MAY 7 1913 _^ BV 1520 .S54 1911 Smith, William Walter, 1868- 1942. The Sunday-school of to-day The Sunday-School of To-Day ( MAY 7 19 The ^^^ic/L %^ Sunday-School of To-Day A COMPENDIUM OF HINTS FOR SUPERINTENDENTS AND PASTORS ySy the Rev. PFm. WALTER SMITH, A.B., A.M., M.D. Author of '■'A Compreheusive Text Book of Religious Edu- cation,''' " Sunday-School leaching," " Christian Doc- trine," " The Making of the Bible," " From the Exile to the Advent," '' The Sunday-School Problem Solved," etc. With a Special Chapter on Sunday- School Architecture By CHARLES WILLIAM STOUGHTON, A. L A. And an Introduction by the Rev. LESTER BRADNER, Ph. D. Chairman of the Executive Committee of the General Board of Religious Education. FULLY ILLUSTRATED New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 19 n, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 1158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 125 North Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street Dedicated to my loving Mother, zvhose high Ch7^istiaii principles and altru- istic service to inankind are an example and an inspiration Introduction By Rev. Lester Bradner, Ph. D. THE followiug pages should form a diagnosis chart for the enterprising and even the non-en- terprising Sunday-school worker. The writer is a "Sunday-school Doctor " of long experience— just as the college student is measured by the college physician and his chart made out on the basis of physical standards, so a good, healthy Sunday-school may wisely check itself up against the standards noted in this book. It is worth our while to see how we measure up with advancing ideals of our own day. Still more is such a diagnosis sheet valuable to the Sunday-school which falls short of vigorous life. Here can be discovered where the weak- ness of such a school lies, and what needs to be done for its correction. One of the misfortunes of many a Sunday-school is its isolation. Its teachers and officers are aware that it is not all they could wish, but they are unacquainted with the possibilities which large experience suggests. They are doing what they have always done, because they have no opportunities of comparison. For such the perusal of these pages will be an inspiration. There is no greater assistance and encouragement than to be conscious of a wide movement on which one may lay hold and be sup- ported in his lonely efforts. To many a worker these chapters will bring just such encouragement. There is a most wonderful stirring of the nation's life in the di- rection of religious education, and the suggestions made 5 6 INTRODUCTION ill this book are tlie result of it. If we place ourselves in touch with the movement, we shall receive both its bene- fit and its inspiration. Let no one be discouraged by the wealth of suggestions herein contained. It is no criticism of a store that it carries a wide variety of goods. Let us have patience to find the particular suggestion which bears upon our local need. Efficiency comes not by doing all the things which every one else does, but by equipping ourselves to do our own work in the best fashion. And after all, it is details in which excellence is measured. Particularly, let not the worker in the small school feel that these pages are of importance only to the large school with a bountiful treasury. Probably seven-eighths of all the Sunday -schools in the country are small schools. Efficiency should be as much an aim for them as for the other eighth. And modern methods and equipment are possibilities for all. If by reason of local circumstances a school cannot be large in numbers, the more heed should be given to the improvement of its quality. And the principles which Dr. Smith describes are applicable in the small as well as in the large. Excellence of method is in most cases a solid foundation for enthusiasm. And enthusiasm can make a school grow far beyond expecta- tion. The hope of religious education in the large really lies in the character of the work done in the smaller schools. We predict a career of great usefulness for this new ad- dition to the literature of Sunday-school efficiency. Providence^ B. L Foreword THIS handbook is designed to act as a companion volume to the larger book on Child Study, Ke- ligious Pedagogy, and the History of the Sun- day-school, known as "Keligious Education," by the same author. The former is for the teacher and worker ; this book is for the pastor, the superintendent, the officers, and council. Some of the suggestions have been originally published, though in briefer form, in The Churchman^ to whom credit is duly given. Appreciation is also accorded to the Rev. Lester Bradner, Ph. D., who has written the introduction ; to Mr. Charles W. Stoughton, the author of Chapter II, and to the Rev. Robert P. Kreitler, who has carefully reviewed the entire manuscript and furnished many val- uable suggestions. w. w. s. Contents 15 I. The Principles and Basis of the Modern Sunday- School ....... " When is a School Not a School ? " — What the Sun- day-School is Not — What the Sunday-School Is — This Gives Us a Working Definition Which We Might Call Our Educational Ideal — Buildings- Graded Schools — Better Trained Teachers— Methods. II. The Housing of the Church School . . '33 The Church Schoolrooms and the Parish House — The " Akron Plan " — Conditions Imposed — Style — Design — Arrangement — Types of Construction — Cir- culation Through the Building— Halls — Stairs — Di- visions into Class and Meeting Rooms — Doors — Screens — Curtains — Lighting — Ventilation — Devel- opment of a New Type of Church House. III. The Detailed Equipment of an Up-To-Date Sun- day-School Building . . . . .61 The Kindergarten Rooms — The Primary Rooms — The Typical Individual Room. IV. The Graded Sunday-School .... 75 What is a Graded School ? — Principles of Grading — The Only Intelligent Way to Grade a Sunday-School — Home Cooperation — How to Gain It — A Sample Letter — How to Grade a Small School — The Prin- ciples of a Well-Rounded Curriculum — The Curric- ulum of the New York Sunday-School Commission — The Order of Studies — Subjects Suggested in a Curriculum — The Fever of Unrest — The Psychology of the Text Book— The Best System of Text Books — The Plan of the Text Book — Recommended Text Books and Systems. V. The Organization of the Church School . 103 A Frank Statement — The Aim — Size and Numbers — System and Order — A Summary of the Aims — The 9 lo CONTENTS Organization — The Superintendent's Work — His Method — The Supervisor of Instruction, or Principal — Tlie Secretarial Force — Superintendent of Absen- tees — Proper vs. Destructive Ideals in Giving — The School Council. VI. The Most Effective Routine System . . 133 Entering the New Scholar — Records for the Absentee " Folio vv-Up " System — Home Reports — Parents' Meetings — Incentives for Attendance. VII. Plans That Work 151 The Font Roll— The Home Department— Clubs and Organizations — Manual Work— How to Win Bad Boys and Prevent the '< Leak at the Top "—Named Classes — Private Worship by the Scholars, and Definite Traming Therein — Reward Systems : Their Ethical and Practical Values — Correlation of Sunday- School and Church Attendance — Making the Walls « Talk " — The Stereopticon Lantern in the Sunday- School — Examinations — Examination Days. VIII. Summer Hand-Grips In the Sunday-School World — How Not to Lose Touch With the Scholars During Vacation . . . . i88 A Special Summer Session, With Short Courses of Its - Own — A Summer Assemblage With Addresses to the Whole School— Home Study Each Week, With School Credits — Vacation Credits in Other Scliools — Daily Bible Readers' League — Pledges to Weekly Attendance at Church Service — An Annual Sunday- School Excursion — Summer Camps for Sunday- School or Choir — Festivals, Entertainments, etc. — The Touch of Individual Teachers. IX. How TO Start the School Machinery Under Full Steam on Rally Day . . . .196 Building Up an Atmosphere — Practical Methods for Rallying the School — The Sunday-School Follow-up System. X. Teachers and Teacher Training . . . 202 How to Secure Efficient Teachers — Securing New Teachers — How to Get Teachers to Train — Types of Teacher Training. CONTENTS II XI. How TO Produce Efficient Results from the Sunday-School . . . . . .211 Results, the Fundamental Principle — Machinery in It- self Will Not Yield Results — How the Principle Works — National Ideals — The Social Spirit. 215 XII. A National Church Organized The Unfortunate Origin of the Sunday-School — Our Chaotic Condition — The Commission Movement — The National Organization — Week Day Religious Instruction — Increase in Religion — The Public School Situation — Week Day Church Schools — Use of Public School Buildings — How Some Have Solved the Problem. Bibliography ....... 224 Index ... ^ ... . 226 Illustrations Page 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 A Small Parish House for a Country Town A Parish House for a Church in a Small Town A Country Church, Parish House and Manse . A City Church, Rectory and Parish House A Town Church, Rectory and Parish A Church on an Interior City Lot .... The Broadway Tabernacle Church, New York The Broadway Tabernacle Church, New York (another view) ........ 49 Typical Plan of the School Wing of a Parish House . . 54 A Y. M. C. A. Building 59 A Coloured Wall Picture . . . . . . 6z A Cloth Wall Chart (Apostles' Creed) .... 63 A Cloth Wall Chart (The Lord's Prayer) ... 64 A Cioth Wall Chart (The Ten Commandments) . . 65 A Kindergarten Table ....... 66 The Mosher Hygienic Kindergarten Chair . . , 6"] A Tilting Sand Table 68 The Story of Easter Morning . . Opposite page 69 Types and Sizes of Wall Blackboards . " ** 69 A Revolving Standard Blackboard . . . -. .69 A Desk-Armchair ....... 70 A Cloth Wall Chart (Twenty-Third Psalm) . . .71 A Cloth Wall Chart (The Beatitudes) . . . .72 A Kindergarten Table .... Opposite page 72 Seating Plan of a Class .... « « 72 A Teacher's Table .... « «* ^2 Another Teacher's Table (Folding) . « «< 72 The Folding Hexagonal Class Table . « « ^2 A Wall Blackboard Drawing Map . . « « 72 A Multi-Illuminant Stereopticon . . *< <« ^2 The Commission Revolving and Tilting Sand Table " ** 72 A Hand Stereoscope .... << « ^2 14 ILL USTRA TIONS The Class Hymn Board ..... The School Aim The Class Motto The Best Enrollment System ..... The Best Roster Card ...... The Best Class Book A Resultful Record Card for Those Who Prefer Card System Membership Card ...... Special Rules of the School ..... Reply Post Cards (Used for One Week's Ab- sence) ..... Opposite page Vacant Chair Post Cards (Used for Two Weeks* Absence), Younger Pupils . . « « Vacant Chair Post Cards (Used for Two Weeks* Absence), Older Pupils . . ject-graded.' "There is little question but that the attempt to modify the same lesson topic in such ways as to adapt it to various grades at once will ultimately be surrendered in favour of a real subject-graded plan. There are funda- mental differences in the method of study suitable to various ages which render it undesirable to keep all de- partments of the school on the same topic and proceed- ing at the same pace. Moreover, in other than Biblical material, such a uniform plan is impossible. Even the attempt to accomplish it in Biblical material tends to make it impossible to treat other material in any adequate or pedagogical way. "A school should be graded In accordance with the recognized laws of child development. There are well- marked periods in child life. The earliest runs until about seven years. The second is from seven to nine or ten, roughly speaking. The third runs from nine or ten to about thirteen. The fourth covers approximately the ages of thirteen to seventeen. It is convenient to have the school divided into departments according to these periods, and especially desirable where there is facility for using separate rooms or buildings. THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL 77 ^*But actual separation of pupils is uot so iinportaut as a dilfereutiation in the lessou material aud the way of handling it. In the Beginners' and Primary grades large groups of children may be handled by a single teacher. Even in the next or third period, classes may be rea- sonably large, provided the teacher is competent. Nor is it absolutely necessary in this period to separate the sexes, though perhaps desirable. The fourth period should see smaller classes, separated by sexes, and taught preferably by teachers of their own sex. "In the Beginners' and Primary grades the children will not be expected to do much, if any, home work. The principles of the kindergarten, though not neces- sarily its actual method, will pertain. The years from eight to ten will be diligently used for api)ropriate memory work. It will not usually be practicable to expect much writing before the third period, or to get map work done, but both can be commenced at about ten years. Yet previous to this, note-book work with pictures and other illustrated features can be accom- plished. "Biographical work, usually begun in later primary years, will be continued into history in the succeeding periods. The teaching of the Catechism comes best at ten or eleven years, but the Christian Year, if taught objectively, may precede this. The Prayer Book must be taught in exceedingly simple fashion if it is undertaken before the age of twelve. The ages of thirteen to four- teen or fifteen should not fail of some direct ethical instruction, nor of a clear and forceful presentation of the life of our Lord. Both of these subjects should be mastered by the pupil as a background for the confirma- tion decision." Grading is pedagogically recognizing child-develop- ment. Good grading must, therefore, plan (1) to adapt 78 THE SUNDA Y-SCHOOL OF TO-DA Y the topical subject-matter or material to the right age ; (2) to meet the particular moral, practical, and mental requirements of each period of development ; (3) to supply all the religious instruction material, correlated subjects, etc., consistent with the broadest possible relig- ious education, giving due regard to and practical co- operation with the public school work of the children. It supplements, not supplants, the public school. (4) It will, of course, in doing this, adjust questions to the comprehension of the children. It will be adjustment, not in the same material, but differing material, suited to each age. In all schools, this grading should be done by a specially qualified teacher. It will seldom be the superintendent, who is qualified in management, not religious education. It may be one of the regular class teachers or a special grading officer, or, better still, a Principal. Principles of Grading. In undertaking to grade a school, it must be remembered that the week-day school grade should be the main guide. On the average, it will be found that five per cent, are one grade- ahead of their age and five per cent, one grade behind. That is, ninety per cent, will agree, year with grade. In the slum districts of a city, the minimum of five per cent, deficients will mount to fifteen per cent, or even more. In cultured districts, the progressives will rise to about the same pro- portion, fifteen per cent. Placing the grading strictly upon the standing in day-school does away with dis- satisfaction, grumbling, and open rebellion. The ^' grad- ing teacher'' (principal) or superintendent is relieved of seemingly arbitrariness, for he has no option. The child recognizes his place in day-school, and most naturally falls into the same place in Sunday-school, with the added advantage of learning to place the Sunday-school and the THE GRADED SUNDA Y-SCHOOL 79 day-school on the same par at the start ! lu large schools, each grade is a year j in small schools, two grades com- bine to form a two-year cycle. We must accept certain things as essential and neces- sary, and then proceed to arrange them with due regard to the child's mental fitness and development. In sug- gestiug the following order of studies, we are absolutely iu agreement with the majority of the foremost educators of the day. The Only Intelligent Way to Grade a Sunday-school. Grading should be done by day-school grades, which show the ability of the pupils to handle the material of education rather than by ages or height, as is often the case. Make a list first of all pupils, arranged alphabetically, by name. Indicate age, address and day-school grade. Arrange in classes by the day-school staudiug, all third grades together {%. e., about eight years old) ; all fourth grades, etc. If the school be too small for single grades of separated boys and girls, either place boys and girls together, or combine the two adjoining grades in one class, thus the thirds and fourths together, and make a two-year course for that class, one year in the topic that would naturally come for the third grade and the second year in that set forth for the fourth grade. In this way, the complete curriculum is covered with but half the number of classes. Then next, do not neglect to use a little printer's ink. Most schools fail right here. After a year the teachers a/nd pupils become discouraged and all want one subject. Or Miss Jones wants to teach the <' interesting book Miss Brown has," and sees no reason why her class may not have it. It is because the teachers and pupils do not know what the system is, do not grasp the curriculum, 8o THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY do not see what wheel each one is in the general ma- chinery. Therefore issue a little folder like the sample below. Print an abundance of them. Circulate them freely. Give one to every scholar, every parent, every teacher. Sow them broadcast in the town. It is good and con- servative advertising. Dozens of new children will flock in, being brought ofttimes by the parents themselves, because they admire a systematic and pedagogical school. It works well every time. Here is the sample. (Page 1) Name of the School and Address. School Session Meets at Nine-thirty sharp Each Lord's Day Morning ®ur fIDotto : Every Scholar Present Every Sunday. Every Scholar Present ON TIME. Every Scholar Studying Every Lesson Each Week at HOME. Every Scholar Saying Private Prayers at Home, Morning and Evening. Every Parent Helping the School in Home Work. Every Scholar in attendance at at least ONE CHURCH SERVICE Each WEEK. Every Scholar a Christian, a Churchman, and a Becoming Example. Every Young Person in Every Home, from Three to Twenty-one a Scholar with US HERE. THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL 8i (Page 2) ©ur (BraMno anO Cumculum Grade in Public School The Kindergarten School (to 6 years). K. Stories from the Old Testament, New Testa- ment, and Nature. (Kindergarten Exercises.) The Primary School (to Third Grade Day School). I, II. Similar Stories with older treatment. The Grammar School. III. Class of 192 1— (Catechism, Christian Year), Old Testament Stories. IV. Class of 1920— (Use of Prayer Book), Old Testa- ment Stories Completed. V. Class of 19 19— Junior Historical Life of Christ. VI. Class of 1918— Teachings of Christ (Ethics) or Early Christian Leaders. VII. Class of i9i7_01d Testament History as the Preparation for the Messiah. VIII. Class of 19 16— Life of Christ the Messiah. The High School I H. Class of 19 1 5— The Teachings of Christ the Messiah or Christian Doctrine. II H. Class of 19 14— The History of the Apostolic Church. Ill H. Class of 19 1 3 — Church History. Class of i9i2^The Epistles and their Writers. The Post-Graduate School. Normal and Bible Classes. Elective Subjects. 82 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO- DA V (Page 3) Scbool IRules We want no unnecessary Rules. Rules are only intended for USE. They are to help each one to help each one else, so that, without selfish infringement of rights, each one may do his work, " mind his own business " and assist others to do likewise. Therefore ALL Scholars should delight for the good honour and welfare of the School in seeing that these few Rules are properly KEPT. 3for Bll Be REGULAR and Always on TIME. This School ex- pects it, just as Public School does. Study the Lesson AT HOME EArrHFULLY each week. IFor Scbolars Always get Special Permission from Teacher to leave Class at any time during Lesson Hour. Remember that Inattention, Loud Talking, Noises, etc., disturb the rights of OTHERS. You have rights, respect theirs. Do not injure the School. We expect Just the Same Conduct in EVERY WAY in the Church School that you show in Public School. This will guide you, in place of many Rules. This is primarily a School. You are expected to Attend at least ONE SERVICE IN CHURCH A WEEK. This is not " Compulsory Church," but our duty to train you in proper Worship, just as we do in the Bible. You will be marked for this the following Lord's Day. A REPORT will be sent HOME to your Parents reg- ularly, showing Attendance, both at School and Church, Conduct, Offering, and Study of Lesson. All Diplomas, Certificates, Honours, and Graduation de- pend on the high Standing of these Records. It is to your personal advantage to stand well. THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL 83 Remember that the Purpose of this School is YOUR GOOD, to help YOLJ to become a worthy, noble man or woman, a Credit to your God, your Church, your Home, your Country. Help us to maintain a high standard for the School, and to make it the best and most helpful School in this city. Bring EVERY other Young Person, not already connected with such a School, and we will try to help such a one as well. The Spirit of JESUS CHRIST, our Saviour, is the Spirit of Service and Helpfulness to OTHERS. (Page 4) Names of Officers and their Addresses. Names of Teachers and their Degrees. The plan of putting Class of, etc., is far better psycho- logically than Class I, Class II, etc., or even than Class A, Class B, etc. The moral effect on the pupils is to keep them banded together as a class unit and to hold them in the school until the graduating point. They do not drop out so readily in this way. This plan works wonderfnlly in the upper grades ; but attention has been called to the fact that children from eight to twelve ^' live in the present," i. e., do not look far forward, and that '' Class of 1918 " seems discouraging and an endless path to the small eight-year-old entering in 1908. It might be well to use grammar titles or junior and intermediate titles up to high school, and then commence the titles by year of graduation. It has been found, by experience, that the best num- bering for classes, as the general nomenclature, is un- doubtedly to adopt the terminology of the day-school system in vogue in a particular town. Then grade stands for grade, and there is no misunderstanding when a grade is referred to. ''Third Grade Public School " is the exact equivalent of ''Third Grade Church School." 84 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY Oue of the best incentives towards higher educational improvements on the part of the teachers is to note on the fourth page of the folder, where a list of the teachers is inserted, the indication, after their names, that they are either day-school teachers, or hold certificates for having taken the teacher training course in religious education. Some schools now enter " C. T. ' ^ after the names of such teachers, the abbreviation standing for '^Certifi- cated Teacher." It is given alike to those who hold certificates for normal school, or for training courses in the Sunday-school. Even the scholars note the difference and many an indifferent teacher has been spurred to effort by an inquiry from a scholar as to why she does not hold the degree of C. T." Home Cooperation, How to Gain It. To gain proper codperatiou an upheaval and reorganization is necessary. The word "Sunday" is dropped and the school is called a ''school." Then a circular letter, explaining the re- organization, copied either by printing or in mimeograph, is sent to all parents, even if their children be not on the school roll. A suggested form is given. It brought one hundred and twenty-five new scholars the first Sunday of reorganization in oue run-down school. They have stayed in the school ever since. That letter was worth while. It has accomplished definite results along every detail considered. A Sample Letter Dear Friends : Beginning with next Sundaj', yonr Sun clay- school will be called "The Clinrch School." We want your personal cooperation and weekly help in order to make it the very hesl and largest Sunday-school in this city. The school is distinctly for the benefit of your children. It is to teach them right living, make them know God's Holy Word, train THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL 85 them into honourable and good men and women, an honour to God, to the nation, and to you. This teaching is really the work that you of the home ought to be doing, but which has, by custom of recent years, been left to the Church. The public school cannot, under pres- ent conditions, teach religion. We are therefore doing your work for the future and present good of your children. We are glad and willing indeed to do it, and labour hard, both officers and teachers, to train your children religiously, but at least we have a right to ask, and we expect to receive your personal and faithful cooperation and help. We lovingly ask you to see to it diligently that your children are on time, promptly before 9:30 each Lord's Day, that they study the lesson at home each week (with your help, if possible) and that they are sent to at least one church service each week. If perchance your children have not been attending our school, will not you, for their moral and religious training, send them regularly, beginning next Sunday? To enable you to know how your children are progressing, we will send you a report each mouth, which we will ask you to sign and re- turn the following Sunday. Later in the year, W3 hope to arrange a special meeting (A Parents' Meeting) which we shall beg you to attend, to meet the officers and teachers and to talk over the problems of the school in which you can help us still further to help your children. Please write us or consult us at any time. We shall be glad to have you visit the school any Sunday morning to see what we are trying to accomplish. We need your intelligent sympathy in this important work. Faithfully yours, etc. This circular letter should be seut, together with the folder, to each ixireiit, who has a child between three and twenty-one, whether in the Sunday-school at that time or not. How to Grade a Small School. It is a very simple thing to grade even the smallest country school so that each child has its distinct grade, y«^a^ after year, and a definite, progressive, well mapped-out subject- curriculum. 86 THE SUNDA Y-SCHOOL OF TO-DA V If, for example, we say that there are to be eight grades above the Primary, i. e.^ runniDg from eight years of age to eighteen, we cau give auy nomeuclature we wish to those grades, the best one being the public school names for those corresponding ages apj)roximately. The school is too small for sixteen classes, eight each of boys and girls. Half that number would be all it could possibly stand, perhaps even less. ]^ow manifestly every child, no matter how few the grades, is in the school eight years in passing from eight to eighteen. Again, a year or two one way or the other does not make any essential difference in the choice of a subject to be taught. Therefore, if we take, for illustra- tion, the eight grades of the Commission Series above the "beginning reading" age and number them, say, I, II, III, etc. , up to VIII, we can arrange them this way for a two-year course, each year having but four grades taught, and the cycle completing all the eight. We then put the two years (or two grades) of children together, thus : Ages P. S. Grades First Year Second Year 8 and 9 . . Ill and IV . . Grade I ^ Grade II 10 and 11 . V and VI . . . VII and VII . . Grade III.-^ :^Grade IV 12 and 13 . . Grade V.^ ' -^ Grade VI 14 and 15 . . I and II H. S. . Grade VII^ ^'^ Grade VIII A child entering the grammar school at eight takes Grade I, is nine the next year and takes Grade II, is ten the next year and takes Grade III, is eleven the next year and takes Grade IV, etc., right down through the curriculum. There is a definite progression, with larger classes, fewer teachers, and greater adaptability to the small school. Thus the odd grades are all running the first year, and the even ones all the second. So too, if the public school system has Grade III at the age of eight, the grades, on a two-year plan, would be III, V, VII, IX first year, and IV, VI, VIII, X the second year. THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL 87 Thus it is understood that "Grade I," "Grade II," etc., are merely placed here for reference. The real num- ber would be the grading in the public school, as referred to before. The Principles of a Well-Rounded Curriculum. The child is a unit. His psychical life is manifested through his emotioDS (heart or feelings), his intellect (head), and his will (doiug or acting). No education is complete without due provision for the training of each of these in proper proportion, and with consistent correlation with the so-called secular or day-school studies. As President Butler says, there are but five interrelated lines of educa- tion, scientific, literary, political, £esthetic, and religious. The old Sunday-school education concerned itself mainly with the heart-side, under which only emotions were aroused. The new education, unless carefully w^atched, will turn exclusively to the head-side and neglect the heart. Either, or both of these phases, are incomplete. They are but means to an end. The end is character- building, which is habit-forming, which in the ultimate analysis depends solely upon will- training, %. e., getting responses to emotions, which form thus ideals in doing and living, guided intelligently, step by step, by the in- tellect. Thus in a well-rounded curriculum we must in each grade, often, though not always, in each lesson, take account of {a) the child's interests, that is the in- stincts, which are our only materials to train into habits ; (&) worship ; (c) missions, which train his heart and his life in the realm of love ; {S) memory work ; (e) the sub- ject-matter of instruction (curriculum), which concerns his intellect ; (/) self-activity, by which he learns self- expression in doing, and finally, {g) Christian work, the society to which he will belong at each stage of his edu- cation, through which he will practically carry out the 88 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY teachiugs of Christ iu Cliristiau allriiism, and service to his fellows in the world. It will depend upon the nature of the lesson topic, the age of the class, and the amount of time, which ^joints shall be emphasized each week. We now insert a number of the standard curricula as guides to superintendents and principals in selecting a proper norm for local adaptation. As we have said, the Episcopal Church has, through- out, led in this forward movement. Its curricula have been so wisely planned, and so well adapted to the psy- chological princij)les of child development and in the child's interests and needs, that they have been universally taken as the basis for the curricula of all Christian bodies. We, therefore, present the developed New York curric- ulum, the basis of them all, as the general standard, be- cause it so fitly correlates the topics of the curriculum with the aim of the teacher ; the work ; and self-expression of the child ; and the societies for personal activity. Other curricula are noted under the special lesson sys- tem of the Joint Diocesan, the Blakeslee, the Syndicate Graded Lessons, etc., but they all follow the same sequence of Sundays and the same general plan, less elaborately worked out. Of course, in churches that do not have lessons on the Christian Year, Prayer Book, and Catechism, these topics are replaced by Biblical material. The Curriculum of the New York Sunday-School Commission. This curriculum is practically the stand- ard to-day as an all-around curriculum, for the Ef)iscopal Church and for other religious bodies. It follows the same subjects as the official curriculum of the Joint Com- mission of the Episcopal Church (now the General Board of Religious Education), and of the Snnday-School Fed- eration. In fact it was the norm or basis from which A GRADED SUNDAY SCHOOL SCHEME ACCORDING TO THE THREE-FOLD DIVISION-INTELLECT, FEELINGS, AND WILL (DOING.) ...™ .« """'.rcH,"" ,„.","^H=, C..„,C..„M co„,s.„x,,. "r;"S",L'r" "xKcS?.°o' ..M0..WO.. ."o"i •T/cSS" ^i'i's. ".'lii:,'' .,.„... ..c.a.. 1 .0 Ml. N.iea. iil .......e. ii lis. ,.01.0 i,"a'/i,IATI"''' '""'""■ Ch5r?b' t 1 1 « CbuK' P ""l i"! '■"" 1: i.i;.'i?r^^' «!'•""■■ and Messianic s; s-'ip'Siar^.^ K'°Re';i.a',",r Ii li«SH^ f.',io°n:i%VoVk ■ \' - Cb„r.b^Dom,.^ jj;rcb°ras!B,°.'db,!r.' Sr^ofSecfe'ed,"""^ i;H?^-:i^°!,;i' ,'b'^Ktf.T¥.."'i»^'2.'" 3. S. C. Manual. Cb»rcb HI,.o,r, ^^"H^.r-^a 11 ^f;?erV'!n"',i;: nvji-?;™?;;: Poetical. Option- oeclalon &' fn'dlJE -- ill ""f- S,H?S M.o„.,oo,X..,b.X,.,b. Dooki died lb It. H^.." General Pamphlet.. s;sr „,.,. 0, P„. s"»i:?iS'^- iiiiiroVtL'i'i' s„.e...b.. option.,. ""'° S.„c...b.„. .•.:..- ■• ...bo,. .VIX-- ...bo... oSL 21- ll;5 ::te:!^^!lris^js?^S3SrfHK ' 1 MounlJil CD roU.n and cloth backed, HXI7 ioches, jo c ^.BULUEXm, .,„.„. [ Sunday School CommissioD, 416 Lafsyctte Stfeet, New York. THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL 89 these two were compiled, but it also presents in tabular form certain other essential points, which must be con- stantly borne in mind by every teacher in the education of the child. The curriculum evolved by that Commission was a gradual growth, an evolution, unfolded step by step by the production of a series of lesson manuals, each one a link in the curriculum. It has been so wisely and so pedagogically planned that it is invariably the standard on which all other curricula, general and official, or local and parochial, are based. In the first place it is based on the threefold division, the importance of which we have stressed, the trinity of emo- tions^ intellect and 10 ill; or feeling^ thinking and doing. It provides for the chief interests of the child as emotional starting points ; for the aim of the teacher kei^t constantly in mind ; for definite memory work on the part of the child ; for special means of self-expression in the child's own activity ; for Christian living in works of altruism ; for the worship of the child in his own spiritual life, and for the study of missions as a mainspring of our religion. The Order of Studies. This will depend on (a) the subjects considered needful for a thorough religious edu- cation ; (6) the size and character of the school, consid- ered as city or country, bright or ignorant children, pos- sible size of classes, number of teachers, etc. Just as the country day-school has to inadequately cover the same general course as the large city school, with multiform adaptations and omissions, so will the country Sunday- school. Subjects Suggested in a Curriculum. The author re- cently made an exhaustive study of more than three hundred graded schools, from all over the country. The results indicated that somewhere or other in a broad 90 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY course of religious educatiou, the following subjects should be iucluded if possible, aud probably iu about the follow- iug order : Bible Stories, Catechism, Christian Year, Out- line of the Prayer Book, Old Testament Biography, Bible Geography, Life of Christ (Historical), Old Testament History, Christian Doctrine, Character aud Teaching of Christ, Life of St. Paul, Church History, Christian Mis- sions, Messianic Prophecy, Making of the Bible, Sunday- school Teaching and Methods, Intensive Inductive Study of Epistles and Eevelation, Modern Institutional and Sociological Movements, Liturgies and Hymnology, Evi- dences of Eeligion. The details of correlated application for each of these grades, under which the principles, the subjects, manual work, and missions, are exploited, are given in full iu the larger book by the same author kuown as '^ Religious Education.'' The Fever of Unrest. If any one of our readers has never perused that illuminating book by Dr. Alford A. Butler, kuown as "The Churchman's Manual of Methods for the Sunday-School," we recommend his at once secur- ing it, and would ask him then to turn to pages 97 and 98. We will not say what is to be found therein ; but if the reader can peruse these pages and make the dictum of this article his own, without a blush of shame, he must be reprobate indeed. If he can, we will not argue with him further. It is for the man, whose heart is not yet adamantine, that we utter this plea to follow. Do not grade your school until you carry your teachers and officers fully and heartily ivith you. Then definitely pledge the school, the teachers, the pupils and the parents to keep the graded system you have adopted for at least five years, for it will take nearly that period to work it out and up to its real height of perfection. THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL 91 Scbools that have been five and eight and ten years graded like it better and produce better and better re- sults each year. It is not fair to your school nor fair to the ''system" to change lessons every year or two years. Yet there are some schools that change each year. One school changed each year for five years running, both assistants and lessons altering. Eead Dr. Butler here. Agairij a lesson system should not depend on change of clergy^ and imrticidarly on change of Assistants. Do as St. George's has done so nobly in New York, work out the best system, let it be in the hands of an able lay superin- tendent and a school council, and keep it that way, under any change of clergy whatever. That is the only fair method. The kaleidoscopic method is disastrous to the church of to-morrow. Do not select the system at random. It must be adapted to your local needs. Write the New York Sunday-School Commission a full description of your conditions, giving them a week to meditate over it and submit you a diagnosis. Or approach your own local field secretary if you have one. That diagnosis will consider chiefly the topics and the text- books. You can then work out the material for self-expression, pictures, maps, business end, additional teacher's helps, etc. Too often all this is neglected. Occasionally, some indifferent superintendent (that is the only proper appellation) will order merely scholar's books, with no teacher's helps, veritable "bricks without straw." Bo not insert the system at random. We will promise success if the books are used rightly, that is at the right ages for your type of children, in your locality. A razor used to cut string ofttimes cuts fingers. A tool mis- used does harm. If tools are used in the right way for the right purpose, they are not injurious. The author knows of not a single instance of failure, in all the thou- 92 THE SUNDA Y-SCHOOL OF TO-DA Y sauds of schools usiug graded lessons, save where lessons were used in the wrong grade or the wrong way. We mean by this that if inserted at the wrong age, a course will prove too easy at the top and too hard at the bottom in an ill-graded or too slightly graded school. We also mean that where no home study is required and no answers written out at home, the work will fall flat. The books were not constructed to be tools for this kind of work. The Psychological Effect of the Text-Book. From the first we have been profoundly impressed by the deep psychological effect of the text-book, in influencing the minds of the pupils towards higher ideals. The atmos- phere of environment counts for much. ^' What is worth while '^ is always well done, the child thinks. Miss Hetty Lee, the great English kindergartner, in her splendid book ^']^ew Methods for the Junior Sunday- School ' ' lays stress on the atmosphere created by music in the school ; by the wall, the dress of teachers, etc. The late Bishop Huntington, in that masterpiece of soul- searching advice, '^ Unconscious Tuition," strikes the same key-note. The Sunday-School Commission has stood for the book rather than the " leaflet," for the convenient book, %. e., narrow to fit a boy's pocket, for the respect- ably sized book, i, e., each part a half year, so that it is sizable. We now urge more extensive use of the cloth -bound books. A few schools have appreciated this important influence for a long time. As one superintendent said, *' If a book is used only the one year, written in and filled up, it is thrown away and no pride is taken in its preparation by the pupil. But if it be a cloth book, it is never cast aside j but placed on the shelf and ever thereafter looked back upon as a THE GRADED SUNDA Y-SCHOOL 93 reminder of the 'book I used and wrote in iit Sunday- school.^ " Aside from habits of neatness and care formed by use of such a "booky" looking book, this preserva- tion of the book through after years is a constant inspira- tion and will work real spiritual benefit, through sugges- tion of the deeper influences at work in bygone days. The cost is so insignificant that we fancy most schools of average inconie would not hesitate when once the matter is called to their attention. The Best System of Text-Books. A text-book, as you will see, is the crux of the teaching, though not the crux of the organization and discipline. There are five points to be very carefully considered in the choice of a lesson system. (i) It should he a system^ not a chaos^ or a ^ ^hodge- podge.''^ It is better to take some one system that is poor, in comparison with another, and to use it in a thoroughly articulated manner, than to combine systems, differing in method or principles, or to select good text-books at random from many sources. This essential is quite sig- nificant, for there are schools to-day, where every class is studying an eclectic system, under which a teacher goes to the bookstore and picks out any book she wishes for her class. The result is invariably chaos, with no real educa- tion. (2) A subject- graded cunHcuhcm underlying the entire system. We have already emi:)hasized this necessity. All public schools are graded. Even ''the little red schoolhouse" is graded. There has always been a sequence of subjects of study, a curriculum that is more or less extensive, ever since the days when the educational reformers pointed attention to the fact of child-develop- ment. The very nature of "the unfolding process'' in mental growth and the successive outcropj)ings of chil- 94 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY dren's instincts and interests showed that the door was shut, so to speak, to the entree of certain ideas before a certain definite stage had been reached. Thus, with a greater economy of energy, a vast saving of time, and the assemblage of a much richer mass of material, the subject-graded curriculum took the place of the uniform lesson idea. This is what is meant by "a graded school." Of course, the children are arranged by ages (or rather by the actual public school grades, which is much better) ; but the real Sunday-school grading is subject-grading. {S) The heuristic or source method. This is a basal principle in the day-school — personal research, getting back as near as can be to the original, the source. The use of the Bible tangibly, the Prayer Book, the source manual, was almost unknown in the Sunday-school. Children would remark : "We do not study the Bible in our school, we study the Quarterly." Erastus Blakeslee began the movement among the schools by the publica- tion of the Bible Study Union Lessons on the Source Method, since it proceeded from the particular to the gen- eral in the development of truth. The New York Sunday-School Commission, recognizing its pedagogical soundness and its valuable adaptation to the requirements of a subject-curriculum, began in 1893 to produce actual text- books on a curriculum plan, based on this principle. Its editor gave the name "source" to the method, rather than the appellation " inductive" as used by the Bible Study Company, and also coined the more academic term "heuristic," from heurisko, "to find." (4) Written answer loorlc. The heuristic method means research. The guide to that research is found in sets of questions compiled in graded sequence in the pupils' class books. The method under which this research is THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL 95 conducted is written work. Its plan for reproduction in the class is oral discussion and manual work. Spaces are left between the printed questions in the graded commission text- books for the written answers, always in the form of a statement. (5) Manual methods. Manual methods are a recognized means of self-expression. Etymologically, of course, it includes all hand- work, even writing. Practically we use it to denominate, in the Sunday-school, the following lines of objective work, introduced from the day-school : (a) Book work, which includes picture mounting for each lesson, with mounted clippings from old Bibles, and written descriptive or thesis work to accompany it — an illuminated biography or history. This work runs right through the grades, from kindergarten through adult Bible classes. (&) Eelief map work, (c) Map work in the flat, {d) Models, {e) Public school meth- ods. Separate rooms, desks, note- book and picture work, wall maps, and wall pictures, manual work, blackboards, sand tables, kindergarten paraphernalia are becoming quite general. Old buildings are being altered to meet these requirements ; new ones are being con- structed along improved lines. The Plan of the Text-Book. All this necessitates a different type of text-book. With question and answer books you can do little but parrot work. You are a machine. Your individuality is taken away. The best text-book is one, therefore, built on the heuristic or source method, and the books are barely more than guides for research, suggestive handbook outlines for study. Text- books to-day on this method have the following characteristics : (a) Broad, suggestive review questions, for rapid oral answers, covering a wide outlook, and 96 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY making pedagogical connection of the new lesson with those of the series thus far. (&) Questions for home study with prepared answers, usually written in order, first, to fix the knowledge more firmly by the pedagogical act of driving it home by writing it down ; second, to ascertain that sufficient home study has been accorded it. (c) Questions for class discussion, based on the general home study, new, live, interesting, provoking active expression, in place of the usual dead, dry, monotonous recitation, {d) Questions to be assigned for particular research, such as certain obscure geographical, historical, archseological, or critical points, {e) Provision in the amplest form for the use of maps, pictures, illustrative objects ; for the development of practical hand-work, the making of maps, objects, drawing of routes, insertion of cities on outline maps, etc. Such lessons demand work, hard work. They are difficult to teach, and are apt to be most unsatisfactory under incompetent, lazy, or indifferent teachers ; but they are the best ; tlie ideal, to be sure ; but as such in accord with the present day- school system, and at once so recognized, and appre- ciated and respected accordingly by all bright, earnest scholars. Recommended Text-Books and Systems. The time has not yet come, although it is rapidly approaching, when we shall have a national system for the Christian Church at large. There are, however, to-day, certain systems available for use, that combine most of these recommended principles, and are higher in type than any that have preceded them. (i) The GommisHion Series. This series began the source method in the Episcopal Church, and is, to-day, by far the most widely used of the progressive systems. Thousands of the Sunday-schools of that Church use THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL 97 this system, in whole or iu i^art. Many Lutherans, Cougregatioualists and Presbyterians use the courses on the Bible found in it. The system now embraces over sixty distinct books, covering twenty fully graded courses with substitute courses for the most ample choice. The manuals are half-yearly books, not leaflets. They are undated. They can be installed at any date or season. They are churchly and based on thorough pedagogical, educational, and practical principles. They furnish a definite and progressive curriculum. They are elastic in arrangemejit, adaptable to schools requiring from twenty -six to forty lessons. They accommodate themselves admirably to regular sessions, with full schools and many teachers, and to separate summer sessions, with small schools and few teachers, and are "just the thing'' for the Home De- partment. The memoriter work consists of Bible passages, church canticles, hymns, collects, etc., and is not confined to Scripture Golden Texts. Pictures, maps, manual work, mounting books, written work, etc., are provided throughout. The Catechism is well studied with delightful pictures and illustrations. The Christian Year is objectively taught, as are also Bible and church history. Within the space of less than a decade, over 3,000,000 copies of the text-books of this system, and the manuals allied with it, have been used by children. Transla- tions have been made by individual workers, adapting this material to the Japanese, Swedish, French, and Spanish languages. (^) The Joint Diocesan System. The Joint Diocesan 98 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY System has of recent years added a subject-graded series to its lesson schedules, appointing special lessons for the Primary, Intermediate, and Bible class departments, reserving the old uniform schedule for use in the main school department. These graded schedules show a marked improvement over the older schemes in subject- matter, adapted to the various ages of scholars, and there is also a tendency to include some extra-Biblical material, e. g.j in the Primary Department, where nature stories occur, and in the Bible class department, which has an excellent outline of church history. The main divisions are four : Primary, with three years ; Junior, with three years ; Senior, with five years ; and Bible Classes, with five years. The Winter Course subjects are as follows : Primary Course — Bible Stories illustratiug : 1, God the Father's Love and Ours; 2, The Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Command- ments; 3, Christian Life and Duty. Junior Course— 1, New Testament Characters ; 2, Old Testament Characters ; 3, The Life of Our Lord. Senior Course— 1, The Life of Our Lord; 2, The History of the Church in the Days of the Apostles ; 3, The Teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ; 4, Christian Doctrines as taught in the Catechism ; 5, History of the Hebrew People. Bible Class Course— 1, History of the Hebrews ; 2, Life and Teach- ings of our Lord Jesus Christ; 3, The Acts and St. Paul's Epistles ; 4, The Church and Her History and Work ; 5, The Church and the Worship. The Summer Courses are : Primary— 1, Words; 2, Deeds of the Lord Jesus; 3, Bible Teach- ings in Nature. Junior — 1, Missionary Heroes ; 2, Ten Commandments ; 3, Story of True Worship. Senior— 1, Prayer Book : 2, Beginning of Bible History ; 3. Christian Year; 4, Missionary Heroes of the Early Church; 5, Mission Fields of To-day. THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL 99 Bihle Class— 1, How we got our Bible ; 2, Prophecy of the Old Tes- tament ; 3, Poetry of the Old Testament ; 4, Social Teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ; 5, Letters of the New Testament. Professor Lewis, late of the Western Theological Semi- nary, Chicago, professor of Eeligious Pedagogy, and editor of the Sunday-School Department of The Living Churchy makes this comment on the new course, "The predomi- nance of the New Testament is a striking element in this schedule. Begiuning the Junior Course with a study of New Testament characters is most unusual, but gives a distinct Christian tone to the course at the outset. It is, in this, akin to the proposals of Dr. Shailer Mathews, who puts the life of Christ at the forefront. The repetition of the life of Christ in the first year of the Senior Course after it has been studied in the last year of the Junior Course is open to question. The same thing is done with the history of the Hebrew people in passing from the Senior Course to the Bible Class Course. The presence of the teachings of Christ in the Senior Course, i. e., at the ninth grade, is again welcome. A further criticism might be that the course does not correspond with the secular school grades as clearly as might be wished. It would be a little hard to say just for what age the upper grades are designed. These are minor deficiencies and will no doubt be corrected as the details of the course are published. " (3) The International Movement has its graded lessons. They are very excellent, although, of course, not adapted primarily to the Episcopal or Lutheran Churches. It might be stated, however, that some of the workers most promi- nent in preparing the schedule for these lessons were staunch Churchmen, working on the General Committee. The curriculum in itself is almost identical with the standard one of the Episcopal Church. The courses are loo THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF rO-DAY DO better iu any way than those of the Commissiou Series. Id some courses, the Commission Series is much stronger. A syndicate, composed of the Presbyterians, Congrega- tionalists, and Methodists, have published what is known as The Syndicate Lessons, which represent the best product of the combined international subject-graded output to- day. The manuals are well printed, supplied with abun- dant maps and helps, and are far better than any of the older types of question -and-answer book. A noteworthy feature of this whole system is that the last quarter's lessons for each year (which in the majority of cases covers the summer months, as the lessons are planned to commence usually with October) are independ- ent of the previous ones, yet are easily correlated with them, giving a fair degree of unity to the course. (4) The Bible Study Company, publishers of the well- known Blakeslee Lessons, had begun the issue of an en- tirely new series of Sunday-school lessons when Charles Scribuer's Sons took over their lesson book department, placing the manual work supplies in the hands of the New York Commission. There are six courses in seven- teen grades, covering the years from four to tweDty-one. These courses add to the older features of the Blakeslee Lessons a number of new features. They supplement the Bible by such other material from nature study, Christian history, literature, biography, missions, etc., as will best promote religious and moral development. Manual or expressional work is provided in suitable ways all through the course together with memory work. Two years are given to a Beginners' Course, then three to the Primary. This, as usual, is topical work, with stories widely selected. More direct Biblical work comes in the four years of the Junior Course, ages nine to twelve, the first two being devoted to the Old Testament. The sched- ule of the four Intermediate Courses is interesting. Age THE GRADED SUNDAY-SCHOOL loi thirteen, "Heroes of the Faith/' has leading characters from both Biblical aud secular history ; age fourteen, " Christian Living," applies the Bible to modern living j age fifteen, "Records of the Faith," studies the Bible as literature and history ; age sixteen, the "Life of Jesus," is a historical study. At this point a choice is made be- tween a "Christianity Course" which traces briefly Christian origins and history up from the Old Testament, terminating in a year each devoted to missions and mod- ern church work, or a Biblical History Course covering the Old Testament. Various Adult Courses complete the scheme. (5) The gyxided system of text-hooks prejyared by the University of Chicago Press is a notable contribution to the modern Sunday-school. They begin with a Kindergarten Course, bringing in the element of play as a normal in- strument of religious growth in the very young child. The Elementary Grade uses stories, supplemented by a high grade of music, activities for the hand and eye, and suggestions for worship. Then follows, before the more detailed Biblical work, an elementary introduction to the Bible. The Old Testament, the lives of Christ, and of St. Paul, are treated both in a form suited for younger children and for high school grades. The Adult Courses in this series are peculiarly rich along Biblical lines. The outstanding features of these Chicago productions are, first, their text-book form, separate lessons for each week being quite a secondary feature, and second, the careful selection of work for the pupil, often in a printed note-book form. It is an expensive series, but prepared by experts. These five courses stand to-day as the acme and climax of the last decade of Sunday-school awakening, and con- sequent experiments. While none of the five are con- fessedly perfect, yet they mark advancement towards the I02 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY uew ideal, and so they have practically elimiuated all of the preceding aud parallel inferior text-books. The question-and-answer book to-day is only used by the con- servative of the most extreme type, and the few half-way makeshifts which have endeavoured to combine the old and the new, or to transform the old, are not winning their way. Two such series have arisen in the past five years, but have not met with general acceptance. While it is manifest that no one of the present progressive systems is fully satisfactory and j)erfect, it is also recognized that out of them will grow, by improvement and elimination, the standard system. Superintendents and clergy will certainly wish to pur- sue this important topic further, and since it is not the province of this book to advertise the details of any one system, it would recommend that the readers send to the five firms represented for their descriptive advertising matter, which will place the principles and text-books of each system fully before them. The New York Commission will be glad to furnish full circulars of such matter to any of the clergy or teachers who desire it, so that unprejudiced examination can be made. THE OEGANIZATIOX OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL A FRANK Statement. Here, to a very large ex- tent, lies the secret of the lamentable deficiency in our Sunday-schools of to-day. It is a fact that cannot be gainsaid that many Sunday-schools are losing scholars because of a lack of effective organization. This has several times been termed ' ' the worst weakness of the Sunday-school, both large and small alike." Certain it is that some entire states, and those not the smallest nor states afflicted with a shifting population, but large centres, like New York for example, have a decrease in Sunday-school enrollment numbering, as in one instance noted, 6,000 children in five years' time, in the Episcopal Church alone. Many causes can be assigned for this, and the figures cited may not be altogether accurate, or rather may be misleading. We mean by this that the decrease may he only an apparent one, due to a more careful system of registration and records and a more conscientious prun- ing of the roll. But in every case a detailed examination of year books coupled with a precise knowledge of the individual schools, invariably shows an increase where proper business management exists, and a decrease where it does not. It is also noteworthy that a very poor system of lessons, and an almost unpedagogical teaching method may exist with a growing Sunday-school, if the superin- tendent be a wide-awake and progressive business man. On the other hand the Sunday-school may be afflicted with a constant and steady decrease, co-existent with a splendid 103 I04 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY system of lessous aud well-traiued teachers. The signifi- cance of this chaj)ter ou Organization (together with that on the Bei^t Forms and on Records) is the most funda- mental of this entire book. The Aim. The lack of vision to make the best use of opportunities lying fallow at our doors appears to be the root of the matter. The school staff, from the superin- tendent to the individual teacher, ought to have a clear- cut, definite aim. It goes without saying that character- building consciously sought for is the primal aim of both teachers and officers ; but it is seldom consciously organ- ized. The superintendent must plan, not merely attend the sessions of the school for opening and closing exer- cises and assign teachers to classes and pupils to grades. Character-building concerns three classes of activities — spiritual, mental, and recreational or physical. A well-rounded system plans to coordinate these three types of work for the demands of both sexes and for every succeeding age of development. Some of these will be conducted inside the school, some nominally at least out- side, as organizations and clubs. But even these latter should be distinctly part of the school plan, not separate and distinct. They should be under the direct purview of the school superintendents, though provided with their own officers. They should invariably be educative, never merely recreational in the sense of amusement only, nor mere attractions. They should be clearly coordinated, and there should be no gaps in the complete provision for the whole nature of each child. Yet in most schools to-day such organizations are in chaos. The Sunday-school runs independently of all else. The societies are divorced from the school, and only use it for a '' feeding ground," in place of being consciously part of its educative system, planned purposely to meet ORGANIZATION OF CHURCH SCHOOL 105 the physical needs of each child (gymnastics, athletics, ball clubs, sports, exercise, health, etc.) ; the missionary and altruistic outlets and training (Junior Auxiliary, Brotherhood of St. Paul, Ministering Children's League, Christian Eudeavour, Brotherhood of Andrew and Phihp, Epworth League, Knights of King Arthur, etc.), the social and intellectual aspirations of the school members (clubs, social gatherings, libraries, etc.). In the best of churches, societies are introduced haphazard, leaving many a hiatus here and there in the scheme for a well- rounded developmeut. The superintendent is concerned with all this machiuery, for it is all character-building, and it all has its share of effect in producing the right type of manhood. The opportunity for the school, large or small, to secure its results in character-building, will depend upon the following points, all of which are the direct concern of the live superintendent. Size and Numbers. The school should reach in some way every young person from one to twenty-one, in any manner connected with the church. That is fundamental. If it does not, then something fails in the superintendent's work or the minister's cooperation. Briefly tabulated, the ages from one to three should all be gathered into the Font Roll or Baptismal (not '^ Cradle" Eoll) under a Font Roll superintendent, responsible to the school super- iutendent. From three to six, in a large school, is the Kindergarten and from six to eight the Primary. In a small school, they necessarily combine. From eight to adolescence (twelve or thirteen) is the Junior or Gram- mar or Elementary (all names are used) Department, and from that point to about nineteen, the High School or Senior Department. The Post-graduate School ascends from there. The Home Department then embraces, under io6 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY its owu superinteudeut aDd staff, agaiu aligned with the school, all the unschooled individuals, of whatever age, kept away from school sessions by work, distance, age, illness, etc. No superintendent, lay or clerical, ought to rest content with his work or himself, under any ideal and goal lower than this, that enables him to "preach the Gospel to every creature''; and he will not, if he realizes both the missionary motive and the value of the Sunday-school. But the endeavour goes further than the congregation. Every unschooled young person in the community is in his " field " and a legitimate recruit. The whole school, every pupil, every teacher should flame with missionary zeal, and this ought to make the inflow of new members constant and inspiring. The church ought to be able to provide the best religious educational system in the world, and it does, when the minister is alive to the opportunity. Honour rolls for those who have brought the most new scholars are legitimate, and are not unworthy incentives, as are prizes and badges, which soon lower the "tone" of a school. The number limit should be the highest at- tainable—no other. A country Sunday-school rose from eight to eighty in a month with this motive, and another from twenty-five to a hundred and seventy-five in a few weeks. The public school reaches eighty-four per cent, of the population of school age, the Sunday-school but thirty-six per cent. The field is large surely. System and Order. Lack of this is the chief weakness and the hete noir of the vast majority of schools, both large and small. To this end, the superintendent ought not to be a minister, but a layman, a competent business man, who will put the same systematic ability into the Sunday-school that he applies to his secular business. Surely God's work in the school ought to be as carefully ORGANIZATION OF CHURCH SCHOOL 107 and systematically run as a week-day business. Unfor- tunately it is very frequently conducted in a slipshod and careless manner. There cannot be too much system, if it be a wise system. The system will naturally be divided into two departments — the curriculum with the educational portion and the routine machinery. For the latter the lay superintendent is responsible. Even if there be a clerical superintendent, he should have a lay- man for the conduct of this routine system. For the former, nothing succeeds so well as a principal, a female public school teacher usually, one who has thoroughly grasped the principles of the new forward movement, who has made a special study of child nature and nur- ture, and who is conversant with modern pedagogical methods. This applies even more to a small school, where the difficulties of grading are correspondingly great. With a lay superintendent and a public school principal, the school is practically ensured success. Clergy may change, or there may even be no minister, the system will go on, serenely and resultfully. A Summary of the Aims. The points aimed at are : (1) Cooperation of the parents in prompt and regular attendance at school, attendance at church services, home study of the lesson, home influence, private prayers of the pupils, etc. (2) Eegular and punctual attendance of all pupils and teachers. (3) Attendance at church serv- ices. (4) Order and discipline of the school. (5) Thor- ough home study by both pupils and teachers. (6) Char- acter-building, consciously sought for, as the primal aim of pupils and teachers. (7) An es2?H^ de corps on the part of pupils, teachers, and officers, that sweeps the whole school along in an enthusiastic, hearty movement. The Organization. To a slight extent this must differ, io8 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY . as betweeu a large city, a small fashionable city, aud a country school. Numbers will necessarily affect it. Still the same general plan may be outlined for all ; local con- ditions only influencing minor details. First, let it be noted that the same businesslike order, system, regu- larity, regard for rules once made, enforcement of disci- pline, attention to details, careful planniug and efficient oversight, zealous interest and painstaking devotion to duty and obligations should characterize even the smallest schools, as are shown in any proper business house. Thus a good, conscientious business man makes the ideally capable superintendent. A certain wealthy business man in a large city in Central New York was recently i^laced in charge of a ruu-down Suuday-school by a wise minister. In two mouths the school went up from one hundred and fifty to four hundred, and is still growing. The same thought and care were given to it, especially to ^'the business end" of it, that the man put into his business. The man at the gun conquered that school. The minister never could have done it. Many of the clergy are not efficient business men, and it is no discredit to them to acknowledge it. It is not their forte^ nor their training. Let them do what is a plain duty, — put a business man at the helm, but for business purposes only. Loyal, true-hearted, recogniz- ing his place and obligations clearly and distinctly at the outset, which concern secular not vspi ritual matters (the minister is responsible for all educational features, all teaching, lessons, etc.), given a free hand, under loyal consultation with the minister, in what is clearly the superintendent's work, with responsibility, to make things succeed, bravely laid upon his shoulders, this consecrated business man will in almost every instance prove a blessing. ORGANIZATION OF CHURCH SCHOOL 109 In some rare instauces, however, a trained common school educator, with marked business and organizing ability, such as a public school superintendent, may be secured. In such an event, he will be, by all odds, the ideal. The Superintendent's Work. He is best a layman of pronounced business ability as we have said. If a min- ister be superintendent, let us urge most emphatically that it be under the oversight of the pastor and not of an Assistant. If needful, in order to lighten too arduous duties, let the Assistant relieve his superior of other labours to a larger extent. The duties of the superin- tendent should be the business oversight of every de- partment and officer, down to the smallest detail. All matters of record should be reported directly to him weekly through the head secretary. This means that the treasurer, librarian, and grading teacher should report to the secretary. The point is to give each person the full- est personal responsibility for the fulfillment of his own assigned duties. The superintendent should control the school, give out notices, accept new teachers (unless it be arranged that the grading teacher examine all teaching applicants), appoint teachers to classes, assign substitute teachers, etc. The opening and closing services should be in the hands of the minister. Upon the superintend- ent the whole order and system of the school depends. Dr. A. A. Butler in his " Churchman's Manual" gives the same advice in such cogent language that we quote him in full : ^'In most parishes the superintendent is a layman, and it is best that it should be so. If he is (as he should be) a man of mature age, brought up in the Church, he will be a loyal helper. The turning over of the Sunday-school to a young clerical assistant is a mis- take ; unless he has a special training for the work. He no THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY often becomes a substitute for the rector, and lielps to perpetuate the false idea that the rector's other duties are more important than caring for the children. I know that this idea is an old deeply -rooted one ; that in fact it was once an apostolic idea, but have we forgotten what the apostles' Lord had to say about it? (St. Mark X. 13). A young deacon cannot bring to the school the experience of a parish priest of mature years, or of a godly layman of like age. Moreover, the of&cering of a Sunday-school by ministers and women produces a bad effect upon the older boys of the school. The rector had far better give some of his routine work to the clerical assistant and the superintendentship to an experienced layman." His Method. The superintendent, clerical or lay, is the general, upon whom all the responsibilities of efficient organization must fall. He should select his own staff and be charged with the outcome. In general, he should enlist men and women upon but three principles. First, they should be wholly devoted to the w ork. There should be no motives other than pure service of God, according to one's best talent and ability. Second, it should be according to ability. That is, officers should be those best fitted for that type of work, and so usually not best adapted to the teaching function. Third, every one should be given some work to do. The official staff is ofttimes an excellent place to open outlets for Christian altruism to a host of young men, just dropping out of Sunday-school, liable to drift from the church's hold, yet eager to do work in the church. They do not know enough or feel willing to teach. They cannot be church officials or perhaps even UvShers. There seems to be no opening. Perhaps they find the Brotherhood of St. Andrew or some such organization a field for personal OR GANIZA TION OF CHUR CH SCHO OL iii work ; but even then there is uot enough to occupy their time. Again, there are usually several solid business men, anxious to help, but feeling their incapacity to teach. Even the smallest school can find a half dozen or more such persons, young or old. Use them. Manu- facture ofaces and so divide work and responsibility, and create interest and enthusiasm. Upon the ^^ esprit de corps ^^ and the ''swing" will depend, to a large extent, the enthusiasm and results. There should be as mauy young officers from among the young men, who are always dropping out of the Sunday- school for lack of work, as one can create. We should think out work for them. Even if it seems to create unnecessary amount of detail and red tape, it will more than repay the expenditure of labour by the interest it will create in the school. Moreover the moral effect of a baud of five, ten, or fifteen young men of about twenty years of age (younger or older) will be most marked in the school. It will tone up and attract all the young boys who otherwise are apt to feel that their Sunday-school life ends when their communicant life begius. Incidentally the psychological element is seen, in that the older girls feel a certain indefinite attraction for the school, hardly con- scious to themselves, due to the presence of enthusiastic young men at work. Over the field at large, the schools that adopt this policy have both numbers and vitality. Everything is to be said in favour of using the young man of to-day to the fullest extent— everything for him, and everything for the school and God's work. It would be a great mistake for the superintendent to call these young officers "assistant" secretaries. It is better to give every one a definite name and office. We shall speak of this more fully under their detailed work. Right here we want to urge the reader to note very carefully that we are suggesting lines of activity for ideal 112 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY conditious. No one should be discouraged if not oue- half of wliat has been suggested in the line of organization is possible of accomplishment in a particular locality. In every church, out of a certain number of possible workers, say a total represented by the letter ''A" we will have a very few, say ''B" in number, who are the (tld ''reliables." They are the handful of faithful com- municants, young, middle-aged, and old, who will be found working faithfully and loyally, year after year, it may be for ten, fifteen, or twenty years. Under what- ever organization, superintendency, or minister, they will be found in their places ready to do God's work in whatever way may be desired. They are never discour- aged, they do not become readily offended, and they never give up. They have learned the essentials of duty, responsibility, and conscientiousfulfillment of obligation. Through the effect of enthusiastic organization, out of the general class " A " there will be under the reorganized school a few more we may call " C," and who eventually may be added to the faithful "B's." This class "C" are those who can be persuaded to take up work with considerable readiness. Some of them will become faint hearted and discouraged. A few, a very few, will stick. Then there is another class whom we will term " D " who will require a great deal of persuasion, who may be appealed to again and again and, finally, may with con- siderable reluctance undertake God's work. They are less likely to join the class "B,'^ although they may be found quite a time in the class ''C." Similarly there is a very large class, the remainder of ''A," whom we will term "E." They are striving to save themselves alone and that with considerable in- difference. If it is clear, and they have no other engage- ment, they will come to church. If it is rainy, or recreation attracts them, they are absent from any woik OR GANIZA TION OF CHUR CH SCHO OL ii^ iu the cliurch. They have never learned to love their Master to any extent that would win them to His work. It is therefore aj^parent that there is a limit to one's resources iu the matter of obtaining workers, no matter how enthusiastic or earnest or diligent one may be. There is no reason for discouragement. God does not hold us responsible for impossibilities, but He does hold us responsible for working the ground just as thoroughly as possible, and for tilling it in such a manner as to secure the largest possible harvest. It is with this iu view that we suggest lines of activity suitable for various tyx)es of officers. No one school may possess them all during its entire existence. A few schools may be fortunate enough to organize to the fullest. The superintendent's attitude should be to accomplish the best results in the best way, according to his local needs and possibilities. All of these officers have been used iu some Sunday- schools and all large Sunday-schools are able to secure a considerable portion of this organization. The Supervisor of Instruction or Principal. This officer, often called principal, or grading teacher, is a comparatively new officer in the school. The position, however, is an essential one to the success of the modern movement, and the office can usually be created even in the smallest school. In some respects it is a pillar in the graded system. The principal should be under the superintendent, but their lines of work should mark a distinct cleavage. The superintendent should stand for the organization, for the business end, for the system and its smooth and successful conduct. All the assignment of officers should be under his care. They should all report to him, and all be subject to his mandate. 114 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY To the principal, however, belongs the supervisory and teaching duties. The grading system, the curriculum, the assignment of scholars to their classes, the assign- ment of teachers (although they may be secured by the superintendent), the training of teachers, the teachers' meeting, the examinations, are all logicallj^ in her charge. We say " hel* " designedly, for the best principal is a female public school teacher, who can ofttimes be se- cured in the smallest town. She should have a seat and desk on the platform, with the sui^erintendent, and during the period of the school hour, when not otherwise occupied, one of her most help- ful duties will be to visit classes, and either listen to the regular teacher's conduct of the lesson hour as a critic teacher, or teach a sample lesson herself. The former I)lan is the better when the teachers are accustomed to her presence, for nothing so greatly strengthens a weak teacher (or a strong one either) as to be criticized con- structively by an able principal. The latter plan is good occasionally, especially for the teacher of concrete type of mind who learns by observation, rather than by principle. The presence of these two officers in the school, the lay superintendent, and the principal, insures the permanence and stability of the graded system. Assistants may come and go ; ministers may change, but the system goes on to perfection, progressing and improving, year by year, but never in chaos or dissolution. All examinations ought to be in charge of the principal, and it would be well if she had, under her, an examining committee, or board of examiners, composed of the best teacher from each grade and topic, to prepare examina- tion papers, which can be readily hektographed, or printed, or run off on the mimeograph. The general plan of examinations is to have them annually, or semi- ORGANIZA TION OF CHURCH SCHOOL 1 15 annually, with fifteen questions assigued for written answers during the school hour. Fioni these fifteen questions the schohirs are allowed their choice of ten, and their passing mark is placed at seventy per cent., which is really about fifty per cent, of the whole. Most schools also have a rule that a term grade of ninety per cent, will excuse any scholar from comimlsory examination. The examinations are usually called tests, rather than examinations, and even scholars who have reached the passing term grade are urged to take them for the gain that they receive in the review entailed by the examination. While examination days are usually appointed twice in a year, yet the beauty of the graded system is that classes may go as slowly or as rapidly as they please, spending two Sundays on a lesson, or taking two lessons on a Sunday, according to their ability. This, of course, means that classes complete courses at odd times in the year. The new systems are so elastic that a class com- pleting a course takes the examination the following Sunday without at all disturbing the school, and then goes on to its succeeding grade. In the course of a year or two there will therefore be, in a large school, all manner of grades at all points of progress. This is not at all confusing to an efficient principal, and is commend- able in that it meets the detailed needs of types of pupils. The certificates or diplomas for examinations passed can well be reserved for presentation until commencement day arrives, before the summer session. For classes below the age of eight, oral work for exami- nations is, of course, necessary. The individual caprice and unconscious favouritism of particular teachers, shown to pet scholars (or often the reverse, prejudice), is wholly eliminated under thissystem, in the Sunday-school, which, of all educational institu- tions, ought to be absolutely fair and unbiased. ii6 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY The Secretarial Force. (i) The Registrar. lu large Suuday-scliools, this officer is, essentially, a special individual. In very small Sunday - schools, the work can be combined with the General Secretary. The duties, however, should never be omitted. Every incoming scholar ought to have the complete data, such as is found on the form submitted in the chapter on Forms and Blanks, filled out in ink at his entrance. This card is the official card adopted by the General Board of Keligious Education to secure the information and records that to-day are lacking in- the statistics of our Sunday- schools at large. The card will not take more than a minute to fill out, and it then becomes a registration card, from which the information needed for the roster is se- cured. The registrar should have the charge of both the enrollment cards and the roster file, and he will have plenty of work to do to occupy him throughout the entire Sunday-school period, and an evening a week at home. The filling and oversight of all records, also, come under his purview. When scholars, already in the school, bring in new pupils, it is a very efficient incentive to place their names on a special starred honour roll, to remain there for the year, provided that the scholars whom they bring remain in the Sunday-school at least one month, — a sufficiently longtime usually for the school to secure a hold upon them. One of the church officers can often be secured for this position of registrar, who may be unfitted for teaching, or would not undertake the amount of work required in some other positious. {2) The General Secretary. His work is partly super- visory, keeping a general oversight of all the records of the school, along all lines, that the system be held right up to the mark ; and partly the personal, mechanical details of the following records. OR GANIZA TION OF CHUR CH SCHO OL w] (a) Eecord of teachers and scholars. The sclioUirs' record system is simx^le and expeditious, occupying not more than five minutes. It notes on a simikir basis the attendance at Sunday-school and at church, failure in good conduct (good conduct being assumed) and character of recitation. A card system may be used, or a book system. The Gorham Class Book affords the most com- plete and least cumbersome system, being a permanent record of everything for the entire year, and avoiding subsequent recopying. The best forms for these records are shown in the chapter on Forms and Blanks. (&) Eecords of new teachers, new scholars, change of address, illness, removal, transfer, resignation, etc. A card system in a file case is the best. A card is amended and filed in proper place very readily, and a permanent record of scholars who have severed connection with the school filed back of those then attending. If such a child return the next year, his card is simply refiled with a note. Eecord of illness is important for final marks at graduation, and for notification to teacher and minister for calling, and, in case of contagious disease, for proper absence of other children from the same house. A proper transfer blank should be filled out and furnished each child removing elsewhere. If the child be absent for a summer vacation, and attends Sunday-school in the vacation town, a card form to be filled in by the summer school secretary may be given by the home secretary and thus credit secured for the child in the marks of its own school, just as credit is given for marks received in an- other college. (S) Beport Secretary. The report system is proving to be one of the very best incentives for cooperation and work in the school. Its routine may differ under dif- ferent circumstances, but the plan that has been found Ii8 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY the best is to have from one to three report secretaries, with a corps of routine secretaries. These routine sec- retaries are the young men in the Sunday-school, of the older classes, who can be made available during the routine period assigued for marking. Its object is the practical cooperation of the home. It is essential to keep in direct touch with the parents. To this end, two '^ points of contact " are suggested, based on the practical experience of many schools. Send home a monthly report. (See chapter on Best Forms.) Where pupils are constantly shifting residence and the member- ship of the school is unstable during a year, the former type works best, and is the cheaper. Where membership and residence is pretty certain, the latter is pioductive of less labour. Young men of the older chisses will gladly undertake this work, if given the dignified name of "report secretaries." These reports are signed by the parents, returned to the school and filed in a card index file, being checked up, first, in the class record book so that in case reports are not returned within a reasonable time, duplicates can be sent by mail, since scholars are sometimes apt to ''forget" to deliver rather poor reports to the parents, and with older scholars there is sometimes a dislike to any reports. When these reports are filed, they become a permanent record of the school. The general secretary has, of course, the oversight of the routine of this system to which the report secretaries are assigned. (4) Tlie Custodian of Supplies, and the Custodian of Equipment. All schools of one hundred or more pupils can well afford to relieve the superintendent of an im- mense amount of detailed work which so often handicaps his efficiency as a superintendent. He needs to be free to be in touch with the entire school, not to be confined ORGANIZA TION OF CHURCH SCHOOL 1 19 to a desk uor to spend his time before aud after school "getting ready.' ^ The custodian of supplies is given the entire charge of all material in the way of lesson books, helps, maj>s, and pictures, and such paraphernalia as is given out permanently to scholars or teachers. He has, as the other officers ha,ve, his own place in the room, his table or desk with supplies, and he keeps a careful record of all supplies received and disbursed, checking the fact on the class books, and on the registration cards. The usual plan pursued in most schools is to give one copy of the lesson book free to scholars, requiring that if it be lost or destroyed, and a duplicate desired, that duplicate should be paid for by the scholar or parent, at the regu- lar price. Pupils are accustomed to this rule in public school and there is no rebellion. On the other hand, in every school, large or small, there is a great deal of work to be done in getting ready for school session and putting away supplies afterwards. All this work and the charge of such supplies as can be called equipment, that is, material that is given out and taken back again, such as hymnals, service forms, num- bers for class forms, banners, etc., aud that does not pertain to the duties of the general secretary, the regis- trar, or the director of hand-work, should be in care of these custodians. It means, therefore, a considerable amount of quiet, unseen, unobtrusive and often unap- preciated routine service, and yet the performance of this with absolute fidelity and careful detail is perhaps more essential to the orderly conduct of a school, the peace of mind of the officers, than any other one point. The schoolroom ought to be prepared (unless the school, un- fortunately, meets in the church building where previous services have to be held) the night before. A very good plan is to have two Custodians of Equipment, the one preparing the room, and the other, with the assistance I20 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY of some of the older scholars who remain after the chiss hour, putting away the material. This divides tlie labour and keeps it from becoming irksome. Moreover it eulists more young men, which is an admirable plan. (5) Siqjeruitetident of Absentees. Absenteeism is the bete noir of innumerable attempts at progress in hundreds of enterprises through life. How to eliminate the ab- sentee is the ever-recurring problem in all organizations, religious, social and even commercial. In the Sunday-school this evil is of sufficient moment to demand special attention. In no other place, prob- ably, does the absentee do quite so much harm to both himself and to the members of the organization of which he is a part. For himself, in Sunday-school as in day- school, one or two absences put him far behind in the grasp of the lessons necessary to thorough comprehension. It means throughout poor work and, consequently, poor results, and for what does any school exist save results'? For the school, the continual absence of puj)ils not only pulls down the records (insignificant in themselves, but indicative of good work), but it lessens the interest of the entire body, destroys the esprit de corps^ creates a feeling of listlessness, indifference and lethargy on the part of both the pupils who do come and the patient teachers who seek to train them. In the public school, the problem of absenteeism is met with great effectiveness by the local municipal laws and the truant officers, so that the percentage does not fall below five per cent, in most cities. But in the church school, the average of attendance hovers between sixty- five per cent, or even fifty per cent, in the poorly run school up to eighty-five per cent, and even ninety per cent, in the most thorough and businesslike ones. With voluntary attendance and no real discipline possible, this does not at first seem so bad. But, realizing the fact OR GANIZA TION OF CHUR CH SCHO OL 121 tliLit the child iu Sunday-school has in fourteen years only the same amount of time to put into religious culture that he has to put into mathematics iu one year, — even if he were never absent from Sunday-school and did attend the full quota from three to seventeen, which is unusual, — it certainly does behoove us to secure just as high an attendance record as is humanly possible — the best, for God's work deserves the best. So it is that we welcome a new feature in the Sunday- school organization, a feature that is applicable to any school, large or small, to any locality whatever, and which never fails to at least raise the attendance some- what. It is the creation of a new officer, usually a lady with spare time during the week, known as the Superin- tendent of Absentees. There are three kinds of cibsentees in most schools, and each requires a differing method of treatment. (a) The absentee on the present roll, but remaining away, one, two, three, or more Sundays. Various plans have been worked out, but the final and most successful plan, which is practically becoming the standard, is as follows : To those absent one week, a reply post- card is mailed, using but a one-cent stamp. The pupil replies, occasion- ally, on the return half. This plan is found to bring back the following Sunday almost three-quarters of those absent the preceding week. To those not crossed off the '^ one- week list,'' who have thus been away two weeks, a vacant chair post-card is mailed, suited to the sex and age (and if desired even the colour, white or black), of the delinquent. This proves a '^ clincher,'' save in rare and obstinate cases. On a roll of four hundred scholars, with probably a list of fifty one- Sunday absentees, the three-week list will not be more than five or six. 122 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY With the three- week list, the persoual touch enters, emxDloyiug more drastic aud yet more winsome methods, the use of the messenger service. Boys and girls are registered as messengers, usually youngsters of from ten to fourteen years of age, still in i)ublic school. On a cer- tain day each week they report to the superintendent of absentees (or they can receive the messages by mail if necessary). Messages can either be purchased in form or printed specially for the particular school, which in the case of larger schools is i^referable, but always resembling telegrams. They are delivered in person by the messen- gers, in telegram envelopes, the messengers bearing a badge of service and a card of introduction. A blank space is signed in the delivery envelope, and if the pupil or his parents be home, a report is filled in at once on an attached blank aud brought back to the superintendent. It is always the rule that a messenger shall hunt up scholars of some other class than his own ; and so it be- comes the pride of every class not to have delinquents that have thus to be drummed up by messengers from another class. Thus the class es]^r%i de corps is cultivated. This is found to be exceedingly advantageous. Finally, there is the class of those absent four weeks or more. Here also a form is ready at hand, so that proper reports may always be in writing. An absentee card is filled out and sent or given to the child's own teacher to call and report what a careful investigation can furnish regarding the cause of continued absence. Of course, every true teacher tries to call on all her pupils two or three times a year and to have them together for a social gathering at her home or some church room on several occasions. This, however, is special absentee in- vestigation. If the child has gone to some other school, proper persuasion may be employed to secure return. If he has moved away, there ought never to be a failure ORGANIZATION OF CHURCH SCHOOL 123 iu seudiug a formal transfer and letter, either from the school superintendent or the minister, if the pupil be on the parish roll, to the school of the church nearest the new abode, or the one attended already, in case that is known. When this general system is in vogue, the prob- lem of absenteeism is, in the main, solved. (6) The second general class of absentees is that large corps, often one- fourth of the entire school, that, in our larger cities with shifting population and indifferent parents, dwelling in small apartments, fails to put in an appearance after the summer vacation ends and the au- tumn work begins. Sometimes a letter will bring them back. More frequently they require calling, tracing of new addresses, transfer if moved, and, if still in the old abode, will be probably found to require much urging, many calls, and determined prodding, for they usually are members of the procrastinating, delinquent class. It is found that from one-third to one-half of such pupils can be won back within a month, the rest being those permanently dropped or removed. It is worth the effort though, for they would otherwise forsake church and school and go nowhere or to other religious bodies. The church loses many valuable Christians through this lack of a proper business '' follow-up system." It is also highly our duty to attend to the transfers. AYe may not hope to secure the child to our own school ; but we are certainly responsible for the endeavour to attach that child to some other school. Our labours are for the Church of Christ and not merely, in any selfish disregard of opportunity, for our own particular vineyard. ( c) In every church there are, without doubt, young people between the ages of three and twenty-one, whose names are found on the church register, but not on that of the Sunday-school. We are too often content with opening the doors of our school (usually basement doors 124 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY at that), aud expecting the youth to flock Id for religious education. The command was to go out into the high- ways aud .compel them to come in. A very prominent minister in New York, serving a notably wealthy congre- gation, has increased his Sunday-school in a few years from less than fifty to more than two hundred and fifty by persistently and insistently, in season and out, on every occasion, presenting the personal duty to parents to have their children instructed in the church school, knowing that such education was not being adequately imi)arted at home. Sometimes it requires many calls and much tact, even to a preliminary coaching of society chil- dren backward in religious culture ; but the system is cultivating in that parish a spiritual tone and zeal for service that is remarkable. The likelihood is that if this absentee class were canvassed aud either brought into the church school, or, in the few cases of positive inability to attend, entered on a home department, the average school would almost double its roll, not for the roll's sake, but for the sake of the child, all too greatly needing our train- ing for the battle of life in a world of sin. This new officer has evidently come to stay, to fill a long-felt gap. It is also manifest that, from the start, she will have abundant work to do, work which ought not to devolve upon the secretaries if they are expected to prop- erly fulfill their labours and provide complete records. In small schools she might even have added to her duties the lai'ge list of those absent from Sunday services, for re- quired attendance at least one service each week, for the training in worship is in itself quite the proper thing. If character-building is really habit-formation, this then is a habit we should cultivate in youth, and its organiza- tion could quite well be placed within the purview of this new officer. (<5) Director of Hancl-Worh. Hand-work, variously ORGANIZA TION OF CHURCH SCHOOL 1 25 called mauuiil work, self expressioual methods, etc., is the new feature iu the Suuday-school. It has come to stay. Iu the schools where it is almost submerging proper lesson stud}^, aud the successful administration of the school, it is disorganized, uucorrelated and left entirely in the hands of the individual teachers, who become so over-enthusiastic with its attractive features that they are carried away with it to the exclusion of sound study. Hand- work is the means to an end, not the end itself. In the schools where it is proving, right royally, its ef- ficiency, it is in the hands of a single official, usually a trained day-school teacher, who devotes her entire time to the i)roper introduction and correlation of the work in every grade. In this way it is kept in well-balanced form. The director of hand-work has charge of all pictures, the museum of models, all note-books, maps, and in fact all materials for self-expression. Such schools as the Church of the Ascension, Mount Vernon, St. Andrew's, Harlem, N. Y., St. Paul's, Yonkers, etc., have changed the whole spirit of the school, from listlessness and lack of interest, to enthusiastic fulfillment of assigned les- sons aud cooperative endeavour to perform the work. (7) The Treasurer. The duplex envelope system is coming into the Sunday-school to-day as the ideal plan of training iu proper giving. This is a system that in- sures (a) i)roi3er education of youth in weekly systematic giving, and in praying and giving for missions, (b) An increase in offerings that will sometimes double the previous gifts, (c) An offering when scholars are ab- sent, since the back envelopes are brought in. It requires a considerable amount of work, and even in small schools it has been found necessary to enlist a num- ber of young men to assist the treasurer in checking off the envelopes each week. It is a system that will mean 126 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DA 1 for the next geueratiou a relationship of proper church support and an appreciation of uniform brotherhood. No school that is looking to vital results can fail to ap- preciate its value. {8) Attendant 071 Ventilation. "What is everybody's business is nobody's business," and a proper ventilation is hygienically essential to proper teaching and proper learning. For avoidance of restlessness and for the proper circulation of blood that will accomplish good work, it is not unessential to have the matter of systematic ventila- tion and proper temperature of heat or cold in the hands of some one individual. This may be a man or a woman, but it should be somebody with sufficient common sense and knowledge of standard requirements to perform the work efficiently. Every little item that adds to the improvement of a school is sufficiently important in God's work to be prop- erly considered. Proper vs. Destructive Ideals in Giving. Ideals are what we make them. They are good or bad, according to their ultimate terminus ad quern. This is not apparent always at the inception nor always seen on the surface. Ideals are the most powerful motives or incentives in all the world. They beckon forward. From the dawn of adolescence they are the ruling mainsprings of life and conduct, and they invariably determine the standards which govern and limit secular and religious actions. In no field whatever is it so incumbent to set high eth- ical standards as in the matter of giving to our God. This touches every phase of church and charitable sup- port. As the child learns to act, and by what standards he acts, so he continues through all life, and the deter- mining values and relations in such actions are practically *^set" by the time he attains manhood. OR GANIZA TION OF CHUR CH SCHO OL 12-] Thus it makes a vast deal of differeuce whether the pupils iu Suuday-school are taught to give for self-sup- port (lessoDS, eutertaiumeuts, etc.), or whether they render directly to God for the maintenance of the home church, the missions of the diocese, domestic and foreign missions, and objects outside of their own school. In the one case, the determining ideal (or motive} is selfish and self-con- tained. In the other it is unselfish and generous. The relationship, the interest, and the work of the Sunday-school and the church are determined too by the attitude of the church authorities towards the support of the Sunday-school. There is only one right x:)osition to assume, namely, that the church should supj)ort the Sun- day-school as its most important work, not excepting even divine services. The main i^oint of objection, once the matter is presented properly, will be the selfish exclusive- ness of teachers and officers, who may not want to place their funds and their control in the hands of the church authorities. This, however, should not weigh essentially, for the minister in charge is, after all, the head, and responsible for the standards taken, and recalcitrant schools should be made to yield for the good of the cause and principle. Self-Support in the Sunday-School Has Worked a Fearful Injury to the Church of God. It has created false and unchristian standards for the children. They give their pennies to buy their books, support their school, and even in some cases actually (and in many more in fancy) to ''pay for their teachers." They are not taught to give freely and ivithout gain to God. The outcome has been the selfishness, self- centredn ess, ^*the quid pro quo^^^ the resolve to get something tangible for every cent given. Consequently we see the rented x^ew, the church fair or 128 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY bazaar, the entertainment, etc., existing as the general means of church supijort. Consequently also we see lowered ratios of giving to missions, to philanthropy, to charities, and to social service. The adult has lived according to the example set the child. The Sunday-school is the chief tcorlc of the church. It is the church's nursery. Without it, gains to the church would be few, uncertain, and wavering, when secured. It ought to be the main concern of the church. To it the parish should give its most eager attention, its most faith- ful service, its most generous support. It ought never to be asked to "support itself.'' Even present economy is lost, not gained. The Ideal Plan and How it Works. (a) Urge the children to give to God. (Not to buy supplies.) This will set constantly before them the per- sonal obligation of every Christian to contribute regularly to God's work. ( h) Introduce into the Sunday-school the duplex envel- ope fund system. It will mean (1) regular giving, whether the scholar be absent or not, whether the day be clear or stormy ; (2) constant income ; (3) a due consideration of the ratio between giving and ability ; (4) a training in the habit of giving that will never die away ; (5) and from four to ten times as much money received, though this is the lowest real motive to the church. (c) Make the children realize that this money is for the church, part of it, say three-fourths for the home parish work, and part (the other one-fourth) for city, domestic, and foreign missions. Let them vote them- selves to what objects it shall go. (d) Have the Sunday-school treasurer pay the three- quarters over each week into the hands of the church treasurer. ORG AMI Z A riON OF CHURCH SCHOOL 1 29 {e) Then let the clmrch officials recognize the SuDtlay- scbool and tlieir duty to it. Have them i3ay all the bills of the Sunday-school. Teach them to be exceedingly liberal and generous in their support of the school. The church will be far richer by this plan. (1) Eicher now because the amount received from the school will, under the most expensive outlay, be manifold larger than is required for support. (2) Eicher in all the generations to come because it will surely result in broader ideals, wider visions, a quickened sense of duty and privilege on the part of the adult. This system is already working splendidly in hundreds of schools. It has proved all we say of it, both prac- tically and ideally. (/) Finally, it is the Bible system. ^'Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered " (Cor. xvi. 2). (9) The Librarian. The average Sunday-school library is usually composed of from one hundred to five hun- dred ill-chosen, soiled, trashy, "wishy-washy" books of goody-goody type, seldom read, and little appreciated. It is on the wane to-day. There are not a dozen really up-to-date Sunday-school libraries in this country now, save in a few large cities and under large endowments. None of these can compare with the neighbouring public libraries. We do not at all urge this abandonment of the Sunday- school library, but we do advocate a complete alteration of its motive and plan. The Sunday-school library to- day should compare with the public library in its vicinity. On both sides this cooperation is certain to be welcomed. It should be brought about in two definite ways. (a) The Sunday-school library should begin anew on a revised type of books, making it a reference and special- izing library for both scholars and teachers. In it should I30 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO DAY be a full list of teacher- traiuiDg books for older scholars and teachers and the normal classes. There should be a set of good commentaries and reference books. There should be a goodly collection of books useful along the topics of the regular and supplementary and special Sunday-school lessons, Old Testament, Lives of Christ, Acts, Prayer Book, Doctrine, Hymns, Making of the Bible, Church History, Catechism, Christian Year, Mis- sions, etc. Then a quantity of graded missionary books, both stories, biography, and history of missions, should be carefully selected. Story books on the Bible charac- ters should be among this collection. Books for parents, along the line of child training, child psychology, etc., should not be omitted. Then a special library committee of a thoughtful, ener- getic, reading type should be appointed, who would select these books, consult with the special lists com- piled by the Sunday-School Commission and the Church Library Association, etc. This committee should post lists of books, available along present lines of study, for scholars and teachers as well ; books of interest in gen- eral reading ; books of fiction, of biography, of story, of morals ; all new books of recent insertion. The library ought to be open on one week-day at least, and readers encouraged to come and consult the shelves in person and look over the card index as well. (b) This committee has an equally important relation with the public library. It should haunt its lists and plague its librarian. Not only must it know all the lists of books in the public library ; but it should select those of help and interest, designedly not those in the Sunday- school library. It should post the lists from the public library. Now, as no wise library to-day issues printed catalogues, depending on a card catalogue, this posting should be done mainly through printed or mimeographed ORGANIZA TION OF CHURCH SCHOOL 131 lists, cliaDgiug from time to time. Tliis is important. Just as large public libraries to-day have story-tellers, who make a poiut of gathering children in the after- noons, after school, to tell them stories, and so interest them in certain books from which these stories come, so should the committee, and it would not be too far astray, if members of the committee were on hand at the Sun- day-school a certain afternoon or so in week-day time to tell stories, guiding children to read specified public school books. (c) Once more, this committee ought to cooperate with the librarian of the public library to get her to insert new books needed, and get her to suggest books, of a character to go only in the Sunday-school library, which she may know to be particularly good, or which the pupils of that church may inquire for at the library, and the library not be able to furnish. Without doubt an active committee of this sort in every town and connected with every parish would do as much good, if not more, to a certain group of children as is done in the one hour Sunday-school session by other means of direct lessons. The School Council. The standard of government to- day is not an oligarchy, but a representative democracy ; nevertheless concentration of power and responsibility is better than socialistic hydra-headed chaos. A scliool eoimcil usually proves the wisest administra- tive plan, for it gathers, as an advisory body, the leading workers of the school, those who know the ideals and have the best interests of these ideals and purpose at heart. The average school council is composed of the superintendent (as chairman), the principal, the regis- trar, general secretary, report secretary, the superin- tendent of absentees, director of hand-work, the treas- 132 THE SUNDA Y-SCHOOL OF TO-DA Y urer, the librarian, and from ten to twenty per cent, of the teachers, selecting those who have been in the school the longest number of years, or appointed by the super- intendent annually, although they might very well be elected at a general meeting of the teachers and officers. This body, meeting once a month, should have the control of the school's development. All bills ought to be viseed by the superintendent and by the person order- ing the supplies before being paid, and a detailed report ought to be made, by the treasurer, each month, to the council. All general committees, such as social, Christmas, Easter, excursion, entertainment, etc., should be ap- pointed by the superintendent. A live council can be one of the strongest powers, both in the school and in the community, and the time that the members spend in meetings will be of extreme value in the progress of the school. YI THE MOST EFFECTIVE ROUTINE SYSTEM LACK of unbroken routine system is the chief weakness and real problem of the vast majority of schools both large and small. Surely God's work in the school ouglit to be as carefully and systematically run as a week-day business. Unfortunately it is very frequently conducted in a slipshod and careless manner. There cannot be too much system if it be a wise system. The system will be, naturally, divided into the two departmeuts — the curriculum, or educational department, and the routine machinery. It is of the routine machinery that we shall speak in this chapter. The New York Sunday-School Commission, for the past thirteen years, has been testing out the thousands of record systems, forms and blanks that have been pro- duced by the two hundred and fifty odd publishers, for use in the Sunday-school. The Joint Commission of the General Convention, in its report to that body at Cincinnati, deliberately set forth what is considered an essential and minimum set of the best and most efficient forms available. It must be constantly borne in mind that the aim of the Sunday-school is to effectively reach every unschooled person of educative age in the community, and that mere enrollment of names is of worse than no value, for it is positively harmful in its misleading effect. On the basis of these records we will set forth, in order, the details of what we hope will become the standard record system of the Church inserted into each 133 134 THE SUNDA Y-SCHOOL OF TO-DA Y school with the miuimum of expense and red tape. Every record has a purpose and a meauiDg, — an ideal behind it to secure certaiu results for character-buildiug. We have already noted that every officer ought to have his own desk or table so that he will be found there, always in his place. 2 Address 3 Flth.r'j (or Mothers) ^.. ; 1 1 d. t the icu m ■1 ,.^«.i«r...,. ■ 11 H ^i t 3 i.".„ 1 , 1 v \ — - — The Best Class Book. certainty), and marking records for attendance at Sunday- school, attendance at church, lesson, conduct, and offer- ing. The book was originally built for the mark of "3," given for early, perfect lesson, and good conduct, a mark of 2 " for late, imperfect lesson, poorer conduct, a mark 138 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY of '' 1 " for still poorer record in any of these three points, and a ''0" for failure. The attendance at church is marked according to the number of services attended ; the actual number being put down. The record of offering is given by a check mark Ci/'' ), rather than the amount. That a child gives is a fair record to take. What a child gives lies between himself and God, and should be personal and private. There is provision in the book for additional marks of any character needed, a splendid set of rules, a place for Name,. Address, Class,. MONTH, 1 " : il REMARKS SUNDAY, 1 I 1 2 1 3 1 4. 1 5 hh 3|4|5 l|2 3|4|5|| ATTENDANCE, ~ 1 1 1 1 II 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 II SCHOLARSHIP. 1 II III II 1 II 1 1 II DEPORTMENT. 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II CHURCH ATTENDANCE, 1 1 1 1 II I II 1 M : 1 II THIS CARD WILL BE SENT TO PARENTS OR GUARDIAN AT THE END OF THE QUARTER. PUPILS WHO ARE ABSENT THREE TIMES, ILL, OR OUT OF TOWN, ARE ENTITLED TO THE ROLL OF HONOR PROVIDED WRITTEN EXCUSES ARE BROUGHT. PUPILS WILL CALL THEIR TEACHER'S ATTENTION TO ANY ERRORS OR, OMISSIONS BEFORE END OF QUARTER. A Kesultful Record Card for those who prefer card systems. class number and class name, and the number can also be pasted on the outside if desired. The books are sewed, not wire stitched, and last remarkably well. If a scholar is transferred to another class the record, up to the transfer, is kept in the original class book, say *' 2 B " and on the Sunday of transfer, in place of records in the old book, an entry made by the secretary '' trans- ferred to Class 10 B.'^ In 10 B the name is entered and in the place of the previous Sunday's record a note inserted '^frorn Class 2B." This does not deface the books and gives permanent record marks in the original handwriting of the teacher. MOST EFFECTIVE R O UTINE S YS TEM 1 3 9 It has been felt, however, by many schools, that the grade of ^* 3 " does not give a sufdcient leeway for precise grading, so that some prefer a maximum mark of >' 10," which gives a sliding scale of considerable variety. The secretary can make his entries in the books in a very few minutes after school has closed, and then hand the original records in the books themselves over to the superintendent of absentees. The superintendent of absentees should finish his work within a day, when the books are again available for either the report secretaries, or the registrar. During the week the secretary makes out a membership card, giving the scholar, in especially large schools, a serial number which is often needed for reference, and saves the time of writing the name. On the back of this card is a series of rules, which is a certain and effective plan for getting into direct touch with the home. All of the rules are important to every school. In going over the register card the secretary makes a note of all that are unbaptized and unconfirmed, and supplies this list to the superintendent so that personal effort may be used to win such scholars into the church life. This system supplies for each school a complete regis- tration which can be arranged in order of entry, following the serial numbers, a complete roster, a detailed record of every scholar's marks, all in compact form and written but once. Still it is found, often, especially with large schools, that the superintendent himself, and perhaps, also, the principal need a pocket record. The most convenient and condensed is the one known as the Meigs' '' Superin- tendent's Pocket Eecord," which will give a list of all scholars, classes, and teachers, with a record of the scholars for one month, and of the teachers for the year. I40 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY This record book can receive its eutries after the close ol the session each week. .tbis \% to Certify. l!uu «< a Member o! CUu No- Sttad*7-. ; „, ... , ,..., v-,-.i„„; i^„ -..-,,■,.. ..,- .....I, ....... :dy.. vv. ,-.j|.^.. •' ; ;■"'■ .... VACANT CHAIR POST CARDS FOR TWO weeks' ABSENCE yo::nger pupils VACANT CHAIR POST CARDS FOR TWO weeks' ABSENCE OLDER PUPILS MOST EFFECTIVE ROUTINE SYSTEM 141 reply post-card seut out uot later than the day following the Sunday-school session. It is given here. For two weeks' absence the empty chair post- cards are used. For three weeks' absence the messenger service, and for four weeks' absence the calling report card, mailed to the teacher or Sunday-school visitor, for personal calling and report. A weekly report by the superintendent of absentees should be made to the superintendent. Home Report. Of.course, reports should be regularly sent home to parents in order that they may keep in touch THE MESSENGER CADET SERVICE MESSAGE f i } 3 i i 2 " •""'""1 "«c" |""o"°'|,..o """ 1 z The Messenger Blank. with the school, and may be fully acquainted with the status of the scholar, in attendance at church and Sunday- school, lesson work, and general standing. The two forms that are most often used are here shown. The former comes in pads of one hundred, and can readily be filled inby members of the Junior Brotherhood, or by report secretaries especially appointed, during any week between Sundays. They should be followed up pretty carefully and their return demanded, as many scholars will "forget " to deliver a poor report at home, and even destroy it, rather than show their standing. The second form of report is used in schools wiiere the population is somewhat stable, and where the scholar can 142 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY be couuted on to be at the same address, and in attendance at the school during the year. It is sent home and re- turned each month. Parents' Meetings. In connection with the home is the parents' meetings which should be held two or three REPORT ON ABSENTCt; A])sentee Calling Card. times a year. This is not a mothers' meeting, but a parents' meeting. All parents, wiiliout their children, if possible, should be gathered by some attraction, as best adapted to the TO THE 5CH60C WEEKLY REPORT t,^ m^ ' ^ SUPERINTENDENT OF ABSENTEES NttBba Abieotea A fou nl No Pml CrH. v-nF THE FOLLOWING CUSSES HAVE ABSENTEES TODAY: Hi- No M Un au.No. n_N„ C1-.N„ CU-N... (ir iiniic leea b iinDiD. TviH'eYCBi Weekly Report. locality, such as music, a short play by their own chil- dren, lantern slides, etc., to which not more than thirty minutes are devoted. Then should ensue crisp, trenchant addresses on the home and tlie school, cooperation, home work, services, influence of the home treated both pos>- MOST EFFECTIVE ROUTINE S YSTEM 143 tively and negatively, confirmation, and even talks on vocational study with regard to the children's life-work. The evening can end with refreshments and informal social interviews between parents, teachers and officers. SUNDAY SCHOOL- REPORT. To be rendered inoo(hly or (uarfotv.w deare* ,,.-....». ............. Sunday School ...,,.«..,,.,4. , Report of...' ^ SchoUrt ~~~" .sir^T '^'v^^' ^ ■fflS r^R-Sa .^•sS- ■i-,-il 5ecreury P(;sible Marks atuinible..,, ,, Toul Marks received .-, Standing at last Report ■■^\ Beoeral Average of Scholar ijhu Report is to be Signerf bv one of the Parents and RcmmcJ I NtXT SuvD*v SiCTia'ure . ■,...,»., ill ill : Secreta^- Report Form for City Schools. An increasing number of schools are now incorporating both these potent schemes into the annual programmes. The Sunday-school furnishes the environment of the i 1 1 ' = •O ' e « i 1 >> \ 1 O : . 5 = !:i ^ lis E-Excellent G-Good F-'^atr P-Poo<* 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 1 Signatures SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRCARY UARCB iPRIL MAY , JUNE Averag. for ye.r Report Form for Country Schools. child for one hour or less a week. The public school supplies it for twenty- five hours a week. The home, allowing for even the unusual amount of eight hours of 144 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY sleep per night, has the child in wakiug moments for from sixty to seventy hours a week. The influence of the home, its power for deStroyiug or for supplementing and augmenting the uplifting influences of the public and church schools, is of paramount significance, and yet it is far too frequently ignored and overlooked by both these agencies for personal and public betterment. Many wise day-schools and a growing number of Sunday-schools are summoning the parents and school- teachers once a month to a conference, with addresses and discussion of topics germane to. home influence. Such meetings have proven most beneficial, both in im- proving the homes, in rousing thoughtless parents to their duty towards their offspring, and in securing the coopera- tion of the parents with the school. Sometimes it is necessary to secure the attendance of careless parents by such devices as an entertainment or refreshments or lecture or a circular letter, engraved invitation, etc. But after they have come to two or three such meetings, provided the topics be vital and not academic, it is seldom that they remain absent. At least three or four such meetiugs a year are likely to succeed well. Here is a brief skeleton of suggested topics, in which the home is bearing an iufluence on environment, though it is, of course, not intended that the subjects need be taken up in precisely this order nor all the same night. They may well cover a course of a year's meetings. I. The Positive Influences of the Home. (A) Through the Eye. Good Pictures on Walls. Good Books and Illustrations. Sacred Art 01)jects, Statuary, Pictures, Mottoes, etc. Artistic and ^Esthetic and Refined Surroundings and Furnishings. MOST EFFECTIVE ROUTINE SYSTEM 145 (B) Through the Ear and Braiu. Helpful Advice. Training in Good Habits of Personal Life. Etiquette and Manners. High Ideals. Talks on Health, Hygiene, Habits. Talks on Self and Sex and Morals. Talks on Plans for Life and Business, Cultivation of Perfect Confidence with Parents. (C) Through the Heart and Spiritual Life. Cultivation of Private Prayer Habits. Family Prayers. Bible Reading Daily. Help with Each Week's Sunday-School Lesson to GET Sympathy. Urging to and Preparation for Holy Communion. Reception at Holy Communion Oneself. Attendance at Church Services with Children. Seeing that Children come to Services also. Suggesting Right Reading. (D) General. Noticing and Caring for Defects of Body,— Vision, Hearing, etc. Providing Proper Social Life, with Advice. Providing Sufficient Recreation of Value. Ditto of Physical Exercise. Selecting Club for a Boy to Join. Care as to Companions and the " Gang " or "Clique." Watching Carefully How Evenings are Spent. II. Tlie Negntive or Harmful Influences of the Home. (A) Through the Eye. Pictures. On Walls. In Books. In Daily and Sunday Papers. Reading. Novels. Crimes. Sensations. 146 THE SUNDA Y-SCHOOL OF TO- DA Y Sights. Between Parents. Between Other Boys and Girls. General Atmosphere and Surroundings. Neatness and Order. Cleanliness. Morals. Hygiene. (B) Through the Ear. Conversation. Between Parents. Between Children. Between Children and Parents. (C) Food. Badly Cooked, — Nervousness, irritability, low morals. Unnutritious Foods. Indigestible Foods. Improper Food, — for Age, for Sex impulses, viz., Con- diments. (D) Sleep. Insufficient. Poor Ventilation. Mixed Sexes. Crovyded Contact. (E) Study. Pool- Light. Poor Air. Overstudy. Wrong Time, — Empty Stomach, etc. III. The Personal Study of the Child. Defects of Body or Mind. Dangers and Temptations. Weaknesses of Character. Temperament. Ideals. Interests to work best upon. Outlets for Self- Activity and Altruism. Incentives for Attendance. To inspire and continne attendance and regularity, the following incentives MOST EFFECTIVE ROUTINE SYSTEM 147 should be made use of, iu additiou to the follow-up system of the absentee superinteudent, already explained. To maintain esi^rit de corps among the teachers, the registrar, who records new pupils, sits at the door and marks each teacher entering. For the pupils, the appeal is made first to the school spirit, through the use of the register board shown. Several sets of data cards come with each board, and by them, it is urged, the school indicate as follows : hymns, number on roll, record attendance, attend- ance last Sunday, record offering, offering last Sunday. Comparing the 2)revious Sunday with the record does two ATTENDAKCE < The School Register Appeals to the School Spirit. things. First, it sets the standard at the best, and puts forth the incentive never to fall behind the highest point heretofore reached, but to excel it. Second, it permits records to be gathered leisurely and accurately during the routine period, deliberately placed at the eiid of the school hour, after the lesson period, when the teachers enter all marks. The appeal to the class spirit is by the use of a class banner, presented, one each for the highest '* all around " record for boys and for girls, at the beginning of each month, for records of the previous month. The produc- tive value of such a presentation will be recognized at 148 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY ODce wlieu it is installed. The class spirit is a slightly lower ideal than the school spirit, and so appeals to younger i^iipils, for the broad view of the whole school does not come till reasoning has well developed. Beside the class banner, which is only presented once a month and held for the succeeding month by each honour Y Banner Classes Reach tlie Class Spirit. class of boys and girls, a very cheap and excellent plan is the star honour roll which can take cognizance of the attendance eacli Sunday and award a star for every class which has a perfect and punctual attendance of teacher and scholars. Many children, especially younger ones, do not look far enough ahead to appreciate honours or incentives that are distant more than a week. The MOST EFFECTIVE ROUTINE SYSTEM 149 honour roll that recognizes the attendance of the preced- ing Sunday appeals to this age. PRIMARY MEMBERS STARiOTENDANCE ROLL fOW OtJARTBR K» The Weekly Appeal of the Star Class Roll. Lower still, belonging to the self-centred period of boyhood and girlhood, when individuality rules all motives, comes the appeal to the individual spirit. L: _.: The Religious Picture Appeals to the Individual Spirit. Every month, or two months, present a religious picture, perhaps one of the beautiful two-cent '' card series, " to every pupil who has not been absent nor late for the one I50 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY or two mouths, as established. Such recoguitious are not at all iu the nature of prizes ; but public honours, with ''tokens." These tokens are not carelessly cast aside, but are invariably placed on the home walls, a constant object lesson and inspiration. The roll of honour ^ on which is posted the names of those scholars who have done missionary work by bring- ing new scholars to the school, is now shown. It comes both in the framed form, in which name cards can be entered, or in a cheap roll on which the name can be The Roll of Honour for Those Bringing New Pupils. written, or better still, printed on pieces of gummed paper and merely " touched," into the place on the roll. The advantage of having the names removable by either the plan of card insertions, or gummed paper, is that one can make it a rule that the new scholar must ''stick " at least a month. In this way the scholar who has brought the new member has an incentive to make that new member a permanent pupil in the school. To place a name on the honour roll for one Sunday's attendance would be apt to result in a chaotic influx of the one Sunday "visitors," and does not build up stable work. VII PLANS THAT WOEK MANY of such plans we have already mentioned : in fact, this entire volume is based on " plans that work," for they have all been tested and have proven their value. The forms and blanks, the special officers, the parents' meetings, are all plans that work, bat there are several special features in the modern Sunday-school which can- not be tabulated very well under the headings of our previous chapters, therefore they are assembled here. We are continually keeping in mind our desire for results. Everything we do must have a purpose and aim. Nothing is attempted merely for "amusement," or attraction. Heretofore the Sunday-school has reached only scholars from the i^rimary age to early adolescence, rarely holding the adults. Thousands have been shut out from Sunday- school at all ages because of distance, home duties, employ- ment, illness, or for other good reasons. On the other hand children of the early impressionable age, under six years old, when impressions are rapidly grasped and never* forgotten, have been almost excluded from our Sunday-schools. Every well organized Sunday-school ought, therefore, to have a Font Eoll and a Home De- partment. The Font Roll. The Font or Baptismal Eoll gathers together all children who are properly termed ''babies." Just as we recognize that baptism makes every child a 151 152 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY member of Christ's Clinrcb, so the same act eurolls it as a future member of the Suuday-school. No child is too youDg to enroll. At these very tender years, impressions are keen, everything is noticed even if not spoken of or explained, and so we enroll the child just baptized on our Font Eoll. We give the parents its Font Eoll and Baptismal Certificates. We make them realize their duties and urge them to eagerly look forward to sending their children, at the earliest possible age, regularly to the Sunday-school kindergarten. We have the parents bring even the babies to hear hymns and see the church, and attend occasional services, especially at Christmas and Easter. Each Christian is, i^so fado^ a member of our great missionary system. The Font Eoll is a real help and education. It is no empty whim. It allies it- self with the Little Helpers' Branch of the Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions, and its members receive the missionary mite boxes, to be filled by the parents. Most schools appoint a special officer, known as the Font Roll siqyerhitendent, who enrolls the scholars on the Font Eoll, which is placed in a conspicuous place in the kindergarten room, or even in the main room of the school and who visits the parents with the mite boxes, certifi- cates, and yearly birthday cards. The Home Department. What It Is. Its aim is to reach, with the helpful influ- ences of religious education, those persons who do not attend Sunday-school, whether prevented by occupation, illness, family cares, distance from the church, or other good cause, or simply by prejudice or indifference. Its methods are simple and practical. The persons whom it is desired to reach are asked to promise to spend at least one hour each week in the study of a graded PLANS THAT WORK 153 Sunday- school lessou. Having done this, they are en- rolled as members of the school, and are entitled to all privileges enjoyed by other members. They are provided with lesson helps and forms for recordiug the fulfillment of their promise to study the lessons. These are conveyed application for nDcmbersbip. / cUooX %omc 0.T«'»«**''' x^ itrtl^ r€A- att/rSi fi^ iome yrof/ cnttjf /tr^^ei>/ftf. desultory. It increases the attendance at church and Sunday-school and forms a bond of union between the church and formerly unchristian homes. It increases the benevolent offerings of the Sunday-school. It opens new fields for usefulness and training in Christian service to the members of the school. 154 T^H^ SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY Objections to the plau are sometimes urged by those who have not had experience with it, bat they are found to be unwarranted. Some fear that its use will discourage attendance at the main school. The reverse is found to be the case. Others fear that its adoption will add to the duties of the already burdened Sunday-school officers and teachers. The work is of such a nature and is so organ- ized that a new set of workers are employed. Row to Start It. Secure a superintendent for it. This person should be one who believes in the plan, who has some executive ability, and who is not so burdened with other duties that the new ones cannot be faithfully per- «.HOME DEPARTMENT-, REPORT AND COIXECTIDN. Of — . = , — ^ . : Sunday School For Quarter Ending _, . I^ Class Na . Name ^_, . Address "_ ^'"- ""-"■"■ ■ • 1' ^ »'^;'4'- r|s|,|.oi,.;,.ln!| lou. U^^Sud^.,. . . 1 1 1 i 1. ■ 1 .1 ! 1 1 ' r A^^off^^.. ' 1 ' 1 1 1 1 1 ( ! i !i formed. Frequently a woman is the best person to place in charge of the work. Select a corps of visitors who will assist in securing members for the new department. It is best to choose ladies for this work, as they will usually meet the women and the children in the homes. They should be persons of tact, and sufficiently mature in age and experience to sympathize with and win the confidence of those whom they visit. Have the minister present the plan from the pulpit, and ask all the members of the congregation who are not in the Sunday-school to join. Blank applications for membership may be placed in the pews, that those will- ing to do so may sign them at once. PLANS THAT WORK 155 Make a thorough canvass for members. It should reach all members of the church and congregation, and all ^^embers of families represented in the Sunday-school, Rules of the l)otne Department of a Church Sunday School. 1. Every member is expected to spend at least ONE HOUR eack week in tKe study or the assifjned is^son. 2. A record sKouId te kept of tKe faitK- rul performance of tKis study and marked upon the Offertory Envelope by an inclined mark, thus /. 3. Tni3 Report Envelope witn tne sum of tKe Weekly Offerings sKould Ke ready* for tKe Visitor tKe week Kefore tKe end of tKe quarter, or mailed to tKe Secretary, as arranged. 4. 1 Ke Lesson rlandoook is to be prepar- ed IN WRITING; and eitKer given to. or reviewed witK tKe visitor at eacK call. 5. iKe offering you will give weekly goes to tKe benevolent work of your parisK. It IS given as a memKer of tKe Home De- partment of tKe Sunday ScKool, and Kas ntitKmg w^Katcver to do w^itK your subscrip- tion, pledge, or pew rent, as a member and communicant of tKe parisK, for w^KicK it is NOT a substitute. 6. As a member of tKe Home Depart- ment, you are entitled to ALL tKe rigKts and privileges of tKe Sunday ScKool m every way tKrougKout tKe year. who are not on the rolls of the school ; all " shut-ins" and those prevented by home duties or distance from attend- ing the Sunday-school. When the canvass is completed the superintendent 156 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY should assign to each visitor from five to fifteen of the members secured, grouping together those whose homes are in the same locality j these persons form the ' ' class ' ' of that visitor. nemiKmoNs to visrrotB come Z>epactinl Member'* tUcor^ Member'! Nam< Sirrel N». u« Tl~Y "* Vi.i.or S.r„. N. '" — | — i — «,-, ins:; '■c":.r i"i «,_ Snr;: 'U-:.'i' i:S.t l«Q>^r.^ — ■U Qurtcr ll MQu.r.., I: wQ..rt., 1 4ll, Qu.rl H^eport TO THE HOME DEPARTMENT SUPERINTENDENT. N«>. .( V...... • OIHECTIONS. _ ..«.._„. .t.— ;r;;-,j:^i„:s:„, „...- - , '-■' ■■ J 1 ! ' ■ 4 1 ■ ■ — — s ; i "- -^-'^ 1 ! ■ ■- - ...'... ..., i " . 1 It- " 1 : " - •' 1 ! 1 1 - - ■— 1 " 1 [ ! ■»"— ; 1 : 1 : " -T — r ^ u " 1 u — • . 1 lift of the child, especially athletics, gymnastics, camps, summer homes, excursions, and ultimately hospital care, tuberculosis classes, hygiene, sex instruction, etc., come within its purview. In a word ^Hhe whole child for God and His Church " is the only adequate aim. None of these organizations should be merely attrac- tive. The Church has no money nor time to spend on mere attractions. Everything should have a purpose. We cannot reiterate this point too often. i6o THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY Manual Work. "Manual work" means, of course, auytbing done with the hands. In this broad usage, the term includes all written and illustrative work. Technic- ally, however, it is generally confined to-day to the fol- lowing types of work, which are briefly summarized aud described below. All are used at the same time, syn- chronous, not consecutive. The general divisions are : I. Illustrated Book Work. II. Map-Making in Belief. III. Map-Making in the Flat. IV. Modelic Work. I. Illustrated Booh Worh. There are four grades of illustrated book work : {a) simple picture mounting in blank note-books up to the "beginning-reading age," usually about eight ; (&) picture mounting with Bible passages, clipped from old Bibles, to ten years ; (c) pic- ture and map mounting, with short written summary of the theme of the lesson, to the age of twelve ; {d) theses or biographical and historical chapters, interspersed with pictures, illustrations, and maps from twelve years on to and including adult age. IL Map-Maldng in Belief, (a) The Kelmm Belief Max^s of Egypt, Palestine, and Boman Emi)ire may be coloured with water or oil colours, (b) The sand table map may be used in all grades. Even adults delight in it. The best proportions are three units one way by four the other. White Bockaway or river bottom sand or ground glass quartz are the best materials, (c) Paper pulp (white, gray or olive green), clay, or even putty, can be molded. Clay does not dry well, but is used on glass, or the board may be painted. Pulp is the best. The maps are made in the map boards, and when dry are pried off with a broad knife, and pasted on cardboard. They may be coloured as desired with oil colours, water colours (Diamond Easter Egg Dyes) or Japanese w^ater colours on cards. The mai)s are made during two or PLANS THAT WORK i6i three Suuday-school sessions, in a separate room, under a special teacher, who takes the regular teacher and the pupils apart for this work, or they may be doue outside of school hours, some afternoon or evening, as arranged. Much time is saved, as the Bible events and history are clinched readily by these maps, and Bible geography be- comes a matter of certain visualizing, not of dead rote memory, to say nothing of vital Interest. The only maps needed in the whole course are : (1) In Old Testament history, Palestine, some coloured for pre- Exodns and some for the Conquest, Solomon's kingdom, and subsequent fortunes of Israel and Judah ; Effyjyt and Sinai, for the Exodus ; Mesopotamia, for the Exiles. (2) In the life of Christ, Palestine, with New Testament divi- sions, and Galilee, showing Esdraelon for the Galilean ministry, which requires more space to outline it. (3) In the early Christian Church, Eoman Umpire only, for St. Paul's journeys. Six maps in all are essential. Plasticine is a harmless, and practically indestructible modelling material which can be used over and over again. It can be used for models and maps of all kinds. It is always ready for use and requires no water. It is cleaner and easier to handle than ordinary clay, and does not harden. It is strongly recommended for use in place of clay, especially for those who are not experienced in the methods of preparing clay for use. It is made in five colours, — gray, red, blue, yellow and green. It costs forty cents a pound. JTow to Use Paper Pulp. Tear the pulp into pieces and soak it thoroughly in hot water until it all becomes soft and easily worked. If a little paste is mixed with it, the cohesive qualities will be improved. Add a small quan- tity of powered alum to the paste. Make the map in one of the map boards, using the pulp rather wet and fre- quently drying it with a sponge while molding. It re- i62 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY quires a great deal of moldiug and pincliiug to keep its form. Wbeu finished, keep the map iu a warm j)lace until nearly dry, when it can be loosened from the board and mounted with glue on a pasteboard back. Next the geographical names may be put on, and then the maj) is ready to be coloured. To colour these maps use coloured crayons, water colours or dyes. A good colour scheme is dark green for below sea level ; lighter green for coast plain, and low valleys j cream for foot-hills under five hundred feet in height ; brown for higher levels ; shad- ing darker for above fifteen hundred feet j blue for water. III. Map-MaJdng in the Flat. The historical maps of the Littlefield, Bailey, Harison, McKiuley, and Hodge Series cover every possible style, price, size and subject desired. They range from forty -five cents a hundred to ten cents a piece. In general we would recommend the following use, running parallel with the relief maps. Use them in profusion, letting every pupil have them, using Crayola crayons, or ordinary lead-i)encils, or, if the work be done at home, water or oil colours can be employed. (a) For Old Testament History, get the full set of Little- field maps for colouring with crayons. There are fifteen in the set. The Bailey maps, especially the key maps, are valuable for rapid line marking and for reviews and ''tests.^' (5) For the Life of Christ, use the Littlefield Map of Palestine, for it gives Palestine in larger form ; use Bailey Esdraelou for Galilean Ministry ; use Bailey key maps for places, (c) For the Apostolic Church, use Little- field Map for Early Ai^ostolic Journeys ; use Bailey Eoman World and Key Map of Eoman World for St. Paul's Jour- neys. These sets of maps sell by the tens of thousands and are the very best avenues of interest and ''point of contact" yet developed in Bible study. Note carefully that no map work should be begun before the age of ten PLANS THAT WORK 163 or eleven. All the maps are sold only by the New York Sunday-School Commission. IV. ModeliG ^Yorli. Models are essential to a clear un- derstanding to-day. They have long been seen in the day- school. They are rapidly coming into the Sunday-school. Hundreds of dollars are being spent in their manufacture. Every good Sunday-school is putting in a museum. The list is constantly being enlarged. Note carefully that some models can be used at all ages, some only after "historic perception " has developed. Those usable be- fore ten are the houses, tent, sheepfold, well, water-jar, lamp, tomb, and water-bottle. All these and others can be used for all ages above ten. Some of them combine splendidly with the sand table. Under models would also come the flowers of Palestine and stereoscopic pic- tures, commonly called stereographs, which portray real scenes in the three dimensions. A special catalogue of models may be obtained from the New York Commission. How to Win Bad Boys and Prevent the '' Leak at the Top." That it has been of late years at least difficult to retain the older scholars in the Sunday-school, and especially the boys, is an acknowledged fact. In very few schools are boys over fourteen present in any number, unless perhaps a handful used as secretaries and librarians. It is a patent fact that we are failing with boys and even girls, after the confii-mation age. Nine-tenths of all the pupils in the school are under fourteen, while in days of yore, a large proportion were from fourteeu to twenty. TF% is this change manifest to-day, and what are the reme- dies for it f Can it be overcome ? Here are some sugges- tions of practical value. In the first place, we believe that this sad condition is due to the following causes, although it is probable that the list is not exhaustive ; but that many other factors, 1 64 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY particularly active iii the world outside, contribute largely to this exodus. The plan of the Sunday-school is not definite enough, there is not enough progression to satisfy eager youth, the burning inquiries and questionings of the period of inves- tigation and "enlightenment" are not met and answered, the school is not en rapport with the Zeitgeist which spells the attitude of thoroughly facing and settling problems ; in a word, the Sunday-school does not ai:)peal to the older pupil as an institution to be admired and sought, but rather as behind the times in attitude, thought, and method. What are some of the remedies^ practical and capable of instant introduction^ in the system as it stands to-day f Definite Progression. Every Sunday-school, small or large, can and should be graded. There should be a defi- nite and manifest progression from class to class, from year to year. This should extend to the subject-matter, as well as to the form of presentation, or the questions asked. Therefore, it can only come by introduction of a subject- graded curriculum. This curriculum should be fully comprehended and understood as a scheme, not left hazy and indefinite, known only to the superintendent. Every teacher and every scholar should have it tabulated in print, as a clear-cut scheme, so that scholars and par- ents, as well as teachers, may see just where in the machinery their particular class wheel is revolving. Instinctively, the effect of publishing such a scheme (say on little cards or in the parish paper) is to attract pupils onward, step by step, until under "step -psychology" one is impelled to complete a prescribed course, rather than drop out, ere it be traversed. A Definite Graduation, Commencrment, and Diploma. This graduates pupils out the front door, in place of let- ting them sneak out the back door, by merely absenting PLANS THAT WORK 165 themselves from Sunday-scliool. It i^uts a premium on thorough work, ou leaviug with honour, on keepiug up the required studies until the end, and it especially de- velops the ''student attitude," the " inquiring attitude," as Professor Manny terms it. It places the church school in the same category, in the student's mind, as the day- school. It fosters the love of study, and the result is seen in eager thirst for religious education far into adult life. Moreover, graduation, after a progressive course of study, leads to post-graduate work, just as it does in secular education, so that a graduation lixed at, say eighteen years of age, invariably means that by that period the "habit" is fixed, and the post-graduate classes carry pupils on of themselves until twenty-one or twenty-two. JJse Group Work. This rule grows out of the gang in- stinct. Do not emphasize individualism with pupils over twelve or thirteen, though before that age it is a strong factor. Let the scholars now forget themselves in the good of the whole class. For example have a class or guild note-book. If you are studyiug, say the life of Christ, let each member contribute chapters as a share in a biograj^hy or book on the life of our Lord, writing one each in rotation, illustratiug by oue-cent or half-cent pictures, obtainable in abundance, iusertiug maps, or better still drawing them in personally, showing our Lord's journeys in order, drawing models of utensils and objects in the narrative, and finally illuminating the cover, so as to produce a book worthy of exhibition, at an exhi- bition of school work held in connection with the com- mencement. This has been done with remarkable success in a number of schools, and is the regular procedure of the Y. M. C. A.'s who deal with boys of just this age and propensity. Let the Becitation Hour belong to the Class and not to the Teacher. This means let the members run the hour, and 1 66 THE SUNDA Y-SCHOOL OF TO- DA Y the teacher guide it merely. To be sure the teacher will have to "be the i^ower behind," will have to coach indi- viduals with contributions, will have to study the nature of each pupil and assign to each a special share of work, to be furnished as a cooperative share in the conference of the guild. But let them all feel that it is their plan, their lesson, their suggestions that guide its lines, and that it depends upon each of them for the success. The teacher's voice will be heard but little, the members of the guild will fairly run away with the hour in their eagerness to turn in work. Suggest Plenty of Manual Work. Our youth are all too eager to "do," while we have been continually saying "don't" in Sunday-school. Give them something to do. Usually the manual lines are best for this age, because older boys and girls do not like hard study, and particu- larly disagreeable memory w^ork. The memory is slug- gish now reasoning is developing. Have outline maps to be filled in as pupils study Bible history, especially in the location of cities and journeys. Such maps abound and are very cheap. Have relief maps to be coloured or marked, in plain or coloured crayons. Encourage the original drawing of outline or water-colour maps. Never talk about a Bible place without locating it, so that all pupils have a mental i3icture of Palestine or the Holy Land, whenever they read Holy Writ. Show pictures of places and representations of events. Have them mounted perhaps in books. Have pencils always in evidence, with note-books or paper. Get lap-boards of cheap binder's boards, say eighteen inches square or rectangular, and give one to each scholar, so that oppor- tunity will not be lacking for note-taking, essay-writing, theses, etc. Develop research at home or in the library and assign research questions. Manual work, particu- larly map and constructive work, especially appeals to PLANS THAT WORK 167 and holds the ''bad boy," for he is almost always of the motor type, as opposed to the reticeut child, who belongs to the sensory type. He is a lad good with his hands and indifferent with his brains, good at manual work and poor at argument. Give him something to do, and his "badness" disappears. In fact he is only bad because he is misunderstood and misused or abused. Fresent Subjects Differently for Boys and Girls. Ways of looking at things and consequently modes of approach differ in the sexes after adolescence has set in. In the life of Christ, present the Saviour in a more manly, more heroic type, — Christ the brave hero cleansing the temple, standing for civic righteousness, boldly liftiug His voice against wickedness and sin. We have presented our Lord in too effeminate a way, if Ave may say it, hereto- fore. We have held girls and lost boys in consequence. In the Old Testament, emphasize the ethical side. Teach it as the great object-lesson of the past, presented that we may learu God's dealings with the history of the present. Give room for research and questioning. Never discour- age reverent investigation. Answer all doubts fully, carefully, honestly. Never omit to take up a conclusion at all doubted, and see that it is threshed out. It is the age of doubt, of settling one's own faith, or proving the foundations of the psychological storm and stress. It should be the special care of teachers then to raise and settle the burning questions, which eager reason will surely ask. Never fear Truth. Never equivocate. Ee- ligion will bear investigation. Develop and Feed Altruism. It is the age of the rise of the altruistic instincts, — brotherhood, love, work. Youth wants to help others. Search out avenues for personal effort, personal endeavour, personal sacrifice, personal giving. Let the guild help in definite missionary effort abroad, in definite succour and relief at home, in personal i68 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY coutact with fellow meu ueediug eleemosynary or spirit- ual aid, in cultivating both the desire and the, everlasting search for oi^portunities for social and personal service, without which Christianity is meaningless and church activities dead. Then as our youth go forth on graduation, they join at once the " Alumni Association " or step into some church organization as a matter of course, which all through life will continue to provide avenues for personal work and pecuniary effort. In one large parish the whole Alumni Association is, as such, the Missionary Guild, that is the graduated Sunday-school at work. This is how to hold our youth. Named Classes. All educators to-day recognize the rise of the " gang instinct" (though it is unwise to ever call it by that undignified title before the pupils of that trying period), and the strong part it plays in all life, both with boys and girls, during the adolescent age. Here we wish to offer some suggestions regarding its installation and use in any school. From ten years on, scholars are fond of something to ^'show,-' some button, badge, ribbon, etc. This feeling grows, until it reaches a crisis, somewhere in the teens, and wanes towards seventeen or thereabout. We deprecate the use of "reward pins." But a badge is decidedly different, and the subsequent effect, ethically and practi- cally, is beneficial, rather than harmful. The moral effect is bracing, encouraging, developing a sense of brotherhood, kinship, "standing together for a cause." The use of class, club, society, etc., badges is to be commended. From ten years on, in some schools, and with some chil- dren, and from twelve years on, in probably all schools, we would advocate club formation, under which every class is organized into a "club." The term "club," as well as that of "society," seems a little too secular for the PLANS THAT WORK 169 church Sauday-school. '' Gaug," of course, willuot do at all. We suggest "league" for all boys' classes aud "guild " for all those composed of girls. Theu name the organizatiou. We suggest types of names below. Select names appropriate, ethically, and adapted to age and sex of the members. Have the names mean somethiug, i. e., be " a name to live by," live up to, as it were, the hero or ideal, as the case may be. Have the members know all they can find out about the name, — the man, the woman, the virtue, as it may be. Let the suggestive power of the significance of such a title make itself felt, and uncon- sciously work into the lives of the members. Select a club motto, in sympathetic harmouy with the name, to express the ideal concretely in a rule of life. Then have the members organize, elect officers, draw up their own constitution, by-laws, etc. When they make their own rules of class conduct, they will enforce them faithfully. Have them elect one member as president, one secretary, one treasurer, and all the rest vice-presidents. The president presides at each session, not the regular teacher, who is merely "director," the power behind the throne. The secretary marks the records of all sorts. The treasurer marks and receives the " dues" and the regular class offering. Committees are appointed by the president (and voted on by members) to call on sick or absent members, bring in new members, arrange social gatherings, plan for a weekly or monthly week-day (or night) meetiug for additional work or social meetings, at the school or the teacher's home, or that of some other member, etc. In a word, the class is self-gov- erned, after the manner of the well-known "school-city." Additional gatherings, beyond those of the weekly session of the Suuday-school, are essential to the realization of the club idea aud the effective workiug out of its best results. lyo THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY The selectiou of names may follow one of the several varying lines, any one of which is good j but we should advise that the "powers that be" provide, after consulta- tion with the teachers' council, that only one line be followed in the school, %. e., that the school take some unit or basis of organization, so that the suggestive ideal make itself felt more strongly throughout the entire school body. One school may select the apostles and New Testament saints, another may take Old Testament characters, still another the noted ante-Nicene or post-Nicene fathers, or the mediaeval saints, or modern missionaries (an inspiring series, which will do more to iustil missionary motives into the school than any other method known), or the bishops of the American Church, or virtues of suggestive import, as Fellowshij) League, Goodwill League, Baud of Hope, Help-ODC- Another Guild, Dare-to-Do-Eight League, the King's Messengers, the Torch-bearers of the King of Kings, etc. Badges and buttons can be made, quite cheaply, that will bear such titles. Even a rib- bon, hand-painted or merely typewritten with the club name, will suffice, where money is scarce. Nothing really stands in the way of such organization, even in the smallest and poorest school. Its results will be shown at once. Private Worship by the Scholars, and Definite Training Therein. One of the speakers at the Boston gathering held in the interest of Sunday-schools, during the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 1904, brought out the point, so seldom appreciated in our Sun day -school 8, of the necessity for the practical training of the children in the practice of their private home de- votions. It is a startling fact which any Sunday-school teacher can quickly prove by a canvass of a class, that probably not more than one-fourth of all children, in PLANS THAT WORK 171 our city Sunday-schools at least, ''say their prayers" moruiDg and evening at home ; and not more than one- half say them at night. It has been too much taken for granted that children are properly taught to pray by their parents at home. Those who are accustomed to deal with boys and girls, who have passed the adolescent period of the 'teens, are again and again startled by the frank confession, ''I cannot pray myself. I have never been taught how." What does all our Sunday-school instruction amount to if it does not practically " function " in right habits of devotion % If all our religious education is to build up proper Christian character, just as our church services nourish and feed our characters in later life, it is our manifest duty to see that every child is brought into per- sonal contact with Jesus Christ by a systematic training in private worship. How can this be done'? The teacher is not at the children's homes to "hear them say their prayers" night and morning. But the oiDportuuity of such instruction can be made, if one will, even during the brief hour at our disposal on Sunday. How many teachers have ever even asked the members of their class whether daily prayers were said ? How many have the faintest idea of the spiritual life of the young souls committed to their care ? Sliould not such inquiry be made? And cannot the sad neglect of parents be somewhat overcome by the earnest watch-care and advice of the teacher % It would seem that, even with the young infant and primary children. Morning and Evening Prayers could be taught in class, together with Grace at Meals, and Entering and Leaving Prayers for Church. Many excellent prayer cards are obtainable, which can be given to the children to take home, either to be taught by their parents or learned directly by the children themselves. 172 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY I. For Kindergarten and Primary Grades 1. A card on one side of which are Morniug and Evening Prayer Hymns from the Hymnal, of a nature suited to Primary children, and on the other side of which appears Dobsou's Good Shepherd. (Icent each.) 2. The Lord's Prayer, in plain Gothic type, on heavy cardboard, with a suggestive picture of Eeynold's Child Samuel, kneeling, on the reverse of card. (1 cent each.) 3. A smaller card with the Apostles' Creed and Hoff- man's Christ in Gethsemane. (1 cent each.) Prayers For Very Young Children (To be taught by the Mother at home, until the Eighth Year. Tell the child to kneel and repeat after the Mother.) 3forning Prayers My Father, for another night Of quiet sleep and rest, / For all the joy of morning light Thy holy name be blest. Whate'er I do, things great or small, Whate'er I speak or frame, Thy glory may I seek in all. Do all in Jesus' name. My Father, for His sake, I pray Thy child accept and bless ; And lead me by Thy grace to-day In paths of righteousness. (Then repeat the Lord's Prayer.) Evening Prayers Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep ; If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take. Lord, keep us safe this night. Secure from all our fears ; May angels guard us while we sleep, Till morning-light appears. Forgive me, liOrd, for Thy dear Son, The ills that I this day have done ; That with the world, myself, and Thee. I, ere I sleep, at peace may be. (Then repeat the Lord's Prayer.) PLANS THAT WORK 173 II. Foe Grammar Grades 4. A card with Morniug and Eveniug Prayers for children, Iroiii nine years of age and upward. (1 cent each.) Prayers For Young People Kneel down reverently, each Morning and Evening, and repeat your Prayers to God in Heaven, trying to think carefully juat what you are saying. Morning Prayers "Our Father, Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in Heaven. Give ua this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into tempta- tion ; But deliver us from evil; For Thine ia the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." " O Lord, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, Who hath safely brought us to the beginning of this day ; Defend us in the same with Thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger ; but that all our doings, be ing ordered by Thy governance, may be righteous in Thy sight ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." " O Eternal Father, for Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, Send Thy Holy Spirit upon us, that we may please Thee, this day in all our thoughts, words, and deeds, and never leave undone what Thou wouldst have us do. Amen." Then say your own Personal Prayers for 3fembers of your I^amily and their Needs. "The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore. Amen." Evening Prayers "Our Father, Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth. As it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses. As we for- give those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation ; But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." 174 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY * * O Lord God, of Thy Fatherly goodness and mercy, pardon all our offenses, which in thought, word, or deed, we have this day committed against Thee. And now, Lord, since the night is upon us and we are to take our rest, we pray Thee lighten our eyes that we sleep not in death. Let not our beds prove our graves, and so by the wings of Thy mercy protect us, that we may be pre.served from all the terrors of darkness, and that we may awaken to bless Thy great and glorious Name, and study to serve Thee all the days of our lives, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen." "Into Thy Hands, I commend my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, Thou God of Truth." " May the Almighty and most Merciful Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and keep us, now and forever- more. Amen." Then say your own Personal Prayers for Members of your Family and their Needs. " The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore. Amen." Grace at Bleals " Bless, O God, we beseech Thee, this food to our use and us to Thy service. Amen." Ill, For Senior and Adult Grades 5. A card with MorDiDg and Evening Prayers and Self-Examination Questions for children from the begin- ning of adolescence, twelve years of age, and upward. (2 cents each. ) 3forning Prayers When you are dressed, kneel down and say : " Our Father, Who art in Heaven. Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses. As we for- give those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil : For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." ** I thank Thee heavenly Father for watching over me this past night. Have mercy upon me, and keep me to-day from all harm ; save me from doing wrong, and make me pure and clean, in thought, and word, and deed." PLANS THAT WORK 175 " Bless all for whom I ought to pray, [my father and mother : brothers and sisters^'] and all whom I l,ove. Bless the Clergy of this Parish, and Thy whole Church. Give us food aud clothing, keep us in good health, help us iu all our trials, and make us to love aud serve Thee better, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." "Bless and keep me, O Lord, this day and evermore without sin. Amen." Grace at Meals Before " For what we are about to receive, O God, make us truly thankful, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." After "We thank Thee, O God, for these and all Thy mercies, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." Evening Prayers Before you undress, kneel dotvn and say: " Our Father, Who art in Heaven. Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we for- give those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil : For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." "I thank Thee, Heavenly Father, for keeping me safe all the day long. Make me grateful for Thy many mercies, "Lord, show me how I have sinned against Thee to-day, in thought and word and deed." Here stop and ask yourself thoughtfully these questions : Did I say my prayers this morning ? Have I sworn, or used bad words ? Have I disobeyed my parents and teachers? Have I been angry, or impatient? Have I thought, said, or done anything not modest and pure? Have I cheated, or stolen anything? Have I told a lie? Have I said unkind things of any one? Have I been lazy, or discontented ? When you have thus learned your sins, ask God to forgive them as foh 176 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY " I coufess to Thee, O heavenly Father, that I have siuued against Thee. [ Here tell God your sins. ] O Lord, I am sorry for the wrongs I have done ; have mercy upon me and forgive me these and all my other sins which I do not now remember. And help me henceforth to love and serve Thee better, for Jesus Christ's sake." " Bless all for whom I ought to pray [my father and mother, brothers and sisters,^ and all whom I love, and any who have done me harm. Bless the Clergy of this Parish, and Thy whole Church. Give us peaceful rest this night, and guard us from all evil. Both now and when we sleep in death, be with us and save us, good Lord. Amen." " Bless and keep me, O Lord, this night and evermore. Amen." This would give a fully graded course of private wor- ship, pedagogically suited to each stage of the child's spiritual development, begiuniug with the youngest kindergarten child and running up to adult and its re- sponsibilities. By that time, prayer has become a fixed habit, never likely to be neglected. It is a practical training, applicable alike to the smallest country or the largest city school. Hitherto it has been strangely over- looked. Correlation of Sunday- School and Church Attend- ance. Quite a number of parishes have to-day adopted an arrangement which bids fair to revolutionize the Sun- day-school as a spiritual feature in character develop- ment. Far-seeing pastors are realizing the imperative need of an alteration, or rather a deviating progress from the old Sunday-school principles in the following funda- mentals : (1) The change of the Sunday-school hour from noon or afternoon to an hour and a half before morning serv- ice. (2) A longer Sunday-school period, giving a total session of an hour and a quarter, and consequently a lesson period of forty-five minutes. PLANS THAT WORK 177 (3) The required attendance of all scholars, from at least the primary age up, at church. This would follow immediately after the Sunday-school, allowing for a one- quarter of an hour's intermission for relaxation, etc. (4) A longer period for the kindergarten school, which now runs, under this plan, until the children are dismissed from church. (^5) The personal touch of their pastor through a five minute address each Sunday. (6) The training of the children in systematic weekly offering for missions, and church support. 1. The mormng Smiday-school hour. Not only is the attention the best, memory the strongest and most atten- tive, but the interest of the children is more keen if the Sunday-school be held at a morning hour, approximating the time of the usual public school system. Under this system the scholars and teachers give their best atten- tion to the church school, which accordingly increases in dignity and impressive power, and is regarded by the congregation as really worth while. Schools that have made the change invariably cling to it, and except in a few towns, where distances are great and the children live at remote homes, it is found that parents, teachers, and scholars alike prefer the morning hour. Even those who drive to church with their chil- dren and have been accustomed with the noon hour Sun- day-school, soon find that the change is one that is readily accomplished, and often their interest and work in the Sunday-school is enlisted in this way. 2. A longer Sunday-school jyeriod. The universal com- plaint has been, under the graded system of the Forward Movement, that the skilled teachers find the Sunday- school hour too short. This gives opportunity for a pro- longed session, and for developing proper class discussion. The unskilled teachers, who have, consequently, time 1 78 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY haogiug on their hands, are apt to brace up and produce better work. The good teachers are more thau delighted at the opportunity to do effective service. 3. Church attendance. Under this new plau the schol- ars march uj) into church, and either are assigned scat- tered pews, or are in a section by themselves, or better still are taught to sit in the family i)ews, with their teachers. The whole congregation rises to the impor- tance of the Sanday-school. An interest in childhood becomes the awakening of the missionary spirit and the entire congregation is fired with a zeal and an interest in God's work that is astounding. Many a lethargic con- gregation is to-day being awakened out of a deadening sleep of complaisant self-satisfaction by the presence of children. Moreover if the childhood of to-day does not learn to attend church services, where will the congrega- tion of to-morrow be ? Many a parish is dying of dry rot because it administers only to a congregation of adults. The cry of "empty churches" will pass away under the inspiring presence of eager childhood. . ^. Longer period for the Mndergarten. The children attend the morning service up to the hymn before the sermon, from half to three-quarters of an hour in all. The kindergarten is held as a creche, or a nursery during this period. If the kindergarten be run on the right principles, with occupations and exercises, it is a delight- ful, as well as educational pastime for the children. The older scholars can then meet the kindergarten tots after the service and take them home. If necessary to wait for adults, the kindergarten period can be still further prolonged. 5. The pastor^ s address. Pastors are to-day giving a five minute children's sermon, preceding the hymn before the main sermon to the adult congregation ; not prolonging the service, but sharteBing the morning ser- PLANS THAT WORK 179 iiiou by five miuutes. As a matter of fact it is usually found that the congregation appreciate the children's sermon oftentimes more than they do their own. This is but natural, for a talk to childhood, in its veiy sympathy and directness, goes right to the heart of the spiritual life. The most consei'vative congregation will show itself delighted with this innovation. Even if they do not, the x^astor's duty to the children of the church is not lessened by the opposition of the adult congregation. 6. Systematic giving. If character be habit- formation, we can see why our present adult congregations are neither generous givers, nor interested in missions. It is because they were brought up on the penny in the Sun- day-school, the penny given at chance, when the scholar was present, and always omitted if he were absent. The duplex envelope system, planned for systematic weekly offerings, on the one side " for ourselves," and on the other, right-hand side, "for others,'' begins in the right way, when it touches childhood. Many Sunday- schools now supply every child with this package of en- velopes, when entering the school, and the child learns, by training, to give properly to God. Under these new ideals we are witnessing a revolution in the Sunday- school that speaks well for the church of the next gen- eration. Reward Systems : Their Ethical and Practical Values. Do we advise Sunday-schools to use pins, prizes, rewards, bribes, to increase and sustain attend- ance, conduct, lesson work, etc. ? The New York Sunday-School Commission sells reward pins. They wish they did not have to sell them ; but they must sell anything on the market that the schools demand. Perhaps some teachers fancy they approve of their use. They tell all who consult them that they do i8o THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY not approve of them. They tell the makers so frankly. Yet they sell, and we fear will sell, for they certainly do prove an attractive bait. The attendance is undoubtedly increased,— /or a time. The children like them. But the next generation will suffer from our lowered ideals. In fact, the children of to-day, as they become adults, will be tinged by Si^^ quid pro quo^^ conscience. The churches are already feeling something of it to-day, in the paid pews, church fairs, bazaars, catch-penny at- tractions used as bribes to induce people to do God's work ; their privilege rather than their duty. What does the day-school say of their value f Fitch, the great English educator, places such motives at the very lowest in the gamut, and states that they have clearly '^ an element of selfishness and covetousness," such as we hope the Sunday-school and church do not care to incul- cate. What is the ethical result of their use ? Lowered stand- ards, a desire for bribery to do right, a lack of backbone to serve either God or the home or the state or the civic community, a spirit of '' get and graft'' if we dare put it so plainly, which unconsciously, perhaps, is sure to make itself known in conduct. What are the practical results f A leading Sunday- school organizer, of wide note and broad experience with countless schools, told the writer a year or so ago, Sfjeak- ing of the pin craze, that he found that almost invariably "the bottom dropped out when the bribing system of rewards stopped for any reasou." It works well for the time on the surface. So does "forcing" plants or "fat- teniug" animals. But "it does not pay" in the end, just as no lower motive ever does pay. To just ivhat kinds of rewards does this condemnation ap- ply ? \Ye should roughly classify them as pins based on rewards as their foundation, all ^yrizes for work, attend- PLANS THAT WORK i8i aiice, etc., all hrihes. Many maDufacturers aud publish- ers, whose goods are listed and sold, will probably ''dis- like us" for this statement. So will many teachers and superintendents. Wliat similar incentives are of conunendaUe value? All reports, which are notifications of work, done well or ill ; all certificates, which are properly accorded for '' educa- tion received," etc., all diplomas, which mark gradua- tion or completion of a prescribed course ; all tokens or gifts, inexpensive but significant, symbolic of the gift of the Christ Child at Christmas, of honour and esteem to a scholar, teacher, or officers ; all badges, pins, ribbons, regalia of membership in an organization, be it church, Sunday-school, class, or outside of all these ; but nothing that exalts self, either serving for reward or as vaunting it over some one else ; all such are to be commended. These are our ideals. Making the Walls '' Talk." It would be of unspeak- able value if our clergy and superintendents of Sunday- schools would pay visits to up-to-date and well-equipped public schools. They would come away with a proper realization of the opportunity their churches and Sunday- schools are losing in not affording object lessons in art, in architecture, in the Bible, in Palestine, in religion, and most of all in ideals ; and on the other hand, what a negatively depressing and deteriorating effect bare, gloomy, unfurnished walls and rooms are constantly producing upon actively growing and receptive young minds. Miss Harrison, the great Cliicago kindergartner, in her entrancing and soul -stirring volume, entitled ''Some Silent Teachers," sounds a warning as to the potent in- fluence of environment, even the action of colours being most significant aud telling. As thoughtful teachers of i82 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY youth we cannot afford to ''care for none of these things." Everything counts with us, for everything counts in the future of the child God has committed to our fostering care. Make "the walls talk.'^ Fill them not only with in- spiring colours, avoiding discords and colours of in- jurious effect; but especially make them of "positive'^ value. Get the several charts of the Decalogue, Lord's Prayer, Creed, First and Twenty-third Psalms, Beati- tudes, Books of Bible, stencilled hymns, maps galore (several kinds and epochs), charts, and above all religious pictures. It is seldom that we have demand for large, high-class religious pictures. They cost from five to twenty-five dollars each, without the addition of the necessary frame. They count for far more than the cheap ones in the end, although pictures of good size can be bought for thirty-five cents, seventy-five cents, one dollar and twenty-five cents and four dollars and fifty cents. But the better pictures exert a higher ultimate influence, for they create lofty ideals for the best. There are two ways of securing them, {a) Get individ- uals or the Sunday-school fund to give them. (6) Get single classes to work for the money needful for a pic- ture, one for each class, until there are as many pictures as classes, and each class coming up each year from the primary grades works to add one more picture to the walls. Thus democratic cooperation and interest are fostered in the school. The Stereopticon Lantern in the Sunday-School. "Every Sunday-school, no matter how small or how poor, can have a stereopticon lantern to-day." This could not have been written ten years ago, at least truth- fully ; but times have changed, — and conditions. This is a section on information merely, about the use of the PLAXS THAT IVORK 183 lantern. We have already dilated upon the value of the eye-gate. This, we consider, is acknowledged. The lantern has been perfe(?ted and cheapened to such an ex- tent that we have attained a new era with it. Lanterns can be used with many illuminants. In order of inferior power, they range from oil, through incandes- cent electricity, acetylene, white light, "Schwan," elec- tricity, olylith, oxy-hydrogen, and arc light, ranging from fifty caudle-power np to twenty-five hundred. The cheapest, the best, and undoubtedly the one to be chosen in the end, is the arc lamp, for a permanent place, i. e., for installation in a church, chapel, or Sunday-school room or rooms, when the lantern is not used by an operator who has to travel from place to place with uncertain arrange- ments for a lecture. But in some instances, electricity is not obtainable in a few towns or streets. The price of complete outfits ranges from only twenty-five dollars to two hundred and fifty dollars, according to lantern, lenses, distance, and grade of material. Often a cheap lantern will give as good results, both in durability, size of picture, operating, etc., as the most expensive. The average cost of arc light, once a lantern is in use, is less than twenty-five cents an hour. The stereopticon should be used in the church and school in three ways. 1. Where electricitij is installed and the schoolroom win- dows can he darkened iclth heavy green shades. It is wise to own sets of slides, covering the Bible entire, and show four or five for ten minutes at the close of each Sunday- school session, until in time the whole Bible has been covered in sequence. This reviews lessons for some, fore- casts lessons for others, and ''fixes" the Bible in a way that will never pass from the memory. Many schools find this plan works well. 2. One evenmg lecture each month, open to the whole 1 84 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY school and the XKirents and friends, covering the Bible, missions, church history, making of the Bible, hymns, catechism, etc. A varied and helpful instruction is at hand. The New York Commission Suj)ply Department has spent several thousand dollars and has had a splendid series of most interesting typewritten lectures iDrejDared, covering a vast assortment of subjects. These sets can be rented. Slides can also be purchased outright on any of these topics. Hymns, prayers, services, etc., are also made up into slides. The series on our mission fields are a most necessary part of proper Christian instruction, and are covered in no other way. 3. In church services. The complaint has been made that children do not come to church. Many churches have an illustrated sermon on Sunday or Wednesday nights, with crowded congregations, two thirds of which are children. Some have them every Sunday night, some once a month. In some, evening prayer is said, and dur- ing hymns before and after the sermon (which is preached from the pulpit from the tyi^ewritten sheets sent) the screen is made ready. Some, again, have evening prayer, or litany, or the complete service, or the litany or inter- cession for missions, thrown on tlie screen, with slides, as well as the illustrated sermon. The univeisal testimony is that the result is dignified, reverent, and not only in- creases the attendance most markedly, but instructs and helps them in a way that mere verbal sermonizing never can or will. This matter is an important one for the Sunday-school and is well worthy of careful consideration. The simplicity and ease of operation of an electric lan- tern is seldom realized. ^^ Any child can work it well'^ is literally true. Any good arc light, twenty-five hun- dred caudle-power, one hundred and ten volts, electric lantern is so safe to-day, so simjile, so readily set up, ar- PLANS THAT WORK 185 ranged, and run, that there is absolutely no difficulty or danger in operation and in every parish some young man, or even the minister's wife (that much overworked per- sonage), will find enjoyment in running it. The man who lectures, standing next to the screen and seeing only a blur before him, from too close proximity to the picture, is the only individual to be pitied. Examinations. Thorndike says: *'No matter how carefully one tries to follow the right principles of teach- ing, how ingeniously one selects and how adroitly one arranges stimuli, it is advisable to test the result of one's effort, to make sure that the knowledge or power or tendency expected has really been acquired. Just as the scientist, though he has made his facts as accurate and his argument as logical as he can, still remains unsatisfied until he verifies his conclusion by testing it with new facts, so the teacher, after planning and executing a piece, of work as well as he can, must ' verify ' his teaching by direct tests of its results and must consider uncertain any result that he cannot thus verify. " Testing the results of one's teaching is useful not only because it gives a basis for improvements in one's methods, but also because it is one chief means of gaining knowl- edge of the mental content and special capacities of individuals. In applying the principle of apperception a teacher is constantly led to test the results of knowledge previously given as a preliminary to giving more. For the main thing in fitting stimuli to the mental make-up of pupils is not a host of ready-made devices to secure the cooperation of x^revious experience ; it is rather constant readiness in testing for the presence of the essentials, in diagnosing the exact result of previous lessons. '' Testing the results of teaching is useful to the class as well as to the teacher, and to the class directly as well as 1 86 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY indirectly througli the betterment of future steps in teach- ing. Any scholar needs to know that he knows as well as to merely know ; to be ignorant, and know that you are so, is far more promising than to be ignorant and not know it. By expression and use, new ideas and habits get a double value ; boys and girls in school need to know what progress their eiforts have achieved and to guide their efforts by objective facts as well as by their own sense of i^rogress. ''The principle is indeed easy, but its successful, con- crete application requires both a high degree of capacity for insight into the facts of child life and thorough train- ing. The principle is simply : to know whether any one has given a mental state, see if he can use it ; to know whether any one will make a given response to a certain situation, put him in the situation arranged so that re- sponse and that response alone will produce a certain result, and see if that result is produced. The test for both mental states and mental connections is appropriate action.'^ Examination Days. Examination days should be com- pulsory, just as in day-school, and reports sent home to the parents. Children should be promoted strictly in ac- cordance with the results, and no favouritism should be shown. If good reason be shown for failure to pass, the child might be " couditioned," and permitted to go on, with that subject as an extra to be passed off later ; and this passing should be adhered to most emphatically. If a scholar be ready to pass off a condition, that examiiia^ tion could be held at any time, and not on examination days. In schools with a graded curriculum, it will be found, as each class is thus able to go on at its own proper rate of study, classes will complete a course ahead of examination day. It should then have a special ex- PLANS THAT WORK 187 amination, as iu common school work. Catechism ex- aminations may be held at any time, the pupil reciting first to tne teacher privately, and then to the examining committee. The written examinations should be strict and impartial. Fifteen questions are a good number to assign, on printed or hektographed sheets, and the choice of any ten questions allowed. Care should be had to re- move all temptations to cheating for even in Sunday-school bad examples are contagious. Teachers, even, are care- less about giving help. High moral aims should be fostered. The usual plan is to place the passing grade at seventy per cent, on the examination, which on a basis of ten questions out of fifteen is very low. This examination grade is then required for a certificate, and seventy per cent, on the term grade allowed for promotion, although in time, after the habit of taking examinations has been fully formed, so that all the scholars appear on examina- tion day, the examination grade alone may be inserted in the matter of promotion. One has to be a little lenient with a school on the introduction of this system. Yin SUMMEE HAND-GEIPS IJST THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORLD— HOW NOT TO LOSE TOUCH WITH THE SCHOLARS DURING VACATION EVERY Suuday-scliool is not an ^'evergreen school," and properly so. An ^^ evergreen school" is one that is so termed in Sunday- school parlance because it keeps open its sessions all the year around. In a few localities this is advisable. In the vast majority of centres, as customs prevail to-day, it is not. Summer time, with its depressing heat, its alluring country scenery, its vacation spirit, its ever-increasing '* week-ends" of mountain and seashore, its de-spiritual- izing Sunday excursions, open-air concerts, golf, base- ball, and auto-riding, presents counter influences that bank strongly against the Sunday-school and its sessions. The summer period in the vast majority of schools undoes in three months much of the spiritual upbuilding that has beeu reared during the j^receding nine months. Church, holy communion, Sunday-school, Bible reading, and even private prayers, are frequently totally laid aside when ^' vacation " begins, and in their places come the insidious' atmosphere — non-spiritual, unspiritual, and ofttimes anti-spiritual and godless — of ease and pleasure, of recreation and relaxation, and, to our shame as Chris- tians, not infrequently the pleasures that partake of the borderland of sin. One need but visit any seaside or river or mountain resort on a summer Sunday to realize this danger. The average Sunday-school finds its ranks depleted about one-quarter in membership at the autumn 188 SUMMER HAND-GRIPS 189 session — indiffereuce, coldness and lethargy proving the obstacle to Christian living in by far the majority of cases. The fires have not been kept alive during the summer drifting. Some of these backsliders never return to the fold. Some pull themselves sternly together, as it were, and resume nurmal Christian activity. At best, it takes a month or so to restore the si3iritual " tone " of the com- munity and the individuals comprising it. How can we remedy all this! There are several helpful plans, all more or less adaptable to particular localities. Let us fraukly recognize that there must be two types of schools, ranked not so much according to geographical locality, nor confined solely to large cities and country towns in demarcation, nor to social classes, although all of these factors enter in in the settlement of the results. It is purely a question of the success of a summer session as compared with a summer vacation and the use of other means to preserve the intensity of the spiritual life. For, whichever plan we adopt, we must see to it, in duty to God and His Church, that some means are taken to avoid this drift. Generally speaking, schools located in the country, or possessing an influx of summer visitors, or composed of humbler social ranks who do not absent themselves from the home town on long vacation, or any combination of these rather fortunate elements, can re- main ox)en and "evergreen" with success. Those in which the reverse of such conditions obtain do better to close. We are inclined to think that the great majority of all schools do well to close a month or more, and that the autumn work is taken up with better zest by both teachers and pupils if a short vacation be the rule, even in the schools of the former class. On the presumption that some study will prevail dur- ing the summer, we venture to commend the following workable and well-tried plans : I90 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY I. A Special Summer Session, with Short Courses of its Own. Under the most favourable couditious, the roster of the summer session is certain to be smaller than that of the winter. Even with a locality that enjoys an influx of visitors, many of the local families go away for change and vacation elsewhere. The summer course should be separate and distinct, and not break the continuity of regular, historical, sequential Bible study as pursued in the regular session. Again, these short summer courses should be graded. To-day grading is taken for granted. All the publishers of graded lessons now set forth such summer courses. The Commission Series has a specially prepared, graded list of source-method text-books. The Graded Series of the Joint Diocesan Lessons has a first- rate summer set of topics. The new Graded Syndicate Lessons have a remarkable summer quarter of extra- Biblical lessons. The Bible Study Series includes quar- terlies suitable for a summer course. Where a summer school, numbering, say one-half the winter school, can be assembled, we would certainly advise its continuance. II. A Summer Assemblage with Addresses to the Whole School. Often the problem of sufficient teachers to conduct classes, even though they be larger than usual in size, forces the situation. Many very successful summer schools, even in large cities like New York, are kept in active operation all through the hottest Sundays, gather- ing for a short service of fifteen minutes, with a brief lesson or address on some Bible story, or on the Catechism, or Christian Year, or Prayer Book, or even some so-called secular ''story," such as can be found in that practically helpful book, ''Glimpses through Life's Windows," by J. E. Miller. This style of session also provides abundant opportunity for catecliising, so frequently necessarily emitted from the winter sessions for lack of time. SUMMER HAND-^GRIPS 191 III. Home Study Each Week, with School Credits. Why not organize the winter school at vacation time into a Home Department SchooH It can be accomi^lished readily, if enthusiastic cooperation be the spirit of the school and its teachers. Give each pupil a text-book suited to his grade, following a graded curriculum. Use a text-book built for personal Bible study and written an- swer work. Arrange to give full credit for every book re- turned in the autumn fully and correctly filled up. Ask that one lesson be studied and prepared each week, not all together at the end. The vast majority of pupils will eagerly acquiesce in this plan. By it, not only is knowledge thus being secured and the school course pursued better, but God's Word is winning its spiritual message of up- lift and inspiration in a manner that through its quiet, un- distracted perusal in the home, will in more than a single instance keep a soul from summer's sinful allurements. IV. Vacation Credits in Other Schools. It is quite a custom among many Christian bodies for children to habitually attend Sunday-school in any summer resort where they chance to spend vacation, bring a vacation school attendance card, with credit noted, and even their extra summer offerings for the home school. Inquire of children whose families spend vacation out of town and learn if there be not a summer school session in the resort. If there be, arrange to give credit in the home school, and temporarily transfer the pupil, notifying the summer minister. Of course, this entails considerable clerical work; but what are school secretaries for? Give secretaries plenty of work. The more they have, the more they will appreciate God's service. The same advice as to vacation attendance applies to the summer resort school and its secretary, who should seek out and encourage such attendance. 192 THE SUNDA Y-SCHOOL OF TO-DA Y V. Daily Bible Readers' League. In addition to all these safeguards and positive i)ro visions, there is a step of personal upbuilding that is too seldom cultivated. Why should not a card be sent through the school that closes for the summer, seeking to pledge each member daily to read and meditate upon God's message to him- self in the Bible text % Many will respond, and as much be gleaned in the way of knowledge and probably much more in the way of spiritual help than would ensue from the regular school sessions during the summer. It is well worth the trial. But there are still other lines of spiritual uplift, hand- grips to prevent lowered spiritual vitality, that can well be used. VI. Pledges to Weekly Attendance at Church Serv- ice. It is seldom that services are discontinued during the vacation period. Usually there will be found, both at the home church and the summer resort, a church with both morning and evening service. Get the pupils to sign a pledge card, previous to the disbanding of the school, agreeing to attend at least one service each Lord^s Day, either Holy Communion or morning or even- ing prayer. It will keep the soul keen to spiritual im- pressions, keep the edge, as it were, to the conscience, and protect by divine power from many and many a subtle, lowering temptation, which in the day of summer laxity is all too strongly needed. We have not dis- charged our duty as overseers of the flock of Christ unless we grasp every available precaution to prevent a de- preciation of moral tone or a lapsing and drifting from the high standards recognized as the norm during the winter. Summer heat does not excuse summer sin. Every possible incentive that reminds the young of the Sunday-school and its teachings, even though, in them- SUMMER HAND-GRIPS I93 selves, tliey be purely social aud recreative, slioald be undertaken by the school aud the teachers. Here are a few samples : VII. An Annual Sunday- School Excursion. The method aud place of such excursions naturally vary with locality aud social make-up of the school ; but the idea is a good one. There are, however, excursions and excur- sions. It all depends upon the "tone" interjected, or, better, interwoven naturally, with the excursion. Ath- letic contests, gymkaua sports, baseball games, etc., are all uplifting, and cultivate interest and cooperation. Often a short service is held at the church in the morn- ing, preceding the embarkation, to consecrate the day to God' s glory. This sets a splendid psychological example, preaching the sermon tJiat all our pleasures and sports should be ever such as make for the glory of God and His world. Similar to the excursion, and often taking its place, where such cannot conveniently be held, or supplement- ing it in more active schools, come such hand-grips as class trolley rides, day seaside or mountain trips of parties more or less large in number, and the formation of baseball teams, playing competitive games with other teams, other Sunday-schools, etc., all through the summer. Local interest in these games grows greatly, aud it is not unusual to see a town where half the congregation turn out Saturday afternoons to watch their Sunday-school play a neighbouring one for a pennant. Even in a city like I^ew York, schools secure diamond permits for Bronx or Yan Cortlandt Parks and appear there each week in healthy cooperative games. VIII. Summer Camps for Sunday-School or Choir. These are becoming quite "the thing" and are highly 194 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY commendable. There is uo way of getting so close to boys aud building them up so readily into a manly, noble conception of life and character as through the camp. Many pastors, many choirmasters, many teachers conduct such camps. Sometimes they are for any boys in the school, sometimes for a group or a class. The Y. M. C. A.'s of New York are placing their splendid summer camps at the disposal of the Sunday-schools and churches, taking individual boys at a nominal cost, far less than the actual outlay involved in running the camp. The Brotherhood of the Eed Diamond, a highly spiritual and excellent interdenominational organization in New York, is assuming a national formation and plans to outfit and organize such camps for the churches. It already has a large camp on the Shrewsbury for individual boys, applying from the churches. The Boy Scout Movement, though it sadly lacks the religious impulse and tone, so essential, we feel, for such camps, offers, however, the same plan and attractions, and, if conducted by a church- man of vision, will rendei' effective results. So will the Boys' Biigades, though to an extent they are passing out of vogue, possibly because they, too, lack spiritual per- spective and are costly in equipment. IX. Festivals, Entertainments, Etc. Still another type of hand-grip, cultivating the social element under church atmosphere and influence, will be such entertain- ments as ice-cream and strawberry festivals, open-air entertainments, Japanese gardens, etc. — in fact, any sort of social feature that tends to bring the people, young and old, within the pale of church thought. Of course none of such plans, enumerated under headings VII , VIII, or IX, are to be compared with, or preferably substituted for, the innately spiritual plans first recounted ; but they are excellent adjuncts, and substitutes only to an extent. SUMMER HAND-GRIPS 195 wlien it is foiiud impossible to use the former better ones. We should be certain, however, that the former are im- possible. - X. The Touch of Individual Teachers. In spite of all that the school collectively or teachers remaining at the home base personally can accomplish, there remains the certainty that some teachers (and in a few schools all of them) will be away themselves, in other places on vacation. Is there no responsibility for them? Have they no duty as to hand-grips % Is there nothing that they can do to stir up the faith of the scholars from whom they are separated % Several grips are at once apparent. They may send a weekly letter to each scholar and ask an occasional one in return. These letters may be social in character, but the very fact of the teacher's interest, the very thought of her, linked with the monitions of the Sunday school, is uplifting. But the true teacher (con- scious that she is, or ought to be an ideal, looked up to as a spiritual monitor) will interject counsel and warnings against temptations, customs, etc., and add appeals for Bible reading, church attendance, etc. Other types of personal touch, which are of value as impressing each pupil with the individual eager interest of the teacher, are found in sending frequent souvenir post-cards, presentation of gifts and souvenirs, and invita- tions to visit at the vacation abode of the teacher. All these are well worth while. Finally, looking forward continually, reminders of rally day to come, when, at the reopening of school, the teacher hopes to meet all her re- turning pupils, prepare the heart to cordial inclinations to begin promptly and eagerly the autumn work. All these are summer hand-grips. IX HOW TO STAET THE SCHOOL MACHIKERY UJ^DEE FULL STEAM ON RALLY DAY VACATIONS are both a belp and a liindraDce. Naturally, they are a help because of coDsequent relaxation, recreation, and the upbuilding of strength and renewal of energy. We come again to the old work with fresh zeal and impetus. But vacations are also a hindrance, from the very laws of habits broken along routine lines and habits formed aloug lines of new resistance. The public school recog- nizes these phases, resultant from vacations. Public- school teachers expect to spend much of the first fort- night of the reopened school life in restoring to the pupils the spirit of the school, its discipline, order, study, regularity of life and system. Restlessness, dis- order, play — to say nothing of irregularity and tardiness — mark the opening weeks. Summer recreation and vacation schools help somewhat to eliminate the reac- tion ; but not altogether. In the Sunday school, particularly in the larger cities, where vacations are longest and a summer exodus occurs of both puiiils and teachers, the element of the haphazard Sunday-school enters, with the introduction of an atmos- phere that is utterly subversive of proper efficiency and destructive of high ideals of the value and worth of the Sunday-school in the eyes of both teachers and taught. The serious problem in the situation is that, on account of its few and scattered sessions and its brief period for instruction, this atmosphere is not so quickly dissipated 196 HOIV TO START ON RALLY BAY 197 as it is in the public scliool, and quite frequeutly it cliugs, remaiuiug as a permaueut attitude towards the school, irregular atteudance, lack of punctuality, a dis- respect for the entire system, placing it in the category of things of secondary interest and importance. The general Sunday-school world has felt this hin- drance so keenly that all manner of devices have been contrived to bring about as large as possible an attend- ance the opening Sunday. The term ^'Eally Day" has been coined, and "Eally Day Devices'' of all sorts are sold by the millions — pins, badges, post-cards, buttons, flags, ribbon hangers, etc. The ethical value of such traps is doubtful. Even the practical value as an allure- ment wears off after a year or so. The moral effect on the ideal of the Sunday-school as a school of religious education, in the eyes of parents and children, has yet to be tested. Judging by the apparent decrease in Sun- day-school attendance and enrollment, it is harmful and unwise. Building Up An Atmosphere. The term Eally Day is a good one. Its psychological result is to create a spirit of enthusiastic cooperation, with a beneficial, help- ful institution. Reopening Sunday can very well be termed, throughout the year. Rally Day, and frequent '^ clinchers'' nailed into its power, as a name, by always saying that w^e expect every parent, pupil and teacher to live up to it, and give the school one hundred per cent, of atteudance at the Rally Day session. But much more than this is essential. N'o atmosphere can be created in a day. It takes years of patient building, parents' meet- ings throughout the year, talks with parents personally on parochial calls and in pastoral or superintendent's letters. Parents must be brought to realize that the school is doing their work freely, without taxation, for 198 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY the love of God's kiugdom and iov love of their childreD, beeaiise they themselves are either unwilliDg or unable to teach their offspring properly. Love aud loyalty should briug them to send their children and, if teachers, to come themselves the first Sunday. This atmosphere de- pends to a large extent upon three persons — the rector, the superintendent and the teacher. It can be created iu every parish. Practical Methods for Rallying the School. Most of the ''devices," as we have said, are, to our mind, harm- ful rather than helpful. Of them all, one, however, is productive of a spirit of '' personal touch " that breathes cordiality and is winsome. It is to make up for each school, each department, if you wish, " Our Own Post- Cards." Post-cards are not only the rage and craze at present, but they serve as an effective free advertisement scheme, since so many, other than the direct recipient, are apt to read and profit by them. "Our Own Post- Cards" are made in this way : Have a photograph taken of a group of children and a teacher entering the Sunday- school door of the church or parish house, with the rector (or the Sunday-school curate) and the superintendent standing outside at the door, welcoming them, each bending down to shake hands with one of the approach- ing group. Have a half-tone cut made of this, post-card size, costing about fifteen cents a square inch, say, about two dollars and fifty cents only. From that plate, any local printer can print post-cards for about two dollars a thousand, including the card stock. If the personal signa- ture of the above officers be added to the photograph before it be used in making the plate, it will add to the personal touch an interest. A welcome invitation and appeal to be on hand and on time Eally Day can be either printed on the card as it goes through the press HOW TO START ON RALLY DAY 199 in type or writteu neatly on the original i)botograj)li. These cards may be nsed year after year in small schools, or made up from a new grouping each year in large ones, or even a special card for each department, with changed superintendents or teachers, may be prepared. Another helpful plan is an imitation typewritten letter to the parents, sent out by the superintendent, in which, on a single sheet, a direct and vigorous appeal and statement are made, placing the responsibility where it belongs— on the home and the parents. If small '' elite" type be used, about one-fifth more words can be crowded on the page. The letter ought to be signed in ink by the superintendent, to give it the personal touch which we are so urgent to secure for its humanizing effect on otherwise dead machinery. Of course, it is expected in every live school that each teacher will indite a personal pen-and-ink letter to each pupil in the class, urging promi^t return. This should be spoken of by the superintendent at the close of school, at the last teachers' meeting, not as an appeal, but as a matter of course, ''the regular routine in every well- ordered and conscientious school, which, of course, this one is." Moreover, this ought not to be left to chance memory. Most schools send out a letter from the super- intendent to the teachers themselves a fortnight before Eally Day. A reminder of this expected duty, the per- sonal note to the pupils, ought to be a section of the teachers' letter. Thus three mail communications are brought to bear upon the pupil to get him back in time to reopen school sessions with a swing. But frequently this is not enough, and we should leave no stone unturned to secure results in God's work. In many parishes most of the teach- ers, if not all, will be in town a fortnight before school convenes. Let the teachers' letter urge them to 200 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY personally visit every borne a week before Eally Day, call on the parents and scholar and j)lead the cause of Eally Day. This ought to be in addition to the x)ersonal letter of the teacher and the call of the school and the note to parents. Again, as it ofttimes happens, children of one family are scattered among several classes, it brings from one to four or five school visitors to a single home the same week. The moral and religions effect on that home cannot fail to be productive of splendid results for the Church and its services on the parents' part as well as school attendance for the children. In some parishes the teachers are called together for a teachers' meeting a week or so before Eally Day. Then the new books are given each teacher and she is supposed to call and see each pupil before Eally Day, giving the new class book, and indicating to parent and child how it is to be studied under the advance course topic. The Sunday-School Follow-up System. No prac- tical business man is content with sending out a cata- logue or one letter after a reader has been caught by an attractive advertisement and written for informa- tion. He has a careful and productive "follow-up sys- tem." So the Sunday-school ought to be equally efficient as a follow-up organization. Eally Day, we will sup- pose, passes and the school, with all its appeals, has se- cured but eighty per cent, of its last year's enrollment. A good system ought to get a definite report within two weeks of every single name not found on Eally Day's en- rollment. About one-fourth of an average city Sunday- school changes each year. The causes for absence are re- moval to another town or to another section of the city, going to some other Sunday-school, indifference, death and removal without leaving a trace. System should enter in there at once. A proper transfer should be HOIV TO START ON RALLY DA Y 201 mailed, unasked, to, first, the scholar at the new address, and, synchronously, second, to the rector of the nearest church school, with the request to call at once and report whether the child is connected with his school, or, if not, with what one. All this data should go on the record cards of the former school. Of course, the pupils leaving no address cannot be traced or followed up, though entry should be made for future needs. Often they suddenly reappear after a year or more of disappearance. But the real missionary work lies with the indifferent and careless truant. Many means of pressure should bear on him. His name can be given to some young peo- ple's organization, whose members will call personally on him. The teacher may call and get him the next Sunday and bring him to class. A delegation may be sent after him. Every week new pressure should be exerted, until he "is compelled to come in." A powerful incentive in many parishes, where exami- nations are held at the close of the spring term, is to offer to all pupils, who either failed or did not take the exami- nation, a new chance to pass off the topic and enter the old class, advanced now, without "conditions," if he come to the examining committee promptly on Eally Day. The fear of not being able to go on with his class later will prevent many careless delinquents from putting off coming, having it really in their minds not to leave school entirely, but to drop in "about Christmas" for the pres- ents of that gladsome season and the activities of the mid- winter session. Under such methods, a certain large city school found that there were not ten of the 180 absentees of Eally Day who did not either return or become finally accounted for within the opening mouth. X TEACHERS AND TEACHER TRAINING ONLY secoud to the organization problem in a school stands the problem of efficient teachers. To a large extent the teacher determines the situation in the modern Sunday-school movement. It is the one excuse that is continually urged against the up-to- date Sunday-school. It is the one insistent wail of the hesitating pastor or superintendent. The lack of compe- tent and effectively trained teachers is fally recognized both by the national and the state Sunday-school author- ities, and by the individual ministers and superintendents. Few schools consider that they have a sufficient numher of teachers. No school is altogether satisfied with the qualifications^ either in the knowledge of child-develop- ment, progressive educational methods, modern pedagogy, or proper preparation in the subject-matter taught. How to Secure Efficient Teachers. There are mani- festly two ways to secure teachers effectively trained to guide young souls in religion. One way is to train the staff one already has, the de- tails of which we shall consider presently. The second is to go out into the neighbourhood and get them, securing those already comparatively well trained and fitted. The most unsatisfactory method is to ask for helpers at random from the congregation, unless one has both insight and courage to enable one to face the rejection of unsuitable candidates. Securing New Teachers. By far the best Sunday- school teachers come from the ranks of those who teach, or have taught, in the public schools, and are presumably 202 TEACHERS AND TEACHER TRAINING 203 graduates of teachers' colleges, or normal schools. They are almost useless iu an ungraded school, where in a graded school they will form the backbone of a corps of workers that will bring the school right up to high pedagogical efficiency. The most successful and direct way to secure such teachers is to canvass the list of com- municants in the congregation, learning who are, or have been, secular teachers. A personal interview in the home of such a one will en- able the superintendent (or principal if there be one) to determine the general character and habits of the proposed teacher, and then to lay before him, or her, the direct '^call" to take part in this blessed work of God's king- dom. This appeal, we feel strongly, should never be made as a personal favour to help the minister or superin- tendent, or even for the honour of the particular school ; but laid upon the hearer solely as a personal opportunity for doing God's work. It might be presented strongly that the ^'call " is as direct a one to use one's talents, as is the call to the ministry, to the medical profession, to the missionary field, to nursing, or to any other noble profession. It is determined by the three baptismal vows which each earnest communicant acknowledges. The first vow is the negative one, the renunciation of evil without which no one is acceptable in God's sight to perform His work. The seconds vow implies right thinking, the belief in the Articles of the Christian Faith. Both these vows are generally acknowledged, and to a greater or less extent performed. But the third vow is the one most frequently omitted and overlooked. It involves the positive phase of ' ' Keep- ing God's Holy Will and Commandments," that is of doing in a positive way good deeds to make the world better for one's having lived. Yet the vast majority of 204 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY maukiud are couteut with tryiug to save themselves merely. They are content to sit in pews and listen to sermons, or attend services for their own edification, whereas "pure religion, and undetiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows, . . . and to keep one's self unspotted from the world," — in which mandate the use of one's talent is balanced against the renunciation of one's sin. It is very seldom that the "call" to use one's own peculiar talents does not strike home when presented in this cogent fashion. A school may be recruited with a satisfactory equipment of new teachers, qualified and capable, in a fortnight's visitation by an enthusiastic superintendent. How to Get Teachers to Train. It is a common ex- perience with all those who have tried to institute teacher training classes that the teachers who attend most regularly are those who need the training the least, and that those who are most inefficient and unskilled are usually the most complacent and self satisfied, and so absent themselves on one pretext or another. It is usually found to be "the wrong way around" to under- take to train the teachers first and then institute the graded system, for the very teachers who are least capable of handling the graded system are the very ones who do not recognize their condition and are the most difficult to eliminate from the school. The best plan is to install the graded system, not gradually, as we have before said, but all at once, after, of course, prolonged and careful canvassing and plan- ning, with a clear understanding on the part of the teach- ers and officers as to the details and rationale of the system. In a few weeks the teachers fiud that they are over- whelmed. The least capable recognize their inefficiency and for the first time in their history this class feels its TEACHERS AND TEACHER TRAINING 205 need. Uutil the need is felt there will be little apprecia- tiou of training. When the need is felt, trainiDg will at once follow. The teachers who will not train are soon forced to resign. The others acquire reraarkable efficiency in a very brief time. The school does not suffer. The enthusiasm of the new movement not only swings it along with weekly increasing attendance, but brings in a number of skilled and efficient teachers who formerly held aloof from what they considered unsatisfactory and ungraded schools. The graded system has never been found to fail to work after careful planning, where a campaign of enlightenment preceded it. On the other hand, it is seldom found practicable to train the teachers first and install the system later. Hand- In-hand with the graded system should go an intense wave of local teacher training, both in each city and centre, and in the individual church. Commissions are establishing training schools in large cities. Extension classes are beiug instituted, and individual churches are organizing normal classes as part of their regular curric- ulum. Just as every graduate of Columbia University to-day has to pass through a course on "education," i. e., pedagogy, whether he intends to become a public school teacher or not, so each graduate of the Sunday-school ought to have some training in the study of child nature and in the elements of teaching, for whether he become a Sunday-school teacher or not, he will probably become a teacher of children in the home. Many a parent would have literally saved children from moral wreckage if he had but understood child nature and known how to handle and train his youthful progeny. . Types of Teacher Training. J. A Training Hcliool. A training school is usually the outgrowth of previous tentative annual training classes. 2o6 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY The principles of its establishment have been "tried out," in at least two Episcopal Dioceses of America and one in England, so that the method is now i)ractically estab- lished. The course for teacher training which after care- fnl consideration by the Sanday-School Federation and by the Joint Commission on Eeligious Instruction, — now the General Board of Eeligious Education, has become the standard to-day, and is, perhaps, the highest standard ever established, requiring one hundred and twenty hours, spread through a three-years' curriculum, entitling one to a complete diploma. The course is as follows : Outline of the Course Subject Class Work 1 Principles of Suuday-school Teaching 8 hours 2 Child Study 8 hours 3 History and Organization of the Sunday-School 5 hours 4 The Oid Testament 25 hours 5 The Land of tlie Bible . . . 5 hours 6 The Gospels and the Life of Christ 15 hours 7 The Acts and the Epistles 15 hours 8 Church History (including Missions) 15 hours 9 The Church Catechism and Christian Doctrine . 10 hours 10 The Prayer Book and Christian Worship ... 8 hours 11 The Christian Year 6 hours Total 120 hours Divisions of the Course It is understood that any subject in the Standard Course may be taken up separately, and at any time, or in any order, and due credit given for its mastery. Yet, presuming that a three years' plan will in the main be found desirable, the fol- lowing arrangement has been suggested : First Year'' 8 Work Principles of Sunday-school Teaching 8 hours Child Study 8 hours Gospels and Life of Christ 15 liours Christian Year 6 hours Total 37 hours TEACHERS AND TEACHER TRAINING 207 Second Yearns Work Acts and Epistles 15 hours Catechism aud Christian Doctrine 10 hours Prayer Book aud Church Worship 8 hours History and Organization of the Sunday-school . 5 hours Total 38 hours Third Year's Work The Old Testament 25 hours The Land of the Bible 5 hours Church History and Missions 15 hours Total 45 hours The establishment of such a course is comparatively easy. Any state can select a place in its chief city and centre and establish the first year's course with a small fee which ranges from three dollars in New York to four dollars in Massachusetts, covering the entire year's work. The second year's course can be added after the first course is completed, and the first year's course continued the second year. The third year finds all three courses in session, and the entire curriculum established. In Massachusetts the full curriculum is now running with about one hundred and fifty teachers in attendance throughout the different subjects and courses. In New York, also, the school is well established for the Episcopal Church ; while the Bible Teachers' Insti- tute has a school building and a complete equipment, with an enrollment of several hundred students. Teach- ers in such schools can take one course, or all of them, as desired, certificates being given for individual courses and the diploma for the whole. It has also been arranged with the International Sun- day-School Association that its diplomas and certificates will be awarded on presentation of the examination marks to the state secretaries of teacher training. II. Extension Training Classes with Imported Lecturers 2o8 THE SUNDA Y-SCHOOL OF TO-DA V at Five to Fifteen Dollars a Lecture. These traiuiug classes have been most successfully conducted iu rnauy centres during the past few years. They are offered for the larger cities and towns, either for single schools or for a combination of two or more schools. They are short and very practical. They admit up to three hundred teachers. The courses run from twelve to fifteen lectures, usually one a week, though any special arrangements can be made in each instance. The expenses of travelling are, of course, extra, when the lecturer has to journey to the city arranging the class. These fees are payable by the parish either directly from school funds, from special subscrip- tions, from a tax on each teacher as a course-fee, or from the sale of tickets issued for a course. Lecturers travel to the farthest limits, if desired, save in special instances. Examinations are offered with these courses and the teachers given credit points towards diplomas, which may be gained with additional points either through further extension classes, or private reading. III. Local Talent for Churches in or near a Large City with an Adequate Bay -school Corps. Churches unable to arrange for a paid lecture course, if near a large city, can readily secure individual addresses or a regular course by enlisting the aid of teachers in the public or private schools or colleges, or perhaps by interchange with neigh- bouring clergy. Such courses are proving exceptionally helpful in many cities. There is every reason why they should succeed. IV. Inspirational Spealcers ivith Parochial Talent. Churches, unable either to meet the cost of a paid lec- turer or combine with other churches, or secure day-school lecturers free, can call special meetings of all teachers, parents, and young people who might become teachers, and arrange with the authorities for a specinl ^' inspira- tional speaker" for one address only, to start the class on TEACHERS AND TEACHER TRAINING 209 a course of study, mappiug out a series of lectures and quizzes to be conducted by the pastor, or some one of their own number, as local classes. Several churches have such classes every alternate year, as a new crop of teachers develop. F. Farisli Classes. Similarly, ministers and superin- tendents may arrange an entire course of from ten to twenty-five lectures, using as a syllabus ''Sunday-School Teaching,'' a one hundred and seventy-five page manual, for fifty-five cents, postpaid, obtainable through the ]^ew York Sunday-School Commission. A travelling library of books for collateral reading for the teachers or con- ductor of the class may be secured through the Com- mission, at five cents per week. The conductor uses ''Religious Education" as his own text-book. VI. A Regular Teacher Training Class in the Sunday- school, such as we have noted above. Such classes usually meet in the Sunday-school hour, or as a part of the grad- uate work of the Sunday-school, and are in addition to the local class noted under V. VII. Rome Beading Courses. This is a plan which any teacher can pursue, by the help of the recommended books. The books are to be read at home, and then the diocesan examiners offer an examination, or require some equivalent evidence of the work done, before recommend- ing the teacher for a diploma. Several centres have drawn up reading courses of their own. In cases where no such course has been arranged, or where no diocesan examiners have been appointed, the Board of Religious Education will undertake the guid- ance of teachers, and recommend the books. While the standard course is constructed with a view to actual training classes for Sunday-school teachers, it will also be possible to obtain the diplomas through read- ing and home study on the part of teachers. 2IO THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY Persons who present evidence of having done reading on the various subjects, and who meet whatever recxuire- ments are set by the diocesan examiners, or by the Board of Eeligious Education, equivalent to the requirements in the case of those studying in training classes, will be en- titled to the respective diplomas. The following books are particularly recommended : ** Rehgious Education," Smith, 525 pp., $2.00. This summarizes all the other books. " Sunday-School Teaching," Smith, 50 cents. *' A Primer of Teaching," Adams, 25 cents. *' The Point of Contact in Teaching," Dubois, 75 cents. ** Syllabus to the Above," Hervey, 10 cents. " How to Plan a Lesson," Brown, 50 cents. " The Art of Questioning," Fitch, 15 cents. '* How to Keep Order," Huglies, 15 cents, "The Art of Holding Attention," Fitcli, 15 cents " Unconscious Tuition," Huntington, 15 cents. "The Boy Problem," Forbush, $1.00. " A Study in Child Nature," Harrison, $1.00. "Picture Work," Hervey, 35 cents. "Talks to Teachers," James, $1.50. " Syllabus to the Above," Hervey, 5 cents. With all these varied types of training, adaptable to practically every conceivable situation, there is no excuse save inertia and indifference on the part of clergy or officers for lack of an adequate number of efficiently trained teachers, or the installation of the graded system. In England, after a movement of but two years' exist- ence, more than three thousand teachers are in train- ing, and St. Christopher's College has a residentiary membership of half a hundred. With a general movement towards educational effi- ciency the Church will rapidly assume her proper place as the educator of the young. XI HOW TO PEODUCE EFFICIENT EESULTS FROM THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL RESULTS,the Fundamental Principle. Through- out all the preceding chapters we have, over and over agaiu, stressed results. We have en- deavoured to show a principle behind the entire organiza- tion of the up-to-date Sunday-school. We have em- phasized the practical and utilitarian purpose and end of every form, blank, or method. We have endeavoured to have nothing that was unnecessary or productive of merely routine and red tape, and we have sought to minimize and reduce, so far as was consistent with re- sults, the amount of work and labour to be performed. There has been an ideal consciously active behind every method. The vast majority of Sunday-schools to-day, severe as the arraignment may seem, do not produce 7'esulfs, or at least results commensurate with the effort involved. Machinery, in Itself, Will Not Yield Results. Now, results cannot be secured by machinery alone. There must be ''the spirit within the wheels," that is the superintendent, the officers, the teachers, must have a clear and conscious object or end to be secured in each step, and none of them should rest content until that re- sult be produced. If the plan or method does not pro- duce that result then it is not only a waste, but an actual hindrance, cumbering the ground. It should either be altered to produce results, or eliminated. In the long 211 212 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY run human nature is the same the world over for the same age and type of scliolar, so that plans working in one place with a grou^) of scholars, of a certain type, ouglit to work in another place. That they do not do so depends (1) uiDon local atmosphere, which can be gradually altered, or ( 2) lack of cooperation on the part of parents, the scholars themselves, or the clergy and congregation, or (3) the lack of clear understanding on the part of the pupils and parents, for the officers and teachers may know what they are trying to do, but may be working at cross purposes with the plastic material they are molding, or (4) and, worst of all, the superintendent and a few officers may know their purx)ose and plan, but yet the corps of teachers may be working in the dark. How the Principle Works. Now, in each point the up-to-date Sunday-school should seek and secure results in character building. Laying aside for our purpose now the basis of the curriculum, and sequence of studies, let us tabulate briefly the principle or purpose behind each piece of mechanical method that is used. The Enrollment Card secures data for influencing the scholar towards holy baptism, confirmation, school clubs and organizations. It provides school authorities with the knowledge of the original atmosphere, from which the child has come in the home and in the previous school. It secures a routine under which there is no possibility of omission of further records, which might involve lack of oversight of the child, or delay its reception of ideals of proper giving and lesson study. The Roster Card is for the purpose of securing an alphabetical roll of the school for notices, records, etc. The various Honour Rolls, Certificates^ Rejwrts, Records^ etc., are for the definite purpose of securing individual re- sults by working upon the ambition or the altruistic or TO PRODUCE EFFICIENT RESULTS 213 moral impulses of each scholar. The very attitude of the tiptoe Pages is designed to create a psychological effect in character- building. Tlie Dwplex Envelope System of Offering trains in the ideals of weekly giving. The Private Prayer Cards, the Prayers for Entering and Leaving Church, the required Church Attendance, the Types of Hymns selected, the Mudc played previous to the open- ing of the school, and during the routine j)eriod, are all designed to inculcate the habits of the highest si)iritual life. There is not a point in the entire record system that does not contribute something, peculiar to itself, towards the uplift of the scholar. There is no unnecessary red tape nor duplication of records that could otherwise be avoided, and not a penny's waste of money in securing supi^lies. Once the superintendents realize that the machinery of the Sunday-school has a direct analogy in the machinery of manufacture, in which there is neither unnecessary friction, nor dui)licated wheels, much of the lack of method will be at once eliminated, and many spiritual results, that are now lacking, will be secured through properly spiritualized machinery. National Ideals. But the school does not exist merely for itself. It exists foi- the Church at large, and for the nation. The school, like the individual, that saves itself only, is missing the chief purpose of life. The school should be a power in the nation. It should mold the ideal to the community. In many places the betterment of the city, the ideals of a city beautiful, and a city clean, the provision for playgrounds, and recreation centres, the im- provement of moving picture shows, the elimination of rowdyism, the ideals for moral culture, are securable 214 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY directly through wide-awake children in progressive schools. An excellent plan to produce something of the city conscience is the use of the Moral Education Lectures, prepared lectures with stereopticon slides, issued by the Moral Education Board at Baltimore, obtainable also through the New York Sunday- School Commission. The Social Spirit. The true aspect of the political life and responsibility spells missionary interest and brotherhood. The church school which merely prepares its pupils for life in the church and in the home, with no sense of regard for civic ideals, and national betterment, is failing in its mission. The social spirit, and by this we mean the broad ideals of municipal welfare, and civic and trade betterment, should run through the entire school, and be a motive power behind all altruistic en- deavour. Public schools are already becoming a power in the nation. Church schools of religion should be an even greater leaven. But unless the pastor, the superintend- ent, the officers, catch the vision the school will be inert and dead, save for its own individual life. Sooner or later this dead type of school will die of sheer lack of momentum. The future of the Sunday-school depends on the vision of its leaders. XII A NATIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZED THE Unfortunate Origin of the Sunday-School. It is unfortunately due to the origin and gene- sis of the Sunday-school movement that Sun- day-schools to-day exist among all Christian bodies almost as independent and individual units in church life, rather than as integral, well- articulated parts of the machinery of a properly organized system. The origin of the Sunday-school was due to a Layman's Movement, independent of ecclesiastical initiative, free from ecclesiastical control or direction. The first Sun- day-schools were conducted by laymen and met in hired rooms and halls outside of the Church ; then the Church opened her doors, usually the basement doors, and beckoned the Sunday-schools in with a rather indifferent welcome. From that day to this the general attitude of the Church and the Sunday-school has been the unfortu- nate one of independence, in spirit at least, and stands even for more or less hostility and individualism. But even when the Sunday-school and the Church have beer: properly welded and their work coordinated and unified, an extreme and bitter parochialism has founded a cor- porate organization throughout the Church. The result has been chaos. Our Chaotic Condition. Not only is there no general system of lessons to-day in exclusive use throughout the schools of any one Christian body, but in no one section of the country, in no diocese of the Episcopal Church, for 215 2i6 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY example, is every school using the same system. lu fact it will usually happen that no two schools in the same city are precisely alike. Within a certain radius this is but natural and proper, for there should always be allowance made for local differences and the individuality and atmosphere peculiar to each school, as well as to each individual. But when it comes to divergent systems and discord in text-books the injury of this lack of co- ordination and cooperation is manifest. In our public school system a child moving from east to west will at once find his proper place in the new school. In our Sunday-school system he may repeat the same lessons, or he may have a totally different type of text-book, or he may have no lessons at all. The entire religious world has felt this unfortunate difficulty and successful steps to remedy it are already in progress. The Lutherans, of all shades of belief, are commencing to ^'pull together" in the General Council System, the best graded lessons ever produced among them. The Method- ists, Presbyterians, and Congregatioualists have adopted the New Subject Graded Syndicate Lessons, practically the curriculum of the Episcopal Church, minus the li- turgical and doctrinal material. The Baptists have taken the same subjects and lesson passages, i. e., the same curriculum, and produced their own lessons to suit their doctrinal position. The Commission Movement. We must take a lesson from the Day-school System. The various Sunday- school forces of each Christian body, either independ- ently, or through the International Organization, must, sooner or later, form a thoroughly vertebrated system for Eeligious Education. Since it chances that the Episco- pal Church led the Eeform Movement in Eeligious Edu- cation, Child-study, and Grading, so it happens that it is A NATIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZED 217 the first Christian body to ]3erfect mechauical organiza- tion throughout the nation. Its organization is, like that of the secuhir Government, representative, and, like the Public School System, it reaches each unit in the mass. It will examine it, as a model. It began with the so-called Commission Movement in 1908 when the Bishop of New York appointed the New York Sunday -School Commis- sion, then numbering fifteen members. In less than a year after the appointment of the New Y^'ork Commis- sioD, the Long Island Diocese had one ; then Chicago ; and soon diocese after diocese joined the movement, until to-day there is a commissiou, or its equivalent, in practi- cally every diocese and missionary jurisdiction of the Church in America aud Canada. In most dioceses this organization is called a Commis- sion ; in a few an Institute, aud in still fewer, though the movement is growing as a tendency, a Board of Eeligious Education, a ponderous name, but not necessarily more effective. Followiugupon the diocesan organization came the ap- pointment, by the General Convention of the Church in 1904, of a Joint Commission of Sunday-School Instruc- tion composed of twenty-one members, seven from each of the three legislative orders. This Commission was con- tinued by the Convention of 1907, and the Convention of 1910, with larger vision, legislated the Former Joint Commission into a General Board of Eeligious Education of a broad representative character. This Board em- braces in its purview the entire religious work of the Church both in Sunday-schools, day-schools and colleges. Synchronous with the national organization has come a more detailed organization of the diocesan commissions, under which institutes local to cities and accessible centres are rapidly being organized in every section of the country. Moreover, in the larger fields, the General 2i8 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY Board of Religious Education is organizing Sunday scliool dei)artments, coterminous with tlie missionary de- partments of the 'Board of Missions. Each of these de- partments is to hold an annual Sunday-school convention composed of five Sunday-school delegates from each diocese of the department, and each department sends two representatives to sit on the General Board. Thus the organization of the national Church is rapidly ap- proaching perfection so far as machinery goes. The National Organization. At the head stands the General Board of Religious Education, composed of twenty-two members and sixteen department delegates, two from each of these departments. Next to this Board are eight Sunday-school depart- ments covering the entire Church. Within the depart- ments are diocesan commissions, and within the commis- sions are institutes, or branches, reaching every individual parish. Within each parish is the Sunday-school with its organization reaching every child. As organized, the General Board provides its general and field secre- taries, each department appoints its general secretary as field worker, and each diocese secures its local field secre- tary for personal touch with the schools, the organiza- tion, and grading, and the training of teachers. This is the scheme for the national Church. To support it there will be required ample funds numbering or approximating $20,000 a year for the General Board alone. This money, like the income for the Board of Missions, naturally is apportioned to the dioceses in proportion to their missionary assessment. Each diocese in turn may raise its assessment as it will, by subscriptions, by apportionment of the schools, or by diocesan vote. Eventually it will mean that each diocese will raise A NATIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZED 219 fauds (1) for the support of its local secretary aud its own work ; (2) for its share towards the support of the department secretaries, aud (3) for its assessment by the General Board. While this will mean increased giving, it will also mean increased interest, for there cannot be a vital interest in Sunday-school work and its betterment until there be a liberal outpouring, both of sacrifice and of money. This is a principle directly i)arallel with the already proved principles as applied to missions. Why cannot the entire Christian world organize along similar lines to reach the millions of unschooled children % Week- Day Religious Instruction. The past few years have witnessed a most significant and remarkable awaken- ing of the American people of all types of religion throughout the entire country, recording our i)ersonal responsibility for the spiritual training of the child. In Boston, Albany, Brooklyn, New York, Washington, and even Seattle (Wash.), citizens have become aroused and conferences have been held. It is plainly apparent that the public schools have not forearmed our children against sin and crime. Secular education is not meeting the spiritual needs of youth. The nation is educating the bodies and tlie minds, but is utterly neglecting the soul. Under present state laws, since the Wisconsin decision of 1886, the public school cannot supply this deficiency, even if religious differences could agree on a basis or modicum for religious or moral instruction to be in- corporated into the school system. It is an undoubted fact, easily proven by statistics, both economic and penal, that crime is steadily on the increase throughout the length and breadth of our nation. De-spiritualization is proving the moral cancer of our nation, and, if not checked, must spell its downfall. The recent disclosures of callous consciences in men high in public honour and 220 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY esteem, high iu wealth and education, are clear manifes- tations of this blight. Increase in Irreligion. Moreover, churchless Protes- tants, Eomanists, and Jews are on the increase. The re- cent study of religious conditions in greater New York, under the Federation of Churches, shows that the church- less Protestants of New York outnumber the w^hole popu- lation of Nebraska, and are the equivalent of the whole population of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyom- ing. The Public School Situation. While it is not at all assured that the public school could not, if it would, satisfactorily solve the problem, just as Germany has solved it, by the requirement of some form of religious instruction to be given in the schools at an assigned hour each day by *' confessional instructors'' {%. e., doctrinal or sectarian, representing as particular "Confession of Faith") representing the three great religions of that country (Romanism, Lutheranism, and Judaism), these professors of religion being appointed and paid by the churches themselves, although the appointments must be confirmed by the school boards ; yet it would seem likely that in this modern day with our American sense of fair- ness, cooperation and combination, we can adopt a wiser and more satisfactory plan. Week-Day Church Schools. France supplies noth- ing but "moral instruction" of a vaguely religious but extremely patriotic stripe, yet she recognizes the impor- tance of truly religious education, giving a holiday on Tuesdays in order that children may attend their churches for instruction by the parish priests. Under our present disorganized and chaotic condition, both in the churches A NATIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZED 221 at large aud particularly in our haphazard Sunday- schools, this plan, though it would be of some advantage, will not, we venture to think, meet practical require- ments. Several conferences have been held in N"ew York City, led by the Eev. Mr. Wenner of the Grace Lutheran Church, at which Father McMillan of the Paulist Fathers, Bishop Greer, Eabbi Meudes, aud Dr. North urged upon the Board of Education the dismissal of children on Wednesday afternoons, on written application by the parents, to attend their own churches for religious instruc- tion. In Illinois and Ohio, several church parishes have for a . year or more been taking advantage of similar provisions in the laws of their public schools, and in one instance quite successful week-day schools of religious instruction have been maintained. Use of Public School Buildings. But we can safely go somewhat farther. The school buildings are acknowl- edgedly the property of the citizens who have paid for their construction. This is recognized in the New York administration by the use of the schools for evening clubs, debating societies, public lectures, etc. Why would it not be feasible (and it certainly could not arouse the slightest sectarian differences) to have all children dis- missed, say on Wednesday afternoons, and the school buildings themselves, with their pedagogical day-school equipment of separate rooms, desks, maps, blackboards, etc., be freely thrown open to any religious body asking a room for the establishment of a sectarian school for re- ligious instruction in that locality of the city ? There are never less than ten rooms to a school and there are several hundred schools, so that counting all religious bodies it is practically impossible that there should be a dearth of accommodations. It might be urged that the parents of some children would not want any religious 222 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF TO-DAY instruction given, but the statistics of the Federation of Churches have shown that so-called '' atheists" scarcely average more than one to 80,000 even in New York, at least so far as putting themselves down as ''atheists" when it comes to the point of record. It would not be unfair to demand that some amount of religious instruc- tion should be given every child whose parents are en- rolled under some creed. It w^ould also be fair for the school authorities to demand that the religious instruc- tion given and paid for by the churches should be of high educational standards under properly trained teachers, as a condition of securing rooms in a school building. This would put the responsibility clearly and fairly on the religious community. Even if the matter of school attendance on religious instruction was purely voluntary, the fact that such week-day schools were held, and chil- dren dismissed to attend them, would certainly give a marked impetus to the entire matter of religious edu- cation. How Some Have Solved the Problem. Calvary Church, New York, has for several years conducted a week-day school of religion, containing over one hun- dred children, meeting Wednesday afternoons after school hours. The curriculum has been strict and se- vere ; and excellent results have been obtained. This would certainly be practicable in other cities. For many years Australia has met this problem in a provision of adequate confessional religious instruction in the public schools. Even with the broadest American principles of independence and liberty or religious and free thought, of democracy and idealism, there is a single vital objection to be urged against this course. The very expression of unity under which to-day Christian bodies of every name are frankly facing the ultimate outcome of A NATIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZED 223 our Master's prayer, that all might be one, is pointing the way to practical religious instruction. The statement made by a prominent New York judge in 1911, commenting upon the manifest increase in crime among the young, a wave of which was sweeping over the city of New York and has been manifest in every large city of the nation, was that he attributed it directly to the lack of religious instruction in our public schools. This is significant and portentous. If the Sunday-schools to-day are reaching, as a statisti- cian tells us, less than one-half of the youthful popula- tion, and probably not effectively reaching more than one-third, we can see that at best the Sunday-school, even in its most ideal organization, cannot solve the entire problem. The public school must be compelled to supply, or to make provision for, in some way, the spir- itual development of the child, as well as to furnish the other four-fifths of its religious inheritance. A Short Bibliography for Readers In order that readers may be guided towards further reading, we append a short bibliography of former books bearing on the Graded Sunday- School, with a word or two denoting their general attitude towards the Modern Movement. Those marked with a star are particularly valuable and suggestive. *The Modern Sunday-School in Principle and Practice, by Henry Fred- erick Cope (Re veil, $ i.oo). Progressive, inspiring, rather abstract than concrete, but quite suggestive. *The Graded Sunday-School in Principle and Practice, by Henry H. Meyer (Eaton & Mains, 75 cents). A brief statement of the Modern Movement, but not quite so progressive as Cope's book. These two books are practically the last word, up to the present volume, on the Sunday-School Movement. '''Housing the Sunday-School, by Marion Lawrance (Westminster Press, $ 2.00). A new book, just out, and the only volume sufficiently cov- ering the Sunday-school building. It stands, however, primarily, for the modified Akron plan, which is, as we have shown, passing. ^Modern Methods in Sunday-School Work, by the Rev. George White- field Mead, Ph. D. (Dodd, Mead & Co., % 2.00). Exceedingly sug- gestive in the matter of forms and blanks for the school, giving illus- trations of the best forms and their use throughout the United States. '''How to Conduct the Sunday-School, by Marion Lawrance (Revell,^ i-^S). The best Superintendent's Handbook for the large school. The Front Line of the Sunday-School Movement, by Rev. F. N. Peloubet, D. D. (W. A. Wilde, $ i.oo). A statement of ideals at the begin- ning of the Forward Movement in the Schools. The Organized Sunday- School, h-j ]. W. Axtell (Cumberland Press, 75 cents). Grading the Sunday-School, by J. W. Axtell (Cumberland Press, 75 cents). Neither of these books have reached the present standard of Sunday-School Grading. A Practical Handbook on Sunday- School Work, by Rev. L. E. Peters (American Baptist Publication Society, 60 cents). A book on organ- ization along the older methods. The Bible School, by Rev. A. H. McKinney, Ph. D. (Lentilhon & Co., 60 cents). A similar Handbook. Our Sunday-School Work and How To Do It, by the Rev. C. R. Black- all (American Baptist Publication Society, 50 cents). *The City Sunday-School, hy Frank L. Brown (Sunday-School Times, 25 cents). Very excellent and suggestive. 224 BIBLIOGRAPHY 225 '''The Sunday-School and the Home, by Frank L. Brown (Sunday-School Times, 25 cents). Excellent. * The Primary Department, by Ethel J. A.rchibald (Sunday-School Times, 50 cents). Excellent. *7^.? Home Department of To- Day, . Mrs. Flora V. Stebbins (Sunday- School Times, 25 cents). Excel' nt. "1^ Sunday- School Records, Reports, c .ul Recognitions, by E. A. Fox (Sun- day-School Times, 50 cents). Excellent. *The Beginners^ Department, by Angelina W. Wray (Sunday-School Times, 50 cents). Excellent. * Thirty Years at the Superintendent's Desk, by J. R. Pepper (Revell, 25 cents). Brief, but replete with abstract maxims that are very helpful. Index Absentee follow-up system, 140 Absentee superintendent, 120 Address to children^ 178 Address to whole school during summer, 190 Aim of church school, 104 Aim of education, 15 «• Akron plan," 35 Altruism, 167 Attendance at church, 178 Attendance incentives, 146 ; see also Absentees, 140 Bad boys, how to win them, 163 Beginners' grades, 77 Bible Readers' League, 192 Bible Study Company's Lessons, 100 Bibliography for readers, 224-225 Blackboard for kindergarten, 65 Blakeslee Lessons, 100 Books for training classes, 210 Book work illustrated, 160 Boys, bad, how to win them, 163 Building character, 20 Building of church school and its equipment, 61 Buildings for the Sunday-school, 23 Camps for Sunday-school and choir, 193 Character building, 20 Charts for kindergarten room, 62 Child, interest of, 31 Child life, periods, 76 Children's address, 178 Christian service, 167 Church attendance, 178 Church attendance pledge in sum- mer, 192 Church school, aim of, 104 Church school building and equip- ment, 61 Church schools during the week 220 Church school, organization of, 103 Church school principal, 113 Church schools, their progress, 164 Church schoolrooms, 33 Church school societies, 105 Classes named, 168 Class rooms, 53 Class rooms divided by curtains, 57 Clubs, 24, 158 Clubs, accommodation for in parish house, 58 Commencement, 164 Commission Lesson Series, 96 Commission Movement, 2l6 Contents, ii Cooperation of home, 84 Correlation of Sunday-school and church attendance, 176 Correspondence study courses, 29 Courses in summer, 190 Custodian of equipment, 1 19 Custodian of supplies, 118 Curriculum, 25 Curriculum of the New York Sun- day-School Commission, 88-89. Curriculum, principles of, 87 Curriculum, subjects suggested in, 89 Curtains for dividing class rooms, 57 Daylight in churches and parish houses, 46 Days for examinations, 186 Day school grades, 78 Design of parish house, 42 Director of hand-work, 125 Divided class rooms, 57 Doors of parish house, 55 Education, aim of, 15 226 INDEX 227 Entertainments in summer, 194 Equipment, custodian of, 119 Equipment of individual room, 67 Equipment of primary room, 66 Equipment of Sunday-school build- ing, 61 Equipment of walls, i8l Examinations, 185 Examination days, 186 Excursions for Sunday-schools, 193 Extension training classes, 207 Festivals in summer, 194 Fever of unrest, 90 Fire-proof construction of parish house, 51 Five-minute sermon to children, 178 Floors of parish house, 52 Follow-up system for absentees, 140 Follow-up system of the Sunday- school, 200 Font roll, 151 Forward Movement Lessons, 27 Furniture for kindergarten room, 63 General secretary, 116 Giving, 126 Giving systematically, 179 Graded lessons of the Interna- tional, 99 Graded lessons of the University of Chicago Press, 10 1 Graded prayer cards, 172 Graded schools, 25-30 Graded school circular, 80 Graded school, what it is, 30, 75 Grades, Beginners', 77 Grades in day-school, 78 Grades, Primary, 77 Grading, principles of, 30, 78 Grading the small school, 30, 85 Grading a Sunday-school, 30, 79 Graduation, 164 Group work, 165 Hand-grips in summer, 188 Hand-work; see also Manual Work, 31, 160 Hand-work, director of, 125 Heuristic method, 94 Home cooperation, how to gain it, 84 Home Department, 152 Home reading courses, 209 Home report, 141 Home study with school credits in summer, 19 1 Hour for Sunday-school, 177 How to get teachers to train, 202 How to grade a small school, 85 How to prevent •• leak at top," 163 How to produce efficient results from the Sunday-school, 211 How to secure efficient teachers, 202 How to win bad boys, 163 Ideals of the nation, 213 Illustrated book work, 160 Incentives for attendance, 146 Individual rooms, 67 Individual rooms, equipment of, 67 Interest of the child, 31 International graded lessons, 99 Introduction, 7 Irreligion, increase in, 220 Joint Diocesan Lesson System, 97 Kindergarten, 32 Kindergarten, blackboard for, 65 Kindergarten room, charts for, 62 Kindergarten, length of period, 178 Kindergarten room, 62 Kindergarten room, furniture for, 63 Kindergarten room, pictures for, 62 Kindergarten room, walls of, 62 Lantern in Sunday school, 182 " Leak at top," how to prevent, 163 Length of kindergarten period, 178 Length of Sunday-school period, 177 Lessons of Bible Study Company, 100 Lessons, the Blakeslee, too Lessons of Commission Series, 96 Lessons of the Forward Move- . ment, 27 228 INDEX Lessons of the International, 99 Lessons of Joint Diocesan, 97 Lessons of University of Chicago Press, 10 1 Lesson period uninterrupted, 165 Librarian, 129 Light in churches and parish houses, 46 Manual methods, 95, 160 Manual work, director of, 125 Map-making in flat, 162 Map-making in relief, 160 Meetings for parents, 142 Memory work, 77 Methods, 29 Methods, manual, 95 Methods for rallying the school, 1 98 Modelic work, 163 Modern Sunday-school, basis of, 15 Morning Sunday-school hour, 177 Named classes, 168 National Church organized, 215 National ideals, 213 New scholars, entry of, 133 New teachers, securing them, 202 New York Sunday-School Commis- sion's Curriculum, 88-89 Order of studies, 89 Order and system, 106 Organizations, 158 Organization of church school, 103 Organized church of the nation, 215 Pages, 135 Paper pulp, use of, 16 1 Parents, letter to, 84 Parents' meetings, 142 Pastor's address to children, 178 Parish house, circulation in, 42 Construction of, 5 1 Design of, 42 Doors of, 55 Floors of, 52 Stairs of, 44 Style of, 40 Parish training classes, 209 Periods in child life, 76 Pictures for kindergarten rooixii 62 Plan of the text-book, 95 Plans that work, 15 1 Pledges to weekly attendance at church in summer, 192 Prayer cards for the different grades, 172 Primary grades, 32, 77 Primary room, 66 Principal of church school, 87, 1 13 Principles of a well-rounded curric- ulum, 87 Principles of grading, 78 Private worship by scholars, 170 Progress of church schools, 164 Psychological effect of the text- book, 92 Public school buildings, use of, 221 Public school grading, 78 Public school situation, 220 Pupils, arrangement of, 30 Rally Day, 196 Rally Day devices, 197 Rallying the school, 198 Readers' bibliography, 224-225 Reading courses, 209 Recommended books for training classes, 210 Rector's address to children, 178 Registrar, 116 Religious instruction during the week, 219 Report for home, 141 Report secretary, 117 Reward systems, 179 Rooms for classes, 53 Rooms for clubs in parish house, 58 Rooms divided by curtains, 57 Room, individual, equipment of, 67 Room, kindergarten, 62 Room, primary, 66 Routine system, 133 Sample circular of graded school, 80 Sample letter to parents, 84 Scholars, arrangement of, 30 Scholars, private worship of, 170 School, aim of, 104 School council, 131 Schools, graded, 25 INDEX 229 School organization, 103 School principal, 113 Schoolrooms, ventilation of, 48 School, size of, 105 School societies, 105 School for training teachers, 205 School, worst weakness of, 103 Secretarial force, 116 Secretary, general, 116 Secretary, report, 117 Securing new teachers, 202 Self-expression, 31 Separate rooms for Sunday-school classes, 24 Sermon to children, 178 Short courses in summer, 190 Size of school, 105 Small school, how to grade it, 85 Social spirit, 214 Societies, 105, 158 Source method, 94 Stairs of parish house, 44 Standard teacher training course, 206 Starting school after vacation, 196 Stereopticon lantern in Sunday- school, 182 Studies, order of, 89 Style of parish house, 40 Subjects suggested in a curric- ulum, 89 Summer assemblage with address to whole school, 190 Bible Readers' League, 192 Camps for Sunday-school and choir, 193 Church attendance pledge, 192 Courses, 190 Credits for home study, 191 Entertainments, 194 Festivals, 194 Hand-grips, 188 Session with short courses, 190 Sunday-school after vacation, 196 Buildings, 23 Building, equipment of, 61 Excursion, 193 Follow-up system, 200 Grading, 79 Length of period, 177 In the morning, 177 Organization, 103 What it is, 19 What it is not, 16 Worst weakness of, 103 Superintendent, of absentees, 120 Business man, 108 Talks of, 178 Work of, 109 Supplies, custodian of, 118 System for absentees, 140 Of Commission Lessons, 96 Of Joint Diocesan Lessons, 97 Of International Lessons, 99 Of Bible Study Company Les- sons, 100 Of University of Chicago Press Lessons, 10 1 And order, 106 Reward, 179 Routine, 133 Of text books, 93, 96 Systematic giving, 179 Talks to children, 178 Teachers, how to get them to train, 202 How to secure those who are efficient, 202 Individual touch of, 195 Training of, 28, 202 Training courses for, 29 Training, types of, 202 Text-books, best system of, 93 Plan of, 95 Psychological effect of, 92 And systems recommended, 93.96 Time for Sunday-school to meet, 177 Trained teachers, 28 Training classes, books for, 210 Extension work of, 207 Training course, the standard, 206 Training courses, 29 School, 205 Transferring scholars who have moved, 200 Treasurer, 125 Types of teacher training, 205 Uninterrupted lesson period, 165 230 INDEX University of Chicago Press, graded lessons of, loi Unrest, fever of, 90 Use of public school buildings, 220 Vacations, 196 Vacation credits in other schools, 191 Ventilation, attendant on, 126 Of schoolrooms, 48 Walls, their equipment, 181 Of kindergarten room, 62 Week-day church schools, 220 Religious instruction on, 219 What is a graded school ? 75 What the Sunday-school is, 19 What the Sunday-school is not, 16 Work of superintendent, 109 Worship, 178 Printed in the United States of America. THE SUNDAY SCHOOL and THE CHILDREN A. H. McKINNEY, Ph.D. Former Secretary N. Y. State S. S. Association. Practical Pedagogy in the Sunday School l6mo, cloth, net 50c. "The principles which underlie successful teaching are taken up under various heads, as 'Apperception,' 'Adap- tation,' etc., and the art of illustrating, ques\ioning, etc. Many things which teachers instinctively find out for them- selves are here supported with reasons, and every teacher will find helpful suggestions which are new." — Watchman. H. E. CARMACK How to Teach a Sunday School Lesson i2mo. cloth, net 75c. New ways, new methods, new plans characterize this new work which reflects the spirit of our progressive age. It is decidedly fresh, and original in its treatment of the subject of lesson teaching. RAY CLARKSON MARKER The Work of the Sunday School A Manual for Teachers. i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. Fresh, original, stimulating, this book is the product of research, study and thought. Because of its inspirational character, it will impart a new impetus to Sunday School workers. The book was inspired by lectures delivered by Mr. Barker at Summer Assemblies and Chautauquas. BA SIL MA THE WS, M. A. The Fascinated ChUd A Quest for the Child Spirit and Talks with Boys and Girls. i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. A book for the parent, teacher and minister. Part I, Wbnder and the Hero, or the Quest for the Child Spirit. In Pari II, Talks With the Children. Part III, Primary 'lalks. ALBERT C. MACKINNON, M.A. The Bible Zoo Talks to Children about the Birds, Beasts and In- sects of the Bible. i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. The author says in his foreword, "Come with mc, chil- dren, for a stroll through the zoological gardens of the Scrip- ture As we take our walk through these Bible grounds I want you to listen to all the sermons preached to us by the inhabitants of this zoo." "The "Zoo" contains "the Bird House," "the Insect House," "the I^ion House" and "the Outside Paddock." THE BLACKBOARD Pencil Points for Preacher and Teacher A Second Volume of Blackboard and Object Teaching. By Rev. R. F. Y. Pierce. 2d Edition, Illus- trated, Cloth. net 1.26. "A useful volume by the recognized exponent of the art of conveying Scripture truth by means of blackboard sketches and object lessons. Crowded with illustra- tions of blackboard drawings and suggestions, and forms a fitting companion to his popular book 'Pictured Truth.' "—Westminister. Pictured Truth A Handbook of Blackboard and Object Teach- ing. By R. F. Y. Pierce. With Illustrations by the author. 3d Edition. Cloth, - 1.26. " The blackboard in the Sunday School may be en- riched readily in its diversified Sunday use by the study of such a book." — Congregationalist, Chalk What We Can Do With It Practical Work with Chalk and Blackboard. By Mrs. Ella N. Wood. 2d Edition. Illustrated, - net .76. " Mrs. Wood helps every one, in this book, who has anything to do with the education of children, to make an ally of the blackboard.. ..The book will help ministers to hold their boys and girls ; it will be invaluable t*" Junior Endeavor superintendents and Primary Sundi^ school teachers." — C. E, World, Children's Meetings And How to Conduct Them. By Lucy J. Rider and Nellie M. Carman. With Lessons, Out- lines, Diagrams, Music, etc. Introduction by Bishop Vincent. Cloth, - - net 1.00. Paper, net .50. " With the aid of its blackboard sketches it aims to teach the leader to talk with children, to encourage the memorizing of Bible verses, and to make use of thtt lessons from nature."— C. E. World. ILLUSTRATIVE HINTS Studies in the Art of Illustration By Amos R. Wells. 2d Edition, - net 1.2i. "Incidents, expositions, exhortations, vrhich the author has used effectively in church and Sunday school — ^bright, modern, pat. That it has been compiled and culled by Mr. Wells, so experienced and effective a ipeaker, is a guarantee of homiletic value."— /w/^riW-, Object Lessons for Junior Work By Ella N. Wood. 4th Edition, 16mo, Cloth, .60. " It is just the book for which workers have been asking. A child cannot remember a talk or a sermon, but he will remember an object and the lessons that the object taught." — Christian Endeavor World, Object Sermons in Outline By C. H. Tyndall, Ph. D. With an introduction by Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D. D. 4th Edition. Illustrated, 12mo, Cloth, - - - 1.00. "The lessons are well conceived and worked out with great ingenuity, and in good hands could not fail of being extremely effective."— 7}5* Indefendtnt. Windows Gospel Lights for Gospel S. bjects. By Sarah Geraldina Stock. Illustrated, Cloth, - .60. "These windows let in a flood of light, whereby much precious truth may be revealed to youthful minds."— iV. Y. Observer, Attractive Truths in Lesson and Story By Mrs. A. M. Scudder. Introduction by F. E. Clark, D.D. 3d Edition, 8vo, Cloth, 1.26. ^ This book occupies a new field, and occupies it weH, No other book in the language, so far as we know, has even attempted just this task."— Cir/V/^ais Ef¥ World, THE SUPERINTENDENT How to Conduct a Sunday School By Marion Lawrance, General Secretary of the International Sunday School Association. 6th Edition, 12mo, Cloth, - - net 1.25. "Every superintendent, teacher, pastor, ofl5cer, should own it. A perfect mine of hints ana plans from the most experienced Sunday school leader of the day." —Sunday School Times. " Packed full of useful information. Filled with details, specific and practical, for which a host of work- ers have longed and prayed." — Examiner, The Modem Sunday School in Principle and Practice By Henry F. Cope. 12mo, Cloth, - net 1.00. By the General Secretary of the Relig^'ous Education Association. It constitutes an invaluable guide for the management of the Sunday School under modern con- ditions. Presents the results of the newest experiments both with primary, adolescent and adult grades. Sunday School Success By Amos R. Wells. 12mo, Cloth, Gilt Top, 1.26. " The author writes from his rich fund of knowledge and wisdom gained by personal experience in practical Sunday school work. For Sunday school teachers and superintendents it is the best hand-book on methods of work and mastery of difficulties we have yet seen. It is interesting. There is not a dull chapter in it." — Evangelical Messenger. Pastoral Leadership of Sunday School Forces By A. F. Schauffler, D.D. 12mo, Cloth, net .50. The book is the outcome of the experience of he who today is perhaps the leading exponent of practical Sunday school work in its entirety and detail. The Modem Superintendent and his Work. By J. R. Pepper, 16mo, paper, .16. A wealth of suggestion in most compact form. Date Due Mr i?7 •! ^ JA 19^54 ' — _^ ^ Princeton Theolog cal Library ^^^^^^^^^^| llH^llH 1 1012 01040 5316 ^^B ^^^^^^^1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ■ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^H ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^K ^^^^H