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CALIFORNIA SABBATH-SCHOOLS

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 2, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 21.

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CALIFORNIA SABBATH-SCHOOLS.

By William Clarence White

WE give below a table showing the reported standing at the close of March of each of our twenty-five Sabbath-schools. As we compare this with past reports and notice the rise and fall of the figures, they tell us of many an effort for progress which those less acquainted with the difficulties under which some of them are conducted, would never notice. In many places the difficulties to be overcome are greater than those accompanying an ordinary Sunday-school. Many of our churches have no settled pastor, and both church and school feel the lack of that experienced wisdom and strong guiding hand which a minister of the gospel could bring to their support.
In the same degree that the difficulties multiply, the mission of the school grows in importance, for where there is no pastor to preach the word, there is all the more need of making the school a means of imparting in the most attractive and forcible manner, those Bible truths which furnish subjects for thought and religious conversation.
The quarter reported, from January to March, is the most discouraging time of the year to secure full attendance, and this accounts in part for the decrease in numbers. In some cases families who moved from a large church to several different places have formed new schools without reporting their organization to the State Secretary.
In many respects the present is the most favorable time of the year for the formation of new schools, and the strengthening in numbers and interest of the old ones. The weather and the roads are good, the days are long, and the lessons are of thrilling interest. We hope that the harvest season will not lessen the attendance at the Sabbath services. It would be truly deplorable if the gathering, upon the six days alloted to us, of the bounties God has granted for our bodily food, should so weary any that they would starve their souls by idling away the Sabbath and failing to gather for themselves spiritual food upon the day that God has reserved for that purpose. We have much to learn. Time is short. Who will improve it?
W. C. WHITE.