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OUR E
VOL. LXXXVII. RICh
Presbyterian
This paper was recently read before the Presbyterian
ministers of Atlanta, and is now pub
iishcd at suggestions coming from them.
In limiting this paper to a brief discussion
u! the religious needs of young people away
from the constraints of home and beyond the
reach of the Sunday school and church services
to which they were bound by association
and habit, the writer is far from implying
that there is not also a very serious
problem oeiore the Church* of Chris:, with reference
to the more effective instruction of children
who remain at home and pursue their studies
for the most part in the public schools. Indeed
this latter problem is in important respects
really more difficult than the other, largely so be
<-iiiisu ux nit* many minions involved. tsut, while
admitting these difficulties, the problem stares
us in the face. And not only is this true of the
large increase of households who have no church
relations and very rarely ever, if at all, attend
upon the services of the Lord's house. It is also
emphatically due to the wide-spread decline in
family religion among those who are communicant
members of our own and other evangelical
denominations. This vaster problem of the better
religions instruction of children who remain
at home must be passed by, however, with one
or two brief suggestions.
First. It would be a serious error to imagine
that securing the attendance of this great host of
children upon the exercises of the Sunday school,
however well conducted, will be sufficient for
the purpose. It is confessedly insufficient for
the children of religious parents, and for the
conclusive reason that a Bible lesson of thirty
minutes or less, on only one day out of seven,
can never, by pedagogic skill or otherwise, give
It) Oh lM roil Q nnmnntonf A
? ... vu u uuiujitivub mum iinye ui me greatest.
subject that can engage the human mind,
l-et this, then, he understood once for all. For
whatever of good has been, or may yet be, aceomplished
by Sunday school instruction as the
whole or as the major part, of the religiuos instruction
of children, let us not fail to give
thanks to God. But in looking at this, let us
not be blinded to the real needs of our children.
And this solemn truth, of the need of other instruction
in addition to that which is possible in
the very best Sunday, is implied or asserted in
'.he innumerable and importunate "deliverances"
of our Church Courts?Presbyteries.
J r* ' -
uvius ana uenerai Assemblies?year after
year, "line upon line, precept upon precept."
Secondly. Not stopping now to consider how
far the plan reported to be used with success in
Germany might, or might not, he made available
in America (that is to say appointing
hours on week-days when the pastors or other
competent Christians meet the children and inff
y ' *
DUCATIONAL NU
^OUTHWt
m?^pjnr""m i JHE central
sjUKfUJiqig/ JV TheSQUTHt
1MOND, NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA, Jl
Youths In Stat
Why the Synods Should Without Delay u
I'kovidf for the Religious Care of 1'res- e:
BYTERIAN YOUTHS IN STATE INSTITUTIONS
OF THE HlOIIER EDUCATION. C
if
WM. E. BOGGS, D. D., LL. D. "
o
11
struct them by catechising or hy mine les- e1
soils J, let it be here .said inut tueie is one way d
oi supplementing the religious lusliucuou or our p
children which is oi iuviiie appoiu/lftcnt^ aud ^li
should be superior to the bunuay s(:Haaf. flow-^' "tt
ever excellent it limy be. ^vuusion Ls iifude, oil A
course, to Christ's own ordinance oj frreaciuny to
them. It would, as it is imagined, he a rather st
questionable use ot logic to deduce iroiu his t]
teachings any reference to the Sunday school. 1,
And it goes without saying, tnat it would he an lj
unpardonable perversion oi 111s words even to o
ihmk oi hading in them any sanction whatever tl
oi the colossal blunder that is beuig made, when v
tile Sunday school is substituted lor attendance g
by tlie child-members upon the regular services n
oi the sanctuary. This, or something very like fi
it, is precisely what any person with hall of an o
eye may witness on any kord s Day, especially e,
111 towns and cities, when the children, after tl
Sunday school is over, are seen pouring in
streams along the streets on their way home- ?
ward; there, for the most part, to turn God's p
holy day into a holldav ol lioisv rooms and
_ ^ v ? * f ? 11
sports, while lather ami mother are at the ap- f;
pointed worship during the remainder of the e
morning. We all hear it .said as an excuse for a
this substitution of an excellent human device l
for God's ordinance. "Gut young people can- v
not endure the confinement of sitting still so &
long in church." Very well, if that be time, and
if there be no other remedy for the neglect of j.
God's appointed worship thus silently and im- ;l
perceptibly instilled into our children, the al- q
ternatives would seeiu to be: 6hall God's or- ,,
dinance give way, or shall llie ucll-meant sub- v
. J
stitute give ivayT a
But, fortunately, there is 110 need that either 1
shall be abandoned. Let Sunday schools be held, ji
at least in towns and cities where the evil is a
greatest, in the afternoon, that Christ's lambs g
may be fed by his own express provision. Then n
at another hour, let the parents be encouraged o
to lead their dear children to the afternoon x<
"School of the Bible." And let them be per- d
suaded to take part in this special service, as v
teachers or as members of a Bible Class. This ii
plan is in successful operation in the Second e
church, Charleston. S. C.. and has worked ad
rmraDiy for many years. And if it be said that ii
children do not understand very much of the n
sermon, the reply might be made: If this be a
MBER
Presbyter/an <
trn Presbyterjan
JLY 16, 1913. NO. 2S-/3
e Institutions
ue let the "Lords fodder," as an old farmer
impressed the ease, "be taken down from the
igh rack and put where the eolts cau reach it."
hildren can probably understand more of what
i said in the well-lilled pulpit than some folks
migine. At least this was true many years ago,
hen sonic of us were young. There would be
pposition, of course, to this or any change,
owever wise or necessary it might be. llut the
*1 l 1 - ' m -
vu uereoy 10 oe avoided is deep-seated and
eadly. For the arch-enemy is using our present
lan to work quietly aud silently in children the
abit of not feeling under obligation to attend
pon the appointed ordinance of public worship,
.nd this dreadful fact is perhaps uneonscioust
implied in the expression: "The Sunday
ihool is the children's church.*' And so when
tie young "masters" and "misses" grow too
trge to attend the Sunday school, very uatural/
they have no other church, and stay at home,
r go wherever their fancy takes them. With
tiis change the evening hour might well be deoted
to services that are distinctively "evan
elistic, ' held in halls, or at mission points too
emote from the central sanctuary to permit of
requent attendance of that excellent company
f wives and mothers who are burdened with the
are of very young children and in preparing
lie meals for families.
1. lint turning from this digression, which can
nly find justification in the tremendous imortance
of the matter so briefly alluded to. let
: be said that our Synods should consider the
act that making due provision for the religious
are of our young people in State Universities
nd other non-denominational institutions of the
Iigher Education, has been laid on them by the
hole Church, acting through our General Asembly.
For while the highest court had repeatedly
lid emphasis on the importance of this work,
nd had pronounced it to be a duty resting upon
lod's people, nothing had been definitely stated
s to how this obligation was to be met 'till the
oar 1911. But the Assembly of that year did
ay by whom this great work should be done,
'he secretary then having charge of the work
a schools and colleges had asked that a reasonhie
sum he set aside with which to make a heinning.
And when objection was raised that
o funds in hand were available, on the motion
f Dr. McClure. ot' Wilmington, N. C., the As?mbly
unanimously commended the work, and
irected the Secretary to call on the Synods,
ithin whose bounds such non-denominational
institutions are located, to carrying on tho needd
work.
This decision of the Assembly was, as all know,
i exact line with historical precedent. And,
moreover, it. was then true, as it is now also, that
11 of onr stronger Synods were so strenously