CHAPTER XII

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER

In

OMETIMES the whole matter of the training of children in religion is committed by the parents to the church school. This is of necessity the case where the parents themselves are confessedly incapable, or are out of sympathy with religion; and it is true in those neighborhoods where the unit of the parish is no longer the family but the individual. these crowded communities life is impoverished of one of the elements which belong to the normal conduct of households, the element of privacy. The blessed opportunities of quiet conversation and confidence between parents and children are either infrequent or lacking altogether. Peaceful evenings are impossible. Sunday afternoon

is like any other afternoon, as Sunday is like any other day. Inherited religious habits, under these conditions, have a hard fight for life; and though they are sometimes kept, with great courage and patience, they are in evident need of reinforcement. To such families the Sunday-school teacher who is faithful and competent is a benediction. By instruction on Sunday, by visitation during the week, by the influence of precept and example, a teacher in such circumstances meets a serious demand.

Indeed, under almost any conditions, even when the child is happily instructed at home, the school is intended to satisfy a need which the home cannot supply. The child who is taught only by his parents may be better informed, but he lacks the institutional and social spirit which is imparted in a good school. He is in peril of individualism, whose intellectual defect is narrowness, and whose religious defect is selfishness. It is good for the child to become a

part of the corporate life of the parish, to share in the various benefactions and philanthropies which are carried on by the school, and thus to learn early in life to consider the good of his neighbors, and the welfare of the kingdom of God. Otherwise, he may be like a soldier who has learned war by correspondence, and has never kept step with a file of men, nor obeyed the impersonal orders of a captain.

Moreover, a good teacher will say some things more efficiently than even a good mother. The mother speaks with a certain timidity and nervousness, which is the natural result of her deep affection and of her correspondingly deep desire for the child's good. The teacher is often able to speak more easily, naturally and persuasively. It depends, however, on the teacher. The wise parents take pains to know to whose class John or Mary has been assigned, and to make the teacher's acquaintance. A foolish, idle, ignorant, prejudiced, or other

wise incompetent teacher may make a difference in the whole religious life of the child.

A good teacher possesses, in greater or less degree, nine points of excellence. The first is punctuality. The faithful teacher will be unfailingly present and unfailingly prompt. One of the reasons for the nervous prostration of the clergy is the unpunctuality of Sunday-school teachers. They are a hindering influence in the endeavor to set forward the life of the spirit. They pull back.

For unpunctuality includes a multitude of sins. The unpunctual teacher is lacking in the ability of discipline. He is deficient in that sense of order which is at the heart of all control. Even if he is able to manage a class under normal conditions he begins with a disadvantage. He has permitted the class to make the first move. He has given them that which in football is called the attack. In football, and in war,

and in discipline of any kind, even in a class in Sunday-school, the odds are on the side of the attack. When the teacher arrives upon the scene, the scholars have already opened the hour's proceedings. In most cases, youthful human nature being what it is, they have established a situation of cheerful disorder. They have begun in a spirit which is indifferent both to the service and to the lesson. The tardy teacher must regain a rocky mile of lost ground. And this he rarely succeeds in doing. The mental and moral defects which make him habitually late prevent him from taking the command. The wise teacher precedes the pupils. When they get to their seats they find him there already, prepared to receive them one by one into an association for the promoting of good order.

The unpunctual teacher is commonly deficient not only in the ability of discipline but in the sense of duty. He is not obedient to the commands of conscience. He is