Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

“ The Sunday school must live not in the past, but in the present, with a clear vision of the future. It must not only cherish a loving memory of its field as it has been, but understand thoroughly what it is, and what forces are shaping it for the future. ”

“ No matter how much the superintendent knows, or thinks he knows, he should hold his mind open to new knowledge. He should be on the alert for new ideas, from the periodicals, from books, and from his fellow workers, in conversation, at conventions and institutes; not that he may inflict every new method upon his school, but that out of many methods he may select the best. ”

“ Knowledge counts for much in teaching, but personality counts for far more. If a teacher is to be successful he must have a close relationship 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. He must be a friend to each one of his scholars, schooling himself, if need be, to friendship; and each of his scholars must be made to realize that his teacher is his friend. ”

“ Special effort should be made in leading the scholars to personal consecration to Christ and to union with the Church; for if the great decision be not made before the age of sixteen is reached, there is great danger that it will never be reached. But that decision should include more than a formal profession. It should embrace a full surrender to the will of Christ, an inward, conscious spiritual life, an aim for completeness of Christian character, and especially a willingness to work for God and humanity. Youth is a season of ardor and of energy, a period of lofty ideals and noble endeavor. ”

“ The Sunday school seeks to develop not only saints in fellowship with God, but workers for God, who shall strive to realize on earth the kingdom of God, not seeking to be ministered unto but to minister. There have been centuries in the past when the Christian ideal was the cloistered saint, living apart in communion with God. But that was a pitiably incomplete conception of the perfect man. In our age we have the larger ideal of saintliness with service; and to promote this should be the aim of every Sunday school. ”

“ If, on the other hand, the neighborhood be populous, characterized by varied strata of society—a few rich, a goodly number fairly prosperous, and a greater mass of wage-earners, yet the section as a whole American and not foreign in its civilization—then a flourishing, active, and growing Sunday school should be expected. And it should embrace all these elements, the rich, the middle class, and the wage-earners, in the proportion which each bears to the community as a whole. ”

“ In every Sunday school there is need of an officer to aid the superintendent and to take his place when absent. Even in a small school the supervision can be more thorough and the teaching more efficient, if some one is at hand with authority to relieve the superintendent of minor details, and give him freedom for the general management. And in a large school assistants to the superintendent are an absolute necessity, for each department becomes in itself a school. ”

“ Practically all the teaching of the Bible now devolves upon the Sunday school, and the Sunday school only. If the Sunday schools of the world for one generation should fail to teach the word of life, the knowledge of that word would well-nigh cease. And the one person charged with that task, the one on whom the responsibility rests, is the Sunday-school teacher. He who is intrusted with so great a work, and upon whose fidelity the work depends, must have a proper equipment; and that equipment presupposes training. ”

“ Whether on Sunday or on Monday, a teacher is after all a teacher, and the laws of true teaching are the same in a Sunday school, in a public school, and in a college. The application of those laws may vary according to the ages of pupils, the subjects of instruction, and the aims of the institution, but the principles are unchanging. 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 ”

“ There may be Sunday schools which make up by their spirit for what they lack in system; yet the exceptions are few to the rule that in Sunday-school work organization is essential to success. It is true that machinery creates no power; there is nothing in a constitution and by-laws to make an institution successful. It is the efforts of living men and women that bring to pass results. But organization directs and economizes power; so that, other elements being equal, the graded school quickly becomes the best school. ”

“ There must be a text-book in the hands of both the teacher and the pupil. In any school for religious instruction one book will of necessity stand prominent, that great Book of books which records the divine revelation to man. The Sunday school may teach history, geography, institutions, doctrines, literature of the Bible, but these only as a framework or a foundation for the education of the heart into a personal fellowship with God. ”

“ One book must be studied closely by the teacher, and that is his pupils. During the last thirty years human nature in all its stages, as child, as youth, during adolescence, and in maturity—especially in the earlier periods—has been investigated as never before. The student in our time can enter into the results of special study upon these subjects. He needs to know what the best books can give him of child study and mind study; and to supplement book-knowledge in this department with watchful eyes and close thought upon the traits which he finds in his own scholars. ”

“ Moral Teaching. The ethical standard of every book in the Sunday-school library should be of the highest. Not that every paragraph should end with the application like the Hæc fabula docet of Æsop's fables, or that the characters in a story should be of a "goody-goody" kind, or that none but good people should appear upon the page. There must be some shadows in the perspective that the light may stand in contrast. ”

“ 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, far more than imparting an intellectual knowledge, to bring the living word into relation with living souls, to inspire a fellowship of his pupils with God, to have Christ founded within them, to make salvation through 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 members of Christ's Church. ”

“ The masters in every department of work are never too wise nor too old to learn.
If a man can be found who possesses all these seven traits of character and temperament, the school which can secure him for its superintendent [52] will be fortunate indeed. And the superintendent who thoughtfully reads the catalogue of qualifications, and feels that in some of them he is lacking, may by divine grace and his own will working together make progress toward the goal of becoming an ideal superintendent. ”

“ Every officer, teacher, scholar, and parent should consider himself a committee to speak to others about the school, and to invite his friends and acquaintances to attend it. The little children should ask their playmates, boys and girls in school their classmates, young men their shopmates, young women their associates. No printed paper can have a tenth of the power possessed by the living voice and a hearty hand-shake. It is assumed that the invitation is given only to those who are not already attached to any church or school. ”

“ In less than a generation millions of these boys and girls will be as thoroughly American as our own children. When we consider the question of abandoning any field on account of its foreign population, let us widen our horizon of thought to embrace the future as well as the present, and then form our conclusion concerning the duty of the Sunday school to the community. ”

“ The theory of the Sunday-school library is that each scholar will bring his book back after a week or two weeks. But boys and girls—sometimes older scholars also—are apt to be careless. Books are exchanged between scholars, are loaned from one home to another, are forgotten, and are lost. And the books lost most readily are frequently those that are most sought for by the scholars. How to induce scholars invariably to return their books constitutes the third problem of library management. In many schools the percentage of lost books is exceedingly large. ”

“ As the builder in stone looks at every fragment of rock, to see where it will best fit into his wall, so the whole-hearted superintendent studies every individual in the parish, to find exactly the place he may fill in the school, as an officer, a teacher, or a scholar ”

“ 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 forms of speech.
(3) As a Teacher. Teaching requires more than the possession of an abundant store of information upon any subject. He is not a teacher who simply pours forth upon the ears of his pupils an undigested mass of facts, however valuable those facts may be. The true teacher after large preparation assorts his material, and selects such matter as is appropriate to his own class. ”

“ For lack of a more definite term we call the next characteristic of a good Sunday school its spirit. In any successful school one feels rather than finds a peculiar and individual atmosphere. Every member, from the superintendent to [132] the Primary scholar, manifests an interest in the institution; an interest of blended love, loyalty, enjoyment in it and enthusiasm for it. There is a social spirit in each class and in the school as a whole. ”

“ A Population Changing Socially. A serious problem often arises, not from a decline but from a change in the social condition of the population within the sphere of the church. The downtown church may have been forsaken by its former members, but people of another class, and in greater numbers, have taken their places. The mansions have become boarding houses, flats and apartment houses have arisen, while the thronged sidewalks, and the children playing in the streets, are evidence that the material for members of the church and the Sunday school is greater than before. ”

“ If a graded system be followed in the school, as it should be, with different subjects, text-books, and lessons for each department, giving to the entire school a regular, systematic, progressive curriculum, this requisite will be met. If, however, the uniform lesson for all the school be followed, as at present is still the case in many Sunday schools, the graded teaching must be given in the form of supplemental lessons, taught by the head of the department where it has a separate room, or by the teacher if the departments must be assembled in one room. ”

“ The constant growth of the Primary Department is his perennial perplexity. To relieve the congestion in the crowded Infant Class its older pupils must be brought into the main school, and teachers must be found for them. The superintendent is always seeking, and often seeking vainly, for new teachers.
(b) Another difficulty is found in the attempt to transfer scholars from one class to another. No matter how much out of place a pupil may be, it is almost impossible to transfer him to another class without incurring the displeasure of the teacher, the scholar, or the scholar's family. ”

“ There are some who remain longer, but others who are members for even a shorter time. Upon the average, every school is a new school once in four or five years. If one fifth of the school leaves every year, there must be an equal number enter it, to keep the school at its normal size. But any institution dependent upon the maintenance of a constituency, whether it be a periodical, a life-insurance association, or a Sunday school, begins to decline when its number remains [123] stationary. The health and life of the school, therefore, require a constant renewal of its membership. ”

“ A Willing Worker. The teacher's love for Christ, for his scholars, and for his Bible is not to expend itself in emotion or even in study; it is to find expression in efficient service. A task is laid upon him which will demand much of his time and his power of body, mind, and spirit. He must be ready to meet his class fifty-two [101] Sundays in the year: on days of sunshine and days of storm; when he is eager for the work, and when he is weary in it; when his scholars are responsive, and when they are careless; when his fellow workers are congenial, and when they are anti-pathetic ”

“ 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 anæmic, dwindling, dying institution.
(3) Methods Adapted. Almost every community, whether in city or in country, possesses some traits peculiar to itself. There may be two towns ten miles apart, one the wealthy residential suburb of a city, the other a settlement surrounding a great factory. ”

“ On Monday morning each teacher receives by mail the list of his absent scholars, with a request to send in writing, as soon as practicable, the cause of absence for each one. In many schools this work of looking after the absentees is performed by paid visitors—a good plan, but not so good as for the teacher to come into personal touch with his own scholars. A business firm watches over its customers, and endeavors in every possible way to hold them. The Sunday school which can maintain its grasp upon its members has the problem of growth already half solved. ”

“ The public-school teacher who ceases to study after finishing the course of the normal school is foredoomed to failure. The training class or the training school has only outlined before the teacher the fields to be traversed, and shown him a few paths which he may follow. He who has undertaken to teach a group of scholars, whether in the Beginners Department, the Senior Department, or any grade between them, must continue his studies, in the Bible, in the specific course of graded lessons which he is teaching, and in general knowledge ”

“ Some teachers and scholars may come from a distance, but even in this age 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 mile, and in the country within a mile. Throughout 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 families, and should plan to win, to evangelize, and to hold all its natural following. ”