REGULAR ATTENDANCE AT SABBATH-SCHOOL.
By W. E. Dawson
This is of the greatest importance. Organization, classification, the maintenance of a steady interest, and regular progress, all depend very much upon all the members being in their places at each session of the school. In many schools, teachers and scholars seem to feel at perfect liberty to attend the Sabbath-school or remain at home, as convenience or inclination direct. In such schools you may to-day see a teacher full of life and animation, thoroughly prepared to conduct the exercises of his class, seeming to engage with all his heart in his duties as teacher, and by his enthusiasm awakening a corresponding interest in the minds of his pupils. He calls attention to the importance of the next lesson, urges each scholar to be thoroughly prepared, and to surely be in attendance the next Sabbath. A week passes, and with thorough preparation for the recitation, and glowing with a newly awakened zeal in the study of the word of God, each member of the class comes to the Sabbath-school, anticipating a smiling welcome from the teacher, and another happy hour spent in the exercises of the school. But the teacher’s ardor has suddenly cooled. Some trivial excuse detains him at home. His class is disappointed. They miss the expected words of commendation for their faithfulness, and the teacher’s example tells them, as plainly as it would be possible to tell in words, that the lesson was not a very important one after all, and that a cloudy day, or a slight attack of “Sabbath sickness,” is a sufficient excuse for neglecting the duties of the Sabbath-school. A teacher, who perhaps has not glanced at the lesson to be recited, is picked up from among the older scholars, the printed questions are asked, the resources of the teacher exhausted, and the class sits through the greater part of the session, listless and discouraged. An injury has been inflicted upon that class from which it will be slow to recover, and if such injuries are often repeated, all possibility of having an interested, wide-awake school is at an end, until a different order of things prevails. Nor is the failure of pupils to attend regularly much less disastrous to the interests of the school. A thoroughly organized, carefully classified school is as much better qualified to enter upon a course of Bible study with interest and success than a school without such organization, as a well-drilled and disciplined army is better prepared than an unorganized and undisciplined mob to enter upon an effective campaign. What superintendent is equal to the task of organizing and keeping properly classified a school whose membership is constantly shifting, and which on no two successive Sabbaths presents the same assemblage of faces? Every system of Sabbath-school lessons which is of any value is “progressive” in its arrangement—leading the young Bible student on step by step. While pursuing a course of study thus arranged, the thorough mastery of the lessons intended for one division is necessary to awaken a lively interest, and to give that strength and vigor of mind which are essential to enable the scholar to enter successfully upon the study of the lessons of a higher and more difficult grade. It will also frequently be found that the connection between the lessons for the same division is so close that the lesson for this week is an indispensable introduction to those for several successive Sabbaths; and if some of the members of the class are absent, and fail to obtain a complete understanding of it, they meet with such difficulties in their future progress that they are almost sure to become discouraged. “It often happens that one scholar after another is absent, until at the end of three months’ instruction half the members of the class have so little knowledge of what they have passed over as to be totally unqualified for further progress.” That a single scholar should be out of his allotted place is a great misfortune to himself and the school. That a teacher should ever under ordinary circumstances fail to meet his class, is inexcusable. THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST.
[I send you the following verses for publication, hoping they may do the reader as much good as they have me many times. They have been in our family from my earliest recollections, and are to us household words. D. S. JAMES.] I love the holy Son of God,
Who once this vale of sorrows trod,
And bore my sins, a heavy load,
Up Calvary’s gloomy mountain.
There on the cross he mournful hung,
The sport of many an impious tongue,
While pain extreme his nature wrung,
And flowed life’s crimson fountain. The sun would not behold the scene,
But ’round him threw night’s sable screen;
Nature was robed in mourning mien,
And sighed while Jesus suffered.
But oh! his persecutors stood,
That cruel, murderous, hellish brood,
Unmoved, to see his gushing blood,
And scoffing insults offered. Why did he not in anger spurn,
And floods of vengeance on them turn?
Amazing see his bosom burn
With soft compassion o’er them.
No fury kindles in his eyes;
They beam with love, and when he dies,
“Father, forgive,” the sufferer cries,
And makes excuses for them. Oh! was there ever such distress,
Or such amazing proof as this
Of mercy, love, and tenderness
Which our Redeemer’s given?
Not one of all the hosts above
Can comprehend his matchless love
That did within his bosom move,
And brought him down from Heaven. How ardent ought my love to be
To One who’s done so much for me!
My constant service faithful, free,
And all my powers employing,
I ought his cross with pleasure bear,
And place my all of glorying there,
In his reproach most gladly share,
In tribulation joying. And never shall it be concealed
He hath in me his love revealed,
Of all my sins a pardon sealed,—
I feel his precious favor.
In him I do and will rejoice,
And praise him with a cheerful voice,
Until the theme my tongue employs
In Heaven above forever.