A Praying Sunday-School
In no way can more Christianity be taught in less time than by a good
prayer. A Sunday-school that is not opened with the right kind of
prayer remains tight shut until the teachers get hold of it, while the
right kind of prayer at the close of the lesson hour rivets the lesson
on the week to come.
Yet I know of no point in Sunday-school management regarding which
superintendents are more careless. The children must listen to
Magellan prayers that circumnavigate the globe; to mechanical prayers,
cast in stereotyped forms; to officious prayers that volunteer to
teach the coming lesson; to peacock prayers that flaunt big words and
fine phrases; to wrinkled prayers, dealing with experiences into which
the children will not grow for three decades. In some schools the
superintendent always makes the prayer himself, praying in the same
terms and tones and order for the same things. Elsewhere the
superintendent invites others to perform this service, but, with
pitiless impartiality, calls upon all that will, heedless whether they
are capable or totally unfit for the difficult duty.
For it is not easy to guide the devotions of these varied ages and
characters. The words must be so simple that the youngest can
understand them. The thoughts must be so noble as to furnish an uplift
to the oldest. The expressions must be direct, as in the realized
presence of Christ. The prayer must be brief, and bright, and deeply
in earnest, sincere as a child.
To perform this task, therefore, no one should be invited merely for
policy's sake, merely because he is a visiting clergyman, a church
officer, or a good-hearted layman. Ask no one that does not know the
glorious language of a child's prayer. Give notice beforehand, since
this prayer, if any, should be thought over and prayed over. And if
you fear the prayer will lack a certain quality, shrewdly incorporate
its name in your invitation, asking for a brief prayer, or a simple
prayer, or a prayer about few things.
I wonder that this exercise is so seldom fixed upon the children's
attention and interest by their own vocal participation in it. Indeed,
it is not always that the school is able to repeat the Lord's Prayer
together with the freedom and force born of long custom. The school
may easily be taught to chant the Lord's Prayer, and that may be made
most genuine praying. There are many suitable short Bible prayers that
children might learn to say together, such as "Let the words of my
mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O
Lord, my strength and my redeemer." Indeed, there are many prayer
psalms that could be learned entire, the concert repetition of which
would greatly enrich the Sunday-school hour. If yours is a model
school, every scholar has his Bible, and Scripture prayers, not
committed to memory, may be read in concert. And, besides, what more
impressive conclusion to the session than the "Mizpah benediction," in
which all voices join, or, perhaps better, the beautiful benediction
in Numbers 6:24-26, "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee," etc.?
Then there is the hymn-book. If it is a good one, it contains many
beautiful prayer hymns. Let the scholars all bow their heads, and sing
softly Miss Havergal's tender consecration hymn, or "Nearer, my God,
to thee," and you will find all hearts indeed drawn nearer heaven.
Occasionally let the school read together one of these same hymns,
also with their heads bowed.
And, by the way,--though it deserves more than a "by the way,"--insist
on the bowing of the head,--not that the attitude is important in
itself, but the reverence that the attitude arouses is of the highest
importance. Wait till all heads are bowed before you begin the prayer
or permit another to begin it. The half-minute of quiet or semi-quiet
needed to gain this end is not ill-bestowed. Moreover, I should
strongly advise you to go one step farther, and once in a while have
the entire school go down on their knees. This, the normal attitude of
prayer, the children should be taught to assume in public, at least so
often that it will not seem to them forced or unnatural.
Have you tried silent prayer? A blessed exercise it is, and one the
children will love. Ask them to bend their heads or kneel, and then in
perfect silence to pray for their teachers, or their pastor, or their
dear ones at home, or some sick scholar. After a minute the
superintendent will tenderly add a few closing sentences of vocal
prayer.
And have you tried a chain prayer,--a prayer started by a leader, who
will also close it, to which ten or twenty of the scholars contribute
sentences of praise or petition? You will be astonished to see how many
of the scholars will join in these prayers,--you will be astonished,
that is, unless you are familiar with the training along this line so
nobly accomplished in our modern young people's religious societies.
Still another way to obtain the scholars' careful heed to the prayer
is to establish a form with which the superintendent will always begin
his prayer, and which the entire school will repeat with him. The
opening sentences of the Lord's Prayer may be used for such a purpose.
Then, at the close of the prayer, after "for Jesus' sake," let all the
scholars say "Amen."
An occasional Sunday-school prayer-meeting, held for ten minutes at the
close of the lesson hour, will do much to inspire in the school a deeper
spirit of worship; that is, if the scholars themselves take part, and
not the teachers only. And these Sunday-school prayer-meetings are
magnificent opportunities for drawing the net. Hold them in a small
room, that nearness may warm the coals of devotion to a glow. Do not
hold them too frequently to be burdensome. Keep them brief and earnest.
Let the teachers work for them in their classes, and use them as tests
for their teaching. Above all, expect conversions in them, and, if you
are faithful and faith-filled, you will get them.
This use of the scholar in the devotions of the school should be
extended to his home. The superintendent may ask the scholars to pray
every day during the coming week for the school, or for their teacher,
or for their next lesson, that it may bring some one nearer Christ.
For several weeks there may stand in bold letters on the blackboard a
list of things that should be prayed for at home. The teacher, of
course, must enforce these recommendations. If he will courageously
hold once in a while a little prayer-meeting with his scholars, in the
class-room, about the class-table, or, best of all, at his own home or
at one of theirs, he will thereby teach them as much Christianity as
otherwise he might in a year.
Indeed, the teacher has much to do in making yours a praying
Sunday-school. To say nothing about the teacher's prayers for his
scholars, which will be like steam to his pedagogic engine, and to say
nothing about the united prayers of the teachers in the teachers'
meetings, the teacher's conduct during the prayer in the school is in
itself half the scholars' attention, the knowledge on the part of the
scholars that their teacher is praying for them will spur their home
devotions, and the teacher's simple, ready participation in the school
prayers will prompt their own. An excellent occasional method of opening
the school is by a succession of very brief--almost sentence--prayers
from six or eight of the teachers. A frequent topic for discussion in
the teachers' meeting should be how best to inculcate in the school the
spirit of devotion, since this great result is to be won only by the
co-operation of all the working forces of the school.
Much is gained in this matter if you gain variety. Sometimes ask the
older scholars themselves, several of them in succession, to offer
brief prayers at the opening of the school. Sometimes let the
superintendent's opening prayer attract attention by its exceeding
brevity,--only three or four sentences, embodying a single petition.
Do not place the prayer always at the same place in the programme; now
let it come before the singing, now after; now lay emphasis on the
prayer introductory to the lesson hour, now on the prayer that closes
the hour and seeks to drive home its lessons. Be dead in earnest,--no,
be alive in earnest. Be thoughtful and versatile. Be bright and cheery
and simple-hearted and sympathetic. In these prayers, that should
furnish the life-blood to the school, be all things to all--children,
if by all means you may win one of them.