sulphur and molasses for all. What it is necessary to know. strength of the medicine to be prescribed for the particular case under treatment. It might answer in Dotheboys Hall, before Mr. Dickens laid bare the methods of that Yorkshire institution, to prescribe a dose of sulphur and molasses for all the school- boys alike, on a winter's morning, whatever was the state of their appetites and digestive organs ; but that would hardly be called a wise medical treatment of the young in any first-class boarding-school at the present day. ISor does the fact that a similar mode of sup- plying all the scholars in a class or school with the same mental dose — and that according to the teacher's fancy rather than the scholar's need — still prevails in many a Sunday-school of our land, prove that there can be such a thing as intelligent teaching, where the teacher does not know that what he would like to teach can be put within the compre- hension, or is at all suited to the peculiar needs, of the scholars he essays to teach. The medicine itself must be known, and the size of a safe dose for the patient in hand must be duly considered by the phy- sician, before there can be any wise prescribing for any patient, young or old. You must know what you can teach in this particular case, before it can fairly be said that you know what you are to teach. To know what you are to teach, necessitates an intelligent study of your lesson, while the scholars whom you are to teach are before your mind's eye as you are studying. You must consider well Your Scholars' Limits. 59 the capabilities and needs of your class as a whole, and of your scholars individually. You must know what there is in the day's lesson, which it would be well for your scholars to know. You must know also whether or not your scholars can be made to know just that. If it is within the possibilities of their comprehension, then it is for you to get it fully and fairly into your mind, in order that it may be transferred to their minds. Until you know the lesson in this way, you do not know what you are to teach — and surely you are not prepared for teaching until you know thus much ! Pakt I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptek 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. 60 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. No doing a thing without knowing how. in. YOU MUST KNOW HOW YOU ABE TO TEACH. Knowing how is Essential to Well-doing ; A Doctor with all Kinds of Knowledge but One ; The Need of a Vent-hole ; Choosing your own Method. Even when you know accurately whom you are to teach, and what you are to teach, you still are unprepared to bear your part in the twofold teach- ing process, unless you know how you are to teach. The scholar being before j-ou, and being well under- stood by you ; the truth which you would teach him, which you would aid him to learn, being well in your mind, — the question is still unanswered, Howare you to teach him ? How are you to make him the mental possessor of that which is ni.w your mind- treasure, and which you desire to have him possess ? In everything which needs doing, a knowledge of the method of doing is of prime importance. A man cannot milk a cow, or whitewash a garret, or make a shoe, or paint a picture, or write a book, or keep a hotel, or do anything else in this world, — unless, perhaps, it is to fill a government office, — without knowing how. The fact that the work The Yowig Doctor. 61 attempted is a religious one, does not make it any the less important that the doer should know how to do it. lie who would preach, must know how to preach ; and he who would teach, must know how to teach. No man can call himself ready to teach, until he knows how he is to teach ; until he is not only acquainted with wise methods of teaching, but has decided upon his plan, in accordance with those methods, for the work immediately before him. It is one thing to have knowledge on any subject; it is quite another thing to be able to make that knowledge practically available to others. A young man goes through a course of study in medicine. He reads treatises in one branch and another of medical science, and medical practice; and he at- tends lecture after lecture from eminent professors in every branch. All this is very well in its way ; but it does not, in and of itself, make the young man a good physician. When the student is finally under examination for a medical diploma, it will not be deemed sufficient that he has attended the lec- tures regularly, and has studied the books faithfully ; nor yet, that his mind is stored with the great facts concerning the constitution and the disorders of the human body to which he is preparing to minister, and the nature and force of the remedies from which he is to select for each case under treatment; he must also be able to say what he would do in a given Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptek 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. What a diploma cannot do. 62 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Testing the young doctor's knowledge. emergency, how he would treat a particular case when it was before him. Imagine, for example, the examination of a medi- cal student : " Suppose you were called to see a man who had taken an overdose of laudanum, and was rapidly sinking; how would you treat the case?" " I should at once recognize his great danger, and my great responsibility, and I should want to do the very best I could for him." " That is all very well, so far as your feelings and wishes go, but now, what is your knowledge of the thing to be done in this emergency?" "Well, I think I ought to have some knowledge in that line. I have attended medical lectures for three years ; and the subject of poisons was handled at our college by one of the most dis- tinguished toxicologists in this country. Moreover, I have read on that subject as much as any young man of my age whom I know of." " You certainly seem to have had good opportunities of learning. And now we are trying to find out if you can put your knowledge to a good account. What would you do for this patient?" "I should tell him plainly that his life depended on his getting that laudanum out of his stomach?" "Yes, but he might be already so drowsy that he couldn't hear you; or indeed he might not care to be cured; what then?" " Oh! I can't tell exactly what I would do in such a case. I have studied medicine faithfully. I know all about the human system, and all about Ready with a Plan. 63 drugs and medicines When I come to a case of any sort, I shall look at it as it is, and decide what it is best to do under the circumstances. I can't say beforehand just what I would do." " "Well, if you do not know how you would go to work to save a man who was sinking under laudanum, or who had punctured the femoral artery, it would be too great a risk for the patient to be in your hands while you were deciding what was the proper mode of his treatment. He would be pretty sure to die on your hands in spite of all your lecture-hearing, and your home-studying. "We shall not call you ready to practice medicine, until you know hoio to practice it in order to make it effective in a life and death matter of this kind." Just here a bystander interjects his view of meth- ods : " /never attended any medical lectures, nor read much on this subject, but I have seen the doctors treat some cases like the one you are talking about ; and if I were at hand when there was no one else to help, I would get such a man to swallow lukewarm water with mustard or soap in it, a pint at a time, and if that didn't answer, I would have my finger down his throat. And when that poison was out of him, I would have him take strong hot tea or coffee, and get him to bed ; seeing to it that his respiration and pulse were kept up, by artificial chafings and fomentations, and finally, that he had good rest and nourishment." " "Well, now, that sounds practical." Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Not prepared. Practical, even if not technical. 64 Teaching and Teachers. Pakt I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials otthe Teaching Process. The need in every profes- sion. Teachers must know. It seems that the knowing how to do is the best kind of knowledge in such a case. It is all-important to the poisoned man that one who is treating him knows how to help him, even though he lacks the stores of other kinds of knowledge which fill the mind of a medical student who knows everything except the how to make his knowledge available. In every profession it is the same as in medicine; and so it is in every occupation. A lawyer must not only know the law, and know his client's ease, but he must know how to draw up his papers, how to make his motions, how to proceed at every step of the trial ; he must have a plan beforehand in the questioning, or the cross-questioning, of every witness on the stand, and in his method of bringing every man of the jury to see the case as he sees it. And what would an architect or a builder be worth, as a prac- tical matter, however much knowledge he had of styles, or details, of architecture, unless he knew how to arrange for the building material, so as to have each part fit the other parts, and to have every part ready j ust when and where it was wanted ! From ruling a kingdom down to weeding an onion-bed, it is quite as important to know how to do what needs doing, as it is to have stores of knowledge concern- ing the things to be done. There is no class of persons in the world who more need to have a knowledge of wise methods in their line of work, than Sunday-school teachers ; A Too-full Barrel. 65 and there are none who more commonly fail or fall short in their best endeavors because of their lack just here. Inasmuch as the essence of teaching is causing another to know, it is not enough that the teacher knows whom he would teach, and what he would teach ; until he knows how he is to teach, he is yet unprepared for his teaching work. He must know the method by which he is to cause his scholar to know that which he knows, and which he wishes the other to know also ; or, his knowledge of both his subject and his scholar inevitably comes to naught. He may be brimful of Bible truth, and brimful also of a knowledge of human nature in general, and of his scholars in particular; brimful again of love for his subject and of love for his scholars; but all this threefold brimfulness is not sufficient to make him a teacher : nor can he be a teacher unless he knows how to teach, how to get some of his brimfulness into his scholars' brim- emptiness. Is not that obvious ? At a local Sunday-school convention in ISew Eng- land this question of knowing how to teach, was under discussion. "If only a teacher is full of his subject," said one speaker, " there will be no trouble in his knowing how to teach his class." " I don't agree to that," said another. " A barrel of cider may be so full that the cider won't run when you draw the tap ; it won't run, just because the barrel is so full. You must give some vent to that barrel else- Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptee 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Too much brimfulness. Lacking a vent. 66 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Knowing more than you can teach. Choose your own method. where than at the tap ; and you must know where to put the vent." Fullness is by no means the only qualification of a good teacher ; nor is its lack the chief need in the Sunday-school teachers of to-day. Getting the vent-hole in the right place is quite as important as drawing the tap, in order to supply most of our Sunday-school cla.",ses with all that the teaching-barrel before them can furnish for their benefit. There are few Sunday-school teachers — very few — who do not know more about each lesson in hand than they know how to teach. If the aver- age Sunday-school teacher could cause every scholar of his class to know all that he knows of the les- son under consideration, there would be such an advancement in Bible knowledge as our fathers never dreamed of for this generation, and as we are not likely to see for some time to come. It is even afiirmed by one of the most careful and accurate of our educational philosophers, that " it is a fallacy to assert that there is any necessary connection between knowing a subject and knowing how to teach it." If, however, these two kinds of knowl- edge have no necessary connection to begin with, they need to be connected in the mind of one who would prove himself a teacher. There are various methods of teaching. Not all subjects are to be taught in the same way. Not all teachers can use the same method. Not all methods are alike suited to every scholar. Nor are all Decide on Your Plan. 67 teachers to be instructed in the methods of teaching best adapted to them and to their classes, through the study of any one set of rules and precepts. It is for each teacher to decide for himself the method of teaching which, all things considered, is most desir- able for him, in the teaching of the lesson in hand to the particular scholars he is set to teach. The great question is, not, "What are the different approved methods of teaching? not, What method of teaching is most commonly successful in the Sunday-school ? but, "What method of teaching am I to adopt, in the teaching of this lesson, to this class ? or. How am I to cause these scholars to know these truths which I know, and which I want them to know ? That question settled, and there is another point gained in preparation for teaching. Part I. The Teaclier's Teaching Work. CnAPTEK 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. Another point gained. THE TEACHING PROCESS. 3. ITS ELEMENTS. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 3. Elements of the Teaching Process. One and one and two. : PRELIMINAEY STATEMENT. And now we pass from the essentials for the teaching-process, to the several elements of that pro- cess; from that which is requisite for its attempting, to that which is involved in the act itself. The teaching-process being, as is already shown, of a twofold nature, involving teaching on the one hand and learning on the other, its elements are three- fold, including a portion for each party separately, and a third portion for the two parties conjointly. The teacher must be ready to impart; the scholar must be ready to receive ; teacher and scholar must combine for the transfer. If either party can com- plete the work without the other ; nor can the two parties complete the work without conjoint action. To begin with, the scholar must be attentive to the teacher who would cause him to learn. Then the teacher must make clear what he would have the scholar learn. Then the twofold work of the teach- From the Teacher's Stand-point. 69 ing-process, wHch is also the learning-process, can go on by the combined endeavor of the teacher and the learner. Hence it would appear that the elements of the teaching-process, as viewed from the standpoint of the teacher, are: Having the scholar's attention, making clear that which is to be taught, securing the scholar's co-work with the teacher. Without these three elements the teaching-process cannot be complete. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 3. Elements of the Teaching Process. 70 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 3. Elements of the Teaching Process. The best and the worst. HAVING THE ATTENTION OF THOSE YOU WOULD TEACH. No Teaching vnthout Attention; What Attention is; Attention on (lie Play-grmind ; Attention in the Army ; Attention in the Sunday- school; Attention at Family Prayers; The Necessity of Holding Attention as well as Getting it. It is obvious, that, even when the teacher has his scholar before him ; has, also, in his own mind, well- defined facts or views, which he would transfer to the mind of his scholar ; and has, furthermore, a well-defined plan of teaching; — all this preparedness amounts to just nothing at all, unless the teacher has and holds the attention of his scholar. Without the attention of his scholar, the best teacher in the world cannot be a teacher to that scholar. Shake- speare says : " The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark, When neither is attended ; '' and the poorest teacher can do no worse than the best teacher, when neither has attention. So far, perhaps, all will be ready to agree. Every teacher expects to have his scholars' attention ; and Attention Defined. 71 many a teacher flatters himself that he has it, when nothing like it is given to him. "What is attention ? Attention is literally the stretching of one's self toward a thing : it is " the energetic application of the mind to any object," " with a view to perceive, understand, or comply." Attention involves the giving of one's self, by an intelligent surrender or devotion, to the one thing reached after, to the ex- clusion or forgetfulness, for the time being, of every- thing else. Attention is something more than being silent ; silence is very often the result of listlessness — or of slumber. Attention is something more than looking straight at the person or the thing needing attention : staring at vacancy gives all the fixity of gaze that the best attention calls for ; but staring is by no means the giving of attention. Attention is some- thing more than hearing : one may hear the clatter of the steam-cars in which he rides, the din and rattle of the city streets along which he walks, or the rush and roar of the storm outside his house as he sits at home on a wintry night, and yet give no attention to that which he hears. His attention may be wholly on the book he is reading, the business mat- ter he is considering, or the picture he is examining, while the discordant sounds about him are heard without being heeded. Attention is something more than having an interest in a subject before one. Every man has an interest in his health, in his repu- tation, in his spiritual welfare ; but not every man Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 3. Elements of the Teaching Process. What atten- tion is. Hindrances to attention. 72 Teaching and Teachers. Pakt I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 3. Elements of the Teaching Process. Sporting list- lessly. gives attention to these things. He may even fail of attention to that which has more of his interest than anything else. The spirit may be v^illing and earnest, while the flesh is lethargic or weak. An overloaded stomach, or a badly ventilated room, may keep a person from giving attention to words on a subject which has a vital and urgent interest to him. He came to the room expressly to hear about this; butjustnowhe is dropping off into a doze, and he " doesn't care whether school keeps or not." Real attention includes looking at, listening to, being interested in, and, with a positive exercise of the will, reaching out after, the thing demanding atten- tion. Until a scholar is thus attentive, no teacher on the face of the earth is capable of teaching that scholar. Let a boy have the bat in a game of cricket ; what hope is there of his saving his wicket if he fails of attention to the movements of his opposing bowler ? How much would "a fielder" be worth, to catch the ball " on the fly," if he gave no attention to the bats- man, in a game of base-ball? Leave out attention, in a sportsman's gunning, and what would be his chances of success in the region of duck, or par- tridges ? Attention is no less a necessity in the more serious business of getting knowledge, than in the games and sports of life. Until you have attention you cannot begin the teaching process. There are a good many things which you would like to have The Military Standard. 73 in a scholar which, after all, you can get along with- out; but attention is not one of these. A scholar may lack knowledge, he may lack brightness, he may lack a good disposition, and yet he may be taught by you. But while a scholar lacks attention, teach- ing him is an impossibility. It is every way useless for a teacher to begin an effort at teaching until he has, in some way, secured the attention of his scholars. In military service, every plan and every move- ment are on a life-and-death basis. All that is said and all that is done, have an important part in making each man, who is either in authority or under authority, a success or a failure in that which he lives for, and for which he stands ready to die. Officers and men have a common interest and a two- fold work in that to which they have pledged them- selves, and which they have together undertaken. The power of the officers for that work is in and through their men. The efficiency of the men for that work is by and through the direction of their officers. Neither man nor officer amounts to any- thing without the other. There ought to be a les- son, then, in the method of securing the twofold work of officers and men in the army. However skilled are the officers, and however well disciplined and experienced are the men, before any movement is attempted, or any command to such movement is given, the one word that always rings out from the Part I. 'J he Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 3. Elements of the Teaching Process. A life-and- deach basis. 74 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chapter 3. Elements of the Teaching Process. " Attention ! Battalion I" commanding officer, as preliminary to his specific direction, is " Attention ! " There stand the soldiers, already in line, uniformed and trained alike. They are silent as the grave itself. Their eyes are on their commander, as if he were the only object of their sight. Their ears are open to the faintest whisper of liis voice. Is not this enough ? Are those soldiers not already at attention ? ISTo ; attention includes more than all this mere quiet passivity of being. There is an active, conscious, determined, earnest outstretching of one's self to heed and to co-work with the one who is to speak, which is essential to the act of attention. The commander's call, " Atten- tion ! Battalion ! " is as if he were to say, " Soldiers, I know you well. You know me. Our interests are one. I have words to speak to you, and I have work for you to do. Your lives and mine, and that which is dearer to us both than life itself, hinge on my wise direction and your faithful doing. Now, then, heed well, and be ready to do ! " The experience of cen- turies has taught soldiers that there is no hope of suc- cess in any army struggle unless the officers have first secured and are still holding their men's atten- tion. And all the experience of the world tends to show that untrained scholars have quite as much need as trained soldiers of giving attention to their leaders, in a work wherein leaders and led must act together or utterly fail. Yet it is a very difficult matter to get and to hold The Missing Class Books. 75 attention in a class ; and the lack of attention is more common and more disastrous in Sunday-school work than is commonly supposed. This in itself would be a reason, if other reasons were lacking, why telling a thing is not likely to be the teaching of that thing; for most of the telling in the Sunday school is to those who are not giving their attention to the speaker. Professor Hart gives a striking illustration of this truth, out of his experience as superintendent of a Sunday-school in one of the more prominent churches of Philadelphia. He says : " In my own Sunday-school, I had neglected one morning to bring with me the teachers' class-books. After opening the school, I rang the bell as a signal for attention. [The fact that this was unusual, was a break in the ordinary course of the exercises, gave it an added and a special prominence before the entire school.] There was a general hush throughout the room. All eyes were turned to the desk. I said : ' Your class- books, unfortunately, have been left behind this morning. They have been sent for, however, and they will soon be here. As soon as they come, I will bring them round to the several classes. In the meantime, you may go on with your regular lessons.' The bell was then tapped again, and the routine of the school resumed. In about a minute, a girl came up to the desk, with, ' Sir, teacher saj-s, Will you please send her class-book ? it was not brought around, as usual, this morning, before school Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptee :h. Elements of the Teaching Process. Lack of attention is common and disastrous. 76 Teaching and Teachers. Part I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. Chaptee 3. Elements of the Teaching Process. Inattention at family prayers. opened ! ' Here was a class of ten girls, averaging twelve years of age, and not one of them, nor their teacher, had heard or understood the notice, which I thought I had made so plain ! " Nor was the lack of attention thus indicated a marked exception in the experience of Sunday-school classes. If you think that attention is easily secured, or that it is commonly given by listeners of ordinary intelligence, test the matter, some time, in your home circle, at family prayers, when you are reading a Bible lesson. I have tried it in this way scores of times, and almost always with the same result. When all were seated, with the understanding that this was a religious service, and that the Bible read- ing was worthy of the attention of all, I have read a verse or two from the Bible, and then have suddenly asked a question as to the particular statements of the verses just read, in order to see how many of my hearers had given their attention to the reading. Rarely have I obtained the correct answer from any one of those present. Of course this would have been different, had I announced, to begin with : "lam now going to read a verse, and then question you as to its statements. Please give your attention accord- ingly." My tests have been unexpectedly applied, for the purpose of ascertaining the ordinary attitude of the hearer, in the matter of attention. For example : I would read the passage in Mark 10 : 32-45, beginning : " And they were in the way. The Average Listener. 77 going up to Jerusalem ; and Jesus went before them : and they were amazed ; and as they followed, they \^'ere afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him." ITow if I were to ask my questions about this verse while the very words themselves were ring- ing in the ears of the hearers, the right answers might be given through a recall of the still echoing sounds; therefore I would, as it were, break this echo by such a comment as this: "You will remember that this was not long after the Transfiguration." Then I would go on to ask : " By the way, how many of the disciples were with Jesus, just now ? " Per- haps the answer, suggested by this mention of the Transfiguration, would be: "I think there were three; Peter, and James, and John." Or, again, one would say, " I don't recall how many were with Jesus, at ing Influence. The highest ideal. Being a stumbling- block. 276 Teaching and Teachers. Pakt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section I. Having and Using Influence. Influence lost. Thellbertyto let alone. me to ask my counsel concerning her son. He Lad admired and loved his Sunday-school teacher; but he had learned that that teacher was accustomed to attend the theatre, and at once he lost confidence in his teacher's Christian character. "Nothing that that teacher can say, will now have any influ- ence with my son," said the mother. " What can I do ? Shall I take my boy out of that class ? It seems useless for him to remain there any longer." The question in such a case is not, whether the teacher had a moral right to pursue the course which he did concerning theatre-going; but, whether it was wise for him thus to endanger his influence with his scholars. There are many such cases as this. Wine-drink- ing, tobacco-using, card-playing, dancing, as well as theatre-going, on a teacher's part, have many times weakened or destroj'ed the teacher's good influence over his scholars in the Sunday-school. It is of no use to say that, because these things are in themselves harmless and allowable, as the teacher looks at them, therefore they are to be adhered to, at whatever con- sequences to scholars who have weak consciences on these points. If, indeed, adherence to a matter in dispute is a clear point ofdtifi/; if a teacher can say, concerning any of the above-named practices, that he has no right to abstain from it; that he must wit- ness for it, as a means of promoting it for Christ, — then, of course, it is not within the sphere of his The Aftermath of Influence. 277 Christian liberty ; he must stand by it, at every cost or risk to himself or to others. But if it is a matter where he can choose for himself which course he will pursue, and he knows that his scholars are in- clined to count indulgence, in that line, a lowering of the Christian standard, and abstinence the course of the pure and the devoted Christian, then, surely, he is bound to consider his influence over those scholars as an important element in his decision of personal duty. Then it is that the inspired admo- nition should ring anew in his ears : " Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours [this liberty of indulgence] become a stumbling-block to the weak," — lest " through thy knowledge [thy knowl- edge of the innocence of that which by some is counted as wrong] he that is weak perisheth, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And thus, sin- ning against the brethren, and wounding their con- science, when it is weak, ye sin against Christ." A teacher's influence for good, whether it be his intentionally-directed influence, or his influence ex- erted unconsciously, is not always manifested imme- diately in the scholar's character or conduct. It is never^ indeed, shown in its fullness at the first. It is often unapparent at the beginning, and sometimes for long years afterward ; yet it is all the more real for its vitality during a period of prolonged dor- mancy. And there is stimulus and encouragement to the faithful teacher in this thought. Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section I. Having and Using Influence. Talce heed I Seed-time and harvest. 278 Teaching and Teachers. Paet II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section I. Having and Using Influence. John New- ton's mother. A mission- scholar. John Newton's mother died when he was scarcely seven years old. She had been faithful in word and in character, in her purpose of influencing her son aright; but he grew up godless and vicious. A pro- fane infidel sailor, the servant of a slave-dealer, and again a public felon, bound in irons and flogged at the whipping-post, his manhood's first harvest seemed a poor garnering for his mother's sowing. But underneath the surface of his heart's soil lay buried the memory of that mother's hand upon his head in prayer, as he kneeled with her in his boyhood. The loving pressure of that hand was never wholly lost to him. It was felt by him, at times, in all his darkest days of sinning ; and, by God's grace, it gently drew him back to the place of faith-filled prayer. From that root of influence there came the starting of new life in all the field of his mind and heart; and the aftermath of his mother's influence has filled the world with song and story. And so, to a lesser or a larger degree, with many another wayward boy, from home or from school. In the city mission-school in Hartford, Connecticut, where I took some of my earliest lessons in the methods and the possibilities of teaching, more than thirty years ago, a kind-hearted teacher toiled faith- fully and endured patiently with one boy in his class who seemed thoroughly and hopelessly bad. He visited that boy in his wretched home, he invited him to his own pleasant room, he clothed him, he A Rescued Prodigal. 279 found one place after another of employment for him, he spoke to him always in kindness, counseling and warning him untiringly ; but all to no seeming pur- pose. The boy was still wild, coarse, profane, reck- less, ungrateful ; and at last he ran away from his home, and shipped on a Liverpool vessel from New York. The end had come to his life in that mission- school. Was there nothing to show for all the influ- ence which had been exerted, in his behalf, there ? Three years went by. Then from the interior of British India word came from that boy, saying that he was a soldier in the English army under Sir Colin Campbell, battling against the Sepoys. Already he had marched nine hundred miles, and had endured untold privations and hardships. But there, in that far land, shut in among the mountains, away from home and Christian surroundings, sick in body and sad in spirit, he had recalled the lessons of his Hart- ford mission-school ; and now the aftermath of his discouraged teacher's influence showed itself in his words of penitence and gratitude, and of trust in his Redeemer's love. It is natural and proper to expect the greatest good in the immediate results of influence ; but we are encouraged also to believe that the secondary, or the ultimate, results of good influence may be even larger and better than the primary results. If not now, then by and by. If not in the first garnering, then in the aftermath. Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section I. Having and Using Influence. Saved at last. By .and by. 280 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section I. Having and Using Influence. Ten thou- sand ages. Another illustration. " Age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress; And as the evening twilight fades away, The sky is filled with stars invisible by day." "What you do, and, more than all, what you are, to-day, is to have power over others, or in others, not only to-day, hut in the long-distant future. " The teacher," says Confacius, " is a pattern for ten thou- sand ages." The chief harvest of your influence may be to-day ; and again it may he ten thousand ages hence — whatever may seem to he your failure or your success to-day. " Bead we not the mighty thought Once by ancient sages taught ? Though it withered in the blight Of the mediaeval night, Now the harvest we behold; See ! it bears a thousand-fold. "If God's wisdom has decreed One may labor, yet the seed Barely in this life shall grow, Shall the sower cease to sow ? The fairest truth may yet be bom On the resurrection morn." A single added illustration may tend to fix more firmly in the reader's mind the importance of a teacher's looking well to the nature and tendencies of his personal influence — conscious and unconscious — in view of the unyielding permanence of the im- The Springs at Vicky. 281 pressions thereby produced in the scholar's life and character : — The waters of the mineral springs at Vichy, in France, are widely known for their tonic and invigorating qualities. Thousands of health-seekers visit these springs annually; while the Vichy waters and their imitations find a ready market throughout the world. In addition to its health -giving char- acter, the water of some of these springs has the power of petrifying, or coating with stone, whatever is for any considerable time, and steadily, subjected to its action. Although the water itself is colorless and comparatively clear and free from sediment, it slowly precipitates its mineral components, which solidify on the surface where they fall, and form, as it were, a covering of unyielding rock. This pecu- liarity of the Vichy water is improved for the manu- facture of ornamental petrifactions in great variety, and the preparation and sale of these trinkets is quite a business in the vicinity of the springs. A prepared model, or pattern, is set where the spring-water can trickle steadily upon it, and there it is permitted to remain day after day. The water is limpid. Its flow is free. It merely passes over the pattern as if to wash it. It touches it and is gone. But, in passing, the water deposits, atom by atom, from its substance and possessions, that which hardens on the model below until that model is reproduced, or encased, all parts alike, in stone. If Part II. 'J he Teacher's other Work. Section I. Having an(i Using Iiifiiience. Coated with stone. Following copy. 282 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section I. Haviug and Using Influence. Like makes like. What is the pattern? the pattern, in wood or metal or glass, is a cross, the deposit on it forms accordingly, and it is taken out as a cross of stone. If a plaster copy of an elaborately wrought piece of carving or sculpture is the pattern, the result is a similar work in stone ; each figure and outline of the copy being so covered with the mineral deposit that it becomes a stone reproduction of the original carving or sculpture. So, under the running water at the springs at Yichy grow forms of beauty in enduring rock, just according to the patterns placed there. ISTor is it alone at Vichy that the inflowing stream shapes itself in stone by the models over which it passes. The same process goes on continually in the sphere of every Sunday-school teacher. The current of his influence may seem colorless and inoperative. It may pass on so quietly over his scholar's mind that it seems likely to leave no im- pression there. Yet it surely deposits, atom by atom, from its substance and possessions, that which hardens into stone on the scholar's inner life, in conformity with the patterns which the teacher has selected, or which he has unconsciously presented to the scholar's mind. Every act, every word, every thought of the teacher which enters into the stream of his personal character and influence contributes its mite to the forming rock in his scholar's heart and soul. The teacher selects and places the model by which this rock is shaped. The seemingly unim- The Perfect Pattern. 283 portaut trickling of the minor streams of personal influence does the rest. The enduring stone shall show what was the teacher's model. Happy is that teacher whose life and character are so conformed to the only perfect Pattern, that he can say in con- fidence to his scholars, with the Apostle Paul, " Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ," until ye " are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." Paet II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section I. Having and Using Influence. His image. 284 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section II . Loving, and Winning Lore. Unloving and unloved. n. LOVING, AND WINNING LOVE. What Love Is ; No Power Like Love ; Love in a Garret ; Every Man Sas a Scarf; Love as a Duly; Instances of Love; All Can Love ; Christ's Image Reproduced in Love. "Loving" one's scholars, and "influencing" one's scholars, are by no means identical; although the two things very often go together. A teacher who loves his scholars and who is loved by his scholars is pretty sure to influence his scholars ; but a teacher may influence his scholars without either loving them or being loved by them. A teacher may have and exei-t an influence by the purity of his life, by the strength of his character, by the positiveness of his convictions, by the earnestness of his nature, by the persuasiveness of his words and manner, and yet be unloving and unloved as a teacher. But loving is as clearly a duty as influencing, on the part of a Sun- day-school teacher. Loving and winning are an inseparable portion of the obligations resting on every disciple of Christ, who goes in the name of Christ to those for whom Christ died. Love as a Duty. 285 Love, be it understood, — the love which is here spoken of, — is not a matter of emotion ; it is not a drawing of the affections in strong feeling toward one who is in himself attractive. If it were that which were looked upon as, in all cases, a duty, there would indeed seem to be insuperable obstacles to its uniform exercise ; and its very existence might fairly be counted beyond the scope of the teacher's will. The love which is a duty, is a recognition of every child as a fellow-creature, a fellow immortal with ourselves, a personal object of the love of God, and one who is dear to Jesus our Saviour. It in- volves a recognition of the peculiar needs of that one whom Jesus loves, and whom he asks us to care for for his sake. Such a recognition in its fullness will inevitably bring us to a sense of tender interest in the condition of him who represents so much ; it cannot but create in us a desire to be of service to this possessor of an immortal soul for whom Jesus died ; and that desire will be sure to show itself in all that we say or do, in our intercourse with that personality. Love is, after all, the chief attraction in the Sun- day-school. It is the only power which reaches every scholar alike. Every heart is human, and every human heart is open to the influence of genu- ine sympathy and affection. There are those who can be attracted to a Sunday-school by its showy appointments, its spacious rooms, its furnishing and Paet II. The Teacher's other "Work. Section II. Loving, and; Winning Love. What love involves. The chief power. 286 Teaching and Teachers. Pabt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section II. Loving, and Winning Love. Everyone loves to be loved. Anew convert. adornments. Others are won by its fine singing, or by its library and its picture-papers. Yet others enjoy its companionships, and the anticipation of its festivals and picnics. Some, it may be, think more of the instruction they receive there, and of the gain to their minds and hearts as Bible students. But no one of these attractions is alike for all. There are those who care nothing for singing, and who lack good taste and an appreciation of the beautiful. Many have no interest in books and papers, and many more have no enjoyment in mere Bible study. But every one loves to be loved, and finds pleasure in being where the very atmosphere of the place is redolent with sympathy and affection. That Sun- day-school where love is most prominent — most apparent in desk and class — ^is surest of being always attractive, always potent for good to its scholars. My earliest experience in the mission-school work gave me a lesson on this point which I have never forgotten. While I was yet a new comer into the fold of Christ, my heart brimming and burning with love for Him who loved me, and I desirous of show- ing that love in any way in my power, I was asked to have a part in a mission-school movement just be- ginning in a needy portion of our cit}-, and I gladly assented. Finding my way to the place designated, on a Sunday noon, I groped along, up rickety stair- cases, and through dark passage-ways, dimly lighted by burning candles at mid-day, in a dilapidated pile Love in a Garret. 287 of old buildings near the river bank ; and there, in a room just under the roof, I found a few teachers and less than a score of ragged boys and girls from the more wretched homes of the wretched neighbor- hood. There was certainly nothing in the room itself which was attractive, and this was before the days of modern Sunday-school singing, or modem Sunday-school appliances generally. Apart from the heart attractions of the work undertaken there, what could win or hold such boys and girls as had already begun to gather there ? As I sat in that garret-room, looking about me with curious interest, on my first visit there, I noticed one little fellow all by himself in a. corner, more wretched-looking, if possible, than any other there. He was in rags. His appearance was most uncleanly. His face was badly swollen, as if from a tooth-ache ; and, as he caught my attention, he was clumsily trying to re-adjust a coarse and dirty cloth, which had been tied as a bandage about his face, but which was slipping from its place. Touched with a sense of his wretchedness, I stepped across the room, and, taldng the bandage from his hands, with a kindly word to him, I re-folded it as best I could, and, passing it around his cheeks, I tied it securely above his head. As, with another expres- sion of sympathy with the little fellow, I took away my hands from his head, he turned his face up to mine with a look I shall never forget. It was a look Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section II. Lovhig, and Winning Love. A dreary spot. Won by a look. 288 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teaclier's Other Work. Section II. Loving, and Winning Love. Open, Sesame I A new life. of wonderment and of grateful joy commingled, as if out of an utterly new experience in his young life. It seemed to speak his unfeigned surprise that any one should have such a regard for him, or should lay hands on him except in Yiolence or harshness. It seemed to say that he had already learned to shrink and groan and suffer ; but that never before had he known what it was to be loved. That look taught me the "Open, Sesame!" of the outcast's heart. It showed me that I could win love by showing love ; that I could do a work for Christ by eviden- cing the spirit of Christ in never so faint a degree. That look won my life to the Sunday-school work. That boy proved to be the son of a wandering scissors-grinder. He had really never known what a home was. Within a few weeks from the hour I first met him, both his parents were dead. That mission-school was the means of his rescue. First taken from it into an orphan asylum, he was after- ward helped to a place of honorable employment. Then he became a faithful soldier of his country. After that he was a consistent Christian worker. His first experience of Christian love was not his last. He lived to exemplify the power of love on himself, and in himself, and through himself; and so far he is a lesson to every one who would get good or do good in the Sunday-school field. It is not alone the poor outcast who feels the power of love, who is won by love, and who is glad and The Pre-eminence of Love. 289 grateful when he finds that he is loved. ISTo child living is above being loved. Children who have love at home, appreciate it none the less when they feel its force and are swayed by its influence in the Sunday-school. Love can reach all. " Aim at the heart, in your preaching," said an experienced preacher, in addressing a class of graduating divinity students. " l^ot every man has a head, but every man has a heart. If 3'ou aim at the head, you will miss some of your hearers. If you aim at the heart, you will hit them all. Aim at the heart." And that is as good counsel for the Sunday-school teacher as it is for the preacher. Unless a Sunday-school teacher has love and shows love, in his work for his scholars, he lacks one thing without which all else must go for naught. Though he speaks with the tongues of men and of angels, though he has the gift of prophecy, though he understands all knowledge and all mysteries, though he gives of his goods to feed the poor, and though he has all faith so that he could remove mountains, and yet has not love, — that love which suffereth long and is kind, which beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, — he is nothing as a true and eiScient Sunday-school teacher. The true measure of a Sunday-school teacher's personal power over his scholars is found in his love for them, and in their love for him ; for love begets love, and he who loves truly is truly loved. I once Paet II. The Teacher's other Work. Section II. Loving, and Winning < Love. Aim at the heart. Love begets love. 290 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section II. Loving, and Winning Love. A life for a life. Love can be won. knew a Sunday-school which was influential beyond all the Sunday-schools about it, and I was puzzled for the secret of its success. Its superintendent was a man not well furnished intellectually for such a work as he was carrying forward; moreover, he lacked any special fitness in his personal magnetism, or in his administrative qualities, or in his skill and tact as a worker; yet old and young in the com- munity gathered in large numbers in his Sunday- school, and were kept there, year after year. It was a rarely successful school, while without any seeming reason for its great success. I asked that superin- tendent's pastor if he could tell me what was that man's power. " I don't know that-I can answer you any better," said the pastor, " than by saying that a member of my church said, not long ago, ' There are fifty men in this town who would die for that superintendent.' " There was the source of that superintendent's power. He was, like Daniel, a " man greatly beloved." He was loved because he was loving. His love for all drew the love of all to him; and that was reason enough why his Sunday- school should be a power in his community. Every teacher can love his scholars, and by loving his scholars every teacher can win the love of his scholars; hence, as it is a duty of every teacher to love those whom God commits to his charge, it is every teacher's duty to be loved by the scholars of his charge. Many a teacher is loved very dearly; The Duty of Being Loved. 291 every teacher ought to be. "Don't you think my teacher is the best teacher that ever hvod ? " asked a scholar in that Hartford mission-school of which I have already spoken. And when a teacher was taken out of that very school by death, the heartiest tribute that was paid to his power as a teacher was the ejaculation of one of the boys in his class : " I tell you, he did love the boys." And, again, when one of the scholars out of that school Avas told, in her home of poverty, that she had but a little while to live, she said, in tender thoughtfulness : " ]\Iothcr, don't tell my teacher I am dead ; for it will break her heai't to know it." And as those scholars mag- nified their teacher's love for them, so every scholar ought to have reason to magnify the love of his teacher for him. Some years ago, I was looking along a street in Lowell, Massachusetts, on a snowy Saturday even- ing, for the home of a good superintendent with whom I was to pass the Sabbath. ISTot being sure of the house, I stopped a thinly clad little girl, who was passing, and pointing to the house which I thought was the one sought for, I asked: "Do you know, does Deacon Chase live in this house ? " "I don't know if it's Deacon Chase," was the little girl's prompt reply ; "but the man who lives there is named Chase, and he's got white hair, and he loves little children." Ah ! that was a description which every Sunday-school worker might long for, Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section II. Loving, and Winning Love. Proofs of love. How she knew him. 202 Teaching and Teachers. Paet II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section II. Loving, and Winnii g Love. True Friends. Following the superin- tendent. whether his hair is white, or black, or brown. And when a man can be said by all to love little children, he will be loved by little children. I knew a Sun- day-school in Philadelphia where was no singing, no instrumental music, no audible prayer, no orna^ mented walls, no room-adornments; but where love was, as it were, all in all to the scholars. It was a First-day School of the Friends, and the superin- tendent and every teacher were counted as loved friends by all their scholars. In one of the homes represented in that school a mother died, and her little son was well-nigh broken-hearted in a sense of his loss. But as he thought of the love and the sympathy he had lost, he turned in his longing to the love and sympathy which were left to him, and he said, through his tears : " Well, I've got Jlr. Baily's Sunday-school to go to, haven't I, papa ? " And there was help to him in that thought. I knew another Sunday-school, in Connecticut, where were all the attractions of singing, and books, and pic- tures, and of a bright and well-furnished room, but where love, again, was the chief attraction, even if it did not seem to be all in all. The loved superin- tendent died out of that school, and it seemed as if every scholar's heart would break under a crushing sense of personal loss. A few weeks later a little German scholar of that school was called to die. When told that there was no hope of her recovery, her heart went out afresh in love toward her remem- An Attainment for All. 293 bered superintendent, and her face brightened up as she responded : " Then I shall be the first scholar from our school to meet Mr. Preston in heaven." Heaven itself was more attractive to that child, be- cause of her loved superintendent's presence there. I^or was he alone, as a representative of Jesus, in winning hearts heavenward by manifesting the love of Jesus. " Love is strong as death. . . . Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it." There is an encouragement in this thought, of the power of love, in the Avork of the Sunday-school teacher. ISTot all teachers have, or can have, every qualification for the teacher's work; but every teacher can loA^e and can be loved. You may not be able to become expert as a " teacher," gaining a thorough knowledge of your lessons, of your scholars, and of wise methods of teaching; having power in holding yovir scholars' intelligent attention, in making clear '\'\'hat you would teach, and in securing the co- work of your scholars in the teaching process. You may lack skill in questioning, in illustrating, and in reviewing. All this lack may be regretted bj^ you ; but if you are possessed with love for Christ, and with love for souls for Christ's sake, you will have power with your scholars in behalf of Christ. In the work of winning scholars to Christ, there are many agencies and helps; "and the greatest of these is love." The story has been told, of a young Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section II. Loving, and Winning LoYe. Strong as death. You can be loving. 294 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. .Section II. Loving, and Winning Love. Her special way. A class- reunion. woman teacher in an English Sunday-scliool who had rare success in winning her scholars to the Saviour. So uniform was this success, that it came to be taken for granted that a scholar who entered her class would be brought to Christ ; and her super- intendent asked her, at one time, what was her special way with her scholars, which had such po- tency. "I don't know of any special way of mine," she answered. " I only know that I can never look upon a scholar without the thought. There is one for whose soul the blood of the Son of God was shed; and I cannot count anything too much to be done for that soul. I cannot rest satisfied till that one whom Jesus loves, loves Jesus." Where there is such love as this there is likely to be such a result as this, such a record as this — according to the teacher's loving faith. Indeed, the love of Christ is often first recognized by a scholar as it is evidenced and exhibited in the Christ-like love of a teacher. A striking illustration of this truth was given in a reminiscence of a class- reunion in Yale College, as related by a speaker at a Sunday-school convention held under the shadow of the walls of that college. " It is usual," he said, " as is perhaps known to many or all before me, for classes which have been graduated at this honored university to meet at certain intervals after gradua- tion, and renew the memories of college life. On such an occasion, after an absence of thirty years Christ Reproduced. 295 from the university, a class was gathered in yonder hotel. They had taken their seats at their supper- table, when a knock was heard at the door, and an elderly man entered the room ; his head was gray with silvery sprinklings, his form was bent, and his features were wrinkled, doubtless with care rather than by the bruisings of years ; for his eye still flashed the fire of youth. He called many of those present by name, and all he addressed as classmates. But of the twenty-five there gathered not one knew him, so thoroughly had he become changed. He had been separated from his country and friends, in search of health, through most of the thirty long years then just passed, and in those thirty years the line of his life had crossed that of laone of his classmates. A tear moistened his eye as he stood there ; for he felt that ' he had come unto his own and his own received him not' At last, refusing to give his name, he stepped into the adjoining room, and led in his son, a fine young man of eighteen years. Scarcely had the son appeared, when the voices of all uttered the name of their now remembered classmate, so per- fectly did the features of the young man reflect the youth of his father." And, similarly, many a scholar who fails to recognize the love of Jesus as it is told of in his "Word, will see it, and rejoice in it, and be Won to it, when it is shown reproduced in its living beauty, in the character of a loving teacher. " In that day," says Jesus, to those who thus repre- Paet II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section II. Loving, and Winning Love. The father in the sou. 296 J'eaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section II. Loving, and Winning Love. 1 In you. sent him in the power of the Spirit who dwells in the heart of the heliever in Jesus — " in that day, ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." And in that day those who love you, and who are loved by you, shall know that Christ is in you, and you shall have power to win them to his love — as it is evidenced and illustrated in your love. And this power is the duty and the privilege of every believing teacher. S'pirit and Work. 297 m. MANAGING SCHOLARS WHILE PRESENT. Practical Details to he Considered ; What Managing Means ; Gain of a Great Need; A Troublesome Class; A Teacher's Sufficiency ; Testing the Teacher; Preparation Needful; At the Teachei-'s Home ; A Word in the Ear ; Specimen Scholars ; A Class as a Class; A Teacher's Helpers; Having What You Want; A Slow Work ; The Bronze Finishers. Aftbb all that can be said — and properly said — of the importance and practical value of influence and of affection in the sphere of a Sunday-school teacher's work, it must be admitted that both influence and affection are in the atmosphere and in the spirit of the teacher's work, rather than in the methods and in the practical details of that work. And when both atmosphere and spirit are all that they should be, the methods and the practical details of the work in this realm are not to be overlooked or under- valued. ,The teacher whose character is most Christ- like, and whose heart is overflowing with Christian love, coming face to face with a class of untrained and mischievous scholars in the Sunday-school, finds that there is a severe and rugged reality of difficul- Paet II. The Teacher's other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Something practical. 298 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Now, what? A riding- school. ties to be encountered, and of obstacles to be over- come, in the management and control of those scholars, which cannot be met by any purpose, how- ever sincere, or however well carried out, of recog- nizing the importance and potency of one's personal influence, conscious and unconscious, and of loving and being loved as a teacher. Here are these scholars to be cared for. How can they be so man- aged as to bring them under influence and instruc- tion, and as to show love for them while winning their love ? This is a question which has to be met, and now is the time to meet it. And, at the start, it is well to consider the fact, that a class which needs managing should fairly have a certain attractiveness to a really good Sunday-school teacher, above any class which is under no necessity of management ; that, indeed, a class can be said to have a value as a class in direct proportion to its need of being managed. " Manage " is primarily the government of a horse. It has its origin in the French manege, "riding-school," "horse-training," " horsemanship." Shakespeare says : " In thy faint slunabers I by thee have watched, And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars; Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed." A horse needs managing, needs training, needs a firm hand, a skilled touch, and a wise discretion in his guidance and control, just in proportion to his Worth of High Spirit. 299 life and spirit and capabilities ; and both his attrac- tiveness and his market value rate accordingly. There are horses which need no managing. They have no spirit which requires controlling. They can be trusted safely in a milk-wagon, or a garbage-cart, with a child to drive them; and they have their uses in the world. But they are not of that sort which is described in the Book of Job : " Hast thou given the horse strength ? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper ? The glory of his nostrils is terrible ; He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength ; He goeth out to meet the armed men; He mockelh at fear and is not affrighted, Neither turneth he back from the sword." Such a horse needs managing. So, also, does the hunter, or the carriage-horse, of high spirit and thorough training, which is the pride of his owner, or which is the delight of the family which he serves. "Without the need of management, there is, indeed, no possibility of high attainment in a horse, or in any other creature formed for service. It is not that there is no worth where there is no restlessness and need of close control, — in horses or in children, — but it is that there are added advantages always accompanying these characteristics, in animal life, and that there is an added attractiveness in the possibility of securing these advantages. Oysters Paet II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Job's horse. Good and better. 300 Teaching and Teachers. Paet II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Oysters and trout, High possibilities. and brook trout, for example, are both very well in their way as articles of diet ; but when it comes to fishing for the one or the other of these denizens of the water, there is no such attractiveness in the slow dead-lift of the oysters, from their sea-bed, with the sure and clumsy oyster-tongs, as in the flashing of the fly, cast from the graceful rod-tip, in the effort to hook the trout in his shady pool under the forest trees, and in the adroit endeavor to land him safely when hooked. Brook-trout need managing. Oys- ters do not. There are Sunday-school classes which represent the oyster element, and there are others which are as lively and spirited as brook-trout. Again, there are classes which represent respectively, on the one. hand, the war-steed, the spirited racer, or the blooded carriage-horse; and on the other hand, the spiritless treadmill hack. The teachers who have classes which need no management are in no need of counsel on this subject. If they think them- selves entitled to congratulations, it would be un- generous not to gratify their expectations. But there are many teachers whose scholars are not altogether like oysters, nor yet like spiritless hack- horses. They need counsel and encouragement, and they are entitled to congratulations also; for their classes have higher possibilities than classes where there is less need of management. In other words, it ought to be a real comfort to a Sunday-school teacher to have scholars who pecu- Classes Which Differ. 301 liarly require managing, and who peculiarly lack it ; ■who have had no good teaching at home, and who seem to have no thought of any responsibility for the preparation of their lessons out of the Sunday-school hour, or for their quiet conduct during it. Scholars . Avho lack all life and spirit, or, again, who are well taught by their parents, and who study their lessons faithfully, could almost take care of themselves. Teaching them in the Sunday-school is, in a sense, a supplemental work, and managing them is quite unnecessary. But when a scholar gets all his man- aging and all his teaching in the Sunday-school, and during the lesson-hour, having an exceptional need of both teaching andmanaging, he is one of the schol- ars worth having in charge. Sunday-school teaching and Sunday-school managing ought to amount to something in his case. There is cause of encourage- ment to teachers who have such scholars. Instead of repining over their trying lot, they have reason to rouse themselves to the exceptionally good work to which they are summoned by the exceptional need of their scholars. It is to teachers of this sort that these words of counsel are now addressed. That there are scholars in the Sunday-school who require managing, and that there are teachers who are at their wits' end in devising expedients for managing such scholars successfully, every one who has had wide experience in the Sunday-school sphere is well aware. A good illustration of the sort of Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Without need. With need. 302 Teaching and Teachers. Paet II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars •while Present. A specimen class, scholars referred to, may be found in a picturesque description of a veritable class put into the care of a young woman teacher, as an experiment, not long ago, when she was first considering the question of entering the Sunday-school teacher's sphere. She had been a scholar in that school, and now she M'as asked to try her hand as a teacher there. Writing to me for counsel, she told of the class as it showed itself to her, on that first Sunday. " Oh, it was fearful ! " she wrote, " I thought that I had seen boys before, but these went ahead of every experience that I ever had. I'd soon have straight- ened them out if I had had them in a day-school ; but, huddled in as they were, I was helpless. When they were bobbing around, it seemed as though there were about fifty of them, but I think there were about a dozen. They paid no attention whatever to me. I gained the attention of the whole class but twice, and then only about two seconds at a time. My face began to redden. ISTearly all were provided with whistles, and they used them. I borrowed one, and was immediately assailed with, ' That's mine, he give it to me.' 'Wo, he didn't either; it's mine, he give it to me.' Then they put hats on each other's heads. 'Who cut your hair?' 'My father.' 'Who cut yours ? ' ' My uncle John.' Forthwith began a scrimmage to see whose hair was the shortest. And they pulled hair, till I wanted to pull too, or sink through the floor. The superintendent came at this A Tried Teacher. 303 juncture, and tried to help them, but their hair was too short. They insisted that we had to pay Christ money to save us. ' We want stories, our teacher used to tell them to us,' was hurled at me. Soon spitballs began to fly thick and fast. Then they out with their pins ; and their jumps, and jerks, and ' He's a-sticking a pin into me,' and ' He's a-stepping onto me,' and ' He's a- pulling my ear/ ' my hair,' etc., testified to their unwearying activity. Two boys tried to be still, and various were the attempts to get them into the tumult. One boy, who had a pin, changed seats with, I think, the only one who hadn't, and slyly slipped a pin beneath the chair, and up through the cane-seat. There was a jump, and a hunting for a pin to revenge himself with. I made the boy change back to his own seat, and so quieted the boy who was trying to be quiet. Then a discussion on ages began, and later a quarrel over library books. ' I'm going home in ten minutes.' ' I'm going in five.' One of the little torments began to ask if I would not teach them next' Sunday. ' Perhaps we will behave better,' was the tempting bait held out. Two signals on the bell are given at the close of the school : at the first, they all jumped up, and turned their chairs around. I remonstrated, and all the satisfaction that I got was, 'Every one else is,' from a chorus of voices." And so on to the end of the school session. It will be admitted by all, that those scholars required managing. It will Pakt II. Ttie Teacher's other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Trying to be quiet. 304 Teaching and Teachers. Pakt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars "while Present. Who is suffi- cient ? be admitted by some, that those scholars were not unlike a great many other scholars in other Sunday- schools — who also need managing. Sitting face to face with such a class as this, recog- nizing the intense personality of each one of these spirited, restless scholars, and perceiving how much needs to be done with each scholar and with all, in opposition to the nature and the habits and the tastes and purposes of each and all, the best skilled teacher, with the most loving heart, and of the most patient and hopeful spirit, may well cry out in anxiety, if not in despair, "Who is sufficient for these things ? " And no teacher has a right to feel sufficient for, and competent to, the right management and training of scholars like these, in his own wisdom and strength. Here it is, at the very start, that a teacher's fitness and competency for the work of managing scholars in the Sunday-school, as well as for every other phase of the Sunday-school teacher's work, are dependent upon and are to be measured by the teacher's faith in Him whom he represents, whose he is, and before whom he stands. " Without me [or, apart from me], ye can do nothing," says Jesus to his best-loved disci- ples. And there is no place where the disciple of Jesus has more reason to realize the fullness of this truth, than where he faces his responsibility for the souls of those to whom he has been sent by his Saviour and theirs. When the father of a demon-possessed child came Poiver through Faith. 305 to Jesus in behalf of the loved one, whom neither the father nor jct the disciples of Jesus had been able to help, his cry of longing was : " If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us." The teacher of those scholars in the class just described — ^who Avould seem little else than demon- possessed — might well cry out, in the same words of longing, to Jesus: "If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us." The prompt and explicit answer of Jesus to the troubled father was — and the same answer Avould apply with equal force to the troubled teacher — " If thou canst ! All things are j)0ssible to him that believeth." As to the power of Jesus over the spirits of all, there need be no question or doubt. The only question is, as to the one who asks the help of Jesus in behalf of those given into his charge. All things in behalf of such objects of loving responsibility, are possible to him who has trustful faith in their behalf. A teacher has a duty to feel his incompetency and his insufficiency, in and of himself, as he faces a responsibility like this. On the other hand, he has a duty to rest on his Saviour for wisdom, for strenccth, for skill, and for success in his work. " Then said I, Ah, Lord God ! behold I cannot speak; for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me. Say not, I .am a child ; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak." The real question for a teacher Part II. The Teacher's other \\'ork. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. If thou canst ! A call to trust. 306 Teaching and Teachers. Pakt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Our suffl- clency. Faith shown hy worics. in such an emergency is not, Can I manage these scholars ? but, Can Jesus manage them ? In the face of that question, the assurance of Jesus to the teachers who represent him before their classes, is, " According to your faith, be it unto you; " and their glad assurance then may be : " liTot that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from Grod." But when a teacher has sufficiency from God, his work is not j'ct done for God. He who can do all things in Christ who strengtheneth him, has all things to do in his sphere, in the strength of Christ. To have faith in Christ's ability, and in Christ's readiness, to give a teacher success in the teacher's sphere, is not to shirk work in that sphere, on the score of faith, but it is to be ready to evidence that faith by its appropriate workings in that sphere. And he who prayerfully trusts in Christ for the power to manage a class of such scholars as have been described, will prove his faith by working wisely in the direction of his prayers and of his desires. Christ might, indeed, as when on the stormy waters in the darkness of that Galilee night, speak the word of power to the turbulent waves of disorder, in a rest- less class, saying " Peace, be still," and bring at once a great calm there. But if he were to do that, there would be nothing for the teacher to do. Christ did it once to show that it was within his power. Now he leaves it to his disciples, in a storm like that, Hard Work for All. 307 either to breast the waves through faith and to survive unharmed their fiercest lashings ; or, to lull those waves into smoothness, immediately about their little craft, by pouring oil on the troubled waters, and so to be for the time at a centre of rest within a storm- tossed circumference. Pouring oil on the waters, in faith, is the first specific duty of a Sunday-school teacher, in a class-storm which threatens everything. Already, in this volume, under the heads, " How to get and hold your scholars' attention," and " How to secure your scholars' co-work in lesson-teaching," various methods of gaining a hold on your scholars, and of training them into ways of right doing, have been suggested ; and these methods have their value in the whole work of managing a class wisely. But it ought to be understood by every teacher, that there is no royal road to success in such an undertaking as this ; that the hardest road is the road for all. All that is done must be done step by step, slowly and patiently, as well as in faith ; and that which is need- ful in one case is likely to be needful in every case. That teacher, for example, who pictured so graphi- cally her hopeless class on her first Sunday at teach- ing, ought to have seen that the very difiiculties which confronted her at that time were difficulties which have a place in the very nature of the Sun- day-school teacher's work. It is said, that a young cavalryman-recruit in war-time, being thrown from his untrained horse, gathered himself up with diffi- Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. No royal road to success. 308 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Manaiiing Scholars while Present. A soldier's duty. Testing a new hand. culty, and protested against being summoned to sucli unanticipated dangers as he was now experiencing. "I enlisted to serve my country," he said; "but I didn't enlist to break horses." And he made a very common mistake, in that way, of dividing the duties of his enlistment. Managing horses, and breaking them into management, are a part of a cavalryman's service. Managing scholars, and breaking them into management, are a part of a Sunday-school teacher's service, and ought to be accepted by every faithful teacher accordingly. It may be said, just here, that many a class shows itself at its worst, when a new teacher first attempts the charge of it. Just as a spirited horse has added restlessness, and even, sometimes, shows an unusual viciousness, when a new hand is at its bridle, or at its driving-lines, so a spirited and mischievous scholar often gives a new teacher all the trouble he can, as if to test the teacher's mettle and spirit and power. In my old mission-school, of which I have several times spoken, a faithful teacher had fairly brought a troublesome class into management. But, one Sun- day, that teacher was sick, and in his stead he sent a friend to teach his class. The new comer had much such an experience as that of the teacher who has told us of her first Sunday's bewilderment. Seeing his helplessness, I went to the teacher's aid. Finding that other inducements failed vsdth the scholars, I appealed to their regard for their own teacher, whom Self-Management a Duty. 309 they really loved , and I reminded them how troubled he would be on learning that they had so misused the friend whom he had sent from his bedside to take his place during his sickness. That was a fresh view of the case to the scholars, and it had its influence with them. "All right," spoke up one of the restless young leaders ; "let him go it. "We'll try him. But," added the little fellow, as if in explanation of the real issue involved, " he must train us [pointing to the new-comer] ; our teacher did." It was evident that these scholars had the feeling, that it was hardly right for this man to enter into the labors of the other without proving himself worthy of the place. In other words, it is not the scholars alone who are on trial in such a class. The teacher is " in the balances." If the teacher cannot manage his scholars, is he able to manage himself ? If, indeed, he loses his temper, or shows an impatient or an unloving spirit, while thus on trial, he loses his hope of being a success as a teacher of that class. Class-manage- ment is an impossibility to one who is not capable of self-management. Having faith in God and hav- ing control of one's self are pre-requisites to all suc- cessful endeavor at managing the scholars of one's charge — in any class that calls for management. As in every other sphere of the teacher's work, so in that of class-management, the ability to do involves a previous preparation for doing. A teacher must not expect to be able at once to command peace, Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. " We'll try him." In the balances. 310 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. A lesson from Earey. Asking them home. even in the name of Jesus, and to secure it without patient endeavor in the line of a well-considered plan of wise-doing. ISTor can he hope to reach all of his scholars individually, so as to get them under his personal control, there in the school-room, at the very time they are all engaged in the effort to test him, and to prove their own wilfulness. Outside-work i^ essential to the success of inside-work. This must be so, in the very nature of things. Earey, who had a world-wide reputation as a famous horse-trainer, as a manager of spirited and of vicious horses, alwaj's wanted to have a private word in the ear of the horse he would bring under control, as preliminary to its public managing. A spirited boy needs this private word in the ear, as much as a spirited horse; and a good Sunday-school teacher can make as effective a use of such a word as the most skillful horse-trainer. A good opening for the private personal word, with the individual scholars, severally, is often secured by a gathering of the class at the home of the teacher, whereby another relation is established between teacher and scholars, than the perfunctory relation of the school-room. A teacher of my acrjuaintance was putin charge of anew class in the Sunday-school, hardly less spirited and troublesome than those already described in their restless pranks. The boj's were full of mischief, and they showed it in Sunday- school. The teacher saw that his hopeful beginning must be somewhere else than there, so he planned A Class in Training. 311 for it at once. On the first Sunday he said to his scholars, at the close of the lesson-hour : " Boys, I see that you like sport. Well, I enjoy a good time as well as any of you, in the proper place. Now if you will all come to my house next Friday evening, at seven o'clock, we will have a good time together." That invitation was promptly accepted ; and on Fri- day evening the boys came as invited. They were all waiting at the teacher's door for the clock to strike seven, and they were prompt to ring the door- bell when the hour had arrived. Then the teacher did his best to make a pleasant evening for those boys. And he succeeded. As they were going away, he said, " You see, boys, that I like fun, in its time. We have had it this evening. ISTow when we meet in the Sundaj'-school, I want you to remember that that is no place for sport. We will get all the good we can there out of the lesson. The fun we will have outside." Those boys behaved better the next Sunday. It could hardly be otherwise. They could not but feel that it would be unfair for them to play in Sunday-school against the wish of such a teacher as that. And what that teacher did, many of you could do with a similar result. One well- managed evening with your class in your own home, during the week, may be more effective in giving you a persona] hold on the scholars, than six months in the Sunday-school, without any outside inter- course, Avould prove. Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Fun in its place. 312 Teaching and Teachers. Paet II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Three are too many. Unlooked-for visits. Yet it is not always practicable to reach every indi- vidual scholar of a class by an address or an appeal to him in the presence of his classmates, either in the school-room or at the teacher's home. The private word in his ear must be to himself alone, when no one else is at hand to divide his attention, or to uphold him in any false confidence ; and the oppor- tunity for that word must be found by the teacher, in one way or another. Each scholar must be dealt with, outside of the school as well as in it, in view of his special characteristics and capabilities! One can be appealed to on the score of his manliness ; another can be apjproached through his tenderer feel- ings. One can be asked to gratify the teacher by good conduct and attention in the class ; another can be urged to use his influence over the other members of the class, and to set them a good example. In some instances, it is safe to bring the pressure of kindly ridicule to bear — in private conversation — on the childishness of turning the class-hour into a season of folly ; and, again, it is better to displace the desire for mischief by stimulating the desire for study and for progress in knowledge. The teacher's ingenuity and patience may well be taxed for wise expedients in this line of endeavor. Sometimes a rough scholar is best reached for good by a teacher's unexjjected visit to him in his place of week-day employment. Finding him in his work-shop, or at his livery stable, or in his factory, Electing on c Level. 313 or on his farm, or at his other place of service, his teacher can approach him on the level where the scholar feels at his manliest. A teacher should always, in such a case, have and show respect for the scholar within that scholar's sphere of life, as well as have and show sympathy with him in all that he has to do or to bear. It is never well to let a scholar think that his teacher has come to him, on such an occasion, to tutor him as a scholar. Teacher and scholar must meet, at such a time, on the plane of a common humanity, where each gives respect to the other, and each has the other's confidence. It may be well for the teacher to ask the scholar about his special work, and to show an interest in the scholar's explanations of his work. There is an added gain if the scholar is enabled to show that there is some- thing about which he knows more than his teacher, and that his teacher is glad to obtain information at that point accordingly. Then is a favorable mo- ment for the teacher to speak an influential word, in favor of the scholar's well-doing and right-bearing in the Sunday-school class. Laying his hand on the scholar's shoulder, or putting out his hand to him heartily, in parting, the teacher might pleasantly say : " I am glad to have learned so much about my scholar's work in his week-day life ; and now I hope that I can help him to learn something about that which interests me more than all else, when I see him at our Sunday home." Or, again : " You cer- Pakt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. On the scholar's ground. 314 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. A new hold. A wayside meeting. tainly are doing a good work here. I hope you will do as good work of another sort when we are together in our Sunday-school class." A teacher has a new hold on a scholar with whom he has had one such interview as that. The two persons are in another relation to each other, when they meet in Sunday-school after a conversation of that sort. There is a long stride made toward managing a scholar who has been reached by such a process. Occasionally, a chance meeting of a scholar on the street, or by the wayside, gives a better opportunity for an influential personal word, than any which could come of the teacher's deliberate seeking. The very naturalness of the meeting gives the teacher an advantage. I once had a scholar' who gave me no little trouble in his managing. He always behaved badly in Sunday-school ; and I found it not an easy matter to get. at him all by himself But one week- day evening I came upon him unexpectedly, in a side street, at a distance from his usual haunts. I stopped at once, and greeted him cordially. Then I asked him a simple question about the neighborhood we were in. Gradually I drew him along in conversa- tion, until he was talking freely with me about him- self and his wishes and his plans ; talking with me there alone in the shadow of the evening, as he had never talked with me before. As he said a manly thing about his wish to get ahead in the world, I laid my hand on his shoulder, in tenderness, and said A Veteran's Counsel. 315 earnestly : " I'm glad to hear you say that. And that shows me that you are altogether too much of a man to act as you have acted down in our Sunday- school." It was the first word that had been said about the Sunday-school, and it came upon him un- expectedly ; but it was all the more effective for its surprise. Instantly he responded in frankness, say- ing that he knew that that was so. Then he went on to tell me, that he had intentionally been a dis- turber of the school ; for he always wanted " to do one thing or the other," and was determined "to go the whole figure " in what he did do. Another high- spirited steed had submitted to bit and bridle, and that breaking-in never needed to be done over again. Professor Wilkinson, in telling of the wise counsel given to a perplexed teacher, concerning certain troublesome scholars, has made some very good sug- gestions for the managing of two boys described by this teacher ; one of whom annoyed her through his over-brightness, and his constant readiness to answer her every question in advance of his classmates ; while the other " had a humor of answering widely and wisely," so as to raise a laugh in the class. As to the first-named scholar he said : " ' Go and see the bright boy at his home, and come to an understand- ing with him,' advised the friend in counsel. ' Tell him you are glad to have him know his lesson so well, and be so ready to answer. But say, " ISTow, Frank, let us make an arrangement together, you Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. One or the other. Troublesome boys. 316 Teaching and Teachers. Pakt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. As easy as turning the band. and me. You have noticed, — haven't you? — that the other boys let you do all the answering. "Well, that is because you answer so quickly. I am glad ■you can do so ; but now let us have little plan, you and me, that the other boys shall know nothing about. It shall be a kind of secret between us two. This is it : I will give you a sign when I want you to answer. No one shall know the sign but just you and me. It will be a mystery to the rest of the boys, and you must take great care not to let them get the least whisper of it. I will ask a question, and you watch my hand. I will keep my hand out flat, like this, as long as I want you to wait, and not answer, for the sake of giving the other boys a chance. But when you have waited long enough, and I want you to speak out, then I will turn over my hand with my thumb uppermost, so. The moment I do that, answer, as quick as ever you can. It will surprise the boys; but we must keep the plan entirely to ourselves." ' My impression is,' said the wise counsellor, ' that Frank will be so much pleased with this mysterious plan as to give you no further trouble.' " " ' As to the other case,' the counsellor continued, ' the boy that thinks it witty to answer away from the point — I have this suggestion to make. [Here I must explain that the counsellor was himself the teacher of an adult Bible-class in the same Sunday- school.] Speak to the superintendent about the matter beforehand, and he agreeing, when that boy A Choice of Teachers. 317 makes trouble again, let the superintendent come, and, with his pleasantest smile, say, "Which one of these little fellows is it, Miss Ogilvie ? " You will point out William, and he will kindly take William by the hand, and leading him to my class, as if it were the greatest favor done him in the world, seat him by my side, to spend the rest of the hour in our grown- up and cheerful, but staid, company. You shall not accuse him to the superintendent, and the superin- tendent shall not accuse him to me, and we will neither of us lecture him at all, but simply, with all courtesy, and almost absent-mindedly, as it were, take possession of him for you. I think I can war- rant that William, rather than run the risk of such polite attention a second time from us pleasant gen- tlemen, will conduct himself better.' " These are, of course, only a few ways among many. They are simply illustrative in their line. They are not to be taken as worldng patterns for other teachers; but they may prove suggestive of other and better ways, in the several spheres of ingenious teachers. It may be said, in passing, that it is often the case that unruly and troublesome boys are easier managed by a woman teacher, young or old ; while girls of a similar stamp are easier man- aged by a man. In the one case, the gentler nature of the boys is drawn out by the woman's tenderness and grace of manner. In the other case, the higher nature of the girls is evoked by the bearing of one Pakt II. The Teacher's other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. In the Bible- class. Boys or girls. 318 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. A class is a unit. who at once commands their respect. And this is a point not unworthy of attention in plans for the managing of scholars who are in special need of managing. Although there is a decided gain in reaching one's scholars individually, in order to their successful managing in the class, yet it should not be forgotten that a class in the Sunday-school, like a class in the week-day school, is a class-unit, instead of a mere collection of boys or girls; and that it is to be managed as a class while its members are gathered in the class. Professor Quick, of England, has given emphasis to this truth. Referring to class teaching in week-day schools, he says : " A class is not simply a collection of individuals. In arithmetic, a score is simply twenty units, but a class of a score is not simply twenty boys or twenty girls. It is an entity in itself, and it thinks things and does things that every individual by himself would shrink from think- ing and doing. . . . This corporate existence, and the subtle influences of what we call public opinion, — ^the feeling of the whole body, that is, not the private opinion of the individuals who compose it, — exert an immense force, both on the teachers and on the taught. . . . As it has been said, you can no more understand a boy if you disconnect him from his form-fellows [his class-fellows] than you can understand a bee if you do not think of the hive. . . . This influence of the whole body on The Power of Swaying Scholars. 319 the individual members was clearly perceived by Froebel ; and he uses it as one of the main forces in the Kindergarten." This treatment of the class as a class has oeen already referred to in the illustrations of the dis- orderly class brought under loving control by a visit to the teacher's house, and again of the class induced to accept a substitute teacher, by the superintendent's appeal to its class-love for its absent teacher. Its power is evidenced in the teacher's ability to control and sway his scholars whenever they are before him as a class. This power is possessed in very different measure by different persons. " Tt is a curious gift," says Archdeacon Farrar. "You cannot by any means always predict who would, or who would not, be likely to possess it. I have known some teachers, very great and very eminent men, who were wholly without it." And he instances his own " dear friend and teacher, Frederic Denison Maurice," as one who sadly lacked this power; although "you could not meet a truer man, or look on a nobler face." He adds encouragingly, that while " the special gift of dis- ciplinary power — such a gift as that possessed by Pestalozzi, who once reduced to order a turbulent throng of boys by simply lifting his finger — is very rare; the total absence of it is also very rare ; " more- over, "it is a sort of knack which maybe acquired." In view of the importance of managing a class as a class, and of the different measures of ability in Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. The gift of control. 320 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Skction ifl. Managing Scholars ■while Present. How many scholars for a class. A teacher's helpers. this line, among teachers, it is essential to a teacher's success that he should not have a larger number of scholars in his class than he can manage as a class. Beginning with a smaller number he may, indeed, make such progress as will justify his enlarging his class; but it should never be enlarged beyond his managing ability. Professor Hart has stated the truth on this point concisely : " Class-teaching consists in making a unit of all the scholars, no matter how many, who are under one teacher. The ability of teachers differs in this. One teacher can make a unit of twenty, another of ten, another of five, another of three, while some .... can teach but one, or at the most but two at a time. ... A teacher is overloaded the moment he has a single scholar more than he can keep fully occupied. Every teacher should ascertain, or the superintendent should ascertain for him, exactly how many he can thus Aveld into one, and every scholar added to the class after it has reached that limit should be considered as so much material wasted." In all his efforts at managing his scholars, a teacher ought not to feel that he is to work alone. There are helpers for him at every point. Il^ot only are all teachers to be " laborers together with Grod," with the privilege of being assured that God is with them in all their trials and needs ; but they are to count themselves also workers together with their pastor, with their superintendent, and with each A Good Scholar's Helpfulness. 321 other, assured of help, as well as sympathy, from pastor, from superintendent, and from fellow- teachers, if they will only seek it specifically and intelligently. Moreover, there are other available helpers to a teacher in class-managing; and first among these come the good scholars of the teacher's class. A good scholar is one of the best of helpers in a Sunday-school class. A scholar who is punctual and well behaved, who is studious and attentive and manifestly of a loving spirit, is a living illustration of his teacher's teachings, and thus is an instructive example before the other scholars in the class, l^ot all teachers are prompt enough to realize this truth, nor ready enough to recognize the help which comes in this way. Many a good scholar is entitled not only to his teacher's recognition, but to his teacher's hearty thanks for his well-doing, and for the service thereby rendered to those whom the teacher desires to bene- fit. And when a scholar is entitled to such recog- nition and thanks, the teacher fails in duty if he withholds them fi-om him. Dr. Thomas Arnold, a prince of teachers, gave prominence to the help rendered him, in his school, by good scholars. Ee- ferring to one such scholar, he called him, " a bless- ing to that school," and to that scholar's parents he wrote : " Your son has done good to the school to an extent that cannot be calculated." Many a teacher in the Sunday-school has found the gain of com- Paet II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. How a scholar can help. A teacher's duty of acknowledg- ing help. 322 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Sectiok III. Managing Scholars while Present. Home-help for the teacher. mending a scholar for his spirit and conduct, and of asking his aid in bringing other scholars of the class to a higher standard than that to which they have thus far attained. Yet another source of help to the teacher, is to be found in the scholars' homes. A mother's or a father's help is not to be slighted in the managing, or in the teaching, of a child in the Sunday-school. K that help be freely proffered to the teacher, in his work for his scholars, he should accept it gratefully. If it is not forthcoming without his request for it, he ought to seek it persistently. No teacher who finds a difficulty in managing his class, has yet done his best to secure a wise control of his scholars, if he has failed to seek the co-operation of the parents of these scholars in his endeavors in their behalf There are very few . parents who would not gratefully receive the courteous visits of their children's Sunday-school teachers. More parents than the teachers commonly suppose, would welcome timely and judicious sug- gestions as to the way in which they could co-work with those teachers. There is no good in complain- ing that the scholars do not study their Sunday-school lessons at home, or behave as they should in the Sunday-school class. There may be a great deal of good in going frankly to the parents, to ask if they will not kindly see that their children study their lessons, and that they go to the Sunday-school with a purpose of good behavior there. And all this Growth Unto Completeness, 323 can be done without any complaining on the teach- er's part against the conduct of the scholars. Teachers and parents ought to have an understanding on this subject. Some of them do so. If you have trouble in managing your scholars, you ought to be of the number of those vs'ho seek and obtain home-help in the scholars' managing. It may be that you could do more for your scholars by one hour's judicious work with the parents, than by a month's work with the scholars without any help from the parents. You ought to have the parents with you as " fellow-helpers to the truth." You ought to seek their co-operation persistently and in faith. It is your duty to want it, to go for it, to secure it. According to your desires and your faith — as shown in your wise and persistent work in this direction — so it shall be unto you. As it is in the matter of personal behavior in the class, so it may be in any other line of your effort in behalf of your scholars. In punctuality of attend- ance, in reverence of spirit, in studiousness, in giving into the Lord's treasury, in loving others and in doing for them, your scholars may be trained as well as managed. By taking up one point at a time, and pressing it patiently and faithfully with your scholars, you may raise the standard of your scholars' being and doing at that point; and so you may " press on unto perfection " — go forward unto full growth, or completeness — with all in your class. Indeed, the term " managing," as applied to your Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Seeking the parents' aid. As in one point, so in all. 324 Teaching and Teachers. Paet II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. A tireless task. The bron/e doors. work in behalf of your scholars, must not be limited to the idea of controlling them in their behavior. It should be made to include all that goes to the form- ing and finishing of the scholar's character; for that should be the scope of your desires, of your endeav- ors, of your prayers, and of your faith. And such a work is not easily nor quickly compassed. It is a tireless, and, in a sense, an endless task ; for the work of character-finishing is a work which is never finished. At this point, also, an illustration may be in order. In the Capitol at Washington, are two sets of mas- sive metal doors, with bronze panels ; the one set representing scenes in the life of Columbus, the other representing scenes in the life of Washington. The panels of the last-named set were cast in the bronze- foundry at Chicopee, Massachusetts, from the original designs by the sculptor Crawford. When they came from the foundry-moulds, those panels showed little of grace or elegance of design, and nothing of the finish which they now display. Their surfaces were rough, their edges were ragged, and adhering fragments of clay still concealed or dis- figured their artistic plan. Then commenced the work of conforming the panels to the original models. Day after day, skilled workmen sat over those bronze- reliefs, cleansing their surfaces, trimming their edges, filling in a porous cavity here, cutting off" a pro- jecting bit of metal there, touching carefully the Character - Work is Never Finished. 325 lines of figure after figure, and polishing diligently what might have seemed, to the careless eye, already shaped properly. The pattern was before the worker. He watched that closely, and sought to bring the outlines and surface of each figure on the metal plate he handled, to the standard of the great designer. Visiting the bronze-foundry at that time, I stood for a while near a careful worker on these panels, and saw how faithfully he toiled ; how, again and again, he went back to touch once more a line or a point at which he had labored before; how he smoothed and burnished each separate portion repeatedly, and seemed never to count any part perfect. At length I said to him in surprise .: " I shouldn't think you would know when you were through with this work. You seem always to have something more to do on it." " We never are through with it, so long asthey will let us work on it," was his reply. " There is always something more to be done to advantage. Such work as this is never perfect. So we keep at it until they take the panels away. Then, of course, we must stop." Work on character, like work on bronze figures, is never finished in this life. There is always some- thing more to be done to advantage, even for a soul newly created in God's image, so long as God per- mits the worker to continue at his work. The teacher takes the rough and incomplete scholar, with all the defilements of his native earth, and all the Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. Over and over again. Always something more. 326 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section III. Managing Scholars while Present. The end is not yet. imperfections of his lower humanity, still upon him ; and having the divine Author's pattern before him, he commences his work of conforming the features of his charge to that. One word of counsel is given at this point ; one of rebuke at that. JSTow, a fault is to be corrected ; then, a right action must receive commendation. What was touched yesterday needs re-touching to-day. Teaching and influencing, shaping and polishing, must go on in all their various processes, over and over again. " Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept ; line upon line, line upon line ; here a little and there a little," in the hope of bringing each scholar under treatment, into the faith and into " the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." But that hope is not to have its highest or its final fulfillment while the day of toil lasts, or before " the night cometh, when no fnan can work." " Standing still is dangerous ever, Toil is meant for Christians now ; Let there be, when evening cometh, Honest sweat upon thy brow ; And the Master shall come smiling, At the setting of the sun, Saying, as he pays the wages, ' Good and faithful one, well done ! ' " Out of Sight, Out of Mind. 327 IV. REACHING SCHOLARS WHEN ABSENT. Danger of Losing the Absent ; Causes of Absence ; Gain of Work for the Absent: The Apostle John and the Sobber ; Galling Bach the Truant; Writing Letters to the Absent; Gain through Letter- Writing. So long as a scholar is regular in his attendance upon a Sunday-school, so long as he is punctually in his place in his class, week by week, he can he reason- ably sure of attention from his teacher. There are few scholars who are openly neglected while they are face to face with their teachers. But when a scholar absents himself from his class and his school, then he is in danger of neglect from his teacher, if not indeed in danger of his teacher's forgetfulness. " Out of sight, out of mind," is an adage that has its too common application to the Sunday-school scholar, as well as to those in every other sphere of life. As a matter of fact, it is probable that more than one-half of all the scholars who are brought under the oversight of teachers in our Sunday-schools, in city and in country, the whole world over, are lost Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section IV. Keaching Scholars when Absent. A. lost multi- tude. 328 Teaching and Teachers, Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section IV. Reaching Scholars when Absent. A multitude rescued. Dangers of absence. to the Sunday-school by the neglect of their teachers to folloM- them up when first they absent themselves from the Sunday-school, or to keep a hold on them by correspondence when the teacher himself is away on vacation. And; again, as a practical matter, it is probably true, that wise and loving efforts to reach scholars who absent themselves from the Sunday- school, or from whom, while at the Sunday-school, the teacher has absented himself, have a power for good beyond the best efforts which are made to reach those same scholars while they and their teachers are together voth never an interval of separation — on Sundays. If, when a scholar absents himself from the Sun- day-school, no notice is taken of his absence, he naturally comes to have the feeling that the tie which bound him to his teacher is not a very strong one. On the other hand, his teacher quickly, or, at all events, surely, loses an interest in behalf of a scholar who neither is present in the class to be seen and dealt with there, nor is kept in mind, while away from sight, by special efforts to reach him lovingly. Most teachers would be surprised, if they had kept a close record of all the scholars who have been in their class, say, within the past five years, and could look back over it to ascertain how large a proportion of the entire members had dropped out, one at a time, and not been followed up to be brought back to the class, or to be assured of their teacher's con- Finding tlie Cause of Absence. 329 tinued interest in their welfare. Yet again, those teachers who have kept such a record, and have meantime been faithful in following up their schol- ars by personal visits or by letters, would probably be equally surprised, on looking back over that record, to see how many of their scholars were really won to a new interest in the school, and to new love for their teacher, by the teacher's work in their be- half when the scholar or the teacher was away from the school. There is always some cause for a scholar's absent- ing himself from his Sunday-school, even though there is not always a reason for his so doing. It may be that it is some outside temptation, which just then draws him away from the place where other- wise he would be glad to be on a Sunday. A teacher's visit to him in the week following, or even a teacher's kindly note to him, may be the means of drawing him back again from the line of life which but for this would be followed to his lasting injury. It may be only his listlessness, his lack of interest in class or teacher, which has kept him away. The unexpected show of loving interest in him person- ally, by the visit or the note of his teacher, may rouse him to a grateful recognition of the fact that a place in that class and under that teacher means a great deal more than he had hitherto supposed. It may be that his own sickness, or that sickness or sorrow in his home-circle, is the cause of his deten- Paet II. The Teacher's other Work. Section IV. Keaching Scholars when Absent. A cause, if not a reason. 330 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section IV. Keaching Scholai when Absent. A crisis. Gaining knowledge and love. tion from the school. If his teacher comes to him at such a time, and evidences sympathy with him in his illness or in his trial, a nevrhold is gained on his confidence and affections; while his teacher's ab- sence at such a time may be construed by him into a lack of interest in him personally, and will be, at the best, a lost opportunity to the teacher. What- ever may be the cause of the scholar's absence, the absence itself makes, as it were, a crisis in the scholar's career as a scholar — a crisis which cannot be neglected by the teacher without a risk to both scholar and teacher. Work for a scholar in a scholar's absence, gives a new power to the teacher, not only a new power over the scholar, but a new power to the teacher in the teacher's sphere of knowledge, of influence, and of affection. A teacher knows more of a scholar whom he has followed up during his absence from the class, and he is pretty sure to gain an added knowledge of wise methods in behalf of that scholar, and of other scholars similarly circumstanced, by his seeing that scholar, and his doing for him, in this emergency. A teacher is himself more of a man for all his wise and loving doing for another ; and a teacher is sure to love more dearly, and to be more dearly loved by, a scholar in whose behalf he has exerted himself, and has been privileged to do efficient service. A scholar's absence from his class, opens up, in fact, a wide sphere of possibilities of good to both scholar and The Apostle and the Robber. 831 teacher; and no teacher can fairly fill his place without recognizing and occupying this sphere of hopeful endeavor. It is more than a legend of the Beloved Apostle which tells of his following up an absent and way- ward scholar, to his final rescue. Clement gives it as " a story which is not a story, but a veritable account that has been handed down and carefully kept in memory; " and Neander says that the nar- rative " gives altogether the impression of actual truth lying at its basis." A young scholar of John, in the vicinity of Ephesus, was loved and influenced and taught by the Apostle, until he seemed safe within the fold of the Christian Church. During John's absence from that region, the young convert was led astray, and finally became the captain of a band of robbers in the neighboring mountains. When the Apostle returned to that region and learned of this, nothing could keep him from seek- ing his former scholar in the hope of his rescue. He hastened into the mountains, and permitted himself to be taken a prisoner, that he might come face to face with the man he sought. The sight of his old teacher brought up a flood of recollections which overpowered the robber chieftain, and he turned away to fly from the face of John. But John pursued him, calling after him in love, and urging him to come back and be forgiven. The teacher's loving persis- tency triumphed, and the recreant scholar was saved. PjSET II. The Teacher's other Work. Section IV. Beaching Scholars when Absent. Seeking the lost. 332 Teaching and Teachers. Pabt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section IV. Reaching Scholars when Absent. Hunting up one's scholars. A Christmas gathering. I know a Sunday-school where the teachers really gained their hold on their scholars by following them up in their absence, rather than by gi'dng them at- tention when they came voluntarily to the school. In that school, the teachers took it for granted, from the start, that the scholars were not attached to the Sunday-school, and that they could not be expected to come there the second time merely because they had come there once. On Sunday noon, the teachers were accustomed to go down into the neighborhood of that school and look up their scholars — who would otherwise not be in attendance. Along the river banks, in the close courts or in the open lots, around the doors of the low grog-shops, and in their various other haunts, those scholars were sought out by their teachers, and won by loving in-vitations to the Sun- day-school room. And what was done for those scholars while they were thoughtlessly or deter- minedly absenting themselves from the Sunday- school, really did more to attach them to that school, and to their teachers in it, than all that was done for them when they had found their way to it unsought. A teacher in another Sunday-school ynih. which I was familiar, was accustomed to invite his scholars to visit him at his house on Christmas morning, when he always had a little gift, with a loving word, for each. On two occasions he won back a truant scholar, who seemed already lost to that class, by sending him a special message of in-vitation to come Vacation- A bsences. 333 with the other boys to his house on the approaching Christmas. This recognition, by the teacher, of the scholar's connection with the class, even while he was persistently absenting himself from it, seemed to touch the scholar's heart; and, in each case, the scholar came back not only on the Christmas morn- ing, but on the Sundays which followed that Christ- mas; and this was the most natural thing in the world for a scholar with a human heart to do. But, apart from what might be called the absences of truancy, or again the providential absences of sickness or bereavement, there are the vacation- absences — absences through the vacation of either scholar or teacher — which are liable to separate teacher and scholars in almost any Sundaj^-school class. These absences, also, are both critical and crucial. When a scholar, for example, who has been faithful in Sunday-school attendance, and in Sunday-school study, goes away from his home for a season, and is, in consequence, absent from his Sunday-school for the time being, the question arises : Will this absence sunder, or weaken, the tie that has bound teacher and scholar together in the Sunday-school; or, will it, as it may, give the teacher a fresh and firmer hold on the scholar, and bring the scholar under a new and stronger influ- ence for good, through the teacher's wise improve- ment of this added opportunity of reaching and in- fluencing his scholar ? And as it is injthecase of a Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section IV. Keaching Scholars when Absent. The truant won. CritiCBl and crucial. 334 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section IV. Reaching Scholars when Absent. A tie strength- ened. Letters from home. scholar's vacation-absence, so, in a measure, it is in the case of a teacher's vacation. In each case, the enforced separation of scholar and teacher makes the scholar peculiarly susceptible, for a time, at least, to tender recollections of a kindly teacher's ways and words; and if, during that period, the teacher comes in upon the scholar's mind afresh with a loving letter of remembrance and of good wishes, the ties which have been strained and tested by the separation, are entwisted and strengthened so as to hold and bind more securely than before. The Sunday-school teacher who has never written a letter to one of his scholars has failed to use one of the most powerful agencies in impressing and instructing the young mind — the mind either young or old. Every boy and every girl likes to receive a letter of friendship. Who, indeed, does not? What had more power over the soldier's heart, North or South, in the days of our civil war, than the home mail ? Artists have sought in paintings of cabin-life among the pioneer miners of California and Aus- tralia, to show how a letter from home tends to soften and subdue the roughest of the race ; and any man who has had much to do with his fellows away from home, knows that there is never a time when the hardest heart seems more open and impressible, than when letters from absent dear ones have just broken in on the hard realities of the life away from home. As it is with the roughest, so it is with those Power of Correspondence. 335 of tender heart ; a loving voice through the mail is always sure of a welcome hearing. The receipt of a letter by mail is quite an event in the experience of most young people. A thoughtless hoy or girl will often read carefully what a teacher has written to him or her personally, when that same teacher's spoken words would pass unheeded. Words of affectionate interest in a scholar have a new power when read from a letter. "I never realized how much interest you had in me," said one who was addressed in this way, " until I saw it ex- pressed in black and white." Many a teacher who thinks that a certain scholar of his class is not to be reached by his best efforts, would be surprised at the effect of a single loving letter containing wisely con- sidered counsel to that wayward or frivolous scholar. A particular request made of a scholar in writing has far more force than one made orally. If a teacher wants more punctual attendance, more of quiet and attention in the class, more of home study, on a scholar's part, he will at times do well to ask for it in a letter. If he would impress a special truth or text on that scholar's mind, he can often best do so through writing. A truth stated clearly in a letter comes home with freshness and power to one who reads the letter as his own. A text written in a let- ter, with a request for its memorizing, is sometimes thus fastened for a lifetime. I know a mother of a family who treasures still in her mind and heart, as Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section IV. Reaching Scholars when Absent. In black and white. Writing the text. 336 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section IV. Reaching Scholars when Absent. " Papa's text." The weekly letter. A new insight. an ever-present truth, the simple and impressive text, " The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good," because when she was a little child her father printed out that text in a letter to her while he was away from home, asking her to fasten it in her memory. She learned it then as her text from her papa, and to this day she calls it " Papa's text ; " and no other text learned in any other way has so aided as that to keep ever before her mind the truth that she is always under the watchful eye of God. Nor is that mother peculiar in thus holding ever fresh the memory of a letter from an absent instructor. For a series of years, a good teacher in New York City was in the habit of writing a letter each week, during her summer vacation, to the scholars of her class in a mission-school, and they were in the habit of calling at her house to receive that letter, on Sat- urday afternoon, from some member of her family. It was to those scholars next best to being in Sunday- school, to get that weekly letter from their teacher, and her hold on them was certainly not lessened dur- ing her vacation-absence from them. A teacher in Philadelphia, who thought her class of trifling girls quite beyond her control, was surprised, on opening a correspondence with them, during their and her tem- porary separation, to find how warm were their hearts towards her, and how deeply they had thought on her teachings. She actually gained a new understand- Writing to Former Scholars. 337 ing of them, and hence a new fitness for her work with them, through this correspondence, which was the result of an enforced absence. In that case, as in many another, teacher and scholars were brought closer together through being apart for a while. It may be recalled, just here, that it is a historic fact that in the days of the Roman Empire, a newly mar- ried couple deliberately parted from each other for a season, in order to gain that better understanding and that higher appreciation of each other which, it was claimed, could come only through correspond- ence by letter. Even if teachers and scholars do not act upon this suggestion to the extent of absenting themselves from each other in order to get nearer together, every teacher can wisely improve an en- forced absence by gaining a new view of his schol- ars, and a new hold on them, also, by means of a loving correspondence during that absence. In many cases a permanent absence of the teacher or the scholar from his class, is made to bring good results through the continued correspondence of the teacher with his former scholar or scholars. Thomas Arnold never lost his interest in one of his old scholars ; and in all his busy life he found time to write to many of them, even long after they had left his school. There are Sunday-school teachers who still correspond faithfully with their scholars of long ago. And many a mature Christian can testify of the spiritual gain to himself which was a Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section IV. Reaching Scholars when Absent. Nearer while separated. Dr. Arnold's way. ■ 338 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The- Teacher's Other Work. Section IV. Reaching Scholars when Absent. The army mail. "When to write. result of letters from his Sunday-school teacher years after he had left her class — without any seem- ing benefit from her teachings or her influence. Within my knowledge, a class of girls in a New England Sunday-school were accustomed for a long time to look forward with as much interest to the reading of a weekly letter coming to them from a former teacher, as to almost any Sunday-school exer- cise ; and they treasured permanently the letters thus received, each scholar in turn taking one of the letters to be kept and to be re-read again and again. One Sunday-school teacher whom I knew, — and there may have been many like her in this, — kept her hold, during all the years of our civil war, on her widely scattered scholars who were Union soldiers, by her faithful and untiring correspondence with them each and all; and the grateful replies to her letters were, before the close of the war, to be num- bered by the hundred. There was no influence from home or camp which did more for the spiritual welfare of those young men, than the influence of that Sunday-school teacher's correspondence. There is a power for good in Sunday-school cor- respondence which many have not yet realized. If you are away temporarily from your scholars, write to them. If they are absent for a season from your class, write to them. If they have permanently left the school, write to them. If you have left them for a new field of labor, write to them. If you are still The Accepted Time. 339 near them, write to them. If you love them, write and tell them so. If you want them to love your Saviour, write to them of your desire. If they are your fellow-disciples, and you would cheer and instruct them in the Christian life, write to them accordingly. If your scholars are with you face to face, feel that now is the most hopeful time for your endeavoi-s in their behalf. If your scholars are absent from you, or you are absent from your scholars, in the providence of God, feel that now is the time for your still more hopeful endeavors for their good, in another way than is possible while you are with them face to face. "Whether your scholars are present or absent, now is the accepted time for you to be a means of good to them. You are blameworthy if you fail to improve that time according to its peculiar opportunities and possibilities. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section IV. Reaching Scholars when Absent. Present, or absent. 340 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. The end and aim. HELPING SCHOLARS TO CHRISTIAN DECISION. The End and Aim of Sunday-school WorTc; Confounding Conver- sion with Regeneration; Urging the Wrong Child ; Mistahng the Spiritual State of Others ; Seeking to Learn a Scholar's Needs ; Helping a Scholar to the Sight Stand, In all that is done by the Sunday-school teacher for the scholars of his class, whether it be in the line of instruction or of influence, whether it be in the class or outside of it, with the scholars present or with the scholars absent, the great end and aim of the teacher's work ought never to be lost sight of; on the contrary, all that is done, or that is attempted, should be in the direction of that end and aim, and with a desire to their attaining. It would be a pity, indeed, if everything else were attended to by a teacher except the one thing of things which de- served that teacher's first and chiefest attention. And now what may fairly be counted the end and aim of Sunday-school eifort ? The Sunday-school teacher comes to his schol- ars as a representative of Christ. The end and the What Conversion Means, 341 aim of the representative ought, surely, to be the same as the end and the aim of Him whom he repre- sents. "To this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the liv- ing." To this end the Sunday-school teacher comes from Christ to the scholars, that they may be fully submissive to him vpho vpould be Lord of both the dead and the living, and that they may be conformed to his image, through faith. The Bfeloved Disciple declares his aim, as a representative of Christ, in all that he has shown of the words and works of his Master, — and that aim should be the aim of every loved and loving disciple of Christ in all that he shows of those words and works. " These are writ- ten," says John, " that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye may have life through his name." The bringing of the scholars into the faith and the likeness of Jesus, is the only proper end and aim of the Sunday-school teacher's endeavors. It is sometimes said, it is in fact very often said, that the scholars' " conversion " is the great end and aim of all Sunday-school effort; but that is more than an imperfect way of stating the truth : it is a vague and, moreover, an erroneous method of state- ment. In the first place, as this phrase is commonly employed, the error is made of confounding " con- version " with " regeneration." The primary mean- ing of conversion is the new turning, the voluntary Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. John's aim. Conversion not the end. 342 Teaching and Teachers. Past 11. The Teacher's Other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. Conversion is not regenera- tion. Christ, or conversion ? turning, of one's mind to a truth wliicli that person has before rejected or ignored. Regeneration is a new birth. Conversion maj be the direct work of man. One man may convert another by influencing his reason and convictions ; or, again, a man may convert himself, by turning to the truth, without another's aid. Regeneration is peculiarly of God. Only the Holy Spirit can breathe new life into a dead soul. A man may be often converted from one truth to another — or, rather, from one error after another to the truth which the error opposes. He may be converted to one truth, and not to another. Regeneration is once for all. It is a complete trans- formation. A devout Christian may be converted to a new ■view of truth. Many a Christian is thus converted year after j-ear to successive doctrines, the truth of which lie before failed to realize. But a person who is regenerate cannot be regenerated over and over agam. In consequence of this so common confusion of terms, many a teacher is more anxious to learn if a scholar has been converted, than to learn if that scholar believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. And if on an examination a scholar gives satisfactory evidence that at a certain time he was converted, that, in the opinion of many an examiner, settles the case for him. It is an " end of work" in his behalf. It matters little what he seems to think of Christ. His conversion being sound, he is saved Conversion Made a Stumbling-Block. 343 — saved by conversion, rather than by Christ. So conversion comes to stand iti such a case, not only for regeneration, but for salvation — even for Christ himself. Christ is lost sight of, overshadowed, through the undue prominence given to the fact of conversion. This is not an overstatement of the error in ques- tion. On every side' are evidences of the mistake and its consequences. Members of many a Sunday- school vpho might be desirous of being received into full church-membership, would be inquired of, not so much on the point whether they now love and trust the Lord Jesus, as on the point, when they were converted — or, as the questioner, perhaps, would put it, when they were born anew; not so much concerning the evidence which their present course furnishes of their fidelity to their divine Master, as concerning the evidence they can sup- ply that their conversion was a sound and a thorough one. In this way many young disciples are taught to look within at themselves, rather than outward and upward at their Saviour. And gradu- ally, in many cases, the pre-eminent question with them comes to be — not, "Is my Saviour to be trusted?" but — "Was my conversion unmistak- able ? " If they have conscious peace, it rests on the fact of their conversion, rather than on their Saviour's promises. If, on the other hand, they are in doubt, it is because they fear there was some flaw Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. Looking in the wrong direction. 344 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. Saved as by fire. Our Lord's way. in their conversion, not because they are unwilling to accept of freely proffered salvation in Christ. Because of this wrong way of looking at and of talk- ing about the fact of conversion, there are very many Christian children in our Sunday-schools who are kept back from an open confession of their faith in Jesus by their uncertainty concerning the time or manner of their conversion. And many even of those in our Christian congregations who have gone out from the Sunday-school under the influence of this error are, in consequence of it, living without the advantages of full church-membership, when they ought to be in the enjoyment of them. They have a trembling faith in Jesus, and they strive humbly to keep his commandments ; but they have no assurance of their own conversion. Conversion seems to be counted the great thing, while they have nothing better than faith in Christ to cling to ; so they are living without a well-defined hope of salvation. They indeed, " shall be saved, yet so as by fire." The doctrine of a new birth was never given prominence in any apostolic appeal to the uncon- verted. Our Lord did not preach it to the common people. His only mention of it was made in a talk by night with a theological professor on the phi- losophy of salvation. It has been sadly perverted by being thrust in the face of young children, or of older unrepentant sinners, as if it were something which limited their personal duly or barred their Urging the Wrong Child. 345 privileges. It has been made a barrier and a stum- bling-block to those who would enter tlie service of Christ. Conversion has been given a place in the plan of salvation vphich only Christ should occupy. And the eyes of loving little ones, or of longing penitents, have been directed away from the living Saviour to a single fact in God's process of redemp- tion. What if a teacher in a week-day school, starting out with the assumption that every child must learn to read as preliminary to all other learning, should begin and end his teaching-work day after day with talks on the importance of being able to read, and with earnest appeals to his scholars to secure that knowledge without farther delay. Would this be better than waste, if all his scholars had learned to read before they came to his school ? Calls to enlist, in war time, are an all-important preparation for active campaigning against the enemy ; and he who would be a good soldier must first decide to serve under the government which asks for defenders. But how much worse than folly it would be for an old army officer to take a squad of new recruits and spend all his time urging them to enlist ! They have enlisted. Their need now is uniform and rations and instruction and drilling. His duty is to assign them to service, and to show them how to do it. If he fails in this, he not only deprives the gov- ernment of what they might do for it, but he stands Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. A call out of time. 346 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decisiou. Mistaken about others. in the way of their soldierly growth and efficiency. So it is with teachers who are urging Christian chil- dren to become Christians ; who tearfully plead with little ones to accept salvation to-day, when they really accepted it yesterday, or a year since, or five years ago, or more ; perhaps before they can remember. It is a very easy thing to be mistaken about the religious status and the spiritual condition of those about us, even those in whom we have a very deep interest. The prophet Elijah thought he knew all about the people of Israel. He was thoroughly reli- gious himself; and he saw so much of godlessness on every side of him, that he concluded he was all alone in the kingdom in his devotion to Israel's God. But God assured him that he was wofully mistaken, and that at that very time there were thousands of the Israelites who were true-hearted in their fidelity to Jehovah. The apostle Peter thought he understood all the limits which included God's people ; but a heavenly vision informed him that there were many persons accepted of God who were not commonly recognized as within those limits. And the Sunday, school teachers of to-day ought to understand that it is by no means safe to say that because a child has not yet "joined the church," or professed " con- version," he is therefore not a Christian. There are children of faith-filled parents who have been conse- crated to Christ in faith-filled prayer from their birth, and who have been taught from their earliest knowl- Unrecognized Christians. 347 edge to love and trust Jesus with all their hearts. They were never so actively in the service of Satan that they had any conscious struggle in leaving that service. Through the influencing power of the Holy Ghost they were brought into the hearty service of Christ before they had ever made a positive cam- paign against his cause. They cannot tell precisely when they were regenerated. They have no " experi- ences " of conversion to relate. And they have not supposed themselves yet old enough to make a public confession of their faith by an open uniting with the church ; perhaps they have never been asked to do this, and are not wanted to do it. But all this makes them no less truly Christians, no less really regenerate children of God, than are their godly parents, or their devoted teachers, or their conse- crated pastors. And there are other children less favored than these, who quietly surrendered them- selves to Jesus on the first appeal to come to him in faith, and who have since then been living lives of faith andprayer, without either "joining the church " or professing conversion. They are Christians as certainly as were any disciples in the early Church or in the later ; and any fair test of discipleship would show on which side of the line they are. Christian children who are not recognized as such, are, doubt- less, in our Christian homes and in our Christian Sunday-schools, to the number of thousands and tens of thousands throughout our land to-day ; and Pakt II. Tlie Teacher's other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. Trusting disciples. 348 Teaching and Teachers. Pabt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. Offending a little one. Testing a scholar's position. it is a sin and a shame to ignore their Christian faith, or to throw discredit on it by intimating to them that they are not at heart the followers of Jesus. If they are lacking in any Christian duty, tell them so. If they ought now to join the church, give them to understand that. But never, never offend them by addressing them as those who do not believe in Jesus. If you do this, you do it at the risk of His displeasure who has said : " Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which • believe in me, it were bet- ter for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Although a teacher may well be cautious in judging the spiritual condition of his scholars in- dividually, on the imperfect knowledge which is his at the best, he has a right, and it is his duty, to seek to learn the truth concerning each scholar's position with reference to the truth of truths, and to aid in bringing to the act of Christian decision those of his scholars who have not yet taken that impor- tant step. It is needfiil that every teacher know enough about the state of his scholars to understand whether or not they may be fairly counted as dis- ciples of Jesus; whether, indeed, they are to be addressed as impenitent and unforgiven sinners, or as young Christians. To ascertain the truth on this point in any particular case requires delicacy and discernment on the teacher's part. He must know The Proof of a SovTs Life. 349 the scholar's home surroundings and teaching. He must study to know the scholar himself through and through. And in all his questioning and observing he must ask and expect that wisdom which God is ready to bestow upon his representatives, to enable them to decide such a question wisely. Does the scholar realize that he is a sinner ; that he needs a Saviour ; that Jesus is the only Saviour — ^the Saviour of all who trust themselves to him in conscious need and in clinging faith ? Does he trust Jesus as his Saviour? Is he evidencing his faith by his works — his belief by his daily conduct? The answers to these inquiries will give a great deal better evidence on the point in question than any recital of a religious " experience " on such a child's part could supply. It is far more important to you to find out whether or not that child is in Christ, than to find out the story of his conversion. Even if the date of his new birth cannot be fixed, for an entry in your class record, or on your home diary, so long as he gives full signs that he is alive in Christ, you need never doubt that he was newly born into Christ. The proof of a soul's life is better than the proof of a soul's birthday. If, indeed, a teacher is convinced that a scholar of his charge is not yet a believing disciple of Jesus, the question recurs to the teacher, — How can I best help this scholar to the step of Christian decision ? or, How can I help him to believe in Jesus as his Pakt II. The Teacher's other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. Does he trust? How to help N N 350 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. A private interview. Danger in mere feeling. Saviour, and to give evidence that his faith is living and potent ? To bring a scholar to a prompt decis- ion for the right, the teacher would do well to see the scholar by himself. He cannot commonly talk with him as freely as is desirable, in the class, before others. On this account there is sometimes a gain in a brief inquiry-meeting at the close of the Sun- day-school hour, when the teachers can talk indi- vidually and familiarly with those scholars who need to be helped to a Christian decision. Some teachers visit the homes of their scholars during the week for the express purpose of being alone with them in con- versation and prayer about a decision for Christ. I knew a teacher who had a class of twenty-five schol- ars. Two of them were already Christian disciples. She visited the others, one by one, in their homes, and within oiie year the entire twenty-three were led to take the step of Christian decision. And she was only one teacher among many I could name. Other teachers invite their scholars to their homes for a similar purpose. The teacher's judgment as to the better plan in particular cases, is ordinarily a safer guide than any arbitrary rule would prove. It is certainly not a good plan to stir the emotions of impenitent scholars by any earnest appeals, in the class or from the desk, or in a Sunday-school prayer- meeting, without giving the scholars thus aroused a specific and an immediate opportunity to decide at once for the right. If scholars are moved to strong Knowing the Special Need. 351 feeling concerning their spiritual condition and needs, without heing called on to take a stand at once on the side of duty, they are injured, rather than helped, through the involved strain upon their feelings. It is most unwise to be always calling on the members of a class, or of a school, to repent, to come to Jesus, and to accept of proffered salvation, without giving to them, at the time of the appeal, an opportunity of showing that they have a sense of need, and that they are ready to give themselves to the loving Saviour's service. In fact, a teacher ought to understand whether or not his scholars are Christians. For those who are not Christians he ought to look confidently for that grace from God by which they may be induced to decide for the right. He ought to understand what the step of Christian decision involves in their case, and then to ask and expect and help them to take that step. Pakt II. The Teacher's other Work. Section V. Helping Scholars to Christian Decision. The act of decision. The source of aid. 352 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Bounding out the "work. VI. COUNSELING AND AIDING AT ALL TIMES. General Duties of a Teacher; The Sunday-school in the Plan of Ood; The Family, the School, and the Pulpit; Advantages of the School over Family and Pulpit ; The Clergyman over All ; Help- ing Scholars in Secular Concerns; Helping into the Ministry; Duties Never Conflict; Guiding a Scholar's Seading; Caring for Christian Scholars ; A Lesson from the Looms ; The Final Judg- ment. Above and beyond all specific and direct endeav- ors of the Sunday-school teacher to instruct, to in- fluence, to manage, and to guide spiritually, the scholars of his class, there are important general duties, growing out of the relation of teacher and scholars in the Sunday-school, which ought not to be lost sight of by the teacher, and which, by their recognition and performance, tend to round out, and to make permanently effective and complete, the entire work of the teacher in every department of his effort for his scholars' good. To the fall under- standing of the nature and scope of these duties, it is essential that a Sunday-school teacher should realize the authorization and validity of the Divinely- Origin of the Sunday-School. 353 sanctioned relation between himself and the scholars who are committed to his charge in the Sunday- school. If, indeed, a teacher feels that that relation is merely one of convenience, or of happening, and that it is outside of and apart from the Divinely- authorized agencies for the moral and spiritual train- ing of the race, he is likely to give it a minor place, in comparison with what he deems the more impor- tant and legitimate instrumentalities for shaping the character and destiny of immortal souls. But if he sees in that relation a linking agency between the Family and the Pulpit, originally approved and directed of God, and if he clearly understands that, as a teacher, he has a distinct sphere of responsi- bility and action, as legitimate and as definite, after its kind, as is the sphere of parent or of pastor, — at once his work is uplifted into a new and larger prominence, and he is prepared to recognize the various and ever-pressing duties which inevitably grow out of such a relation, and which can neither be slighted nor be evaded with impunity. Hence it becomes a vital matter to gain a clear conception of the underlying basis of the Sunday-school teacher's relation to his scholars, in the plan of Grod and in the methods of the Christian Church. The Sunday-school agency, in its present form and under its present name, is hardly more than a century old; but just so far as it stands for, or is accepted Pakt II. The Teacher's other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. A Unking agency 354 Teachina and Teachers. Pakt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Forty centuries old. What the family might have been. as, the religious-school, or the ChurchrSchoo],in any community, or in the policy and methods of any branch of the Church of God, it represents an agency which is more than forty centuries old; an agency which antedates by twenty centuries' the Pulpit as a distinct and permanent agency; an agency which is the junior only of the Family, and which has a like stamp of God's approval with both Family and Pulpit, between which it stands in the Divine economy. In the beginning, God committed to the Family the religious training of the race, and for the first fifteen centuries or more no agency of God shared with the Family the responsibility and the privileges of that exalted mission. Had the Family fully filled its place, had every father and mother been faith- filled and faithful in his or her sphere, there would, .perhaps, have been no need of another agency for the right training and the wise instruction of chil- dren. But the Family did not prove thus compe- tent, by all parents proving thus faithful ; on the contrary, it so far failed as a sufficient agency for its original high purpose, through the sin of the first parents and of those who came after them, that the whole race became corrupt, and — as God himself chooses to put it — God repented that he had made m:,n ; and he swept the race from being, save a single godly household to bridge over the chasm of ruin. Beginning again with his plans for man's training, Insufficiency of the Family. 355 God selected Abraham as the founder of a new people ; and in this new beginning God did not shut up man's destiny within the scope of the Family alone ; but he approved and established the Church-school as a co-working agency with the Eamily for the right rearing of the race. Abraham was a teacher before he was a father. He had at least three hundred and eighteen instructed, or catechized, scholars in his household before he had a child of his own. God declared of Abraham that he was a man who would train, not only his children, but his household, — ^his whole tribe, as that term meant in those patriarchal days, — in the theory and practice of religion. Fol- lowing out his plans for the reformation and the right training of man, God directed a recognition of the Church-school in its co-work with the Family, and it was just as explicitly , commanded by him, under the Mosaic economy, that all parents should bring their children to the gatherings of the people in the Church-school, as it was that those parents should teach their children faithfully in their homes. Moreover, it was distinctly declared that the object of this gathering of the children into the Church- school was in order that the incompleteness of the Family might be sujuplemented by the teachings of the School; that the "children which have not known anything [through Family religious instruc- tion] may hear and learn [in the Church-school] to fear the Lord." And from that day to this the Part II. Tlie Teacher's other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Abraham's school. Moses' school. 356 Teaching and Teachers. Pakt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. JehoBha- phat's school. Ezra's school. The Synagogue- school. Family has never been entitled to claim for itself, in the plan of God, the exclusive responsibility for, or the charge of, the religious instruction and influen- cing of the children. In one form or another, the Church-school has had its existence from the days of Moses until its latest and most efficient development in the modern Sunday-school — which is now practically accepted as the approved form of this agency in well-nigh every branch of the Church of God. The Levites were as Sunday-school missionaries, in the days of Jehosha- phat, when, at his command, " they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the Lord with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people." So, again, in the days of Josiah and of IfTehemiah. The very names of the superintendent and teachers, and the precise order of exercises, of a Church-school, or a Bible-school, or a Sunday-school as it would now be"called, four centu- ries and a half before the days of our Lord, are fully recorded in the eighth chapter of the Book of Nehe- miah. The Jewish Rabbins show us that, from the earliest days of the synagogue, the second service of the synagogue was a gathering for Bible study, with teachers and classes clustering for social exercises in the form of free questioning and answering. "Beth- Midrash " — the House of Searching — they called that service in olden time. "We call it a Sunday- school. There is every reason for supposing that Requirement of the Great Commission. 357 it waa in such a school as this that Jesus was found by his parents, in the temple-courts, when he was twelve years of age, where he was sitting before the teachers " both hearing them and asking them ques- tions," as was the custom with children of his age in that day. The Talmud informs us that there were four hundred and eighty separate synagogues in Jerusalem, in the days of its glory ; and the Rabbins' claim is that Jerusalem was destroyed because the schools in conjunction with these synagogues were neglected. The distinctive features of the Church-school, from its inception until now, have been the group- ing of teacher and scholars in classes, the social study of the "Word of God, and the pursuit of reli- gious knowledge by the method of question and answer. Our Saviour and his disciples pursued the work of "teaching" in this way, as well as of " preaching." The one form of the Great Commis- sion which is accepted as genuine beyond dispute, enjoins it upon Christ's Church to "make scholars" of all who are brought under its control through baptism ; and the prominence given to the " cate- cMsts " or the questioning teachers, and to the " catechumens " or the questioned and answering scholars, in the early Church, is in accordance with the requirements of the Great Commission. And so it has been, to a greater or lesser degree, from the times of Abraham and Moses to our times. The Pakt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Schools neglected. School essentials. 358 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Parents still responsible. Family, School and Pulpit. Church-school has had a place in the plan of God, and God's people have not ignored that fact in the Divine economy. ■ In giving to the race the Sunday-school, God did not, by any means, abrogate the Family ; nor did he diminish aught of its sphere and power. All the responsibility which before rested on parents for their children rests on them still, together with the added responsibility of bringing their children also under the influence of the Church-school, — or the Sunday-school, as we call it, — as the Divinely- ordained supplement, or complement, of the Family, for the religious ti'aining of the race, l^o parent can throw parental responsibility over on to the Sunday- school ; nor can any parent properly claim the ability to get on in the religious training of his or her children without the aid of God's added agency of the Sunday-school. Not the Family -without the School, nor yet the School withoutthe Family, but the Family and the School, must be looked to by parents who would train their children in God's service ac- cording to God's method. Still later, in God's plan, say in the days of John the Baptist, the Pulpit — in its permanent and distinctive form — was added, with its crowning work for the welfare of the race ; for prior to that period, the mission of the preacher, or of the prophet, had been an occasional, rather than a continuous, one. And now the Family, the School, and the Pulpit, are the three agencies of the Church; Advajitages of the Sunday-School. 359 not, as is so commonly said, the Family, the School, and the Church; but the Family, 'the School, and the Pulpit ; — for the Church includes these three as ito separate and co- working agencies ; — for the rear- ing and training of each child in the faith and in "the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." The Sunday-school, as the Church-school, has its specific advantages, in its sphere, over, or in addition to, the Family on the one hand and the Pulpit on the other, in the work of child-teaching and of child- influencing. The advantage over the Family, is in what may be called the lateral forces which are brought to bear on the child in his class-training in the Sunday-school. The Family cannot supply a group of five, ten, twenty, or more, children of the same age, to stimulate each other, to sympathize with each other, and to aid and impress each other, as the Sunday-school can. Every observing Chris- tian parent has had reason to notice, that when his most carefully trained children return from the Sunday-school, they are likely to be telling of some- thing which they have gained there as if it were utterly new, although that same fact or teaching had been repeatedly stated to those children by their parents; and a closer examination into the reason of this apparent gain shows, that it was because the child had now obtained a new understanding of, or PAET II. The Teacher's Other Work. Seotiok VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. What the Family can- not supply. 360 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. The power of social forces, a new interest in, this matter, through learning it from or with a companion, or a number of compan- ions, by his side. Every college student knows that his college edu- cation is largely shaped by his college-mates, as truly as by his college-instructors. Every member of a community of any sort knows, that those teachings and influences which come from his associates and fellows in that community are quite as real and quite as potent as those which come to him directly from the government and head of that community. 'So person, young or old, can be completely trained or guided from above. He is peculiarly susceptible to the forces which are brought to bear on him from his either side; and those lateral forces must be taken into account by all who have a responsibility for his final shaping. The plastic mass may indeed be pressed into its mould from above, and all the active pressure upon it may seem to come from that direction ; but it is from the sides of the surrounding mould that that mass takes its ultimate and perma- nent shaping. So in the mental and moral world, as truly as in the material. It is not possible for the Family to furnish all the forces which go to complete and perfect the mental and moral shaping of the child. Grod gives to the parent the privilege of selecting the School-mould which shall supply the lateral pressure desirable ; but Grod does not give to the parent the privilege of doing without the School-mould. A Power of Miyiistering. 361 This truth has already been illustrated at one point, by the mention of the class-unit idea, or the shaping power of class-influences as such. It is recognized, again, in the custom of clustering the youngest mem- bers of the Sunday-school — the primary classes — in larger bodies, so that they can be swept along by the influence and enthusiasm of the general exercises in which they bear a part ; and while it is impoi'tant not to carry this idea to the extent of neglecting the special treatment of the individual scholar, it should ever be borne in mind that there is an impressing and an edu- cating power to be obtained through general exercises beyond all that can be secured hj individual exercises. So far, with the Sunday-school as over against, or as complemental to, the Family. In like measure are its advantages, within its sphere, as over against, or in addition to, all that the Pulpit can do for the religious instruction and influencing of the young. The Pulpit can reach and sway the young and old in collective numbers. It can arouse, inspire, and direct those numbers. But it neither can teach every individual hearer as an individual, according to the peculiar characteristics and needs of that individual ; nor can it personally minister in sympathy and coun- sel and aid to every individual member of a congre- gation reached by it. The Church-school, or the Sunday-school, can secure both instruction and min- istry to every person of its membership — both indi- vidual and class instruction and ministry. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times, The power of general exercises. What the Pulpit can- not do. 362 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. The clergy- man over all. The teacher's ministry. To guard against misunderstanding at a vital point, it may be well to say just here, that in speak- ing of the Pulpit as the third great agency of the Church for the right rearing of the race, the Pulpit is not considered as synonymous with the clergyman, the minister, the pastor. The clergyman is the dis- stinctive overseer of all branches of Church-work in his assigned field. He represents the Church, which in its sphere includes the three co-working and inter- dependent agencies: the Family, the School, and the Pulpit. It is his mission to watch over and direct the shaping influences of all three of these agencies. The work of the Pulpit is but one department of the true clergyman's work ; and he makes a great mistake, if he ignores his responsibility for the Family and the School as agencies for making his Pulpit labors etfective for the greatest good of his entire spiritual charge. In this view of the fundamental character of the Sunday-school, in the plan of God and in the methods of the Christian Church, a Sunday-school teacher has the privilege and the duty of recognizing his position, as that of a Divinely-appointed and a Church-approved agency for an important share in the instructing, the influencing, and the right training, of the race. He is, in fact, bound to look upon the scholars of his class as persons committed to his charge for a spe- ciflc ministry, and as those for whose welfare he is responsible to God and to the Church of Christ. He The True Teacher's Mission. 363 is not to count himself as in any sense standing in the place of parent or of pastor, but he is to count himself as standing in a place which is as legitimate, and which may be as well defined, as the sphere of parent or of pastor, in the teaching and directing of those over whom he is set. He represents, not the Family, not the Pulpit, but the School ; as the repre- sentative of the School , he is to be all that the term teacher, instructor, mentor, counsellor, helper, in the best and truest sense, m'Siy be made to fairly include. His place is a place that neither parent nor pastor can fill. His work is a work that neither parent nor pastor can perform. His relation to his scholars is not merely that of "teacher" in its narrow and more technical sense, but also that of " guide, philosopher, and friend." He owes to his scholars, not alone right instruction, and wise managing, while they are im- mediately before him as scholars, but affection, sympathy, counsel, and aid, at all times and wherever they may be. Only in this recognition of the Sunday-school teacher's sphere and duty, can the Sunday-school work be what it ought to be. The best Sunday-school teachers in city and in country, in larger schools and in smaller ones, are in the habit of having and showing an interest in all that concerns the personal character and welfare of their scholars. An instance has already been cited, of a teacher who, with twenty-five scholars, finds time to know their daily occupations and their personal Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Guide, philosopher, and friend. Teachers who do their work. 364 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Record of the faithful ones. requirements, and constantly encourages his scholars to consult him " as to their daily troubles, as well as their spiritual needs." Such instances might be multiplied. I could name several teachers, still living, who have watched over the many scholars of their Sunday-school classes during a period of not less than thirty years. Some of those scholars have meantime come to be the heads of families, have gone into business or into one kind of employment or another, have scattered literally to the ends of the earth; yet have never passed beyond the loving sympathy and remembrance of their Sunday-school teachers ; and to this day they would say, one and all, that no counsellor or helper on earth had mean- time been more real and faithful to them, in all their trials and needs, that none had been more frequently turned to, or had proved readier with words of encouragement or of advice, in seasons of doubt or of emergency, than those very teachers. I could tell of young men by the score coming to their Sunday- school teachers, month after month, and even year after year, for counsel and guidance in matters where they had no other helper to the same extent as they were sure of just there. And I could tell again of men and Avomen teachers by the score, who, to my personal knowledge, have gone from place to place, again and again, seeking honorable employment for the scholars of their Sunday-school classes. I could point to laborers, factory-hands, mechanics, trades- Testimony of the Scholars. 365 men, bank-clerks or bank-officials, students, teachers, and clergymen, who confessedly owe their present position, and their present hopes of usefulness, by the grace of God, to the influence and endeavors of their Sunday-school teachers. A prominent clergyman told me that when, some years after he had left the Sunday-school, he took the step of Christian decision, and made an open con- fession of his faith in Christ, his former Sunday- school teacher wrote to him, rejoicingly, saying: "I knew it would come. You are the last of the class to come to the Saviour. I have never ceased to pray for you in faith." More than one useful clergyman has told me that his Sunday-school teacher not only turned his thoughts and afterward his life to the Christian ministry, but also gave him substantial aid in his preparation for that life-work. Many a scholar now in the Sunday-school could, doubtless, be turned to the ministry by his teacher's counsel, who, with- out that counsel, will have no purpose of being in such a sphere of work for the Master; and, doubt- less, many another scholar's life-usefulness and life- destiny will hinge on his Sunday-school teacher's measure of interest in and of activity for him, within the proper sphere of a Sunday-school teach- er's counsel and aid for his scholars. Of course, there are limits to a Sunday-school teacher's responsibility, and also to his proper work, for the scholars of his charge. A teacher cannot do Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aidint? at all Times. Leading into the ministry. 366 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at uU Times. Duties never conflict. Overseeing a scholar's reading. everything; he ought not to attempt too much. Duties never conflict. A teacher has no duty to do for his Sunday-school scholars, to the neglect of his well-defined duties to others. But, without neglect- ing any duty toward others, a Sunday-school teacher can always give sympathy and counsel to the schol- ars of his class, according to his knowledge and opportunities, and to their disclosure of their longing and needs; and often he can properly give help. ISTot to speak in detail of all the many points at which a teacher can give counsel and aid to his scholars at any time and at all times, one or two points which are obviously within the scope of his proper influence and endeavors may fairly be emphasized. Take the matter of the scholars' reading. How many Sunday-school teachers count themselves di- rectly responsible for the books which the scholars of their class select from the Sunday-school library ? Yet, on what score can a teacher absolve himself from responsibility just there ? The books which a scholar reads have a great deal to do with shaping • — as well as indicating— both his tastes and his character; the teacher who would influence the tastes and character of his scholar would indeed be unwise if he should ignore this means of power in that direction. And when it comes to the books which the Sunday-school itself supplies for the schol- ars' reading, who shall guide and aid the individual scholars in their choice of particular books, if not Knowing Books and Readers. 367 their own teachers ? Books which are good for one scholar are not necessarily good for all. Scholars need wise counsel as to the books best suited to their needs; their teachers ought to give them that coun- sel freely. A teacher ought to know what books from the school-library his scholars, severally, should read ; and if his scholars do not like those books, he has a duty to cultivate their taste for them. A teacher can do this, ilany a teacher does do this. More teachers ought to do it. It takes time and effort to compass this. Of course it does. All good work costs time and effort. But that is no reason for refusing to recognize its importance; nor yet for seeking to evade its responsibility. A study of the library catalogue, and an examina- tion of the books of the library, are a pai't of a wise Sunday-school teacher's preparation for his work with his class. Knowing what books are in the library, and knowing what is in those books, a teacher can plan, beforehand, to tell his scholars about certain books which illustrate particular truths of the lessons under study, or which bear on the cir- cumstances or occupation or needs of the scholars per- sonally, or which otherwise are timely. He can thus so interest his scholars in the contents of those books, as to attract them to them in advance. Or, again, he can press the importance of certain lines of reading for his scholars, so that his scholars will be ready tc. read in those directions, because of his counsel ac- Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Cultivating the taste. Studying the catalogue. 368 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Prizing a tea'her's opinion. Not all books are for all. cordingly. In one instance, within my knowledge, a teacher gave the boys of her charge an earnest talk about the influence of reading, good and bad, and urged them to be cautious as to the character of the books which they read. Not long after this, one of those boys was proffered the loan of a book. He was in doubt as to its character. His mother said that she thought it was all right. But that did not satisfy him. He wanted to know if his teacher would count it safe for him. So, his mother sent •\\'ord to the teacher, asking her opinion of the book, and saying, pleasantly, that matters had come to a pretty pass when her son had more confidence in his teacher's opinion of a book than in his mother's. Yet she was too sensible a mother to regret that a teacher had so good influence over her son in the direction of that teacher's intelligent endeavor. It was not that the boy doubted his mother ; but his mother had not taken so positive an interest in his reading as his teacher had done ; hence he valued and sought his teacher's opinion at that point. Every teacher has power to influence his or her scholars in this matter of reading. Every teacher ought to feel the responsibility of this power. It is not enough to' say, that all the books in a Sunday- school are carefully selected, so as to bring them within the proper limits for a scholar's reading. Even if no books are in the library whicVi should have been kept out, it is not wise to allow a scholar After Conversion, What ? 369 to have all his reading from one kind of books, or in accordance with his tastes as they are — uncultivated, if not perverted. If a teacher is needful in any department of instruction and influence, in the Sun- day-school sphere, it is certainly in the department of the scholar's religious and general reading. Counsel and aid, accordingly, ought not to be lacking there. Another point at which the counsel and help of the Sunday-school teacher are always important, is the care and guidance of Christian children. As has been already suggested, it is often said that " the conversion of the scholar is the great end of Sunday- school teaching ; " and as a matter of fact the " con- version " of the scholar is in too many cases made an " end " of the Sunday-school teacher's active and prayerfal interest in that scholar's behalf "Con- version " being secured, or the act of Christian decis- ion being perfected, the scholar is supposed to have reached a fitness for graduation. It is as if the teacher were to say, to each scholar who was found to be a trustful disciple of Jesus : " There ! that is enough for you. Move along. The next!" In this line of thought a popular story, as first made known by a prominent Sunday-school worker, has been that of a faithful teacher who came to her Sun- day-school superintendent saying, " All of my schol- ars are converted. "What shall I do now ? " As if Bible-study and Christian counsel had no place in the development and progress of Christ's followers ! Paet II. The Teacher's other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Shall they graduate 1 370 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. The Devil holds on. I gained a lesson on this point a quarter of a cen- tury ago. As a young lay-worker, I was addressing a congregation in Eastern Connecticut, urging an increase of effort in behalf of the unevangelized border-districts of the country towns of that state. I told of the many children there who were yet out- side of the Sunday-school ; and, in pressing the im- portance of reaching out after them, I said : " If the Church of Christ doesn't look after these children, the Devil will." "When I had concluded my appeal, the pastor of the church, a quaint old preacher, rose and seconded my call to renewed and enlarged activity. "But there's one thing more," he said. "Our young brother says, that if the Church doesn't look after these children, the Devil will. I tell you, that if the Church does look after them the Devil will. The Devil doesn't let go of a child just because the Church takes hold of it. The Devil doesn't turn his back on Sunday-school children. K you think that the children are in no danger from the Devil because you've got them into the Sunday- school, you are making a great mistake. The work of the Church for the children hasn't ended, it has just begun, — when they are fairly in the Sunday- school." And the same may be said of the bringing of children into the Church-fold, as of the bringing them into the Sunday-school gathering. The best work in their behalf is not ended then; it is just begun. Christians Save Claims. 371 Surely those scholars who trust and follow Christ have rights that Sunday-school teachers are bound to respect. They ought not to be ignored in the plans or in the prayers of faithful teachers. It was not of godless and " unconverted " children, but of trustful young disciples, that Jesus said : " "Whoso shall re- ceive one such little child in my name receiveth me : but whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Our Lord in all his teachings and injunctions gives the foremost place to loving ministry in behalf of those who believe in him. It is to such, that a cup of cold water when given is counted as a gift to Himself, — when given "in the name of a disciple/' and "be- cause ye are Christ's." If a choice must be made, if preference must be accorded, in a Sunday-school class, or outside of a Sunday-school class, those who are Christ's have the fii'st claim on the representatives of Christ ; but there is no need that any other should be neglected on their account. An army is not given power as an army, merely by new enlistments. It is the equipping, the armipg, the drilling, the disciplining, that makes the soldiers effective ; and a veteran battalion of two hundred men, trained and experienced in faithful service, is often more effective in the crisis of a battle, than two or three full regiments, of a thousand men each, Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Sectiok VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Unto he- lievers first. Value of veterans. 372 Teaching and Teachers. Pabt II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. Much fruit. Uncared for, now. made up of raw recruits and inexperienced officers, would prove. So it is in the Christian army. Trained and veteran soldiers are needed for the great Captain's efficient service. It is for the Sun- day-school teacher to equip and train the Christian soldiers of his class, for the highest possible efficiency. "Herein is my Father glorified," says Jesus, "that ye bear much fruit; " not merely that the branches have a bare attachment to the Vine, but that they are abundant in fruit-bearing. It is because of the neglect of the ingrafted branches, by the under- gardeners in our Lord's vineyard, that so many of these branches bear little fruit or none at all. A pastor said, in my hearing, that a young Chris- tian girl of his congregation was observed to be depressed in spirits, and she was asked the cause of her depression. Her answer was, in substance: " I'm almost sorry that I joined the church ; for now no one seems to care for my soul. Before I was ' converted,' my teacher was always talking to me. But now that I've confessed Christ, no one has any- thing to say to me about religion : and I'm so lonely." "Was there not an offense against a little one who believed in Jesus, in that community ? Is there no other place than that, where there would seem to be a danger of clinging millstones, to confront the neg- lectful Sunday-school teacher ? Young Christians have peculiar trials and peculiar needs. They find the Christian life a life of struggle An Infinite Work. 378 and of perils. Who does not ? It is for the Sun- day-school teacher to recognize the necessities of the Christian scholars of his class, and to put himself down alongside of them in loving sympathy, and to give them counsel and aid as Christian disciples at all times, according to his opportunities and their requirements. This, indeed, is the pre-eminent work of the Sunday-school teacher. This it is which best represents Christ, and which best pleases and honors him, as we are assured by his own often-reiterated words. Looking at the Sunday-school teacher's sphere and mission in these various aspects, it is evident that the work which a Sunday-school teacher is sum- moned to undertake, has a basis as permanent as the plan of God for the welfare of the human race, and involves interests vast and limitless as eternity itself. The responsibilities of such a work are infinite, and they cannot be evaded by a refusal to accept them. For the scholars whom a teacher has in his charge, and for the scholars whom any individual Christian ought to have in his charge, that teacher and that individual Christian are responsible to God. The evidences of that responsibility, and the manner of its discharge, will be disclosed before the universe. In the thought of this truth every teacher ought to Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section VI. CouusBling and Aiding at all Times. The best service. A teacher's responaibU- ity. 374 Teaching and Teachers. Part II. The Teacher's Other Work. Section YI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. A lesson from the looms. The flying threads. live, ought to work, ought to pray, and ought to trust. lu the great weaving-room of a Connecticut cotton- factory, one of the largest mills of its kind in the world, more than a thousand separate looms ply their busy shuttles, each loom tended by a single person. To stand in the centre of that room, in the working hours of the day, and see the long lines of looms, with the flitting forms of their attendants, and to hear the confusing hum and rattle of the machinery, one would think it hardly possible to keep an oversight of the individual workers, and to know the relative efficiency and faithfulness of each. The personality of the several attendants seems lost in the great sweep of common industry; and one is inclined to think that if two or ten of the loom- tenders are careless or clumsy, it is not likely to be known among so many in that thronged and clatter- ing room. Tet each worker there is both known and noted; and not only every hour's, but each moment's, faithfulness is a matter of record and of correspondent recompense. To each loom there are thirty-six hundred fine cotton threads, forming the warp of the muslin; and to each inch of the growing web are supplied ninety -six threads of the filling from the flying shuttle. One thread of either warp or filling dropped, or broken, or entangled, and the perfect- ness of the web is destroyed. If a thread of the In Warp and Woof. 375 filling breaks, the loom must be stopped, and patient fingers mnst pick out the filling until the broken end is reached and newly fastened to the shuttle. If the eyes of the loom-tender have wandered, and a break in the filling (forming what is called a " pick- out ") has passed unnoticed, however fair and firm what follows may seem, the later work must all be taken out, and the " pick-out " corrected ; and this at the cost of the loom-tender himself, who is paid, not by the hour, but by the amount of cloth he weaves. If, perchance, a defect in the weaving, from broken warp or woof, is not corrected at the loom, then, when a measure of fifty-three yards, or, as it is called, a " cut," of cloth is finished, the piece is taken from the loom ; on the outer margin of its roll is pencilled the name of the weaver who tended it, and it passes to the inspection-room. There, it is examined, and when the break, or " smash," is found, the amount of the consequent loss is charged to the weaver's account. "When on pay-day the books are opened, every weaver receives according as his Avork has been. Each defect in the cloth woven at his loom is charged against him, and he must bear its loss. Then also he finds that every moment of his delay, through that lack of attention and faithfulness at the loom, which necessitated his doing over again the work which at first he slighted, has diminished in proportion the aggregate of his wages. His pay corresponds with his fidelity and efficiency, rather Part II. The Teacher's other Work. Section VI. Counselins aud Aiding at all Times. Making the record. The record disclosed. 376 Teaching and Teachers. Fart II. The Teacher's Other Work. Sbction VI. Counsel!ug and Aiding at all Times. As one that must give account. By their fruits. than with his opportunities and with the time given by him to his assigned work. Thus while the thousand looms whirl and hum, and the thousand shuttles fly back and forth, and the thousand loom-tenders have before them the millions of on-moving separate threads, and all seems a labyrinthian confusion in the great weaving-room of that great factory ; the individuals apparently lost in the shifting multitude, — each man or woman, each boy or girl, set to the care of a single loom, watches the forming web " as one that must give account; " for the product of each loom is to come before him " who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work," and whose word goes forth "to render to each man according as his work is." And, in the day of final reckoning, if any man's work shall be found at fault, " he shall suffer loss." Is there not a lesson in this factory weaving-room to every Sunday-school teacher ? The school may be a large one. Hundreds of classes may be busy in the same great room. The hum of voices and the bustle of the many workers may be confusing, and may seem confused. The individual may appear lost in the multitude. The faithful and the careless are side by side. Who can know the difference? "By their fruits ye shall know them." One mo- ment's carelessness, one moment's inattention to a single scholar, may mar the teacher's work for all that day. New and patient endeavor may yet, it is The Final Beward. 377 true, undo the wrong teaching, or supply a lack of 'the right word at the fitting season ; but this only at the cost of precious time, that might have been bet- ter improved. If, however, the neglect is not promptly remedied, it is by no means forgotten; " for we must all be made manifest before the judg- ment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in his body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad." And He who is to judge us there, says, as to the little things in our teaching and conduct, " that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment ; " and as to any failure in min- istry to his loved ones before whom he has set us, bis word will come : " Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." Ah ! there is a weight of meaning in the reminder of that Judge, as he calls to his every representative in this sphere of preparation for that day : "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is." Then, then, " they that be teachers [they that oause others to discern the truth] shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn [they that influence] many to righteousness [shall shine] as the stars for ever and ever." Part II. The Teaclier's other Work. Section VI. Counseling and Aiding at all Times. At the j udgment. Daniel's foresight. INDEX, INDEX. Abraham's school, 355. Absence: of scholars, dangers of, 328; of scholars, cause of, 329 ; writing to scholars in their 335. Absent scholars, reaching, 327-339. Absurd attempts in teaching, 38. Ahab and God, 203. Alec, Blind, blind memorizing of, 21. All : being all things to, 40 ; points not for all, 123. Alone, finding each scholar, 352. Alphabet, new-viewing the, 223. American Philological Association, 106. Ananias and Sapphira, lessons from, 129. Angels of imagery, 155. Answers: one cause of stupid, 19; to set questions, 26; using wrong, 156, 192; planning for right, 189. Answering, thinking before, 178. Apportioning questions, 136. Aptness to teacli, 108. Army, attention in the, 73 ; boys, writing to, ;-i36. Arnold, Thomas: his teaching-methods, 48; on co-work, 96 ; his use of influence, 261 ; on help from scholars, 321 ; his use of correspondence, 335. Art of the teaching-process, 103, 106. Ascham, Roger : as an educational writer, 27; his learning-method, 95, Attention: securing scholars', 70, 138; in- dispensableness of, 70, 73, 143; defined. 71; on the baU-field, 72; in the army, ■73; what it includes, 74; difBculty of securing, 75, 307 ; testing, 76, 148 ; hold- ing, 78, 149 ; how to secure, 140. Barrel, a too-full, 65. Base-line, finding a, 265. Basket, washing the, 99. Baxter, Eichard, preaching of, 141. Beecher, Thomas K., question-plan of, 179. Beelzebub's way, 140. Beginning: of teaching, a right, 130, 141; to review, 233. Bellows, the Sunday-school, 14. Bible : Bible explained by the, 132 ; " influ- ence" in the, 244; or nothing, 188 ; the name used as a mnemonic, 120. Bible-text: help of the, 165 ; writing out a, 333. Bible-truths related, 226. Bill of fare, to be selected from, 124, 134. Biddle Market Mission, 256. Blackboard: using the, 144; the invisible, 145. Blacksmith, influencing the, 252. Blind : memorizing, 21 ; scholars, teaching of, 37; leading blind, 54. Bleaching, the process of, 99. Body, only the, 85. Bondage, house of, 86. Books : are not knowledge, 20, 23 ; selecting, for scholars, 3B6. 382 Index. Boy who was there, 209. Boys: interesting the, 146 ; two troublesome, 315; woman teacher for, 317. Breaking scholars In, 308. Bricks, new-viewing, 225. Bright, John, his plan In speaking, 133. Brimfulness, too much, 65. Brooks, Phillips, on preaching, 269. Bucket-and-pump instruction, 13. Burroughs, John, on characteristic quali- ties, 109. Bushnell, Horace: misunderstood, 84 ; on co-work, 96 ; his angels of imagery, 166 ; on unconscious influence, 265, 273. Busy, children enjoy being, 174. Byron, Lord, mechanically Instructed, 18. Call, an unseasonable, 347. Care in influencing, 264. Carlyle, Thomas, on bucket-and-pump in- struction, 13. Catechism, a meaningless recitation of, 17. Catechetical teaching defined, 128. Cent, knowing head and tail of, 170. Cerebrum, studying without using the, 89, 186. Chalk, the power of, 144. Chalmers, Thomas : his question-prepara- tion, 131 ; a pupil of, 11. Chaplain, a discouraged, 107. Character: teaching by, 270; endless task of upbuilding, 326. Characteristic qualities to be observed, 110. Child ; each, as an individual, 51 ; unique- ness of each, 109. Child-reverence, securing, 273. Child training, Solomon on, 50. Children: enjoy working, 173; often be- come Christians early. 347. Chinaman, identifying a, 110. Christ: teaching-method of, 49; review- methods of, 215 ; revealed in the teacher, 267,295; help from, 304; or conversion? 342 ; on the new birth, 344. Christians: unrecognized, 347; helping first, 371. Christmas gathering, a, 332. Church: joining the, 346; kept from join- ing the, 344; three agencies of the, 358; school, the early, 356 ; after joining the, 372. Cicero's learning-method, 95. Cipher, teaching in, 88. Circus, scholar who attended the, 171. Class : each is a unit, 318 ; right number of scholars for a, 320. Class-books, the forgotten, 75. Class slates : use of, 194 ; co-work with, 196. Classes, difference in, 300. Cleansing, furnishing not, 100. Clear : making, what you teach, 79-91, 150- 166 ; necessity of being, 87, 150. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, concerning ignorance, 38. Color-blind teachers, 107. Completeness : growth toward, 323 ? through reviewing, 238 ; attaining, 352. Conduct, a teacher's duty of guarding his, 275. Confidence, the believer's, 229. Confucius, on the teacher's influence, 280. Confusion, gain through, 4. Control, ability to, a gift, 319. Conun drum : what is the number of a calf ^s legs? 7. Conversion, meaning of, 341 ; regeneration not, 342 ; mistakes about, 343 ; Christians before, 316; after, what, 369. Converts, guiding young, 369. Cork, drawing the, 97. Cornelius, the band-leader, 151. Corresponding with scholars, 333. Counselling and aiding scholars at all times, 352-377. Co-work: securing scholar's, 92-102,167; importance of, 92; efficacy of, 96; diffi- culty of securing, 307. Crisis in teaching, scholar's absence brings a, 330. Index. 383 "Daddle, daddle," 168. Daucing, a misplaced tract against, 115. David's use of influence, 249. Deacon Chase described, 291. Deaf, scholars who are practically, 38. Death- bed ignorance, 11. Decision: helping scholars to Christian, 340-351 ; opportunity for, 350. Definings, indefinite, ilfi. Denion-posse?£cd children, 305. Deutsoh, Emanuel, on rabbinical methods, 119. Devil, the, not easily defeated, 370. .Dickens, Charles, his use of repetition, 218. Didactic teaching defined, 127. Die, willing to ; for scholars, 251 ; for a superintendent, 290. Differences in scholars, need of recogniz- ing, 108. Different, being, to each scholar, 48. Difficulties in teaching Inevitable, 307. Diseipleship, the test of, o47. Doctor, examining a young, 62. Doors, fashioning the bronze, 324. Dose, not the same, for all, 58. Dotheboys Hall, methods of. 58. Dowling, Dr., his illustrative rope, 164. Drayton's use of "learn," 28. Dullness, Goddess of, 90. Dunciad of Pope, the, 90. Duties: are manifold, 308; the teacher's general, 352 ; never conflict, 366. Duty of being loved, 290. Ease, being at, 171. Effort, teaching requires an, 92. Egypt, the house of bondage in, 86. Elements of the teaching-process, 68-102. Elijah's mistaken singularity, 346, Elliptical teaching defined, 128. Jimerson, Ralph Waldo, on disclosure of character, 113. Emmaus, the scholar at, 19. Employment for scholars, seeking, 364 Empty minds, duty of filling, 100. End : looking to the, 133 : the, not yet, 3'26; the, sought in teaching, 340. Error: need of discerning, 4; showing, not enough, 26 ; a common, 343. Essentials of the teaching-process, 35-67. Euclid, a stupid student of, 23. Example: what an, is, 156; explaining the word, 156. Exhaustive study is exhausting, 122. Explanation, the place of, 181. Eye ; securing help from, in teaching, 165 ; employing the scholar's, 193; hearing with the, 266. Ezekiel, the preacher, 99. Ezra's school, 356. Face, studying the teacher'.^, 271. Faith, power through, 305. Faithful teachers, reward of, 364. Familiarity with scholars, importance of, 172. Family: prayers, inattention at, 76; in- sufa.cient of itself, 355; Abraham had school before having a, 355 ; and school, 358; limitations of the, 359. Famine, a Sunday-school, 200. Farrar, Archdeacon, on controlling schol- ars, 319. Fastening the truth taught, 210-220. Father, Influence of a, 263. Feeling, danger in mere, 360. Figurative language, use of, confusing, 161. Filling, not fullness, sought, 134. Fitch, J. G. : objections of, 183; method of, 184 ; objections to method of, 184. Fly-poison, a dose of, 46. Francis de Sales, his estimate of knowl- edge, 261. Freeman, J. M., his invisible blackboard, 145. Friend's school, a true, 292. Fruits : known by their, 162 ; branches that bear, 372. 38-4 Index. Forgotten, how much must be, 93, 213. Following up scholais, 330. Full of subject, being too, 65. Fuller, Thomas: on reviewing, 217; on influence, 250. Fun in its place, 311. Galilean, " the despised," who was? 41. Gall, James : his tt^st of " Blind Alec," 21 ; his question-method, 177; his method objected to, 182; his method defended, ISS. Gallaudet, Thomas H., his reading-book. Hi. Garret-school, love in a, 286. Gehazi, the leper, studied, 174. General exerciFcs power of, 361. Geometrj', par: c it-recitations in, 22. Girls, a man can best teach, 317. Giving and gaining, 94. Goethe's essential for teachers, 123. Good Samaritan, parable of the, 183. Goodness, one boy's idea of, 39. Gregory, J. M., his plan for study, 120. Grifiin, Edward Dorr, repeating his text, 217. Grind.stone exercises, 25. Habit of attention, the, 148. Hall, G. Stanley, his test of child-knowl- edge, 43. Hand, hinting with the, 316. Hart, John S. ; on reciting and learning, 16; his definition of teaching, 28; his forgotten class-books, 75; on co-work, 96 ; on right size of a class, 320. Having and using influence, 241-283. Hawthorne, Nathaniel : his estimate of children's ability, 159 ; on the loss of an ideal, i74. Hearer: a mistaken, 83 ; an ignorant, 11. Hearing : not learning, 10 ; not teaching, 63 ; attention more than, 71. Heart, aiming at the, 289. Hebrew tongue, employing the, 142. Help: from a good scholar, 321; for a scholar, 319 ; from God, 351. Helps that do not help, 187. Helpers, a teacher's, 320. Helping to Christian decision, 340-351. Herbert, George, on the preacher's charac- ter, 267. Hold on scholar, gaining a new, 314. Home : inviting scholars to one's, 310; teachers helped from, 322. Horse, managing a, 299. Horses, pulling harder than, 139. How, knowing the, 103, 116. Human nature, teacher must know, 105. Huntington, Bishop, on unconscious influ- ence, 271. Idealize, children prone to, 274. Identification, what Is required for, 110. Ignorance: need of understanding. 39; comprehending a scholar's, 40; unsus- pected childish, 43. Illustration :. defined, 151 ; wise use of, 54. Illustrations, finding, 132. Illustrative teaching defined, 128. Important: retaining the, 215; emphasiz- ing the, 220. Incarnation, personality in the, 268. Individual: each child an, 51; studying the, 109; work, value of, 374. Inflowing, iufluence, an, 245, 268. Influence: place of, 100: deflned, 241; having, and using, 241-283; uses of the word, 244 ; voluntary, 248 ; not instruc- tion, 252; unconscious, 265; responsibility for, 275 ; permanency of, 280. Influencing: teacher's duty of, 32;, not teaching, 32. Inquiry-meeting, gain of a Sunday-school, 352. Interest : -attention more than, 71; atten- tion from, 114 ; arousing, 146 ; manifest- ing, 313, 363. Index. 385 Jaootot's definition of teaching, 27. Jehoshaphat's school, 856. Jeroboam's progress In wickedness, 228. Jesuits, review methods of, 211. John, the Apostle : and his robber scholar, 331 ; his aim in instruction, 341. Joining the church, prepared for, 342, 344. Josephs, the two, confounded, 85. Judging scholars correctly, 118. Judgnjent, at the, 877. Kine, Pharaoh's lean, symbolized, 14, 200. Knowing: scholars, need of, 37; lesson in advance, 52, 117 ; scholars, time for, 115. Knowledge : testing scholar's, 44, 113 ; not theory, necessary, 61; malting, available, 64; needing more than, 66; test of, 209; gain of, 260. Landscape, new-viewing a, 226. Language: necessity of a common, 38; lacking a common, 38; forgetting one's own, 214. Lateral forces in the Sunday-school, 360. Law and Gospel misunderstood, 41. Learn, early meaning of, 28. Learned-pig process, 89. Learning: no teaching without, 10, 28; once meant teaching, 28 ; by teaching, 95 ; effort required for, 92. Learning-process, its twofold nature, 29. Lecture-system, out of place in Sunday- school, 97. Lesson: teaching involves a, 31; knowing the, 66 ; how to study the, 116 ; a speci- men, 175; the thirteenth, 230. Lesson-helps, place of, 131, 187. Lesson-text, having in mind the, 189. Let alone, Christian liberty to, 276. Letter, a teachers weekly, 334. Level: seeking scholar's, 152, 167, 318; reaching scholar's, 169. Library, teachers should know the, 367. Light, Christians sliedding, 273. Like producing like, 281. Limits, understanding scholar's, 59. Lisilessness: absence of, 72; absent through, 72. Listeners, inattentive, 77. Locke, John, learning-method of, 95. Look, won by a, 287. Looking up to leaders, 273. Looms, a lesson from the, 374. Lost; from Sunday-school, 828; seeking the, 332. Love: influence of, 254; as a duty, 285; all crave, 286; begets love, 289 ; power of, 293, 330. Loving: and winning love, 284-296; all can be, 293. Lyons, Alexander, "Blind Alec," 21. Make-believe and reality, 159. Manage, origin of the word, 298, 323. Managing: scholars while present, 297- 326 ; many bright classes need, 301 ; ways of, 317. Mann, Mrs. Horace, her story about " good- ness," 39. Map-drawing, Sunday-school, 194. Marcel's consensus of learning-methods, 195. Mark Twain's bereaved miner, 81. " Manschefand,'' what is it? 17. Measure, understanding scholar's, 151. Medium, truth needs a, 79. Meeting with scholar, a wayside, 314. Memorizing : meaningless, 18, 22, 89 ; insuf- ficiency of mere, 21, 24; of Scripture, stupid, 22; possible gain in, 23; can be secured, 24; of Scripture, wise, 24. Message, need of a return, 88. Metals, different, worked differently, 46. Method: choosing a, 66; the threefold teaching, 104. Methods: teachers must know, 60, 64; of the teaching-process, 103 ; in prepare,- 386 Index. tiou for teaching, 105-137 ; in practice, 1^-198; in review, 199-238; employing different, 312. Milton: on attention, 140; on tlie power of personality, 266 ; his use of the word "influence," 246. Mind, having the answers in, 190. Miner and minister, chasm between, 81. Ministry ; importance of the teacher's, 362; from Sunday-school into the, 365. Miracles, plainer than parables, 157. Jtission-scholar, a saved, 278. Mi?sion-school, won by a, 288. Missionary, influence of one Sunday- school, 269. Mnemonics for Bible-study, vari.jus, 110. Montaigne's learning-method, 95. Moody, Dv/ight L., personal influence of, 260. Morrison, " Tom," personal influence of, 257. Jloses' school, 355. Mother's influence, a, 278. Neglect, scholars in danger of, 327. New birth, doctrine of the, Si4. New teacher's trials, 308. New-viewing: reviewing as. 'Jii; impor- tance of, 222, 236 ; examples of, 224, 231 ; questions in, 234. Newton, John, his mother's memory, 278. Not, leaving out the, 84. Number in a class, the proper, 320. Numbers, influence of, 362. Objectteaehing defined, 128. Offending the little ones, 318. Old sermons, preaching, 107. Olney, Edward, on learning by speaking, 97. Order of study, the true, 122. Orflla, Professor, and the fly-poison, 46. Oriental school, recitation in an, 17. Origin of the Snnday-school, 353. Over and over again, 210, 220, 325. Oyster-like and trout-like classes, 300. " Papa's text," 334. Parable : of the Sower, 178 ; of the Good Samaritan, 183. Parables : miracles plainer than, 157 ; the purpose of, 163. Parents: help from, 322; influence of, 2u3, 27S ; retain responsibility, 358. Parrot-recitations, 17, 22, 90, 186. Passion of Christ, its meaning, 40. Passive learning, no, 98. Pastor, in charge of all the flock, 364. Pattern: teacher, 9,135; following the,157, 282 ; Christ the Perfect, 262. Patience in teaching, 153. Patient and . medicine, understanding both, 57. Paul's aim at influencing, 251. Paxson, " Father," his first teaching ex- perience, 207. Payne, Joseph, his judgment of teachers, 44. Persistence, teacher's, exemplified, 331. Personality, power of, 259, 266. Perspective : seeing in, 226; not from repe- tition, 230. Peter: repeatedly enjoined, 216; his mis- take in limiting, 346. Pharaoh's lean kine: hearers like, 14; scholars like, 200. Philosophy of the tenching-process, 102. Physic, taking in, 2i4. Pictorial teaching defined, 127. Pilate, what was? 190. Plaintiff and defendant, 86. Plan: of study needed, 118; value of, 121; of study, having a, 129 ; subordinating the, 132. Planets, supposed influence of the, 244, 246. Planning for teaching, 125-137. Points, selecting certain, 124, 323. Index. 387 Polite attentions, subduing througli, 317. Pope's Dunciad, 90. Porter, Noah, on reading, 95. Practical, importance of the, 63, 297. Practice, methods in, 138-198. Preacher: enlightened, 12; influence of a, 258. Preaching : not teaching, 14 ; and teach- ing, dilTeience between, 93; defined, 98; elements of, 259; to the heart, 289. Preliminary requisites for teaching, 118. Preparation : teacher's need of, 52, 65, 235, 309; methods in, 105-137; for teaching, special, 116. Prescription, not medical lecture, needed, 60. Preston, E. B., meeting, in heaven, 293. Private, -words witli scholars in, 312. Profession, need of the practical in every 61. Progress, true test of, 201. Propitiation, failure to understand, 87. " P's" and " D's," the four, 121. Pulpit : Sunday-school antedates the, 354 ; limitations of the, 361. Purpose ; of this volume, 3 ; having a, 248. Quarter's lessons, reviewing the, 230. Question : finding answer to a set, 25 ; for each scholar, 136; an unanswerable, 142; scholars should, 193; repeating emphasizes a, 219. Question book : a case of too much, 19 ; in place of a teacher, 188. Question-method : of Socrates, 94 ; of James Gall, 177 ; of Thomas K. Beecher, 179; of J. G. Fitch, 183. Questioning : preparing for, 131 ; for atten- tion, 146 ; the place of, 176; three grades of, 181 ; order of, 181 ; vague, 185 ; skill- ful, 189; true standard of, 208; in new- viewing, 233. Quick, Robert Herbert : oilrepetitioii,2l2; on class-unity, 318. Quick answering, too, 316. Rabbinical : mnemonics, 119 ; scTiools, 358. Rarey's private word with a horse, 310. Reaching scholars when absent, 327-33'J. Reading, advising scholars about, 366. Recapitulation: limitations of, 221; gain of, 236. Reciting and learning, distinction be- tween, 16. Recitations, rote and parrot, 17, 89, 186. Record, making one's own, 375. Refrains and choruses, 218. Regeneration, conversion not, 342. Relation between scholar and teacher, 363, 363. Remembering: telling assists, 91 ; review- ing assists, 212 ; influence assists, 2"'8. Repetition: assistance of, 92; importance of, 212; power of, 218; limitations of. 221 ; gives no perspective, 230. Requirements for teaching, three, 35 Responsibility : lor influence, universal, 276; of teachers, 138, 167, 238, 362, 373; of parents, 358. Results of influence, 279.- Reviewing: defined, 198, 223; three-fold- nessof, 198; informal, 202, 219; fasten- ing by, 210-220 ; importance of, 211: at stated times, 220; as new-viewing, 221; perspective in, 229. Review-methods, 199-238; of the Jesuits, 211; Christ's, 215; Paul's, 216. Revision, limitations of, 221. Robber-scholar, the Aposile John's, 331. Rope, an illustrative, 166. Rote-recitations, 17, 89, 186. Rubbing it in, 182. Rugby Academy, use of influence at, 261. Sacrament, knowledge the eighth, 261. Salesman, test of a good, 139. Salt andmlnisters, 163. Saved as by flre, scholars, 314. Scholars : teaching deaf, 9 ; need of kii oh - ing, 27, 47; help of, eisential, 31; pr -o of success w th, :i4 ; reaching dififerc- 388 Index. 48; and lesson, knowing, 58; studying, for their teaching, 105-115 ; failing to know, 106 ; studying peculiarities of. 111, 130; out of school, 112; shaping and guiding, 241-283 ; managing, "While pres- ent, 297-326; reaching, while absent, 327- 339 ; following up, 332 ; helping, to Chris- tian decision, 310-351 ; questioned con- cerning beliefs, 349; counselling and aiding, at all times, 352-377. School-ship boys, addressing, 54. Scripture: senseless memorizing of, 22; wise memorizing of, 24. Securing scholars' co-work, 92. Seeing : is believing, 80 ; not learning, 93. Selecting for scholars, 123. Self-help, indispensableness of, 95. Self-management and class-management, 309. Shakespeare: his use of" learn," 29; con- cerning attention, 70; his use of " influ-. ence," 244; ou management, 298. Shaping and guiding scholars, 277. Sheep or goat, expecting to be a, 161. Sheep-shearing, lesson from a, 147. Shepherd, teaching about the Good, 160. Ships and religion, ignorance concerning, 54. Signs need explaining, 81. Similes, abundance of, to be found, 155. Simply, telling it, 162. Skill in influencing, 249. Slates, use of, 195. Slowly, telling It, 152. Smith, Eobert, on the Sunday-school bel- lows, 14. Socrates: concerning ignorance, 39; his question-method, 91. Soldiers, who are already enlisted, 345. Solomon, concerning child-peculiarities, 50. Son, father seen in the, 295. Souls and soles, 86. South, Eobert, on value of knowledge, 261. Sower, parable of the. 178. Special need, understanding a child's, 114. Spencer, Herbert, on co-work, 96. Spirit, advantage of a high, 299. Standard, raising scholar's, 323. Stanley, Dean, estimating Thomas Ar- nold's teaching-method, 48. Stealing, a wet blanket on, 114. Stowe, Calvin E., influenced by his father, 263. Straight line, children follow best, 158. Straightforwardness, gain of, 161. Studying; scholars, importance of, 50; scholars, for their teaching, 105-115; what it is, 117 ; plan in, 118 ; true order of, 122 ; a lesson, method of, 122. Stumbling-block ; teacher's actions made a, 275 ; conversion made a, 347. Stupidity, artificially cultivated, 89. Sunday-school: meaning of teaching in, 30 ; its aim, 340 ; its origin, 353 ; and pa- rental responsibility, 358; advantages of the, 359. Superintendent : his use of influence, 255; a beloved, 290 ; following the, 292. Symbols : of thought, 79 ; danger of, 157. .Synagogue-school, the, 366. Tale of Two Cities, Dickens's, 219. Talking : a teacher's, not teaching, 12 ; a lesson in, 168; without notes, 188. Talmud, on the synagogue, 357. Tantalus, a lesson from, 126. Teach : knowing what to, 52-60 ; deciding what to, 65 ; knowing how to, 60. Teacher : in name only, 7 ; one, who failed to teach, 12 ; how every one is a, 30 ; other work of the, 32 : the, who never teaches, 35; advantages of a young, 44, 169; ears do not make a, 53 ; many a, needs teaching, 54 : two persons to make one, 101; a pattern, 135 ; responsibility of the, 138, 167, 238, 362, 279, 373 ; ministry of the, 262; his duty of correspondence, 835; Index. 389 " the best, in the world," 291 ; one, who loved, 294; a tormented, 302; and scholar, relation between, 363; opinion of, its value, 868. Teaching : real and nominal, 5 ; vague notions of, 6, 27 ; not all, is teaching, 6-8 ; needs defining, C, 26 ; telling is not, 9-15, 205 ; mistakes concerning its nature, 9, 16 ; hearing a recitation not, 16-24 ; what it is, 26; Jacotot's definition, of, 27; Hart's definition of, 28 ; more than learn- ing, 28; other uses of the term, 30 ; three- fold idea of, 31 ; influencing is not, 32; no teaching without, 33, 101, 241 ; and preaching, compared, 98; planning for, 125-137 ; and influencing, 254. Teaching-methods : Thomas Arnold's, 48 ; Christ's, 49 ; technical, 127. Teaching-process: nature of the, 3-34; proved by the learner, 34 ; its essentials, 35-67; its elements, 68-102; its three- foldness, 68, 196; what is involved in the, 101 ; philosophy of the, 102 ; meth- ods of the, 103-138. Tears, teaching with, 217. Technical : and practical compared, 63 ; teaching-methods, 127. Telling : not teaching, 9-15, 57, 205 ; the place of, 15. Temporary discouragements, 204. f Tennyson, Alfred, on Christ's personality, 268. Testing : attention, 76 ; questions for, 153, 206 ; importance of, 199 ; in review-work, 202; ipethods of, 205 ; the test in, 208 ; of the teacher, 809 ; of the scholar's spirit- ual position, 348. Text : an unknown term, 42 ; the, near the door, 43 ; use of a startling, 142 ; a trip- hammer, 217. Theatre, losing influence by attending the, 276. Thinking before answering, 178. Thirst, spiritual, unsatisfied, 126. Time : plenty of, for knowing scholars, 115; keeping within the, 133; amount of, for reviewing, 212 ; now the best, 339. Title, a misleading, 86. Tobacco, influencrd against using, 263. Toxicologist, a useless, 62. Training: in attention, a lack of, 203; the value of, 371. Transfiguration, test-questions about the, 77. Trust: teachers must, 305; as a test of belief, 349. Truth, duty of influencing by, 269. Tumult, a class in, 302. Unconscious: gain, 99; influence, 265. Understanding, complete, essential to clearness, 90. Unit, class as a, 318. Unity in teaching, securing, 231. University, Sunday-school not a, 97. Unknown tongues in the Sunday-sehool, 41, 83. Unloved and unloving, teacher may be, 284. Unsaid, something must be left, 134. Vague : notions of teaching, 27 ; question- ing, 185. Vassar, " Uncle John," his influence, 252. Vent-hole, need of a, 66. Veterans, the value of, 371. Vichy, the waters at, 281- Vincent, John H. : his plan of study, 121 ; his blackboard-exercise, 144. Visiting scholars during the week, 112, 312. Walker, Mrs. Edward Ashley, on the salt ofthe earth, 163. Waller's use of " influence," 245. Wanted of scholars, what is, 173. Week-day study of scholars, 112. 390 Index. Wet blanket, use of a, 115. Whittle, Major D. W., personal Influence of, 255. Wilkinson, ■William Cleaver: his learning- plan, 120 ; on management, 315. Window, the preacher as a, 267. Woods, where are the? 42. Words: difficulty of defining familiar, 5; as symbols, 80 ; inadequateness of mere, 80, 83; misunderstanding, 81, 84; not truths,88; place of, 117; straightforward use of, 158; new-viewing, 2M; private, with scholars, 310. Word-questions, beginning with, 180. AVork: setting scholars at, 172; chUd-love of, 173 ; of scholar, in reviewing, 232; the teacher's other, 241-377; of the teacher, never finished, 370. Works, faith shown by, 306. Writing to scholars, 334. Wrong answers, using, 156. " W's," the five, 120. Yale, a class reunion at, 294. Young teachers, advantages of, 45, 169. Yung Wing's forgetting Chinese, 214, •m