The Sabbath-School Index / Pointing out the history and progress of Sunday-schools, with approved modes of instruction.

by R. G. Pardee

THERE is no department of the Sabbath-school work of greater importance and interest than this. We have known marked cases of hopeful conversion of children from four to seven years of age to result from the first hour of Bible instruction in the youngest infant classes. Often the character and habits of scholars as such are formed at the very first interview with their teacher, who thus meets them at the very entering in of "the gates of life." It is well known that some of our most distinguished divines, as well as active Christian ladies, date their conversion back to the early age of four, five, or six years. Therefore take measures in every Sabbath-school to organize and sustain a first-class infant-school department.

1. Get a light, warm, airy room. A lean-to added to your chapel for the purpose, or the use of the next-door neighbor's dining-room for an hour a week, will answer. Give the children a room by themselves if possible, to rise and sing, talk, recite, and pray. Furnish the room with a good blackboard and crayons, and such Scripture prints and cards and maps as you can obtain for the walls and for use. Provide for them small, comfortable seats.

2. Select and call to the charge of this class the most pious, bright, cheerful, patient, loving, gentle, winning teacher for children there is to be found in the whole church, with a like assistant. Generally the teacher will be a lady, although some men greatly excel as infant-class teachers, so that the complaining remark of the little girl to her mother, that she "hadn't any teacher to-day—it was only a man," was quite too severe to be just. The little ones are greatly blessed in their love for their teachers, for they want a large share of demonstrative, life-like sympathy, expressed by a soft, loving voice and a gentle manner—hands that will speak in all their gestures, and a patience that endureth and a heart that loves to teach them for Christ's sake. If the teacher feels the need of learning how to do this good work, let him visit good week-day infant-schools, and gather up suggestions and lessons, as well as confidence and inspiration, for the great work.

3. Visit and gather in all the children from the ages of three or four to seven years, whose parents are willing to send them, and at once teach them habits of punctuality, order, regularity, and pleasant worship. When they become well drilled and instructed, so that they can clearly read the Bible, then transfer them to older classes, unless there are good reasons to the contrary. Although they are little, they are very precious, and amply worth all the painstaking effort you can make for them.

4. Let the teacher of such a class ponder and consider the characteristics of his precious charge. 1. Activity.—Says Mr. Hassell, "A healthful child abhors quietude," and rightly so, as much as nature does a vacuum. Every mother knows that her little ones, if in health, "cannot bear to be still for a minute." 2. Curiosity.—Archbishop Whately says: "Curiosity is the parent of attention." 3. Inquisitiveness.—Happy is that child who is blest with a mother or teacher who will "bide patiently all the endless questionings of the little one, and will not rudely crush the rising spirit of free inquiry with an impatient nod or a frown." Rather see in their many questions but the untutored pleadings of the little ones for care and cultivation. Oh, how much they want and deserve to have their inquisitiveness satisfied by a kind, considerate answer to all their questions! 4. Fear.—Oh, how much children suffer from this cause! Their natural timidity should be respected, and not cruelly wrought upon. 5. Then, too, children have wonder, and like to talk and hear of "wonderful things." 6. They have also a proper love of approbation, and they should be cheered and encouraged when they try to do well.

Now let the teacher take up the first of these well-known characteristics, and act upon it. An excellent teacher of an infant class, some years ago, was accustomed to gain order by appealing to their love of activity. She would stand quietly at the desk and ask the children: "Children, will you please tell me what the gods of the heathen are like?" This was always a pleasing request to them, and every form would stand erect, with every hand by their sides, and they would together begin the part of the 115th Psalm which answers that question. They would repeat all together, "Eyes have they, but they see not," and every pair of little hands would go with the teacher's, pointing to, and resting upon, their eyes. In like manner, "mouths have they," "noses," "ears," "feet," "hands," etc., always suiting the action to the word. All are in perfect order, and the next step for the teacher would naturally be to talk a little about the gods of the heathen, and then sing a verse about "bowing down to gods of wood and stone." The transition is then natural and easy to "Our God" in heaven, where angels, saints, parents, and children too, are; and they sing the hymn to which all leads, viz.: "Around the throne of God in heaven, Thousands of children stand," etc., etc.

Another mode of conducting an infant-school is to place the children in little classes, of six scholars, with a teacher for each, and proceed with singing, repeating commandments, singing, recitation for ten minutes, study of emblems, a ten-minute address, and prayers, having a verse or two of singing between every exercise, and no exercise longer than ten minutes. Thus an excellent system of infant-class instruction proceeds, while the lady who has charge gives the address and superintends the teachers, etc., for the hour devoted to the school.

Another way is to take the two central verses of the regular lesson for the whole school and bring it out on the blackboard, and question, instruct, and pray and sing about the same thought of God in the lesson; as, "Who formed you, child, and made you live?" Ans. "God did my life and spirit give," etc., with singing and prayer.

Another infant-class teacher has a different plan, as follows: She has arranged with a gentleman, who teaches a large class of young ladies of sixteen to twenty years of age, to come in with his class and conduct the opening exercises of the infant-school. He then goes into another room and instructs his class for thirty minutes, and the lady instructs the children for the same time. Then the Bible-class, with their teacher, return, and the infant-school is divided into classes, in which the young ladies teach the same lesson which they have just received from their teacher. In this way practice in teaching, and variety are gained, and the lady teacher in the infant-school is relieved of a part of her burden.