Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-17
Worlds Sunday School Convention
Bv Frederic j. Haskin

| ing of the Sunday school in the United
States. The first national Sunday
school convention was held in New
York in 1882, although there had been
several interstate conventions before
that time.
In 1872 the national convention
broadened into an international meet
ing, with Canada participating, and
here was begun the work of preparing
/ the worlds Bible study in the shape
of the international Sunday school les
sons. The convention which adopted
the international lesson idea was held
at Indianapolis and it is said that
much feeling entered Ito the debate
on the subject.
The first international lessons were
prepared by a committee of twelve, five
ministers and five laymen from the
United States and one minister and one
laYman from Canada. 1t was to formu-
late a seVen-year Bible study course.
Since then there have been some
I changes in the formation of the COM
mittec, and some i'm it's work, but on the
whole it's task today is not essentially
different from what it was thirty-seven
years ago.
The lessons which are to be studied
this year were not produced in haste.
Seven now, while the Sunday school
ANts'CAA
1910, those for 1912 are being prepared,
and those for subsequent years are be-
| ing mapped out by the great commit
tees upon whose shoulders falls the
duty of guiding the worlds thought in
Bible study. Even as far back as 1907,
at the meeting of the British and the
American sections of the international
committee, it was decided that the
British committee should prepare
cycle of lessons from 1912 to 1911, with
the 1912 lessons worked out in detail
and the ones from 1918 to 1917 inclusive
in broad outline The course for the
1910 lessons was approved before that
date, and the American committee was
asked to work out the details Of the
1911 lessons.
The 1907 conference of the British and
American sections of the international
lesson writer's will result in the lessons
of the next few years being graded. On
| both sides of the Atlantic it was found
that there was a demand for graded
lessons, and resolutions were adopted
looking to that end, but it is probable
that these will be introduced before
1912. The American section is elected
by the international association and
consists of fifteen members, who hold
their positions for six years, or for one
of the cycles of Sunday school Bible
study Three of them are from Canada
Twelve are ministers and three are
laymen, and they are proportionately
divided among the leading Protestant
churches which use the international
lessons.
The Bible must be covered in six
years, with 2SS lessons. There must be
a temperance lesson every quarter and
a number of other special lessons. After
the committee has gone over the lessons
for a given year they are sent to the
publishers and lesson writer's of the
world, who are asked for suggestions
and criticisms looking to a revision.
When the committee meets the ensuing
year these suggestions and criticisms
are examined carefully. In the prepa-
ration of the lessons for 1909 there were
about 125 suggestions, and they result
ed in the change or modification of
thirty-one themes, thirty-three Golden
Texts, twenty-five lesson assignments,
nine committal verses, and the sub
stitution of six lessons for six that were
eliminated.
The home department of Sunday
school work is of American origin, the
creation of Dr. w. A. Duncan of New
York state. who established it in 1881.
As only 80 per cent of church members
attend the regular Sunday school SER
vices the home department has great
field. lnlS pndSG ol ouludy SCHpOl
work has grown with great rapidity.
Atlanta has a police home department
and Louisville one for trolley employees.
With all the great good that is done
through the agency of the Sunday
school, which is really the recruiting
station of the church, it seems strange
that ecclesiasts could have failed to
gauge it's possibilities to such an eX-
tent as to try to kill the movement,
even after it had numbered half mil
lion followers under its banners, yet it
is less than a hundred years since no
less a religious authority than the
archbishop of Canterbury convoked
council Of bishops to consider ways
and means to put an end to Sunday
schools.
The first Sunday school, under Robert
Raikes, had paid teachers who received
a shilling a day for their services. But
i it was not many years before the idea
of paid teachers was eliminated, and
with it the general objection that the
Sunday school tended to secularize the
Sabbath. 1t was long after the begin
ming of the Sunday school that any
comprehensive system of Bible study
was outlined