The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-11-06
TO CHRIST BY SONG
Sunday School Work Of Mr..
and Mrs. Curtis.
An interesting Talk Before Edenton Street
Methodist Sunday School About
Little laps.

The Sunday School services at Edenton
! Street Methodist church were most inter-
esting Sunday morning. Rev. and Mrs.
W. l.. Curtis, missionaries of the Ameri-
can Board in Japan, who are now visiting
their parents, Dr. and Mrs. A. w. Curtis,
in this city, were present at the Sunday
School and spoke briefly of the Sunday
School work in Japan.
Mr.. and Mrs. Curtis have been engaged
in missionary work among the Japanese
for ten years, and as the result of their
work among the little Japanese children
many heather homes have been reached
with the gospel In fact it is found that
the most effective way to reach the home
is through the children.
Early after reaching Japan Mr.. and Mrs.
Curtis organized Sunday School to which
many children came. The parents Of the
children received orders from the Japa-
nese priests not to let the children at
tend the foreigners Sunday School, but
the little7 ones would hang about the
doors and in this way there was carried
to many heather homes the story Of the
gospel.
Mr.. Curtis said among other things
Sunday that work among the children was
not only one Of the most interesting
branches Of foreign missionary work. but
also one of the most important. 1t is
at the very foundation of much of the
evangelistic work. Nearly all Of the pub
lie preaching places and many of the or
ganized churches in Japan are the out
growth OF Sunday Schools.
Japanese children are easily accessible,
bright and intelligent, quick to learn and
very fond of singing the Sunday School
songs.
These songs are translations of the best
church hymns and gospel songs used in
this country and England and are set to
both foreign and Japanese music. The
children learning TO sing these songs in
their own language are unconsciously
sowing the gospel seed as they sing them
again and again in their homes, at school,
or on the streets.
Whole neighborhoods have been changed
for the better through the influences en-
anating from the Sunday School. Not
only are lasting impressions made upon
the child mind, but through the children
the parents hear much Of gospel truth
and desire for further knowledge is
thus awakened.
In closing Mr.. Curtis gave a short de-
scription of the large Sunday School that
for several years has been held in their
own home in Kyoto, and repeated the
Lords prayer in Japanese.
Mrs. Curtis then related several incl
dents connected with their work in Japan,
which illustrated the far-reaching infiu-
ence of the Sunday Schools and how the
songs and lessons learned in these schools
have transformed the lives and charac-
tiers of individuals and changed the whole
atmosphere Of homes and neighborhoods
and even whole villages in the Sunrise
Kingdom.
The work of Mr.. and Mrs. Curtis in
japan has been most effective, and so
much interest has been taken in
it that Dr. f. E. Clark founder
Of the Christian Endeavor movement has
written for the Sunday School Times an
especial article concerning their school at
Kyoto, and the admirable work done
there.
The school was conducted in the home
OF Mr. and Mrs. Curtis. Into the family
sitting room the little Japs swarm, rag
ged. dirty. unkept, their hair frowzled
and towzled. for these come from the
highways and hedges. and in many ways
On the Sunday morning that Mr.. Clark
visited the home Sunday School, the chill
dren were swarming over the piazza
waiting for the doors to pen, and were
playing 'jackstones.
What. jackstones, on Sunday and on
minister's piazza, you calculate.
Certainly. These were heather chill
dren, and they could see no more harm
in playing iackstones on Sunday. than a
Raleigh boy could see in playing baseball
on the birthday of Confucius.
The Sunday School bell stopped the
iackstons and for an hour the children
heard of Christ. They met in the
spacious dining room where there was a
cabinet organ. but no chairs. for the Japs
needed none. They squat on the soft
mating, overlapping their little toes and
sitting on the upturned bottoms of their
feet which arranged in this way make an
excellent spring scat and save room also.
The opening exercises consisted of
scriptural reading and hymns, the words
OF the latter being obtained from large