The claim is made by Biblical scholars that the school for Bible teaching is twenty centuries older than the pulpit teaching. A stated pulpit ministry did not begin until the days of John the Baptist, and we may consider the Sabbath school of modern times as the recovery of the lost art of Bible teaching. It is interesting to note that the great Sunday school movement of our day was born in a soul-winning atmosphere, for it was the great burden of soul for the neglected children of Gloucester, England, which led Robert Raikes to make the beginning. The story is told as follows:
Pin making had been an important industry at Gloucester from the early part of the seventeenth century. Many small children from the city and surrounding regions were employed. Vast numbers of them were uneducated and without parental restraint and moral supervision. On Sundays the factories were closed, and because of the opportunity afforded for the children mingling freely together, gross immoralities broke out among them. One morning Mr. Raikes went into the suburbs of Gloucester, and seeing a group of children at play, he asked a woman whether or not they belonged to that part of the city. The woman replied, 'The street is filled with multitudes of these wretches, who, released from employment, spend their time in noise and riot, playing at chuck, and cursing and swearing in a manner so horrid as to convey to any serious mind an idea of hell rather than any other place.'
"Mr. Raikes thought it would be harmless if some little plan could be formed to check this lawlessness, and he inquired of the woman if there were teachers in the neighborhood. Being directed to four women teachers, he made an agreement to pay each of these four teachers a shilling a Sunday if they would instruct the children he would send to them, teaching them the church catechism and to read. The arrangement was that the children were to come soon after ten o'clock in the morning, and remain until noon; then they were to go home and stay until one o'clock, and upon return to the teacher, were to be given a reading lesson, and then conducted to church. After the church service, they were to be employed in repeating the catechism until half past five, and then dismissed, with the injunction to go home without making a noise, and by no means to play in the street."
Thus we find that the Sabbath school idea in its origin was a soul-saving endeavor. It is not strange that we have been told that the Sabbath school is to be one of the greatest soul-winning agencies in these last days. There is need of broader views of the possibilities of this world-wide movement. We must give the Sabbath school a chance to work out its mighty mission, and this can be done only as the church places large emphasis upon the central aim of Sabbath school work.
Let us bear in mind that the Sabbath school exists for the one purpose of saving souls. Everything else is but a means to this supreme end. The Sabbath school seeks the education of the heart. History furnishes the names of many men who were brilliant in mind, but depraved in heart. Heart culture is more essential than brain culture: therefore, we must put first things first.
The Sabbath school is a mighty evangelistic agency, a crowning phase of church organization; in fact, if God's people would fully awaken to its possibilities, it might become the most powerful and far-reaching of any soul-winning agency. That the Sabbath school has proved to be a great missionary agency in new communities is evidenced by the fact that fully 70 percent of our organized churches were first developed as Sabbath schools.
It is stated that 85 percent of church membership comes directly from the Sabbath school.
Let the church reach the child through the Sabbath school, and the father and mother will most usually be won. And surely this kind of evangelistic agency is needed, in view of the startling and astounding fact that there are eight million children in the United States unreached by either Protestant or Catholic churches. How sacred is the task of reaching the children of non-Christian homes. Concerning the pitiful situation as relates to the environment of a large group of children, the following statement has been made:
"There are children who seem 'damned into the world.' 'Lust is their father, brutality their mother, vice their teacher, filth their companion, drunken crime their ambition, hunger their inspiration, and drunkenness their heaven.' Why should we not plant the evangelistic work of the Sabbath school in the plague spots of our cities, and help restore decency where there is now moral pollution?
If our hearts are touched with divine sympathy, we shall seek for our Sabbath schools, not simply the children of Christian homes, but those also of less fortunate families. Let us make
it downhill from every direction to our Sabbath schools."
May the Sabbath schools of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination be enabled to meet the high standard which God has designed for them as great soul-winning agencies.
New York, N.. Y.
