The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-09-22

ago the zUJn OF september, 1870, we
broke away from the Arlington as
sociation and became a separate or
ganization. The meeting was held at
Hawley and we commenced our work
with eleven schools, Ais scholars, 40
teachers. In our last report for 1910
we had Is schools, S3 teachers, S76
pupils. We see we have doubled the
number of scholars but have gained
only Z schools. Now the question is.
have we improved in the method of
our instruction and in the manner of
conducting our schools as rapidly as
we have along all other lines? We
certainly have everything made cas-
Ter for us with all our lesson helps,
and the Sunday school is made more
attractive with our music and chill
dren day exercises and other things.
In the earlier days of the Sunday
| school there was one feature that has
been neglected, and that is the COM
mitting of the Scripture to memory
We all neglect to read the Bible as
we should, and if it is not going to
be read how will our young people
remember very much about it unless
| they commit it to memory.
We older people know that what
we thoroughly learned in our youth
is not forgotten 1t is hard for us to
| memorize now but how easy for us to
recall what we learned in our youth.
We get more of a spiritual insight
into the Bible as we grow older. If
we are Christians and study our BIZ
Bile we cannot fail to learn many
Things our young and unregenerated
minds could not comprehend, but as
our spiritual vision is awakened then
we can realize the deeper, fuller
meaning of the scripture, we COM
mitted to memory.
| would plead for the committing
of some portion of the Scripture by
our Sunday school scholars each
week other than the golden text. 1
nave been stonished and panied in
teaching class of young ladies on
asking the most simple questions in
Bible history to have them know
nothing about it and they have been
Sunday school scholars most of their
lives and some of them had been my
pupils several years. Is it the fault
of the scholar, teacher, parents or a
llttle or all three? There were some
OF the fundamental truths of the BIZ
pie drilled into my mind so thorough
ly when l was a child that l shall
never forget them. We want things
now.
made easy and entertaining for us
Christ sacrificed everything for us
and it is getting so we think we must
not sacrifice any of our personal en-
Joyment for Him, we must have
things pleasing to us if we attend
church or work for His cause. | am
talking of the majority of our church
members, we certainly have some
self-sacrificing Christians. Yet, |
wonder how many of us to-day would
attend church in zero weather where
there was no fire, only what was in
the sermon, and they were not afraid
10 teach OF the fiery regions in those
uayS, ana the sermons were from one
TO two hours long, then have recess.
eat lunch and have another long SER
mon. They were willing to have a
lengthy discourse because they had to
go long distance, make a great eff
fort sometimes in order to attend and
| they wanted to hear something to re-
pay them for their efforts.
We hear the excuse these days that
II is too hot to go to church, or the
weather is too cold or afraid the
church will not be properly warmed,
or the pastor breaches too long a SER
mon; or any other excuse to
stay away We prize what we strug-
gle to attain; and perhaps things are
made too easy and comfortable for
us to fully appreciate them, or is it
the lack of the grace of God in our
hearts that is the cause? In those
days they met to worship God, not to
be entertained. Verify, there are
some things in which we might copy
our forefathers.
Philip Brooks says: God has not
given us vast learning to solve all
the problems, or unfailing wisdom to
direct all the wanderings of our
brothers lives, but He has given to
every one of us power to be spiritual,
and by our spirituality to uplift and
enlarge and enlighten the lives we
touch" If we could more fully real
ize the power of prayer what might
we not accomplish?
We need the words of another to
address ourselves to the great work
of bringing the life of our church
members up to much higher level.
We should increase our efforts to win
our fellowmen to God. Prayer, love,
patience and effort will win them
from the errors of their ways. We
need to recognize clearly the fact
that we do not so much need more
members as we do better ones; that
If the church is to have power over
the world to win it for God, it must
be through the high qualities of
Christian character eXemplified rath-
er than by mere show of members.
A Catholic priest once said "give me
the children until they are ten years
old, then you can have them" feeling
sure he could instill the Catholic re-
ligion into their hearts in that time
so strongly that they would be firm
in their religion all their lives. If
this is so what a responsibility for
our Sunday schools and how import
ant the children should have the very
best instruction we can give them
and how necessary that our Sunday
school teachers should be consecrated
| Christian men and women. AS we
| have said before the early impress
slons are the ones we keep. A
| child's character is like a piece of
soft clay in the sculptor's hands. He
can mold it as he will So it is with
the child's character, the parents and
the teacher have the molding, and
how necessary that they should make