The Yale expositor., 1902-03-07
The Relation Of the Sunday
School TO the Church.
ny MISS JESSIE MARI0oLD.

Read at the Presbyterian Sunday
school reception Friday evening, Feb
ruary 2Sth.
That the Sunday school has a close
relationship TO the church few will deny.
From the organization of the first sun
day school the church has prospered
until now the church without sunday
school is rs lonely and unnatural as a
home without children.
The bond uniting parent and child is
sacred but not the less sacred Is that
between church and Sunday school.
AS the child should be lovingly guarded
and nurtured by the parent, so should
the Sunday school be guarded by the
church, for as the Sunday school is so
the church will be.
Let IL be the pure, bright and Wig
orOus school IL should be and the church
will reap It's reward, for as a child
brings youth and yigor TO a home SO
does the Sunday school bring like re-
suit 90 the church. Woe TO the church
who, for lack Of that youth and vigor,
has become old and decrepit. such an
institution is worse than useless; IL is
an absolute injury TO community and
n detriment 20 the spread of christian
ity. by il the youth are repulsed, and
the old discouraged.
We now no longer think that the
Bible and christianity 60 hand in hand
with old age and death; for this let all
praise be given 90 the sunday school.
Through it we have been taught that
the pillars of the church are not those
who have jumped into Sainthood, but
those who, carefully watched and
o,uordad Ia tho Guudav gebnnl bava
grown through long years OF childish
faith, into the noble, sanity christians
To whom we love TO 60 for encourage
ment and sympathy.
The boy reared in the sunday school,
surrounded by an atmosphere Of purity,
encouraged 10 nobler things by the eX-
ample of christian parents, must be-
come the strong and noble christian the
church so needs. Friends, did you ever
think how unnatural 10 is TO expect
God, with all his power, 20 make n
strong and vigorous christian in twenty
four hours No, our God works through
nature. The supernatural he may do,
the unnatural never.
The Sunday school is "a God-giyen
trust 20 the church and Just as the par
ent is responsible for the child so is the
church responsible for the Sunday
school The church must realize that
IL is only through the long training of
the Sunday school that we can expect
to have those strong, intelligent chris
tians before whom Satan, i'm all his
must bow and acknowledge
himself defeated.
But great as has been the work done
by the Sund y school there is more 20
be done for we are constantly being
confronted by the question, why is II
that so many of the boys and girls be-
coming, rs they think, too old for the
Sunday school, drop out and are soon
lost 90 christian influence and the
skeptical world laughs nc our inability
90 place the cause. 10 is in the Sunday
school. Sadly. rs representative of
the sunday school | answer, Partly
but not wholly" Would you blame a
boy or a girl for trying TO be man or
womanl Surely not for a manly boy
or womanly girl is "the noblest work
OF God"
But because the boys and girls have
taken you for a model and have become
too old for the Sunday school shall we
the Sunday school?
On you, my friends, rests part of
the great responsibility for if you would
do your whole duty 10 the church you
must be loyal 10 the sunday school.
Neither can you shift the responsibility
when you say I'm always ready and
willing Co give financial aid TO the sun.
day school," While that is good-and
| think i can truthfully say there are
few more loyal in that respect than are
you my friends-still in this age when
money does SO much are we not apt TO
think that silver and gold can buy even
n noble character. Your money we
like, yourselves we need.
III then the future of the church de-
ponds upon the success of the Sunday
school does IL not behoove us 20 spend
time and energy i'm strengthening and
fortifying the Sunday school, and you.
parents, would you not rather that the
seeds OF christianity were planted in
your child's heart while the ground is
easily productive than 20 trust 20 some
future day when the heart may be so
filled with noxious weeds as entirely 10
crush out the tiny seeds that should
have been planted by you long years
before. and which watered and cared
for in the Sunday school might have
grown into noble tree bringing forth
fruit abundantly and through which
the church would have prospered.
Would Smash the Club.