REV. W.C. POND, D.D.
I have been requested to give in the columns of the MISSIONARY, some hints as to the opening and conducting of Chinese Sunday-schools. I wonder that I have waited for such a request, and did not long ago take this good method of replying to letters of inquiry, which, attempting to answer one by one, I have been obliged to respond to briefly, hurriedly, and unsatisfactorily.
1. First, "Catch your hare"—get the Chinese to come. This is less difficult, I fancy, in our Eastern cities, than in those of California. And yet, even there, it may require repeated and persistent invitations. I would not despair even though the teachers came several times at the hour appointed, and found that the expected pupils had broken their promises and failed to appear. You will at length prove to them that you are in earnest and have something for them worth their consideration.
2. When they come, do not undertake any opening exercises, but as soon as the first one appears, let the teaching begin. They are generally so situated, that to exact strict punctuality, is to require the impossible. Give them a reading lesson in whatever book they bring; or, if they bring none, in any primer you may have at hand, Chinese who have made no beginning in English, need to have each one his own teacher. This may not be possible always, but it is very desirable. It is exceedingly important that as much as possible be learned of English in the first few lessons, in order to prepossess the pupils favorably and get them interested in the school. Those who have already learned to read can, of course, be put into Bible classes, but beginners ought to be at liberty to take, each one his own pace, and get on as fast as possible; and for this a teacher for each pupil is needed.
3. From the beginning, let each class or each pupil have one and the same teacher. This is of almost vital importance. The establishment of a personal relationship and the development of a special personal friendship, are almost indispensable, if we would lead such dark souls into light. General exercises will not do this fast enough to meet the emergency. It needs personal contact; careful "hand-picking."
4. That which seems to me the best text-book for Chinese schools is "Jacobs' Reader." It was prepared originally for the deaf and dumb; and thus suits well those who are to us—as we to them—virtually deaf and dumb. Its object words are all represented in pictures. Its lessons are so arranged that the advance involves a perpetual review, and thus fastens in the memory what has been acquired. This is particularly desirable in the case of the Chinese, because the methods of teaching in China are so utterly diverse from ours. Teaching that turns back is in no favor with the average Chinaman. He wants you to pronounce the words and let him pronounce them after you as fast as possible. Go over it two or three times, very much as if you were teaching a parrot to speak, and then let him try himself. He is impatient of protracted explanations. What he wants is sounds; the more of them the better. After he has got the sounds, he will be willing to take the meaning they convey. One beauty of this book is, that it conveys the meaning through the eye, and keeps pupils reviewing without their knowing it. The teacher is in danger of becoming impatient with this Chinese method, for we know that our way of teaching is better. But remember that the end you have in view is not the most effective instruction in English, but the leading of the soul to Christ; and you can be content with a poorer method of doing the former, if thereby you can keep within reach that lost, but blood-bought soul. Another good point in this little book is, that there is just about enough in it concerning God and Christ to give the teacher an occasional opportunity to preach Jesus, without frightening the pupil away by too abrupt a "setting forth of strange gods." And, finally, this one Reader well studied will place the pupil where you can safely commend to him the New Testament as the cheapest and the best book to take next.
5. Instead of opening exercises have closing ones, as extended and as interesting as possible. Have pictures selected from the Sunday-school rolls, and, at each session, make one of these the subject of a little gospel-talk. Ask the pupil best versed in English to be your interpreter, and use such English as he can understand. And, even though you have no interpreter, five minutes given to a Bible story will not be lost, if you have a picture that is apt and suggestive.
Then sing the gospel to them, asking them to read the verse after you, word by word, and then sing it with you. I will gladly supply, at bare cost, Song Rolls in Chinese, containing familiar gospel hymns translated into Chinese and so conformed in metre to the English original that the time remains unchanged, and the teachers can sing the English words, if desirable, while the Chinese use their own. There is no more effective preaching of the gospel than that in song.
6. The Sunday-school, at its best, needs to be supplemented by some sort of week-day work. The Chinese Sunday-schools of California, though started with great éclat, would long ago have perished utterly, but for the mission schools whose work knows no cessation. Our Christian Chinese are now so widely scattered that it seems as though there could scarcely be anywhere Eastward a city of considerable size without at least one of them. If there is one, he will hear of your Sunday-school and will be there. Utilize him to the utmost. Make a missionary out of him. And it seems to me that the evangelistic work which we have been doing—imperfectly as yet—in California, ought to be extended to the Eastern cities, and that among our Christian Chinese some ought to be appointed to this work, spending (say) a month in each city where any considerable number of Chinese are found, endeavoring to reap the harvests that are ready, and to organize for Christian work whatever converted Chinese he may find. Already, without any such special agency, our "Congregational Association of Christian Chinese" reports one "branch" with sixteen members, in Brooklyn. I am sure it would be well, if the same thing, or something similar, were organized elsewhere.
7. Finally, I must caution the American workers against too ready an acceptance of pious talk on the part of their Chinese pupils as an evidence of real piety. Grievous disappointments, involving reproach to Christ and to all missionary work, sometimes grow out of this. Herein consists, in part, the benefit which would attend the visits of reliable Chinese evangelists. They would "take forth the precious from the vile" (Jer. 15:19), and would give to the American workers not only much greater results of their labors, but a surer confidence in such as they have.