The Sunday School Problem Meeting tke Waning Interest v?ith a Soul-Winning Program and True Bible Study, the Only Solution
sp irit and then come back to the Sun- day-school room! No blindness, except th a t bred by trad ition , could th in k of to lerating such conditions as these to furnish an environm ent for those won derful emotions th a t th e pulpit strives to engender in adults. “ In th e day-school W ashington, Lin coln, th e Revolution, th e Civil W ar, Rip Van W inkle, The Children’s Hour, Snow-bound, and hosts of o th er person alities and scenes' are studied through un til a co-ordinated impression is got ten. In th e Sunday-school no g reat ch aracters or scenes or events are pur sued long enough or consistently e- nough to leave any un itary impression. So strong is th e desire to inculcate a moral lesson, th a t texts give mere frag ments and then proceed to moralize upon them . Even th e life of Christ, th e most wonderful, simple, and pene tra tin g in world history, is dealt w ith in a fragm en tary way. By th e side of day-school tex t books Sunday-school text books are an abom ination. Sketchy, sentimentalized, chopped up by notes, illu strate d by common-places sugared over w ith a pale cast of baby-like talk , they become repulsive to healthy boys and girls. Leaflets are th e re in legion (teacher’s manual, pupil’s manual, first qu arters, second qu arters, helps, suggestions). Rarely does one ever have personality enough tb make any body desire to keep it. G reat senti ments often cling about books-—the Bible, for example. Lack of tim e and money are indeed great handicaps;— b u t if love of country is worth magnifi cent texts of United States history, is not love for God and Christ and th e
res ' '¿ají N a new book by F ra n k E. Duddy, entitled “A New Way pIlBf gslfl to Solve Old Problem s,” the Bra? tmi following arraignm en t of mod ern Sunday-School methods seems very much to th e point. "The average Sunday-school room is usually a very uninviting place. Bare walls, p illars or posts, irregu larly ar ranged chairs and tables, gaudy prize stars, old bookcases no longer needed in th e p asto r’s study, d irty blackboards w ith statistics of collection and attend ance upon them , to rn song-books, and much else of like character may be seen. No g reat feelings can endure in this. Moreover, many aspects of mob psychol ogy are p resen t in th e average Sunday- school room when work is going on. Children and older people are rushing about to find th e ir places, coming in a t all tim es and going o u t a t all times. Bells are ringing, secretaries and treas u rers are runn ing about th e ir duties, m aterial is being hunted, special an nouncements are being made, p arties and special pro*grams are being planned, and classes are reciting— all usually in one or a t least a few rooms. The whole process takes all told an hour. Can reverence in th is dwell? The sombre dignity of th e g reat church w ith its organ and song is reserved for th e adu lts; th e basement is given to th e Sunday-school. The stained-glass win dows and th e soft carpet are given to th e men and women; th e children tak e th e left-overs. Sentim ents have set ting s; they live in associations th a t are congenial to them . Think of a cosy public school room w ith its flowers, pictures, quiet, and its in tim ate group
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