(2) Invite. Every officer, teacher, scholar, and parent should consider himself a committee to speak to others about the school, and to invite his friends and acquaintances to attend it. The little children should ask their playmates, boys and girls in school their classmates, young men their shopmates, young women their associates. No printed paper can have a tenth of the power possessed by the living voice and a hearty hand-shake. It is assumed that the invitation is given only to those who are not already attached to any church or school. All possible care should be taken to maintain a fraternal spirit, and not to build up our own wall by pulling down another.
(3) Visit. The field belonging to the school should be bounded definitely, and should be thoroughly and systematically canvassed. It should be divided into districts, and each district assigned to a visitor and a committee, who should know who may be included in the proper constituency of the school. For this work many schools and churches employ a paid visitor or a deaconess; and none can surpass the zeal or fidelity of many who enter upon such a vocation. But the schools which cannot afford professional workers include some teachers and some adult scholars who can give a portion of their own time to the same task. An organized class of men might be named which grew into over a hundred members through persistent work by a simple plan. A lookout committee, after careful inquiry, would report the names and addresses of men eligible for membership. Then the members in order and by appointment, in groups of two, called upon each candidate, formed his acquaintance, and invited him to the class. Sometimes thirty or forty men would call, but in time almost every man visited yielded to the friendly social influence, became a member, and soon after a worker for the class.
5. A Danger. A caution may be needed with reference to all these plans of recruiting the school. Advertising may be carried to the excess of becoming sensational. Invitations may be pressed upon scholars in other schools. The effort for increase may degenerate into unfriendly rivalry. A good plan may work evil when worked in a selfish spirit. And a too-rapid growth is sure to be unhealthy. The late B. F. Jacobs said, "God pity the Sunday school that gets a hundred scholars at one time!" A quiet, steady, diligent, persistent effort for the school will be of permanent benefit, rather than a spasm of enthusiasm.
XVII
THE TESTS OF A GOOD SUNDAY SCHOOL
In the United States more than a hundred thousand Sunday schools are in session every week. Some of them are very good, many are only moderately efficient, and some are poor in every respect. The question arises, what constitutes a good Sunday school? Is it possible to establish some standard of measurement by which the rank of any Sunday school can be fixed? In such a standard there must be several factors, for the points of excellence in Sunday school are not one, but many. It is the aim in this closing chapter to ascertain the criteria or the tests of a good Sunday school. The statement of these tests involves the summing up and in some measure the repetition of much already given throughout these pages.
1. Representative Character. The first test of a Sunday school is found in its relation to the community around it. The Sunday school is not a bed of exotic plants, dug up from their native soil, potted and protected in a conservatory. It is an outdoor garden wherein are cultivated the flowers and fruits that are indigenous to the region. A true Sunday school is a group of people drawn out of the larger world around it, and representing every element in that world, both as regards social life and age. If it represents the rich and the prosperous only, it is not a good school, unless the neighborhood is unfortunate in containing only such people. If it is a mission school for poor people in the midst of a self-supporting population, it is not a good school. If it includes few members above sixteen, and none above twenty-five years of age, it is not a good school, for it should embrace all ages from the infant to the grandfather. The school which is to stand on the roll of honor is one that fairly represents its constituency.
2. Organization. Another requirement for a good school is that it be well organized as a graded school. There may be Sunday schools which make up by their spirit for what they lack in system; yet the exceptions are few to the rule that in Sunday-school work organization is essential to success. It is true that machinery creates no power; there is nothing in a constitution and by-laws to make an institution successful. It is the efforts of living men and women that bring to pass results. But organization directs and economizes power; so that, other elements being equal, the graded school quickly becomes the best school. We have already seen that a graded school is one with departments defined, with the number of classes in each department fixed according to the needs of the school, with promotions at regular periods, based either on age or examination or merit, or on all three factors in combination, with lessons graded according to the departments, and, as its most important element, with a change of teachers when the pupil is promoted from a lower to a higher grade or department. The graded system is not easy to establish; it requires firmness and tact in the authorities, and a self-denying spirit on the part of teachers; but it will abundantly and quickly repay all it costs in effort and sacrifice, and it is an essential in a really good Sunday school.