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The Sabbath School

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 13, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 39.

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The Sabbath School.

By S. J. Wilson

WHERE TO UTILIZE THE CHURCH'S TALENT.

ONE of the problems for Christendom to solve is this: How can the latent talent of the church be developed and made available? It is a most important question. That this talent is not developed and made available is a most palpable fact. Some denominations succeed in this matter better than others, but in all there is a lamentable defect, and in consequence of this the church goes lamely, not putting forth a tithe of her real strength.
What could be more admirably adapted to the development of this latent talent than the Sabbath-school? Here all can find employment. Some of the most efficient lay talent in the church has thus been developed. Men who began with their class in the Sabbath-school have risen, by successive steps, until they occupy positions of national and of world-wide influence. There is talent enough buried in the earth or wrapped up in napkins to make the church arise and shine like the sun in the heavens.
Teachers should learn to qualify themselves for their office and its duties. They should not only study the word of God, but should also study the dispositions of children. They should make themselves adepts at imparting instruction,—in winning and retaining the affection and confidence of their classes. The highest attainments, the most brilliant talents, are not too good to be devoted to this service. The State has her normal schools; why should not the church have hers also? There ought to be a trained and disciplined corps of teachers, who are not only qualified for the service, but who have an enthusiasm in it,—who will bring with them an ardor that will diffuse the warmth and life of spring where now reigns the dreariness of winter. Some pagan nations consecrated new buildings by enclosing a living child in the masonry of the foundation. We are far in advance of that superstition; but there is a time coming when our indifference to the intellectual and moral condition of the millions of children in the land will be regarded with almost as much horror as we now regard the pagan atrocity that entombed a living child in solid masonry. Notwithstanding all that has been done, much remains to be done; and it behooves the church to address herself to the work as she has never yet done.—S. J. Wilson.