TO SABBATH-SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS.
By J. N. Ayers
The position you occupy is one of the most responsible in the church. The Sabbath-school is the church nursery, the place to discipline the youth and prepare them to fill stations of usefulness in society and in the church, and finally to have a place in Christ’s everlasting kingdom. Then how important that their training should be correct; for “as the twig is bent, the tree inclines.” And Solomon says, in Prov. 22: 6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” In order to be successful in this responsible position, you need the best assistance to be found, and I know of no better help (outside the Bible) than the weekly Instructor. The Sabbath-school should be made attractive and interesting to the children, so that they will delight to come; and there is nothing that will accomplish this like having a nice pictorial paper to distribute among them every Sabbath. This will cause them to look forward with delight to the Sabbath, when they expect to receive their paper. Children like to have a paper that they can call their own, and they will manifest more interest in reading it than they would if it belonged to some one else. The Instructor is in every respect what its name indicates; it is truly an instructor of the youth, giving them from week to week just the kind of instruction they need to make them useful members of the Sabbath-school, and of society, and to prepare them for eternal life when Jesus comes. We all have a responsibility in this work, parents and teachers as well as superintendents, and the Lord will hold each of us accountable for the manner in which we discharge our responsibility. We have over forty Sabbath-schools in Kansas, and I do not know of a single school that should not take a club of at least ten copies of the weekly Instructor; while there are some that ought to take fifty copies. At least, each school should take enough to supply every family that attends with a copy, and whenever children come into the school who are not of our faith, they should also receive a copy. This might interest them to come again, and, with the blessing of God, might induce their parents to come also. Here is a grand field for missionary labor, and one that should not be neglected. Then there are families so far from any church that their children do not have the benefit of the Sabbath-school. These especially should have the weekly Instructor not only to read but to learn the lessons from, so as to have a family Sabbath-school each Sabbath. I am sorry to say that there are a great many Sabbath-keepers who do not take the REVIEW, so that it will be difficult to get these suggestions before some of those who most need them. Will every superintendent read this in his school, and send it to those who do not attend, and then do not fail to have a club ordered at once for the school. Don’t put it off till next week. Now is the time. Be persevering, and do not give up because some complain of hard times, scarcity of money, etc. Eternal life is worth more to our children than anything this world can afford. Do not let your eyes be blinded to the infinite value of eternal life; but be more earnest in your efforts to have your children obtain a moral fitness for Heaven than you are in securing for them food and raiment. “Behold the fowls of the air: . . . your heavenly Father feedeth them.” Are our children not much better than they? “Consider the lilies of the field; . . . I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? . . . your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matt. 6: 26-33. The Publishing Association offers us the weekly Instructor in clubs of five at 60 cents, and in clubs of ten for 50 cents, only $3 00 for ten copies for the year. Certainly there is no school that cannot raise that amount if they try, and the papers may be the means of accomplishing much good. Don’t fail to send in your orders at once for a club. J. N. AYERS.
Garnett, Kansas.