The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-10-19
Superintendent of Biggest
Sabbath School in World,
at Brazil, Ind. Enthuses
the Local Workers.
HE QUITS POLITICS
AS OBJECT LESSON
Tells Local Workers They
Should Secure Recruits for
Sunday Schools When
They Are Infants.

Mr.. Sunday School Superintendent
If you want an enrolment In your
Bible school Of hve hundred by next
Easter. wou can have 1t by getting tho
kind OF a church God wants. and get.
ting the right workmen to take charge
of it,"
The above statement was made by
Willard E. Carpenter, OF Brasil, Ind.
yesterday evening before the men,
bers Of the First Methodist Episcopal
Sunday school. The occasion was An
entertainment given by the losing
team, In the recent membership con-
test of the Sunday school. In honor OF
the winning team. James e. Perry. the
captain OF the losing team. was In
charge of the affair and together with
his teammates. furnished 4 most At
tractive evening to the three hundred
and fifty people that attended the At
fair. Several speeches were made By
prominent workers In the school, and
music was also on the program.
Great Sunday School.
Mr.. Carpenter. the principal speaker
of the evening, 10 superintendent OF
the largest Sabbath school In the
world, with an enrolment of 1897
scholars. His talk last night presented
some Of his experiences during tho
twenty-five years that he has been su-
perintendent, and gave some Of tho
Underlying principles that had govern
ed his actions while building mp HE
school
From the cradle to the grave. ws
are seeking to teach and % save"
This was announced BY the speak4t
| In telling Qf hie 1xatem oe hrip4in9
new pupils into the school. In Brasil.
= town OF only 10000 inhabitants.
whenever 4 baby is born, the supertn-
tendent Of the cradle roll In the
Methodist church investigates the
case, finds out whether ito parents
are church members and studies tho
child's development. On every Christ
mas day and on the chtld's birthday.
the superintendent sends . card tof
greeting, or some remembrance to the
infant until it Is three years old. At
this age. representative Of the
church goes to the child's parents,
and asks that the infant be enrolled
| in the Sunday school. When the pA-
rents see the interest taken In their
baby, they are naturally prone to let
the superintendent have his way, and
the child, in most cases, becomes .
member Of the beginners department.
Then, by keeping the interest Of the
parents centered on the church. tho
children are advanced in graded de-
partments. and appropriate study CIV
en- them until old age.
In telling what persons he thought
equipped to take charge Of Sunday
schools. Mr.. Carpenter quoted the
verse from the Bible: "Who shalt ~
cend into the hill of the Lord. etc.?"
From this he concluded that in order
to do efficient service. . teacher must
live an exemplary life. for pupils are
quick to take advantage of any dsvia-
tions which the teacher makes.
| Opposes Gard Playing.
i In this connection, he condemned
card playing, theaters and dances. Al
though he admitted that under GER
tain conditions these were perfectly
legitimate. they could not be permit
ted because of their effect ON child
rem. He urged all interested In Bible
school work to carry their moral prtn-
ciples into political and social life. He
said that he himself had given mp
membership in the republican party
because he was associated with the
brewers and saloonists in control oe
the party in Hrazil.
/ The growth OF his school In Brasil
has been almost miraculous. Their
donations to foreign missions ID . sin-
gle year grew from $11s to $1.1S5. On
Easter Sunday. In 1910, they had IN
attendance OF ISIS. and every 9un-
day have at least \ thousand. In the
past ten years over three Thousand
Bibles have been given out at grsduar
ton time.
i After his speech. the officers and
teachers Of the school had privats
meeting. and were MI highly enthus-
iastic over the possibility of develop
ing school Of like proportions In
Richmond. Mr.. Carpenter told them
that with 4 little considerations work.
they could have . big school Tho
\ teachers promised to get together snd
have an enrolment Of 1000 and IN
attendance OF 500 on next Easter San
day at the First II e, church.
WILSON MAY RESIGN
! FROM THE CABINET
- "a Ss