The Boy and the Sunday School Part 20

Like the commandments, he that transgresseth in one fails in all, in the largest, truest sense.

The work of the Sunday school, summed up briefly, is to round out the boy by all good things that he may see and know and acknowledge Jesus Christ, the Master of Men, as the Master and Lord of his life, too. Any step less than the joyous acceptance of the Son of G.o.d as Saviour of his life is to miss the mark entirely. This is the end of all Sunday school principle and method.

Further, Jesus Christ, as Saviour of Life, is not an idea, a theory, a belief, but a practical, everyday, every-minute influence. "For me to live is Christ." From this time forth everything in life is done in the Christ-spirit. The boy does not cease to be a boy in the acceptance. He is now a Christian boy, not a mature, Christian man. He still loves play, but play is not marred now by the tricks that minister to self.

Play ministers now both to self and others. It does not nor cannot leave out self, however. It saves self. So, with all things else in life, real life that is lived seven days in the week, twenty-four hours in the day among his fellows--and one week following without break the other.

Saviour of Life means saviour of body, of mind, of social contacts, of spirit. It means more than formal religion, the attendance of services, the saying of prayers, the observance of customs--these are all excellent and necessary, but to be saved by the Saviour of Men means new life, or life with a new, saved meaning: "I come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly" (overflowingly). This is the great objective of the Sunday school.

As soon as a life knows Jesus as Saviour, it asks the question, "What wilt thou have me to do, Lord?" Notice, it is not, what shall I believe, or what shall I cast out of my life? Doing regulates both of these, and the "expulsive power of a new affection" settles nearly every problem by displacement. This, after all, is Christianity--to be "In Christ." "Not to be ministered unto, but to minister." "He that would be greatest, let him be the servant of all." The quality of Christianity is Service. The task of the Sunday school is the raising of the life by information, inspiration and opportunity to its highest possible attainment.

Christian service is both the highest and the best. To the acknowledgment of Jesus as Saviour and Lord, then, must be added the free, voluntary, loving service for others in His name. This is the Upbuilding of the Spiritual Life of the Boy.

What shall be used, then, for this purpose? Everything that will minister to the result--Organization, Leaders.h.i.+p, Bible Study, Through-the-Week Activity, Material Equipment, Teaching, Song, Prayer, Reproof, Inspiration, Guidance, and all else that the Sunday school may know or discover. Two factors in it all are preeminent: Christ and the Boy. All else are but means. The boy a loving, serving follower of his Lord! This is the endless end.

What should the Sunday school do to achieve this? Reach to the utmost, strive to the uttermost, use every resource, redeem every opportunity, create, discover and harness every method, hold the boy to his best, patiently see him develop, give him the material and spiritual elements for his growth, afford him opportunity to find himself, help him to crystalize his thought for life and lovingly aid him to meet, know and acknowledge his Lord.

Thus the boy will be "built up in our most holy faith"--the faith that loves and serves in healthy life for the joy of living.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE BOY'S SPIRITUAL LIFE

Alexander (Editor).--Boy Training (Chapter on "The Goal of Adolescence") (.75).

Sunday School and the Teens (Chapter on "The Church's Provision for Adolescent Spiritual Life") ($1.00).

Boys' Work Message, Men and Religion Movement (Chapters on "The Boy's Religious Needs" and "The Message of Christianity to Boyhood") ($1.00).

XIX

THE TEEN AGE TEACHER[11]

The greatest problem that faces the Sunday school and Church as it seeks to meet the needs of the boys and girls of the teen age is leaders.h.i.+p.

The organized men's and women's Bible cla.s.ses may meet that need. In fact, the success and ultimate value of these cla.s.ses lie in their response and ability to face and supply this growing need.

G.o.d works best through incarnation. When he wanted to tell men who he was, what he was, and how he wanted men to live, he spoke through prophets, priests, patriarchs, and kings, and the Old Testament writings came to us this way. However, men did not seem to understand the message, and for nearly four hundred years he ceased to speak. Then, "in the fullness of time," he came himself in the person of his own Son--born in the womb after the fas.h.i.+on of a human baby, pa.s.sed through boyhood in the likeness of a boy and on into manhood as a man--to teach us who he was, what he was, and how he wanted us to live; and Jesus is just G.o.d spelling himself out in human history in the language that men understand. This is incarnation, and as he was compelled to pour himself out into man to reveal himself to men, so men and women who have seen him must literally pour themselves out--incarnate themselves--into the lives of growing boys and girls if these boys and girls of the teen age are to know him.

Leaders.h.i.+p has always been the cry of the world and the Church, and the history of both is written in biography. The Pharaoh, the Caesar, Charlemagne, Peter the Great, William the Silent, Henry of Navarre, Queen Elizabeth, Ferdinand and Isabella, Columbus, the Pilgrim Fathers, Was.h.i.+ngton, Lincoln, and the names of the great on the world's scroll of fame tell the world's story. The Christ, Peter, John, Paul, Augustine, Savonarola, Huss, Wycliffe, Luther, Zwingli, Knox, Roger, Williams, Wesley, Finney, Moody, Booth; and "what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of 'those' of whom the world was not worthy," and whose splendid achievements fill out the glorious history of the Church--these, all of these, in their life and effort const.i.tute the story of the Kingdom.

The story is not yet complete. Still the world writes its progress in the names of its great ones. And yet, as always, the Church must look for its progress to its Christ-kissed men and women. While teen age boys and girls escape us at the rate of one hundred thousand a year, the need for leaders.h.i.+p is among us.

There is no boy problem. There is no girl problem. Boys and girls are the same yesterday, today and forever. The processes of their developing life are as the laws of the Medes and Persians, without change, eternal as the hills. Like the poor, they are always with us. There is neither boy nor girl problem; it is a problem of the man and a problem of the woman. Leaders.h.i.+p is the key that unlocks the door of the teen age for the Church.

The need of the Sunday school in the teen age today is leaders.h.i.+p. The organized cla.s.ses for men and women can solve the problem of the Church among the teen age boys and girls. The number of teachers an organized adult cla.s.s produces is the measure of its ultimate usefulness in the Kingdom.

The problem of the Sunday school, then, can be solved by men teachers for boys' cla.s.ses. The more masculine the Sunday school becomes the deeper will be the boy's interest. A virile, active Christianity will challenge the boy; and all other things being equal, the man teacher can present such a Christianity. In some places this will not be possible because of the dearth of men due to the lack of any sense of Christian obligation on the part of the males of the community to the growing boy.

Where real men are missing, we will be forced of necessity to fall back on the big-hearted women that have so long stood in the breach. It may be well, also, to add that merely being a male does not const.i.tute a man or manhood. Some men will need to strengthen themselves to do their duty as the leaders and teachers of boys in the Sunday school.

None but the strongest teachers should be selected. A boy of high school age quickly detects weakness in a teacher. Selection of just "any one"

to teach a cla.s.s is sure failure. The most important element in organization is leaders.h.i.+p. The teacher should aim to become more of a leader than teacher. Boys' cla.s.ses should be taught by men, and women should teach cla.s.ses of girls. It is impossible for a man to lead girls, and just as impossible for girls to be led by a man.

With the period of adolescence come problems which can be understood and solved only by those who have pa.s.sed through the same experience. Manly Christian leaders.h.i.+p will help boys to grow naturally into Christian manhood, while only the kind, sympathetic touch of the conscientious Christian woman leader can help the girl in developing normally into honored and respected Christian womanhood.

The conscientious Christian leader will keep in mind his obligation to the individual members of the cla.s.s. By reading and study he will become acquainted with the characteristics of the teen age life, with a view to planning such activities, for both the Sunday and the mid-week session, as will eventually result in the development of stalwart Christian manhood.

The successful teacher of the teen age cla.s.s--

(a) Always sees and plans things from the viewpoint of the pupil.

(b) Teaches the scholar and not the lesson.

(c) Knows personally every member of the cla.s.s--the home, school, business, play, social and religious life of every member. This is often accomplished through an invitation to dinner, a walk, a car ride, or some other plan, which will bring the scholar and teacher together naturally. With this knowledge in hand, the teacher can prepare the lesson to fit the individual needs of the pupil.

(d) Visits the parents.

(e) Is always on hand, unless unavoidably prevented, in which case the president of the cla.s.s is notified.

(f) Has a capable subst.i.tute teacher to supply in the event of such absence.

(g) Realizes that the function of his office is that of friend and counselor.

(h) Follows up an absentee (1) through the other members of the cla.s.s; (2) Members.h.i.+p Committee; (3) telephone; (4) postcard or letter; (5) personal call.

(i) Does not play favorites, nor neglect the less aggressive scholar.

(j) Has a plan and an objective, with special emphasis on the training of older boys for leaders.h.i.+p of groups of younger boys.

(k) Always keeps in mind that the supreme task and privilege of the teacher are to win the boy to Christ for service in His church.

=The Teacher and the Home=

The Teacher can do his best work when working in conjunction with the home. It is a good plan to visit the father and mother of the boy. It is also a pretty good thing to occasionally drop in to see the father and mother personally, telling them how the boy is getting along. An invitation extended to the parents through the boy himself to attend a week-night meeting of the cla.s.s will also afford a valuable means of contact with the home and parents.

The Teacher should by no means try to become a father to the boy. The responsibility and duties of parents must not for one moment devolve upon him. The following editorial from a New York evening newspaper puts this idea in a very clear manner, and it should be given careful consideration by every teacher:

"It takes time to point a boy right. The great merchant can touch a desk bell to give orders for a steams.h.i.+p or a draft of a million dollars. But the merchant's young son, age fourteen, cannot be touched off in that way. The lad has just begun to move out among other boys. They do a world of talking, these young chaps. The father must watch that talk, and he can, if he will take the time.

"The older man has every advantage, for he is looked up to and beloved.

It is not so much the 'don'ts' as the 'do's' that const.i.tute his power.

He can inspire with high resolve. He can narrate his own victories over sore trials and fiery tests of his integrity. He can draw the sting of poisonous suggestions, moral disheartenings and malice which his child has been cheris.h.i.+ng in his young heart. But this means time, and time may be money. Yet no money can buy this sort of instruction, nor put a price on it. The coin is struck in the soul. It is the costliest barter, the very exchange of the soul.

"Boys who go right have invariably had a world of time spent on them in this way. Boys go wrong because the father would not take the time from the market. In after years the same parent will take vastly more time to try, in tears of sorrow, to straighten out that boy."

=The Teacher and the School=

The Teacher must keep in mind that it is his business to work in cooperation with all of the forces that are trying to help the boy to live rightly in his community. The work of the public school must continue to go on without a break if the ideals of our American citizens.h.i.+p are to be maintained, and it is the business of the Teacher to give his support, encouragement and cooperation for the carrying out of the idea for which the school stands. The public school seeks to give the boy the necessary education toward his earning a livelihood, and the business of the Sunday school Teacher is to give him the right impulses for his moral and religious life--to inspire him to seek the best in everything. The Sunday school Teacher is in partners.h.i.+p with the public school teacher in the education of the boy.