IN all our great cities, in the town and country, there are vast numbers of immortal youth far beyond the reach of churches and church Sabbath-schools, and therefore, it becomes necessary to carry the Sunday-school to them. A room is obtained, conveniently located, with seats, books, etc. The children are gathered, taught to read, to sing, to pray, presented with library books, papers, etc., and thus innumerable blessings are sent down into destitute families, and soon, like leaven, the Gospel is seen diffusing itself everywhere among the mass.
Something like seventy of these mission-schools are now successfully sustained in New York City alone, with twelve to fifteen thousand pupils in them. Roman Catholic, Jewish, and other classes of children are in this way easily and successfully reached, and permanently benefited. This instrumentality must be largely increased everywhere. Some five or six different denominations often unite in the labors of one of these schools, and all work together in the most beautiful harmony. This movement is in the highest sympathy with that aggressive feature of the system, before named.
But to come to the details of this work, and how it should be begun and carried on: First choose wisely the location for a new church or mission Sabbath-school. Then select one or more men and women full of life and zeal as a nucleus of interest and labor. Next survey and visit systematically all the families in the district, and present the objects and the value and adaptedness of the Sunday-school to their wants. Pray much and at every step, privately and socially, especially in the early stages of the effort.
Get all ready for a good commencement. Have every thing arranged, so that not a moment of delay in finding the right hymn, or in singing it, will prompt the children to find something else to do. Do not admit children faster than you can conveniently control them. Some superintendents aim at gathering a rush of scholars the first Sabbath or two, and the result is that they lose months in getting to order and control of the children. It is often better to admit only a dozen or two new scholars at a time, and get them well classified and arranged, and in the hands of good teachers. There most be order, and the superintendent must wait for it, although he may not at the first do much beside. Much depends upon starting right. Have Testaments, hymn-books, and Sunday-school papers, if possible, ready on the first Sabbath.
Select a clear, distinct, easy lesson at the first, and whatever is done, let it be well done. Select the teachers carefully, and admit none who have not a good report, and are not of a teachable spirit. Meet with the teachers socially every week, if possible, to aid them with your suggestions and help. Be cheerful, earnest, and respectful to all. Keep up a regular visitation of teachers and scholars, and let your visits bear a fraternal and not an inquisitorial aspect. Prove yourselves the true friends of parents and scholars, and never get out of patience or discouraged because you cannot gain the children of Roman Catholics or Jewish parents at once: it may be only a question of time. At any rate, do them all the good you can at their homes, whether you ever lead them to the Sunday-school or not. Duty is ours—results belong to God. Through the children reach the parents, and through the parents reach the children. Let your errand to the house always be one of kindness and good-will, so that if they do not receive you kindly it will be because they misunderstand you. These visits, however, are almost invariably well received if made in a natural, pleasant manner, proceeding from a "charity which hopeth all things." Respect and honor the parents all you can, whether they commit their children to your care or not. Exhibit our beautiful library books, our sweet songs, our attractive children's papers, and speak of the great kindness and love of the teachers to the children.
It is very desirable to have a course of regular week-day evening lectures for the children and parents. One week it may be "Jerusalem," another "coal," another "coral," and the next "the ocean," and then some subject of natural history, as the "elephant;" and illustrate highly to meet the eyes. Take especial care of the older boys and girls, and strive to introduce week-day exercises that will interest and please them. Appoint them upon committees and to little offices, and give them all something to do—something that they can do, something that they will do cheerfully.
The following, from The Sunday-School Times, is a beautiful illustrative example of mission Sunday-school work and teaching. It is entitled "Bill Jones; or, Our Colored Sabbath-school:"
It was one of those perfect Sabbaths in the early June, that I walked with trembling heart along the locust-shadowed sidewalk leading to our little chapel. On that day our colored Sunday-school was to be organized; and we, who only a few weeks since had professed before men and angels to love our Saviour, were to be enlisted as workers in our Master's vineyard.
What can be done to improve the religious condition of our colored population? was a question which had long occasioned anxious thought among the godly of our village. Originally slaves, they had, when the law of liberation was proclaimed through New York, refused to remove farther than the grassy common, where, almost within the shadow of "Massa's house," they were allowed to build their humble cabins. Increased afterward in numbers, the suburbs of the town had become edged with their miserable tenements. One or two attempts had been made to establish preaching among them by a minister of their own race, but thus far without success. True, in the "brick church," a part of the gallery was set apart especially for their use. Still the "dark corner" (as the mischievous boys called it) was only occupied by a few old uncles and aunties, while the rest, though within sound of the sweetest of all Sabbath bells, were as utterly without God in the world as their brethren in Africa.