REV. CHARLES H. OLIPHANT.
The Editor has asked me to give some account of the way our Sunday-school behaves itself at Christmas-time.
There are two ideas about the Church; and as parents feel and think about the Church the children will be pretty sure to think and feel about the Sunday-school. One conception of the Church is that it is a kind of receptacle for pious people. When one becomes "good enough" he is expected to get into this receptacle and there be acted upon by the means of grace. It is one of the mischiefs of this notion that it seems to excuse laymen from any active part in Christian work, if only they are regular attendants upon divine service. So, many people come to the preaching and the praying as if there were nothing for them to do, nothing either great or small. Such members may be said to be found in the "passive voice."
The other and better notion is that the Church is not a receptacle, but an engine; not a box for Christians to get into, but a "body" for them to operate, and through which Christ can act upon the world of to-day. According to this view, the minister is not the only member whom the Master has called into His vineyard, the ideal Church is not so much a company of sheep as a company of soldiers; the congregation comes together not simply to "hear Mr. ——," but to organize for work. This may be called the Church's "active voice." I cannot (within the verbal limits assigned me) measure the miles of distance which lie between these two views.
The same confusion of thought prevails in the Sunday-school. We know how the small boy finds that Sunday-school the most attractive (and that teacher the "nicest") whose Christmas-tree pays the largest dividend.
CHILDREN BEARING CHRISTMAS GIFTS
When I came to my present field of work it had been the immemorial custom to have a tree and a treat for the children of the school. After a year or two of competition with other schools in making it "worth while" for children to attend our own, we "braced up" and put the question to vote whether we would make the Christmas festival a feast for ourselves or a feast for others; whether we would have our school at this time a dispenser of sweetmeats and ourselves the beneficiaries, or dispense a gift instead to some more needy servants of the Master, who had no parental pocketbook to tap; no good things to give away. To the surprise of all the vote was unanimous against the old, and in favor of the new, way. There was much misgiving as to results. Many confidently predicted that the offerings (each class was invited to bring its own in a sealed envelope) would be microscopic. It was distinctly understood that no money—not the smallest sum—was asked from those who disapproved the plan. Teachers were urged to dissuade their classes from perfunctory gifts. Inquiring next for a suitable object, we were advised by the Home Missionary Society of a poor servant of theirs in a Western State, whose poorer and more to be pitied wife was the mother of seven children. We put her to vote, and she was promptly and unanimously chosen. With the introduction into the plan of a personal element, enthusiasm began, and it became evident at once that there was to be sharp rivalry between the classes as to the size of their gifts. At length came the Christmas Eve concert, and with it a bright, full company of children. They never looked so happy, and every one of them knows that he never was so happy on such an occasion, as when, class by class, the offerings were handed to the Superintendent. With each of these a passage of Scripture was recited. It became only too evident, as the pile within his hand increased, that the prognostications of those who were sure that an old Sunday-school could not be taught new tricks were false. We are a small school—only 80 scholars—but the class offerings on this occasion footed up twenty-eight dollars and some cents. A letter was accordingly written and the money inclosed to the wife (this was the best part of it, for we were sure that the minister could not then, as ministers will, mistake the remittance for a portion of his salary), who was asked to purchase with the amount some article or articles of which she was individually in need. The letter which came back to us after a week made those who heard it read in open school clear their throats and wink away an inevitable tear. It revealed (among other things) the fact that this poor servant had hitherto made all the clothing for seven children with the bare needle. Now she has a sewing machine. We all think, but none more fervently than the children, that the memory of a few oranges, more or less—oranges eaten three years ago—would not compensate for the glad consciousness that life is easier every day in at least one prairie home. Thus we were led to translate the Beatitude pronounced upon the "giver" into our own experience, and we have its meaning in the continuous stream of happiness which many have felt at the remembrance of what our pennies wrought.
We have recently chosen an object for this year's offering; for the practice of giving and not receiving at Christmas-time is now habitual with us. Dr. Pike has told us about Philip Page, the African lad now at Atlanta, seeking eagerly, but with insufficient means, such an education as will qualify him to go back to his people a missionary. We shall send him enough for his support for one, and perhaps for two months.