The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-05-05
WHY ATTEND SUNDAY SCHOOL?

By Edna Dean Baker
In this day of lowered standards, of
prevalent crime, of vicious forms of
entertainment Of which the average
movie is a type, we need to subject
our children to every uplifting influ,
ence that makes for clean, honest,
strong character. We need to seek a
permanent remedy for selishness
which is causing the strife between
labor and capital as well as all other
strife. The Sunday school is one
medium for this valuable training.
In many homes there comes a day
when the question, Shall Joseph go
to Sunday SCHOOL, is raised in all
seriousness by Joseph's parents. Per
haps they themselves are not members
of a church, perhaps they are not even
church attendants. There is, how
ever, a desire on the part of all genu-
inely earnest fathers and mothers to
secure for their children not only the
best in education, but whatever bless
ing the church may have to bestow.
They often express this ambition as
did n little mother when she brought
her Joseph to Sunday school, Il want
my boy 70 be a good boy" she said.
While going to Sunday school is not
synonymous with being "a good boy
any more than going to church insures
honesty in business, yet the church
has been and is a fundamental agency
in creating the ideals, the aspirations,
the attitudes that serve as the motive
power for right action. The Bible
story Is a potent factor to this end.
Theodore who had listened eagerly to
the story of David and Goliath told by
a Sunday school teacher who was an
artist in making this old story live
in the imagination, remarked, Gee,
but that David was a wiz" and then
wistfully, do you s'pose | could ever
be like him?'
Not alone the creating of ideas of
service but the carrying out Of such
ideas is a prominent feature of Sunday
'Sf''ci WIN toNty. "a tldSO Vi Ten
year-olds had heard with deep concern
an account of the starving children
of Armenia. They longed to help and
decided to solicit doughnuts, cookies
and canned fruit from their mothers.
They held a sale with the aid Of the
Sunday school teacher and realized
$4,000 with which to support starving
children.
The teaching Of the Sunday school
is not restricted to establishing a right
relation to ones fellows but it includes
a~cquainting the child with God as the
Creator of all things thus answering
the eternal question Of Genesis salts
factorily. 1t also includes the pre-
sentatiOn Of God as the Greater Father
and hence the friend, protector and
guide Of every child. Thank you,
God" said a tiny child, "for keeping
care Of me-" The atmosphere of rever-
ence and devotion makes a deep i'm
preston upon the child. Johns father,
a man who never attended any church,
consented to his boys attendance at
Sunday school. One morning a few
weeks after John had entered the
Sunday school, the father become ir-
ritated at a refractory collar button
and took the name Of the Lord in
vain John who apparently had been
asleep, sat up and in a tone Of grieved
reproof said, Daddy, if you went to
our Sunday school you wouldn't speak
Of God like that"
Shall Joseph go to Sunday SCHOOL,
Well, let US at least try the experiment
and watch the result. 1t may do for
Joseph what it has done for many an
other lad. 1t may give him a faith in
the unseen, a vision of worthy man
hood, a love for all life which will
make his W life more satisfying and
a greater blessing to his fellowmer.