The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-02-10
From the Seminary Magazine, January.
Questions for Superintendents of Sabbath
Schools.


| Questions for Superintendent of Sabbath
Schools.
l. How do you secure and maintain dis
cipline?
g. What are you doing for the poor OF
the school?
8. What means are you using TOR the
conversion of the scholars9
4 How do you make your teaching efh-
cient?
5. Is the church generally interested in
the Sabbath School?
6. Do your teachers visit the sick and
absent scholars?
7. Do you try to obtain employment for
dependent scholars?
8. DO you hold prayer meetings, and
sohen?
9. Is your school graded!
10. Do you have uniform lessons!
! Our attention has been attracted more
particularly to the third of the series
"What means are you using for the CONVEX
sion of the scholars?" Pondering this i'm
portant question We are led to inquire
Are the results of. Sabbath teaching what
We have right to expect?
The zeal of Sabbath School workers has
brought to the schools of the various church
es vast numbers of children. Yet there is
but little perceptible abatement of the pro
family and precocous dissipation which char
acterize the youth of the present day
Scarcely is the school dismissed before the
ear ssshocked by the ribald jest and OBJ
scene oaths Of rude boys, who hasten from
the restraints of the school room to the wild
and demoralzing sports of the street. A
walk to the suburbs of the city on Sunday
afternoons will convince the most sceptical
that the results of Sabbath teaching are not
yet what we have right to expect. An
other and more convincing proof of
this conclusion is the paucity of conver-
sons. There are unfortunately but few
schools where conversion would not be
remarkable event. Indeed, we hazard moth
ing in saying that out of every ten Sabbath
Schools in the land seven have yet to chron-
icle the first conversion in the school room;
and out of the remaining three, at least two
date their last conversion some twenty or
thirty years back.
The fact that the desired results have not
been attained may be due to the fact that
in our zeal to educate the mind, we neglect
the heart. 1t is well and necessary that we
should prepare our children for the future
understanding and reception of the truth,
but we should always remember, as a writer
in the Religious Herald very happily says,
that God is an ''Ever Near" and that the
Scriptures in sundry places admonish us
that " Now is the day of Salvation" 1t is
Just here we think, that the mistake is made:
We are looking to the future for the fruits
of our present labors, instead of availing
ourselves of the instrumentalities at our
command for enforcing the command of God
to the young" Remember thy Creator in
the days of thy youth."
We assume that the conversion of the
children is the controlling idea of Sabbath
School workers. This induces the impor-
tant question-By what instrumentalities
can this result be best secured?
The answer has been summed up by Prof.
R. NJ Smith, Of Randolph Macon College,
as follows
|. The careful instruction of the children
in the precepts of personal and social deco
rum as enjoned in the Book of God, partic-
: ularly including proper reverence for sa.
cred things.
2. Their diligent instruction in the Holy
Scriptures, including the memorizing of Sc
lect portions, and the especial study of those
parts which refer to the necessity and nature
of the new birth-God's wrath against sin,
his love for the penitent and believing-the
horrors of the lost, and the everlasting bliss
of the redeemed
8. Diligent instruction in sacred song, in
Guiding the memorizing of select hymns.
4. Earnest, plain and affectionate remarks
to children, by their teachers, with direct
and individual application and inquiry upon
the necessity of personal religion, and their
state before God, diligently exhorting them
to give their hearts to him as present and
pressing duty.
5. The addressing of some words specially
intended for and adapted to the children, in
all the ministratons of the pulpit.
6. Remembering constantly that the pros
perty of Sabbath School is to be meas
ured not by its foliage, but BY IT'S FRUIT;
not by the numbers on its rolls, but by the
numbers that, through its instrumentality, are
converted to God and enrolled ON high.
The DAILY WALK.-There is beauty and
truth in the following: A Christian life is
pulpit which all may ascend. 1t is unbe-
coming for the child to exhort its unbeliev-
ing parent, improper for the pupil to direct
his teacher, or for the servant to re5uke his
master. But by holy life children can in
struct their parents, scholars their teachers,
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