He should also engage in the work with a good measure of scriptural enthusiasm. We do well to be very earnest and full of life, to be glowing and animated in our looks, words, and actions, if we would effectually reach the children, who are so full of life. Perhaps the word unction would more worthily express the idea. The superintendent's interest should rise to this high point.
He should maintain good discipline and order, both for himself and his school. Sometimes the most disorderly man in the whole school is the superintendent. The two elements of good order are self-control and good temper. Let no man think he can control others unless he can control himself. It will be in vain for him to insist on order, punctuality, and regard to all the rules of the school, unless he himself is a living example of strict conformity to them all. When he calls the school to order, let him always wait patiently, in silence, until every teacher, every scholar, officer and visitor, is in perfect order, before he names a hymn or proceeds to do the least thing.
He should also be disinterested, and never overshadow his teachers. They are the great workers, and his great work is to help the teachers in the teaching. He should not forestall or overshadow the teacher's work by an exposition of the lesson at the opening of the school, so as to leave the teachers nothing to do but to glean after the superintendent. His remarks and reviews of the lesson should usually come after the teachers have taught the lesson.
He should likewise sincerely respect all his teachers, and treat them accordingly. Especially should he respect the weakest and most inefficient of his teachers. He will have the more to do to aid them, and he must needs visit, counsel, suggest and instruct them often. I have always found it better to elevate and improve inefficient teachers than to dismiss them.
The superintendent should also be a man of good executive ability; and this is a very rare possession. He needs much discerning power, as well as organizing and combining talent, so as to keep pastor and people, parents, teachers, and scholars, all harmoniously at work. As Dr. James W. Alexander used to say: "That man who can well superintend a Sabbath-school can command an army;" and a well-known bishop has said, that "the man who can organize a good mission-school can organize a diocese."
Again: The Sunday-school superintendent should always have a spirit and temper such as will be safe to diffuse throughout the school. Says the Rev. S. Martin: "If he stands at the desk like a cold, snow-capped mountain, or floats about the school like a majestic iceberg, the whole atmosphere of the school will be cold." If he is warm and genial, such will be the school. A cheerful superintendent spreads cheerfulness throughout the school. A light and trifling, or a gloomy and morose, superintendent infects teachers and scholars alike with the same spirit. Never should the superintendent allow the least impatience or harshness to manifest itself in his look, tone of voice, or manner in the school; for its effects will prove most disastrous. Ill-temper is a perfect barrier to religious improvement and usefulness.
He should also be a decided, positive character; not fitful, obstinate, heady, but strong in purpose, strong in resolution, strong in the Lord. The boys in the streets never choose any but positive characters for leaders. A merely nominal superintendent is a curse to a school, as is a weak, foolish mother, or father, in the family.
Further, he should study to gather hints and suggestions to help the teachers not only in the school, but also in the teachers' meetings and everywhere. Particularly should he observe the teachers during the teaching hour, and never interrupt them, but be ready at any moment to come to their assistance. He should always protect the teachers while teaching, and not allow the librarian, or secretary, or missionary collector, to appear on the floor at that time.
It will be seen from these points that the superintendent needs great general strength of character. Willow will do for a basket, but it requires oak and iron for a man-of-war. Never are the teachers called to a more important duty than when they prayerfully cast their votes for the election of superintendent. No personal favoritism or interest or prejudice should be allowed for a single moment to prevail.
If I am here asked, "Do you know of any such superintendents as are here described?" I must reply in the negative. I have endeavored to embody in the above list of qualifications all the best things of the best superintendents whom I have seen during the last forty-five years. Nevertheless, the things which are here detailed have their counterparts in some of them. The standard is raised high, so that the true artist can copy after the great masters. Let none be discouraged. The best superintendents now living were very distrustful of their qualifications, and shrank from the responsibility at the first call. If God calls a man to a field of labor, he is abundantly competent to fit him for working in it. Then "not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory."