The Sabbath School by Hart

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 15, 1881

The Sabbath School.

By Hart

CHURCH MEMBERS AND THE SABBATH-SCHOOL.

HAS a church member, as such, any necessary relation to the Sabbath-school? Is this cause one which a professing Christian may, or may not, at his option support? Is it, in short, in the present state of the church and the world, something which affects the question of personal duty of every professed follower of Jesus? No one can fail to see that this question goes to the very quick. On the answer which the church shall give, depends mainly the success of the Sabbath-school cause.

The true child of God cannot feel entire indifference to any effort of benevolence affecting the welfare of man. There are some enterprises, which touch him only remotely and indirectly, and in common with others who are not Christians. But in the providence of God, the Sabbath-school has become one of the leading agencies of the church in carrying forward its work. It is no longer a mere plan for keeping poor neglected children out of the street, and teaching them to read and spell on the Sabbath-day. It aims indeed to do this, but it aims also to do a hundred fold more. Temporal benefits undoubtedly flow from the Sabbath-school, especially to the poorer classes. Wherever it flourishes, there order prevails, manners are improved, decorum, industry, economy, thrift, a desire to become respectable, a love of reading, and a general thirst for knowledge, gain ground. But these are the incidental results of the Sabbath-school teacher's work. They are not his chief aim. What he mainly and primarily seeks is the conversion of his scholars. He seeks to make them true Christians, knowing that, if this point be gained, all other needed things "will be added." Conversion is the need of every soul, of the rich as well as of the poor. Here is a want which includes all.

Hence the Sabbath-school seeks to gather into its fold the children of all classes. No children are too high, none are too low, to be beyond its benefits. As a matter of fact a large part of those now converted to God and brought into the church on profession of their faith, come from the Sabbath-school. At a State Sabbath-school Convention, in Lawrence, Mass., the question being moved, with a view to bring out this significant fact, all those persons were requested to rise who had been converted while attending Sabbath-school. Almost the entire assembly rose. At least nine-tenths of the Convention were on their feet.

Christ's ministers and his people find that a given amount of labor yields larger returns, when put forth among the young than when put forth among the old. The young are more tender-hearted; they are more easily influenced; they have fewer evil habits to be broken up; their habits are not so stubborn; the world has not yet such a controlling influence over them; appeals to conscience, exhibitions of the love of Christ, arguments from the glories of the world to come, have more hold upon them. Hence labor for their conversion is more hopeful. The minister does not indeed despair of the aged. He labors and he prays for the old as well as for the young. But he finds his chief encouragement among the latter. Here, too, more than elsewhere, he can have the co-operation of his people. Almost every godly man and woman in his flock can help him in his labor among the little ones. But among the adults, among the parents of those very children, he must work almost alone. Scores may be found in every church, able and willing to preach Christ to the child of the hardened worldling. But who shall be found with the courage and the discretion to go with the same message to the father himself, to the ungodly lawyer, physician, or merchant?

If such, then, be the aim and object of the Sabbath-school, if it be in fact, not some outside, philanthropic association, but the church itself working in a particular way, for the better husbanding of its resources, there can be no doubt of the duty of every professing Christian to give it his support. As a member of the church, he is consecrated to its service, and here is a particular service in which the church finds her labors most efficient. There are undoubtedly some professing Christians who are not required to engage personally as Sabbath-school teachers. Bodily infirmity, more imperative duties in the family or elsewhere, and other causes, may forbid such a service. But the cause of the Sabbath-school has assumed such magnitude and proportions in the aggressive movements of the church, that the fact of entering the church should be considered prima facie evidence of an intention to enter the Sabbath-school, if one is not already there. Every one proposing to join the church, should distinctly propose to himself the question, What shall I do for the Sabbath-school? Ministers, in admitting persons to the church, should ask the candidate, What are you going to do for the Lord in this part of his vineyard? The question of personal duty in the matter should be presented and pressed to a conscientious and deliberate decision. It should not be, it is not, a matter, about which a professing Christian may be indifferent.—Hart.