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Mapa, plataa. charts, ate. may ba fllmad at diffarant reduction ratioa. Thoaa too larga to ba antiraiy inciudad in ona axpoaura ara fiimad beginning in tha upper left hand comer, left to right and top to bottom, aa many framea aa required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Lea cartea, pianchea, tableaux, etc.. pauvent Atre filmte A dee taux de rMuction diff^ents. Lorsque le document eet trop grand pour 4tre reproduit en un seul clichi. il est film* A partir de I'angle sup4rieur gauche, de gauche A droite. et do haut 90 baa, en prenant la nombre d'Imagea nicaesaire. Lee diagrammes suivants iliuatrent la m^thoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 S 6 tmf^^^ /^ THE SUNDAY ■y:'-'.' :^',^'"';^^-^^^^ ITS PLACE AND POAVER IN THE OHRIStM CHURCH, A SE RMON piip:achp:d at chkist church cathedral, '■■'» MONTREAL, OCTOBER 10th, 1^75, :5*"&,- BY THE RECTOR. -V- •#' -,«''>v ^.-rv-^/V Vv^J" -^ i MONTREAL: ^^ DAWSON BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. 18TG. " : .- J? r^' ■ ■ 'X-, ■^M \.> "i^l^i. , .^f^^^^^y ^m- ^:^li*- r ~^% ■ N .^>^.^v^'^.', "^' .rV r ■, ^ ^ ;l:^^t^,;^!^^ff>:^>^; (• .;<■ t ■--»<■-; ^ ■*(•. . ^ ,■(,..- ?■'.'•<■)•-: ■■■■■' .' v-c; . ■j?. -r" x/- %*-';. » . . V^.^ .v. .-, ,■■,.. 4 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL ITS i*LAOK AND POWER IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH A SE RMON , ■■- m PREACHED AT CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL MONTREAL, OCTOBER lOxn, 1875, BY THE RECTOR. MONTREAL . DA.WSON BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS 1876. I PUEKACE. I The lollowiuo- Sermon has been published at the <»arnest request of the (XRcers and Teachers of Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School. It is sent by them to the heads of lamilies in the Congreiration, in the hope of awakinj? a deej^er interest in the work now going on in the School. The hour of assemblhiu; the School has been chanc^ed of late to 3 o'clock, in order to suit the convenience of those livinu' at a distance. The classes are so i^raded that young people of every age are provided with suit- able instruction, from the infant class, (where children who can scarcely talk plainly, are taught by means of pictures and singing,) to the adult Bible classes, under the immediate personal care of the Rector and Mrs. Baldwin. Besides the regular Bible lesson (which is studied by all the pupils who can read), the Catechism is gone completely through twice in the year by all the inter- mediate classes in methods suited to their respective ages. Jn some of the younger classes, collects and verses are learned by heart, i)ut the aim of the School is not to burden the children with lessons to be learned by rote in addition lo their week- lay tasks, but to ex- plain in an intelligent and attractive manner each prin- ciple of religion as it comt's up in the course of the ap- pointed lessons I SERMON. Htr sailli unto liim the third time, vSimon, son of Jonas, lovei( thou nic? Peter was tjrieved l)ecaiise He said unto him tlie third time, Lovest thou me? and he said unto Him, Ix>rd, Thou knowesl all thinfjs ; Thou knowest that I love thee, (esus saith unto him, Feed my shce]). — John xxi. 17, Flavel says : " Two things a master commits to his servant's care : his child, and his child's clothes. When the master returns, it is a poor account for the servant to give him: Sir, here are thy child's clothes, but thy child through negligence I have lost." Now I desire all parents here present distinctly to understand that God has imposed on them two most solemn duties as regards their children : Firat : They are bound to see that their children are educated in the principles of the Word of God. And, Second : To do all in their power for the develop- ment of their physical and intellectual energies. As a general rule, the second of these duties is honor- ably and minutely discharged ; while the Jirst is too frequently partially, if not wholly, neglected. The natural results follow: ships, freighted with the costliest of cargoes, and guided by youths utterly unacquainted with the art of navigation, are allowed to drift out on the bosom of a treacherous sea, where the same giant tempests that have already wrecked the navies of the world, meet them unprepared. And when, as is inevit- <; 77/ r Sf//tf/(i// Sc/ldol, Jiblc, tlii'y sink, lri»'Ti(ls vvrinn' lh<'ir luindh .'HhI })la]mH Iho hloini, ;>iul hlniMc the K<*ii, and bl:iiii<' Iho tstron«r- ribl)«'(l sliij) itsclr ; while nil \hv ^vl»il^ ihc l)!iiin(' ishonlcl r»'st on thoy*' who s»>nt the ship lo sen with only a child'h* day (IroiUii lor a clijiit, and lh»' rcsth-sK pastsions lor a truidc It may indood ho well cnonizh lo d<>v«'lop a child's physical I'ranie ; to expand with all Ihc Icaminj^ of the schools the imprisoned j)ovvers of its niind ; but if the isoul, for which the whole w orld is no fair exchanizfe, be left uncarod for, vvhal possible uuarantec? have yovj, at least IVoni the Word oi'Ciod, that all will not be wrecked at last; and little can it compensate yon to know that your sons are familiar with the laniruage of Homer and Plato, if their moral nature has sunk lower than lh«^. beasts of the lield, and their vice and intemperance brouj^ht them to the threshold of the grave. Now I do not mean to say that this moral wreck will never take place where the child has been brought up^ in the sunshine of Christianity ; unhappily this is not the case, as too many instances now before our memory clearly jn'ove ; but I wish emi)hatically to state that, the one great cause of the ruin of thousands of our young men is their utter want ol all real knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. They feel the need, and mil- lions more beside them do the same, of a knowledge which has never been supplied them. They want (o know where to ily in order to escape from the world, their pa.syions and themselves; and because they need this most necessary knowledge they sink in the mire and are lost. No one can possibly accept Christ with- out having lirst heard something of His exceeding great love in dying lor us, and for the acquisition of such knowledge 1 know of no iir/ie so 0})])ortune as youth, and no place so litting as the SitNdajj SchnoL Some one has said : the world around us is like a neglected garden. Entering, you see luxuriaut vines and magnilicent creepers, from the want of walls and strong supports, lying prostrate on the ground, or fondly clinging to briers and bushes, all as weak and helplese as themselves. Cling to something they must, and not finding anything to which they may attach themselves, they of necessity sink downward to the earth. So is it r r i ' The Sundaii School. 7 with tho human heart: it iioeds Christ, and thouirh hy nature that hoart is dead to God and opposed to His KWay, yet nolhini? but Ihe resurrection ])()\ver of th« Jjord .leisus Christ can ever make it liv*». and therefore it lu^eds to liear His voice belore it can believe on Him who is the ^Saviour ol'llie workl. The Firxl, truth therefore I wish to brin«»' before you in connection with the Sunday School is: — It isceks. like the secular school, to teach its lessons to the young With whom do we commence the ^^reat work of seen hir education? vSurely not with the old ami (b'crepit . not with those whose battle of life is Weil niiili over, and whose once j^lastic minds have long- become indu- rated by the hardening' ell'ects of sin and wearisome neo-lect. No, we do the very ojiposite. By intuilion, as well as experience, we all know that the younir are the plastic clay which the educational potter can alone mould into exquisite beauty and symmetry. This fair earth was fashioned into loveliness when it was yet youniy. Then was it that its foundations were dislocated, upheaved and furrowed fathoms deep by the hui^e throes ot elemental wars; not when cycles of centuries had made it hoar with age. And thns is it with the child Its mind is to the teacher what the molten iron is to the moulder, the material with which alone he can work. With the moulder not a moment is to be lost, for the metal will cool and the opportunity be gone. With the teacher the same urgency exists, for tlie child is fast ri})ening into manhood, and already the influ- ences of the world are chilling" the fresh impulses ol its heart. Now it is impossible to say how soon a child may really lay hold of Christ by faith, and therefore it is im possible too soon to begin the great work of spiritual education. Let slip these golden moments of child- hood, let them be occupied simply in the dcA-elopment of the physical and intellectual energies, and the result will be, not that your child will be merely ignorant of all spiritual truth, but that through the i)erversity of contaminating inliuences it will have imbibed a spirit of fierce antagonism to all the doctrines of the Word of God. 8 The Sunday School. And here let mo say a word to those who may possi- bly think that the work of teaching the young can be with propriety deferred to a later period than youth; for 1 know there are some so warped in their judgments as to maintain that it is unfair to their children to teach them Christianity before they are able to form conclu- sions for themselves. This idea I cannot better combat than by quoting what Coleridge says of himself. " Thelwell," he says, "thought it very unfair to influence his child's mind by inculcating any opinions before it had come to the years of discretion to choose for itself. I shewed hira, he says, my garden, and told him it was my botanical garden. How so ? said he ; it is covered with weeds. O, I replied, that is only because it has not yet come to the years of discretion and choice. The weeds, you see, have taken the liberty to grow, and I thought it unfair to prejudice the soil in favor of roses and straw- berries." This is the truth earnestly and forcibly taught, and I will only add that, in the garden of a child's heart, something must, by the inevitable law of nature, grow ; and if you, its parent, sow not there the roses and strawberries, depend upon it the wild weeds of passion will grow, and at last utterly destroy the dearest treasure you possess. I am quite aware that the Sunday School is regarded by many as a sort of pious and liudable oflbrt on the part of a few well-disposed people to instruct the chil- dren of the poor and unfortunate. P'athers and mothers may even appreciate an effort which removes from their houses all the noisy and unruly members of the family, thereby giving them an afternoon of profound quiet and repose. For this and other reasons, they may consider Sunday Schools, if not highly important, at least benevolent and worthy of some encouragement ; but that th(? mass of professing Christians understand, or even feebly grasp, the tremendous importance and absohite necessity of the Sunday School, I utterly deny. And this conclusion I arrive at, not from any direct assertion on the part of Christians generally, but from the coohiess, the apathy and even contempt exhibited by some toward this all important movement. No one, I trust, will imagine that T think little of t I 1 The Sunday School. 9 T ! home training. So far from this, I would urge it by every possible argument that could be brought to bear on the subject. Not only is it strictly enjoined in the Word of God, but every feeling of parental love will lead you to be loyal to your children in this particular. ' I do desire, however, to show that the Sunday School is absolutely necessary as being supplemental to all teaching which a child moy receive at home. 4 Myjlrst reason, therefore, for advocating the Sunday School is : Because its teaching is regular and systematic. We all know, as a matter of fact, that there are very few families in which the teaching of the children is either regular or systematic. The fathers, perhaps wearied with the routine of a whole week of business, or too often from the most supreme indifference to the subject, throw the whole work on the mothers, and the mothers, having thus to plod nlong alone, do so with the painful consciousness that the work is one of extreme listlessness both to themselves and their chil- dren. Then comes a time of sickness or of prolonged absence, during which the unfortunate children are left absolutely to themselves, losing both the benetits of Sunday School and home training alike. In addition to this, the teaching of the Sunday School is systematic. Through the enlightened arrangement of a regular scheme of lessons, a very large portion of Scripture is annually traversed by the scholars; they are made familiar with all the striking points of Biblical narrative, and are thus led on from one des^ree of know- ledge to another. Thus a child in constant attei\dance at tne Sunday School is regularly and systematically trained, receiving all the while fresh accessions of Divine knowledge, the advantage of wliich it is impos- sible to calculate too highly. My Second reason for advocating the Sunday School is : Because it is of necessity more attractive than home teaching can possibly be. In the Sunday School there is all the charm which Mumbers, vivid pictures, and happy, joyous songs com- n 10 The Sunday School. bino to g'ive. It is iibsolutoly necessary to throw around all tcachini:^ of the young- an air oi' gladness and of holi- dny enjoyment, in order to make them nssoeiaie that which is tiiniiht wiih nil that is pleasant and agreeable. To teach children abstract theology is exceedingly dillicult ; but it is possible to make them connect the hnirning oi' God's word with all that is delightful and joyous to their minds. Take then, for instance, the s//?g/w^'* of our Sunday {Schools. Here you will see thousands of happy children joining with heart and Konl in spirit-stirring songs, whose melodies will linger in their minds years alter the days of childhood are past. To deprive a child of all this, to keep him from all the music, the illustrations and diversified enjoy- ments is, I maintain, a real wrong to the child. It is robbing him of some of the most charming scenes of youthful liie, and preventing him from throwing around all the teaching of the Word of God the inexpressible charm of a pure and sanctiiied enjoyment. My Third reason for advocating the Sunday School is : Be,('au:i€ it is nhsoluie/// necesmr?/ to teach our children Christian sympathy and self-denying activity. Now, if there be one fault more grievous than an- other i'ound with us as a church, it is our w'ant of fraternal sympathy both towards our own people aud those of other communions. AVe may some oi us b« very rich, some of us very learned, all of us very re- spectable, but the truth remains-r-we seldom get nearer each other than the pews of the church. As one has well put it : " we have been frozen together by a mu- tual coldness, rather than united by a mutual love," and the result is our energies are crippled and our usefulness terribly marred. If therefore you are anxious to retain this evil, by all means keep your children from the Sunday School , by all means let them grow up with the vicious idea that their parents do not approve of their even coming in contact with the common unassorted mass who may be lound in the Sunday School, and that such peopltt are on all occasions to be avoided, and that fatal im- pression will paralyze their energies and obstruct their f t The Sunday School. XI iisetulnoss all the days of iheir life. They will grow up with the idea that church membership is an evil to be avoided rather than a i)rivilego to be esteemed, and that we are in fact, all of us, separated particles of church matter, whose union cannot possibly be accom- plished in time, but must be dei'erred to the sunshine of a more blessed and fraternal world. Grace, it is true, may make a ditieience, but even then the lessons of childhood will remain as painful and distressing memories of the past Now, in the vSiinday School the childre?i do h^arn sympathy. They find out that there are others who really care for them beside their own parents and guar- dians. They learn also that there are other children as joyous and as happy as themselves ; and this knowledjxe of others' care and of others' sympathy comes in upon their minds like a flood of golden light, to make even brighter still the sunny days of childhood. Their very contact, too, with others, teaches them to love and sympathize with those whose path may lie along the same road as that on which they themselves travel ; they gain a wider, and certainly a more gener- ous view of the world in which they live, and one w^hich they could never obtain within the narrow limits of their home circle. Above all, they learn that the church is not a mere aggregation of w^el'-dressed people who meet once a week to cjigage in religious service, but a living, sanc- tified pow er, redeemed, through the Lord Jesus Christ, from th(} world, and exibiting in its daily life something of its Master's sympathy and self-denying love. Here also they learn what Christian nr.tivily really means. They see it in the devotion of their tea -hers, the inisssionary enterprist^s of their school, and in the labors of the Church at large. Thev see the lessons of the IJible illustrated by the power of living examples, and the impression which such teaching must produce it is impossihh^ accurately to calculate. My Fourth reason for advocating the Sunday School is : Because liefiij^ious teaching is becotning moie anil more divorced from secular learning. Victor Cousin, in his report on Primary Education, 12 The i^unday School. says : " A reliprions and moral education is the great want of a people." This was a deduction, not a theory. He derived it from the experience of the past, which demonstrates that all the learnincr, art and power of man combined have been impotent to elevate the world mornJly. No wise man has ever been able .v) effect such a result by legislation, and no strong one by power. Multitudes have tried, but all have failed, and the rea- son of the failure has been the want of the knowledge of th(^ Gospel of Jesus Christ. True as all this undoubtedly is. and though it is the recognition of this principle which has made England, Germany and the tjnited States w'hat they are to-day, yet every day the question, how to connect sound Biblical instruction with the teaching of our Common Schools, is becoming more and more involved. Each denomination naturally wishes to have its own form of doctrine inculcated ; but as this is lound to be practi- cally an impossibility, the result is a tendency to divorce religion from secular training altogether, and to leave religious teaching to the energy and piety of indi- vidual churches themselves A man may demand of the State that it should afford his child a sound secular education. He has also the right to demand that his child be brought up with the knowledge of the Word of God ; but he cannot possibly, on any ground, demand of the State that his child should be brought up as an Epis- copalian, or as a Presbyterian, or in iact as a member of any denomination. The State would ignore the claim at once ; indeed the tendency is now to go further still, and deny the right to have any religious instruction whatever. Now, if we were Athenians or Spartans, the most we could do in that case would be to train up our children in all the learning, customs and hopes of an age that knew nothing of truth, oi eternity or of God. But we are not. "VVe are, or we jiroiess to be, Christians, and as such we are bound to do all in our power to implant in the minds of our children the knowledge of that Gospel by which alone W(^ ourselves have been illumiiuited and sailed. Recognizing this great principle, and believing that the Sunday School is the best place in which to impart 4his information, it should be your highest aim to ■■ r The Sunday School. 13 develope to the uttermost all its marvellous energies and strength. Every church, whether Episcopalian or Pres- byterian, Methodist or Congregationalhst, Protestant or Roman Catholic, seems to have caught up the idea that the Sunday School is one ol' the mightiest agencies of the day lor the spiritual training of the young, and therefore w^e see them side by side, vying with each other who best can perfect a plan so potent for the accomplishment of good. My Fif/h reason lor advocating the Sunday School is: Because it is absolute!// necessary, if the minister and the children are to become at all acquainted with each other. r If children are kept cooped up at home, they doubt- less will become well acquainted with their parents and some of their friends, but they can never get to know or understand the minister. Once a week they may see him afar otf in the church, as a very cold em- bodiment of theology wrapped up in a surplice, but they never get to know him as a warm and atfeclionate pastor, full of love and sympathy for them all. I would therefore say, take your children to the Sunday School. There they will hear kind words of encouragement from one who has learned from his Divine Master how to love and foster the young. Under this genial influence, they will grow up, strengthening his hands and cheering him on, in return, in his old age, by their devotion, their consistency and their grati- tude. Such then being some of the reasons why we should earnestly support the Sunday School, may I not speak a word to those who, while they profess to love the Lord Jesus Christ, yet do absolutely nothing for Him in this department ol' His vineyard. Look now for a moment at Peter, as his most blessed Master gently chides him for his thrice repeated denial. " Simon, son of Jonas," three times asks the Redeemer, "lovest thou me?" Three times the troubled Peter answered that he did, but at each reply he heard the memorable words : " Feed my lambs " — '• Feed my sheep " — ** Feed my sheep." 14 The Sundat/ Srhoof. So speaks the same Saviour to you all this day. You *ay you love Him ; lh;rt you arc gratelul to Him lor all His past mercies, for the sprinkled blood, for the per- fected work, for the complete redemi^tion. You say it firieves you to think of all the times in which you have practically denied Him. " Lovest thou me," is His reply to all this? Hso, then yonder are my lambs ; i»o feed, them there. Here then in Ihe Snnday School is the place where you can shew your love and prove your devotion to your Lord. Here ar(^ the lambs awaiting your tenderest care Hasten, hasten to the work. IJut now I fancy I hear some of you say, '• 1 have no ^.^•ift for teaching, in I'act, I never had. and therelore I would only be a, drone and a hindrance rather than a help. I answer, did you ever try ? Did you ever go there with your heart in the work, and endeavour to impart to the children something of your own zeal and love ? H' not, then you know^ nothing about your gifts. Up at oiu'e, and feed the "iambs" of the Lord Jesus Christ. H", on the contrary, you have tried, and have failed, then I say there is aomethinii: ehfi you can \o beside teaching. You can help in the Library, help in visiting, help in singing, help, in fact, in a hundred ways which will present themselves to you as you honestly labor for the Lord. I would also impress upon all heads oi' families, who may themselues be unable to give any service whatever, the Christian duty of visit- ing the School for the sake ol" encouragement to others and of really seeing what is being done there. H would certainly do you good, while it would cheer and streuirthen both the teachers and scholars. f h And now, in conclusion, let nu^ say a word as to the kind oi' teachers we really want in all our Sunday i^chools. We need, in flic Jirsf /j/are, earttes/ /fac/iers. Those V. hose xenl lor the cause will not go out with a show ot rain, or b<'cause the moon happens to be in the wrong (juarter for fair weather. Those who will make this work their //V,s7, and not their /asf, considera- tion — who wil! endeavour to find out not how little Tlin Sunday Srhool. 15 they may, hut how mucli they can do i'or iho cause of Christ and ior the wcllare of the young. Those who will prnyerfulli/, enrnedlif x\\\A invc^aoHtlif hibour to win those committed to thi'ir chaiu'e to the Lord .lesus Christ, not to plense either the minister or superintendent, but Him who has said, '• Feed my lambs."' . Wf ni'cd, in flie a/.i'ond /dnrr, ronaricnlioun Ifdcherf^. You call your boy conscitMitious. Very well. You send him to the stream to lish. In the evenino;' he comes home, sayiiii^ *' Master, there are no lish." *' \Vhat bait did you use, my l)oy ? " is your reply. " None at all '' he answers. "And did v<>u then expect fish?" vou ask. "Expect lish,*' that is the jioint. A teacher goes to the School without haviuu' ever spent ten minute'-' on the lesson; has no illustrations, no anecdotes, no bait whatever ready. The children find him intensely un- interestiuij, and become restless and noisy in conse- quence. As for the teacher himself, he has the unblush- ing impudence to tell the {Superintendent he can make nothing of those scholars. Yes, wo want conscientious teachers: those who recognize the great truth that none can come to Christ except the Father draw them, and who will therefore bear their names before a Throne of grace, and plead with God on their behalf; those who will visit the children at their homes, look after them when absent, and shew them all they really love and sympathize with them. All this involves labour ; and if you cannot give this, if you have no heart for it, then by no means come. 8tay away, the church does not want you; the children do not want you ; the Lord Jesus Christ does not want you. lie only wants those who will ieed "my lambs." Thirdly, tre need punr.tvul teachers. (Inpunctual teachers are a nuimnr.e : a nuisance to the iSupi^rintendent, the scholars and the School. You have before you six little children, only six noisy spirits, not great bankers, nor eminent jurists, nor learned phy- sicians, with whom you dare not break an appointment, but only six littie children ; and because they are such, 16 The tiunday School. you stray into tho school one hall' hour after it has cora- inonced, only to find that some have ^one off, perhaps never to return, aiul the rest disturbinji^ the harmony of another class. Yes, we want pMnctual. teachers. Lastly, we need leachers who vrill uphold Christ. No one need ever be at a loss what to teach children You can tell them the strangest story the ear of man ever listened to : how once Christ came into this world, the guiltless for the guilty, and died that we might live. Tell them this. Make all your teaching to be about Christ ; for He is the liesurrection and the Life, and at His voice their dead hearts can be made to live. H' He is not first in your teaching, you will utterly fail, and your labour will only be a rope of sand to vanish in a moment from your grasp. And to those who are laboring for the love of Christ, I say, go on. In due season you will reap, if you faint not. The rain-drops in the sandstones of the first ages of the world tell of refreshing showers that once fell and are now forgotten ; and thus you too may pass away ; but forgotten by Christ you will never be, and your work will only be known when the Great Book is opened that records the labors of Christ's faithful dead /.''