The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-26
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

| %hAHy tines you Hediu thiS when S child
 Anw now, having children of your own,
 you are now saying it every Sunday
 morning.
 dare say many men now fathers who
 read this will recall the getting ready. It meant a clean shirtwaist, a scrubbed
 and shiny face, hair wet and plastered
 down, new pants, tight shoes, red tie, bright cap; but, oh! how proud you were. |
 Yes, you good women, now mothers,
 will remember how your hair was curled
 and the bow in it, the white dress, the
 pink sash the fancy stockings, the slip
 pers and how conscious you were as you
 walked in and took your seat in the class.
 Now. each Sunday you live it all over
 again in your children. As you get them
 joy in their pleasure in their new clothes. 1 It's great to have bunch of kiddies. | What a change has come over the Sun day schools! In the old days the classes
 were usually conducted in the church auditorium. They grouped themselves as
 best they could It was a veritable Babel 1 of voices and hard for teachers to hold 1 the attention of the restless children. l Now, in up-to-date churches the Sunday
 school rooms occupy a separate building
 or rooms or are private and each class
 is quiet and can go on with the lesson without any interruption or confusion.
 
 l Only a few years back the average
 the class. Now every week, In the best schools, they have teachers meeting to study the lesson.
 1 It used to be thought sufficient just to get lot of children together and put them in a class and let them stay in. 1t
 until the teacher quit, moved away or died.
 l Today they are arranged according to size and sex and graded and promoted l just as they are in day schools and in this way get certificates for the work | done.
 Few people realize the change that has come over Sunday school organizations
 and management during the last few years
 Awhile back any person with a smat- ! tering knowledge of the Bible and will ingness to teach was given class, and it's true that good and lasting work was done by many godly men and women in helping to build character. But twentieth century methods call for trained workers and so there are men and women who make out of Sum- day school work a profession and go about as experts.
 Some few great city churches have paid superintendents, but in great ma iority of cases teachers and superin- tendents serve without pay, even though large demands are made upon their time The growth of large Bible classes, both for men and women, is one of the features of the work In nearly every city lead | ing men and women are unselfishly devot- ling their lives to building up such classes Birmingham is leader in this class of work,
 l If you are not acquainted with what is being done for the young children, l ad- wise you to drop in next Sunday and see the equipment and hear the stories told them.
 l Every phase of life is touched by the Sunday school. From the cradle roll to
 the home department, no one is allowed. | if at all willing, to be neglected, It's for old and young.
 I was called upon once to marry an old couple. The bride was over 60 and the groom had passed threescore years and ten The affair had been arranged by the children of the couple. I Before the ceremony I went out to visit the bride in her little home on the outskirts of the town. Said she: l told John that I didn't want to marry him under any false pretenses; that was still girlish" And here is the evidence she gave him to prove that her heart was | still young She kept canary bird and went to Sunday school every Sunday
 morning.
 1 I haven't touched the fringe of the great activities of the Sunday school, which touches life from the cradle to the grave I'm merely sketching it. The l full picture covers too much canvass to | be spread out in this column. | I had to run down to Montgomery on Tuesday to make talk at the first ses- sion of the thirty fourth annual conven- 1 tion of the Alabama Sunday School as- sociation, which is made up of Sunday schools of the various Protestant
 churches in the state. | It was an inspiring sight to see men
 and women from all parts of Alabama gathered together in the beautiful new 1 First Baptist church to hear the Sunday school experts.
 | Dr. C. c. Thach, the president, pre- sided with ease and junction and Secre- 1 tary Palmer was tho servant of every one. The association is doing a great work. It was a pleasure and a privilege | to be on the programme. | n .<. oA. 1 ~