Sunday-School: Quotations from Burning Words
We the Sunday-school workers, what are we but the church at work? The Sunday-school is the church in futuro. Our recruits come almost wholly from the training classes of the Sunday-school. The Bible, the open Bible, the studied Bible, the Bible in the heart is the only hope of our land to-day.— H. M. PARSONS
The hope of the nation and of Christendom, and of the lands called heathen, alike is to be found in the indoctrination of little children in the knowledge of God's truth; for the missionaries will tell you that the adult heathen population of to-day are to die heathen; the minister will tell you that the adult, virtually heathen population of Christian lands to-day are to die in that condition, unless God showers down altogether unprecedented grace - with only such occasional exceptions as confirm this general and terrible law. If this be so, the hope of Christianity is in childhood, Towards childhood must be directed the work of the sappers and miners of the church. Here is the weak point of the enemy's fortress. Here let the breach be made, and his topmost turret shall be laid low.— C. D. Foss
Let the Sunday-school for the children teach Christ first, Christ last, Christ in the middle, Christ all the time. And the school that shall be so single-eyed for the Master, shall have the full beam of His eyes which smile as the sun shining in its strength ever upon them.— STEPHEN H. TYNG, JR
One of the brighest and most touching pictures in the whole gospel narratives is that of Jesus taking the little children up and folding His arms about them, putting His hands upon them and blessing them. This is the warrant and the best inspiration of Sunday-school work, and this suggests the secret of success. We must take up the children, and fold them in our arms, in an embrace of tenderness and Christly love, then we shall win them to Christ and heaven. The conditions of success in teaching are these: First, devotion to Christ; second, love for souls; third, earnest work; fourth, concentration; fifth, importunate prayer; sixth, fitness; seventh, the Holy Spirit's influences. It is a grand thing to train the human mind in the academy and in the college and university to great intellectual achievements. It is a grand thing for you to leap, as it were, by the lightning of your thought, from crag to crag of discovery. It is well to make paths for tender feet through the morasses and over the mountains of study. These bring honor and power. But it is also well to remember that the diplomas of colleges and universities can never bring pardon for sin; that all the scholarships and all the titles in the world can never bring peace to the dying. Oh, brethren, it is this discipleship with the Man of Galilee who trod the wine-press alone, and carried His cross up Calvary's hill; this discipleship with the man Christ Jesus, that constitutes the moral and spiritual power in our work. That power it is yours to impart to the children under your care. Aye, this is grander than all human achievements.— J. CLEMENT FRENCH
Bring the little ones to Christ, Lord Jesus, we bring them to-day, the children of our Sunday-schools, of our churches, of the streets. Here they are; they wait Thy benediction. The prayer of Jacob for his sons shall be my prayer while I live, and when I die: "The angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads."— T. DEWITT TALMAGE
Begin in prayer; continue in prayer; end in prayer. All the help that we have in the conversion of the children comes from God. We cannot convert their souls, but God can by the influence of His Spirit. When we study our lessons, let us go first for illumination to God, that we may so impress it on the minds and hearts of those we are teaching, that they may bring forth fruit for salvation; that they may see our earnestness - see that our desire is for their conversion. Let us pray individually for each one of our scholars.— A. O. VAN LENNEP
Learn to teach the children to look at this world as a beautiful symbol of Jesus; every thing, Jesus; Christ, all; Christ, in all. So shall you educate the imaginations of the children to receive, and their memories to retain and to use, that Christian truth; and you yourself shall be lifted up, as on angel's wings, to see with John things which are unspeakable, but which the sanctified imagination realizes.— STEPHEN H. TYNG, JR
Oh, be assured, fellow teachers, that there is no time in life so favorable to sound conversion as early childhood.— T. L. CUYLER
To live a godly life is the best way to light up a lesson that the teacher can possibly employ.— J. H. VINCENT
Let us see to it that in our schools, as far as possible, every week, some lessons from Scripture, in the language of the Scripture are learned.— WAYLAND HOYT
The teacher should use illustrations for the better teaching of the lesson, and never to fill up time, to amuse the class, or to display his own genius.— J. H. VINCENT
It is quite likely that the modern contrivances for making Sunday-schools amusing have given them a distaste for the more solemn services of the sanctuary. If so, the amusement is a sin. The schools should feed the church. Children ought to be led by one into the other, exposed to the preaching of the gospel, taught the ways of God's house, and brought up under its influence, with all its hallowed and elevating influences.— S. IRENÆUS PRIME