There is urgent need to day for more of that holy compulsion that Jesus exercised, when, surrounded by a lot of hungry people, he required the disciples to "Make the men sit down," and then added, "Give ye them to eat."
THE CHURCH AND SUNDAY SCHOOL
When Jesus said, "The son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister," he gave to the world one of its clearest visions of the Kingdom of God, and his own, the highest ideal of life, the one that produces the noblest type of manhood.
It is the great business of the church to bring all its children and youth to this true conception of life, and it aims to do this through the christian home, the Sunday school, young peoples' meetings and church services. But these alone are not adequate, to reach all the children and youth of the land, including those of the one million immigrants, arriving annually from other lands.
Margaret Slattery in the Charm of the Impossible has very truly remarked:
"Men of all creeds and of none agree, that religious instruction ought to be given, to all the children and youth of the land, but the task of attempting it is a tremendous one, and the best manner of doing it is not clear to all. Some say religious instruction should be given in the home. This is usually done, in the intelligent christian home; but there are many homes, where it is impossible, and others indisposed. The fact that the church has seen, as if with a new vision, the method of Jesus, the Great Teacher of all men, reveals itself more clearly in the Sunday school, than in any other department of its work. There it attempts the task of religious education by instruction from the Bible, and endeavors to inspire the child, youth and man with the purest and greatest motives for action."
MAKE THE PUBLIC, A BIBLE SCHOOL
There is, however, no instrumentality in our country, so convenient and favorable for giving all the children and youth of our land a general knowledge of the Bible, as the public school. The Bible is the embodiment of all lofty ideals, and when it is daily read in all of our schools, there is in them a uniform standard of morals. Schools, that neglect or suppress the daily reading of the Bible, do not keep the vision of those attending them on the christian ideal, or develop the christian motive in them, during the most impressionable period of their lives.
The Bible is the light of the intellect, the fore runner of civilization, the charter of true liberty and secret of national greatness. The Bible is the one, all-important book for the Freedmen and their children. Its weekly use, in the church and Sunday school, is to be appreciated and promoted; but the home and the public school are the golden places, where its daily use should be required, and the opportunity be magnified.