Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-05-21

CQllu goes Ill kNcEGdIs 1ACSO SS1ASOAS
need not exist. They are in the main,
at least, preventable and will be stop
ped when people awake to the import
ance Of the child-not merely your
child but any body's. That they ex-
ist is the disgrace Of our Wanted civil
lization.
IN our Sunday schools were are
training and saving some of our chill
dren. 1 sometimes fear that we are
losing more than we are saving, and
this too, from preventable causes, IN
the main.
The stunted dwarfed lives of chill
dren whose rights to a decent parent
age and a decent chance in the world
has been denied is the shame of the
world, at least, so long as we hold to
the belief in Immortality and do not be-
lieve that the end of humanity is to
rot in the grave. WE MUST LIVE
UP TO THE DOCTRINE OF MINOR
TALLY IN OUR TREATMENT OF
THE CHILD. But the church of Jesus
Christ has an opportunity greater than
it has yet risen to grasp with that Wig
or which the occasion requires. sup
pose that large percentage of the
nom christian homes, yet their parents
have recognized in the very act of en-
children in our schools do come from
trusting them to US in the Sunday
school that the church has a message
for their children. These parents thus
ask us to teach and train their children
the best we are able. 1t is for the
church to rise to meet this confidence
thus imposed and to do for those chill
dren all and more than all that their
parents expect of us. The pesslmlst
may say that with so limited an op-
portunity we can do but little for these
children, with only an hour in the
week SO the preacher may say If ne
is so disposed. But the good preacher
SAYS give me that hour with my con-
gregation and l will give them such
message straight from God that it will
the work of the Sunday school says
give that hour and 1 will bring to
these children the love of God and the
vision of Jesus Christ so that in the
light of that vision they may live all
their DAYS" Music Is not measured
by duration but by quality The vision
of Jesus is not constant, even the dis
ciples of old saw him but three years
but it lives in memory if it once be
seen. We can win these children and
train them for a place of usefulness
and honor in the kingdom of God
There is time for what men consider
of paramount Importance. we often
hear it said that so few are willing to
take the time to be teachers and work
ers in the Sunday school. Is 1t not
sad commentary upon our preaching
that such is the case? Is 1T not pos
sible for us to so portray the need and
the opportunity that our people shall
feel that this work must be done even
if other work is neglected? DO we not
need more Of the unquenchable divine
fire which falling upon the affairs OF
human hearts shall never be extin-
guished?
AS to Equipment.
To be sure the Sunday school has
been inadequate and ancient In currl-
culum, methods, cramped for room,
poorly supplied with accessories ana
hampered by unframed teachers. This
has been due in part to the TACT thaI
the vision of the need has not come to
the church and in part to the lack OF
knowledge of how to make needed I'M
proyements 1t has also been due IN
mart to the hardness of mems hearts
and the inaccessible location OF the
Christian purse. But now eyes are pc
ing opened. in building new churches
we plan for Sunday rooms as much
as for rooms for the church. Better
methods of teaching are being intro
duced. New and well graded curri-
culums are being prepared and are be-
ing introduced Many are studying
to fit themselves for teachers in the
Sunday schools. 1t has come to new
ay for the Sunday school. Every man
who is awake knows it. and even those
who sleep have dreams of the coming
day.
Are We Too Late?
The question is, are we too late with
our improved methods and our better
facilities and enlarged rooms:
Has the tide Of life begun to blow
away from US and if SO what man is
there who can stop the ebbing tide?
Has a generation arisen who regard
the church as obsolete. and for whom
the Holy day is only a holiday? Has
the ball game and the amusement park
eclipsed the church and the Sunday
school? Are we driven to say that we
church people have few children OF our
own and the children Of non-chrlstians
prefer the Sunday amusements? With
all our modern facilities we are to be
like the mill in time Of famine with no
grist to grind?
No! The church has divine mes
sage that men need to hear and the
God who made the world and all things
therein has given US the MESA ge and
He will see that we fail not if we are
true to Him. All our methods and
modern curriculums and graded cours-
es will fail if the living vision Of Jesus
be not present like a shekinah within
these our modern temples. We pray
for more of the spirit Of God, of Christ
in the world. The spirit Of Christ is
that we feed His lambs. Men are
seeking light upon the Sunday school
problem but most Of US have more need
Of love. We need more of the divine
fire, the sacred passion which is at all
times and in all methods the secret of
victory. Love never faileth but
whether there be prophesies they
shall fail, whether there be knowledge
it shall vanish away" Our better
methods will themselves become obso-
lete: our improved facilities will be
anticipated by and by; our curriculums
will be criticised as severely and as
justly as we criticise what has now
been outgrown, but a passion for the
souls of boys and girls will be the same
victorious element in the contest II the
coming ages as it has been in the times
that have gone before. We must come