Those Temperance and Missionary Lessons
Intemperance is the church's greatest foe, missions her greatest task.
Around these two topics cluster the highest chivalry, the most splendid
romance, of our modern world. The shout of the battle is in them, the
sweep of the regiment. No lessons are more important than those devoted
to these two great themes, and none can be made more interesting.
And yet to many a teacher they are bugbears. To these eight
lessons--one sixth of the whole--they go with dull hearts. They do
wish the Lesson Committee would leave them out of the list.
What is the trouble? There is no life back of the lesson. They have
"got up" their lesson as best they can; but a lesson is not got up, it
grows up. They do not know enough about missions and the temperance
reform to be interested in them. No information, no inspiration.
To be sure, there are few passages in the Bible suitable for use in
temperance lessons, and but few referring directly to such
enterprises as modern missions. The Acts record merely the beginnings
of missions, and intemperance was scarcely a problem in New Testament
days. Nevertheless, both temperance and missions find in the Book
their fundamental and sufficient inspiration; and taking our
starting-point from the lesson text, we may fairly launch forth into
seas as wide as the world of men and action.
Indeed, so multiform are the phases of these two topics that to avoid
confusion and leave clear impressions every temperance or missionary
lesson should have a specialty. Let me indicate a few of the many
possible themes.
1. _A Bible Search._--Spend the hour hunting out everything the Bible
says upon temperance, or all the leading passages bearing on missions.
The scholars will read them aloud. Some verses they will repeat from
memory. They will mark them with colored pencils in their Bibles. They
will discover the central thought in each reference and write it on
the blackboard, thus building up a compact summary. The exercise has
an air of finality that will please the scholars.
2. _A Biographical Lesson._--Let everything cluster around some great
leader in missions or the temperance reform. For the latter, select
John B. Gough, Miss Willard, Lady Henry Somerset, Father Mathew,
Francis Murphy. For the great missionaries,--India: Carey, Heber,
Martyn; Burmah: Judson; China: Nevius, Morrison, Gilmour; Japan:
Neesima; Oceanica: Coan, Paton, Patteson; America: Gardiner, Eliot,
Whitman, Brainerd; Turkey: Schauffler, Dwight, Hamlin; Africa:
Livingstone, Mackay, Moffat, Taylor, Hannington. There is material
enough for a lifetime of teaching!
Get as many scholars as possible to read beforehand in the
encyclopedia a short account of the chosen life. One of the class may
write a five-minute essay upon the hero. Characteristic anecdotes
concerning him may be distributed among the scholars for each to
relate. No better series of short missionary biographies was ever
published than that sold by the publishers of this book at the low
price of 50 or 75 cents a volume. Use them. If the class during the
hour can really make the acquaintance of a great missionary or
reformer, it will be vast gain.
Another and most profitable kind of biographical meeting may be based,
not upon single lives, but upon a group of lives. Study "The Great
Missionaries of the Bible," "Bible Heroes of Temperance," "Some Noble
Lives Spoiled by Intemperance," "Some Magnificent Missionaries of Our
Denomination."
3. _An Historical Lesson._--The temperance reform has already a
notable history, with many chapters worth careful study. Spend an hour
with the Woman's Crusade,--its origin, its leaders, its many thrilling
scenes, its notable results. The Washingtonian movement, the
blue-ribbon movement, the World's Petition, "temperance in the White
House,"--these are themes for other studies.
And as for missions, the puzzle will be to know where to end, when
there are, for instance, the "Serampore Brotherhood" to study, the
"Lone Star" mission, the Madagascar martyrs, the China Inland Mission,
the all-but-miracle of Metlakahtla, the conquest of Hawaii, the
transformation of Fiji, the bloody chronicles of Uganda. With any one
of these stories for a nucleus, your missionary lesson will be certain
of leaving a deep impression.
4. _An Organization Lesson._--Study one or more of the great
temperance organizations,--its origin, its noble leaders, its methods
and aims, its practical results. The W. C. T. U. and the "Y's," the
Good Templars, the National Temperance Society, the temperance work of
Christian Endeavor societies, may be studied in this way.
This plan is especially valuable for the missionary lessons, which
should render your scholars familiar with the history and triumphs of
each missionary board of your denomination, home and foreign. The
remarkable circumstances of its founding, the heroic men and women it
has sent forth (exhibit portraits), the places where it labors (show
views), the periodicals it publishes (have samples to give away), a
few round figures to set forth the results of it all,--that is a
scanty outline. The larger work of the church would profit immensely
by such use of an occasional missionary lesson.
5. _A Newspaper Lesson._--In another chapter I discuss the use that
may wisely be made of the newspaper in our Sunday-school teaching.
Once in a while the specialty of a lesson may be a study of current
events in their bearing on missions or on the temperance reform.
Some temperance orator has made a noble speech which you find well
reported. The W. C. T. U. has just held its annual convention. Neal
Dow's birthday has been widely celebrated. South Carolina has adopted
its system of State dispensaries. A hot campaign for prohibition is in
progress in Canada. The teacher that centers his lesson on one of these
themes is sure of lively interest which may be led to practical result.
Or, if it is missionary Sunday, let the teacher utilize the most
absorbing topics of foreign news. It may be the Spanish seizure of the
Caroline Islands, the French capture of Madagascar, the Japanese
campaign in Formosa or that of the English in Matabeleland or the
Soudan, the Italian war with Abyssinia, the Indian famine, the
troubles in Crete, the massacres in Armenia. What scholar, after a
lesson shrewdly introduced by such recitals, will fail to see that
missions are a topic very much alive?
6. _A Map Lesson._--Few things condense, combine, and clarify bits of
information like a map, provided you can put your information upon it.
A map may be utilized in a temperance lesson in two good ways. If you
are in a city, draw the streets of some section, or of the entire
city, if possible. Send your scholars out along all streets, dividing
them up, and have them count the saloons in each block, locating also
the churches and schoolhouses. I suppose, of course, that your
scholars are of suitable age for this work. Next Sunday, as they
report, put a black spot on the map for every saloon, and a blue spot
for every church and schoolhouse. Your map will point its own moral.
At another time draw a map of the United States, and give a graphic
view of the temperance laws of the land, coloring the prohibition
States one color, using a different color to designate the
Massachusetts plan, the South Carolina plan, and so on.
More can be done with a map in a missionary lesson. For instance, you
may select a single country, say India. Provide "stickers" of
bright-colored paper. Let some be large and circular. As you talk
about the four or five great languages of that many-tongued empire,
get the scholars to fasten these "stickers" in the centers of the
various language areas. Let other "stickers" be cut into small stars.
Three of these, of one color, fastened in the neighborhoods of Bombay,
Madura, and Ceylon, will represent the Congregational missions. In the
same way you will show the location of the Baptist, Methodist, and
Presbyterian missions and those of other denominations. Population
"stickers" may also be used, and "stickers" with the names of great
missionaries may show where they labored.
On another day you may take a map of the entire world, and thus
indicate the location of all the mission fields of your denomination.
If this map is kept before the class from that time, every item of
missionary information will have fresh interest and point.
7. _A Statistics Lesson._--At this lesson distribute, for the scholars
to read aloud, slips of paper containing temperance or missionary
statistics,--the numbers of saloons or missionaries, of drunkards
dying or converts made each day, the cost of missions or of strong
drink compared with other expenditures, and the like. Get the class to
cut strips of paper of various lengths to represent graphically the
comparative costs. Drill the scholars in temperance or missionary
arithmetic. Telling them the number of heathen in China, ask how long
a procession they would make, marching in single file one foot apart.
Giving them the liquor expenditure for a year, have them measure a
pile of silver dollars and calculate how tall a pile would equal the
annual cost of drink. Such books as "The Missionary Pastor," published
by the Fleming H. Revell Company, and "Weapons for Temperance Warfare"
and "Fuel for Missionary Fires," published by the United Society of
Christian Endeavor, will suggest many similar exercises.
8. _A Quotations Lesson._--The teacher holds in his hand a bunch of
papers, on each of which is written an interesting quotation bearing
on missions or temperance. The collection will include longer
anecdotes as well as brisk sentences. Many will bear famous names.
Each scholar will choose a quotation at random and read it aloud. The
teacher will draw out its meaning by questions, will add illustrations
and practical comments, will tell something about the author of the
quotation, or will show the connection of the thought or anecdote with
the day's lesson. In some classes the scholars themselves may be
trusted to bring their own quotations or anecdotes.
Let me mention briefly a few more devices out of the many that may add
interest to these lessons. Get a trained worker along temperance or
missionary lines to come in and address the class. Carry out a series
of simple experiments showing the physiological effects of alcohol.
Make a study of the best missionary hymns, their authors, and the
events that prompted them. Try a fifteen-minute debate on some
missionary or temperance topic. Get the scholars now and then to write
five-minute essays or give five-minute talks on appropriate themes.
Let one edit a temperance or missionary paper,--in manuscript, of
course,--collecting contributions from each scholar, and reading the
result before the class as a sample number of the "Cold Water Herald"
or the "Missionary Monitor." Some Sunday, call on every member of the
class to sign the pledge. On a mission Sabbath make an appeal for
tithe-giving and present a tithe-givers' pledge. Give the wonderful
history of the Student Volunteer movement, and urge the scholars to
consider the mission field as a possibility for each one of them.
Enliven some missionary lesson with entertaining accounts of the
strange customs of the country under discussion, and get together all
the illustrative material you and your scholars can find. The
Sunday-school and the Christian Endeavor society will do well to make
a collection of curios for such purposes.
It is an admirable plan to set each of your scholars to doing some
steady work in preparation for these lessons. One may watch the
newspapers and collect temperance facts and illustrations of the evils
of strong drink. The various missionary societies of the denomination
may be divided among the scholars, each to gather interesting bits
concerning the work of the board assigned to him. In the same way the
mission lands may be apportioned out, and "the gentleman from India" or
"our representative in China" be called upon to report the latest news
from his field. In this plan the children will cooeperate very zealously.
Of course it goes without saying (_does_ it, though?) that each
teacher will be a subscriber to the missionary magazines of his own
denomination, as well as to that common denominator of all the
missionary magazines, the "Missionary Review of the World."
He will also take, if possible, a good temperance paper, such as the
"Union Signal" or the "National Temperance Advocate"; and if he can
afford them, he will not be without the temperance and missionary
encyclopedias.
Indeed, the theme branches out into channels so many and so wide
that, when once the teacher is started upon them, his greatest lack
will be of time for exploration; and so far from desiring the
temperance and missionary lessons fewer than eight, he will wish it
were possible for them to come every month!