THE 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 TEACHER 
 
 1 
 
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 1 
 
 Prof. H.BiHamiii 
 
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 APR ?,2 1913 
 
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 BV 1534 .H33 1911 
 Hamill, H. M. 1847-1915. 
 The Sunday school teacher 
 
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 THE 
 
 APR ?,2 1913 
 
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 SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER 
 
 BY 
 PROF. H. M. HAMILL, D.D. 
 
 Superintendent of Training Work, 
 M. E. Church, South. 
 
 THfR TIE TH THO I r SA ND. 
 
 Chicago; New York; Toronto: 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY, 
 
 London and Edinbusg. 
 
 MCMXI. 
 
Copyright, 1901, 
 
 BY 
 
 The Book Agents of the 
 
 Methodist Episcopal 
 
 Church, South. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The purpose of this book is not strictly pedagog- 
 ical, but relates rather to the practical work of the 
 Sunday school teacher. Severely trained in the vo- 
 cation of the secular teacher, afterwards called for 
 many years to the work of a Sunday school special- 
 ist, the writer has noted that most of our Sunday 
 school teachers have little time or inclination for a 
 study of the science of teaching. As busy week day 
 workers in home and office, store and farm, their 
 limitations are such that they cannot hope to com- 
 pete in pedagogic equipment with those whose life 
 work is to teach. Nor should it be expected of them, 
 in view of the wide differences between the secular 
 and the Sunday school teacher. What the latter 
 needs and covets is the art rather than the science of 
 teaching. This need has been kept steadily in mind 
 in the preparation of this little book, which is the 
 outgrowth of fellowship with hosts of Sunday school 
 teachers whose sincere ambition is to teach skillful- 
 ly the Holy Scriptures. That it may prove helpful 
 to these faithful servants of the Church is my ear- 
 nest prayer. H. M. Hamill. 
 
 Nashville, Tknn., December 1, 1901. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 I. THETEACHER'sWORK.«*»^ H ,. s> ^-.;*rN 9 
 
 "*** II. The Teacher's HELPS.^-^rrrrrTTTTT . . . . T 18 
 
 ~~ III. The Teacher's Lesson STUDY^rT-rr^^ . 25 
 
 IV. The Teacher's Lesson Plan. .-^^rrrr 31 
 
 V. The Lesson Half Hour. . » _.. ^ 36 
 
 VI. The Heart op the Lesson .,.,„... . 46 
 
 VII. Principles of Teaching. ^^^ . 51 
 
 VILI. Teaching Potnts—^^^ t r T .. 57 
 
 IX. Class Problems. - ,^_ . 66 
 
 X. How to Secure Attention .„.^^*~**j- 78 
 
 XI. How to Question 81 
 
 XII. How to Review. , .^7. .^ ^ 88 
 
 XIII. Teaching Little Children.^^-*-?-?-^. 95 
 
 XIV. Teaching Big Boys and Girl s 102 
 
 XV. Teaching Young Men and Women. . . . 109 
 
 XVI. Teaching Adult Scholars .. . 11 5 
 
 XVII. The Teacher's Training Work. ^^,^^121 
 V £V1II. The Teacher's Week Day Work™- .. 127 
 
 XIX. The Teachers' Meeting^ 134 
 
 XX. A Teacher-Training Department. ,,..... 142 
 
 — >_XI. A Teachers' Installation Service 149 
 
 2UTH. A Sunday School Teacher's Library. . 153 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 The Sunday school teacher, by warrant of 
 the Scriptures or in the order of Providence, is 
 second only to the preacher. His commission 
 is directly from God, and his place of useful- 
 ness is becoming more and more recognized by 
 the Church. "God hath set some in the Church, 
 first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly 
 teachers, after that miracles," etc. This decla- 
 ration of Paul is worthy of the modern teacher's 
 study. The ancient order of "apostles" has 
 passed away. The "prophets" are merged into 
 pastors. The teacher in the pew is next to the 
 man in the pulpit; and the working of mira- 
 cles takes lower rank than the teaching of a 
 Sunday school class. To teach at all is a work 
 of grave responsibility; but to teach the Bible 
 to childhood and youth, in the one formative 
 period of life, is a peculiarly sacred vocation. 
 Our Lord is fittingly called "the Great Teach- 
 er;" and the Gospels record significantly how 
 he, and the apostles who succeeded him, " went 
 about teaching and preaching." The skilled 
 Sunday school teacher, trained intellectually 
 and spiritually for his great work, is the immi- 
 
8 The /Sunday ScJwol Teacher, 
 
 nent need of the home, the Church, and the 
 State. The "signs of the times," if thought- 
 fully interpreted, abundantly confirm this state- 
 ment. By the neglect of the home, the de- 
 mands upon the Sunday school teacher have 
 multiplied. The Bible has passed from the 
 secular to the Sunday school; and the State, so 
 dependent for its prosperity upon the inculca- 
 tion of Bible precepts, must look to the Sun- 
 day school alone for religious instruction of its 
 youth. The Church, slow at first to realize its 
 educational and evangelistic opportunity, has 
 come at last to recognize in the Sunday school 
 teacher its most profitable servant. In the light 
 of these multiplying demands the Sunday school 
 teacher must do his work. If he heed the calls 
 to a larger equipment for the service committed 
 to him, the blessing of God and his Church will 
 be upon him in greater power than ever in his 
 past. But if he refuse or neglect, "his office 
 let another take." The Church of the next 
 generation will see to it that its teachers are 
 workmen of whom "it needeth not to be 
 ashamed." 
 
I. THE TEACHER'S WORK. 
 
 I. As a Christian. 
 
 The teacher who is not a Christian in deed and 
 in truth discredits the sacred place he holds, and 
 "daubs with untempered mortar." His first 
 duty is to get right with God — that is, if he 
 intends to continue teaching; if not, there is 
 only one right course, he should resign. But 
 there are Christians and Christians, and the 
 marks of the true Christian teacher should be 
 defined. 
 
 1. He should have a clear and definite experi- 
 ence. Out of the heart the mouth speaketh. 
 Like begets like in spiritual as in other things, 
 and the Sunday school teacher who is himself 
 untaught of God cannot efficiently teach his 
 class the way of life. Such is the free grace of 
 God, and so plain are the teachings of his Word, 
 that any teacher reading these lines, and know- 
 ing that his life is not right, may, in one short 
 hour, if he is sincere in his desire, get right be- 
 fore God, the Church, and his class. Educa- 
 tional fitness comes slowly; not so, however, is 
 
10 Tlie Sunday School 7 J eacher. 
 
 the law of the kingdom of grace. He that 
 "confesseth and forsaketh" his sin " shall find 
 mercy." 
 
 2. He should have an earnest purpose to save 
 souls. The teacher who has no conversions in 
 his class is an anomaly. To save the scholars is 
 his supreme duty, and his position gives to him 
 an opportunity beyond that of even parent and 
 pastor. The final test of a teacher is not how 
 well he has studied or taught, but how many he 
 has saved. 
 
 3. The truly Christian teacher will use the 
 "means of grace." These are prayer, almsgiv- 
 ing, attendance upon the services of the Church, 
 the study of the Bible devotionally, etc. God 
 has instituted these means, in the full use of 
 which there is spiritual growth, and without 
 which there will be leanness of soul. 
 
 4. The teacher must exercise self-denial. When 
 one becomes a Sunday school teacher, it is at 
 once a question of example to others, rather than 
 of allowance to one's own conscience in things 
 doubtful. The teacher, for the sake of his schol- 
 ars, is called to acts of self-denial as to things 
 which his conscience may justify in himself, but 
 which might offend some of God's little ones. 
 The Pauline law of offense forever sweeps away 
 all questionable amusements and self-indul- 
 gences. 
 
The Teacher's Work. 11 
 
 II. As a Church Member. 
 
 1. The teacher in a Sunday school should be 
 a thoroughgoing Church member. Each Church 
 stands for a body of doctrine and a polity which 
 differentiate it from other Churches. To be a 
 thorough Church member is to believe that one's 
 Church is first and best among Churches, and to 
 indoctrinate one's scholars in that belief. There 
 is no place in the Sunday school for teachers 
 who are half-hearted and apologetic when the 
 denominational issue is raised. A teacher is the 
 better for having a backbone of denominational 
 conviction. 
 
 2. A Sunday school teacher should be an in- 
 telligent Church member. He should read books 
 upon the history of his Church, and know some- 
 thing of the ordeals through which it has passed 
 and of the triumphs which it has achieved. He 
 should familiarize himself with its doctrine and 
 polity. It is a reproach to a teacher not to own 
 and to study some book containing the history 
 and standards of his own denomination. 
 
 3. He should be aloyal supporter of his Church 
 in all practical ways. Loyalty means more than 
 a conviction that one's Church is right, and a 
 knowledge of its doctrine and history. It means 
 the giving of money, labor, and influence to its 
 support at home and abroad, in the way of pay- 
 
12 Tlie Sunday School Teacher, 
 
 ing the salary of the pastor, building churches, 
 extending; its home and foreign missions. It 
 means holding up the pastor's hands, attending 
 his ministry, working for one's Church and 
 Sunday school, in the endeavor to make them 
 the best in the community. The teacher's exam- 
 ple for good in this respect will infect his schol- 
 ars, and he will grow a crop of loyal and helpful 
 Church members. 
 
 III. As a Bible Student. 
 
 1. The teacher must take time for study. A 
 few minutes daily, if used with system, wili 
 accomplish much. Spasmodic and fitful study 
 avails little. Time is needed for meditation and 
 reflection. Without these the preparation of a 
 lesson will be superficial and without power. 
 There ought to be daily study. The daily habit 
 once formed, the study intensifies. 
 
 2. It should first be a study of the Bible itself \ 
 without the "helps." The blunder of many 
 teachers is the preoccupation of the mind by the 
 studies of others rather than by one's own first 
 study of the Bible text. However learned the 
 helper may be, or exhaustive his exposition 
 of the Bible, it cannot take the place of the 
 teacher's duty to himself as a student , ' ' Knowl- 
 edge is power," but it is one's own home-grown 
 
The Teacher's Work. 13 
 
 knowledge that is meant in that time-honored 
 maxim. 
 
 3. The teacher should learn to think for him- 
 self. He needs for his own growth to force his 
 mind and heart through the slow and sometimes 
 painful processes of thought. The one who ex- 
 ercises grows. He cannot attain growth as a 
 thinker through the mental exercise of another. 
 Here is the peril of many teachers. They count 
 on being good thinkers without thinking, and 
 lapse into servitude and inefficiency. 
 
 4. The teacher should first apply the truth of 
 the lesson to himself. There is, or ought to be, 
 in every Sunday school lesson something which 
 the teacher can use for his own spiritual nourish- 
 ment. Who feeds another should have a care to 
 feed himself. The fable of the French chef who 
 prepared the finest food for the guests, yet was 
 found dead from starvation, is an illustration of 
 those teachers who minister to the souls of schol- 
 ars, but go unnourished by the Word of Life. 
 
 5. The teacher should study the whole Bible. 
 Studying the weekly lessons is studying it "in 
 spots;" and, if nothing more is attempted, wil. 
 not make one a good Bible student. The student 
 who knows a whole book of the Bible knows bet- 
 ter the particular lesson that may be taken from 
 it." Each book in itself is a unit of doctrine or 
 history or prophecy, and is part of a yet greater 
 
11 TJie Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 unity in the whole Bible. The life of the aver- 
 age teacher is not too short or his condition too 
 severe to get a good, well-rounded knowledge of 
 the entire Bible. No matter how elementary 
 this general knowledge, it will add much to the 
 power and spirit of one's teaching, to say nothing 
 of the joy it will bring to the student. Week 
 by week, every teacher ought to have at his side 
 for moments of study some one of the many ex- 
 cellent normal courses which set before him, in 
 condensed form, this general view of the Bible. 
 
 IV. As a Teacher. 
 
 Teaching is an art; therefore the teacher should 
 strive to master it. There are three ways by 
 which a teacher may learn how to teach: 
 
 1. The first is by observation. In every Sun- 
 day school there is some one (or more) who ranks 
 as its most successful teacher. Observe this fin- 
 est teacher, and discover his methods of teach- 
 ing; study his way of getting and holding at- 
 tention; see how he begins his teaching, and try 
 to find out his plan of putting the truth; note 
 how he draws out his scholars, and how he holds 
 his class to the thought of the day's lesson. 
 Watching a good teacher teach is a fine normal 
 opportunity, and it is ready at hand for the use 
 of every one who seeks improvement. 
 
 2. The second method of learning is by prac- 
 
The Teacher's Work. 15 
 
 Hce. Practice here, as elsewhere, makes perfect. 
 No amount of fine theory can take the place of 
 the inevitable practice that must assure success. 
 A good method may be discovered in the teach- 
 ing of another. Take it, use it, and watch its 
 effect upon your scholars. If it quickens inter- 
 est, continue to use it; if not, drop it and try 
 another. Be careful that you attempt only what 
 your good judgment approves, but do not be 
 afraid to make experiments. Edison tried a 
 thousand times and more before he set his in- 
 candescent light agoing. When you find that 
 you have a good, all-round method working suc- 
 cessfully, hold to it, and try to make it better. 
 But be willing to practice the art of the teacher 
 painstakingly, in the assurance that only by this 
 slow process can you hope to attain ease and 
 skill. Be sure that success comes not by a single 
 bound, except to a genius. The chances are that 
 you are not a genius. 
 
 3. The third method is by reading books on 
 teaching. There are several such books, written 
 by past masters in the art of teaching. The cost 
 is small. Get one of these, read it carefully, 
 think over it, compare what it offers with your 
 ways of teaching; and then put into practice 
 what you have digested, shaping it to the special 
 needs of your class. The foundation principles 
 of teaching will be found in most of these books, 
 
16 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 One good book on teaching, thoroughly mas- 
 tered, cannot fail to make you a better teach- 
 er. To read such a book is to sit at the feet of 
 some teacher of large experience, and have him 
 speak into your ear the best thought of a lifetime 
 of labor and achievement. 
 
 V. As a Pastor. 
 
 The Sunday school teacher, by virtue of his of- 
 fice, is an under-pastor of the Church, supple- 
 menting the work of the pastor in chief along all 
 lines of pastoral helpfulness to the scholars of 
 his class. To this end: 
 
 1. He must be a safe example. Paul admon- 
 ished Timothy to "take heed unto thyself, and 
 to the doctrine." The first concern of a teacher 
 should be himself. He cannot escape being an 
 example. He will be closely copied, for good 
 or evil. What is evil in him will be copied most 
 surely and closely. There is nothing truer than 
 the homely proverb: "Like teacher, like schol- 
 ar." Let not the teacher delude himself by as- 
 suming that a safe public example, in the eye of 
 the class and while on duty, is enough. He is 
 all the more dangerous as a leader if there is 
 anything questionable in his manner of life. 
 
 2. He must be a faithful friend. Anybody 
 can call himself "friend," but a truly faithful 
 friend is hard to find. Such friendship does not 
 
The Teacher's Work. 17 
 
 court popularity, or spend itself in sentiment. 
 It does not shrink from telling the truth in love. 
 It keeps guard over the faults of one's scholars, 
 and speaks the word of admonition in season and 
 in private. Paul saw the weak points in Timo- 
 thy, and helped him by faithful warning to over- 
 come them. Our Lord saw the crooked things 
 in Peter's life, and saved him out of them. To 
 set a safe example is of negative value, unless 
 there is added to it the positive endeavor of a 
 faithful friend who seeks to save his scholar? 
 from themselves. 
 
 3. He must " shepherd his flock" He carries, 
 or ought to carry, the marks of the Good Shep- 
 herd upon him. He "knows his sheep." He 
 ' ' finds pasture for them. " His sheep ' * know his 
 voice," and are known of him, and "follow 
 him." What Christ was to the twelve, the 
 teacher must seek to be to his scholar — teacher, 
 companion, friend, overseer, pastor! Let him 
 strive most of all to be able to say at the last, as 
 Christ did the night before he died: "While I 
 was with them in the world, I kept them in thy 
 name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, 
 and none of them is lost." 
 
n. THE TEACHER'S HELPS. 
 
 I. Educationally. 
 
 These are many and of much value. Indeed, 
 it is an era of Sunday school helps, every prob- 
 lem in study and teaching being fully discussed 
 in books or papers. The teacher is wise who 
 makes his helps his servants and not his masters. 
 
 1. A Teacher's Bible. — This should hold the 
 first place in the teacher's use and affection. 
 Such a Bible — the Oxford, Bagster, Interna- 
 tional, etc. — well-bound, with index, concord- 
 ance, table of pronunciation, explanations, 
 analysis and history of books, is a lifelong li- 
 brary of helpfulness in itself. An interleaved 
 Bible, costing little more, will be found of serv- 
 ice for permanent notes and additions. 
 
 2. Church Helps. — These should take the first 
 place, after the Bible. Every Church, through 
 its Sunday school department, provides such 
 helps for its own teachers. In the wide range 
 of subjects treated and in the ability of their 
 editors and writers, these helps stand highest. 
 Every phase of Bible study or of Sunday school 
 method, together with a knowledge of the 
 Church and its doctrines, is given by them. 
 The teacher owes it to the Church for which he 
 
 cm 
 
The Teacher's Helps. 19 
 
 teaches, and to the work he is called by it to do, 
 to equip himself with the helps thus liberally 
 provided. 
 
 3. A Teacher's Normal Library. — The best 
 workmen use few tools, but they must be of 
 finest quality. So a few well-chosen books upon 
 the teacher's work will be of great benefit. Ev- 
 ery Sunday school should be the possessor of a 
 normal library, if only a few well-selected vol- 
 umes. As an aid to school or individual selec- 
 tion, a list of the best books for such a library is 
 given elsewhere in this book. 
 
 4. A Teacher 's Meeting \ — Whatever helpfulness 
 may come from other sources, there is nothing 
 better than the old-fashioned teachers' meeting, 
 where safety in Bible study and teaching method 
 is to be found in a "multitude of counselors." 
 Nothing can take the place of this heart-to-heart 
 study. If one-third of the session could be de- 
 voted to a consideration of the school's needs, 
 another third to bringing out the best "teaching 
 points" of the next Sunday's lesson, and the re- 
 maining third to the reading, in course, of the 
 normal books referred to above, the teachers' 
 meeting would become an indispensable help 
 to every teacher. 
 
 5. Conventions and Institutes. — These are usu- 
 ally held in every city or State, either demon- 
 inationally or interdemoninationally, for the 
 
20 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 study of improved Sunday school methods. 
 They represent the best Sunday school thought 
 and experience of the Churches, and, because 
 the needs of all teachers are substantially the 
 same, such meetings are in large degree helpful 
 in stimulating, suggesting, and explaining meth- 
 ods of work. Teachers have much to gain and 
 nothing to lose in attendance upon such meet- 
 ings. If there is anything in Sunday school 
 work better than one has, let him be quick to 
 find and apply it. If one has something better 
 than others, let him not selfishly withhold it. 
 
 II. Socially. 
 
 The social side of the teacher's work is an im- 
 portant factor in his success. Through this a 
 permanent influence bearing upon the scholar's 
 life is secured which will often compensate for 
 inferior skill in study and teaching. 
 
 1. The Teachers Manner. — First comes the 
 teacher's manner, attracting or repelling, in and 
 out of the Sunday school. The entrance into the 
 scholar's heart and conscience is usually on the 
 social side of his life. Does the teacher culti- 
 vate the social art? Does he seek to utilize it 
 with his scholars? Does he greet them gladly, 
 with warm heart and hand? Does he concern 
 himself about their home and school life, their 
 petty troubles and pleasures? Does he make 
 
The Teacher's Helps. 21 
 
 them feel at home in his presence? Does he 
 court a passing moment with them? Does he 
 have an apt and cheery word with them when- 
 ever they meet? Do his scholars say, as one did 
 recently: "I know my teacher loves me, because 
 he is always so glad to see me?" If the answer 
 to these questions is "Yes," it is well with the 
 teacher; if not, his fine study and teaching will 
 count for little. 
 
 2. The Home Influence. — This is a strong so- 
 cial helper. The "short cut" to a boy's man- 
 agement runs through his home. The teacher's 
 occasional talk with the parents of his scholars 
 by the home fireside will solve most of the diffi- 
 cult problems of the work. It is tlie "ounce of 
 preventive." A frank statement of the teach- 
 er's plans, an explanation of his methods, an 
 earnest appeal for parental cooperation in 
 attendance, study, and deportment, will set 
 most fathers and mothers upon the teacher's 
 gide. 
 
 3. The Class Spirit. — If handled wisely, this 
 is a strong element of helpfulness. It is well to 
 effect a class organization, with its officers, rules, 
 and by-laws, its class meetings and motto, its 
 plan of study, etc. Boys and girls relish a sense 
 of responsibility, and a class is best conducted 
 that has learned to manage itself. The class 
 spirit, if kept in bounds, will do more than the 
 
22 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 teacher can do to stimulate the lazy and indif- 
 ferent ones. 
 
 III. Spiritually. 
 
 1. TJie Scholar's Oo?iscience. — In youth this is 
 tender and sensitive. It is quick to discern be- 
 tween the right and the wrong. "The light 
 that lighteth every one that cometh into the 
 world" is the fine conscience of the child. Ed- 
 ucation or example may warp it, but as it comes 
 from God to the child it has pure instincts, and 
 will prove the teacher's strong helper. Let the 
 appeal be made direct to the childish conscience 
 in matters of right and wrong. Urge the plain 
 Word of God upon it, and conscience will be 
 quick to discern and to respond. The child's 
 conscience is upon the side of right to begin 
 with, whatever its parentage or home, or how- 
 ever dulled and blunted it may afterwards be- 
 come. Like the photographer's plate, it is sen- 
 sitive to every ray of light, but its sensitiveness 
 may soon be irreparably gone. 
 
 2. Special Prayer. — The effectual, fervent 
 prayer of the Sunday school teacher availeth 
 much. One by one each scholar's name and 
 needs should be carried before a loving Christ 
 in earnest, daily prayer. From time to time the 
 teachers of the school should convene before or 
 aCter the session, in a season of special prayer 
 
The Teacher's Helps. 23 
 
 foi- the scholars. A prayer in the home of the 
 scholar, with and for him, may seem a little 
 thing, but it is not forgotten by the scholar. 
 The teacher who prays much for his scholars is 
 little troubled by their waywardness and inat- 
 tention. Of the prayers that ascend daily to the 
 throne of grace, surely none receive more loving 
 audience than the teacher's prayer for the schol- 
 ars of his class. 
 
 3. The Word in Season. — There is a time to 
 speak and a time to be silent. In the presence 
 of the class, upon the Sabbath day, a truth or 
 duty may be generally urged. But the wise teach- 
 er knows the value and helpfulness of a moment's 
 personal word in the ear of the individual scholar, 
 where there is none but God to hear. Many a 
 career has been turned about by a moment's well- 
 timed, loving plea. Such a word, fitly spoken, is 
 "like apples of gold in pictures of silver." 
 
 4. The Holy Spirit. — This is the teacher's 
 abiding Helper. Bending over him as he studies 
 the lesson, going with him into the homes of the 
 scholars, standing by him on the Sabbath a3 he 
 teaches, comforting him as he prays for his class, 
 the Holy Spirit is ever present with the teacher 
 who lives near to God and does the best work 
 his opportunities allow. He convinces of sin ; 
 he makes the lesson a two-edged sword to cut 
 into the conscience; he makes anew the scholar's 
 
24 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 heart and life; he is the interpreting Spirit; he 
 alone can indue with "power from on high." 
 To every true teacher this Spirit is pledged as 
 Comforter and Friend, and with his help failure 
 is impossible. 
 
in. THE TEACHER'S LESSON STUDY. 
 
 I. As to Time. 
 
 1. Study Daily. — Fifteen or twenty minutes 
 of daily study of next Sunday's lesson is better 
 than hours massed together upon a single day. 
 Study cannot be forced at the last moment. It 
 takes time for it to grow. 
 
 2. Study When Freshest. — The evening hour, 
 when body and mind are worn by the day's la- 
 bors, is the least profitable for Bible study. Set 
 a time early in the day, before business begins, 
 and there will be gain educationally and spir- 
 itually. 
 
 3. Begin at Once. — Begin Sunday afternoon, 
 while heart and mind are warm with the lesson 
 just taught. A good beginning tends toward a 
 good ending. Do not procrastinate. The bane 
 of many teachers is in waiting for "a more con- 
 venient season." 
 
 4. Form a Habit of Study.— -The mind is as 
 much a creature of habit as the body. It does 
 its best work periodically. The habit of daily 
 study of the Bible at a definite hour soon be- 
 comes a source of pleasure and of power. But 
 it takes a determined will and much patience to 
 hold one's self to the habit. 
 
 C25) 
 
26 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 II. As to Lesson Helps. 
 
 1. A Bible Dictionary. — Next to a Teacher's 
 Bible, this is the teacher's best help. It deals 
 with the Bible topically, and gives needed light 
 upon doubtful matters. 
 
 2. The Teacher's Commentary. — Every Church 
 supplies such a commentary upon the current 
 lessons for its teachers, usually in periodical 
 form. It sifts, analyzes, and makes plain the 
 lesson in ways that unaic)ed study cannot attain. 
 Besides these Church helps, there are great pa- 
 pers devoted to expositions of the Sunday school 
 lessons. 
 
 3. The Marginal References and changes of 
 the various revisions will be found of much help 
 especially the former. There is scarcely a dif- 
 ficult word or statement in the Bible which is 
 not marginally noted. Read carefully these ref- 
 erences, and you will be surprised what light will 
 fall upon the dark places of the lesson. 
 
 4. Pencil and Paper. — Form the habit of 
 making pencil notes as you study. Many fine 
 thoughts will thus be put to paper, to be called up 
 again when you teach. Write out your ques- 
 tions as you study. Make up a written outline, 
 or skeleton, of the lesson, giving the teaching 
 "points" as you think them out. 
 
 d. Jheditation. — Take your daily m on i mg study 
 
The Teacher '$ Lesson Study. 27 
 
 with you to the shop, the farm, or the store; and 
 meditate upon it in spare moments. " Chew the 
 cud of reflection" while at work; It will not 
 hinder, but will often sharpen the edge of your 
 work. There is a power in one's meditative 
 thought upon a lesson beyond other human 
 helps. There are three distinct processes in 
 taking food: mastication, digestion, assimila- 
 tion. So in Bible study: searching the Scrip- 
 tures is mastication; meditation upon it is diges- 
 tion; living it out in righteous living is assimi- 
 lation. 
 
 III. As to Methods. 
 
 1 . Study a Book. — The best general method of 
 Bible study is book study. The best beginning for 
 a series of Sunday school lessons is to study as a 
 whole the book from which the lessons are to be 
 taken. The meaning of the book will set in clear- 
 er light the meaning of the several lessons. Read 
 the book through, if you can, at a single sitting. 
 Read it in the light of its authorship, its time, 
 the circumstances of the writing, the persons to 
 whom it is written, its special purpose, and its 
 relation to the other books of the Bible. 
 
 2. Study the Connection. — Nearly every lesson 
 is related to the lessons going before and after 
 it. Read the intervening Scriptures, and carry 
 forward the thread of connection to next Sim- 
 day's lesson. There is no stronger mental law 
 
28 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 than the " association of ideas," and the plan of 
 keeping up the connection between the lessons, 
 for both teacher and scholar, will help to their 
 better retention and understanding. 
 
 3. Study the Lesson Text. — The literal text — 
 its words, phrases, idioms, sentences — comes 
 next in order. Read it verse after verse; study 
 its words and their meanings, the import of its 
 statements; make plain to your understanding 
 what the text means. Do this first. Much mis- 
 understanding of the Bible comes from careless- 
 ness in getting at the simple text. If the mean- 
 ing is obscure to the teacher, it will be more so 
 to his scholars. Put the lesson into your own 
 words, changing its forms and modernizing its 
 language, until you see clearly what it means, 
 and is intended to state. Make no haste to gen- 
 eralize and discover "points." Plain study of 
 the text itself is the teacher's first need. 
 
 4. Make an Outline. — After you have gonp 
 over the lesson, verse by verse, in study of the 
 text, setting its statements clearly in order, think 
 out and write down an outline of the spiritual 
 teachings. This is generalizing the lesson, and 
 involves patient thought. The temptation will 
 be strong to resort to the "helps" and see what 
 the lesson writers say, but yielding will be fatal 
 to original thought. Think for yourself: First, 
 what does the text mean? secondly, what does 
 
The Teacher's Lesson Study. 29 
 
 the lesson as a whole teach ? Usually the lesson 
 will teach many things, but hold to the plain 
 and logical doctrine of the lesson, in the light 
 of the book and the connection out of which the 
 lesson is taken. 
 
 5. Study the Golden Text.— The Golden Text, 
 in the purpose of the Lesson Committee, is the 
 key to the spiritual thought of the lesson. Fit 
 it to the lessen, and the lesson to it. Hold to 
 such points only as are in line with it, and you 
 will generally be correct. This is the secret oi 
 the success of the primary teachers. They make 
 their teachings to crystallize about the one great 
 truth in the Golden Text. 
 
 6. Study the "Helps." — By these are meant all 
 expository helps supplied by your Church — com- 
 mentaries, papers, periodicals, books, etc. Com- 
 pare their analysis with your own. See what 
 points in teaching they suggest, and how far 
 your own thinking agrees with theirs as to the 
 great truth the lesson is set to teach. But do 
 not throw aside your own conclusions. Your 
 weapon is the sling; theirs, the sword and shield. 
 You cannot climb to their level of knowledge 
 and thought, and teach as they do. Use their 
 thought only as suggestive, but hold fast to your 
 own studies of the lesson. You have now a 
 double view: your own as you have studied it 
 out, and the view of the best Bible students of 
 
30 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 your Church. Between the two you can see 
 more clearly what to choose for your scholars, 
 as suited to your skill as a teacher and to their 
 needs as a class. Choose the simpler and easier 
 things of the lesson, along the lines of its spir- 
 itual thought. Do not select the hard points 
 and complex analysis of the professors of Bible 
 learning. Follow their fine leadership as they 
 separate error from truth, but keep your own 
 distance and stand upon your own familiar 
 ground. 
 
IV. THE TEACHER'S LESSON PLAN. 
 
 By planning the lesson is meant getting it in 
 shape for teaching it. Mere study without this 
 planning is like gathering materials for the con- 
 struction of a house. It is but lumber, brick, 
 and stone. The architect's plan is needed be- 
 fore saw or hammer is used. Teachers fail at 
 this point, deeming their study of the lesson in 
 itself ample preparation for the teaching of it. 
 
 To plan a lesson for teaching should involve 
 three steps in order,' as follows: 
 
 1. Thinking it over without book or help. 
 
 2. Sifting the lesson to get at its essentials. 
 
 3. Adapting it to the needs, intellectually 
 and spiritually, of one's scholars. 
 
 I. Thinking It Over. 
 
 1. Begin by thinking over the lesson, putting 
 everything aside but the open Bible. Take the 
 lesson and read it over and over, and think your 
 way through it, verse by verse. Think and 
 pray together for light. Turn the verses about, 
 put them into the language of your class, strip 
 the lessons of its idioms and peculiarities, and 
 try to make it conform to your everyday life. 
 Bring it down to date as far as you can, and 
 ? ' (31) 
 
32 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 make it a living spiritual message for the pres- 
 ent needs of yourself and scholars. 
 
 2. Try to analyze the thought of the lesson, 
 and to get at its points of truth. The Lesson 
 Committee, learned Bible men, chose the lesson 
 with much care because of some great truth which 
 it contains and which needs to be emphasized. 
 Discover this truth, if you can, for and of your- 
 self. You will be tempted to turn away from 
 the Bible in order to find it, but remember our 
 Lord said it is sometimes "hidden from the 
 wise and revealed unto babes." Stick to your 
 own thinking, writedown your own thoughts, one 
 by one, as they rise before you. If you compel 
 yourself to think, be sure the thoughts will 
 come. 
 
 3. Think how you can make plain the points 
 of the lesson, how you can link the spiritual 
 things in it with the experiences of everyday 
 living; what objects, incidents, stories, pictures 
 you will use in illustration; what motives, de- 
 sires, ambitions, on the part of your scholars, 
 you will weave in with the truth, so as to make 
 the truth attractive and telling. Remember 
 that Jesus taught not "'save by parables." 
 
 II. Sifting the Lesson. 
 
 1. Descend now to the scholar's level. Re- 
 member how hard it was for you as a child to 
 
The Teachers Lesson Plan. 33 
 
 understand the Bible, and how little pains 
 some teacher perhaps took to place himself at 
 your side and upon the level of your childish 
 way of thinking and learning. Try to put 
 yourself in the scholar's place, and see with his 
 eyes, and hear with his smaller mental sense. 
 
 2. Out of the mass of things from the lesson — 
 historical, doctrinal, biographical, moral, and 
 spiritual — study what should be omitted. Much 
 of it, in the nature of the case, is mere scaf- 
 folding; some of it, though fine enough to be 
 used, does not bear upon your class; your time 
 is short, some of your scholars are dull and un- 
 instructed at home; all of them can learn and 
 digest and retain a little of the truth, if you will 
 make it plain and easy to them. Therefore sift 
 your material, and make the dullness of the 
 scholar, and not your own higher level of thought, 
 the test of what you retain. Throw everything 
 away but that which you are sure you can put 
 within the understanding of the class; but take 
 care that what you keep for them holds within 
 it the spiritual thought of the lesson. 
 
 III. Adapting the Lesson. 
 
 1. Now comes individualism in teaching, 
 which is the secret of all true teaching. Christ 
 taught salvation to both Nicodemus and the Sa- 
 maritan woman, and his doctrines were nearly 
 
34 The Sunday School Teacher, 
 
 the same in both instances. But his method 
 varied. He encouraged the woman, he reproved 
 the rabbi; he drew out the Samaritan, he re- 
 pressed the Jew with his conceit of knowledge. 
 So must you study out methods of applying the 
 lesson to the varied conditions of your scholars. 
 One boy is dull: plan to draw him out, give him 
 the easiest thing in the lesson to con sider and to do. 
 Another is bright and quick, too quick perhaps: 
 engage his mind with what will set him think- 
 ing. Take the dull ones as the measure and test 
 of your teaching. Plan especially to interest and 
 arouse them. Keep them ever in mind, as you 
 are sifting the lesson and making ready what 
 and how you will teach. 
 
 2. Write down questions, as you are making 
 ready the lesson plan. See that each has point 
 and compels thought. Adapt them to the va- 
 ried conditions of the scholars. Be sure that 
 you include in your plan something for every 
 scholar in the class. Never let a scholar go 
 from you without having had some direct part 
 in the hour's teaching. Knowing the scholars 
 intimately as you should, you can " feather" 
 and aim your questions as the Indian feathers 
 and aims his arrows — at a definite mark. 
 
 3. The last thing to do in planning a lesson 
 will be to allow to each part of it its definite 
 portion of time. There will be some reviewing 
 
The Teacher's Lesso?i Plan. 35 
 
 at the beginning, some making plain the hard 
 words of the text, some clearing up of strange 
 allusions and customs, some exploration of the 
 persons and places of the lesson, some drill of 
 the entire class upon the points you desire es- 
 pecially to emphasize — all of these bringing out 
 clearly the one great spiritual truth which the 
 lesson is designed to teach and which your 
 scholars need to know and receive. How much 
 time is to be given here and there, to this or 
 that part of the teaching, common sense and 
 teaching experience must decide. One thing, 
 however, is plain: if you spend most of the 
 time on the scaffolding, little will be left for 
 the building itself. If the time is frittered 
 away in cracking the nut, there will be no profit 
 from the uneaten kernel. The lesson fails if it 
 does not reach the conscience and heart, and 
 only the truth in the lesson will do that. 
 
V. THE LESSON HALF HOUR. 
 
 This is the crucial test of teacher and school; 
 the line point of contact, disciplinary, educa- 
 tional, and evangelistic. As goes the teaching, 
 goes the school. Whatever else the school may 
 be or have, in fine music, modern appliances, 
 great numbers; or if it is only a log cabin, win- 
 dowless and with "slab" benches and a hand- 
 ful of rough boys and girls — if the lesson half 
 hour is well used, it merits its name of Sunday 
 school. 
 
 I. Disciplinary. 
 
 The lesson half hour involves discipline. 
 Good teaching goes hand in hand with good 
 order, and good order hinges on the skill of the 
 teacher and the conditions that environ his class. 
 Some of these conditions are hindrances, remov- 
 able by the use of tact and good judgment; or, 
 if irremovable, to be made the most of. Noth- 
 ing about the real Sunday school is ideal, and 
 the teacher who expects it and is discouraged at 
 lack of it is an unwise teacher. Some of the 
 hindrances to the lesson half hour are: 
 
 1. /Shortness of time. Thirty minutes out of 
 a whole week for Bible-teaching looks small 
 indeed; but consider how many forces for good 
 (36) 
 
The Lesson Half Hour, 37 
 
 converge upon it, and it will become to you a 
 great opportunity. 
 
 2. Crowded and poorly graded classes , which 
 is easily remedied and in few cases is inevita- 
 ble. 
 
 3. Physical discomfort, such as dingy rooms, 
 ill lighted and ventilated, hard, high benches, 
 etc. This too might be bettered; but if not, 
 let it be remembered that the elastic spirit of 
 youth has a buoyancy that easily rises above 
 mere physical inconveniences. 
 
 4. Lack of preparation, from failure to study 
 at home. Much can be done to overcome this; 
 but in any event the teacher is upon a level 
 with the preacher, who must open up the minds 
 of his hearers without preparation on their part. 
 
 5. Noisy teachers, who, in every school, by 
 boisterous speech and inconsiderate methods, 
 are a nuisance. Only the superintendent or 
 death will abate these, but take care that you 
 follow not their evil example. 
 
 6. Interruptions, usually by officers, permitted 
 by the superintendent, and breaking in upon the 
 half hour's teaching. There is no excuse for 
 this condition; and if the powers that be will 
 not mend it, resign at once. Better not be a 
 teacher than to make a mock of it. 
 
 7. Disorderly scholars, who infect the orderly 
 ones, spoil the teacher's work, and sorely try 
 
38 The /Sunday /School Teacher. 
 
 his patience. As long as the doctrine of de- 
 pravity stands, this will be inevitable. But the 
 crowning work of the teacher is the conquest 
 of such scholars. To win but one and make a 
 Christian gentleman of him is greater than the 
 taking of a city. 
 
 Per contra, there are conditions about the les- 
 son half hour to be set over against its hindran- 
 ces, which the teacher should gratefully con- 
 sider: 
 
 1. There are young minds, willing for the 
 most part to learn, often pathetic in their hun- 
 ger for the truth. Do not regard the mere out- 
 ward seeming of indifference as a test of how 
 well the scholars are learning. 
 
 2. There are young hearts, which are more 
 than young minds. However mischievous and 
 restless the average Sunday school boy or gir' 
 may be, there is a young, impressible heart 
 within him or her, not yet in keeping of the 
 evil one, and the marks of the loving teacher 
 upon it will be ineffaceable in time and eternity. 
 
 3. There is the Holy Bible, the one text of 
 the Sunday school, about which gather the tra- 
 ditions and worship of the ages. That teach- 
 er has seen little who has not noted reverence 
 for God's Book even in the gamin of the street, 
 as it lies open upon his lap in the Sunday 
 school. 
 
The Lesson Half Hour. 39 
 
 4. Bending over that book is its divine Inter- 
 preter, the Holy Spirit, who will turn weakness 
 into strength and darkness into light for the 
 teacher whose life merits the help. The Holy 
 Spirit is pledged to the aid of that Book, and 
 by it he will compel conviction of sin and need 
 of Christ. It is folly for the teacher of any 
 class, however rude or careless, to yield for a 
 UK>ment to discouragement over the outcome of 
 his teaching, when he knows, or ought to know, 
 that from the first to the last moment of the 
 lesson half hour the Holy Spirit, Teacher, and 
 Guide of the Church, is at his side helping to 
 make the most of his teaching. 
 
 II. Educational. 
 
 In considering the educational points of the 
 lesson half hour, something depends on the 
 tools with which one works, as well as the way 
 in which he works. 
 
 1. The use of Bibles in the class is of first im- 
 portance, whether used with or without the 
 ' ' helps. " The lesson leaves may be at hand, but 
 their proper work comes before the lesson half 
 hour and not during it. There is a unique value 
 in having the Bible in the hands of the scholars, 
 and in training them to ready and familiar use 
 of it. Verse by verse the lesson should be read 
 deliberately by scholars designated, and every 
 
40 The Sunday School Teacher, 
 
 effort made to give impressiveness to it as the 
 Word of God. 
 
 2. Fixing Attention. — This comes with prac- 
 tice, and must be had at any cost, as nothing 
 can be learned without it. Remember, howev- 
 er, that the restless activity of the youthful 
 mind is encouragement to seize upon and turn 
 it to good account. The teacher must learn to 
 "catch the eye" of the mind, and to watch for 
 signs of flagging interest. 
 
 3. Self-Hetyi. — This is the stumbling-block to 
 many teachers, whose mistaken kindness would 
 carry the burden of thinking upon themselves 
 rather than lay it upon the scholars. It is a 
 kindness to the scholar to let him do the think- 
 ing to the limit of his ability. Let the facts of 
 the lesson be brought out from the Bible, and 
 then give time to the scholars to think out right 
 conclusions, helping only after they have helped 
 themselves. 
 
 4. The Text of the Lesson. — The teacher's first 
 duty to the Bible is to make plain the text of 
 the lesson, to get at the meaning of its words, 
 to turn it into the scholar's way of speech. The 
 best way to do this is to carefully note beforehand 
 each word and expression out of the range of 
 the scholar, and to begin the lesson by clearing 
 up these textual difficulties. Doing this con- 
 stantly will beget a habit on the part of the 
 
The Lesson Half Sour, 41 
 
 class of thinking over the matter read, which is 
 a fine educational gain. 
 
 5. Repeating the Truth. — In every lesson there 
 are a few great truths which should be framed 
 by the teacher in advance in the simplest and 
 fewest words, and then drilled upon over and 
 over by repetition, first by the individual schol- 
 ar, then by the entire class. Nothing will fix in 
 mind and heart the salient thought of the les- 
 eon, and at the same time hold the attention at 
 tvork, like this going over the chief points of 
 the lesson. But they must be first clearly 
 stated by the teacher. 
 
 6. Something for Each. — The most common 
 blunder of the lesson half hour is allowing part 
 of tiie class to do the work of thinking and 
 learning, and failing to lay upon every scholar 
 some share of the work proportioned to his 
 ability. The boy who is given a part will re- 
 spond by taking part, and will be spurred on to 
 take larger part and to do better work. Dull- 
 ards are kept dull, and others are made dull, by 
 the neglect of the teacher to draw them out and 
 make them do their share of the work. 
 
 As to methods of teaching a lesson, the choice 
 will depend upon the age, ability, and environ- 
 ment of the scholars. The method ought to be 
 varied from time to time, and several methods 
 may be properly combined in the same lesson. 
 
42 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 1. The story-telling method is best for pri- 
 mary and younger intermediate classes. The 
 teacher carefully prepares the lesson with the 
 little ones in mind, reduces it to a story, and 
 tells it as accurately and simply as possible, 
 using pictures, objects, and blackboard, and 
 questioning upon the story as she proceeds with 
 it, in order to see if she is understood. After- 
 wards she has the children to repeat and ex- 
 plain the story to her in their own childish 
 words and way. This simple method lies at 
 the basis of all good teaching. 
 
 2. The analytical method is a step higher, and 
 is better suited to the big boys and girls. The 
 teacher reads the verses of the lesson, or has 
 them read one by one, and questions the schol- 
 ars individually, and in the simplest form, upon 
 the words, statements, and meanings of the 
 verse, so that the text itself will be made plain. 
 It is not so much a study of "doctrines" and 
 "points" as of the simple lesson text. Such a 
 method quickens the attention of the scholars 
 and fixes their minds upon what the Bible says, 
 
 3. The lecture method is suited to adults. 
 The teacher questions little or none, although 
 inviting and encouraging questions from the 
 class. He presents the lesson after the form of 
 a lecture, setting forth its "points" in an order- 
 ly manner, and applying its truths to the pre»- 
 
The wesson Half Hour. 43 
 
 ent conditions of his class. Teachers of adult 
 Bible classes have found this the most popular 
 method, for the reason that ignorance as to 
 questions asked of adults is more embarrassing 
 than with children and youth. Many will sit 
 with such a class, and receive profit from the 
 teacher's lecture, who would stay away if indi- 
 vidual questions were asked. 
 
 4. The colloquial method is the best "all- 
 round" method for well- trained classes. Un- 
 der this method verse after verse is taken up in 
 order by members of the class (using Bible 
 only), read and expounded by each in his own 
 way; the teacher informally correcting, modi- 
 fying, or stating contrary views, the utmost 
 freedom being allowed to teacher and class. 
 Under a prudent teacher, of firmness and tact 
 to curtail needless discussion and to hold the 
 class to the main truths of the lesson, such les- 
 son study has a peculiar charm and profit. But 
 its success depends upon the wisdom of the 
 leafier, without which the colloquial method de- 
 generates into profitless and "cranky" discus- 
 sion. 
 
 III. Evangelistic. 
 
 The lesson half hour means more than Bible 
 study. The Bible is studied in order to con- 
 vert and to form character, not for mere knowl- 
 edge of the book. It needs to be urged upon 
 
44 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 teachers more than ever in these days of fine 
 teaching methods that the primary work of the 
 Sunday school is not educational but evangelis- 
 tic. It is not learning the Bible as a book, but 
 putting it into practice as the supreme rule of 
 life. The lesson that is. made plain to the mind 
 but does not-find its way into the heart is a fail- 
 ure. There are some things pertaining to the 
 evangelistic work of the teacher which should 
 be kept in mind as a guide to better spiritual 
 effort: 
 
 1. Knowing the Scholar. — Not so much his 
 social or mental as his spiritual condition. Is 
 he already a Christian? Is he upon the border 
 line, and "not far from the kingdom?" Is his 
 conscience yet sensitive ? Is he the slave of some 
 bad habit? Is he growing careless religiously? 
 Has he light and trivial notions of religion? 
 Does he realize his need of Christ? The teach- 
 er must know the answers to these questions, if 
 he is to become the saving instrument of God. 
 
 2. The Constant Use of the Word.— There 
 is a strange power in the words themselves of 
 the Bible; not the teacher's words about the 
 Bible, but the Bible itself. Use God's words 
 rather than your own. Read the lesson; turn 
 often to the open Bible; read it slowly and 
 prayerfully. It is sharper than any two edged 
 sword. 
 
The Lesson Half Hour. 45 
 
 3. Appealing to Conscience. — Make the appeal 
 direct and incisive. It is the thrust of the 
 sword. Remember that now, more than ever, is 
 the young conscience quick and tender; there- 
 fore fail not to arouse it. 
 
 4. Appealing to Decision. — The bond of af- 
 fection between teacher and scholar is peculiar- 
 ly close, and allows much spiritual freedom. 
 No one can enter the youthful "holy of holies" 
 more freely than the Sunday school teacher. 
 Aim at the innermost confidence of the scholar. 
 Use your love for him and his confidence in you 
 to secure his personal decision for Christ. Your 
 heart will be made to rejoice if you thus become 
 a shepherd of souls. 
 
 5. A. Moment of Prayer. — With every lesson 
 half hour there should be a little moment of 
 united prayer with your class, with bowed head 
 over the Word of God, inaudible it may be, yet 
 an earnest pleading with God for the scholars 
 and for the help of the Holy Spirit in arresting 
 wayward minds, touching young hearts, giving 
 skill to impart the truth, making tender the 
 conscience, and blessing the solemn work of 
 another Sabbath day. Years may come and go, 
 but the scholars will recall reverently these 
 moments of prayer in the little circle of the 
 now disbanded class. 
 
VI. THE HEART OF THE LESSON. 
 
 I. What the Lesson Means. 
 
 To know what to teach is the problem of first 
 importance. What one teaches is of more ac- 
 count than how one teaches. This is true of a 
 lesson from any book, but much more of the 
 Bible, which is the one book of divine truth. 
 Evil and ignorant men have taught every con- 
 ceivable doctrine by wresting the Scriptures 
 from their divine intent. The Bible has been 
 made to bolster up every heresy by men who 
 have abused its spirit and meaning. Because a 
 thing is "in the Bible" does not therefore give 
 it the sanction of the Holy Spirit. Men, angels, 
 devils, saints, and sinners in turn are made to 
 speak in the Bible ; it is historical, and gives 
 us the facts and the words of speakers, often 
 without comment. The teacher's first duty, 
 therefore, is to find out and to teach only what the 
 Bible itself means shall be taught, what the 
 plain intent of the day's lesson is, taking it in 
 connection with other parts of the Bible, and in 
 harmony with the known general sense and spirit 
 of the book as a unit of divine revelation. Only 
 the teacher who is fair-minded toward the Bible, 
 who reads it much and praverfullv, and "goes 
 (4G) 
 
The Heart of the Lesson. 47 
 
 through it " book by book, w.ll ?et at this true 
 understanding of the spiritual intent of a partic- 
 ular lesson. Such wisdom to know what the les- 
 son truly means is the immediate gift of the 
 Holy Spirit to the candid and devout teacher. 
 It is a matter between one's own heart and God, 
 and the "helps," however learned, cannot im- 
 part it. It is the Holy Spirit who "takes of the 
 things of Christ and shows them unto us." 
 
 II. The Literal and the Spiritual. 
 
 In getting at the lesson's meaning, the follow- 
 ing hints may be helpful: 
 
 1. First, try to distinguish clearly what is 
 literal and what is spiritual. Nearly every les- 
 son involves persons, places, events of history, 
 biography, certain things pertaining to a remote 
 past. These are the" literal things of the lesson. 
 In themselves they may be of little or much ac- 
 count, usually the former. Behind these say- 
 ings and doings of an ancient time there are al- 
 ways present in a Bible lesson — sometimes plain 
 to the view, at other times hidden except to the 
 finer spiritual sense; sometimes discoverable with 
 little thought, at other times revealed as a flash 
 after patient and prayerful meditation — cer- 
 tain spiritual truths which the Bible intends for 
 "instruction in righteousness," for reproof, and 
 guidance. The Bible cares for these, and for 
 4 
 
48 The Sunday /School leacher. 
 
 these only. Its men and women, cities, nations, 
 temples, warriors and battles, the mere historic 
 happenings which it narrates, are but scaffold- 
 ing, a means to an end. It is not history or bi- 
 ography, but the truth as revealed in Christ, 
 that the Bible seeks through us to teach. There 
 is to every lesson a lower literal side, which may 
 serve as a help to our teaching; and a higher spir- 
 itual side, which must be the end of our teaching. 
 If Sunday school teaching means anything, it 
 means that the literal things, the geography, his- 
 tory, and biography, the sayings and doings of 
 nations or individuals, are but stone and mortar 
 and timber that enter into the temple as a part 
 or foundation for it, but are not in themselves 
 the building of truth we should enter and wor- 
 ship in with our Sunday school scholars. In 
 every lesson there is the outer husk of the lit- 
 eral; there is also the inner food for the nour- 
 ishment of the soul. Breaking the husk comes 
 first in the order of teaching; but the teacher 
 must not seek to satisfy his class with the husk, 
 and leave the precious food within unused. To 
 know and to use the husk in order to get at the 
 food; to feed this to the scholars — is the supreme 
 end of Sunday school teaching. 
 
 2. Take care, therefore, to give prominence to 
 the spiritual in the lesson. The literal has its 
 place and time, because the Holy Spirit has seen 
 
The Heart of the Lesson. 49 
 
 fit thus to envelop the spiritual in the literal. 
 That teaching is therefore natural and skillful 
 which lays its foundation in the literal, and 
 builds upon it the spiritual; but that teaching 
 is a failure which spends its strength in mere 
 foundation-laying. It is hard to fix a definite 
 proportion between the literal and the spiritual 
 in the lesson. But if the spiritual is uppermost 
 in the mind and heart of the teacher, and is the 
 clear-set goal of his work, the literal will serve, 
 as it should, for the approach only, the outef 
 court of the temple. If the teacher is living 
 away from God, has "lost his experience," and 
 with blurred vision of the spiritual essays to 
 teach as duty only, literalism will be the sign ol 
 his decadence and failure. Apply this test as 
 you read these lines, dear teacher, and ask your- 
 self these questions: Is my teaching of the let- 
 ter which killeth, or of the spirit which giveth 
 life? Do I use the literal things of the lesson 
 only as a scaffold to help me build up some 
 great truth of God before my class ; or am I 
 a teacher of mere concrete things, that may give 
 knowledge but not wisdom? Are my spiritual 
 eyes dim, that I cannot see in the lesson the 
 things of the Spirit? Do I spend precious time 
 in quibbling over the color of priestly dress or 
 fate of lost ark or value of Jewish coin? Do 
 my boys and girls go f rom me with a little dull 
 
50 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 knowledge of Aate or person or place, a glimpse 
 of Bible history, added to their small stock; but 
 with hearts untouched and consciences unaroused 
 by contact with that inner divine message of 
 wisdom which every lesson from God's Book 
 should unfold? 
 
 3. Take time to apply the spiritual in the lesson, 
 as far as you can possibly do this. Finding out 
 what the spiritual is, reserving time to make it 
 plain, is setting the arrow to the string. The 
 arrow of truth must be aimed at the conscience, 
 and the bow of the teacher's holy purpose must 
 drive it to the mark. There are "joints in the 
 harness" of every scholar. There is always in 
 youth a penetrable conscience. If you have 
 failed to find the tender place, and to know 
 where to lay your finger upon the scholar's con- 
 science, the fault is yours. You could have 
 made sure of that much in the years you and 
 he have been together. If you do know these 
 things, and can aim your arrow of divine truth 
 •straight at the mark, do not fail to do it. Prayer 
 will steady your hand, love will feather the 
 shaft, the Holy Spirit will guide it unerringly 
 to the mark. Every Sunday school lesson has 
 this one great purpose: "To convince of sin, of 
 righteousness, and of judgment to come." 
 
VII. PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING. 
 
 There are certain fundamental principles of 
 teaching. They are few and simple, and change 
 not. The great teachers of the past used them 
 in their day, Christ gave his sanction to them, 
 and every successful teacher consciously or un- 
 consciously makes use of them. To learn thor- 
 oughly a teaching principle, and to make one's 
 self master of it by study and practice, is far bet- 
 ter than slavish copying of methods without 
 understanding the reason for them. Methods 
 are the product of a principle at work. Wher- 
 ever there is correct teaching, it must be in ac- 
 cordance with these well-defined principles, some 
 of which are here presented in their order and 
 relationship. 
 
 I. The Principle op Adaptation. 
 
 This applies to the subject to be taught, and 
 stands first in the way of the teacher. It de- 
 mands of the teacher four things: 
 
 1. That he must have a definite teaching plan, 
 fixing in order the things of the lesson which 
 are to be taught or to be omitted, as well as the 
 method he is to employ in teaching. Its use is 
 to determine beforehand what there is in the 
 
 (51) 
 
52 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 lesson for his class, and to what he should give 
 special emphasis. Such a plan ought to be 
 thought out by the teacher of and for himself, 
 and not be a mere copy of what he Ifas seen in 
 use by another. 
 
 2. The second requirement relates to the schol- 
 ar. The teacher must know enough of the 
 scholar, individually and particularly, to be 
 able to fit the lesson to his special need. This 
 applies the more urgently when it is a question 
 of the fitness of spiritual truth. Without this 
 knowledge, teaching the Bible is shooting ar- 
 rows in the dark. 
 
 3. The third thing is to adapt the lesson to 
 the grade which the teacher is teaching, and this 
 has reference to the mind and its conditions and 
 stage of development. The same lesson needs 
 to be worked out in different ways, according to 
 whether it is to be taught to a child or to a young 
 man, to a dull class or a bright one. Like food 
 jmd medicine, the amount and kind must be suit- 
 ed to the particular case. 
 
 4. The last application of this principle has to 
 do with the truth of the lesson. There is usually 
 one central truth in every lesson, overshadowing 
 the others, and intended as the chief teaching of 
 the text assigned. To seize upon this, enforce 
 and emphasize it, and fix it securely in the mind 
 and heart of the scholar, within the limit of 
 
Principles of Teaching. 53 
 
 thirty minutes, is the chief adaptive work of the 
 teacher. It takes hard study to do it, and one's 
 own study at that. It must burn in the teacher's 
 mind and heart first, if he would set on fire his 
 class. 
 
 II. The Principle of Cooperation. 
 After the subject-matter comes a consideration 
 of the teaching work. This work, before and 
 with the class, may be represented by a circle. 
 The teacher's preparation and adaptation of the 
 lesson would be one half of the circle, and»the 
 scholar's study and effort to learn would be the 
 other half. Any failure to cooperate, on the part 
 of teacher or scholar, would be taking away an 
 arc of the circle and leaving it incomplete. Co- 
 operation therefore demands: 
 
 1. That the teacher must be in readiness oj 
 preparation and in thorough sympathy with his 
 work and the scholar. 
 
 2. That the scholar's attention must be main- 
 tained from the beginning to the end of the les- 
 son, not by compulsion but by the skill of the 
 teacher. Without this free, constant attention 
 there can be no learning. 
 
 3. The cooperation of the dull and slow schol- 
 ars of the class is to be diligently sought after, 
 even at the expense of the bright scholars, who, 
 in some measure, are able to take care of them- 
 
54 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 selves. The surest test of the teacher is not how 
 his bright scholars are learning, but how well 
 he is succeeding with the dull ones. 
 
 4. Scholars are not to be left a moment unem- 
 ployed^ as the lack of something to do and to be 
 thinking and working upon is the certain way 
 of cutting the cords of attention. "Each schol- 
 ar, all the time," is a good working motto for 
 the teacher. 
 
 5. Cooperation is not to be confined to the 
 class hour and work, which is all too small un- 
 der the best of teaching, but should extend back- 
 ward and forward through the week, in some 
 form of carefully assigned advance work for the 
 scholar in his home. A cooperation that de- 
 pends upon a weekly contact of an hour only 
 will accomplish little lasting good. 
 
 III. The Principle of Gradatiox. 
 
 This applies to the process through and by 
 which the teacher leads the scholar into posses- 
 sion of the truth. It is the severest test of a 
 teacher's ability. Much Sunday school teaching 
 is chaotic, confusing to the scholar, out of range 
 with his habits of thought, too difficult for him. 
 Pie is immature, and is capable of taking only 
 one short step at a time. The teacher assumes 
 too much as to the scholar's mind and stock of 
 knowledge, and the result is his discouragement 
 
Principles of Teaching. 55 
 
 and loss of interest. It is true of most young 
 people that they relish learning, if it is in easy 
 reach and made simple and plain to the under- 
 derstanding. The mind of a child is as active 
 as its body, and it learns something from what- 
 ever it touches. The work of the Sunday school 
 teacher should be to take the things of the Bible, 
 and put them in easy steps for the slow and timid 
 feet of the young. 
 
 1. The first step in gradation is to discover 
 what the scholar knows, or does not know, of the 
 lesson in hand. This is finding out the schol- 
 ar's level and making that a starting point, a 
 most important thing in teaching. 
 
 2. The second step is to present the concrete 
 things of the lesson that are nearest and most at- 
 tractive to the scholar, such as the elements of 
 time, place, biography, and history. The schol- 
 ar's mind receives these concrete things before it 
 begins to think at all. The wise teacher will 
 therefore find first what the scholar knows that 
 may connect with the lesson, and will then know 
 what to set forth. 
 
 3. The next step is to draw out the ethical and 
 spiritual things that come from this study of the 
 facts. When a scholar knows something in the 
 lesson to start with, he is stimulated to go on to 
 the next step. This was the art of the Great 
 Teacher. He set simple facts and stories before 
 
56 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 his hearers, based upon things well known to 
 them, as parables; and, locking up in these sto- 
 ries his spiritual truths, incited his hearers to 
 think out their meanings. 
 
 4. The teacher must also keep in mind that a 
 single truth well learned is better than a whole 
 lesson skimmed over. Here is the mistake of 
 many teachers. They attempt to teach too much, 
 and, in essaying to do this, they teach nothing. 
 Quintilian's maxim is timely: "Not what I may 
 remember constitutes learning, but what I can- 
 not forget." 
 
 5. The summing up of the principle of grada- 
 tion is the connecting of each successive step with 
 those preceding, and especially the taking of no 
 step forward until one is sure that what has been 
 passed over is understood. Teaching like this 
 will cause the teacher to move slowly, and to 
 leave out unimportant details; but it will quick- 
 en interest and study in one's scholars, and set 
 before them the only standard of true learning — 
 to learn every thi?ig thoroughly. 
 
 IV. The Principle of Repetition. 
 This was the favorite working principle of the 
 Jesuit teachers, who did much to revolutionize 
 educational methods. It was said of the youth 
 who were subjects of their teaching that "the 
 Jesuit left his mark for life upon every child 
 
Principles of Teaching. 57 
 
 he had taught. " The principle is older than the 
 Jesuit. The Bible speaks of " line upon line, pre- 
 cept upon precept, here a little and there a little." 
 The graver's tool must strike often if it is to cut 
 deep. There is no fact more apparent to the ex- 
 perienced teacher than the necessity for repeti- 
 tion, in order to fix the truth in the mind of the 
 child. Memory will catch a truth quickly, and 
 hold it for a time; but it passes away unless the 
 oft- repeated stroke of the teacher sinks it deeply. 
 It is as true of the understanding as of the mem- 
 ory, that a thing is not truly apprehended un* 
 til it has often passed before the child's mind. 
 Every time it thus passes it grows plainer. If 
 there is one principle more honored in the breach 
 than in the observance, it is this one of repeat- 
 ing the truths of our Sunday school teaching. 
 Quarterly reviews and attempts at written ex- 
 aminations attest this statement. Let the av- 
 erage superintendent try to call out from his 
 school the teachings of the past month, and his 
 cheek will flush with the sense of failure. Five 
 points are involved in this principle: 
 
 1. That the mind and heart do not retain what 
 comes from few and slight impressions. 
 
 2. That scholars, if wisely led, like to travel 
 over and over the same truths. 
 
 3. That a little definite knowledge that can be 
 instantly used is both a joy and a power to the 
 
58 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 Sunday school scholar, but a mass of imperfect* 
 ly learned truth is a pain and a hindrance. 
 
 4. That no Sunday school teacher should be- 
 gin a lesson without reviewing carefully the 
 2-)receding one, nor close a lesson without call- 
 ing up from his scholars a summary of its chief 
 points. 
 
 5. That the Sunday school teacher who neg- 
 lects this old-fashioned principle, however showy 
 his work may seem, is turning out scholars who 
 have really learned nothing of permanent value. 
 
VIII. TEACHING POIKTS. 
 
 I. As to Manner. 
 
 ^'e, natural. Do not wear your "photograph 
 innile" before the class. The scholars know 
 what is natural and what is forced. 
 
 Be friendly. "Whoso would have friends 
 must show himself friendly. " Your manner will 
 make or unmake friends. 
 
 Be cheerful. Leave headache and heartache at 
 home, as far as possible, ^ou have no right to 
 overcloud the optimism of childhood with per- 
 sonal sorrows and vexations. 
 
 Be cordial. Many boys and girls come to Sun- 
 day school from homes of scant courtesy. The 
 teacher's hearty hand shake and welcome will 
 win the heart all the more because of lack of con- 
 sideration at home. 
 
 Be tender. If you could know all the heart- 
 aches of the scholars, you would need no such 
 admonition. Children have troubles as real as 
 our own, and a little tenderness goes a long 
 way with them. 
 
 Be patient. To be patient is to suffer, for that, 
 is the meaning of the word. The last place for 
 fretf ulness or irritability is before a Sunday 
 
 (59) 
 
60 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 school class. Do not see or hear things of a wor- 
 rying kind. Look beyond them to a better day. 
 Make up your mind to suffer, which is the sure 
 road to patience. 
 
 Use your eyes. If you are a slave to the 
 "help habit," referring constantly to the teach- 
 ing helps while teaching, break your fetters and 
 teach eye to eye. A well-aimed eye has hyp- 
 notic power. Look the scholars squarely in the 
 face as you teach, and make them feel that the 
 teacher's eye sees every motion of mind or body. 
 
 Be serious. The Sunday school hour is not 
 a time for jokes and pleasantries. Brightness, 
 gladness, a smile, a pleasant word, are in place; 
 but not laughter nor levity. Nor is gossip or 
 mere chitchat in order. The laughter and loose 
 tongue of one who is dealing with young souls 
 is like the "crackling of thorns under a pot." 
 
 II. As to Interest. 
 
 Come early to place, before inattention gets a 
 footing. The teacher ought to be in his seat 
 fully fifteen minutes before the session begins, 
 to put things in order, distribute song books 
 and Bibles, to engage the earlier comers, to 
 preoccupy the ground socially and mentally. 
 Enough restlessness and mischief may be gener- 
 ated in the first idle minutes of the belated teach- 
 er's hour to spoil a day's work. The battle is 
 
Teaching Points. 61 
 
 won or lost in the five minutes before and after 
 the superintendent's signal bell. 
 
 Set the scholars at work as quickly as possible. 
 Give them Bible texts bearing upon the lesson 
 to look up. Have them to find the lesson place 
 in their Bibles. Make up the day's report of ab- 
 sentees, offerings, etc., with their help. If they 
 must talk, let the teacher lead and control the 
 talking, and turn it to good account for the day's 
 work. 
 
 Resolve to have attention, and then set to work 
 to carry out the resolve. A firm will to have it 
 will go far toward securing it. Scholars are 
 quick to gauge a teacher's mettle, and to take 
 color from his strength or weakness. A steady 
 eye, a cool head, a still tongue, a firm hand of 
 control, will be contagious. 
 
 Have a plan, and follow it. Plan each step 
 of the day's work beforehand. Have in mind 
 especially the class disturbers, and allow no op- 
 portunity for them to get in the lead. Plan the 
 lesson study for them; know what and how much 
 you intend to review of last Sunday's lesson. 
 Select the texts that will set in order the 
 "connecting links," and have the scholars 
 turn to them. Make a list of the obscure 
 words and allusions of the day's lesson, and 
 set the class at work upon them. Have ques- 
 tions ready in mind or on paper, simple and 
 
62 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 direct; and plan in advance what scholars shall 
 answer them. 
 
 Arrest inattention the moment it begins. A 
 look, a touch of the hand, a quick question, an 
 instant use of the inattentive scholar in any way 
 whatever, will bring him back into line. Silence 
 for a moment, without a look or word to indicate 
 why you are silent, will prove an effective device. 
 
 Make the scholar* th ink. Give them time to do 
 their thinking. Do not hurry from one point to 
 another. Much inattention comes from mental 
 indigestion. Set a question before the class 
 within their capacity, and encourage and stimu- 
 late their thinking upon it. 
 
 Take pa his to make plain. Once get a boy or 
 girl to see a new idea plainly, and to know it 
 clearly, and you will not be troubled by his lack of 
 interest. Taking verse by verse the lesson, and 
 making each verse so plain that the scholar can 
 pat it into his own language, is fine Bible teach- 
 ing. If only one thing in the lesson for a Sun- 
 day is set in clear light in the scholar's mind, he 
 will become a help to your teaching. 
 
 Shun routine teaching. Never go in routine 
 order around your class. Put each scholar on 
 his mettle by surprising him. Let the one lack- 
 ing in interest bear the heavier burden of ques- 
 tioning and work. Ply him with special tasks, 
 and he will soon take the hint. 
 
Teaching Points. 63 
 
 Do not fret over inattention. If you fail to 
 get it, say nothing and keep on trying. Fret- 
 ting is a sure note of defeat, and an invitation 
 to greater inattention. Better disorder than ir- 
 ritability. 
 
 * Rest your class from time to time by a story or 
 a picture or some illustrative object. If only a 
 word or a crude picture on class slate or paper, 
 the act of putting it before the eyes of the class 
 will banish restlessness and regain attention. 
 Let it tell upon the lesson. 
 
 Commend the attentive. Do this sparingly, 
 and be sure it is specially deserved. Unmerited 
 compliments soon nauseate, but a timely word 
 of approval may win hearty cooperation from 
 one on whom it is wisely bestowed. 
 
 Discourage the "smart" scholars. There are 
 some of these in every class. They are quicker 
 mentally, or have better home help, and are apt 
 to take the lead of the class. They grow perter, 
 while the dull ones grow duller. Give them the 
 hard work of the lesson, but do not let them 
 monopolize it. Draw out the dull scholars. 
 Find something in range for them to do. 
 
 III. As to Teaching. 
 
 Do not teach too much. One or two good 
 points will be enough for the day. 
 
 Do not stress the unimportant things. Merely 
 5 
 
64 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 glance at them and pass on. Make the geogra- 
 phy, history, customs, etc., a means to an end. 
 Do not waste the hour on nonessentials. 
 
 Do not have the lesson "read round." It is 
 a waste of time and a bar to attention. 
 
 Test home study. Expect it, insist upon it, 
 question upon it, assign advance tasks that will 
 secure it. 
 
 Stick to the lesson text. Have it always before 
 the eye. Have it read directly from the Bible. 
 Take care as to its hard and strange words. 
 Form the habit in your scholars of noting what 
 the Bible says, word for word. 
 
 Do not tell the scholar what he already knows 
 or ought to know. Make him tell it to you. 
 Draw out his knowledge, and repress your own 
 until needed. 
 
 Encourage questioning if along the line of 
 the lesson, but discourage mere discussion. 
 Decide doubtful points with authority, and 
 pass on. 
 
 Never ask questions that answer themselves. 
 Make your questions simple, direct, incisive, so 
 that they cannot be answered without thought. 
 Gather up the threads. Before the lesson 
 ends, review its strong points, and set it in order 
 as you would have it carried home. Take time 
 to do this. 
 
 .Make a personal application. Never close 
 
Teaching Points. 65 
 
 without it. The lesson has a saving truth in it, 
 or a truth that edifies and makes for character! 
 Prove what this is both in mind and life your- 
 self. Be sure to press it lovingly and prayerful 
 ly, as the one thing of the day's work. 
 
IX. CLASS PROBLEMS. 
 
 Every Sunday school teacher is confronted 
 with certain class problems which must be solved 
 one way or another. The following are the most 
 importa7.1t of these problems: 
 
 I. The Physical Problem. 
 
 1. Number. — What number of scholars should 
 the teacher have under his teaching? The an- 
 swer depends upon the facilities for the work. 
 Where all classes are massed in one room, which 
 is commonly the case, the maximum number 
 should be not more than ten. Beyond this are 
 confusion, inability to hear, inattention. Where 
 there are separate class rooms, the teacher, if a 
 competent one, can teach as many as can be 
 seated comfortably. The best work, however, 
 is done in small classes, where the personal ele- 
 K3 nt can operate. 
 
 2. Seating. — After number is considered, 
 comes the question of how to seat a class for ef- 
 fective work. Simple as this seems, it is the 
 rock on which not a few split. Imagine a teach- 
 er with ten scholars arranged in one long pew, 
 himself at one end, and mischief at work at the 
 other, and the scene becomes a real one in some 
 
 (66) 
 
Class Problems. 67 
 
 schools. The sensible thing to do is to seat the 
 class in Wo short lines, so that those farthest 
 away can hear and see and he heard and seen by 
 the teacher, who should place himself near the 
 center of the class, and stand rather than sit. 
 
 3. Quiet. — This is first physically. Order is 
 not only heaven's but earth's first law. The 
 teacher's quiet manner begets quiet. A loud- 
 voiced teacher should be declared a nuisance and 
 abated. Sometimes the superintendent is maker 
 of disorder. He harrows teacher and class by 
 restless movement, more commonly by sending 
 out secretary and treasurer among the classes. 
 It is a mark of an incompetent superintendent 
 or teacher who mixes noise and confusion with 
 the hour sacred to teaching the Word of God. 
 Rather let the teacher wait for the angel of 
 peace to descend, if nothing more is attempted 
 during the entire hour. 
 
 II. The Problem of Grading. 
 
 1. Authority. — Who shall have the fixing of 
 the scholars in class, is a vital problem in a sys- 
 tem of efficient grading. Often the whim of the 
 scholar determines it, to the confusion and hurt 
 of the school. The only safe way is to have a 
 system by which classes are to be formed and 
 scholars assigned. The authority to do this 
 ought to be vested in superintendent and teach' 
 
68 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 er jointly, and the scholar should stay in the 
 class to which he has been assigned. Anything 
 less than a reasonable plan like this introduces a 
 lawless spirit into the school, and concerts the 
 scholars into masters rather than pupils. 
 
 2, Age. — The ideal theory of grading a Sun- 
 day school is upon the educational basis. Some 
 schools have attempted this, but few have had 
 success. The only practical method of grading, 
 in view of the things peculiar to a Sunday school, 
 is upon a basis of age. Like follows like. 
 Scholars of like ages gravitate together, and are 
 not easily separated in a school whieh must de- 
 pend upon the power of love rather than upon 
 authority. The consensus of many schools has 
 made it plain that the best work is done when 
 scholars of the same age, and consequently of 
 the same spirit and temper, are put into the same 
 class. 
 
 3. Sex. — The matter of sex enters into the 
 question of grading. As a rule it is best to sep- 
 arate boys and girls, even more in a Sunday 
 school than in a day school. Little children may 
 be classed together without regard to sex. Boys 
 and girls from ten years upward need to be put 
 into separate classes. It is the "ugly age," of 
 which every experienced teacher and parent has 
 a well-founded fear. Young men and women, 
 in whom are the beginnings of a mutual respect 
 
Class Problems* 69 
 
 /nd courtesy, may be placed together in class; 
 out even here a wise teacher is demanded. 
 Dame Nature has a way of playing pranks, even 
 while holding a Bible in her lap. 
 
 4. Conduct. — How a scholar habitually be- 
 haves has much todo in fixing his place in class. 
 It is a blunder to mix the good and the bad in 
 disposition indiscriminately. One disorderly 
 boy can wreck a class. A teacher who is capa- 
 ble of managing a well-disposed class may be 
 hopelessly handicapped by having a bad scholar 
 thrust upon him. If good conduct is dominant 
 in a class, the mixing in of one or more disorder- 
 ly ones may not harm the orderly majority; but 
 it is better to isolate the bad, and assign to them 
 the teacher whose tact and patience have been 
 proved. 
 
 5. Promotion. — Regular, stated promotion, 
 from class to class, from department to depart- 
 ment, under a plan of honorable recognition, 
 though based only on age and continuance in 
 membership, is essential to a successful system 
 of grading. A Sunday school that has no pro- 
 motions at stated times, and no stimulus to con- 
 stancy of membership, is not doing its best work. 
 
 III. The Problem of Attendance. 
 
 1. Tardiness.— Tardiness is the vice of many 
 schools. A tardy scholar or teacher harms him- 
 
70 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 self, but he does a greater harm to the school. 
 One reason for tardiness is the inconsiderate- 
 nessof the teachers, who hold it of little account 
 and thereby put a premium upon it. In its last 
 analysis, it is one of the gravest evils of the 
 Sunday school. It is a question of religion. 
 The boy or girl brought up to tardiness in Sun- 
 day school, and encouraged in it by his teach- 
 er's .indifference, will be without a fine con- 
 science about keeping faith with others when he 
 is grown. 
 
 2. Irregular Attendance. — One breeds the other. 
 The teacher or scholar who begins with tardi- 
 ness will soon not come at all, or come so fitful- 
 ly as to make life a burden to the school. One 
 day's absence from the class may break the teach- 
 er's spell over it for months. A teacher of poor- 
 est ability and crudest preparation, in constant 
 attendance, will do more for a school than a the- 
 ological professor who "comes when he feels 
 like it." 
 
 3. Rewards and Honors. — These have their 
 rightful place in the school, and will help in 
 solving the problem of attendance. It will de- 
 pend upon the extent to which they are used, 
 and the method of use. Prize-giving is hurtful. 
 In a Western city a school offered money and 
 jewelry for new scholars. They came, and in a 
 year overran the school; but in a year more the 
 
Class Problems. 11 
 
 school was a stench in the nostrils of the Church, 
 and the scholars had gone with its money and 
 trinkets. A prize puts the wrong motive before 
 the scholar. A reward is something that ap- 
 peals to the pride of the scholar in his good work 
 and record. The reward should be in reach of 
 all, and not like the prize for the fortunate few 
 only. The "Roll of Honor" should be the 
 limit of reward. 
 
 4. Parental Assistance. — This is the strongest 
 factor in bringing about a better attendance. 
 There is a Jewish school in New York that uses 
 it with great power. Even the godless homes 
 responded to the earnest appeals sent forth by 
 this school, and no body of children and young 
 people average higher in faithfulness and prompt- 
 ness of attendance. The authority and help of 
 the father and mother are indispensable to the 
 teacher. He can enlist it upon his side if he will 
 seek diligently after it. It may often be had for 
 the asking. 
 
 5. The Power to Interest. — After all is said and 
 done, the problem of fine attendance goes back 
 to the teacher's self. Has he power to in- 
 terest the young? Devices, like threads under 
 pressure, snap without this quality. "Whence 
 does the power to interest young people come? 
 What is the price to pay for it? The answer is, 
 by study. It takes something interesting to in- 
 
72 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 terest. Nothing will be found like a warm heart 
 and a full mind to draw scholars on time from 
 the home on Sunday mornings. Horses, sheep, 
 even hogs, know where the "feed 1 ' is to be 
 found, and no educational devices have been 
 needed to draw them. "The ass knoweth his 
 master's crib." Study the lessons, think on 
 them, fertilize them, fill mind and heart to over- 
 flowing, and boys and girls will find it out and 
 come, and keep coming. 
 
X. HOW TO SECURE ATTENTION. 
 
 I. Its Importance. 
 
 1. Definition. — Attention is an effort of the 
 mind to fix itself upon a single subject of study. 
 It means literally the ''stretching forth" of the 
 mental faculties in one particular direction, the 
 concentration of the thinking powers upon one 
 thing at a time. The main difference among 
 men mentally is in the measure of ability to thus 
 hold the mind to a subject. Dickens defines 
 genius as "the ability to put one's powers of 
 thought for a required time upon one subject." 
 
 2. Kinds of Attention. — There are two ways 
 by which attention operates: spontaneously, and 
 by self-constraint. The former is like the wind: 
 it "bloweth where it listeth." The will takes 
 no control over it. It follows the lead of curi- 
 osity, and is wayward and spasmodic. Of such 
 is the child's attention — "pleased with a rattle 
 and tickled with a straw." The latter method 
 of attention is the only rational and educational 
 one. It makes one's mind a servant, and holds 
 it to its tasks by force of will. It is self-com- 
 pelling and constraining, and makes attention a 
 duty, not a diversion or passing mood. It is 
 
 era) 
 
74 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 slow of growth, is a creature of education, re- 
 quires patient and skillful training to develop 
 it, but is worth many times the cost. Adam 
 Clarke's mother learned the secret of it in deal- 
 ing with his boyish dullness. Thomas Edison 
 began to acquire it when a youthful tramp teleg- 
 rapher. Just now certain Sunday school writers 
 are making a "fad" of what they call "volun- 
 tary attention." Nothing must be required; ev- 
 erything of study must follow the passing whim 
 and impulse of the child. Bible sweetmeats and 
 sugar-coated pellets of doctrine, designed to 
 whet the appetite and to "entertain" the little 
 ones after perverted kindergarten fashion, are 
 to take the place of old-fashioned scriptural 
 training of the child in the way he should go. 
 
 3. The Habit of Attention. — It is the forma- 
 tion of the habit of self-constrained attention that 
 devolves upon the Sunday school teacher. No 
 child is too young to begin its attainment ; and 
 no teacher, however unskilled himself, or dull 
 and wayward his scholars, should desist from a 
 determined effort to secure such habitual atten- 
 tion. The responsibility is with the teacher. If 
 his scholars are dull and listless in Bible study, 
 it is his, not their, fault. As vital as the breath 
 to the body is the scholar's attention to the 
 teacher's teaching. There can be no teaching 
 "without a mutual effort — the teacher seeking to 
 
How to Secure Attention. 75 
 
 impart knowledge, the scholar striving mentally 
 to lay hold upon it. The teacher's inflexible 
 motto should be: "I must know; my scholars 
 must heed." Where there is a will, there will 
 be found a way. 
 
 II. The Physical Conditions. 
 
 A disposition to study and to think depends 
 upon physical conditions, especially with chil- 
 dren and youth. These conditions are not always 
 under the control of the teacher; but as far as 
 practicable the comfort of Sunday school schol- 
 ars must be secured. The Sunday school build- 
 ing of the twentieth century will solve many of 
 the physical problems of to-day. Meantime let 
 the teacher make note of the following aids to 
 attention: 
 
 1. Ventilation. — Pure air is cheap and abun- 
 dant, and impure air will dull the finest teach- 
 ing. One has only to note how often flagging 
 attention is due to this commonplace cause. 
 
 2. Light. — The use of dingy church basements 
 for the children of the church, in order to spare 
 the carpeted aisles and cushioned pews of the 
 bright auditorium above for the big folks, is a 
 fruitful cause of inattention. Light is as essen- 
 tial to the mental as to the physical comfort of 
 the child. To save the carpets and spoil the 
 children is not economy. 
 
76 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 3. The Seating. — Much depends upon this. 
 With one room, crowded by many classes, all 
 being taught simultaneously, the teacher must 
 consider the seating. In such case not more 
 than ten scholars should constitute a class. 
 They should be grouped about the teacher, him- 
 self in the center, eye to eye, each scholar easi- 
 ly hearing him, and easily seen and heard by 
 him. 
 
 4. Closed Books. — Any lesson book, paper, 
 "help," used by teacher or scholars during the 
 class work is a nonconductor. Minds touch 
 one another and produce the shock of attention 
 through the eye. The teacher who fixes his eye 
 upon the eyes of the scholars will discover one 
 of the choicest secrets of teaching. Therefore 
 every distracting piece of printed matter, even 
 the Bible itself, except as the teacher may read 
 or have a scholar read a needed verse, should be 
 put by from the first to the last moment of the 
 class work. 
 
 5. Illustrative Helps. — Nothing holds atten- 
 tion so well as a timely illustration. One never 
 grows too old to be fond of stories and pictures. 
 Anything that helps to make plain the lesson is 
 an illustration, whether story, picture, map, out- 
 line, blackboard drawing, rude paper sketch, or 
 object of whatever kind. The simple and famil- 
 iar things are best. An illustration that takes 
 
JEToto to Secure Attention. 77 
 
 the mind off the truth, and leaves it thinking of 
 the illustration, is a failure. Christ's illustra- 
 tions were homely and transparent, and came 
 from familiar objects about him. Every teach- 
 er should bring to the lesson something that will 
 help to make plain its teachings. One noted 
 teacher uses a class slate, upon which drawings, 
 maps, etc., are prepared, and passes it along the 
 class. Stories are good, pictures are better, 'fa- 
 miliar objects or experiences of daily life are 
 best. A little ingenuity and painstaking by a 
 teacher will gather a number of illustrations for 
 any lesson. The simple object or story, for eye 
 or ear, will make plain a hard truth and fix it in 
 the memory of the class. 
 
 III. Suggestive Methods. 
 As to the Teacher 's Part. 
 
 1. The teacher's thorough preparation is his 
 first step toward attention. The liberty and con- 
 fidence which this will impart will do more than 
 anything else to attract the scholar. Not know- 
 ing thoroughly what he is to teach, a cloud is 
 upon him, and he is nervous and often irritable 
 and obtuse. 
 
 2. Let the teacher use tact in dealing with his 
 scholars, especially in drawing out the dull 
 scholars and in engaging the bright ones. The 
 way to a boy's mind is by way of his heart, and 
 
78 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 the short cut to a boy's heart is the teacher's 
 personal interest in him and in what he likes and 
 dislikes. 
 
 3. The teacher must have enthusiasm and make 
 use of it. Like begets like. "The letter killeth, 
 but the spirit giveth life." Boys and girls are 
 full of life, physically and mentally. Nothing 
 drives a class into listlessness and stupidity like 
 the dull, leaden face and voice of a perfunctory 
 teacher who comes to his task without energy or 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 4. Some scholars need the bit; some, the spur. 
 A bright scholar will need to be kept busy to 
 hold his attention; a dull scholar will need to 
 be led step by step. As a rule, it is more diffi- 
 cult to hold the quick-minded than the dull. The 
 teacher must feel his way until he has learned 
 to know the mental conditions of each scholar. 
 Attention is not arrested or maintained en masse. 
 There will be as many problems to solve as there 
 are scholars in the class. 
 
 5. Some teachers waste time and lose oppor- 
 tunity to secure attention by starting tediously 
 and haltingly into the lesson. Let not a moment 
 be wasted. Plunge at once into the lesson. 
 Plan the opening words to catch eye and ear. 
 Make the best impression first. Look into the 
 eyes of the scholars, and begin without hesita- 
 tion or preface. 
 
How to Secure Attention. 79 
 
 As to the Scholar's Part. 
 
 1. Do not have the lesson "read round," verse 
 by verse. If necessary, begin by reading the 
 first verse and asking questions upon it in quick 
 succession. 
 
 2. Hold each scholar responsible for every 
 question asked and every statement made dur- 
 ing the lesson, as though each scholar consti- 
 tuted the class. Take for your class motto: 
 "All the class, all the time." 
 
 3. Keep every scholar employed as far as pos- 
 sible. The minute the attention of one is flag- 
 ging, give him special work to do — a question 
 to answer, a text to read, etc. 
 
 4. Encourage the scholars who give attention. 
 Speak a kind word or write a kind note, remark- 
 ing upon it. Do this privately rather than pub- 
 licly. If the class as a whole is giving attention, 
 commend them publicly for it. 
 
 5. Give every scholar advance work the Sun- 
 day before. It will stimulate his interest and 
 attention. 
 
 6. As attention wanes, let the teacher's inter- 
 est and energy increase. It will often call back 
 the wandering thought of the class. 
 
 7. Allow no interruptions or distractions while 
 you are teaching. If unavoidable, stop teaching 
 until it has passed; then begin again. Under no 
 circumstances try to teach while the spirit of 
 
 6 
 
80 The Sunday School Ikacher. 
 
 restlessness is rife in the class. It is waste of 
 time and effort. Change your method, intro- 
 duce your illustrations, wait in silence without 
 fretting; but resolve, by God's help and the use 
 of every power he has given you, that you must 
 and will have attention. If that is your spirit and 
 purpose, your success is certain 
 
XI. HOW TO OTESTXON, 
 
 I. The Value of Questioktwo 
 
 The art of questioning underlies, is.Il success- 
 ful teaching. The Great Teacher made constant 
 use of it. The Gospels narrate how frequently 
 he questioned his friends or his enemies. Ques- 
 tion and counter question attended his dis- 
 courses. He made plain the way for the truth, 
 and fixed it securely in the consciences of his 
 hearers, by questioning. He answered questions 
 with questions, baffling the cunning of his op- 
 posers by an incisive question. So with other 
 great teachers, ancient and modern. The meth- 
 od of questioning is termed "Socratic," because 
 of its use by the famous Athenian teacher. Sun- 
 day school questioning has five uses: 
 
 1. To Test the Scholar's Preparation. — Every 
 lesson should begin with this test. Whatever 
 the scholars know of the lesson should be drawn 
 from them by direct questioning. In no other 
 way can their home study be so well tested or 
 secured. If a class knows it must undergo this 
 ordeal of questions, there will be responsive 
 preparation in the home. It is thus that the 
 secular teacher introduces his class work. Its 
 
 (81) 
 
82 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 further value is in determining what the teach- 
 er is to teach. In ascertaining how much or 
 how little the scholars know, he finds his own 
 "point of departure." 
 
 2. To Fix the Scholar's Attention, — Nothing 
 holds the youthful mind in an attitude of atten- 
 tion like the well-timed question of the teacher. 
 Questions are like the antennae of the insect: 
 they reach out and lay hold upon the scholar's 
 thought. The teacher who talks much and 
 questions little has a listless class. 
 
 3. To Stimulate the Scholar's Thought. — 
 Questioning awakens the mind. There is an in- 
 sinuating and disturbing quality in a well-put 
 question that provokes thought, and will not al- 
 low the mind to rest until it is answered and 
 made plain to the understanding. There is, too, 
 in most scholars a pride that delights itself in 
 wrestling with and vanquishing the questions 
 ihat assail it. 
 
 4. To Review the Teachings. — After the facts 
 and teachings of the lesson have been brought 
 out by the teacher, there should be questioning 
 to test the understanding of the scholars. The 
 surest way to fix the salient points of the lesson 
 in the mind of the scholar is to have him tell 
 them back, and questioning is the simplest and 
 best way to set in motion this review. 
 
 5. To Prove the Teacher's Own Work. — The 
 
Hoio to Question. 83 
 
 teacher needs to do this, or he will not know 
 how well he is teaching. The teacher's ques- 
 tions are one half the circle, the scholar's an- 
 swers are the other half; it takes both to make 
 the complete circle of success. If the question- 
 ing discloses an orderly understanding of the 
 facts and teachings of the lesson, the teacher's 
 work is proved. 
 
 II. How to Prepare Questions. 
 
 1. Use the Lesson Text. — Begin early in the 
 week. Take the Bible only. Read the lesson 
 over and over. Take the verses of the lesson, 
 one by one, and think out simple questions as to 
 the facts stated, the meaning of the words used, 
 the spiritual teachings that come naturally out 
 of the lesson. 
 
 2. Write Out Your Questions. — After think- 
 ing your way through the lesson, verse by verse, 
 go back to the beginning and write down the 
 questions that come to you, one or more upon 
 each verse. See that they bring out the chief 
 points in each verse and are in orderly succes- 
 sion. "Writing," says Lord Bacon, "maketh 
 the exact man," and this careful and persistent 
 method of writing down one's questions upon 
 paper is the surest way to attain the art of 
 questioning. 
 
 3. Keep in Mind Your Scholars. — The peril 
 
84 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 of the teacher is the tendency to aim his ques- 
 tions above the scholar's mark. Remember the 
 dull as well as the bright scholars, and fit your 
 questions accordingly. Every scholar in the 
 class, in his home life, in his social, mental, 
 and spiritual qualities, should pass in succes- 
 sion before the mind of the teacher as he pre- 
 pares his questions. To do this well is indeed 
 an art, but one possible to attain and worthy of 
 attainment. 
 
 4. Use the Lesson Helps. — These, by their 
 questions and hints, will further supplement 
 the teacher's own stock of questions. But do 
 not slavishly use the questions in the "helps" in 
 your preparation or class work. Your art will 
 grow only by patient and self-dependent prac- 
 tice. The teacher who relies upon the ques- 
 tions prepared by others is David fighting in the 
 armor of Saul. Better use the shepherd sling. 
 
 5. Study Your Questions.. — After you have 
 thought out what you wish your scholars to 
 learn, and have gone through the text verse 
 by verse, writing questions to this end, and 
 have further enlarged your stock of questions 
 from a study of the questions of others, take up 
 each question in order, and see if it is simple 
 and plain and to the point, neither too easy nor 
 too difficult for your class. Does it help to 
 stir the thought of the scholar and test his un- 
 
How to Question. 85 
 
 derstanding?. Does it bear pointedly upon the 
 great spiritual truths of the lesson, helping to 
 set them in clearer light? If not, run your pen- 
 cil through it, and retain only the approved 
 ones. Then read your questions over and over, 
 and think of their fitness for this or that schol- 
 ar. Lastly, tear up your questions, or commit 
 them to the scrap basket. Heed the counsel of 
 one who was a veteran among teachers, and 
 " shoot without a rest." 
 
 III. "Wrong Methods of Questioning. 
 
 Practice alone, as in other arts, will make 
 perfect in the art of questioning. But there 
 are certain errors in the use of questions to 
 which young teachers are subject. However 
 well prepared the questions themselves, upon 
 the method of their use in the class will depend 
 the success of the teacher; just as the modern 
 "Winchester" in the hands of the holiday hunt- 
 er is less effective than an old "flintlock" un- 
 der the trained eye of a Kentucky rifleman. 
 Some of the blundering forms of questioning 
 are as follows: 
 
 1. Rote Questions. — The teacher begins at 
 the head of his class and passes down the line 
 of scholars in one invariable succession, putting 
 a premium upon inattention at one end, while 
 he is striving to arrest attention at the other end 
 
86 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 of the class. There is small hope for the teach- 
 er who persists in this method. The questions 
 should be a constant surprise to the class, no 
 scholar knowing beforehand who is to be ques- 
 tioned. 
 
 2. Leading Questions. — These involve "yes" 
 and "no" as answers, and effectually dull every 
 edge of thought and reflection in the scholar: 
 "Was not Solomon son of David?" "Is not 
 Paul the apostle to the Gentiles?" Let the 
 question suggest little to the scholar, and shape 
 it so that the scholar and not the teacher shall do 
 the thinking, and "carry the big end of the load." 
 
 3. Obscure Questions. — These are put in am- 
 biguous words, and confuse and perplex the 
 scholar. "What was Peter?", for instance, 
 may have several different answers, and leaves 
 the scholar in doubt as to the teacher's intent. 
 The habit of writing out one's questions in ad- 
 vance, and carefully studying them, is the only 
 corrective against obscurity. 
 
 4. Repeated Questions. — Some teachers mar 
 their good work by repeating questions once 
 asked, as if a second hearing of the ques- 
 tion were better than the first. This breeds in- 
 attention. Let the question be stated once only, 
 plainly and audibly, and await an answer with- 
 out hurtful repetition. Akin to this fault is the 
 teacher's repeating the scholar's answer. 
 
How to Question. 87 
 
 5. General Questions. — These are the bane of 
 much teaching, if teaching it can be called. 
 The teacher asks his question, and leaves it to 
 any who happen to know to answer. No one 
 is indicated by name or sign to make an an- 
 swer, and the result is usually a discordant re- 
 ply from a few members of the class. The 
 bright scholars, as a consequence, catch up the 
 questions, while the slower ones, who most need 
 the stimulus of questioning, are dull and silent. 
 The right way is to first address the question to 
 the entire class, and train them to wait until 
 some scholar is named to make answer. Ques- 
 tions should be first put individually, and con- 
 cert answers allowed only for the sake of em- 
 phasis and repetition. A safe rule is for the 
 teacher to question repeatedly every scholar in 
 every lesson* 
 
XII. HOW TO REVIEW. 
 
 I. The Purpose of Reviews. 
 
 The teacher's review of the lesson has several 
 important ends in view, chief among which are: 
 
 1. To Test the Scholar's Learning. — This is the 
 chief purpose. The teacher must know this by 
 some kind of a test, and the review, oral or 
 written, is the only practicable one. The teach- 
 er needs to know how much and how well the 
 things taught are being learned. To assume 
 this without testing it is to disregard the first 
 principles of his teaching work. 
 
 2. To Fix Securely in the Minds of the Scholars 
 What is Understood. — Once understood, every 
 repetition by the scholar, like the graver's tool, 
 juts the truth more deeply into both understand- 
 ing and memory. It is a law of the mind that it 
 sees and holds most strongly what comes oftenest 
 before it. This is especially true of children. 
 
 3. To Give a Comprehensive Survey of Past 
 Lessons. — In the first teaching of a lesson minor 
 details, incidents, and illustrations encumber 
 the mind and confuse the memory. The review 
 should omit these, and retain only the salient 
 and strong points of the lessons, and seek to 
 
 (88) 
 
Sow to Review. 89 
 
 link them together systematically. The Sun- 
 day school lessons, while based upon consecu- 
 tive study, often appear disjoined and isolated. 
 The review ought to connect these lessons as 
 parts of a whole; otherwise they become a bur- 
 den to the memory. The "law of association" 
 must be utilized by the reviewer to place them in 
 some form of relationship. 
 
 4. To Stimulate the Scholar's Home Study. — 
 The review compels this by throwing upon the 
 scholars the responsibility for understanding and 
 retaining in memory what has been taught, and 
 by thus arousing an interest in the coming les- 
 sons. Hence it is that in the secular schoolroom 
 the class hour is often given to a review of the 
 home studies. 
 
 5. To Prove the Teacher's Own Work. — This is 
 by no means least of the ends of the review. 
 The readiness of a class in review will be the 
 test of the teacher's efficiency. It is a severe 
 test, but a just one. If little is understood or 
 remembered of all that he has taught, the fail- 
 ure is the teacher's and not the scholar's. It is 
 the business of the teacher so to teach that his 
 scholars must learn. 
 
 II. Time for the Review. 
 
 1. There should be a, preview. In the begin- 
 ning of the quarter's lessons the teacher should 
 
90 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 take time to run over the titles of the lessons, 
 point out their connection, call attention to les- 
 sons of special importance, and arouse an inter* 
 est in advance of the quarter's study. A few 
 minutes will suffice for this, and the time will 
 not be lost. The preview catches the attention, 
 preoccupies the scholar's thought, and is a guide- 
 post to better study. For the same reason and 
 in the same way the teacher, from Sabbath to 
 Sabbath, should give helpful hints as to the next 
 lesson. 
 
 2. The review should begin and attend even) 
 lesson. The last lesson (or several recent les- 
 sons) should be briefly and rapidly called up in 
 review. One of our most successful Sunday 
 school teachers often spends half the class hour 
 in thus carefully and persistently bringing up 
 past lessons. The thoroughness of her scholars 
 is confirmation of her wisdom. 
 
 3. The specially hard points of recent lessons 
 should be held firmly in review from Sabbath to 
 Sabbath until it is plain that the class has mas- 
 tered them. Every teacher knows how hard 
 some lessons are to teach in the few minutes of 
 a single Sabbath. He knows, too, how easily 
 some lessons slip into the minds of his scholars. 1 
 It is here that the review should be seized upon 
 in fixing the hard things of past Sabbaths. 
 
 4. In summing up a lesson the review has its 
 
How to Revievj. 91 
 
 rightful place. Before closing a lesson for the 
 day, the teacher should call up its main points 
 in order from the scholars. The class, not the 
 teacher, should do this summing up. The re- 
 view should not degenerate into a rehearsal by 
 the teacher, but should be a re-view (a second 
 view) by the scholars, as proof that they under- 
 stand and remember. 
 
 5. There should invariably be a quarterly re- 
 view at the end of the quarter. No optional les- 
 son should \q allowed to take its place. The 
 quarterly review is the long-range test of teacher 
 and scholars, and is evidence of how much real 
 and permanent knowledge of the Bible is being 
 acquired. It is in view of this fact that in re- 
 cent years teachers, superintendents, and lesson 
 writers, who were once disposed to minimize 
 the quarterly review, are now giving special at- 
 tention to the best methods of utilizing it. The 
 quarterly review, however, will prove tedious 
 and fruitless unless it is preceded by and is based 
 upon the teacher's reviews from Sabbath to Sab- 
 bath. A Sunday school writer has aptly said 
 that "the quarterly review, like an apple, takes 
 three months to ripen." 
 
 III. The Subject-Matter of Reviews. 
 
 The subject-matter of the review should in- 
 clude only the important things of the lessons. 
 
92 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 Many a review breaks down with the weight of 
 the little things imposed upon it. These little 
 things, at the time of their teaching, were useful 
 in bringing out the strong points of a lesson; 
 but, like the scaffolding of a building, should be 
 put aside when their purpose is served. A wise 
 discrimination as to what should go into the re- 
 view will require the teacher's careful thought 
 and planning. It is a grave question whether an 
 extempore review, except by an expert, is worth 
 the time it takes. The following suggestions as 
 to selection of the subject-matter for reviews are 
 given for what they are worth. They may lead 
 to a better plan: 
 
 1. For the primary department let the review 
 include the Titles and Golden Texts of past les- 
 sons of the quarter, provided the little ones un- 
 derstand what these mean. A parroty recitation 
 is worth little. Children, however small, need 
 to understand. 
 
 2. For the intermediate department delude 
 Titles, Golden Texts, and main facts of the lessons. 
 The facts should include the simplest and brief- 
 est statements of the chief events. 
 
 3. In the junior (from twelve to sixteen years), 
 include the preceding items, and add to them a 
 brief statement of the moral and spiritual tan- fl- 
 ings of the lessons. Little children should give 
 the concrete things, but boys and girls of larger 
 
How to Review. 93 
 
 mental growth, if rightly taught, are able to pass 
 from facts to doctrines. 
 
 4. For young men and women of the advanced 
 classes (the senior department), include all that 
 is requked of the younger scholars, and intro- 
 duce the topical treatment of past lessons. This 
 means the linking together into one connected 
 statement by the scholar of all the points in a 
 lesson, or series of lessons, relating to one sub- 
 ject. 
 
 5. For the older Bible classes, a review is as 
 necessary as for the younger. Indeed, the faih 
 ing memory of age demands the more frequent 
 repetition. But with their maturer minds and 
 larger experiences, the review should incline the 
 more to a study of Bible characters and of the 
 great doctrines of God's Word. The simple facts 
 are secondary; the teachings, ethically and spir- 
 itually, better become the maturity and serious- 
 ness of their study. The Golden Texts, however, 
 as "the sincere milk of the word," should be re- 
 quired of the old as of the young. No age or ad- 
 vancement in study should excuse one from "hid- 
 ing the word in his heart." 
 
 IV. Special Hints. 
 
 1. Do not count time wasted if spent in review. 
 If half the teaching be thus bestowed, there will 
 be gain. 
 
94 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 2. Do not cherish the conceit of believing that 
 you can dispense with the review. It is likely 
 that you are much in need of it. 
 
 3. Prepare for your review as carefully as you 
 prepare for teaching the lesson. Do not trust to 
 inspiration. Inspiration attends, but does not 
 take the place of, hard work. 
 
 4. Find a connecting chain between the les- 
 sons of the quarter, and build your reviews upon 
 it. It is not always easy to do, and sometimes 
 the chain of connection is more fanciful than 
 real; but any connection, if only a compulsory 
 one, will help your scholars' memories. 
 
 5. Give frequent brief, spirited drills upon 
 persons, places, texts, titles, teachings of the 
 series of lessons. Take five minutes or more, 
 and drill the memory rapidly in concert. The 
 memory drill is the powder behind the ball. 
 
 6. Make up a series of written questions from 
 time to time, and ask them of the class, check- 
 ing off those not readily answered as a hint to 
 future reviews. Better still, have a scholar 
 make up a list of questions, and take place as 
 reviewer. 
 
 7. Use the printed quarterly review questions. 
 Assign them a week in advance, and have your 
 scholars bring in answers in writing. Then 
 grade their papers, and report to them their 
 grades. 
 
XIII. TEACHING LITTLE CHILDREN. 
 
 1. Getting Ready. — This is no small part of 
 the primary teacher's work. Little minds, like 
 little bodies, require more care than larger 
 ones, and the work of preparation is half the 
 battle. First, the place should begone of seclu- 
 sion, as far as practicable. Curtains, black- 
 boards, or screens will suffice where there is not 
 a separate room. In the opening and closing 
 exercises of the general school, the little ones 
 should be near the superintendent, who should 
 have the good sense to bring the songs, prayers, 
 etc., down to their level as much as possible, 
 and not weary them with exercises in which 
 they cannot take part. The classification will 
 depend upon the number and the ages. In 
 most cases it is better to divide the primary 
 department into small classes or groups un- 
 der assistants, to be taught the lesson in de- 
 tail, and then to mass them for review and 
 drill. The equipment need not be elaborate. 
 A small blackboard, the large weekly lesson pic- 
 ture to focalize attention and aid in teaching, 
 the little lesson story cards for home study, and 
 a child's paper, are the essentials. Those who 
 can read should have their Bibles. The musiCr 
 7 (95) 
 
96 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 except the motion songs and others peculiar to 
 the department, should be the hymns of the 
 school and church, which children can be 
 trained to sing as well and as understanding^ 
 as the older ones. The special exercises of the 
 department should be few and simple, each 
 with a definite purpose of helpfulness. Much 
 time that might be profitably used in teaching 
 is taken up with showy and meaningless so- 
 called "primary exercises." 
 
 2. Molding Attention. — Advising is easier than 
 doing. The restless little bodies, the irrepress- 
 ible hands and feet and tongues of the little 
 ones, perplex the best teacher at times. Atten- 
 tion is to be won, not compelled; as children have 
 not learned the use of the will in constraining 
 attention from within, but must be led along by 
 the skill and patience of the teacher. 
 
 3. The Beginning. — A right beginning is 
 more needful with children than with adults. 
 The opening moment of quiet, the first look, the 
 first words, the hush of expectancy that is be- 
 gotten of the teacher's reverent beginning, will 
 set the standard of work for the day. Of all 
 teachers, the one in charge of little children most 
 needs to begin her work gently and quietly. 
 
 4. The Teacher's Voice. — It is fortunate for 
 the primary teacher if her voice is low and 
 sweet by nature. If not, let her take care to 
 
Teaching Little Children. 97 
 
 train it to this end. Nothing repels attention 
 or arouses the spirit of disorder among children 
 more quickly than a high-pitched, rasping, 
 "fussy" voice and manner on the part of the 
 teacher. The quick imitative.ness of childhood 
 specially enforces this admonition. 
 
 5. Variety. — Monotony is fatal to primary 
 work, A set programme is a physical and men- 
 tal burden to children. In a great school, with 
 hundreds of little ones in the primary depart- 
 ment, are recalled the pathetic looks of the little 
 sufferers undergoing from Sabbath to Sabbath 
 the infliction of a cut-and-dried order of exer- 
 cises and teaching from a pretentious "Primary 
 Manual." Change the programme often. Vary 
 the singing, shift the order, deal in surprises, 
 let not the right hand know what the left hand 
 doeth, if you would hold attention and interest 
 of children. Change need not beget confusion. 
 
 6. Illustration. — The child's mind has two 
 gates, "eye gate" and "ear gate." More pass- 
 es through the former than through the latter, 
 hence the need of the objective in teaching. 
 The blackboard is indispensable, not, however, 
 for putting on elaborate outlines and drawings. 
 Little David needs his sling and pebbles. The 
 simplest lines, words, and pictures, growing out 
 from the crayon of the teacher as she stands at 
 the board and talks, or sits with class p!°to or 
 
98 The Sunday School Teacher 
 
 paper before her, is what the children relish. 
 But do not be a slave to board or map, picture 
 or chart. Many lessons are best taught eye to 
 eye, without objective illustration. Remember 
 that the Bible is its own best interpreter and 
 illustrator, and do not follow the example of 
 those teachers who ransack libraries in order to 
 secure "striking" illustrations for the day's 
 lesson, or devour books on blackboard illus- 
 tration to find something to catch the attention. 
 The finest primary teacher in the land has large- 
 ly won her reputation by getting her illustra- 
 tions from the two sources our Lord used — the 
 Bible and the simple things of everyday life. 
 
 7. Using the Bible. — No small part of the pri- 
 mary teacher's work is the cultivation of rever- 
 ence for God's Book in the hearts of the chil- 
 dren. To this end the Bible should be in the 
 hand of the teacher, the lesson should be read 
 from it to the children, and every look and word 
 of the teacher should conspire to deepen the im- 
 pression upon the little ones that it is God who 
 speaks to* them through this Book. As early as 
 possible the children should be expected to bring 
 their own Bibles, and the teacher should begin 
 to train them in their use. 
 
 8. Tlie Story- Telling. — To take the day's les- 
 son,, master it thoroughly, put it the form of a 
 story, and then teach it as such to the children. 
 
Teaching Little, CJdldren. 99 
 
 is the simple and natural method of primary 
 teaching. But this method has its abuses. One 
 of these is the framing of a story whose details 
 are largely from the imagination of the teach- 
 er, and are unwarranted by the Bible original. 
 The craving for the realistic and sensational, 
 and the desire to play upon the emotions of the 
 children, lie behind this tendency. Bible sto- 
 ries are simple and beautiful in themselves, and 
 are already near to the speech of childhood. As 
 far as possible the story-telling of the lesson 
 should conform to the words and facts of the 
 sacred Book, and the utmost accuracy of state- 
 ment should be observed by the teacher. 
 
 9. The Telling Back. — This is as important as 
 the first telling by the teacher, as it tests the 
 thoroughness of her work, and is the measure of 
 the children's learning. No lesson story should 
 ever be told to children without the " tilling 
 back " on their part. The reason for this \& two- 
 fold: it tests how well they learn, and serves to 
 correct their misapprehensions of the lesson. 
 How easily the children may misunderstand a 
 Bible story, the mother and the primary teacher 
 have often had demonstrated by an attempt to 
 have the child reproduce it. In the telling of 
 the story by the teacher, and in the "tolling 
 back" by the child, simplicity and avoidance of 
 all elocutionary effect should be observed Pri- 
 
100 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 mary teachers with stage manners and studied 
 art do much to cultivate the vanity and self- 
 consciousness of children, and to turn the pri- 
 mary department into a Sunday school "show." 
 
 10. Drilling the Children. — The secret of suc- 
 cess with many primary teachers is the constancy 
 and painstaking of the drill. Over and over, 
 over and over, the facts and teachings of the 
 lesson are drilled upon, separately and in con- 
 cert; the teacher first putting the truth in small 
 portions in exact form, and then having a child 
 here and there repeat it singly, and afterwards 
 the full class or department in concert. Chil- 
 dren take pleasure in a spirited drill, and only 
 by repeated drills do they truly learn. Some 
 lessons are harder to teach than others. In such 
 cases give to the easy lesson of the day less 
 time, and after it is taught go back to the hard 
 lesson of a previous Sunday, and drill upon 
 its difficulties. Lesson after lesson of the quar- 
 ter should thus be linked together by the meth- 
 od of the drill. 
 
 11. Golden Text and Title. — To have the chil- 
 dren commit to memory and to understand these 
 two things of the lesson, is an essential of pri- 
 mary teaching. They epitomize the lesson, and 
 hold it in condensed form. About the Golden 
 Text especially the lesson crystallizes. But it is 
 better to drill this into the memory of the child 
 
Teaching Little Children. 101 
 
 after the lesson has been taught, and for the 
 teacher, as she teaches, to bring out its mean- 
 ings. Hence the wise primary teacher begins 
 with the lesson story and ends with the Golden 
 Text, around which the story is made to revolve 
 again and again in the teaching. 
 
 12. T7ie Spiritual Things. — The primary 
 teacher who merely tells prettily a Bible story, 
 and goes no farther than the concrete things of 
 the lesson, on the assumption that little chil- 
 dren cannot enter understandingly into spiritual 
 truth, knows little of the childish mind and 
 heart. Children are the special care of the Holy 
 Ghost, who fails not, though the teacher may, 
 to set before the child the mysteries of the 
 kingdom. The child's spiritual intuitions are 
 often keener than the adult's. Be not afraid to 
 appeal to the oonscience, to deal strongly with 
 the spiritual consciousness of the child, to ques- 
 tion it upon the things of God. But avoid 
 another extreme, and do not wrest the lesson 
 away from its plain and simple intent, nor 
 thrust upon the children fanciful and far-fetched 
 teachings "about Jesus." Every lesson, though 
 from the Bible, has not in itself the image and 
 person of Christ. 
 
XIV. TEACHING BIG BOYS AND GIRLS. 
 
 By "big boys and girls" are meant those of 
 the junior department, whose ages range from 
 twelve to sixteen years. 
 
 The difficulties attending the teaching of this 
 class of scholars are partly real and partly imag- 
 inary. One of these is the odium put upon them 
 by some teachers who hold them as Ishmaelites. 
 "Give me any class but one of big boys or girls" 
 is not uncommonly heard. Another difficulty is 
 in the transition stage through which these boys 
 and girls are passing. They are no longer chil- 
 dren, docile and trustful, and are not old enough 
 to be addressed as "young ladies and gentle- 
 men." They are practically nondescripts, a law 
 unto themselves, socially and educationally. It 
 is the perilous period of the "teens," fraught 
 with large possibilities for good or evil. 
 
 No period in life demands greater care and ten- 
 derness than this one of big boyhood or girlhood, 
 and at no time is character more surely formed. 
 
 I. As to the Teacher. 
 1. Have a care, then, what kind of teacher is 
 set over big boys and girls, as that teacher means 
 more for good or bad than any who come before 
 or follow after. 
 (102) 
 
Teaching Dly Boys and Girls. 103 
 
 2. Choose a teacher with heart power, especial- 
 ly. If one who is clear-headed and warm-hearted 
 can be gotten, all the better; but if not, take one 
 who has a big loving heart, who has not forgot- 
 ten the days of boyhood or girlhood. 
 
 3. Whether it should be a man or woman to 
 teach such scholars is of small account. Usual- 
 ly a man is better for boys and a woman for 
 girls; but rather than turn them over to the ten- 
 der mercies of a rasping and unsympathetic 
 teacher, any one, without regard to sex or age, 
 should be chosen. 
 
 4. It must be a teacher with the mother instinct. 
 Men often have this, and women often have it 
 not. It takes both the firmness of the masculine 
 and gentleness of the feminine combined to make 
 the best teacher for big boys and girls. 
 
 5. There is a good reason in the nature of things 
 why men, as a rule, should teach the larger boys 
 and women the larger girls. A man who has 
 endured the trials of his own boyhood will un- 
 derstand those of his sex better than a woman; 
 the same is true as to a woman teaching girls. 
 On the other hand, the principle will hold against 
 all challenge, either in secular or religious edu- 
 cation, that no teaching or training is complete 
 until it has received the impress of both sexes as 
 teachers. 
 
 6. Whoever the teacher, the test of fitness is 
 
104 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 that be or she shall have shown some measure oi 
 skill in the management of big boys and girls. 
 There are such persons in every church, who, as 
 parents or companions of big boys and girls, have 
 made their mark upon them and are recognized 
 by them as leaders. 
 
 II. As to the Teaching. 
 
 1. The chief thing to do with these big boys 
 and girls in the class is to keep them busy. That 
 will depend upon the teacher's painstaking in 
 planning the work so as to engage every moment 
 of time from beginning to ending of the lesson 
 hour. "Work, downright and constant, is the 
 solvent of mischief. 
 
 2. Have them to own and use their Mibles, and 
 allow nothing but the Bible in class work. It 
 is the best time for teaching its practical use, as 
 it is the time of all others for inculcating rev- 
 erence for it. 
 
 3. In teaching, use mainly the method of ques- 
 tion and answer. Do not lecture, or "talk about" 
 the lesson. Such scholars have not mastered the 
 art of thinking consecutively, and questions will 
 be as scaffolding to carry forward their thoughts. 
 The lecture method is out of place, as their list- 
 lessness under it will demonstrate to the observ- 
 ing teacher. Let the teacher think out his ques- 
 tions in advance, and fit them to particular schol- 
 
Teaching Big Boys and Girls. 105 
 
 ars. Vary the order by having the class to do 
 the questioning. At all times encourage ques- 
 tions from the class, on the one condition that 
 they pertain to the lesson. 
 
 4. Stick to the text of the lesson. Plan ques- 
 tions to bring out its meaning, hold the class to 
 the very words of the Scriptures. Draw out by 
 questions what the text contains. Refer answers 
 to the text as the test of correctness. To thus 
 train a class of boys or girls in the habit of care- 
 ful scrutiny of the Bible text is the beginning of 
 fruitful study. 
 
 5. Make free use of the marginal references. 
 Most of these throw light upon the lesson. 
 Train the scholars to find and utilize them in 
 class work and home study. Assign one or 
 more to each scholar; have them read before the 
 class and their application explained. This has 
 an added value in giving something to every one 
 to do. 
 
 6. Aim especially at the slow and dull. Give 
 these plenty of time. Ask of them the simplest 
 questions. Hold back the ' ' smart " scholars, and 
 impress the doctrine of class rights and mutual 
 forbearance. 
 
 7. The round table method is a good variation 
 from the regular order. No set questions are 
 asked; each is free to speak; one or more are as- 
 signed in advance to lead off with comments on 
 
106 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 the lesson, or to suggest "points" which they 
 have thought out; others follow briefly at will; 
 and the teacher sums up and closes the lesson. 
 
 8. The lyceum method may also be used at 
 times. If the lesson hinges upon an evenly bal- 
 anced question, the teacher may turn it into the 
 form of a set "discussion," with scholars of 
 known views to lead, others taking sides at 
 pleasure. Here and there are lessons which may 
 allow such treatment, the one point to guard 
 against being the taking of sides for the sake of 
 mere argument. 
 
 9. If possible, secure some sort of seclusion in 
 class work; if not in a class room to themselves, 
 screen them from neighboring classes, or at least 
 seat them in a remote corner. Teachers of big 
 boys and girls know their tendency to become 
 "neighborly" with other classes. 
 
 III. As to Management. 
 
 1. Never mind the animal spirits of big boys 
 and girls. Do not become impatient over it. 
 Nature made them so, and they are of little ac- 
 count without it. When the boiler is too full of 
 steam, provide an escape valve. 
 
 2. Allow much for the transition period. Ad- 
 olescence is not an evil in itself. A study of the 
 physical conditions attendant upon big boyhood 
 and girlhood is worth much to teachers. 
 
Teaching Big Boys and Girls. 107 
 
 3. Put proper incentives before them: the "roll 
 of honor," the "class standing," the day of hon- 
 or and recognition before the school. 
 
 4. Capture the class leaders. Find them out 
 by watching the class, and win them as your 
 helpers, and place them on your personal staff. 
 
 5. Have regard for the gregarious instinct. Do 
 not try to drive the class collectively, but take 
 your appeal to each boy or girl individually. 
 You will succeed in this way where you have 
 failed in trying to move the class as a body. 
 
 6. Do not put big boys and girls in the same 
 class. Sentiment is not always sense. 
 
 7. Be thoroughly impartial. Shun favorit- 
 ism. Treat rich and poor, dull and bright, alike. 
 Allow no challenge to your absolute fairness to 
 to all. 
 
 8. Make comrades of your scholars on the 
 street, in the home, by fine courtesies reserved 
 specially for them. Convince them that they are 
 always and everywhere first in your thought. 
 
 9. Get good readable books for the class, and 
 start a class library. Class ownership develops 
 the class spirit, and is helpful. 
 
 10. Organize the class with class officers — a 
 president, secretary, etc. Let them elect their 
 officers, frame by-laws and rules of order, and 
 learn the lesson of self-government. 
 
 11. Appoint committees— lookout, sick, visita- 
 
108 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 tion, social, etc. Find work for these commit- 
 tees. 
 
 12. Have class observance of days — Christmas, 
 Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, anniversaries, 
 etc. 
 
 13. If practicable, spend a few days every 
 summer camping out as a class. It will pay. 
 
 14. Cultivate the parents. It helps a scholar 
 to see that his teacher is on close terms with his 
 father and mother. 
 
 15. Do not be afraid to talk religion, but deal 
 privately with each as opportunity offers. If 
 religious yourself, you cannot help talking it to 
 those you love. Your scholars will expect it of 
 you, and will wonder why you do not open your 
 heart to them upon the one thing that most con- 
 cerns them. 
 
XV. TEACHING YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 I. The Problem of Sex. 
 
 Whether there should be mixed or separate 
 classes of young men and women will depend 
 upon local conditions. The pleas for the former 
 are: 1. The stimulus to study that comes from 
 the mixing of the sexes, in arousing a spirit of 
 desire to appear well. 2. The finer religious 
 and moral tone of young women as a help to 
 young men. 
 
 Per contra, those who favor separate classes 
 maintain: 1. That young men are constrained 
 rather than helped in study by the presence in 
 the class of young women, who have more time 
 for study, and therefore lead in the work of the 
 lesson hour. 2. That mixed classes minister to 
 the social rather than the religious and intellec- 
 tual needs of members. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the classes of young peo- 
 ple in our American Sunday schools, now widely 
 known as having solved the problem of getting 
 young men and women into the Sunday school, 
 are restricted to one sex only. 
 
 II. The Problem of a Department. 
 
 Whether mixed or separate as to sex, it is cer- 
 
 (109) 
 
110 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 tain that the problem of getting young men and 
 women into Sunday school is retarded by the 
 promiscuous way in which they are graded. 
 Young people who have attained their majority 
 are classed with big boys and girls, or assigned 
 to silence and nonentity in classes of elderly peo- 
 ple. Age, tastes, associations, habits of thought 
 and life are ignored. The remedy lies along 
 the following lines: 
 
 1 . Use the young men and women already in 
 church and school to recruit other young men 
 and women. 
 
 2. Plan the work of recruiting, assign de- 
 tails to those who will take part, and persist in 
 setting before the young people of the commu- 
 nity the need and profit of Sunday school mem- 
 bership. 
 
 3. Take special note of those who come. 
 Honor them in every way possible. Smooth 
 their way, and strengthen the bonds of affilia- 
 tion. 
 
 4. Unite all classes of young people, whether 
 mixed or separate, into a distinct department. 
 Seat the classes together, in one part of the room, 
 if there are not separate class rooms. If pro- 
 vided with class rooms, place the classes in ad- 
 joining rooms. 
 
 5. Give the department its own name. The 
 bost name is one suggested twenty years ago* 
 
Teaching Young Men and Women. Ill 
 
 the " Young People's Assembly," or simply the 
 "Assembly." It is better than " Senior Depart- 
 ment," which properly applies to the older mem- 
 bers. 
 
 6. Allow promotion to this department for all 
 young people over sixteen years of age. Make 
 promotion to the "Assembly " one of the special 
 features of the year. Set a day for it, and ob- 
 serve the occasion appropriately. 
 
 7. Try the department plan, whether your 
 school is large or small, in city or country. Its 
 success does not depend upon the number of 
 classes composing it. It follows the natural 
 principle of putting together those who are proper 
 yokefellows. 
 
 III. The Problem of a Class Spirit. 
 
 A class spirit is one of the best helps toward 
 a solution of the general problem. It is worthy 
 of note that the "spirit" of the famous classes 
 above mentioned is the main cause of their suc- 
 cess. Rightly directed, the class spirit will give 
 stimulus beyond any other influence. There are 
 ways of developing this spirit: 
 
 1. Have a class organization. Frame a con- 
 stitution and by-laws, and have the class adopt 
 it, or let the class frame it. 
 
 2. Have a corps of class officers — a president, 
 a vice president, a secretary, a treasurer, an 
 
 8 
 
112 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 usher (if a large class), a chaplain, an executive 
 committee. 
 
 3. Appoint standing committees; a "lookout" 
 committee, to work for additions to the class; 
 a "visiting" committee, to call upon members 
 when there is need; an "absentee" committee, 
 to keep an eye on any who are derelict in at- 
 tendance; a "social" committee, to plan social 
 functions; a "finance" committee, to foster 
 contribution and distribution of class money; a 
 "spiritual" committee, to work personally for 
 the saving of unsaved members. A fine class 
 spirit is summed up in this one admonition: 
 give every one something to do for his class, 
 and take care that it is done faithfully. 
 
 IV. The Problem of Teaching. 
 
 This is the main problem. It is not easy to 
 teach young men and women in a way that will 
 interest and hold them to the class. Blunders 
 are made in the choice of a teacher; others in 
 the method of teaching. 
 
 As to the Teacher. — 1. In choosing a teacher 
 for young men or women, the first qualification 
 should be that of piety. To be a clean, strong 
 Christian, with unsullied reputation, with ex- 
 perience in the religious life — these are indis- 
 pensable. 
 
 2. Second in importance is a well-grounded 
 
Teaching Young Men and Women. 113 
 
 knowledge of the Bible. Not technical or scho- 
 lastic knowledge is meant, but plain, home- 
 grown knowledge that comes of searching the 
 Scriptures. Scholastic knowledge too often 
 sticks to the dry bones of theological systems. 
 
 3. Next in order is a sincere sympathy with 
 young men and women. No teacher of per- 
 functory spirit should ever be called to teach 
 young people. 
 
 As a rule, if the classes are separate as to 
 sex, a man is better for young men as teacher, 
 and a woman for young women. If mixed class- 
 es, some of the objections to mixing, as noted 
 above, may be met by putting a man to teach. 
 Young men will then take readier part, while 
 young women will not suffer loss. 
 
 1. As to Jlethods. — 1. Do not question much, 
 at least to the extent of embarrassing slower 
 members. 
 
 2. Allow free discussion along the lesson's 
 lines, within the bounds of time. Young people 
 have opinions, and desire to express them. 
 
 3. Do not assume to be an encyclopedia of 
 Bible learning. Frankly admit ignorance, and 
 thus hold respect. Ask for time in which to 
 meet demands, and lay yourself out to find what 
 is wanted. 
 
 4. Use the topical and lecture methods. As- 
 sign topics or subjects from the lesson in ad- 
 
114 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 vance, giving every member in turn something 
 to do at home. Hear Avhat they have to say 
 upon the assigned subjects, and spend the re- 
 mainder of the hour in presenting the truths of 
 the lesson. 
 
 5. Take pains to base all teachings upon the 
 Bible, and do not set up your own beliefs as 
 a standard of truth. Sticking close to the in- 
 spired text, drawing your evidences from it, 
 will beget a habit of Bible-searching in young 
 people, and do much to dispel the critical mood 
 that often besets them. 
 
 6. Be patient especially with the "bad young 
 man." If anything needs to be said in admoni- 
 tion, let it be done in privacy and tenderness. 
 Remember that young men often appear worse 
 than they really are. It is "put on," and is 
 more for effect than an evidence of real bad- 
 ness. 
 
 7. Cultivate an unfailing optimism in dealing 
 with young people. They have come to an age 
 when you cannot drive or easily lead them. 
 They are quick to detect if the teacher has lost 
 confidence in them; but as long as they are sure 
 you trust them and have faith in saving them, 
 you cannot fail as their teacher. 
 
XVI. TEACHING ADULT SCHOLARS. 
 
 Many Sunday schools are giving emphasis to 
 the attendance of the older people. Within a 
 few years, a number of " adult departments'* 
 have demonstrated the practicability of securing 
 adult attendance and interest in Bible study. 
 Two reasons should be urged for such depart- 
 ments: 
 
 1. The average man or woman needs regular 
 and systematic Bible study, as a "means of 
 grace." The tendency of a busy life is to neg- 
 lect such study in the home and on week days, 
 which makes it the more imperative that it be 
 done on the Sabbath, when secular work does 
 not obtrude. 
 
 2. Attendance of the adults upon the Sunday 
 school is needed for the sake of example. The 
 young men and women of the church and com- 
 munity will not easily be led to attend the Sun- 
 day school until it has the dignity and prestige 
 an adult department will give to it. The "young 
 man" problem, so often under discussion, will 
 be solved by the presence in the school of the fa- 
 thers and mothers. 
 
 I. The Adult Department. 
 1. Give the department its own place. Scat- 
 
 (115) 
 
116 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 teringits classes throughout a building, and call- 
 ing it a "department," will not make it one. 
 The department feeling must be culivated, which 
 will be done by massing it, giving it place and 
 title of honor distinctively, and making much of 
 it. A stimulus will thus be given to scholars of 
 the under grades to work up by promotion 
 into it. 
 
 2. On the other hand, do not allow the adult 
 department to overshadow the school. This is 
 done by setting the standards of study, review, 
 general exercises, and platform talks above the 
 range of children and youth. Aim at all class- 
 es and ages in the general work of the school. 
 
 3. Keep extremes apart. Do not put into the 
 same class of the adult department extremes in 
 age, tastes, and habits. Put married people 
 and old people in classes to themselves. Let 
 each be with his fellows. Comradeship should 
 rule in classifying. Each should be where he 
 will feel most at ease, and be free to speak 
 without fear of disclosing ignorance. 
 
 4. Do not draw upon the adult department 
 for substitute teachers. Make provision for 
 such supply in the way of a teacher's training 
 class. A superintendent should not urge adult 
 scholars to take charge of class work for which 
 they are not prepared, and to avoid which they 
 eease to attend. 
 
Teaching Adult Scholars. 117 
 
 5. Look to the adult department for a good ex- 
 ample in all things, in attending promptly and 
 regularly, in taking hearty part in the general 
 exercises, in good order, in genuine loyalty to 
 the school. To allow a double standard in the 
 school, one for children and youth, another for 
 older scholars, seriously impairs good govern- 
 ment. The older the scholars, the more readily 
 they should respond to the rule of the chief. 
 
 II. Teaching Adults. 
 
 1. Give the classes the best teachers you can 
 command. One who has tact, firmness, and pa- 
 tience will usually succeed with a class of 
 adults. Older scholars need leadership rather 
 than teaching. They have come to think for 
 themselves, and to hold convictions upon Bible 
 matters. The leader who simply "draws them 
 out," and guides them through the lesson, will 
 prove acceptable. 
 
 2. Use the colloquial method. Adult schol- 
 ars are often driven away for fear of being 
 cross-examined upon the day's lesson. As a 
 rule, such scholars do a minimum of home study, 
 and rely upon their general knowledge of the 
 Bible, which makes them the more sensitive to 
 direct questioning. 
 
 3. Use Bibles only in the adult classes, how- 
 ever much this is abated in other departments. 
 
118 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 Adult classes are controversial, and it is well to 
 hold them to the Bible as an end of contro- 
 versy. 
 
 4. Do not allow a monopoly by the two or 
 three who happen to be the most knowing. Give 
 every member of the class opportunity to speak 
 his mind upon the lesson. But leave each free 
 to speak or to be silent without sense of failure. 
 
 5. Do not become controversial as the teach- 
 er. If a wrong opinion prevails, set over 
 against it your own in few words, and pass to 
 the next point. Especially keep out "isms." 
 Take the lesson in hand, press it upon the class, 
 stick to the Bible, and put aside every attempt 
 to exploit "cranky" opinions. 
 
 III. Two Examples. 
 
 Two notable examples among many take 
 prominence in illustrating the possibilities of 
 an adult department. One is in the North, the 
 other in the South. 
 
 The "O'Hanlon Bible Class," of Ocean Grove, 
 N. J., is an evidence of how people find a 
 charm in free and unconventional study of the 
 Bible. This class is the "adult department" of 
 a school which meets at 3 p.m. on the Sabbath, 
 during the seashore season from May to Octo- 
 ber. Dr. O'Hanlon, President of the Penning- 
 ton Academy, is a genial, well-roundec^ con- 
 
Teaching Adult Scholars. 119 
 
 servative leader. Three thousand persons are 
 often to be found in his class. For an hour 
 they are held closely to study of the freest 
 colloquial kind. The International lessons are 
 used. A part of the hour, at opening, is given 
 to general questions from the class, in writing 
 or orally, upon matters of Bible interest. The 
 range of these questions is wide, and often ex- 
 tends to secular questions growing out of Bible 
 teachings. The leader answers the questions, 
 or calls for volunteer answers, correcting and 
 directing at his pleasure. Then follows his 
 statement of the greater teachings of the regu- 
 lar lesson of the day, to which additions are 
 made by volunteers. The study is free, hearty, 
 spirited, but always held firmly in bounds. 
 4 'Cranks" are not tolerated. 
 
 The other adult department is that of Trinity 
 Methodist Sunday School, Atlanta, Ga. With- 
 am's "Busy People's Class," as recently ob- 
 served, is a great adult class, conducted after a 
 unique way. The finest preparation is made by 
 the leader upon the day's lesson; an appointed 
 "reader," standing before the class, reads verse 
 by verse; the text is first made plain, then illus- 
 trated and enforced by Mr. Witham with rare 
 skill. The lecture method obtains. No direct 
 questioning is done by the leader. As with the 
 O'Hanlon class. Questions from members are en- 
 
120 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 couraged and answered. Volunteer "points" 
 are called for, and visitors of distinction are oc- 
 casionally used to assist the leader. The utmost 
 freedom from embarrassment and conventional- 
 ity is the rule. 
 
XVII. THE TEACHER'S TRAINING WORK. 
 
 Training one's scholars is more difficult than 
 teaching them. It is putting into practice the 
 lessons taught. The difference is that between 
 planting the seed and caring for the plant until 
 it comes to maturity. A Bible doctrine may be 
 taught in a day, but working it out in the life is 
 a slow and difficult labor of years. Teaching 
 gives knowledge; training makes character. The 
 teacher's best work is along the lines of train- 
 ing. The day school teacher's objective is good 
 citizenship; the Sunday school teacher's is Chris- 
 tian character. The latter goes beyond the for- 
 mer in training for the home, the church, and 
 the state, for both secular and religious uses, 
 for the life that is and the life to come. It is a 
 noble and far-reaching work, an opportunity and 
 responsibility unsurpassed. It was said of Dr. 
 Thomas Arnold, of Rugby, that he "left his 
 mark upon every Rugby boy." His methods, 
 as disclosed in "Tom Brown's School Days at 
 Rugby," show how thoroughly he individualized 
 his great school and trained each boy for what- 
 ever was best in him. So the wise Sunday school 
 teacher must study the temper and disposition of 
 his scholars, and find along what lines of train- 
 
 (121) 
 
122 T he Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 ing his work should proceed. Here are some of 
 the things to be included in his training work: 
 
 1. Christian Habits. — Training forms, rather 
 than reforms. Forming safe habits is the prac- 
 tical work of the Sunday school. There is the 
 habit of prayer, both private and public; of pure 
 speech and living; of respect for the aged and 
 infirm; of courtesy to inferiors; of kindness to 
 brutes. There are habits of good and whole- 
 some reading, of honor to parents, of Sabbath- 
 keeping, of helpfulness and almsgiving. A 
 habit, good or bad, is the resultant of an act in- 
 definitely repeated until it becomes constant 
 and involuntary. A Christian habit is one pat- 
 terned after the example or commandments of 
 Christ. 
 
 2. Christian Service. — The present has been 
 fittingly called the "era of young people." 
 Young people's societies have multiplied, and 
 the church is calling them into all forms of 
 service. The Sunday school is a better training 
 place for Christian service than the Endeavor or 
 League society, for the reason that it begins its 
 training earlier, and employs the methods of the 
 school. It was the neglect, indeed, by the Sun- 
 day school of this training function that gave 
 rise to the young people's societies. It is by 
 this training work of the school that the church 
 must grow a crop of serviceable young Chris- 
 
lite Teacher's Training Work. 123 
 
 tians. One small school by such training with- 
 in a few years has supplied seven missionaries 
 and preachers. Another school provides the 
 greater part of the prayer meeting congregation, 
 as a result of training its membership to attend 
 en masse. Yet another Sunday school utilizes a 
 score or more of its boys and girls as home de- 
 partment messengers. House- to- house visita- 
 tion, caring for the sick, finding out the desti- 
 tute, looking up absent ones, assisting pastor and 
 superintendent in clerical and other ways, are 
 some of the forms of service in which scholars 
 may be trained. 
 
 3. Church Attendayice. — The school's first duty 
 in the matter of attendance is to the church 
 rather than to itself. The school is for the 
 church, not the church for the school. The 
 preaching service, in the light of Scripture or 
 reason, has higher claim upon childhood and 
 youth than the school. Parent, pastor, and 
 teacher should unite in securing the presence 
 of the entire school at the Sabbath morning 
 preaching service. The teacher should set a 
 good example of attendance, and urge it upon 
 his class. He should keep a record of the 
 church attendance of his scholars, and talk 
 with them about the church, its pastor, the du- 
 ty and privilege of public worship. He should 
 counsel with the pastor as to such attendance, 
 
124 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 and seek to bring the pastor and the scholars 
 closer together. 
 
 4. Church Loyalty. — There is a kind of church 
 loyalty whose roots are ignorance and bigotry. 
 True loyalty is intelligent and catholic; devoted 
 to one's own church, because it knows and be- 
 lieves thoroughly its doctrine, yet honoring all 
 other churches for the good it sees in them. 
 Such loyalty manifests itself by firm adherence 
 to the church's peculiar doctrines, faithfulness 
 to one's pastor, obedience to church rules, gen- 
 erous support of its ministries, ready and hearty 
 service in its behalf. The Sunday school teach- 
 er is doing a great work when he thus trains his 
 scholars. 
 
 5. Systematic Giving. — The liberal church is 
 the product of home and Sunday school training. 
 The generous givers of the church are those who 
 have been taught in childhood to give from prin- 
 ciple and with system. Scriptural giving is 
 never spasmodic or emotional, but constant and 
 by rule. Sunday school scholars can easily be 
 trained to give cheerfully and systematically. 
 The teacher should have a plan or system for 
 his class, not a competitive one with honors for 
 the largest giver, which is unscriptural, but a 
 system based upon regular and intelligent giv- 
 ing, as a duty to God and the church. Priz* 
 banners, class rivalries, any motive of mere com 
 
The Teacher } s Training Work. 125 
 
 petition, should not be allowed. The scholar 
 should be trained to give as an obligation of 
 stewardship, an act of worship. His acts of 
 giving, rather than the amounts he gives, should 
 be recorded by his teacher and included in the 
 reports of the school. 
 
 6. Helpful Reading. — Good books and papers 
 are vital to good character in the young. A 
 well- chosen and well -managed library is the 
 teacher's best auxiliary. What his scholars read 
 between Sabbaths most seriously affects the 
 teacher's work. A clean helpful book in the 
 hands of the scholar reenforces the teacher at 
 every point. Recent experiments in secular and 
 religious education have shown conclusively that 
 the beginnings of youthful viciousness are large- 
 ly and directly traceable to bad books. The 
 reading habit grows quickly upon our boys and 
 girls, and can be turned to good account. The 
 easy tendency is toward books of fiction, which 
 usually are hurtful to mind and heart. With 
 hundreds of good, strong books, fitted especially 
 to the temper and tastes of boys and girls, books 
 of history, biography, travel, popular science, 
 etc., there is abundant material at hand with 
 which to train one's scholars in ways of helpful 
 reading. Nor is the excuse well founded that 
 charges upon children and youth an aversion to 
 such books. 
 
126 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 7. Reverence. — Our American youth particu- 
 larly need training in reverence. Makers of our 
 own laws and rulers, freer than any people and 
 boastful of our freedom, we are losing much of 
 the reverent spirit of the fathers of the republic. 
 To the credit of our schools, our boys and girls 
 hold some things in reverence. There is rever- 
 ence for the Bible, for great men, for the flag. 
 There is wanting a reverence for the Sabbath, 
 the house of God, for the home, for law and or- 
 der, for personal faith and honor. Our youth 
 need the Sunday school teacher's care in these re- 
 spects. Their liberty, unrestrained by parental 
 authority or moral sentiment, is converted into 
 license. Nothing can compensate for the lack 
 of a reverent spirit in youth. To train a boy to 
 deport himself as a gentleman in all places, es- 
 pecially in the church; to respect the law and its 
 officers, great and small; to cherish a pride in 
 keeping faith and honor in all things — is better 
 than the mere teaching of lessons. The Sunday 
 school has the advantage over the day school in 
 this training. True reverence is founded in fear 
 of God, and is directed by a Christian conscience. 
 Reverence is but another name for religion, and 
 the Sunday school teacher, by virtue of his office, 
 is a religious trainer. 
 
XVIII. THE TEACHER'S WEEK DAY WORK. 
 
 Over against the one hour of the Sunday school 
 session, in helpfulness or hindrance, is set the 
 entire week. Considering the forces that array 
 themselves against the teacher's work — the neg- 
 lectful Christian parent, the godless home with 
 its positively evil training, the temptations that 
 early beset our boys and girls, the vices of the 
 street open before them, the evil companions 
 who ensnare them, the bad books and papers 
 in easy reach — it is a wonder that the Sunday 
 school, with its small fraction of time, is doing 
 so much genuine and permanent good. But for 
 the fact that its ministries are of heaven rather 
 than of earth, and that they bind together the 
 sacred influences of the Lord's day and Book 
 and house, the teacher might well lose heart in 
 his work. If, added to these Sabbath influences, 
 there can be found time by the teacher for a 
 week day work that will help to counteract the 
 evil and reenforce the good, it will often turn 
 defeat into victory. Much time or effort is not 
 demanded. Sunday school teachers are busy 
 people, and cannot always measure up to the 
 standards set for them. But with the busiest 
 teacher there should be time for a few things 
 9 (127) 
 
128 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 that will help his scholars to fight the hard bat- 
 tie of temptation that comes from their week 
 day living. 
 
 Some of the things the teacher can include in 
 this work of the week are suggested: 
 
 1. He can study the home conditions of his 
 scholars, and therein find the key to their better 
 management in the class. 
 
 2. He can arrest absenteeism before it becomes 
 chronic and incurable. 
 
 3. He can assist and encourage the home study 
 of the scholars, and thus find the key to their 
 teaching in the class. 
 
 4. He can take counsel with the parents, and 
 secure cooperation with his plans. 
 
 5. He can strengthen the bonds of personal 
 friendship between his scholars and himself, 
 and thereby gain their affection and confidence. 
 
 I. Studying the Scholar. 
 
 The teacher, at best, can gain only a general 
 knowledge of his scholars from contact with 
 them in class. The real personality of a schol- 
 ar rarely discloses itself when massed with 
 other scholars. The boy collective is not the 
 boy individual. A full knowledge of the schol- 
 ar must be sought from the mother, the day 
 school teacher, his "chums." The company he 
 keeps wD r be the clew to his habits. The books 
 
The Teacher's Week Day Work. 129 
 
 and papers he reads will disclose his bent of 
 mind. His day school teacher knows much as 
 to his social and moral disposition, his strong 
 and weak points of character. He can give 
 valuable hints as to his management. His 
 mother knows him best of all in the light of the 
 home, which is his severest test. Though she is 
 partisan by nature, she is often his truest critic. 
 If the Sunday school teacher can take time to 
 study the scholar under these varying condi- 
 tions, the knowledge he will acquire will be in- 
 valuable in his managing and teaching. 
 
 II. Arresting Absenteeism. 
 
 The church, especially the Sunday school, 
 loses much of its strength by way of leakage 
 and drift. Absenteeism at first is fitful, but, if 
 neglected, soon becomes chronic, and then per- 
 manent. Its best preventive is the teacher's 
 week day visitation. Other devices used in 
 Sunday school — such as class records, rewards, 
 rolls of honor — are helpful, but do not compare 
 in value with personal visitation. Sometimes a 
 message or note through the mail will suffice, 
 but the adage applies here: "If you would 
 have something done badly, send another; if 
 well, go yourself." A bad habit forms slowly, 
 and its power is easily broken at first. One 
 visit of the teacher may arrest it, as personal 
 
130 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 contact and importunity are hard to resist. 
 Find out the reason for absence. It may be in 
 the scholar; it may be in the teacher himself. In 
 either case it is worth finding out. Visitation 
 by the teachd, or by some one from class or 
 school, should tread close upon the heels of 
 every absence. One of the great Sunday schools 
 of our country started years ago with less than 
 two hundred scholars; it now enrolls nearly one 
 thousand. Its large growth is chiefly due to 
 two methods: it adds new members by house-to- 
 house visitation, and holds its old members by 
 the insistent visits of its teachers. Each Sab- 
 bath's absentees are reported by the teacher to 
 the superintendent, and the teacher pledges 
 himself, if possible, to visit the absent ones dur- 
 ing the coming week. 
 
 II. Helping Home Study. 
 
 Few scholars have home help in lesson study. 
 The Christian home neglects to help; the non- 
 cliristian home cares little about it. The schol- 
 ar is urged in the class to "study at home," 
 tries to do it, does not know clearly what is 
 meant by it, or what the teacher's standard of 
 "study" may be, and, after a few discouraging 
 efforts, ceases to try. Here is the teacher's op- 
 portunity. A few minutes of his week day time 
 spent by the scholar's side in his home, as friend 
 
The Teacher's Week Day Work. 131 
 
 with friend, showing him how to study his les- 
 sons, how to use the lesson leaf with his Bible, 
 and to make the most of both, will give the schol- 
 ar the needed clew, and possibly form within 
 him the beginning of a habit of home study. 
 The trouble with most boys and girls is not so 
 much an indisposition to study the Bible lesson 
 as it is in not knowing how and to what 
 extent it should be studied. The requirement 
 of the day school for home study is easily sub- 
 mitted to, but the day school teacher wisely 
 sets a definite task, and trains in methods of 
 study. One by one, by the expenditure of a lit- 
 tle effort, the scholars of a Sunday school class 
 may thus be reached and started upon a better 
 way. It is the personal visit and help of the 
 teacher that counts, and such visitation is worth 
 all the copyrighted study schemes on the market. 
 
 IV. Winning the Parents. 
 
 This is the "ounce of prevention" that is worth 
 a "pound of cure." In secular education the 
 rod, once so vigorously applied as a panacea for 
 all ills, lies dust-covered on the shelf, and the 
 secular teacher has found a surer remedy in 
 parental cooperation. The Sunday school teach- 
 er may learn much from the example of the sec- 
 ular teacher. His friendly visits to parents, 
 his frank talks with them over the doings or 
 
132 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 misdoings of his scholars, his appeal for co- 
 operation in managing and teaching them, will 
 be his most profitable week day work. It an- 
 ticipates and forestalls trouble; it wins the par- 
 ents in advance of it; it harmonizes the plans 
 and purposes of the school and of the home. 
 The Sunday school needs the help of the home 
 even more than the day school. If the scholar 
 is a chronic absentee, if he is a disturber in the 
 class, if he neglects the study of the lessons, the 
 corrective is a prompt visit to the home, and a 
 kind word with the father and mother. The 
 visit must not be for the purpose of rehearsing 
 the grievances of the teacher or the faults of 
 the scholar. Touch lightly, if at all, on these; 
 but ask help for the future. Lay your plans for 
 the good of the child frankly before the parents; 
 show them that you seek his welfare only; take 
 counsel with them heartily over the work you 
 are trying to do, and prove to them the genuine- 
 ness of interest you feel in the success of your 
 class. Teachers who have taught long and suc- 
 cessfully have learned to mark with a white 
 stone in the calendar the days devoted to home 
 counsel with parents. 
 
 IV. The Scholar's Friendship. 
 This is the social end of the teacher's work. 
 If he can win the friendship of his scholars, his 
 teaching and managing will be a labor of love. 
 
The Teacher's Week Day Work. 133 
 
 He will no longer need devices and methods. 
 The foundation of such friendship may be laid in 
 the work of the Sabbath, but the week day con- 
 tact and fellowship must develop and perfect it. 
 A look of the eye, a touch of the hand, a gra- 
 cious word and greeting at every chance meet- 
 ing of teacher with scholar, a manifestation of 
 pride and confidence in him at public gather- 
 ings; inviting him to one's home as guest of 
 honor; remembering his birthdays and other 
 days of personal interest; sharing his troubles 
 and cheering him on in his successes — in short, 
 a constant and sincere interest in whatever con- 
 cerns him, on week day or Sabbath, will make 
 him a true and faithful friend. Few friend- 
 ships in life are as unselfish or lasting. One who 
 has become famous as a Sunday school teacher 
 recently said: "I have taught many years, and 
 have had much to do with troublesome and 
 bad boys and girls. The one method I used 
 more than all others was comradeship. In the 
 home, at ball and bat, by the creek side, on the 
 hunt, in the social gatherings, the worse the 
 scholar the more I distinguished him and made 
 him my companion. As comradeship without 
 grew closer, the more docile and thoughtful be- 
 came the bad boy in the class. The castle of a 
 bad boy's life is not taken by storming it, but 
 by entering it as a guest." 
 
XIX. THE TEACHERS MEETING. 
 
 I. Its Purpose. 
 
 The purpose of the teachers' meeting is four- 
 fold: 
 
 1. To stimulate study of the Bible. This is 
 needed because of a tendency among teachers to 
 depend too much upon "helps" and too little 
 upon original study. 
 
 2. To unify and plan the lesson teaching. 
 Teachers in the same school, with the same les- 
 son, sometimes teach wide of the mark, and 
 make prominent the unimportant things of a 
 lesson. 
 
 3. To help the younger teachers, most of whom 
 have no other opportunity of learning how to 
 study and teach. 
 
 4. To use the corps of officers and teachers as 
 a business council^ in which the needs of the school 
 may be discussed and its work planned. The 
 teachers' meeting is the one place in which the 
 judgment and cooperation of the teachers may 
 be secured. 
 
 II. Its Membership. 
 
 1. The pastor should be a constant attendant. 
 As "overseer of the church" he needs, for the 
 (134) 
 
The Teachers' Meeting. 135 
 
 church's sake as well as his own, to keep in 
 touch with his teachers. He ought not to lead 
 the meeting. 
 
 2 . The superintendent and his officers are bound 
 by their obligations of office to attend. The su- 
 perintendent is ex-officio chairman, and should 
 preside over the meeting and direct its work. 
 
 3. The teachers are the chief beneficiaries of 
 the teachers' meeting, and, if not providentially 
 hindered, are without excuse for non-attendance. 
 The older and more experienced the teacher, the 
 more he is under obligation to serve the teachers' 
 meeting. On being appointed to a class in a Sun- 
 day school, every teacher should be brought be- 
 fore the altar of the church, and publicly pledged 
 to attend the teachers' meeting. 
 
 4. In addition to the regular teachers of the 
 school, those who are being used as supply teach- 
 ers and members of the normal class, together 
 with such older scholars as may be called in fu- 
 ture to serve as officers or teachers of the school, 
 should be urged to attend. Contact with the 
 regular teachers in a meeting for study will often 
 stimulate these to prepare for teaching. 
 
 III. The Programme. 
 
 The time and place, though of minor impor- 
 tance, are to be considered. The best time for 
 a teachers' meeting is on Monday night, or at a 
 
136 Tlie Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 time near to the beginning of the week, in order 
 to begin the lesson study as early as practicable. 
 The place should be the coziest church room; if 
 there is not one, then the home of a member, 
 cheery and central. The teachers' meeting should 
 have the brightest setting possible. 
 
 The programme should be frequently varied. 
 Heavy theological discussion, or elaboration of 
 little things of Bible study, should alike be ta- 
 booed. Every teacher should be drawn out at 
 every session. The leader should lead the meet- 
 ing, talk little himself, and allow none to mo- 
 nopolize the time. Two things should be made 
 prominent and clear at every meeting: "What 
 is there in the lesson that should be taught?" 
 and "How shall this be taught to the several 
 classes?" 
 
 A well-rounded programme for a teachers' 
 meeting might profitably include four distinct 
 features: the social, the devotional, the business, 
 and the educational. The social instinct in Sun- 
 day school workers needs conserving. It is not 
 only a good foundation and introduction to the 
 other more important work of the meeting, but 
 it has in itself a drawing power, and will often 
 tempt indifferent teachers to attend. Prefacing 
 the regular session with a social half hour, sup- 
 plementing this when practicable by a "teach- 
 ers' lunch," which allows business men .especial- 
 
The Teachers' Meeting. 137 
 
 ly to come straight from office to meeting, will 
 develop a finer fellowship, relieve monotony, and 
 enhance the real work of the session. A mem- 
 ber of a successful teachers' meeting recently 
 declared that, "after repeated failures, a little 
 small talk and tea was found to be the one miss- 
 ing link." 
 
 After the social should follow the devotional, 
 in a little time devoted to the spiritual life and 
 needs of the teachers. Bible study at times de- 
 generates into routine and professionalism. The 
 best preparation of the mind is by way of the 
 heart. To * ' warm the heart and clear the head " 
 is the purpose of this short season of devotion, 
 of which the keynote is the teacher's own expe- 
 rience of the things of God, as taught by way of 
 the current lessons to his class. The leadership 
 devotionally may be alternated among the teach- 
 ers. 
 
 After the devotional comes the business of the 
 school, superintendent and teachers constituting 
 "the cabinet." Every interest of the school 
 should be considered in turn. Problems of 
 grading, of music, of supply of teachers, of 
 home class, and other department work, what- 
 ever makes for the failure or success of the 
 school, should pass in review before the body of 
 teachers, a,.a their judgment and united action 
 should > j secured. 
 
138 The Sutiday School Teacher. 
 
 After the business is the lesson study, the 
 most important work of the meeting. The fol- 
 lowing are two suggestive programmes, each one 
 hour and a half in length: 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Social Half Hour. 
 
 Devotional Service, ten minutes. 
 
 Business Council, ten minutes. 
 
 The Lesson Study, forty minutes, as follows: 
 
 1. Connecting Links. 
 
 2. Difficulties of the Text. 
 
 3. Differences of Versions. 
 
 4. Parallel Accounts of the Same Lesson. 
 
 5. Main Points to Be Taught (each teacher's 
 
 analysis). 
 
 6. Illustrations to Be Used in Teaching. 
 
 7. Adaptation of Lesson (each teacher's 
 
 judgment). 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Social Half Hour. 
 Devotional Service, ten minutes. 
 Normal Study (in course), twenty minutes. 
 The Lesson Study, thirty minutes, as outlined 
 in No. 1. 
 
 The latter programme suggests a practical com- 
 bination of the teachers' meeting and the normal 
 or training class, by abridging the time of the 
 
The Teachers' Meeting. 139 
 
 social half hour and the lesson study enough to 
 devote twenty minutes to a teacher- training 
 course. The time thus used should be given 
 not so much to study of the training course as 
 to a brief review of such studies in the home. 
 
 IV. The Teachers' Council. 
 
 The fact that there are so few teachers' meet- 
 ings where there should be so many, and that 
 few of these have been truly successful, makes 
 it imperative for the teachers to have an alter- 
 native plan for coming together. If a weekly 
 teachers' meeting is out of the question, or if 
 only a minority of the teachers can attend it, a 
 monthly "Teachers' Council" combining in brief 
 the several features of the teachers' meeting 
 above indicated, is suggested as a compromise. 
 Th e necessity for Sunday school teachers to hold 
 stated meetings for study and conference war- 
 rants a compromise. The name "council''' 
 means no more than "teachers' meeting," except 
 as a new name may be more attractive. In lead- 
 ership, time, place, and general direction, what 
 has been said of the teachers' meeting will apply 
 to the "teachers' council." The several parts 
 of the programme — the social, devotional, busi- 
 ness, lesson study — will also apply. To a ses- 
 sion holding monthly, two hours' time should be 
 given. 
 
140 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 The one important change from the methods 
 of the weekly teachers' meeting will be in the 
 lesson study plan of the monthly "council." 
 The lessons of the four Sundays of the following 
 month would be the subjects of study. Not more 
 than an hour should be given to this study. The 
 plan of study, therefore, divides the time among 
 the four lessons, assigns a leader to each lesson 
 to set forth its main points only, and to suggest 
 lines of study to be followed in the home. The 
 chief purpose of the "council" study, under its 
 limitation of time, is to fix the proper use and 
 application of the lessons of the next month as 
 they relate especially to the needs of the school. 
 Yet the very condensation required by the plan 
 is a help to teachers in setting them at work to 
 discover the pith and essence of each lesson. 
 The methods of treating the lessons may be va- 
 ried to advantage. Teachers, assigned a month 
 in advance, may be required each to outline a 
 lesson in full; or the "teaching points" from 
 the several lessons in order may be drawn out 
 from the body of teachers; or the teachers may 
 constitute a "faculty," each with a department 
 of work. To one may be given for the month's 
 lessons the "connecting links;" to another, the 
 "difficulties of the text" to a third, the "oriental- 
 isms;" and so on through the successive steps of 
 study. A suggestive programme of the teach- 
 
The Teachers' Meeting. 141 
 
 ers' council may exhibit the plan of work more 
 plainly: 
 
 Tlie Teachers' Council. 
 
 Time: Two Hours, Last Monday Night of Each Month. 
 
 Social Half Hour. 
 
 Devotional Service, fifteen minutes, led by teach- 
 ers alternately. 
 
 Business of School, fifteen minutes, led by Su- 
 perintendent. 
 
 Preview of Next Month's Lessons, thirty min- 
 utes, led by teachers alternately. 
 
 Additional Teaching Points, ten minutes, by 
 volunteers. 
 
 The Normal Study (in course), twenty minutes- 
 led by leader of training work. 
 
XX. A TEACHER-TRAINING DEPARTMENT. 
 
 I. Its Need. 
 Every Sunday school needs a department or 
 class in which those who are already teaching, or 
 are to become its teachers, shall be trained for 
 their work. Of many urgent reasons for such a 
 department, the following are given: 
 
 1. Sunday school teachers need such training. 
 To rightly study or to teach is an art that must 
 be learned, as few are by nature "born students" 
 or * ' born teachers. " That one may thus learn is 
 proved by the career of very many successful 
 Sunday school teachers. 
 
 2. The church demands it. More and more it 
 is requiring that the standard of Sunday school 
 teaching shall be raised. The level of Bible 
 knowledge and teaching is being steadily uplift- 
 ed, and the church which neglects to provide for 
 better teachers will inevitably fall behind in pow- 
 er and influence. The age demands that both 
 preachers and teachers shall be more thoroughly 
 equipped. The church has been making provi- 
 sion for the former, but not for the latter class. 
 
 3. The Bible itself deserves it. The teachers 
 of no other text-book are so little trained in its 
 use. The Bible is not " the power of God unto 
 
 (142) 
 
A Teacher- Training Department. 143 
 
 salvation" in the hands of those who neglect the 
 best methods of study and teaching it. It ad- 
 monishes us to "rightly divide the word of 
 truth," and to become "apt to teach." 
 
 4. The young people of the church are willing 
 to be thus trained. Many of them would be 
 glad to teach in the Sunday school, but they 
 realize the demands of the work and their in- 
 ability to do well what only a trained teacher 
 can do. 
 
 II. Its Purpose. 
 
 The purpose of the teacher-training class is 
 fourfold: 
 
 1. To study systematically the Bible as a 
 whole; to fix its great truths historically, doc- 
 trinally, etc. , in their right relationship and or- 
 der, thereby to attain such general knowledge 
 of the Bible as will enable the teacher to rightly 
 comprehend and teach the special Sunday school 
 lessons. 
 
 2. To study the church, as the one divine in- 
 stitution among men, through which shall be ac- 
 complished the salvation of the world ; to be- 
 come familiar with its history, its leaders, its 
 standards of doctrine, its forms of government, 
 its relationships to home, to society, and the 
 state; especially to study one's own denomina- 
 tion as a part of the general Church of Christ. 
 
 3. To study the Sunday school as a great de- 
 
 10 
 
144 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 partment of the church, and as a field for life- 
 long, fruitful service; to learn of its history, de- 
 velopment, and plans, as no teacher can do his 
 best work who is ignorant of the field in which 
 he is to labor. As well expect one to practice 
 medicine or law who is ignorant of its principles 
 and methods. 
 
 4. To learn how to teach. True teaching is both 
 a science and an art. It is a science in that it 
 rests upon certain well-defined principles, which 
 must enter into every step of successful teach- 
 ing. It is an art to be learned as any other art, 
 by observation, study, and practice. Thousands 
 of young people in recent years have set them- 
 selves steadfastly to attain some measure of skill, 
 in this noble art. To know the Bible, the 
 church, the Sunday school, the art of the teach- 
 er, are the four things that our teachers must 
 learn, if only the church will give them the 
 means through which to learn them. 
 
 III. Its Membership. 
 
 From the ranks of those now teaching, and 
 from the young people's societies of the church, 
 must come those who are to form the teacher- 
 training classes. From these classes will come 
 the future teachers of the Sunday school. In 
 every local society of young people will be 
 found some who are willing to take up this train- 
 
A Teacher- Training Department. 145 
 
 ing work, if it is put plainly and urgently before 
 them. Let the pastor and superintendent pre- 
 sent a simple and flexible plan of study to the 
 teachers and young people, and call for volun- 
 teers to form a training class. Let them pre- 
 pare a written pledge of membership, to be 
 signed, as follows: 
 
 "The undersigned agree to form themselves 
 into a training class, for the purpose of prepar- 
 ing themselves, by systematic study of the Bi- 
 ble, the church, and the Sunday school, for the 
 work of teaching; to study diligently, as oppor- 
 tunity affords, the agreed course of study; to at- 
 tend regularly the sessions of the class, unless 
 providentially hindered; to continue as students 
 of the class until duly graduated; after which to 
 hold themselves in readiness at the call of the 
 church to teach a Sunday school class. " 
 
 The number in the class will have little to do 
 with its success, if those who join it are truly in 
 earnest. 
 
 IV. Leader, Time, and Place. 
 
 1. The superintendent or pastor, all things 
 considered, should be the best person to lead the 
 class, by reason of official obligation as well as 
 educational fitness. If neither can do so, let 
 the best leader the church affords be appointed. 
 
 2. If the class is composed of young people 
 
146 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 who are not already teaching in the Sunday 
 school, the best time is the regular Sunday school 
 hour. Let the class take its usual part in the 
 opening and closing exercises of the school, but 
 during the time of the lesson study let it be ex- 
 cused from the regular lesson and confine itself 
 to the teacher- training course, under such a plan 
 as the leader may direct. If the class is com- 
 posed wholly or in part of those already teach- 
 ing in the school, its sessions may be held at an 
 hour apart, on the Sabbath or during the week. 
 3. The place of the class is of minor impor- 
 tance. If a separate class room can be had, it 
 will be best; if not, locate the class in the most 
 convenient place, and let it be known to the 
 school, and reported each Sabbath by the secre- 
 tary, as the l i teacher- training class." 
 
 V. The Course op Study. 
 
 1. There are several excellent courses for 
 teacher-training, provided the church has no 
 special course of its own. Among these are the 
 "Chautauqua Normal Course," Semelroth's 
 "Complete Normal Manual," the "Sunday 
 School Teachers' Course," by G. W. Pease, the 
 "Legion of Honor Bible and Training Course" 
 — all suited chiefly to beginners, and already 
 widely used. But by far the best plan is for 
 each church as a denomination, in view of tho 
 
A. Teacher- Training Department. 147 
 
 needs of its host of teachers, to put its official 
 sanction upon some one course, or prepare a 
 course of its own, and thus unify and stimulate 
 the training work within its own bounds. To- 
 gether with such a course, it should provide a 
 church diploma and plan of study leading up to 
 graduation and official recognition of graduates. 
 
 2. This course should include, in well-propor- 
 tioned and selected matter, the four essential ele- 
 ments of a training course: The study of the Bi- 
 ble, of the church, of the Sunday school, of the 
 teacher and his work. To omit any one of these 
 elements is to seriously impair the needed equip- 
 ment of the teacher. 
 
 3. The plan of study should include the study 
 of the course by the local class, where organiza- 
 tion into class is practicable, or by individual 
 students, where there is not a class, under direc- 
 tion of the superintendent; an adjustment of 
 study by class or student, suited to local condi- 
 tions; a final written examination upon the sev* 
 eral parts of the course as completed in order, 
 based upon questions prepared and issued from 
 the central directing office of the church; a re- 
 quired standard of proficiency in examination, 
 upon which the diploma and honors of the 
 church shall be conferred. 
 
 4. Two years as a minimum should be regard- 
 ed as sufficient time for the completion of a 
 
148 The Swiday /School Teacher. 
 
 thorough training course, befitting the dignity 
 of a church and the equipment of its teachers 
 for their great work. A diligent use of spare 
 moments for two years of time should bring to 
 most students a mastery of the elements of the 
 training work. A high standard, although not 
 fully attained by the weaker students, is better 
 than a low standard which offers little or no in- 
 centive to the better class of students. "A little 
 learning is a dangerous thing." 
 
 5. In order to stimulate its training work, and 
 to spur the class or individual student on to 
 graduation and recognition, whenever the course 
 of study is completed the church should encour- 
 age and plan for a graduating service, to be con- 
 ducted on the Sabbath day, in the local church, 
 with fitting accessories of music, decoration, ad- 
 dresses, and conferment of church diploma and 
 honors. 
 
XXI. A TEACHERS' INSTALLATION 
 SERVICE. 
 
 Explanatory. 
 
 1. The formal installation of the officers and 
 teachers elect of* the Sunday school should gen- 
 erally obtain. It is more than a matter of form. 
 Impressively conducted, it becomes one of the 
 most profitable services of the Sunday school 
 year. It dignifies the calling of the teacher, 
 and sets before him the duties and responsibili- 
 ties of his holy office. It calls the attention of 
 the church to its faithful and often unrecognized 
 servants who have the care of its children and 
 youth. It honors the officers and teachers in the 
 presence of the scholars as well as of their par- 
 ents. Best of all, it reminds the newly chosen 
 corps of certain obligations pertaining to their 
 offices, and puts them under solemn covenant to 
 discharge them. 
 
 2. An " installation service" may be simple, 
 yet impressive and beautiful. The best time for 
 it is Sunday night, following the annual election 
 of the officers and teachers of the corps. The 
 pastor might profitably give the entire evening 
 to it, calling to his assistance the officers of the , 
 church. A full attendance of the membership 
 
 (149) 
 
150 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 should be urged, and the Sunday school should be 
 seated in a body at the front. Music and flowers, 
 and whatever may enhance the occasion, should 
 be provided. The installing officer should be 
 the pastor himself or some officer of the church 
 selected by him. The pastor should be the pre- 
 siding officer of the evening, and, with other of- 
 ficers of the church, should be seated on the 
 platform. A neat, printed programme, contain- 
 ing an outline (as given below) of the installation 
 service, including the names of the officers and 
 teachers elect, would be helpful and well worth 
 the cost of providing copies of it for the congre- 
 gation. By this means parts of the service could 
 be entered into responsively by the congregation, 
 and the service made more effective. 
 
 The following order of installation was used 
 by the writer in his Sunday school work for many 
 years: 
 
 Installation Service. 
 
 1. Opening Hymn: "My faith looks up to 
 thee." 
 
 2. Reading the Roll of Officers and Teac/iers 
 Elect. 
 
 3. Hymn: "Stand up, stand up for Jesus." 
 (During the singing the officers and teachers 
 come forward to seats reserved in front.) 
 
 4. Prayer, by the pastor. 
 
A Teacher's Installation Service. 151 
 
 5. Admonitory Scripture Readings: 1 Corin- 
 thians xii. 4-12; 2 Timothy ii. 14-21. Led by pas- 
 tor, or by an officer of the church appointed by 
 him. (The reading will be more effective if read 
 responsively by leader and congregation, or by 
 leader and teachers elect.) 
 
 6. Questions to the Officers and Teachers Electa 
 by the pastor or installing officer (the officers 
 and teachers standing, and making formal an- 
 swer). 
 
 (a) Do you freely accept the position as officer 
 or teacher to which the church has called you? 
 
 (b) Will you endeavor faithfully to discharge 
 the duties pertaining to it? 
 
 (c) Will you strive earnestly to set before your 
 scholars a good Christian example in all things? 
 
 (d) Will you give diligence to Bible study and 
 preparation for teaching, as opportunity allows? 
 
 (e) Will you faithfully attend the "teachers' 
 meeting," and such other meetings as may be 
 convened by the superintendent, unless provi- 
 dentially hindered? 
 
 These or other questions, setting forth the du- 
 ties to be met, should be asked. 
 
 7. The Covenant of Office (the pastor or in- 
 stalling officer reading it clause by clause; the 
 officers and teachers repeating it after him): 
 
 " I do solemnly devote myself, in the fear and 
 by the favor of God. to my Sunday school work. 
 
152 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 I will study my Bible thoroughly, and strive to 
 govern and to teach my scholars intelligently 
 and faithfully. I will endeavor to be a loyal 
 and exemplary member of my Church, and an 
 example to my scholars in the use of the means 
 of grace. I will counsel spiritually with my 
 scholars at home and elsewhere, and will give 
 such portion of my time as is possible to my 
 Sunday school duties. I will strive to be punc- 
 tual and present at school and at all meetings of 
 teachers. In the presence of God and his peo- 
 ple, and by the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen." 
 Benediction by Congregation: 
 
 "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: 
 
 The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gra- 
 cious unto thee: 
 
 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give 
 thee peace." 
 
 8. Brief Address, by pastor cr some invited 
 one. 
 
 9. Closing Hymn: "I love thy Church, O 
 God," 
 
XXII. A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER'S 
 LIBRARY. 
 
 In addition to the Sunday school helps for 
 study and teaching supplied periodically by his 
 own church, every teacher should become pos- 
 sessor of a "teachers' library." This may con- 
 sist of few or many books, but whatever enters 
 into it should be carefully selected and of per- 
 manent value. Many books in recent years have 
 issued from the press that bear upon the teach- 
 er's work, some of which will survive, while 
 others will be soon forgotten. Many Sunday 
 schools are casting about for good books, to 
 derve as a "normal" or teacher's library, some- 
 thing which every school should possess for the 
 use of teachers, officers, and older scholars who 
 are trying to fit themselves for better work, but 
 are unable to purchase for themselves. 
 
 Below are given two lists of books which have 
 been tried and approved. The first list is care- 
 fully chosen and classified, and contains books 
 designed for general or interdenominational use. 
 It includes a nearly complete though small 
 "teacher's library." The second list is not 
 classified, but the titles will indicate fairly 
 
 (153) 
 
154 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 their contents. Any book from either list will 
 be found modern and helpful. If not on sale 
 locally, the books may be ordered through the 
 several denominational publishing houses. Such 
 prices as are given have been taken from pub- 
 lishers' lists, and include postage for mailing. 
 
 A Teacher's Library. 
 
 Best Commentary on Entire Bible. — Jamieson, 
 Fausset, and Brown's, four volumes; price $8. 
 
 Best Bible Dictionary. — Smith's Abridged, 
 ""Workers' Edition;" price $1. 
 
 Best Boohs on Sunday School. — Trumbull's 
 "Yale Lectures on the Sunday School," price 
 $2; Vincent's "Modern Sunday School," price 
 90 cents; Cunnyngham's "History of Sunday 
 Schools," price 50 cents; Schauffler's "Ways of 
 Working," price $1. 
 
 Best Books on Teaching. — Trumbull's "Teach- 
 ing and Teachers," price $1.25; Wells's "Sun- 
 day School Success," price $1; Gregory's "Seven 
 Laws of Teaching," price 50 cents. 
 
 Best Primary Books. — Black's "Practical Pri- 
 mary Plans," price $1; Dubois's "Pointcf Con- 
 tact," price 60 cents; Mrs. Crafts' s "Optn Let- 
 ters to Primary Teachers," price 50 cents. 
 
 Best Teac/ur- Training Courses. — Hurlbut's 
 "Revised Normal Outlines," price 40 cents; 
 Dunning's "Bible Studies," price 40 cents* 
 
A Sunday School Teacher's Library. 155 
 
 Pease's "Normal Course," two books (in paper), 
 price 25 cents each; Semelroth's "Complete 
 Manual" (in paper), price 25 cents; Hamill's 
 "Legion of Honor Course," two books (in pa- 
 per), 25 cents for both. 
 
 A General List. 
 
 < < Manual of Sunday School Methods " (Foster), 
 65 cents; "Handbook on Sunday School Work" 
 (Peters), 60 cents; "On Teaching" (Alden), 35 
 cents; "The Sunday School Teacher's Work" 
 (Gordon), 30 cents; "The Librarian of the Sunday 
 School" (Foote), 35 cents; "Sunday School Out- 
 lines and Normal Studies" (Tucker), 50 cents; 
 "Kindergarten of the Church" (Miss Foster), 
 $1; "The Model Sunday School" (Boynton), 
 35 cents; "Graded Sunday Schools" (Hurlbut), 
 50 cents; "Sunday School Supplemental Stud- 
 ies" (Hurlbut), 40 cents; "Bible Dictionary" 
 (Schaff), $1:25; "People's Bible Dictionary" 
 (Rice), 30 cents; "Biblical Antiquities" (Bis- 
 sell), $1.33; "Life and Epistles of St. Paul" 
 (Conybeare and Howson), $1.50; Riddle's "Rob- 
 inson's Harmony of the Gospels," $1.50; "Out- 
 lines of Bible History" (Hurst), 40 cents; "Pic- 
 tured Truth," for blackboard use (Pierce), $1.25; 
 "Life and Times of Jesus" (Edersheim), $2; 
 "Bible Manners and Customs" (Mackie), $1; 
 'Holy Land in Geography and History" (Mac- 
 
156 The Sunday School Teacher. 
 
 Coun), 82; "Church History" (Hurst), 40 cents; 
 1 ' Growth of English Bible " (Lovett), $1 . 20 ; " Old 
 Testament Heroes" (Meyer), per volume, $1; 
 "Supplemental Bible Question Course" (Smith), 
 40 cents; "Miracles of Our Lord" (Trench), 
 $1.25; "Parables of Our Lord" (Trench), $1.25; 
 "Parables of Our Lord" (Dods), $1.50; "Life 
 of Christ" (Stalker), 60 cents; "Life of St. 
 Paul" (Stalker), 60 cents; "Modern Reader's 
 Bible" (Moulton), per volume, 50 cents; "Cam- 
 bridge Bible for Schools and Colleges," per 
 volume, from 60 cents to $1.50. Send for price 
 list. 
 

 Date Due 
 
 
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