The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-10-06

Some one has said, Give me the first
seven years of child's life and I care
not who has the remainder" l cannot
endorse this without reserve; but
maintain as a demonstrated fact.
Bring up a child to contribute a cop
per cent, and when he is old he will
not depart from It," 1t was recently
my high privilege to attend a summer
gathering "f representative religious
PEOPLE in the largest auditorium in this
country. Sometimes under that far
spreading roof ten thousand scles
were assembled and met together This
fact could be guessed at with tolerable
accuracy from the known seating ca
pacity, but the interesting thing was
that II could be predicated with math-
ematcal certainty that exactly ten
thousand people were present, because
the offertory footed up exactly one
hundred dollars. What an encourage
ment TO those faithful infant-ciass
teachers that have labored unremit-
tlngly, instant in season and out of
season, saying over and over again
with Infinite patience, Always bring a
penny" to know that their labor has
not been in vain, and that as a people
we have made it the rule of our lives
always TO bring a penny-and no more
L have often tried to think what a
u
MIA, where they have no pennies 1t
seems hardly possible that the institu-
ton can exist under such a patent d.
ability, and yet it does. Do they work
Ii on the same principle as the post
office in that far-off land where YOU
cannot buy one postal card because the
postmaster cannot make change, but
must buy five postal cards or two two
cent stamps and a postal? In other
MT II 4.
tant coin, serve for five persons for one
Sunday or one person for five Sundays !?
l have often wondered about this.
subsidiary instruction in the prepar-
atory course consists of sitting right
still and being nice, keeping your fin
gers out of Johnny Pym's eye, because
1t hurts him and makes him cry, not
grabbing in the basket when it goes
by. even though il does have pennies in
IT. coaching in repertory of songs
like: Beautiful. Beautiful Little
Hands" You in Your Little Corner and
l in Mine" THE Consecrated Cross
Eyed Bear" Pass Around the Wash
Rag '-the grown folks call that Pass
Along the Watchword"-and stories
about David and Goliath, Samson and
the three hundred foxes with fire tied
to their tails. Moses in the bullrushes
the infant Samuel, Hagar in the wilder
ness. and so forth. The clergy have
often objected that these stories, being
told at the same period of life with
those about Santa Claus, "One time
there was little boy and he had a dog
named Rover" the little girl that had
hair as black as ebony. skin as white
as snow, and cheeks as red as blood
because her Ma, who was a queen by
occupation. happened to cut her finger
with black-handled knife along about
New Year's-the clergy. 1 say have
often objected that all these matters,
being brought to a child's attention at
the same period in its life, are likely
to be regarded in after years as of
equal evidential value / am not much
of hand to argue. myself, but should
like TO have one of these carping crit
les meet my friend. Mrs Sarah M
Boggs, who has taught the infant-class
since 1867, having missed only two
Sundays in that time, once. In 1879.
when it stormed so that nobody in town
was out, and once. last winter a year
ago, when she slipped off the back
porch and hurt her knee. / can just see
Sister Boggs laying down the law to
anybody that finds fault with the in
fant-class, let him be preacher or who.
Why, the very idea, Do you mean to
say, sir-I guess Sister Roggs can
straighten him out all right
No less faithful is Mr. Parker, the
leading lawyer of the town. who con-
ducts the Bible class. l believe one
morning he didn't get there until after
the last bell was done ringing, but
otherwise his record of attendance COM
pares favorably with Sister Boggs'.
Both teachers agree to ignore the
stated lesson for the day, but whereas
Sister Boggs leads her flock through
fi0WPrV of
Parker and his class have camped out
by preference for the last forty years
in the arid wilderness of Romans and
Hebrews and Corinthians First and
Second. f1inging the plentiful dornicks
of Paul says this and Paul SAYS
that at each others head in friendly
strife. Mr.. Parker's class is also very
assiduous in its attendance upon the
Young Peoples meetings, seemingly
holding the dogma. "Once a young per-
son always a young person." The pre-
vailing style of hairdressing among the
members is to grow the locks long on
the left side of the head, and to bring
the thin layer across to the right, past
ed down very carefully with a sort of
peeled onion effect.
There is a whole lot of them, and they
jower away at each other all through
the time between the opening and the
closing exercises, having the liVelieSt
kind of a time getting over about two
verses of the Bible, and the whole
ground of speculative theology.
lmmeasurably more impermanent in
method and personnel is the regular
collegiate department, the Sabbath
school proper. In the early days. away
back when sugar was sixteen cents a
pound, the thing to do was to learn
Scripture verses by heart. If you were
a rude, rough boy who didn't exactly
love the Sunday school as much as the
hymn made you say you did. but still
one who had rather sing 1T than stir up
a muss. you hunted for the shortest
verses you could find and said them off.
From four to eight was considered a
full days work But If you were q boy
who put on an apron and helped your
Ma with the dishes. a boy who always
wiped your feet before you came in, a
boy that never got kept in at school.
a boy that cried pretty easily, nice,
pale boy, with bullying blue eyes, you
came to Sabbath school and disgorged
verses like buckshot out of bag. The
our-to-eight-verse boys sat and lis
tened and improved their minds. There
was generally one other boy like you in
the class, and II was nip-and-tuck be-