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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1907. THE CHILDREN’S SUNDAY By REV. EVERETT DEAN ELLENWOOD, Pastor Universalist Church A MONG all tha encouraging evl- donees of the genuine progress which the world Is making to ward that disinterested righteousness which Is true civilization, one of the roost significant and beautiful Is the changed attitude of the world toward the child. From the very uncertain position of an absolute chattel of tho parent. In the earlier days of human history, the child has reached the po- .itinn of safety and assurance, where, ? “not actually a citizen, he Is at least a ward of the state, a position where there may come to him a practical ren. dering of the psalmist’s assurance. "When my father and my mother for sake me, then the Lord will take me up ." whenever any people has reached that state of altruistic intelligence which recognises In the child the Btate's most valuable asset, then we may safely prophesy that for that people, social and economic salvation Is on the way. Religion, or more correctly speaking, theology, has also shown encouraging progress In this direction, and the cen tury Just closed has been Indeed re markable for Its advance. The child Is now conceded a soul, even before It reaches tho age of accountability, and that life Is also reckoned to be as pre cious in the eyes of the one Father as that of any seasoned saint of ex tended spiritual experience and many theological campaigns. In scarcely any group of Intelligent and enlightened worshipers would the preaching of one hundred years ago. concerning tlie-eter- nal damnation of unelect Infanta and the total depravity of unshrlven chil dren. be listened to with complacency in this twentieth century of newer Ideul In this twentieth century of newer Ideals of deity and wider spiritual horizon. The Son, when that transcendent lover of the children answered the bigoted com plaining of his Ignorant disciples in the words dear to the knowledge of every child, and precious In the memory of every true parent: “Suffer the little children to come unto Me. and forbid them not. for of such is the kingdom of heaven." . . The very architecture of the modern church shows the advance made in this direction. The houses of worship which have come down to us as a legacy from an earlier civilization reveal no, pro vision made for the child. The children went to the church, It Is true, but It' is difficult to persuade a man of the pres ent century that they went out of any earnest personal desire or love for the service. They were a part of a serv ice in which they could have no Intel ligent part. They were' compelled to keep their weary little bodies erect and their drowsy little eyes awake during a discourse stretching through two, and sometimes three hours, and In which even those portions which might be within their intellectual grasp were hardly calculated to furnish satisfac tory material for the beautiful pictures which normal childhood should always be able to fashion In the fertile valley of dreams. Dogmatic theologians may possibly bo made happy by hearing constantly of the devil, the place of endless torment and the unending wrath of God. but it requires a tre mendous stretch of the Imagination to conceive of a little child fattening a healthy mind upon such theological pabulum. The early church had no place or time for the Sunday school. It was too busily occupied In escaping the wrath of God to pay any attention to the spiritual culture of the child. Hehold tho change! Truly -the Lord has "lifted upon us the light of His countenance and been gracious unto us." Tho church of the twentieth cen tury which falls to make adequate pro vision for th eneeds of the child in Its services. Its ritual. Its curriculum, and Its edifice. Is a spiritual and economic abnormality, doomed by its very ec centricity to speedy decay and death. Truly the child it coming Into his own. The Sunday school is coming to be considered to stand In equal Importance with the church Itself, In Its conscious relation to society. Tho successful church architect now provides as care fully for the needs of the children as for the needs of their parents In the house of God. and In many of the more progressive churches It Is now believed to be as Imperative to have carefully trained and adequately compensated teachers In the Sunday school as It is to havo an educated and sufficiently paid preacher In the pulpit. Fiftieth Anniversary of Children’s Sunday. One of the beautiful customa which have grown out of the world's changed attitude toward the child, celebrates this month Its fiftieth anniversary. The custom of setting apart one Sunday In each year for a religious service for the children, of the ctilldren and. very largely by the children, has grown gradually during the past half century, until now It occupies an established place In the calendar of the leading religious denominations of this coun try. Whatever credit or praise may attach to the Institution of so beautiful and so beneficent a custom. Is now very generally conceded to the Univer salist denomination, since It was one of the churches of that body which began IIHIHMIHMMMHIMMIHnHI REV. E. D. ELLENWOOD. and profit to the religious world. "On the second Sunday In June, 1857, the First Universalist church In Chel sea, Mass., celebrated children's Sun day as an establshed day in Its church calendar. For a number of years pre ceding the pastor, Rev. Charles Hall Leonard, now the venerable dean of the Crane Theological School of Tuft' College, had set apart one Sunday In the early summer In which the church service was devoted to the young and which he called variously. "Rose" or "Flower” or "Children's Sunday." The practice hail won such response and such hearty Indorsement that It was deemed wise to fix the second Sunday In June as a permanent Children's Fes tival Sunday. No attempt was made at that time to encourage other churches to Join In the custom, but the beauty of the serv ice and Its eminent fitness and utility appealed to neighboring churches of the Universalist faith, and five years later It was quite generally observed In and around Boston and In 1867, ten years after Its establishment, so wide spread was the Interest that at the ses sion of the Universalist general con vention In Baltimore the following res olution was adopted: "Resolved, That we commend the practice of those churches In our order that set apart one Sunday In each year as Children’s Day, when parents bring to the altar their most precious treas ures and give them to the Lord by ap propriate and sacred rites." That the interest had already spread beyond denominational lines was mani fest when the next year, 1868, the Methodist general conference recom mended the setting apart of the second Sunday In June as Children's Day, and In 1872 made it a law of the Methodist church to observe the day. In 188J the Presbyterian church adopted the day by a hearty vote, and the same year the Congregatlonallst body through n committee appointed for that purpose, recommended the observance of the second Sunday In June as Children's Day, and In 1886 the National Council approved of this action." In 1897 It was claimed that more than half of the Congregatlonallst churches observed tho day, and this year, fifty years after Its establishment. It seems safe to say that tho large ma jority of Protestant churches, will be partakers In the unquestioned benefits of this beautiful custom. In many of the Universalist churches who were tho earliest followers of the most excellent example of Dr. Leonard, the day was first known as “Christen ing Sunday," and on that day parents w*ere especially urged to bring their children to the altar for dedication in Christian baptism. In the year 1867, on the -econd Sunday In June, being the tenth anniversary of the establish ment of tho day by Dr. Leonard, the pastor of the Universalist church In Charlestown, Mass., christened one hundred and twelve children, pinking the day Indeed a memorable one for many loving and anxious hearts. The day has always been observed In the Universalist church as one of truly serious Import and deep spiritual sig nificance. On that day we bring Into the house of Ood His three best gifts to man—children, flowers and music, and by dedicating them all tcrHIs wor ship and His service do we render most acceptable thanks for His goodness. Larger Significance of the Day. It Is fitting that we should give hearty thanks also at this time, for the larger spiritual significance of this day. The world's changed attitude toward the child Indicates that we are really getting on toward civilization. We have not yet arrived. It Is true, but we are on the way. We are not ready to declare that children are even in our day receiving the sort of religious nur. turc to which they have a divine right. Until our religious educators shall dis cover some method of imparting the —— w rudiments of moral Instruction to the the custom, and revealed its beauty plastic soul without cramming a lot of entirely Indigestible theology Into the tender, expanding mind, we shall scarcely have reached the goal of re ligious Instruction. So long as mythol ogy U given to tho child as fact, and tradition has precedence over science and reason In tho curriculum of the Sunday school, and implicit belief which staggers even childish creduli ty. Is declared to be absolutely essential to righteousness, so long must wo face me humiliating discovery that very much of the-most careful and con scientious work of devoted teachers shall bo Inevitably undone by tho mind's later contact with tho world of prosaic and unescapable facta. But. notwithstanding tho crudities and contradictions of our present re ligious educational system, we are get ting on: Certainly the children aro not, as heirs of religion, so generally neg lected In our homes and churches as they were fifty years ago. Training schools for Sunday school teachers are on every hand. It Is no longer a bur den, a duty, a task to teach a class In the Sunday school. It has become on eagerly prized privilege. Bible schools Increase and multiply, and some of them there are whoee leaders have been given sufficient wisdom from on high to make them more anxious to Indues their students to seek the ett- tain benefits of a careful and reason able and rational study of the 8acred literature than they aro to prepare these students to defend the Bible from attack. Men aro really becoming more willing to study the Blblo than to quar rel with each other concerning Its ori gin and Its nature. And may we not also catch an en couraging hint or that spiritual and fraternal unity which God has evident ly designed should come through diver sity, that so many religious bodies of differing creeds should gratefully ap propriate and use as truly the com mon bounty of a common Father, a beautiful and valuable religious ob servance, even though-tho way thither was shown, and the Jewel revealed by a body so long regarded as a theo logical pariah? "In the fellowship of this common blessing we join with the editor of Tho Congregatlonallst In tho wish that ‘this festival may be fostered and kept for these purposes by all our churches, os coming generations holding its bless ings tenderly In their memories trans mit It to their children and their chil dren's children.’." , A Busy Day at the White House By JAMES J. MONTAGUE. ' Just send word to Ohio, Loeb, to whoop It up for Taft, Thru cot an artist am! a horse, sod hart* me photographed; Announce that any army man who can*t Jump twelve feet niue Upon hla horse may never more be officer of mine. Wrlto Burroughs that his article on cowaUjm is mistaken— Cows never slip-then get my gnu and have my picture taken. Jnst cable old King Kdwnrd, Loch, to take no steps until I get a little time to draft a brand new Irish bill. Advise tho Kaiser that the plans he’s trying to get through To keep his people satisfied and happy will nut do. Inform tho Csar that he's In Imd—hla Government Is tainted. Write Chapter Six of "1 and Me," then get my portrait painted. Apprise these senile scientists who seek to Isolate The cancer bug that they've not got their theories on straight. Who's at the door? Taft? Garfield? No! I can't see them today. You say It's a photographer? Admit him right away. Jacobs* Prescriptions There is more to the proper filling of a prescription than la appar ent at first glance. The success of ths physielsn, the health, the very Ilfs of ths patient is dependent upon the care and judgment of ths com pounder, and tha quality of tho material he uses. Accuracy is everything, and the pharmaceutical chemist must give his entire mind and thought to this one particular line, if he Is to give the best that is in him. Jacobs’ Prescription Department has prepared for this contingency, and In this department maintains four expert pharmacists who devote their entire time to the filling of prescrip tions, They have no other duty and no other thought, and their experi ence, coupled with the use of the most complete laboratory of drugs and chemicals in the United States, supervised by the same executives whoee care has been the cause of our success, assures both physician and pa tient Accurate Service—Fresh Drugs Reasonable Charges In building up this unusual establishment we have borne In mind that the rudiments of the druggist'e succees is tha proper dispensation of drygs. Our service Is prompt. We maintain a messenger service that will call for and deliver your order, Jacobs* Pharmacy 6-8-10 Marietta Street. 23 Whitehall Street. INDEPENDENT ICE CO., 349 WHITEHALL STREET Manufacturers of Pure Distilled Water Ice. Prompt deliveries mads in the city. Carloads shipped to country points. Bell phone 536, West, Atlanta phone 4343, E. B. HARVEY, Manager. YOUR GIRL Will Appreciate a Visit to the V. D. L. Company’s Soft Drink Parlors. -The Prettiest and Mott elaborate of ita kind In the 3outh. CORNER BROAD AND MARIETTA 8TREETS. BELL PHONE 520. We Clean Clean and Dye Prompt and satisfactory service—on* trial makes you a regular customer. Franklin Cleaning and Dyeing Company. 166 Whitehall StreeL