After sunshine comes Sunday-school, from 9:30 to 11 A.M. The pastor is superintendent. After the opening exercises, the school separates by classes, each going to its own room for forty minutes’ study of the lesson.
Our school at present numbers 14 classes, of which three are Bible classes; an infant class numbering 60 and still growing, the ten other classes being composed of boys and girls from eight to sixteen years of age. Attendance for to-day is 210, a fair average for pleasant weather. At the close of study hour the school re-assembles for general review, which occupies about a quarter of an hour, and includes the previous lessons of the quarter as well as that of to-day. The review, though necessarily brief, reveals two things: One is the fact that we have a corps of earnest, faithful and competent teachers. The other, that the pupils have studied their lessons and are learning how to think. The promptness of response, the intelligence of the answers given, and the thoughtfulness of the questions asked by them, I have rarely seen surpassed. That they are in great part either students or graduates of the Storrs school will explain the reason of any unusual proficiency. The majority of the children in our Sunday-school are as wide-awake, active, keen, as you will find anywhere, and any dull, prosy, goody-good teacher will find ours the best school in the world–to stay away from.
At three o’clock we gather at the first church service of the day. This is Communion with us, and in connection with the administration of the Sacrament, a brother recently chosen deacon is to be set apart for that office.
The sermon which preceded was founded upon a clause from Acts vi., 3, “Men of good report.” It emphasized the importance of calling to the diaconate only such men as were of unblemished reputation and unquestioned integrity in all that concerned themselves and others.
After the sermon, amidst the most impressive stillness of the congregation, the deacon elect was consecrated to his office, through the laying on of hands by the pastor and the other deacons, and with prayer. The service was peculiarly solemn, and will tend to awaken in our people a truer conception of the qualifications essential to the holding of responsible positions in the church.
The exercises were concluded with the administration of the Lord’s Supper. Following this service is a half-hour prayer meeting in one of the Bible classrooms.
To-day the attendance is unusually large. That there is more than common interest is evinced by the twelve earnest prayers offered and the expressions of desire to serve God on the part of some who are still without the fold.
A sermon to parents in the evening, previously announced, and preached to a large and attentive congregation, brings this day to a close–a day filled with work, of which only an outline is given–work that instead of weariness brings rest and strength and courage.
WORK IN THE THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT AT TALLADEGA, MONDAY, FEB. 13–“AVERAGE EXPERIENCES OF AN AVERAGE DAY.”
By Rev. G. W. Andrews.