The answer to all this is simple, and consists mainly in an appeal to experience. Simple and plain as Christ"s message is, human lives are very complicated, and it is no simple matter or easy task to lay the Saviour"s simple healing alongside their varied ills. Christ"s burden is light; if it were heavier it would be easier to get paradoxical humanity to accept it. Christ will instruct us what to say, provided we have so trained our heart and brain that his words will not fall as senseless babble from our tongues. The Spirit does breathe where he listeth, but the experience of these centuries ought to teach us that G.o.d is never present in power where work and prayer have not invited him.
Haphazard work is not equal to thoughtful work. Minute directions that would be wasted on a barn-painter are a necessity of the artist.
Impromptu never yet won a race with Preparation. And I know that many a teacher is mourning over his empty hands who might be rejoicing over great sheaves if his sowing had been more liberal and his teaching more painstaking.
And yet I sympathize with the weary discouragement of which all teachers feel a twinge when high ideals of teaching are held out before them. We are sure we are doing our best, already. It annoys us to be shown a better best. Our work is hard enough. It troubles us to be told that we must work harder before it can ever become easy. And especially, we are so confused by the multiplicity of good things we may do, of improvements we may make, that we do and make none of them.
Now the secret of success in all arts lies in this: the Incorporation of Ideas. The reception of ideas, the appreciation and praise of them, this is nothing, though many are satisfied to stop here; but the incorporation, the embodiment of them, this makes the artist. The artist is the man that is hungry for ideas,--for the ideal, that is; the man that, like Paul, proves them all by the tests of thought and experience, and then holds fast whatever is good, until it has become part of himself, until it is incorporated.
The artist is a man, too, that above all men knows the importance of trifles. The contour must be molded to nature precisely, the statue finished to the finger-nail, the machine accurate in every line and surface. He will not try to attain the ideal at a bound; it is made up, he knows, of many ideas. He grasps one idea, and fixes that forever. Then, he has power for another.
One point at a time, then, fellow-laborers in this blessed work; one idea from an eager throng appealing to you in books, lectures, or papers, proved and found good, and then held fast by prayerful practice, by never-yielding effort, until it is added to the company of your unconscious forces. And then, in this power, to add another to it! Thus alone can we win, from Christ"s university, the highest of all degrees, Masters of his Art!
Chapter XLIII
From a Superintendent"s Notebook
An egotist is foredoomed to failure in the Sunday-school. The worker that hopes for success must cast to the winds any foolish pride in originality, and seek far and wide for the wisest ideas and the freshest methods. A superintendent or a teacher without a notebook is only half a superintendent or teacher. Its pages should rapidly grow rich with plunder. The little white friend must be at hand when he attends conventions, when he reads, when he talks with other workers, when he thinks and prays over his sacred tasks.
The two chapters that follow are merely specimen pages of such notebooks. While I have utilized them to gather up various plans and experiences that could not fittingly find place elsewhere in the book, their chief purpose is to ill.u.s.trate the wide-awake catholicity that must animate every successful worker in Sunday-schools.
It is right to say--though this is a matter of course--that a large majority of these paragraphs are condensed from that great storehouse of Sunday-school lore, the "Sunday-school Times."
_Their Own Review._--Scholars are likely to answer with special zest the questions prepared by other scholars. One school asks its cla.s.ses in turn to furnish three questions on each lesson, which are proposed to the entire school at the close of the lesson hour. From these questions are selected a number for the quarterly review. They are "manifolded," and written answers are expected from all present.
_Out of Order._--An excellent review scheme was arranged by a superintendent who gave his school a list of twenty-six events in the life of Christ, all jumbled up, and asked them to come next Sunday prepared to arrange them in chronological order.
_A School Review._--For reviewing the lesson before the entire school, select one cla.s.s a week beforehand and give it ten or twelve comprehensive questions, from the quarterly or original. At the close of the lesson ask this cla.s.s to rise and answer the questions as another cla.s.s, also rising, asks them. Let all the cla.s.ses take turns in this service.
_School Reviews._--For a change, it is well to incorporate the entire school in a general review,--omitting, of course, the younger cla.s.ses.
One person may conduct the review, or the questions on each lesson may be asked by a different teacher. Different cla.s.ses may be a.s.signed special lessons to ill.u.s.trate by the concert repet.i.tion of Bible verses, or by a stanza of some song. One lesson of the quarter may be a.s.signed to each cla.s.s, and the questions that will be asked may be given to that cla.s.s a week or two beforehand. In this case, general questions for the entire school should occasionally be interspersed.
_A Teachers" Supper._--Once a year, at least, bring together all the teachers and officers around a well-filled table. After-dinner speeches, cheery and merry, may follow, and then a pleasant evening"s entertainment.
_The Annual Meeting._--Make this an event. A supper with bright speeches, the business meeting to follow; a brisk literary and musical entertainment; an introductory talk by some practical worker from abroad,--these are some of the ways of distinguishing the occasion.
_Badges._--Any Sunday-school festival will be given eclat by the use of badges. The children will be proud to wear them, and will treasure them as souvenirs. They may be made almost without cost if you will use bright-colored cambric, and print upon them with a hand-stamp.
_A Sunday-School Day._--If not once a year, at least once every few years, it is well worth while to make the Sunday-school the theme of all the exercises on the Lord"s day,--both morning and evening services, and the Christian Endeavor meeting. The subject has so many practical aspects that much good will be done in addition to the quickening of the Sunday-school.
_The Home Department._--Simply a promise to study the lesson at home for half an hour each week--that is the scheme of the home department.
You may add visitors, records, reports, _ad libitum_, but the home department may be complete and satisfactory without these. The plan is so simple that any school can use it, and so fruitful of blessed results that no school dare neglect it. A thorough canva.s.s for members of the home department seldom fails to bring new members into the main school at once, and as the home study arouses interest, new scholars are continually added from this source, besides the scores of aged and shut-ins whose lives are thus led into the green pastures of the Word.
_Home Department Day._--On this occasion a special effort is made to bring to the Sunday-school the entire home department. They sit together, and special services are held in their honor and for their benefit.
_Parents" Day._--Make a special effort once a year to bring out all the parents of the scholars. Issue special printed invitations. Have a printed programme. Let the exercises be the regular working of the school, with merely one short address to the parents in addition.
_A Parents" Social._--Parents and teacher should know one another, and there is no more gracious way to bring this about than by an evening spent together at the teacher"s house.
_Purpose Cards._--To stimulate the school in needed ways, have a "purpose card" printed. It will read, in tabular form, "I will endeavor to attend more faithfully, to prepare my lesson better, to get a new scholar," etc. Each member of the school signs his card, marks with crosses the "purposes" he makes his own, and returns the card to the superintendent.
_Installing the New Officers._--This should be done with some ceremony, including a very short address by the pastor, another by the outgoing superintendent or prominent officer, another by a representative of the incoming group, and an earnest prayer,--all to occupy no more than ten minutes. The scholars will have more respect for leaders thus honored, and the officers themselves will be more likely to magnify their office.
_The Old Superintendent._--Some schools elevate the a.s.sistant superintendent regularly to the superintendency. Other schools adopt the opposite course, and make the superintendent of one year the a.s.sistant superintendent of the next. Either plan secures continuity of method.
_A True a.s.sistant._--The a.s.sistant superintendent should be prepared to do, in the superintendent"s absence, everything the superintendent ordinarily does. How can he be prepared to do this unless the superintendent regularly shares all kinds of work with his a.s.sistant?
_Help from the Public School._--In most communities a very inspiring series of lectures might be obtained from Christian teachers in the secular schools and colleges, the purpose of each lecture being to show how, according to the best pedagogical methods, a certain lesson might be taught, or Sunday-school teaching in general be carried on.
_Flowers at Home._--You will delight your school, and teach them many lessons, if you give each scholar--or get the teachers to do this--a bulb, a package of seeds, or a small potted plant like a rose. Hold an exhibition to show the results, and then have the flowers given to the sick, the hospitals, the poor, or sold for missions.
_Easter Lilies._--A few cents invested in lily bulbs will make a beautiful Easter for your school. Give one to each scholar for him to raise, or, possibly, one to each cla.s.s. The flowers, after Easter Sunday, are to be sent to the aged, the sick, and the poor.
_An Easter Gift._--Some Sunday-schools give each scholar, on Easter day, a little rosebush or a package of seeds, that they may be tended and urged to bloom by Children"s Day, when they are all brought in.
_Vacation Transfers._--Some schools, when their scholars leave for a vacation, give them letters to schools where they will visit. These are printed forms, and include a detachable blank report, which, when filled out and returned, will show the scholar"s attendance on the other school during his absence.
_Planned Prayer-Meetings._--It will greatly promote the devotional character of your school if you take twenty minutes each month for a prayer-meeting. Select four or five to offer prayer, and have them sit on the platform. A brief, tender talk from the superintendent and bright singing will complete a memorable meeting.
_A Carryall._--I have heard of Sunday-schools that maintained omnibuses or large carriages, to gather up and carry to the school children whose homes were so far away that they could not otherwise attend.
_Neighborhood Schools._--Distant groups of farmers" families, and others that cannot reach the school, should be organized in neighborhood Sunday-schools.
_A New Object Each Month._--The scholars" offerings should be an education not only in the instinct of giving, but also in the intelligent choice of objects for giving. Every Sunday-school should have a benevolence committee, which carefully selects for each month a new object of beneficence. On the last Sabbath of each month a word should be said about the object that appeals for the gifts of the next month. This brief account should, of course, be supplemented by the teachers in their cla.s.ses.
_The Envelope System._--This plan of giving, which has done so much for our churches, should be used everywhere in the Sunday-school. Give each cla.s.s a number and each scholar a set of dated envelopes, one for each Sunday, bearing his cla.s.s number. Call for a contribution from each scholar each Sunday. Urge that all absent scholars send their contributions, or bring them the next Sunday. From this _systematic_ giving you may go on to _proportionate_ giving by impressing on the scholars their duty to set apart for G.o.d some regular proportion, say one tenth, of all the money they receive. If the school takes up monthly collections for special benevolent objects, the envelopes for these Sundays may be of a different color. If, as should always be the case, the expenses of the school are met by the church, leaving the entire school collections to be devoted to missions and charitable causes, the school committee on benevolences may select a different object of giving for each month. This object should then be written on each envelope for that month.
_A Jug-Breaking._--One of the best ways of teaching children the value of little gifts and the importance of weekly savings for Christ"s cause is by the collection of money in jugs. Set before them at the start some object for their gifts, that they may think and talk about it while they are saving; otherwise their minds are lifted no higher than their money. And how they will enjoy the jug-breaking!
_Cla.s.s-Books._--Not records of cla.s.s attendance, but books for the library, paid for by the various cla.s.ses, selected by these so far as their choice seems wise, and each of them bearing an inscription telling what cla.s.s presented it to the school. Such gifts give the scholars a personal interest in the library they have helped to create.
_Loan Libraries._--Instead of giving away the books your school has thoroughly read, loan them, in groups of fifty or so, to poorer schools.
They will return them in good condition, and by that time there will be many new scholars in your own school to whom the books will be fresh.
_Exchange Libraries._--There is no reason why neighboring schools, if their library funds are low, should not arrange to buy different books, and then exchange them after the original purchasers have used them for a year. All the schools in a town or township might well combine in an arrangement so economical.
_Receiving the New Books._--The library will be advertised if the reception of new books is made an event. They may be put in a public place, all at one time, and formally presented to the school by pastor or superintendent, with a word about each. This may be done at Christmas, Easter, Children"s Day, Thanksgiving, at any one or all of these holiday seasons.
_Honor the Donors._--A special and attractive label for books presented to the library, with a s.p.a.ce for the name of the person that makes the gift, will greatly increase the number of books received in this way.
_Their Own Paper._--A large Sunday-school may publish a little weekly or monthly paper, the advertis.e.m.e.nts paying the bills. The older scholars will be interested in doing the work. The notes about the various cla.s.ses, the library, the contributions, the school work, will all prove stimulating.
_Sunday-School Calendars._--A good standing advertis.e.m.e.nt of the school in any home would be a neat calendar of the year, bordered with facts about the school, invitations, pictures of church, pastor, Sunday-school officers, and the like.