The Sunday-School and the Newspaper
On several pages of this book I have hinted at the use of the
newspaper in our teaching; but the theme deserves a chapter to itself.
An up-to-date teacher is respected, and it is largely the newspaper
that brings one up to date. We must put our lessons into touch with
life, and the newspaper is our modern compendium of life--very faulty,
but all we have. The best illustration of the lesson is one your
scholars find; the next best, one you find yourself; and only the
third best, one found for you by the skilful writers of your lesson
helps. The newspapers are mines of original illustrations.
They constitute, for example, a magazine of warnings. Hardly a number
but tells of a defalcation sprung from gambling, of the ruin
accomplished by the theater and dance-hall, of the mischief caused by
sensational literature, and everywhere and always of the rum-fiend's
devilish work. Why Saul fell, and David, and Solomon,--your scholars
must know that; but their sense of the reality of sin and its fearful
power will be deepened by noting the fall of men and women in this
present world, and learning what brought shipwreck to their souls. A
misplaced switch last week threw a train from the track and killed a
man. What a warning against carelessness! Early Wednesday morning a
drunken woman was found asleep on an ash-pile, her little girl sobbing
by her side. What a lesson on the evil wrought by rum! Of all the sins
and faults against which the Bible utters its great warnings, there is
none we may not illustrate freshly and vividly from the newspaper.
But that is only half, and the lower half. By sharp search we may find
in our papers many a thrilling example of heroism and noble service.
Would that our reporters more frequently chronicled the good! Yet here
is a fire at which a fireman risked his life to save a little child.
And here is a cashier that braved death rather than open the safe for
the robbers. And here is a lad whose shoulder was dislocated by
stopping a runaway horse. And here is a heroic rescue of men and women
from a shipwreck. We do not get from the newspaper the daily acts of
devotion and faithfulness so honored in the eye of heaven; but we do
get the splendid deeds, the stirring, romantic victories, that will
move the girls and boys to knightly action.
Newspapers, too, give an outlook over the world. The confining walls
melt away, and your lesson takes wide sweeps under a broad sky. Every
session of Congress considers many matters of the highest import for
the kingdom of God. Our great offices are filled with men of strong
character, acting out upon a grand scale lives potent for good or
evil. In the lands across the seas great events are occurring, each
exhibiting some phase of godliness or sin. You will exalt the gospel
mightily in the minds of your scholars if you can show them how its
principles solve the problems of our government, and underlie all wise
action of the nations of the world.
It has already been indicated how the temperance lesson, that
quarterly bugbear of some teachers, may be illuminated by the
newspaper. Thus also may the missionary lesson. So profoundly do
missions affect any nation they touch, and so closely are they
interwoven with its life, that whatever of importance befalls any
people has its missionary bearings. The Sultan cannot massacre the
Armenians, or France seize Madagascar, or Japan fight China, or Hawaii
depose its queen, or a revolution occur in South America, without
entanglement with the omnipresent missionaries of the cross. To make
the scholars feel this through wise references to current events is
immensely to broaden their conception of the church and its work.
Even beyond all this, our newspapers afford the teacher a vast supply of
illustrative material. There are the carefully prepared biographies of
the great men and women that pass away, printed with their portraits.
There are sketches of the lives of living celebrities, with pictures of
their faces and their homes. There are lectures and sermons, sometimes
admirably reported, giving in a few bright paragraphs the gist of an
hour's discourse. There are thousands of poems by the best modern
authors. There are appropriate editorial comments on all the holidays,
Christmas and New Year's, Easter and Memorial Day, Thanksgiving and the
Fourth of July. There are accounts of the latest wonderful inventions,
each a pointed parable to one with eyes and a brain. And, with all its
pictorial enormities, the newspaper often contains a portrait or a
sketch worth using in our lesson half-hour.
In all this I am taking for granted, of course, that you subscribe to
no sensational abomination, but to the best of our standard sheets,
even if you must get it from some other city than your own. It must be
a paper so clean that you can occasionally hand a copy to your
scholars, and fearlessly set them to "reading up" on some theme
helpful to the lesson. Besides, it must not be forgotten that our best
religious weeklies are now genuine newspapers as well, and furnish
admirable comments upon all important current events.
To use the newspaper to the best advantage in your teaching, you must
have well in mind all the lesson themes for months in advance, since a
striking event of to-day might not illustrate this week's lesson, but
the lesson of five weeks ahead. Your best plan is to cut out each day
the paragraphs and articles that seem likely to be of use, and
preserve them in a series of envelopes. Mark one set of envelopes
with the topics and dates of a year's lessons. Let another set contain
the clippings arranged by subjects, as: "Love," "Faith," "Temperance,"
"Missions," "Theater," "Heroism," "Inventions." These will contain
poems as well as prose. Some, rather than classify the bits of
biography under the characteristics especially prominent in each case,
will prefer to arrange them alphabetically, in a separate set of
twenty-six envelopes. As the envelope for each week's lesson is used,
distribute its contents through your permanent file. Frequently glance
over your clippings to refresh your memory concerning them; otherwise
they will become so much dead wood.
Not an unimportant result of all this is that it will teach your
scholars to read the newspaper as a Christian should. In this great
American university our scholars should be taught to skip the courses
in evil and elect those in goodness.
And a final word,--which, indeed, no teacher is likely to need, though
it must be said: keep the whole matter subordinate. It is not proposed
to turn our Sunday-schools into classes for the study of current
events. We have to do with one Life, and with that alone. We are
teaching not all kinds of truth, but him who is the Truth. Whatever we
admit into our teaching that does not exalt him and throw light on his
life and doctrine is a harmful impertinence. We are not to study the
lamp, but the Book that lies beneath it.