and the results so gratifying, shall we not all unite and push this work as never before? Let us rally around our new Sunday School secretary and give him our cordial co-operation in any plans he and the Conference Sunday School Committee may bring forward. And above all let us learn to pray for and to love the Chinese children as never before and seek for their salvation. S The Sunday School Movement and Its BY REV. WM. C. WHITE, B.D., FOOCHOW UNDAY School work in China up to the time of the Centenary Conference was conspicuous by its absence. Reports presented to that Conference showed the Sunday School work to be so meagre and desultory that it was not to be wondered at if a gathering composed of missionaries who themselves owed so much to Sunday Schools at home, should immediately take steps to put this matter to rights and decide that there should be an organizing secretary for this work, backed up by a strong committee. Although there were local movements to further Sunday Schools in some districts, as a whole little had been done and one wonders why no more united effort had been made for Sunday Schools generally, following the example of the home lands. It is possible that the conditions in China being so different to those in the home countries would cause some to think that it was quite impossible to attempt anything on the line of the home Sunday School, and so they plodded on, doing Sunday School work, it is true, in a kind of way along the lines of ordinary missionary work or as opportunity occurred. And yet a very little organization and preparation on typical Sunday School lines would perhaps have made a great difference in results. For hundreds of years the church had the Sunday School idea and laid stress upon instructing the young, but it was not until 1781 that our present Sunday School methods had their rise, when Robert Raikes planned and organized and advocated his scheme until it arrested attention and developed into the well defined movement, with its wonderful results, of to-day. Although the Sunday School movement of the present would appear to us to be very different to what it was one hundred years ago, yet the fundamental principle is one and the same,that the Sunday School is the Bible studying service of the church, having as its object the instruction of all ranks and ages in the knowledge of the Scriptures. To attempt to graft into the Chinese church the present elaborate Sunday School system of the home land would be placing on it an intolerable burden. Get the church to realize the necessity for systematic Bible study, give a little guidance and supervision in simple initial organization and place into the hands of the scholars simple courses of lessons, with helps for the teachers, and the Sunday School system that will be evolved may not be altogether like that of the Western Sunday Schools, but it will likely be more suitable for China and be taken up more spontaneously and effectively by the Chinese themselves. We want a Sunday School system for China, but it must be one that will appeal to the Chinese mind and will be carried on by the Chinese themselves, and our hope is that the Conference Sunday School Committee may materially aid us in developing such a system. There is no question in peoples' minds as to why we want an organized Sunday School system, for the great majority are strongly convinced that it can be made a most effective agency for missionary work. 1. In the first place we want Sunday Schools for the evangelistic side of the work, because we want specially to teach God's Word, which alone contains the way of salvation. Rightly used, the Sunday School can become a great evangelistic agency, not only because it reaches children and plants in their hearts the seed truths of Christianity in those most susceptible years of their life, but because it spreads and deepens a knowledge of Bible truths amongst adults, as well as multiplies evangelists in the church by securing the cooperation of voluntary unpaid workers. We have in our scattered churches all classes of peopleheathen, enquirers, Christians; young and old, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. The present method of Bible teaching, apart from the organized Sunday School, is invariably the preaching on a subject to a promiscuous congregation by a preacher who is at no loss for words. It is true that souls have been won by this method, but how much better and more effective would it be if some simple organization could be managed, by which classes of approximate understanding and age would have their own teachers to press home in a very personal and thorough way the important truths of Scripture. 2. We want the Sunday School system too because of what it means for the pastoral work, the edifying of the Church of Christ. It is surely more than a coincidence that since the organized Sunday School movement was begun in 1781 the great spiritual wave of missionary interest has come upon the church, and she has tried as never before to win the world for Christ. The church can be strong only in as far as its members assimilate and live according to the teaching of Scripture, and any method that makes for this end, as the Sunday School does, is a factor of the greatest moment in the strengthening and edifying of the church. Anyone who has much to do with an established pastoral work in China, cannot fail to notice two things. Firstly, the very small percentage of children and grandchildren of Christians, who are active members of the church or attend service, showing a tremendous leakage of the children of Christians. Secondly, the comparatively small number of children to be found in our services or meetings; adults greatly predominate. Upon enquiry it is usually found that most of the adults have children, but for some reason or another they do not come, and it is pretty certain that very few get any adequate instruction at home. The children of Christians are the greatest asset for the future that the Chinese church has, and any weakness in this direction means irreparable loss. The Sunday School, if it does nothing else than retain the children in Scriptural truth and living, is well worth all the time and pains we can bestow upon it. We can think of no greater calamity that could befall the church in the home lands than that its Sunday Schools should suddenly cease, or, say, relapse to the condition of Sunday Schools in China. Such being the case, as a pastoral agency, the Sunday School is one of the greatest supports of the church. 3. The Sunday School is very specially needed in China at the present time owing to the recent educational changes. The government schools and colleges invariably close on Sundays, and it is quite possible that here may be found a unique opportunity for special evangelistic effort on Sunday School lines. But there is another matter in which educational changes have very particularly affected mission schools. The bringing up of the government standard of education (in theory if not yet in practise) to a higher level, has forced our schools to crowd in more secular subjects, with the result that the Bible has in many cases been relegated to the background or left out of the curricula entirely. This makes it all the more necessary that Bible classes and Sunday Schools should be made a strong part of our school work. 4. Just one word as a plea for system in the work of the Sunday School movement in China. By this we mean the co-operation of all the missions working in China, so that all duplication of work may, as far as possible, be avoided. Hitherto there has been a great deal of overlapping in the preparation of lessons for instance, and overlapping always means waste, whether of time or money or energy. A perfect organization cannot be expected at once, and though the Sunday School movement as a system is now beginning under the Conference Sunday School Committee, yet at first there cannot but be false starts and inconveniences to many, which will require forbearance and compromises perhaps from many of us. We feel sure that if we stand together in this matter it will be for the ultimate good of the cause of Christ in this land, and the Sunday School platform is at least one of the places where missionaries should be able to show a united front. But we cannot afford to forget that the movement, even if represented by a strong committee, cannot progress to its highest usefulness without the personal co-operation of every missionary in his or her local sphere. Sunday School Courses Suitable for China. D BY MISS EMILY S. HARTWELL, FOOCHOW R. H. C. Trumbull, the editor of the Sunday School Times, defines a Sunday School as "an agency of the church by which the Word of God is taught catechetically to children and other learners clustered in groups or classes by association under a common head. Its source of authority is God's church, its subject matter of study is the Scriptures, its form of teaching includes a free use of question and answer, its membership includes children, its arrangement is by groups clustering generally around individual teachers as component parts of a unified whole. . . . All of these parts being found, the gathering is substantially a Sunday School." The Sunday School method as thus defined was a prominent feature in the Jewish system, and as such included in the Christian church by its Divine Founder. Tradition asserts that among the pupils of Moses in his great Bible school were his father-in-law Jethro and young Joshua, and that the latter was preferred above the sons of Moses as his successor because of his greater zeal and fidelity in the school exercises. Eighty years before Christ, says Deutsch, schools flourished throughout the length and breadth of Judaea, and education had become compulsory. Advanced Bible schools were connected with every local synagogue. These were most like the modern Sunday School. How important was this Bible study in the system of the Rabbis is shown by the saying which, freely translated, is "The good man goes from church to Sunday School." The method of instruction was always by question and answer. Vitringa says it was the part of the teacher to listen and the pupil's part to question. This description coincides with the account of the child Jesus, who at twelve years of age was found sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them and asking them questions. Later, after Jesus entered His ministry, He is spoken of again and again as teaching in the synagogues. His great commission is a command to teach-Go and make disciples of all the nations. The apostles so understood this last command. Every day, in the temple and at home, they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus as the Christ. No one can doubt the divine authority or the practical benefit of Bible or Sunday Schools. The question is, How can they be developed in China? The first requisite for a school is teachers; the question therefore resolves itself largely into the question, How can we develop teachers? In studying the methods already given, the thought has suggested itself that in China we may have neglected to use thoroughly the method of Moses, that of simple committing to memory. Most pastors and preachers in China dare not trust their church members to explain the Bible to others. Certainly no church members have the original idea of teaching by question and answer. Might it not be possible, however, to set the church member at work teaching the verbal memorizing of the Bible text, which in the Jewish system included so |
