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Last Updated on :
Saturday, November 22, 2014

 

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The Original 1883 (First Edition) of
The Ecclesial Guide


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46. -- Sunday School.


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It is a matter of apostolic command to bring up our children in the enlightenment of the truth (Eph. vi. 4; Col. iii. 21; 1 Tim. iii. 3-4), &c., and the apostolic precept is strengthened by every consideration of wisdom, benevolence, and expediency. Though the precept doubtless refers, in its primary application, to parental instruction, still it necessarily extends to every method by which it may be carried out. What we find to be true of secular education, is also true of higher education: we cannot effectually do all the work ourselves. We are greatly helped by the assistance of others. Private endeavour is greatly helped by the power that comes from co-operation in a collective capacity. The most eligible form of this co-operation, in the circumstances of modern society (indeed, almost the only available form), is the Sunday School. The idea of objecting to it, because it is a popular institution, will not retain its hold where reason reigns. We may as well give up the use of umbrellas, and a hundred other things, if we are to avoid everything that is used by the orthodox community. A Sunday School is a good thing, if the truth is taught in it. It is because the truth is not taught in the popular Sunday Schools that they are of no use to the brethren and sisters. Let them have Sunday Schools of their own, and the difficulty is removed. There will, in this, be an advantage both to the children and to the brethren and sisters who take part. It is a work requiring and calling into exercise benevolence and patience, almost more than any other form of work. One incentive to continue in it lies in the fact that it is one form of that well-doing upon patient continuance in which, our entrance into life everlasting is predicated. Another is to be found in the fact that, although the fruits of the work are slow in coming, yet they do come at last, in the acquaintance of the children with divine things, and in the improving effect which this acquaintance more or less ultimately produces.

The school should be under the auspices of the ecclesias. That is, it ought not to be left to the private initiative and responsibility of one or two brethren. It is a work that the brethren, in their collective capacity, should approve and encourage, and have control of, and which, at the same time, should be sufficiently in the hand of the teachers as to give them a complete interest in it. The control of the ecclesia should only be a power in reserve. The practical arrangements should be left with the teachers, with a power of appeal in case of anything wrong. The ecclesia sufficiently identifies itself with the work in recognising it, providing funds for it, and in appointing the superintendent, secretary, and treasurer. The teachers, on the other hand, who do the work, having the power to decide all the practical arrangements, subject to the reserve power of the ecclesia, will sufficiently feel that the work is theirs to be enabled to continue their interest in it from year to year. By this form of matters, we get all the good that the school is capable of yielding, while discharging our collective duty as the servants of the truth.

 

 


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