The record-union., 1899-05-28
men, MEANS AND METHODS.
ADDRESS TO sUNDAY-SCHOOL
TEACHERS.
Delivered at the County Conven-
ton at Elk Grove on Fri
day Evening.

At the closing session of the County
Sunday School Convention at Elk
Grove on Friday evening Rev Henry
Shade of Sacramento read the FOLLOW
ing very entertaining and Impressive
paper on
MEN, MEANS AND MEHODS.
/ have chosen for my talk to you to-
night the subject of Men, Means and
Methods" 1 am giving myself wide
range To whatever remote point OIL
the compass of the Sunday
school work 1 may wander, you may
feel satisfied that 1 have subject enough
to cover the ground. l assure you
now. that should / talk to you all my
time about men, the other points are
equally as good as my first point ana
will keep nicely until my next appoint
ment And should l straggle of IN
my excursions, hitting neither point, /
still assure you they are good points
and 1 can say something as good about
them as what L really do say if you
will give me time.
The first great matter for royal re-
joicing and happy congratulation Is the
fact that God is putting men into TINS
great work-men magnificent, men
munificent and men Omnipotent.
This is pre- e-eminently the children s
age of this old world-the time of the
newer new crusade of childhood. IN
a supreme sense our children are Kings
and Queens-the age bows down to the
bib and the knee breeches. At last the
child has been recognized, and poet and
philosopher, parent and pedagogue,
printer and preacher, peasant and
potentate, are all asking, We'll. my lit
tie man, what can I do for you?" Just
rub your eyes open for minute and
look around you See book shelves
loaded with the best of the brains of
Europe and America. Those books are
stories for children. That ship yonder
is loaded with toys-this train is packed
with comforts and conveniences and
commodities for the little folks.
But if you want to see Gods princely
gift to the little ones, go and stand in
the vestibule of a great national or
international Sunday-school conven-
ton, and count the men and tell their
from the East and the West, the
North and the South to preach and
pray and devise ways and means for
These men (and 1 speak here and
always of the genus homo of the wo
man among mem are poets and paint
ers, sculptors-artists in dreaming and
artists in doing; mechanics in ideals
and skilled workmen in the finished
product They see deities in daisies,
angels in granite and Madonnas in
clay. The best of them are idealists.
The lexicons define an ideal to be "a
conception proposed by the mind for
imitation realization or attainment"
The conception of an ideal exists sim
ply in thought; is an intellectual mani
festation, a mental phenomenon, and
its attainment" says Fleming, lis ac-
complished by selecting and assembling
in one whole the beauties and perfec-
tions which are usually seen in differ
ent individuals, eliminating everything
defective, retaining only that which is
perfect"
1t will be seen at once that we have
here only an ideal definition; the at
tainment is simply in the realms of
imagination, separated from the actual
by an impossible gulf. Indeed, the
great school of philosophers maintain
that there is no attainment of ideals
that that which seemed to be our ideal
yesterday has given place to the more
splendid imaginary product of to-day,
and yesterdays attainments are far
below the dazzling nights of to-day's
conception.
The use which we can make of the
medium is never so perfect as our ideal
of what is possible Every such me-
dunn physically regarded falls short
of the psychical perfection which we
can conceive in the mind The ideal
excellence of the poet, the orator the
actor, the musician and the artist are
ever higher than his achievements; the
one fees before the other as it's shad-
ow and can never be overtaken.
Notwithstanding, however, the actu-
ally unattainable, the best worker in
the Sunday-school is an idealist. the
teacher who sees nothing. The model
school has model means-model meth
ods-hence model men. We may know.
and should know, in order to avoid dis
couragements, that the ideal is not at
tainable. yet this is the very reason
why we should have an ideal-why we
should use everything within our reach
in the architectural design.
This brings me to my main points
means and methods. What 1 want to
make clear to your apprehension is
that you have right to those means
God has put into your hands through
these great men in Sunday-school
work
But" one says. "I have no means
by which can become acquainted
with these men and their methods -
-Qx
great workers propose. but their meth
ods are SO infinitely beyond my reach
that | cannot appropriate them,
Now, I want to try and answer these
objections I want to get the Difficult
ties out of your way. When L am done
L don't want you to say that was an.
ideal talk" but I do want you to feel
that it has given you ideas. l say away
down in my heart God bless the Sum
day-school workers in the hard fields
in the obscure places. God bless the
man or the woman who is teaching
under difficulties. teaching without
books to read or time to prepare, feeling
in your struggle like the man on his
bicycle who was riding up hill, against
the wind and in the sand.
Many of us think if we could only at
tend the great conventions, see these
men, hear them become inspired by
their grand ideals. we would then come
home and transform our little schools
into great and splendid manufactures
of child culture and character. Let us
not be deceived at this very vital point.
In the great count don't forget to count
yourself. That which is of infinitely
more Importance than seeing or hear