The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1903-07-08

portance-through us our children
believe in it.
To prove our belief in it's impor-
lance we should first, and above all
things see to it that our children
are promptly in their places Sunday
morning-allowing no trife to in
terfere with their going. 1t is so
easy to fall into the fault of stay
ing at home-excuses for staying
are not hard to find-let us be firm
in this determination that the habit
may become fixed one-and, as
our children grow up the House Of
God will be as home to them.
In our day schools 1 believe the
teachers prefer getting hold of a
little ignoramus-one who knows
nothing of books but our Sunday
School teachers would surely feel
a sense of shame Tor the parents of
little ones who come to them igno-
rant of Bible teaching. To our
shame be it that such children are
in our Sunday Schools. There
comes to my MIND a time when an
earnest Sunday School worker told
me of some children in her class who
had never heard of Jesus-had no
conception of God. And L was hor-
rified to know they were children
from prominent families-well-to-
Observation-Disclosures families. (By
way of parenthesis let me say these
were not Mt. Sterling children L
have wondered how these children
came to be in Sunday School.
Did they come because other child
rem came-of their own choice-or
did their parents send them? While
such neglect on the part of parents
horrifies us-never- the-less l, for
one, do not advocate thorough
teaching OF the regular Sunday
School lessons by the parents. At
one time 1 religiously taught my
boy his lesson before Sunday came
He must fully understand tiny
way of course-and answer all
questions verbatim.
have come to doubt the wisdom
of this course and our present plan
is this-I feel there must be some
preparation-consequently we have
adopted, for our regular Bible read
ing, the daily readings of the lesson
discussing them as we read them
in connection with the lesson chap
ter, which, with the Interpretation,
we read several times during the
week, so getting the general idea Of
the lesson, leaving all further inter-
probation and impressions to be
made by the teacher.
Under the wise guidance of our
superintendent, we parents of the
Mt. Sterling Methodist Sunday
School feel the teachers take their
places Sunday morning, thoroughly
prepared, and better fitted, than we
30 explain the lesson. Presuming
all Sunday Schools here represent
ed are equally fortunate, 1 would
urge the parents not to embarrass
the teacher by over teaching at
home. In this respect our Sunday
and day schools are similar. The
children become the victims of too
much teaching, and we hinder
where we wish &c aid.
Inere is one feature or the Sun
day School l certainly feel should
be impressed upon the parents and
that is, the penny collection. The
child is father to the man" Did
you ever stop to think why it is
some of our grown folks give so
grudgingly to the Church? They
were not trained to it when they
were children. / am a firm believer
in each child, who can possibly af-
ford it, having his or her mite for
the penny collection. Teach the
child not to measure it's giving oy
what others give, but in proportion
to it's own ability. In the Sunday
School the child is trained for the
church and each tiniest child
should learn to feel it's individual
responsibility in the support of Her