Sunday-School Success Part 23

_Silent Prayers._--If we always word the children's prayers for them, they will be unlikely ever to word prayers for themselves. Often request them to bow their heads and in silence to ask the Father for what they need and thank him for his kindness.

_Cla.s.s Prayers._--Why should not every cla.s.s recitation be opened with a brief prayer, and often close with one? Yes, and when the talk in the middle of the lesson becomes especially earnest, prayer is the best means of binding the truth to the lives of your scholars.

_A Prayer Calendar._--This is a list of the scholars in your cla.s.s, plus the name of the teacher, divided among the days of the week, that of the teacher falling on Sunday. The whole is headed with a promise to pray each day for the persons named for that day. Each of the scholars has a copy, and signs it.

_Pegs._--Draw a good-sized map of the country you are studying, and mount it on a board. With a gimlet bore holes wherever there is an important town, mountain, lake, or other geographical feature whose location you wish your scholars to learn. Fit pegs into these holes, and color the pegs white for the mountains, red for the cities, blue for the bodies of water. Teach the scholars, as you call for Hebron, for instance, to place a red peg in the proper hole, and thus to use the map.

_Dissected Maps._--Paste a good-sized map of the desired country on thick cardboard or pasteboard. If you cannot get a large enough map, draw one yourself, and in the process you will learn much geography.

Then cut the map into irregular pieces, and present it to the younger cla.s.ses for them to fit together.

_Putty Maps._--With a board foundation and a good map for a guide, any teacher can build up a relief map of Palestine out of putty. Paint the water blue, the sandy portions yellow, the fertile plains green, the mountains white or gray, the cities red. Letter with black.

_Colors and Places._--A good way to aid the children's memory as to the location of the various lessons of the quarter is to write on the blackboard the t.i.tle of each lesson as it comes, using each week a different color, and pinning to an outline map, at the same time, a sc.r.a.p of paper of the same color. Of course, if a later lesson falls at the same place, the old color will be used in writing its t.i.tle.

_Home Drawings._--Some teachers wisely require their scholars to reproduce at home what they can remember of the blackboard work of the day, and bring in the result the next Sunday. The test is one for the teacher's blackboard work as well as for the scholars' memory.

_Utilizing your Reading._--Every teacher should keep either a wide-margin Bible, or an interleaved Bible, solely to note the helps on Bible texts he may note in his reading. If the book or periodical is your own, simply set down the page opposite the Bible verse. Some may prefer a system of envelopes, one for each book of the Bible, in which clippings may be filed, as well as slips of paper containing references to books.

_One Way of Preparing._--Cut up the Scripture text found on a lesson leaf, and paste the verses on large sheets of paper, leaving liberal s.p.a.ce around each. In this s.p.a.ce write your own comments, and the suggestions you glean from your reading.

_On the Spot._--If one of your scholars is reported sick, why not pen--or _pencil_--a little note immediately, with the aid of the cla.s.s, and send it to the sick scholar at the close of the school? A message thus written will move graciously upon the cla.s.s as well as upon the recipient.

_Prompt Investigation._--"A st.i.tch in time saves nine." Apply this maxim to your scholar's _first_ absence, and look him up at once.

_Lookout Committees._--Divide each cla.s.s into three companies. Company A will seek recruits for the cla.s.s, Company B will hunt up absentees, and Company C will do hospital service among the sick. Require regular reports.

_Reports of Study._--Some teachers issue to their scholars blank reports, which they return, filled out, each Sunday. These reports tell whether they have studied the lesson for ten minutes each day, _and what verses of the lesson they do not understand_.

_Reports to Parents._--The work done in Sunday-school should be so definite that it can be reported. Certain points should be required to be learned in each lesson, and when they are well recited, or when they are not recited, the parents should know of it. Regular monthly or quarterly reports, sent by postal-card, will stimulate the scholar to learn better, the parents to help him study, and the teacher to teach with system, definiteness, and persistency.

_Collection and Record._--Give the mother, for her child, fifty-two little envelopes in which to put a year's pennies or nickels. Each child's envelopes are given a number, so that the collection is also a record of attendance.

_More than a Straight Mark._--A simple but complete record may be made by a few strokes of the pencil. A cross has been suggested. The upper arm signifies "present"; the lower arm, "prompt"; the left-hand arm, "the lesson learned," according to a definite standard; the right-hand arm, "present at church." If the scholar has failed in one or more of these points, the corresponding arms are omitted from the cross.

_Cla.s.s Photographs._--With your own camera or some friend's take a group picture of your cla.s.s once a year. You may give them at that time a pleasant "photograph party," or take an excursion together to some place, there to be photographed. Each scholar should have a copy of the resulting picture. It will be delightful if all the cla.s.ses can thus be photographed, and an exhibition arranged of the entire series of pictures, which then becomes the property of the school.

_Holidays Together._--A teacher especially successful in holding together a cla.s.s of boys is in the habit of taking them with him on all sorts of excursions,--to libraries, museums, points of historical interest, on sleigh-rides, to hear ill.u.s.trated lectures. And often he arranges for them merry parties at his home.

_A Cla.s.s Symbol._--Some concrete token, presented when the new scholar joins the cla.s.s, will greatly help to cement the relationship. This may be a little book, a ribbon book-mark, an illuminated Scripture card, a simple emblematic pin. Whatever it is, it should be the same for all, that it may serve as a sort of cla.s.s badge.

_Introduction Cards._--These are of use to make new scholars acquainted with their cla.s.smates. The card contains the names of Sunday-school, teacher, and all the scholars, that of the new scholar being last, with the date of entrance. The whole is of immediate service to the new member, and is sure to be preserved as a pleasant memento.

_A Work for Each._--Enlist each of your scholars in some definite and individual work for Christ. One may gather up old periodicals for the seamen, one may be interested in a children's hospital, one may collect partly worn garments for the poor. At each meeting of the cla.s.s call for brief reports of these special lines of work. There could be no better commentary on the lessons your scholars are studying.

_Subst.i.tute Teachers._--The teachers should obtain their own subst.i.tutes, whenever possible. If the superintendent makes it clear that he expects this, it will usually be done. In the process of obtaining the subst.i.tute, too, the teacher will probably gain fresh sympathy and consideration for the superintendent.

_A Cla.s.s Historian._--Appoint one scholar to this office. Ask him to keep track of the old members, and report any interesting news concerning them, at the same time keeping a record.

_Essays._--Your scholars will appreciate the honor if asked to prepare essays now and then on special points in the lessons, such as "Jewish customs regarding Sunday," "The city of Antioch," "What the Bible teaches about temperance." Such essays should be very brief.

_Supplemental Lessons._--The very interest aroused by the International Lessons calls often for supplementary lessons, dealing with such topics as the origin of the Bible, Bible geography, the Christian doctrines.

Ten minutes preceding the regular lesson may be spent on such themes, and a great deal thus learned in the course of the year.

_An Expedient._--If a boy is especially mischievous and restless, make him an usher and set him to keeping the rest in order.

_A Study Outline._--Each member of a certain cla.s.s was furnished with a copy of the following excellent programme for home study of the lesson: "1. Intervening events. 2. Time. 3. Place. 4. Persons. 5.

Incidents. 6. Parallel pa.s.sages and Scripture references. 7.

Difficulties. 8. Doctrines and duties. 9. Central thought. 10.

Personal application--to myself, to others."

_Question-Books._--Blank-books in which questions on the lesson have been written, with s.p.a.ces for answers, may profitably be used even in very young cla.s.ses. The answers should be written immediately on the conclusion of the teaching, or even, question by question, as the teaching proceeds. In older cla.s.ses, the questions may be set before the cla.s.s a week later, and may introduce the next lesson, by way of review.

_Home-Made Question-Books._--To induce your scholars to study at home, provide for each of them two little blank-books. Write a question in one, and request the return of the book next Sunday with the answer written out. Exchange it for the second book, and so alternate. Wise teachers will slip into such books many a personal word of praise or exhortation.

_A Question Formula._--Ask each member of the cla.s.s to bring you, every Sunday, written answers to a set of questions so general that, once dictated, they will serve for all lessons; for instance: "When occurred the events of our lesson? What is a brief synopsis of our lesson? What is its princ.i.p.al teaching? Which is your favorite verse in it, and why?" These answers should be discussed in the cla.s.s.

_Trained as Questioners._--In most schools there is no normal cla.s.s, and if the teachers do not train their scholars to teach, the next generation of teachers in that school will be untrained. The cla.s.s should be taught how to ask questions, and probably the best way to do this is to have them occupy a few minutes at the beginning of each recitation questioning one another on the previous lesson.

_A Choice of Questions._--For this exercise the teacher writes a number of questions, which she brings to the cla.s.s. Each scholar in turn is permitted to select a question, which he will propound to any of his cla.s.smates he may pick out.

_The "Bible Library."_--This is a help to learning the order of the books of the Bible, and consists of sixty-six wooden blocks, painted and lettered to represent books, and varying in thickness with the size of the various books of the Bible. The poetical books are "bound" in the same style, the minor prophets in a different style, and so with other "sets." These imitation books are kept on shelves, from which they are taken by the children, to be replaced in the correct order.

_Bible-Reading Lessons._--Many scholars read the Bible wretchedly; they have never been taught how. If this is the case with your cla.s.s, have them read the lesson, verse about, before you discuss it. After the reading, criticise it, and have them repeat it.

_Two Bibles._--If the scholars will not bring their Bibles to school,--and the boys especially are likely to think it will look "goody-goody,"--the next best plan is to give each of them a second Bible for his own use during the school hour.

_Marked Bibles._--Teach the scholars to mark their Bibles, writing, for instance, the "key-word" at the beginning of each book; underscoring the leading sentence of a chapter; marking with red all pa.s.sages referring to Christ as our Saviour; writing a P after every promise; "railroading," or connecting with a neatly drawn line, phrases that are ant.i.thetical or mutually explanatory, etc. One set of colored inks will answer for the cla.s.s. The scholars will delight in the work, it will induce them to bring their Bibles to school, and will teach them how to use the Book.

_Bible Dialogues._--Where the lesson text includes conversation, get the scholars to read it in dialogue form, or to come with it thus written out.

_Home Bible-Reading._--The school may be set to reading the Bible at home, if lists of readings for each day of the week are written on cards by the teachers, and given out, to be returned, signed, in token that the reading has been accomplished.

_A Divided Primary Department._--In large schools, where the superintendent of the primary department teaches the lesson for ten or fifteen minutes, and then hands the cla.s.ses over to her a.s.sistant teachers, it is best for those teachers to spend their time in eliciting from the children, by questions, the facts and truths just taught them. Thus you will make sure of something gained.

_A Week-Day Meeting._--It has been proved possible to sustain, in connection with a primary department, a week-day meeting for special and supplementary teaching, including singing, mission studies, and Bible history and geography.

_Introducing Prayer._--This little verse, recited in concert, is used in many primary departments just before the prayer service:

"We fold our hands that we may be From all our work and play set free; We close our eyes that we may see Nothing to take our thoughts from thee; We bow our heads as we draw near The King of kings, our Father dear."

_The Essentials._--Every child, before leaving the primary department, should know the Commandments, the Beat.i.tudes, the Twenty-third Psalm, the Apostles' Creed or some simple statement of Christian faith, the books of the Bible by name and order and something of their origin, the princ.i.p.al features of the map of Palestine, the chief events in Christ's life. Some of the Old Testament history will of course be added,--creation, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon.

_Primary Prayers._--No prayer for the children is so good as prayer by the children. Ask them, one after the other, to name things for which they are grateful. Then give them the formula, "I thank thee, Lord, for ...," and let them offer prayers of thanksgiving for what they have mentioned. Again, ask each to tell one thing he really wants, and follow with prayers of pet.i.tion, with the formulas, "Help me, dear Jesus, to be ...," or, "Give me, dear Jesus, ..." Teach short Bible prayers. Offer longer prayers in brief sentences, which the children reverently repeat after you. For example: "Our dear heavenly Father, ... we thank thee for this beautiful day, ... for our homes and fathers and mothers, ... for our sisters and brothers and friends, ... and all that thou hast given us to make life happy.... Teach us to be helpful to those that are without these blessings.... Make us more kind and patient.... Help us to do everything thou dost want us to do.... For Jesus' sake. Amen."