For The Sunday School World. YOUR PART; GOD'S PART. A Virginia circuit preacher gives the following illustration of "faith that would remove mountains," which he heard from the lips of a negro preacher, who was holding forth to his congregation upon the subject of obeying the commands of the Almighty: "Bredren," he said, in his broken way, "whateber de good God tell me to do in dis blessed book," holding up at the same time an old and evidently much-read Bible-" dat I'm gwine to do. If I see in it dat I must jump troo a stone wall, I'm gwine to jump at it. Goin' troo it belongs o God; jumpin' at it 'longs to me." Donations for the Missionary Service of the American Sunday-School Union. From February 15, to March 15, 1862. Boston, "0. B," on account of the propo- CONNECTICUT. $60 12; 3d Ave. mission S. S., $10; Palermo, 2nd Baptist Church, 271 88 Tompkinsville, Ref. D. Ch. S. School, 1170 65 10 00 5800 20 00 500 600 28 54 36 05 50 56 6 00 Elizabeth, St. John's Ch. Sunday-school, Jersey City, 1st Presbyterian Church, Morristown, South Pres. Church S. S., Trenton, 3d Presbyterirn Church, 5800 33 82 10 00 28 69 Bridgeport, Union Meeting, (of which $10 from Mrs. S. S. Clapp,) Bristol, Cong. Sunday-school, Colebrook Centre, Cong. Sunday-school, Guilford, 3rd Cong. Ch. of which $30 from Col. William Hart, Hartford, 1st Cong. Ch. S. S., $50; South Cong. Church S. S., $50; F. A. Sykes, $10; A Friend, $1; S. L. Loomis, $10, 121 00 Chambersburg, George Chambers, 3 00 4.00 10 00 New Britain, Union Meeting, Ruglesville, Sunday-school, 15 40 Trintnersville, Sunday-school, Washington, Jane W. Baird, West Chester, J. E. J., 100 50 58 205 3 00 500 Wilmington, Hedgeville Sunday-school, 14 57 15 62 76 29 100 00 DELAWARE. Albany, 2nd Pres. Ch. Sunday-school, 100 00 Buffalo, La Fayette st. Pres. Church, MICHIGAN. Monroe, Mrs. Helen C. Armitage, . IOWA. Dubuque, S. S. of 2nd Pres. Ch. $10; 1st Pres. Ch. $4 50; Bapt. Church, $2 50, 17 00 . 57 66 2.00 500 Fort Columbus, Colonel G. Loomis, (Asso. Ref.) $12 53; Harlem Bap. Ch. S. S., $10; 11th st. Pres. Ch. S. S., No. 40, M. A., $25; Broadway Tabernacle Cong. Ch. M. A., $50; Madison Square Pres. Ch. S. S. M. A., $125; 42d street Pres. Ch. S. S., $40; J. R. Hurd, $100; "To Learn Western Children to keep the Sabbath," $3; From a Life Member, $4; W. J. Hutchinson, $30; Bapt. Tab. Ch. S. S., $100; Beriah Bapt. Ch. S. S., No. 23, $10; 4th Ave. Pres. Ch. S. S. M. A., $14; 14th st, Pres. Ch. S. S. M. A., $110; Amity st. Bapt. Ch. collection, 1 00 23 00 34 85 59 31 500 Centre, Sunday-school, Janesville, Presbyterian Church, Feb. 26, Legacy, late Jabez Goodell, Mar. 16, Feb. 19, 66 land, Ohio, 66 66 "E. Taylor, Cleve 50 283 10 00 $2,222 00 333 00 120 00 It contains a general survey of the Missionary field occupied by the AMERICAN SUNDAYSCHOOL UNION and kindred institutions in the United States and other parts of Christendom. It presents a summary of Sunday-school intelligence from all sources within reach, and a view of the progress and prospects of religious education generally. Price Twenty-five Cents a Year. POSTAGE.-The postage on "THE SUNDAYSCHOOL WORLD," when prepaid quarterly at the office where the subscriber resides is ONLY THREE CENTS A YEAR in Pennsylvania, and SIX CENTS a year in all other parts of the United States. . As we have not room in this month's issue for what we have to say of our new Bible Reader, we resort to a Supplement. By advertisements which have appeared from time to time in the columns of the "Sunday-School World" and in other public prints, attention has been called to a new and valuable text-book, entitled the "Bible Reader." It is composed entirely of selections from Scripture. The plan on which the work is constructed is familiarly known as the Word-Method, in the use of which a knowledge of the art of reading is obtained in a comparatively short time. In a letter to the compiler, dated Washington, March 17, the writer says: "I have been greatly interested in our first efforts to teach the negroes to read by the word-method. We spent an hour yesterday in a room in the old Capitol, where the prisoners are held, and where the 'contrabands' congregate. Imagine about sixty men and ten women, huddled in a room not much larger than your dining-room,-of all sizes, but chiefly stalwart men, of various shades of color, and of considerable intelligence,--all from the land of Dixie; Dr. and myself on one side of the room, with five or six white folks to look on, and the card (or tablet) pinned up against the wall, with the first verse in the Bible. After singing a hymn, and a prayer by Dr. he commenced the instruction; and within thirty minutes one-half of the sixty could read the verse, to their great delight." For a more particular knowledge of the principle of the book and the mode of using it, we refer the reader to the following brief sketch: Those who propose important changes in established customs must anticipate strenuous opposition. There is a familiar story of a countryboy on his way to mill with a bag thrown over the back of his horse, having the grain in one end and a rock in the other to balance it. Being admonished that it was useless to carry that additional weight, when he might just as well put half the grain on either side, he replied, "What yer says looks reasonable,-it does; but Dad always went to mill so, and I reckon I may as well." That exceedingly useful and manageable agent, steam, when first applied to some of its most important uses, was regarded with no little suspicion. When gas was about to be introduced into one of our cities, some of the large tax-payers and real-estate owners threatened to sell their property and remove from the city, so confident were they that desolating fires and terrific explosions would be the inevitable consequence. Passenger railroads were opposed as a monstrous innovation on the proper use of streets, and pregnant with obstacles and disasters to all ordinary vehicles. Yet who would not sorely feel the privation were steam, gas, or street passenger-cars abolished? In few departments of civilized economy has there been sterner opposition to "innovations" (as they are called) than in our systems of public education. We do not refer to school-buildings, in the construction and arrangement of which there have been, in some districts, very great improvements "Innovations" upon the selection of sites, and upon former processes for heating, lighting, ventilating, and seating school-houses, have been tolerated, and sometimes welcomed. Normal schools for teachers have had their influence in elevating the profession and imparting more just views of its duties and responsibilities; and where a love of teaching has been brought under culture in such schools, the advantages conferred by them are eminently valuable. As to schoolbooks, if the improvement in their character and adaptation had borne any appreciable proportion to the multiplication of their number, we should have passed the point of perfection long ago. This is not the place to expose the shameful impositions often practised on the community by the makers, publishers, and vendors of school-books. It will be done, however, when the abuses become a little more aggravated. Our present business is with the method of teaching,-and that not of ele- 2 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORLD.-SUPPLEMENT. APRIL, 1862. signs which we call letters. The teacher, to whom the card lies upsidedown, points with a pencil or a pair of scissors to one of them, (not It is a good thing to give thanks unto the always the right one,) saying, in a loud voice, "S' that?"-by which she Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O means, "What's that?" After a few days' drilling, the pupil learns to say a, when the pointer is at a particular object. How many weary weeks are passed before these twenty-six marks are so learned and digested as to be told at a glance, depends on various graces and faculties in both the teacher and the pupil. But there comes a time, sooner or later, when a new leaf is turned over, or a new card-face is presented, on which the mysteries that have been so long dwelt upon are combined into other and equally mysterious forms, and, at the same knee and with the same pointer, the abused child is called to look upon a and b together. The two are individually familiar, but their combination is the mystery. After a few more weeks or months, the long, stiff columns of ab and ba, ee and ce, are mastered, and the admiring pupil is introduced to the family of words, first of one syllable, each in its simple, native individuality, (though with some intimation in sound that they might bear a remote relation to each other, as second or third cousins:) -but, put, shut, tut, gut, jut, &c. &c., are specimens of the class. Thus they pass from stage to stage, year in and year out, till they arrive at the grand point to which all this meaningless drudgery is to conduct them, to wit, a reading-lesson. Is this process necessary? We think not. Miss Edgeworth in her day thought not. It was clear to her that "nine-tenths of the labour and disgust of learning to read may be avoided, and that instead of frowns and tears-the usual harbingers of learning-cheerfulness and smiles may initiate willing pupils in the most difficult of all human attainments." Let us see. Suppose we go back to "the place of beginning," (as the surveyors say,) and, instead of the book or card upon the lap, direct the attention of all the little boys and girls in the class to a tablet suspended near, on which are printed in large letters such characters as these: Now let the teacher point to the word dog, repeating the word distinctly, and making all the class repeat it after him. Then let each of the children point to the same word in another place, and so pass from a word in one place to the same word in another, back and forth, on the tablet, till it is familiar. Proceeding in this way till the eleven words are thoroughly learned, (a task quite as easily accomplished as learning eleven letters of the alphabet,) the class is prepared for the first reading-lesson, thus: John had a dog, and this dog that John had ran off one day. When the surprise and exultation produced by this achievement have subsided, let a similar collection of words be taken,-as, for example: Most High. Then show them the same words in the first verse of Psalm xcii., and let them each read it in the sacred volume, and then go home and read it to an admiring circle there. These examples will suffice to illustrate the principle of what is called the "Word Method," or a mode of teaching persons to read the English language by first making them acquainted with words, and leaving them to learn the power of letters incidentally, as they inevitably will. It is superfluous to say that the "Word Method" is no recent invention. In 1837 the American Sunday-School Union published their Union Primer, and the next year the Union Spelling-Book, both substantially on this principle. In the same year, a publishing-house in Boston put out a volume of 112 pages 18mo, entitled, "My First School Book, to teach me, with the help of my instructor, to read and spell words and understand them. By a friend of mine." In the preface to this ingenious little work, "all that is insisted upon is that the learning of the word should precede that of the letters, and for this plain reason,-it is the natural order, and therefore must be incomparably easier than the reverse." In the preface to the Mother's Primer, by the late Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, published some years later, the author (whose opportunities to ascertain the laws of the human mind, as well as of language, were very rare) asks, "What can be more uninteresting than to commence with teaching a child to call certain arbitrary marks, or letters, which in themselves have no meaning, by certain arbitrary sounds, or names of the letters, which also have no meaning? What an unintelligible and irksome task it must be! Is it not strange that some very bright boys and girls, who can see no meaning in the usual mode of learning a be, and a bab, e b eb, &c., and who take no interest in it because they are fond of finding out a reason for what they do, should be set down as blockheads? Yet it often happens that these blockheads, as they are called at the beginning, show afterwards that the difficulty was not in them, but in the mode of teaching them. The author cannot but hope that this book will enable many a mother, or aunt, or elder brother or sister, or perhaps a beloved grandmother, by the family fireside, to go through, in a pleasant and sure way, with the whole art and mystery of learning to read." The example which Mr. G. furnishes is worth citing, as it presents the peculiarities of the mode of teaching in a very simple way. frank God 0 name good give Sing it unto praises jane Frank Jane jane frank Jane Frank is Lord praises give thy And when these become, in like manner, familiar, introduce the class to the second and more attractive reading-lesson : APRIL, 1862. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORLD.-SUPPLEMENT. him," pointing to the whole word, Frank, but not to the letters. Nothing is yet to be said about letters. "Here is his name again. And here it is again. And here it is once more. What is that?" Pointing to the other picture. "Perhaps it is Frank's sister. What is her name? Oh! here is her name. It is Jane. Can you show me her name again?again?-once more?" Repeat till the child can tell the words readily. Of the success of this method of teaching, Mr. G. received gratifying evidence from an unexpected quarter. An American missionary in China wrote him as follows:-"We have four classes in a school of thirty-five boys, and one of them has made a fair trial of the Primer. They commenced the study of the English language with it, and the consequence is that they have acquired the art of reading more readily and accurately than those who were, for the want of such a book, put upon the old course of learning to read. The remarks you have made in the preface to this little book in reference to the absurdity of teaching children to read by letters are doubly true when considered in relation to a school like this."* It would be foreign from the purpose of this circular to enter more in detail upon the peculiarities and advantages of the method on which "The Bible Reader" is constructed, but we do not esteem it extravagant to say that were it generally and intelligently introduced into the public primary schools, into mission Sunday-schools, and into adult schools (evening or day) for instruction in the art of reading, it would revolutionize the intellectual condition of the country. If in the Providence of God the opportunity should occur to instruct large bodies of men and women hitherto kept in ignorance of the art of reading, such a simple and expeditious method would be of inestimable importance. But we cannot enlarge. Let it suffice to say that, by its proper use, children or adults of ordinary capacity can be prepared to read the Sacred Scriptures intelligently to themselves and others in one-tenth part of the time usually (and perhaps necessarily) employed for that purpose where the prevailing method is in use. The time allowed to multitudes of children for school purposes is so restricted as to oblige us to make the most of it if we would not have them grow up in ignorance; but the wants of ADULT LEARNERS have entered more into the author's view than the wants of children. As a book to put the art of reading within easy reach of adults, the Bible Reader is invaluable. To many adults, the very thought of subjecting themselves to the protracted and tedious process usually employed with children is an insuperable barrier to any attempt of the kind. But if we show them that a few hours given to the subject, instead of years or months, would accomplish the desired object, they would generally embrace the opportunity with eagerness. The number of grown men and women in our country who cannot read a verse in the Bible intelligibly, is appalling. The returns on the subject are, of course, very imperfect, as an acknowledgment of ignorance is very reluctantly made: nevertheless, the known number is reckoned by HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of whites, and a still larger proportion of blacks. What we have to do to enlighten existing ignorance and prevent its increase we must do quickly, and hence the vast importance we attach to the "Word Method," as applied to them. That those into whose hands this circular falls may be apprized of the views entertained of this system by practical teachers, we append a few extracts showing the opinions of writers and authors who have most thoroughly examined it. From Professor Phelps, Principal of the State Normal School, Trenton, New Jersey. Having been favoured with the opportunity of carefully examining the proof-sheets and the plan of "The Bible Reader," and cards accompanying the same, I take great pleasure in recommending them to the superintendents and teachers of Sunday-schools, parents, and, indeed, all who are interested (and who is not?) in securing not only to the *Life and Labours of Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, p. 287. 3 young, but to the destitute of all ages, the power of reading the Bible in the shortest possible time. "The Bible Reader" and cards are based on what is popularly known as the "Word Method" of learning to read. This method is too well understood and too highly appreciated to require special commendation. This is the first aid to religious instruction upon this excellent plan which has come under my notice, and I feel confident that parents and teachers will find on trial that it vastly abridges the time and labour of acquiring a knowledge of the art of reading, so essential to the welfare and happiness of all. From an Address of Hon. George P. Marsh, author of "Lectures on the English Language," and now United States Minister at Turin. We look at a written word, not as a succession of articulations truly represented by the orthography, but as a diagram consisting of certain lines, curves, and angles, which, like the Chinese characters, stand for a certain spoken word. It is not a chain of elementary sounds, but an entire symbol, and is fixed in the memory with all its parts as a single whole. From the Preface to Webb's Normal Reader No. I., one of a series of Readers used in many of our Public Schools. It is a lamentable fact, and one which the community is beginning to understand, that children have been wrongly taught their first lessons in reading. The children have been taught to say the letters in words, and, 8ay the words, and then say off the words one after another, without understanding the meaning of one of them, or even dreaming that they had any. It may be asked by some, why we have commenced with words instead of letters. We answer, a word can as easily be learned as a letter; and, in addition, a word has some meaning,—a letter none. A word conveys to the mind an idea, the mind acts to receive it; the letter has no such effect. The former necessarily teaches a child to think; the latter teaches -nothing. Besides, experience has shown that the object of this book is much more readily obtained by the method we have pursued than by those heretofore employed. Again, in the "Directions for Teaching," the author writes in regard to Part I. of the Reader, as follows: "The child, in this part, is not to be taught a letter, or to spell a word, but is simply to learn the words by their forms, the same as he learns the names of animals by looking at them as a whole,- -as an animal,- -associating the name with its form. The child thus reads naturally, by sight, the same as all persons read." Note A. Some teachers prefer teaching spelling and the letters at the same time they teach the words. These teachers first teach the word by its form, then teach the child to spell it, after which they teach the forms of the letters, or, in other words, the letters. To this method we will not object; though we decidedly prefer that marked out in "Directions for Teaching." To understand the alphabet requires more thought than to understand the general principles of arithmetic. From the Preface to "Willson's First Reader," a new illustrated book published by Harper & Brothers, New York. Children may be taught to call words at sight as well as letters. They should begin to read at the same time they begin to learn the alphabet. Do not let them spell out the words at first. Pronounce the sentences for them, and require them as they read to imitate you. From "Education, Intellectual, Moral and Physical," by Herbert Spencer. Page 103. All modern authorities condemn the old mechanical way of teaching the alphabet. In the acquirement of languages the old grammar-school plan is superseded by plans based on the spontaneous process followed by the child in gaining its mother-tongue. 4 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORLD.-SUPPLEMENT. Extract from a Letter to the Author from Frank W. Ballard, Esq., of New York, Feb. 14, 1862. "I am sincerely sorry that such a book has not sooner been got ready for the thousands of soldiers who know well enough how to fight but who cannot read. And in the hospital-wards I have often met with poor fellows who would have welcomed the chance to learn, were it only to forget their wounds. I hope the Sunday-School Union will hasten its publication, and give it thorough newspaper-ventilation in advance." From the New York Correspondent of the Boston Post. The "Bible Reader," if properly circulated and used, will revolutionize the present system of "teaching the young idea how to shoot." The peculiarity of the book is its simple method of familiarizing the learner with words at the outset, instead of leading the little mind through a drear wilderness of letter-learning ad nauseam. Experience has shown that a person can be taught to read in one-tenth the time if, ignoring the alphabet, words already constructed are made the staple of study first. APRIL, 1862. Those who remember their own tearful, despairing "rambles among words" in early school-days-to whom the alphabet was long a waste howling wilderness, by no means blossoming, but rather thickly strewn with thistles-will welcome this novelty in the educational system, and children of the coming generations may hope to be spared the rod without themselves being spoiled. This Bible Reader, moreover, is specially designed and arranged to teach youths and adults to read the Scriptures, and hence has a double claim upon popularity. From the Superintendent of Public Schools in Chicago. I have examined "The Bible Reader" with much interest and satisfaction. The system adopted in teaching the elements of reading is that which now meets with general favour among the most intelligent educators, and the whole work is admirably adapted to accomplish the objects for which it is prepared. W. H. WELLS, Superintendent of Public Schools. Just Published. "THE BIBLE READER." THE "WORD METHOD" APPLIED TO THE BIBLE. This work is constructed upon the principle familiar to many teachers as the "WORD METHOD." Several elementary books on this plan are in extensive use in this country and in England. By it the child or adult is introduced, AT ONCE, to the knowledge of words as signs of ideas, instead of acquiring a knowledge of letters as the elements of words. In the proper use of this method, a competent knowledge of the art of reading can be obtained by children or adults in a very few days or weeks at most. And the advantage of it is specially obvious for ADULTS, who have neither time nor patience to endure the tedious and seemingly useless process of alphabetical and monosyllable instruction which is usually adopted. "THE BIBLE READER" is published in a cheap form, for general use, at 15 cents. The TABLETS, which are of use in teaching large classes, may be had in sheets for 4 cents each, or on cards for 17 cents each. A Circular, explaining and illustrating the principle, and containing the opinions of eminent teachers and philologists, will be forwarded upon postpaid application. Samples of the Book and Tablets will also be furnished by mail to teachers-especially of Mission and Adult Schools-who will remit fifteen cents for payment of postage. THE SILENT COMFORTER. TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE FOR EACH DAY OF THE MONTH. DESIGNED FOR USE IN TENTS, HOSPITALS, THE SICK-CHAMBER, SCHOOL-ROOM, &c. &c. Follo, stitched in covers, large type, 50 cents. "THE SILENT COMFORTER.-Under this appropriate title, THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 1122 Chestnut Street, have issued a folio volume, containing a judicious selection of short, striking, and appropriate texts from the Bible, under thirty-one different heads,-branches of three subjects, viz., Christ, Heaven, and God. There is also the favourite hymn, "Just as I am." This collection, printed in large and very legible type, is chiefly intended for persons confined to the sick-chamber, but may be used by all who read the word of God the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning. We would suggest their use in the Sundayschool also. There is a simple mechanical arrangement whereby the collection can be hung up in view and any particular subject made visible. The price of the whole collection is only half a dollar, and it can be safely sent through post for thirteen cents."-From The Press, March 15, 1862. GRATIS COPIES. To persons who buy to give away, every ELEVENTH copy of "THE BIBLE READER," and also of the "SILENT COMFORTER," will be gratis. The Sunday-School World, A Monthly Religious Newspaper, FOR SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS, PARENTS, AND ALL WHO ARE ENGAGED OR INTERESTED IN THE RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF THE YOUNG. TERMS: TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER ANNUM. Payment in Advance. Specimen copies furnished gratuitously on (postpaid) application to any of the Depositories. PHILADELPHIA, No. 1122 CHESTNUT STREET. Sample copies furnished and subscriptions received also by HENRY D. NOYES, Agent, No. 117 Washington Street, Boston, George Crosby, 41 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio; Tomlinson Brothers, 153 & 155 Lake Street, Chicago, Illinois; J. W. McIntyre, 9 South Fifth Street, St. Louis, Missouri; and by Wm. H. Bulkley, 313 Fourth Street, Louisville, Ky. |