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12
The Pastor and the Sunday School.
(Continued from page 9.)
The Mastery of a Situation.
There are two things which may constitute a man
a leader. One is appointment to a situation which
is of itself nominal, and the other is mastery of
the situation whose right is indisputable. “The
public press announced some time ago that Emperoi'
William of Germany was requested to visit the de
partment of naval architecture. The architects and
constructors had some newly finished battleships
which they desired to expose for his admiration,
and also some schemes for new battleships which
they thought the Emperor would be glad to ex
amine. The Emperor quietly and with manifest
interest allowed himself to be taken through the
department, and to have the experts give their ex
planations as to the ships already built, or to be
built. When the exhibiton ended the Emperor, to
the surprise of all, ascended to an elevated platform
and delivered a lecture on naval architecture, deal
ing with the latest ideas and inventions in the
naval world; gave his views as to the placing of
the guns and other details of a battleship in a man
ner so intelligent, exact and exhaustive that his
audience was filled with surprise, and admiration.
They found him a teacher where they had expected
to treat him as a scholar. The crown of Germany
imparts tremendous authority to the Emperor, and
yet that revelation made in the naval department
that day of his ripened naval culture inspired among
the experts of the department more reverence than
the splendors of his crown. He was a double sov
ereign—by right of his crown and by the yet higher
right of his intellectual and scholarly superiority.
The Power of Thought and Knowledge.
Every pastor is pastor of the Sunday school by
virtue of appointment, but he who is pastor or
leader by virtue of his thorough and superior knowl
edge and understanding, is pastor indeed.
I heard a splendid Sunday school pastor say a
few weeks ago of another pastor who lives not a
thousand miles from Atlanta: “Why, the man
doesn’t know enough about Sunday school work to
recognize a good Sunday school when he sees one,
even though it happens to be in his own church —
a bequest from his own predecessor.”
I again intrench myself behind quotation marks
from Dr. Hatcher: “On every point in a Sunday
school the pastor ought to be a master. So far
as the school is a piece of machinery he ought to
know every wheel, pulley and band. So far as the
school is a business body, he ought to know its
outer and inner life, its organization, its methods
and its finanical management. So far as the school
is an institution he ought to know its history, its
strength, its purposes and its equipment. So far
as it is a school, he ought to know its teaching force,
its ever recurring wants and its sources of supply.
In a word, the pastor ought to know more about
the school than any one else, or all others put to
gether.”
The Pastor and the Pupils,.
I shift the quotation marks to Dr. Schauffer: “The
pastor cannot afford to pass the Sunday school on
the other side of the road, or merely to lift his hat
to it in passing, or even to grasp it by the hand in
a friendly way and wish it ‘good-morning.’ He and
the Sunday school are not merely passing acquaint
ances, they are intimate friends; they are fellow
pilgrims in the kingdom, and a large part of the
responsibility for its efficiency rests upon him.”
Out of date long ago, if in fact he ever was in date,
is the pastor who thinks to discharge his duty to
his school, by coming to the school periodically, by
special invitation. Arriving when school is half over,
he stands before the school and stiffly says as he
stiffly bows: “I am indeed glad to see so many
nice little boys and girls here at Sunday school.
All little boys and little girls should go to Sunday
school and be good little boys and girls.”
Thoughts, Knowledge and Deeds.
And now that any pastor, who may have strayed
into this meeting, may know the feeling that comes
to his . congregation when after a long dis
course, and just when they think he
is preparing to bring his remarks to a close, he
says: “There are four points I wish you to consider.”
For this reason, and for some which I hope have
more weight, I take a fresh start and ask you to
consider four points on which depend a pastor’s
success of failure as leader of Sunday school forces.
First —What he thinks.
Second —What he knows.
Third —What he does.
Fourth—What he does not do.
Firstly—What he thinks. I believe that in reality
more pastors fail here than in any other point If
The Golden Age for October 11, 1906.
a man is really going to be successful in Sunday
school work he must have a different opinion of
it from that held by many pastors. That father who
says: “My boy, the Sunday school is a great thing.
I value it highly. Go to it regularly,” while he sits
at home, does not value it as highly as he may
think he does.
The Pastor’s Personal Touch.
That pastor who says, “the Sunday school is a
fine thing. Give of your best to it,” and does not
go to it nor give of his best to it, does not value it
as highly as he thinks he does.
Last Sunday I heard a pastor say, in introducing
a new honor system: “I mean to do my best to
have my name lead that honor roll,” and the scholars
knew without anything more being said what he
thought of it. When the Southern Baptist Seminary
gave place in their course for a chair for Sunday
school lectures then we were convinced what they
thought of the importance of the Sunday school
work.
When a pastor at the last convention of the At
lanta Sunday school union made an engagement
with every officer and teacher of his school to meet
him at that convention, and allowed no other invi
tation or engagement to break it, his officers and
teachers knew what he thought of the importance of
the Sunday School.
To Impress the People.
Can you imagine anything that would so impress
the people of the convention and the people of
Atlanta with the importance of Sunday school work
as to see the pastors of Atlanta giving it their time?
Suppose fifty ministers should attend one of these
conventions. I see our faithful secretary turn pale
at the thought, while the president is staggered at
the mere mention of such an unheard of thing.
Do you know that it is really difficult to get
ministers enough to attend these Sunday school
conventions to conduct the devotional services, and
that even when 'hey are secured they evince a de
cided inclination to escape as soon as they are
through with their part of the program? Because
they are too busy to be here? Not without qualifi
cation. Because they are too busy to be here, un
less they are convinced that this movement which
means better Sunday schools for Atlanta, is of more
importance than the things which keep them from it.
A High Estimate Necessary.
I do verily believe that, if the pastors of Atlanta
placed on Sunday school work a sufficiently high
estimate to'write now in their book of engagements,
“December 5 and 6, meeting of Atlanta Sunday
School Union,” and invited the officers and teachers
of their schools to be with them in that engagement,
no Sunday school building in Atlanta could hold
the results. To that belief, I add this, that if all the
pastors of Atlanta gave to their Sunday schools
and to the Sunday School Union that hearty support
which a few are giving, Atlanta would have the
best revival it has ever had, and the pastors would
have such success as they have never had before.
The Mastery of Knowledge.
Second —What he knows. Not appointment, but
real mastery, makes a man master of a situation.
I have emphasized this point before. The day has
passed when a Sunday school sham hid what was
underneath. Our laymen know enough about Sun
day school work to recognize a man who knows
what he is talking about when they see him.
The household that runs smoothly is that one
whose mistress konws thoroughly its every depart
ment, and knows just how it should be conducted,
though her hands never touch it.
Third —The success of a pastor in Sunday school
work depends on what he does. Should a pastor
superintend his own Sunday school? The weight of
opinion says he shall not, except in rare cases, and
that temporarily.
Shall the pastor teach in the school? I say most
emphatically yes. By what right do we set aside
the man who has had most training for teaching,
who has the most thorough knowledge of the Bible?
The pastor should teach every Sunday. What class?
Every class. Do you catch my point? That pastor
who really teaches his school is not the pastor who
sits before one class on Sunday, but he who teaches
his teachers beforehand.
“An experienced Bible school worker said to a
young brother in the ministry: ‘How many teachers
are in your Sunday school?’ ‘Thirty-two.’
“ ‘Would you spend as much time in preparing to
instruct them in teachers’ meeting as you spend on
the preparation of your Sunday morning sermon?’
“ ‘I certainly would not.’
“ ‘Do you think that, if you did, you would get
more results than you now obtain from your morn
ing sermon?”
The young preacher did not answer, but gave
impression that he did not think that the teachers’
meeting was of very great importance. But think,
suppose he could have inspired those thirty-two
teachers! Ah! If we but knew enough to know
opportunity when it is thrust into our very hands!
The pastor has an opportunity for much personal
work in the Sunday school. How the little folks love
to come early, if they know they will get a few min
utes’ chat with a pastor they love, by so doing!
Happy is that school that has a pastor who in
spires every one connected with it to do his best
work. Some pastors have obtained good results by
having charge of a teachers’ training class during the
sessions of the school, if they cannot get it together
at another time.
Pertinent Literature.
Not least among the things the Sunday school
pastor does is to read. When you see a bookshelf
holding “Yale Lectures on the Sunday School,” “The
Pastor and the Sunday School,” “The Pastor and
Teacher Training,” “Pastoral Leadership of Sunday
School Forces,” “Organized Sunday School,” and
some others like them —if you see a book shelf like
this, and the books look like they have been read,
open your eyes, ye congregations who are wise
enough to call a Sunday school pastor. Such a man
is not far off.
One of the most dangerous tendencies in some
schools is a tendency to separate the school from
the church, or congregation.
The watchful pastor guards against such a ten
dency most carefully. Perhaps an honor roll makes
attendance at church of sufficient importance in the
eyes of the Sunday school, as to be necessary to Sun
day school honors. Perhaps each Sunday a hymn
that is to be sung at the church service is practised
a few moments by the entire school, so they will
feel at home when they go into the church, and
perhaps the pastors who feel they cannot attend
Sunday school because it tends to bring them down
from the elevation they need for their sermon,
would find that having come in touch with God in
the preparation of the sermon, and having touched
the throbbing young life of their Sunday school
in its session—as they stand, having touched each
of these, they are better able to bring them into
touch with each other and so many magnificent ser
mons would not fly so wide of their mark.
“Sins of Commission.”
As to what a pastor should do in the actual work
and sessions of the school, perhaps thirdly is the
best answered by
Fourthly—What a pastor should not do.
A pastor should not do that which some one else
can do. The work that is his own, and his only,
as pastor, he dare not entrust to any one else, but
every other office can be filled by some one else.
If not now, then it is his pastoral duty to see that
some one is in training for that office.
We may admire that man who alone and unaided
seeks to carry out some undertaking or support
some dying cause, or dying Sunday school, but it
is admiration mixed with pity. The strong admira
tion of our hearts and minds is called forth by that
pastor who knows an unset jewel when he sees it in
its pewter setting, and uses it to crown the work of
the Lord.
“My Wish to Help the Work.”
I have filled my time, but I have not emptied my
heart. If there has been pleasantry in what I have
said you have been responsive to it. If there has
been presumption, you have been patient. If there
has been worth, I am sure it will be recognized, but
to me, stronger than the element of pleasantry, or
presumption, or worth, is the element of a great
pathos in it. It is not a message from myself. It
is a message from the Atlanta Sunday School Union,
and through it a message from the Sunday schools
of Atlanta, and if God has answered my prayer, a
message from God.
It is not for the sheep to entreat the shepherd,
save only as the shepherd reads entreaty in the
eyes of his flock, but I have voiced that entreaty.
Thousands of Sunday school sheep in Atlanta
are in danger for want of wise leadership. It is
pitiable to see them running this way and that. Many
are near precipices. Some have fallen over. In
many cases a piteous bleating for the shepherd is
heard, a piteous cry for a wise leader.
You place too much responsibility on the pastor,
do you say? It is not I who has placed it. God
placed it there when He called him, and the pastor
assumed it when he accepted the call. Not to do
all the work, but to lead all the flock, is his respon
sibility.
It is a high calling, a holy calling. Atlanta loves,
Atlanta honors, her pastors, but even if our mouths
be dumb, the eyes that look up to, and the twenty
five million feet that follow, plead for a wise pas
toral leadership of Sunday school forces.