The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1870-03-16
Sunday School Literature.

Sunday School Literature.
It has been our purpose for a few weeks to offer
some remarks on this subject. While medtatng
upon the great and fruitful theme, we find in the
piece below ga line of things made ready to our
hand, and so much better than we could hope to
prepare it, that our readers will have occasion to
unite with in thanking the writer from the far dis
tant Pacific for his timely and udicious thoughts
They are found in the last number of The Occident,
published in San Francisco. If such productions as
this and the paper adopted by our Synod last fall,
could be read and pondered and acted upon by pas
tors, elders, superintendent and teachers of Sab
bath Schools all over the land, the good results
would be incalculable And we here take occasion
to remark that the paper adopted by the Synod has
been published by our Committee as a tract and is
one which it is hoped will have very wide crcula-
ton. Our Committee of Publication was organized
to serve a safeguard in this very thing, and noby
has it done its work, as far as in its power.
It seems to be ntmated at the close of this arti-
Gle, that it will be followed by another designed to
answer the questions propounded. If it should APP
pear and should be found as good as the one now
printed it will give us pleasure to copy it Also
CEN. Pres.
The subject of Sunday School books and
papers has assumed such proportions that
the friends of Sunday Schools can no longer
ignore it, if they would. The time was,
and that within the memory of some still
living, when Judson's Questions, Anna Ross,
Little Henry and His Bearer, and some half
a dozen other books, which could be counted
on your fingers, constituted the entire ency-
clopedia of Sunday School literature, Now,
the number of books clamoring for admis-
sion at the doors of the Sunday School Ii
brary is appalling, The number of publish
ing houses actively engaged in the produc-
ton of this class of books, including the
great religious publication societies, is not
less than twenty-six, welding capital of at
least five millions of dollars. The books
already produced are numbered by thOus-
ands seven thousand is probably moderate
estimate, and they are increasing at a rate
that is really frightful. The number of new
Sunday School library books has for several
years exceeded the rate of one day, audit is
all the time increasing. 1t was four hundred
and thirty-four in 1868, and probably has
reached five hundred in 1869 Question
Books Record Books, Picture Cards, Maps,
Reference Books, and Periodicals, weekly
and monthly, have increased in like pro-
portion.
The church committee, therefore, the pas
tor, the superintendent, the librarian, or
whoever it is who is intrusted with the duty
of furnishing the Sunday School with books
and other supplies, is compelled to pause
He must, perforce, give the matter some
thought, and determine, if possible, upon
some principle of selection, No hap-hazard
purchases will be satisfactory where there is
such vast variety from which to choose,
and where there is of necessity so much that
is mere trash-if not worse. Not only
should the superintendent, or the committee
man pause, but the Christian community
should pause. Here is practical question
which we can neither ignore nor evade, and
it has already assumed such proportions that
we must either master it or be mastered by
it. The reading which the Sunday School
library supplies forms no inconsiderable part
both of the religious and the literary food of
the community. Every child that attends
the Sabbath School expects, as a matter of
course, to take home library book every
Sabbath; and this book is read, not only by
the child that takes it home, but by other
members of the family. It's speaking with
in bounds to say that not less than three
millions of these bright little volumes are
carried home weekly, and each of them is
read by not less than three persons on the
average. The influence of such fact, like
that of the dew, and the light, and some of
the other noiseless agencies of nature, is be
yond the power of computation or of state
ment. We have evoked a power that will
not be laid at our bidding. The appetite for
reading, like that for food and drink, when
once aroused, will take no denial; and in the
case of the young it devours without dis
elimination whatever is set before it. Food
or poison, so it satisfies hunger, it is eagerly
swallowed.
What shall we do?
First, we are not to raise a howl of lamen-
tatiOu about it. AS well might a farmer go
about groaning and grumbling because his
acres yield such prOdigiou8 growth Of
weeds. The very rankne8s of this growth
only shows how fat is his soil, how genial
have been his skies. The very luxuriance
of this juvenile literature, while it necessi-
tates increased labor and care, is yet one of
the hopeful signs of the times. Only We
must do as does the thrifty farmer-we must