.^^>SN¥7Bi«Cf^ OCT 7 197 A ^OL OeiuAL siw\ .^^ .\ BV 1549 .N82 Nordell, Phillip A. 1846 1915. The senior teacher THE BIBLE STUDY UNION LESSONS THE COMPLETELY GRADED S THE SENIOR TEACHER PREPARED BY Rev. PHILIP a/nORDELL, D.D. AN AID IN TEACHING THE SENIOR STUDIES ON THE MODERN CHURCH Charles F. Kent, Ph.D. 1^^ ;, • cj-, George A. Coe, Ph.D.. LL.D. ConsuUtng Editors CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS New York TABLE OF CONTENTS THE LESSONS. Part I. The Everyday Life of a Modern Church. Lesson 1. The Modem Sunday School: The Old Purpose and the New Emphasis ...... Lesson 2. Why Pupils and Lessons Should be Graded . Lesson 3. Lesson Systems of the Present Day Lesson 4. The Training of Teachers ..... Lesson 5. New Types of Sunday School Work Lesson 6. Getting and Holding the Pupils .... Lesson 7. The Modem Pulpit Lesson 8. Pubhc Worship ....... Lesson 9. How to Make Public Worship Effective Lesson 10. The Prayer or Conference Meeting Lesson 1 1 . Getting People to Church : A Survey of General Conditions and Problems ...... Lesson 12. Getting People to Church: Local Conditions and Problems Lesson 13. The Everyday Growth in Church Membership Pages 1 3 6 8 11 13 16 18 21 25 27 30 32 THE SENIOR TEACHER. Published quarterly as a part of the Bible Study Union Lessons (The Completely Graded Series), by Charles Scribner's Sons, 153-157 Fifth Avenue, New York; price 15 cents each, 60 cents a year. Copyright, 1912, by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. INTRODUCTION. The present course on " The Modem Church " follows in logical order the preceding Senior courses and completes The Completely Graded Series. The course on " The Preparations for Christianity " sketched the unfoldings of religious thought in the Old Testament and in the teachings of Christ. The course on " Landmarks in Christian History " gave an outline of the progress of Christianity from the Day of Pentecost to the present time. The course on " The Conquering Christ " showed how the forces latent in Christianity have been aroused during the past century and have entered on a religious conquest of the world. Obviously one more step is needed, namely, a study of the social organism in which Christianity is embodied and through which it operates for the physical, intellectual, spiritual, and social redemption of the world. That organism is the Modem Church. No study of Biblical history and teachings, or of subsequent church history, can give any adequate conception of what organized Christianity is to-day as it faces the modem world perplexed by innumerable problems and torn by revolutionary forces that threaten the disorganization of society. These forces have also reacted powerfully upon the church. Old methods have been found inadequate for new conditions. In a hundred ways the Modem Church has been forced to abandon or recon- struct its outworn machinery. New agencies outside of the church, but born of its spirit and moved by its ideals, have been created to carry on more effectively certain forms of work that the church could not do so well. The emphasis in Christian thought and effort has been transferred from salvation in the next world to salvation in this world The world is no longer looked upon as a " vale of tears," " a barren desert," a hovel which no temporary occupant whose eyes are fixed on the shining heavenly palace can think of wasting time in decorating. On the contrary, it is now recognized as God's world, a theater for the establishment of His kingdom, and therefore the subject of redemption, a place that offers splendid opportunities of service. The task of the church is no longer limited to preparing men for felicity somewhere among the stars, but for the highest self-realization and usefulness here and now. In adapting herself to the fulfilment of this new purpose the church is experiencing a transformation that would have astonished our fathers as much as the railway, the steamship, the telegraph, the telephone, and the wireless. The design of the present course is to call attention to some of the new methods and agencies by which the Christian Church of the past is being tv Introduction transformed into the Modern Church, and by which she is girding herself with new strength for the accomphshment of the divine mission. The topics embraced in this course are such, we beheve, as have never before been brought to the attention of Sunday schools. So long as the Sunday school was a mere " Bible school," with the Bible as its exclusive text-book, there could be no place for such a course. Happily, the larger conception of what is demanded by religious education is making a place for such courses in the Sunday school curriculum as those mentioned above. Only in a very limited and narrow sense can the subjects there considered be called extra-biblical. No one would think of getting an adequate conception of an oak who confines his study to the acorn. Nor can any one get an idea of the tremendous forces latent in the church of the Old Testament and the New who does not follow their subsequent unfoldings in human history. If this course shall help teachers and pupils better to understand the organization and task of the Modem Church, and to see and seize the magnificent opportunities for noble service presented by it, the end for which it has been prepared will be amply realized. THE SENIOR TEACHER An Aid in Teaching the Course on THE MODERN CHURCH Lesson 1. THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL. Object of the Lesson. To develop an intelligent interest in and loyalty to the Sunday school. PREPARING THE LESSON. Read carefully the notes in the Quarterly so as to be able to give brief but intelligent answers to the questions on the lesson. Copious information on the history of religious education from the Old Testament times to the present day is given in Cope's Evolution of the Sunday School. On the impor- tance of the Sunday school in its relation to the church an impressive state- ment is given in Mead's Modern Methods in Sunday School Work, ch. II, "The Strategic Work of the Church." The teacher should make especial efforts to obtain the information asked for in the subjects for special study and note-book work. The teacher's example in this matter will go far toward helping the class to see the impor- tance of it. The questions for class discussion should be carefully thought out so as to lead to definite results. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. It is usually much better to make the assignments for the next session at the beginning of the class hour than during the hurried moments at its close. Call attention to the vital importance of the subject to be considered in the next lesson, and show that the emphasis laid on grading pupils and lessons marks one of the chief steps of progress in the present day Sunday school. The Questions on the Lesson. These should be used not so much for class drill as for fixing in mind the leading points in the Lesson Notes. Encourage the members of the class to write brief answers to these questions in the Quarterlies. If this is done, they may be passed over rapidly in the class, so that more time can be given to the discussion. The teachers should be especially solicitous that every member of the class shall get a clear conception of the purpose of the modem Sunday school as stated in Note 4. The following statement may also be helpful: "The Sunday school is an educational institution, meeting once a week, under the direction of the church, engaged in teaching religious truth and 1 2 The Bible Study Union Lessons training in Christian character and service." — Cope: Modern Sunday School in Principle and Practice y p. 31. The Note-book Work. Call for the results of the personal study given by the members of the class to their 'own school. See that these results are written down in the note-books, with such other information and suggestions as may have come to the students in their investigations. Compare and discuss the results. The Questions for Class Discussion. These will usually present the most practical parts of the lesson — the application of the whole matter to those conditions and interests which lie nearest to the members of the class and respecting which they should feel some sense of personal responsibility. AU the time that is possible should be saved for this discussion, and free use should be made of the facts gathered by the study of the local school. (i) The first question points to the fact that while the Christian church has never entirely lost sight of the importance of religious teaching, yet, since the early centuries, or since the church had freedom to maintain public worship, a disproportionate emphasis has been put on preaching as though it were the chief if not sole means of keeping the people in sympathy with religious truth and obedient to religious requirements. "Christianity, following in the footsteps of Judaism, was fundamentally a teaching religion. Christ and the Apostles, no less than Moses and the prophets, paid small attention to abstract theology, but expressed their creeds in laws and rules of conduct. Out of the synagogues, cathedrals and monasteries came the first schools and the great universities, and out of the church came Alcuin, Erasmus, Abelard, Comenius, Froebel, Pestalozzi, and many others to whom secular education owes its basic ideas. " By its eighteenth-century rejection of the Sunday school, the Church admitted complete departure from the ancient standards. Christianity was a teaching religion no longer, but a preaching religion. Listeners, not learners, were desired." — Creel: Everybody's Magazine, October, 1911, p. 471. Furthermore, since adults are more entertained by oratory than by pains- taking study, and since adults provide the means for carrying on reHgious worship, they are in a position to prescribe a form of worship more agreeable to their own tastes than to the needs of the children. {2) The second question calls attention to the duty of the church to sus- tain and strengthen the Sunday school by every means in her power. Instead of giving grudgingly to its support, while maintaining other activities often at great cost, the church should awake to the fact that in her present social relations her very existence depends more than ever on lifting the teaching fimction into at least equal importance with preaching. "The church of the future is the child of to-day! I sometimes go into beauti- ful vineries on an ocean island, and I have marvelled as I have looked upon sturdy, strong peach trees growing fiat against a wall, spreading out like the leaf of a great palm. How came this peculiar and beautiful growth? It was The Senior Teacher — Lesson 2 3 so trained when a mere twig; when young and pHant, the nature of its growth was determined by the hands that tended and guided it. And such deter- mining growth is quite as possible of people as of trees. What stronger testimony of the value of early religious training and of the value of the Sunday school is possible than the fact, namely, that 83% of all who come into the communicant membership of churches come from the Sunday schools? Yet, when the Sunday school was first organized, men said, 'It will kill the church.' The very opposite is true. It has saved the church; but for the Sunday school we would have, humanly speaking, no church to-day. Now it is incontro- vertible, it is absolute, a statement that admits no question or shadow of doubt, that if we truly nurture the children to-day, we have secured the church of to-morrow; that if we truly train the child, we have saved to himself and to God the growing man! . . . "Our youth are sure to meet with temptations in their most insidious forms the minute they cross the threshold of the home or of the church into the world; the best and only service we can render, therefore, is to fortify them against temptation; and to render such service we must do the utmost possible for the estabHshment of faith and character, both in the home and in the church ; if the home fails to do its part, the church dare not fail in doing her part; the neglect of the one but increases the responsibility of the other." — Mead: Modern Methods in Sunday School Work. pp. 20, 23. (5) The third question calls attention to the value of the Sunday school collections considered from the financial or the educational point of view. Ordinarily this collection is so small that, so far from enriching the church, it barely pays the necessary expenses of the school. Rightly considered its chief value consists in establishing in early life a habit of systematic giving for the promotion of rehgious work. Such a habit, if formed in childhood and youth, will strengthen with advancing years and will tend to develop church members who feel some responsibility for the financial interests of Christ's kingdom. Lesson 2. WHY PUPILS AND LESSONS SHOULD BE GRADED. Object of the Lesson. To lead the class to think of the Sunday school as a school. PREPARING THE LESSON. In addition to the Lesson Notes, which should be studied carefully, further information along these lines will be found in Cope's The Modern Sunday School in Principle and Practice, in Coe's Education in Religion and Morals, first part, and in Haslett's Pedagogical Bible School, pp. 87-203. Continue the study of the local school along the lines indicated in the subjects for note-book work. In answering the question, "To what extent is your school graded?" the teacher should first have a clear idea of what 4 The Bible Study Union Lessons constitutes a graded school. A school is not graded when the classification aims at nothing more than keeping pupils of approximately the same age in the same classes, and in supplying them with such lesson leaflets or quarterlies as the whim of teachers or pupils may dictate. A school is graded when it contains kindergarten or beginners', primary, jimior, intermediate, senior, and adult departments or some definite equivalent system, each department provided with lesson material carefully adjusted to the mental development and religious needs of the pupils therein. A still more complete gradation is obtained where Sunday schools are in position to adopt the several grades recognized in public schools. You might have your pupils find out how many day-school grades are represented in each Sunday school class. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. From a study of the reasons why pupils and lessons should be graded the class will naturally pass in the next lesson to a con- sideration of the leading lesson system in vogue at the present time and of the principles on which a completely graded curriculum should be constructed. Encourage the members of the class to continue the study of their own school as suggested in the subjects for special study and note-book work. The Questions on the Lesson. In considering the grading of pupils (Notes 1, 2) point out that the three main divisions of the school are indicated by the three main divisions of human life. These are "(a) Childhood, the period of subjection and receptivity; {b) Youth, the period of awakening powers, struggle, and determination; (c) Manhood, the period of developed powers, experience, and usefulness."— Co/)g. A closer study of the changing functions, interests, and capacities during childhood and youth shows that within these greater di\nsions account must be taken of others less striking but scarcely less important. In showing the need of graded lessons, emphasize the fact that education is productive of the best results only when it is based on methods of instruc- tion suggested by the tendencies characteristic of each period of personal growth. This is especially important during that plastic stage where funda- mental moral habits are being built up, and when training in truth, honesty, modesty, courtesy and other virtues is initiated. It is in the Sunday school rather than in the day school that moral standards receive that emotional coloring which religion supplies, and without which they lose much of their power. The Sunday school, therefore, should stand in the front rank among institutions whose efficiency depends on the employment of sound educational methods. The Note-book Work. Examine and grade the note-books each week, keeping a record of the grades, and encourage the pupils to give free expres- The Senior Teacher — Lesson 2 5 sion to the results of their personal study of their Sunday school and to any conclusions they may reach as to its organization. The Question for Class Discussion. What can our Sunday school learn from the day schools? "To transfer to the church school the set of grades now prevailing in the public schools ... is a simple, practicable scheme, and it has the advantage of externally representing to both the child and the teacher the unity of education." — Coe: Education in Religion and Morals, p. 292. These grades can be transferred, if need be, without interfering with the departmental divisions already mentioned. "The processes of the pubHc school come very close to classifying the children exactly, grading them as they do on general capacity and ability. A fairly good working basis for Sunday school classification is found m the grade of the child in the public school. It has the advantage of strengthening the sense of harmony, orderliness, and unity — all important to the child — when he finds the same classification and general arrangement in the Sunday school as in the other school. Of course some modifications of gradation are necessary, owing to the latter school covering a longer period of life. "Since the Sunday schools have, as yet, no commonly recognized standards of Biblical knowledge, graded schools will receive from the ungraded, and from those graded, also, students of varying attainments; and, since there will always be objection to purely intellectual tests, the advantage of grading and promoting on public school grades is evident. It is well to hold examina- tions in the subjects which have been taught; it is well also, to give the scholar credit for regular attendance, for deportment, and for other items, and to make these credits count on his school standing. But do not attempt to promote on the basis of these markings, or you may shortly have confusion beyond remedy. On some certain Sundays of each year promote, with appro- priate exercises, every pupil according to his pubHc school grade. At the same time you may award certificates, or 'diplbmas,' to those who, by faithful work or regular attendance, have earned over a certain percentage of credits. Let these 'diplomas,' or 'honors,' as some call them, have nothing to do with the promotion of the pupil; make them, however, things highly desirable on account of the honor they confer in their awarding. "Promoting the pupils as they make progress through the pubhc school, and on their graduation therefrom, regularly advancing them every year a class or grade, keeps the groups of pupils together through all their Sunday school life." — Cope: The Modern Sunday School, pp. 66-69. "The church school is not blindly to copy the methods of pubHc schools. On the contrary it must be on its guard against some of the errors into which they have fallen. Our public schools have unquestionably suffered from over- emphasis on formal discipHne, on mere mental drill apart from culture of the emotions and strengthening of character. No man wants to see the Sunday school made a mere engine for the inculcation of historical facts however sacred. A list of Biblical dates is no more nourishing there than a list of similar dates in Chinese history. Some of the wars of Israel may be of hardly more significance than the feuds of the ancient Saxon tribes. The Sunday school is fully justified in insisting that something more than the conveyance of knowledge is the object of teaching. The day school may learn much from the steadfast adherence of the Sunday school to the creation of ideals 6 The Bible Study Union Lessons as well as the impartation of facts. A barren intellectualism has some- times made the public schools rigid and remote from life. The Sunday school is quite right in seeking to touch the springs of lofty aspiration and produce a strong and noble character. But the way to do this most effectively is by sharply differentiating the Sunday school from all services whose primary aim is worship, or fellowship, or exhortation, and making it, from opening bell to closing hymn, a genuine school." — Faunce: The Educational Ideal in the Ministry, pp. 204, 205. Lesson 3. LESSON SYSTEMS OF THE PRESENT DAY. Object of the Lesson. To make the pupil acquainted with the origin and comparative value of the leading systems of Sunday school lessons now in use. PREPARING THE LESSON. Read the Lesson Notes attentively, and supplement them with such other reading as may be available. The discussion in Cope's Evolution of the Sunday School, pp. 101-125, will be found especially helpful. A little inquiry might lead to the discovery of one of the older catechisms. It would give a good idea of the mental and spiritual food provided for children during the earlier part of the last century. Note the leading characteristics of the lesson systems in use at the present time. The Completely Graded Series of the Bible Study Union Lessons is described at greater length than the rest, merely as an example of a system that has been carefully worked out in conformity with educational and psychological requirements. It would be helpful if the teacher would send to the publishers of these lessons for enough copies of Professor Coe's "Core of Good Teaching" to go around the class. They will be sent free of charge. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. No lesson system, however perfect, can dispense with special training on the part of those who teach it. Sunday schools have so long been forced to get along with teachers without special equipment that it has almost been taken for granted that little else than willingness and con- secration is required. Happily Sunday schools are fast awakening to the importance of providing for their teachers as liberal training as circumstances will permit. Our next lesson presents a study of what is now being done in this direction. As a special assignment the teacher might ask some member of the class to report on the third subject for special study — "What is your State Sunday School Association, denominational or interdenominational, doing to lift the standard of teaching?" In either case the State Secretary would be glad to The Senior Teacher — Lesson 3 7 give needed information. Send to the International Sunday School Associa- tion, Chicago, for a circular on Teacher Training. The Questions on the Lesson. 1-S are answered in the Lesson Notes. (^ 6) Very little time need be spent in pointing out the defects of the imi- form lesson system. It would be better to emphasize the good purposes it has served. {6-9) In discussmg the leading graded lesson systems now in use show sharply how they differ from the uniform system, and point out some of the distinctive features in each case. {10) "Since many schools are entering on the selection of graded lessons, it will be well to note the principles on which a graded Sunday school curricu- lum should be constructed. The first principle is the needs of the moral and religious nature of the pupils. This means that we must study the religious impulses, nature, aspirations, and ideas of the pupils in the different ages and stages of their growth, in order to know what to teach them at a given time. Since the Sunday school is set for the moral and religious education of the pupil, only such subjects as deal with the moral and religious aspects of hfe should find a place in the curriculum — this is the second principle. It follows that the Bible is the chief source for materials in the formation of Sunday school lessons. 'The tradition that has made the Sunday school in large part a Bible school, rests upon a sound basis. Christianity has its roots, historically, in the Bible, and in no small ^ measure experimentally also. The instinct of the church has been wholly right in giving the Bible a central place in its school. ' But there are other subjects which deal with the moral and religious aspect of life, such as church history. Christian evidences, ethics, and methods of religious work, which should have a place in a well-construct d graded curriculum. _ " The third principle is that the graded lessons should be based on a true view of the Bible. ' The construction of a curriculum does not presuppose the knowledge of all the teachings of the Bible, but it is demanded that those who are to arrange the curriculum shall have as a prerequisite to the perform- ance of their work a knowledge of the several contents of the Bible, and a_ sound view of what the Bible is. Indeed, it is only upon the basis of some view of the Bible as a whole that one can make intelligent choice between the graded and ungraded curricula. " The fourth principle is that the graded lessons should be positive and constructive in their make-up, especially for the younger departments. The life of the pupil is a gro vving life. Our aim is to help on these processes [through training in] Christian character, and brotherly service. Nothing should enter into the studies that does not make ultimately for these ends. " The last principle which should be considered in the construction of graded lessons is the comprehensiveness. It must include all the essentials of religious knowledge and religious training. The whole period of divine revelation to man in its varied interests and activities and operations should be covered. In other words, the system of graded lessons should provide a complete religious training for the pupils in our Sunday schools." — Condensed from Mussel- man: The Sunday School Teacher's School, pp. 92-94. The Question for Discussion. Why should a course of Sunday school study include other subjects than the Bible? 8 The Bible Study Union Lessons " It is evident that in order that the curriculum of the school may be com- prehensive, it must include many subjects which could not properly be taught in the course of the usual instruction in the Bible. These subjects would in- clude church history, Christian institutions, evidences, missions, social service, practical ethics, and Christian biography. The reasons for what are some- times called ' extra-bibHcal ' studies in the Sunday school must be clearly understood. Among the reasons are: such studies are evidently necessary to full equipment for life and service; these studies are not treated as such in the Bible, nor do they properly grow out of the study of the Bible from the view point of literature, history, or doctrine. This is most evident in the case of church history; but it may be questioned in the case of practical ethics, until examination suggests that there are many problems in practical ethics to-day on which the Bible has nothing directly to say, for, while it does give the great fundamental principles, it does not develop their application to conditions which have arisen in more recent times. Again, these studies are not commonly taken in any other institution ; to follow them in the Sunday school gives unit}^ completeness, and a unique value to the work of the school, and gives to the scholar adequate development in knowledge and equipment for service. " It is worth while to note that in an important sense these studies are not extra-bibhcal; they are the normal developments in our times of the rehgious life and spirit portrayed in the Bible; they are based on the Bible, and are, indeed, essential to a full understanding of its content and its relation to our life to-day, in order that the Bible may not appear to be the subject of recondite inquiry alone, but may be vital and practical." — Cope: The Modern Sunday School in Principle and Practice, pp. 131, 132. Lesson 4. THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. Object of the Lesson. To stimulate interest in teacher training in this school. PREPARING THE LESSON. Read all the Lesson Notes so as to get a general survey of their contents before studying them in detail. Supplement this information by further reading along parallel lines. Religious education in Bibhcal times is treated in recent Bible dictionaries under " Education." The chapter on " The Evolution of the Teacher " in Cope's Evolution of the Sunday School gives a concise account of what has been done in this line until the present time. A Hst of valuable books for the Teachers' Library is given at the end of the same volume. A brief but exceedingly helpful discussion is given in Pro- fessor Coe's The Core of Good Teaching. Sent free of charge by Charles Scrib- ner's Sons, N. Y. Chapter XVIII in Cope's Modern Sunday School discusses the essential points that need be considered in training the working forces. Valuable suggestions respecting the Teachers' Library are also given in Mead's Modern Methods in the Sunday School, pp. 226-228. The Senior Teacher — Lesson J+ 9 TEACHIIfG THE LESSON. The Assignments. One of the most convincing proofs of the importance now attached to the Sunday school as a means of religious education is the variety of interests receiving attention, and the many new ways in which the activities of the young and old are enlisted for Christian service. Some of these will be noticed in the next lesson. As a special assignment ask some member of the class to present a brief sketch of the Adult-Class movement. For information see ch. XVII in Cope's Modern Sunday School. Helpful literature may be obtained by address- ing the Cook County Sunday School Association, 140 Dearborn St., Chicago. See Wood: Adult Class, Pilgrim Press, Boston. The Questions on the Lesson. (1) Point out that among the Jews in Christ's time religion and education were closely combined; that the teachers had received professional training and were doubtless paid for their work; that in this respect the Jews in this country are far ahead of Christians, since a large number of synagogues wiU employ none but trained and salaried teachers; and that such a system, however desirable, is at present imprac- ticable in almost all Christian schools for lack of means. (2-4) These questions are answered in the notes. (5) These facts stated by Marion Lawrance at the International Conven- tion in San Francisco in 1911 may be of interest. " The growth of Teacher Training during the last nine years is indicated by the following: At the Denver Convention in 1902 we reported one per- son out of 111 of the officers and teachers in North America as enrolled in a Teacher Training class; at Toronto in 1905 the proportion was one to 64; at Louisville in 1908 it was one in 20; and now it is one in 12."— Official Report of the Thirteenth International Sunday School Convention, p. 123. (6) In addition to the personal qualifications mentioned in Note 3, which are indispensable, there are others almost equally necessary in the make-up of a successful teacher. These are tact, patience, understanding of human nature, sympathy with and love for the pupils. While it is true that the highest type of teacher is, Uke the poet, born and not made, yet it is also true that moderate natural ability with a fair amount of training can make a good teacher. {7-9) Answered in the notes. (10) Every school should maintain one or more normal classes, " pref- erably in the adult division [or, perhaps better still, in the senior department], in which persons shall receive instruction in whatever parts of religious truth (including history, geography, literature, etc.) may be necessary to niake up for the deficiencies of the regular school course, and also receive training in the special methods of Sunday school administration, teaching, etc. Let this class or these classes meet on Sunday, under the direction of a competent peda- gog. Set before you the end of making this course, or an equivalent, necessary, required of those who would teach or hold executive office. Let the class follow carefully, not with haste, a regular course of teacher training lessons. On 10 The Bible Study Union Lessons completion of this course, award certificates or diplomas and give special emphasis to the public recognition of the work of the graduates, making the occasion such as will impress others with the importance of such training and will serve to show that the school is endeavoring to do its work in a worthy manner. " It is worth while to maintain such a class as this even though the number of students dwindles down to one." — Cope: The Modern Sunday School in Principle and Practice, pp. 172, 173. The Questions for Class Discussion. (!) How can you awaken in your church such a sense of the importance of reHgious education as will lead to systematic and adequate provision for teacher training? " May I tell you how one worker in this field has undertaken this task, not wholly without success? Through years he has never failed to make the announcement of the session of the school the first and most emphatic of all given from the pulpit. He secured the appropriation of adequate funds for the support of the school by a formal vote of the parish, at its annual meeting, and in amount reaching in four years eight-fold that at first given. He in- duced the same annual gathering to elect all the officers and teachers of the school that they might know themselves supported by and accountable to the governing body. The public and solemn installation of these officers and teachers naturally followed; for if the class is a parish, why should not the teacher-pastor be inducted into his sacred office with some of the solemnity with which the pastor of the church is installed? Through a series of parerits' meetings he awakened in the minds of fathers and mothers a sense of obligation for the religious education of their children, and toward the school where, and the persons through whom, that education was to be secured. Teachers' meetings were a matter of course. Finally by the expedient of paying the teachers a small salary — a sum too small to attract the mercenary, but enough to bind a contract — it became possible to enter into a written agreement with the teachers. In this agreement it was provided that the teachers should attend all teachers' meetings, should attend, once a month, a lecture on the lessons for the next four weeks, should prepare carefully for the class-work, not only by the use of the regular text-books but of other helps provided by the school, should regard the duties of the position to extend beyond the class- room, and, finally, should forfeit one dollar for each absence from the class, for whatever reason, the amount thus forfeited going to the substitute teacher who took the class. This rigid agreement, it is interesting to note, the teachers were not only willing but eager to sign. " As a result of these efforts, the church is more ready, to-day, to vote sup- port for the Sunday school than for any other cause; the school is supplied with every appliance it can use; the enrollment steadily grows, and the at- tendance averages ninety per cent of the membership; parents testify that their children are studying their lessons as never before; at least half the teachers employed have had professional training, and as vacancies occur it is now possible to fill these with trained workers; and the pastor finds under his hand a school of religious education exceeding in firmness and efficiency his fondest dreams." — Wm. I. Lawrence, in Religious Education, vol. v. No. 2, pp. 144, 145. (^) Is special teacher training a practical proposition for busy laymen? Where there's a will there's a way. No one ought to undertake the teaching of a class in the Sunday school who has no time for preparation. No one would The Senior Teacher — Lesson 5 11 presume to do so in a public school, even if given an opportunity. And yet the work in the former is more difficult and more important. One who really wishes to be of service to others as a religious teacher will find time to acquire fitness for it. The best answer to the above question is the fact that thousands of very busy men and women are now taking teacher training courses, and that the number is constantly increasing. Lesson 5. NEW TYPES OF SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK. Object of the Lesson. To awaken interest in recent methods for increasing the usefulness of the Sunday school. PREPARING THE LESSON. Teachers will find an abundance of material bearing on nearly all types of Sunday School work in the official reports of the Triennial International Sunday School Conventions for 1908 and 1911. The reports on progress embrace the most recent statistics, and the discussions and addresses cover the matters of chief interest in all the departments. Littlefield's Hand-work in the Sunday School is the standard work on that subject. Cope's chapter on " Manual Methods " in The Modern Sunday School in Principle and Practice gives a very helpful summary. The subject of organized adult classes has called out so much discussion and so many valuable suggestions in recent Sunday school literature that the teacher should experience little difficulty in finding ample material. Of the two questions for class discussion the teacher should select and emphasize that which seems to lie closest to the interests of the class. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson, " How to hold the Pupils," presents a problem of vital importance to every Sunday school. Instead of one special assignment it might be a good plan to ask each member of the class to think out some solution for himself in view of local conditions as he sees them, and bring the result in a written or oral statement as a contribution to the class discussion. . The Questions on the Lesson. {1-3, 5-9) Sufficient material for answering these questions is given in the Lesson Notes. (4) Hand-work, as well as lesson material, must be graded to the ages and varying capacities of the pupils. " In the primary grades up to the ninth year the teaching is pre-eminently story-telling. The truth presented is picturesque, concrete, and in large wholes, not consecutive or abstract. The appeal is to the imagination and the senses. Hand-work will have to do with the 12 The Bible Study Union Lessons picturing of stories. Narrative work may be done in the third grade, but in the simplest form. For the rest the work is the copying of titles and texts. The possible and practical forms of hand- work for little children are the hand- ling of models, picture making on a sand-table, picture pasting and coloring, drawing, paper-tearing, and the making of story albums with pictures, texts, drawings, and written work. " In the grammar school ages history work is taken up with history and geography. History and geography cannot be studied in the Sunday school profitably until a few months, at least, after the day schools have laid the foundation for them. By the tenth year this will have been done, and with the making up of these studies the possibilities of hand- work will be greatly extended. As the s holars advance in age the forms of hand-work and the method of treatment will change. Illustrative work will lessen and give place to historical and analytical work. Historical study will advance from the simplest outlines of narration to the philosophy of history and the study of the development of the literature. Narrative work will progress through many stages from the lesson story to compositions, to reports and thesis work. This progress will cover a period of years. The work must be just enough to give the scholar a definite task without demanding too much time. Finally, and this is fundamental, the spiritual aim and emphasis must never be over- looked." — Condensed from Littlefield: Hand-work in the Sunday School, pp. 15-17. The Questions for Class Discussion. {!) Is hand-work likely to promote or to hinder spiritual impressions? " A question which constantly arises is whether the emphasis upon activi- ties and upon the externalities, like history and geography, will obscure the spiritual end. Beyond doubt the spiritual aim may be lost in the handling of materials. It also may be lost in other ways. The word spiritual does not refer to the subject taught, but to the object to be gained. The thing we teach is life, power, liberty. The things with which we teach — words, pictures, printer's ink, maps, crayons, sand piles, or what not — are all so many symbols of truth and nothing more, and no one of these things is more sacred than another. The spiritual validity of hand- work is entirely a question of method. The point to be insisted on is that the spiritual element in teaching is neither less nor more than the arousing of a moral impulse. It consists in so presenting a fact as to spur the scholar to reproduce that fact in his own hfe, and all lines of approach to the will, all methods of impression, all forms of expression are equally valid. Hand-work at certain ages is the best possible method of presenting facts. It must never be forgotten, of course, that presentation is only introductory to the interpretation of the facts, and at every step the spiritual significance should be made clear. But the spiritual meaning is not something added to the truth. It pervades every act. The moral signifi- cance is not something to be tacked on to the story or the event. It is the very soul of the story, and to the degree that it is tacked on it is lost." — Condensed from Littlefield: Hand-work in the Sunday School, pp. 111-113. {2) How can the social life of an adult class be made tributary to religious interest? " There are three advantages [from social features] which if guarded and wisely developed will result: an increase of membership, the counteracting of worldly amusements, and the helping of young men and women to marry The Senior Teacher^ Lesson 6 13 and have Christian homes. Let the class have its social features, but let them lead to the Bible. For instance, you can get twenty or thirty young people to go to a picnic whom you have not been able to get to the Bible class. The social committee will invite them to that picnic and try to make sure that they land them. When they get there there should be a dozen men who have been previously warned. The first man to take charge of Mr. Jones for the first half hour will talk Bible class to him, and then turn him over to the second man, and the second man will turn him over to the third, until that young man has been in the hands of half a dozen young men, with the result that he pledges himself to join the class. The same method applies to sociables. " Second, I know a pastor who said at the beginning of his pastorate: * I do not intend to preach a single sermon against worldly amusements, but I am going to call upon you to provide for the young people better than the world can give them.' They went to work and fitted up the basement, and let the young men and women of the classes understand that they would have something there they would not get at the opera house. I had the pleasure of attending their Baraca banquet. There was music, recitations, short talks, and a banquet indeed. Finally the time came to dismiss them and the pastor spoke a few earnest words and offered prayer for God's blessing on the young people. When we got home I said: ' What was the purpose of it all?' He said: ' Down yonder is a masked ball, but my young people were not there.' "_My third point is that I want to see the social features of our classes find their fulfilment in the marriage of our young people. If there is a time in life when young people need to fall in love it is the time when young men are in young men's classes and young women in young women's classes, and if there is a basis of congeniality, high and holy, it is the basis that we find in hand-to-hand work for Jesus Christ." — Condensed from address by Rev. L. P. Lea veil at Louisville Convention, 1908. Lesson 6. GETTING AND HOLDING THE PUPILS. Object of the Lesson. To consider how to make the Sunday school per- manently helpful and attractive to the largest number that can be won into its membership. PREPARING THE LESSON. Read attentively the Lesson Notes. In connection with Note 1 look over the preceding lessons for further suggestions bearing on the question of making the school of such value to its members that they will feel that they are getting at each session something of real worth and interest. Notes 2 and 3 call attention to some of the more common methods that have been found useful in winning and retaining members. Follow up as far as possible the Additional Reading References. The subject of getting and holding pupils has been discussed ever since Sunday school became a recognized ineans of religious education, so that an abundance of material ought to be 14 The Bible Study Union Lessons accessible. Underlying this prolonged discussion there are a few simple principles easily understood, and, if intelligently applied, productive of good results. The main thing to be remembered is that no amount of theory, however admirable, will produce a thoroughly good school without hard work. The better the school, the more the work. Officers and teachers must put time, thought, strength, prayer, and contagious enthusiasm into it. A locomotive will not move without steam nor a Sunday school without a large consecration of human power. Since the question for class discussion is the practical culmination of the lesson the teacher should make a careful study of the suggestions quoted below from Marion Lawrance. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The present lesson concludes our survey of the work of the modem Sunday school. The school, however, is only one means by which the church is fulfilling her mission. Another is preaching. From the earliest times this has been the chief means by which the gospel has been made known to men. The next lesson will consider The Modem Pulpit and some of the ways by which its influence can be increased. As a special assignment some member of the class might be requested to get from the pastor the subjects of his sermons for the last three months. Have the class make a record of sermons the remainder of the year. The Questions on the Lesson. (1-3) " If you would get folks and hold them, you must have something with which to get them and something with which to hold them — you must have a good school. Moreover, the school must be good not only as a whole, but in all its departments. It must appeal to all classes. If, for instance, a school has in it no young men, it may be because there is nothing in it for young men. So with boys or any other class. It must be real school. It must employ educational principles and methods. It must have real teaching. Also, it must have religion in it, good religion, genuine religion. Nothing can take the place in a Sunday school of religion. If the school is really a good school, the members will believe in it and stick to it and talk for it. There will be a strong school spirit that will make the school popular and powerful." — Condensed from Tralle, in The Sunday School Teacher's School, pp. 210, 211. The Question for Class Discussion. How can your class, or school, get so strong a hold on its members that they will regard an absence from a single session as a personal loss? " Holding the members is really the test of organization. The percentage of attendance to enrollment indicates the thoroughness in this direction. For example, it is better to have an average attendance of five hundred out of an enrollment of seven hundred, than it is to have an average attendance of seven hundred out of an enrollment of twelve hundred. In the first in- stance the percentage of attendance to enrollment is seventy-one while in the other it is but fifty-eight. We labor under many disadvantages. It is estimated that the personnel of the average Sunday school changes about The Senior Teacher — Lesson 6 15 twenty to twenty-five per cent annually. In the public schools the scholars are regular because they must be; but you cannot say must in a Sunday school. The power to hold comes from another source. Membership in a Sunday school should mean something. The following suggestions will be helpful: "i. Follow up Absentees. It ought to be the rule of every school that no member could be absent a single Sunday without that fact being noticed. There should be so much system in this matter that if the teacher does not look up the absentee somebody else will. "The best way to deal with an absentee is by a personal visit from the teacher. The teacher is better here than the pastor, superintendent or church visitor. His visit affords him one of the choicest opportunities he will ever have. There is the chance to speak the personal word and to manifest a personal interest. If it is impossible for the teacher to visit, then let him write a personal letter. Do not send a postal card. A printed form provided by_ the school may be sent when a letter cannot be written; this will at least give the absentee to understand that he is missed. "2. Care for the Sick. That would be a strange teacher who would fail to use the opportunity afforded of coming close to the scholar in time of sickness. The personal visit, carrying some flowers, a picture card, booklet, fruit, or indeed anything that will interest or please the scholar, will do much to win his heart. [Have pupils also visit sick pupils.] "3. Write Birthday Letters. This will strengthen the teacher's hold upon the scholar and thus reduce the number of absences. Anything that can be done to establish the teacher in the confidence and affection of the scholar will do much toward securing regular attendance. "4. Give Practical Help. Sometimes scholars are absent because they need suitable clothing. Help judiciously given at this point will do a great deal of good. Teachers of scholars old enough to work should know what they are doing, where they work and what sort of work they can do. If any are out of a position one of the best ways to tie them up permanently to the school is to help them get a new position. Especially is this true of classes of working young men and women. Many classes are so well organized that they really become employment bureaus for their members. "5. Make the School a Home. I know of no power so effective in holding our scholars as to make the school a real delight to all who attend. Use every effort to create a spirit of friendliness. Call the school a family. Refer to absentees as causing vacant chairs around the hearthstone. When any scholar is in trouble refer to it as trouble that has come to the family. This esprit de corps should be cultivated all the time. Our own church is referred to con- tinually as ' Our Church Home.' We try to make it deserve the name. Your members must be made to feel that they belong, not only to the school itself, but to all who attend it." — Condensed from Lawrance: How to Conduct a Sunday School, pp. 125-128. 16 The Bible Study Union Lessons Lesson 7. THE MODERN PULPIT. Object of the Lesson. To show the work of the modern pulpit, and how to derive greater benefit from it. PREPARING THE LESSON. After reading the Lesson Notes make a furthe; study of some of the great sermons reported in the New Testament. Such are the Sermon on the Mount (Mt., chs. 5-7), the woes upon the scribes and Pharisees (ch. 23), the prophetic discourse on the Mount of OHves (chs. 24, 25), Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts, ch. 2), and Paul's discourses on Mars' Hill and before the people in the temple (Acts 18:22-31; 22:1-21). Observe that they differ from modem sermons in that they were not based on Scripture texts, in that each one was suggested by the immediate occasion, and in that no one of them formed a part of any public or formal worship. The se mon, as we now know it, was a much later development. In showing the place of the preacher in the Christian church recall the fact that in almost every instance the great religious leaders in every age have been preachers. Such were Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, An- thony of Padua, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventura, Savonarola, Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon, Wiclif , Knox, Jeremy Taylor, Baxter, Bunyan, Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Fenelon, Wesley, Whitefield, Robert Hall, Spurgeon, Brooks, Beecher, and Moody. Look up some of these names in encyclopedias and see what they stand for. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. From a study of the modem pulpit one passes naturally to a consideration of public worship of which the sermon constitutes a more or less important part. What public worship is and what it aims to accom- plish will be taken up in the next lesson. A special assignment to some member of the class which would be likely to create general interest would be a brief statement of the essential differences between Protestant and Roman Catholic public worship. The Questions on the Lesson. These are for the most part answered suf- ficiently in the Lesson Notes. In connection with question 3 it might be well to call attention to some social changes that have diminished popular interest in preaching; e.g. Sunday newspapers and Sunday excursions. The former have invaded almost all homes, with the result that in many cases the entire family wastes a large part of Sunday in mental dissipation. The latter have developed in connection with the vast growth of cities, the increased facilities for cheap transportation, and a general desire to escape for a few hours from crowded tenements into the open air of the country or the seaside. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 7 17 The Questions for Class Discussion. (/) In view of the prevailing con- ditions in the modem world, what is the preacher's task to-day? "It used to be said," remarks Dr. Washington Gladden, "that the chief end of preaching is the salvation of souls. If these terms are rightly understood no fault can be found with them. A soul is a man; and there can be no question that a great many men are in danger of being lost, and that all men are worth saving. The preaching that saves manhood — that saves it from being frittered away in the frivoHties of life; from being consumed by the canker of avarice; from being blasted by the mildew of idleness; from being wrecked on the breakers of passion; from being enervated by luxury; from being crippled by the creeping paralysis of doubt, is a kind of preaching which the world will always need. The meaning which we put into the phrase is thus a little larger than that which it once carried; for once it signified very little more than getting men into a place of safety after death. It is now pretty generally believed that if a man is saved in this world from selfishness and animaUsm, and hate, and pride, and all the other evils that are destroying his manhood, there is no need to be anxious about his future welfare; while any assurance of salvation in another world that has no perceptible influence upon his life in this world is probably delusive. The minister is preaching, then, to save men — to save them from sin and sorrow and shame; to save them from losses that are irreparable; to save them for ives of honor and nobility, and for the service of humanity. The longer any earnest minister lives, the more deeply he will feel the need of such preaching as this— the more earnestly will he long for the power to speak the persuasive word which shall turn men from the ways of death into the paths of life. " No fault can be found, therefore, with the statement that a large part of the preacher's work is the conversion of men. That has been the mission of preachers and prophets from the beginning. In all ages they have been crymg to purbHnd and deluded men, ' Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die!' That many of the men whom the preacher addresses from week to week are going in a wrong direction is a palpable fact; it is his business to show them whither their steps are tending, and to persuade them to turn. There are a great many people in all our congregations for whom there is no salvation but in a complete reversal of their general course of life; and the squeamish- ness which withholds from them this salutary truth is worthy of the severest censure."— Gladden: The Christian Pastor and the Christian Church, pp. 108, 109. ^^ " What is the minister to teach? If the pulpit is to become merely an echo of the professor's chair, if the Gospel is to become merely diluted sociology or literary criticism, if the minister is to be a mere pedagogue, then indeed the ministry is robbed of its power and the church will become an appendage of the college. To return to the doctrinal sermons of early New England, to make religion a mere course of lessons in theology, and offer dogmatism in the place of devotion is not the path of progress to-day. While the knowledge of facts is important in religious education, the supremely important elements are ideals, standards, values. The great task of the minister is to give the people an abiding sense of moral and spiritual values, to make them realize what IS worth while. It is to give them some dominating conception of life and Its meaning."— Condensed from Faunce: The Educational Ideal in the Ministry, pp. 22-24. The essential and abiding truths of the gospel stated in terms acceptable 18 The Bible Study Union Lessons to one age may be wholly unacceptable to another. In some high and true sense we believe that the Son of man came " to give his life a ransom for many " (Mt. 20 : 28) ; but no one would venture to preach to-day, as men did for a thousand years, that the ransom was paid to Satan who found himself tricked by a bad bargain, since he was imable to retain the Holy One in his power and at the same time lost his hold on the human race. Jonathan Edwards' sermon on " Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God " produced a mighty revival of religion. A minister some years ago, also anxious for a revival in his church, and believing that the end justified the means, preached that sermon to his people in the hope that it might arouse them also, and it did — to demand his immediate resignation. (2) Do you believe that the preacher in his sermons should not meddle with politics? The preacher, as a citizen, has the liberty of acting with any political party that represents his opinions. As a preacher he speaks to men of all parties, and cannot become a partizan without damaging his influence with those who are opposed to him. When politics, whether national or party, involve moral issues it is the preacher's manifest duty to indicate these, not in the interest of one side or the other, but in the interest of universal righteous- ness. (See Note 3, in Pupil's Lesson.) (3) How far should the preacher direct his attention to questions of civic betterment? The degree of attention that a preacher gives to questions of civic betterment will depend largely on the nature of his parish. In some places such questions are pressing, and there they should receive such emphasis that all men may know that the church is the impartial friend of all classes, and that the salvation she preaches means the highest type of living in this world as well as in the next. Lesson 8. PUBLIC WORSHIP. Object of the Lesson. To show the nature and comparative worth of modern forms of public worship. PREPARING THE LESSON. In most cases the teacher in preparing this lesson will have to depend mainly on the Lesson Notes and those subjoined below, since material bearing on public worship, while abundant, is not usually found except in theological or ministers' libraries. Some of the Additional Reading References will probably be found in ordinary public libraries, and the pastor may have Gladden's The Christian Pastor and the Working Church. Articles in Encyclo- The Senior Teacher — Lesson 8 19 pedias on " Hymnology," " Mass," " Prayer Book," and in Bible Diction- aries on " Atonement," " Prayer," " Sacrifice " may be found helpful. The descriptions of the several systems of public worship now in vogue in Christian churches are given in the Lesson Notes with sufficient fulness to enable the reader to get an idea of their essential differences. Much interesting material may also develop in connection with the subjects for special study. The great majority of church attendants go only occasionally to other churches than their own, and very rarely to churches where the form of worship is radically different from that to which they are accustomed. Some personal acquaintance with these systems and with the principles which underlie them should prove interesting. Moreover, it will help to prepare the way for the class discussion in which the practical value of the lesson centers. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. Obviously this lesson paves the way for the next which considers the problem of making public worship attractive. This will bring up for more detailed discussion some of the matters mentioned in the present lesson. The Questions on the Lesson. (/) PubHc worship may be briefly defined as rendering to God by an open assembly the honor which is His due. {2) Justin Martyr (110-165 a.d.) describes as follows the Christian worship of his day: " On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together at one place, and the memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in hke manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a partici- pation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and wilhng, give what each thinks fit ; and what is collected is deposited with the president who succors the orphans and widows, and those who through sickness or any other cause are in want, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers so- journing among us." Ante- Nicine Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 186. (5) ' The Council of Trent defined the Mass as at once a sacrament which is received and a sacrifice which is offered. For confirmation appeal was made (/) to Christ's eternal priesthood (Heb. 7:11), which implies that His sacrifice was to continue to all times; {2) to the promise of a pure sacrifice to be made amongst all peoples (Mai. 1 : 11); (5) to the meaning of ' This do in remem- brance of Me,' as meaning sacrifice. The Mass has a propitiatory power in effecting the forgiveness of sins. In it the central idea of Catholicism is involved; namely, the mediatorial and propitiatory functions of the church, which believes that the incarnation and sacrifice of Christ are repeated every day." — Condensed from Schaff-Herzog : Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Art. " Mass." 20 The Bible Study Union Lessons The Questions for Class Discussion. (/) What effect upon the people may we reasonably expect from each part of the common worship as it is practised in our churches? The invocation aims to prepare the minds of the worshipers for a devout and reverential participation in the subsequent service. The responsive readings bring to mind some of the choicest utterances of ancient psalmists whose words have become vehicles for expressing the deepest religious experi- ences of the human race. The Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed recited in unison give respectively a familiar form of petition in which all can join in voicing the universal needs of mankind, and a brief statement of the essen- tial contents of the Christian faith. In the so-called long prayer the minister speaks as the representative of the congregation and seeks to bring before the Heavenly Father their collective and individual needs. The music, an- thems and hymns should inspire feelings of praise, gratitude, and devotion. The offering affords an opportunity for each one in a practical way to show his gratitude for the personal benefits received from the service, and his sense of obligation in assisting to carry on the work of God's Kingdom in the commu- nity and in the world at large. From the sermon each one may derive instruc- tion in relation to religious truth, and should experience a quickened sense of moral and religious duty. The benediction is a reverential ending to the service. These are the purposes which each part of the pubHc service is designed to serve. So far as the worshipers place themselves in a right attitude toward the service as a whole we may reasonably expect corresponding effects on their minds and consciences. (2) How would you regard a proposition to formulate a uniform ritual for all the churches in your denomination? This is a question in respect to which individual opinion and conviction will play a large part in shaping the answer. In general, however, we may agree with Dr. Gladden who holds that " there would be much dissent from a proposition to formulate a uniform ritual for any of the non-liturgical churches. Even if considerable freedom were allowed in the use of it, the ten- dency to a monotonous and lifeless repetition would be regarded by many as far outweighing the gain that would be realized through a more complete and comprehensive presentation of the truths on which worship is founded." (3) How can our Protestant congregations be given a larger active share in the public worship? " The responsive reading of portions of the Scripture is now quite common in American churches, and when properly conducted it is an excellent feature. The Psalms and the prophetic poems are best suited to responsive reading. These should always be put for this purpose into the rhythmic form that belongs to them. It is little less than absurd to adhereto the verse divisions in the responsive reading of the Psalms. The poetry is constructed for the very purpose of antiphonal expression; our verse divisions simply destroy its The Senior Teacher— Lesson 9 21 artistic form The parallelisms of these old lyrics, as we find them arranged m Ihe revSd versions, are better adapted than anythmg m literature to the " '?T":\epetoToT^^^^^^^ the ancient creeds by the congregation is also common aTd altogether suitable, while the people of most of our churches have learned to join with the mimster m the audible repetition of the Lord s Prlyer The Beatitudes and the Lord's summary of the law might weU take fhe place in congregational worship, of the Ten Commandments^ Some judidous selection! might also be made from the Anghcan Book o Common Prayer. Language which has been hallowed by centuries of use, into wh ch genSitions of^rlying men have poured their hearts, possesses a value which no newly formed phrases can possibly contain. " With the introduction of responsive readings, chants, and creeds, it is eviden that some reduction must need be made in other P-^^f^ ^h^.^^™^ and it is probable that what is known as the long prayer might, in many ^'^11 'thTstaftetS' Te'enrichment of public worship needs to be wisely and firmly handled. Changes which have no merit but novelty, and which a?eint^ded chiefly as bait to draw auditors should be ngidly excluded; only Sose should be plrmitted which promise to assist m making the worship of ?he congregation more general, more hearty, and more mtelligent - Condensed from Gladden: The Christian Pastor and Working Church, pp. 150-155. Lesson 9. HOW TO MAKE PUBLIC WORSHIP EFFECTIVE. Object of the Lesson. To create a thoughtful interest in the various ways by which public worship may be made more helpful. PREPARING THE LESSON. Teachers will observe that in this lesson the emphasis respecting pubUc worship is on the word " effective." Some forms of worship are more helpful than others, and the kind that may be quite helpful to one class of persons has little value 'for another class. Since the form has something to do with the effectiveness of public worship, and since effectiveness is to be measured by the degree to which the service promotes a consciousness of fellowship with God and inspiration to do His will, will not the history of the church during the past two thousand years throw some light, at least m a general way, on what have proved the most effective forms of worship? A rapid survey will help to answer this question. The Christian church in Jerusalem did not at once come into a consciousness of its independence of Jewish forms. The Apostles, as well as the rest of the disciples were still devout Jews, faithful in their attendance on the elaborate ritual of the temple. But in addition they had frequent gatherings of their own characterized by a free and voluntary expression of thought and feeling. 22 The Bible Study Union Lessons The same unrestrained worship continued as Christianity spread from Pales- tine throughout the Grseco-Roman world. The early Christians had no churches or temples of their own. They met in one another's houses. " Wor- ship was not separated from their daily life and common duties. The worship of God was not confined to set times, but pervaded their lives. The perform- ance of ever>^ duty was an act of worship, because done in His name. They came together as often as possible. The social and religious were so harmo- niously blended that they could not be separated. There was certainly nothing more than the faintest resemblance between their gatherings and what we call divine service. One thing, however, soon became fixed in their gatherings. A portion of the Old Testament was read. They early began to read the letters of the Apostles and of others, that were in circulation. Reference is made to this custom of public reading in the Book of Revelation 1 : 3, in the words, ' Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy.' " Nearly all our information of the services is derived from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians. From this it is evident that there was the greatest liberty of speech. One has a psalm, another has a teaching, another a revela- tion, another a tongue, another an interpretation, and another a prophecy. The custom of taking up a collection for the poor was early introduced." — Thatcher: History of the Apostolic Church, pp. 297, 298. " Traces of the beginnings of hturgies and of Christian hymns may indeed be found in Clement of Rome (a. d. 96) and The Teaching of the Apostles (a. D. 100); the latter also in the Pauline epistles themselves (Eph. 5:19; Col. 4:16; 1 Tim. 3:16); and we probably should conceive of the public worship of this period as in a state of transition from the spontaneous exercise of spiritual gifts, such as is described in Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, to the more formal service of later times. But it was still a simple service. The two rites of baptism and the Lord's Supper were the only obhgatory cere- monies." — Purves: The Apostolic Age, p. 297. In the course of a few centuries the original freedom and spontaneity of early public worship had largely disappeared. Voluntary participation was displaced by fixed forms. Religious emblems, pictures and images were introduced and gradually regarded with idolatrous veneration. When Christi- anity became the established religion of the Roman empire, the heathen temples were transformed into Christian churches, and a multitude of heathen ceremonies were taken over into Christian worship. For centuries the inward spirituality of worship as taught by Jesus was almost smothered by the weight of superimposed outward ritual. The reaction came with the German Reformation and the revival of a purer faith. More and more Christian worship has freed itself from bondage to forms. A large part of Protestant worship is to-day a comparatively simple service. Where liturgical forms are still retained they are made to minister to a high degree of spiritual life. The extreme reaction against a formal service has been witnessed among the Friends, who have endeavored to revive primitive Christianity. They put a strong emphasis on the privilege of direct access to God, and personal The Senior Teacher — Lesson 9 23 guidance by the Holy Spirit. Hence they hold their public worship in silence unless some one feels prompted by the Spirit to preach or to teach, to offer prayer or praise. " But this silence is itself intended to be occupied with religious acts. Highest of these is the direct communion of the soul with its Maker and Lord, in rapt devotion, in prayer and thanksgiving." It is thus seen from the history of the church that a loss of spirituality is always attended by an increased emphasis on ritual, while a revival of spirituaHty leads to a diminished emphasis. The effectiveness of public worship depends not only on the form, but very largely on the personal attitude of the worshiper. So true is this that if any one of us would put himself in a sympathetic, rather than critical, frame of mind toward a service, he would derive substantial benefit from forms so opposite as those of the Roman Catholics and the Friends. The teacher might well raise the question whether much of the fault-finding with public worship is not due rather to a low state of religion on the part of the attendants than to defects in the service. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. Naturally a study of the prayer and conference meeting will follow that of public worship. The responsibility for its effectiveness lies closer to the people, since it is more immediately in their hands than the formal Sunday service. What to do with the prayer meeting is a standing problem in many churches, and its discussion ought to awaken a good deal of interest. Ask some member of the class to prepare a brief statement of what he considers an ideal prayer and conference meeting. The Questions on the Lesson. Answers to all these are suggested in the Lesson Notes. Let the answers in the class be as brief as possible, so as to reserve ample time for considering the subjects for special study and for the class discussion. The Questions for Class Discussion. {1) How can the musical part of pubhc worship be brought to its highest efficacy? " What the vocal leadership of the congregation shall be is a question of some seriousness. The perfection of congregational worship is perhaps attained in those English Dissenting churches where the organ is the sole leader of the voices, so far as can be seen by the casual visitor, and where the whole congregation forms a great chorus, rendering, with heartiness and precision, anthem and chant and hymn. In these churches, however, a nucleus of trained voices is usually clustered about the organ,_ who form an invisible choir, and whose strong initiative carries the congregation steadily along. In many of them, anthems of considerable intricacy are rendered with no hesitation; voices all over the church are heard joining them. The use of the chant in these congregations is almost universal; the people have 24 The Bible Study Union Lessons been accustomed to it from their childhood and the musical declamation is as natural to them as reading. ' ' In most of the English Congregational churches there is, however, a large choir in plain sight of the congregation, and the leadership of the church song is committed to them. In few cases do they undertake any performance of their own; the anthems and the chants as well as the hymns are all sung by the congregation, the choir serving only as leaders of the song. EngHsh organists are also as a ru^e expert leaders of congregational singing, and the congregation is made to feel the meaning of the words of the hymn and to respond to the sentiment expressed. " In America the choir is often permitted to have matters all its own way. Quartette choirs, as a rule, disapprove of congregational singing, and make it difficult, if not impossible, for the congregation to follow them in the hymns. And the hymns are rendered in a manner so uninte ligent and perfunctory that no one cares to join in them. This must not be understood as a con- demnation of the employment of single voices or any combination of voices in worship. If the pastor may lead the worship in prayer so may the singer. But in such case the singer must be a real worshiper. The art of the rendition must be hidden by the sincerity of the worship. " The chief use of the choir is to lead the worship of the congregation. If they help the people to praise God, they do well; if they fail of that they are worse than useless, no matter how artistic may be their own performance. They ought to be intelligent and reverential persons, and the spirit of the leader ought to be so full of intelligent reverence that the true nature of their work should be constantly kept before them." — Condensed from Gladden: The Christian Pastor and the Working Church, pp. 143-147. {2) Can the ordinary man learn to enjoy common worship? If the " ordinary man " is not interested in religion, or the cultivation of his higher nature, it will probably be a difficult matter to interest him in any- thing so specifically religious as public worship. He may go because his wife is a member of the church, because his children are in the Sunday school, or because he believes that churches are a valuable social asset. But to enjoy common worship, that is to say, to enter into the spirit of it, to make personal appHcation of its instructions and privileges, and above aU to value it as an opportunity for communion with the Heavenly Father — this implies the posses- sion of an inward disposition which the ordinary undevout man has not. A really devout person will not need to learn to enjoy common worship any more than a hungry man will need to learn to enjoy common food. (S) How can we prevent habit from taking off the edge of devotional feeHng? By constantly engaging in Christian service. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 10 25 Lesson 10. THE PRAYER OR CONFERENCE MEETING. Object of the Lesson. To direct attention to the prayer meeting as the most effective means at the disposal of the church for the maintenance of a high spiritual life, and for quickening the other activities of the church. PREPARING THE LESSON. Read attentively the Lesson Notes and supplement them with such other reading on the subject as may be available. Dr. Cowan's New Life in the Old Prayer Meeting is one of the most suggestive discussions of this subject that has appeared in recent years. In connection with the Lesson Notes the teacher should also recall from personal observations and experiences the features that have helped to make not only interesting but profitable prayer meetings; and also the causes that have produced dull, spiritless, and per- ftmctory meetings. A consultation with the pastor may be very helpful in suggestions bearing on both of these points. Study carefully the condition of the prayer meeting in your own church as pointed out in the subjects for special study. Be not content with a merely theoretical discussion of the lesson but concentrate it on the practical consideration how to make it a larger and richer means of good to the church and to the community. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. In several preceding lessons we have considered various elements of public worship and how to make them effective for the moral and religious uplifting of men. But if the people are not there, all these agencies are vain. The richest banquet stays no pang of hunger, if no one is there to eat it. The all-important problem, therefore, is how to get the people who need the gospel within its reach. Our next lesson will take up the general question of getting people to church. Ask each member of the class to find out from several of his non-church-going friends why they do not go. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) Show that what the heart is to the body, the prayer meeting is to the church. As the heart sends the life-giving blood to the remotest extremities and nourishes every organ, so the prayer meeting sends spiritual life into all the activities of the church. If the prayer meeting is dull and lifeless, every form of church work will languish. If it is full of Hfe and energy, the whole chiu-ch will feel the throb of its power. {2, 3) These questions are answered in the Lesson Notes. ' (4) Mere talk in a conference meeting, no matter how good it may be, is merely, thought passing from one human mind to another. A stream rises no higher than its source. A man cannot lift himself over a fence by pulling at his boot-straps. Prayer, on the contrary, is a means for spiritual uplifting since it takes hold of a Power above itself. {6-10) These questions also are covered in the notes. 26 The Bible Study Union Lessons The Question for Class Discussion. If the prayer meetings in your church are not entirely satisfactory what means would you suggest for their perma- nent improvement? " Too much monotony makes a dull, tiresome meeting. People do not give attention to an exercise that is dull, and their interest corresponds to their attention. The same invariable order of things week after week — it matters not if it is pray, sing, read; or, read, sing, pray; or sing, pray, read — and the same prayers by the same people, and the same songs sung in the same way, make a monotony that tends to kill interest and put the meeting to sleep, " There are a score of little things that may be done to freshen a prayer meeting room. Don't be afraid of introducing the element of surprise into the meeting. Do the unexpected and informal thing when it seems to be the thing to do. Get the church choir to come and sing. Ask the young people to visit the church meeting in a body. Invite the pastor and deacons to visit the young people's meetirig. Don't court novelty for the sake of novelty, but use novelty as an inducement to worship. God wants His sheep led into ' green pastures'; are our prayer meetings keeping them on the old, dry stubble? There is enough individuality in almost every church to make the prayer meetings fresh and attractive. It isn't looked up and enlisted. We leave all the praying and speaking to ' the faithful few,' when a little more ' gumption ' would draw out new voices, and a httle more thoughtfulness would lead us to lay aside our stilted, conventional manner. " The way in which the meeting is opened counts for a great deal. If it has been the unvarying custom to do this in a set way, don't do it in that way; it isn't necessary. There are so many other ways, if one will just think a moment. Open with silent prayer. Open with a solo. Open with sentence prayers. Open with a blackboard talk. Open, by prearrangement, with remarks from some one in the pews. In the young people's meeting open with comments by six members on the six daily readings. Open by Bible verses given by the members as testimonies. Open with Scripture reading. It would be unpardonable to create the impression that new ways in a meeting are substitutes for the Divine presence; new ways are simply a means for arousing those present out of lethargy. If the meeting has always had a, praise service at the beginning, open your meeting in some other way. If it has been the unvarying custom to follow the praise service with prayer, bring in the prayer at some other time. Get out of the rut. Change the meeting end for end, if desirable. Doing things in a mechanical, routine way is one of the most fatal hindrances to thoughtfulness. K every other leader has said, ' The meeting is now open and we hope you will improve the time,' don't say that. Say something different. Let it be dignified, and perfectly natural to yourself, but avoid stale, trite expressions, as you would a rattle- snake. " Plan the meeting — the opening, the closing, the middle, the song, the Scripture reading, the invitation, the lights, the arrangements of seats, the tone of voice you will use, the coat you will wear, the sub-divisions of the topics, the persons who are to co-operate with you, the reception of strangers, the announcements, the accompanyist's work, the ushering, the sexton, everything that enters into the meeting that is under your control. " Let none think, from the emphasis that has been laid on variety and freshness, that the most important thing about a prayer meeting is to have new methods. Motive is always more than method. New methods are like The Senior Teacher — Lesson 11 27 new cog-wheels in a machine ; unless there is steam power to drive them they are only dead weight. What is needed is not so much a revamped prayer meeting as a revitalized prayer meeting. Methods may be a help to introducing new life into the prayer meeting; but we must depend, not on methods as an end, but as a means to an end — LIFE. It may be said that if we have the Holy Spirit present we shall need no new-fangled methods. If we have the Spirit we shall have all the best methods; He is the inventor of all that makes worship helpful. ' Having the Spirit ' is no substitute for the exercise of our own wits. The Spirit does not favor lazy Christians. If we are not in- ventive and progressive we shall not long ' have the Spirit,' and that is just what ails many prayer meetings." — Condensed from Cowan: New Life in the Old Prayer Meeting, pp. 104-114. Lesson 11. GETTING PEOPLE TO CHURCH: A Survey of General Conditions and Problems. Object of the Le&son. To show some of the measures that must be adopted to lessen the alienation of the people from the churches. PREPARING THE LESSON. The teacher will see that a large part of the lesson is given to a consideration of the present drift of the people away from the churches, and the reasons for it. The more important are mentioned in the notes. The Additional Reading References call attention to helpful books on the subject. The first two deserve especial mention. Gray's Symposium discusses the situation in England, but the conditions there are essentially the same as here. Other volumes discussing the relation of the churches to the social movements of our time should be found in every public library. Here again is an excellent opportunity for the teacher to use the pastor's library. Even if the teacher should find no further reading matter at hand, the suggestions in the lesson are so numerous and cover so wide a field that the time for speaking of them will be all too short. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The lesson for next Sunday brings the problem of non-church-going into the home field. Ask each member of the class to bring in some suggestion that may be helpful in solving the problem. The Questions on the Lesson. Most of these are so fully answered in the Lesson Notes as to need little further statement. Under question 5 mention may be made of these additional reasons for decreased church attendance. " Great multitudes of people are precluded from regular church attendance by the fact that a large part of the world's work cannot be stopped on Saturday night, but has to be continued on Sunday. The rapid development in recent 28 The Bible Study Union Lessons years of foreign travel and the vacation habit have interposed new and serious obstacles in the way of the church. The multiplication of all sorts of 'brother- hoods ' makes the work of the church increasingly difficult. These fraternal organizations often supply what the church in many instances has so sorely lacked: fellowship, brotherly attentions in sickness and misfortune, and substantial benefits in case of death. In rural communities the Grange has been diverting the life of the people from the church. It is often the one popular institution of the countryside. The Woman's Club is an admirable organization. It has not come into existence with any definite aim to injure the church, but it absorbs treasures and energies that were formerly given to the church." — Condensed from Crooker: The Church of To-day, pp. 32-39. Under question 8 add : " Certain intellectual conditions of the present are inhospitable to the church. A few years ago many eminent divines, unfortunately, took a very hostile attitude toward modern science in general. The doctrine of evolution and the higher criticism of the Bible, in particular, received much condem- nation and some abuse at their hands. And very naturally, in losing this battle with science and scholarship, the clerical army has been very much discredited; and in consequence the church has suffered . . . The church has imprudently insisted that certain theories of creation and certain views respecting the Bible are essential to religion. As science and scholarship have compelled men to abandon certain old notions (not essential to Chris- tianity) they have also, taking the clergyman at his word, abandoned religion and the church." — Crooker; The Church of To-day, pp. 40-42. The Questions for Class Discussion. {1) How shall we answer those who tell us that the usefulness of the church is at an end? " There are many people who appreciate the church as a historical institu- tion, but they feel that its day of usefulness is at an end. It was once helpful, like castles and thrones; but as these are fast giving place to democracy, so, too, the church will surely disappear. Civic, educational, and philanthropic agencies will in the future better perform the functions that ecclesiastical establishments formerly carried forward. " On the other hand, a careful and scientific study of the facts of modern life, its greatest problems and its gravest dangers, will make it clear to every thoughtful person that the need of the Christian church is greater to-day than ever before. The recent changes in the world instead of rendering it useless really enlarge its sphere and emphasize its importance. Present conditions instead of calling for the abandonment of the church make in- creasing demands for a better and a stronger church. Its existing short- comings are incidental; its real worth and importance are permanent. The true ministries of the church have not been taken over by any of the newly organized agencies of modem socitey. No adequate substitute for its worship, its prophecy, or its corporate Hfe on the high plane of man's utmost spirituality, has been devised, and none is likely to be invented. " It is frequently asserted that education has become so general that the pulpit is no longer needed to teach men the truths of history and science. But this view of the case is based upon the radically false assumption that the church exists simply to impart information. The part of the problem of life to which religion is related and for which the church labors, is the training pf the people in reverence, loye, hope — the spiritual ideal; and all this still The Senior Teacher — Lesson 11 29 belongs specifically to the church. Nothing else has arisen to serve mankind along these lines. " As the stress and strain of human life increase, the church is more and more needed to cheer, to comfort, and to console. The faster the speed of the train, the greater the danger of hot boxes. When we double the pressure of life, we quadruple the need of recreation. The mad rush of modern life, much of it wholly unnecessary, is indescribably sad and terrifically ruinous. It is the peculiar and important office of the church to meet these conditions from both sides; to moderate the maddened pace, and also to relieve those who become exhausted; to prevent the hot box, if possible, and also to rescue sufferers from the wreckage when disaster occurs. Into this fever-stricken, storm-tossed, wreck-strewn world the church must send both its sustaining and its comforting word. Every hour that religion can detain men in its sanctuary, the risk of nervous collapse or moral dehnquency is lessened. " The chief sources of the motives needed to operate successfully the vast and complicated machinery of modem life are those that are opened by the ministrations of a sincere and spiritual piety. Through them flows the grace of God. The solution of our serious problems, civic and personal, lies, not in any industrial reorganization of the world, but in a new spiritual dy- namic operative in the heart; for out of it are the issues of life. The church of God stands for the soul; and the soul is supreme and eternal." — Condensed from Crooker: The Church of To-day, pp. 135-139, 150. {2) Why are there generally more women than men at church? Much of the preaching is of the soft and gentle kind that appeals more to the feminine disposition than the masculine. Even if the minister preaches a virile gospel that should appeal to men, it seldom receives support from the church which, in almost every instance, is organized for women's work rather than for a man's job. Church work is approached from the sentimental rather than the business point of view. There lingers in every manly man an admiration for the strenuous and heroic whether in thought or action. He is not captivated by kid gloves and lavender. Above all he dislikes being scolded at his failure to be interested in what does not interest him. At a conspicuous Boston church with congregations ranging from twenty-five hundred to three thousand there are fully as many men as women. The subjects discussed are handled in man fashion. Where strenuous work is needed men are usually not backward in taking hold. The reason why, generally, there are fewer men at the churches is not that the men are less religious than the women, but that the form in which religion is generally presented appeals less to them than to women. 30 The Bible Study Union Lessons Lesson 12. GETTING PEOPLE TO CHURCH: Local Conditions and Problems. Object of the Lesson. To consider ways and means by which the local church may increase its attendants at public worship. PREPARING THE LESSON. Read the Lesson Notes attentively. Note that the subject matter for this lesson is to be had, not so much from a study of books, as by personal observa- tion of methods actually employed by churches that have built up good congregations. Think of other methods than those mentioned in the lesson. Speak, for example, of the value of occasional lectures on other than strictly religious subjects, with or without stereopticon views. These should always be free, since those who most need them are usually those who are least able to pay. Even a small admission fee counts up a good deal where the family is large. At the same time admission should be by tickets, distributed in any way that may be thought best. In towns or villages where there is no public library, and even where such is found, a church reading room, open every evening except when the church has its regular services, is often a great attraction. Such a room can be fitted up at small expense, made light and cheerful, and furnished with an abun- dance of illustrated papers, magazines, and reviews. Why not start in con- nection with it a moderate-sized circulating library? A fee of only one cent a day for fifty outstanding books would pay the entire expense of the library and the reading room. The town of Brookline, Mass., has a magnificent public library, and yet almost under its eaves a newsdealer runs a circulating library from which a surprising number of persons get books at two cents a day. In reply to an objection that this is not the business of the church it may be said that it is the church's business to minister to all human needs in a way that may win attention to its higher message. Jesus did not con- fine His ministry to the relief of spiritual needs. Some churches have found it a good plan to have one person in every three or four pews to extend a friendly greeting to strangers who may enter them, and a cordial invitation to come again. In many cases this works better than a handshaking committee at the door. Other suggestions will readily occur to an observant teacher. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. To get people to come to church is a thing greatly to be desired, but it is only a step toward a greater end. It brings them within range of the gospel. The greater task is to lead them to a personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Saviour. The next lesson will deal with the question of increasing the membership through the ordinary processes of church growth. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 12 31 The Questions on the Lesson. Under question 3 emphasize the fact that no machinery runs itself. As a locomotive needs steam, so the most perfect church organization needs the power of the divine life in human souls to put energy into it. Prayerful dependence on the Spirit of God is an essential to success. When the church permits the Spirit of God to work in and through it, complicated machinery will not be needed. In connection with question 6 remind the class that one secret of the power- ful hold by CathoHc churches upon their grown up men is the habit of church- going established in childhood and youth. Children in Catholic families are not permitted to choose whether they will go to church or not. A habit firmly fixed in early life is hard to break in later years. Many cases of luke- warmness and backsliding in Protestant churches can be traced to the fact that in early hfe church-going was optional rather than compulsory. The group method, question 10, will tend to make the inviting of friends and acquaintances to share one's church privileges spontaneous and informal. The use of printed invitation cards in connection with such personal invita- tions is unnecessary. It would be like using a manuscript with an extem- poraneous address. The Question for Class Discussion. How can the children in the Sunday school be trained to regular church attendance? ' ' ^irst, we ought in all possible ways to enlist the co-operation of the parents ihe task IS doubly hard where they are indifferent. We do well also to dis- illusion those who reason, ' My children do not care to go to church and I do not believe m compelling them to go.' Would these same parents so' reason of secular education? If so, the state comes in to be wisdom for them, and to say that the child must go to school. Children do not want to do manv things; they do not want to wash their faces, go to bed, or give up painting a window with shoe-blacking. Children of indulgent parents have a lot of good times; but those same children may some day despise the follv that indulged them. ^ " Our efforts must also be with the children. The church services should usually be announced m the school. Where the school meets before the church service, the announcement is made just before the closing of the session and all who can are urged to attend. Sometimes the closing exercises are omitted, scholars and teachers passing directly from the class-rooms to the church auditorium. In one case, as a result of this method and the earnest co-operation of superintendent and teachers, seventy-seven per cent of the entire school attend th^ church services. " Again, in the opening exercises of the school the superintendent or pastor may request all pupils who attended the last morning service of worship in c lu u u ^° ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^"^^ ^^^^ request may not be advisable every babbath but an occasional request of the kind is a reminder to the whole school that their doings are followed with solicitous interest, and this will be^a kindly encouragement and admonition to church attendance. " The Sunday school report for the day should include the attendance at church of those present in the school. If the per cent of church attendance IS smaller than usual, attention should be called to it 32 The Bible Study Union Lessons " The class in the Intermediate department having the best percentage for church attendance may be rewarded by a banner; and in the Junior department by a flag. " In some systems of marking, attendance on one of the Sabbath services of the church is necessary'- for securing a ' perfect mark ' in the Sunday school. " In some schools blank books are used, in which are written the text of the morning sermon at the home church or at any church which the pupils may have attended while away from home. All who are faithful with these records receive books at Christmas time. " Whatever our method, we must remember that the encouraging of church attendance by personal interest and example is more important than rewards and honor rolls or admonitions. Our example as Christian teachers and workers, and our personal care of the pupils as individuals, are more per- suasive than words or ' marks.' A child at first does not go to church from the abstract reason that it is right: but a child is mightily influenced because others go." — Condensed from Mead: Modern Methods in Sunday School Work, pp. 186-193. Lesson 13. THE EVERYDAY GROWTH IN CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. Object of the Lesson. To consider the best ways of increasing the member- ship in a local church, and to encourage personal work for individuals. PREPARING THE LESSON. " In addition to the Lesson Notes, which should be studied carefully, much valuable material will be found in the Additional Reading References. H. Clay Trumbull's little book on Individual Work for Individuals should be in every teachers' library. It is crowded with illustrations from the author's own experiences and from those of other Christian workers of the inestimable value and far-reaching results of personal work in bringing men to faith in Christ. Since the everyday growth of church membership, like the local problem of getting people to church, depends largely on personal efforts, this lesson also may be illustrated from the experiences of the teacher and of the class in winning souls. The practical value of the lesson centers on the question for class discussion. A serious problem in nearly every church is that of getting the members to realize their responsibility for the spiritual welfare of other men, and to perceive the almost miraculous power at times of a few simple words in beginning the spiritual transformation of a human life. Do not let the discussion spend itself in mere talk. Try to make it the beginning of real personal work with men for Christ. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson will present a study of those special evangelistic efforts, or revivals, in which local churches as well as great com- The Senior Teacher — Lesson 13 33 munities combine in a campaign for winning men to a serious consideration of religious duties. As a special assignment ask some member of the class to present a brief statement of the essential differences between the Day of Pentecost and a modem revival. The Questions on the Lesson. In connection with question 6 this illus- tration of the superior value of a Christian life over mere argument may be helpful : " One who was widely known as faithful in good words and good works in Eastern Massachusetts told me of his experience in this line. He was ac- customed to ride out from Boston daily to and from a suburban town. One who was frequently his seat-mate was a man prominent as an unbeliever, and who was editing a free-thinking periodical. Again and again this man endeavored to draw my friend into a discussion on the subject of religion, but without success in so doing. One day my friend openly met the matter in this way : "'I do not want to have a discussion with you on the subject of religion. I'm no match for you in argument. You'd get the better of me every time.' But, apart from that, one thing I know, that the Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior, and I trust Him all the time. This is the comfort of my Ufe, and I wish you had the same comfort.' " At this his pertinacious_ seat-mate brought his hand down sharply on my friend's knee and said heartily: " 'There you've got me, my friend. I've nothing to offer against that.' " My friend's conviction was his best and his resistless argument " — Trumbull: Individual Work, pp. 180-182. In connection with question 9 and " Decision Day " teachers should re- member that the supreme purpose of the Sunday school is the building up of religious character, that this is not the product of a spasmodic effort or momentary emotional appeal, but the specific end which every detail in the organization of the school should have in view from first to last, and by which its efficacy should be tested. There is a sense, then, in which every session of the school should be a " Decision Day," since every lesson, every high and noble character studied, every example of unselfish devotion, every enforce- ment of truth and righteousness should awaken in each pupil a conscious inward response — " Yes, that is right, that is what I ought to be, that is what I ought to do." But while this continuous educational process is emphasized we should not disparage the value of special and definite efforts to focus these impressions made on the pupils from Sunday to Sunday in a final deliber- ate yielding of themselves to Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. The pupils should be prepared for this step, they should be taught to anticipate full church membership as a joyful privilege. There need be no hired evan- gelist, no employment of sensational methods, no funereal solemnity, but simply a reverent straight-forward appeal to a manly or womanly sense of duty. If the activities of the school have been well directed, there should be 34 The Bible Study Union Lessons scarcely any more difficulty in obtaining a hearty response than in promoting a class from one grade to another. Intelligent and fruitful church membership is the natural, as it should be the expected, result of membership and training in the Sunday school. The Question for Class Discussion. What responsibility rests on the lay members of a church for its everyday growth in membership? ' ' The layman knows that the personal touch is the secret of business success. It is the age of the agent and the promoter and the commercial traveller. Seventy per cent of the trade of our time is accomphshed by personal solici- tors who circumnavigate the globe and crowd every hotel and train to do their work. Bishop Fowler tells of an alert preacher who, when he was sent to a town where commercial travellers congregated, went among them and asked each one for what commercial house he was running. At last, some one impressed by his business manner, asked: ' For whom are you running?' The pastor repHed with great eagerness, ' I am running for the Lord Jesus Christ and I am going to show my goods at half -past ten to-morrow morning up at that house with the steeple, and I wish you would dome and examine the goods.' It is needless to say that the church was full, and so were the contribution box and the altar. "If we wish to recruit an organization or a fraternity, it is the personal method we adopt. College students spend weeks and months in cultivating those whose presence will add weight to the society they represent. They introduce them to their friends and concern themselves with their interests in school and town. Alas that it should be true of us who profess to keep company with Jesus as our dearest friend that we have never once offered to introduce our neighbors to Him! " The results which have come from this personal work on the part of lay- men are simply marvellous. A layman who had become worldly through the increase of property was one day waited upon by his pastor and told that he felt moved after prayer to lay upon his heart the bringing of one of his rich friends to Christ. This he refused at first to do, but after repeated urging consented to invite his friend to dine with him. Just as they were leaving the table he told his message with much self-abasement. His friend replied, ' I have wished for a year that some one would help me to Christ.' So enam- ored of his plan did the worker become that he continued his personal efforts until one htmdred and fifty men had been won to the Christian life. In Philadelphia is a layman who had long been a member of the church, but had been powerless for good. In a revival service he felt called to begin the work of winning men one by one. In four and a half months he had led one hundred and ninety-four to a better life." — Condensed from Goodell: Pastoral and Personal Evangelism, pp. 74-78. THE SENIOR TEACHER An Aid in Teaching the Course on THE MODERN CHURCH Lesson 14. MODERN EVANGELISM. Object of the Lesson. To contrast the old-time revival with the revival methods employed in recent years, and to show the superior advantages of continuous evangelism. PREPARING THE LESSON. Recall the great religious reforms recorded in the Old Testament as having taken place under Samuel (1 Sam. 7:3, 4), under Asa (1 Kings 15:9-15), under Josiah (2 Kings 23:1-25), and consider in what sense they may be called religious revivals. One of the best discussions of evangelism from the modem point of view is found in Professor Coe's The Religion of a Mature Mind, chapter IX, " Are Conversions Going out of Date?" An admirable treatment of modem evangelism is given in chapter XVII, " Revivals and Re- vivaHsm," in Gladden's The Christian Pastor. The reading of either of these chapters will be exceedingly helpful. Note that revivals, as ordinarily conducted, assume that the normal condition of church life is brief periods of exalted emotional excitement alternating with long periods of decline. Note also how widely this idea has been adopted, notwithstanding the fact that it has no warrant in the New Testament. Study, on the other hand, those churches that enjoy a fairly continuous religious prosperity, and consider the means whereby this is brought about. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. From a study of revivals we pass naturally to a consideration of the methods by which the churches seek to retain the members who are won either through an everyday growth or through evangelistic work. This topic is treated in Lesson 15, on " Holding the Members." Ask some member of the class to interview two or three neighboring pastors and report on the methods they have found useful in keeping their church members from drifting away. The Qu3stions on the Lesson. Questions 1-6 are covered by the Lesson Notes. 35 36 The Bible Study Union Lessons Under Question 7 the following statements may be helpful : ' ' The great city campaigns, conducted under the leadership of Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, have challenged the church to step out into larger and better work. His peculiar method is to move the city from the center. The movement is centrifugal rather than centripetal. " While the methods adopted in these campaigns are far from being either unsafe or insane, nevertheless there is a boldness of conception and execution which sometimes startles even those who consider themselves progressive. To be sure, the ' Midnight Parades ' are not especially new, but never before have they been conducted in just such a manner, and with such results. " To have the largest theatres in the city packed full at the midnight hour, after such a parade, and to have the new day become as the beginning of life to multitudes, is indeed a significant thing. ... " For a score of men to leave the topmost gallery, working their way down the winding stairs, go out into the street and back again into the main part of the theatre, so that they may take a public stand for Christ, indicating by so doing that they have accepted Him as their Savior, proves, at least, that they are in earnest. This was done many times, but many more came from the main floor and the balcony. It has been said that men are hard to reach. Again and again is it proven that they are easier to win than women. Getting at them — that is the hardest part of the problem. In theatre, hall, shop, and on the_ street — wherever men would come, there the Gospel is always preached with power. " The noonday meetings in the largest downtown theatres bring thou- sands into touch with the movement. The 'Good Cheer' meetings on every Monday morning bring echoes from every district. * Cheer Up ' meetings, somebody called them by mistake one day, amid the laughter of the audience, but they are that, too. Not only are cheerful tidings brought in, telling of the good work as a v/hole, but here and there a man will tell of the new life that has come to him, and often a woman will repeat the story of a great newly given joy, which finds an echo in many hearts and lives in the immense audience. " Besides all these great special meetings and demonstrations, there are the regular nightly services, not only in the center of town, but at every strategic point in the city, in charge of the group of evangelists and their singers who accompany the leader." • — Stelzle. Further intensely interesting descriptions of this modem " Aggressive Evangel- ism " is given in the chapter from which the above extracts are taken. In addition to the methods suggested in Note 5, the follow^ing plan for securing continuous evangelism has been tried again and again with remarkable success: " One active pastor in the heart of Illinois added one hundred and seven new members to his church in a single year by w^orking along the following lines: He went into each class in his flourishing Sabbath school and secured the names and addresses of all families whose children were in his school, but who were not members of his church. He was amazed to find how many there were. He began to call upon them. He found them most responsive to his invitation. Many of them had not come into the church for want of this very invitation. They were ready and anxious to come. Others required but a small measure of urging. They came so readily he was both surprised and ashamed. He realized at last that while he had been mourning because of the small number that The Senior Teacher — Lesson 14 37 came into his church in response to his pubHc appeals, he had allowed this rich mine to lie all unworked. It revealed a new world to him. His experience aroused others, until that one pastor's application of a ne\^ idea to a very old condition resulted in the gathering in of thousands." — Black: Building a Working Church, pp. 137, 138. The Questions for Class Discussion. {1) Why are we not seeing old- fashioned revivals now? " The conscience of to-day judges the issues of life by a different standard from that to which the typical revival has made its appeal. The typical revival has worked primarily upon the individualistic motive of desire for personal salvation. The great characteristic emotions of our time, which have to do with social relationships, were awakened only incidentally, or by way of consequence. " The modem mind puts more searchingly than ever before the question of practical utility. Can you show, by the effects in the life, by the in- fluence upon society, that the revival type of conversion has any advan- tage over other forms of religious expression? Unless such a demonstration be set forth, men will not be persuaded to return to the olden ways. " A clearing up is taking place in men's ideas concerning the relation of obscure or striking mental facts to the supernatural. There can be no reasonable doubt that much of the power of the old-time revival rested upon the supernatural interpretation which the popular mind gave to certain mental phenomena just because they were mysterious and awe- inspiring. . . . The sudden reversals of feeling, the spiritual illumina- tions, and the changed impulses that occurred in converts were taken, because they were mysterious, to be certain proof of regenerative power. . . . Through the influence of scientific method, this attitude of mind is certainly passing away." — Condensed from Coe: Religion of a Mature Mind, pp. 274-277. {2) Which is likely to be the more effective way of extending the kingdom of God, through revivals, or through the religious education of children? " Under the prevalence of the revival system, the normal methods of Christian nurture have been sadly neglected, both in the church and in the home. The effect, both upon the church and upon the home, of this too exclusive reliance upon the revival system, has undoubtedly been disastrous. The life of many of the churches has thus come to be a con- stant succession of floods and droughts, of chills and fever. Between stagnation and excitement they are all the time vibrating. Sometimes they are on the heights of religious faith and fervor; oftener they are in the depths of discouragement and fruitlessness. The influence affecting them appears to be malarial. The periodicity of heats and rigors is not a sign of health. . . . How shall they escape, and whither? A man who awakes in the morning and finds the mercury in his house down to freezing point, does not wish to live in this temperature; he cannot. But what shall he do to raise it ? He might set the house on fire : that would accomplish the result, but it might not be the best way. Another way would be to build good fires in the fireplaces and keep them burning steadily. Prob- ably that would make the house comfortable after a little. This method might not be so expeditious or so exciting as the other, but on the whole it would be more judicious. And it would seem that there must be a 38 The Bible Study Union Lessons better method of delivering a church from a condition of low temperature than by applying to it the torch of high-pressure revivalism. " But not only is the life of the church unhealthily affected by a too exclusive reliance upon the revivalistic methods, there is also a serious loss in the neglect of those quieter methods of nurture and training, out of which such important gains might come. ... If the children of Chris- tian families are kept in the church and trained for efficient service, if the organic life of the church is as vigorous as it ought to be, its own law of natural increase will speedily put it in possession of the world." — Condensed from Gladden: The Christian Pastor, pp. 384-387. Lesson 15. HOLDING THE CONVERTS. Object of the Lesson. To consider how the losses in efficiency and membership through failure to hold the converts can be remedied or lessened. PREPARING THE LESSON. The Scripture reading calls attention to the fundamental condition imderlying permanent Christian vitality — abiding in the Son and in the Father. Converts who maintain this unbroken fellowship with Christ will need no elaborate machinery to hold them fast to the church. They will be lil^e the branch that is united to the vine, is permeated by its life, and consequently bears rich and abundant fruit. The literature bearing directly on the subject of the lesson, as stated in Note 2, is scanty. Most of the organizations for youths and adults seem designed primarily to attract them into relations by which they may be won into membership than to develop actual members into strong and stable Christians. This is unfortunate, since the strength of a church depends not on the number of its converts, but on the number who are transformed into working and contributing members. This is a fact of such importance, and yet so frequently ignored, that the teacher should be prepared to put the utmost emphasis on it in the class. Study also the means employed by the local churches to prevent losses of converts, talk with the pastors about it, and get any further information that may be available in books or periodi- cals. Gladden's chapter on " Enlisting the Membership " is particularly good. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignment. The next lesson takes up for consideration the losses sustained by churches through the removal of members to a distance, and the means best adapted to keep mere transfers of membership from becoming actual losses. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 15 39 Ask some member of the class to report on the methods used in your own church to keep in touch with absentee members. The Questions on the Lessons. Under the first question the teacher may well allude to the special need for guidance and encouragement which every convert experiences. The following paragraph from Hoppin's Pastoral Theology, p. 475, may be helpful: " There is no sight more pathetic than a young Christian in the first glow of his new love, knowing little of what lies before him, and thinking perhaps that his salvation is gained and the work done. The pathetic part of it is, that he lives as yet in the ideal of Christianity, and when the actual comes his strength may be found to be weakness. If any one, therefore, needs kindness, counsel, charity, patience, continual support and encouragement, it is he; he needs con- stant instruction and building up in the things of the new life." Questions 2-5 are answered in the Lesson Notes. Question 6 touches the inquiry which might be addressed to a multitude of church members, " Why stand ye here all the day idle?" and to which in most cases the answer would be, " Because no man hath hired us." No one has set them to work in the Lord's vineyard. Often this inac- tivity is due to a prevailing impression that the minister has been employed to do the work for them — a feeling bluntly expressed by an elder in a Southern church who, when asked by his pastor to lead in prayer, de- clined, saying, " That's what we hire you for." " As well," says Dr. Josiah Strong, " might a pupil in a gymnasium think he employed his teacher to take exercise for him; as well might a company of soldiers imagine that it is the duty of their captain to go through the drill in their place, and fight their battles, while they look on, and applaud or criticize. If your exercise is taken by some one else, your exercise is not taken at all. Duty can't be done for you by another." A reasonable explanation of the origin of the feeling that the minister is to do aU the work is given by Dr. Washington Gladden in The Christian Pastor, pp. 417, 418. " That such is the function of all those who are entrusted with the official ministry of the Gospel has always been understood. Their first business, as all men know, is not to save themselves, but to save others. But those theories of the church which separate the clergy from the laity have resulted in practically surrendering to the clergy this highest form of service. The high calling of the clergy is to save others; that of the laity is to be saved. Such is the steady implication of sacerdotalism. And although the reformed churches have repudiated the sacerdotal theories, they have by no means rid themselves of all their implications. The notion that thQ people are in the church to be taught and fed and strengthened and comforted and inspired and led to heaven, and that the minister is among them to do this work for them has been the pre- vailing notion, to which all the treatises on pastoral theology are clear 40 The Bible Study Union Lessons witnesses. To drive all these misconceptions from the minds of his people is one of the first duties of the Christian minister. Line upon line, precept upon precept, let him instruct them that the call to service is addressed not only to the man in the pulpit, but to all the men and women in the pews ; that it is the whole church and not merely its ofhce bearers who are to be witnesses for Christ and laborers together with him ; that the duty of ministering to those who are without rests upon the laity as well as upon the clergy; that the injunction to do good to all men as we have oppor- tunity, and especially to those of the household of the faith, is addressed by the Apostle to the people and not to their pastors. And it will be the minister's constant endeavor to secure from each mernber of his flock, even the feeblest, some co-operation in the work to which the church is called." The Questions for Class Discussion. (1) Can churches reasonably be expected to hold all their converts? The position of the church in this respect is not essentially different from that of other human institutions or organizations. The members of a family are bound by the closest ties. Nevertheless, despite kinship, love, self-sacrifice, there are prodigal sons who wander away, sometimes after hard experiences coming back as penitents, and sometimes never coming at all. Fraternal organizations, Masons, Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, and scores of similar organizations hold permanently only a fraction of their members, notwithstanding the financial inducements often paid in case of sickness, accidents or death. Life insurance companies have the same experiences. Multitudes of policy holders suffer their insurance to lapse, when the slight effort to continue it in force may be of inestimable benefit to themselves or their families. Human nature is the same in the church as outside. The tragic element in lapsed church memberships is not a paltry financial loss to the church, but the moral and spiritual deterioration in the individual himself of which it is usually the unmistakable symptom. This loss is limited not merely to time, it extends into eternity. (2) How do the most successful churches that you know of hold their converts? This question must be discussed in view of the personal experiences and observations of the members of the class. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 16 41 Lesson 16. THE MEMBER WHO MOVES AWAY. Object of the Lesson. To consider the necessity of deaUng wisely with church members who make their residence away from the home field. PREPARING THE LESSON. The Scripture reading presents a part of the letter that Jeremiah sent to the exiles in Babylonia. For many years he had been a prophet of doom to his impenitent and disobedient people. When at length the overthrow of the Jewish state, which he had so long predicted, became an accomplished fact and the threatened exile into Babylonia a reality, the false prophets who had persistently contradicted his previous pre- dictions of judgment, now began to cheer the captives with false announce- ments of a speedy return. Jeremiah was compelled to shatter these hopes also and to foretell a long exile. At the same time he counseled the captives to resign themselves with patience to the situation and to make the best of it by building houses, planting vineyards, and con- tinuing the worship of Jehovah in a strange land. The religious part of his advice applies equally well to those who to-day, from choice or force of circumstances, make new homes far from the old. They may find religious conditions very different from those to which they have been accustomed, but their manifest duty is to use to the utmost such oppor- tunities as they have, and to beware of slipping into inactivity and indifference. The literature on this subject is scattered and scanty. Supplement the lack of appropriate reading material by a careful study of the local conditions both as to members who have moved away and as to those who have moved on to your own field without as yet identifying them- selves with any church. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson will attempt to show the importance and magnitude of the work done by Christian women, and will point out some reasons for their prominence. Assign to some member of the class, preferably a young woman, if the class is mixed, the preparation of a brief report on the work of deacon- esses in the Episcopal church. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) As an illustration of the legal attach- ment of certain classes to the soil the following extract may be interesting: "_A remarkable form of serfdom continued to survive down to the closing years_ of the eighteenth centuiy. Colliers and salters were bound by the law, independent of paction, on entering to a coal work or a salt mine, to perpetual service there; and in case of sale or alienation of the ground on which the works were situated, the right to their services 42 The Bible Study Union Lessons passed without any express grant to the purchaser. The sons of colliers and salters could follow no occupation but that of their father, and were not at liberty to seek for employment anywhere else than in the mines to which they had been attached by birth." Statutes enacted under George III abolished this last remnant of slavery in England. (2-3) Answered in the Lesson Notes. (4) In The Watchman of November 16, 1911, Rev. W. C. Parker, chairman of the Oregon Baptist State Committee which has under con- sideration the non-resident member problem, has a very informing article summarizing the results of their studies. The duties of such members he states as follows: " They should expect " (a) To contribute regularly to the expenses and benevolence of the home church even when some contributions are made to the local church of another denomination. Contributions to another denomination are not a valid excuse for the non-support of one's own church. " (&) To write to the home church assuring its members and pastor of their loyalty and interest, at least once a year. " (c) To receive communications from the home church inquiring as to their interest and asking contributions. Oftentimes pastors writing such letters receive criticism as though their expectations for loyalty and support from non-resident members were unreasonable." (5) " It would be a simple matter, for example, to notify your minister when you change your residence, that he may make the needful correction on his calling list and know where to find you. A postal card, costing one cent, and which you could inscribe and direct in less than one minute, would convey to him this information. Yet I have often spent hours in hunting up families or individuals who had changed their residence with- out giving me any notice whatever. Indeed, in my long experience as a pastor, I have found very few persons who were thoughtful enough to give the minister this information, even when their attention had been repeatedly called to the matter from the pulpit. . . . " Very often church members remove from the city to distant places without giving their pastor notice. Within the past three months I have devoted considerable time to searching for a missing family, and at last, six months after their departure, I learned that they were in Kansas. Not a few of the absentees on the rolls of our churches have behaved in this way, and we are now wholly unable to trace them. This is not onlj a great annoyance and trouble to the pastor; it is a gross breach of their church covenant." — Washington Gladden: " Dropped Stitches " in Parish Problems, pp. 236, 237. (6) In respect to persuading absentee members to send for letters, Mr. Parker says: " In dealing with non-resident members of other churches that have moved to your field, much patience will be needed and also much perseverance of the pastor as well as of the saints. ^ Our denomi- national methods and customs have been such that there is on the part of many an exasperating procrastination and lack of the sense of responsibility." As there is often needless delay on the part of members in sending for the church letter, largely because they do not care to make the effort The Senior Teacher — Lesson 16 43 to write the request or forget to do so, it has been found well to use a form like the following, cither printed or mimeographed. Copies of this form are carried at all times. All you have to ask in the way of effort on their part is the signing of the form, and they are usually ready to do that. This you can send at once to the proper party. To the church of Dear Brethren : Since my residence is now such that it seems best for me to become a member of the church of State of I ask you to have granted to me a letter of dismission to this church. As I desire to enter into full fellov^^ship with the church as soon as possible, I ask you to attend to this matter as promptly as possible. Please send the letter to Rev Pastor of the church. (Town) (State) The Questions for Class Discussion (1) Why should churches give more attention to members who have moved away than they commonly do? Regard for the spiritual welfare of a non-resident member should be considered as much an obligation as though he were still living in direct fellowship with the church. Keeping up Christian interest in him by means of at least an annual communication should consume no more time than would be given to a friendly call if he were close at hand. The encouragement to Christian activity received by a sympathetic letter from the home church will often keep the absent member from drifting away from his covenant relations. The home church will itself be highly rewarded by the grateful and hearty answers that will be received from some of the absent ones. (2) How can resident members be made helpful in looking after absentees? " A careful Hst should be made out, with the residences of those absent, so far as is known; and this list should be taken in charge by the clerk or by some member of the church who volunteers to perform this service. The list should be read at some well attended social meeting, that those present may correct and complete it, if they happen to know the where- abouts of any of the absent ones. Then these names should be parceled out for correspondence among the members of the church present, giving to each correspondent but few names ; and each one should write regularly, say once in six months, to those assigned to him, explaining to each that he writes in the name of the church, to convey its greetings to its absent communicant, to give him information concerning the work that is going on at home, and to inquire after his welfare. . , . 44 The Bible Study Union Lessons " If the residence of any absent member is not known, it should be the duty of the person to whom the name is assigned to find it out. The pastor or others may furnish clues to the investigation, but the work of making the investigation should be left to the correspondent himself. All discoveries of this nature, and all changes of residence, should be reported by the correspondents to the clerk, or the person who keeps the list of absentees, that this list may be as full and accurate as possible. To those who expect to be permanently absent, the suggestion may prop- erly be made, not by the correspondent, but by some special communica- tion from the church, that it would be better for them, if it be convenient, to remove their relation to some church near them, with which they may engage in work and worship. . . . " By this care of the absentees, the pastor would have one of his anxieties removed, and one of the loose ends of the church administration neatly picked up and secured." — Washington Gladden: Parish Problems. Lesson 17. WOMAN'S WORK IN THE CHURCH. Object of the Lesson. To show high position and preponderating influence of woman in modem Protestant churches. PREPARING THE LESSON. A brief survey of the position of woman in New Testament times may be set in a stronger light by comparing it with that under the Old Testa- ment. For information on both of these points consult Bible Dictionaries, articles " Womxn," " Deaconess," " Widows." The most valuable information concerning the inspiration and help given by Christian missions at home and abroad is given by studying the reports of the Woman's Missionary Societies in the denominational year books. Washington Gladden 's chapter in The Christian Pastor is largely devoted to a discussion of the order of deaconesses. For up-to-date information on the growth and work of this organization in the Methodist Episcopal church, see the Methodist Year Book for 1912, pp. 166-182. Practical information can easily be gained by a study of local conditions, not only in your own church, but in other churches in the community. Try to discover the reasons for the excessive preponderance of female membership, and of attendance at the church services. Note also the efforts that have been made on a very extensive scale in this country to remedy this condition by such campaigns as the " Men and Religion Movement." TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. From a consideration of the work of women in the church we pass naturally to that of the young people and to the origin The Senior Teacher — Lesson 17 45 and growth of societies in the local churches devoted exclusively to their instruction in religious truth and training in Christian service. Assign to one of the members of the class the preparation of a very- brief paper descriptive of the origin, purpose, growths, and methods of work in the Lend-a-Hand Clubs. Information may be had at the central office. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) If the teacher has not an adequate Bible Dictionary at hand, the following brief statement respecting wo- man's position in Old Testament times may be helpful. In the patriarchal period it was comparatively free and dignified. Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel stood on the same social planes with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Aliriam ranked with Moses and Aaron ; Deborah and Huldah were proph- etesses, the former exercising also the high office of judge. Women took part in nearly aU religious matters on terms of apparent equality with men. The later Old Testament period, however, witnessed a marked subjection of woman, though even under the degrading influence of Rabbinism she never sank so low as in many heathen lands. Influenced by Rabbinic ideas of the social and religious inferiority of women the disciples of Jesus " marvelled that he was speaking " with one (Jo. 4: 27). The same low idea of women survives in the modem orthodox synagogue as indicated by this thanksgiving prescribed in a Jewish prayer book, and repeated by the men, " O Lord God, Eternal King of the Universe, I thank thee that thou hast not made me a woman," while the corre- sponding thanksgiving humbly uttered by the women reads', " O Lord God, Eternal King of the Universe, I thank thee that thou hast made me according to thy will." {2) " The place of woman in the modern church is not that which she occupied in the Apostolic church or in any of the centuries preceding the Reformation, It is equally true that the place of woman in the state, in the community, and even in the family, is unlike that to which she was confined in the days of Paul the Apostle. From a position of subjection she has passed into one of social equality. The natural laws are not repealed, and the relatioh of woman to man will always be what nature has ordained that it shall be; but the race has come to understand that differences of function and endowment among human beings do not neces- sarily signify superiority or inferiority, and that, since we must all stand before the judgment seat of God, there ought to be no lordship or vassalage among us. . . . " Whether women will, in any considerable numbers, undertake the work of the regular ministry may be doubted. In those communions which have opened the pastoral office to them they do not seem to be eager to assume it. But the fields of labor that are opened to them in connection with the work of the local church are wide and fruitful. Their influence in its councils everywhere is pervasive and commanding. They compose about two-thirds of our American Protestant churches, and a 46 The Bible Study Union Lessons far larger proportion of the active laborers in these churches. There is no longer any need to claim for woman a place of influence and power in the Christian church." — Gladden: The Christian Pastor, pp. 289, 290. (3-5) These questions are answered in the Less n Notes. {6) The growth of the modern deaconess movement is outlined in the Methodist Year Book, 1912, as follows: " The modern deaconess move- ment has been one of gradual development. First, in 1836, Theodore FHedner began in Germany a work whose success has been marvelous. Second, in 1864, under the guidance of the Rev. William Pennefather, was begun the celebrated Mildmay Deaconess Work in North London. Third, in 1874, deaconess service was successfully undertaken among the Methodists in Bremen, Germany, under the leadership of the Rev. G. Weiss. Fourth, in America, the deaconess work was begun in 1849 by Rev. W. A. Passavant, a pastor in the Lutheran church in Pittsburgh, Pa., but not until twenty years later did the Lutheran church succeed in its efforts to introduce the office of female Diaconate. Fifth, the Protestant Episcopal church laid the foundation of its Deaconess Institute in the United States some years earlier than did the Lutheran church, but the work within this church is still in its prime stages. Sixth, the most comprehensive deaconess organization within the United States is that of the Methodist Episcopal church. The first pioneer of this work was Mrs. Anna Wittemeyer, who, after the W^ar of the Rebellion, gave the work of mercy she had begun on the battlefields a more permanent form. . . . The General Conference of 1888 indorsed the deaconess move- ment, and at its next annual meeting, in October of the same year, the movement became a legitimate part of the Woman's Home Missionary Society." The Questions for Class Discussion. {1) To what is the great pre- ponderance of women in modern Protestant churches due? So long as brute force was dominant in human society woman was necessarily regarded as an inferior being. But since spiritual forces have largely displaced brute force woman has risen to her rightful place, not only in society at large, but especially in the church where spiritual forces are recognized and invoked more than anywhere else. The increasing pressure of modem life has placed on the men heavier and more absorbing responsibilities. The women have naturally a greater spirituality and devotion, and they have also greater freedom to give thought to religious matters, and to service where it has been needed. The changed emphasis in preaching from the sterner to the gentler divine attributes has tended to feminize Christianity and to the placing of less stress on the work of the church as " a man's job." {2) Would the establishment of an order of women (deaconesses, or sisterhoods) devoted exclusively to the furtherance of religious, educa- tional, and philanthropic work, with assured support for life, be expedient in all Christian bodies? The female Diaconate in the Methodist Episcopal church has not The Senior Teacher — Lesson 18 47 only been a marvelously successful movement, but it has unquestionably been a powerful agency in promoting and strengthening the work of that church. The work done by the deaconesses is described by the head of the training school in Washington, D. C. : " Take the work of the deaconess; what is her employment? She visits from house to house where the masses are, by whom the church so sadly and so wrongly is regarded as a social club, which has no interest in them nor to them. wShe opens industrial schools for the ignorant and helpless ones, for whom the word home has no associations, and who have never experienced the joy and blessedness of the family. She gathers the children of the foreigners into kindergartens, where, along the avenues of the eye, the ear, the touch, mercy and grace shall find their way to the heart and mind. She enters the dwellings of the poor and sick where suffering is unmitigated by the soft hand of love. She comforts and befriends the victims of the vices and sins of men. vShe consoles and counsels the deserted and bereaved. She searches out the widow and orphan and aids them with her sympathy and charity. She brightens with her presence the cots of the hospital wards and directs the asylums for the orphans and the aged. She soothes the last hours of the dying with helpful messages from the Holy Word." That the Roman Catholic church has discovered in its sisterhoods a most valuable agency for carrying on its work, is shown by the most superficial acquaintance with their history. Interview the pastor of a Methodist church as to the practical value of the work done by the Methodist deaconesses. Lesson 18. YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETIES: HISTORY. Object of the Lesson. To give an impression of the magnitude of recent young people's movements, and to call attention to some of the leading organizations which it has produced. PREPARING THE LESSON. The Lesson Notes should be carefully studied. Get acquainted with the work done by the young people in your own church. The members of the various organizations represented there will doubtless be able to supply more or less literature connected with each one, and to give personal information as to growth, present membership, etc. Information concerning societies not represented in your church can easily be obtained from the headquarters of each. The addresses are given in the Lesson Notes. Observe that this lesson is devoted to an historical survey of the leading young people's societies in this country, and that their methods of work will be considered in the next lesson. 48 The Bible Study Union Lessons TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The field to be considered in a survey of young people's societies is so large as to call for two lessons. As stated above, the present lesson is limited to the historical side. The next will take up a study of the methods employed by these societies in accomplishing their several purposes. Assign to some member of the class the preparation of a brief account of the origin, purpose, growth, and methods of work among the Inter- national Order of King's Daughters. Information may be had by writing to the headquarters at 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The Questions on the Lesson. (1) "It is barely half a century since the young people of our American Protestant churches first began to be organized for Christian work. Nineteen centuries ago, the promise was recalled of a day when the Spirit should be poured from on high upon the whole church, and when the young men should see visions — presumably visions of work to be done, for these are the visions which the Spirit most often vouchsafes. The Apostle John, in his old age, wrote to young men because they were strong; his purpose must have been to enlist their strength in the service of the church. By those who reflected that the Apostolic band were probably all young men, it might have been conjectured that what has been termed " the young-man-power " could be used with great effect in the work of the church.^ But this hint was tardily taken by most of the organized ecclesiasticisms, and but little provision was made for the co-operation of the young men and women in Christian work." — Gladden: The Christian Pastor, p. 313. (^-5) These questions are sufficiently covered by the Lesson Notes. {6, 7) The Christian Endeavor idea had been in operation nearly ten years when the most serious problem arose that had as yet confronted it, namely the determination of its relation to the denominational young people's societies that had been organized among the Methodists and Baptists. The former body in the United States has steadfastly retained its principle of non-affiliation with the original Christian Endeavor move- ment. Elsewhere three solutions have been accepted by different branches of the church: " One is that of the Baptists, who admit into their Baptist Young People's Union all Baptist Christian Endeavor Societies, without change of name or constitution. Another is that of the Methodists of Canada, whose societies are changing their name to ' Epworth League of Christian En- deavor ' — Epworth Leagues and Methodist Christian Endeavor Societies thus finding a common meeting ground. The third and most widely accepted solution is that of adoption of the Christian Endeavor Society as the denominational young people's societ}^, denominational authorities simply recognizing the existence of the Christian Endeavor Societies in their church, and fostering and guiding the movement among their own young people. " The method of settlement adopted by the Baptists has been adopted also by the Free Baptists, the Evangelical Association, the United Brethren. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 18 49 and the United Presbyterians. By the Cumberland Presbyterians, the Disciples, the Moravians, the Friends, the Christians, the Congre- gationalists, and the Methodist Protestants, Christian Endeavor has been accepted as the denominational form of organization. This is practically the case among the Presbyterians, while the Lutherans permit the existence and growth of Lutheran Christian Endeavor Societies along- side of Lutheran Alliances. In foreign countries and in Canada, with but one exception, wherever any denominational action has been taken, the society has been formally adopted." — Wells: A Short History of the Christian Endeavor Movement, pp. 9, 10. {10) Critical study of the period of adolescence has shown three well- marked subdivisions — early, from twelve to thirteen years; middle, from fourteen to sixteen; and late, from seventeen to twenty or twenty- five. The middle subdivision is the distinctively heroic or knightly period in the boy's growth, when the gang spirit is at its height, when he delights in tests of strength, and when the romantic and roaming spirit is predominant. The boy's hero is the strongest member of the gang or some outsider a little older. He is now passing through that stage of development which in the history of the human race has its almost exact parallel in the age of chivalry. To meet these traits. Dr. William Byron Forbush, after a careful investigation into the psychology of boyhood, planned an organization which he called the Knights of King Arthur, and which is shown by the test of wide experience to appeal successfully to the religious instinct of boys during middle adolescence. While es- pecially designed to meet the needs of individual churches, it is also used in Young Men's Christian Associations, and in public and private schools. The Order of the Knights of the Holy Grail appeals to the same heroic instincts as the Knights of King Arthur. The more advanced parts of its ritual is designed for young men from twenty years of age to twenty- five. This organization also is interdenominational. The Knights of Methodism embraces three orders designed for boys from nine years of age upwards. The first, the Order of the Loyal Princes, is based on the refusal of the three young Hebrew princes to eat of the king's food or drink of his wine; the second, the Order of Victors, is based on the story of their refusal to bow down to the golden image of king Nebuchadnezzar; and the third, the Order of the Lion-Hearted, is built around Daniel's willingness to be cast into the den of lions rather than deny his God. The Questions for Class Discussion. Which is more advantageous for a church, a denominational or an interdenominational organization of its young people? The advantages claimed for a denominational organization are that it enables the denomination to retain control over all local organizations, 50 The Bible Study Union Lessons to direct their activities, to inculcate denominational beliefs and practices, and to discourage a free intermingling of the young people of various churches that may tend to loosen denominational ties and promote drift- ing from one denomination to another. Those who favor interdenominational organization claim, on the other hand {1) that this is not inconsistent with the utmost denominational loyalty, since it is the province of each local church to inculcate its own beHefs and practices to the utmost; {2) that there is fully as much need of emphasizing the vital matters which the churches hold in common as the minor matters that hold them apart; {3) that an interdenomina- tional organization, such as Christian Endeavor, which emphasizes loyalty to one's own church, is in harmony with the trend of modem Christian thought that seeks to unite the churches of Christ into a hearty coopera- tion against the evils of the world, rather than to perpetuate past aliena- tions; and (A) that the occasional meeting of young people of different churches on a common ground of loyalty to Christ and interest in His service enlarges their ideas of the kingdom of God, and stimulates them to increased activity on their own fields. These advantages have seemed to many Christian bodies so far to outweigh those claimed for exclusively denominational control as to lead them to adopt the interdenominational form of organization. See the extract from Wells' Short History, under questions 5, 7, above. Lesson 19. YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETIES: METHODS. Object of the Lesson. To create an intelligent interest in the distinctive aims of the leading young people's societies, and to indicate the methods by which those aims are realized. PREPARING THE LESSON. The Lesson Notes give information respecting the main points relating to each of the more prominent young people's organizations. If the teacher supplements the history of these organizations as outlined in Lfesson 18 with literature pertaining to each, this will doubtless supply an abundance of further information concerning methods. Gather as many facts as possible about the societies mentioned in the lesson so as to be able to answer questions that may arise in the class. Possibly in the teacher's own church, or in neighboring churches, there are other societies than those here noted. If so, get acquainted with their aims and methods, and tell the class about them. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 19 51 It is surprising what dense ignorance respecting other young people's societies than their own is found not only among average church people, but even among persons whose official stations would seem to require a broader outlook on the field of Christian activities. The teacher should encourage the members of the class to study these two lessons with the purpose of getting an intelligent and sympathetic idea of what is going on outside of their purview. Such a study will be fruitful in suggestions for bettering the work in their own society. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson, on the Pastor's Parish Work, may seem to be of interest chiefly to ministers. It is not, however, intro- duced for the purpose of instructing them concerning their duties, but to give the young people in the parish such an idea of the nature of this work as will enable them to cooperate with the pastor in ways that may mean only a small effort to them, but which, in the aggregate, will mean much to him. This lesson affords a good opportunity to hear from the pastor himself in a ten minutes' talk about some things that may not come within the scope of his ordinary public addresses. The Questions on the Lesson. {2, S) The scope of the work in a Chris- tian Endeavor Society is well stated in the words of Dr. Francis E. Clark, its founder. It " is a purely religious organization, though there may be social features, literary features, and musical features connected with it. In fact, the society is meant to do anything that the church wishes to have it do. It may relieve the destitute, visit the sick, furnish flowers for the pulpit, replenish the missionary treasuries, build up the Sunday school, awaken an interest in the temperance cause, preach a White Cross crusade. The inspiration for all these manifold forms of service comes from the weekly prayer meeting, which is always a vital matter in a Christian Endeavor Society. The prayer meeting pledge, while no uniformity of language is insisted upon, binds the young disciple to daily private devotions, to loyal support of his own church, and to attend- ance and participation in the weekly prayer meeting, unless prevented by a reason which he can conscientiously give to his Master. This, perhaps, is the most vital and important thing in the society. It has rejuvenated and revived the young people's prayer meeting in all parts of the world and has poured new life into the other services of the church." The expediency of fusing the Jimior Christian Endeavor Society with the Junior Department in the Sunday school has received careful attention from the leaders of the Christian Endeavor Society. The subject is too large to be discussed here. For information apply to the headquarters at Tremont Temple, Boston, Mass. (4, ^ " The [Ep worth] League is organized up to a point where the gain in chapters and members cannot be large during any year, and must fluctuate according to the state of the church." 52 The Bible Sttidy Union Lessons " 'The Morning Watch,' a pledge to engage every morning in Bible reading and prayer, continues to be a leading factor in the development of the spiritual life of the Epworthians. On the first Sunday of the new year the regular devotional meetings of the local chapters are given to the subject of the Morning Watch. The enroUment is increased by thous- ands every year." — Methodist Year Book, 1913. (7) The Lend-a-Hand Clubs are by no means limited to a membership of ten. The Club in Davenport, Iowa, is a fine example of the proportions such an organization may attain. It was started in 1887 by three girls who met at noon to eat their lunch together, and through twenty-five years of helpfulness to one another and to the community it has grown to four hundred and fifty members. The practical nature of the work done is shown by the fact that during 1911 classes were carried on in gym- nastics, cooking, German, correct English, and sewing. " There are three departments: the Woman's Exchange, the Cafeteria and the Club proper. " The Woman's Exchange caters to women who cannot work outside their homes, but who may send articles to the Club to be sold. Last year $3,000 went out to such women. " The Cafeteria provides a substantial noonday meal at small cost and serves almost two hundred persons daily. " The Club department embraces so many different lines of effort that to define it closely would be difficult." — Lend-a-Hand Leaflet, July and August, 1912, pp. 6, 7. The Question for Class Discussion. What is the true mission of a young people's society connected with a church? 1, To Emphasize the Principle of Obligation. Young persons should be disabused of the notion that they have gone into the church chiefly to insure their salvation in another world, and they should be taught that they are to work out their own salvation in this world by loving helpful service for God toward men. 2, To Emphasize the Privilege of Christian Fellowship. This fellow- ship embraces the entire church. A young people's society that separates itself from the older membership, that slips away after the young people's meeting, that is not in evidence at the Sunday services nor at the week- day prayer meeting, that sets itself up as the most important part of the church and regards its own interests as primary in all church affairs, especially the choice of a pastor, such a society is a positive hindrance to the welfare of the church. " There is nothing," says Dr. Munger, " more detestable in American society than the drawing off of young people into a society of their own. There is not only a strong flavor of vulgarity in it, but a positive loss on both sides." Every young people's organization should recognize itself as simply a part of the Christian fellowship, no more, no less; not existing for its own sake, but for the The Senior Teacher — Lesson 20 53 church; not set to rule the church, but to be trained for larger responsi- biUties and for bearing heavier burdens. Furthermore, every young people's society should reahze a genuine fellowship among the young people themselves, remembering that these include both sexes. At present the majority of these societies are com- posed of two-thirds young women to one-third, or even less, of young men. While this is a condition found throughout most churches, the young people's societies must learn, what the Young Men's Christian Associations have learned long ago, that their methods must be adapted to the instincts and activities of the boy. 3. To Emphasize the Duty of Semce. The young people's society should be a training school in which the members are taught how to go about doing good even as Christ did. Just as the manual training school is designed to fit for efficiency in industrial life, just as the business college fits for efficiency in commercial life, just as the law school or medical school fits for efficiency in professional life, so should the young people's society fit for efficiency in the religious life. To do this requires methods carefully thought out, and wisely adapted to the ends in view. A society with this purpose and equipped to do this work will prove a wellspring of blessings to the church. Lesson 20. THE PASTOR'S PARISH WORK. Object of the Lesson. To create an intelligent desire to cooperate with the pastor in the changed conditions of his parish work. PREPARING THE LESSON. The Notes on the Lesson show how the pastor's parish work has been radically changed by modern cmditions. As in a previous lesson it was shown how he must accommodate his pulpit work to the demands of the present age, so in this lesson the need of a similar accommodation is shown in respect to his work outside of the pulpit. For this reason the only practically useful treatises on " Pastoral Theology," as this part of a minister's vocation is sometimes called, are those that deal with it from the modem point of view. If there is no public library at hand with books relative to this department, the pastor will probably have one or more volumes that he would be glad to lend. Ask him also to suggest ways in which the members of the class may be able to render him some assistance in those parts of the parish work which do not devolve exclu- 54 The Bible Study Union Lessons sively on the minister. Any one of the volumes mentioned in the pupil's lesson will prove helpful. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. Our next two lessons deal with a part of church administration which in a majority of cases furnishes occasion for anxious thought. Church finances constitute too often a heavy load for the pastor whose living depends on them., and for the treastuer who has to look out for the church expenses. In our next lesson we shall consider the making up of a church budget. The teacher might ask some member of the class to obtain from the church treasurer an itemized statement of the budget for the preceding year, and present it for study in the class. The Questions on the Lesson. {5, 6) "A marked difference between the pastor of the old time and of the present is to be noted. He was frequently called ' priest' ; and as he moved among his flock he maintained a distinction in manner and dress that marked him as one ' set apart.' A pastor undistinguished from others in outward appearance, and mingling freely with his people, even in their games, would have been regarded as seriously compromising his dignity and hazarding his usefulness. Many of us can recall the way in which a minister formerly carried himself, the prestige which clothed his position, the authority with which he was invested. We are then reminded that no such sanctity surrounds him now, that he has been stripped of all that prestige, and has no such au- thority clothing his utterances. A change has taken place; and while it may involve some loss, we believe that on the whole it secures great gain to the true and earnest man. ... A minister now may be thankful that he is permitted to move freely among inen, to influence them by example and contagion, and is not called to be separate or to magnify himself. . . . The real value of his service to his people will be found in his personal and spiritual, rather than in his official and ecclesiastical relations to them. His usefulness among them will be due not to any process by which he is elevated above them or separated from them, but to a character which in its fiillest sense he shares with them." — Pratt: in Recent Christian Progress, pp. 351, 352. (9) The careful pastor will make a systematic visitation of his people, omitting neither the rich nor the poor. " One thing he will not do, and that is to offer prayer in every house, because no man can pray four times an hour for an afternoon without the most miserable formahty, and be- cause prayer ought to spring out of the occasion. There are moments when conversation moves onwards till it reaches the brink of prayer. The visit then culminates and completes itself in prayer, and the petitions come from the heart. After which the pastor instantly leaves, bidding his people good-bye before the Throne of Grace, and in the very presence of the Lord." — Ian Maclaren: The Cure of Souls, p. 230. (10) Recall how finely Goldsmith in his description of the village pastor depicted his unbounded charity and his sympathy with all kinds of The Senior Teacher — Lesson 20 55 distress, using every avenue of approach to the inner life to point the way to the higher: Thus to reKeve the wretched was his pride, And ev'n his failings leaned to virtue's side; But in his duty prompt, at every call, He watched and wept, he prayed and felt, for aU: And, as a bird each fond endearment tnes _ To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies. He tried each art, reproved each dull delay. Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way. (If) " People come to a true pastor, more than you might thiiik, with their home problems, how yonder invalid is to be provided for, how this son or daughter is to go to college, when there isn t bread enough to go round, how a neighbor who is a born mule is to be made over into anything ^^^"*A voung minister settled in a farming community gained a reputation without knowing it by the way he answered a question which two farmers brought to him, thiilking to entrap him. Shall that piece of land be put to com or to oats?' they asked him. The young theologue, who had mother wit, but no more knowledge of farming than of Sanskrit, answered with solemnity, ' I should let it go to grass!' They took the reck- less bit of slang as an expert judgment, and his fortune was made . . . " The man who means to mean much as a Christian minister will dis- cover that the home is the nerve of the parish. Why should it not be? The child is there— and the dead. The very dwelling, as I ^ once heard Beecher say, is ' stained through and through with soul color, and every- thing pastoral depends upon the way in which the pastor is able to enter that home door. , j t, • " Now what such a home needs in its minister is a comrade who is so much a comrade that by the sheer weight of wise love he becomes ht counsellor. The function of counsel grows naturally out of the fellowship of the friend."— Lyman: The Christian Pastor in the New Age, pp. 54, 55. The Questions for Class Discussion. {1) In \new of Acts 6:2 is it right to put on the pastor the burden of parish administration? The Christian pastor to-day is expected to be to a church what a general manager is to a department store with its dozen or more departments, each under its own head who gives undivided attention to the promotion of its interests and who is expected to see that each employee does the work assigned to him and does it well. So the pastor is expected to make himself acquainted with the work of every official, committee, and or- ganization in the church, and to see that the work assigned to each is done in an orderly and effective way, that the methods employed are in keeping with a Christian spirit, and that all co-operate for the pro- motion of spiritual ends. The pastor cannot leave to others the oversight of the various organizations of his church, yet in becoming an organizer he must not cease being a pastor. He must " carry the rich, full, devoted tone of the pastoral spirit into every fibre and filament of his adminis- trative functions. The parish machine must not be a machine. It 56 The Bible Study Union Lessons must have soul, and its soul must be love. All the numberless subsidiary departments and agencies of the church propaganda are to be shot through with a peculiar temper and glow, which is distinctively pastoral, which nobody but the live pastor, who is never anything other than a pastor, can introduce and maintain." Lesson 21. MAKING UP A CHURCH BUDGET. Object of the Lesson. To show the advantages of a budget in the administration of church finances. PREPARING THE LESSON. Get at the outset a clear idea of the difference between a budget and a financial report. It is surprising how many intelligent persons confuse the two. Ask a treasurer or a member of a finance committee for a church budget and the chances are that in the majority of cases you will be handed a report. A report is a statement of actual receipts and expenditures during the year that is closing. A budget is an estimate based on this report of the anticipated receipts and expenditures for the coming year. The one deals with exact figures, the other with approximate figures, except in fixed items such as salaries. There is little assistance to be obtained from literature. If a half a dozen budgets from churches of different denominations can be procured they may give some interesting local details, but in the main they will confirm the deductions made from those tabulated in the lesson. The value of the lesson lies in the emphasis it places on the importance of the budget in a sound administration of the business side of the church. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. After determining the amount of revenue needed to meet the operating expenses of the church, as indicated in the budget, the next problem is to procure the funds. The next lesson will discuss the viarious means employed, with their advantages and disadvantages. Ask some member of the class to prepare a brief written statement respecting the method of raising funds in his or her own church, and its advantages and disadvantages. The Questions on the Lesson. (2) "A great mistake has been made in connection with the financial department of the Lord's work, when that department has been divorced from spiritual relations, or when we have lost sight of the spiritual enrichment God intended this part of His work to bring to His people. The fact that God has made the progress The Senior Teacher — Lesson 21 57 of His kingdom in the world depend upon the use of material resources, lifts the financial movements for the advancement of the kingdom to a high level. Inasmuch as under present conditions the world cannot be evangelized without money offerings, any proper efforts to secure the necessary funds should not be classed as unspiritual, but should be placed on as high a spiritual plane as anything we do in either the pulpit or the prayer meeting in the interest of the work. That man is narrow in his spiritual apprehensions who objects to the discussion of the money matters of the kingdom in the pulpit. In his mind money is utterly divorced from spiritual relations. While he pretends to a zeal for spiritual teaching in the pulpit his own selfishness and stinginess are too often the real reasons for the objection he makes." — Charles A. Cook. {5) So long as one of the great functions of the church is the proclama- tion of the Gospel suitable arrangments must be provided for it. The large audience room is a necessity. Moreover, the chief revenues of the church are derived, in connection with the preaching service, from rented pews or voluntary offerings. This explains why in ordinary church budgets by far the largest part of the church funds must go for the main- tenance of the public worship. It is only in churches where the income greatly exceeds the operating expenses that social services not specifically religious can be undertaken on any large scale. The justification for putting so large a part of the church revenues into maintaining a big audience room that stands empty all but a few hours every week, into a pastor's salary, and into music is that the existence of the church depends on it. The $6,500 expended for music, for example, in budget No. 1 in the table, may seem extravagant, but it doubtless is a large factor in pro- ducing the $45,000 income. {6) The average church rises or falls with its Sunday school. Many churches are strong and prosperous because they have seen the wisdom of making generous provision for the school, while others are weak and small because they have starved the source of supply. Money expended in maps, appliances, textbooks, music, teachers' library, teacher training, moderate compensation for competent teachers in important classes or departments, will come back in manifold measure. Good harvests re- quire a good soil. {8) See Lesson 23, on The Boy Problem. The Question for Class Discussion. Why should every church, whether large or small, be presented with a budget at the beginning of each financial year? First, it win tend to check making appropriations when there are no means in sight to meet them. For example, a certain church whose income and outgo had for years barely balanced each other voted, in a spasm of generosity or justice, to add $300 to the pastor's salary. No 58 The Bible Study Union Lessons steps were taken to increase the receipts. At the end of the year, there was a deficit of $300. Then the pastor went to another church. Another came. During his first year every suggestion touching greatly needed repairs was met by the objection, " Not so long as we are owing $300 at the bank." Nor was any means taken to clear it away until a kind Provi- dence sent a gale that blew over a part of the steeple and compelled the raising of ten times as much. Secondly, a budget will reveal serious disproportions in the various items of church expenditures, and in many cases not only lead to vigorous efforts to remove the disproportion, but to a revelation of latent ability in the church that surprises its membership. For example, some ten years ago, Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis, Minn., one of the wealthiest churches in the northwest, was giving a thousand dollars or less a year to missions. The money was raised in a haphazard way through collections. When Dr. Hallock went there, he introduced a budget of two parts, home support and church benevolences. In 1911 the latter had reached the sum of more than $12,000, and the plan has been widely adopted in other churches. The same plan will also help to increase the income for home expenses. Thirdly, a budget sets before the church a definite financial goal to be reached during the year. Small but persistent efforts to prevent a deficit will scarcely be felt, whereas facing a considerable deficit at the end of the year is always discouraging, and usually requires a strenuous effort for its removal. Lesson 22. RAISING CHURCH FUNDS. Object of the Lesson. To surv^ey the more common methods of provid- ing for church expenses and beneficences with a view to stimulating in- telligent and liberal giving. PREPARING THE LESSON. In addition to the Lesson Notes the teacher should give special attention to the methods used in his own and in neighboring churches to raise funds. Study the advantages and disadvantages of each method. If the denomi- nation to which the class belongs has not introduced the apportionment method, write to the missionary headquarters for further information or get it from the pastor. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson takes up a study of the "Boy Problem." It has received wide attention during recent years, since The Senior Teacher — Lesson 22 59 the strength and efficiency of the church of the future depends largely on keeping and training the boy of to-day. Get two or more members of the class to recall in brief statements the several spontaneous groups or gangs of which they were members in their boyhood, and the leading motives that influenced them as mem- bers of the gang. If the class is made up of young women substitute social sets for gangs. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) Note that every church is confronted by a twofold duty, that of providing means for carrying on its own local work and of contributing toward the evangelization of the world. It can do the most for the latter cause only when it has most effectually equipped itself for the former. He would be a foolish man who in order to provide better for his family would starve himself. On the other hand for a church to live only for itself is equally ruinous. Compare the rapid decline of the so-called Anti-mission Baptists during the last century with the extraordinary growth of those who with enthusiasm engaged in the promotion of missions in every part of the world. {2-Ji) These questions are covered by Notes 2 and 3. (5) " The annual sale of sittings in the church to the highest bidder is a practice which violates the fundamental principles of Christian frater- nity. It offers place and distinction in the church to the longest purses; it says to the man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, ' You may sit here, in the center aisle, for you have the money to pay for the best'; but to the poor man in vile raiment it says, * Stand out there in the vesti- bule, or sit here under the gallery; you must wait for your place till your betters have chosen their seats.' The sale of privilege in the church for money is the essence of it; how this differs in principle from the simony against which the curse of the church has been pronounced from the Apostolic days until now, it is difficult to explain. It is undoubtedly true that larger revenues can be raised by this method than by any other, for there are multitudes who will pay well for conspicuous sittings and whose contributions .would be small if they were compelled to take their chances with aU the rest. But a church which resorts to such methods for raising money is not apt to receive the benedictions of Christ's poor. By the very terms of its life they are practically excluded; self-respecting people do not wish to go where * the rich man's aisle ' and * the poor man's corner ' are easily pointed out." — Gladden: The Christian Pastor and the Working Church, pp. 206, 207. {6-7) These questions are answered In the notes. (<§) Under this question add the following from Dr. Gladden: " The assignment of the sittings in the church is part of the business that greatly needs to be Christianized. In some churches all sittings are absolutely free, and there is no need of any distribution. For many reasons this plan is to be preferred. To have no individual rights or reservations in the Lords' house, but to open the whole of it, each Sabbath day, to all who come, is the simplest of all arrangements. But there are many with whom the sentiment of locaHty is strong; who like to sit week- by week 60 The Bible Study Union Lessons in the accustomed place, and to have their families with them; and there seems to be no violation of the principles of equality and fraternity if temporary assignments of sittings are made to regular worshipers. It is only necessary that the method of selection be something other than commercial competition, and that frequent redistributions take place, so that the most desirable places be not permanently monopolized. . . . When the poor widow who contributes but five cents a week to the revenues of the church has the same opportunity of securing the best seat in the middle aisle as the rich merchant who contributes ten dollars a week, the opprobrium of ecclesiastical finance is practically wiped out. The point is to bring the rich merchant to accept this situation heartily; to be quite willing to take his chance of a back seat under the gallery. And this is by no means a visionary proposition; churches can be found in which the Christian law governs even the distribution of pews. . . . And when this spirit takes possession of the church and rules in all its affairs, the kingdom seems near at hand. JMo more effectual work of grace could be desired in many of our churches than would be signalized by the distribution of the sittings of the church on Christian principles." (9-10) Answered in the notes. The Questions for Discussion. (1) How can church members be trained to systematic and generous giving? x\ny one who has undertaken to raise money for a benevolent, educa- tional, or religious enterprise has not failed to notice the responsiveness of some individuals and the unresponsiveness of others. If these diver- sities were confined to individuals one might infer that they were inborn traits of character. But the same dispositions are noticed in churches and communities. A member of a wealthy Congregational church in suburban Boston asked a man who was soliciting funds for a Western college why he came East when the Western banks were fairly choked with deposits realized from extraordinary harvests. His reply was, " It is useless to ask for contributions out there, because the people have not been trained to give." The time to begin effective training in Christian giving is in the early years. "It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks." For this reason education in giving should be made a part of the work of the Sunday school. Systematic giving should be encouraged, and each pupil should be provided with his own set of envelopes, that he may acquire the habit of making benevolent offerings. In 1911, Trinity Episcopal Church Sunday school in Boston gave $25 to the Floating Hospital, $5 to needy children in Kentucky, $161 to the Mother's Rest work of the parish, $292 to general missions, and other sums making $650 in all. A Bible class in the same school contributed an additional $100 to missions, and another class $31 toward a scholarship in Simmons College. Older Christians should be taught not to think of their contributions The Senior Teacher — Lesson 22 61 to the church as " gifts." One does not speak of " giving " to the grocer or the coal man in return for suppUes furnished. It is simply paying one's debts. What we call giving to the church is really the paying of a just debt. The moral and spiritual benefits which a church bestows upon the individual and the community are as truly benefits as those derived from the club, the concert course, or the school. From it we receive the Bible and all that it means to us, Christianity with its priceless treasures, the Sabbath with its privileges and pleasures, religious liberty with its larger opportunities, and all that is contained in the higher meanings of brotherhood, womanhood, and childhood. Christianity is giving us a new civilization, a regenerated social order, and a hope that reaches out into eternity. To help carry on this work by financial assistance does not really rise to the plane of giving; it rests on the lower plane of simple honesty in paying what we owe. {2) How is a liberal endowment likely to affect a church? Great wealth acquired by gift or by investments in real estate may enable a church to carry on a variety of philanthropic enterprises, and thus accomplish much good. But the effect on the membership is almost invariably bad. An endowment that provides for a large part of the current expenses always tends to dry up the streams of individual giving. The spirit of sacrifice dies, and formalism and leanness of soul displaces spirituality. Compare, for example, the vitality of the unestablished churches in this country with the deadness of established European churches whose expenses are paid by the state. It has always been ob- served that the churches that are the most liberal givers are distinguished by the highest and most vigorous type of spiritual life, and vice versa. (3) Does the tithing system press equally on the rich and the poor? Giving one-tenth of one's income is really an income tax, even if self- imposed. Every government that raises revenue by an income tax, and that has the slightest regard for social justice, attempts so to adjust the tax that it will not become oppresive to the poor. Incomes below a certain figure are exempt. Above that figure the percentage of tax increases with the size of the income. For three families of five persons in each with incomes respectively of $500, $5,000, and $50,000 to give away one- tenth leaves in each case $450, $4,500, and $45,000. The first remainder sinks the family below the poverty line. The second leaves it in comfort. The third in affluence. " If any average wage earner in the churches has actually given a tenth of his income, he deserves profound respect. It is heroic giving for him. And if we have allowed the impression to prevail that the giving of one-tenth by all was equal giving for all, we have unwittingly inflicted a grievous injustice on the poorer church mem- bers." — Rauschenbush : Christianity and the Social Crisis, p. 293. 62 The Bible Study Union Lessons Part II. NEW MOVEMENTS AND METHODS WITHIN THE CHURCH. Lesson 23. THE BOY PROBLEM. Object of the Lesson. To create a deeper interest in modern ways of helping boys to grow up into Christian life and service. PREPARING THE LESSON. Teachers will notice that this lesson discusses only so much of the boy problem as brings it into relation with the modem church, that is, the religious aspect of the question. Yet in order to get an intelligent idea of what the boy problem really means, and to estimate fairly the compara- tive value of the schemes devised for its solution, it is necessary to enter into the world in which the boy lives, and to know the characteristics of the successive stages in his development. Thanks to the patient in- vestigations of psychologists during the past half century these are now quite fully revealed. Without this knowledge we are simply groping in the dark, as is a physician who attempts to prescribe remedies for a disease of whose origin and nature he is ignorant. For this reason a considerable portion of the pupil's lesson is devoted to a statement of some of the salient features of the boy's inner life during the period of adolescence. Dr. Forbush's book, The Boy Problem, latest edition, gives an abundance of material bearing directly on this lesson. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson takes up a study of Modern Church Brotherhoods, composed of adults rather than boys and youths, and organized for the purpose of developing in men a deeper interest in the work of the church. Assign to some member of the class the preparation of a brief sketch of the denominational brotherhood to which the local brotherhood in your church belongs. Nearly all the leading denominations have now their distinctive brotherhoods. The Questions on the Lesson. (1) "In the Primary and Juvenile grades (of the Sunday school) the boys and girls are about equal in number. In the Intermediate grades there are usually two girls to one boy. In the Senior department there are on the average three girls to one boy. Seventy- five out of every one hundred boys leave the Sunday school and church." (2-4) Answered in the Notes on the Lesson. (5) " The recapitulation theory is not exact; it does not even approach exactness. The environment by which a twentieth-century boy_ grows up to manhood is very different from that which has changed with the changing stages of the race's history, and consequently modifies the recapit- 776 16.4 526 16.5 51 15.7 75 16.3 272 16.4 84 15.4 1,784 16.4 The Senior Teacher — Lesson 23 - 63 ulation very greatly. Nevertheless, if we want to understand children, we shall find one entrance into the realm in which they live if we follow as guides the brave, the chieftain, the hunter, the patriarch, the knight, the feudal lord." (7) In confirmation of the statement that middle adolescence is a critical age for boys, the following statistics from Dr. Coe's book on The Spiritual Life showing the ages at which 1784 Christian men became conscious of a decisive religious awakening will be interesting: Examined Average age Graduates of Drew Seminary, Y. M. C. A. officers, Starbuck's conversion cases, Starbuck's cases of spontaneous awakening, Members of Rock River Conference, My own cases of decisive awakening, Total, This table shows that at the age of fifteen or sixteen boys are keenly alive to religious impressions, and that a personal life choice is made at that age more easily and frequently than at any other. (5) In addition to the reasons mentioned in the Notes, the following have also been assigned: " Girls are given more attention than boys. Boys are noisy and some- times adults say, ' Better have a few less boys, and have an orderly school.' Then it is said that girls like to dress up and boys do not. It is said that girls take after their mothers, boys follow their fathers' example, and fathers, as a rule, do not attend Sunday school. "It is also said that the teaching is often effeminate. The difficulty has been explained physiologically. It is said, for example, girls naturally sit still, boys can't and won't. Some argue from a psychological pomt of view. The boys leave school at the bashful age. Boys doubt. Boys are creative, girls are receptive; boys object to being led; girls like to be. " Nagging and scolding do more damage than good. Much may be accomplished by magnifying his good points, and every boy has some. The better nature of the boy may be reached by setting him to work for others. * Helpfulness is regarded by boys as a manly trait.' " {9-10) See the Notes. The Question for Class Discussion. Why have the Junior societies in the Christian Endeavor, the Epworth League, the Baptist Young People's Union and similar organizations failed to solve the boy problem? " If interest is the key to influence, what boys like to do is a criterion as to the sort of things which it is wise to do with them. Three thmgs were definitely discovered regarding these societies [those which boys spontaneously organize, as contrasted with those which adults organize for them] : Physical activity, in the form of play, construction, wandenng and athletics, was the supreme interest, eighty-five and one-half per cent of the societies having this as its characteristic; leagues for religious^ ex- pression were almost entirely absent; boys and girls almost never organized together. 64 The Bible Study Union Lessons " We see at once that these Junior (Christian Endeavor) societies ignore these three facts, for they are mostly organizations for sitting still, they aim directly at verbal religious expression, and they include boys and girls together. If we combine with verbal religious expression the presence of the other sex, we make a demand which is a sore tax on sim- plicity and sincerity. " Religion in a child may be real, but it is only a promise. It is not yet time to talk about it or display it in any vocal way. ' Oh, that I might do something for God;' not, ' Oh, to say something!' is his cry. " With boys especially this is a time of reserves; the distance between apprehension and expression is never so long as now; it is more important to brood than to utter, and public prayer or testimony or opinion is, in this imitative age, sure to be parrot-like and unnatural. It is a period when a boy tries to be honest with himself. The insistence upon an indenturing for life by the ironclad pledge and the easy tolerance of its infraction does this quality of his nature a serious wrong. ' Nothing tends more to give to children a sense of unreality,' says Sir Joshua Fitch, ' than the habit of exacting from them professions of faith which do not honestly correspond to their present stage of religious experience.' When a boy wants to talk in meeting at this age, there is generally something the matter with him. I have often observed that it is not the best or most thoughtful boys who do the praying and talking in these meetings. It is rather those of quick but shallow natures who ought to be repressed rather than encouraged, and who are learning a light and easy manner of religious expression which may later easily become weakly fluent and more or less consciously hvpocritical." — Forbush: The Boy Problem, pp. 90-92. Lesson 24. MODERN CHURCH BROTHERHOODS. Object of the Lesson. To show the origin, nature and work of modern church Brotherhoods; and to awaken a greater interest in men's work for men. PREPARING THE LESSON. The best aid In the preparation of this lesson is Patterson's book on Modern Church Brotherhoods. If that is not available, the pastor may have some of the recent periodical literature published in connection with the movement. He will be able to give the address of the headquarters of the denominational Brotherhood from which the latest information may be obtained as to growth and accomplishments. If there is a brother- hood in your church, the officers should be able to give much interesting information respecting its work. Its president might be invited to give the class a ten minutes' talk on the subject. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. A natural sequence to the subject treated m this lesson is " The Men's Campaign for Men." This will be considered next Sunday. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 21^. 65 Appoint some member of the class to prepare a brief sketch of the. " Men and Rehgion Forward Movement." Refer the one who prepares the sketch to the Y. M. C. A. headquarters, in New York City, for Hterature. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) Unquestionably one of the contrib- uting causes to the recent emphasis on the need of recalling the men to active service for the kingdom of God has been the growing feminization of the churches. Whatever the causes for this unfortunate decrease in male members and in their attendance on the public services, no remedy was suggested until the problem was forced by consecrated Christian men who had gained a clearer vision of what the Gospel message means to this age and who saw that the men themselves were the chief losers through their lack of interest in a work the magnitude of which they had failed to understand. (5) Associations of men for religious purposes have been formed through- out all the Christian centuries. In a sense the monasteries of the Middle Ages were brotherhoods, but while in the world they were apart from the daily life of the world. Associations of laymen, actively engaged in secular business, for religious or charitable work seems, however, to be a com- paratively recent development. The first of these was the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and which has now a council in most of the well- organized Roman Catholic parishes throughout the world. It was started in Paris in 1883 by Frederic Ozanam, one of the professors in the Sorbonne and also editor of a Parisian newspaper. He gathered around him nine young men, students in various universities, who, aroused by the taunts of unbelievers, undertook to prove the practical character of Christianity by applying themselves, not to discussions, but to good works. They started the first council of the Society of St. Viftcent de Paul. At each weekly meeting the council assigns to each of its members some specific case of poverty, destitution, crime, or other need. Over that case he is made guardian, with authority to do whatever the case requires, in silence, without ostentation, and without specific report. In Boston several large asylums for infants and children are cared for by branches of these men's societies. (7) " The men's movement in Great Britain has passed out of the realm of experiment into a settled policy of the churches. For many years now the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon (P. S. A.) meetings for men have been a feature of masculine activity in Britain. The gatherings have been made so interesting, so vital and profitable, that men have attended in very large numbers. For many years the name was simply ' The P. S. A.,' but recently the magic word ' Brotherhood ' has been added. The meetings are so utterly unlike the ordinary English church service, that their atmosphere thrills one with a new "sense of reality and friendly fellowship. 66 The Bible Study Union Lessons " Beyond this new power of friendship which has been developed is the new sense of power to affect the pubUc weal, which these men feel that they possess, when linked together. Through the education which has gone on for years in these men's meetings, the church men of England have come to have a public and national conscience. Out of the ranks of these men have come some of the brainiest and bravest leaders in Eng- lish political life to-day. These progressive Christian statesmen feel that the real constituency to which they are chiefly answerable is the great host of laymen banded together in the churches, for it must be remembered that these brotherhoods exist not only in the great centers, but all over the land. Our English cousins have solved much more fully than we the problem of church attendance and activity within the church. What they are engaged in now is the task of making themselves felt in the life of the nation. Because they are strong as churches they are more ready than we are to apply themselves to the needs of the nation." — Condensed from Frank Dyer in The Brotherhood, October 1908, pp. 11, 12. The Question for Class Discussion. How can church brotherhoods bring about a better tmderstanding between the churches and labor associations? " Labor has certain grievances against the church, differing in different localities. Some of them are unreasonable; others are just. The brother- hood in each communit}^ should ascertain what they are and seek to adjust misunderstandings. For instance, it is maintained by organized labor that the church uniformly fails to inquire as to the principles involved during times of strikes and other industrial disturbances, and that the influence of the church, in consequence, is rarely exerted. Here is an opportunity for the brotherhood. There are labor disputes in which fimdamental ethical principles are involved — such as the living wage, the the violation of an agreement, the right of collective bargaining, that of protection from dangerous machinery, etc., and the refusal to arbitrate. In such cases the brotherhood should have no hesitancy in coming out openly in support of the side that is wTonged. Moreover, the brother- hood which would serve *the best interests both of employer and the work- man should always advocate and work for the settlement of all disputes by means of conciliation and arbitration. " In many of the trades assemblies, especially in the larger comrnunities, there is an exchange of delegates with the ministerial association, the brotherhood federation, or both. The result has been an interchange of viewpoint that has made for lasting good. ... "It is possible in most places for organized labor and the organized men of the churches to get together and jointly consider the things that are needed for the welfare of the community. This done, it is not difficult to formulate a plan for cooperative activity. " In one community the brotherhood arrayed itself aggressively against Sunday baseball and general Sabbath desecration. The trades assembly was invited to meet with the brotherhood and consider the matter, with the result that the two organizations united in a movement for Sunday observance which speedily brought to an end the more flagrant violations of the law."— Patterson: Modern Church Brotherhoods, pp. 222-224. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 25 67 Lesson 25. THE MEN'S CAMPAIGN FOR MEN. Object of the Lesson. To call attention to the widespread efforts now being made to get men enlisted in church work, and to create an interest in the methods employed. PREPARING THE LESSON. In addition to the Lesson Notes in the pupils' books and the additional material below, the teacher will get much valuable information from the article, " On the March with the New Crusaders," in Everybody* s Maga- zine for May, 1912. The article in The Outlook for April 27, 1912, presents a well-written summary of the results of the movement so far as they were seen toward the close of the active campaign. Both of these articles should be easily accessible. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The peril from the rapid congestion of great popu- lations in the cities, the variety of nationalities and races found in them, the extremes of poverty and wealth fostered by them, the immorality and crime bred by them, the social, industrial, unsanitary conditions allowed to exist in them, constitute a problem whose vastness and com- plexity taxes the utmost wisdom of reformers and philanthropists to suggest a remedy. Our next lesson will attempt to show " What a City Problem Is." Request some member of the class to prepare a brief statement of reasons why factories locate in cities rather than the country. The Questions on the Lesson. (5) The Laymen's Missionary Move- ment has been a great inspiration to the missionaries on the foreign fields. One of them speaks of it in these terms: " If one can imagine a United States army thirty years ago engaged in the subjugation of Central Africa and after a long-continued and discouraging conflict with tribes in the interior, surrounded by the enemy in overwhelming numbers and fighting their way foot by foot to victory; if one can imagine this army one day suddenly hearing of the enlistment of an adequate relief force in the home land and the preparation of long-needed supplies, one can understand something of the feeling of the missionaries on the field, when they read of the inauguration and initial success of the Laymen's Movement. It seemed that at length the Christian church had aroused itself for the accompHshment of its divinely appointed but unfinished task. Dis- couragenient gave way to hope and this hope has changed gradually into the conviction of ultimate victory." {/i) " The Men and Religion Forward Movement is the biggest and boldest evangelistic movement ever planned in this country. We have watched evangelism outgrow the local church and grapple with whole cities. This movement plans to cover our whole vast country. Our industrial and commercial organization has ceased to be local and is be- 68 The Bible Study Union Lessons coming national in its scope. Our religious organization is keeping pace. Men say the church is dying. This movement is a reply. The energy of religion is inexhaustible. Like fire, it only needs freedom and the troublmg stormwind of necessity to fan a few live coals into flaming splendor. To tackle the impossible with a cheer is not a symptom of death. This movement is a front attack on that part of the enemy's lines which was supposed to be most impregnable — the men. Attack is the best kind of defense." — Walter Rauschenbusch. (-5) " Dr. Washington Gladden declared the Men and Religion Move- ment to have been a trumpet call to the derelict type of religion to arise and shake itself from the dust and move forward to the battle line. He adds that the message which the Christian men on the team of experts brought to Columbus (Ohio) was the most inspiring message to which he has ever listened; and concludes: ' I never expected to live long enough to see the evangelical churches of America harnessed to a project so rational and adequate as this one, nor to hear on a platform where Presbyterians, Alethodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, and Lutherans were standing together, the kind of Gospel preaching to which I have listened all this week.' " — The Independent, December 21, 1911, p. 1366. (7) " If you live in one of the seventy-six campaign centers, you know w^hat happened when a ' team ' of these Men and Religion workers came into your town, understanding conditions there better than you or probably any other resident. For during the previous three months, a small army of skilful men had been making a ' survey ' of your city under the super- vision of your local committee of one hundred ; and that survey had been studied, analyzed, worked over, by the team before they arrived. Also it had been carefully compared with similar sur\^eys of half a dozen other cities similar to yours. Now that survey, when completed, is to Men and Religion workers what a set of blueprints is to a corps of railway engineers who start out to construct a line, with bridges, grades, yards, stations, in a new territory. It is a set of working plans whereby the visiting team of specialists can carry on their campaign effectively, with businesslike intelligence. . . . " It is by using the charts that the rnen of the churches must do their constructive work in any community, if they are to do it intelligently and effectively." — Everybody's Magazine, May 1912, pp. 640-643. {9) As an illustration of what the Men and Religion Movement accom- plished, the following statement concerning Des Moines, Iowa, is interest- ing. " Inter-church council formed, every church brotherhood naming two representatives to carry on the five lines of work in the program, treating the city as a whole. Men volunteering for social service, com- munity extension, bovs' work and the other lines laid down. Religious life of every church has been quickened, and men are much more willing to attend church services than ever before. Bible study classes organized, and a training institute for teachers and workers in all of the Sunday schools of the city already under way, with a faculty of fourteen instructors composed of the best authorities on different phases of Bible study. Co- operating with this institute, training class for boys' workers. Delegate sent from Des Moines to Chicago to study the municipal lodging house, and upon his report the City Council at once appropriated $2,500 for the establishment of a municipal lodging house and employment bureau The Senior Teacher — Lesson 25 69 in this city. Practical work in evangelism, community extension and missions, already under way. So far from dying out, the interest in the movement is increasing every day. It is declared to be the most practical agency for furthering religious activities that has ever been introduced in the State." — The Independent, December 21, 1911, p. 136G. The Question for Class Discussion. Are church methods to-day adapted to the kind of work that needs to be done by churches? " The average church is to-day using methods as antiquated in its field as the horse car is in the field of transportation. The average minister is overwhelmed with routine duties. In this he somev/hat resembles the family physician, but with a great difference. The general practioner of medicine, in time of need, calls upon specialists — surgeons, pathologists, bacteriologists, * eye men,' and ' blood men,' who are authorities in their distinct fields. " But the average minister simply struggles along the same old lines, meanwhile worrying day and night because the men and boys show so little interest, and because, while the church is accomplishing a great deal of good in the world, yet he feels that it is capable of accomplishing a thousandfold more; because he believes it would do so if he only knew how to inspire the great body of passive laymen, and teach them to harness their vast latent energy to the task of making human life happier, better, more hopeful. " It is right here that the Men and Religion Movement steps in. Those at the head of it — like chemists, engineers, physicians, in their fields — have worked and studied year after year, and have developed methods which are suited to religious effort in the second decade of the twentieth century. They are not going around with brass bands and banners to advertise themselves, although local committees of one hundred, fre- quently provide such additions to a local campaign. The thirty specialists who are leaders of the movement have serious, lasting, important work to do; and they are doing it quietly, steadily, earnestly — like men." — Everybody s Magazine, May 1912, p. 649. " The general plan of the Men and Religion Forward Movement may be described as an effort to arouse to activity laymen in all local churches all over the country. It has no new religion to offer, no new religious fad to suggest. All that is new in the Movement may be found in the methods by which it presents the Gospel of Christ. And new methods are necessary, for the simple reason that methods in satisfactory use years ago are not satisfactory to-day. Our whole civilization has been revolutionized. Hundreds of thousands of people live together in great cities where they do not know each other, where it is almost impossible for a single church, or any number of churches, to reach them under old methods because of the density of the population. In the vast majority of cases a man is greatly strengthened through the influence of some one church. The Men and Religion Forward Movement took the church to the man, wherever he lived." — The Independent, 70 ^^^ Bible Study Union Lessons Lesson 26. WHAT THE CITY PROBLEM IS. Object of the Lesson. To show the nature of the city problem, and how Christian churches must meet it. PREPARING THE LESSON. The rapid and immense growth of modem cities, and the evils which have attended it, especially in our own country, have in recent years attracted wide attention and careful study from every point of view. The result is an exceedingly valuable mass of literature bearing on the subject of this lesson. Teachers will receive much help from Dr. Strong's books. The Twentieth Century City, and the Challenge of the City. Grose's book, Aliens or Americans, shows how recent immigration has vastly increased the magnitude of the city problem. Steffens' book, The Shame of the City, a terrible exposure of municipal corruption, was originally published in McClure's magazine. This lesson should be prepared with a view (1) to giving an intelligent view of the nature, magnitude, and complexity of the city problem, and (2) to showing the measure of the church's responsibility in its solution. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson on " The Social Work of the City Church " will deal more fully with a side of the church's work that has been touched very lightly in the present lesson. If the church to which the class belongs is situated in a city, ask some member of the class to give an account of the work of a neighboring church that has given itself in some measure to social work. The Questions on the Lesson. (2) " To produce our agricultural staples in 1870, one man was employed to every seventeen acres cultivated; in 1890 there was only one to every twenty-six acres. If the same methods had been employed in 1890 as in 1870 there would have been required 4,430,000 more farm laborers than actually found employment on .the farm. This means that the application of machinery to agriculture during those twenty years forced 4,430,000 men (in addition to their fami- lies) to live in the city who would otherwise have lived on the farm. ... It means that onlv a'hmited number of persons can get a living by agri- culture, and that when the supply of food has reached the limit of demand, agriculture can increase only as population increases. " To increase the food supply beyond this limit serves only to decrease the farmers' income. ... . . " Even the increase in population will not necessarily require any in- crease in the number of farmers, for many years to come, because improved methods may increase the product as rapidly as increasing demand requires, until we have reached a much higher standard of agriculture. ... " After taking all the facts into consideration, we are forced to the conclusion that progress in agriculture will limit it to an ever decreasing proportion of the population, which, of course, means that an ever increas- The Senior Teacher— Lesson 26 71 ing proportion wiU Uve in cities. "-Strong: Challenge of the City, pp. 22-24. (5) " An honest working man does not want alms but justice. He resents tlS idea of charity in the modem acceptatiori of the terrn. and ^.T^^nHrof society the right to provide for himself and his family by the strength of hlown ngSt arm.%ut he realizes keenly that any slight turn of the wheel of fortune may make beggars of himself andhis loved onS- that allowing for the ups and downs that naturally come into every fatSy hi toryhT cannot by his best efforts provide agamst sickness and o??aJe Is it any wonder if he feels that there is stiU something radically wronl with the social order? Untaught to think or reason broadly-and few of us would reason dispassionately upon an empty stomach— his r^^cdorm are stirred bv demagogues who, with specious appeals to what Fs eaUy the best in the man^^hfs manhood and his independence, mcense him against the existing order of things as the sole cause of his wrongs. — Horton: The Burden of the City, pp. 35, 36. i6) " Civic corruption is found in all American cities, but more in the larger ones. It is impossible to say when the evU began, because it seems to be as old as government, since it is found m European and Asiatic cities. But the more glaring and systematic corruption m this country is of comparatively recent date. It began after the Ci^il War with the rapid growth of the cities and rapid increase of wealth. The withdrawal of great numbers of men from industry for mihtary service was a great stimulous to invention, and machinery was rapidly apphed to manufactures and agriculture. This stimulated the city to a disproportionate growth. Transcontinental railways opened up the great West to settlement, immi- gration poured in, rapid changes stimulated speculation, and the general rush for wealth began. The average citizen was so zealous m the pursuit of this object that he left the government of his city to professional pohti- cians. The result was inevitable— corruption in every large city, m every department of the municipal government, to as large an /xtent as the bosses and administration dared go. Thus the evil fortified itself and became well-nigh invincible."— Strong: Studies in the Gospel of the King- dom, No. 6, p. 2. (7) " Boston and New York are said to be the worst congested centers in the United States. Within their apparently limited area, foreigners coming to this country sought the communities where lived others of their own nationality. These foreign colonies were usually m the already thickly populated portion of the city. Great factories, employing largely women and children, sprang up in the heart of the congested districts, where this sort of labor was cheap. "Under ordinary conditions which such crowding produces, a family of six or eight persons Hving in a miserably small apartment of two or three rooms is in bad enough environment, but when sickness or injury to a member comes, the suffering that follows is beyond words, it the head of the family is stricken, or is incapacitated by one of the all-too- frequent accidents, the burden of supplying the daily bread falls upon the mother, and, if they have passed babyhood, upon the children, ihe result is that the mother wears herself out in a year or so trying to do both her own work and fill the office of breadwinner, while the children grow up poorly nourished, ignorant, and, too often, immoral. —The Standard, July 30, 1910. 72 The Bible Sttidy Union Lessons (8) " The city is the church's great opportunity. Next to our evange- listic and spiritual work in our own churches comes our duty to apply the principles of our religion to city government, and so help to extend the kingdom of heaven on earth. The day is past and gone when Christian people can say, ' Leave the world to the devil and cultivate your own religious life.' It is said of St. Margaret * that she became increasingly useless about the convent, her absorption in Christ's love, which grew upon her daily, rendering her more and more incapable of attending to external duties.' The world has been cursed w4th too much religion of that sort. Our Lord went about doing good, and this is the only orthodoxy that matters. Those who to-day are giving time and thought to public work in the city council and in the national parliament are discharging Christian duties and doing Christian work as directly as those who preach in the pulpit or teach in the Sunday school."^ David Walters. The Questions for Class Discussion. Why is the city problem more acute in this country than in Europe? " Everywhere in Europe the city is governed by merchants, manufac- turers, bankers, and professional men. Everywhere the city does many things which we would call Socialism. Germany, Austria, England, and, to a growing extent, Italy, Belgium, and France, see in the city a means for promoting business and commerce, an agency for convenience and happiness. To an increasing extent the city is making war on poverty and disease. This idea of the city as a joint stock undertaking for doing things by us left in private hands or not done at all is what most distin- guishes the cities of Europe from our own. The European city has a community sense. It enjoys something of the soverignty of the nation. " With us property is free to do much as it wills. Private business is sovereign. We have little city sense. The rights of the community have been spHt into a thousand parts. Councils, legislatures, and courts reflect the will of private property. Billboard owners, builders, tenements, sky-scrapers, street railways, and land speculators secure freedom from control on the plea that regulation is an interference with liberty or is the taking of property without process of law. We have not yet begun to think in terms of city sovereignty."— TAe Outlook, January 25, 1913, p. 203. THE SENIOR TEACHER An Aid in Teaching the Course on THE MODERN CHURCH Lesson 27. THE SOCIAL WORK OF THE CITY CHURCH. Object of the Lesson. To emphasize the responsibility of the city church to help solve the city problem. PREPARING THE LESSON. Among the great number of agencies that are working at specific details of the city problem the Christian church must by right assume a central and commanding place. This lesson is designed to show that the church's interest is not limited to strictly moral and religious reforms, but that it extends to every form of work by which the social welfare of the community is enhanced. The literature relating to this subject is already abundant and is rapidly increasing. Teachers will find the volume on The Re- demption of the City by Rev. Charles H. Sears, General Secretary of the New York City Baptist Mission Society, full of information respecting the conditions which the city churches face, and of suggestions b}^ which the work of the churches may be made more efficient. A very helpful part of the book is the six pages of Bibliography at the end. Plantz's The Church and the Social Problem is an able discussion of the more im- portant aspects of the subject. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. If there is an institutional church near enough to be easily reached, appoint some member of the class to visit it, and to give a brief account of its work and the results attained. If no such concrete example of mission work is within reach, ask some one to discuss in a three or four-minute paper the question whether we have a right to expect more stability, or less, in the converts at a rescue mission than at a church. The Questions on the Lesson. {2) "A crisis means an opportunity, and the present social crisis is the church's unprecedented, unparalleled opportunity. The church cannot stand athwart the path of progress and prevent the outward movement of the mighty social forces which are sweeping over us. Any attempt to stop these forces is reckless madness. The church may, however, direct these forces into such fruitful channels that thev mav become powerful for the good of man and the glory of God." —Dr. Richard Ely. 73 74 The Bible Study Union Lessons ** The church must be awake to the importance of the social problem; for the church alone can solve it as it alone can solve all the deeper problems of society. Economists may write, sociologists may devise, political philosophers may expound, and specialists may labor; but the world will only be saved by Christ; and the great problems of human society will only be solved as His morals and ideals are applied to them. Men may not wish to admit this, and the skeptical sociologist may laugh at it, but history is witness to its truth. The Gospel has so far proved inadequate for an age of industrial conflict and revolution; for it has been partially declared, partially applied, and given a narrow interpretation; but when its full meaning for the world is realized, when the relation of its great principles and profound truths to daily life is appreciated, we shall see that all the reforms will cc«ne which are so much needed in the social life of the people." — Plantz: The Church and the Social Problem, p. 244. (5) *' The church must be the hand of the compassionate Christ. Per- haps the appeal of the needy child is strongest and can be answered the most readily. While the mother is at work the children are taken into the church nursery; there is no kindergarten in the neighborhood, so the church is opened; no place for the children to play, so the churchyard or the church roof is turned into a playground, where, under leadership, children are taught, through directed play, the fundamentals back of all social relationships and come to know the church as a friend; boys and girls who need helpful occupation and stimulating companionship are taught some craft or art; the young people, who have no place for social life except a street comer or dance hall, are invited to the church parlors; the young men and young women need physical development, so a gym- nasiimi is opened. There are the poor, who are finding life a hard struggle; perhaps the church may ease their burden, or at any rate help them to train their children to fight these conditions more successfully. Many families are unprepared for emergencies — sickness, death, or temporary unemployment; the church may be able to give the needed rehef or may point the way to other organizations that are." — Sears: The Redemption of the City, pp. 133, 134. (6) " The number of churches taking up some such form of work is rapidly increasing. In New York alone there are said to be one hundred and twelve churches'^which have incorporated some institutional features and some of them are vast organizations of social and rehgious activity for the betterment of the people. The value of these methods is seen from the fact that it is stated on good authority that the increase in membership of the institutional churches in our larger cities is six times as great as in the societies which have not taken up the new methods." — Plantz: The Church and the Social Problem, pp. 223, 224. ' (5) " No organization or order of men on the face of the earth must be permitted to usurp the place of the church of Christ as the champion of human rights. It is responsible for the diffusion of just opinions and the estabHshment of right institutions. It should be the care of allied Christianity not only to alleviate present conditions, but to liberate and direct the forces which shall work out results in succeeding generations. The pride that despises labor must go. The selfishness which seeks men simply to use them must die. The custom which puts the silken glove upon the iron hand of human greed must be abolished. The laws which ennoble riches and degrade manhood are to be abrogated. The The Senior Teacher — Lesson 27 75 wealth which belongs to all should be held for all, and the rights which belong to each should be withheld from none. The rivalry which begets hate and issues in death must be supplanted. The avarice which buys up virtue for gold and makes merchandise of vice must be foiled. Entailed poverty and enforced starvation must be prevented by the community which now barely reheves them. For each soul there must be a hving chance in this world and a reasonable opportunity to secure in the world to come ' life everlasting.' " Let it not for a moment be thought that the larger ideals of the church are removing us from the simplicity of Christ. Nay, rather, as we con- template them, do we not find ourselves in spirit with him in his ministry long ago? Do we not see him touch the bread for a multitude's hunger on Galilee's shore? Do we not find tears in our own eyes as we see him weep over the city that knew him not? Do we not wonder again at the love that drew children to his arms and shudder at the flashes of indignation which struck the mask from the cruel hearts of * scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,' and the strokes of the lash which drove the impiety of greed from the temple of God? " The larger ideals are simply the ideals of Christ. The church can have no higher possible aim than to understand him and to be like him." — The Socialized, Church, pp. 265-267. The Question for Class Discussion. Why must the churches engage in social evangelization? " Our 'duty must be measured not only by the gravity of the crisis but by the greatness of our power. A few years before the Civil War, Alexander H. Stephens said to a Northern congressman in Washington: ' As long as the slavery controversy is confined to that old cave of the winds [pointing to the Senate Chamber], nothing will come of it; but when they take it up over there [pointing to a neighboring church], then we will see the begin- ning of the end.' And Laveleye, the great Belgian economist, writes: ' With the assistance of the clergy everything in matter of social reform is easy; without such help, or in spite of it, all is difficult and at times im- possible.' And Professor Rauschenbusch declares that there is probably no social wrong of our times strong enough to resist the united and per- sistent attack of the churches of this nation. If this be true, then what less than the judgment scene of the twenty-fifth of Matthew can depict the guilt of the church that should fail its Lord in such an emergency for the human race? . . . " Society is cursed by institutions, customs, and conditions whose effect is to damn individuals, and there can be little salvation, individual or social, as long as these have way and sway. The Book says: ' The Son of God was sent to destroy the works of the devil,' and the Son himself adds, ' As the Father has sent me, even so send I you.' . . . "So long as the social order continues to damn individuals, and to damn itself in spite of individuals, it is futile to say that the only way to save society is to save individuals. It is only a way of saying. Let social evils do their evil work; then undo some of it if we can; let who will scuttle the ship unhindered, we will be quite content to save a few of the passengers if possible. Or, as President Welch shrewdly remarks, ' It is a mark of sanity to turn off the faucet as well as to use the mop.' " — The Socialized Church, pp. 209-215. 76 The Bible Stvidy Union Lessons Lesson 28. A WEEK IN A CITY MISSION. Object of the Lesson. To inspire a personal interest in the work done in city rescue missions for lost men and women. PREPARING THE LESSON. The Lesson Notes should be carefully read. They contain the results of a personal survey of city mission work. These with the additional information given below will furnish about all the material the teacher will need to use in the direct presentation of the lesson. Further interesting information respecting the methods and results of rescue work in a famous New York City mission is given in Hadley's " Down in Water Street," published by Fleming R. Revell Co., N. Y. The article in World's Work, December, 1912, on " The Inasmuch Mission " should be obtained if possible and given attentive reading. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. Ask a member of the class to prepare a brief state- ment of the reasons that induce the immigrants in recent years to remain in such large numbers in the cities rather than distribute themselves over the country. Another might be asked to prepare a statement in regard to the approxi- mate number and the various nationalities of those living within reach of his church. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) " Rescue missions are familiar enough with the pitiful attempts of broken human beings to rally faith and hope, and with the swift collapse of the enfeebled will. If large sections of the population should approximate the condition of the hobo, what chance would there be for church work among them? " Poverty does approximate that condition. It creates a character of its own. Constant underfeeding and frequent exhaustion make the physi- cal tissues flabby and the brain prone to depression and vacillation, incap- able of holding tenaciously to a distant aim. Mr. Jacob A. Riis says that street life develops in the child ' a dislike of regular work, physical in- capability of sustained effort, misdirected love of adventure, gambling propensities, absence of energy, an untrained will, carelessness of the happiness of others.' This characterization will apply to the human material produced by modern city poverty everywhere. Religious faith is the capacity for taking long outlooks and holding minor aims under control to reach the highest. Poverty teaches men to live from hand to mouth and for the moment. The experience of the Salvation Army shows that the poor need the strongest thrills of excitement and the most rigid discipline to arouse and hold them." — Rauschenbusch : Christianity and the Social Crisis, pp. 306, 307. The above statement respecting the weakening and benumbing effect of simple poverty might be intensified manifold when poverty is accom- panied by drunkenness and other demoralizing vices. The fact that so The Senior Teacher — Lesson 28 77 large a number of those converted at rescue missions hold out against all inward weakness and outward temptation until a thoroughly stable charac- ter has been re-established shows the power of Christ to quicken and sustain a spiritual life under seemingly hopeless conditions. [3) Many of the workers in city missions are persons who themselves have been won back from the bondage and degradation of sin and who can re-enforce their testimony by appeals to their past experiences. They have known the unspeakable misery and wretchedness of being lost to themselves, their families, to society, and to God, and they know the joy and blessedness of restoration. Testimonies coming from such persons inspire confidence. One of the statements most frequently heard from those who had lost all hope for this world is respecting the effects of such testimonies in encouraging them also to trust in divine power for help. Not all the workers, however, are of this kind. As stated in Note 2 in the pupil's book, some of the most earnest workers at the Dover Street Mission are consecrated business men who see here a splendid opportunity for Christian service that gives rich returns. " Here and there a church leader has had a vision of the City of God and then has turned his eyes to the cities of destruction whose pavements he is treading and has uttered words of warning. Books and pamphlets are finding their way to the quiet tables of our libraries, and thoughtful men and women are rising from their reading with a burden on their hearts. Reckless and passionate folk who love Christ fling themselves into the seething life of the city's underworld and ernerge again to suggest the deep descents of sin which they dare not describe, and to plead for help and re-enforcements from the friends of Him who wept over a city and died for its citizens." — The Socialized Church, p. 247. (5) "A strangely mixed audience gathers nightly — men and women of all creeds and classes; many unbelieving when they first enter the Mission; some drawn by singing, others by some invitation from friends, and others still, drawn by some hidden power they cannot explain. Along the street they come to the very door, then out of darkness into light, how often the light of God." — Annual Report, Union Rescue Mission, 1912 p. 10. " Go with me to such a meeting as I have actually attended within a few days at the Union Rescue Mission, 64a Dover Street, in Boston. It is Saturday night, an evening when it would be impossible to hold a meeting of any size in most of our churches; yet the room is crowded. It is not a congregation of loafers and ne'er-do-wells, of drunkards and prosti- tutes. Many who are there, to be sure, could once have had all these names applied to them with truth ; but now, as you look over the company, you see that it is quite as intelligent, quite as well dressed, as the average congregation of men and women who evidently work for a living; and these are the best kind of men and women. " One after another, as the meeting is thrown open, they take their part rnodestly and quietly, without dwelh'ng upon the sinful past except to praise God for their deliverance, and to point the contrast as they tell of the new life in which they have found blessing and joy. 78 The Bible Study Union Lessons " There are others at this Rescue Mission besides these reformed men. A few have reeled in from the street because they had no better place to go to. Too intoxicated even to be allowed to remain in the saloon, they have been thrust out upon the cold comfort of the street ; and so they have wandered into this haven of refuge." — Francis E. Clark, D.D. (8) " Nearly forty thousand people have come to the Mission [during the year]. Over seventeen hundred requested prayer and twelve hundred and twenty-three knelt to be prayed with, many confessing Christ as Saviour. " We do not claim that all of this number were soundly converted, but we do know of many who are living clean and sober lives whose case seemed well-nigh hopeless from a human standpoint. " A number of young girls found Christ in the Mission. They, too, reahze that in Him alone is found strength and help to Hve a new clean life. . . . " A large number have come to us for assistance and many have been tided over when they knew not which way to turn. No worthy case is ever turned down. Surely this is a labor of love, yet not in itself sufficient. We strive to press home the claims of the Gospel, thus fulfilling our mission of feeding both soul and body. " Eleven hundred and sixty were given free lodgings, and over five thousand were fed at the Mission suppers (given every Thursday night during the cold weather) and near-by restaurants. " From Christmas till New Year's free midnight suppers a,re given to men, and it is a strange and touching sight to find the Mission filled at this hour. . . . " On Thanksgiving day mothers and children gathered for the distribu- tion of baskets, each containing two good-sized chickens with other things to make a good dinner for six persons. " Christmas day an entertainment and tree was given to the children and the room was filled to overflowing." — Annual Report, Union Rescue Mission, 1913, pp. 8-10. The Question for Class Discussion. How can we answer those who say, "It is no use trying to deal with certain portions of the community. They are irredeemable. It is a waste of time, energy, and money"? " We bring what must ever be the decisive argument: * The Miracle of Changed Lives.' There is no lack of testimony. In all classes, in all ranks, in all countries, men and women have borne testimony to their faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord. " But we need not go beyond our own city; we need not go outside of our own Rescue Mission. Here men and women who have been the despair of their friends have been restored to nobility of character; men and women who have been most hopeless about themselves have foimd abundant hope in Christ. " The miserable drunkard has quit his debauchery forever and lifts up his head in the new found freedom of restored manhood. " The poor girl who through passion, evil environment, pr the base treachery of designing man has lost virtue and stands alone in the world with the brand of shame upon her brow, without friend of any kind surrounded by a righteousness which opens no door to her and an iniquity which stretches from every side welcoming hands, has been redeemed The Senior Teacher — Lesson 29 79 from her fallen estate to the high level of sainthood and fellowship with Him who said: ' Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more! ' " Young men allured by the glamour of this world's attractions and desiring to know the ' pleasures of sin for a season ' only to find themselves physical and spiritual wrecks have had their God-given powers renewed by a Divine quickening and set to their proper use in the kingdom of God. " Men of little native ability and men well-born and well-bred who have been mastered by appetite and passion and become fast-bound in the slavery of sin have listened to the wondrous story of God's grace in Jesus Christ, and out of deep despair have believed the message of hope and cheer, and now present to the world ' The Miracle of Changed Lives.' " — Annual Report, Union Rescue Mission, 1912, pp. 6-8. " Who will say that such work is not worth while? " But not only is it of value to those who are rescued, but, as I indicated at the beginning, it is of almost equal value to those who hear the testi- monies and witness these resolves. It is so easy, commonplace a thing to become a professing Christian, in these days, in many quarters; it seems to mean so little change in life or heart; it involves so little self-sacrifice, so little that is new in conduct or service, that many a man whose name is upon the church rolls has scarcely a conception of our Master's words, ' Ye must be born again.' " In such a meeting, however, he learns their tremendous force; here he comes to know hov; mighty a dynamic the love of Christ is, how it purifies and sweetens the inmost springs of a man's being. " Such a meeting is worth a score of lectures in theology as a practical illustration of conversion and regeneration. Sin in all its vileness is seen there, and Christ with His mighty power that is stronger than the devil is also seen. " My reader, if your faith is wavering, if you have come to believe that there is no reality in conversion, that a ' change of heart ' is simply theo- logical cant, that psychology solves all problems, that the ' fall of man was a fall upward,' that sin is merely a misfortune, go to some such meeting as I have described. You will find meetings of this kind in every large city, and you will go away realizing the almighty power of such a Saviour as these men have foimd, and perhaps your own need of Him as well." — Clark. Lesson 29. REACHING THE IMMIGRANTS. Object of the Lesson. To quicken the sense of responsibility which each American Christian owes to the vast mass of foreigners who have come here in recent years, and to show that this responsibiUty must be met alike for the sake of the state and the church. PREPARING THE LESSON. This lesson touches perhaps the most important problem that faces us as a people. It is nothing less than whether our institutions will be able to bear the strain put upon them by the vast number of immigrants now 80 The Bible Study Union Lessons arriving, or break down under it. The cities of our land are increasing so rapidly in size that before long they will control the destiny of the country. But the immigrants are settHng in such masses in the already overcrowded cities that they in turn will control the cities. At present there seems to be no prospect of this incoming tide diminishing, except by restrictive legislation in this coimtry. " The countries of the Old World are becoming more and more crowded. Europe alone could send us 3,000,000 every year — 300,000,000 during the twentieth centiuy — and yet increase the source of supply.' The two books by Dr. Grose treat the problem in a hopeful Christian way. The two by Steiner are quite optimistic, holding that the great Latin and Slavic additions from southern and southeastern Europe are really more easily assimilated than the earher additions from northwestern Europe. Long's book is somewhat pessimistic and advocates restriction. The literature on the subject is quite large, and therefore teachers will find it easy to get all the additional help they need from public libraries. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. It would be a matter of great interest and possibly of practical value if the class could be induced to imdertake some such local survey as that indicated in the first question under " Subjects for Special Study and Note-Book Work " in Lesson 30. If the class belongs to a city church, the teacher might well ask two or three of the members, to make out a report hke that suggested in the second question. Con- siderable information might be had by writing to one or more local ministers. The Questions on the Lesson. (1) " Eleven hundred thousand immi- grants in 1906; a million in 1905; ahnost a million in 1903. More than five millions since 1900. That is something to make an Amencan pause and ponder, if he have the welfare of his cormtry at heart. _ What does it mean? If you would make the total a living reaUty, localize it. _ How many people are there in your city, town, or village? Divide that into a milhon, and see how many times over you could repopulate your place of residence with the immigrant host of 1906 or 1905. How many towns of ItaHans and Russian Jews and Slavs and Germans and Scandma\aans would you have? Take the illiterates of 1905 (230,886 of them) and how many times would they settle your town anew? The immigration of the last year exceeds the population of Connecticut. Imagme the Nutmeg State ' depopulated and then repopulated with the new peoples. Would not that be a field for the missionaries? Would we not, m such a case, realize \d\adlv what must be done to Americanize such a section? The whole country would stand aghast at the sight, if it were possible to segre- gate in Connecticut the immigration of a single year. But it is somewhere in the country, and just as much in need of Amencamzation and evangeh- zation as though it were grouped all together."— Grose: The Incoming Millions, p. 15. (2-5) These questions are covered by the Notes on the Lesson. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 29 81 {6) The fact that so large a part of the recent immigration consists of Russian and Polish Jews who are desperately poor, often illiterate, fanati- cally attached to their ancestral faith, and disposed to congregate in the Ghettos of the great cities, has been regarded by many as a serious menace to our national welfare. On the other hand it should be considered that no people are more eager to embrace every opportunity to better their condition intellectually and materially; that they stay in the cities because these are the centers of the industries by which they can make a living from the start; and that religious exclusiveness, consoHdated by oppres- sion, melts away in an atmosphere of freedom. Every one who has observed the effect of American institutions on American Judaism can testify to the truth of this statement by Steiner: " It is undeniably true, that Judaism in America faces a greater crisis than it faced m the captivity of Babylon. There Judaism was made, here it is unmade; there a hope of the Messiah grew up within them, here the term is so strange to them that it needs reiteration and interpretation. The loss of Judaism in American amounts to a catastrophe, and from the present outlook its complete dissolution is merely a matter of time, only retarded by the constant influx of immigrants from Russia and Poland. The average Jew of America has become so Americanized that he does not remember the hole from which he was dug, or that Abraham was his father and that Sarah bore him. . . . The problem with the Jew is not how to make him less a Jew; but to make him a better Jew, and consequently a better American; for Judaism properly interpreted has in it all the elements to make men good citizens, good neighbors and good friends." (7) " There are almost as many Poles in Chicago (275,000) as in Lodz, Poland (315,000); more Bohemians (116,000) in Chicago than in Brunn, Bohemia (109,346) ; as many Italians in New York as in Rome, and what shall we say of the Jews— 800,000 to 1,000,000 strong in New York City- one sixteenth of the Jewish population of the world, compared with which Jerusalem seems but a hamlet; indeed. New York has a ' Jerusalem ' in every borough." — Sears: The Redemption of the City, p. 154. " The quarters of American cities where the foreigners live are not the worst quarters; and I would rather trust myself in the dark to the mys- teries of Hester Street than to certain portions of the West side exclusively populated by a certain type of degenerate Americans. Recently a pro- fessor of economics in one of our universities asked me to show him those terrible parts of New York where the foreigners live. ... I took him across the Bowery, which has lost its terrors since it became foreign ter- ritory, across the streets of the Ghetto and along its avenues. _We found the supposed unhappy children well dressed and well fed, dancing to the notes of the hurdy-gurdy grinder. ... We walked through endless rows of tenements and saw men engaged in lawful pursuits; from the garret to the cellar the Ghetto was a beehive of industry. We saw no street loafers, drunkards or idlers. In ' Little Hungary,' where we ate and enjoyed a daintily served dinner, we loitered until evening, when we met a great army of men and women who came pouring in from Broadway's stores and shops, walking with that pride and happiness which^ comes from the consciousness of having done a day's work, and done it well. 82 The Bible Study Union Lessons Aly friend was very much disappointed because he saw no horrors, no unliapp}^ children or unhappy men. " Again we passed the Bowery, going on to the American section of New York, the Rialto. Here were horrors enough; whole blocks where there were no children; for both the very wicked and the very rich are not blessed by them. Young and old men, fashionably dressed and properly tipsy, went in to cheap shows, saloons and brothels, to have a ' good time.' These young men, rich sons of rich fathers, and these old men, are idlers and perverters of their own passions. They and they alone are the great problem wliich we have need to fear; for it is a problem which cannot be solved." — Steiner: On the Trail of the Immigrant, pp. 304-306. {10) " The hope of America's evangelization is increased by the fact that the pure religion of Jesus Christ is so essentially democratic in its fundamental teachings of the brotherhood of man, of spiritual liberty and unity. The immigrant comes into a new environment, created alike by civil and religious liberty, and cannot escape its influence. Political liberty teaches the meaning of soul liberty, and leads the way slowly but surel}^ to it. . . . The peril of this is that to him the main idea of Hberty is license. The true meaning of the word he must be taught by the Chris- tian missionary, for certainly he will not learn it from the church to which he commonly belongs. Here, then, is the opportunity for the pure Gospel and for the Christian missionary. " Adding the natural appeal of the Gospel in its simplicity to this favor- ing democratic environment, there is every reason for optimism concerning immigration, if only American Protestants prove true to its opportunity and duty. . . . We believe the day is not distant when American Protes- tantism will present a united front and press forward irresistibly. For the hastening of this day let us pray and work." — Grose: Aliens or Americans, pp. 297, 298. The Question for Class Discussion. How can we help to keep America a Christian nation? " The trouble is that the alien and the American do not know each other. Aversion on the one side is met by suspicion on the other. Shut away from intercourse, the alien becomes more alienated, and the American more opinionated, with results that may easily breed trouble. The anti- dote for prejudice is knowledge. Immigration has made it possible — and in this case possibility is duty — for the consecrated Christian, in this day and land of marvelous opportunity, to be a missionary — not by proxy but in person. " Here is the foreigner in every community. You meet him in a hundred places where the personal contact is possible. Did it ever occur to you that you could do .something directly for the evangelization of the Greek or Italian fruit vender or bootblack or laborer? Have you ever felt any responsibility for the salvation of these commonly despised foreigners? Have you laughed at them, or shown your contempt and dislike for them as they have crowded the public places? The evangelization of the foreigners in America must be effected by the direct missionary effort of the masses of American Christians. That is the fundamental truth. The work cannot be delegated to Home Mission Boards or any other agencies, no matter how good and strong in their place. " Hence, let all emphasis be put here upon personal responsibility and The Senior Teacher — Lesson SO 83 opportunity. Be a missionary yourself. Reach and teach some one of these newcomers, and you will do your part. Do not begin with talking about religion. Make the chance to get acquainted; then after you have shown genuine human interest and won confidence, the way will be open for the Gospel that has already been felt in human helpfulness. As a result of this study, which has taught you to discriminate and to be chari- table to all peoples, the new attitude and sympathy will enable you to approach those who have been brought within your sphere of influence. There is a field of magnificent breadth open to our young people." — Grose: Aliens or Americans, pp. 289-291. Lesson 30. THE PROBLEM OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH. Object of the Lesson. To give information in respect to the difficulties that beset country churches and to awaken interest in means for their alleviation. PREPARING THE LESSON. Teachers will find in the additional material given below information with which to supplement the notes in the pupil's lesson. Exceedingly valuable help would be obtained by sending for one of the Rural Surveys mentioned in Note 2. The price is ten cents each. If your church is situated in or near the country, this lesson will give an excellent oppor- tunity to study the actual condition of some of these churches, and to compare the difficulties which they face with those described in the lesson. Such a survey may show that the small country churches in their way are facing problems as momentous as the larger city churches. Much valuable information is also given in Wilson's The Church of the Open Country. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. Ask some member of the class to bring in a short sketch of the work of John Frederic Oberlin. See Encyclopedias. Another might be asked to give reasons for believing that one strong church is in position to render the community a better service than several small and weak ones. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) In an article in The Watchman for October 24, 1912, the Rev. Gordon C. Warren writing of " Evangelism for the Country," presents interesting information bearing on this lesson. Of the need of such evangelism he says: " Where can evangelism count for more in the kingdom and tell more effectively upon the nation than that carried on in our country towns and rural districts? Evangelism there will touch vitally our national and church 84 The Bible Study Union Lessons life, for the country church has ever been the training school for those men who have written their names in capital letters on the honor roll of our national histor3^ To evangelize our country districts, therefore, is to touch that rural life which has sent a steady procession of leaders into our national affairs and to inspire our future leaders with Christian ideals and aspirations. Nowhere is evangelism more important than in our neglected rural communities. " Wide as is the influence of rural evangelism and vital as is its impor- tance on church and nation, yet, perhaps, nowhere is it more sadly needed today than in our country districts. Time was when our rural commu- nities were the scenes of great revival movements. Regret it as we may, that day has gone by and many of us are not expecting its early return. Time was when church attendance was the rule, but today it is fast be- coming the exception. Our rural churches are facing a real crisis." (5) Mr. Warren shows that a decrease of population in country districts, as noted in the lesson, is true also of New Hampshire, where he lives. " Country people are setting their faces to the town. The abandoned farms on our New Hampshire hillsides testify to a diminishing population. According to the last census the majority of the rural communities of this state show a decrease while the larger towns show marked increase. It is the more ambitious young people who have gone out from our country churches and thus left them depleted of their best blood. The village church that once was a vital factor in the community is now living on its past efficiency. It has largely lost its old-time power and virility. It is not gripping the life of the community." (jj " The social life is centered around villages. It is almost entirely lacking in the communities without village centers. In 57 per cent of the communities there is little or no social life. In 20 per cent there is a medium amount of social life, while in 23 per cent there may be said to be many social activities. Each community furnishing much social life has a village of five hundred or more inhabitants. The following forms of amusement and recreation are named in order of their popularity: " Socials (one or more a year), picnics (one or more a year), entertain- ments (one or more a year), much visiting, baseball (Sunday and week days), dances, cards, home talent plays, basketball, pool rooms, motion picture shows, lecture course, literary societies, parks, theatres, fairs, tennis, Chautauqua, Young Men's Christian Association, bowHng, football. " If the church objects to any of the above forms of recreation on the grounds of their having immoral tendencies, it ought to see that these same forms are provided in such a way as to be of moral value, or to pro- vide higher forms of amusement and recreation for the community. As it is, too many churches feel that they have done their duty when they have condemned everything around them which seems immoral. If the church is to win the community it must do something to make the recreational life of the community wholesome and helpfiil. " In the communities where there is httle or no social life only 20 per cent of the churches are growing, while 16 per cent are standing still and 64 per cent are losing ground. This shows us how closely the prosperity of the church is related to the general social life of the community. Stagna- tion in religious life goes hand in hand with stagnation in social life." — Rural Survey "Indiana," pp. 82, 84. {9) " If religion were measured by the number of reHgious organizations The Senior Teacher — Lesson 30 85 these three counties in Indiana would be very religious indeed. Minister- ing to the spiritual life of their people are forty-one denominations. It would seem as if no shade of truth were overlooked. The Church of God appears in three forms: Church of God ( Winebrennarian) , Church of God (Adventist), Church of God (Saints). There are two kinds of Disciples; the Disciples or Christians and the Disciples (Nonprogressive). Over against the latter we find the Progressive Brethren. There are two other kinds of brethren — the United Brethren and the United Brethren (Old Constitution). There is the Holiness Church, and besides that the Pente- costal Holiness. Then there is the Millennial Dawn, the Amish Men- nonite, six kinds of Baptists, besides denominations that are Baptist in practice, but not in name ; three kinds of Presbyterians, four denominations bearing the Methodist name, three the Lutheran name, two the name Evangelical. Of course there are the Episcopalians, the Congregationalists, and the Catholics. Finally, in name if not in spirit most typical of this whole condition of religious division and competition, there are the Come- outers. Under such circumstances it is not surprising to learn that one of the ministers in a village community declared: ' I have taken in a hundred and thirteen members in my three churches, and thirty-five of these have come from the other denominations. I tell you, my denomination is growing in these parts.' He could hardly have been more enthusiastic if he had drawn customers from a rival retail shop. Perhaps the height of this enthusiasm for competitive religions was expressed by the inhabitant who said, as reported, that * If the Methodist church were on fire, and he should happen to pass by, and if there were a bucket of water standing near, he would kick the bucket over.' This denominational rivalry is sometimes a matter of sound conviction. ' A Baptist minister,' it is related in this report, ' preached to members of another denomination and then refused to take communion with them. Another minister could not take communion with his own wife.' " — The Outlook, January 18, 1913. {12) " There is much in the present trend of things which augurs well for rural progress. The trolley car, the telephone, the movement for good roads are bringing the country folk into closer touch, because of easier communication with each other. Rural free deHvery and parcel post will keep them in closer touch with the outside world. Forestry is to change worthless hillsides into savings banks. Agitation and legislation — not forgetting President Roosevelt's Commission on Rural Improvement — are looking largely to the welfare of the country people and to rural prog- ress.. In that progress the country church will share and, what is more essential, will do its share." — Recent Christian Progress, p. 402. The Question for Class Discussion. What are some of the chief reasons for the decrease in country population? In addition to those noted in the lesson attention should be called to the following reasons for a decreasing rural population: {1) Smaller families. A generation ago families of eight or ten children were not uncommon. Now they would be considered among our native population almost extraordinary. {2) The increased use of farm machinery enables the farmer to do his work with half or a quarter of the help formerly required. (5) " The price of farm land has more than doubled [during the last twelve years]. But there has been no corresponding increase in the income 86 The Bible Study Union Lessons derived from the land. The farmer has a larger capital but smaller interest. Naturally he wants to sell. When he sells he moves, and when he moves he and his family go out of the coimtry school and the country church and the community life altogether." — World's Work, March, 1913. (^) The younger generation has left the farm to seek better education and better opportunities. (5) The young men do not object to hard work, but they do object to hard work without any play. The barrenness of coimtry life has diiven hosts of yoimg people from the farms. {6) Most of the teachers in country schools have been young men or yoimg women from the city who had no knowledge of country life or of imparting en- thusiasm for its possibilities. When these teachers are country bom they have usually been sent away to be educated in the city, where they have acquired a training fitted for city life. (7) The best and strongest char- acters have been drawn away into the cities, leaving those less fitted for leadership. Furthermore, the persistent and cheap newspaper jibes and caricatures at the farmer's expense have developed in him a feeling of inferiority. Men who see their whole class represented as long-whiskered, ill-dressed louts and hear themselves designated as " Hayseed " or " Corn- tossel," will soon begin to think of themselves as on a lower plane than the men and women of the city. A boy or girl of any spirit will seek escape into what he thinks is the higher social class. Lesson 31. NEW LIFE IN COUNTRY CHURCHES. Object of the Lesson. To realize the advantages that would come to country churches from social service. PREPARING THE LESSON. In this lesson it would be a great advantage to the class if the teacher could provide one or more concrete examples of how country churches have come into the experience of a new and stronger religious life by realiz- ing that Christianity means the promotion of better living in this worid as well as salvation in the next. Each of the points touched in the lesson might be greatly expanded. An abundance of material will be found in Wilson's " The Church of the Open Country," in Ashenhurst's " The Day of the Country Church," or in Butterfield's admirable discussion of " The Country Church and the Rural Problem." If these, or similar books, are not available, brief practical illustrations of the rejuvenation of country churches will be found below. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 31 87 TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignment. A brief paper on the extent of the original forests in the United States, the extent to which their vast area has been cut over, and the amount of virgin forests that still remain, might be helpful in getting an idea of the condition of the lumber industry at the present time, and the continued need for missionary efforts. The Questions on the Lesson. Instead of material supplementing the several notes on the lesson, the space will be given to illustrations of efficiency among country churches. Example of a Wisconsin Minister. " A minister in Wisconsin, whose preparation had included some years as detective, to the sharpening of his wits and the increasing of his resources, had become the pastor of a community of railroad men and farmers. Suddenly by the fiat of the railroad, hundreds of his parishioners moved away in a day, leaving the church and the school and the store in a depleted community robbed of more than one-half its strength. Mr. Martin turned to the farming of the land himself. Realizing that his parishioners were now only farmers, he led them in the tillage of the soil, setting the example to encourage those who were likely to despair. By his leadership the owners of a pickle factory were induced to build a plant in the community, and farmers were persuaded to undertake the raising of cucumbers on a large scale. He assembled the farmers, and persuaded them, with the storekeeper, to transform the store into a co-operative enterprise, with a capital of $12,000, distributed in one hundred and twenty shares. On this capital interest is paid not to exceed six per cent, and the surplus profit of the store, in which the storekeeper owns ten shares, is distributed equally among the farmers according to the size of their accounts. This community has been rejuvenated by the leadership of a man who was unwilling that a change in the market should ruin the community." — 'Wilson: The Church of the Open Country, pp. 162, 163. Ministry in Social Terms. " Near Albion, New York, in the great apple country, the Rev. Mr. Hares has extended the service of his church to the people of the whole community. Like every other successful act, it is difficult to analyze, but the obvious thing is that the people of the community have been united through a ministry to the young people and the working people. The church is thronged with gatherings at which all are present. The programs of these social meetings are musical, literary, recreative, and they appeal to the mind which in that community is marginal. For the trouble in that great, rich apple country is lack of social life which will make the country worth while. There is plenty of money, but little motive for workingmen or for the youth of the community to remain out in the country where the money is made. The service of this church is founded in a ministry to the whole community in social terms, and its results are gathered in religious union and spiritual gains." — Ibid., p. 164. Ministry in Economic Terms. " Prof. L. H. Bailey of Cornell Uni- versity says that the best system of co-operative creameries in the United States is in Minnesota, and it was the work of a country minister. Ministers who are so helping the community as this one are able to command the religious forces of the community, because they serve the 88 The Bible Study Union Lessons marginal needs of the community. The Minnesota parish of which this man was minister was suffering from the poverty under which the milk farmer must labor. Under his guidance they were lifted out of this con- dition and their example has been widely followed throughout the State. Each of these cases serves to illustrate the principle of selection, by which social service shall be successftil. That principle is that, to serve the whole community, a man or woman must bestow his life upon those who, being helped, will benefit the whole commimity." — Ibid., pp. 164, 165. An Enterprising Village Blacksmith, " At Florida, New York, the old church of the farmers is matched now by a church of Roman Catholic Poles. The old Protestant folk are slowly losing groimd: the Poles are rapidly gaining. The Poles are industrious, thrifty, and far-sighted in their farming. The Presbyterians are inclined to abandon the farm for the life of the cities, but in the old church is a brotherhood of men who under the leadership of the town blacksmith, a man who has had the same shop in the village for over fifty years, have undertaken community en- terprises. . . " The first move was to light the streets of the town. Much discomfort and some disorder had resulted from dark streets. The whole village united in the enterprise of lighting it, and has shared the common benefit. The second enterprise formed by this brotherhood was the floating of a bank in the village. The saloon keeper had been the banker, and the working men of the town had been obliged to pay him a heavy tax for the cashing of|checks. When the men of the Presb3rterian church proposed a bank, they got the allegiance for the first time of the Polish Catholics who voted solidly, with their priest at their head, in favor of the bank at the popular meeting called by the brotherhood." — Ibid., pp. 169, 170. Keeping the Land for Christian Farmers. " If the need is for better farming, the church tries to encourage it. Acting on the principle that the land is ultimately to pass into the hands of those who can produce most upon it, the church tries to make Christian farmers better farmers than non-Christians, so that the land wiil_ go into Christian hands and the community become a Christian community. For years the Steel Creek church in Mechlenburg County, N. C, has seen to it that whenever a farmer in the community wishes to sell and to move out, one of its members gets the land. To hold it he must be or become a good farmer. This church now has a membership of 675."—Wcrld's Work, March, 1913, p. 558. Churches that Fail in Duty. " The village of Lapaz (252 mhabitants, Marshall County) with the surrounding country enjoys a fair amount of social life. There is an annual Old Settlers' Picnic which the whole com- munity attends. Public dances are held every two weeks. The young people have a social every month. The school gives home-talent plays, entertainments and socials. But in no other community in the three coun- ties is the church in such a sad condition as here. The attitude of the churches toward social life may help to account for this. The only social event in the village under church auspices is the United Brethren Sunday school picnic, which occurs every two years. The Lutherans had their last picnic fifteen years ago and the Wesleyans are opposed to social life. The people outside the churches claim that the ministers do nothing but abuse the people. Is there any wonder that only twenty people in the village belong to the three village churches and no boy under twenty-one The Senior Teacher — Lesson 82 89 belongs to any church? The church here is wilfully neglecting the boy's natural instinct for play and recreation. The saloon is taking advantage of the opportunity the church has given it and boys get drunk on the streets of Lapaz." — Rural Survey, "Indiana," p. 85. The Question for Class Discussion. Should pastors of rural churches receive a special training for their woric? " There is absolutely nothing in the present formal training of ministers that points them to the rural parish as a distinct field of service, or that specially fits them to understand the character and direction of the great forces that are making for an energized rural community, or that gives them any insight into the rural mind and heart. But rural people do their work, think their thoughts, develop their instincts, live their lives, under conditions not at all like those of the city. _ The rural parish is rapidly becoming a special, unique field. The ordinary preparation of ministers ignores this fact. " Of even more importance is it that the country clergyman shall have a grasp of the broader phases of the rural problem. He is to be a leader of the community. The average individual farmer thinks in terms of his own farm, of his own necessity of making a living, of his own little problems; but the leader in rural life must understand the larger implications of this new movement for agriculture. He ought to know something about the great forces that are controlling the market for agricultural products, the methods of business co-operation which must be invoked as never before by our American farmers; in fine, the large economic considerations that affect the total industry of agriculture. " And what is true of agricultural economics is true also of the more purely social phases. Such questions as the value of farmer's organiza- tions; the development of the proper kind of rural schools, the influence of the rural environment upon the family and individual life; a program for rural betterment; the co-operation of rural institutions in carrying out this program — these and allied questions are absolutely fundamental considerations in any broad view of rural community development. " The church has a distinct relationship to these matters, and the country clergyman, as a community leader, must understand something about the general principles involved, and about the historyof attempts to apply these principles." — Condensed from Religious Education, December, 1910, pp. 439-441. Lesson 32. THE GOSPEL IN MINING AND LUMBER CAMPS. Object of the Lesson. To impart information that shall awaken sym- pathetic interest in missionary work among miners and lumbermen. PREPARING THE LESSON. Literature bearing on this lesson is by no means plentiful. If the teacher can procure Norman Duncan's little book on " Higgins — A Man's Christian," and pass it around in the class, it will prove not only interesting 90 The Bible Study Union Lessons as any novel, but inspiring in its showing of what a man can do who is "on his job," and fitted for it. The chief interest of the lesson lies in its revelations respecting a line of missionary work in our own country almost unique in its character, of great importance, and yet well-nigh imknown among church people who are fairly well acquainted with other lines of missionary endeavor. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. Ask a member of the class to ascertain the average salary paid to missionaries on the foreign field, and the cost of supplies such as civiHzed people must have, and have him show how this bears on the charge sometimes made that the missionaries live in " princely affluence." The Questions on the Lesson. (1) " The first preacher in Deadwood stood on a box preaching when all around him were saloons, gambling houses and worse. He was hstened to by many in spite of the turmoil all around him, and the collection was of gold dust. It was accidentally spilled on the ground, when some good-hearted miner washed it out for him. The good man was shot the next day as he was going over the divide to preach in Lead City. The miners had nothing to do with it; but they not only got up a generous collection, but sent East and helped the man's family. " Often a preacher has his chapel over a saloon where the audience can hear the sharp chck of the billiard balls, the rattle of the dice, and the profanity of the crowd below. . . . The very deviltry and awfulness of sin drove some men to a better life who imder other circumstances would never have gone to church. Many men were hanged for stealing horses, very few for killing a man; while many a would-be suicide has been saved by the efforts of a true-hearted minuteman." — Puddefoot: Mlnuteman on the Frontier, pp. 199, 200. {3) Government surveys have showm that the original forests of the United States covered about 850,000,000 acres, and that they contained timber in variety and quantity surpassing that of any area of similar size in the world. Heavy inroads have been made on the timber in all parts of the country, especially on that in regions most accessible to the markets, such as Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The great pineries in the states bordering on the Great Lakes have been almost depleted. This heavy cutting is pushing the great centers of the lumber industry toward the remote West and into the South. The rapid destruction of so large a part of the timber supply of the country and the stupendous and reckless waste connected with it have raised grave fears respecting a future supply, and led to local as well as national efforts for conservation. {6) " Twenty thousand of the thirty thousand lumberjacks and river- pigs of the Minnesota woods are hilariously in pursuit of their own ruin for lack of something better to do in town. They are not nice, enlightened men, of course; the debauch is the traditional diversion — the theme of The Senior Teacher — Lesson 32 91 all the brave tales to which the youngsters of the bunk-houses listen in the lantern-light and dwell upon after dark. The lumberjacks proceed thus — being fellows of big strength in every physical way — to the uttermost of filth and savagery and fellowship with every abomination. It is done with shouting and laughter and that large good humor which is bedfellow with the bloodiest brawling, and it has for a bit, no doubt, its amiable aspect ; but the merry shouters are presently become like Jimmie the Beast, that low, notorious brute, who, emerging drunk and hungry from a Deer River saloon, robbed a bulldog of his bone and gnawed it himself — or like Damned Soul Jenkins, who goes moaning into the forest, after the spree in town, conceiving himself condemned to roast forever in hell, without hope, nor even the ease which his mother's prayers might win from a compassionate God. " They can't help themselves, it seems. Not all of them, of course; but most." Duncan: Higgins — A Man's Christian, pp. 1-3. (7) " These villages and camps ought to have good libraries, a hall well lighted, innocent amusements, lectures, entertainments, and in ad- dition to this, an army of men carrying good books and visiting all the camps; and there is nothing to hinder but the lack of money, and the lack of will to use it in those who have abundance, I have lately passed through a lumber town of seven thousand inhabitants. Four or five millionaires lived there. One had put up an $80,000 training-school, another a memo- rial building costing _ $160,000. This is the other extreme. But up to date the lumber regions have been shamefully neglected, and thousands of boys and girls are growing up to drift to our great cities and form the dangerous classes, fitted for it by their training. It is better to clear the water sheds than to buy filters, and the cheapest policeman of the city is the missionary in the waste places of our land." — Puddefoot: Minute- man on the Frontier, pp. 253, 254. (8) The preaching in the lumber camps is searching and eloquent, exactly suited to the situation. There is no cant in it, and none of the usual evangeHstic appeal. It is orthodox, significant, reasonable, replete with tender wisdom and sometimes terrible with naked truth. The language is that of the woods, but while without the least affectation of slang, would not always bear repeating before a polite congregation. A couple of brief samples of the " Sky-Pilot's " preaching will show the tender and yet fearless way in which he talks to his congregations. " * And what did the young man do?' he asked, concerning the Prodigal. * Why, he packed his turkey and went off to blow his stake— just like you!' Afterward, when the poor Prodigal was penniless: ' What about him then, boys? You know. I don't need to tell you. You learned all about it at Deer River. It was the husks and the hogs for him — just like it is for you! It's up the river for you — and it's back to the woods for you — when they've cleaned you out at Deer River!' Once he said, in a great passion of pity: ' Boys, you're out here, floundering to your waists, picking dia- monds from the snow of these forests, to glitter, not in pure places, but on the necks of the saloon-keepers' wives in Deer River!' There is applause when the Pilot strikes home. * That's true !' they shout. And there is many a tear shed (as I saw) by the young men in the shadows when, having spoken long and graciously of home, he af?ks; * When did you write 92 The Bible Study Union Lessons to your mother last? You, back there — and you! Ah, boj^s, don't forget her!' ".There was pause while the preacher leaned earnestly over the blank- eted barrel. " ' Write home to-night,' he besought them. ' She's — waiting — for — that— letter!' " ' Boys,' said he, in a bunk-house denimciation, ' that tin-horn gambler, Jim Leach, is back in Deer River from the West with a crooked game — just laying for you. I watched his game, boys, and I know what I'm talking about; and you hiow I know!' Proceeding: ' You know that saloon keeper, Tom Jenkins? Of course you do! Well, boys, the wife of Tom Jenkins nodded toward the camps the other day, and, " Pshaw!" says she; " what do I care about expense? My husband has a thousand men working for him in the woods!" She meant yoii, boys! A thousand of you — think of it! — working for the wife of a brute like Tom Jenkins.' Again: * Boys, I'm just out from Deer River. I met ol' Bill Morgan yesterday, " Hello, Bill!" says I; " how's business?" " Slow, Pilot," says he; " but I ain't worryin' none — it'll pick up when the boys come in with their stake in the spring." There you have it! That's what you'll be up against, boys, God help you! when you go in with your stake — a gang of filthy thieves like Jim Leach and Tom Jenkins and Bill Morgan!' " {9) The missionary's chief reward is in the love and unconventional piety of the rough men to whom he ministers. * It is related of Higgins that he was once taken sick in the woods after months of bitter toil and exposure. He was miles away from any camp in a heavy snowstorm with the temperature far below zero. He managed to struggle on with a pack on his back. The lumberjacks of the camp where he was to preach that evening, as he did not appear, set out to himt for him. They " found him at last, lying in the snow near the cook-house; and they carried him to the bunk-house, and put him to bed, and consulted • concerning him. * The Pilot's an almighty sick man,' said one. Another prescribed: ' Got any whiskey in camp?' There was no whiskey — there was no doctor within reach — there was no medicine of any sort. And the Pilot, whom they had taken from the snow, was a very sick man. They wondered what could be done for him. It seemed that nobody knew. There was nothing to be done — nothing but keep him covered up and warm. " ' Boys,' a lumberjack proposed, * how's this for an idea?' " They listened. " ' We can pray for the man,' said he, ' who's always praying for us.* " They managed to do it somehow; and when Higgins heard that the boys were praying for him — praying for him! — he turned his face to the wall, and covered up his head, and wept like a fevered boy." The Questions for Class Discussion. What are the prospects of mission- ary work being long needed in lumber camps in view of the fact that the present rate of cutting is three times that annual growth of forests in the United States? " We have for a few years heard the cry that it would be but a short time before the manufacturing of lumber would cease because of lack of supply; that our forests were fast becoming depleted and would soon be The Senior Teacher — Lesson SS 93 ' destroyed, and since the introduction of the pulp business, in which spruce of smaller size is used in large quantities, the prophets have often foretold a complete abandonment of our forests in a few years. " It may be that human ingenuity, stimulated by the increasing demands and decreasing supply, may be able to discover or invent some material which will take the place of lumber and wood; but this is sufficiently un- certain to justify our retaining as vigilantly as possible * the bird in the hand,' and lending every effort which will aid in the preservation of our forests and the continuance of the lumber industry." — Davis: The New England States, Vol. Ill, p. 1243. If the people are to have lumber and wood for necessary industrial purposes, scientific forestry must take the place of the present wasteful and destructive exploitation of the native forests. When this is done, forest land will be as carefully supervised as farming land, it will be in- cluded within the bcunderies of civilization, the days of the lumberjack will be numbered, and the lumber camp will be a thing of the past. (2) Does the fact that we use lumber put us under any obligations to the lumberjacks? (3) Did the missionary who ejected the disturber show a Christian spirit? These questions are of such nature as to be answered chiefly from the students' own point of view. The teacher should encourage the members of the class to give free expression to their individual opinions. Part III. THE CHURCH WORKING THROUGH VARIOUS ORGANS AND AGENCIES. Lesson 33. HOW A MODERN MISSIONARY SOCIETY IS ADMINISTERED. Object of the Lesson. To show how a missionary society is organized, how it carries on its work, and how to correct misapprehensions respecting the cost of administration. PREPARING THE LESSON. Note that with this lesson we pass from the work of the church on its own field as considered in Part I, and from a study of new movements and methods within the local churches, as considered in Part II, to a study of those organs and agencies wholly outside of the local churches, but through which they co-operate in various forms of religious work which individual churches cannot undertake, 94 The Bible Study Union Lessons No volume, so far as the writer knows, treats specifically the problems of missionary administration. Scattered paragraphs in the reports of the various societies, or discussions in missionary Hterature, are the chief sources of information, aside from a study of the reports themselves. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. For the next lesson assign to some member of the class the preparation of a brief sketch of the efforts made to evangeHze the Indians. Another member of the class might be asked to state the salient features of the work among the southern freedmen. The Questions on the Lesson. (1) The modem missionary enterprise has two sides, the distinctively religious which is cared for by the missionary face to face with his work, and the business side to which he looks for his support. Many people are fairly well acquainted with the mission fields and with the trials and triumphs of the workers. Very few have more than a dim idea of the complicated machinery by which their personal contribution is made effective for the maintenance of a missionary on the other side of the earth. An explanation of at least the elementary features in the administration of a modem missionary society ought therefore to prove not only interesting to aU who help to support this important Chris- tian agency, but it will also help to remove some crude misconceptions that often stand in the way of a deeper interest and larger support. (3) The duties assigned to the Corresponding Secretary vary somewhat in the different societies. These duties, as defined in the By-laws of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, give some idea of his responsibilities. " The Corresponding Secretary under the direction of the Board of Managers, shall have charge of the correspondence of the Board with its missions and shall be exclusively employed in promoting its general inter- ests. He shall advocate the cause of foreign missions at such Annual Conferences and in such churches and conventions as his judgment may dictate and the Board approve. He shall keep a vigilant eye upon all the affairs of the Board and especially upon all its missions, and promptly convey to the Bishops in charge of the missions respectively, to the Board, or to the standing committees, all such communications from and all information concerning our foreign missions as the circumstances of the case may require. ... He shall also superintend all the property interests of the Board exclusive of its current receipts, permanent or special funds and fixed property, subject to instmctions from the Board of Managers." — Report of the Board for 1910, p. 534. {6) The success of the Apportionment Plan among the Congregational churches is indicated by the following statement in the * * Report of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for 1911," p. 19: The Senior Teacher — Lesson 33 96 "In an official way we must give credit to the Apportionment Plan. A close study of the figures reveals that the strongest portion of the battle line has been in those columns headed ' Gifts from Churches and Individ- uals ' An increase of $41,000 from those sources and from the young people added to an increase of $22,500 from the same sources in the Cen- tennial year is worthy of more than passing remark. Surely our denomi- national Hfe is expressing itself in the deeper consciousness of power and of loyalty when our churches in two years have thus poured out $63,500 more than they deemed possible before their interest was stirred by the Appor- tionment Plan. To each his task, to each his share and no more than his share, and full credit when that share has been accomphshed: These are the principles which appeal to the minds of men as just and effective. Hundreds of churches that before were silent are now contributing their quota, and all because of the new spirit of team play that is animating our churches." , , . . . {9, 10) "We do not send money to the heathen, but we do send the Gospel. All money paid into the treasury of the Foreign Mission Society is expended for this work. For the convenience of reckoning an arbitrary division between home and foreign expenditure is made. Yet the travel of a missionary to the field or on the field is no more foreign mission service than is his homeward journey for furlough or his travel among the churches " isTot a cent of money goes to the heathen. Business is not conducted that way. But the gift makes possible the sending of men and the Gospel to these non-Christian lands. It costs money to administer any enter- prise. Some mission boards have officials and administrators serving without salary, and others own their office buildings. Still others maintain their administrative offices on the field. Because of these things it is very difficult justly to compare one board with another. Neither is it easy clearly to draw the line between the cost of work and the cost of administration. Yet it is found that when percentages are considered, the larger the income the more economically it can be administered. _ _ " What is commonly termed home expense includes foreign adminis- tration, home administration, dissemination of information, work of in- spiration and collection of funds. Yet a large amount of administrative work is conducted on the field itself by committees as well as by individual missionaries. In fact, the work of the missionary is becoming more and more an administrative one, in the directing of native agents and mthe general planning and conduct of the work. If these facts are kept m mmd, the problem will be much simplified. It is not money which is sent to the heathen, but the Gospel. It should not concern us whether the money is spent in Rangoon, Shanghai or Boston so long as the Gospel reaches the fields and accomplishes its work. The only question worthy of our thought is that of efficiency:'— Handbook of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, 1913, pp. 59, 60. The Question for Discussion. The first may be discussed in the light of what is said in Note 3 in the pupils' quarterly; the second, in the light of the statements made in Note 4, 96 The Bible Study Union Lessons Lesson 34. HOW CHURCHES ADVANCE WITH THE FRONTIER. Object of the Lesson. To inspire an intelligent interest in the work of American Home Mission Societies. PREPARING THE LESSON. The most helpful book on the topic treated in this lesson is Clark's Leavening the Nation. Morris' volume, At Our Own Door, is a sketch of Presbyterian Home Missions. Baptist Home Missions by Morehouse gives an interesting account of the work done by the Baptist Society. Periodical literature on this subject issued by the several denominations is widely circulated and should be within easy reach of every teacher. The purpose of the lesson is not so much to dwell on details as to show the conditions that have given rise, direction, and method to the home mission cause. Hence teachers should select facts that bear on this broad aspect of the subject. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. Ask some member of the class to give a brief list of the leading colleges or universities controlled by the denomination to which the church belongs of which the class forms a part. State also the number of students in each and such financial facts as may be at hand. Consult the denominational year-book, or the Almanacs published by the New York World or the New York Tribune. The Questions on the Lesson. {1, 2) "Twice did Rome under the Spanish and French occupations overrun and possess the New World, to all appearances hopelessly dooming the broad West to the stifling influences of a bigoted ecclesiasticism. Strangely, and as suddenly as from a para- lyzed hand, this huge domain slipped from her grasp. This repeated sweep and collapse of the papal propaganda, followed by the dissemination throughout this wide area of the ideas and institutions of the Protestant colonies on the Atlantic seaboard — colonies that had been founded, without exception, on religious principles and from avowed missionary motives — must ever appear one of the most remarkable overrulings of history. Makers of commonwealths never had nobler missionary ancestry than the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, their Puritan brothers, and the Huguenots of the settlements in the South. Safeguarded by ocean barriers from undue Old World interference, fused into a nationality by revolutionary struggles, tempered by the heat of great revival fires, the sturdy descendants of these colonists at the opening of the nineteenth century set themselves to the building of the world's greatest Christian republic."— i^ecew^ Christian Progress, pp. 501, 502. (5) "No event in our national history has exerted a greater influence on the destiny of the country' than the famous " Ordinance of 1787." Embracing the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, a section of 250,000 square miles, wedge-shaped, and from that fact known »s * The kevstone of the American commonwealth,' was added to the The Senior Teacher — Lesson 34 97 territory of the United States; and from that moment ' expansion ' began. Its influence on our national life was not more potent than on the church. It was a new birth of the home missionary enterprise of the church, calling for ' expansion ' of the spiritual kingdom to keep pace with the march of empire. Population poured in to possess this marv^elously ricli land. Home missionaries entered to win new territory for Christ and the church." — Morris: At Our Oiun Door, pp. 1G5, 166. {6) " The Christian conquest of a continent, within the lifetime of many of its citizens, is the unparalleled achievement of American Home Missions. History has no other record of the lifting of an infant nation to the position of the world's foremost force for righteousness and peace within the brief span of a human life. So quietly has this work loomed up amid the century's crush and clatter, that many have lived in unconsciousness of its grandeur and of its relation to our national welfare, until, like some cloud-covered mountain, it has been disclosed by the parting of the mists and smoke that have shrouded it — the most massive and majestic object on our horizon. Never before in so short a time over so large an area were such tremendous issues fought out by the moral and religious forces of any nation. . . . Out of vast social upheavals and national disorders, intricate, puzzling, paSvSionate, Home Missions emerged holding aloft the Cross, bringing order out of chaos, and determining the place of lead- ership and power the American people have been called to take in world- wide movements for democracy and evangelization." — Recent Christian Progress, p. 501. (7) " In the midst of a civilization whose every breath draws in a Chris- tian atmosphere, it is as hard to picture a Christless development as it is for a well-fed man to imagine himself starving to death. But let us try to get a vision of what might have been. Twenty-five or thirty states given over to the lawless men and practices that first overran them; thousands of communities, godless, vicious, atheistic, criminal, without churches, ministers. Bibles, Sabbaths; rural districts cursed by brawls, feuds, brutal living, and filthy speech ; mining and lumber camps dominated by the saloon, the dive, the gambling den, and the six-shooter; cities such hells of social and civic debauchery that their only hope for betterment lay in vigilance committees and lynch-law — this not only might have been, it actually was in hundreds of instances just what occurred, in spite of herculean efforts to the contrary. Suppose that instead of the exception it had been the rule, a condition universal and unchecked! " — Recent Christian Progress, p. 505. The Question for Discussion. Why does the history of the Spaniards, the French, and the English in North America indicate a providential guidance? " History is a word of many definitions, but in the last analysis it can have but one meaning. All history is the unfolding of a divine plan looking toward the recovery of humanity, and a kingdom of heaven on earth. Either we must accept this or surrender our faith in ' Some power outside ourselves that makes for righteousness.' With this for a master-key, the study of history becomes the most fascinating of all pursuits. To the reverent student it is more; it is communion with the very thoughts of God. . . . " In the light of events no reasoning mind can doubt that the western 98 The Bible Study Union Lessons hemisphere, particularly North America, was predestined, concealed, discovered, and reserved, to become the seat of a Protestant Christian nation. The three frail ships of Columbus were headed towards the middle Atlantic coast, and in a few days would have touched that shore, when a flock of pigeons, flying over the masts in a southwesterly direction, led th^ navigator to change his course towards the Caribbean Sea. But for that shifting of the helm, the Atlantic States might be occupied today by the descendants of Spanish Catholics. . . . " With all its unwinnowed chaff, was there ever in history such a sifting of precious seed for the planting of a nation! — Pilgrims and Puritans, Moravians and Huguenots, Covenanters and Churchmen, Presbyterians and Baptists, Lutherans and Quakers, displaying many banners, but on them all the One Name: seeking many goods, but holding one good supreme — freedom to worship God, as the Spirit taught and as conscience inter- preted. Such were our prehistoric missionaries. Is it presumption to claim that, by the will of God, they were begotten and born, they were schooled and hardened, they were chosen, guided and led, they were ruled and overruled, to be the fathers and founders of the true America?" — Clark: Leavening the Nation, pp. 11, 12, 18. Lesson 35. CHURCH SCHOOLS. Object of the Lesson. To note the religious work done in the higher denominational institutions of learning, and to show their influence on the religious life of the nation. PREPARING THE LESSON. Literature dealing with the subject of the lesson is not easily accessible. Articles in newspapers and periodicals, and addresses on the value of denominational schools, are frequent enough, but so scattered as to be not easily found when wanted. The pubHcations of the Religious Educa- tion Association contain a number of articles that deal with the problem of education in colleges and universities, but they seldom touch very closely the specific work of the church schools. The question for discussion is quite important and should arouse con- siderable interest, especially if there happens to be college men in the class. The teacher should note carefully the statements under the ques- tion, and supplement those in favor of the older method by the fact that when catechetical instruction, or a course in Christian doctrine, was conducted by a member of the faculty, the students were likely to go out into the world with a clearer reason for the faith that was in them than is the case now. Consider, furthermore, whether the teaching of Bible classes by students who themselves have Httle more than an elementary The Senior Teacher — Lesson 35 99 knowledge of Christian truth and only a limited religious experience, is likely to be as helpful as when conducted by men with ample preparation. In no other department are students set to teaching students. In every other line of study the instruction is committed to experts. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson will consider the Religious period- icals, of which several must be taken among the families connected with your church. Some member of the class might be asked to make a collec- tion of as many as he can find in the community, denominational and un- denominational, Protestant and Catholic, and bring them into the class for comparative study. The Questions on the Lesson. (S) " It may not be generally known that our State universities also were quite largely the outcome of missionary statesmanship— the gift indirectly of religion to the West, as the public school system had been the gift of the New England Pilgrims to the nation. The first State university — the model for many a later one — was planned and shaped by home missionaries of Michigan, and many another owes its origin, or its development for important periods of its life, to similar causes. All certainly owe their high moral standards to the religious influences carefully fostered by missionary devotion in their respective States. From home missionary ranks in some instances were drawn the presidents of these institutions, and the superintendents of public instruc- tion in their commonwealths." — Recent Christian Progress, p. 506. (Ji) As an illustration of the care bestowed on the religious training of students less than a century ago in one New England college, the following quotation may be interesting: " The president was entitled also ' Professor of Divinity.' One of its six departments was that of ' Practical Theology and Personal Religion.' Lectures on Theology were given each term. Freshmen had a Bible exercise every week in the Historical Books of the Old Testament; Sophomores, in the Prophetical Books and Greek Testa- ment; and Juniors, in the New Testament Doctrinal Books, while Seniors studied Paley's Evidences of Christianity and Butler's Analogy. Paley's Natural Theology was also in the curriculum. In a sister college, besides courses similar to these, a course in Vincent's Catechism retained its place well through the century." {6) The utterly immeasurable influences for good exerted by the'denomi- nation colleges is seen in a computation made about a quarter of a century ago that thirteen of the two hundred Western colleges founded by mission- ary pioneers had up to that time supplied 3000 towns with ministers and 15,000 towns with 30,000 teachers. One may well ask, what had the entire two hundred accomplished? and still further, what have they accomplished down to the present time? (7) There has been much rejoicing that the Bible after having been for a while banished from the curriculum of even denominational colleges is again finding a place in it. Professors of Biblical Literature are finding 100 The Bible Study Union Lessons a place on a great many faculties, and courses in Old and New Testament History, and in the literary and critical study of the Bible are offered quite generally. It is sometimes questioned, however, whether muoh more religious good is accomplished by such study than by mathematics or chemistry. " It is to be noted that the point of view is radically dif- ferent from that of the early time. . . It certainly would be deplorable were it not supplemented by devotional study in the Christian Association." — Recent Christian Progress, p. 438. The Question for Discussion. Has the transfer of religious leadership from faculty to student been a gain or a loss? " No one can help regretting the loss of interest on the part of professors in the character of their students, and the remoteness from contact with them now so common in our larger institutions. Equally deplorable is any loss of moral leadership on their part. On any theory of education, the value of Christian character in a professor is great. No enthusiasms are more fundamental or more worthy to be inspired by word or example than those of religion. . . . " But if there have been some losses, there are ampler gains. There has been a gain in manliness and self-control on the part of the students. There has been a gain in morality. The consensus of opinion, in spite of some lurid statements to the contrary, is that there has been an elevation of moral tone in the student-body. There is surely more genuine interest in Bible study than ever. There is a profounder recognition of the value of religion for all the activities of life. Christian work is undertaken more generally under student leadership, and the gain in power by leaders and workers is beyond computation. The present organization of Christian activities in college under the Christian Association can excite only the admiration of every thoughtful observer. If there is occasionally crude- ness, there is more often genuineness. If there is sometimes unwisdom, there is usually thorough earnestness. If there is less definiteness of creedal belief, there is more breadth of love and more real unity of the spirit." — Recent Christian Progress, pp. 438, 439. Lesson 36. THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. Object of the Lesson. To show the need of, and to create an interest in, religious periodicals. PREPARING THE LESSON. The teacher will find in the lesson notes and in the added material below as much material as can be handled in the class session. A practical turn can easily be given, if the suggestion made in the assignment in Lesson 35 is followed out. The teacher, however, would do well to be prepared for a discussion of the comparative merits of the several periodicals brought into the class, by a personal survey of them, so as to be able to point the The Senior Teacher — Lesson S6 101 strong points and the weak. This survey should include the character of the editorials and comments on current events, the value of the con- tributed articles, the importance or triviality of the news, the amount and character of the advertising, the attractiveness of the illustrations, the general make-up of each paper, and, finally, the extent to which it lives up to one of the fundamental rules of journalism, " Thou shalt not be dull." TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignment. Ask a member of the class to prepare a brief sketch of the Young Men's Christian Association in your immediate neighborhood. The Questions on the Lesson. {2, 3) " The rehgious journal is the product of the interest of a particular group in the religious life. It is one of the earliest forms of group journalism, and is the predecessor of the trade journals and other publications devoted to specialized interests. At first it was hardly more than a personal message from a religious leader to his friends and followers. Small in size and limited in scope, it doubtless attempted to perform for the modern age what the apostolic letters did for the primitive churches. The editor was the oracle who spoke to his religious constituency, giving instruction, encouragement and warning to the churches of his particular faith and order. " As this form of public statement developed through growing appre- ciation of its value and increasing ability and experience on the part of editors, there were gradually added the pages devoted to more or less general expression of the group interests, communications and contribu- tions. Departments were added and, perhaps last of all, in the formal development of the religious journal, denominational news was made a distinctive feature. But fundamentally, through all this evolution, the original idea has not been forgotten, that the denominational paper is to act as the unifying and inspiring organ of the particular group with which the editor or promoter is connected." — Willett in Religious Education, October, 1910, p. 355. {6) " Is it true that religious journalism in this country is in a bad way? There have been news items in the dailies lately which have given the impression that the old-fashioned religious weekly is losing money, that it is being driven to the wall by the competition of semi-religious and secular publications, and that it has lost to a considerable degree its hold upon the church membership of the country. " Events occur from time to time which show that there is some founda- tion for these claims. Papers once prosperous and powerful disappear. Usually they are merged with other publications. Journals once avowedly religious, not to say denominational, slowly and cautiously change their character; they become ' interpreters of current events,' treating the world's news from the point of view of ' the progress of the kingdom ' and featuring many events that would get scant attention from the secular press. " Pile a big bunch of these religious weeklies on your desk and look through them and the conclusion will be forced upon you that there are a considerable number of them that are having a rather stem struggle for existence. But upon the other hand you will be obliged to conclude that some of them are among the handsomest, best printed and most attractively illustrated papers that you find anywhere. 102 The Bible Study Union Lessons " But there are many of the others, not by any means all of them, which have a rather decrepit look. The advertisements do not seem to imply a sufficient income to provide funds for the printing of a first-class paper. The subscription lists in some cases are known to be getting shorter rather than longer. In a few instances some criticism might be made of the kind of advertisements which are * run.' Many of these papers are in- tended to be organs of the respective denominations and their appeal would seem to the outside observer to be decidedly limited." — Boston Herald, September 1, 1912. (7) " Talk over the status of religious journalism today with an editor and he will reply in some such terms as these : " ' The religious journal seems to be essential to the perpetuity of re- ligion. Religion is embodied in institutions. It must have its representa- tive organizations and spokesmen for the expression and promotion of religious sentiment. "' If it is true that the religious journals are having a hard time of it, the fact is to be traced to the same causes precisely which make all forms of church work hard. The churches, the theological seminaries, the mis- sionary institutions, are all tied up in one situation, " ' There is lots of religion in the world these days, far more than the outsiders, so called, realize. But there is dislike of a religious tag. There is a pulling away from institutional religion in any form. " ' Now the question of course is, can the church continue without its own particular organs? To be sure the publishing of religious periodicals can be overdone, just as the building of churches of various denominations in small towns in some parts of the country has been overdone. " ' But it is to be noted that in many instances the religious journals are ahead of their churches. In such matters as the movement for Christian unity, in the discussion of social problems and the advocacy of remedies, even in theological thought, the editors and their papers often will be found to be leading rather than merely reflecting the sentiments of their respective denominational bodies. " * Now the great problem of the religious paper is to adapt itself to the present situation and at the same time not to lose its religious character. There is abundant evidence that multitudes of people want religious news, and they want it in accurate form, printed without luridity or sensationalism.' " — Boston Herald, September 1, 1912. {8) " Every newspaper man understands that, whether his paper be independent in politics or partisan, there is one subject that must be handled gingerly — religion. For when you say ' religion,' the next question is ' which?' A daily paper cannot be specifically Catholic or Protestant, Presbyterian or Unitarian. It should be understood, therefore, that the opportunity of applying Biblical principles to modern social problems is not illimitable. " When we consider what is meant by ' Biblical principles,' we are met with a second difficulty. What principles are Biblical? The daily press might well ask the rcHgious press to agree on a few Biblical principles as a common platform before asking the daily press to apply those principles. Take the divorce evil, which is certainly a great social problem. The daily press can discuss the evil in a general way, can mention the broken homes, the parentless children; can even go so far as to say that divorce and marriage are often progressive polygamy. But what is the Biblical The Senior Teacher — Lesson SO 103 principle which the press is asked to apply? The Protestant church says that the innocent party to a divorce may remarry, and that the guilty party may not; the law of the State generally allows either party to remarry; while CathoHc interpreters say that any remarriage is unlawful, unless it be by the rare exception of a special dispensation. Which teaching is the Biblical one? The denominational paper is really freer in denouncing the evil of divorce; the law, moreover, protects it from the danger of a Hbel suit in defending the principles of its denomination. But the daily paper might have to figure in the courts for a too Biblical interpretation of the action of the court that granted the divorce decree." — McKelway in Report for 1904 of the Religious Education Association, p. 431. (9) " It is unmistakable that there has been a shrinkage in the field of religious journalism; but the loss has been more apparent than real. There are more religious papers and magazines in existence today than thirty or forty years ago; only not so many all-round religious newspapers. This is the day of the specialist rather than the general practitioner. . . . " Withal, the typical religious newspaper and magazine of today are not decadent products. Obliged to conform to changing conditions and to adapt themselves, Hke all living things, to the fashion of the time, they still remain a mighty force in the land. If the religious journal is less dog- matic and trenchant than aforetime, it is quite as fair, sane, and convincing. If it has lost somewhat in prestige and dominance as a denominational organ, it has gained in the wider influence of its judgment in the world at large and in the more varied service of the Kingdom of God." — Strong in Recent Christian Progress, p. 450. The Question for Discussion. Are church people responsible for the slight attention given to religious subjects in the daily press? To a considerable extent church people have little reason to complain of the scant attention given to religious news in the daily press. Usually they get aU for which they ask. They constitute a third of our population, certainly a larger part than the baseball enthusiasts, and probably more than a third of the clientage of the higher grade of newspapers. And yet a baseball game will get half a page throughout the season, while an im- portant religious convention is dismissed in a paragraph. The religious editor of The Philadelphia Press writing respecting this matter says: " The church people have but to ' stand up straight and speak out loud,' as our teachers in the reading-class used to say, to effect a revolution in the press's presentation of religious subjects. It cannot be too strongly urged that those who are truly interested in the Kingdom should write to newspaper editors upon this subject, which is of such serious concern. Frankly and sensibly tell them what is desired. Thank them for what they have done, and when they have done more, thank them yet again, and be not weary in this well doing. If this church member is at the same time a business man and an advertiser, his power will be in- creased tenfold. . . . " Let it be remembered that the great mass of people who represent the churches have rights which they are justified in claiming. ... If the churches want their services advertised, let them go to the business office and pay for them, as the theater and every other business enterprise 104 The Bible Sttidy Union Lessons does. Then, holding up their heads in self-respect, let the adherents of the churches ask that the local news of their congregations, and the wider news of the great Kingdom, be accorded proper notice by the newspapers, and that those subjects which from week to week especially interest religious people shall be given the same accurate and sympathetic atten- tion that is bestowed upon the drama, fashions, sports, and finance. Show the average editor that this is the desire of the church-going readers, and he will gladly and promptly comply with it. He has no interest other than to serve the people." Lesson 37. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS. Object of the Lesson. To acquaint the student with the origin, growth and organization of the Young Men's Christian Association and to awaken an interest in its work. PREPARING THE LESSON. The " Life of Sir George Williams," who died only a few years ago, gives an extended survey of the Young Men's Christian Association movement from its inception to the time of the death of its founder. Teachers will find all the magazine articles referred to in the pupils' lesson helpful in one way or another. That by Frank Hunter Potter in the Outlook for July 13, 1912, is especially valuable for showing the economic value of the organization in improving the physical, mental, social and spiritual welfare of wage earners, and thereby so increasing their efficiency as to make them more valuable to their employers and correspondingly increas- ing their own earning capacity. If there is a good working Association near by that can be personally studied by the teacher, this will be a great help in preparing to teach the lesson effectively. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignment. The next lesson takes up a closely related subject, namely the Young Women's Christian Association. Assign to some member of the class the preparation of a brief statement why Associa- tions among girls and young women do not seem on the whole to be as popular and successful as among boys and young men. The Questions on the Lesson. (1) " The year 1851 is important as marking the emergence of the Association into the arena of the wider world. In that year the first ' World's Fair ' was held in London, drawing to that capital strangers from all parts of the civilized globe. Among these visitors, as well as among the young men of the United Kingdom in attendance, 352,000 tracts were distributed containing ' direct and affec- The Senior Teacher — Lesson 37 105 tionate statements of the Gospel,' as well as an invitation, which was largely accepted, to visit the rooms of the Association. Thus was the seed of the Association idea sown broadcast. In this year, likewise, the Association crossed the Atlantic and established itself, first in Montreal, then in Boston. The genesis of the Boston Association was a letter, written to the Watchman and Reflector by a Columbia post-graduate student in Edinburgh University, which came to the attention of Mr. J. V. Sullivan, a retired sea captain. Through his efforts, following a visit to the Asso- ciation in London, the Boston Young Men's Christian Association was founded, having for its object ' the improvement of the spiritual and mental condition of young men.' An evangelical basis of membership was finally resolved upon, despite the prevalence of Unitarianism and Universalism in Boston at that time. The new Association grew with mushroomlike rapidity. In five months it had enrolled twelve hundred members, and in eighteen months, in 1853, it was housed in handsome quarters in Tremont Temple, which it occupied for many years. Already in that year the Asso- ciation had spread to twenty-two American cities, and had reached a total of two hundred and thirty societies throughout the world. On June 7, 1854, at ' the first convention of leaders in specific work for young men in an English-speaking country which ever assembled,' convened at Buffalo and attended by thirty-seven delegates from nineteen Associations in the United States and Canada, a North American Confederation was formed for mutual encouragement, co-operation, and usefulness." — Recent Christian Progress, pp. 419, 420. (4) " Every branch of the Association has one salaried official, thor- oughly trained for his work, upon whom the success of the branch really depends. There is practically nothing which he may not have to do. He must be able to keep the gymnasium going and teach athletics, on the one hand, and he must be able to lead the Bible classes and prayer meetings on the other. He must be a good manager, so that the business men of the town may be willing to afford him their support. He must be a sympathetic friend, so that he may attract men to the building, and he must be re- sourceful and many-sided in order to keep them there. He must be able to extend just as warm a welcome to the workman in his overalls as to the bank clerk in his tweeds. He must have a knowledge of sanitation and hygiene: the malaria in a southern mill village was reduced seventy per cent in one year by the efforts of an Association secretary. He must be able to be an efl^cient school commissioner, and even to teach school himself on occasion. These are only a few of the qualifications which secretaries need, but they will suffice to show what sort of men they must be, and how powerful must be the motive which brings them into the work." — Outlook, July 13, 1912, p. 589. (5) " In Young Men's Christian Association [in Germany] training schools and gymnasium the gospel of Christianity is preached aiiew and seeks to bring salvation to man's physical frame, which the_ still lingering effects of asceticism have caused to be too long neglected in its progressive degeneration. As the Greek games were in honor of the gods, so now the body is trained to glorify God, and regimen, chastity, and temperance are given a new momentijm. The physical salvation thus wrought will be, when adequately written, one of the most splendid chapters in the modern history of Christianity,"— G. Stanley Hall: Adolescence^ Vol. 1, p, 189. 106 The Bible Study Union Lessons (7) " The interest that college men have in this service which brings no financial compensation is due to the natural sympathy that most students have for those less fortunate than themselves. To awaken that sympathy they need only to be shown a real and definite job to do and how to do it. They can also be shown that industrial service is not only an altruistic privilege and patriotic duty, but also ' blesseth him that gives and him that takes.' This service affords an experience which students need, for it enlarges a man's vision, increases his sympathy with ' the other half ' and gives a knowledge of how to deal with men. " Many a college man has been kept straight and acquired higher ideals because of some group of men or boys who were looking up to him. One such man, an engineer of promise, says: ' Before I undertook this work, my one ideal in life was to make all the money I could, regardless of any one under me. Since I gave some of my time to volunteer service my ideals have all changed. Now I don't care where I go or what my salary so long as it is some place where I can serve my fellow men.' " — The Survey, April 19, 1913, pp. 105, 107, 108. {9) " Foreigners arrive here in all conditions of helplessness and igno- rance and their first danger is of falling into the hands of pretended friends who will rob them of their possessions, if they have any, and in various ways use them to their own harm. Agents of the Association, who are designated as Port Secretaries, meet ships bringing immigrants at their landing ports and save them from much of this evil. Last year these secretaries met 1136 ships in nine ports, and assisted 23,239 persons. Their work divides itself into two parts, after the first rendering of advice and assistance, namely, following-up work, and educational work. Three hundred and seventy-five Association secretaries in North America were communicated with last year regarding immigrants settling in their cities; nearly two hundred of them served the immigrants by finding them em- ployment, looking up friends, furnished rooms, boarding, cashing checks, furnishing baths, introducing them to safe friends, etc. Classes to teach foreigners the English language were organized last year in twenty-nine States, the District of Columbia and in four provinces of Canada; 973 classes were conducted, 1179 teachers were employed, and 16,927 persons were taught. The men in the classes represented forty-five different nationalities. One can hardly realize the moral and inaterial value of this service to these arriving foreigners until one knows the baseness, shrewdness and persistence of the attempts, often by the very countrymen of the foreigner, to mislead them or to rob them. Similar Secretaries are taking up work in the ports of departure of these immigrants, and thus the chain of helpfulness is extended." — Watchman, October. 24, 1912. The Questions for Discussion. (1) To what would you attribute the growth of the Young Men's Christian Association movement? (a) It meets a great need, (b) It meets it in a practical way and by the use of activities that interest and hold boys and young men. (c) It accomplishes not all that it aims to do — no institution for human better- ment does — but so much as to make its results of unquestionable value to the individual, to society, to the church, (d) While it seeks as its final and supreme end the cultivation of the spiritual life, it does this on the basis of an uplifting of the entire man. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 38 107 (2) What would you consider its value as a factor in improving human efficiency? " ' I did not think it would work in a lumber camp, but it does, and it has reduced the cost of producing lumber from $3.50 a thousand feet to $2.75.' " In this age that is a result which any man would consider highly satisfactory when produced by the most arduous direct effort; how much more satisfactory when it is only the by-product of another work which all intelligent men now admit to be at least equally desirable in itself. " For the work of the Young Men's Christian Association, which is referred to in the remark quoted above, is primarily an uplift work — up- lifting morally, mentally and physically — and thousands of employers all over the country have come to recognize, not only that it is important' but that it is an absolute economic necessity." — Outlook, July 13, 1912, p. 588. Lesson 38. YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS. Object of the Lesson. To arouse an interest in the work done by Young Women's Christian Associations in behalf of young women who are earning their own living. PREPARING THE LESSON. Extensive as the work of the Young Women's Christian Association has become, the literature respecting it is quite limited. The Good House- keeping articles mentioned under the Additional Reading References in the pupils' lesson give excellent surveys of the work done, and concrete illustrations of personal advantages received. The two articles in Religious Education for June, 1911, on the Young Women's Christian Association in its relation to girls in general, and working girls in particular, may prove helpful. The best preparation for this lesson would be a careful study of the aims, work, and results attained in a neighboring Association, if such is at hand. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignment. The present widespread tendency to place a large emphasis on church federation in Christian work and social betterment finds expression in some form in almost every community. Ask some member of the class to ascertain, and to state briefly, if any such efforts have been made by the churches in your own community, and to mention any lines along which co-operation might be productive of good results. The Questions on the Lesson. (2) In 1858 an organization was formed in New York called the " Ladies' Christian Association." Its purpose 108 The Bible Stvidy Union Lessons was " to labor for the temporal, moral, and religious welfare of young self-supporting women." Some have claimed that this was the true beginning of the Young Women's Christian Association movement. The same claim has been made for two organizations founded in 1855 — a Prayer Union started by Miss Robarts in the south of England for purely spiritual purposes; and a home in London by Lady Kinnaird for " matrons of public institutions, schoolmistresses, public and private nurses, and persons wishing to perfect themselves in any branch of their profession." These two organizations were imited in 1877 in a Young Women's Christian Association, seeking to promote the all-round welfare of young women. The Boston organization was unquestionably the first to adopt the name that has now become world-wide, and which after a time was also adopted by the institutions in New York and England. {6) A concrete illustration of how Young Women's Christian Associations get a foothold, develop into centers of strong influence, and cultivate a beautiful spirit of Christian helpfulness is shown in the following incident condensed from Good Housekeeping, September, 1909. During the five years that Sophie Swanson had packed stockings in a factory in Rockford, Illinois, she had not spoken a word of English, be- cause she did not know the language. Rockford has one of the largest Swedish populations of any city in the world outside of Sweden. But the mental, moral, and aesthetic outlook was small. For Sophie and the girls around her, there was no such thing as a personal life. Sophie was said to be the most rapid packer of stockings — and this was the one thing in life for which she was known. Such was the situation when the sweet-faced secretary of the State Young Women's Christian Association found her way with her organ and a few assistants into the factory at the noon hour. Together they sang a few cheery songs to the wondering girls. In the life of Sophie Swanson the occasion was a significant one indeed, for it marked the first time that she voluntarily communicated with members of the English speaking race. It was a great hour for all the girls as well, because from this and other desultory meetings the Young Women's Christian Association has grown into an established institution there with a splendid building, comprising library, baths, club rooms, sitting rooms, schoolrooms, and a gymnasium, all ruled over by a wide-awake, sympathetic secretary. The foreign girls are taught English and every other subject comprised in a liberal education. Sophie's work overtaxed her nervous energy. She broke down com- pletely and her mind gave way. She fancied that all the girls in the Young Women's Christian Association had become her bitter enemies. A month at a hospital generously provided by her employers, and the most The Senior Teacher — Lesson 38 109 loving care by the sisterhood in the beautiful Association rooms failed to restore her. When her sister felt that she must take her home to Sweden to her mother, her associates whom Sophie believed to be her enemies helped to make up the purse to send her. They inclosed over a hundred presents in a great bag, each one accompanied by a little note of good cheer. Reading the notes on the way over gradually cleared her mind, and on the last day out she said she was sorry she had ever doubted the girls. Sophie recognized her mother and improved rapidly. Eventually she returned — on her wedding journey — to see the dear girls, who, she said, she now and forever knew were really her sisters. This incident " covers in miniature the scope, purpose, and spirit of the Young Women's Christian Association. Beginning usually with a series of brief meetings, held during a noon hour in some establishment, it grows and spreads until it enters into the very lives of that community, literally making it possible for discouraged, misplaced, neglected young girls to live as nature meant they should and to find their souls." (7) Of great " value to the missionary cause has been the influence of the city Association in training workers and supporting them. Young women have gone to the large cities of India, China, and Japan, and now to Buenos Aires, to meet the needs of foreign young women, as the city Association of America has met the needs here. This work is under a World's Committee, with headquarters in London, but most of the trained secretaries have been supplied by America, and there is now an American Foreign Department, looking closely after the provision of secretaries and their support. It is a work which missionaries most heartily welcome, accomplishing a kind of service that they have not been able to give, laboring not only among the native women, but also among the Eurasian element, which has been grievously neglected." — Recent Christian Progress, p. 427. The Question for Discussion. How can Young Women's Christian Associations aid the Sunday schools in procuring better teachers? " The Sunday school is the organized means of the educational function of the church community. The bulk of its service is to the child, but its educational responsibility does not end with childhood. The Young Women's Christian Association is the focus, for all girlhood and young womanhood, of all the religious and educational forces of the city, including those of the individual churches. . . . " If the Sunday school is the chief organ of Bible teaching to all girls, and the teachers must be found in the local churches, is the Association to render no service here? There is one which no other agency can give so well, viz. : to take these potential teachers and make of them experts in girlhood. The Sunday school has a right to expect that the Association shall so utilize existing agencies and devise new ones that the young woman of suitable personality existing in every church may be equipped with adequate knowledge and skill for the leadership of all classes that can be gathered together. " The Sunday school which is soon to be will make it possible for every young man or woman who completes its curriculum to have a solid, com- prehensive knowledge of the Bible. It will also furnish in its teacher- 110 The Bible Sttidy Union Lessons training class a working knowledge of the fundamentals of general and religious psychology and pedagogy and Sunday school management. Until this desired consummation, it is a legitimate duty of both Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations to render every assist- ance, even to initiating the work in churches that do not see their need. It may offer a center for co-operation of smaller churches, and help all to secure the best specialists possible. The Association may also justly be asked to help the present corps of Sunday school teachers by suppli^ng courses that will make an intelligent whole of the Bible, bequeathed by the alternating current lessons system." — Religious Education, June, 1911, pp. 201-203. Lesson 39. THE FEDERATION OF CHURCHES. Object of the Lesson. To emphasize the present demand for united action on the part of the Churches of Christ in America in promoting the establishment of the kingship of Jesus Christ on the earth. PREPARING THE LESSON. Books, pamphlets, and innumerable articles in the religious press have dealt during the past quarter of a century with the question of church unity. Nearly all the religious newspapers during the latter part of December, 1912, had editorials or communications relating to the meeting of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in Chicago in the early part of that month. Abbott's article in the Outlook for December 21, 1912, gives a very full and illuminating account of its doings. Fosdick's article in the North American Review presents a surprising survey of the progress that has already been made, not merely toward federation, but actual union of several large de- nominations. Some of these facts are quoted below. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignment. In view of the probably frequent use of the Fourth Quarter, on " The Church and the Social Awakening," as a separate short course, no assignment is here made for Lesson 40. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) " The most significant movement among the churches today, whether it be considered with reference to the causes which prompt it or to the results which are likely to follow it, is the campaign for federation and unity. The movement is significant if only in the striking contrast that it presents to the interdenominational spirit with which our fathers were acquainted. In serious controversy and some- times in trivial squabbles, the differences between denominations used to be taken with a seriousness that projected their consequences into eternity. It is even to be feared that Ruskin's experience, the tuming- pomt, as he calls it, in his revolt against the evangelical creed, could have The Senior Teacher — Lesson 39 111 been duplicated in many places in Europe and America. He writes in his vexation: ^ . ,. , -11 '"A little squeaking idiot was preachmg to an audience of seventeen old women and three louts that they were the only children of God m Turin; and that all the people in Turin outside the chapel, and that all the people in the world out of sight of Monte Viso, would be damned. And now in a way that to our fathers would have seemed unbelievable the dissevered sections of the Church are talking, praying working, and perhaps most momentous of all. singing for unity."— iVorZ/j Amencan Review, May, 1913, p. 615. . . (3) The scandalous length to which individuahsm has been carried m Protestantism is shown by the fact that there are in this country no less than 25 different brands of Lutherans, 17 of Methodists, 14 of Baptists, 12 of Mennonites, 11 each of Brethren and Presbyterians, 9 of Faith Asso- ciations, and 6 of Adventists. We have here 105 distinct organizations, that might easily be reduced to eight, were it not that slender shades of doc- trine or inconsequential practices have been magnified into matters of such vital importance as to destroy the unifying power of the fundamental doc- trines of Christianity. One small denomination, for example, severs con- nection with the rest of the Christian world on the ground that it is not right to vote so long as the name of God does not occur in the constitution of the United States. Of these 105 denominations 24 have each a member- ship of less than 1000, all told, and in one case it runs down to one church with forty members. On the other hand the fact should be noted that among many of these smaller denominations there seems to be a higher average of personal piety, and certainly a far higher per capita contribution for church work than m any of the large bodies. (S) When the Federal Council was organized at Philadelphia m 1908, it adopted a platform which with some modifications has been accepted by the Presbyterian General Assembly, by the Methodist General Conference, and by the Northern Baptist Convention. A few extracts will indicate its principles and aims: " The Churches of Christ in this Federal Council accept without reserve and assert without apology the supreme authority of Jesus Christ " Christ's mission is not merely to reform society, but to save it. He is more than the world's Readjuster. He is its Redeemer. The Church be- comes worthless for its higher purpose when it deals with conditions and forgets character, relieves misery and ignores sm, pleads for justice and un- ^"thTchiSr^no^'an end in itself. The services of the Church become subordinate to the Church's service to men. " At no time have the disadvantages of the sectarian divisions of the Church been more apparent than when the call has come for a common policy or a united utterance concerning such problems as modern mdustry now presents." 112 The Bible Study Union Lessons " For the right of all men to the opportunity for self -maintenance, ti right ever to be wisely and strongly safeguarded against encroachments." That the Federal Council can speak with the united voice of all Prot- estant churches in respect to an important question was shown in connec- tion with the recent controversy respecting Roman CathoHc ntms wearing their distinctive religious dress when teaching in government schools for the Indians. It is also working for the enactment of uniform divorce laws, and is considering the establishment of a bureau at Washington to care for the interests of the Protestant churches as the Roman Catholic bureau cares for those of that body. {9) " Canada is giving to the churches one of the most enheartening ex- hibitions of the possibility of union. In a movement to incorporate the Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians of the Dominion into one body, the first two have already voted by overwhelming majorities in favor of the plan, and the last is waiting only imtil a substantial majority can be changed to practical unanimity. It is a clear certainty that soon there will be one church instead of three. Until recently four separate Theo- logical Seminaries were maintained in Montreal by Anglicans, Presby- terians, Methodists, and Congregationalists. These four are now incor- porated into one, and on the campus of McGill University a single building is being erected which wiU house them all." — North America^i Review, May, 1913, p. 621. " Work is the great unifier. And could we only persuade Catholic and Protestant, Unitarian and Trinitarian, to join hands and labor side by side with each other, and not against each other, there would not only be better feehng everywhere, but there would be a gradual harmonizing^ of be- Hefs. For, after all, work is the true test of a creed. As it is more or less the expression of the heart's conviction, when several are represented in a com- mon endeavor, it is hard to resist the conclusion, that the one which is the most completely and continuously successful must have back of it the auth- ority of truth. Let all Christians, then, federate their churches, and let them press forward to conquer the world for Christ, and by and by, after the smoke of successful battle shall clear away, they probably will perceive that the creeds which now seem irreconcilably opposed have in them much in cornmon, and not enough of difference to warrant the perpetuation of sectarian names." — Lorimer: Christianity in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 452, 453. *' Christians in the great mission lands, not content with national feder- ation and partial organic unions, are seriously contemplating national churches. In no coimtry is federation more inclusive and complete, or the principle of Christian union more profoimdly controlling, than in Japan. Christian India has its National Missionary Society composed of Christians of the several denominations and supported by all alike. At the Centenary Missionary Conference in Shanghai a national church for China was fre- quently mentioned, and a resolution was offered, but not brought to vote, in favor of a national chiu-ch as the goal of aU mission work in the empire. This trend, upon Oriental soil, marks the utmost outreach at present of the union rnovement. It may be brought to speedy reahzation. Church di- visions in western countries are nothing less than a scandal and oflfense to Oriental Christians; why should they be enforced or even tolerated? Let The Senior Teacher — Lesson 39 113 a national Christian church arise in each great country, to face with un- distracted power the prodigious Oriental religions. Such a lesson in union is too divine to go unheeded in English speaking countries, and once more the Christian hosts hear themselves ordered forward to the colors." — Recent Christian Progress, pp. 328, 329. {10) " The difficulties in the way of the World Conference movement are indeed great. It would be almost impossible to exaggerate or overstate them. But we are not discouraged by them. Rather, we are fiUed with hopefulness, for we are convinced that whether an adequately representative World Conference shaU be secured in our time or not, the very work of try- ing to secure it is visibly and powerfully promoting the sacred cause of Christian Unity. " The effort on behalf of this world-wide movement is helping to keep the thought of reimion before the minds of Christians everywhere; it is teach- ing people to think of reunion as something that is possible, and to be seriously considered; it is proposing the one step towards reunion that is practicable at the present time; and it is, we trust, serving steadily to in- crease the number of Christians of ah names who are desiring and devoutly praying that the blessed hope of reimion may be actually realized. The time is ripe for such an effort as this. Never was there a day, since Chris- tians became disunited, when the thought of reunion was so much in the hearts and minds of men as it is at this moment. " In all Communions, be they called Catholic or Protestant, the nimiber is daily increasing of those who feel, and say, that the present estrangements among those who believe in and worship the one Lord Christ are intolerable, and that they must cease. " On all hands, believing men and women are realizing more and more keenly not only the weakness and the waste, but the wickedness of our pres- ent divisions." — Report of the Joint Commission to the General Conven- tion of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1913. The Questions for Discussion. These questions must be discussed in relation to the particular denomination with which the class or Sunday school is affiliated. As the answers wiU vary in all cases, no specific sugges- tions can be given. Books Recommended BOOKS RECOMMENDED. Lang, J. M. : The Church and Its Social Mission. Thomas Whittaker, New York, 1902, $1.60. The Baird Lecture for 1901. Traces the gradual unfolding of the church's mission to the world, and its relation to the vast and intricate problems of modern life. The Church and Social Work: Papers and Addresses by nine dis- tinguished exponents of Social Service, Protestant and Catholic, Unitarian and Trinitarian. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the National Con- ference of Charities and Corrections, 1911, by the Commission on the Church and Social Service, Charles S. Macfarland, Secretary, 1611 Claren- don Building, 215 Fourth Avenue, New York. Grose, H. B.: Incoming Americans. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York, 1906, 50 cents, paper 30 cents. A handbook for a study of the immigrants crowding into this country, the settlements they make here, the means by which they are being Americanized, and especially the work done for them by Women's Home Mission Societies. Steiner, E. A.: On the Trail of the Immigrant. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York, 1906, $1.50. A sympathetic and optimistic survey of the character and social value of the alien tide from southeastern Europe. Written in a sketchy style. Smith, R. M.: Emigration and Immigration. A Study in Social Science. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1892, $1.50. A sane, but not optimistic, consideration of the problems occasioned by the vast number of aliens admitted into this country. Wilson, W.H.: The Church of the Open Country. Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, 1911, 50 cents. A popular dis- cussion of the conditions that surround country churches and of the problems to which these conditions give rise. Designed for the use of study classes. Butterfield, K. L.: The Country Church and the Rural Problem. Uni- versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1911, $1.00. The most satisfactory discussion that has yet appeared of the principles that underlie the whole problem. Beard, A. F.: The Story of John Frederick Oberlin. Pilgrim Press, Boston, 1909, $1.25. A story of the transformation, social and religious, wrought by one minister in an almost hopelessly bad rural commimity. Duncan, Norman: Higgins, A Man's Christian. Harper Bros., New York, 1909, 50 cents. Sketches of missionary work in lumber camps that grip the reader's attention from the first page to the last. Clark, J. B.: Leavening the Nation. Baker, New York, 1903, $1.25. A very complete and satisfactory treatment of the history and results of home missions in our own country. Strong, Josiah: Our Country, Its Possible Future and Present Crisis. Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y., revised edition, 60 cents, paper 30 cents. A widely circulated and most impressive discussion of the social problems and perils that threaten our national welfare. Report of the Commission on the Church and Social Service to The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, as adopted by the Council, December 9, 1912, in the Quadrennial Session in Chicago, 111. For other literature bearing on The Federation of Churches, and on the work that can be done by denominational co-operation, apply to The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, 1611 Clarendon Building, 215 Fourth Avenue, New York. THE SENIOR TEACHER An Aid in Teaching the Course on THE MODERN CHURCH Lesson 40. HOW THE MODERN INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM AROSE. Object of the Lesson. To assist the pupil in getting a better under- standing of the reasons for the widespread discontent with the modern industrial system. PREPARING THE LESSON. Even a cursory reading of daily papers must impress upon one the gigantic struggle going on in every direction between labor and capital. Strikes that would be accompanied by far more violence than they really are but for the restraining power of law, police, and militia, are reported almost every day. Not unfrequently this industrial warfare is accompanied by destruction of property and of human life. Ely's Outlines of Economics sketches quite fully the development of the extraordinary industrial conditions that now cause such widespread distiurbances and vast losses to all concerned. The teacher will find more or less discussion of it in almost all treatises on modern economics. Plantz's chapter on the " Social Problem " is also illuminating, and so is Well's chapter on " The Economic Outlook." TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. Assign to three or four members of the class the preparation of brief statements, not over two hundred words, of what they would consider the effect of a strict application of Christian principles to the particular industry or profession in which each is engaged. The Questions on the Lesson. {1, 2) The principal industry in Eng- land prior to 1767 was the manufacture of woolen goods. How this was conducted is described in the following paragraph from Ely's Outlines of Economics, p. 28. " The ' manufacturer,' as the hand worker was then properly called, had his home, his cows, and his poultry; he bought his own wool, his wife spun it into yarn, and together they wove it and sold it at the * fair,' enjoying all the proceeds. These proceeds were not, could not be, very, great, and he never became rich, but he enjoyed independence and rude comfort. It is much to say in favor of any system that it produces general independence and comfort, but ' not a beggar or idle person.' Before the age of which we write, however, this had somewhat changed. Cities began to attract ' manufacturers,' . . . The inevitable tendency to 115 116 The Bible Study Union Lessons divide the process appeared; manufacturers found it difficult to buj^ wool and spin it along with the weaving process. So the processes were divided and a middleman appeared who bought yarn from the spinners and sold it to the weavers. Then he ceased to sell the yarn, but advanced it, keep- ing a claim on the cloth and paying a certain sum for the weaving. Thus the ' manufacturer ' become a workman, a wage-earner, and a dependent upon the capitalist who furnished the stock. The germs of the factory system thus existed in 1760, though as yet the work was generally done by hand." (6) How improved machinery driven by the power of steam has increased production is illustrated by the following instances given in Well's Recent Economic Changes, pp. 54-61. " The sobriquet of an apothecary was formerly that of a pill-maker; but the modern apothecary no longer makes pills, except upon special prescriptions; inasmuch as scores of large manufacturies now produce pills by machinery according to the standard or other formulas, and every apothecary keeps and sells them, because they are cheaper, better, and more attractive than any that he can make himself." " On the great wheat fields of the State of Dakota, where machinery is applied to agriculture to such an extent that the requirement for manual labor has been reduced to a minimum, the annual product of one man's labor, working to the best advantage, is imderstood to be now equivalent to the production of 5500 bushels of wheat. In the great miUs of Minne- sota, the labor of another one man for a year, under similar conditions as regards machinery, is in like manner equivalent to the conversion of this unit of 5500 bushels of wheat into a thousand barrels of flour, leaving 500 bushels for seed purposes. . . . " Here, then, we have the labor of three men for one year, working with machinery, resulting in the producing aU the flour that a thousand other men ordinarily eat in a year, allowing one barrel of flour for the average consumption of each adiilt." " In the time of Adam Smith it was regarded as a wonderful achieve- ment for ten men to make 48,000 pins in a day, but now three men can make 7,500,000 pins of a vastly superior character in the same time." {8) " The present condition is one of segregation of classes rather than of unity. The close adhesion between labor and capital which used to exist, the social solidarity, is threatened, if not destroyed. In former times the classes were in much closer social touch. There were fewer capitalists, and mutual interests were closer. The feudal lord and his men were held together by common dangers, and by the fate of the one settling that of the other. In our new era of industrial development, labor and capital belong to different spheres, and although the cottage may be in the same block as the mansion, the social chasm between the two is not bridged. The acquaintance between masters and journeymen which characterized the mediaeval guilds is not known under the factory system, where the only bond that exists is the contract on the market price of labor. This develops social cliques, classes, and parties, each ignoring one another's interests, and organizing and combining to promote their own. Self-seeking and self-interest become the rule, with the inevit- able result of factional antagonism and animosities." — Plantz: The Church and the Social Problem, pp. 21, 22. (10) " Few people realize the tons of tracts, papers, books, all denounc- The Senior Teacher — Lesson Jfi 117 ing the present economic system, which are weekly distributed among the masses. The labor press is now a large institution, and has estab- lished itself in every great city and developed a large constituency of readers. Besides the press, is the agitator who addresses the laborer in his halls, at his conventions, or on the street corner. The agitation is constant, and it is abundant. The workingmen are receiving a daily education in the principles of theorists and reformers, who are united in this, that they cry aloud against the present industrial system and declare it must speedily be overthrown . . . The age has every facility for the spread of the new doctrines. Freedom of speech; inter-communication between nations ; the press announcing each morning what has been done in different States and communities the day previous; the reports of the extravagances and luxurious living of the rich; the announcement of a thousand desirable things in which other people are participating, but which are denied the laborer; clubs organized through which to counsel and work together; strikes to inflame; the massing of the people in sections of cities — all these conditions are most favorable to propagate new views, stir up antagonism to existing institutions, or whet the appetite for revolu- tion." — Ibid.: pp. 54-56. The Question for Class Discussion. Is it true that the rich are grow- ing richer and the poor poorer every day? It is true that during the past fifty years there has been an enormous increase in the aggregate wealth of the country, and that this wealth is possessed by a comparatively small class. Investigations have shown that of the 12,690,152 families in the coimtry 91 per cent own only 29 per cent of the wealth, while the remaining 9 per cent own 71 per cent. But it is also true that labor is better housed, better fed, better clothed, better paid, than ever before. Investigation has also shown that between 1866 and 1903 wages rose in the United States more than 70 per cent in agri- cultiu-e and more than 100 per cent in industries. Hours of labor have been greatly shortened, leaving to the laborer such opportunities for self- culture and an enjoyment of life as never before. At the same time, however, the standard of living has advanced and wants have multiplied to such an extent as to leave the individual laborer very little better off than before. Notwithstanding high wages there are multitudes of hard- working men and women who in spite of their most strenuous efforts are living on the edge of poverty. Says the Northwestern Christian Advocate of May 17, 1905: " Those who are forced by their circumstances to a chronic struggle with penury, who get barely enough money return for their labor, exacting and onerous though it may be, to supply meagerly the necessities of life, and not sufficient to maintain the body at its proper working efficiency — their status is not much worse than that of the actual beggar. And yet this is the status of millions of laboring people in the country." 118 The Bible Sttidy Union Lessons Lesson 41. THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL OF SOCIETY. Object of the Lesson. To show how far the current schemes for dealing with the social problem are in accord with the Christian ideals, and to lead the chiirch to adopt and apply the social ideals of Christianity. PREPARING THE LESSON. The last twenty years have witnessed an astonishing increase of inter- est in the relation of the churches to the social problems of our time. One result is an immense increase in the literature bearing on the sub- ject. We have not only a large number of books treating it from various points of view, but a flood of articles in religious periodicals. The teacher cannot fail to find in any pubHc library, and in nearly all pastors' libraries, several of the more important books dealing with the question. The two volumes by Professor Rauschenbusch have aroused widespread atten- tion. For the present lesson teachers will get much valuable help from Plantz' " The Church and the Social Problem." Any file of denomina- tional newspapers, or of unsectarian periodicals such as The Independent, or The Outlook, will reveal many articles that bear on the topic. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson will deal more specifically with a subject already touched, viz., the church's relation to the industrial conflicts of our time. Ask some member of the class to hunt up the origin and present use of the word " boycott." The Questions on the Lesson. (1) " All that the clearest spiritual insight of the reUgious teachers before him had conceived and expressed about God Jesus at once adopted, but he so enlarged and deepened the meaning of the word ' God ' as to make his revelation virtually new. He chose the word ' Father,' as best suited to his conception, and by making the central all-determining idea of that ' the will to love ' he not only brought God close to life, but also made God's redemptive purpose lumi- nous and constant. The God whose ceaseless love is revealed in his purpose to save and to serve, makes every life that acknowledges his Fatherhood a saviour and a servant to the extent of its power and opportunity. " I caU your attention to the expression ' the wiU to love.' Men some- times, I fear, think of that exalted word of the gospels, ' love,' as a senti- mental, effeminate, pietistic quality which can live only in a soft climate and in smooth places. They forget that he who consecrated it as the expression of true religion did so amid the relentless antagonisms of those who made him at last climb the stony slope of Calvary. Love, as Jesus used it, may glow with all the warmth of real affection, but, whether with glow or not, it is essentially the giving of self for the good of others." — J. S. Riggs in The Interior. February 10, 1910. (4) " AU socialism is based upon faith in the ability of man to im- prove the conditions of life and in a certain type of man. The one stock argument against socialism is that it is impracticable idealism, beautiful The Senior Teacher — Lesson 4I 119 if it could only be realized — but it cannot be. It is at this point, it seems to me, that the church and socialism meet on common ground. An ideal state of society undoubtedly means an ideal individual. A society based upon self-interest can only be advanced to a society based on imseliish devotion to the common good by a gradual increase in the number of unselfish individuals. " Socialists believe that the individual of the future will be content with a moderate financial compensation for his labor, physical or mental. His one great aim will be the service of his fellowmen. Will man use his talents for the common good without the stimulus of gold? Or, is man so inherently selfish that he will not develop his capacities or employ his powers in service unless he can make a fortune by exploiting the less favorably endowed? Is not that the supreme issue involved in socialism and in Christianity? " To have in us ' the mind of Jesus ' is to be ruled by the spirit of loving service. If that spirit must forever be limited to a few financially unprof- itable callings, or to a few superior souls, we may as well confess that true Christianity demands the impossible and the kingdom of God is, and must forever remain, a dream. " The faith of socialism involves the development of the spirit of brother- hood beyond national sympathies and ties. True, it is the brotherhood of the proletariat which socialism teaches; but Christianity is committed to that and more. It is essentially international in its fundamental ideal. " The church might support socialism in its opposition to war. Surely it should not be outdone by socialism in preaching the gospel of universal peace. " The church should believe with socialism in the possibility of man's control over environment, in his power to abolish many conditions hitherto regarded as the necessary conditions of a wicked, secular world. " Rightly interpreted, the kingdom of God involves great changes in the social environment, progress in legislation, institutions, organization. The church should not teach a one-sided individualism. It may cling tenaciously to the doctrine of individual regeneration, but its ideal of the Christian life should include the spirit and obligations of social service." — A. W. Wishart in The Standard, March 16, 1909. (7) An " encouraging feature of the social problem as considered today is that it is regarded not simply as an economic question, but also as an ethical one. ... It has come to be felt that the glory of a nation is not simply in its wealth and commercial prosperity, but in the growing intelligence, happiness, and moral worth of all the people. A nation may be rich and it may be a curse in" the face of civilization ; for it may have that wealth in the hands of a few, and wring it out of the life and strength of an oppressed people. The civilization which' can produce the greatest intelligence and virtue among all classes is clearly the highest; and there- fore the primary question of society must always be, how can conditions be developed which will give the largest number of men the best chance for support and self -improvement? All trade, all labor contracts must come under the influence of this great thought and end of society. Every employer, therefore, must consider the relation of the wages he pays, and the work he assigns, and the conditions under which it is done, to the well-being of the man he employs. . . . " The social question, therefore, in our day has become an ethical ques- tion, arising out of a deepening of the ethical sense of the community, and 120 The Bible Study Union Lessons marking a step in moral progress. The very crux of the present agitation is not whether labor is worse off than formerly, but is the present economic condition just; is the industrial situation right? And that which arouses the laboring element so strongly is the feeling that it is not right; that in the present system capital is selfish; that an unrighteous lust for gain and power has taken hold of the ' captains of industry'; and that men who toil are not being treated from the standpoint of justice and brotherhood. There is thus the force of a moral feeling behind every protest against the present system, even when it is made by the wild and extravagant voice of the social agitator." — Plantz: The Church and the Social Problem^ pp. 67-71. (9) Jesus was something more than a great reformer. In the case of the two brothers who quarreled over some property, he refused to be a judge. He refused to be a leader in righting the oppressions from which his countrymen siiffered under the brutal and despotic rule of Rome. Slavery was a universal institution, but he never mentioned it. In every city and town that he visited there were degraded, despairing women whose wages were death, but Jesus did not try to suppress the evil. The fact was that, in the ordinary sense of the word, Jesus utterly refused to make himself a social reformer. This refusal was not due to his failure to per- ceive the social evils of his time, but to a conviction that his mission had scope larger than that of a mere reformer, so large, in fact, as to embrace not merely the doing away with this or that evil, but with evil as a whole. The one sphere to which he limited his ministry was that of religion, the establishment of the kingdom of God among men. The moment we realize that this was his supreme purpose, "it is not difficult to under- stand why he left the great pressing social problems of his age to time and to a dynamic which is symbolized neither by the sword nor the ballot. Religion was to be the solvent of the world's desperate social ills. God incarnated in human lives was to bring in the better day. To men he gave the vision and the Spirit and the power. So they must save the world. " That, in broad outline, is the conception pf Jesus. The realization of it compels two things: " 1. The winning of men one by one to personal, individual acknowledge- ment of God's claim to their complete and constant service. " 2. Such shaping of the social order as shall facilitate and strengthen God's claim on men by revealing the spirit which shall make the claim attractive. " Of these duties, the one is meant to lead directly to the other." — J. S. Riggs in The Interior, February 10, 1910. The Question for Discussion. Does a Christian social order mean perfection? " A Christian social order cannot mean perfection. As long as men are flesh and blood the world can be neither sinless nor painless. For instance, how can any form of social organization keep the tremendous electric current of sex desire from going astray and dealing misery and shame? The law of growth, which is essential to human life, itself makes The Senior Teacher — Lesson 4^ 121 any static perfection impossible. Every child is born a kicking little egotist and has to learn by its own mistakes and sins to co-ordinate itself with the social life of every successive group which it enters. If per- fection were reached today, new adjustments would be demanded tomorrow by the growth of new powers. . . . " But within the limitations of human nature I believe that the con- stitutional structure of the social order can be squared with the demands of Christian morality. At every new step of moral progress the clamor has gone up that fairness and decency were Utopian fanaticism and would ruin society, but instead of making the social machinery unworkable, every step toward collective Christian ethics proved an immense relief to society. " An unchristian social order can be known by the fact that it makes good men do bad things. It tempts, defeats, drains, and degrades, and leaves men stunted, cowed, and shamed in their manhood. A Christian social order makes bad men do good things. It sets high aims, steadies the vagrant impulses of the weak, trains the powers of the young, and is felt by all as an uplifting force which leaves them with the consciousness of a broader and nobler humanity as their years go on." — Rauschenbusch : Christianizing the Social Order, pp. 126, 127. Lesson 42. THE CHURCH AND THE INDUSTRIAL WARFARE. Object of the Lesson. To show the nature of the industrial conflict, and how the church can mitigate its asperities and remove its causes. PREPARING THE LESSON. The suggestions given under this heading in Lesson 41 hold good here also. Teachers will find much help in Professor Peabody's chapter on " The Industrial Order." TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson is on the duty of the church in pro- moting the welfare of wage-earners. Assign to some member of the class the preparation of a brief paper on the reasons why so many women and children are employed in modern industries. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) " The form of the industrial problem has become determined by the amazing expansion of modern industrial methods, the vast combinations of employers and of employed, and the enormous prizes which reward strategy or good fortune. These char- acteristics of modern industry have brought the factors of industry to a situation which appears not unlike a state of war. The forces of pro- duction are maintained on a war footing. The modem ' captain of industry ' is of the same stuff which makes great generals. He is a far- sighted, determined leader of men, with his mind fixed on a single end, 122 The Bible Study Union Lessons and with an industrial army at his command. Over against him are many opposing forces — the forces of his immediate competitors in business, the remoter hostihty of competing nations, and, more than all, the spirit of industrial disaffection stirring in his own troops and inciting to mutiny. More and more the industrial world finds itself occupied by two armed camps — the force of the employers combined to meet what seems the unreasonable demands of the unemployed. Strikes and lock-outs are temporary raids across the enemy's frontier; organization on both sides disciplines and drills the contending armies; industrial arbitration, Hke international arbitration, offers itself as a last substitute for battle; while, hanging on to the skirts of the two forces, threatening the employers with violence, and weakening by its competition the power of the employed, is that unorganized shifting mass which we call the army of the unem- ployed." — Peabody: Jesus Christ and the Social Question," pp. 268, 269. (3) How nearly the great strike in Dublin approaches a condition of industrial war, and how such conditions presage an impending social revo- lution is indicated in a recent letter to The Watchman- Examiner, January 8, 1914, from Rev. G. O. Griffith: " ' I say solemnly from this pulpit,' declared Mr. Campbell in the City Temple recently, ' that if tendencies continue what they are we may find ourselves before very long in the throes of revolution.' Mr. Campbell's announcement could have seemed to but few of his hearers a strange and unexpected prediction. For some years the British public has lived and moved in an atmosphere electric with insurgency. The man-in-the-street has foresensed a revolution long ago, and the orator on the street corner has described it in advance. For all that the tension these days is heightened. We have become accustomed to the thought that sooner or later we shall find ourselves shooting the rapids, but now that the thunder of the falls seems to be growing perceptibly louder there is a new sense of apprehension and crisis. " The latest sign of the times is the industrial upheaval in Dublin. For many weeks, as every one knows, Mr. James Larkin and his union defied the Dublin employers in a strike that all but paralyzed local indus- try, and, in vehemence and intensity, eclipsed the Ulster revolt in the North. There is a crude pun going the rounds in Ireland today — ' Car- son is only larkin' ' — but certainly Larkin isn't. He succeeded in making the Dubhn struggle a national question. He was tried, sentenced, im- prisoned. The imperial government, unable to explain why the labor leader should be behind the bars for sedition and Sir Edward Carson be allowed to re\aew his * rebel ' troops, was forced to override the Dublin executive and set the agitator free. He used his restored liberty to attack the government and carry ' the fiery cross ' into Great Britain, and every- where he was received by cheering multitudes." (4) That the industrial problem is at bottom a cry for justice is indicated by the following extract from the same letter: " From any viewpoint Larkinism reveals sinister conditions in the industrial world. The movement has brought once more into spectacular prominence the inhimian regime of wage-cutting that has existed in Dublin and, in greater or less degree, in other industrial centers. It appears that, before Larkin's advent, workmen's wages in some Dublin trades were as low as $2.50 or $3 per week. At a recent remarkable convention, organized by the Duchess of Marlborough and presided over by Bishop The Senior Teacher — Lesson 4^ 123 Gore, a dozen women from the working class ranks told to a fashionable London audience their story of industrial slavery. Here is a condensed extract from the report: " ' Shirt-making ' was represented by a woman from the West End of London. Unfolding a coarse shirt she remarked, ' A dozen of these right out before earning 9d. [18 cents!] Last week me and my husband sat from 5:30 in the morning until 11 at night and made fourteen dozen shirts, which came to 10s. 6d.[ $2.56], out of which we had to pay Is. 6d. for the machine and Is. lOd. for cotton [80 cents in all].' A worker in a confectionery factory came next. She had twenty years' experience of the occupation. ' I have been earning 8s. [$2] a week,' she said, ' out of which I used to give my mother 5s. 6d., me being a widow. Out of my 2s. 6d. [60 cents] I had to buy my child's clothes, the rest being for meals.' Another ' woman had quite a cheerful countenance. Holding high above her head the uppers of two shoes, she remarked with a laugh, " These are what are commonly called * pumps.' ... I get lOd. [20 cents] for twelve pairs, and it takes me an hour to make two pairs. The most I can earn is 6s. or 7s. [roughly, $1.50 or $1.75] a week, working very hard from morning till night, and finding'my own machine and cotton. ' " (9) " Concerning the attitude of the church in cases of conflict between labor and capital, we would say that it has no right whatever to inter- fere in an official capacity. The case would have to be very exceptional where it would be proper for the church to take sides, and for the reason that it is very difficult to get at all the facts so as to fully understand the case, and because both parties are usually to blame, and because the mission of the church is not to settle disputes of this kind, but to proclaim moral and spiritual truth. ... Of course there may be cases where the outrage of justice is so apparent, where the moral fault is so clear, where the com- munity is so aroused that the church is not only warranted but where it is in duty bound, to denounce the evil, and affirm what should be done in the matter. In other instances, where the merits of the case are doubtful, or where the regular order of business has been followed, the church should content itself in declaring that principles of honesty, justice, and brother- hood should pertain in the industrial world without making specific appli- cation to a particular dispute or difficulty. Or if it speaks more specifi- cally, it can urge consideration and kindness on the part of both classes, It can emphasize the need of fair and honest pondering of the other's position, and can counsel justice. It can bring into men's minds the fact that the relations of men in business are not simply economic, but that we are each our brother's keeper and must consider our brother's interests. Thus the church may become a peacemaker in human society. She may help settle conflicts and bring the conflicting elements together by trying to get each side to act on Christian principles." — Plantz: TJie Church and the Social Problem, pp. 265-267. The Question for Discussion. If a man joins a strike for higher wages, is it right for another man to take his job at the wages offered? The following consideration will throw some light on this question: " The right to employment is now in the process of evolution. Unless that right is added to the others, the right to life and liberty remains a fragmentary right so far as the workingman is concerned. The business class have fought for and secured for themselves the ' freedom of industry,' which meant the right to have free access to nature and to produce wealth 124 The Bible Study Union Lessons by manufacture and commerce. That right is valueless to the working- man under modern conditions; his form of the same right is the right to a job. " The moral instinct of the workingmen has long come to recognize this new right as among themselves. A man who does another out of* nis job arouses the same moral indignation among his fellows which a man who removes landmarks or shifts a line-fence would arouse among farmers. ' Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his ox, nor his ass,' was a demand for security of property and income under agricultural conditions. * Thou shalt not take thy neighbor's job,' is the modern industrial equivalent for it. Employers, ministers, and other middle- class people have often misunderstood the ethical attitude of organized labor because they have failed to understand that the workingmen regard a job as a property right. Many actions for which we have most severely condemned them were warped efforts to establish a higher code of ethics under adverse conditions." — Rauschenbusch : Christianizing the Social Order, p. 348. Lesson 43. THE CHURCH AND THE WELFARE OF WAGE EARNERS. Object of the Lesson. To awaken an intelligent and sympathetic Christian interest in the problem of giving wage earners a larger chance to live. PREPARING THE LESSON. The literature bearing on the relation of the church to the working classes is abundant, and constantly increasing. The religious press is somewhat interested in the matter, and contains frequent articles dis- cussing it. Back numbers of The Survey will give much information re- specting it. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson on the relation of the church to race antagonism opens up a field of vital interest in certain parts of the country. Where the population is almost wholly of one race, a sprink- ling from one or two other races usually causes no trouble. In proportion as the alien races become more numerous the antagonism is likely to be- come more acute. Ask some member of the class to prepare a brief paper on the approx- imate number of representatives of other races in your community, and the prevailing attitude toward them. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) History confirms the statement that religion flourishes best when the people enjoy some measure of material prosperity. " Our Lord Himself found His first disciples, not in a hungry and ragged community, biit amid the prosperity and opulence of Galilee. They left all to follow Him and achieved their ministry in poverty and persecution, but they brought to that ministry the force of minds and The Senior Teacher — Lesson 4S 125 bodies trained in a very fertile land and by a prosperous commerce. Paul, in his apostolate, sustained himself by the labor of his hands, but he was the child of a rich civilization and the citizen of a great empire. The Reformation was preceded by the Renaissance, and on the Continent of Europe drew its forces, not from the enslaved and impoverished popula- tions of Italy and Southern Austria, but from the large civic and com- mercial centers of Germany. . . . Wesley's great revival of religion among the laboring classes of England took place at a time when prices were far lower than in the previous century, wages had slightly risen and ' most laborers were small occupiers; there was therefore in the comparative plenty of the time an opening for a religious movement among the poor, and Wesley was equal to the occasion '. ... The great missionary movement of the nineteenth century is contemporaneous with the enor- mous advance of our commerce." — G. A. Smith: The Book of the Twelve Prophets, vol. II. pp. 425, 426. (4) The power of publicity in procuring concessions from obstinate mill owners is illustrated in a strike by the cotton spinners in the New York Mills in March, 1912. Repeated attempts to induce the officials of the company to meet a cc«nmittee of the men to discuss grievances had failed. Finally, in April, Commissioner Williams served notice on the miU owners, that unless they made announcement through the press of their willingness to meet their employees, and to fix a time and place for such a meeting, he would at once begin a public investigation of the strike. As this was precisely what the owners did not want, they yielded at once to the Commissioner's threat, met their employees, and after two conferences reached an adjustment satisfactory to them. (5) An investigation of the industrial conditions prevailing in the steel mills at Pittsburgh revealed a state of things in many respects sur- prising. The report stated that " Twenty per cent of the employees, or about 14,000 men in Allegheny county, worked twelve hours a day seven days in the week. Fully sixty per cent of all employees were classed as unskilled and were paid at the rate of sixteen and one-half cents an hour. Such employees, therefore, by working twelve hours a day, were enabled to earn one dollar and ninety-eight cents per day, any reduction in time involving a proportionate loss in wage. The high wages paid to a relatively small number of men in positions of responsibility — three or four per cent getting over five dollars a day — had heretofore misled the public as to the general scale of wages in this particular industry. An investigation of the living conditions showed that the wage actually paid to unskilled laborers in the steel mills was not a living wage; that is, not a wage on which a man with an average family could live respectably, under decent sanitary conditions and with a reasonable degree of comfort. The investigations showed furthermore that, in precisely the regions where these low-paid workmen were housed, the drink evil was at its worst and the general morality at its lowest. Saloons found this the most profitable region financially. While a fair proportion of workmen and their families were found resisting these influences, it was plain that the drink evil and the tendency of the population to immorahty were connected with the pre- 126 The Bible Study Union Lessons vailing industrial and housing conditions. For most men working twelve hours a day, seven days in the week, little is left except lethargy or stimu- lants. There was little enjoyment of life possible for them except the enjoyment of the senses." (6) In view of what the investigation revealed in Pittsburgh — a con- dition which exists often to the same extent in other industrial centers — the " Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America calls the attention of the churches of Christ everywhere to this condition and the menace involved in it, and urges upon all Christian churches officially, through their pulpits, their brotherhoods and various other organizations, to emphasize and bring home to their members their Christian obligation in these premises, namely, that it is the right of every man to have one day out of the seven for rest and recreation of body, soul and mind, and that it is the obligation of every Christian employer so to arrange his business that each of the employees may have one day holiday in seven, without diminution' of wages. The normal hoHday is the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day, but where the conditions of industry or service require continuance of work seven days and the consequent employment of some part of the employees on the Lord's Day, then those so employed are entitled to receive a holiday on some other day in the week; and further- more that it is the obhgation of every Christian employer so to arrange his scale of wages that the Hving wage of his employees is calculated, not on a seven-day, but on a six-day basis." That the workers themselves are heartily in favor of co-operating with the churches for the maintenance in every industry of a weekly day of rest is shown by the following resolution passed by the American Federa- tion of Labor: " WHEREAS, The Federal Council Commission on the Church and Social Service are undertaking a nation-wide campaign to secure for all industrial workers one day's rest in seven, and " WHEREAS, The American Federation of Labor is unqualifiedly on record for the same for many years, and has been efficiently working to that end, therefore be it " RESOLVED, That we heartily appreciate the co-operation of the ' Commission on the Church and Social Service ' to the end of securing the one day's rest in seven, and pledge to the Commission, arid to all others who may assist in this work our hearty and earnest assistance." (9) The following is the social creed unanimously adopted by the Fed- eral Council of Churches of Christ in America at the quadrennial meeting in Chicago, December 9, 1912. " The Churches must stand: " 1. For equal rights and complete justice for all men in all stations of life. " 2. For the protection of the family, by the single standard of purity, uniform divorce laws, proper regulation of marriage, and proper housing. " 3. For the fullest possible development for every child, especially, by the provision of proper education and recreation. " 4- For the abolition of child labor. " 5. For such regulation of the conditions of toil for women as shall safeguard the physical and moral health of the community. The Senior Teacher — Lesson J^ ' 127 " 6. For the abatement and prevention of poverty. " 7. For the protection of the individual and society from the social, economic, and moral waste of the liquor traffic. " 8. For the conservation of health. " 9. For the protection of the worker from dangerous machinery, occupational diseases, and mortality. " 10. For the right of all men to the opportunity for self-maintenance, for safeguarding this right against encroachments of every kind, and for the protection of workers from the hardships of enforced unemployment. " ii. For the suitable provision for the old age of the workers, and for those incapacitated by injury. ''12. For the right of employees and employers alike to organize for adequate means of conciHation and arbitration in industrial disputes. " IS. For a release from employment one day in seven. " IJ^. For the gradual and reasonable reduction of the hours of labor to the lowest practicable point, and for that degree of leisure for all which is a condition of the highest human life. ''15. For a living wage as a minimum in every industry, and for the highest wage that each industry can afford. " 16. For a new emphasis upon the appHcation of Christian principles to the acquisition and use of property and for the most equitable division of the product of industry that can ultimately be devised," The Question for Class Discussion. What can our own church do to promote the welfare of wage earners? This question is designed to arouse the attention of the class to the social service rendered by its own church, and must be answered from a knowledge of the condition of the church itself and of the needs of the surrounding community. Lesson 44. THE CHURCH AND RACE ANTAGONISMS. Object of the Lesson. To call attention to certain of the problems that arise from the clashing of races, chiefly in our own land, and to point out some ways in which the churches may promote a better feeling. PREPARING THE LESSON. Note that the race hostility in this country is directed chiefly against the black and yellow races. Against the former because of reasons closely interwoven with our national history, and against the latter chiefly because of unfavorable competition in labor. Note also that the old prejudice against the Indians has largely given way to one of friendliness and social equality; that this is due to the small surviving portions of the race and to the fact that the Indian has never been a competitor with the whites in industrial pursuits; and that the hostility aroused by former wars has now given way to sympathy and helpfulness. Compare the reception accorded by our leading universities to a football team of Indians from Carlisle 128 The Bible Sitidy Union Lessons with the attitude of the same universities toward the mere suggestion of a game with a team from a colored institution. Since the war the Htera- ture on the race problems of the United States has become voluminous. In addition to the books mentioned in the pupil's quarterly, the Httle volume by Miss Ovington, Half a Man, a study of the status of the negro in New York City, bringing out in a forceful way the difficulties under which the race labors, will be helpful. Among the great number of maga- zine articles which have appeared during the last year (1913), the follow- ing merit attention: " Adventures of a Near- white," Independent, Aug. 14; "Basis of Race Adjustment," Survey, Feb. 1; "Solving the Negro Problem in Detail," Independent, March 27; " Negro Problem as a South- erner Sees It," Forum, February. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. In connection with the next lesson on The Church and Public Charities, assign to some member of the class the preparation of a short statement of what is being done in your neighborhood for the relief of the poor. The Questions on the Lesson. {1) A writer in the Boston Herald, August 17, 1913, discusses at considerable length some of his personal ex- periences with the race issue. One effect of the social disabilities under which the negro race has been placed is the pronounced ambition of those individuals, who through several generations of intermarriage with whites have become nearly white, to migrate into the white ranks. Even when such an effort succeeds, it involves pathetic results. " I had business dealings for years with a trustworthy colored man all of whose relatives, like himself, were very nearly white. ^ One of them, a cousin, regularly patronized white barber shops, ate in white restaurants and attended on invitation revivalistic services in white churches. This man further told me that a brother of his, happening to be a tint whiter than the rest of the family, had gone to Ontario to live and there married. The Washington man decided to visit him on his way home from the World's Fair. Reaching the Ontario town, where he seciu-ed a place in a public house, the Washington mulatto, not being willing to embarrass his brother who was there passing as a white man, went out to his house by night. To avoid letting the white wife into any secrets or suspicions as to her husband's origin, the visitor stood in the yard and signalled, by a vocal call of their childhood, for his brother to come out. The latter did so, throwing his arms around the stranger's neck and kissing him. They talked for two hours. The Washington man congratulated his brother on the greatest of all possible achievements. The latter accepted these feHcitations as well earned. And, without any further revelation, they parted. The Washington brother was not taken into the house, was not introduced to the white wife or allowed to see the children except by peering through a window where the curtain had been designedly raised. Pretty cold reception! Pathetic, after all! Both intelligent men! Both property -holders and well read! What a barrier had been interposed! The Senior Teacher — Lesson 44 129 " One trouble with this arrangement is the strange atavistic manifesta- tions which sometimes occur. Such a family as this one in Ontario may pass for generations as white, when some one child will break out as the most unmistakable negro that was ever seen. If nature did not do this, all the races of men would tend to a complete and monotonous uniformity." (4) Race antagonisms arising from industrial competition within our own borders of alien races with native workers, bitter as they may become, are of minor importance as compared with those impending from the introduction of our own processes into foreign lands. A suggestion in this line comes from Dr. Josiah Strong: " Not many informed persons, indeed, fear, at present at least, war between Japan and the United States or with other powers. Much less do Western nations fear wars with China or India, and still less with other races. But suppose Japan, China, and India borrow from the Western world the newest inventions and the best machinery, and then use these with their own people, paid at the very low wages consistent with their low standard of living; what will become of Western commerce and manufacturing, on which today the Western nations largely depend? Japan is doing this today, and China and India are awaking. It may take the wisest statesmanship and will take the highest Christianity to meet this conflict." (6) How slavery completely unfitted the negroes for the full exercise of that citizenship which was thrust upon them after the Civil War is clearly shown by Commons, Races and Immigrants in America, pp. 39-42. " Although the negro races of Africa extend across the continent from the Sudan to Cape Colony, yet the races which yielded the largest supply of slaves for America were confined to a narrow stretch of the Atlantic coast near the equator, where nature conspires to produce a race indolent, improvident, and discontented. . . . They exhibit aversion to silence and solitude, love of rhythm, excitability, and lack of reserve. All travellers speak of their impulsiveness, strong sexual passion, and lack of will power. . . . " In shifting such a people from the torrid climate of equatorial Africa to the temperate regions of America, and from an environment of savagery to one of civilization, changes more momentous than those of any other migration have occurred. First, it was only the strongest physical speci- mens who survived the horrible tests of the slave catcher and the slave ship. Slavery, too, as a system, could use to the best advantage those who were docile and hardy, and not those who were independent and feeble. Just as in the many thousand years of man's domestication of animals, the breechy cow and the balky horse have been almost eliminated by artificial selection, so slavery tended to transform the savage by elimi- nating those who were self-willed, ambitious, and possessed of individual initiative. Other races of immigrants, by contact with our institutions, have been civilized — the negro has been only domesticated. Democratic civilization offers an outlet for those who are morally and intellectually vigorous enough to break away from the stolid mass of their feUows; domestication dreads and suppresses them as dangerous rebels. The very qualities of intelligence and manliness which are essential for citizen- ship in a democracy were systematically expunged from the negro race through two hundred years of slavery. And then, by the cataclysm of a war in which it took no part, this race, after many thousand years of 130 The Bible Study Union Lessons savagery and two centuries of slavery, was suddenly let loose into the liberty of citizenship and the electoral suffrage. The world never before had seen such a triumph of dogmatism and partisanship. It was dogma- tism, because a theory of abstract equality and inalienable rights of man took the place of education and the slow evolution of moral character. It was partisanship, because a political party, taking advantage of its triumph in civil war, sought to perpetuate itself through the votes of its helpless beneficiaries. No wonder that this fateful alliance of doctrinaries and partisans brought fateful results, and that after a generation of anarchy and race hatred, the more fundamental task of education has only just begun." (7) The vital necessity of the negro race in this country making itself financially independent is well stated by Sir Harry H. Johnson in a recent volume on The Negro in the New World, pp. xi, xii. "If he [the negro] is not content with a position against which the Jew has chafed from 300 B. C. to the Russian Pogroms of 1905 A. D., he will determine to do as the Jew has done : make plenty of money. Money solves all human difficulties. It will bring you love and respect, power and social standing. . . . " The one undoubted solution of the negro's difficulties throughout the world is to turn his strong arm and sturdy legs, his fine sight, subtle hearing, deft fingers and rapidly developing brain to the making of money, money being indeed but transmuted intellect and work, accumulated energy and purpose. And his leaders, his pastors and teachers, should direct his and their attention to questions that are really vital : to theories and practices of disease — prevention and cure; to the correlation of intes- tinal worms and sanitary reform; to the inculcation of the chemistry of nature, of practical agriculture, of beautiful horticulture, sound building, modern history, modern science, modern languages, modern religion, and modern temperance in eating, love-making, and public oratory." {9) "What the church cannot do: (a) It cannot undo the past. It cannot change the facts of negro heredity nor of his present state of development. It cannot undo the fact that he was enslaved, nor that he has been given the suffrage. It cannot undo the mistakes nor wrongs that the churches of the past have committed, {h) The church cannot expect nor wisely work for sudden and wholesale changes. The negro race cannot be exported as a race to Liberia, or elsewhere. It cannot be educated or trained in a day, and therefore cannot be treated as though it were educated and trained. The church cannot ignore the fact of race prejudices, inherited, deep-rooted, developed by circumstances to which the negro, the whites of the South, and the whites of the North have all contributed, (c) The church cannot leave the problem alone for time to solve. In some forms race hostility in the South is on the increase and some forms of negro immorality and degeneracy are growing." — Josiah Strong. The Question for Class Discussion. The abolitionists before the war were often asked if they wanted their sisters to marry negroes. The same question is asked today in the South of those who propose social and poHtical rights for negroes. How would you answer it? The writer of the article quoted above from the Boston Herald says: " This rejoinder has been held up to the world as the highwater mark of idiocy, as if there were no intermediate stage between being one's slave and being one's brother-in-law. The Senior Teacher — Lesson ^^5 131 " The South asks;the same question today if it is proposed that the negro sit on juries with white men, ride in Pullman cars and eat in restau- rants and cafes with him. And in answer we of the North customarily say that this is very illogical and even idiotic; but practically, I believe, there is a much closer connection than Northern people think. I get this impression from the case of a Northern white woman, whom I know, who had married a negro and whose children were growing up with all the handicaps which that ancestry imposed. If she had been brought up in South Carolina, she would have been so terrified by the severities inflicted on the negro that when he assumed an attitude approaching social equality, she would have been instantly repelled. The Northern point of view had not been for her a sufficient warning against marrying a negro." Lesson 45. THE CHURCH AND PUBLIC CHARITIES. Object of the Lesson. To call attention to the need of organized work, and the share which can properly be assumed by the churches. PREPARING THE LESSON. The literature relating to the problems raised by increasing poverty has become very abundant in recent years, especially in Great Britain where the conditions are so grave as to have caused vast distress among the poor, and to become a tremendous burden on society. The pressure of poverty is not so severe in this country, but here, too, the situation has attracted widespread attention among social workers. Every city has its Department of Charities and Correction, and every town has its over- seers of the poor. Books, magazine articles, and newspaper discussions relating to the subject are plentiful. In addition to the books mentioned in the pupil's lesson the following will be found helpful if within reach: Friendly Visiting among the Poor, 1899, by Mary E. Richmond, then general secretary of the Charity Organization Society in Baltimore; The Practice of Charity, 1901, by Edward T. Divine, general secretary of the New York society; and American Charities, by A. G. Warner, Secretary of the Board of Charities in Washington, D.C. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson will discuss Recent Phases of the Liquor Question. Suggest that brief papers on " The Effect on the Temperance Movement of Giving Votes to Women " be prepared, one by a member of the class who favors Suffrage, and the other by an " Anti," if such an one can be found. The Questions on the Lesson. (5) Innumerable instances might be quoted showing how the administration of doles, soup-tickets, orders for 132 The Bible Study Union Lessons groceries, coal, etc., either accomplish no permanent good, or do more harm than good. The following illustrations are quoted from Mrs. Bosanquet's book, Rich and Poor, pp. 200, 206. " In a report dealing with a poor and populous district of London stands written — • ' District Visiting Society : 600 families relieved : £60 15s.' It would be a pleasing discovery to find that 600 poor and worthy families have been really reUeved by the modest expenditure of £60 15s. or 2s. per family. Families in such districts are often large, with as many as five, six and seven children. If, however, we take only two children as the average, a simple sum will show that 2400 of our fellow creatures in distress were relieved for sixpence each." " Only today I came across a family where the father periodically deserts his wife, and leaves her to keep things together as best she may in his absence. She does this by making match-boxes at 2d. a gross, and says she could never get along but for the tickets and other doles which she receives; one child helps her in her miserable work; another, a sturdy girl of eighteen, shares her father's irresponsible spirit, and when asked why she does not get better work, says she ' s' poses the fact is she don't care' to.' But for the mistaken charity which keeps them half -starved, the woman, who is in wretched health, would go into the infirmary, the girls would go to respectable work, and the guardians w^ould force the man to contribute to his wife's maintenance. In many cases the mere knowl- edge that the home would be broken up without him would keep the man to his duty." Further illustrations of the demoralizing efifect of indiscriminate charity are given in the following statement: "Several years ago a man in Port- land, Maine, made a standing offer to give a barrel of flour to every poor family that could prove that its poverty was not the result of dissipation, laziness or vice. No barrels of flour were applied for. Something the same seems to be the result of the attempts to provide work for the scores of thousands of unemployed men on the Pacific coast. San Francisco offered work to 15,000 men who were out of a job. Only 800 accepted the offer. At Portland, Oregon, 500 men who were being supported by the city were offered work, but only worked long enough to earn $1.50. All the rest refused to support themselves when given a chance. The writer has investigated scores of cases of men who begged for help, saying that they could not get work, but never found one who would work if given a chance. The conclusion is that of the thousands on the Pacific coast who are classed as unemployed few are deserving of help. Almost all would rather join the free bread line than take a steady job. But the few deserv- ing ones make it imperative that all unemployed should not be put in the same class, and that conditions should be made so that all who w^ill work shall have an opportunity to support themselves." {6) How a system of relief designed to help the multitudes who were affected by the industrial revolution at the beginning of the nineteenth century in England really worked enormous harm is told by Ely, Outlines of Economics, p. 331 : " An allowance was given to each laborer in proportion to the size of his family. If he earned enough to meet the legal require- ments he received nothing. If he earned less the balance was paid by the community. If he was out of work the community paid his wages, etc. Now, it seems just that a man should be guaranteed a minimum income by The Senior Teacher ■ — Lesson 45 133 society; but what was the result? The measure was supported both by employers and employees. The employer could now cut wages without resistance on the part of employee. The men could live whether they worked or not. The wage-earning population became, it is said, muanous and rebellious, intimidating the overseer. Poor rates became so heavy that it is said that some landowners abandoned their farms rather than pay the taxes. The law was long ago repealed, but the mischief it had wrought is by no means eradicated yet." (7) " Charity sadly needs organizing. Far too many people are corn- peting in good works who ought to be uniting their efforts. If they would only meet and form plans to co-operate, things might be done more thor- oughly and many more sufferers might be helped. ... If in so many cases it is found on investigation that the applicants for aid are unsatisfactory, or that nothing can be done, that in itself would be a justification of the expense of the organization. A shilling spent in inquiry often saves a pound that would have been wasted in wrong treatment, or would have gone, perhaps, merely to encourage drunkenness and idleness. . . . The best cases are those where no money at all is required, just as it is best if a doctor can cure his patients without giving them medicine. When people can be set up and helped through their difficulties without money help, it is so much better."— Rogers: Circumstances or Character? pp. 194-197. {10) '* There would be an enormous advantage in separating relief from religion. . . . The apphcants for help would not reaUze that the money came from the church, and all temptation to hypocrisy would be removed. If once this heavy mass of obstruction were done away with, and the false conception of the church's work were cleared from men's mmds, the path would be open for the fulfilment of her true spiritual mission. More- over, charity administered carefully, and based on the principles of Christ Himself, would by seeking the cure of distress in strengthening char- acter, in time so raise the whole tone of a neighborhood that rehgion would find a readier response to its appeal, and church-going would increase, not as a disagreeable duty necessary as a means of qualifying for social advantages, but as the expression of a deeper and better life. " In her social influence, too, the church would be strengthened. Where there is no suspicion of pauperizing, competition and overlapping of agencies, instead of rivalling one another in demoralizing, would seldom do harm, and would usually work to strengthen the moral sense. People would be far more ready to ask advice and far more straightforward; and the church, in coming into real touch with the difficulties and ideals of masses of men, would cease to beat the air, and would get into grip with the real problems of life and conduct."— Rogers: Charitable Relief, pp. 174, 175. The Question for Discussion. Why is hospital work the best form of pubhc charity that can be undertaken by churches? The necessity for a point of contact between the churches and organ- ized philanthropy appears in the denominational hospitals already erected in many cities. Their importance is well stated by The Interior: " No- where else can the church infuse the religious inspiration so directly into popular philanthropy, and nowhere else can it serve so successfully the needs of the unfortunate. General relief of poverty in the community the churches cannot so well undertake, because the nature of the work requires that 134 The Bible Sttidy Union Lessons it shall be unified under a single agency of a semi-municipal character, lest duplication cause tangles in which pauperizing fraud will flourish. But hospital work is different, for there is no possibility that it can be overdone; the provision will not outrun the need of it, even if every denom- ination in the great centers of population should take part in it. Every- body may enter this field without peril of interfering with the good anybody else is doing. And on the side of the churches no activity is more befitting, for the hospital expresses Christ's healing ministry with a convincingness that the modern church attains in no other fashion. No congregation of Christians should be content, even in one of the smaller cities, to live along without including in its program some sort of hospital work or the most feasible local equivalent therefor. In larger cities each denomination should have its hospital, or allied groups of denominations should go jointly into the work. Denominational activity — even rivalry — may be unlimitedly urged here, for there is no possibility of running a hospital, wittingly or unwittingly, in a sectarian fashion." Lesson 46. RECENT PHASES OF THE LIQUOR QUESTION. f Object of the Lesson. To point out some of the lines along which the temperance reform is moving, and to emphasize the duty of every citizen to assist in promoting it. PREPARING THE LESSON. Of the books recommended in the Additional Reading References the two by Barker and Warner are likely to be of greatest service to the teacher. Both are inexpensive and recent, and cover the Hquor question from rational, sane and scientific points of view. This lesson purposely avoids illustrations of the havoc wrought by the liquor traffic in personal and domestic life, as these are sufficiently familiar. It seeks to emphasize rather those broader relations of the traffic to the economic welfare of the community and the nation. The teacher will have no difficulty in finding literature bearing on the subject, which for nearly a century has formed the chief social problem with which the churches have grappled. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson discusses modern methods of deal- ing with juvenile lawbreakers. A short sketch of the work of Judge Ben B. Lindsey in the Juvenile Court, Denver, would rove interesting if presented by some member of the class. The Questions on the Lesson. (4) It is frequently argued that the revenue derived from the saloons is a good investment for towns and cities. Those who argue so are blind to the fact that " owing to the crime, depredations, and social disorder growing out of the saloon, an additional The Senior Teacher — Lesson 1^6 135 police force is required, more arrests are made, and jail and court expenses are multiplied. Almshouses, asylums, and public charities naturally follow in the wake. All these increase the taxes and deplete the resources of a community. Numerous concrete facts and reliable statements might be given to refute the specious argument that saloons benefit a community. . . . The mayor of Fargo, North Dakota, recently said, ' Since the forty saloons were driven out of the city it has prospered far better than it ever did before. Instead of being depopulized, it has more than doubled in population since the saloon left us.' The city of Hoopeston, Illinois, has been without a saloon since 1887. The city is very prosperous, and the rate of taxation is but .013 of the actual valuation. Note, again, that for self-protection against the demoralizing influences of the many saloons at Bremerton, Washington, in 1902, the Navy Department decided to send no more warships for repairs to that port. This action aroused the people and city authorities to banish the saloons and to pledge the govern- ment that the law would be faithfully enforced. . . . Indeed, in no sense is the revenue from the saloons an asset over against the social misery and drunkenness produced."— Barker: The Saloon Problem, pp. 17, 18. (7) " The influence of the saloon on the social life of the people far exceeds in importance the economic and political aspects. In the first place, the saloon is the enemy of society because of the evil results produced upon the individual. It meets no legitimate demand of human nature, but exists to excite an abnormal appetite for intoxicants. The supply of liquor creates the demand, and not, as in the case of necessities, the demand the supply. In a multitude of ways it fosters and overstimulates a thirst for drink. One of its avowed purposes is to encourage the habit of treat- ing, and by means of free salted lunches and concocted drinks provoke a wholly unnatural craving for intoxicating liquor. It is this fact that makes the saloon a positive evil, and vicious in the highest degree. It becomes an instrument to make a man intoxicated, and thereby forms the chief contributing cause towards discounting his value in society." — Ibid. " There is no field of preventive work that has taken on such proportions as that of the temperance movement. In this movement the churches are already enlisted, but there are certain phases of service that could be well considered by the people of the community who are dominated by Christian motives. Some people have sought to justify the existence of the saloon because of its significance as a social center for a large class of people, who because of their family life or the lack of it have no other place to go for social recreation. Now there is little hope of succeeding with any large number of those who have already acquired the drink habit, but it is possible for us to provide social centers, under the auspices of the best elements in the community, that will be a sub- stitute for the saloon as a rendezvous, and at the same time prevent the acquiring of the habit. " Still another phase of prevention work that promises to count for most in my judgment is the creation of the moral -political issue of the abolishing of the saloon in such a way that good men and women irrespec- tive of any other motive will be convinced that here is an issue that any political party that stands for good government must adopt. It has been largely the result of such a view that prohibition of the traffic has been secured in most of the territory now dry. " Another phase of prevention is represented by that large number of men who want to overcome the habit but have not the social bond that 136 The Bible Study Union Lessons will keep them keyed up to resolution in the hour of temptation. ... In every community ... it would be possible for a group of young men to guard such a man [a man who has yielded] in such moments until his psychic process is again dominated by saner motives. " If he were given to spells of insanity his friends would have guarded him; why not in the case of an inebriate, when the results of conduct are so disastrous to the family or community both from a moral and an economic point of view? Still another phase of prevention of drunken- ness is in the study of the causes which produce the physical and nervous conditions which cause the craving for stimulants and result in permanent cases of inebrity." — Earp: The Social Engineer, p. 198. (9) The Council of One Hundred in Columbus, Ohio, on November 14, 1913, following the great Anti-Saloon League Convention, held a meeting in Dr. Washington Gladden's church. Five hundred and fifty- two men and women from ninety -six organizations agreed on a common ground of work for education against alcohol. Stirring addresses en- dorsed the general program "as to the selection, production and recom- mendation of the best publications on the alcohol question, the systematic distribution of literature and the organization of temperance study classes, the holding of educational anti-alcohol congresses throughout the country, and the encouragement of pledge signing. In addition, the resolutions recommended the compilation of reliable statistics, promotion of public school temperance instruction and the better training of teachers to give such instruction, emphasis on the relation of abstinence to business and efficiency and health and safety, the promotion of exhibit and poster work, of press publicity as to facts about alcohol, the inclusion of public health campaigns of education as to alcohol's part in producing disease, degeneracy and death, the development of a plan similar to the missionary educational movement for the training of leaders in a nation wide anti- alcohol movement." — The Temperance Cause. {10) An interesting and exceedingly promising line of temperance work has been adopted by the United Society of Christian Endeavor. " This program is being presented with vigor to the unions and local societies of the whole country . The young people are everywhere receiv- ing the plan with enthusiasm and already the work is definitely under way. It will begin with the very fundamental thing, temperance education. As nearly as possible every society will be enlisted in a study of the drink question. Societies are being urged to establish reference libraries and to engage is pledge-signing campaigns. From time to time special tasks in research work will be assigned through the columns of The Christian Endeavor World. It is desired that societies make a study of local con- ditions, become informed as to the duties of public officers, make investi- gations and surveys under mature leaders in towns, city w^ards and in rural districts. The new department of temperance and citizenship will always co-operate in the fullest way with every other temperance and reform group in local, State and national campaigns where there is oppor- tunity for united action against the liquor evil. The declaration * A Saloonless Nation by 1920 ' is a real war declaration, and if its ambition is to become a fact in government, there must be united action against the liquor traffic." — Ibid. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 46 137 The Question for Discussion. What is the duty of each member of this class in respect to the hquor question? While this question is designed to draw out expressions of individual opinion, the following suggestions may be helpful in guiding the discussion. (i) Even if men will have strong drink and men sell liquor, and men may die by the thousands, and character be dismantled, homes destroyed, and women and children beggared, don't let it be YOUR vote. Even if the victims of alcohol fill our jails, almshouses and insane asylums, and the saloon impoverish and degrade the workingman, produce idleness, disease and pauperism, and breed anarchy and crime, don't let it be YOUR vote. Even if the government may license the drink traffic and for a considera- tion " bargain away the public health and the public morals," don't let it be YOUR vote. The liquor traffic may corrupt the s ocial and political life of the nation, may worm its way into all business, and even into the sacred precincts of the home and the church, don't let it be by YOUR vote. (2) The question is often asked, " Why don't you Christian people mind your own business and let rum alone?" Professor Forrest E. Dager an- swers this question in this wise: " We can't let rum alone because it is always the aggressor. In the city of Philadelphia we had what was called the ' White Slave district,' where young girls were detained often against their will, where vice and crime reigned. Some said: ' Let it alone; it is best to keep vice within certain known bounds.' But soon it was found that the vile business was extending into all parts of the city and dens of vice were found adjoining fashionable homes. Was there ever a more misleading advertisement than ' Wilson whiskey — that's all.' You can never know all that is in a bottle of whiskey till you get a distinct view of hell." (5)_ " If it is wrong for the individual to be a saloon keeper, it is wrong for him to consent to be a pjartner with the civil government in the liquor business. It is impossible for the individual citizen to hide behind the body of the people in whose name these public evils are protected and legalized. The body politic in such cases is itself guilty of crime and every consenting citizen is likewise guilty." — Christian Statesman. 138 The Bible Study Union Lessons Lesson 47. JUVENILE LAWBREAKERS. Object of the Lesson. To awaken interest in and co-operation with modern methods of treating juvenile lawbreakers. PREPARING THE LESSON. Probably the most helpful book that the teacher can use in preparing this lesson is The Young Malefactor, a Study in Juvenile Delinquency by Thomas Travis. Judge Lindsey's introduction, pp. ix-xxi is also to the point. The Making of the Criminal by C. E. B. Russell and L. M. Rigby, though dealing mainly with conditions in England, has much valuable information respecting the handling of the delinquency problem in other countries. Children's Courts in the United States by S. J. Barrows gives a full account of the origin, development, and present aspect of this import- ant department of judicial methods. If none of these books are obtainable, possibly the teacher may be able to find copies of The Outlook for February 24, and March 17, 1906, or of a series of articles on " The Just Judge " (Ben B. Lindsey) in McClure's Magazine, October, November, and Decem- ber, 1906. The teacher should be prepared to show the almost incredible cruelty and injustice that until recent times were perpetrated on child- ren in the name of justice; and, by way of contrast, the principles and practices that have opened a happier outlook today for multitudes of children whose lives would have been hopelessly wrecked less than a hundred years ago. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The lesson for next Sunday follows up the line opened in this lesson by considering the treatment of adult prisoners and the institutions in which they are confined. Ask some member of the class to present a short sketch of the work of John Howard, the prisoners' friend. The Questions on the Lesson. {2) " Concerning the importance of early religious training there can hardly be two views among those who seek to maintain high standards of morals in social life. It is the greatest social problem of the day, how the almost universal lack of religious train- ing of children in homes shall be made up to the children. That moral training is absolutely necessary to the maintenance of a good society is freely admitted. But the children of America are not getting it, neither in the homes nor in the public schools, nor at all adequately in Sunday schools. " There is another point in regard to this matter which has attracted the attention of some practical students of sociology, and that is the turn- ing out of children and young people from the public schools without knowledge of any trade or occupation which will enable them to become respectable self-supporting citizens. For those young people who continue through the whole course of the public schools, graduate from college and a proff igional school the courses in the public schools are admirably arranged. The Senior Teacher — Lesson 47 139 But only five per cent do this, and the other ninety-five per cent, whenever they drop out of the schools, find themselves thrown upon the world with no preparation for skilled self-support. They are therefore compelled to work at cheap clerical tasks, and the distaste for the work, and the inadequacy of the pay lead to crime. " This condition of things is absolutely unnecessary. It does not exist in Germany. A scholar who has passed the third grade in the public schools in the Philippines can produce merchantable articles, and is there- fore fitted to enter upon a life of self-support if compelled to leave school at any time after passing that low grade. It seems a pity that in the United States, through blind adherence to a traditional classical policy in our schools, we should go on at large expense training young people for what in so large a number of cases prove to become criminal careers. Many cities and large towns have already changed this and ofler excellent training in technical high schools, but there is urgent need that the manual training should begin at lower grades, so that scholars leaving school at the fifth or sixth grade, as they do, should be fitted to become respect- able self-supporting citizens." — The Watchman, November 23, 1911. (7) " The history of the treatment of juvenile delinquency may be divided into two p eriods which may be called ancient and modern. Chron- ologically the ancient period extends to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The modern has its rise during the period of the industrial revolution and is more or less directly connected with the factory legisla- tion in favor of women and children. Apparently for the first time the serious position of British juveniles compelled English law to differentiate in favor of them. Before the courts children were not treated as adults; it was recognized that they could not make a fair bargain for their labor without protection from the law. This beginning, dealing with parish children, dependents, and children in the factories, has extended slowly until at the present day it covers all the life of juveniles as far as the law is concerned. No child below sixteen is considered a criminal even if he ^ has committed the most criminal acts. . . . " The first step was naturally to reform the prison buildings, etc. The property was made much better, improved machinery, steel cells and the like inaugurated. But the delinquent was not reformed. Next comes separation of juvenile from adult institutions and the development of the institution idea. The young offenders are gathered into huge ' schools,' ' reformatories,' ' homes,' and the tendency was to make these as big, imposing, and as beautiful as possible. . . . The sterner are named ' State homes,' ' reformatories,' and the like." — Travis: The Young Male- factor, pp. 184 f, 189 f. (10) " For practical purposes the [probationl system originated in Mas- sachusetts, where it was first recognized by a law passed in 1878, and the staff of probation officers in that State now amounts to some eighty per- sons, appointed by the judges for an indefinite period. In theory proba- tion there rests on two principles: (a) It draws a distinction between those who from some definite cause — e.g. want of work, hunger, evil companionship, some strong and unusual temptation or sudden impulse of passion — have transgressed the law, and those who are of thoroughly vicious and criminal tendencies, (b) It is a postponement of condemna- tion while an experiment is made to ascertain whether the object of rendering the accused a safe member of society can be attained without punishment. . . . 140 The Bible Study Union Lessons " The procedure in Massachusetts is as follows. The clerk of the Court notifies the proper probation-officer of each case of a first offender ; he then has to make every possible investigation into the circumstances of the culprit, and the causes or motives of his offence. He is present at the trial, and reports the results of his inquiries, and the Court, if it find the accused guilty, thereupon considers whether he is a fit subject for proba- tion, and, if he is, determines the period during which it shall be enforced, the probation-officer becoming ' his bondsman to save him from prison.' If he think it desirable, the probation-officer may, before the expiration of the time appointed by the Court, apply for an extension; . . . The pro- bationer must write once a month to the officer, visit him or receive visits, notify him immediately of any change of address, and ' diligently pursue some lawful employment.' If he fail to fulfil his engagements, and prove unfit for freedom, the probation-officer surrenders him to the Court, which then condemns him on surer grounds than if probation had not been tried. . . . No good statistics have been kept of the results, but appar- ently the successes may be reckoned at about sixty-five per cent." — Russell and Rigby: The Making of the Criminal, pp. 133-136. {9) " The aims of the Juvenile Court may be said to be: (a) To keep young offenders from the ordinary courts with their hardened criminals and loafers; (6) To enable the judge to pay particular attention to each case — an impossibility in ordinary courts with their volume of business; (c) To make investigations about an offender beforehand so as to know his or her antecedents; {d) To make punishment educational rather than punitive; {e) To sentence for indeterminate periods, so as to put the offenders on their good behavior, and thus to evoke every spark of honor and manliness in their hearts; (/) To put children under the watch and guard of probation officers (men and women) so far as possible instead of putting them in institutions; (g) When they must be sent to institutions to send the offenders to reformatories rather than to jails or prisions; (//.) To recognize the principles that parents, guardians and employers are to an extent responsible for the waywardness of their children or wards. (Hence, they are often summoned before these courts, and reprimanded, fined, or placed on their good behavior.) These courts are given unusual discretionary powers and a wide latitude of treatment. The underlying principle of the IlHnois Children's Court, says Judge Tuthill, is this: That no child under sixteen years of age shall be treated as a criminal; that a child under that age shall not be arrested, indicted, convicted, imprisoned, or punished as a criminal. . . . " Everywhere they have been a marked success. ... It has been shown that more than half the children who are placed in the care of qualified probation officers do not need to be brought again into court. What this means in the saving of children it is scarcely possible to exaggerate. The economic gains to the State have been very great. Judge Lindsey in Denver showed that the cost of criminal procedure, jury fees, jailor's fees, mileage, and support of a boy if placed in jail, under the old method, was S839, or if placed at an industrial school $1036, but that under the probationary system at a cost of $12 boys could be redeemed and made good citizens." — Josiah Strong. A work for girls charged with delinquency, similar to that done for boys by Judge Lindsey, is carried on in Chicago by Judge Mary Bartelme. She presides over cases of girls brought before the Girl's Court, protects them from publicity, gives them friendly help and in every possible way The Senior Teacher — Lesson Ji.S 141 does for them what the Denver judge does for boys. This Girl's Court is the last word in this splendid movement. The Question for Class Discussion. Suppose a member of your class should " borrow " a hundred dollars from his employer without leave, and be sentenced for a year to a reformatory, how would you treat him while he is there and when he returns? This question is designed to set the members of the class to thinking how they would apply the teachings of this lesson in a concrete case. Lesson 48. PRISONS AND PRISONERS. Object of the Lesson. To awaken interest in modern reformatory methods in dealing with criminals, and a personal interest in the criminals themselves. PREPARING THE LESSON. The articles in Bliss' Dictionary of Social Reform, if obtainable, will furnish ample material for the preparation of this lesson, and for further study. The teacher shoiild notice that punishment still remains the main purpose of the sentences imposed by the courts. When a veteran political boss, for example, is convicted of selling a judgeship to the highest bidder, and is sentenced to pay a fine of a thousand dollars and to spend a year in prison, manifestly the purpose of the sentence is punishment and not ref- ormation. Note for a week in the news columns of a city newspaper the sentences imposed by the courts and the reasons for them, and deter- mine as far as possible how much of the reformatory idea is revealed in them. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The enemies of the family will be discussed in the next lesson. Have some one in the class prepare a brief paper on the reasons why so many young people remain unmarried, or postpone marriage until middle life or later. The Questions on the Lesson. (5) " Imprisonment must be rendered disagreeable, for purposes of deterrence. In the laudable cult of humanity this fact is sometimes lost sight of. Some who have experienced prison life have written in newspapers and reviews to complain of what they consider the scandalous discomforts of prison life. After all, _ the pro- duction of discomfort is the raison d'etre of prisons. If conditions were thoroughly comfortable, the prisoner would enjoy a life far superior to that of the poor but honest classes outside, who have to drudge for their livelihood and suffer all sorts of privations. Why should the law-abiding proletariat be mulcted in taxation to maintain anti-social blackguards in comfort? There seems a general tendency to look more upon prison as a reformatory for criminals than as a deterrent. The success of a prison system is supposed to be established when it has been shown that 142 The Bible Study Union Lessons a large proportion of those confined subsequently become honest men. . . . But the principles of deterrence demand considerable severity; and it would be fatal if our zeal for reformation caused us to overlook the demands of deterrence. Enthusiasm for the criminal must not outrun enthusiasm for the safety of society." — Condensed from H. S. R. Elliott: LitteWs Living Age, No. 3506, p. 715 f. (5) Putting prisoners on their honor is well illustrated in the following extract from an editorial in the Boston Globe, June 10, 1912. " Each successive experiment in treating convicts as if they were human beings proves satisfactory. The lastest illustration of the efficacy of humanity and common sense in dealing with convicts is afforded in the transfer of twenty-six men, unshackled and in the custody of only two guards, a distance of more than two hundred miles from the State Prison at Auburn, N. Y., to the institution at Great Meadow in Washington County. " The guards had no more difficulty in preserving order among the men than as if they had been so many delegates to a peace convention or to a religious conference. Not a man tried to escape. They had been put on their honor and they behaved like gentlemen — which no doubt some of them are. " They were taken to Great Meadow a few months before the expiration of their terms to recuperate, after the severe discipline at Auburn, and to prepare themselves mentally and physically, by outdoor work, to resume their places in society. The Great Meadow institution is unique. " No prisoner is committed to it directly, its population consisting of first-term men transferred from other prisons who have given evidence of a disposition to reform. The work is not too heavy, and the men enjoy a large measure of freedom, which is seldom or never abused. There is invariably a great improvement in the physical condition of the men before their final discharge." (8) " Under the old-fashioned punitive system the idea was to grade crimes and grade punishments to fit them w^hich would make the offender suffer enough so that he would not dare to commit that offence again. Under the modern reformative system an effort is made to train him so that he will not wish to commit crime again. . . . " The State shuts up many of the insane for much the same reason that it does the criminal — that is, self-protection — and does not release them from hospitals and asylums until it is thought that they are cured. " We believe that the same rule should be applied to a morally diseased person who is committed to a reformatory, and that he should not be allowed to go outside the reformatory building and enclosures until he has done something to indicate that he may perhaps safely be restored to society, and that after his return to society he should continue on pro- bation under State supervision and control. " The so-called ' indeterminate ' sentence aids in accomplishing this but so long as a maximum is fixed it is not truly ' indeterminate,' and if that maximum is short, its object in many cases is defeated." — Condensed from Thirteenth Annual Report, 1906, of the New York State Reformatory at Elmira. {10) " One of the most serious problems of the day is how to deal with the criminal class. I venture to say that our present method of dealing with it is most futile, most irrational, and most unjust to the community. I have before me an account furnished by the Times of the recent trial at the London Sessions, before Mr. Wallace, of an offender described as * A The Sefiior Teacher — Lesson 48 143 Modern Fagin.' It was given in evidence that the man is a notorious trainer of young thieves: that he had been dealt with thirty times, nine- teen times for theft and eleven as an incorrigible rogue, and that the total of the sentences of imprisonment imposed upon him amounted to thirty-five years. ... He was sentenced to three years penal servitude! So that at the expiration of this period this monster will be let loose again upon society. ... " Common sense and elementary justice demand the suppression of this criminal class which is in open revolt against society. A third conviction at Assizes or Quarter Sessions should result in the offender's loss of liberty for the rest of his life. He should be deported to some island and reduced to a state of industrial serfdom, in which he should earn his own subsist- ence, for it would be monstrous that he should be maintained at the expense of the community. Of course he should be humanely treated, sufficiently fed, not overworked, and provided with the means of moral and religious culture: but a stern discipline should be enforced. ... " Let it not be said that this doom would be hard upon him. What he has a right to is justice. And it is supremely just that one whose whole existence has been a perpetual warfare against civilized society should be cut off from civilized society. It is the righteous retribution which reason itself prescribes. That is its first justification. The second _ is that it would be eminently deterrent. Nothing except his miserable life is dearer to a malefactor than his personal liberty. The fear of perpetually losing it would often make him pause on the threshold of a crime. Thirdly, it would render possible, as nothing else would, the real reformation of the habitual criminal. It would supply him with a unique opportunity of self-examination and protect him for the rest of his days against the weU- nigh overwhelming temptations of his life of crime." — W.S.Lilly: Con- densed from Littell's Living Age, No. 3564, p. 202 f. (11) How a Christian institution may help in the rehabilitation of a hard case is commented on as follows in " Service," August, 1911, p. 606. " A young man was brought before a Vermont judge recently on the charge of profligacy and drunkenness. He was convicted, and was sen- tenced by the court, not to pay a fine or go to prison, but to the care of the Young Men's Christian Association of the town. The association accepted the responsibility and is now his legal guardian. This is evidence that we have entered upon a new era in dealing with moral and social defectives. There is no more conservative region in the country than the Green Moun- tain State. New-fangled notions and social experiments are studied with much deliberateness and thoroughness before they are adopted. We have made less progress in treatment of so-called criminals than in any other direction. We still have the criminal mill through which in a blind, unreasoning fashion the daily grist is ground. But even in_ this sphere of our social relations we are learning, and doing that hesitatingly which will soon come to be the common rule of action — namely, to study each case separately and administer that treatment which is most likely to restore the sinner and lawbreaker to his home and his community." The Question for Class Discussion. Should the death penalty be abolished? Its abolishment is urged on the ground: {1) That society has no right to take away a life that it has not bestowed; {2) that men are sometimes 144 The Bible Study Union Lessons executed whose innocence is afterwards proved; (5) that capital punish- ment is not a deterrent; (4) that the criminal should be given a chance to reform and lead a better life; {5) that no crime is so foul as. to justify a punishment so horrible. Its continuance is urged on the ground: (1) That one who has dehb- erately and with criminal intent taken the life of a human being has by all law, divine and human, forfeited the right to his own life; (2) that a person who has once been so carried away by sudden passion or strong provocation as to kill another is just as likely, nay, more likely, to repeat the act if a similar occasion arises while undergoing a life sentence. Such a person should be removed from society in the easiest, most effective way ; (3) that innocent persons have sometimes been executed is unfortu- nate, but this argument appHes with equal force against imposing any judicial penalty so long as we have fallible judges and juries; (4) that homicides are rarest in those countries where capital punishment is most strictly enforced; (-5) that a murderer is most likely to repent on facing death, if he repents at all, and that " by executing him at this auspicious moment he will be relieved of the danger of a moral relapse, and his soul in consequence be given the very best opportunity it is likely to have of getting into heaven"; and (6) that the mental suffering concentrated into a few days or weeks preceding execution is infinitely less and, on humane grounds, infinitely preferable to a torture that may drag on for fifty years. Lesson 49. ENEMIES OF THE FAMILY. Object of the Lesson. To note the importance of the family as the foundation of all social institutions, and to show how the churches may assist in protecting it from the perils that now threaten its existence. PREPARING THE LESSON. The teacher should note that in addition to the enemies of the family mentioned in the lesson one of the most frequent causes leading to its disintegration is the inefficiency of the husband or the wife or both. In- competency and shiftlessness are as harmful to the family as to the indi- vidual. Furthermore, every vicious habit that makes the individual intolerable in society, such as habitual drunkenness, an ungoverned temper, unreasonable suspicion and jealousy, makes him or her still more obnoxious in the family. A happy and successful family life cannot be realized except on the basis of a patient cultivation of the best qualities on either side. Books that deal specifically with the topic of the lesson are not numerous. On the other hand scattered throughout magazines and The Senior Teacher — Lesson 49 145 religious newspapers the teacher will find frequent articles bearing on it. Dr. Devine's little book contains some pertinent material. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson is on The Church and the Public School. Ask a member of the class to report what the law of your State requires or permits in respect to the use of the Bible and other reHgious exercises in the public schools. The Questions on the Lesson. {2) "A general survey of the marriage laws and customs of the Jews shows that they cannot be regarded as a peculiar creation, apart from those of other nations. . . . Anthropological researches have disclosed a wide general resemblance to the customs of more distant races. They have also emphasized the relative purity of Old Testament sexual morality; in this, as in other respects, the Jews had their message for the world. But, of course, we shall not expect to find there the Christian standard. ' In the beginning ' represents not the historical fact, but the ideal purpose. Genesis 2 is an allegory of what marriage was intended to be, and of what it was understood to be in the best thought of the nation. This ideal was, however, seldom realized. Hence we cannot apply the letter of the Bible, or go to it for detailed rules. ... On the other hand, the principle as expanded in the New Testa- ment is clear. It is the duty of the Christian to keep it steadily before him as the ideal of his own life. How far that ideal can be embodied in legislation and applied to the community as a whole must depend upon social conditions, and the general moral environment." — Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, 1 vol. ed., p. 587. U) The family is a community made up of different ages and sexes, with different needs and responsibilities. For this reason it gives an outlet for all good feelings and emotions, and furnishes scope for the exercise of all benevolent activities which must largely lie dormant in the individual who lives a solitary life. But, it may be asked, "if all we get from family life is this peculiar intensification of feeling, and if the world would otherwise carry on as well without it, why. cultivate and protect it so sedulously? Why not rather sweep it away as a narrow- minded and exclusive organization, and let every citizen know that his first and last allegiance is to the State? " The answer is, that even if the world could carry on without the family, it could not afford to lose the qualities which would go with it. It is a sombre world as it is, and no shade or tone of feeling which makes for depth and variety and richness can be spared from it. To reject the source of so much warmth and beauty because it sometimes fails, would be like banishing the sun from the sky because it is sometimes covered with clouds. " Nor is it true that the world would carry on as well without it. Apart from the fact that no one has ever yet devised an adequate substitute for a parent, the further fact remains that the family, with its mingled diversity and identity of interests, is the best — if not indeed the only — • school for the life of the citizen. . . . " There is no doubt about the fact that the man who has learned how 146 The Bible Study Union Lessons to lead both an individual and a peaceful life within a large family will find it surprisingly easy to get on with his fellow-citizens in the larger world, for he will have learned the difficult art of respecting the interests of others while maintaining his own." — Bosanquet: The Family, pp. 244-246. (5) The flagrant abuse of American divorce laws has been well, but perhaps not unjustly, satirized by Mr. Dooley: " In Kentucky baldness is grounds for divorce; in Ohio th' inclemency iv th' weather. In Illinye a woman can be freed fr'm th' gallin' bonds iv mathrimony because her husband wears Congress gaiters; in Wisconsin th' old man can get his maiden name back because his wife tells fortunes in th' taycup. In Nebrasky th' shackles ar-re busted because father forgot to wipe his boots; in New York, because mother knows a Judge in South Dakota. Ye can be divoorced f 'r anything if ye know where to lodge th' complaint. Among th' grounds ar-re snorin', deefness, because wan iv th' parties dhrinks an' th' other doesn't, because wan don't dhrink an' th' other does, because they both dhrink, because th' wife is addicted to sick headaches, because he asked her what she did with that last ten dollars he gave her, because he knows some wan else, because she injyes th' society iv th' young, because he f 'rgot to wind th' clock. A husband can get a divoorce because he has more money thin he had; a wife, because he has less. Ye can always get a divoorce f'r what Hogan calls incompatibility iv temper. That's whin husband an' wife ar-re both cross at th' same time. Ye'd call it a tiff in ye'er fam'ly, Hinnissy." (10) The practical results of trying to enforce a religious ideal in Cath- olic France rather than a workable rule as in Protestant Prussia is illus- trated in the following statement in Moore's Social Ethics and Social Duties, p. 148: " A nation without marriage would be without civilization. A nation without divorce would be without morals. In France the law tolerated no divorce, and so the people practiced universal license. In Prussia the law opens seven gates of exit from marriage, and so the fashion- able standard of morality is almost puritanic." {11) The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America speaking on " The Family Life " appeals to the churches for co-operation in bringing about certain reforms in relation to marriages and divorces. The committee especially urge, among other things, " the need of comity between the churches themselves so that persons who cannot be married by their own ministers will resort in vain to ministers of other churches for that object. As particularly pertinent at this time the committee strongly urge great care in the marriage of persons unknown to the officiating clergyman, and of those who appear to be either morally or physically unfit for married life. Moreover the recognized evils of sexual vice are urged upon the attention of the churches, and upon the utmost corrective influence of the clergy, teachers, and parents, but always, of course, in ways that are wise and efficient. Finally the churches are urged to press upon the consideration of the public this vital relation of the family in its best estate to the great interests of religion, education, industry, and public order. Every tendency in any of these activities that weakens the home should be resisted. Every plan for the promotion of any of these activities should be judged by its probable influence on the home. This is for the The Senior Teacher — Lesson SO 147 double reason that the home is essentially important to social welfare and that it has in the past, even in Christian countries, been too much neglected. No one can deny that both from the standpoint of patriotism and religion the home needs all the watchcare and protection that are solicited for it." — The Watchman, January 18, 1912. The Question for Discussion. Why should the welfare of the family be considered the ultimate aim of all social work? " Biology and economics join hands with poetry and religion in exalting the family to a first place among human institutions. To protect the family from disintegration and decay is the surest way to safeguard the State. All kinds of social work may be described in terms of family welfare. All kinds of anti-social influences may be measured by their untoward effects on family life. As the individual members of the family attain to a higher and more perfect social life, this is reflected in their relations one to another. Schools, clubs, playgrounds, hospitals and other institutions outside the family may be most necessary and most beneficial; but if so they will in the long run strengthen and add zest to the family circle. The saloon, the gambling house and the disorderly house may show their destructive character in other more direct ways, but in the end the full extent of their harm to society is most plainly visible in the broken homes and the unhappy families for which they are responsible. " To maintain normal family life, to restore it when it has been interfered with, to create conditions more and more favorable to it, is thus the under- lying object of all our social work. Efforts to relieve distress and to improve general conditions are shaped by our conception of what consti- tutes normal family life." — Devine: The Family and Social Work, pp. 31, 32. Lesson 50. THE CHURCH AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Object of the Lesson. To show that the public schools, though im- parting no formal religious instruction, are not " Godless," and that in indirect ways the churches can co-operate in developing their greater moral and religious influence. PREPARING THE LESSON. While the question of religious instruction in the public schools and the relation of the churches to them has been widely discussed during the last fifty years, this discussion has been carried on in religious newspapers and magazines rather than in books. The most recent and illuminating con- tributions to this subject are found in the papers read before the Religious Education Association during the past ten years. Some of these are re- ferred to in the pupils' lesson. The subject, however, is of such general interest that most teachers will need little information beyond that given in the lesson and in the additional material quoted below. 14S The Bible Study Union Lessons ' TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignments. The next lesson presents the subject of World Peace. Not long ago it was considered an idle dream, but now it is en- gaging the serious attention of a steadily increasing number of people in almost all nations. Ask a member of the class to prepare a brief statement of reasons why- most of us are so indifferent to the horrors of war; or, on the question: How much does the army and navy of the United States cost the families represented in this class? The Questions on the Lesson. {2) It is often said that the public schools shoiild confine themselves to the task of giving the boys and girls a purely intellectual training, and leave religion and morals to the home and the church. This cannot be done. The boys and girls bring to the school not only their intellects, but their bodies and their moral natures as well. It is universally recognized that a school in order to train for social efficiency must teach the pupils how to care for their bodies by fresh air, exercise, proper plays and games, and that so far as possible it must correct physical imperfections. So likewise it is the function of the school to strengthen the moral faculties by exercising them. Every task half done leaves the pupil morally worse off, and for every task well done he is morally better. But even if it were possible to give a purely intellectual training in the public schools it would be in the highest degree undesirable. The most dangerous criminals are not the most ignorant, but those who have the keenest mental training with their moral nature left undeveloped. (5) The writer was given some time ago a copy of The Only Sure Guide to the English Tongue, or Perry's Spelling Book, published in 1822, and " Adapted to the Present State of Learning in the United States." The spelling lessons, beginning with a b ab, e b eb, etc., are interspersed with " easy lessons " in reading. The first of these in " words not exceeding three letters " covers a page with such " milk for babes " as the following admonitions and reflections: " My son, go not in the way of bad men." " In God is all my joy, O let me not sin." " Bad men cannot go to God." " Do as men bid; but if you are bid, do no ill." " Let me not go to the pit by sin. Let me not go out of the way of thy law." " A bad man is a foe to God," etc. The children are constantly reminded of death and the grave in such ways as the following : " My son, live well, and God will make thee die well." " Dust we are, and to dust we must all go down." " The high and the low, the rich and the poor, the wise and the igno- rant, when the soul hath shaken off the cumbrous shackles of this mortal The Senior Teacher — Lesson 50 140 life, shaU equally receive from the sentence of God, a just and everlasting retribution according to their works." . u o oor-;^c ^f The spelUng and " easy " reading lessons are followed by a series of "Moral Tales and Fables," and "Lessons from Different Authors," which include, of course, a description of " The Court of Death." The book naturally concludes with a sketch of the reUgious condition of the world, and of the distinctive beliefs of the leading Protestant denomina- tions.' Earnest advocates of rehgious instruction in the pubhc schools will hardly regret the disappearance of such methods as were in common use in" the good old days." , , r xt {6) That moral training is not neglected in the pubhc schools of New York City is shown by a " Syllabus on Ethics " issued for the use of teachers. A few extracts follow: . u vt " It should be the aim of every teacher to make each part of the lite of the school count for moral education. This aim should be present, not only in formal instruction and training, but also m the general atmosphere and spirit of the classroom and of the school. . In workmg toward this aim, the following suggestions, based on the experience of practical teachers, "'" ^Trpel^sSty of the teacher is at the root of all moral education in the school. The teacher's ideals, sincerity, poise, self-control courtesy, voice manner, dress, and general attitude toward life are potent forces '°-'?Tet";ncet'vital to morahty. Whatever quickens in children thefedingof dependence on a Higher Power, whatever leads them de^^^^^ fn wnnrlpr at the order beautv, or mystery of the universe, whatever a?ouse"tn tfenthe^s^^^^^^^^ Jf' worship or fels them with admiration o tme greatness, promotes reverence. There is no subject studied in school S reve?ently taught, may not y ield its contribution to this feehng . "The following list of topics will supply material for many practical lessons in morals and manners: (a) Duties to parents, brothers, sisters and playmates; to servants and other employees ^o employers and i^^^^^ aiithoritv to the aged, the poor, and unfortunate. (&) Conduct at Home, aftabk it school on the street, in pubhc assemblies and m pubhc con- veyances (.TThe common virtues, such as regularity, punctuality, selcontrol cheerfulness, neatness, purity.^ temperance, honesty, truth- fulness, obedience, industry, and patriotism. • 1 r-t, • Professor Graham Taylor, speaking of the exhibition of practical Chris- tianity in the city schools, exclaimed: , , , -u " Don't talk to me about Godless schools, when I see th^ school omnibus .;ton in front of a tenement and the city's employee go up to the fifth floor ?n brin^ down a criS chil^ who cannot walk a step, to take him to a '^^:oxi^iz^:^!^i\ fo such as he. Do ^^^^^^^ ^j:^^^^^^ thit the functions of the church are superseded? No, they mean tnat we have bui/rd '^ we know - that reUgion has gotten out into the ""^(S" Dr. Nathaniel Butler in a paper on " The Teacher as a Constructive Moral Force " gives the following illustration of the way m which a tact- 150 The Bible Study Union Lessons ful teacher can win a boy to righteousness without preaching or other formal rehgious teaching: " One of the smaller high schools of a large city in the Northwest is housed in a building which it does not completely fill. Other rooms in the building are therefore occupied by the four upper grades of grammar school children. The principal of the high school is also principal of the building. All cases of discipline in the grade rooms are referred to him. His method of dealing with these cases is this : When a boy is sent to him for the first time by a grade teacher, for some misdemeanor, the principal takes out a large blank book, and turns to the section of pages devoted to the grade room from which the culprit comes. ' What is your name?' says the principal. * Well, I see you haven't been sent to me before. Now I don't know you. You may be a very good boy for all I know. Good boys sometimes make mistakes. Now I'll just make a note in pencil, that you were sent to me today, and I will also note why you were sent. But you see I am making this memorandum in pencil, and I am not bearing on very hard. And if you are not sent to me again this year, I shall just erase this from my book and no one will ever know anything about it.' It is perfectly apparent that we have here a sort of genius in the matter of discipUne. His one purpose is to win the boy to righteousness — to give him a chance and a motive." A plan for home study of the Bible in connection with the pubHc schools has been introduced in South Dakota which might work well elsewhere: " A course of Bible study is outHned by the school authorities and the work is done by the pupils at home under guidance of parents or other persons they may select. The pupils are examined by the high school board and given regular credit, such as is given for other elective work. This Bible study is not compulsory, and any version or translation may be used, as the parents choose. The plan has been tried with satisfactory results in the schools of North Dakota, where it originated, and now according to an account in the Churchman, it is to be tried in Indiana. One-half the ordinary elective credit is allowed for this study, when exam- inations are passed." The Question for Discussion. Should the Bible be excluded from the pubhc schools wherever a small minority of the population insist on it? Judge Appleton of the Supreme Court in Maine says, if the Bible, or any version of it, may be excluded from the schools because of the teach- ings of any church, the same result may ensue as to any other book. If any one sect may object, the same right must be granted to others. This would give the religious sects the right to annul any regulation of the State as to the course of study, and the books to be used. The opinion expressed by Judge Appleton is confirmed by facts. Christian Scientists in increasing numbers are protesting against any instruction in physiology in the public schools. Curry's United States History is a standard textbook throughout the South, because of its exposition of the rights of States from the southern point of view. There are thousands of people in the South to whom this view is abhorrent, since it justifies The Senior Teacher — Lesson 51 151 secession. But this minority is not allowed to overrule the majority. The promoters of the liquor traffic would be glad to have every temperance textbook banished from the schools, if they could have their way. Lesson 51. WORLD PEACE. Object of the Lesson. To enlist this class in the cause of the move- ment for international peace. PREPARING THE LESSON. The literature relating to world peace has grown to great proportions during the last quarter of a century. Newpapers, religious weeklies, magazines, have teemed with discussions of the subject. A few of the -nore notable books published in recent years in English are mentioned in the Additional Reading References. The Great Illusion has received world-wide comment, and will give the teacher a vivid conception of the social conditions that have made modern wars unprofitable to all concerned. The small volume by Novicow takes up one by one the benefits attributed to war by its advocates, and shows that these benefits are wholly imaginary. War or Peace is written by a retired brigadier-general of the United States army, who for a wonder, espouses the pacifist side, and presents cogent reasons for the substitution of justice for regiments and dreadnaughts. The International Mind, by President Butler of Columbia University, contains five addresses delivered as chairman of the Lake Mohonk Con- ference on International Arbitration. Each address gives an inspiring survey of the salient aspects of the peace movement during the year preceding its delivery. The Winepress, a poem by Alfred Noyes, the distinguished English poet and peace advocate, pictures the horrors of war and the sufferings inflicted on the innocent in scenes drawn from the Balkan conflict. " The Discomfiture of the Danes " in Everybody' s gives a vivid picture of the power of finance in checking war. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Assignment. The next lesson sums up the duties of a Christian citizen in respect to all the social problems considered in the preceding twelve lessons, and aims to show how these duties should be met through the exercise of the franchise. Appoint some member of the class to pre- sent a short paper on the reasons why a Christian citizen should or should not vote with his political party; or. What influence has Jesus Christ upon the voters in this community? or. How many pf the voters of this church vote regularly at elections? At primaries? 152 The Bible Study Union Lessons The Questions on the Lesson. {1) Efforts to substitute peace for war have been made for centuries past. Their accomplishment in some golden age of the future has been the dream of prophets and poets. In early times every " stranger," i.e., ahen to one's own clan or tribe, was an enemy. Gradually the peace areas have been extended by the consoHda- tion of tribes into states, and states into empires in which peace prevailed through the estabUshment of law and order. Modern France is the result of the coalescence of eighty originally hostile and warring peoples. The modern German empire has been formed by the welding together of six hundred and fifty petty principalities whose rulers with their retainers were accustomed to wage frequent wars with one another in the settle- ment of their private disputes. '' The world is now deahng with the supreme stages of the process, namely, the appHcation to the nations, on the world stage, of principles of law and order which have already been established in smaller areas within each nation." (7) "It is becoming every day more clear that the great financial interests of the world can ' hold up ' war when they once make up their minds to do it. We do not overlook the fact that rumors of war, like those which have disturbed the markets within the last few days, instantly exert a depressing effect upon financial operations. This is because dealers as yet have no reason to suppose that the financial powers have definitely taken their stand against further mihtary operations. If that fact were once demonstrated and made clear, war rumors would have no more effect than the comets and ecHpses that in other days were as dis- turbing to business men as they still are to superstitious minds. " What is chiefly needed today in the interest of world peace is a policy of daring and resolution on the part of the leaders of finance, industry and pubhc opinion. The first step is to recognize frankly the fact that certain powerful interests still believe in war and that certain national ambitions are of such a character that, without hesitation, war would be resorted to to further them if the step could be taken safely. Everybody knows what those ambitions are and where they are centered. That part of the civil- ized world which does not share them is quite large and powerful enough to prevent their realization by war, if the determination to do so can be formulated and organized. It is entirely within possibility to make the resort to war so disastrous to the world standing of any great nation that attempts it that the purpose will be abandoned. The moment that the great financial interests say the word it will become suicidal for any nation, however obsessed with notions of its own greatness, to break the peace." — The Independent, July 13, 1911. (8) The spirit of opposition to militarism in Europe is taking active form in emigration where actual resistance is impossible, as shown in the following extract from an editorial in the Boston Herald, February 7, 1914: " The means employed in certain parts of Austria-Hungary [to restrict emigration] can do no good to that empire, its government, nor any of its people. On both sides of the Carpathians, in Galicia and North- eastern Hungary, the government is making charges of sedition against its conscripts, and arresting and imprisoning them, so that they may not take ship and get away from the summons to join the army. The Ruthe-^ The Senior Teacher — Lesson 51 153 nians and the Poles are very carefully watched. They are influenced by the wave of anti-militarism which is sweeping over Europe. In 1904 the number of our Ruthenian immigrants was 9592; last year it was 30,588. In the same period the Polish immigration rose from 67,757 to 174,365, much of it from Austrian Poland. During the year ended June 30, 1913, we had altogether 254,825 immigrants from Austria-Hungary, and in the succeeding six months 170,272. " It is no wonder that the Vienna and Budapest war offices are anxious to stop such an export of ' food for powder.' But there is something wrong with a system of government from which the young men take flight in search of freedom. They are not cowards running off at the thought of battle. It takes courage to carry them into voluntary exile, leaving behind them all that is dear — except liberty. Great armaments involve compulsory military service, grinding taxation and an impover- ished people. These are the evil conditions from which vast numbers seek relief by coming to America." {10) The modern peace movement " may be said to have begun with the writing by Grotius in 1624 of his treatise entitled ' The Rights of War and Peace.' It has led to the growth of several societies of international law and to professorships on this subject in all universities. The organi- zation in 1889 of the Interparliamentary Union, which now comprises in its membership over 2500 members of present or past parliaments, and in 1890 of the Pan-American Union, are features of the movement. It has resulted in the assembling, in 1899 and 1907 respectively, of the First and Second Hague Conferences, which have brought into one room at last representatives of all nations to deal in the manner of a parliament with matters of international concern. Besides doing many things of less importance, these conferences established the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes under which President Roosevelt put an end by mediation to the war between Russia and Japan, and in accordance with whose provisions a Commission of Inquiry was appointed which prevented war over the Dogger Banks affair between Great Britain and Russia. They also established the International Prize Court to pass on the legality of the seizure of ships at sea, and a perma- nent International Tribunal at the Hague (of mixed judicial and diplomatic nature) which in 1910 settled the Newfoundland Fisheries Dispute. They also provided, as their crowning service to the world, for a true International Court of Arbitral Justice, which is now on the point of being established at the Hague, and which will be always in session for the settlement of differ- ences between nations." — From circular issued by Citizens' National Committee in Support of the Ratification of the General Arbitration Treaties with Great Britain and France. Further work to be accomplished by the Hague Conference is: " The final establishment of the International Court of Arbitral Justice, now in process of arrangement. " The development of the Hague Conferences into a true International Parliament, meeting at stated intervals. " The establishment of a small international police force. " The gradual and proportionate disarmament of the nations. " The continued growth, among peoples of different language and nation- ality, of mutual knowledge and respect." — Ibid. {11) The enlarging popular interest in international peace is indicated 154 The Bible Study Union Lessons by the following facts : ' ' The growth of some two hundred and fifty peace societies scattered over the whole civilized world; the establishment of great endowments — the Nobel Institute, the World Peace Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment; the education of the young in the principles of international justice and peace; and the uprising of the churches are among the things which bear witness to the determination that nothing shaU be left undone that can advance it. The nations, led by our American Congress and President, have entered officially into the movement. The main interest, the world over, now centers in the adoption of all-inclusive arbitration treaties, which shall bind the nations to send their disputes to the Hague for peaceful decision." — Ibid. The Question for Discussion. Is the United States in position to lead in the movement for world peace? The geographical isolation of the United States removes it from direct contact with the great nations of the world. Its population, wealth, material and intellectual resources make it in some respects the leading nation of the world. Its freedom from entangling alliances with other nations, and from the prejudices, hatreds, and jealousies inherited from ages of strife, enables it to consider dispassionately matters of international interest. Its traditional policy of abstaining from absorption of foreign territory for national aggrandizement expose its actions to no suspicion of ulterior motives. Its just dealings with other nations, as in the matter of the Chinese indemnity, its keeping faith with Cuba in giving it self-government, and its present policy of educating the Filipinos for the same, have shown a disposition so different from that of other great powers as to inspire a general confidence in its good intentions. Its prosperity as a peaceful nation, comparatively free from the crush- ing burdens of militarism, and yet abundantly able to protect itself from internal or external foes, makes it an object lesson to the rest of the world. In the promotion of world peace the United States can more easily become a leader than any other nation. Instead of merely following the other nations in their insane belief that the best way to maintain peace is to be prepared for war, our country can win immortal renown by break- ing away from this delusion and heading " the procession of the nations whose faces are toward the light." The Senior Teacher — Lesson 52 155 Lesson 52. CHURCH MEMBERS AS VOTERS. Object of the Lesson. To lead church members to realize more fully their practical civic obHgations, PREPARING THE LESSON. Most of the literature bearing on the subject discussed in this lesson occurs in newspaper articles, papers read before various conventions, or incidentally in books treating other matters. If the articles referred to for additional reading are not obtainable, the teacher can give a very practi- cal turn to the lesson by taking up some of the local conditions suggested in the Subjects for Special Study and Note-Book Work. The additional material given below will suggest ideas for further development. TEACHING THE LESSON. The Questions on the Lesson. {6) " The most serious political ques- tion before the country is, not how shall we educate, in the ordinary sense, those whom we call the masses, but how shall we raise in those already educated the moral estimate of citizenship? The greatest poHtical danger of our time does not come directly from ignorance, but from the use made of ignorance by the intelHgence of organized power, with the tacit consent of the intelligence of culture. Ignorance may be the condition; it is not the inciting cause of poHtical corruption. That cause lies 'within the region of intelHgent dishonesty. ^ It is our bounden duty, for every reason, to educate the ignorant; but it is a shame that we are obliged to educate them for the sake of protecting ourselves from our own trained and often educated leaders, who have become adepts in corruption." — President W. J. Tucker in Proceedings of Third Convention of The Religious Educa- tion Association^ p. 57. (7) "A group of men discussed several evenings ago the talk about old political nostrums. . . . " It was the opinion of several in the group that much of the dissatis- faction with political conditions had come from voters who had neglected their opportunities to straighten out affairs themselves. They referred to the fact, or what they believed to be a fact, that this is a delegated government — not a representative government nor a democratic govern- ment, but a delegated government and nothing more. They told how merchants, professional men and many others engaged in the activities of life failed year in and year out to attend the primaries of their parties. They insisted that the primary is the unit of government. " One in the gathering was a merchant who likes to take a hand in politics; another was a lawyer, another was an importer, and they admitted that they seldom, if ever, attended the primaries of their parties, and in remaining away had left the control of those primaries in the hands of professional politicians, and thus these professional politicians had, through the voters' own negligence, been delegated to represent them in making nominations for local, State, and eventually national offices, as well as in the preparation and adoption of State and national, platforms. " One of the lawyers in the gathering insisted that there was only one remedy which would compel the business, professional, and working men of the country to destroy this alleged delegated system of government. 156 The Bible Study Union Lessons He declared that this remedy consisted entirely and only in an amendment to the Constitution of the United States which would disfranchise a voter who did not attend the primaries. . . . " This lawyer believed that if such an amendment could be introduced and passed in Congress at Washington this winter it would forever do away with the system of delegated government." — Howard Elliott: Address to The Lotus Club of New York, pp. 11, 12. {10) " By looking over the country, we find that national government is, on the whole, efficient and honest; but municipal governments are prac- tically without exception corrupt and usually inefficient. Why should this be? Every Christian feels an interest in national elections, and votes as a rule; while a comparatively large number stay away from the polls at municipal elections. Result? Decent men are nominated for the former; tools of the bosses for the latter. The astute politicians figure out these facts with almost mathematical exactness. If women really take an interest in politics, they may exercise a great influence by urging their husbands, brothers, fathers, friends, to vote, not only at elections, but at primaries. The churches should emphasize the importance of the ballot, not only as a precious right, but as a sacred duty. And the pulpit should educate the people in regard to civic duties. " That is the least they can do. But it is not enough. It is of com- paratively little importance to vote for a man nominated by a political machine — he wiU be, as a rule, a ' stand-patter '; and since both parties do that, the choice is as a rule only between two evils. Christian people must organize in order to prevent the nomination of bad or inefficient men and to nominate, if possible, honest and efficient men. Nor is that enough. Christian people must be willing to take office, if it should come to them; and seek it, if the welfare of the community so requires. The best way to teach good government is to have it and to demonstrate its qualities. For this purpose Christian people should see to it that the men they propose for office are well qualified. Finally, Christian people should seek to a larger extent than at present, public office, and should encourage civil-service reforms. Public offices are for all citizens — why then should a certain class of the population practically monopolize them? Public service offers an honorable career and a competency. Christian young men with a competency are particularly lu-ged to enter the public service. It should appeal both to their heroism, because they will meet many obstacles, and to their patriotism, because no other duty is as imperatively necessary at present as the purging of our cities from corrupt bosses. In Europe the best men serve their city or nation and consider it an honor. Are we less patriotic?" — Josiah Strong. The Question for Discussion. Should a church member absent him- self from the church prayer meeting for a political caucus? " A minister whose congregation held a meeting on the same night with the democratic and republican primaries looked over his audience on that same night and saw not a few men there. Rising at once he said, ' Tonight the democratic and republican primaries are held in this town. I see some men here this evening who have no business to be here at all. While we are singing No. 385, they will be given an opportunity to go where they belong.' That minister was simply playing his part in making the Christian spirit through the campaign for national righteousness a world force." Books Reccommended BOOKS RECOMMENDED. Addams, Jane: A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil. Macmillan, New York, 1912, pp. xi, 219, $1.35. Chapters reprinted from McClure's Magazine on the white slave traffic in America. Angell, Norman (Pen name for Ralph Norman Angell Lane) : The Great Illusion. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1911, pp. 407, $1.00. A startling demonstration of the fact that modern international politics have been so essentially changed by modern social conditions as to make war ruinous to all parties that engage in it. The frequent assertion that man's natural pugnacity stands in the way of international peace is disproved. Baker, R. S.: Following the Color Line. Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y., 1908, pp. xii, 314, $2.00. A clear, fair statement of race conditions as seen by a Northern man on an extended tour through the South; perhaps the sanest book on the subject by a Northern man. Barker, J. M.: The Saloon Problem and Social Reform. The Everett Press, Boston, Mass., 1905, $1.00. A brief statement of the economic, political, social, and domestic aspects of the saloon problem. It is a plain, unvarnished presentation of facts selected from the experiences of everyday life. A fair and trustworthy handbook well adapted for use by teachers. Bosanquet, Helen: The Family. Macmillan, New York, 1906, pp. 344, $2.75. A laborious, delicate, and thoughtful study of the family, the perils which beset it, and the transformations it is undergoing. Bryce, James: The Relation of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Mankind. Oxford University Press, 1902, pp. 46, 70 cents. A clear statement of the conditions under which races amalgamate and of those under which racial integrity prevails. Commons, J. R.: Races and Immigrants in America. Macmillan, New York, 1907, $1.50. A standard presentation of the facts respecting immigration into the United States. Special consideration is given to the nineteenth century additions and their effects on industry, labor, city life, crime, poverty, and politics. Favors restriction. Gulick, S. L.: The American Japanese Problem. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1914, pp. 349, $1.75. Professor Gulick's intimate knowledge of Japan derived from long residence in that country, and his careful and dispassionate study of conditions in Cali- fornia, make the volume the most valuable contribution toward the solution of a complex and irritating race problem that has yet been presented. Murphy, E. G.: Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1909, pp. xi, 335, $1.50. The same, Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 50 cents. An expression of the spirit of the New South, dealing with many phases of the Negro question. Noricow, J.: War and Its Alleged Benefits. Henry Holt and Co., New York, 1911, pp. 130, $1.00. A thorough refutation of the arguments presented by those who advocate resort to war because of the numerous benefits which they claim are derived from it. Peabody, Francis G.: Macmillan, New York, 1900, pp. 374, $1.50. An examination of the teaching of Jesus in its relation to some of the problems of modern social life, especially as these problems are connected with the family, wealth, poverty, and the industrial order. Pickett, Wm. P.: The Negro Problem; Abraham Lincoln's Solution. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1909, pp. 580, $2.50. Discusses the various solutions that have been proposed, and favors that of Abraham Lincoln, who advocated the removal of the Negroes in this country to some territory where they would not suffer from social disabilities. The advantageous results to the Negroes, to the South, and to the entire nation are forcibly presented. Plantz, S.: The Church and the Social Problem. Jennings and Graham, Cincinnati, 1906, pp. 356, $1.25. Presents a study of the present social situation; attempts to answer the question whether the church has a special mission to society; and brings forward some things the church can and ought to do to meet the obligations which the duties of the hour impose upon her. Rauschenbusch, W.: Christianizing the Social Order. Macmillan, New York, 1912, pp. 493. $1.50. A brilliant discussion of the relations of Christianity to the industrial and capitalistic problems of our time. ■Travis, Thos.: The Young Malefactor. T. Y. Crowell and Co., New York, 1908, $1.50. This book is the product not only of long study of the literature of crime, but of criminals themselves. The causes, social, economic, dispositional, physiological, individual, and family are carefully considered and assigned their proper place in the final result. Con- tains also a review of the various schemes now employed in the treatment of young law- breakers in the chief countries of the civilized world. Warner, H. S. : Social Welfare and the Liquor Problem. Intercollegiate Prohibition Association, Chicago, 1909, pp. 300, cloth $1.00, paper 35 cents. Traces the history of liquor and liquor institutions, their relation to sickness, to economic and industrial waste, and to education and society. Important tables of references and of authorities quoted follow each chapter. Weatherford, W. D.: Negro Life in the South. Y. M. C. A., New York, 1911, pp. 188, 50 cents. The author is a Southern man. Student Secretary of the International Com- mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations for the South. Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 1 1012 01231 1231