Assistant Superintendents.
By Editor
THE following, from the Sunday School Times, should be read by all superintendents, as well as by their assistants. Although the term "Sunday-school" is, as a matter of course, used in the article, it will be found just as profitable to the leaders of Sabbath-schools:— A good superintendent is pretty sure to have a good Sunday-school; although, on the other hand, a Sunday-school may be a good one, a fairly good one, without having a good superintendent. The best superintendent could do more than he now does for his Sunday-school, if he could multiply himself and have several workers where he now works alone. There are, in fact, few Sunday-schools which could not be improved by additional work in the superintendent's sphere. And here is an opening for wise and efficient service by judicious and energetic assistants in the realm of the superintendent. All this is suggested just now by a letter from a Pennsylvania worker, who writes:— "I will thank you to advise me how I can be of some benefit in the position I hold as assistant superintendent in our Sunday-school. The position has ever been a simple figure-head; its duties as defined by law (?) 'to occupy the place of the superintendent in his absence.' Thanks to our efficient head, that is seldom necessary. I have been elected to this position, and am expected, not to teach a class but to assume the 'official position.' Will you please tell me, through your 'Notes on Open Letters,' what benefit an anomaly of this kind can be to a Sunday-school?" There are Sunday-schools where one man has to be superintendent and secretary and librarian and singing leader; and sometimes he has to teach a class in addition to all this. Such a man—God help him—must do all he can, as well as he can; but, at his utmost and at his best, he cannot superintend a Sunday-school as a Sunday-school ought to be superintended. All the time and all the ability of any one man can be well employed in the superintending of a Sunday-school; and even then there will be things beyond that man's utmost reach which might be done to the school's advantage. When a Sunday-school can afford an assistant superintendent, where there are men enough to justify the setting of a man apart for such a work, there are always fine possibilities in the sphere of an assistant superintendent. To begin with, in the responsive or alternate or simultaneous Bible-readings of the opening and closing exercises, the assistant superintendent can stand at the opposite end of the room and lead the school in its reading. This one thing may be a means of unifying the school in its Bible-reading, and so in its exercises of worship. Then again, the assistant superintendent can study the school from another direction than the superintendent's, during other portions of the opening and closing exercises. He can observe which teachers and scholars are prompt and attentive, and which are sluggish or careless in those exercises. And to know the needs or faults of particular members of the school is, with a faithful overseer, but a step from the attempt to correct the error or to supply the want observed. During the class hour, also, the assistant superintendent can be watchful to attend to one duty or another which the superintendent is hindered from doing through his occupation elsewhere. If the one is looking over the classes to see which of them are without teachers at the opening of the school, the other can be greeting strangers who enter the room, or speaking a kind word to new scholars who need to be made at home there. Or, these duties may be reversed for the moment. A careful study of the school by any overseer, can always be made advantageous to its interests. There is something which just now needs fresh attention in every Sunday-school, if only it be watched for intelligently. And if the assistant superintendent is looking for such things as these, in order to report them to the superintendent, with his suggestions for the remedy, he can be a power for good in the Sunday-school. Why, every gang of men in the street, or on the wharves, or in the factories, is found to be a gainer by an overseer who has nothing to do but to watch and suggest; and the closest-fisted contractor or the narrowest-gauge corporation recognizes the economy of paying a man for this watchful oversight. Two or three such overseers could be employed to advantage in every Sunday-school of a hundred members or more. And this is without taking into account the division of labor which might fairly be made between a good superintendent and a good assistant in the ordinary conduct of the Sunday-school. One might attend to the exercises from the desk, and the other might look after the classification and class direction of the school. One might take one side of the room, and the other the opposite side, in close oversight during the session of the school. And so on, indefinitely. What can an assistant superintendent do to advantage? What can't he do?