p. 125 | The Sabbath-School

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 16, 1882

The Sabbath-School.

The Infant Classes.

THERE is no department of the Sabbath-school work of greater importance and interest than this. We have known marked cases of hopeful conversion of children from four to seven years of age to result from the first hour of Bible instruction in the youngest infant classes. Often the character and habits of scholars as such are formed at the very first interview with their teacher, who thus meets them at the very entering in of “the gates of life.” It is well known that some of our most distinguished divines, as well as active Christian ladies, date their conversion back to the early age of four, five, or six years. Therefore take measures in every Sabbath-school to organize and sustain a first-class infant-school department. Give the children a room by themselves if possible, to rise and sing, talk, recite, and pray. Furnish the room with a good black-board and crayons, and such Scripture prints and cards and maps as you can obtain for the walls and for use. Provide for them small, comfortable seats. Select and call to the charge of this class the most pious, bright, cheerful, patient, loving, gentle, winning teacher for children there is to be found in the whole church, with a like assistant. Generally the teacher will be a lady, although some men greatly excel as infant-class teachers, so that the complaining remark of the little girl to her mother, that she “hadn’t any teacher to-day—it was only a man,” was quite too severe to be just. The little ones are greatly blessed in their love for their teachers, for they want a large share of demonstrative, life-like sympathy, expressed by a soft, loving voice and a gentle manner—hands that will speak in all their gestures, and a patience that endureth and a heart that loves to teach them for Christ’s sake. If the teacher feels the need of learning how to do this good work, let him visit good week-day infant-schools, and gather up suggestions and lessons, as well as confidence and inspiration, for the great work. Visit and gather in all the children from the ages of three or four to seven years, whose parents are willing to send them, and at once teach them habits of punctuality, order, regularity, and pleasant worship. When they become well drilled and instructed, so that they can clearly read the Bible, then transfer them to older classes, unless there be good reasons to the contrary. Although they are little, they are very precious, and amply worth all the pains-taking effort you can make for them. Let the teacher of such a class ponder and consider the characteristics of his precious charge.

Activity.—Says Mr. Hassell, “A healthful child abhors quietude,” and rightly so, as much as nature does a vacuum. Every mother knows that her little ones, if in health, “cannot bear to be still for a minute.”
Curiosity.—Archbishop Whately says: “Curiosity is the parent of attention.”
Inquisitiveness.—Happy is that child who is blest with a mother or teacher who will “bide patiently all the endless questionings of the little one, and will not rudely crush the rising spirit of free inquiry with an impatient nod or a frown.” Rather see in their many questions but the untutored pleadings of the little ones for care and cultivation. Oh, how much they want and deserve to have their inquisitiveness satisfied by a kind, considerate answer to all their questions!
Fear.—Oh, how much children suffer from this cause! Their natural timidity should be respected, and not cruelly wrought upon.
Then, too, children have wonder, and like to talk and hear of “wonderful things.”
They have also a proper love of approbation, and they should be cheered and encouraged when they try to do well.—S. S. Index.