The Oskaloosa herald., 1912-04-25

4
Lawrence, who is general secretary of
the International Sunday School AS
ISOLATION, and before he left there had
been death, burial and a resur-
rection. Mr. Lawrence had pet
plan for great. continent wide visit
alton of the leading cities in the in
terest of Sunday School work. The
ambition to carry out that plan died
that day, as far as immediate action
was concerned When Mr.. Smith
outlined the policy of THE Men and
Religion" movement the resurrection
took place and Mr.. Lawrence saw that
there was something bigger than his
Sunday school campaign.
The Young Mems Christian Associ
for men. Men, however, represent
only portion of the Sunday schools
constituency, and we must take that
fact into account. There are three
divisions of our Sunday school
The elementary division, which is
under the teen age;
The advanced division, which Is
made up of the teen age, and
/ The adult division, which is made
UP of those over the teen age; and
40 per cent are in the elementary di-
vision. Reports seem to prove that
about 20 per cent are in the teen age,
and about 40 per cent, including the
adults of all the departments, the
superintendent and other officers,
are in the adult division.
There are about $4,000 men enrol
led in the Young Mems Christian As
ISOLATION, and all the Brotherhoods to,
gether may have half as many more.
THE Sunday school has many times
more men in it already than all these
other organizations. If men are to
b helped it must be done where men
are now gathered However, that is
not all; we certainly desire to touch
men who are not at present in the
Sunday school or the church.
About $4,000 Sunday school conven-
tons arc held each year, attended
by about 100000 of people. The i'm.
portance of the Sunday school is not
understood by many people. 1t is a
place for men as well as women and
children. 1t is a fact that in the ma
pority of the state and provincial con
ventions, there are, more men, than
women in attendance We have 49,.
900 Sunday schools in North Ameri-
ca, and probably less than one. per
cent of the superintendent are wo.
men. You can scarcely find Sun
day school with less than ten men in
it, and the average, is nearer twenty
when we come to COUNT the great
mems classes. If it lis, only ten you
have nearly two millions of men in the
Sunday schools, and if it is twenty
you have. three and half millions
There is no doubt that out of the
nine millions above their teens, in the
Sunday schools of North America, one
third, counting the officers and all
are men.
The Sunday school is not a dead
institution. Mr.. COX, who is the stat
istician of the Worlds Sunday Schoo
Association, gives some interesting
figures. During the last three year;
= the Worlds Sunday School forces
, have increased by more than 10000
r Sunday schools and by three million
, people. This means that about 20C
new Sunday schools have been borl
each week, with 10000 people in them
Mr.. Cork is very certain that there
are 100000 more men in the Sunday
schools than there were four years
ago.
A few months ago, from a review
: ing stand at Cleveland, Ohio, eX-goV
ernOr Hanley, who was to address the
men, saw 1900 men by actual count
with about twenty-five brass bands
march by, all of them there to attenC
. the Ohio State Sunday School Con
vention. In Harrisburg, some tim'
ago, there was another parade of 7,5OC
men with the governor of the state
Mr.. Wanamaker and Mr.. Heinz in thu
reviewing stand. There was a parade
= at Spokane, open to all Sunday schoo
people, with 1880 in line. There
was a picture of this parade in news
; paper with the skyline of the city il
the distance, and in the foreground
was the devil with a grpsack packed
. with horns on and with tail in gOOt
working order, and he was getting on
as fast as he could. The title of thu
I picture was, This is no place for me-
thought it was a pretty good omel
for the Sunday school work of tina
city. One year ago $4,000 people wit
> messed a parade in Altoona of 1000
: men, all of whom wore the little RET
> button with the white center. Thi
button signifies purity through tin
d blood of Jesus Christ" and is thu
emblem OF the adult Bible classes.
: | mentioned Mr.. III. J. Heinz. thu
pickle man of Pittsburg-he is an In
ternational Sunday School Association
: committeeman. and is practically thu
sole support of the work in Japan.
D The new evangelism is to CONF
! through intelligent, high-grade, genu
inc teaching of Gods Word to thu
boys and girls. We shall never saw
This world by saving men and women
The great organized classes of mel
: are doing wonderful things, and a
t they multiply we are not going t
K have so much difficulty in holding tn,
r boys. And since the coming evangel
: ism is through the study of God