News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-10-19
Atmosphere In Sunday School.

1.-THE following address was delivered at t
late Lamoille County Sunday school conve
tiOn at Wolcott, by Rev. Seward RobsO
Pastor of the Baptist Church at West Ra
dolph, and is published by special request. ]
Every one of us is accustomed to
pressure of about IA tons of atmO
phere. 1t may be all "thin air." bl
it weighs 1000 lbs. nevertheless, an
some atmosphere more-get in I'll
wake of an old pipe and it weigh
more. The man who supposes tha
it does not, will have to reckon wit
nature, not with theory.
The atmosphere stretches above L
from 100 to 200 miles, and we ca
never get through it in the body, tr
as hard as we may. The man VIII
thinks he can, will reckon finall
with facts, not fancies. The atmol
phere is invisible, but a man make
a mistake when he thinks he is nc
in it. The atmosphere is the life {
the plant and the child; when on
works on any other suppOsition h
blunders.
AS the Sunday-school is in the res
world subject to the pressure of il
actual influences; as it can never rls
out of this condition and get ava
! from it's invisible forces, and as IL
! full of growing things,-the seeu
! Gods word and the chlld,-aCmos
phere in the Sunday-schooll Is q prac
| ticaI matter, and it is essential tt
our work that we give it careful con
sideratiOn.
THE PHYSICAL ATMOSPHERE.
1t is not of the physical atmos.
phere that we are most concerned
but so long as we are here in the
physical body it will not do to neg.
lect right conditions here physical
ly. The Sunday-school room should
not be cursed with an atmosphere
too cold or too hot, too dark or too
light, too gloomy or too damp. 1t
should be warm, dry, light, and
cheerful. There should be as much
oxygen in the room as there is in
the same volume of air outside, and
no more carbonic acid. Carbonic
acid is a good thing in it's place, that
is going out of the lungs, but a very
small percentage will do untold dam
age going in. The atmosphere OF
the school-room should have a
chance to change places with that
outside few hours before the school
assemblies, so that it can come in
fresh, just as the boys and girls do.
1t gets dull being in solitary confine-
ment for a week, and it has a won
derful aptness of imparting it's own
mood to the school. So long as God
has made fresh air cheap we will take
the fresh and turn out the stale.
And while each one in the room is
using his part we will find some way
of getting in a fresh supply, so that
he won't have to inhale lot some
one else has used and taken all
the goodness cut of, like a squeezed
lemon. And we will not have him sit
in the draughts to get it, but will
have it come in in such a way as
neither to give him a stiff neck nor
cold feet. Whatever else he gets in
the Sunday-school he should not get
or pneumonia.
THE SOCIAL ATMOSPHERE.
Having secured then for the school
a warm and cheerful room, well ven
we will look next after the
social atmosphere. We shall find
this just as dense and just as decided
as the physical. Some of you per-
haps know what it means to go into
a warm room and meet with "cold
reception" 1t is pleasanter on the
whole to go into a cold room and
breathe the genial air of hearty well
come. A warm room is a poor place
for cold bath.
Children are not stiff and formal
and genteel, but hearty, fresh, and
social. They enjoy coming where
folks like to see them and not where
they simply make numbers like so
many blocks in a row. They easily
discover whether the teacher enjoys
them, or whether she would
on the whole not care much, except
for the name of it, if they were not
there. They quickly catch the accent
of greeting and discern how much
heart there is in it.
L lC -oChOOl 5IlOuiu DC Il
social centre. Its atmosphere should
be genial. The scholar should carry
away from it the memory of a pleas
ant hour. The teacher should gather
her class around her with words and
expression of hearty welcome, and
she should hold them in an atmos-
phere of love. Every older member
of the school also should add little
to this genial spirit. A smile, a
shake of the hand, a thoughtful in
quiry after some absent one of the
family, word of comfort where
needed, certain welcoming ways in
greeting; and, in general, a hearty
nome feeling on the part of each
older member will impart an atmos-
phere full of social warmth and
cheer. Such an atmosphere in
vites and holds the scholar. IT.
is like the sunny side of a building
on an October day. 1t draws in new
scholars. 1t makes friends. 1t al
lays suspicion in the mind of the one
who thinks you have an object in
getting him there. 1t helps estab-
lish him in good influence. If he
doesn't get any other good he will
get his heart warmed up. And We
little know how many of the scholars
in our Sunday-schools are hungry
for a genial, sunny, home atmos-
phere.
The teacher can lay hold of the
hearts of the boys and girls by
throwing around them just such
an influence. And if the influence
and work of the school follows
them through the week, so much
the better. Social gatherings, tea
parties, evening visits and picnics
are all in order, if conducted wisely
and in the right spirit.
The Sunday-schOol should be a
home. The rich and the poor must
find welcome. We are in the school
for hearts not clothes, and like the
hunter who "loads his gum for bears"
we should load to bring down our
game. We want no bird shot of
worldly society notions. We do
want the genial, loving spirit of the
Master
THE INTELLECTUAL ATMOSPHERE.
But we need something more still
than to make the scholars welcome
and to gather them for a pleasant
hour. We are in the school for work
and we need an intellectual atmos-
phere. 1t too should be full of oxy-
gen. The Sunday-school is a school,
"a place to study. to study the book
and to learn about God. We learn
nothing in the Bible without using
our minds. Other things being
equal, the one who uses his mind the
most, the one who studies the hard
est. will know the most about the