The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1910-05-06
School Has Done.

The paper below, read by Mrs. w. H
Stokes, of Hardy, at the recent Stat
Sunday School Convention at Meridian
should be an inspiration to every tow
and community. A good lesson show
ing the result Of try"
The Baptist church in which is helt
the Sunday School whose story I tel
today, is an old one, having been found
ed about 1910. 1t is known as Mt.
Paren and is located at Hardy, Grenada
county.
Hardy is a small station on the |. C.
r.. H., containing twenty white men.
eighteen women and fourteen children.
n total population of the little town
is 81. If you take the town as a center
and with a radius three miles in length
describe a circle, you will include six
white families. The members of these
families number twenty-eight, thus Civ
ing a total population, both town and
county, of eighty.
For many years, off and on, thew
have had a Sunday School at this
church. | have lived here fourteen
years, and during the first nine wears
OF that period we had a Sunday School
that could live very well during the
spring and summer, but the first frost
of autumn killed it. The following
spring it would reorganize and start
out for another term.
In the fall, 1904, it died from neg
lect and cold, and in the spring of 1905 |
the former officers failed to reorgan-
ize it.
There were in this town, however.
ladies who had small children, and
they were exceedingly anxious that
these children be brought u, in a Sum
lay school. They waited until June for
he school to reopen, but finally coming
% the conclusion that no man was will
ng to reorganiZe it and act as it's sup
they decided to open a
School themselves, if no one
would attend it but them and their .
hildren. But they were destined to :
help, not only from above, but '
earthly friends. '
When, inspired by love of God and a '
ncere desire that our children should y
'ceive systematic religious instruction. "
e met on June II, 1905, to open the :.
1nday School, we had three ladies and l
ght children present. One of these
dies became superintendent, secreta-
, treasurer and teacher of a class. ="
ne of them became assistant superin- -
ndent, Organist and a teacher of a "
ass.
This, you see, was n time when the "
ice sought the man, or rather the "
Two of these ladies were -
athodists, the other was an Episco- w.
liam, and we ordered Baptist litera- :.
for u school. Rather an I'M Il
lal combination, was it not? But
sure you it has been a pleasant and VI
ccessful one, for, while we have had "
ficulties and disappointments to over w
and have not always been carried pa
'ng on 'fowery beds of ease" we N
We never had any UNCONVENTIONAL I'M y
'asantness, but have worked as one. al
] this small small school, organized ~
fear and trembling, has grown to be &c,
active, progressive and, we hope,
lseful one. VI
bur church membership is small, ~
nbering only thirty, SO we have q
only onc a month, but we w
re been blest with pastors who have
interested in Sunday School work.
len they came to preach they always i
ended Sunday School and gave us %.
rds of encouragement. Chief among o'
Sc was that grand old man, Rev. A.. =
Lomax. He came to US, fresh from Xix
teachers meetings at Batesville, ~"
Of zeal and knowledge, and always SUI
ght our most advanced class, and AN
h what n,o.Srra RE- ,l,ou. - PHI
him explain the lessons. cel
n January, 1908, Rev. w. G. Mahaf-
pastor of our church. In the oe'
summer he held a protracted meet vi
+; n of the old-fashioned kind, for W.
did all the preaching himself. Th3re we
e five who joined the church, three ins
whom were members of our Sunday ae'
DOL, and much religious interest was S"e
,kened in our little town. '
ur Sunday School had never dis w
ded for the winter since we opened an
n 1905, and our membership had oci
gradually increased, but through
these years only one mar came to- -