Part 6 (2/2)

(c) Its Geographical Background The Bible brings before us a world of natural features which remain--seas, mountains, valleys, and plains; a world of political divisions which has passed away; its edoms, and tribal relations; and cities and towns, some of them now desolate, others in poverty and in ruin The teacher who is to instruct his pupilseleination to reconstruct those that have changed He must make that ancient world of the Bible roll like a panorama before the eyes of his e of the Bible are stamped pictures of manners, customs, institutions, forlo-Saxon, modern world The teacher must become familiar with this local color of another civilization, and enable his class to see it through his eyes

(e) Its Ethical and Religious Teaching In the past, and until a generation ago, the Bible was studied only for its doctrines It was generally treated as one book, all written at once and by one author; its history, biography, institutions, were passed over as uniht upon theology Fro its texts out of every book, a system of doctrine was constructed; and the arded as the principal work of the Bible student

Thatmodern scholars The Bible is now looked upon as a record of life rather than as a treasury of texts Yet its strea must be found and followed by the student who is to teach the truth; and the doctrines revealed through the Bible should be regarded as a necessary part of his training

(2) _The Scholar_ One book must be studied closely by the teacher, and that is his pupils During the last thirty years hu adolescence, and in ated as never before The student in our time can enter into the results of special study upon these subjects He needs to knohat the best books can give him of child study and e in this departht upon the traits which he finds in his own scholars

(3) _The School_ The teacher in the Sunday school needs to understand the institution wherein he is a worker The Sunday school is like the week-day school, yet unlike it; and the teacher must be able to appreciate at once what he can follow and what he should avoid in the methods of the secular school The history of the Sunday-school anization, officers, ement, and aims--all these are in the scope of the teacher's preparation

(4) _The Work_ Whether on Sunday or on Monday, a teacher is after all a teacher, and the laws of true teaching are the sae The application of those laws es of pupils, the subjects of instruction, and the ai Those enduring principles of instruction are well understood, are set down in text-books, and can easily be learned by a student There are successful teachers who know these principles by an intuition that they cannot explain; but most people will save themselves from many mistakes and comparative failure by a close study of e in all these four great depart should be obtained by the teacher, if possible, before he enters upon his task; but if he has missed earlier opportunities of preparation heThe outlines of such a course of study should be given in the training class for young people; and such a training class should be regarded as essential to every well-organized school[11]

2 =The Teacher's Task= All the preparation briefly outlined in these last paragraphs is only preparatory to the hich the teacher is to do in his vocation The task set before the teacher is fourfold:

(1) _As a Student_ The studies named above are not co class with a certificate of graduation The public-school teacher who ceases to study after finishi+ng the course of the nor class or the training school has only outlined before the teacher the fields to be traversed, and shown him a few paths which he roup of scholars, whether in the Beginners Departrade between them, must continue his studies, in the Bible, in the specific course of graded lessons which he is teaching, and in general knowledge; for there is no depart tribute to the teacher, to be turned into treasure for his class The Sunday-school teacher er for knowledge His accu; and even that unused will give its weight to truth imparted to his class

(2) _As a Friend_ The teacher issoul in contact with living souls If the ht could be spoken into a phonograph, and then ground out before a class, it would fail to teach, for it would utterly lack the hu, but personality counts for far more If a teacher is to be successful he must have a close relationshi+p with his class They must know him, he must know them, and there must be a common interest, nay, a common affection, between the two personalities of teacher and pupil Hehimself, if need be, to friendshi+p; and each of his scholars must be made to realize that his teacher is his friend This personal affection need not always be stated in words The teacher who constantly assures his scholars that he loves them will not be believed as readily as the one who shows his love in his spirit and his acts, even though he may refrain from affectionate for requires more than the possession of an abundant store of information upon any subject He is not a teacher who siested mass of facts, however valuable those facts e preparation assorts his material, and selects such es in a forhly comprehended, and easily remembered He comes before his class with the fixed purpose that every pupil shall carry aith hiet it Heto an inattentive group of people accoraveyard He must obtain the cooperation of the pupil's interest, and induce him to think upon the subject He ht in language, for one is never sure of his knowledge until he has shaped it into words; and that which the pupil has stated he is much surer to re, then, involves (1) selection of material, (2) adaptation of ht, (5) calling forth expression, (6) fixing knowledge in the memory

(4) _As a Disciple_ It is the teacher's task not only to impart to his scholars valuable information about the Bible, about God, about Christ, and about salvation; but, farthe living word into relation with living souls, to inspire a fellowshi+p of his pupils with God, to have Christ founded within theh Christ their joyous possession

Nor is his work as a working disciple accomplished when all his scholars have become Christians in possession and profession, and s he should lead them to efficient service for Christ in the church, in the community, and in the state There is work for everythe spirit of Christ in the community Whatever may have been the type of a saint in the twelfth century, or in the sixteenth, or even in the early nineteenth century, in these stirring, strenuous years of the twentieth century the disciple of Christ is awomen, active in the effort to e, or town, or ward of the city, the kingdom of heaven on earth To inspire his scholars for such labors, and to lead them, is the supreme opportunity and work of the teacher

FOOTNOTE:

[11] For detailed methods and plans, see the volu of Sunday School Teachers

XV

THE CONStitUENCY OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

1 =Relation to the Co stones; and the quarry froh, to be cut and polished for their places in the building, is the entire community in which the school is placed In our time, more than ever before, the reasons are iiven to the community from which the school must draw its members Certain principles of administration will become apparent when once the field is carefully considered

(1) _Constituency Adjacent_ The population froenerally that immediately around it

Some teachers and scholars e of convenient transit by trains and trolley cars, it is found that, taking the church building as a center, the constituency of the Sunday school in a city is mostly within a radius of half a hout that sphere of influence the church should look well to the population, should know its proportionate elements, as far as possible should come into acquaintance with the faelize, and to hold all its natural following

(2) _Meeneral and almost invariable principles, the Sunday school should represent all the elements of the population within its environment If it be a residence section with isolated houses, each containing but one family of well-to-do people, the church is apt to be a fae Sunday school e e fahborhood be populous, characterized by varied strata of society--a few rich, a goodly nue-earners, yet the section as a whole An in its civilization--then a flourishi+ng, active, and growing Sunday school should be expected And it should embrace all these elee-earners, in the proportion which each bears to the community as a whole If the school in such a population be small, or if it be composed exclusively of one class, whether it be the so-called better class or the mission class, there is a serious error in its policy The true Sunday school should be representative of all the elements in the population It is both a crime and a blunder to limit the efforts of a Sunday school to one class of society: a crime, because such a school leaves multitudes around it to perish; and a blunder, because the effort results in an anae institution

(3) _Methods Adapted_ Almost every community, whether in city or in country, possesses some traits peculiar to itself There may be tns ten miles apart, one the wealthy residential suburb of a city, the other a settlereat factory The population of these two places will be in marked contrast, and the methods of Christian work successful in one will utterly fail in the other One street or avenue in a city may mark the boundary line between family churches and mission churches Within ten minutes' walk of each other may stand two churches of the same deno in coanizations ht do their Master's work better by a closer co Yet it would be a mistake to introduce into either church all the plans that are successful in the other; or to reject in one Sunday school any method because it has proved a failure in another and a different field The work of each church and Sunday school must be adapted to the population froing Population= One of the ospel worker, both in the church and the Sunday school, arises fro place in our population In the cities we see stately churches, once thronged, noell-nigh desolate, while their walls echo to the tread upon the sidewalk of a churchless multitude In front of a fine old church, where once millionaires worshi+ped, the writer has often passed a news-stand upon which are for sale newspapers in seven different languages And too often one finds that the churches of a generation ago have been turned into low theaters, or torn down, giving place to stores and office buildings The general principle may be laid down, that a church in the city al and with the saest period, if it is to retain its members, it must follow them in the march up-town; or if it is to retain its location and still hold a congregation it must seek an absolutely new constituency, and to this end rations of population confined to the city The towns and villages are governed by the sae, once the seat of quiet homes, is suddenly turned into a factory toith a new and strange population The farms on country roads, abandoned by the faners of alien speech andof a railroad will open nens, and at the saes in population must be considered in their relation to the work of the Sunday school The movement will be characterized by varied traits in different places

(1) _A Growing Population_ The changethe community a desirable place for a church and a Sunday school Such a develop place in the newer portions of a city, whose population isfrom the center to the rim; or it may be noted in suburban towns, as facilities of transportation bring new residents fro up on the line of a railroad, where ho habitations Leaders in church and Sunday-school workcenters, and provide wisely for their religious needs It will not suffice to wait for these newcoanize their own Sunday schools Most of the their own homes, and will scarcely realize their need until the habit of neglecting worshi+p has becoious education The old and strong churches must extend a hand to the settlers, , must help to erect chapels, for a time must supply workers, and must set the current of the new settlement Godward and churchward The reward of their labor and their liberality will not long be delayed

(2) _A Declining Population_ There are places where the population has lessened, ly difficult and its results er It may be in the city, where business has crowded away the dwellers of other years, as in the lower end of Manhattan Island in New York There tall office buildings and warehouses stand on sites forer needed, now that almost the only residents are the janitors and their fa on the roofs of the towerlike te population is found in the country Villages once prosperous have gradually lost their inhabitants In places where three or four churches, each with its Sunday school, were formerly well supported, there is now scarcely a constituency for one Yet all these churches, though decayed and dying by inches, are still ed Sunday school, attended by a faithful few, but with no hope of growth and an imminent peril of extinction If loyalty to a denodoht be consolidated into one church and one Sunday school for all the community We venture the prophecy that before the twentieth century cohout the American continent the accepted settle delayed! In theSunday schools and churches in a community should seek for peace and friendshi+p, not e the points of doctrine or of syste to maintain the unity of the spirit in a bond of love