B cn via ^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT 3) . (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol y (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la dernlAre iirage de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN ". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand coirner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmte A des taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, 11 «st filmA i partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche h drolte, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent ia mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 ^^^ li^^^ AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, I Rbv. Richard Nbwton, D,D, Rrv. Lyman Abbott, D.D. James Huqiiiib, Esq. Rkt. F. a. O'Mkara, D.D. P. P. Bliss. Miss Fkancbs E. Willard. Rrv. a. H. Munro. Rbv. J. L. Hurlbut. J. E. Searlbs, Jr. BY Rrv. Hkxry Ward Bbrchrr. M. C. Hazard, Esq. Ji Rev. Jno. H. Castlr, D.D. Rrv. J. E. Latimer, D.D. A. O. VanLbnnep, Esq. «Sy\JL.i/L Parsons, D.D. Bv. F. H. Marmno. MlBB M. E. WlNBIrf)W. Rbv. E. O. Havrn, D.D. Rev. C. H. Paynb, D.D. Rbv. W. F. Crafts. Rev. S. L. Gracbt. Mrs. W. F. Crafts. Rev. B. p. Raymond. Miss Jenny B. Merrill. C. M. Morton, Esq. Rbv. H. W. Warrbn, D.D. Rbv. D. Marvin, Jr. Hon. A. D. Shaw. EDITED BY REV. W. F. CRAFTS. Gather the people together, men and women, and children, and thy stranger that M within thy lyates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and obBerve to do all the words of this law : and that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordui to possess it.— Dbut. xxxi, 12, 13. TORONTO : THtOL STACK Hl'NTER, ROSE & CO., PRIKTRRS, 25 WELIINOTON STRKBT WBHT, TORONTO. DEC 1. 6 1948 ., "TT" .T""? '" ''' ""'' "' '"' *'"■"*•"''"* "' ^'''"•^». '" the year one thounand PREFACE. The lecture outlines in this little volume are epitomes of addresses and conversations given at the Sunday School Parlia- ment, Rev. W. R Crafts, Conductor, held July 18-26, 1876, on Wellesley Island, one of the famous " Thousand Islands," in the St. Lawrence River. It is thought that in the present form of " Outlines," the " points made " will be more permanently and widely useful as a basis for study in teachers' meetings, normal classes, and institutes, as well as for private reading, than in the usual form of a consecutive and detailed " report." Parents, Pastors, Bible Students and Sunday School workers will find in these outlines many valuable hints and suggestions, which may be further developed by thought and experience. Methods of Bible study will be found to huve equal prominence with methods of Sunday School work. ■■■■ t- CONTENTS. I.— THE BIBLE, THE WORD OF GOD. page. 1 . Science confirming the Scriptures , 1 2. The Bible's Divine Character shown in its history 6 n.— THE BIBLE AND ITS STUDENTS. 1. Structure and arrangement of the Bible 7 2. Manners and Customs of Bible times 12 3. Geography of the Bible 12 4. Revision of the Bible 13 5. Principles of Interpretation 15 6. Reasons for Bible Reading. Methods of Bible Read- ing. Comprehensive Bible Reading 17 7. Topical Bible Reading 24 8. Bagster's Scripture Index 26 9. " Bible Readings" in their various uses 32 10. Bible Marking '. 41 11. Personal Study of the Lesson 44 12. Adults as Bible Students in the Sunday School 45 13. Further Hints on How to Study the Bible 47 14. Bill of Fare from the Bible 48 III.— THE BIBLE AND ITS TEACHERS. 1. Hints on the Public use of the Bible 52 2. The Pastor's Relation to the Sunday School 53 VI CONTENTS. PAGE. Til.— THE BIBLE AND ITS TEACHERS {continued). 3. Using the Bible with Enquirers 54 4. "How can we get rid of Incompetent Teachers V . . 56 5. Three Requisites in Religious Teaching 57 6. Conditions of Teaching with power 58 7. Normal Class Training for Teachers 61 8. Qualities and Training of Primary Teachers 62 9. Attention, Discipline, and Questioning 63 10. Illustrative Teaching 64 11. Importance and Method of Public Reviews 67 12. What the Sunday School Teacher may learn from Secular Schools 70 13. A Study of Christ at, the Model Teacher 86 14 . Spiritual Work in the Sunday School 89 15. The Sunday School Teacher's Decalogue 90 16. Christ for Preachers and Teachers 91 IV.— THE BIBLE AND CHILDHOOD. 1 . The Bible Estimate of Childhood 92 2. "How shall we Manage Unruly Boys in the Sunday Schools?" 97 3. " How can we get Pupils to Study their Lessons at Home?" 97 4. " How can a more general attendance of Children at preaching be secured?" 100 5. Preaching to Children 102 6. The Lesson of the Primary Class 103 7. Conversion of Children 107 8. Culture of Converted Children 109 9. Home Christian Culture 112 10. The Sunday School and the Home 114 CONTENTS. vu PAGE. . 54 . 56 - 67 . 58 . 61 62 63 64 67 70 86 89 90 91 PAGE. v.— THE BIBLE AND SUNDAY SCHOOL MACHINERY. 1. The Name of the Sunday School . 120 2 . Sunday School Rooms and Library Plan 121 3. Constitution 121 4. Programme 122 5. Financial System and Culture of Benevolence 123 6. Music for General School and for Primary Class 125 7. Sunday School Concerts 126 8. Printing Press Helps in Sunday School Work 127 9. Organization of Primary Class 134 10. The Value and use of Sociables 135 11. All Ancient Religious Convention 136 VI.— THE BIBLE AND THE WORLD. 1. The Bible and the Public Schools 147 2. Christian Temperance Work ]50 3. The Bible and Universal Brotherhood 151 92 APPENDIX. Thousand Island Park and the Sunday School Par- - liament 163 wmm H LECTUEE OUTLINES ON Cj^e §iWe anb t^e ,Sitnbap ^tlgaal I. THE BIBLE, THE WOKD OF GOD. Its Inspiration. 2 Timothy iii. 16, 17 ; 2 Peter i. 20, 21 ; Romans xv. 4 ; 1 Cor. x. 11 : Ephesians vi. 17 ; 1 Thes. ii. 13. Its SufiBciency. Luke xvi. 31 ; Deut. iv. 2 ; Prov. xxx. 5, 6 ; Rev. xxii. 17-19. Its Power. John XV. 3 j xvii. 17 ', Eph. v. 26 ; Jer. xxiii. 29 ; Heb. iv. 12 ; Psalm xix. 7-11. Our Need of It. Psalm cxix. 18 ; Luke xxiv. 45 ; John vi. 63 ; 2 Cor. iu. 5, 6. Its Use, and Our Duty towards It. Nehem. viii. 8, and ix. 2, 3 ; 2 Chron. xvii. 9 ; 1 Peter iv. 11 ; Acts, xviii. 2!% and xvii. 11, 12 : 2 Cor. ii. 17 ; Deut. vi. 6, 7, and xxix. 29; Joshua i. 8; Psalm i. 2; 1 Peter ii. 1, 2 ; Col. iii. 16; Psalm cxix. 1, 2, 9, 11, etc. 1. Science Confirming the Scriftures. BY REV. H. W. WARREN, D.D. Years of discussion have established these two principles : (I.) The Bible no where opposes demonstrated Science. (II.) The Bible always has been, and is yet, far in advance of the attainments of Science, even in advance of man's ability to understand its plain declarations. 2 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ; !• These are remarkable propositions. If they are maintained there is no more ground for contention. There must be wis- dom from God in its pages. The Bible was written in ages of ignoranc of the sciences of to-day, by unlearned men, in a great part, and it '^ould be simply impossible for them, as men, to itvoid statements in opposition to the knowledge and discoveries of to-day. Even wise men could not do it. Pythagoras, and the wise men of his day, taught that the earth was flat. And the wise men of our day have taught witiiin the remembrance of many of us, that marine shells, found in the high mountains, were proof of the Noahcian deluge. Voltaire showed his fitness to lead a scientific assault on the Bible, by declaring that these shells were brought to their places in the mountains, by thg crowds of pilgrims from the Holy Land ! Indeed, there is hardly an established truth in science to-day, concerning which men have net uttered many erroneous opinions. I do not affirm that the Bible does not speak of some things according to visual ap- pearance, as the sunrise and sunset. But our nautical almanacs and other scientific treatises do the same thing to-day. I do not deny that some interpretations, and even translations of the Scripture, have been contradictory to demonstrated science. For how can we truly translate from a foreign language, things we could not understand, if written plainly in our own 1 It needs knowledge to read scientific statements. But, uniformly, that translation which has harmonized with science has been found to be the truer one. Indeed, the translations of many scriptural texts have been very difficult, because we lacked the knowledge to make their real signification seem possible to our thought. Discovering the scientific truth, we returned to the Scripture, and its meaning was clear as sunlight. Several passages which seemed, when fairly translated, to teach en or, or to be poetical flights, have aince been proved to be state- ments of literal facts. The Bible has been routed from many a position it never held, discovered to be impregnably in- trenched, after its rout had been heralded. This will repeatedly appear in illustrating the second proposition. That the Bible could avoid error proclaims that God was in all its writing. How much more that it could always be in advance of science and discovery. Let us see if this second proposition is capa- i THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 8 laintained st be wis- 3 sciences ^ould be Bnients in y. Even 3 men of e men of ny of us, I proof of bo lead a !se shells e crowds ardiy an aen have that the isual ap- ilmanacs ^ I do itions of science. 3, things m? It iformly, as been f many ked the 3 to our I to the Several I en or, i state- i many ^ly in- Jatedly Bible riting. icience 3 capa- % i i vi ble of proof. The Bible has asserted from the first, that creation of matter preceded arrangement. It was chaos, void, without form, darkness. Arrangement was a subsequent matter. The world was not created in the form it was to have. It was to be moulded, shaped, stratified^ mouiitained, and vallied, subsequently. AH of which science utters ages afterwards. The Bible has been sneered at a thousand years, for saying that light existed before the sun was outlined and limited. But now, men are praised for asserting the same thing. Peans are sung to La Place, that belong to God, and which are sung to God by angels, and all others who know that the Bible is older science than the Mecanique Celeste. It is a recently elucidated idea of science that the strata of the earth were formed bv the action of water, and the mountains were once under th«.. ocean. It is an idea long familiar to Bible readers. " Thou coverest the earth with the deep as with a garmeno. The waters stood above the mountains. At Thy rebuke they fled ; at the voice of Thy thunder they hasted away. The mountains ascend, the valleys descend unto the place Thou hast founded for them." The whole volume of geology in a paragraph ! Volumes of demonstrations of the impossibility of the Deluge might have been javed if men had been wUling to read the explanations of God, by Peter : " For of this they are willingly ignorant that by the word of God there were heavens of old, and land framed out of water and by means of water, whereby the viorld that then was, being over- flowed by water perished ; " — a geological substance — " but the heavens that now are and the land " — the present geolo- gical upheaval — " by His word are kept for fire, &o." Every difiiculty vanishes. It is a single sentence of geologic history, foretold and arranged by God for a specific time and purpose, and no more difiicnlt thari upheavals and subsidences that have occurred in our day. Ages on ages man's wisdom held the earth to be flat. Meanwhile God Mas saying, century after century, of Himself, "He sitteth upon the sphere of the earth." [Gesenius.] Men racked their feeble wits for expedients to uphold the earth, and the best they could devise were ser- pents, elephants, and turtletj. Meanwhile God was perpetually tellinfij men that he had " hung the earth upon nothing." Men were ever trying to number the stais. Hipparcus count- T THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. f ed 1022, Ptolemy 1026. And it is easy to number those vis- ible to the naked eye. But the Bible said that they were, as the sands of the sea, " innumerable." Science has appliances of enumeration unknown to other ages, but the space penetrat- ing telescopes reveal more worlds : eighteen millions in a single system, and systems beyond count, till men acknowledge that the stars are innumerable to man. It is God's prerogative " to number all the stars. He also calleth them all by their names." Torricelli'a discovery, that the air had weight, was received with incredulity. For ages the air had propelled ships, thrust itself against the bodies of men, and overturned their works. But no man ever dreamed that weight was necessary to give momentum. During all the centuries it had stood in the Bible, waiting for man's comprehension : " He gave to the air its weight." [Job xxviii. 25]. The pet science of to-day i*? meteorology. The fluctuations and variations of the weather have hitherto baffled all attempts at unravelling. It has seemed that there was no law in the fickle changes. But at length perseverance and skill have tri- umphed, and a single man in one place predicts the weather and winds for a continent. But the Bible has always insisted that the whole department was under law. Nay, it laid down that law so clearly, that if men had been willing to learn from it, they might have reached this wisdom ages ago. The whole moral law is not more clearly crystallized in, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself," than all ohe fundamentals of the science of meteorology are crystallized in this word : " The wind goeth toward the south (equator), and turneth about (up) unto the north ; it whirleth about continually ; and the wind returneth again ac- cording to his circuits (established routes). All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. Unto the place whence the rivers come, thither return they again." [Eccles. i. 6, 7.] That the central part of the earth was molten fire was re- ceived with great hesitation ; and even now, after numerous proofs, is by some minds hotly contested. But God knows, and he says, " Out of the earth cometh bread, but at the same time underneath, it turns itself as fire" [Job xxviii. 51. Long melted, the Bible before it was supposed that rock could be declared that " tne hills melted like wax." " Poetic figure," THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. says the rhetorician. "Literal truth," says the laborious chemist. That light makes music in its passage is asserted by God to Job, by science more than three thousand years afterwards. Poets Shakspeare, Byron, Milton, Addison, Mrs. Browning, Willis, and others, have uttered the conception as a fancy; the Bible and science as fact. The Word is a golconda of gems. Beautiful the thought and words of him who mines it. " There's not the smallest orb that thou behold est, But in his motion like an angel sings." — A.D. 1596 (V) " The morning stars sang together." — 3000 years earlier. God's statement that the sun's " going is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit on the ends of it," has given edge to many a sneer at its supposed assertion, that the sun went round the earth. It teaches a higher truth. Let pigmies learn the truth of alpine proportions, that the sun itself is but a superior planet, and flies in a path of eighteen millions of years, from one end of the heavens to the other, around the Pleiades as its sun. Confounded Job, a puny aick man, could answer nothing when asked if he could bind the sweet influences of the Plei- ades. He did not know that they swung millions of 3uns and their attendant worlds. When I hear so eminent an aatronomor, and so true a Chris- tian, as Mitchell, who understood the voices, in which the heavens declare the glory of God, as his own vernacular tongue, who read the significance of God's embodied word with delight, and who fed upon God's written word, as his daily bread ; when I hear him declare, " we find an aptness and propriety in all these astronomical illustrations, which are not weakened but amazingly strengthened, when viewed in the full light ot our present knowledge ; " when I hear Herschel declare, " all human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more strongly the truths that come from on high, and are contained in the sacred writings," I ask, who is he that declares that the Bible and science are at variance 1 I shall probably find that he is ignorant of both. God has scattered brief notes of Hi& works in tho Bible. Man's discoveries are but illustration and comment. " The city was pure gold like unto clear glass." [Rev. xxi. 16.] How many sneers the Bible has endured for such a state- T 6 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ment ! It could bide its time. Truths always can. Faraday has demonstrated that fine gold may become perfectly trans- parent like clear glass. And some of the most beautiful pro- ductions in ruby glass are produced by solutions of gold. Whatever point we touch sheds confirmation on the Book that gives a light to every age. " It gives, but borrows none." It must be the wisdom of Omniscience behind it ; the Mind that knows the end from the beginning. 2. The Bible's Divine Character shown in its History.* This subject is so full of incidents that a fair treatment of the question would require the space of this whole volume. A most interesting personal study or public lecture maybe prepared by hiring or buying the fifteen large diagrams and pictures on " The Literary History of the Bible," of the London or Ameri- can Sunday School Union, at some of their depositaries ; buy- ing also or hiring the following books : — " The Book and Its Story," " Leaves from the Book and Its Story," " Our English Bible," "Bible in many Tongues," and *• Farmer Tomkins and his Bibles." XL THE BIBLE AND ITS STUDENTS. EAACH THE CRIPTURE8, JohfL 5 : S9. John 2 : 12, 18. lARNESTLY, iT,]i^^ ANXIOUSLY, S:".f. J! BEGULARLY. CAREFULLY, DUMBLY, Acts 17 : 11. Psa. 1 ; 2. Luke 24 ; 27. 2 Tim. 3 : 16, 17. Luke 24 ; 45. Jamen 1 : 22. This subject was ably preNeiiUul at the Pnrliainant by Rev. S. L. Gracey. ■^ THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Structure and Arrangement of the Bible. A Normal Class Paper, by Rev. J. H. Vincent^ D.D.* (I.) THE sacred canon. (1.) There are many possible methods by which an all wise Creator might communicate to man a knowledge of His character and will. (2.) The .way in which our Creator has seen fit to reveal Himself to man is by a SUpematmul history produced on the earth under His immediate direction, and then under the same divine direction and inspiration recorded in a series of books. (3.) This history, thus recorded, having a religious aim, will of necessity contain a great variety, as to its subject- matter. It will have history, geography, biography, doctrine, ethics, poetry, prophecy, etc. (4.) The human mind produces many books, containing human deductions, speculations, imaginations, etc., etc. Some claim to be the results of reason ; others to be the revela- tions of God, or of the gods ; while some of them are 4;he productions of minds intent upon deception and mischief, whatever they may profess. (5.) If, therefore, the true God should give a true book for human instruction there must be evidences that it is truly from God, so that men may distinguish between it and the false or defective works of man. There must be a rule or standard by which we may certainly know just what books are human and what are divine. (6.) Therefore we have what is called the Canon of Scripture, (a.) The word "Oanon" signifies literally a straight line, a rule, a law, a standard. * Those who oontemplato organizing; a Xormal Class should write to Rev. J. H. Vin- ci iit, D.D.. 806 Broadway, N.Y., for a catalogue of his Normal Class papers and books, which form the completost system of training for religious teachers ever pre- pared. This paper w!>« presented and taught at the Parliament by the Rev. J. L. Hurlbert, of Plainneld, N.J. ■ii 8 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. (5.) The Scripture itself is a canon or rule of life, the authoritative standard of religiou and morality. (c.) The tests, rules, or ctandards by which we deter- mine that it is in whole or in part from God art called the " Canon of Scripture." (d.) The several books which are thus examined and proved to be genuine and authentic are called " The Sacred Canon." There are many (II.) EVIDENCES WHICH SUSTAIN THE CLAIM OF THE BIBLE BELIEVER That the book on which he rests is from God. (1.) It has long been accepted as divine by the Church — both Jewish and Christian. (2.) It has stood the most searching tests of friends and foes for centuries. (3.) Exposed by various translations and by sectarian interests to the liability of interpolation and change it remains essentially the same. Its ** various readings " do not affect the great doctrines which it contains. (4.) Its internal character, unity, purity, marvellous moral standards, fidelity to human nature, etc., etc., prove its divinity. (5.) Its adaptation to human needs and its eflfects upon the race wherever permitted to exert its energies, abundantly demonstrate that it is not a human production. (6.) It is in striking harmony with true science. The facts of nature, and of human nature, and of human history, sustain the claims of the book. (7.) To the personal experience of all who have tested and trusted it we may safely appeal. The Bible is the missing keystone in individual and in social life. Once inserted, it proves that He who made man and put him into this world, also made the Bible as his safe- guard and stay. There are ten THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 9 (III.) NAMES BY WHICH THE BOOK OF GOD IS KNOWN. These are divided into four classes. (1.) From the material used in making ancient books it is called the Bible. ** Bible" — is from the Greek word bi^los, a book. " The name was given originally, like liber in Latin, to the inner bark of the linden or teil tree, and afterwards to the bark of the papyrus, the mate- rials of which early books were sometimes made." Chrysostom, in the fourth or fifth century, first applied the term " Biblia " to the whole collection of sacred books. (2.) From the mode of revealing and recording the Eevelation it is called the Oracles and the Scriptures. " Oracle " — from the Latin word oro, to speak : os, orisj the mouth. The sanctuary of the tabernacle and the temple was called the oracle, 1 Kings vi. 16 ; Psalm xxviii. 2. The term is used in the New Testament to designate the revelations of God. Acts vii. 38 ; 1 Peter iv. 11. For the heathen use of the word, see "oracle" in any dictionary or encyclopaedia. " Scriptures" — Latin, scribo, I write — Scriptus. The Jews called their sacred books Kethib, written, or mikra, gathering. (3.) From the contents of the Book it is called the Word, the Law, Prophets, and Psalms, and the Testaments or Covenants. " Testament." — The word diatheke, which we now translate testament, signifies either a testament or a covenant. Covenant — an agreement, a mu- tual arrangement ; two Testaments, old and new. "Not two distinct and unrelated covenants, but merely the former and the latter dispensations of the one grand covenant of mercy." — l?i i Ill I 10 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. (4.) From the character of the book it is called the Bible, the Holy Bible, and the Canonical Scriptures. (IV.) There are three CLASSIFICATIONS OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. (1.) In the Bible itself. See 2 Cor. iii. 14; 2 Cor. iii. 6 ; Zech. vii. 12 ; Matt. xi. 13 ; Matt. xxii. 40 ; Acts xiiL 15 ; Luke xxiv. 44. (2.) The recognised Jewish classification. (1.) The Law : — The five books of Moses. (2.) The Prophets :— (1.) The former Prophets : — Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. (2.) The latter Prophets : — Greater and Minor. (3.) Hagiographa : — (1.) First class : — Psal., Prov., and Job. (2.) Second class : — Sol. Song, Ruth, Lam., Eccl., and £s. (3.) Third class : — Dan., Ez., Neb., and Chron. (3.) The order of our version. (1.) The Old Testament :— (1.) The Pentateuch— G. E. L. N. D.— 5. (2.) The Historical- J. J. R S. K. 0. E. N. E.— 12. (3.) The Poetical— J. P. P. E. S.— 5. (4.) The Prophetical — 1. Greater : — I. J. (L.) E. D.— 5. 2. Minor :— H. J. A. O. J. M. N. H. Z. H. Z. M.— 12. (2.) The New Testament :— (1.) The Historical— M. M. L. J. A.— 5. (2.) The Pauline Epistles— R. C. G. E. P. C. T. T. T. P. H.— 14. (3.) The General or Catholic Epistles— J. P. J. J.— 7. .; (4.) The Prophetical— R.—1. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. (V.) THE CONTENTS OF THE BIBLE. n (1.) God the Creator and Father is revealed in the Old Testament as ruler of men and nations, preparing the world for the advent of the Son. (2.) God the Son is revealed in the four "Gos- pels " of the New Testament as Prophet, Priest, and King of men, living, dying, rising from the dead, ascending into the heavens, promising be- fore his departure to send the Holy Ghost to abide with his faithful followers on the earth. (3.) God the Holy Ghost is revealed in the " Acts " and in the " Epistles " of the New Testa- ment as inspirer and comforter and almighty pro- tector of the Church in the earth. (4.) God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — the one God— is revealed in the last book of the Bible — " The Revelation " — as governing and directing all things of earth and heaven in the interest of the people of God, who, redeemed from sin, shall reign for ever in spotless purity, unbroken fellowship, unalloyed blessedness, for ever doing and delighting in the will of God. Blackboard Epitome of the above Paper. {As it would stand after it had been developed by a drill of the Class.) (I.) CANON OF scripture. (a.) Meaning, line, rule, law. (b.) Scripture is canon of life, (c.) Tests. {d.) The name applied. (II.) the evidences. (1.) L A. ; (2) S. S. T. ; (3) R. S. ; (4) I. C. ; (5) A. H. N. ; (6.) H. T. S. ; (7) P. E. 12 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. iS (III.) NAMES. B. 0. S. T. W. ; T. L. ; L. P. P. ; T. C; T. B. ; H. B. j as. (IV.) CLASSIFICATION. (1.) B. (2.) J.— L. 5 B. M ; P. R J. J. S. K. ; L. G., M. H. 1. Psa., P. J. ; 2. Sol. S. R. L. Ec. Es. j 3. D. Ez. N. Ch. (3.) Order of our version— 0. T., N. T. (V.) CONTENTS. (1.) God Rev. in O. T. as ruler. • (2.) God S. in Gospels as P. P. K. (3.) God H. G. in Acts as Insp. C. P. (4.) God F. S. H. G. in Rev. 2. Manners and Customs of Bible Times. As this subject requires too many illustrations to be treated even briefly in these pages, we can only indicate the helps to its study. 1. Illustrated Lectures on Oriental Customs, Costumes, Manners, Implements, &c. By A O. Van Lennep, Montclair, N. J., a native of Syria ; or by Rev. J. S. Ostrander, Haarlem, N. Y., both of whom lecture at very reasonable prices. 2. Dr. Van Lennep's great work, published by Harper Brothers, New York ; sold also by Adam Miller & Co., Toronto. 3. Cheaper books on this subject are : " Freeman's Hand- book of Bible Customs," Nelson & Phillips, N. Y. ; or " Thom- son's Land and Book (2 vols.), Harper Brothers, N. Y. ; also for sale by Adam Miller & Co., Toronto. 3. Bible Geography. Whitney's "Handbook of Bible Geography," Nelson & Phillips, N. Y., is an inexpensive and excellent treatment of this whole subject. THE BIBXiE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 4. EeVISION of THE BiBLE.* BY BEV. F. A. o'mEABA, D.D. (1.) There is a ver)' strong repugnance among Christians against any interference with the authorized version of our Bible. But, notwithstanding this, it is desirable that our ver- sion should be brought as near to the meaning and spirit of the original as the present state of Biblical scholarship will admit. This is required by loyalty to the text as it came from the hand of the inspired writers. * This vastly important task had its origin in the Jonvocation of Canterbury of the Church of England, in 1870. The late Dean Alford. Archbishop Trench, Bishop EUi- cott, Pi'ofessors Lightfoot, Hort, Kennedy, and others, were appointed by the Convo- cation a committee, with power to associate other scholars from various denominations with them, for the purpose of revising the translation of the Scriptures now in common use, and known as King James' Version. In 1871 Dr. Phillip SchaS was requested to form an American Committee, to co-operate with the English Committee in this task. He did so, and divided the American Committee into two Companies— one to work on the Old Testament and the other to work on the New Testament. Both Companies meet during most of the year monthly, in the Bible House, in this citj', and prosecute their labours during two or three days. In the summer, however, they avoid the heat and noise of the great metropolis by holding a session of a week in length in some town where one of their members resides, and to which he invites them. Thus the Old Testament Company met in 73 at New Haven, in '74 at Princeton, in '76 at Andover^ and last week at New Brunswick. The character of this Company is thoroughly unsectarian and Catholic. It embraces the most distinguished scholars and representative men of the great denominations, and, therefore, is eminently fitted to aid m completing a broad and comprehensive work. The Chairman of the Old Testament Company is Professor Green, of Princeton, and the other members are as follows, being named in alphabetical order ; Dr. Aiken, of the Theological Seminary at Princeton ; Dr. Chambers, one of the pastors of the Collegiate Church, New York ; Dr. Conant, of Philadelphia ; Dr. Day, of the Theological Seminary at New Haven ; Dr. De Witt, of the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick ; Dr. Hare, of Philadelphia ; Dr. Krauth, of the University of Pennsylvania ; Dr. Lewis, of Union College at Schentctady ; Dr. Mead, of the Theological Seminary at Andover ; Dr. Pack- ard, of the Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va., ; Dr. Osgood, of the University at Rochester ; Dr. Strong, of the Drew Theological Seminary, and Dr. Van Dyke, a mis- sionary and learned Oriental scholar in Sj-ria. Not all of these gentlemen are or can be equally regular in attending the meetings. Thus Dr. Conant and Dr. Taylor Lewis (the latter on account of his health) are seldom present, and Dr. Van Dyke is obliged, of course, to make his sugsrestions by letter. The method of doing the work is exceedingly thorough, and will, therefore, no doubt, prove generally satisfactory. The British Committee sends printed copies of their re- vision to the American Committee, who go over it with the greatest care and conscien- tiousness, making such suggestions of alteration and improvement as they deem advis- able. A bare majority of the Committee is enough in the first instance to establish a tentative or provisional reading. At some subsequent meeting, however, aftei the members have had renewed opportunity to re-examine the passage, the provisional reading is taken up fuirain, fully and deliberately considered, and then adopted or reject- ed by a two-thirds majoritv. The work is then transmitted back to England for final examination and decision by the English Committee. If there still remain a few excep- tional difficulties, they are made the subject of correspondence and thus of final agree- ment. The work of the American scholars is said to be very satisfactory to their English i III 14 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. (2.) The task assigned is not really a revision of the Bible which is the work of God, and cannot be either revised or improved. Nor is it really the production of a new transla- tion, since the authorized version is very nearly perfect. The purpose in this movement is rather to perfect the authorized version in those few points where a fuller knowledge of the original language, or a change in the use of English words, makes a change necessary. In this connection let it be re- membered that our present translation is the production of many revisions. (3.) Our present version requires revision in the following respects : — (a) Passages are to be omitted that are not found in the oldest and best manuscripts. It should be said here that these omissions will not weaken a single Christian doctrine. 1 John v. 7 should be erased for this reason* (6) Some passages require change to bring them into accord with the most ancient MSS. For exam- ple — Rev. xxii. 14, should be not "blessed are they that do his commandments," which sounds like salvation by works, but rather " blessed are they that have washed their robes,'" as in the earliest manuscripts. (c) Some original words have been incorrectly translated. For example — 1 Thess. v. 22, should be " ab- stain from every form of evil." Most of these changes are those of tenses and cases which do not affect the doctrine pre- sented in the least. brethren. Nearly all the suggestions made by the former have been adopted by the latter. The entire worlc is carried on in a reverent and conservative spirit, only those changes being decided upon which are deemed absolutely necessary, and which give a clearer and more accurate equivalent in English of the original Hebrew and Greek. Of the two Committees the British is the more conservative in clinging to old words and usages : while the American is more radical, or, at least, more in sympathy with the changes in words and idioms about to be made in the near future. The Old Testament Oompany spent four days in the Sage Library, at New Brunswick, in severe labour from 9 A.II. until 6 P.M. each day, and concluded their work by finishing the revision of the 100th Psalm. They have now, therefore, gone through the Pentateuch and one hundred of the Psalms. The New Testament Company have thus far revised the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistle to the Romans, and the Pastoral Epistles. It is not poHsiblc for us to give the changes or different readings, inasmuch as details of this kind are kept secret, very properly, until the final work shaU be given to the public. The entire work will probably require five years yet for its completion f though it is quite likely that the Psalms or the Pentateuch, or both, will at no ^.istant date be published as specimens of the great task in hand. MMaega THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 15 (d) Some passagijs, wliich very correctly and intelligibly represented the meaning of the original two and a half cen- turies ago, have, through the changes in the English lan- guage, ceased to do so to the modern reader, and therefore need revision. For example — " they took up their carnages'^ for " they packed their baggage,'' and " he that letteth will let," for " he that hindereth will hinder." This centennial period of the Republic will be marked by the production of the authorized version of future generations, which will have been the production of English and American learned men and divines working in unison in London and New York, furnishing another bond of union between the two countries. 5. Principles op Bible Interpretation. by man. BY BBV. LYMAN ABBOTT, D.D.* Looking at the Bible from the human side, we should re- member that it was Written, Copied, Translated, Printed Hence the following points should be observed in its interpre- tation : — (1.) Have a well-printed Bible. " The Teachers' Bible" of the American Tract Society and ** Bagster's Bible" are the best. (2.) Get at the best translation, a. By studying it in "the original," if possible, b. By comparing the received translations with the new translations that are appearing, c. By comparison also with French and German Bibles, especially "Luther's Bible." d. By examining modern commentaries, through which those who are without scholastic training can get at the true rendering. - * Author of " Illustrated Commentary on Acts," also " Commentary on Matthew and Mark," "Jesus of Nazareth," "Dictionary of Religious Knowledge," &c. 16 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. •^1 r (3.) Ascertain if you have a correct COpy, There are from 120,000 to 800,000 variations in the various copies of the Bible, mostly unimportant typographical errors, and not one of them aflPecting any Bible doctrine. 1 John v. 7, is now universally allowed to be an interpolation. These errors may be discovered by referring (a) to Pischendorf 's Greek Testament, and (b) some critical commentary. (4.) Study the peculiar circumstances of the writer of any passage under consideration. (a) Ask " Who is it that speaks in this passage ?" A Universalist preacher took as a text to preach against future punishment, Gen. iii. 4, — "Thou shalt not surely die" — the words of the devil. A judge once said in a charge to the jury, " We have the highest authority for saying " skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life." The papers next day called attention to the fact that these words were uttered by the devil, adding — " Now we know who the judge regards as the highest authority." (b) ^s^ wAa< is the character of the passage ? I:ch a comprehensive reading has suggested. Other minds would perhaps see other central thoughts in some cases. We started out with the feeling that every book had some great purpose and leading thought, and that the author would usually frequently employ some characteristic word or phrase to express that thought which would be appropriately designated as the " key word" or " key words" of that book : — Key Words of the Bible. Genesis— "In the beginning God" (i. 1). Exodus — *' Brought out of bondage by the hand of God " (viii. 19). Leviiicus — '• Redeemed " by sacrifice and priesthood. Numbers — God dealing with Israel as with " Sons." Deuteronomy — " Remember." Joshua — Inheriting the promises (xxiii. 14, If*). Judges — " Deliverer." Ruth — Godly households. 1 Samuel — " Thy God helpeth thee." 2 Samuel—" Thou lovest thine enemies " (xix. 6 ; xxiv. 10). Kings and Chronicles — " As long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper " (2 Chron. xxvi. 6.) Uzra — "Separate" (x. 11). Nehemiah — " Let us rise up and build." Esther — The man whom THE KING delighteth to honour. Job — (Type of the race history) THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 21 " God blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning " (xlii. 12). PsaZms—" Praise." PrtwerJs—" Wisdom." Ec- dmastes — "Vanity." Song of Solomon — "My Beloved." Isaiah — " Salvation." Jeremiah — " My hope in the day of evil" (xvii. 17). Daniel — "Kingdom" (vii, 27). Hosea — "Eeturn" (iii. 5). Joel — "Deliverance" (ii. 32). Anm— "Seek ye ME" (v. 4). Jona^—" Angry " (i. 2, 4 ; iv. 4). Micah — " Many nations shall come " (iv. 2). Nahum — " De- voured" (L 10). Hdbakkuk — "Woe" (ii. 12). Zephaniah — "Punish" (i. 12). Haggai — "Consider your ways" (i. 5). Zechariah — " Light " (xiv. 7). Malachi — " My Messenger " (iii. 1). JIfa«A«M;— "Fulfilled" (122) flfarifc- " Immediate- ly." ZMJfce— "Son of Man." JbAn—" Believe " (xx. 31). Ads — " Power of Jesus's name " (iv. 10). Romans — " Judg- ment" and "Justification" (v. 18). 1 Corinthians — "Let all your things be done with charity " (xvi. 14). 2 Corinthians — "Our sufficiency" (iii. 5). Galatians — "The liberty of Sonship " (iv. 7). Ejphesians—*' Walk." Phili'p- pians — " The work of (>od in the heart perfected." Colossians — " Christ in you," Jjetters to Thessalonians — " Comfort " (1 Thess. iv. 8). Letters to Timothy — " The Doctrine which is ac- cording to (Godliness " (x. 3). Titus — " Savior." Philemon — " Brother." Rehrerjis — " Better." Jar.ies- -" Work." Letters of Peter — " Precious." 1 John — " Know." 2 and 3 John — "The Truth." Ji^e—« Ungodly." Revelation— " Ovev- come. » The time required to read the individual books of the Bible is much less than is usually supposed. Genesis, which is the longest historical book in the Bible, ean be read without haste, in three hours — an amount of time which almost every one frequently gives to a favorite author, at one or two sittings. Luke is the only New Testament book that requires two hours for its reading. Forty-two out of the sixty-six books of the Bible, may be read in less than an hour each. Of course, such books ae Proverbs and Psalms, which have no con- tinuous narrative, should not be read so continuously. The whole Bible, read as slowly as ordinary Scripture reading in the pulpit, would require only sixty hours and forty-eight minutes, the working hours of one week, equal to ten minutes 22 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. a day for one year. Of course it would be best to scatter the week's time over the year, getting a comprehensive view of the whole Bible in one twelvemonth, and afterwards, of course, reading more slowly and analytically. It would make such a year plan more profitable and pleasant, if a whole Church, or a whole class tried the plan together, agreeing to read the same books at the same time, and giving ten minutes of each day to this delightful pursuit of truth. To show that this comprehensive reading of the Scriptures is not impracticable, even for the busiest people, we subjoin a table showing the time required for thoughtful reading of each book of the Bible in hours and minutes : — Time Required for Reading THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. GENESIS 8.06 EXODUS 2,80 LEVITICUS 1.60 NUMBERS 1.46 DEUTERONOMY 2.16 JOSHUA 1.26 JUDGES 1.20 RUTH 16 1. SAMUEL 1.60 IL SAMUEL 1. L KINGS 1.60 IL KINGS 1.05 L CHRONICLES 1.40 II. CHRONICLES 2.00 EZRA 50 NEHEML^H 66 ESTHER 80 JOB 1.26 PSALMS 8.85 PROVERBS 1.10 ECCLESIASTES 27 SONG OF SOLOMON.. .16 ISAL^H 2.60 JEREMIAH 3.16 LAMENTATIONS 17 EZEKIEL 8.00 DANIEL 8fi H08EA 26 JOEL 10 AMOS liO' OBADIAH «)6 JONAH 06 MICAH , 16 NAHUM 05 HABAKKUK 07 ZEPHANIAH 08 HAGOAI 06 ZECHARIAH 80 MALACHI .08 THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. MATTHEW 1.66 MARK . 1.10 LUKE 2.00 JOHN 1.80 THE ACTS 1.65 ROMANS 45 L CORINTHIANS 48 II. CORINTHIANS 23 OALATIANS 17 EPHE8IANS 17 PHILLIPPIANS 12 COLOSSIANS I'i I. THE8SAL0NIANS . . .10 II. THE8SAL0NIANS.. .06 I. TIMOTHY 13 II TIMOTHY 10 TITUS 05 PHILEMON 08 HETiREWS 8S JAMES 12 L PETER -14 II. PETER 10 I. JOHN 18 IL JOHN 02 in. JOHN 02 JUDE 04 REVELATION 60 Let it be remembered in this and every method of Bible reading, that " the letter kiUeth, the spirit giveth life." THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 23 " TEN MINUTES A DAY " PLAN FOR COMPREHENSIVE READING OF THE WHOLE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR. January: .. ... Proverbs, Genesis, and Revelations. To- tal, 5 hours, 5 minutes. February : Ezekiel. Total, 3 hours. (But should be read more slowly, or twice over.) March: Exodus, Galatians, and Philemon ; Levi- ticus and Hebrews. Total, 4 hours, 35 minutes. April: Numbers, Ephesians, 2 John, 3 John, Deuteronomy, Eomans, and James. Total, 4 hours, 38 minutes. May : Joshua, 2 Corinthians and Titus ; Judges, Hosea, 1 Corinthians, and Ezra. Total, 4 hours, 31 minutes. June: Ruth, Luke,* Acts, and Daniel. Total, 4 hours, 25 minutes. July and August : 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Psalms,t 1 Kings, 2 Kings. Total, 9 hours, 10 minutes. '^ At some time iu one's life he should get a harmony of the Gospels, and read through the life of Christ, as you would read a biography of Weslev or Luther. In such a read- ing Christ's teachings take on new aspects, and the life itself assumes a new sig- nificance. t David's Psalms are his autobiography, and ought to be read in connection with his biography in Samuel, in order to get his complete history from both the outward and inward points of view. The Psalms will be tenfold more significant if read with the events that suggested them, and the bare outline of David's public history will he shad- ed and tinted into life-like distinctness and completeness by inserting at appropriate places these heart-chapters of historic song. I have accordingly arranged tne Psalms of David in their probable historic connection, as given by the best biblical scholars, or shown bv the titles or contents. 1. David's shepherd life— 1 Sam. 16. Psalms 19, 28. 2. David's victory over Goliath— 1 Sam. 17, 18. Psalms 8, 9. 8. Saul's effort to capture David in his own home— 1 Sam. 19 : 11. Psalm 59. 4. Jonathan's warning— 1 Sam. 20 : 36-42. Psalms 11, 64. ' 6. David's flight to Ahimelech, the priest— 1 Sam. 21 : 1-9, etc. Psalm 52. 6. David's flight to Gath— 1 Sam. 21 : 11. Psalms 56, 70. 7. Escape from Gath— 1 Sam. 22 : 1. Psalm 84. 8. David in the cave of Adullam-1 Sam. 21 : 1, 2. Psalms 67, 142, 18, 40, 141. 9. In the forest of Hareth- 1 Sam. 22 ; 6 ; 23 ; 14, 16. Psa'.ms 63, 17. 10. Escape from Keilah to mountains of Ziph— 1 Sam. 23 : 10-18. Psalms 81, 54. 11. David sparing Saul— 1 Sam. 24 : 1-16. Psahn 7. (An appeal against Cush who had slandered him to Saul, saying, " David seeketh thy hurt.") 12. The cave of Engedi— 1 Ban:. 23: 29. Psalms 86, 86. 18. Wilderness of Paran.- Incident of Nabal— 1 Sam. 26. Psalm 63. TNabal means " fool."J 14. fflklag— 1 Sam. 27. Psahns 16, 88, 89. *». D»vid, king at Hebron -2 Pum. iS: 1-7. Poalms 26, 101. 24 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. September : October : November : December : Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Ma- lachi, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, and Esther. Total, 4 hours, 43 minutes. Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, John, and Canticles. Total, 4 hours, 22 minutes. Jeremiah, Lamentations, Zechariah, and Mark. Total, 5 hours, 12 minutes. Job, Jude, Micah, and Matthew; 1 Thes- salonians, 2 Thessalonians ; 1 Peter and 2 Peter ; Nehemiah, 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy ; Colossians, Philip- pians, and 1 John. Total, 4 hours, 57 minutes. 7. Topical Bible Reading. BY. D. L. MOODY. In order to understand the Bible we have to study it care- fully. If we will go to the Word of God and be willing to be taught by the Holy Ghost, God wUl teach us, and will unfold His blessed truths to us. 16. King at Jeruaalem— 2 Sam. 6 : 6-26. Psalms 21, 108, 110. 17. The Ark brought to Jerusalem— 2 Sam. 7. Psalms 182, 16, 24, 04, ISS, 29. 18. Wars of David with Edom, Syria, etc.— 2 Sam. 8. Pstlms 60, 61, 44, 20. 19. David's penitence for the " great transgression." — 2 Sam. 11, etc. Psalms 61, 82, 6, 69, 103. 20. Absalom's rebellion -2 Sam. 15-13. Psalms 4, (first evening of flight); 3 (next morning ; also the two Psalms next mentioned), 5, 143, 26, 28, 61, 144, 62, 143, 42. 21. Ahithophel's treason— 2 Sam. 16-18. Psalms 56, 41, 109. 22. Victory over Absalom— 2 Sam. 18, Psalm 43. (David's prayer at Mahanaina, while Joab fought with Absalom in the woods.) 28. Sheba'B rebellion— 2 Sam. 20, 21. Psalms 2, 84. 24. David's review uf his many victories— 2 Sam, 22. Psalm IS. 26. The pestilence withdrawn— 1 Chron. 20 : 14-80 ; 21 : 1. Psalm 30. 26. The Building of the Temple committed to Solomon— 1 Chron. 28, etc. Psalms 65, 67,68. 27. David's review of his life— Psalm 146. 28. Giving the kingdom to Solomon— I Chron. 29. Psalms 72, 91. The authorities chiefly consulted in this arrangement, are Lange's Commentary, Dr. Wm. H. Taylor's Da^^d, King of Israel, and a book by the Rev. Henry Liuton, of Englawl, on The Psalms of David and Solomon, ^ THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 25 There are three books that every Christian ought to have if he cannot have but three. The first is a Bible — one with good plain print that you can easily read, not so good that you are afraid to mark it. I am sick of these little fine types. It is a good thing to get a good-sized Bible, because you will grow old by-and-by, and your sight may grow poor, and you won't want to give up the one you have been used to reading in after it has come to seem like a sort of life-long com- panion. The next book to get is " Cruden's Concordance." You cannot get on very well in Bible study without that. There is another book printed in this country by the American Tract Society called the " Bible Text-Book." It was brought out first in London. These three books will be a wonderful help to you in studying the Word of God. For a number of years I have made a rule not to read any book that does not help me to understand the Bible. I am a greater slave to that book than any man is to strong drink, and I am sure it does me a great deal more good. I think I have got the key to the study of the Bible. Take it tof|i- cally 1 Take " Love," for instance, and spend a month in searcning what the Bible says about love, from Genesis to Reve- lation. Thus you will learn to love everybody, whether they love you or not. In the same way, take " Grace," " Faith," "Assurance," " Heaven," and so on. When you read your Bible, be sure you hunt for something. Bead the same chapter over and over again, till you understand it. I would add — Make yourself thoroughly familiar with Paul's Epistles. They are the key to all the Holy Scriptures. Get a reference Bible, and you will find the best commentary in the margin. Take up one word in a book, such as the " believes^* in St. John. Every chapter but two, speaks of believing. Ijook up the nineteen personal interviews with Christ. Take the " cm- versions'* of the Bible : the seven " hleaseds '' and " overcomes'^ of Revelation. See what 1 John iii. says about " assurance" and the six things worth " knomng." Take up the five "precious " things of Peter, the " verilys " of John, the seven " walks " of Ephesians, the four "much mores" of Rom. iv., the two "receiveds" of John i., the seven " hearts" in Prov. xxiii., and especially an eighth, the "lookings," the " lookings hack." the " beholds "of the Bible. 26 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Study the word in God's presence, with the help of the asked- for Spirit of God. If you have sin upon your conscience, it will hinder your understanding. Eemember the blood. The light which shines from Calvary is the light that unfolds the Scriptures. In order to aid in topical " Bible Readings " for private edi- fication as well as for public use we add Bagster's *' Scripture Index," from the famous " Bagster Bible," every topic of which would make a profitable " Bible Reading." Extracts from Bagster's Scripture Index, In Bagster's Polyglot Bible. ACCESS TO GOD. The typical w»y— Heb. 9. 6-8. Lev. chap- ters 1-9, and 16, 21, 22. The new and living way— John 14. 6. Ro. 6. 1, 2. Eph. 2. 18, 18 ; 8. 11, 12. Heb. 9. 24. Exhortation— Heb. 4. 14, 16 : 10. 19^22. Matt. 11. 28. IPet. 2. 4,6. Fromiaes— Jno. 6. 37. Jas. 4. 8. ADOPTION. Natural— Ex. 2. 10. Est. 2. 7. Spiritual— Jno. I. 12. 18. 1 Jno. 8. 1, 2. Rom. 8. 14, 16. Qal. 8. 7, 26 ; 4. 4-7. Aom. 8. 16, 17. Eph. 1. 4, 6. Heb. 2. 11. Rom. 8. 22, 23. Promises— Pa. 34. 11. Jer. 81. 9, 2 Co. 6. 18. Exhortation— 1 Jno. 8. 9, 10. 1 Pet. 1. 2^, 23. Heb. 12. 9, 10. 2 Co. 6. 17. PbiL 2. 14, 16. Eph. 6. 1. AFFLICTION. From God— Ex. 4. 11. Job 1. 12 ; 2. 6. Ps. 66. 10, 11. Amos 3. 6. 2 Co. 12. 7, Is. 63. 10. Acta 4. 27, 28. Oonuuou to all— Gen. 3. 16, 17. Job 6. 6, 7. Lulce 13. 2. Special to some — 2 Tim. 3. 12. Jno. 16. 88. Heb. 12. 6, 7. Rev. 3. 19. Jno. 16. 2. Acts 14. 22. 1 Co. 11. 32 ; 7. 28. Uses of — Ps. 119. 71, 67. Jno. 9. 2, 3 ; 11. 4. Is. 20. 9. Hos. 6. 16. Ps. 78. 84. Luke 16. 17-19. Deut. 8. 6, 16. 1 Co. 11. 82. 2 Co. 4. 17, 18. Heb. 12. 11. Jas. 1. 2, 8. 1 Pet 1. 7 ; 4. 12-14. Rev. 2. 10. ALMS-GIVING. Directions for— 2 Co, 9. 7. 1 Co. 16. 2, Deut. 16. 7. 8. Lu. 3, 11 ; 11. 41. Eph. 4. 28, 1 Thn. 6. 17, 18. Heb. 13. 16. 1 Jno, 3, 17. Gal. 6. 16. Promises— Ps. 41. 1 ; 112. 9. Prov, 14. ?1; 19. 17 ; 28. 27. Matt. 26. 31-40. Lu, 6. 88 : 14. 18, 14. Heb. 6. 10, Warnings- Prov, 21, 1.3, Eze, 18, 12, 18. Matt. 26. 41-46 ;|6. 1, 8. 1 Co. 18. 8. ANGELS. Their Ministry— Heb. 1. 14. Gen. 19. 1- 16, Dan, 9. 21, 22 ; 10, 18, 19. Lu. 2. 10; 15,10. Matt. 4. 11, Lu, 22, 43 Matt. 28. 2 ; 13. 41. 1 Tbess. 4. 16. Their number— Rev. 6. 11. Heb. 12. 22, ANOINTING. Typical— Ex. 28. 41 ; 29. 7 ; 40, 15 ; 40. 9- 11 ; 30. 31, 82. Spkdtual— Heb. 1. 8, y. 2 Co. 1. 21, 22. 1 Jn^/. 2. 20, 27. APOSTACY. Of angels- Jude & Of man— Gen. 3. 6. Of Israel— Ex. 32. 7, 8. Is. 1. 4-6. Of disciples— Jno. 6. 66. Of the latter days--l Tim. 4. 1-8. ASCENSION, THE Mar, 16, 19. Lu. 24. 61. Actsl. 9-11. Typified- Lev. 14. 4-7. Foretold— Ps. 68. 18. Jno, 6. 62 ; 7. S3 : 14.28; 16.6; 20. 17. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 27 Necessity— Jno. 16. 7. Its object— Ro. 8, 34. Heb. 9. 24. Jno. 14.2. Its result— Acts 2. 32, 88. Eph. 2. 4-7. ASSURANCE. Of Sonship— Heb. 8. 14. Eo. 8. 16. IJno. 3. 2. Of eternal Life— 1 Jno. 8. 14. Jno. 10. 28,29. Of aoidinf; union with Christ — Jno. 17. 24. Rom. 8. 38, 39. ATONEMENT, Is of God— Zee. 18. 7-9. Isa. 68. 10. Jno. J. 16. Through love— 1 Jno. 4. 10. Rom. 5. 8 ; 8.32. 2 Co. 5. 18, 19. How accomplished— Lev. 17. !!• Heb. 9. 22. Eph. 1. 6, 7. Col. 1. 14. 1 Jno. 1. 7. Rev. 7. 14 ; 12. 11. Its result— Heb. 2. 0. Isa. 68. 6. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Jno. 1. 29. Ro. 6. 10, 11 ; 3. 24, 26. Gal. 1. 8, 4. Bo. 6. 9. Heb. 10. 14. 1 Thess. 1. 10. Heb. 9. 28. BAPTISM. Of water by John— Matt. 8. 11-16. Mar. 1. 4. Matt. 3. 5, 6. Mar. 1. 8, 9. Lu. 3. 12 ; 7. 29. Matt. 3. 7. Lu. 7. 30. Of fire-Mar. 10. 88, 39. Lu. 12. 49, 51. Matt. 3. 11. Of the Holy Ghost— Matt. 8. 11-16. Acts 1. 6 ; 2. 1-4 ; 8. 14-17 ; 10. 86-38, 44 ; 18. 24, 26 ; 19. 1-6. In the name of the Lord Jesus — Acts S. 28, 41. Acts 8. 12-17, 86-38; 9. 17, 18; 22. 16 ; 10. 44-48. In the name of the Trinity-Matt. 28. 18, 19. Its symbolical character— 1 Co. 12. 12-14, 2'. Eph. 4. 8-5. Ro. 6. 8, 4. Col, 2. 9-13. BLINDNESS. Typical— Lev. 21. 18, 21; 22.22. Deut. 15. 21. Mai. 1. 8. Spiritual- J er. 6. 21. Is. 44. 18; 29. 10, 11 ; 6. 9, 10. Judg. 16. 20. Is. 1. 3. Ro. 11. 26. 2 Co. 3. 14, 16, Of the natural man— 1 Co. 2. 14. 2 Co. 4. 3, 4. Jno. 14. 17. Acts 26. 17, 18. Eph. 4. 17, 18. Exhortation— Eph. 6. 8. 2 Pet. 1. 9, 10. 1 Jno. 1. 6, 6; 2. 9, 11. Rev. 8. 17, 18. BLOOD. Typical— Ex. 12. 13 ; 23. 18. Heb. 9. 22. Of Christ— 1 Jno. 6. 6, 8. Matt. 26. 28. Mar. 14. 24. Lu. 22. 20. Jno, 6, 63-66. }Qo, 10, 16; 11.26. Effects of— Eph. 1. 7. Col. 1. 14, 1 Pet. 1. 18, 19. Rev. 6. 9. Col. 1. 20. Ro. 6. 9. Rev. 1. 5. Eph. 2. 13. 1 Jno. 1. 7. Rev. 7. 14. Heb. 9. 13, 14 ; 10. 19 ; 13. 12, 20, 21. R«v. 12. 11. Exhortation— Acts 20. 23. 1 Co. 6. 7, 8. CHARITY OR LOVE. Characterized— 1 Co. 13. 1-8; 8. 1 ; 13. 18. Exhortation - 1 Pet. 4. 8. 1 Tim. 1. 6. Col, 3. 14. 1 Co. 16. 14. CHILDREN Of God. By nature — Eph. 2. 8. By faith— Gal. 3. 26. 1 Jno. 6. 1. Jno. 1. 11, 12. Their true sonship— Gal. 4. 4-7. 1 Jno. 3. 1, 2. Ro. 8. 14, 16. Exhortation to separateness— 1 Jno. 8. 9, 10. 2 Co. 6. 17, 18. To growth— 1 Co, 14. 20. Heb. 6. 12-14. Eph. 4.14,16, Of men. Training of— Deut. 4. 9 ; 6. 7 ; 21. 18-21, Prov, 18. 24 ; 19, 18 ; 23. 13, 14 ; 29. 15, 17 ; 22. 6. Lam. 3. 27. Duties of— Ex. 20. 12. Lev. 19. 8. Eph, 6. 1-3, 1 Tim, 6, 4, 8, 16, Exhortation— Ec. 12. 1. Prov. 3. 1 ; 5. 1 ; 6. 20 ; 23. 22. Col. 3. 20. Promises— Prov, 8, 17, Isa, 40, 11, Acts 2. 39. Of the Devil— Jno. 8. 44, Matt. 28. 16. 1 Jno. 8. 10. Acts 18. 10. Jno. 6. 70. COMMUNION. With the Father— 1 Jno. 1. 3, 7. Jno. 14. 23. With the Son— 1 Co. 1. 9. 1 Jno. 1. 8. Phil. 3. 10. Rev. 3. 20, With the Spirit— 2 Co. 13. 14. 1 Co. 12. 13. PhU. 2. 1, 2. Necessary to a godly walk— Amos 3. 8. Warnings— 2 Co. 6. 14. 1 Jno. 1. 6. Heb. 13. 14, CONFESSION OF SIN. Under Law— Jos. 7. 19, 20, 26. Under Grace— 1 Jno, 1. 9. Jas. 6. 16. Personal— Lev. 6. 1, 6. Prov. 28. 13. Ps. 32. 6. Num. 6. 6, 7. Israel's sin— Lev. 16. 21 ; 26. 40, 42, Ezra 10, 11, Dan. 9. 20, 21, Examples— Num. 21. 7. 1 Sa. 7. 6. 1 Sa. 12. 19. 2 Sa. 24. 10, Job 7, 20, Dan, 9. 4, 6, Lu. 23. 41. CONSCIENCE. Job 83, 14, 15, 16. Qen. 3, 9, 10, 11 ; 4 w 28 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. II i 9 ; 42. 21, Ex. 20. 19. Num. 17. 12, 13. J no. 8. 7, 9. Acts 24. 26. A weak conscience— Ro. 14. 2, 0, 6. 1 Co. 8. 7. 1 Tlni. 4. 4. Ro. 14. 14. 1 Co. 8. 12 ; 10. 28, 29. Ro. 14. 22. Tit. 1. 16. A jrood conscience— Acts 23. 1. 2 Tim. 1. 8. Acts 24. 16. Ro. 9. 1. 1 Co. 4. 4. 1 Tim. 1. 19. 1 Pet. 3. 16, 21. A purged conscience — Heb. 0. 8, 9, 14 ; 10. 2. An evil conscience— 1 Tim. 4. 1, 2. Tit, 1. 16. CONVERSION. How wrought— Isa. 56. 6, 7. Eze. 33. 11 ; 86. 26-28. Indispensable— Matt. 18. 8. By the Father— Jno. 6. 44, 37. By the Son— Jn©. i^ 6. By t)ie Holy Ghost— 1 Co. 12. 8. A Promise— Jas. 6. 19, 20. An Exhortation -Lu. 22, 82. COVENANT. With Noah— Gen. 6. 18 ; 9. 13-15 ; 8. 21, 22. With Abraham— Gen. 12. 1-3 ; 18. 14-16 : 16. 18 ; 17. 20, 21 ; 22. 16-18. Of Circumcision- Gen. 17. 1, 2, 10, 18, 14. With Isaac— Gen. 26. 4. With Jacob— Gen. 28. 13, 14, At Horeb— Deut. 5. 2, 8. Ex. 19. 5, 8. In Christ— Gal. 3. 17. Acts 16. 5, 10, 22, 28, 29. 2 Co. 3. 6-8. A new covenant— Jer. 31. 31-33. Heb. 8. 7, 8, 18. 16. Ro. 6. 14 ; 11. 23, 25-27. Heb. 7. 11, 12, 22. Ro. 11. 26, 27. 2 Co. 8. 14. Heb. 9. 15. Rev. 13, 8. 1 Pet. 1. 20. Heb. 13. 20, 21. CROSS, THE. Its type— Num. 21. 8, 9. Jno. 3. 14, 16 ; 12. 32, sa Its result to Jew and Gentile— Eph. 2. 16. Its result to the Church of God- Gal. 2. 20 ; 6. 24. Col. 3. 3, 4. Its result to the World— 1 Co. 1. 18-24. Enmity to— Phil. 3. 18, 19. DEATH. Appointed unto men— Gen. 3. 17, 19. Ro. 6. 12. Heb. 9. 27, 28. Isa. 40. 6, 7. 1 Pet. 1. 24. Exceptions— Heb. 11. 6. 2Ki. 2. 11. Jno. 11. 26. 1 Co. 15. 61. 1 Thess. 4. 17, How aboUshed- 1 Co. 16. 22, 26, 54, 56. Heb. 2. 14. Rev. 21. 4. Union with Christ -Ro. 8, 88, 39. 1 Co, 3. 21-28. The second Death— Rev. 20. 14 ; 21. 8 ; Hcv. 2, 11, Exhortation— Ps. 90. 10, 12. Ec. 9. 10. Matt. 10. 28. Eze. 83. 11. 2 Co. 4. 11, 16. Lu. 12. 19-21. Ro. 6. 28. Jno. 6. 24. Death of the Soul— Matt. 10. 2& Warnings- -Dan. 12. 2. Pro. 14. 12. Matt 7. 18. Ro. 8. 13. Rev. 3. 1. DEVIL. Rev. 12. 9. In Eden— Gen. 3. 1, 13-16. As God of this World— 2 Co. 4. 4. Eph. 8. 2. Jno. 14. 20. Matt. 13, 88, 39. 1 Chron. 21. 1. Zee. 8. 1. Job 1. 6, 7 ; 2. 1, 2. 1 Pet. 6. 8. Rev. 2. 10. His power limited— Job 2. 6. 1 Co. 5. 6. Matt. 4. 8, 5, 8, 9. His overthrow— 2 Tim. 2. 25, 26. 1 Jno. 8. 8. Heb. 2. 14. Rev. 12. 9, 10 ; 20. 2, 7, 9. 10. FAITH. Heb. 11. 1. Ro. 8. 24, 25. 1 Co. 13. 12, 18. Ro. 10. 17. All-importont— Heb. 11. 6. Eph. 6. 16. 1 Thess. 6. 8. Heb. 4. 2. Its operation— Jno. 1. 12. 1 Jno. 5. 1. Rom. 1. 16, 17. Heb. 11. 3. Gal. 3. 6. Ro. 4. 6 ; 8. 28. Acta 10. 43. Eph. 8. 17-19 ; 2. 8. 1 Pet. 1. 8, 9. Ro. 6. 1. Heb. 4. 1-3. Gal. 1. 20. Ro. 6. 2. Jno 8. 16. 1 Jno. .0. 4, 6. The gift of God— Eph. 2. 6. Ro. 12. 8. 1 Co. 12. 8, 9. .Tno. 12. 39, 40. 1 Tim. 4.10. Examples— Heb. 11. Exhortotion— Ps. 84. 8; 37. 6. Matt. 6. 26. Jno. 12. 36. Ro. 11. 20. 21. 1 Tim. 6. 12. Heb. 10. 85, 38. Jno. 20. 27. Promises— Ps. 56. 22. Isa. 26.'8, 4 : 30. 16. 2 Tim. 4. 7, 8. Mar. 9. 23 ; 11. 24. 1 Jno. 6. 14. FALL, THE. Gen. 2. 16, 17 ; 8. 6. Ro. 6. 12. Job 14. 4. The remedy— Ro. 6. 19-21. 1 Co 15. 22, 47-49. Warning— 2 Co. 11. 8. FORGIVENESS. How obtained— 1 Jno. 1. 9. Isa. 43. 25. Ps. 25, 11. Heb. 9. 22. 2 Co. 6. 18, 19. Isa. 63. 4, 5. 2 Co. 5. 61. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Heb. 9. 26-28. Ro. 4. 6-8. Acts 6. 80, 31 ; 10. 43. Already bestowed- Eph. 1. 7. Col. 1. 14 ; 2. 13. 1 Jno. 2. 12. Heb. 10. 1, 2. Exhortation -Matt. 6. 14, 16. Mar. 11. 26, 26. Lu. 17. 3, 4. Matt. 18. 21,22. Jas 2. 12, 18. Col. 8. 12, 13. Eph. 4. 32, THE BIBLE AND THfi SUNDAY SCHOOL. 29 GOSPEL, THE. Ro. 1. 16, 17 ; 10. 8, 6, 9, 10 ; 11. 6 ; 3. 21, 22, 81. Mar. 16. 16, 16. Exhortation-Eph. 6. 16. Phil. 1. 27. 1 Pet. 4- 17. Promises— Mar. 10. 29, 80 ; 8. 36. HEAVEN. 16. Jno 8. 13 ; 14. 1 Pet. 1. 3, 4. Acts Jno. 1. 51. Acts 7. Isa. 66. 1. Job K. 2. Heb. 11. 14, 16. 3. 21 ; 1. 11. Opened— Matt. 3. 16. 66. Rev. 19. 11. New Heavens— 2 Pet. 3. 13. Rev. 21. 1. Paradise-Gen. 6. 24. 2 Ki. 2. 11. Lu. 16. 22 ; 23. 43. 2 Co. 12. 4. Acts 2. 83, 84. HOLY SPIRIT. Creator— Gen. 1. 2. Pb. 83. 6. Job 26. 18. Tlie Comforter— Jno. 16. 7 : 14. 16, 17 : 7. 89. 1 Jno. 3.124 ; 4. IS. Lu. 24. 49. Acts 1. 4, 6 ; 2. 1-4, 32, 38 ; 4. 81 ; 8. 17 ; 2. 88 : 10. 44, 45. Jno. 15. 26 ; 16. 13, 14. 2 Co. 1. 22. Oal. 4. 6. Lu. 11. 13. His operation— 2 Pet. 1. 21. 22. Lu. 1. 67 68, 70. 2 Sam. 23. 2. Mar. \2. 36. Lu. 1. 85. Matt. 1. 18, 20. Jno, 1. 82, 33. Lu. 4. 1. Heb. 9. 14. 1 Pet. S. 18. Acts 13. 2, 4. Epii. 2. 18. Acts 16. 6, 7. Ro. 8. 26, 27. 1 Co. 12. 3. Jno. 8. 5, 6. Epb. 1. 13, 14. Fruit of— Gal. 5. 6, 22, 28. Ro. 14. 17 ; 16. 18. Exhortation— 2 Tim. 1. 6, 7. Eph. 4. 80. Acta 20. 28. Gal. 6. 16-18. Ro. 8. 2, 5, etc. Gal. 6. 26. Wamingrs— Acts 5. 8, 9 ; 7. 61 ; 28. 25, 26. 1 Co. 2. 14 : 3. 16, 17 ; 6. 10. Jno. 6. 68. Eph. 4. 30. Mar. 3. 29. lThf«8. 6. 19. HUMILITY. Oal. 6. 8. Phil. 2. 8. Not natural to man— Mar. 7. 2\, 22. 1 Co. 4. 6, 7 ; 3. 18. : Jno. 2. 16 Our example— Matt. Zl. 29. Lu. 2. 61. Phil. 2. 7, 8. Exhortation— Ro. 12. 8 i 16. 19. Isa. 10. 16. Col. 8. 12. Warnings— Pro. 16. 33. Ro. 11. 20. 21. Ps. 10. 4. Pro. 2«. 12. 1 Co. 10. 12. Encouragement- Isa. 57. 16. Jaa. 4. 6. 1 Pet. 6. 6. JESUS CHRIST. His divinity-Col. 2. 9. 1 Tim. 8. 16. Jno. 1. 1, 14, 18. Col. 1. 16-19. 1 Co. 16. 47. Heb. 1. 2, 8. 1 Co. 2. 8. Jno. 1. 8 ; 10, 80, 36 : 14. 8, 9. 10, 18,14. PhU. 2. 6, 10, 11. Isa. 45. 21-23. His incarnation— Heb. 2. 16. Gal. 4. 4, 6. Isa, 7; 14; 9. 6, Heb. 9. 26; Matt. 1.18. His life as Son of Abraha.:. Gospel of Matthew, His life as perfect Servant and Sacrifice- Gospel of Mark. His life as Son of Man— Gospel of Luke. His life as Son of God— Gospel of John. His Baptism— Lu. 8. 21, 22. His Temptation— Lu. 4. 1, 2. Mar. 1. 12, 18. Heb. 4. 16. f is Death— Heb. 9. 11. His Resurrection— 1 Pet. 8. 18. His Ascension— Acts 1. 9. Lu. S4. 61. His Mediation— 1 Tim. 2. 6. Heb. 9. 24 ; 7. 26. Ro. 8. 84. 1 Jno. 2. 1. His Coming again— Acts 1. 11. Mark 14. 62. 1 Thess. 4. 16, 17. Mar. 18. 26, 26. Matt. 24. 80. Mar. 8. 38. 2 Thess. 1. 7, 8, 10. Rev. 22. 20. JUDGMENT. Day of— Rev. 22. 12. Ecc. 12. 14. Matt. 12. 86 26. 31, 32. Rev. 11. 18 ; 20. 12 ; 14.6. The Judge— Jno. 5. 22, 27 : 12. 48. Matt. 7. 22, 28. Ro. 1 J. 10, 12. 2 Tim. 4. 1, 8. Acts 10. 42 : 17. 81. Matt. 13. 41, 42. Exhortation— 2 Pet. 8. 7, 10, 14. 1 Pet. 4. 17. Jude 14, 16. Jno. 8. 18, 19. JUSTinOATION. 1 Co. 6. 9-11. Who are Justified —Ro. 2. 18 : 8. 20. Ps. 14. 8. 2. How obtahied— Ro. 8. 3-6. 2 Co. 6. 21. Jas. 2. 21. Ro. 4. 2. Gal. 8. 11, 24 : 2. 16. Isa. 68. 11. Ro. 8. 24-26. Tit. 3. 6-7. Ro. 11. 6. KINGDOM OF GOD.— KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. To be sought for— Matt. 6. 88. Lu. 12. 31. Matt. 6. 9, 10. Luke 11. 2. Its nature— Jno. 18. 3(f. Lu. 17. 21. 1 Co. 4. 20. Lu. 18. 29, 3G. Ro. 14. 17. Hid ' ii» to some— Matt. 18. 11. Mar. 4. 11. Lu. 8. 10. Its approach- Lu. 17. 20. Matt. 24. 14. Lu. 19. 11': 22. 16, 18. Matt. 26. 29. Mar. 14. 26. Matt. 21. 81. Who enter— Matt. 7. 21 ; 6. 19, 20 : 19. 24. Gal. 6. 19, 21. Eph. 5. 6. 1 Co. 6. 9, 10. Jas. 2. 6. Matt. 6. 8, 10. Lu. 10. 20. Mar. 10. 14, 16. Acts 14. 22. Matt. 16. 19. Similitudes— Matt, chaps. 18. 18.20. 22. 26. Mar. chap. 4. Lu. chaps. 18. 19. otc Waniings— Matt. 21. 43. Lu. 18. 28, 29. Matt. 8. 11, 12. Lu. 9. 62. Matt. 21. 81, S2 ; 18. 1-4. Jno. 8. 8, 5. Exhortation— 1 Thess. 2. 11, 12. 2 Pet. 1. 10, 11, Heb. 12. 28. 30 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. LIBERTY. Jno. 8. 82, 36. 2 Co. b. 17. Col. 2. 16, 20. Bo. 14. 5. Exhortation— Gal. 6. 1, 13. 1 Pet. 2. 16. 1 Co. 8. 9. LIFE. Spiritual— Jno. 1. 12, 13. 1 Pet. 1. 3, 4. 1 Jno. 6. 1, 18. Col. 2. 13. Eph, 2. 4, 5. 1 Jno. 4. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 23. Jno. 6. 83. 1 Jno. 5. 12. Jno. b. 21 ; 3. 3, 6. Warning— Ro. 8. 8, 9. Eternal— Ro. 6. 23. Jno. S. 14-16 ; 17. 1- 8 ; 8. 36. 1 Jno. 5. 11-18. Jno. 6. 24 ; 6. 47, 64. LONO-SUFFERINQ. 2 Co. 6. 18-20. Ro. 2. 4. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Gen. 6. 8. Warning— Ecc. 8. 11, 12. OBEDIENCE. 1 Sa. 15. 22. Deut. 27. 26. Jas. 2. 10. Of Christ— Ro. 5. 19. I Pet. 1. 2. 2 Co. 10. 6, 6. Jno. 8. 29. Illustration— Ro. 6. 16, 17. Exhortation— Jaa. 1. 22-25. IJno. 2. 4-<3. PARENTS. Exhortation— Pro. 22. 6. Deut. 4. ; 6. 7 ; 11. 18, 19. Joel 1. 3. Pro. 13. 24 ; 19. 18 ; 22. 15 : 23. 18, 14. Heb. 12. 7. Eph. 6. 4. Col. 8. 21. Lu. 11. 13. Warnings— Ex. 20. 6; 84.7. Job 21. 19, (marg.) Isa. 14. 20-28. 1 Tim. 6. 8. Matt. 10. 87. PATIENCE. Phil. 4. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 20. Tit. 3. 2. 2 Tim. 2. 24. Ro. 12. 12. Jas. 3. 17. 1 Thess. 5. 14. Jas. 6. 7, S. Our example- Isa. 53. 7. 1 Pet. 2. 28. PERSECUTION. 2 Tim. 8. 12. Jno. 16. 33. Phil. 1. 29. The cause— Jno. 15. 18-21. Gal. 4. 28, 29. Gal. 6. 11. The result— Lu. 6. 22, 28. 1 Pet. 4. 12-14. Rev. 7. 18-17 ; 20. 4-6. The power to sustain— Heb. 12. 8. 2 Tim. 2 12 Exhortation— 2 Tim. 1. 8. Ueb. 18. 18. Matt 6. 44, 45. PRAISE. Pi. 60. 28 ; 4. . 6 ; 51. 16 ; 68. 8, 6, 6 ; 92. 1 ; 95. 1, 2. Heb. 18. 16. 1 Pet. 2. 9. R«v. 6. 12, 18 ; 19. 6, 7. PRAYER. ' Prov. 16. 8. Ps. 146. 18, 19. Jer. 29. 12, 13. Matt. 6. 6-13 ; 21. 22. Jno. 14. 13, 14 ; 15. 7, 16 ; 16. 23, 24. Jas. 6. 14, 15. Mar. 11. 24, 25. Ps. 81. 10. Matt. 18. 19. 1 Jno. 6. 14, 16 ; 3. 22. For wisdom — Jas. 1. 5. Prov. 3. 5, 6. For deliverance— Ps. 84. 15 ; 60. 16. Heb. 4. 16. Job 27. 8-10. For guidance -Ps. 87. 6. Pro. 16. 3. The Spirit's help-Ro. 8. 26. Eph 2.18; 6. 18. Jude 20. 21. Lu. 11. 13. Exhorlatien— Mar. 14. 38. Jas. 6. 13. 1 Pet. 4. 7. Phil. 4: 6. Jno. 16. 7. 1 Jno. 3. 21, 22. Jas. 1. 6, 7. Warnings— Heb. 11. 6. Matt. 6.6. Jas*. 4. 2, S; 1. 6-7. Isa. 1. 16. Ps. 66. 18. Job 27. 8, 9. Matt. 17. 21. Prov. 28. 9. Jno. 9. 81. PREACHING. 1 Co. 1. 21. Bo. 10. 14, 16. Tit. 1. 8. The Kubject— 1 Co. 1. 23, 24. 2 Co. 4. 6. , Eph. 8. 8-10. Ro, 16. 26, 26. Gal. 1. 7- 9. Phil. 1. 14-20. Lu. 24. 27. Acts 11. 20; 8. 6, 12,86; 17. 2, 8, 18. Ro. 10. 8, 9. The power— Acts ^,18. 1 Co. 8. 6, 7. 2 Co. 8. 6, 6. Heb. 4. 2. The manner— 1 Co. 2. 4 ; ? 17, 18 ; 8. 10, 11. Acts 6. 42. Mar. 16. 16, 20. Acts 10. 86, 40, 42. 2 Tim. 4. 1. 2. Ttat reward— 1 Co. 9. 14, 18. PRIDE. 1 Pet. 6. 6 Prov. 16. 6; 8. 18, Ps. 101. 6. Prov. 6. 16, 17. Warnings— Lu. 11. 43. Prov. 15. 26 ; 16. 18, i9. Prov. 80. 12, 13. Mal. 4. 1. Matt. 28. 12. REGENERATION. Jno. 3. 3, 12 ; 1. 12, 13. Gal. 8. 26. Eph. 1. 4, 6. Tit. 8. 6. Jas. 1. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 28. 1 Jno. 9. 1, 2 ; 2. 29. Its effect— 1 Jno. S. 9. Ro. 8. 14, 16, 17. Qal. 4. 6, 7 ; 6. 16, 26. 2 Co. 6. 17. RESURRECTION. Hos. 13. 14. Isa. 26. 8 ; 20. 19. Dan. 12. 1,2. Job 19. 26-27. Ps. 49. 16. Acts 13. 82-37 ; 24. 14, 16. 1 Co. 16. 12, 18, 20, 21. Jno. 11. 26 ; «. 39, 40, 44, 64. 1 Co. 16. 14, 17, 19. Jno. 14. 19. 1 Co. 15. 86-88. Lu. 20. 85-38. 1 Co. 15. 61, 62. Rev. 20. 6, 6. 1 Thess. 4. J -17. Rev. 20. 11-18. Jno. 6. 28, 29. Matt. 26 81 82 Warning-2'TiJii. 2. 17, 18. RIGHTEOUSNESS. Of man— Isa. 64. 6. Lu. 18. 9, 10. Phi. & 6-0, THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 31 Of God— I Co. 1. 80. Ro. 1. 16, 17. 2 Co. 6.21. Ro. 6. 19; 3. 21, 22, 26,26; 4. 6, 6. A ^ift^Bo. 5. 17. Tit. 8. 4, 5. Exhortation-Eph. 4. 17, 24 ; 6. 14. Wariiings -2 Pet. 2. 20, 21. 1 Jno. 8. 7, 10. Examples— Ro. 4. 2, 8, 19, 22. Heb. 11. 7, 11, 82, 83. SABBATH. Before the Law— Ex. 16. 25, 26. The Law Given— Ex. 20. 2, 8-11. Its strictness— Ex. 84. 21 ; 35. 2, 8. Reasons -Ex. 20. 11. Deut. 6. 15. Eze. 20, 12. Ex. 81. 17. Sabbath breaking— Ex. 81. 16, 16. Num. 15. 3?. 35, 36. Sabbatic years— Lev. 25. 2, 4. Ex. 23. 10, 11. Neh. 10. 31. Lev. 25. 8, 11. Christ the Lord of the Sabbath— Mar. 2. 27, 28. Matt. 11. 28, 29. SALVATION. Ro. 1. 16. Acts 4. 10-12 ; 28, 26-28. Ro. 10. 9, 10. 2 Pet. 8. 16. I8 of God— Phil. 2. 12, 18. 1 Thess. 5. 0. 2 Tlieis. 2. 13, 14. Heb. 5. 9. Rev. 7. 9, 10. SANCTIFIOATION. Heb. 2. 11. ICo. 1. 30. 1 Tim. 4.4,5. Heb. 10. 0, 10, 14. Eph. 6. 26, 26. Heb. 10. 29. 2The8s. 2. 18. Heb. 18. 12. Exhortation— 1 Thess. 4. 1-4. SCRIPTURE, HOLY. Inspired— 2 Tim. 8. 16, 17. 2 Pet. 1. 20. 21. 1 Thess. 2. 18. Ro. 16. 4. 1 Co. 10. 11 : 9. 9, 10. Eph. 6. 17. Sufficient- Lu. 16. 80. Deut. 4. 2. Pro. 80. 6, 6. Rev. ^. 18, 19. Its Power— Jno. 16. 8. Eph. 6. 26, 26. Jno. 17. 17. How to be used— Neh. 8. 8. 2 Chr. 17. 9. 1 Pet. 4. 11. Acts 18. 28. 2 Co. 2. 17, (marg.) Testimony of Christ— Jno. 5. 39. Lu. 24. 27. Rev. 19. 10. Acts 10. 43. Divinely Taught— Lu. 24. 46. Jno. 6. 68. 2 Co. 8. 6, 6. Heb. 4. 12. Ignorance of— Matt. 22. 29. Jno. 20. 9. Isa. 8. 20. Our duty towards— Neh. 9. 2, 8. Acts 17. 11, 1 2. Deut. 6. e, 7. Jos. 1. 8. Ps. 1. 2. 1 Pet. 2. 2, 8. Col. 8. 16. SIN. Ro. 14. 28. Job 26. 4 ; 14. 4. Ps. 61. 5. Jer. 17. 9. Pro. to. 9. Mar. 7. 21-23. Repentance— 1 Jno. 1. 9. Jer. i,. 13. Ln. 15.18,19. Jas.5. 16. The remedy— Ro. 6. 6. 2 Co. 6. 21. Heb. 4. 16. 1 Jno. 8. 6. Jno. 1. 29. 1 Tim. 1. 15. 1 Jno. 1. 7. Eph. 1. 7. In believers— 1 Jno. 1. 8-10. Ro. 7. 28. Gal. 6. 17. How to deal with sinners— Eph. 4. 26, 82. Oal. 6. 1. 2 Co. 2. 7. 8. Lu. 17. 3, 4. Matt. 18. 85. The new birth— 1 Jno. 8. 9 ; 6. 1. Warning— GaL 6. 19-21. Gal. 4. 4-7. Eph. 1.4,6. ICo. 10. 18. SONSHIP. Jno. 1. 12. 18. Ro. 8. 14-17. Heb. 2. 11. 1 Jno. 8. 1, 2. 1 Jno. 8. 9, 10. TRIAL. Common to all— Job 6. 7. Jno. 16. 83. Acts 14. 22. Cause of rejoicing— 1 Pet. 4. 12-14. Jas. 1. 2. Acts 5. 41. Matt. 5. 11, 12. Ro. 6. & 2 Co. 12. 9, 10. Jno. 15. 19. 2 Co. 7. 4. Heb. 10. 82-34. 2 Co. 4. 17. Ro. 8. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 6. 2 Co. 1. 8-7. Warning— Matt. 18. 20, 21. TYPES. Lu. 24. 27, 44. Of dispensation — Genesis. Gal. 4. 21-!!9. Heb. 7. 4, 6, 11, 24, 25. Ps. 110. 4. Of Redemotion— Exodus. ICo. 6. 7 H«t>. 9. 22. Of access to God— Leviticus, chaps. 1. 2. B. Heb. 9. 13, 14. Eph. 0: 2. Heb. 10. 8,0. Of experience — Numbers. 1 Co. 10. 1-il. Acts 15. 10. Of experience matured— Joshua. Eph. 6. 12. Col. 8. 3, 1. Adam— Ro. 6. 14. 1 Co. 16. 45. Abel— Gen. 4. 8, 10. Acts 2. 23. Heb. 12. 24. Melcbisedec— Heb. 7. 14, 16, 17 : 6. 10, 11. Abraham— Gen. 17. t. Eph. 8. 14, 16. Isaac— Heb. 11. 17, 19. Moses— Acts 8. 20, 22. Heb. S. 5, 6. Aaron -Heb. 5. 4, 6 : 9. 24-26 i 10. 21, 22. Joshua— Heb. 4. 8, 9. David— Eze 87. 24. 6olomon--Lu, I. 82, 83 : 11. 81. Jonah— Matt. 12. 40. Brazen Serpent— Jno. 8. 14. Brazen Altar (Christ's sacrifice)— Ex. chap. 27. Golden Altar (Christ's intercession)— Ex. chap. 80. The veil -Heb. 10. 19, 20. Jno. TO. 1, 7. The Paschal Lamb— Jno. 1. 29 : 19. 88, 86. Manna -Jno. 6. 82, 8a, 85. 1 Co. 10. 8. The Smitten Rock-1 Co. 10. A. 32 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. The Scape-groats— Lev. 16. 2^ 22. Isa. 63. 11, 12. 1 Pet. 2. 24. UNBELIEF. Jdo. 16. 9. Ro. 14. 23 : 11. 30, 31. Warnings— Heb. 3. 18, 19. Jno. ,.8. 24 ; S. 18, 36. Mar. 16. 16. WATCHFULNESS. Matt. 18. 26-27. 24. 42,44: 25. 5,6, 13. Rev. 16. 16. Heb. 9, 28. Tit. 2. 12, 13. 1 Thes8. 6. «. 2 Tim. 4. 8. 2 Pet. 3. 11- 13. 1 Pet. 6. 8. WOUKS. Jno. 8. 28, 29. Ro. 11. 6. Isa. 64. 6. Gal. 2. 21. Jas. 2. 10, 20. Ro. 4. 2-6. 9. Bible Readings in their Various Uses. (1 .) BIBLB BEADINOS IN THE PRATER MEETING OR PULPIT. Graco. No. 1. Its source. John i. 14-17 ; Rom. v. lo ; 1 Cor. i. 3, 4. 2. All grace comes from God. 1 Peter v. 10. 3. To whom does lie of ,r grace Matt. xxi. S.; Uijeaxiii. 9; John viii. 4-12. 4. Not of works. Eph. ii. , J ; 2 Tim. i. 9 ; Rom. xi. 6. 5. It bringeth salvation. Titus ii. 11-14. 6. We are justified freely by His ^ace. Titus iii. 7 J Rom. iii. 24. /. Sin reigned unto death, but grace unto life eternal. Rom. V. 20, 21 ; vi. 1, 2. 8. We are not under law, but under grace. Rom. vi. 14, 15. 9. The difference betwean Lhe law and grace. Deut. xxi. 18 ; Luke xv. 12-24. 10. How are we to get it ? Heb. iv. 16. 11. His grace sufficient at ail times. 2 Cor. ix. 8 ; xii. 9. 12. Who have it more freely ? Eph. vi. 24 ; Jamps iv. 6. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 33 13, We ar'j to sing with grace in our hearts. 14. What is falling from grace 1 Col. V. 16. Gal. V. 1-6. 15. Difference between government and grace. (No texts j but retributive dealings with Lot, Jacob, David, brought out, as contrasted with the Prodigal Son, and the surpassing love revealed in the Gospel.) 16. Last words of Peter and John. 2 Peter iii. 18 ; Rev. zxii. 21. D. L. Moody. (2.) AT FAMILY FBAYEBS. Subject, Growth in Grace. Passages to be read with brief comment : — Prov. iv. 18 ; Eph. iv. 14, 15 ; Psa. Ixxxiv. 6, 7 ; 1 Cor. iii. 18 ; 2 Pet. iii 18 ; Phil. iii. 12, 14. S. B. Chamberlin, (3.) BIBLE BEADINO OK THE LESSON IN THE TXAOHEBS' MEBTINa. The Qood Shepherd. John x. 11-18. 1. Bible Shepherds. Gen. Ixvii. 3 -, Exod. ii. 17 ; Luke il 8, 20; 1 Sam. xvi. 11, 19; Matt. xv. 24. 2. The Lord my Shepherd. Psa. xxiii. 1,4; 1 Pet. ii. 26 j V. 4 ; Heb. xiii. 20, 21. 3. He Knows Hts Sheep. John x. 14 ; Ezek. xxxv. 11, 13; 2 Tim. ii. 19; John x. 27. 4. He Provides for His Sheep. John x. 9 ; Psa. xviii. 1,2; Isa. Ixv. 11 ; Psa. xxxiv. 10; Rom. viii. 28. 5. He Guides His Sheep. John x. 3, 16 ; Psa. xxiii. 3 ; Prov. viii. 28 ; Psa. xlviii. 14 ; JohnxvL 13. 6. He Gives His Life for His Sheep. John xviii. 11, IB ; Isa. Hi). 6 ; Rom. v. 8 ; Eph. v. 2; Tit. ii. 14. 7. He Delights in His Sheep. John x. 28-30; Mai. iii. 17 ; 1 Pet. ii. 9 ; Rev. vii. 17 ; Psa. ciii. 13. J. H. Vincent, D.D,. 84 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. (4.) BIBLE READING AS A BEVIBW OF THE LESSON. Responsive Reading, with Bible Readings.* [From " Historic Hymns," a Praise Circular, published by D. Lothrop & Co., Boston, consisting of Scripture and Hymns for Religious Meetings.] [Luke XV. 2, etc.] Leader. — And he said, A certain man had two sons. Congregation. — ^And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. L. — And not many days a-ter the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. No. 1. Isa. liii 6.* No. 2. Isa. i. 5, 6. No. 3. Rom. iii. 23. L. — ^And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land ; and he began to be in want. No. 4. Rom. vii. 24. No. 5. Isa. Ivii. 20, 21. L. — And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country ; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. C. — And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat ; and no man gave unto him. No. 6. Isa. Iv. 1, 2. No. 7. Fsa. 1. 15. (Sing, "Prodigal child, come home, come bome.") L. — And when he came to himself, he said, flow many hired * These pasaaireB for Bible reading should be indicated on slips of paper, and handed Lefore the meeting to various parties, who will either repeat them or read them from LlMes when called for. It will save much time and explanations to have a supply of blanks printed as follows :— No PUoH look out thU pasiage of SoHpture, and be ready to read it when ealled/or by number. Book qf. oKapUr , , , L THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 35 servants of my father have bread and to spare, and I perish with hunger. (Sing, " Arise, my soul, arise.") 2/. — I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee. G. — And am no more worthy to be called thy son ; make me as one of thy hired servants. No. 8. Psa. li, 4. No. 9. Luke xviii. 13. L. — ^And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a gi-eat way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. No. 10. Heb. X. 22. No. 11. Matt. xi. 28. L. — And the son said unto him. Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. No. 12. Fsa. xli. 3. L. — But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him ; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. C. — And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and be merry. L. — For this my son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. (Sing, " Ring the bells of heaven.") No. 13. 1 John i. 9. No. 14. Luke xv. 7. No. 16. John xiv. 2, 3. No. 16. 2 Cor. v. 1. No. 17. Pba. xvi. 11. fF. F. Crafts. (5.) BIBLE BEADINOS IN STUDYI19G BIBLE BOOKS. THE FOUR GOSPELS. By Rev. A. H. Munro. It is a remarkable fact that there are only four accepted 4, 36 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. gospels when so many pretended ones were written, and that there are as many as four recognised by the whole church as genuine and authentic. The Divine Spirit guided in the selec- tion as well as in the composition of the gospels. 1. Many comparisons have been made in relation to them. Irenseus compared them to the four quarters of the globe, to four columns, four winds ; Augustine, to four trumpets ; Calvin, to four horses drawing Christ's chariot. The best of such com- parisons, because an aid to memory, is that of the cherubic symbol in Ezekiel i. 10 ; or, what is preferable, in the order given in Rev. iv. 7, of the symbolic forms of the lion, ox, man, and eagle, the coincidences recalling the special nature of each gospel. Matthew's emblem is the lion. In his gospel, Christ is pre- sented as the lion of the tribe of Judah ; the root of David ; the Shiloh ; the King of the Jews ; " the son of David ; " the son of Abraham. — Matt. i. 1. Mark's emblem is the ox, the oriental symbol of patient toil. In his gospel Christ is the Son of God, in his humilia- tion making himself of no reputation ; the divine servant and worker. Luke's emblem is the face of man. Christ is traced to Adam, not to David or Abraham ; the Son of man in his humanity as the teacher and healer of ours. John's emblem is the eagle. In his gospel we are carried to the sublimest heights, and behold Christ descending from heaven, not the Son of David, Abraham or Adam, but of God. 2. Authorship. That Matthew's gospel was written by the disciple whose name it bears is proved (1) by the name ; (2) by tradition ; (3) by coincidences between the man and the book. Notice the variation in the accounts of his call as given in Matt. ix. 9 ; Mark ii. 14 j Luke v. 27, 28. As illustrating his Christian modesty, Matthew omits to mention that he was Levi, the son of Alpheus, and that he left all and made a great feast for Jesus. But he mentions what the others omit — THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 37 and that hurch as ihe selec- to them, globe, to ; Calvin, uch com- cherubic he order ox, man, of each it is pre- David ; id; "the ' patient humilia- rsmt and Adam, umanity irried to ig from of God. I whose dition ; iven in 'ing his lie was made a omit- that he was a publican. His modesty is also exhibited by the difiference in the order of the disciples* names in Matt. ii. 4 ; Mar iii. 16, 19; Luke vi. 13, 16; in his record of the disrepute in which publicans were held — Matt. v. 46, 47 ; ix. 11 ; xi. 19 ; xviii. 17 ; xxi. 31 ; and also in his omission of all favourable to publicans, as the conversion of Zaccheus, Luke xix. 2 ; the parable of the Pharisee and publican. His business habits caused his gospel to be more systematic than the others. He groups things of the same kind — dis- courses, parables, miracles. As discourses, in Matt. v. to vii. ; parables in chap. xiii. ; and miracles in chaps, viii. and ix. Mark was the John Mark mentioned in Acts xii. 12, 25 ; xiii. 5, 13 ; xv. 39 ; Col. iv. 10 ; 1 Pet. v. 13. Supposed by some to be the young man mentioned in Mark xiv. 51, 52. Referred to by Paul, Phil, xxi v. 2 ; Tim. iv. 11. According to tradition this gospel is Peter's, Mark being only his amanuensis. Internal evidences : For instance, he mentions things he would be likely to know or observe — see Mark i. 29 ; Luke iv. 38 ; Matt. xxi. 20 ; and Mark xi. 13, 14, 21. He omits anything that specially honoured Peter : his walking on the sea, Matt. xiv. 28, 31 ; also Matt. xvi. 13, 19 ; xix. 28 ; John xxi. 15, 19 ; and that he was the first of the dis- ciples to whom Jesus appeared. Inserts all discreditable to himself, as Mark viii. 32, 33 ; compare Matt. xxvi. 75, and Mark xiv. 72 ; but mentions the message sent specially to him, Mark xvi. 7. Luke. Little known of him. Said to be one of the 70, but this is not probable, Luke i. 2. Tradition and Luke i. and Acts i. proofs of his authorship. A Gentile convert, Col. iv. 11; a phy- sician. Col. iv. 14 ; Paul's companion. Acts xvi. 11, and 2 Tim. iv. 11. Effects of his education : His gospel more strictly historical ; it and Acts alone have dedications. His his- tory, complete, begins earlier, ends later ; gives particulars about the Saviour's youth ; has more references to dates and coeval events, &c. See Luke i. 5 ; ii. 1, 2 ; iii. 1 ; ii. 21 ; ii. 33 ; ii. 37 ; iii. 42 ; ix. 20 ; ix. 28 ; xiii. 16. Traces of his profession ; quotation of Isa. Ixi. 1 ; in Luke iv. 18 ; also in Luke iv. 23. Compare Matt. viii. 14 and Luke iv. 38; Matt. viii. 15, Luke 38 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. iv. 39, Matt. viii. 2, and Luke v. 12 ; Matt. viii. 6, and Luke vii. 2 ; Matt. ix. 20, and Luke viii. 43. Influence of Paul ; Compare Luke xxii. 17, 20 and 1st Cor. xi: 23, 26. Predi- lection for triplets, 1 Cor. xiii. 13 ; 1 TLes. v. 23 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 13. Matthew gives the parable of the lost sheep, Luke adds those of the lost piece of silver and the prodigal son. See also Matt. vii. 9, 10, and Luke xi, 11, 12 ; Matt. xxiv. 40 ; Luke xvii. 34 36; Matt. viii. 19, 22 ; and Luke ix. 57, 62. John. • Tradition says he wrote this gospel to present an aspect of Christ's nature apt to be too little regarded by readers of the other gospels — the divinity of Christ. John was not what the painters have represented him, an effeminate man, but with much of force and fire in his nature, yet a reverent, loving man, with special gifts of insight. These points are illustrated by his never giving the name of John to any one but the Baptist. His delineation of his character in John iii. 25, 36 ; also in his record of the mingled familiarity and reverence marking the intercourse between Christ and his disciples — John iv. 27 ; xiii. 23, 36. His love is shown in Mary being committed to his care ; in his full account of Peter's restoration — John xxi. 15, 19 j and in his making a companion of Peter — John xxi 7 ; Acts iii. 1. His gospel was written after the destruction of Jerusalem ; see John xi. 18, and xviii. 1 — hence safe to relate the resurrec- tion of Lazarus — and John xviii. 10, and xviii 26, which com- pare with xviii. 16. 3. Peculiarities of Style in the Fom Gospels, In Matthew, " Then " occurs 90 times (in Mark vi. and Luke xiv.) ; Kingdom of heaven, 33 times; Heavenly Father, 6 times ; Fatner in Heaven, 16 times ; Church, twice. In Mark, "straightway" or "immediately" occurs 41 times. Vividness of description, as in Mark i. 13 ; i. 33. Compare Matt. ix. ; Mark ii. 3, 4 ; Matt. viii. 23, 25, and Mark iv. 36,38. II L THE BIBLE AND THB SUNDAY SCHOOL. 39 less Luke's favorite expression, used also by Matthew, and frequently by Mark, is " And it came to pass." John's favorite expression is "After," and "After these things," and " light," and ** life." 4. The dosses to whom they were specially addressed. Matthew wrote especially for Jews in Palestine ; hence he gives no explanation of Jewish customs or topography, and shows the fulfilment of the Old Testament in the New. Mark wrote for Grentile converts in Palestine, like Cor- nelius ; hence Jewish customs are explained, but a knowledge of the country assumed. Luke wrote for Gentiles everywhere -, hence Christ is traced to Adam, Jewish customs and chronology made intelli- gible to a foreigner, and the parables of the Good Samaritan and Prodigal Son introduced. John's Gospel was written for mankind. In it Christ is the light of the world, and in it no knowledge of Jewish custom or topography is assumed. 5. Subject matter of the four Gospels, Matthew. — The gospel of the discourses and miracles — of types and fulfilment of prophecy. Christ, the true Israel, called out of Egypt, true Solomon to whom the East brings its treasures, the true Moses who gives the law j the wonder- worker, teacher, high priest. Gospel of warning. Prophetic warning, Matthew xxiv. and xxv. The high priest rends his clothes, Matthew xxvi. 66, and God rends the veil of the temple, Matthew xxvii. 51. Pilate's wife dreams, and Pilate washes hands, and the people imprecate on themselves the blood of Him whom the Gentile centurion confessed to be the Son of God. Matthew xxvii. 19, 24, 25, 54. Mark is the gospel of action. Christ is here the mighty worker. Rabbi, not Lord (only so addressed by the Syro- PhoncBcian woman). There are but few parables in this gospt.. Instances, Mark iv. 1, 19 ; iv. 14, 20 ; iv. 26, 29 ; iv. 13, 30, 32 ; xii. 1, 12 : xiu. 28, 29; xiii. 34, 37. I:i ^ 40 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Personal traits of Christ are recorded in this gospel, not found elsewhere, as in Mark xi. 11, and x. 32 ; and also men- tion in several places of Christ's being moved, grieved, loving, sighing. Only in Mark do ^we find the words in Mark ii. 27 and iv. 39,. Luke. — Christ's humanity more fully delineated as babe, child, lad, man. . Only in this gospel do we read of Christ's eating earthly food after his resurrection — Luke xxiv. 30, 43. Compare John ii. 13, 15. His human sympathies more fully set forth. For children. Infants brought to him. The only daughter of Jairus, and only son of the father who besought him. For women, Mary and Elisabeth, and Anna, Martha and Mary, the women that ministered to him, viii. 2, 3. The daughters of Jerusalem, xxiii. 28. For widows, iv. 25 ; XX. 47 ; ii. 37 ; vii. 12 ; xviii. 3, 6 ; xxi 2, 3. For the poor and outcasts. Illustrated by the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Zaccheus, the woman who was a sinner, and the pa- rables in Luke xv. John's Gospel is remarkable for peculiar terms applied to Christ : The Word, Only begotten. Life, Light, Lamb, — all de- signed to set Him forth as the Divine Saviour of men. He alone of the evangelists indulges in comment, as John vii. 39 ; xi. 51 ; xi. 13. He omits parables, with the partial exceptions of John x. 1, 16, and xv. 1, 5 ; because he does not record Christ's popu- lar discourses, but His private conversations with His disciples, and theological discussions with the highly educated Pharisees and Sadducees. He repeats only two of the miracles recorded by the other evangelists — the feeding of the five thousand, and the walk- ing on the sea. The explanation of the first of these, in John vi. 35, 51, makes known to us that miracles are parables, and form a complete system illustrated by the miracles of resurrec- tion, of which the first was that of an only daughter, the se cond that of an only son, the third that of an only brother. The first, that of one just dead ; the second dead one being car- ried to the grave ; the third, that of one buried four days. The culminating miracle of resurrection is that of Him who was the pnly begotten Son of God* 1 m V l- J> )- a. e ^sB-aSLSigsllgfetS %S|l«lllll§ll||5i «■ w k 3^515^1^ t's'o t S S a> ■A'"? THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 41 10. — Bible Marking. (J'Vowj, " The Illustrated Christian Weekly " of the America/ti Tract Society, New York.) What is the best Commentary on the Bible 1 The one you make yourself. For this purpose you need a good Reference Bible, a Bible text-book, a Bible Atlas (unless yours is a Teacher's Bible, which contains all these conveniences), a Concordance, a black- lead pencil, or a good pen and ink, and — brains. It is a great mistake to suppose that the first will suffice without the last. We T/ill suppose that your theme for study is the first chap- ter of John, your Bible lies open before you, presenting the page a fac-simile of which we give herewith from the large print edition of the Teacher's Bible. You believe that no prophecy is of private interpretation. You therefore begin by asking the Spirit of God to open to you the truth contained for you in this chapter. Then you read it c •, at first rapidly ; you aim to get a bird's-eye view of it as u . hole ; you see that its theme is the character, office and work of Christ. Your ques- tion then is this : What does this chapter teach me of Christ 1 The first thing that strikes you is that a number of names are given to Him here. You count them : Light, Only-begot- ten of the Father, Jesus Christ, Only-begotten Son, the Lord, the Lamb of God, Son of God, Master, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph, King of Israel, Son of Man. Then He is the Teacher, the Son of God, the Saviour (Jesus, Matt. i. 16), the Master, the Atoning Sacrifice, the Incarnate One, the true Man and therefore the perfect Example, the future King. You draw a heavy black line under each title : you connect them, as in the accompanying page, by a light line. You noiv have a body of Christology on a page of your Bible. If you have wrought this out for yourself you have done a good day's work ; certainly if you have taken home to yourself the truth that he is your King, your Saviour, your Sacrifice, your Ex- ample. "The next day you return to your study again. You take up a single passage, verses 12 and 13. Who are the sons of God 1 As many as received him and were born of God. How 1 You 42 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ^ put your references now in requisition. You look them up. You turn to your Bible Text-book under Regeneration. You pass by many texts that at another time will strike you, but do not now. The result of your studies is embodied in a note at the foot of the page : They are born of the Spirit, John iii. 15 ; by the Word of God, 1 Peter i. 2, 3 ; mth the Word of truth, James i. 18; in Christ Jesus, 1 Cor. iv. 13; who is himself the Only-begotten Son of God, verse 18. You have here, in four verses of Scripture, the source, the instrument, the accompaniment, and the result of the new birth. You begin again : What is it to receive Christ ? The result of your studies is embodied again in certain references which impress you, and which you accordingly underscore, and in certain other references which you discover, and therefore add in the margin. But you have not exhausted this subject. You return to it on the morrow. You study the negatives. Not of blood ; nor of the will of the flesh ; nor of man ; but of God. Your Con- cordance will tell you the meaning of bom of blood, if your own thought has not suggested it to you ; the sons of God are not brought out by merely good breeding, good parentage ; Bom. viii. 3, 4, 8, 9, tell you what is the meaning of fiesh, viz., man in his natural state ; we are not born into the kingdom by our own resolution ; the will of man is interpreted to you by 1 Cor. iii. 5-7 ; we are not brought into the kingdom of God by human endeavors. There are three theories of moral re- form — good blood, strong will, good education — all repudiated ; and in contrast with them the true Scripture view, the new birth by the Spirit of God, as interpreted in your verses below. We have scarcely opened our theme ; but we have done enough to give those of our readers who desire to study the Bible, and to preserve the results of their study in their Bible, some idea of how to do it. Every student will invent, to some extent, his own system, but certain principles of universal application are inculcated by Mrs. Stephen Menzies, of England, from whose little book, " Hints on Bible Marking," we have taken some of the mark- ings, using, however, the Teacher'o Bible in the place of Bag- ster's, on account of its having more references. n C8 ai ti P ii r r E f I 1 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 43 In any given verse underline only the word or words re- quired to suggest the thought. Connect these underlines by the fine line, always at the end, never in the centre of the underline. If a connection is needed with a reference to another page, carry the fine line, which she calls a railway^ to the margin, and write the reference there. Draw all lines with a ruler, and as lightly as possible, par- ticularly the "Railways," with a very sharp hard black-lead pencil, or with a fine pen and India ink, or some good black ink ; the latter is better. Make your own marginal references as freely as possible, referring at each verse to the other. It should be added that a good Commentary is a great help in such a study, in giving information as to the meaning of the original and other points, provided it is used as a help to study, not as a substitute for it. Mrs. Menzies uses Alford, and re- fers to it by the following mark *. But the reader may easily make his own system of notation to favorite writers, provided he does not have too lany. Other Signs used in Bible Marking. M — on the margin of Messianic references in the Old Testa- ment. t — in red beside passages for enquirers. P. P — beside proved promises. C — beside passages referring to childhood. A red underline for all references to the atoning blood or the cross. A blue underline for the promises. A heavy black undenine for warnings and judgments. A date beside each text on which a seripon is preached, !- 44 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. li III 11. — A Chart for the Personal Study of the Lesson. Bv Rev. A. H. Munro. preparation. T. INVESTIGATION. 1. External Particulars. -: The Book : its name, date, author, style, and important features. 2. Internal Particulars. * 1. When 1 Chronology and Connection. 2. Where ? Places — their peculiarities, relations, and associations. 3. Who 1 Persons. Characters. Classes. Names. Ti- tles. Positions. Histories. 4. What % Words. Terras. Figures. Things. Ac- tions. Incidents. Errors. Truths. 5. Why ] Causes. Motives. Designs. 6. Whence? Things implied, inferred, suggested,. pro- duced. 11. PLANNING. 1. Decide upon the main theme of the lesson. 2. Select the truths to enforce it. 3. Select the particulars to set forth those truths. 4. Mark the points to be explained, proved, and illustrated. 6. Obtain the necessary explanations, proofs and illustrations. To do this, 1. Live the truth. 2. Look for illustrations, &c. 3. Store them up in a note-book. 6. Arrange in order to interest and maintain logical connection. teaching. I. PURPOSES. |. To inform as to Facts. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 45 2. To convince as to Truths. 3. To persuade as to Duties. n. METHODS. 1. By interesting ; by clearness and brevity. 2. By precision, explanation, illustration, and appeal. 3. By definition, authority, eflfects, alternatives. ni. MEANS. 1. Questions — Their nature, definite, reasonable, to the purpose. 2. Narration — Indispensable. 3. Illustration — Of all, briefly ; main points, elaborately. 4. Memorizing — Texts, main points and application. 5. Impressing — Truths and duties. Modes — Direct, indirect, suggestive, elliptical, general and personal. , . Employed — Vividly, briefly. Kinds — Brief, extended, elaborate ; appropriate, obvious, gra- phic and true. How — Recitations, recapitulations, reviews. How — By tho teacher's reverence for the Bible, appreciation of truth, sympathy with Christ, dependence in the Holy Spirit, and wise and happy relations with his scholars. 12. Adults as Bible Students in the Sunday School.* BY REV. H. M. PARSONS, D.D. The Sabbath School service should be placed on an equal footing with the regular services of the Church, and attend- ance thereat by the paator and members, equally with the young people, should bo enforced. The time has arrived, when we must no longer be content with the demonstration of the truth by means of one man's preaching, but must return to the *RewlDeut. xxxi. 12, 18; Josh. viii. 25; SObron. uxlr. 29, 80. 46 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. !• ' method adopted by the Church during the first two centuries of its existence — that of having one service in which all present can participate, and ask and answer questions. This is neces- sary in order to bring Bible instruction up to the level of secu- lar instruction. After a struggle extending over some years, I secured a change in the system followed in one of the oldest of New England churches, and the introduction of one under which there was preaching in the morning, a Bible service in the afternoon, and a church prayer and conference meeting in the evening — all the services having regard to the topic of the dixy. The plan proved eminently successful, and is still con- tinued in that church, though I have removed to another charge, where a similar method is now followed. This Bible service differs from the average Sunday Schools in the following points : — (1.) It has a name which includes the old as well as the young. (2.) It takes the place of a Second Sermon, thus enabling both pastor and people to attend it without neglecting other Services. (3.) It emphasizes and ezpects the attendance of adults as much as the attendance of children. (4.) It has the regular presence and help of the pastor and its advisory head, and also as the teacher of a h.Tge class of adults. ^5.) Its singing and other exercises have regard to adults as well as children. (6.) It gives the conmiission, **go teach" equal honour with its kindred commission, "go preach." The RESULTS of such a Service are : — (1.) Greater unity between Church and Sunday School. (2.) Greater activity among the adults of the church. (3.) Greater Spirituality by increased study of God's Word. This Service causjd an increase in the prayer meeting attendance from twt ty to two hundred. be THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 47 (4.) Greater teaching efficiency, by the increase in the numbers, age, and culture of the classes. (5.) The preacher is enabled to preach With more ad- aptation to the real wants of his people, and a better under- standing of Christian life. " He sometimes learns more from a washerwoman in his Bible Service than from his best commen- twies." 13. Additional Hints on How to Study the Bible. I AN INSTITUTB CONVERSATION. (1.) Have for constant use a portable Reference Bible. (2.) Carry a Bible or Testament with you. (3.) Don't be afraid of marking it, or making notes on the margin : pro- mises, exhortations, warnings to Christians, and invitations to the unsaved.''^ (4.) Do not be satisfied with simply reading a chapter, but study the meaning of at least one verse every day. (5.) Study so as to ascertain the whole truth con- tained m a single mcident or miracle : when and why written, how it applies to yourself, and how to use it for others. (6.) Study to know for what, and to whom a book or chapter was written. Study the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles to- § ether, also Leviticus and Hebrews, etc. (7.) Believe in the ible as God's revelation to you, and act accordingly. (8.) Learn at least one verse of Scripture each day. V erses from memory will be wonderfully useful in your daily life and work. See Josh. i. 8 ; Psa. cxix. 11. (9.) Study HOW to use the Bible so as to " waJk with God" and lead others to Christ. (10.) Set apart at least fifteen minutes each day for studying it ; this little will be grand in result, and never be regretted. (11.) Bead the Book as if it were written for yourself (12.) Always ask Gk)d to help you to understand it, and then expect that He will. * There are some In whose minds marks like these would prevent fresh thought on the marked passage, new and deeper views of its meuiing. For such persons it may be best to have one Bible for marking and another for ordinary reading, the marked Bible being referred to when oooadon requires, as a personal commentary. I 48 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. (13.) Have Oruden's Ooncordance and a Bible Text- Book at hand ; ^o in all cases refer to parallel passages and marginal notes, and take time to think before consulting com- mentaries. (U.) Study the Bible in the freshness of the morning rather than the weary hours of evening. (15.) Bead systematically, with some purpose in mind. (16.) Read the Bible with a view of Uving rather than merely learning it, com- ing to it not only perfunctorily for lessons and sermons, but also for loving conversation, " as a man talketh with his friend." 14. Bill of Fare from the Bible. Preparation. Spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes and the spoons, and the bowls, with the bread in the basket. — Num. iv. 7, and Levit. viii. 31. Salt without prescribing how much, and oil in a cruse. — ^Ezra vii. 22, and 1 Kings xvii. 12. Tell them who are bidden I have prepared my dinner. — Matt. xxii. 4. They are strong of appetite. — Isaiah Ivi. 11. Let us eat and be merry. — ^Luke xv. 23. The feast is made for laughter. — Eccl. x. 19. Grace. Give us this day our daily bread. — Matt. vi. 11. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 49 The eyes of all wait ( G-'RJ^G'E ) Thou givest them their upon thee ; | BEFOEE MEALS, i ™®** ™ ^^^ seaaon. ■^JJ^jliii'd^JjI^iil OOD is great and Ood is good , And we thank him for thia food : By his hand must al] be fed, Give us. Lord, our dai-ly bread.' Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. Soup. Pour out the broth. — Judges vi. 20. Feed me with pottage. — G«n. xxv. 30. Eat this roll — Ezek. iii. 1. Fish, \ We remember the fish we did eat freely. — Num xi. 5. They gave him a piece of a broiled fish. — Luke xxiv. 42. Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. — John xxi. 10, Entremets, Hare. — Levit. xi. 6. Chickens. — Matt, xxiii. 37. Besides harts and fatted fowl. — 1 Kings iv. 23. D 50 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Eelishes. Olives. — ^Mic. vi. 15. Give me a little water, for I am thirsty. — Judges iv. 19. Boast. . All manner of baked meats. — Gen. xi. 17. Ye may eat of the roebuck. — Deut. xii. 15. Ye shall eat of the wild goat and wild ox. — Deut. xiv. 5. Vegetables. Take unto thee wheat, lentils and millet. — Ezek. iv. 9. They brought parched com and beans. — 2 Sam. xvii. 28. After that the full corn in the ear. — Mark iv. 28. We remember the leeks and the onions, and the cucumbers and the garlic. — Num. xi. 5. The manna was as coriander seed. — Num. xi. 7. , Garne. Paxtridges.-Jeremi»h ^ 11. Two young pigeons. — Lev. v. 7. And he brought quails. — Psalm cv. 40. Carry these ten cheeses to the captain. — 1 Sam. xvii. 18. Dessert. Behold a basket of summer fruit. — Amos viii. 1. They brought of the pomegranates and figs. — Num xiii. 23. Comfort me with apples. — Cant. ii. 5. The children of Israel brought dates. — 2 Chron. xxxi. 6. Two baskets of figs. — Jeremiah xxiv. 2. Then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill — Deut. xxiii. 24. We remember the melons. — Num. xi 5. They brought bunches of raisins. — 1 Chron. xii. 40. Carry nuts and almonds. — Gen. xiii. 11. ilillll THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 51 Whence Comes our Food. — Gen. i. 29 ; Psalm cxxxvi. 25 3 cvii. 9 j cxlv. 15, 16. How IT Should be Eaten. — Prov. xv. 17 ; xvii. 1 ; 1 Cor. X. 31. Spiritual Food. — Jer. xv. 16 3 Job. xxiii. 12; John vi. 32, 58 ; Isa. Iv. 2 ; Matt. v. 6 ; John vi. 27. III. THE BIBLE AND ITS TEACHERS. An Ancient Bible School and its Teachers. Neh. viii. 1-9 ; ix. 3. The Divine Oommission to the Bible Teacher. Matt, xxviii. 19, 20 ; Jerem. i. 9 ; 2 Cor. vi. 1 ; 3 John i. 8. Necessary Qualities of the Bible Teacher. (1) Conversion. John xxi. 15 ; l Sam. xvi. 7 ; John iii. 5, 10 ; 1 Sam. iii. 6 ; Acts iii. 6. (2) Prayerfulness. 1 Cor. i. 1 1 j Rom. xv. 30 ; Exod. xxviii. 12, 29 ; 2 Cor. iii. 5 ; John xiv. 26. (3) Consistent Example. Acts i. 1 ; Ezra. vii. 10. (4) Faithftilness and Ability to Teach. 2 Tim. ii. 2. (5) Knowledge. 2 Pet. i. 5. (6) Power of Clear Expression, l Cor. xiv. 19. (7) Habits of Study. 2 Tim. ii. 15. (8) Tenderness. Psa. cxxvi. 5, 6 ; 2 Cor. ii. 4. Summing it all up, 1 Tim. iv. 1 1-1 6. 52 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 1. Hints on the Public Use of the Bible. '--■.'■' . * ' , . AN INSTITUTE CONVBBSATION. (1) Use the Bible in every religious service, and with the utmost honor and impressiveness, giving the Scripture reading a place in the service where it will not be interrupted by late comers, and where all will hear it, and making it the very foundation of the exercises. (2) In the social meetings of the Church have a pre-an- nounced Scripture topic on which every one shall be ex- pected to repeat or read a Bible passage, the reader occasionally adding words of comment and illustration. (3) Give great prominence in all religious meetings to " Thus saith the Lord," showing Bible warrant for all practice and statements. (4) Never bang the Bible about in the pulpit, in the Sunday School, in the prayer meeting, or in flippant conversa- tion. (5) Have Bibles used by both teachers and scho- lars in the Sunday School instead of the lesson leaves, which are intended for home study.* * The teacher ought to brin^f hia Bible to the class ; and not the teaclier alone, but the pupiU too, as soon as they are able to read. To cherish a love for Ood'a book is the moat wnportant work a teacher has to do next to the conversion of souls. " I do not enjoy reading my Bible ; I wish I did." I have heard this remark made many times by ear- nest Christians. What can make the Bible more attractive ? Artists are doing much to make it so, but Christian teachers can do a greater work by filling it with spiritual illuminations. These are fadeless, while the engravings endure but for a season. They can best be made from time to time when there is white heat interest in the class about the lesson by opening'the Bible, and reading from it something which either confirms or continues that interest. More than likely every scholar in uie class will want to read the same passages for himself during the week. A teacher needs to speak with accuracy and authority, therefore he ought to have his Bible in his hand. Have you never seen a minister close the Bible, or lay it aside alto- gether before beginning to preach his sermon? or perhaps you have seen him use a rack not large enough to accommodate a Bible. As you sat and listened did you feel that you were hearing the word of God preached or the word of somebody else ? At any rate you have seen a teacher conduct a class without a Bible. There is no difference in the two cases. Bibles should be brought by the pupils to the class for three reasons at least. 1. Tliat the teacher may know that each one owns a copy of the Bible. 2. That they may be- come familiar with it by learning about the relative position of its books, and how to pronounce difficult names contained in it. To many without such exercise the Bible would be a sealed book for a lifetime. 3. That habits of turning the leaves in study may be cultivated. l!: g«Mmiiuftiiw i iiiiii THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 58 ;ed ihe 2. The Pastor's Relation to the Sunday School.* Among the difficulties found in connection with this subject, are the following : — (1.) In many cases pastors are not consulted in the appointment of teachers and officers. (2.) The non-attendance of the pastor at Sunday School or teachers' meetings. (3.) The failure to designate in the constitution of the Sunday School the pastor's relation to the school. (4.) The assigning of too many duties to the pastor in connection with the church. (5.) The ambition of the superintendent to rule alone, and his jealousy of the pastor. (6.) Want of greater love for Christ and the children, in the pastor, and more spirituality on the part of tVe superin- tendent. To meet these difficulties, the following remedies are sug- gested : (1.) That a clear and correct understanding be established between the pastor and superintendent, as to their relative duties, at the commencement of their official connection ; and that Christian frankness be exercised in their subsequent intercourse. (2.) That in the constitution of every Sunday School there ' The abuse of the lesson paper system has had a tendency to keep Bibles out of the class and out of study too. How would it do to simply indicate in the lesson papers where the passafjes of Scripture to be studied might be found iu the Bible, that is, omitting the printing of the Scripture? Even if this change is not made, let it be an invariable rule in a class for each person to have a Bible in his hand. The most eloquent portion of Dr. Townsend's grand speesh in defence of the Bible, delivered at Chautauqua, occurred when he took up the great Bible and held it close to his heart. " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me," is a true saying of the incarnate Word. It may be said also of the written Word.— Hon. W, F. Crafts. " After an interesting Institute conversation on this subject It was given to a Com- mittee of prominent Pastors and Superintendents, Rev. Richard Newton, D.D., Rev. F. H. Marlinir, Rev. S. L. Qracey, James Hughes, and C. H. Morton, for consideration and report. The report was as above, and was unanimously adopted by the audience of the Sunday School Parliament. 54 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. be an explicit declaration of the pastor's relation to the school. (3.) That, as far as possible, the public services in con- nection with the church, be SO arranged as to allow the pastor to devote a portion of his time to work in the SunJaj'^ School. (4.) That increased love for Christ be recommended, which will lead to increased love for His lambs. (5.) That both pastor and superintendent cultivate the spirit of Christian charity and forbearance. In application of the foregoing remedies to meet the difficul- ties above stated, the following methods are suggested by which the pastor may aid in giving efficiency and success to the opera- tions of the Sabbath School. (1.^ By attending as far as possible the teachers' meetings. (2.) By reviewing the lesson. (3.) By preaching to the school. (4.) By taking part in the selection of teachers and officers. (5.) By remembering the Sunday School in the pulpit, in prayer, preaching, and in notices. 3. Using the Bible with Enquirers. AN INSTITUTE CONVERSATION. (1.) Have a Ust of references to passages for enquirers written on a fly leaf of your Bible, the passages them- selves being indicated by a red cross that they may be found instantly when one has turned to the page or chapter where they are. (2.) Use a variety of passages in order to reach various temperaments and experiences, representing the act of faith Ispsw^P THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 55 Wt under the various Bible expressions, " Believe," " Receive," " Take," " Submit," etc. (3.) Make the promises of Gctl, not your experience, the basis of the sinner's hope, r^-hng God's assurances from the open Bible, rather than merely repeating the passages, as a lawyer reads instead of repeating his law quotations, giving them much stronger force by so doing. (4.) Be sure to find out an enquirer's real intellec- tual and spiritual condition, and then take the Bible passages best adapted* to his case, and apply them definitely and sympathetically. (5.) Urge the enquirer to get a reference Bible and Concordance and ** search the Scriptures" in order that he may become established and built up in God's truth, rather than in changeful emotions alone. hi 4. Passages for Enquirers used in the Moody Meetings at New York.* AERANOBD BY RALPH WELLS. 1. I fear I shall never stand, and so dishonour Him — My circumstances are peculiar. — 2 Tim. i. 12 ; Jude 24 ; Heb. xiii. 5. 2. I fear ray sins are too great to be forgiven. — 1 Pet. i. 18 19 ; Exod. xii. 13 ; Isa. i. 18. 3. My earthly prospects will be ruined — I shall be cast out. —Phil. iv. 19 ; Matt. iv. 4 ; Matt. xix. 29. 4. I do not feel my guilt as I should, I am waiting for con- viction. — (Acts ii. 36, 38.) — Jer. xvii. 9 ; Prov. iii. 6 ; Matt. vii. 24 ; Zech. xii. 10. 5. I do not see that I am such a great sinner. — Isa. bciv. 6 j Rom. iii. 22, 23 ; IJohn i. 10. _ .. * It would be an excel1c>it practice to devote fifteen minutes at each weekly teachers' moetinif to thie use of tiie Bibie with eiuiuirers. Let the Superintendent, or Pastor, state some ditfluuity such as is presented by tliose who are aeelcing Uhrist, and ask from the teacher the appropriate pa^ges to cancel the difficulty It ■ i ( 56 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 6. I have made up my mind to be a Christian, but am not quite ready. — Pro v. xxvii. 1 ; Matt. xxiv. 44 ; 1 Thess. v. 19 ; 2 Cor. vi. 2. 7. I will be a Christian IF any reservation is fatal. — Luke xiv. 33 ; James iv. 4. 8. I don't know where I am — Almost distracted — Don't know whether I believe anything — What shall I do 1 — John vii. 17;vi. 28,29; Mark v. 36. 9. I do not see how to come. — Acts xiii. 39 ; Rom. x. 9 ; John iii. 36 ; Luke xv. 10. How can I know whether I am saved 1 — John v. 24 ; 1 John iii. 14, 24. 11. How is it that Christ's death can avail for my sinsi — 2 Cor. V. 21 ; Gal. iii. 13 ; 1 Pet. ii. 24. 12. How do I know He calls me ; am I certainly invited ? — John vi. 37 ; X. 9 ; Rev. xxii. 17. 13. How do you reconcile this, and that, in the scriptures 1 —2 Cor. V. 20 ; 2 Pet. iii. 16 ; Matt. vi. 33. 14. I once loved the Lord, but have wandered far, far from Him : Is there hope for such? — Jer. iii. 12 ; Hos. xiv. 4 ; Luke xxii. 32. 15. Why is Faith in Jesus alone enough, without an) addi- tion. — Gal. ii. 20 ; 2 Cor. v. 7 ; Rom. xi. 20 ; 1 John v. 4. 16. I have tried, and tried in vain to prepare to come to Jesus, but am as far off as ever. — Rom. x. 1-4. 5. " How CAN We get Rid of Incompetent Teachers V AN INSTITUTE CONVERSATION. 1. Use more care in appointing teachers, the pastor and superintendent jointly nominating each teacher, and the officers and teachers electing or rejecting the nomination. 2. Have each teacher sign, or take publicly, some covenant of fidelity to his work. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 57 3. Have a teachers' library in each Sunday School, and also introduce the best Sunday School periodicals. 4. Hold regular teachers' meetings, and make a teacher's continuance in his position depend upon attending it. 5. Remove existing incompetency as far as possible by more local institutes and conversations. 6. When these methods are not sufficient, let the Superin- tendent, by some casual remark to the teacher, show that he perceives his inefficiency.* 7. Let the teachers unite in adopting a law tha.t two un- necessary absences of a teacher from Sunday School during a quarter, causes the forfeiture of his position, t 8. When milder measures fail let the Superintendent frankly and kindly say to the incompetent teacher that his class is dissatisfied or his work is unsatisfactory, and his resig- nation desired ; sacrificing the feelings of one person, if need be, rather than the deepest interests of the whole class. J 6. Three Requisites in Religious Teaching. BY REV. B. P. REYMOND. I. An Authoritative Religious Truth. 1. The Bible. * When you have an Inefllclent teacher, and yo'i may know them because they al- ways get through first, go to them and say, " Well, Mios A., I see you get through be- fore the rest." Let her know that you notice it ; ask her why she casvt hold ths at- tention of the jmpils longer. She may ask you If you are going to interfere with her in that manner, and you toll her yos, and she may 8»y perhaps she had better give up the class, and then bo very careful that you don't su ' something to prevent her giving it up. J. H. ViNCKNT. t " I ain't acomin' no more niter to-day,— I ai I't a-goin' to be turned over to any fellow as turns up,— I like to have a teachoi as belong.) to you," wore the remarks of a scholar whoso teacher could not stand Sunday dost, and heat, and irin, and mud half so well as on week davs. t In some schools the riile has been adopted by vote of the teachers and oflicers that scholars may change from one class to another ly applying to Ihe Superintendent. In- competent teachers, when their classes begin to diminish rapidly, are thus led to the desired resignatii .i without any dirtMJt action of tho offloers. 58 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. IL A well-defined idea of truth. 1. Intellectually. 2. Experimentally. III. A medium to convey the truth. 1. Language — Things, acts, tones, words cultivated. 1. Study of the Bible. 2. Baptism of the Holy Spirit. By 7. The Secret of Teaching with Power. BY M. 0. HAZARD, ESQ.* 1. Secret of Power. Negatively — 1. Not in learning. 2. Not in ability to talk. 3. Not in ability merely to instruct. Positively — 1. A Christian life — on the employment of unconverted teachers — See Ps. 1. 16, 17. 2. An attractive Christian life. 3. Tact. 4. By attention — attention must be secured. It is com- pelled or attracted. Why do pupils give attention P 1. Interest in the lesson. 2. Interest in the teacher. . . 3. Because other pupils do. 4. Because of the love of knowledge. 5. Because they are fed. How secure attention P 1, By establishing the circuit of sympathy. • — - 2. By Enthusiasm. •Editor of the "National Sunday School Teacher," published at Ohicago, 111., by Adams, Blackmer & Leyon. il 60 per year. Laryre reduction to Clubs. \ I t THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 69 3. By Illustration. ^ 4. By Simple Speech. 5. By Question. 6. By Pictures — an imaginary picture gallery. Knowledge gives power. 1. Makes a man master of the situation. 2. Gives enthusiasm. How to obtain knowledge- 1. By continuous study. 2. By fresh study ; do not depend on an old study of the lesson. The class may be incited to self-activity by 1. Plan for future lesson. 2. Asking suggestive questions. He only teaches with power who is taught ofthe Holy Spirit. The Teacher's Personal and Social Study of his Class. I. WhyI AN INSTITUTE CONVERSATION. (1.) For the same reason that every workman should under- stand his material, every farmer his soil, every physician his patients. (2.) To know their needs and difficulties. (3.) For adaptation. (4.) To understand their characters. (5.) That the teacher may arouse in the scholar the appro- priate emotions o.nd thoughts. (6.) To know names and natures. "i- 60 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. (7.) To know their peculiar temptations and to counter- act them. (8.) To know their religiOUS education and privileges. (9.) To know their likes> dislikes, reading, amusements, associates, &c. (10.) To know their home SUrroundingS and daily life. (11.) To know their addreSS in order to call and write. (12.) To know the resultS of our progress and work. II. Howl (1.) By five minute sociables before the school opens. (2.) By bird parties, grape parties, &c., for little child- ren occasionally, at teacher's home. (3.) Children's hour every week at teacher's heme. (4-) Sewing parties of young ladies' classes. (5.) By loving them and showing the Christian virtues. (6.) By avoiding cant. (7.) By visiting them in their homes, schools, and stores, and requesting visits from them. (8.) By writing to them. (9.) By leading the class into religiOUS WOrk. (10.) By noticing them wherever met. (11.) By inviting them singly to the teacher's office or home. (12.) By becoming companions to them. (13.) By helping them in things temporal. ^^, THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 61 8. Normal Class Training for Teachers. iS. BY REV. J. L. HABLBEBT. , I. Great need of trained teachers. (1.) Every reason for it that there is for trained teachers in secular schools. (2.) The failure which results from voluntary study must be supplemented by the teacher. (3.) Short time we have with the scholars. (4.) The book we teach and the interests at stake. All these reasons demand trained teachers. II. Wherein do teachers need training P (1.) Teachers must have character. (2.) Teachers must have spirituality. (3.) Teachers must know the book. ^ (4.) Teachers must know the methods. III. How can this training be obtained P (1.) Teaching will help. (2. ) Studying and reading Sunday School literature. (3.) Attendance in Sunday School Conventions, " Assem- blies" and "Parliaments." IV. How organize a Normal class P (1.) Get teachers together and give them a competent teacher. (2.) Make the Teachers' Meeting a Normal class. (3.) Unite all the teachers and superintendents in the place. V. What a Normal class propose to do ?— Answer the following questions : , ^ (1.) Why teach the Bible ? (2.) What shall we teach from the Bible 1 (3.) How teach the Bible 1 :i .»; 62 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. VI. Methods of conducting Normal classes. (1.) Text-book with recitations and reviews conducted the same as in secular schools. (2.) Leaflet method * — only a single lesson given out at a time. ' (3.) Lecture method. 9. Qualities and Training of Primary Teachers. BY MRS. W. F. OBAFTS. (1.) Age and Sex. They may be of any sex, so that they have kept their hearts young. They may be either men or women, so they have adaptability for their work. Mothers of little children make the best Primary Teachers. (2.) A Christian. "Lovest thou me?" was the question which Christ asked Peter before He gave him the commission "Feed my Lambs." (3.) An Earnest Student of tiie Truth. The les- son should be kept prayerfully in the undercurrent of the teacher's thoughts all week. It requires a thorough knowledge of the lesson to be prepared to teach even the smallest children. A teacher should always know more than he attempts to teach. (4.) A Warm Sympathizer with Children. A teacher who has this will observe children closely and learn their peculiar expressions, so that they may be adopted in teaching, serving as passports to the children's minds and hearts. (5.) Vivacity should characterize the Primary Teacher. It should be cultivated and not assumed. (6.) Faith in Child Piety, without which a Teacher could have no hope or confidence in her work, and could not work to the highest end — the conversion of the soul. * Rev. J. H. Vincent, DD. 806 Broadway, N. Y., has prepared a full course of these leaflota. 11- ■■■ ■ THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 63 (7.) A Primary Teacher's Meeting should be held for an hour each week, when the Primary Superintendent can instruct the assistants about how to teach and what to read, in order to increase intelligence and interest in the work of teach- ing.* 10. Attention, Discipline, and Questioning. BY MISS JENNY B. MERRILL. The first step in the right direction is taken, when the teacher begins to realize that she is responsible for the atten- tion and discipline, and that the children are not ; therefore the less said to the children about it, the better. The teacher needs to study in what ways she effects the attention and dis- cipline. (1.) By care for physical cpmfort, that is, having regard to the ventilation, seating without crowding, frequent change of position and exercises. (2.) By a well-arranged programme, prepared at home, and perfectly committed to msmory, so that pauses may be avoided, which are fruitful causes of disorder. " Let the teacher not lend her eflforts to keep all quiet, but to keep all employed." (3.) By employing the minds of children, by asking them questions. Questions should be prepared at home. They should be asked in short well-ordered sentences, so that they will be clear and definite. They should not con- tain the thought that the child is expected to give in the answer, so that simple assent will be the only requirement. They should not be repeated in the same form when the children fail to understand at first, but they should be put in a more definite way. Questions should be arranged logically. Mrs. Oraft'B book on methods of Primary Teachings entitled, "Open Letters to Primary Teachers," published by Nelson & Phillips, N. Y., (Price *1 00) gives the fullest discussion of questious connected with Primary and Intermediate Classes, 64 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. (4.) By a manner evincing love, sjonpathy, com- posure, dignity, and animation. "Fret not thyself of evil-doers." " Ovrercome evil with good." " A soft answer turneth away wrath." Try to inculcate right and noble views of obedience. Teach about Christ's obedience to His parents, use also Ps. xxxii. 9. Make commands requests as far as pos- sible. Never use dictatorial tones. Do not form the habit of repeating commands before the children have time to obey, else ' hey will form the habit of not obeying the first time. Expect Lo be obeyed. U. Illustrative Teaching.* BY KEV. W. p. CKAFTS. The great object of the Sunday School is not to organize its members into a pic-nic club, or a library association, or a singing school, or a theological institute ; not merely to please, or disci- pline, or teach, as the end in view, but by means of all these phases of its work to accomplish its great purpose — To PRESENT Christ 0- TO THE Hearts op the School. Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending of Sunday School work. He must be aJwe all and in all and through all the exercises. To Present Christ, then, is our object in Sunday School work. How shall we vividly and savingly present Him to the heart? By universal consent the senses must usher truth to the soul. • "Through the Eye to the Heart; or, Eye Teaching in the Sunday School. By Rev.W. F. Crafts. Treats of all departments of illustration. A new edition, to be ready December 1, 1876, will contain also in the Appendix blackboard exercises and other illustrations for all the international lessons of 1877. Published by Nelson & Phillipa, ;S06 Broadway, New York. For sale by Adam Itfillw ji Oo.^ Toronto. Price $1.00. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 65 its 'ing Isci- ese The Sunday School works mainly through the two most in- fluential senses — sight and hearing. Hearing lacks vividness without sight (the visions by which God taught His truth were usually more impressive than His spoken messages)^ but sight lacks definiteness without hearing (even the inscription in fire on Babylon's wall needed words of explanation). It is well, there- fore, that hearing and seeing should accompany each other. Joseph's brethren brought to their father, who had long mourned for Joseph as dead, this wonderful message : " Thus sai*h thy son Joseph, I am yet alive ; come down unto me, tarry not." Jacob's heart fainted when he simply h^ard these words, for he believed them not ; but " when he saw the wag- ons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived." The wagons would have meant nothing unless they had been preceded by the message ; the message would have failed unless it had been followed by the wagons. This shows us how to use the eye and ear in the Sunday School. Give what '* is written," and then, by maps, picture objects, blackboard exercises, and stories, put it into " wagons " to help the imagination and the understanding, and send it through " eye-gate," into the soul. I want to say at once, lest any should be prejudiced against this subject, that unless there is " a living spirit in the wheels " these illustrative wagons are utterly useless. " 'Tis love must drive the chariot wheels." he in ol le le Eye-Teaohing is Philosophioal. Sight seems to be connected with each of the other senses. W"e say of food we have been describing, " Taste and see ; " we say of the fragrance of a flower of which we have been speak- ing, " Smell and see ; " we say of some excellent singer whose voice we have eulogized, " Hear and see ; " or of a gem we have called very smooth, " Feel and see." In a mw sense, " It is all in ymir eye." Now all this use of terms arises from the fact that we think by images, by something we can see or imagine that we see. When a matter is clear to us, whether spoken or pictured, we cry, Oh, I See. E 66 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. This characteristic of the mind makes "the likes" necessary in every kind of teaching. The unknown must be taught by likening it to something that is known ; the unseen must be represented by the seen. Eye-Teaching is also Scriptural. Dr. Vincent, in the preface to his recent work on " The Church School," says : " The good philanthropists of the last century, in digging that they might build a human fabric, laid bare an ancient and divine foundation." These words, spoken of the modern Sunday School, are especially true of its eye- teaching. It is not a " new idea," but an " ancient and divine founda- tion " laid bare for us to build upon to-day. The Bible is full of object lessons taught by God Himself, by Christ, and by the inspired writers, with trees, stars, shields, girdles, fruits, birds, pictures, &c., as their texts and illustrations. Eye-Teaching is adapted to the Times. We need only refer to the increased amount of blackboard work in our day schools, to the large number of magazines and papers that have recently introduced illustrations in their hitherto unillustrated pages, to the inscriptions on boardings and fences, the great number of picture advertisements in our papers, and the increasing custom of our illustrating lectures, to remind our readers that one marked characteristic of this age is to put things into the mind by a quick concentration on the eye. We must ** discern the signs of the times," and keep up with them. We must study times and men. The adver- tising pages, which are epitomized photographs of the day, and the " Bitters " on stones, " Pills " on trees, and " Magic Oil " on everything, notwithstanding their quackery, teach us that this age must be reached very m.uch through the eye. Divisions of the whole Subject. We make the divisions of the subject that^ follow, on the basis of their relative simplicity. i THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 67 (I.) Vivid Description and Allegory. A Bible scene is sometimes so vividly described, that it be- comes eye-teaching, and stands before the scholar as a real picture. (II.) Stories Vividly Told. A story vividly narrated is a picture, and few scholars can carry ideas in any other way so well as in a mental picture. (III.) Stories Represented. Many stories may be made a little dramatic, or, at least, more vivid, by showing some prominent object mentioned in them, while the story is being told. (IV.) Object Illustrations.* The most perfect religious object lesson is like a mirror, the object itself but little noticed while it reflects some great truth. • The following object illuBtrations were described bj Mrs. W. P. Crafts :— When teaching that the pillar of fire was light to the Israelites, but darkness to the Egyptians in crossing the Red Sea, show a piece of paper red on one side and black on the other. When this lesson was taught in my class, I provided each one of my assistants with such a piece of paper. When telling about the rainbow as a sign of the covenant between God and man, have a prism to throw the colors on the wall, where they can remain while you talk about them. Get the children to move their hands in the shape of the rainbow. In teaching about a walled city, Jericho, for instance, set up a toy village with a high row of blocks around it, and explain the similarities and contrast between the toy city and the walled city. In teaching about the twelve stones which were set up in Gilgal as a monument of God's mercies to the Israelites, and applying the same thought to our remem- brance of God's mercies to us, procure twelve marble chips. Write on them : Jesus Christ, I'he Comforter, The Bible, Heaven, Life, Prayer, Forgiveness, Home, Friends, Reason, Food, Clothing, and let them be set up as a monument before the class. Illustrate the blessing of sight by showing an opera glass and telling what it enables us to do. Show how it must be regulated, then tell that each child has a more won- derful pair of glasses, with which he can see things both near and far, and which are self-regulating, self-cleansing, and beautiful in color. Tell the children that these "glasses" are their eyes. The teacher should endeavor to give the Golden Text in some attractive form each week. For instance. " Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span," could be written on a hand cut out of paiier, and given to each child. The Golden Text, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him," could be written on a Jar cut out of paper, and given to each child. 68 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. I (V.) Map Teaching. (VI.) Picture Teaching, (VII.) The Blackboard. The blackboard excels the other forms of eye-teaching, in convenience, availability, and cheapness. Descriptions and stories require more time to introduce a thought into the mind than does the blackboard exercise. An object lesson, as a rule, can be used but once ; the blackboard may be used again and again without sameness. A picture has but one surface, and that is soon familiar ; the blackboard presents a new surface, a new picture, every time it is used. Maps are expensive, and many schools cannot afford but one ; the blackboard may be made a scries of maps, each of them new, with especial empha- sis on the scene of the lesson. I i! r The Abuses of the Blackboard. (1.) Making an exhibition of it rather than an illus- tration of truth by it. (2.) Incorrect Drawing. (3.) Oomplicated Follies, chiefly remarkable for inge- nuity and emphasising unimportant syllables and letters. Uses of the Blackboard. (1.) To collect attention. (2.) To make announcements. (3.) To aid the Memory. (4.) To explain truth. (6.) To condense thought. (6.) To emphasize truth, (7.) To review the lessons. ^ssfSSBOMmm THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 69 The materials wanted are a blackboard or a strip of black- board cloth,* a box of ciayoas, and a good eraser. The teacher's slate, which may be used in each class as eflfec- tively and variously as the blackboard in tl\e general school. Thus we have spoken of the seven departments of eye- teaching. They should ever be as the seven golden candlesticks of Re- velation, not attracting the eyes of men to themselves, but only revealing the glory of Him who cried from their midst, *' T AM Alpha and Omega, The Beginning and the Ending, The First and the Last." 12. iMrORTANCE AND METHOD OF PUBLIC EeVIEWS. BY REV. J. L. HURLBUT. (1.) A public review brings the mind anew in oontacfc with Divine Truth. (2.) Imparts a clearer understanding of the lesson. (3.) Deepens the impression on the heart. (4.) Presents new aspects of the truth. (5.) Aids the memory in retaining the lesson. (G.) Illustrates methods of teaching. (7.) Reproves the ineflBcient teachers. (8.) Supplements the deficiencies of class-teaching. (9.) Gives both variety and unity to the exercises. ♦ A former obstaclo to the Kcnural use of the blackboaril wiw its expcnslveness. This exists no longer, iw a stiV of iluckboard cloth can lie i)urcliascd for iil)oiit a dollar, larg:o enouirli for a goou olaciilii ml. and either hum,' u|i as a map, or nailed to an ousel. This blaekhoard eloth is is Jiit hy mail hy the nuuiufaclurerH, " The Sili- cttto Hiate Co.," eoruer of Oliureh and Fulton Sts./New York. Send for eireulara, I'or sale also by Adam Miller f, Co., Toronto. 70 n THE IJIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Third Quarter, 187G. Among other pleasant devices for a review is the above blaciil /ard picture of a shelf of twelve books,* to be drawn on a blackboard at the beginning of the Quarter with blank backs. In the closiiig review let the initials of the lesson subject (*' David'" charge to Solomon" in this case) be printed after it has been given by the school ; also in the same way the initials of tiie topic (in this case, in iJerean Series, ** Ministry to God divinely appointed") ; also the outline (Ministry to God ap- poin-.ed — Why — How — ") ; also the first word of the Golden Text (" Know thou the God of thy father, &c.,") ; also the "• Doctrine" (God a Sovereign). Each Sunday's review fills up an additional boolc, and the previous ones should be re- viewed each time, so that, at the end of the Quarter, with the help of these initials and these weekly reviews, the subjects, topics, outlines, golden texts and the doctrines of the twelve lessons can be given by the school. One blackboard, or at least one side of a blackboard must be set aside for this one purpose in this plan. For variety these initials can sometimes be put in twelve picture frames, or twelve scrolls, drawn upon the blackboard in a similar way. 13. What the Sunday School can Learn from the Public School. BY .lAMKS HlKUIES.t One is almost led to believe sometimes, that Sunday School ' Oritfiiml with Mnt. S. W. Clark, of Newark, t InHjHJctor of Pul)llc ScIiooIk, Toronto. A. saas THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 71 teachers can learn very little. Like the good old Scotch lady, who, when tea was first introduced poured out the broth, as she called it, and ate the cold tea leaves, they often use the various aids provided for them in a manner (otally different from that which was intended by those who designtul them. Take for instance the lesson papers. Did those who designed them expect, that in hundreds of Sunday Schools they would almost completely drive the Bible out of doors ? Did they imagine, that thousands of teachers would sit down befor(! their classes every Sunday with these papers in their hands, and ask the questions literally as they appear in print ] Did they think, when they stated or referred to from forty to fifty facts on a lesson paper, that thousands of teachers would try every Sunday to force all these facts into the minds of their scholars iu about thirty minutes, when it is well known that no teacher should or could teach more than eight or ten facts or thoughts in that time ] Nor do they err because they have not been taught better. I shall not, however, deal with the capacity of the learners, but merely with the lessons to be learned. ' ' The first thing attended to in a well regulated Public School is Order. It is said that " Order is Hea- ven's first law. The teacher and heaven should be on a par in this respect. No teacher of good standing would think of teaching at all until he had established between himself and his class a perfect understanding regarding this matter ; until he had clearly shown his pupils that it was necer^ary that one person should be absolutely master, and that he was the person entitled to that position by virtue of his office, his superior in- telligence, experience, and force of character. Without order in his business and among his employees, no business man can hope to be successful. Without the perfect order which we call discipline in an army it is a disorganized mob, incapable, un- manageable, at the mercy of its foes. Without order in a school, at least one-half of a teacher's power is wasted, partly through the inattention of the scholars, and partly in reducing the disorder to what some teachers regard as endurable lii lits. Experience has proved this, and therefore every good teacher ipsists on having good order before attempting to teach. 72 THE BIBLE 4ND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ^s i Now if order is important in a Public School, how much more essential is it in a Sunday School, where the disorder of one class usually interferes so materially with the attention and progress of all the others. Yet it is astonishing how general the idea is that it is quite orthodox for Sunday School scholars to discuss all the events of the past week, and the probabilities for the week to come, while their teachers are talking to them about God's Word. It is astonishing, too, to see scholars, who sit during five days in the week in the Public School without uttering one whispered word to their seatmates, or even think- ing of such an outrage, conversing as freely with their com- panions in Sunday School as if they were receiving visits at their own homes. But the most astonishing thing of all is that, J mong the thousands of Sunday School teachers, there are so few who either deem order to be indispensable, or have the force of character to insist on having it ; and so many who are willing to sit listlessly before a class and talk on mechanically, knowing, as they must, that perhaps not a single individual is listening to what they say. When such is the case I do not wonder that the scholars amuse themselves. On the teachers I lay all the blame. The scholars accept matters as they find them. Teachers must be weak indeed if the scholars form public opinion in a school, and establish its character. Some teachers try to excuse themselves by saying that if they insist on having precise order, their scholars will leave them. No greater mistake could be made. Children like order better than disorder. So w ould all grown people if they had been properly trained at school. Children are most joyous and happy, and, of course, most tlioroughly educated in those Public Schools where the discipline is strict without being severe. There is no quicker way for a teacher to lose the respect of his pupils than by overindulging them. I can sympathize, however, with a rational teacher wh^^ bvs a class in an ordinary Sunday School. If is a difficult matter ior )P.o [■■ rson to stem the torrent under such circumstance's, One ot my Public School teachers while endeavorin/r to sec'.n it'S, *!ioi In her Sunday School class was met wi i: the rexD:. ': frum a young lady of fiiteen ; " You need not think tliat you av j^oing to g«'t us to behave in Sun- day ScUv»ol »£ your scliolriK do in the Public School. Miss LvJkJ :^rBS. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 73 (another teacher in the same Sunday School) says you are altogether too particular." When I use the word " order " I do not wish to be under- stood to mean perfect quiet or stillness, I mean the order of life, not the order of death, I mean by order hav- ing every child and teacher and officer in a scl ool attending to his own duty, and to that alone, and attending to it, of course, in the quietest possible manner. But so long as no individual in a school is attending to another's business, or doing anything simply to attract the attention of any person else, I would not sacrifice efficiency for the sake of silence, I would much prefer a good stiff breeze to a dead calm. The breeze is all right unless it comes in squalls. Perfect order may be quite in harmony with great noise. In a factory, for instance, although the noise of machinery may be deafening, and the bustle of the workmen quite confusing to an outsider, everything is usually in the most perfect order. The very fundamental principle of the Kintergarten schools may be said to be the use of the tendencies and actions of childhood in an orderly manner. In Sunday Schools as at present arranged it is impossible to have teaching going on without some noise, but this does not necessarily mean disorder. If one or two claf !es are taking the lead in making a noise, then there is disorder. If two or three scholars in a class are talking to themselves, or pushing, or throwing paper balls, lozenges, &c., or cutting the buttons off their teacher's coat, or sticking pins into the pupils in the next class, or pulling their hair, or read- ing song books during school hours, or doing anything calciv lated to distract the attention of others from their proper work, then there is disorder that should be checked immediately, checked before any more teachiug should b" attempted. When some of these practices are allowed in nearly every Sunday School ; when it is deemed perfectly natural for scholars to engage in chit chat while God's Holy Word is being read, and even, while God is being addressed in prayer, I do not wonder that our children grow up with such an alarming lack of reverence for God's House, and God's Word. No wonder that in most churches flippant conversation is in- dulged in, and in some advanced places secular newspapers are read while waiting for the commencement of church services. 74 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. It is not within the scope of my subject to tell how order can most easily and most permanently be secured. I shall, how- ever, mention several of the erroneous attempts made to obtain it in the Sunday School, and the remedies as practised in the Public School. Perhaps no other aid is so frequently invoked, or so much relied on to maintain order in Sunday Schools as the Super- intendent's bell. This was introduced from the Public School, but it is used in a manner that would not be sanctioned in any good Public School. The bell is a valuable aid to dis- cipline. It may be used with great profit instead of the teacher's voice, as a signal for commencing, changing, or closing exercises, for standing up, sitting down, assembling, dismissing, &c., but it never should be used to give a command for order. I would regard any Public School Teacher as badly trained, if he rang his bell for any other purpose than as a time signal, or for the performance of mechanical movements. Of course the opening bell in a Sunday School may be regarded as an indirect signal for order, because it should be an understood fact that the school exercises would not commence until per- fect quiet was secured. The idea of ringing a bell several times, and excitedly accompanying the action with cries of " order," " order," is too ridiculous for any trained or thought- ful man to think of for an instant. I would as soon expect to put out a fire with coal oil, or calm a nervous child by firing cannons near it, as to obtain order in that way. Even the occasional ringing of the bell for order is an error. It dis- turbs every class in the room, while perhaps only one or two are offending, and after a time loses its effect, because it speaks directly to no one, and gives in general terms, and to a whole class, instructions that ought to be given particularly to cer- tain individuals. In general terms the following rule may be followed with reference to the bell : — It should never convey a command that does not apply with equal force to each mem- ber of the school. Sunday Schools may lea.rn a lesson from the PubUc Schools in regard to the niunber of pu- pils to place in charge of one teacher. A Sunday School of three hundred scholars has, as a rule, about thirty-five teachers, while a Public School with the same number would THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 75 \dev fain (the ch r- lic ed is- he ng er. Bd, al. have six or seven teachers. I have no hesitation in saying that I firmly believe the teaching power of the Sunday School would be greatly increased by a reduction in the number of teachers in it to something near the Public School standard. It is at present, and will long continue to be, an impossibility to find thirty-five first class teachers in a congregation repre- senting three hundred Sunday School children. But every congregation ought to be able to turn out from six to ten per- sons who can teach ; teach in the true sense of the term, not merely take charge of classes. Of course with this number of teachers I would have each class in a separate room, so that there would be much less to attract the attention of the pupils, and consequently the order would, be much more easily maintained. There is no doubt that the very fact of being in a room somewhat similar in style to their ordinary school- rooms, would dispose the scholars to be more orderly, and in- duce a frame or mind favorable to the reception of knowledge. Each teacher too would have perfect freedom of voice, action., and manner, and would be at liberty to use, without annoying others, blackboard, maps, illustrations, diagrams, specimens, &c. He could be a real, live, standing, walking, talking, ene)'- getic, magnetic teacher, freed from all the cramps and restraints of a room in which there are several teachers. Give One of the best eight Teachers in a Sunday School of three hundred pupils, forty of them in a room of their own, and if they are of about the same state of advancement, he must be a good deal of what we call a " stick" if he cannot instruct each of them thoroughly, and keep them interested with less strain on himself, and more success, than he would have in teaching eight in a large room when surrounded by other classes, who were continually annoying him, and whom he was continually afraid of annoying. Of course, he would have to vary his mode of proceeding in such circumstances. He could not do so much individual teaching with forty as with eight. It would not be necessary to do so much under such circumstances. 1 knew a good old gentleman, who was placed in charge of about forty boys, and in a short time he came to me complaining that by the time he called the roll and heard each boy recite his verses, the time had arrived for closing. J was not surprised at that ; neither was I surprised to find, that 76 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. I ! I the last twenty-five boys having heard the verses repeated and re-repeated so often, were able to answer very correctly, when their turn came, without having previously studied the lesson at all ; nor was I surprised to find, that there was a great deal of disorder amongst those who had to recite first and then amuse themselves while the others were doing their part. No trained teacher would make such a mistake as that. They could each be tested as to their knowledge of the verses to be recited, and their recitation or failures marked, in less than ten minutes, by any teacher of ordinary ability. " But," some will say, " we have not got accommodation for such an arrangement of classes." If not, you can have. If you can seat three hundred scholars in a room where they are subdivided into thirty or forty classes, I can seat four hundred comfortably in the same room partitioned into eight class-rooms, There is really a large airibunt of seating space lost, usually by the small class method. "Our Sunday School," you say, " is not arranged with that end in view." Alter it by sliding or folding partition^, or even curtains. " We are in the basement and could not get light for the central rooms," others say. Get out of the basement. The sooner the better. If you cannot do so, make the upper half of your partitions of glass. But it is worth while to try very hard to get out of the basement 1 But the Sunday School should learn to de- crease the number in a class as well as in- crease. Many infant classes are mere masses of panting little darlings, who are compelled to fight for breathing space and el- bow room, whih; their unfortunate teachers are vainly endeavor- ing to explain to them the love of Jesus. I have frequently seen from oiK! hundred to two hundred children in one infant class under one teacher. This is a more monstrous error than the one already discussed. Such a class should be divided into at least three or four parts, or use Mrs. Craft's plan of assistant teachers. " Oh, but," some Superintendents say, ** we have difliculty in obtaining one successful infant class teacher." No wonder. Put four hundred in a class, and your difficulty will be vastly increased. I would expect to have difficulty in ob- taining a person, who could manage and teach two hundred THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 77 Jated fctly, the ^as a and )art. ?hey 10 be ten little folks even in a suitable room, but I would readily under- take to find four persons in a large congregation, who could each do justice to fifty of them. In the Kintergarten Schools, taught by ladies of vast training and experience, the usual number in charge of a teacher is twenty, and the utmost limit twenty-five. The legal number for each teacher in Ontario Public Schools is fifty. In most cities of the United States it is less than fifty. Whatever may be the size of the class in charge of a teacher, there is another important lesson for Sunday Schools to learn from Secular Schools. A teacher should always see all of his scholars. In Public Schools care is taken to have a platform for the teacher, so that he may be able from his elevated position to see the whole school. He is even instructed w^hile attending his Normal School to acquire his profession, to stand with his right side to the black-board, when writing on it, so that he may the more readily sweep his eye over his class. How vastly different is the practice of hundreds of Sunday School teachers ! How calmly they seat themselves, Sunday after Sunday, as close as possible to the central pupils in their classes, quite oblivious to the fact, that they have scholars be- hind them on each side, who are left to amuse themselves by such plans as their ingenuity may devise. A teacher in such a position always suggests to me the idea of a man attempting to fill some pails with water by placing the pails behind the pump instead of under the spout. The pails would get as much good as the pupils, and do far less mischief. Sunday School Teachers should learn not to ask questions to their pupils in rotation. Many com- mence at the head of the class facing the pupil there, and after putting him through, as though he were the only pupil in the class, they shift their chairs and get over number two in. a similar manner, and so on to the end of the class, if happily that part be reached before closing time. They can teach but one at a time. If the lessons of the Bible were arranged to cor- respond with the order of the pupils in the class, so that each one might get the lesson he specially needed, this might not be so completely ridiculous a method. But Tom may receive Harry's lesson, Harry, Fred's, and so on. No pupil should ever know who is likely to receive a question until it 78 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. has been given. No name should be mentioned, no motion made,or look given to indicate who is to answer, until the ques- tion has been asked. Each pupil should know that he may be asked every question. Every one will thus be compelled to attend all the time, while if questions are asked in rotation, a pupil, after answering his question, may discuss the circus, or the last lacrosse match, or the next base ball match, or any other appropriate Sunday School topic, that may chance to come into his mind, until his turn is coming again. If I had a teacher who insisted on sitting squarely in front of each pupil in turn, I would accommodate his class to his capacity, by giving him one small scholar, so that he might see the whole of his class at once. Sunday School Teachers should learn not to repeat their questions for the sake of those who do not hear them the first time. It is simply an extra inducement to the scholars to be inattentive to do so. If a pupil knows that your question is only to be asked once, he will listen to it the first time. If he knows that, when you wish liim to answer, you will shake him to get his attention, and then repeat your question, he will wait for his shaking. Sunday School Teachers should learn not to stare fixedly at the pupil who is reading or answering. If there is one pupil who does not need watching, he is that one. He is certain to be attending to his work. We should attend to him with the ear, to all others with the eye. Public School experience has demonstrated clearly that, telling is not teaching. Lecturing or sermonizing is not teaching. The teacher should lead or guide his [ wpils through the garden of knowledge, and show them which icinds of fruit are beneficial, and which injurious ; he should also show them the best means for obtaining the fruit, but he should not pluck it for them, and eat it for them, and digest it for them. The teacher should teach his scholars how to think ; he should not do the thinking for thenL Sunday School teachers should learn to give an introduction to, or explanation of, the lesson for next Sunday. We have been learning during the past few I L THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 79 years, that one of our most important duties as Public School teachers is to teach children how to study, and what to study most carefully in connection with each lesson. It is a very important point. To assign a lesson to a child without giving him some idea of what are its leading features ; what you will expect him to know, or explain, or prove next Sun- day ; and how and where he can obtain most light on difficult parts, seems to me to be a good deal like sending him IntO a ten acre swamp to fetch something he nas never seen, and which you have not even described to him. Lesson papers, when properly used, do a good deal to- wards the accomplishment of this object, but they require ex- planation and weeding out, as they frequently contain matter that most teachers will not need to use. I would make the lesson paper the basis of my outline or framework of next Sunday's lesson, but I would eliminate from and add to it in order to adapt to the speihil requirements or advancement of my class. I would allow my scholars to take out their lesson papers and lead pencils at the close of the lesson of the day, to mark them according to my directions. With a lesson thus definitely set before them, scholars will be much more interested, than when they are told simply the portion of Scripture which is to constitute the lesson, or else " to get what is on the lesson paper." It is the great duty of the teacher to make the text book or lesson paper, or whatever he places in the hands of his scholars comprehensible to them, and all recognised authorities agree, that this should be done before the lesson is studied, so far as mapping out the work to be done is concerned. Most Sunday School teachers need to learn, that children under fourteen years of age require a g^eat deal of explanation, far more than at first sight seems reasonable. Adults who are not in the habit of associating with children every day, are liable to shoot over their heads altogether, when they come to teach them. Even Public School teachers usually take a long time to learn to be simple enough in their language and illustrations, and clear and definite enough in their expla- nations. It is so difficult for us to remember or comprehend the change that has taken place in our mental power since we were children. He is certain to be the best teacher, who has IMAGE EVAiUATION TgST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 11.25 NMHI V .V f^ / d^M Photographic Sdences Corporation as WKT MAM STRHT WIUI«f,N.Y I45I0 (7l*)t71-4S03 > 80 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. the most vivid recollections of his own childliood. Of course the amount of explanation necessary will depend to a certain extent upon the social condition of the children, and the char- acter of the Public Schools which they attend ; but every man will make a better teacher if he will repeat to himself every day before commencing his duties ; " / must remember that, as an adult I am disposed to pass ever as simple much tlmt my scholars do not utiderstand, and to make use of reasonings and language above their comprehension.*' Another lesson of a kindred character that may be learned from the experience of Public School teachers is, not to expect your pupils to progress too rapidly, or to remember too long what they have been taught, and not to be discouraged, if they do not seem to remember anything at all. It is the hardest and most humiliating of all the lessons a teacher has to learn that, a month after he has patiently and clearly explained some difficult matter to his class, they have almost, if not/ altogether, forgotten it. Such, however, is the -fact of the matter, but instead of being dis- couraged, a teacher should let this lesson teach him two others ; Ist, not to attempt to teach too much, and 2nd, to repeat and review more persistently. These are two of the most important things for a Public School teacher to attend to, and they are neglected in Sunday Schools more uni- formly than any that I have mentioned. A child might nearly as well undertake to swallow the mighty St. Lawrence, as it rolls so majestically on, as try to take in the torrents of dates, hi-storical facts, geographical facts, illustrations, explanations, reasonings, conclusions, &c., &c., that are poured out to them promiscuously by many teachers. I am well aware that the cry used to be from many teachers, " We cannot get enough to keep our classes occupied." This will always be the experience of those individuals who do not prepare their lessons, but I do not regard them as teachers. Their millenium passed away with the introduction of the uniform lessons, and their short- ening to a few verses, instead of a few chapters. My first Sun- day School teacher, in the palmy days, when each teacher selected his own portion <-f Scripture, always avoided becoming exhausted, by commencing so far from the end of the Bible, that we could not possibly finish it before the close of school. My experience with Sunday School teachers leads me to believe THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 81 that, when their lessons contain a reasonable number of points it is the result of necessity rather than choice. The evil that 1 speak of has been necessarily increased by the publication of such a number of lesson notes and papers. Many teachers in their use of these rem'nd me of the old New Englander who was always complaining that his sons were idle and slow in doing their work, and urging them to greater exertions by telling them bow " the young men used to work when he was young." One day when his sons were drawing in hay, the old gentleman came out to see how they were getting along, and as usual com- menced to declaim about the contrast between his sons, and those of his father. " Why," said he, " when I was young I could build a load of hay as fast as three men could pitch it." Tired out with his continual prating, his sons informed him, that they believed two of them could pitch hay faster than he could build it, and the old gentleman could -not do otherwise than except their challenge or else " forever hold his peace." He chose the former alternative, mounted the wagon, and shouted " Hay ! " His sons responded with a will. Straining muscles and forkhandles, they threw up the hay so rapidly, that he could barely climb over it and trample it down. Yet he continued valiantly to call out, " More hay ! More hay ! " And they gave him more. Quicker and larger came the bun- dles, so quickly, and so large, that he was sometimes more than half buried. Still he continued bravely. Panting with his ex- ertions, he would climb, and tramp, and shout, "More hay ! More hay I Don't go asleep, boyr. ! More hay, I tell you ! * But his load looked like a pile of hay blown together by u, whirlwind. It had ho proper foundation or any regular shape, and at length it and the old gentleman rolled over, and came tumbling to the ground. Now was the complete triumph of his sons. They ran around just in time to find him crawling out from under the pile of hay; and with mock gra\ity en- quired : " What did you come down for father 1 " " What did 1 come down for," he thundered, " Why I came down for more HAY 1 " There are a great many Sunday School teachers who prepare their lessons as the old grumbler built his load of hay. They pitchfork into their note books all the ideas they can find in the Presbyterian Journals, the Methodist Journals, the Baptist Journals, the Congregational Journals, the Non-De- 82 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. nominational Journals, the Commentaries, the Histories, the Geographies, &c., and then they look for more. Yes, and when Sunday comes they sit down before their classes, open their bag of miscellaneous extracts, and proceed to hand them out as they come without arrangement or connection. They rake together the thoughts of several men, and attempt to give the whole mass as a lesson. The result is, the memories of the children are overwhelmed, and their minds confused. Why, not one of the gentlemen who prepare these lesson notes, would attempt to teach all that he himself publishes in his notes. These notes are not given as lessons, but as material from which to form lessons. I am very far from finding fault with any teacher for getting all the information possible in relation to the lesson. It is highly commendable, and to maintain your proper standing with thoughtful and intelligent pupils, it is fibsolutely necessary to do so. But for every hour devoted to the accumulation of matter for the lesson, two should be given to the arrangement of the method of teaching it. Any one can get a mass of facts and thoughts on the lesson, but very few comparatively can reject what is unnecessary, and wisely select and arrange that which they require for their particular classes. However, if every teacher taught vjell and gave his scholars a reasonable amount in each lesson, they would not remember what they were taught, without constant repetition and reviewing. There is no word in the teacher's guide- book so important as the word repeat. How often did you repeat your multiplication table before you learned it ? You repeated it until it became a part of your very nature. There is not much learned so thoroughly as that in the Sunday School. This is, in my opinion, the weakest point in connec- tion with Sunday-school teaching. It is the opening in the wall through which oceans of earnest effort flow without effect. To teach without reviewing is to scatter seed without harrow- ing it into the ground, so that it does not germinate, but is eaten by th(^ birds. " Well," some one says, "we do have re- views in our Sunday Shool. The Superintendent reviews the lesson after it is taught every Sunday." No doubt ; that is one of the fundamental principles in nearly every Sunday School. The idea was obtained from the Public Schools ; but THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 83 I it is another instance of pouring out the " broth " and eating the cold tea leaves. I never could understand how this custom could have become so universal, or why, if indulged in at all, the Superintendent's " few remarks '" should be called a review. That a review is attempted, however, shows that the necessity for it is acknowledged by all. The questions that need to be settled there are, " What is the best time for reviewing?" and " Who should be the reviewer 1 " Experience in the Public Schools answers these questions most unmistakably, and with- out any hesitation or reservation. The proper time to review the lesson of to-day is immediately before teaching the lesson of to-morrow on the same subject. The proper person to do the reviewing is the one who taught the lesson to be reviewed and is going to teach the next. Re-teaching the lesson, as done in Sunday Schools generally at the close of the teacher's work, does no harm, if the Superintendent is not too prosy ; but it does not do enough good. It is just when a lesson is slipping out of the memory that it should be reviewed. If Public School teachers find it necessary to review the lesson of one day before continuing the same subject on the next, how much more will it be necessary for the Sunday School teacher to do so after a week has passed ] The reviewing then, done in a very few minutes, brings all the essential points of the last lesson before the minds of the scholars, and thus forms a proper basis for the lesson of the day. That the proper reviewer is the teacher is evident, when we reflect that no other person can know so well how much his class should answer, or what he is going to teach. On these two things should depend the nature and ex- tent of the review. I would not recommend a teacher as the examiner of his own class; but an examination and a review are entirely different things. It is not enough, however, for a teacher to review the lesson once as already suggested ; he should review regularly w!tiile teaching. A good Pub- lic School teacher will not give mere than about three facts to a class without questioning his class to see that they are re- membered. He will then discuss a couple more, and drill over the whole five given ; then teach a couple more and examine on the seven, and so on to the end. " Oh, I would never get over my lesson in that way" will, no doubt, be said. Very well; your object should not be to "get over the lesson," but 84 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. to teach it." Your teaching cannot be measured by the amount you " get over," but by the amount which your pupils remem- ber and apply. In Sunday Schools, as at present constituted, it may be advisable to have the reviewing done by the Super- intendent or Pastor, but they should review last Sunday's les- son before the commencement of the lesson for the day. T have referred incidentally to the indolent class of persons whose consciences allow them to sit down before their classes on Sunday without preparing their lessons, or perhaps even knowing where the lesson is. A Public School teacher who would act in such a manner would have a lively time. If he were married his furniture would not last long. He would be- long to the migratory species. A live Public School teacher would not think of using a Text-Book while teaching history, grammar, geography, or geometry, or in explaining the rules of arithmetic or- algebra. Even in teach- ing a reading lesson, I would expect him to be able to give most of his attention to the class, and yet correct all the errors made, in pronunciation, punctuation, emphasis, &c. It would be a great thing if Sunday School teachers would all imitate such an example. I do not mean to say that I would like to see the Bible, the Sunday School Text-Book, banished from the class, or disused either by teacher or scholars. It should be there for reference use ; it should be there in order to teach the scholars how to us^e it properly, to give them a due reve- rence for it, and to keep the idea prominently before them, that the Sunday School is a Bible Scheol. It would be a great change for the better, however, if every Sunday School teacher would go to his or her class prepared to close the Bible so far as the lesson itself is concerned. If teachers knew their les- sons, they would not need so constantly and so unsuccessfully to urge their scholars to learn them. Sunday Schools should learn and are learning to have trained teachers. Whatever may be the natural gifts a man or woman may have for any position, he or she will be infinitely better fitted to perform its duties after a systematic training for it. A man may have a natural taste and aptness for the practice of medicine, but not many of us would trust our lives in his hands to be experimented upon, unless he had taken his degree. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 85 lount fmein- buted, Jupor- ^'s les- Similar remarks may be made with equal force in relation to a lawyer in connection with business transactions, or difficulties. Why, it requires a training even to fit a young lady to keep house properly. I read of a young wife recently, who had been educated at a fashionable boarding school, whose husband re- quested her one morning to order their dinner, as he was too busy to do so as usual. Her order to the butcher was, " A leg of tongue, 171bs. steak, and two Halibut." The most en- lightened countries of the world, Prussia, Switzerland, the British Isles, the United States and Canada, have the best facilities for turning out a constant supply of well-trained teachers. Taking the United States individually, it will be found that the people are the most intelligent in those States where the institutions for teacher training are most numerous and most complete. If the Sunday School is to keep pace with the progress of the age ; if it is going to exer- cise its due influence in moulding the characters of the men and women of the future ; if it is going to be the power for good, which it should be, its teachers must not only be thoroughly taught in Bible truths, and those which relate to them, but trained in the correct principles of teaching. I believe that the time will soon arrive when the Sunday School will imitate the Public School by having written ex- aminations. No examination, written or oral, can tho- roughly test the amount of work done by a good teacher ; he is but a half-hearted teacher whose chief aim in teaching is to make his pupils pass a good examination ; but written exami- nations have been found very beneficial in connection with Public Schools, and I am convinced they would be equally valuable in Sunday Schools. They materially induce teachers and scholars to greater effort ; they make the teaching more pointed and less diff'use, and they lead to more systematic and thorough reviewing. A written examination of their pupils on the work of the past six months would teach most teachers a serious lesson. These examinations should be held twice a year. The examination papers might be prepared by the Com- mittee of the local Sunday School Associations in cities and towns, or by the Provincial or State Association, or by com- mittees appointed by denominational publishing houses. In the latter cases it would be necessary to have the examinations 86 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. in all parts on the same day. In either case the cost would be trifling. I have not time to discuss the method of conduct- ing them, but merely throw out these suggestions as seed thoughts, regarding a subject which must soon engross the at- tention of Sunday School workers. Lastly, I would like to see Sunday Schools placed on the same footing financially with relation to the Church that Public Schools hold towards the muni- cipaUties, and the State. On the plea that the education given by the Public Schools is for the benefit of the State, the State provides the Public School authorities with the funds necessary for carrying on their work. Does not the Sunday School bear even a closer relation to the Church than the Pub- lic School does to the State 1 Is it not literally a department, aye, and an important department, of the Church 1 Why then should it not have its place in the Church estimates ? Why should the teachers and officers who give their time to teach the children of the Church be compelled to beg for the money to provide their school requisites ? In discussing my subject I have not touched upon the great fundamental principles of teaching, which the most advanced Public School teachers endeavour to practise. Every Sunday School teacher, who desires to commence the real study of the science of childhood should read the works of Pestalozzi and Froebel, those patient, loving, pioneers, who were the first men, since Christ, who penetrated very far into the realms of child- hood. 14. A Study of Christ as the Model Teachek. BY BEV. F. H. MARLING. I It is important to success in any enterprise that we should have the most perfect example in every particular as our model. In the Bible we have a perfect model of a teacher placed be- fore us. We direct your attention — THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 87 )uld uct- Iseed at- First, to the fact, Jesus did teach ! He gave an example. See John xiii. 13, 15. He is called " the Word," John i. 1, &c. ; and a word is a channel of communication of thought from one mind to another. John i. 18 ; " declared" the Father, Gen. xlix. 10,; Deut. xviii. 15, 19 ; Psalm xl. 6, 10 ; Isa. Ixi. 1, 3. Applied by Jesus himself, Luke iv. 16, 24. Succession and contrast. Heb. i, 1, 2 ; Eepeatedly spoke of his mission thus, John xviii. 37 ; Luke iv. 42, 43. Why [did Jesus teach ? 1. Work given him of God. Matt. xvii. 5 ; John v. 30 ; John vii 16, 18 ; John viii. 2, 6. 2. Because he loved it for the truth's sake and souls. Psalm X. 4.8 ; John iv. 31, 34 ; Mark vl 34 ; Mark x. 21 ; Matt, xxiii. 37. Whom did he teach ? Generally his own people. Matt. XV. 24, 25, 28 ; Matt. x. 5, 6 ; Matt. viii. 10, 13. All whom he could reach. Matt. iv. 12, 23, 24, 25; Matt xi. 1 ; Mark i. 33. Where did he teach ? In the synagogue, sea side, &.c* John iii. 17; John iv. 6,19; Lukex. 38, 42; Lukexxiv. 13, 15. Where greatest need — most teachable spirit. Matt. ix. 13 ; Johnxvi. 12. Even his enemies. John ix. 39, 41. What did he teach ? Moral and scriptural truths of the Old Testament. Matt. xv. 2, 6 ; Matt. iv. 4, 7, 10 ; Matt. xii. 3, 5 ; Matt. xxii. 29, 32 ; Luke x. 25, 28 ; Matt. xxvi. 58, 56 ; Luke xxiv. 25, 27, 44, 48 ; Matt, xv., xxiii. Taught of Himself. Matt. x. 27, 30 ; John iii. 14, 16 ; John V. 17, 29 ; John vi. 26, 40; John x. 1, 18; John xL 25, 27 ; John xiv. 15, 16. How? 1. After ample previous preparation? Luke ii. 40, 52. Lived and practised the truth thirty years. Luke iii. 23. 2. Out of a large human experience. — Heb. iv. 14, 16 ; Heb. ii. 17, 18; Heb °. 1,2; Heb. x. 7, 9. 88 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 3. Fulness of Spirit. Isa. xli. 1,3; Isa. xi. 1, 5 ; Luke i. 35. Luke iii. 21, 22 ; Luke iv. 1, 2, 14; John iii. 34 ; 1 Cor.ii. 4. 16. 4. Weight and certainty. Matt. v. 22, 28, 32, 34, 39 ; Matt, vii. 28, 29 ; John iii. 11, 13 ; John ix. 4, 5 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 37. 5. With all his might ? John ix. 45 ; John xi. 8, 9 ; Matt, xiv. 13, 25. 6. With loving kindness. Isa. xl. 11 ; Psalm Ixxii. 12, 14 ; Luke iv. 22; Mark x. 15, 16; Matt, xviii. 10, 14; Luke vii. 35, 60 ; John xi. 33, 36. 7. Fearless and faithful. Matt. xi. 20; Matt, xxiii. 13 ; Matt. XV. 7, 14. 8. It was steeped in prayer. Luke iv. 21,22; Luke vi. 12, 13 ; Matt. xiv. 22, 23 ; Lukeix. 28 ; John xi. 41, 43 ; Luke x:xii. 31, 32 ; Heb. v. 7, 8 ; John xvii. 12 ; John ix. IJ, 17. 9. Plain and simple. Matt. xi. 26 ; Mark xii. 27 ; John vii. 14, 15; John iii. 12 ; John xvi. 12, 13 ; Matt. xvi. 6, 12. 10. Abounded with illustration. Matt. vi. 1, 4 ; Matt. v. 15 ; Matt. xvi. 18 ; Matt, xxvi. 30 ; Matt, vii, 24, 27 ; Matt. xiii. 1,8. 11. Object lesson. Little child in midst of disciples. " Penny." " Seest thou this woman." 12. Employed questions. Addressed reason. Luke ii. 46, 49 ; Luke vi. 8, 9 ; Luke x. 25, 37 ; Matt. xxii. 15, 52. 13. Much repetition. Isa. xxviii. 9, 13 ; Matt. xiii. 51, 52 ; Matt. vi. 2, 15, 16 ; Matt. vii. 7 ; Mark ix. 43, 48. 14. Very flexible and various. John iv. ; Matt. xxii. 15. The word was accompanied with works of grace. Matt. iv. 23, 24 ; Matt. xi. 1, 6 ; Mark vi. 54, 56 ; Mark iii. 7, 10. 16. What followed his teaching ] 1. Popular attention and interest. Matt. vii. 28, 29 ; Matt. xxi. 7, 11 ; Mark vi. 2 ; Markxi. 18 ; Luke iv. 32 ; Luke xix. 47,48; John vii. 11, 13,45, 49. 2. Many souls loon. John iv. 1 ; John i. 40, 41, 43, 49 ; John X. 25, 27; John xii. 10, 11 ; Matt. xvi. 13, 17. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 89 35. fatt. ratt. 14; vii. 3. Many hardened — SomeS" went back." Luke ii. 34, 35 ; Luke iv. 28, 29 ; Mark ii. 5, 6 ; John v. 16, 18 ; Luke vii. 11, 4. Fohle hand of helpers was raised up. Matt. x. 1 ; Luke vi. 12, 17 ; Lukex. 1, 2 ; Luke ix. 49, 50 ; Acta iv. 27, 33 ; Acts i.4, 8. 5. Teaching with power. John xii. 23, 24 ; Johniv. 10, 13, 14 ; John vii. 37, 39 ; John vi. 47, 51. 15. Spiritual "Work in the Sunday School. >» BY BEV. B. P. RAYMOND. The most important agent in the spiritual work of the Sun- day School is the Holy Spirit. As teachers it becomes us to know well His mission and His methods. I. His Mission : (a) To convict of sin. See John xvi. 8. {h) To beget the soul anew in Christ Jesus. See John iii. 5. II. His Method : (a) Is that of a person. Eead the fourteenth chapter of John, and mark the fact that the Spirit is ever a " He," not an " It ; " a " Who," not a " What "—a person and not a thing. (6) Is that of a Divine person. See Acts v. 3, 4. (c) The Divine works through the media of truth. 1. Of truths of nature.— See Rom. i. 20. 2. But especially of truths of Revelation. — See John xvii. 1 7. 3. And more especially still through the most potent truth on earth, viz., the consecrated heart- See 1 Cor. vi. 19. 90 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 16. Sunday School Teachers' Decalogue. ,; BY REV. E. O. HAVENS, D.D.jLLD. 1. ^ray for inspiration, wisdom and patience. 2 Timothy ii. 24 ; James i. 5. 2. Have faith in your convictions. Mark xi. 22 ; John xiv. 1 ; Hebrews xi. 32, 33. 3. Respect your pupils. Luke xi. 11 ; Matthew x. 29, 31. 4. Understand your own purpose. Proverbs xvil 24 ; Luke vi. 39. 5. Obtain the attention and affection of your pupils. Matthew vii. 6, 9, 10; 1 Thessalonians ii. 7, 8. 6. Express thought precisely ; illustrate freely. 1 Corinthians xiv. 19 ; Matthew xiii. 34. 7. Teach arrangement and classification. 2 Tim. ii. 15 ; Eccles. iii. 1 and 11. 8. Christ's test ; fruit. Matthew vil 16-20. 9. Review frequently. Isaiah xxviii. 10. 10. Expect great results. Ecclesiastes xi. 1 ; Matthew xiii. 8. " Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself ? " 17. Five Elements of Success in Teaching. BY EEV. RICHARD NEWTON, D.D. 1. A real, heartfelt, glowing love for children. 2. A habit of forming a clear and distinct idea of the subject. 3. A simple, natural and well-defined plan. 4. Simplicity of language and directness of illustration. 5. Earnest piety. - . >> j r ^ o j: .,^. . . the bible and the sunday school. 18. For Preachers and Teachers. 91 i. 5. 33. 31. ja?*" TO BE COPIED AND HUNG ON YOUK DESK. PREPARATION. P EOVING. AINTING. ERSUADING. " I am resolved to spare no pains, nor toil, nor time in careful preparation, in making my descriptions graphic, \ay statements lucid, my appeals patheti4s, in filling my discourse in fact with what would both strike and stick." - Guthrie. " He should not merelj' prepare his sermon ; he should also prepare himself." —Dr. Parker. M UTTERANCE. anner is to atter, as powder to ball. "CULTIVATE THE PAUSE, SIR." " When you read the Sacred Scriptures, or any other book, never think how you read, but what you read." — Kemble. AFTER THE SERMON OR LESSON. " He may not have lingually stumbled. His breaking down may not have been toward earth but toward heaven." , — Dr. Parker. " Let them not put me off with admiration ; its their salva- tion I want." — Guthrie. CHANGED rather than HARMED. 92 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. !|i ■ 'i if 5 ^^ A ■■ ' f -. •: I. •' 1 i I: IV. THE BIBLE AND CHILDHOOD. (1.) Man's Anxious Question about every child. Luke i. 6L (2.) God's Inkrest in, Childhood. Gen xxi. 17 ; Psa. cxlvii. 13; Prov. viii. 17. (3.) God's care for His Little Ones. Deut. vii. 4 ; Psa. ciii. 13; Isiah xl. 11 ; Mai. iii. 7; Matt. vii. 11. (4.) God saving men byhomefuls. Gen. vii. 1 ; xix. 16 ; Josh. xxiv. 15 ; Acts xvi. 31-33. (5.) Parents as God-appointed teachers. Deut. vi. 4-7 ; Psa. Ixxviii. 5-7. (6.) Children to be early saved. Matt. xix. 41 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3; 1 Sam. iii. 1, 19. 1. The Bible's Estimate of Childhood.* BY REV. W. F. CRAFTS. In the very texture of some kinds of writing paper, as you hold it up to the light, you can see letters that were evidently stamped there during its manufacture. These are called the " water maik ; " it is made while the paper is in a liquid state, and it constitutes the " trade mark" of the envelope. Metallic and glf-s^ articles also, in many cases, have trade marks wrought into their very substance while they are being made. So, every age has its trade mark, unconsciously stamped upc i it while its years are passing. Geologists have discovered and classified these trade marks • The rolijflous, moral and educational quostlons connected with childhood are dis- cussed »t length in Mr. Craft's book, " Childhood, the Text-Book of the Age," which also contains six hundred incidents, both amusing an-l Instructive, from child-life and child- thought, sclentiflcally arranged in a "Cabinet" and " Childhood's Dictionary," publiabed by Lee & Shepard, Boston. Mass. Price 91.50. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 93 ou ly le e, ic It in the case of the early ages, with scientific thoroughness. The Si). Ian age left its trade mark in fossil molluscs, the Devonian in ushes, the Carboniferous in coal plants, and the Triassic, with the fe«t of its monsters, put its eternal stamp into the sand and clay. It is equally trae that every historic age leaves its trade mark. A thorough archaeologist and historian might arrange p, cabinet of relics from the historic. When the glaciers of geologic days, as giant sculptors, with whole continents as the blocks on which they were to work, carved out our mountains and valleys, they marked a period no more surely than the paintings and sculpture of ]\Iichael Angelo's day tell us of an age of refined and cultured leisure in history. The " chromos," by which the works of the masters are now multiplied by the hundred thousaad, will, p( rhaps, be the trade mark of our age in this line, indicating the reign of machinery and haste. But the deepest and most striking trade-mark of our age is the re- cognition of tlie IMPORTANCE OF CHILDHOOD. Never before did the world hear of so many children's pic" nics, and children's parties, and children's concerts, and juve- nile books and magazines, and children's columns in all our papers, and " Children's Sermons," and " Children's Sundays" in our churches. Men only a little past middle life can remember when there were not half-a-dozen children's books thiit had any extended circulation. To-day, a collection of the popular juvenile books would make the largest library in the world. Amid the multi- tudes of characters that Swift, and I ield, and Defoe, and Scott gave to the world in their romances, scarce a little face appc .rs. To-day no names of fiction are more familiar than " Little Paul," and " Little Nell,^' and " Tiny Tim.' and " Eva" of « Uncle Tom's Cabin." All this recognition of the rights and importance of child- hood is but the starlight that shines upon us from above the manger of the God-child. It was Bethlehem that taught wise men that a child's face was a grander study than the stars. d4 THE BIBLE ANP THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. t I I I ll m ?i The condition of childhood, then, is one of the best thermometers of th'^ progress of an age or nauon, and a sure test whether of the narrow or of the full development of Christianity in its midst. Read the sacred books of India, China, Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome, and you find hardly an indication that there are children in existence. Turn to the Bible and you find it full of child-life and child- teaching. Look at the histories outside of Palestine during Bible times — Berosus and Herodotus and Xenophon — and childhood's deeds and influence are scarcely mentioned. Open to the historic parts of the Bible. The life of two lowly shepherd boys is given almost from their cradles v.ntil^ at length, one becomes lord of Egypt, and the other the singing king of Israel. A little outcast child of slavery, a " foundling" from the flags of the Nile, has even his baby history carefully written, and the onward steps of his life, until he becomes the lawgiver of three millions of people. A little maid is the heroine of a general's restoration from leprosy ; a little lad is the means of a great multitude being fed. We are told of the early strength of Sampson, the child- priesthood of Samuel, and the early Bible study of Timothy, who could know the Scriptures even in childhood, and by them be made wise unto salvation. Three children are saved from death, or the point of death, by our Saviour, and the miracles are as faithfully described as those performed upon adults. No incidents in all the Bible are more beautifully noticed than the laying of Christ's hands upon the children's heads, and His expressed approval of their hos- annas in the temple. Most wonderful of all, the Divine became a child to teach us that a child may become almost divine. The Germans have a beautiful legend that on Christmas morn- ing the Child that was born in a manger revisits the earth to look after all the other little ones : that from the little prince in his royal cradle, to the baby sleeping like Himself in straw, none are left unvisited. ' THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 95 )fthe re or he full ersia, there child- The legend is but another form of the truth that Bethlehem has brought Christ for ever near to the child-he&rt. Look also into the poetry of Bible times outside of Pales- tine. In Homer and Virgil where are the lines for or about the children? Few indeed. Turn to David : " Come ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Open to Isaiah : " Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." Read the excellent ethics of Confucius and Plato. Where are the maxims that Timothy might know " from a child 1 " Open the ethical parts of the Bible, and read, " I have written unto you, little children." Or listen to the representative sen- tence of Proverbs : " Hear ye, children, the instructions of a father." The ethics of the Bible put a high estimate on childhood. " It is not the w ill of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." In Sparta and some of the Greelc cities, in Rome, and in many savage tribes, it was, and in heathen lands it is still, a common custom to destroy small and unhealthy children as soon as they are born. Christianity that weighs the baby's soui as well as its body, has saved from such a fate Sir Isaac Newton, Goethe, Talleyiand, Akenside, Walter Scott, Kepler, Samuel Johnson, Lord Nelson, Sir Christopher Wren, James Watt, Wilberforce, John Howard, Washington Irnng, and many others who could " think Gcd's thoughts after Him." The ethics of Christianity also startled the world with the new doctrine, that to develop the grandest manhood we must " become as little children." If any other system of ethics had been searched for the model of manhood, it would have presented stoical firmness, bold in- difference to circumstances, or some other rough, stern virtue as our model ; but Christ took a little child in the fields at play, and set him in the midst of His disciples, and said, '* Ex- cept ye become as little children ye can in nowise enter into the kingdom of heaven." The way up was to go down in gentleness and humility. The meek shall inherit the earth. ^6 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. m :l '4 li! pip I'll fill " Gentleness" is to " make us great," and heirs of God's king- dom. These were truths born of the Gospel, and impossible utter- ances outside of it. The very title of " Gentleman,*' could not have been spoken as a mark of honour save through the influ- ence of Christianity. George MacDonald calls attention to the words of Christ spoken after placing the child in the midst of His disciples, " Whosoever receiveth this little child receiveth me, and whoso- ever receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me." So, he says, pure childhood is a revelation of Christ, as Christ is the mani- festation of God ; that is, the childlike is the Christlike, yea more, it is the Godlike. Leaving Bible times for more recent ages, we still find that the recognition of childhood is the unerring thermometer of the progress of Christianity. One of the first fruits of the great Reformation was the establishment of catechetical schools for children, and wherever its giant tread was felt, the same re- sult was seen. Careful examination shows that the " great awakening" in England in the time of the Wesleys was the moving impulse from which the modern Sunday School sprang. As Christianity has deepened its work, child-culture has been more fully recognised as a Christian duty ; until, in- stead of Robert Raikes's ragged school, with paid teachers and the Bible only studied incidentally in connection with the simplest principles of common education, we have already in our most advanced schools a h-'lf-day Bible service of pastor, church, and children together, united by the bond of one topic, one text, one lesson — not only with each other, but also with the nation, with Canada, with England, with India, and ere long with all the Christian world. Next to the Sunday-school, the grandest modem result of our Christianity in regard to the young is the discovery of that new world, the child-soul in its real feeling, characteristics, and wants, by the Columbus of modern education, Frederick Froe- bel, the originator of the Kindergarten method of developing childhood's pt wers. The motto of this work is the motto of this age, " Come, let us live for our children." f \: ; ^ ^^ THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 97 2. How SHALL WE MANAGE UNRULY BoYS IN THE SUNDAY School?* BY M. C. HAZARD. There are tWO classes of unruly children t — First, from an exuberance of spirits. Second, vicious. How man- age? 1. Do not stop all innocent mirth. 2. Who should have charge. Not a stupid man, a consecrated man, but a sharp consecrated man. 3. A man not easily discouraged. 4. Have patience. 5. Never give up. 6. Really love them. 7. Take them singly. The Same Question Answered by Charles M. Morton. 1st. Do not expect too much in taking a Sunday School class; do not be concerned that you shall be appreciated ; you will be appreciated if worthy of it. 2nd. Give them attention ; personal intercourse. Lay responsibilities upon them ; give them something to do. 3rd. Never be discouraged.! 3. "How CAN WE get Young Pupils to Study their Lessons at Home ? " § BY MRS. W. F. CRAFTS. Several facts in connection with this subject are too gene- rally overlooked : • 1 Thess. V. 14 ; Rev. ii. 5 ; Jas. i. 6. T In opening Mr. Hazard said, that his first experience on this question came through au attempt to manage a class of unruly girls. In nearly every class there would be found some unruly scholars, He then described an ideal boy— one having snap, with a ring in his voice, fire in his eye, and an appetite perfectly appalling. I Illustrated by seven years of labor for three boys in Mission School of Plymouth Church. § Nearly every point in this article would be as appropriate to ci asses of odulta as to classes of young people. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. i fi'* (1.) By far the largest proportion of young people, even those almost grown to maturity have no commentaries OF les- son periodicals in their houses. If teachers with their superior advantages of experience and study and Christian zeal, need lesson helps and a meeting for mutual study in order to be prepared on the lessons, how can we expect any consider- able preparation on a new lesson by scholars who have only the lesson leaf or question book 1 This difficulty might be partially obviated however, by introducing the " Scholar's Quarterly" published at the office of The Sunday School Times in Phila- delphia, or " The Scholar's Hand Book" published at the office of the Sunday School World in the same city, or by inducing scholars to subscribe for the low-priced monthlies. The Inter- national Lesson Monthly of Chicago, or The Sunday School Journal of New York, each costing in clubs only 60 cents a year. For some time at least, in most of our schools, it will, however, re- main true that most of our scholars have no such lesson helps as they need for proper preparation. (2.) It is also true that most young people do not feel any special interest in a new lesson from the Bible, and as there can be no real compulsion in Sunday School teach- ing as in secular teaching, increased study at home must be secured by rousing an increased mental and moral interest in the work to be done, not by any arbitrary rules. In every class, some at least will lack this needed interest in lesson study. Accepting these two facts, the lack of helps, and the lack of interest, how can we secure more home study of the lessons ? This hardest of all the hard questions of the Sunday School I think may be answered from a standard practice of Normal School Teachers. When thus engaged in teaching geography to a class of children, I always talked over the lesson with the class before it was given them to studv, ex- plaining, illustrating, vivifying the topic, and then sending the Uttle pupils to their seats or to their homes with this awakened interest to write down aJl they could remember of what I had said, and then to take their books and after that menoorize THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 99 the words of the text-book which had already been explained. This principle, applied to the Sunday School, would lead the teacher whose scholrrs do not study at home to the following method of teaching : — (1.) By explanations, suggestions and questions, to rOTlse an interest in the lesson of the day, and to show how and when to study it out, spending at least one-third of the time allowed for lesson study in rousing this interest. (2.) To ask the memorizing of the Golden Text, or parts of the lesson, after, rather than before the rousing of this in- terest. (3.) To make much of reviewing, recalling what has been told in a lesson, at its close (whether there is a public re- view or not); asking parents to review it regularly at home also ; asking scholars to tell at home all they can remember, or to write it out and bring it the next Sunday ; recalling it yet again after a week has passed at the beginning of the next lesson study ; reviewing still farther at the end of each month, each quarter, and each year. No one who understands the human mind, or the principles of education will say that this is "making too much of reviewing." (4.) This method would be carried out in detail in about this way : (a) Before the study of the lesson in the classes, the superintendent or pastor makes a three or five minutes review of the lesson of the preceding Sabbath, ask- ing for repetition of its Golden Text and memory verses. (J) At the beginning of class study teacher spends at least one-third of the time allotted for the class work in questioning back, more in detail, this previous lesson, and also in question- ing it into the minds of the class more fully, and more correctly, asking for additional knowledge which pupils have been able to find, and illustrating, adapting and enforcing this lesson. (c) The teacher uses the latter portion of the time allowed to class work, one half or two thirds to opening up the lesson for the day, rousing curiosity, and pointing out features of interest and methods of studying it, spending two or three f m 100 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. minutes at the end in questioning hack and questioning in all she has told or developed in regard to this new lesson, {d) The pastor or superintendent also makes a brief, public review of this new lesson in such a way as to send the school home with an interest to study it still farther and memorize the ap- pointed parts. («) The lesson is then read responsively in the closing instead of the opening exercises, after it has been clothed with meaning and interest. (/) At the close of the session, teacher charges the class to talk the leSSOn OVer at home, " tell mother," or write out all they can remember and bring it back the next week, and also to commit to memory the passages in the lesson just opened that are appointed for memorizing, which have now an interest and relish about them. (g) Parents question back the new lesson at home. In this way a teacher may be saved from the apparent necessity of lecturing to unprepared, unanswering and unin- terested pupils, and more study, more interest, and more memorizing of Scripture may be secured. It will be seen that this method neither necessitates nor precludes the study of the new lesson before coming to the class. 4. " How Can we Secure a More General Attendance of Children AT Preaching Services 1" AN INSTITUTE CONVERSATION. 1. Invite them publicly and personally. 2. Simplify preaching. 3. Superintendent should call attention of school to the preaching service. Announce and urge attendance. 4. Give children something to do in connection with the service. 5. Beview sermon in Sunday School. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 101 6. Parents should require their c ildren to attend preaching.* 7. Pastors should notice children in their pastoral calls. 8. Preaching on subject of lesson after study by the school. 9. Teachers inviting pupils to their pews. 10. Have comfortable pews. 11. Have episodes in the sermons for the children. 12. Parents should attend Sunday School and respect it as one of the services of the church.t 13. Children's sermons occasionally at least. 14. Prayers shorter, hymns and tunes brighter. 15. Ad early rising on Sunday morning as on other days of the week. * Dr. Vinobnt sent forth a timely article not long since in the Christian Advocate, on the "Absence of Children from the Preaching Service." In it he Bays : — The principal fault lies with parents themselves. There is too little home discipline of any Krt nowadays. A child who does not want to go to church is permitted to stay at home without any good reason. He " does not want to go," he " does not see the use," he " will not go." And so parents allow their children to do as they please. Not, indeed, in reference to the public school are they permitted to choose for themselves. To that they must go, whether they wish to or not. And so they go. Parents are not afraid to prejudice their children in regard to secular studies, but when the attendance at preaching is in question there is no parental authority ; or, at least, there is the largest degree of laxity. Now, I assert that parents are responsible for the absence of the children from the pews on Sunday morning. Let a man resolve that his family shall be at church, and thej; will be there. My father, an active worker in the church — trustee, class-leader, superintendent — always took his children with him. They never thought of neglecting any one of the church services with which they were connect<>d. It is not merely authority that is needed at home, but an appeal to the child's con- science. Let a boy express disinclination to attend service ; show him that he owes all that he has to his heavenly Father : show him the propriety of keeping up the public recognition of God : show him the divine commands which call us to the house of God. In ninety-nine cases out of one hundred the boy will see the duty iu a clear light, and his conscience will take him to the sanctuary. t A pastor sends out the following on a postal card to the adults of his congregation :— You are cordially invited by your pastor to be present next Sunday at 10.30 A.M., in our church Bible Service, when we hope to honor our Divine Lord by obe3ring hla command to "Search the Scriptures." John v. 39. How should we do this? Read Prov. ii. 4, 5. " If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures ; then Shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." The Scripture lesson for to-day is Proverbs i. 20-33. THE CALL OF WISDOM. There will be several adult classes in charge of competent teachers, and you will not be called upon individually to answer any question. If you can not be with us during the entire service will you not come at 11.30 A.M. , to listen to a Black Board Sermon by the Pastor? Services as usual afternoon and evening. Your loving Pastor. S, L, ORAOBy, ^1 102 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 6. Preaching to Children.* 11 BY REV. RICHARD NEWTON, D.D. I suppose you have all seen an india-rubber face ? And I dare say you have amused yourself by pinching it one way and pul- ling it another, and seeing what different expressions it will put on. But when you stop pulling or pinching it, it returns to the same face that it was before. Now your faces are softer than india-rubber, and they are full of little strings called muscles. These muscles, or strings, are pulled one way, or pulled another, just according to your feelings. Sometimes you feel grieved or sad, and the little muscles pull your face into a very doleful expression. The moment anybody looks at you they know something is trou- bling you, and you feel sorrowful. But if you see a funny pic- ture, or if something happens to make you feel merry and glad, the little muscles pull your face into smiles and dimples, and you look just ready to burst out into a broad laugh. But when we commit sin, wicked feelings are at work pul- ling these strings. Anger pulls one set of strings, and then you know what a disagreeable look the face puts on in a moment ! Pride pulls another set of these strings, and so does vanity, or envy, or deceit, or discontent ; and each of these brings its own peculiar look or expression over the face. And the worst thing about it is, that if these strings are pulled too often the face will not return to what it was before ; but the strings will become stiff, like wires, and the face will keep wearing the ugly look it put on all the time. By giving way to sin, or indulging their bad feelings, some people get their faces worked up to such a dreadful look that, when you meet one of them in the street, the moment you see him you can tell what his character is, A face that was very lovely when it was that of a child, if it has the passion of anger often pulling at it, will get at last to wear all the time a sullen, cross, dissatisfied look. Or, if a I. I, *Dr. Newton is known the world over as the greatest of preachers to children, and every teacher of the young, whether in the pulpit or Sunday School, ought to read at least a few of his many volumes of Sermons to Children, Puhlished by Carter Brothers, New YorK, ' THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 103 man has learned to love money better than anything else, and to hoard it up for its own sake, this will pull a set of strings that will fix a close, mean, grasping look upon his face, so that as you pass him you will be ready to say, " There goes a miser ! " Or, if any one learns to lie and steal, his face will show it by and by ; it will be impossible for liim.to put on an honest, truthful look. You know, my dear children, the Bible tells us that sin is a reproach, or a disgrace, and if we consent to it, or give way to it, it will pull those strings in our faces that will make our very looks to be disgraceful. Don't let anger, or pride, or passion get hold of the strings, or they will make you appear so ugly that no one will love to look at you. But let love, and gentle- ness, and good-will, and truth, and honesty have hold of the strings, and they will make your faces beautiful and lovely. We are able to give only the closing part of Dr. Newton's POWER LEASUKE ROFIT OF GENTLENESS. 6. The Lesson in the Primary Class. BY MRS. W. F. CRAFTS. The International Lesson is adapted to the Primary Classes. Every Sunday School Periodical of the day contains a special adaptation of it for this class. It is the aim of the Lesson Committee to select such topics as may be suitable for " little children, young men, and teachers." They have been successful, and an experience of five years in writing and teaching the International Lesson to little people proves its practicability. " Chirp Right " is Dr. Ormiston's advice to the infant- class teacher — a wise bit of advice drawn from his experience as a boy in trying to feed (callow young birds in imitation of the mother bird. 104 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Fhllly Prepared a teacher should be, and perfectly inde- pendent of notes or question book. " A fixed purpose and an emancipated eye " is Dr. Vincent's rule for the teacher. Seek to make one definite point rather than try to teach the entire lesson. Select the aspect of the lesson that most fully meets the condition of the individual members of the class. Make the lesson contribute to the child's love of the Bible- I^et the teacher frequently open the Bible and reverently read from it at impressive points in the lessons. 7. The Lesson in the Primary Class. BY MISS JENNY B. MBREILL. 1. It is very seldom advisable to use aU the selected verses. 2. It is necessarj to study the context and parallel passages. 3. The introduction should be carefully selected. It should be short, leading to the lesson. A good introduction is like a wedge, opening the mind for the reception of the lesson. (1.) If in the lesson some famiUar scene, object or action is suggested, it will prove a good starting point. (2.) The Golden Text when very simple may be used as an introduction. Example — " She hath done what she oould," asking : " Who can it be ? I wonder what she did 1" &c. (3.) A picture containing a scene of the lesson may be presented ; the children, telling all they see in it, are led to wonder what it means. (4.) The Golden Text may be developed by familiar illus- trations, and the children afterward led to discover that the }es^on of the dav is also an illustration of the Golden Text, f''\ I i: '■ inde- md an try lesson mbers love e and ected iiallel • I* on is sson. 3tioa ias she &c. may Ito lus- the THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 106 (5.) Many questions should be asked ; descriptions should be minute ; development work should be much used. When the lesson consists of general statements use illustrations from which the general statement may be drawn. Example : Prov. i. 25 — illustration, Noah. (6.) It is very helpful to use illustrations that reach the eye. The objects should be put out of sight as soon as they have done their work. The following objects have served this purpose : — Flowers, blocks, seeds, wheat, silver, gold, brass, iron, &c. (7.) Very often the children maybe allowed to do some little act with their hands during the lesson, as making a letter, figure or line on blackboard ; making a letter with their fingers (of the deaf and dumb alphabet). They may place their two hands together and hold them like a book and " make be- lieve" read. One child may show the class some action, as laying in the Oriental position at a table, etc. These little acts are centres of attraction that exert their influence for some dis- tance in the lesson. (8.) The lesson should be made practical and per- sonal. Often, a little gift may be given as a remembrance of the lesson, that it may be recalled during the week and so as- sociated with their daily life. Something may be suggested for the children to do during the week in accordance with the teaching of the lesson, and the next Sabbath the teacher should not forget to inquire about it. 8. The Conversion of Children. BY MRS. W. F. CKAFT8. "As early in a child's life as possible, teach him im- plicit trust in Christ, and the full consecration of his little life, with all its possibilities, to Christ."* Jesus is willing to re- * Dr Vincent. m it- $ ^im 106 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ceive them, for He has said " Suffer the little ones to come unto me." The cold world and the cold church utter in a diflerent voice, " They are too young to learn Truth," but let the teacher who has faith in child piety also have faith in God's blessing on the work of leading these little ones to Him. The smallest child can love Him for His love. The teacher should try to realize something of the value of a child's soul by considering the ransom price paid for it — even the blood of the only begotten Son of God. Little children realize their duty to God better than their elders comprehend it for them. A company of children were asked, " How old do you think children ought to be before they begin to pray ?" " As soon as they can speak, as soon as they can understand," " One year old," were the replies. " How old do you think children ought to be before they begin to pray in prayer meet- ing?" was next asked. "Five," "six," "ten," "twelve," were the respective answers. No one said. Not until they are grown up. " How long have you been a Christian ? " a boy was asked who had made a prayer in the meeting. " Ever since I can remember," was spoken with a glowing face. The child Christian cannot be like the adult Christian. It is as praiseworthy to play like a Christian as it is to trade like a Christian. " I am never satisfied to teach a lesson without bringing Christ iiito it," was the remark of an earnest primary teacher. Surely " All growing that is not towards God Is growing to decay." Let every lesson, then, have Christ in it. There should be a weekly class prayer-meeting. Children should be taught to pray with the heart and with the understanding. L^p service in any form is not pleasing to God. Children should be taught to pray both morning and evening in their homes. Habits of prayer in child- hood make it easier in after life to keep up regular prayer. Personal conversation on religion should enter into every teacher's work. This should be done, if possible, with the co-operation of parents. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 107 ome in a It let in lim. the ilize for Covenant for Young Christla.ns.* Til CMILDIEM'S CMHISTIilM BAND. "MY LAMBS.' SEEK ME EARLY.' Pear J^ittle Friend, Can you, from your heart, answer "yes" to the following questions : — Do you love Jesus ? Are you trustini^ in Jesus as your own precious Saviour? Will you try, by the help of Jeaus, to firive up everything that is^sinful? Will you try to be more like Jesus every day? NamCf Residence,, The Conversion of Children. by rev. J. E. LATIMER, D.D. I. The scriptural argument regarding the condition of children. This clusters around three definite passages of Scripture, viz.: The authorities between A.dam and Christ, in the 5th of Romans; the utterance of Christ when He declares that children belong to the Kingdom of Heaven ; and the passage " their angels do always behold the face of our Father in Heaven." * Used by the Children's Christian Bdnd, Surrey Chapel, London, 108 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. II. The Theological argument. This is a statement of the position held generally I y the Christian Church. The child is born a sinner, constructively at least, and this is not by his own fault, rather his misfortune. The atoning work of Christ provides for him and saves him. Meyer thinks that only those who have the child-like spirit are intended, and only adults. The true view is, that all infant children are included, and all like them in spirit. Can we predicate regeneration of the child ? This is variously an- swered. - Dr. Nf»»t and Bishop Merrill say no. Dr. Hibbard only says that it is in the child what regeneration is in the adult. Dr. Fisk seconds Fletcher in saying that adult sinners have sinned away the justification of infants. Dr. Whedon holds that adult sinners are apostates from the grace of infancy. Pro. Hedge asserts that infants are saved, and claims this to have been always the position of Calvinists. • ^ Dr. Hodge in his systematic theology teaches the same. These two positions have significance in that they show how we enter upon our probation. III. The practical argument. Education should begin with the first breath of the child. The first and almost only duty of the Christian mother is to culture her child for Christ. There are two methods of education — the objective and sub- jective. True education will combine them both. The mother's instinct and the grace of God will lead her to the ac- complishment of these results, though she may never have heard of any of the methods of the books and theorists. From the point where the child comes to conscious personality, which is back of the point of memory, the child may turn to Christ. This is the time for a mother to work. The child borp in i^ THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. \ 109 \lythe id this [itoning spirit an we Christless heme starts from the same platform, but has not the same culture lo develop this iuward grace. — The child of Chris- tian parents has everything in his favor except his evil heart. But some object that the children of Christian parents do not meet the demands of this theory. The difficulty is often that they are only half Christians and have no right to claim the promises. But how is it of earnest, faithful, Christian parents ? There must be some misapprehension of their privilege, or some vice in their method. The laws of moral government and the promises of God are not uncertain, but as sure as gravity. IV. The economic argument. The church works at a disadvantage in that it waits for the child to be swept away from Christ and then strives to conquer them back. Is it not time that we should begin to train up in Christ, and increase the church rather by training than by revival 1 More than this, the church receives a great loss in the loss of childhood experience, which is peculiar as in woman. V. Function of the Sunday School. It is the work of the Sunday School to apply these forces to the childhood mind. More than ever, the Sunday School is to be the nursery of the church. Especially has it a work for the children of unconverted parents. The Christian Culture of Converted Children. BY KBV. JOHN H. CASTLE, B.D. Cant. vii. 12 ; John xxL 15 ; Eph. iv. 13. ' Except when some great tide of revival is rolling through the land, the vast majority of the accessions to all our churches 110 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. are childreu and youths. When children are converted, what then 1 The common practice is to leave the convert" to them- selves. Not a tithe as much interest is taken in them after their conversion as before — as though the great end had been secured. But have you noticed that the whole of the New Testament is addressed to converts, and not the impenitent and unbeliev- ing 1 The Epistles are almost exclusively occupied with the culture of converts. — " Culture" suggests the growth of plants ; not in the wild wood or unbroken moor or prairie, but in a garden under the oversight and skill of the experienced gar- dener. 1. The plant. It must be one of God's own plants. 2. For God's own Plants He has provided a garden, the church. 3. A wise gardener will be much more concerned at the be- ginning about the development of roots than of leaves, branches and blossoms. The soil in which to root a young convert is the truth of God's word. 4. The convert-culturist will, like the gardener, jealously watch the appearance of weeds- Two kinds of seed, bad and good. The richer the soil the more prolific the weeds. If you would save yourself- the trouble and toil of weeding out, keep the soil thoroughly occupied with good seed. 5. Not only will the gardener strive to keep his ground free from weeds, but will often prune his plants and vines. Isa. xviii. 5 : " For afore the harvest, when the bud is per- fect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches." 6. All the labor is in order to the production of ftuit of the best quality, and in the greatest abundance. It may now bo worth our while to consider some of the fruits we should aim to produce in convert-culture. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Ill (tt) Fulness and force of personal character. A man is greater ' *• his work aud worth more. (6) A modest but hearty and fearless confession of Christ. (c) Power and tact in the resistance of temptation. (d) Activity in some branch of church work. (e) A larger spirit of pecuniary sacrifice to the cause of Christ than has hitherto prevailed among Christians. (/) A taste not only for the word of God, but for general Christian knowledge and information. (g) Sjonmetry of Christian character. At this point allow me to suggest a few cautions : 1. Be careful to cultivate in the direction of natural traits, otherwise you may destroy individuality of character and capa- city. All must not, therefore, be subject to the same culture. 2. Avoid cant. Cultivate naturalness in expression. 3. There is a possibility of toO much COlture, or rather too much cultivating. Two extremes — entire neglect and over- culture. A little wholesome neglect would be desirable in some families. 4. Do not forget that God is ever carrying forward His own peculiar cultivation of converts ; "Ye are God's hus- bandry." To whom are we to look to do this workof Christian train- ing? ^ 1. To Christian parents. 2. To the pastors of our churches. And yet it m\\ not do for the church to cast all on the pas- tor. He is the engineer who controls the great Corliss engine of the church j but it is too much to expect that the engineer shall watch aud guide ev^ery machine which is set in motion in the church. 3. Church officers. 4. Sunday School teachers. These have special facilities. 6. All mature Christians — the church of th^ future. 112 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 9. Christian Home Culturk BY REV. A. H. MUNRO. It is questionable whether we shall be able to accomplish much more in connection with Sabbath School work than we are doing without a more perfect co-operation between the homes and the school. When these are both what they should be, they alternate the offices of Paul and Apollos ; each sows for the other to water, and each waters what the other sows, and God gives the increase. What do Christian parents re- quire to give their families the home culture they should re- ceive ] 1. A deep abiding conviction that the duty is one God has laid upon them, and which they can neither neglect nor delegate to others with impunity. 2. A definite purpose in relation to its performance. The Christian parent should have a clear conception of what he is to aim at in the religious culture of his children, and his object should not be to raise them up to the level of worldly respectability or the average of religious profession, but to make them the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, and consistent followers of Christ. 3. Character. It is power, and nowhere more so than in the family. The choice, too, that is needed to guide and influ- ence the family life aright, is that of the renewed heart and meek-loving spirit in communion with God. But in addition to these qualifications the Christian parent needs principles to guide him in the religious culture of his family. Those principles should be few, comprehensive, infallible, and practical. Among them should be these : — (1.) That in the pursuit of the object sought in Christian home culture, namely, the formation and development of Christian character, God's grace must be the depend- ence, His Word the authority, and His Son the example. (2.) That the whole nature, body, intellect, and heart, is to be regarded and treated as a divine creation of which sin • «^.. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 113 is the perversion and ruin, and godliness the true cultivation and blessed use. (3.) That the whole life is a linit, which, without sepa- ration into secular and religious parts, should be made a free, holy, harmonious service unto God. (4.) That all true, good, and beautifld things belong to Christ, and should be used by His people to elevate, adorn, and bless human life. Eules must be adopted based on these principles, but only to avert some evil or to secure some bene- fit, and often as much wisdom will be exhibited in the suspen- sion of a rule as in its observance. How many parents' hearts ache as they remember errors they have committed in the government of their families, producing effects they did not foresee and cannot remedy ? Alas, we most of us get our wisdom too late. We begin to know how to take care of our children when they cease to need our care and go from us to repeat, perhaps in a worse form, the errors we committed in relation to them- selves. Is not something more than an occasional sermon or book needed to direct attention to this subject ) If it is deemed wise and right to hold conventions, institutes, and classes for those who have the care of our children for one hour during the Sabbath, would it not be equally wise and right to do something similar in behalf of those who have the care of their children all the hours, of all the days, of all the years, from in- fancy to maturity ] Why not have Parents' Institutes, to which parents and mothers could be invited, und to which they would come with iender hearts that would respond to every appeal, and hungry minds that would grasp at every sugges- tion made by able and earnest men, who would speak to them in relation to the varied and important elements of home cul- ture 1 I advocate such institutes being established. We need, and can have them, and they will do incalculable good. The people of this great country may well feel elated in this centennial year of their national history. But the wisest and most thoughtful are too patriotic to shut their eyes to portent- ous facts which tell too plainly that, however excellent the • ' ;ii~ 114 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. public and Sabbath schools of this land, a great and extended improvement is needed in Christian home culture to avert evils that threaten, and to make this highly-favored country all that God has made possible for it to be. 10. The Sunday School and the Home. BY HENRY WAB.D BEECHEB. The best Sabbath School is but a poor substitute for the family. The foundation institution of time and the world is tho household, and although the household depends upon the nature of civil constitutions and laws, upon the influences which are derived from the church and from schools, yet Grovernments and Churches and Schools are themselves more dependent upon the family than the family is upon them. There is nothing which can save a nation whose sills are rotted out ; a nation may be cut off utterly in all its growth and de- velopment, but if the household, which is its foundation, re- mains intact and pure, it will spring up again in spite of all adversity. When Napoleon the First overran Germany he reduced that nation almost to bankruptcy and despair. Then it was that Steine, the great forecasting statesman, advised his King wisely that the hope of that Empire lay in the more absolute and thorough education of the household, and that was in modern times the origin upon any large scale of free, common education among the people. From out of that state of de- pression Germany sprang to be, as she is to-day, the tallest Protestant nation in Europe ; and France, that ground her to powder, has seen the change by which she is under, and Ger- many super-eminent. And the change has been wrought out through the education of the children. I have said that the best Sabbath School is but a poor sub- stitute for the family school, for no Sabbath School can do more than teach. To be sure example goes a certain way, but THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 115 tended rt evils all that for the world is ipoji the ifluences dIs, yet res more )Q them, re rotted and de- ,tion, re- te of all iced that was that lis King absolute tt was in common ,te of de- he tallest ad her to and Ger- jught out poor sub- )ol can do L way, but that itself is part and parcel of teaching. The command is not anywhere, nor is the promise anywhere, teach a child the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it ; the declaration is, train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. It is teaching re- duced to habits — that is training, and we are to train children; but there is no institution comparable to the household for that, because it teaches them earlier than anything else can. But it is chiefly so because there more than anywhere else love is the tr acher, and it is the wisdom and power of love which enforces the lesson ; the teaching, moreover, is not given only one day in seven to a class of six or eight altogether, and is not through the ministration of words alone, but it is given with the eye, the gentle hand, and mother's touch, day and night suiFering for and with her children, and helping them at the point of time when temptation assails them. So in many ways family teaching is the nearest approach to Divine moral government that the world has ever known, or probably ever will know, for there is no legislature, no adminis- tration, no philosophical teaching that can for a single moment do the things which centralized love, born of God and minis- tered by the Divine Spirit, can do in the education and full development of human nature. Now, the principal danger we are under in pressing forward this great economy of our day — the Sunday School as the uni- versity for children — is that we shall supersede the family, that the father and mother will remit to the school the duty of instructing the children. Happily, however, they cannot remit to it the duty of discipline. The household still will be a training institution, but more and more the effects of the Sabbath School will be to cause less attention to be given in some households to the instruction of the children, and this danger is so great that, if it were not for other reasons, I think it might be a very serious question whether we were not more in danger of losing, on the whole, by Sabbath Schools if they weakened the duties of the family, more than we should gain by them. But when we consider how many children have no parents, and how many are. without parents fit to teach, how the majority of every community is without any such 116 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. if opportunity, there is no doubt as to the wisdom of having Sabbath Schools. Now, receiving the childrer. into our hands in Sabbath Schools, is there any scriptural way more than another by which we may hope to raise up a generation to serve God ? Is human nature for ever to be that thing we know it to be now ? Is weakness, with occasional strength, for ever to characterise Christian communities 1 Are there to be no discoveries in religion that will measure themselves against the discoveries in science ? As men are learning a better agriculture, better mechanical arts, better administrations ; as nations are learning to be bet- ter nations, and international arbitration is becoming more general, are we to expect nothing better on the side of reli- gion 1 For mere geographic spread of religion is not growth, mere extension is not development. We may spread the Gospel till there shall be no place without a Bible, and yet religion may not have been developed. Beligion is the development of larger power in the souls of men ; it is by the growth of the fruit of the Spirit planted in the better soil we are to [expect the advent of that religious power which we believe is yet one day to come before the second appearing of the Lord. Is there, then, any way in which we can do better than we have done 1 Is there to be no further development of Chris- tian power than in the days gone by ? I think there is to be. It is to this point I wish to direct my remarks, viz. : that it is the duty of ministers, church officers, and all teachers and scholars to make religion more attractive and more beautiful to man than it has yet been made. We must show the world that religion is the true nature, that man's first nature is his spiritual nature, and that the un- derground nature is his own work. It is true that in our lower or animal nature we are depraved. Man has a double being — that of the soul and that of the body — which are constantly struggling with each other, sometimes the one uppermost, sometimes the other. Man is born an animal, and a very poor one too. Nothing is so small, nothing so absolutely negative, as the most glorious thing God ever created — a man. An insect is as THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 117 perfect five minutes after it is born as five days afterwarcls. Not so with a child, which is a mere compound-suction animal, and lies in the arms of its mother helpless, nearer to zero than anything else. So the child grows up, but through months and years remains quite incapable of culture. Not till after one year does it begin to discern things, and not then the dis- tinction between right and wrong. So little by little the child learns to help itself, to run and fight and do all those things which nature requires of animals. It is not till somewhat later that the affections develop in any marked degree, and the time at which moral sense is developed differs with different children. So we have man as an animal first, and afterwards the de- velopment of his moral sentiments. The question is this. Are we to teach and preach a system of administration and of means which is adapted to animal man, and never overtop it by a system which will be adapted to spiritual man 1 The animal man must be governed very much as is an ox or an ass. First, he must find by physical coercion that he must obey, and that is the beginning of God to any animal : he cannot help it, and therefore he obeys. It is not from preference, but in order to avoid something worse. The lower conditions of savage life and of life in the household are, and must continue to be, an adaptation of means to ends according to the circumstances of the creature which is being taught. A great many parents don't believe in physical discipline, in rigorous government, for the little animal child. They say, "gov- ern the child by reason." What ! govern the child by reason be- fore there is any ? " Well," they say, " govern a child by gentleness and patience." If a woman is placed in a good posi- tion, inheriting virtues from her parents, with a mind well balanced and cultured, married happily and placed in circum- stances of ease, and has three children, I can well understand how she can have patience to bring them up anyhow. But take a poor washerwoman who has sixteen children, and toll her to bring up her fiery little cub by moral suasion, and she will reply that it is impossible. There, is no way of bring- ing up children except according to their conditions. The economic method is, that while the child is in the animal con- dition, you should address it with animal influences. But the hi 118 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. object is not to control the child by a physical discipline be- cause it was the best. It was the lowest method, and was practicable only because the child is in such a low condition he cannot be taught any other way. As quickly as possible the child should be taught by a higher method. To tell a child, " You shall go to bed without your supper," is a very good punishment for a child up to a certain ago ; but " You shall go to bed without your kiss " is better, and " You shall fo to bed because you have grieved your Father which is in [eaven " is better still, but it comes later in Vfe. Has not the Christian Chu;ch and the community come to that condition in which Sabbath Schools and congregations can be appealed to by the higher and grander influences of Christi- anity than by the lower 1 Is it not time for men to begin to understand the power and attractions of the beauty of holiness 1 There is nothing so beautiful on earth in development as a true Christian spirit working in tho actual affairs of human life, and nothing in the i leavens so beautiful as God. If we could see Him all light vv ould die from the sun and all blossoms would wither from Lhe earth, for He is the chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely. Weary heart, strive and struggle for a little while, for there is not a hand's-breadth be- tween Heaven ana some of you, and for the first time in your life you will be able to say " I am satisfied," when you behold God and rejoice in His beauty. When I look intc the Bible and read the lives of the Apostles and disciples, I find myself in company with a very different set of men from the average of men in our churches. I find none more noble and courteous than Paul, or who stood more for his rights, and yet none more gentle and more perfectly self-sacrificing. It was not, however, a raw-boned, hard-featured self sacrifice that makes you feel sorry he does it, but that triumphant and truly Chris- tian self-sacrifice that makes itself beautiful. Paul and all his compatriots were singing men in their ad- versity, trials, and troubles. When in prison, the hymns and prayers of Paul an4 Silas were mightier than stone or iron. If men would meet adversity and trouble with prayer and rejoic- ing, human sorrow would have less dominion over them. When THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 119 ine be- d was idition ossiblc tell a a very "You u shall is in li Paul said, " Ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost," he pre- sented to the mind of the Jews the grand white marble temple at Jerusalem, which is still the glory of that old race, than which there is not to- day a better stock. I have been tho- roughly indignant often by the way in which men are ap pealed to on the subject of religion. They are told that i, they don't repent they will go to hell. It is very true, and some people should be told it. Men often open the door of the church as if it were a grave's door, and say, " There is the church and there is hell — take your choice ! " They say, " Well, if that is the choice, on the whole we would rather — well, we don't know." The preacher then flashes light- nings at them, and when they have reached middle life, and pretty much all of youth and pleasure has fled, they conclude tocrawlin. What is their idea of religion under such circumstances ] In- stead of fishing and hunting they say they will keep the Sab- bath ; they will not swear, except under an immense pressure of temptation ; they will read the Bible every day, if they don't forget it, but on Sunday anyhow. They will pay their propor- tion (they being the judges what that is) towards the support of Gospel ordinances, and they don't know exactly about the outcome, aud they prefer to giva in their belief in creeds whole- sale. When I see hard tobacco-chewing Christian men leaving the Bible out of their religion and hoping a good deal in the goodness of God, I am sad. The substance of religion, as described by the Apostle Paul, is that every man shall be responsible for his own acts. The majority of men are not led to accept the truth of religion on account of the arguments made in its behalf, but by the per- sonal life of Christians. If you look at those men who are most truly Christians you will find they are as free as the birds — they are the children of God. Sabbath School teachers should teach the children that in accepting Christ they be- come glorious and free. Teachers cannot teach what is a religious life by words alone, they must live it. Some Chris- tians are like fire-flies at night, they fly in the darkness and flash, and none are able to steer by them. Some, on the other hand, are like tb ^ '-'^hthouse on these islands ; they stand during summer and wi^ ^er, day and night, showing forth a 120 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. I I steady, bright light, so that every pilot that goes from this mighty river knows how to steer his ship. " Let your light so shine before men that they knowing your good works may glorify youf Father who art in Heaven." V. THE BIBLE AND SUNDAY SCHOOL MACHINERY (1) Importance of Orderly Arrangement, l Cor. xiv. 40, 33. (2) Officers and Division of Labor. I Cor. xii. 28; 1 Kings iv. 1-7. (3) Financial Arrangements. Neh. x. 32; l Cor. xvi. 2. (4) Illustrative Helps. Matt. xili. 34. (6) Sacred Music. 1 Chron. xv. 22 ; Neh. xii. 46 ; 2 Chron. xxix. 25-31. (6) Sunday School Exercises. Colos. iii. 16. (7) Spirituality Pervading AU. 1 Cor. xiii. 1 ; Ezek. i. 20 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 15. 1. Names for the Sunday School. It is called " Bible Service," * " Suna^y School," " Teach, ing Service," " Bible School," " Church School," " Children's Service." • A teat vote, at the Supiay School Parliament, as to the preferable name gstve " Bible Service " the majority, the other names fullowin^ in the order of the vote, the laat name (used in Continental Europe) getting no vote at all. this ghtso may [ERY I Cor. r. xii. [ Cor. 46; 2 Ezek. Peach - dren'e ne gave ote, the THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 121 The main objection to all names containing the word " School " is that the word " School," as commonly used, covers the two thoughts, youth and education, while the reli^"ous institution to which the word is applied is adapted to the aged as well as the young, and seeks the salvation even more than the education of its members. The main argument in favor of names containing the word "service" is that it is the word used in speaking of "The Preaching Service," and thus puts the two, as they should be, on an equal footing of honor and work. 2. The Sunday School-Room and Library Plan, Sunday School architecture could not be satisfactorily pre- sented in the brief space that could be allowed in this volume, and we therefore refer those interested in this subject to illus- trated representations of the subject, with engraved plans, in the " Normal Class " for March and November, 1875, and also in " The Ideal Sunday School," by Rev. W. F. Crafts ; Henry Hoyt, 9 Cornhill, Publisher ; in paper covers 25 cents. In "The Ideal Sunday School " a library plan is also given. 3. Sunday School Constitutions. (1.) There should be afUll and explicit statement of the duties of the pastor and the other officers and teachers of the Sunday School, thus preventing and correcting errors consti- tutionally rather than personally.* • For instance. It would prevent much misunderstanding between pastors and super- intendents, and correct many neglects of duty, if their relative duties were constitu- tionall] defined and occasionally read. The best way also to tell the officers that they are not to be "interrupters" of the teacherx during the lesson is to put such a clause among their specified duties in the constitution. That Superintendent who was aslied by a correspondent to send him his Sunday School Constitution and replied, " I'm busy and can't con»e," was more witty thin wiie. The Sunday School ought not to be an absolute monarchy. So long as officers are human we shall need constitutions to pre- vent abusefi.' nd cultivate right methods in the Sunday School as well as the State. 122 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 'k:! (2.) The constitution should be read in the presence of officers and teachers at least once a quarter. (3.) Printed copies should also be supplied to officers and teachers at least. (4.) Only the officers, teachers and appointed representatives from the church should be allowed to vote in the election of officers — adult members of classes yielding this privile^/? i' , cause of tiio evils that would naturally result from allowing the whole Sunday School to participate in elections. (5.) It should be stated in a Sunday School Constitution that no one who is not a Christian is eligible to the position of superintendent, assistant superintendent or teacher.* 4. Sunday School PROGRiVMME. (1.) Teachers' Prayer Meeting, with roll call of officers and teachers. (Twenty minutes.) (2.) Teachers* Sociable. (Three minutes.) (3.) Teachers in their places. (Seven minutes previous to opening.) (4.) Class Sociables. (Five minutes.) I (5.) Organ Voluntary. (Instead of Opening Bell.) (6.) Greeting by Superintendent. (7.) Brief Prayer. (Silent prayer, or Lord's Prayer.) (8.) Song. * We should as soon send our children to sea, with a captain and crev; utterly ignorant of the laws of navigation, as send them to be instructed in eternal matters by a teacher who was not a Christian. The truth is, we would more renxlily risk them in the former case, than in the latter. Have not many moral, thouyfh unconverted teachers, not only received good themselves, but done good in the Sabbath School? We know that sitme rotten and rickety ships have crossed the ocean. We know that some stupid, untrained, or drunken cn^tains have succeeded in rooohing the desired port. But who would argue from such facts, that such ships and "uch men should be encouraged to go to sea? They may go to sea, out is it not a tempting of Providence? So, such teachers may enter the Sabbath School, but, all things considered, is it not a tempting of Providence ?— Rbv. BoBBRT Hood. ; I' THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 123 e of cers ives 1 «:^ the tion the er.* ( (9.) Promises recited by officers and teaotiers. (10.) Prayer. (11.) Notices, Reports and Collections. (12.) Bible Study. (13.) Five minutes signal for closing with soft organ volun- tary. (14.) General Review of the lesson by pastor or superin- tendent, with responsive reading of the lesson. (15.) Lesson Hymn. (16.) Dismission by classes, all singing. (17.) Library books and papers received in the vestibule. (18.) Enquiry Meeting. and 5. Financial System for the Sunday School. IS to )rant icher nner only tome ned, rgue rhey ■the Elav. BY REV. F. H. MABL1NO. An example of what a school may do, which is trained to systematic and intelligent giving, is that of the Fourteeuth- street Presbyterian Church of New York City, Mr. Frank A. Ferris, Superintendent. For the last sixteen years it has given an annual average of $1,000. Out of an average attendance for one year of one hundred and forty-seven (exclusive of a large primary class, which also contributed regularly), one hundred and forty-four brought a weekly offering. These do- nations were entirely for the support of missions. The record of the amount of missionary money is kept with the same regularity as the record of attendance ; indeed, the attendance is marked by the amount of missionary money brought. A large and durable envelope, containing a paper for a list of names, is provided for each class. Opposite the names are spaces for the dates of the Sabbaths in one quarter, and a large space for the scholars' residences. Each Sabbath, 124 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. I iff. when the attendance is taken, the missionary money is col- lected, and the amount wh'ch each child has brought is checked off against his name. If he has been careless and forgotten his money, a cipher marks his presence. All absentees are indi- cated by the space being left blank. At the foot of the space for each Sunday the amount of missionary money is written, and also the number of absentees. The money is then put into the envelope with the class list, and laid aside to be collected by the secretary at an appropriate time. One excellent feature about Mr. Ferris's system is that there is also a space provided in the class list for the teacher to keep an account of the mis- sionary money he brings. In this, as in all other things, nothing speaks more effectively than example. The absence of members of the Sunday School during the summer is not allowed to interfere with the regularity of bene- > ' lent offerings, a small envelope being furnished especially for this purpose to each person. From Class of TO BE U8KD BT THE Sabbath School Missionary Association of the 14th Street Fresb3rterian Church. Date June. July. August. September. 28 6 12 19 26 2 9 16 23 30 6 13 Amount.. Total . THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 6. Sunday School Music* 125 BY p. P. BLISS, t That which ought to have the greatest emphasis just now in regard to sacred music is the need of greater rever- ence- While a song is being sung people will pass up a Church aisle or a Sunday School aisle, whisper to each other, move about a room, distribute or collect library books, put on overcoats (if it is a closing song), do a score of things that one would never think of doing during any other kind of prayer. When we are offering praise or prayer to God, whether in metre or without it, a reverence of manner and of spirit should accompany it. Another thing to be en- forced, kindred to that we have mentioned, is a greater thought- fulness of the real meaning of the words we sing. Are they the wordij of prayer 1 Of praise ? Let an appropriate thought, as well as melody, accompany them. Let songs sometimes be explained or developed, as a Sundaj'' School lesson would be, to show the fulness of thought and meaning. Singing in the Primary Class. J BY MBS. W. F. CBAPT8. (1-) Sing Worshipftdly. Make the children understand tiiat they are to sing to God, not to theii' teacher or to each other. Keep the idea of praise continually before their minds • " Trophies of Song," published by D. Lothrop & Co., Boston (price 11 26), gives many valuable hints in regard to the use of Sacred Music in Church and Sunday School, with 200 incidents about popular hymns that may be used with great profit to fehow the origin and power of various songs. f Author of " Gospel Songs "—one of the very best collections of songs for Sunday Schools, Prayer Meetings, &c. Published by Jonn Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. t Sontrs for Littie Folks, by Mrs. W. F. Crafts and Miss Jennie Merrill, about two hundred songs for use in the Sunday School, day school, home and Kindergarten. Big- low k Main, Publishers. For sale by the publisher of this book. Price in boards, ISO per 100 copies. . Single copy 36 cents, one copy in paper cover by mail, 26 cents. tl' . i 126 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. by such reminders as the following : — " God likes you to think about what you are singing to Him." " God's little birds make more music than you do. Certainly you can sing as well for Him as they do." (2.) Explain the hymn before it is sung, so that the children may sing with the heart and with the understanding. Make them feel what they sing. Teach them to be as rever- ential in song as in prayer. (3.) The Song should be simple but not silly. It should contain not pretty jingle but gospel truth. Many of the grand old hymns of the church can be brought within the child's comprehension by means of illustration and explanation. (4.) The compass of the song should not be high, " never above E flat." It should be cheerful in the words and in the melody. (5.) Action Songs are very appropriate for the Primary Class. When the children are permitted to express in motions what they are singing, they will understand and feel more deeply what they sing, for instance, if they sing about the rain, let them imitate the rain by pattering on a hard surface with their finger tips. If they sing about the snow, let their little hands represent the snowfiakes. The action songs are also very helpful because they give the necessary change of positions, and thus promote good order. 7. Sunday School Concerts. BY EBV. W. F. CKAFTS. A Sunday School Concert should have three qualities : — (1.) Unity. Songs, Scripture and recitation should all be onone theme, e. g., " The Cross," " The Promises," " The Snow,"* " Trees of the Bible," " Mountains of the Bible," &c. —————— .—^—^—^—— ^^^-^^——^^.^^— ' — ■■- ' — 1 ■'■' '*An illuatrated Concert on "The Treasures of the Snow" published bv D. Lothrop 4| Co., Boston, w«8 explained, with pictures of snowfiakes magnmed and eniargped. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 127 (2.) Instructiveness. A Concert may be full of instruc- tion without being any less popular and spiritual for that rea- son. The historical associations ^f Bible " * .ees and moun- tains" would nobly prepare the way for spiritual work. (3.) Spirituality. A Concert, just as surely as a Sermon, or lesson of the Sunday School, should be pervaded and crowned with spiritual impressions ; e. g., after showing God's wisdom as seen in -the snow, and also His power, His grace may be em- phasized, as typified by the snow, and a powerful spiritual im- pression be left on the audience, many of whom would not come to hear a formal " Sermon." 8. Spwinien of |nnting |ms ftljs for i^t ^mhi St^^oL (1) Invitations to Attendance. " Search the Soriptures." I & .9 1 I*, !.•«->-. I4-. KTOHT^IOH, OOltTia'. Session each Sabbath at 8.00 P.M. A corps of earnest Christian Teachers will heartily wel- come to their Classes ail who desire to study the Bible. Adult Members of our Church and Congregation are earnestly invited to become Members of the Bible Classes of our School. Will YOU encourage ws by your presence next Sabbath? W. R. BURNHAM, Superintendent. •' Thy Word is a Lamp unto my Feet." 128 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. i " TheentranceofThyWordglTeth light. "—Ps. 9. tstttu M^btnnt |aplt«t The Bible-Studying Departmetkt of the Church. II. R. CLIS80LD, BUPIRINTBNDBNT. BerrioeB begin at Half^paat Two o'olook. OOXnCE. Offers a friendly hand to thej\£an or Woman, P,oy or Q-irl, luTio is not attending aroy place of worship REGULARLY, and in -^he JTexfj build- ing the (Pastor and Su- perintendent U)ill try to mahe eaoh one feel at home among friends. The Itooms for yldult ^ihle Glasses have in eaoh of them good teachers, and any per- son oan join -without any oeremony. Enter any room,tahe any seat, and find a ufeloome^ 2.30 EVERY SABBATH AFTERNOON. Kinney St Baldwin St Marshall St Scriber's Lane Court St OB- a-. CD- CHAPEI{ ] q: ^; r cp: 5" .-^imi^!£i THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 129 (2) Eeception and Recced of New Members. [esbs ^W^'' fibk §^tl^otA, Dayenport ATcnne, comer Ward Street. New Haven, 287 .: has to-day applied for admission to Membership in om School, and if it is also YOUR wish that join us, please do ms the favor to FILL UP AND SIGN the blr.nJc below, tliat we may from it make om School Record. Be assy/red, dear friend, if you see fit to commU your to (mr care, we shall seek, by the help of the Master, to do what good we can, and mil gladly welcome you also as Members or Visitors at our School Sessions. Yours very truly, JNa B. SEARLES, Jr, Superintendent. Full Name of Scholar, Age, _ Residence, ... Chwrch attended by Parents, Yowr signature, ISO THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. (3) Letters to Teachers and Scholars. " Whensoever He taith vnto you, do it." " Search the are they which the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life : and they ich testify of me. Sabbath School, Congregational Church, Washington, D. G. J 87 Dear Felloto-Lahorer, Th6 regular Teacher^ Meeting for the study of the Lesson for the next Lord*s F y, will be held at St, Will you not come, and sit with us at the feet of the blessed Master 9 Bring any of your friends. Aj^ectionately Yours, 0. F, PRE8BREY, 8. S. Sujperiniendent. " Whatsoever ye do, do U heartily as to the Lord and not unto man." " Qo ye a2w into the vineyardt and whatsoever is r^iht, I vfUl give you.'* THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 131 Mt)3ithtx»' S^^dixhlt. lompltmenfa of 1. i wxn^m k fire leatfeip OF THE Chestnut Street Baptist Sabbath School, FOR Euening, 187 AT 132 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. HITBODIST SnSCOPAL SVUDAY SGSOOL. SEDAUA, Mo., Dear friend arid scholar, — Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and our Lord Jems Christ. I was sorry when I had to mark you absent from your class last Sabbath. Are you sick ? Our lesson for next Sunday is The topic, The golden text, ] „ Come, regardless of the weather, if your health mil permit, and study with us God^s blessed Word, which is full of precious promises to you. Your friend and teacher, Remernber the how — 9.30 a.m. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. (4) Secretary's Blank. Philadelphia, Baperlntendent. 133 187 Weather,. OFENINa EXEECISSS. ATTENDANCE. o M o OS Male . . Fenude. Main Floor. Male . . . Female , Class Boom. Primary Boom. Infant Boom. Officers. Total Visitors Grand Total. CLOsnra ezebcises. bxjA.o:k BOA.xt,r> ZjEssoso*. ZUBSuCAJi^S. 134 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 9. Organization of the Primary Class. BY MES. W. F. OBAFTS. Does your class number a hundred scholars, more or lesC; and are you perplexed to know how to keep the attendance of so many ; how to tell whom you ought to visit on account of ab- sence or sickness ; how to learn not only their names, but also their souls' needs ; how to give each child a personal share in the lesson time ; how to get the interest and attention of all ; how to save the distraction and trouble required to hush a noise here and quiet a child there ; how to judge of the effect of your lesson upon each little hfs-rt ; how to make each child feel that you are his special friend for Christ's 3ake. These questions are all answered in the following plan. Separate the little people into knots of ten, en- deavoring to put those of like capacity together. While age may be some guide in this matter of grading, the most im- portant consideration is a child's power to understand. It may be necessary to form more than one class of the same grade. It would be better to have less than ten in a class than more. Qive each little group a teacher who will have them in charge during twenty minutes of the session, in which time the attendance is marked, the collection taken, and specified portions of the lesson taught. Thus each child will receive in the class close and personal attention, which should also be ex- tended to the home by visiting during the week, especially in case of absence or sickness. One of the greatest advantages of this class system is found in connection with transfers to the general school. In- stead of having those who are transferred scattered promis- cuously through various classes with strange teachers and strange classmates, or even placed together under the same teacher, but a new one, the mature classes may be transferred at appropriate times with their teachers, thu3 keeping the rela- tions of growing interest and affection unbroken. As a rule, transfer children at about eight years of age. m THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 135 im- 10. The Value and Use of Sociables. AS nrSTITTTTB OONYEBSATION. (1) Oonvention Sociables. During Conventions and Institutes it is found beneficial, during long sessions, to have one or more brief recesses for conversation and becoming better acquainted. (2) Sui>ermtendents' Sociables are of great value. The Superintendents of a city, or county, or district, meet in a church parlor, or private parlor, and spend a portion of an evening sociably in conversation, a portion around the refresh- ment table, and a further portion in discussing some topic of special interest to Superintendents. (3) Primary Glass Parties at the teacher's home afi^ord great delight and profit. At one time let it be a " bird party,'' with Bible birds, stuffed and in pictures ; at another time let it be a " grape party," a " cherry party," (kc, gratifying the child's love of variety. (4) Young Ladies' Sewing Oircles at the teacher's home may be made delightful for young ladies' classes or young girls. (5) Five Minute Sociables before the opening of the Sunday School for each class would be both pleasant and profit- able, enabling the teacher to teach with better sympathy and adaptation. N 11. An Ancient Religious Convention. OW these are they that came to David . . . and they were among the mighty men, helpers of the war. 136 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. m m ''■■ These were . . . captains of the host : one of the least was over a hundred, and the greatest over a thousand. . . And David went out to meet them, and answered and said unto them, If ye be come peaceably unto me to help me, mine heart shall be knit unto you. . . . , then the spirit came upon Amasai, who was chief of the captains, and he said. Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse : peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers ; for thy God helpeth thee. Then David received them, and made them captains of the band. And they helped David . . . . : for they were all mighty men of valor, and were captains in the host. For at that time day by day there came to David to help him, until it was a great host, like the host of God. And these . . . ready armed to the war came to David, . . mighty men of valor, famous throughout the house of their father ; . . . men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do ; the heads of them were two hundred, . . . expert in war, with all instrimients of war : . . . they were not of double heart. And there they were with David three days, eating and drinking : for their brethren had prepared for them. More- over they that were nigh them, . . . brought bread . . . and meat, meal, cakes of figs, and bunches of raisins, . . . and oil, and oxen, and sheep, abundantly : for there was joy in Israel. And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader. And David said unto all the congregation of Israel, If it seem good unto you, and that it be of the Lord our God, let us send abroad unto our brethren everywhere, that are left in all the land of Israel, and with them also to the priests and Levites which are in their cities and suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto us : And let us bring again the fu:k of our God to us. . • . And all the congregation said that they would do so : for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 137 So David gathered all Israel together, .... to bring the ark of God from Kirjathjearim And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with siDging, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets. — 1 Ghron. xii, xiii. VI. THE BIBLE AND THE WORLD. L The Bible and the Public Schools. BY EEV. 0. H. PAYNE, D.D. WHAT THE QUESTION IS NOT. (1.) It is not a question of the union of Church and State, much less of sectarian domination over State institutions. (2.) It is not a question of enforcing even religious instruc- tion, much less sectarian teaching, compulsorily upon all pupils in the public schools of our country. (3.) It is not a question of the simple reading of a few verses from the Bible in a formal manner, at the opening of our pub- lic schools, set over against the peril or probable destruction of the public school system. THE real ISSUE. The question comes to us in this practical form : Shall the Bible be kept in the public schools permissively as undeniably the best text book of moral instruction extant, or shall it be expelled bjr prohibitory legislation, or proscriptive action of school officials 1 138 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. In discussing thi s issue, another question ought to be our guide, namely. Which course, the retention or the ex- pulsion of the Bible, is likely to be attended with the greatest good and the least peril to the schools themselves and the nation ? " The greatest good to the greatest number" is a fair and honorable principle to ap- ply to this pregnant question. REASONS FOR RETAINING THi: BIBLE. (1.) The Bible, thus retained as a moral text book, can work no real harm to any individual, or to the State ; while its ex- pulsion, to say the least, is hazardous to both. It can not be justly claimed that the Bible in the schools inflicts actual injury to any one. The most that is claimed is that it conflicts with the views of certain parties. If this were a serious evil, it might be obviated by adjusting the Bible-reading so as not to make this exercise compulsory as regards every pupil. To ex- pel the Bible for so slight a cause seems the highest unwisdom. THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER OF THE NATION. (2.) The expulsion of the Bible by prohibitory enactment would be a new departure, in opposition to our entire national history, policy and spirit. Nothing is clearer than that the theory and practice of our Government hitherto have not been that of entire secularism ; nothing more evident than that we are, in the truest sense of the word, a Christian nation That this palpable fact should be denied or questioned by any one acquainted with our national history is almost inexplicable. It argues nothing against this fact that the nation and the Church are not in- separably joined in legal bonds, nor that the fact is not stated in formal terms in the Constitution. Without this, it remains a potent and undeniable fact, that fundamentally, traditionally, historically, practically, we are a Christian nation. Abundant evidence might be adduced : not to emphasize the Pilgrim founders of the nation, with their revered Bible and their holy Sabbath, and their constant mingling of the sacred with the secular, possibly with too much ngidness, there re- i i » THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 139 main the opening of the Continental Congress with prayer, the resolutions authorizing the importing of twenty thousand copies of the Bible, approving and encouraging the publication of an edition of the Scriptures, resolutions against profanity, ap- pointing days of fasting, prayer and thanksgiving, in which God, Christ, and the Christian religion are distinctly and re- peatedly recognised. Our present Congress and State Legis- latures publicly recognise Christianity, by religious worship and the observance of the Christian Sabbath. During the civil war, in 1863, the national Senate passed a rtsolution, " de- voutly recognising the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations," and calling upon the people, " in this day of trouble, by the assur- ance of His Word, to seek Him for succor, according to His ap- pointed way, through Jesus Christ." Have we one faith or religion for times of trouble, and another or none for times of peace 1 The Christian religion is recognised in our courts of justice, in the army and navy, and on the statutes of our Legis- latures. In several States it has been declared to be the com- mon law. A decision of the court in New York says of Christi- anity : " It is, in fact, the religion of the people and ever has been, and has been so recognised from the first by Constitu- tional Conventions, Legislatures, and courts of justice." A re- cent decision of the same State is of the same character. Judge Story, speaking of the Constitution, and the reason why Christi- anity has no more formal and legal place in it, says : " An at- tempt to level all religions, and make it a matter of State policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created uni- versal disapprobation." Yet, in the face of facts like these, which might be multiplied ad libitum, it is proposed that our nation suddenly change its policy — a policy which has made it what it is, given it its prestige, prosperity, and power — and as- sume an attitude of avowed indifference to Christianity, and virtual opposition to the Bible. A change so radical in character, so far-reaching in results, if affecting merely civil and political interests, would never be made by wise statesmen, except the gravest and most certain peril demanded it. How much more should we pause and ponder when the proposed change reaches to the very foundations of the Government, affects the most vital interests of the national well-being, morality, and religion i .^1 140 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Ik It is a serious matter for a nation to depart from the teachings of so wise and revered a man as Washington ; it is inexpres- sibly serious for it to set at naught the wisdom of God's Word, and array itself in hostility to that Being whose protection it has hitherto sought, and by whose favor it has risen to its lofty prominence among the nations of earth. Let it not be replied that the nation proposes no such sweeping departure. I reply, it is all involved in the proposition now so prominently before the country. . ANTAGONISM OF CHRISTIANITY AND THE STATE THE SEQUENCE OF THIS MOVEMENT. 3. And this leads me to the statement of another and more potent reason why I am opposed to expelling the Bible from our Public Schools, namely, because the reasons alleged, and the arguments adduced therefor, if followed to their legitimate sequences, will inevitably place this nation in direct antagonism to the Christian religion, and foster a spirit of atheism and in- fidelity fatally destructive to its highest interests. Understand me. I do not charge that this is the thought or purpose of any considerable number who advocatr this policy. I simply afiirm that it is the logical result, and will be the practical working of the system when carried out as proposed. As I have before stated, it is not the simple matter of the formal reading of a few passages from the Bible, though even that may have a far more potent influence on the youth of our land than is apparent at first thought. But the question, when reduced to its last anaJ^sis, which form it is rapidlv assuming, is this: Shall Ohristianity be aboUshed from our national life? Of course, by national life I do not mean the life of every man in the nation, but the nation as such in its national capacity. Shall it con- tinue, as in the past, to recognise Christianity as, in a general sense, the religion of the people, and, as heretofore, conform the national administration to the general spirit and requirements of Christianity ? or shall it cease all such recognition and con- formity, and become equally indifferent to all religions and no religion ? This, I repeat, is the real issue, which we must not suffer ourselves to lose sight of in the wordy strife about minor THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 141 issues, nor accept any mere denial of it. Let us, rather, care- fully and impartially examine for ourselves the positions and arguments of the advocates of ezpu&ion, and see whither they must lead the nation, and what must be their logical results. It is asserted that the State should assume the position of absolute separatism from all religion, and stand upon the plat- form of utter secularism, equally favorable or neutral to every form of religious faith or unfaith, and treating all with un- qualified impartiality. " Hands off " are the two expressive words which "summarize " the new policy that the State is urged to adopt toward all religions. And this theory has in it a semblance of equity and wisdom at first view. But let us see what it will lead to when applied to our nation in its present relations to Christianity. The State honestly accepting this doctrine must at once assume the aggressive in a direct attack upon Christian institutions, laws, and usages. It must begin this fearful work of demolition on its own structure ; tear up its own strong foundations, which were laid in sacrifices, toils, and tears, and cemented with blood ; pull down its own grand pillars of strength and beauty, which hav3 so long supported the national edifice ; go through the sacred national temple, so long revered, scourge in hand, to drive out, not those who de- file it by godlessness, extortion, corruption, and the whole vile brood of unchristian parasites, but to expel every fair and beautiful form that bears the legend " Christian " on its chaste brow ; every law transcribed from the higher code sent down to us from heaven ; every custom derived from God's Book, and garlanded with flowers of celestial beauty. Ah, what a mission is this on which to send the pure goddess of our loved Republic 1 Say not this is an unwarranted figure of speech, overstating the issue. Not so. Carry out the theory proposed, and the nation must cease to recognise Christianity any more than it does Mohammedanism or Buddhism. It must assume the role of propagandist of its new policy against Christianity. It must be equally just or indifferent toward all religions, repeal every law distinctively Christian from the statutes of the seve- ral States ; abolish all Sabbath laws, and all national and legislative observance of the Sabbath ; take the Bible from every court of justice and State institution; drive every chap- BSs. II* 142 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. lain from the national Congress, legislative halls, the army and naAry ; and cease all prayer to a God in whom some of its sub- jects do not believe, and from whom the nation has proposed to itself absolute separation. The President and several Governors of the States must write no more proclamations re- cognising God ; appoint no more fast days or thanksgivings ; and if, as not many years agone, national calamity should again befall us, and the black cloud of war cast its awful shadow over our fair land, and our noble sons fall by thousands into bloody graves, there must be no more invoking the " God of our fathers ; " for times have changed, and we have made " progress " and torn off the shackles of " tyrannous customs," and Jehovah is no longer the nation's God ; but a universal nothingness has been set on His throne, and the people must make their moan and shed their tears and bury their slaughtered dead, with no national appeal to the " God of Battles " to stay the scourge and save the imperilled nation. This doctrine of State neutrality and utter separation from the Church is delusive. In our wholesome zeal against the formal legal union of Church and State, we are in danger of swinging over to a rash and untenable extreme. It IS claimed that the Bible itself teaches this doctrine — that Christianity, being a spiritual religion, must win its way en- tirely by spiritual forces. A half truth misapplied to the ques- tion at issue. If it means anything in this connection, it means that the State is to have nothing to do with religion, and religion is to have nothing to do with the State. The Church has an imperative command to propagate the Gospel. How, if not by aid of civU authority 1 Her mission- aries stand before the turreted walls of China or Japan with their closed and guarded gates. How shall they gair ingress with God's Book and message of salvation, except through treaty stipulation by the government of which they are sub- jects t But this is virtually in violation of the doctrine of non- interference and neutrality on the part of the State, and non- reliance on government aid on the part of the Church. As a matter of fact the State does, and must, maintain a somewhat intimate connection with the Church. No Church organization is formed but the State regulates the appointment of its trustees and the tenure of its property. There is a wide THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 143 diflPerence between enforcing religion and recognising it. The one it may not do ; the other it may and must. But the argu- ment, by which it is sought to strengthen the demand for ex- pelling the Bible, claims that the State shall not recognise the Christian religion because, forsooth, it can not equally recog- nise any and every religion which a few of its subjects may choose to adopt. The principle being a false one, either wholly impracticable or wholly destructive of Christianity in the national life, the argument becomes invalid, and the Bible should remain in its stronghold unaffected by the false and faulty reasoning. .^ , WHAT THE CONSCIENCE ARGUMENT AMOUNTS TO. Equally false in principle and impracticable in application is the argument for expelling the Bible from our schools because its reading is said to be offensive to the consciences of some parties. Here, again, we have a seeming truth overlying a fatal error. The theory that the Government must accommodate its laws and administration to the consciences of its several subjects is untenable and sub- versive of the very ends of government. What kind of a gov- ernment would that be that was adjusted to the universal con- science of its subjects ) What laws could it make and enforce 1 A law against polygamy would be very offensive to the con- sciences of the Utah saints. Shall this disgraceful blot upon our civilization thus be encouraged by the nation, and no legal barrier raised against its spread, out of respect to the consciences of its adherents 1 Such must be the attitude of the Govern- ment, if the conscience argument is valid. So, many consciences are offended by a law inflicting capital punishment for murder. Must the nation prohibit the enactment of such laws, or the State respect the consciences of such so as to repeal existing laws for their accommodation 1 The conscience of the Com- munist is offended by the rich man's hoarded capital, while the poor man lacks for bread, and so he demands laws of equal- ization. Nay, there are multiplied thousands of poor men in this country who are grievously offended at the supposed in- equality which exists between capital and labor — the rich and the poor — and the clamor for what is called justice and equality 144 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. is becoming more and more serious. Shall the Government undertake to accommodate itself to every man's conscience in regard to this vital subject, pass agrarian laws, and establish a community of goods 1 Will that portion of the press, which is so zealous in advocating this universal conscience argument, carry it forward in its application to these and similar ques- tions ) The Chinese conscience u opposed to telegraph lines. They have a religious superstition respecting them, and believe them the source of incalculable spiritual evil, so that a telegraph wire will not be tolerated in China. Ought not our Govern- ment to respect the consciences of these honest, hard-working subjects, and forbid the erection of telegraph lines 1 nay, de- molish those already established t Do you smile and say, if the Chinese don't like our telegraphs let them return to China, whence they came, and not expect us to conform our laws and usages to their beliefs ) Ah, well, that would seem to be a very fair way of putting the case ; but let that same argument be applied to those who oppose the Bible in the schools and the observance of the Sabbath, and other usages of our Christian civilization, and the cry of bigotry, sectarianism, and persecu- tion is raised. That, certainly, is a poor principle which can not be equally applied to questions of similar character. There is yet another and quite numerous class of our people — not the latest comers of our free land, but among the earliest and wor- thiest of the nation's subjects — whose consciences are offended by the practice of war. Is it the policy of the Government not to conflict Mrith the conscientious and religious belief of these, its excellent Quaker subjects t Where would our nation have been to-day had such been its policy? A broken, ruined, buried republic. Does any one reply, " The State does not force them to bear arms 1 " Neither does it enforce, or pro- pose to enforce, the actual reading of the Bible upon any one conscientiously opposed to it. The parity of reasoning is this : The State does not abandon its war policy — abolish its army and navy — because of the Quaker's conscience, and it taxes him for the expenses of a war waged for the national good. Pre- cisely this has been its policy in regard to the Bible in the pub- lic schools, and the taxation of all its subjects, irrespective of religious beliefs, for the common good. The fact is, that this entire conscience argument fails and falls the mo- i 1 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 145 de- ment it is subjected to logical and practical tests. The State, in order to its own safety and perpetuity, must rise, not merely above the prejudices and superstitioos of many of its subjects, but above their varying individual consciences as well. In 'other words, there must be a national policy, based upon a national conscience, to secure national prosperity. Yet this weak and utterly indefensible argument is the chief and strongest one employed in the campaign against the Bible in our schools. Can you or I accept as valid a reason which we see to be so absolutely shallow and groundless '{ THE LEGAL POSITION EXAMINED, Let us look at the reason alleged for expelling the Bible from the public school on the principle that it is unjust to tax the Catholics, and others, for the support of a system in Awhich there is anything conflicting with their consciences. This is the ground taken by distinguished authority, when the ques- tion was directly before you in the courts in this State. It was affirmed that the Catholics were " punished, every year, for be- lieving as they do, to the extent of two hundred thousand dol- lars, and to that extent those of us who send our children to these excellent common schools become beneficiaries of the Catholic money." This is held up in the light of injustice, if not absolute dishonesty. The principle, then, is clearly an- nounced that the State ought not to impose a tax upon any of its subjects for the maintenance of that which offends their consciences. I have already shown how this principle applies to the Quakers and their anti-war belief, and how the Government does not, and can not, change its policy for them. I will now go one step further, and show how the application of this prin- ciple will inevitably destroy our entire common school system itself; for these very Catholics, to whom this concession has been made in Cincinatti, chiefly for the very reason alleged above, are just as conscientiously opposed to the common schools themselves, without the Bible. Nay, that is the chief object of Catholic opposition — the so-called godless education of their children in secular common schools. To quote Catholic authorities on this point weru almost to insult J 146 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ■''?,< 4 your intelligence. The Pope declares such education outside of the Church to be a " damnable heresy." Archbishop Pur- cell affirms : " We, as Catholics, can not approve that system of education fot youth which is apart from instruction in the Catholic faith and the teaching of the Church," and charges his clergy to admit no boy or girl to " first communion who will not have attended a Catholic school for two years before," etc. This is the position taken by their chief clergy, and leading official Church organs. A true Catholic would prefer our ver- sion of the Scriptures in the school to an absolutely secular and godless education. Now the argument used so eflFectively in favor of removing the Bible, because is was unjust to impose a tax upon the Catholics against their conscience, applies with equal, and even greater force to the public school itself ; and when applied, as it is now clamorously demanded, and will be pressed with the indomit?>le zeal which characterizes that Church, the irresistible logic d the application is this — either we must remove the school tax from the Catholics, and all other persons who feel their consciences oppressed, or divide the school fund with them and all other denominations demanding it. In either case the common school system goes down in completest and most hopeless ruin. For Jew, German, Infidel, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Quaker have an equal fight to re- lief from taxation or division of money with the Catholic. . Strange that acute minds in using this argument of unjust taxation could not see that they used a two-edged sword which in the hands of those for whose defence it was drawn would smite the cherished common school to the very death. Thus is it ever with unguarded concessions to unreasonable though popular demands. The concessions quell the clamor for a moment, only to give it new strength, and new weapons of warfare more destructive and fatal. What was gained by the concession made in Oincinatti by expelling the Holy Book of God from the schools 1 Were the Catholics better pleased or satisfied 1 A teacher in one of the city schools informed me that in one month, a year and a half ago, over two hundred Catholic children were removed from his school. The priest had been through his district, and demanded that Catholic parents should withdraw their children from the Public Schools, though there was no offensive Bible-reading in the schools at THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 147 that time. True, many of these have since returned, because priestly vigilance can hardly prevent all Catholic youth from improving the superior advantages offered in our excellent school system. Again, I ask, shall we accept arguments for the expulsion of the Bible, which cany with them such fatal logical results 1 - i THE RESULT OF ANTI-BIBLE LAWS ON THE SCHOOLS. Prohibit the Bible in the Common Schools because of its religious teachings, and you adopt a principle which, carried to its logical and practical results, will entirely revolutionize our present text-books and methods of teaching, produce endless discord in our Public Schools, and render their continuance an impossibility. It is not the bound volume called the Bible to which objection is made. It is the teachings of the Bible in whatever form presented. A manual of devotional and moral excerpts from the inspired volume would be as objectionable. Any book that in any way incul- cates the Christian religion must and will come under the ban of this proscribing principle. And if there be truth or force in the principle, it ought to be rigorously and universally applied. Every reader, every text-book of history, physiology, astronomy, or any other study, that has in it any extracts from God's Word, any Christian teaching, any allusion to God, indeed, as the Supreme Being, is an oflFensive form of religious teaching, and must be prohibited, or some one's conscience is offended. What a wholesale process of expurgation in our text-books is thus demanded by the inevitable logic of our new and much- vaunted principles of no religious teaching in the Public Schools ! How easy it is to use words without considering their mean- ing ; to advocate and inaugurate measures without reflecting upon their results ! The very imprint in the text-books of our schools is itself a most decided and emphatic teaching of a " re- ligious tenet " — A.D. ; what is it but the most potent and triumphant argument for the Christian religion, flaunted most offensively in the face of every pupil, be he from atheist, Jew, or pagan household 1 The practical result of this style of argument is already be- ing reaUzed, and is full of evil portent. ' iMillllMilliiiiiiaiiii 148 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. A certain school board passed a resolution that "no religious, pagan or atheistic tenets" should be taught in the schools under their control. A Chinese boy was overheard by the teacher using the most horrible oaths. The teacher kindly reprimanded him, and two days afterwards received a note from one of the School Board, reprimanding her for her laud- able efforts to correct the boy's fearful profanity, the note clos- ing thus : " You must see that this is entirely inconsistent with the recent resolution of the fioard, prohibiting you from teaching religious, pagan, or atheistic tenets. If your course is persisted in, I shall be compelled to bring the matter to the attention of the Board." The teacher sends the statement of facts and the letter to the editor of a religious paper, and asks what she shall do. Yes, that is the question which will soon be asked by thousands of teachers all over the country, and by thousands of parents, too, who do not care to have their chil- dren educated in a school where profanity must not be mildly corrected, and the name of Qod cannot be reverently uttered. i BIBLE-LOVING PEOPLE ALSO HAVE CONSCIENCES. There are other people than Catholics and Atheists who have consciences, and who would prefer to have their chi^,dren educated with well instructed consciences ; and if the Public School is to become such a hot-bed of infidelity and vice as is here but dimly foreshadowed, these will also let their voice be heard, and, if in vain, the Public School will be abandoned to totter into quick decay, as it ought when robbed of its fairest and worthiest features. Teachers in Cincinatti have been subjected to most unjust persecution for illustrating the evidence of benevolent design in the human system, in classes studying physiology. The Supreme God is already proscribed from some of the schools, and the fearful process of atheizing our youth will go on, un- less we resist it with a unanimity and energy not yet manifested. THE TRUE POLICY. 4. What, then, is the one only course of wisdom and of safety 1 This, surely : Let the Bible be an unprescribed text- m THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 149 book in our Public Schools, with its priceless teachings and its silent yet potent influence ; and if any are conscientiously op- posed to reading it let them be excused. But, for the sake of the nation and the schools and youth of our country, lay no rude hand of prohibition on God's Holy Word. No expul- sion, no compulsion, is the true policy. The plea that the Bible is a sectarian book is utterly unfounded. How any Protestant can accept such a charge is inexplicable. The admission is fatal to its claims of Divine authority and univer- sal acceptance. Such admission puts it on a level with the Koran, and other so-called sacred books. It is a message from the universal God to universal man. The fact that all men have not yet accepted it as such, changes not its character, abates nothing from its claims or authority. On no other theory can it be urged on all men every where. I am amazed that a believer in the divinely-inspired volume should admit it to be a sectarian book. The diflFerence between the Douay version and that in common use is but slight, not fundamental. No, it is Jehovah's own Book, who is no sectarist, but the all- Creator, all-Father, the eternal and sovereign God of the uni- verse. Let the nation also maintain its past and present Christian status, to abandon which would be at infinite peril. No in- justice is thus done to any man, because all its subjects came under our national cegis when it bore the Christian sign. The partnership argument, to the effect that every latest comer is a member of the national firm, on equal footing with all the others, and because voluntarily seeking the protection of our Government, and paying a meagre tax for priceless privileges enjoyed, he is therefore entitled to full power and liberty to change our entire national structure, will hardly stand the test of close scrutiny. It should not bo forgotten that some things were established before the new partners were admitted, and they came with full knowledge of our national character and institutions. Yes, let them come, one and all, from every land into the partnership of liberty's grand heritage, if they will — but come to enjoy and not destroy, the costly boon. Shall not these be the changeless conditions on which all shall 5 ri*' 160 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. come and all remain : the Bible in the Public Schools intact — the nation's text-book, and the nation's chart and charter, with the national historic Christian faith inviolate and perpetual 1 2. The Bible and Temperance.* Miss Frances E. Willard, of Chicago, gave one of those elo- quent, thoughtful and impassioned addresses which she so well knows how to deliver. She told how her heart had been aroused when the women went crusading two years ago ; how she threw aside her books and found the salvation of human souls more precious than literature and art. She claimed of voters protection for our homes, our women and children, and the institutions of our native land from the rum-demon ; of the odds against us in a cause where there are twelve grog-shops for one church, twelve barkeepers for one minister. She spoke of the happiness of engaging in the work, and of the beauty of the term " lady," not only as a giver of bread, its old Saxon meaning, but also as the giver of the bread of life. She said : " If it is good to work as a sculptor in the plastic clay and chiseled marble, it is better to mould the hearts of humanity ; if it is well to paint with the brush of the artist, it is better to restore the image of God in faces which have lost it. If it is good to study the architecture of the mediaeval world, it is bet- ter to teach about the great Temple of which men are the liv- ing stones ; if it is sweet to study the laws of musical tones, it is better to evoke the music of the heart's -^olian harp. And I am happier to remember day by day that Jack, the sailor on Lake Michigan, is praying for me than if I stood in the fore- most rank of what all the world call rich and noble." Miss Willard then told of the last charge of her only sister — whose life and death she has embodied in her little volume entitled " Nineteen Beautiful Years ; " which she delivered to her audience. *' I want you to tell every one to be good." * We arc unable t<> (five the addresses on Temperance In the direct ^rm in which we have put the other points. Charles M. Morton, pastor of Plymotmi Bethel, spoke powerfully on " The Need of Christian Teinperanco Work," from the htan(li)oint of his own experience. Rev. S. L. Uracey elo<|uently described the Christian Ucfurm Club movomont of New En^^laud. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 151 3. The Bible and Universal Brotherhood.* We desire to mention in this connection the Foreign Sun- day School Association of which Mr. Albert Woodruflf, of New York, is President, whose work is to establish Sunday Schools on the continent of Europe, where until recently they were un- known, being introduced by Mr. Woodruflf himself. The work is one of the noblest and wisest of missionary agencies, and ought to receive from the Sunday Schools of Canada and the United States, a generous financial support. As we reach the children of Europe, we shape its future, and in no way can the rationalism and superstition of those old Kingdoms be more surely counteracted than by the planting of these Christian " Childrens' Services" as they are called. — W. F. C. ARISE AND SHINE. MART A. LATHBURY P. P. BLISS. Lift up, lift up thy 2. Yet who, re - nowned in voice with Bing - ing, Dear state or sto - ry, Shall (f- mt^ land, with strength lift up . . . thy voice ! The king - doms of U^.e en - ter wliile the King . . host waits? What star at • trivet thoo ^^ 4*: • ^ > Psa. cxxKiii, j* """" * * ""' - " ^\ 152 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. earth are bring-ing Their treas - ures to thy gates— re - joice ! when Hia glo - ry Shines through the half uu - told - ed gates? CHORUS. Arise and shine in youth im-mor-tal. Thy light is come, thy King appears ! Be- ;i!§ ^\ ^^ ^^ yond the Cent-ury's swing-ing portal, Breaks a new dawn — the thous-and yeara I ^\ ^ ^ 8. Through wave and wiMemesa He sought thee, For thou wast precious in His sieht ; Shone on thy night of blood, and brought thee Through pain and peril to the light. Arise and shine, &c. 4. And shall His flock with strife be riven ? Shall envious lines His church divide, When He, the Lord of earth and heaven. Stands at the door to claim His bride ? Arise and shine, &c. , Lift up the (rates ! bring forth oblations ! One crowned with crowns a message brings. His word a sword to smite the nations ; His name — the Christ, the King of kings. Arise and shine, &o. 6. He comes ! Let all the earth adore Him ; The path His human nature trod Spreads to a royal realm before Him, The LiFK of life, the Word of GOD ! Arise and shine, &o. Copyrighted, 1876, by John Chuboh & Co. Also publiHhed in Sheet Music form by JOHN- CHTTItCIi r §iiblinlh School and Chnrcb Music Books, CINCINNATI, OHIO. oice ! teal Be- m ^ ■ * ] ■ : i t.f ear» I K.. ions! asage ms; ings. I, &o. lim; > &c. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 153 APPENDIX. SUNDAY SCHOOL PARLIAMENT. Held at Thousand Island Park, July Uth-2m, 1876. BY 'EBV. JESSE LYMAN HUELBUT. There will soon be need, if there is not already, of a new edition of Webster's Dictionary, to define the new terms of Sunday-school science, and inform the inquiring mind the pre- cise difference between a " Convention," an " Institute," an "Assembly," a "Congress," and a "Parliament." As your correspondent had been present at all these varieties of Sunday- school meeting except the latter, it seemed best to complete the chain by a personal inspection of this also, the latest develop- ment, especially as it appears likely to be, for a time at least, and perhaps for a lifetime, his only opportunity to be a genuine M. P. So, one warm afternoon, we packed our valise, shook off for a season the dust of Plainfield, that favored Sunday-school cen- tre, where Vincent dwells occasionally, and Lowry tunes his lyre, where the most illiterate can repeat the names of the Israelite judges, and where the katydids murmur alliterative outlines and robins pipe out " nauseous acrostics." We stepped on board the " St. John," not at all puffed up with the consciousness that while all the rest of the crowd were going to the College regatta, we were going to Farlianuuit. Wc steamed Fn" "^ 154 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. f ri up the lordly Hudson — yes, steamed is the word, for it was a night of perspiration in an inside state-room — then followed a dusty day on the railroad, from Albany through Utica, Kome and other cities of ancient fame, to Cape Vincent, where the eyes gazed out upon Lake Ontario on one side, and the broad bosom of the St. Lawrence River upon the other. A steamer was awaiting us, upon whose upper deck we enjoyed the cool breeze and the varied scenery. It was a voyage of two hours down the river, long to be remembered for the splendor of the setting sun, and the loveliness of a changing landscape. The boat wound its tortuous way among the Thousand Islands, some of them large enough for a city, others " no bigger than a bab3r's head," as one of the voyagers observed. There were islets carpeted with green and shaded by trees, and rocks which jutted out bare and barren from the blue waters ; here and there one occupied by a solitary summer cottage, or a little en- campment of tents; but for the most part desolate and un- inhabited. At half past seven, just as the grey of twilight was closing around, we saw the white tents and evening lamps gleaming amid the foliage, and knew that we were nearing Wells', or Wellesley Island, as it is variously termed, the seat of the Thousand Islands Park, where is held the Sunday School Parliament. Thi» is one of the largest of the islands in the group, being several miles in length, and in some places a mile wide. There is a rocky wall around it, forming a bluff from ten to a hundred feet high. On this foundation lies a grassy plateau, gradually rising from the wharf inland, so that from almost every point of the encampment the water can be seen. There are clumps of trees, of natural growth, dotting the green sward picturesquely, and supplying abundant shade, where it is ever refreshingly cool. While New Yorkers were sweltering at one hundred degrees, and Ph.iladelphians were broiling at one hundred and five degrees, we Members of Parliament were sitting in comfort at eighty five degrees. Here, a Camp Meeting Association, of which Chancellor Haven, of 'Syracuse University, is president, has purchased a thousand acres, and laid out a summer resort of the religio- real-estate quality, and on the plan of magnificent distances. As yet, the camp is in its infancy, but if it survives the present THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 155 , financial crisis (about which its friends feel no anxiety), it is destined to rival Martha's Vineyard and Ocean Grove, for it has great natural attractions, and is under wise business manage- ment. We disembark, and walk up an avenue toward the centre of the Park. On the left is the trustees' office — on the right a building whose size gives promise of quantity, if not of quality, in provisions. It is the dining-hall and its fare is, on the whole, rather better than at the average camp-meeting. Near by stands Wesley Hall, where Conductor (perhaps we ought to say Speaker) Crafts reigns, and his guests are domiciled. The rooms are comfortable — for a watering place — though the mat- trasses are not of spring, nor the pillows of down, but both of straw. We walk further up the hill and find the Parliament already in its first session — not under the gothic arches of St. Stephen's, but beneath the ample folds of a huge tent, over which wave peacefully side by side the cross of St. George and the starry banner of the Republic. The audience upon the benches (this parliamentary expression fits admirably) is not large, but select. Mr. Speaker Crafts is in the chair, and beside him the Lord Chancellor, not on the woolsack, but on a camp stool. There were speeches of greeting , not only from both sides of the St. Lawrence, but also from both shores of the Atlantic, and from representatives of Sunday-school cause in its various aspects. Mr. John E. Searles, Jr., of New Haven, from the Executive Committee of the International Convention, gave a short and spicy address. Miss M. E. Winslow, (who is not un- known to the readers of the Times) spoke about the Foreign Sunday-school with womanly grace and soulful earnestness. Miss Nellie Brown, of Haverhill, N. H., sang several songs, in a rich voice of remarkable power. Then, at the close, a little blind boy of ten years, Charlie Hays, stood up and sang " I love to work for Jesus," in such sweet, sad tones, as brought moisture to many eyes, and the Parliament was duly opened. Next morning, Wednesday, July 19, the working sessions began in good earnest. Were we to give such a report as the merit of the exercises deserved, an extra number of the Times would be needed, for there was a solid week's pro- gramme, of which every portion was carried out, and to which some impromptu additions were made. The plan of working 156 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. was to give a distinct theme to each day, and thus secure at once method and variety. Thus there was a "Teachers' Day," in which we learned how to study a lesson, and how to teach it ; why and how the teacher should study, not alone the text-book, but his class ; how to employ the blackboard, and how not to use it. Next came a " Day of Hard Questions," of which the best feature was a general talk (some literary folks call it a conversazione) on " How to manage unruly boys," in which M. 0. Hazard, of The National Sunday School Teacher, and Charles M. Morton, of Plymouth Bethel, led off with admirable short speeches, in which the principal suggestion about unruly boys seemed to be an infinite patience with them. Friday was devoted to "Childhood." Dr. Latimer, of the Boston Methodist Episcopal School of Theology, delivered an able and scholarly address on the Conversion of Children, and Dr. Richard Newton, of Philadelphia, preached one of his in- imitable children's sermons; and there were other speeches, equally valuable, Drs. Castle and Munro, of Canada, besides a lecture by Mr. Crafts. Nor may we omit to mention the Primary Teachers' meeting, with its suggestive talks by Mrs. Crafts and Miss Jennie B. Merrill, of New York. Saturday was allotted to " Sunday School Machinery," with the use of printing press, etc. Sunday was occupied by a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Newton, a Model Sunday School, a"nd in the evening a Temperance Meeting, in which Miss Frances E. Willard spoke with all her accustomed power. Monday, the 24th, had for its theme, " Spiritual Work." Tuesday and Wednesday following, were spent as " Bible Days," with the closing exer- cises of the meeting. We have not mentioned half of the good things, nor of the prominent men who were present. The Rev. Messrs. F. H. Marling, H. M. Parsons, Lyman Abbott, the Rev. Dr. Payne, of Ohio, Wesleyan, and a host besides, were on the bill of fare. Mr. Crafts, though a young man to organize and conduct such a meeting, showed himself master of the occasion, and equal to every emergency, presiding with ease, and leading the discussions with ability. Mrs. Crafts spoke several times on the theme of " Primary classes, and how to conduct them," with complete understanding of her subject, in a ladylike, re- ili THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 157 "of m exer- fined manner, and to the equal pleasure and profit of all who heard her. There was an atmosphere of devotion and spirituality throughout the meeting. A service of song and prayer opened every day ; there were Bible-readings and religious exercises scattered all through the week ; and even the printed pro- gramme was embroidered with Scripture references. Mr. and Mrs. P. P. Bliss were both present during nearly all the exer- cises, and that is sufficient assurance that there was spiritual singing which warmed the heart and lifted up the soul. Let us not forget that Normal class work, the great feature of all our summer Sunday School assemblies, was not neglected. Your correspondent enjoyed the privilege of presenting the subject, both in theory and in practice ; and a number of first- class drills were held on various subjects connected with the Bible, and the methods of teaching it. The programme was so full as to leave little time remain- ing for those who undertook to "see it through." Yet it is said there were other attractions at Wells' Island beside those under the big tent. Several times we noticed little groups going off towards the shore in a way that was faintly sugges- tive of fishing. And no wonder, for the waters looked tempt- ing, and we saw strings of pickerel, which were enough to make anybody wish to drop a line down the depths. Indeed, unless our eyes deceived us, we beheld one breezy afternoon, the blue spectacles of our friend Hazard (and they are all that ever is blue about him), in a fishing-boat, and in close prox- imity to a trolling line. No torture shall wring out of our tongue the tale of how many pickerel and black bass were caught that day. Suffice it to observe, that if any of our readers shall go to the next summer's session of the Parliament, or the Reichstag, or the Cortes, or the Star Chamber, if either of these titles come into vogue by that time, they may still find some little fishes left to be caught in the St. Lawrence River. — From theSunday School Times. ^'^ >:mi-i^uAAA0r'^ 158 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. OFFTCisTis j^j^JD sx>s.a.^s:e^s OF IHB SUNDAY SCHOOL FAELIAMENT. Rev. W. H. CRAFTS, Conductor. Mrs. W. H. CRAFTS, Leader of Primary Department. P. P. BLISS, Leader of Music. Mrs. p. p. BLISS and Miss NELLIE BROWN, Musical Assistants. , , ; Rev. S. L. GRACEY and Rev. B. P. RAYMOND, Institute Secretaries. Rev. E. O. HAVEN. D.D., LL.D., President of the Association. Rev. J. F. DAYAN, Secretary, Watertown, N.Y. Bishop I. W. WUey, D.D., Boston. Rev. Richard H. Newton, D.D., Editor of Sunday ScJiool World, Philadelphia. Rev. J. E. Latimer, D.D., Dean of School of Theology, Boston University. James Hughes, Esq., Inspector of Schools, Toronto. Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D., Editor of Christian Weekly, New York, THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 159 M. C. Hazard, Esq., Editor of National Sunday School Teacher, Chicago. Eev. C. H. Payne, D,D., President of Ohio Wesleyan University. Eev. John Potts, D.D., Toronto. EeY. H. M. Parsons, D.D., Boston. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Brooklyn. B«v. John N. Castle, D.D., Toronto. Rev. F. H. Marlinj?, New York. Charles M. Morton, Plymouth Bethel, Brooklyn. Hon. Albert D. Shaw, U. S. Consul at Toronto. Rev. F. K. O'Meara, D.D., Port Hope, Canada. Rev. A. H. Munro, Toronto. . Rev. J. L. Hurlburt, Plainfield, N. J. A. O. Van Lennep, Esq., Smyrna, Syria. Miss Jennie B. Merrill, Normal Training College, New York. Professor C. H. Scoville. Oran, New York, Rev. Daniel Marvin, Jun. Miss Frances E. Willard, Cor. Sec. of Women's National Temperance Union, Chicago. Miss M. E. Winslow, Secretary of Foreign Sunday School Association, Brooklyn. J. E. Searles, Jun., Chairman of Executive Committee of International Sunday School Association. John Femie, Esq., Sunday School Secretary, of Isle of Wight, England. R. H. Gilmore, Esq., State Sunday School Secretary for Iowa. 160 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. SPECIAL MEETINGS AT THE PAELIAMENT. The Opening Exercises. The International Sunday School Parliament assembled on Tuesday afternoon, July 18th, and spent an hour in short ad- dresses on the social interests of the convention. Bev. Dr. E. O. Haven, President of the Thousand Island Camp Meeting As- sociation, J. E. Searles, of New England, chairman of the " Inter- national Sunday School Committee," Mr. and Mrs. Crafts of New Bedford, R. H. Gilmore, of Iowa, and others, participat- ing. A season of hand-shaking and acquaintance-making fol- lowed. In the evening a half-hour was spent in a Vesper Ser- vice of Scripture and Song, Miss Nellie Brown of Haverhill, Mass., leading the singing, after which the Hon. A. D. Shaw, U. S. Consul at Toronto, was introduced and gave an address, " Christian fraternity and welcome," which was responded to by Rev. A. H. Munro, for Canada; John Fernie, of the Isle of Wight, for Great Britain; Miss M. K Winslow, of the Foreign Sunday School Association, for the schools of Europe ; and A. 0. VanLennep for the churches of Asia. J. E. Searles made a short address on the importance of the Sunday School work and of its relation to the future of our country. Rev. Dr. Haven made an interesting and sprightly address as the last of the evening's exercises. The Sunday7,School of July 23rd. The first session of the Sunday School of the Thousand Is- land Parliament was held in the tabernacle on the camp ground at 1.30 A.M., Sunday, July 23rd. The session opened with singing " I Need Thee Every Hour," and a prayer by Superin- tendent Morton. After reading the Scripture lesson of the day on Responsibility, the school joined in singing the 79th hymn, " What shall the Harvest be." The roll was called as follows : THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 161 T. lied on lort ad- Dr. E. ing As- " Inter- rafts of 'ticipat- ing fol- )er Ser- iverhill, . Shaw, iddress, ed to by Isle of Foreign and A. made a ork and Haven i of the Pastor — Rev. Richard Newton, D.D., of Philadelphia, Pa. Superintendent — C. M. Morton, Plymouth Bethel, Brooklyn. Assistant Superintendents — Jas. Hughes, H. S. Chamber- lain. Chorister — P. P. Bliss. Secretary — Rev. S. L. Gracey. Treasurer — Daniel McLean. Primary Department — Superintendents — Mrs. S. J. Crafts, Mrs. J. B. Merrill. Teachers— Revs. B. P. Raymond, A. O. VanLennep, W. S. Hawkes, J. E. Latimer, D.D., F. H. Marling, A. H. Munro, D. J. Marvin, Mrs. W. C. Brewster, Mrs. P. P. Bliss, Revs. Chas. Miles, Wm. HaU, Clark, S. H. Starin, E. C. Curtis, F. Widmer, E. Barras. A half hour was spent in the study of the lesson of the day, 1 Kings, viii. 5-21, followed by singing, " Oh, think of a home over there." A review of the lesson was conducted by the pastor. Rev. Dr. Newton, and by Mrs. W. F. Crafts, with the Primary Class. Miss Jennie B. Merrill then explained to the Primary Class a Song, " The Wonderful House," and led them in sing- ing it. Secretary's report was made as follows : — Officers, 7 ; teachers, 17; scholars, 350; visitors, 72. Total, 446. Notices were given of the preaching service, and, after a few remarks by the Superintendent, the session was closed with benediction by the pastor. ^ ■rV) Van Lennep's Oriental Illustrations of the Bible. and Is- ?round 1 with iperin- heday hymn, Uo^ Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D., in a letter to 7%6 Christian Union, says of these instructive entertainments at the Sunday School Parliament : — Of the entremets in the programme we may certainly put first the oriental lectures of A. O. Van Lennep. By birth a Turk, by blood an American, by parentage and personal faith an ear- nest Christian, by temperament singularly broad-minded, his interpretations of oriental life and character are marvellous} both in interest and instructiveness. He has a wardrobe which ought to make his fortune, if oriental scenes were popular on K 162 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ■I the stage. He picks up volunteers, whom he trains with rare facility. Every afternoon he gives a new scene from oriental life — to-day, social customs ; to-morrow, an Eastern meal, with turbaned and loose-robed guests partaking of it ; the next day, the forms of worship, Turkish prayer, Turkish dervishes, the Turkish muezzin calling to prayers. Neither the sermon by Dr. Newton to the children nor the stereopticon pictures at- tracts or holds a greater or more interested throng than Mr. Van Lennep enacting oriental life and character. ' ii Closing Exercises. On Wednesday evening, July 26th, the closing exercises of the Sunday School Parliament occurred. Miss Nellie Brown, the talented soprano singer of Grace Church Choir, Haverhill, conducted the music and sang several sacred solos with fine eltect. Rev. D. Marvin read a brief address on the "The Past and Possible History of Sunday Schools." Rev. C. H. Payne, D.D., President of Ohio Wesleyan University, followed with an address on ** The Rewards of Christian Labor," characterized with the speaker's usual though tfulness, earnestness and eloquence. Rev. W. F. Crafts, the Conductor of all the exercises, said a few farewell words, which were followed by impromptu ad- dresses of thanks and appreciation for his work, fiom Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D., Rev. Wra. Hall, Rev. E. Barras and others, and a vote of thanks from the whole congregation. After the formal exercises had closed "Illustrations of the Bible with the Stereopticon" were given by Prof. C. H. Scoville, of Oran, N. Y., whose exhibitions in this line were exceedingly pleasing and profitable, and worthy of wide Christian patron- age. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 163 rare ieutal with day, I the )n by 3S at- Mr. Arrangement of Exescises. The exercises coDisist« d of addresses, music, and institute sessions on prominent topics of Sunday School work and Bible study. " Methods of Bible Study" and " Bible Readings" were the most prominent subjects. The eight days had each one general topic, and were known as follows : — " Fraternal Day," " Teachers' Day," " Day of Hard Questions," " Childhood Day," "Machinery Day," "Sunday," "Day of Spiritual Work," "Bible Day No. 1," "Bible Day No. 2." Each morning and evening had an " Institute Session," and the afternoon a " Popular Service for Old and Young." Board and Lodging. Board and lodgings in tents and cottages on the ground were inexpensive. ($1.50 for both board and lodgings per day.) Ministers and those giving all their time to Christian work, as Y. M. C. A. secretaries, twenty per cent. oflF. Hotels were also at hand in Alexandra Bay, Clayton, and Gananoque. Steam- boats connected with these points before recreation and after the exercises. There were abundant facilities for recreation in croquet, fishing, boating, and steamboat excursions. There was also "music on the river," or "fireworks" nearly every night after the exercises, and many other pleasant diversions. Rail Roads, &o. The nearest point to the island on the American side is Clay- ton, Jefferson Co., N. Y., which may be reached via Utica, Rome or Syracuse. On the Canada side, the nearest point is Gananoque, a station on the Grand Trunk R. R., and also of the Royal Mail Steamers, each of which gave half ^ates for the Parliament. The nearest point by Vermont Central R. R. is Ogdensburg, where steamers connect to Alexandra Bay, This road also gave half rates. 164 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Thousand Island Park as a Summer Resort. [Extracts from the PressJ] The Committee who have charge of this great gathering are to be congratulated on the scene of the gathering. The matcti less beauty of the Thousand Islands camp ground would alone attract many. — Toronto Evening Telegram. No better place could have been selected for such a meeting. The scenery of this glorious river ii unsurpassed. Those of your readers who have never seen the St. Lawrence with its islands, its clear, deep green waters, its bold rocky shores, its magnificent rapids, with many noble towns along its banks, should hasten to make the acqunintance. The attractions for pleasure are fishing, rowing, bathing, sai*- ing, rambling in the woods, making new acquaintances, which is easily done here, watching the boats on the river, etc. This is a place where one may take solid rest, or can have change or breaking up of stagnation, if he desires. If one comes once he will be quite sure to come again. — S. L G. The Camp Ground on this island is " beautiful for situation " beyoiid all comparison. If the writer is not mistaken, this place is to have a great growth. — G. W. H. The Christian Union in an Editorial on " Summer Camps," suggested by the Sunday School Parliament, says : — "Apart from their religious aspects, these campings of Chris- tian workers are to be cordially commended for social reasons. The recreations of Americans have been more and more running to luxuries both enervating and expensive. What with sum- mer hops, and carriage bills, and various incidentals, and board at $4.50 a day, the family at Long Branch, Newport or Saratoga have eaten up all the savings of the winter, and the lean kine have been no fatter for their meal. The clamor for expensive luxury in the town or city has not been stayed by expensive luxury in the pscudo country. * Plain country board ' is not easy to get ; and the problem, What shall we do this summer 1 is attacked every spring, not with new zeal, but with new anxiety. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 165 "The camp is at once a sign of, and an incentive to, something better. For six weeks yon live in an unpainted, unplastered cottage, or bjneatii canvas. You dispense with kids and silk dresses. Yon save carriage bills by walking, and substitute a moonlight row on lake or river for a midnight hop. You go to bed 8s soon after sunset as conversation lags, and rise with the birds. You actually see a sunrise or two. You pay $1.50 or $2 a day instead of $4:50, and make up for the absence of luxuries by the presence of an appetite. Or you keep house on both simpler and cheaper fare ; the berries that the children pick and the fish they catch are the staple articles of diet. At the same time, a butcher's tent is not far off, and the hotel will furnish you with a dinner when your own commissariat breaks down. And you are not only surprised to find how little you are really dependent for enjoyment on the luxuries of your ordinary life, but you return to enjoy them with the keener zeal for the temporary abstinence. " We commend camp life to our readers. We account it a good sign of growing simplicity in taste and life that an in- creasing number every year are going into camp for their sum- mer relaxation." Resolutions. ■f. On July 24th the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : — The undersigned Sunday School workers, representing various denominations and localities, having enjoyed for several days the privilege of .attending the " Sunday School Parlia- ment," on the Thousand Park, Wellesley Island, in the River St. Lawrence, desire to certify to those who may be invited to similar meetings hereafter : 1. That the Thousand Island region is a delightful sum- mer resort, offering to the seekers of rest and recreation beauti- ful scenery, pure and cool air, and clear water, at once secluded and accessible. mrnmr 166 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHCOL.. 2. That the location of this camp ground, consisting of 1,000 acres at the south-western extremity of one of the is- lands, is admirably chosen for the purpose. Its size ensures the amplest provision for all future wants, and protects it against intrusion. The large open, level space on the shore, and the higher, rocky ground further inland, give a pleasant diversity of outline, which have been skilfully made use of in laying out of the avenues and parks. We have seen nothing better suited to the proposed uses. 3. That the public and other buildings erected by the Asso- ciation are spacious and tasteful, and the management of the trustees is business-like and liberal. We must not withhold our testimony to the excellent quality of the table in the dining hall. 4. We would acknowledge the great pleasure we have had in co-operating with the conductor of the Parliament, Rev, W. F. Crafts, who has proved himself " the right man in che right place," thoroughly informed, versatile and courteous, and of a ready executive gift. In conclusion, we desire to express the hope that this Parlia- ment may be re-assembled next year. D. McLean, Toronto; Rev. James W. Stark, Illinois; Chas. M. Morton, Brooklyn ; P. P. Bliss, Chicago ; A. H. Munro, Toronto ; Richard Newton, Philadelphia ; James Hughes, Toronto ; F. H. Marling, New York ; I. S. Connor, Iowa ; James E. Latimer, Boston ; D. Graham, Montreal. ' Recreation. Rev. T yman Abbott, D.D., Editor of the Christian Wefkif, in Ru Editorial letter from fclio " Sundav School Parl\».a)v!a:," says :-- THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 167 ig of le is- |»sures jts it khore, [asant Jof in [thing " No truer recreation, in the real meaning of that much- : abused word can be found, than in a tent or a cottage in some such place as this. The cares of the body are reduced to a minimum. The changing weather is the only leader of fashion; there are no ceremonious visits ; the food is sure to be simple, and can be made appetizing. Here there is abundance of superior milk — only four cents a quart — vegetables and fruit in sufficient quantities, all the fresh meat you want, and fish fresh and fine to be had almost for the asking. " We are in the midst of nature, most beautiful when un- adorned. There is a dock where the river steamers land, and where, at any time, you can get a row-boat for a day's fishing or a party can get a steam yacht for an hour'o call. There is a dining-hall where you can get plain and simple fare, but good enough for plain livers, for $1 a day. There are half a dozen cottages scattered through the grounds ; in some one of these yon can get a room at 50 cents a day. Or you can rent or pur- chase a lot and put up a tent. And this is evidently the favorite way. These tents are scattered in every direction through the trees. " Croquet before the door ; the hammock by its side j the fishing poles leaning up against a neighboring tree, indicate the favorite occupations. " Well, I said to my companion as I came away, if I lived in New York, which happily I do not, I should be strongly tempted to buy a couple of lots with two hundred dollars, build the shell of a house with a thousand more, put up a tent or two for the older boys, and come to Thousand Island Park for my summer rest" 168 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. CHILDHOOD: The Text-Book of the Age ! A BOOK FOR PARENTS, TEACHERS, PASTORS, AND ALL LOVE'lS OF CHILDHOOD. i> REV. W. F. GRAFTS. Author of " Through the Eye to the Heart," " Trophies of Song, " Ideal Sunday School," etc. ^Sxno. Cloth.. Illiastrated. Prioe, $1.50. In addition to the theoretical portions of the book, parts of which have been received with favor as addresses in New York, Boston, Edinburgh, and other prominent places, and various conventions, there is a "CHILDHOOD'S DICTIONARY" Containing 96 striking definitions from the lips of little children. Also a "CABINET OF SPECIMENS" Of childhood's characteristic sayings and doings, arranged in scientific order, in "shelves" and "cases," including a choice collection of 360 SPECIMENS. Parents, teachers (both secular and religious); and all interest- ed in the intellectual or moral development of the young, will find this book a suggestive introduction to the science of Childhood, and all lovers of children will secure in the " Cabinet " by far the largest and choicest collection of children's words and deeds that has ever been published. The whole book includes 600 INCIDENTS OF CHILD-LIFE, which are the scientific data of the theories advanced. They will interest the young as well as adults. The book contains a chapter on the Kindergarten, by Mrs. W. F. Crafts. D: ' i STORS, Song, ivhich have i^dinburgh, ?Y" Also a S" L scientific )n of 360 1 interest- find this lovers of . choicest ublished. are the young as irten, by THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 169 The author has prepared a delightful book on child-nature, life and education ; and most clearly shows how little children are the teachers of their superiors in age. The work is charmingly written by one who knows the little folks, and who tells their stories with a fascinating interest for the young and the old. The veriest cynic would warm by its reading. The book will have a large sale, not only from the reputation of the author, but from the rich merits of his pages. — AWc England Journal of Education. The book will prove a delight to parents and to all interested in young people ; and for children themselves from its pages may be extracted a rare fund of amusement. We know of no work which covers quite so much gi'ound in treating of juvenile peculiarities, or accomplishes what is undertaken in its direction more acceptably. The humorous feature of the subject is made prominent throughout. It is beautifully printed upon tinted paper. — Boston Gazette. We hail this book for the very reason that it is a contribution to our understanding of the divine significance of a child. We are glad to notice, also, that Mrs. Crofts has given a chapter on the Kindergarten, which adds to ihe value of the book. — Sunday School Times. A page of the anecdotes here reproduced, taken regularly three times a day, would cure an obstinate fit of dispepsia, — Interior ( Chicago ). In each line it is very wise and instructive. — Christian Intelligencer. It is full of bright and witty sayings of the little folks, and is very entertaining. — Central Christian Advocate. We have been veiy much gratified with the views put forth in this production on the great subject of Christian nurture, the conversion of children, and their early connection with the church. We think them sound and pertinent, and well grounded in experience. — Christian at Work. This work is an encyclopsedla of all that is bright and beau> tiftll in childhood. — Bufflilo Evening Post. It will be a serviceable handbook to all who have to do with the young. — National Baptist. It shows close observition, a deep insight into the child-nature, a care in collating facts referring to the child-life, and a philosophy of child - treatment, nurture, and education, born out of a loving heart. The author, though a clergyman, is a wit, and his volume is well spiced throughout. — Providence Press. It is written in a vivid, stirring style, characteristic of the author, and is a book that we can commend to all ages, but especially to the lovers of children. — Morning Star. Altogether Mr. Crafts' book is one of the best of its kind ever published in this country. — Hartford Post. The author and his wife have contributed to literature, in this volume, something which can hardly be praised too highly, and which must find a place in many households. — Boston Traveler. 10r Sent post-paid, on receipt of price ■"<»« Lee and Shepard, 41 Franklin Street, Boston, Publishers. For sale by ADAM MILLER & CO., TORONTO. L - . '* . :■ „H I i"PPi»TT?"^*^W ^MHIiHMMm ! I 170 THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOJ. Gospel Songs for Sunday Schools and Prayer Meetings. BY P. P. BLISS. Published by JOHN CHURCH & CO., CINCINNATTT. 35 Cents each. Opea Letteii te Frlmaij Tiasheii, WITH Helpful Hints for Intermediate Teachers. BY MRS. W. F. CRAFTS. I'ul.lishecl by NELSON & PHILIPS, NEW YORK. Price, $r.oo SONGS FOR LITTLE FOLKS IN THE HOME AND SCHOOL. , ' ' - - M' MRS. W. F. CRAFTS and MISS JENNY B. MERRILL. Published by BRIGELOW & MAIN, NEW YORK. 30 cents in boards. THE LESSON COMPEND., A COLLECTION OF THE BEST THINGS IN THE COMMEN- TARIES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSONS OF EACH YEAR. BY REV. J. L. HURLBUT. Published each year by NELSON i^ PHILLIPS, N. Y. ■ Price, 50 cents. THE BIBLE AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 171 REGENT BOOKS BT SPEAKERS AT THE S. S. PARLIAMENT. For Sale by Adam Miller &. Co., Toronto. tfW Sent by Mail on receipt of price "S^i Sights and Insights, or Knowledge by TRAVEL. By Rev. H. \V. Warren, D.D. Published by Nelson & Phillips, New York. $1.00. By Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D, Published by E. L. Banies k C., New York. $1.50. Through the Eve to the Heart; or, Illustrative TEACHING. By Rev. W. F. Crafts. Published by Nelson & Phillips, N. Y. iftl.OO (new edition.) Trophies of Song, or Articles and Incidents in Regard to Sacred Music. By Rev. W. F. Crafts. Published by D. Lothrop, Boston. $1.25. Ideal Sunday School. By Rev. W. F. Crafts. Published by Henry Hoyt, Boston. 30 cts. SERMONS TO OHILDREN. By Rev. Richard Newton, D.D. Published by Carter Brothers, NY. ^j'l.OO per vol. (12 vols.V