Teachers in 8vo
What the Sunday-school library should be depends on what the community
is. These libraries, therefore, should not pattern after one another
like peas in a pod, as is too often the case, but each should have an
individuality of its own. The Sunday-school in a city, with an
overflowing public library and an excellent public-school library at
hand, has no excuse for distributing secular books; while such books
may form a useful addition to the library of a country school.
Of course there is danger in admitting secular books to the
Sunday-school library under any circumstances, and I would not for the
world add one more to the many subtle inroads upon the Lord's day. If
you place in your library any books that are not suitable Sunday
reading, cover them with paper of a distinctive color, mark them "For
week-day reading only," and watch them carefully, that you may
withdraw them from circulation if you find them trenching on the
sacred hours. With proper restrictions, however, the church may find
here a blessed ministry to many book-hungry communities. Biographies
like Irving's "Washington" or Holland's "Lincoln"; histories like
Motley's "Rise of the Dutch Republic"; poems like "Snowbound," "The
Idyls of the King," "Evangeline"; essays like Smiles' "Self Help" or
Mathews' "Getting on in the World"; books of science like Winchell's
"Sparks from a Geologist's Hammer" or Proctor's "Other Worlds than
Ours,"--if you can get your scholars to read on week-days such books
as these, you will deepen, broaden, and enrich the soil in which you
do your Sunday sowing.
But the more the community needs books, the harder it is to raise
money for them. This, however, is merely a difficulty of the start. A
few books, shrewdly chosen, will create a hunger for more, and that
hunger will open the pocketbooks.
Hold a book social, admission to which shall be a copy, old or new, of
some good book. The entertainment at this social should be
appropriate. Let each person that comes carry about him a token of
some book, such as a card about his neck reading, "Who teaches you?"
("Hoosier School Master"!). Illustrate a poem with shadow pictures.
Place about the room numbered portraits of authors for the company to
name. Add readings and essays on literary themes.
A course of lectures and concerts is possible, nowadays, for almost any
enterprising community, and the proceeds will give the library a start.
For a time you may charge two cents for the reading of each book, thus
forcing the library itself to earn its double in the course of a year.
At the beginning,--or, for that matter, all the time,--the generous
among the church-members may be urged to _lend_ books to the library
for a year at a time. Such books should be covered with different
paper from the others, and plainly marked with the name of the lender
and an injunction to especial carefulness in handling them.
The library will be generously supported, if its books are sensibly
selected; but this is not an easy task. Do not leave it to any single
man, but appoint the wisest men and women of the church a committee on
selection, and require them all to read every book that is chosen.
Obviously, the value of such a committee will increase with the
growing years, and it should be a permanent body.
Many booksellers will send books on approval. The review columns in
the religious papers should be regularly watched. The committee should
be placed on the mailing-lists of all the best publishers, to receive
their regular announcements of books. They should get into
correspondence with the librarians of other schools, learning from
them what books are popular and helpful. And, above everything else,
they should get in contact with the scholars of their own school, to
watch the practical effect of the books they select.
Regarding the selection of books, first, some "dont's."
Don't choose any volume, no matter how famous, without reading every
word of it. One of the grandest of biographies, for instance, is
Franklin's autobiography; but you will not wish to put before young
readers his chapter on his religion--or lack of it. Wonderfully
inspiring essays are Emerson's; but here and there a sentence speaks
of Christ as a mere man. A very stimulating booklet is "Blessed be
Drudgery"; but one sentence spoils it for our use, since it places
Jesus at the end of a list of philosophers at whose head stands
Herbert Spencer.
Don't buy "fads." Wait and see whether the book now so much lauded is
heard of next year.
Don't buy the books that have fittingly been called
"a-little-child-shall-lead-them" stories. Bill Nye described them as
tales relating how a dear little boy, though but five and a half and
crippled, took in back stairs to scrub, and supported his widowed
mother, and sent his sister to college.
Don't buy "libraries." As sensibly let a man that has never seen you
order for you a suit of clothes.
Don't buy "sets" and "series" and "sequels." Judge every book on its
merits.
Don't buy the books of one publishing-house alone, however excellent,
any more than you would fill your home with the works of only one
painter.
Don't confine your choice merely to the "Sunday-school writers." Books
that are not virile enough to attract and help folks outside the
Sunday-school are not likely to prove very useful inside.
Don't buy by authors. "Aunt Mary's Candlestick," by Jemima Jones, may
have been the greatest success of the year in your school; but that is
no reason why you should load up with "Aunt Mary's Dust-brush" and
"Aunt Mary's Needlecase" and "Aunt Mary's Dish-mop," by the same
industrious author.
In fine, don't buy any book, no matter who is its publisher or author,
or what its reputation, unless that particular book meets some
particular need of your particular school.
And now, what shall we buy? Stories, of course, in delightful measure.
The Sunday-school library has the highest authority for teaching in
parables. And for these stories there are three requirements.
First, they must be attractive. What is the use of a book if it will
not be read?
Second, they must be natural. He who is the Truth will never bless a
story of lifeless, jerking, galvanized puppets, gibbering forced
aphorisms and preposterous piety, and acting in a red fire of
sensational incidents. Real boys and girls, real men and women, real
life, and therefore life intensely interesting,--these must dwell in
our Sunday-school stories.
And finally, the stories must be helpful. Each must have a point, a
purpose. They must be outright for Christ, if they are to make
outright Christians.
Don't neglect the old-fashioned stories, such as the Rollo books. They
are full of meat. Especially helpful are such stories of Bible times
as "Ben Hur." Provided their imaginings do not outrun the Bible facts,
we can scarcely have too many of them. Do not forget, either, the
books that tell the Bible stories themselves, in simple language, for
the little ones. Above all stories, do not omit the "Pilgrim's
Progress," but buy a volume in large type and beautifully illustrated.
Next to stories, what? Emphatically, lives of the great Christians;
above all, missionaries. There are brief, bright, well-illustrated lives
of Mackay, the marvelous mechanic, Carey, the consecrated cobbler,
Paton, the hero of the New Hebrides, Livingstone the daring, Martyn the
saintly, Judson the sagacious, Patteson, the white knight of Melanesia,
and a host of other grand men. What inspiration to a splendid life is to
be gained from the story of Madagascar's dusky martyrs, or the account
of Allen Gardiner's magnificent death in Patagonia! What a spur to
active service is the tale of the winning of Hawaii, the opening up of
Japan, the self-sacrificing missions of the Moravians, the daring ride
of Whitman across the continent for the salvation of Oregon!
Then, there are the lives of great reformers like Luther, John Howard,
Wilberforce, John B. Gough, and of such superb Christians as
Gladstone, Wesley, Washington, William of Orange. There is no need of
a long list. The trouble is not to find the books, but to awaken among
your scholars a hunger for the real heroism of real men as opposed to
the imaginary heroism of fiction.
Another section of your library should contain books that bear
directly on the work of the school. There must be the best works on
teaching, such as Trumbull's "Teachers and Teaching," Schauffler's
"Ways of Working," Boynton's "The Model Sunday-school," and Du Bois'
"The Point of Contact." There must be some account of the Bible, like
Rice's "Our Sixty-six Sacred Books"; some brief and attractive manual
of Christian evidences, like Fisher's or Robinson's; some life of
Christ, like Geikie's or Farrar's; some account of the history,
polity, and teachings of your denomination. Thompson's "The Land and
the Book," Smith's "Historical Geography of the Holy Land," Geikie's
"Hours with the Bible," Taylor's "Moses, the Lawgiver," Deems' "The
Gospel of Common Sense," Pierce's "Pictured Truth," Butterworth's "The
Story of the Hymns,"--each of these is a type of a class of books
helpful to teachers,--and to scholars also, if they can be brought to
read them. Add, for the temperance lessons, such books as Banks' "The
Saloon-keeper's Ledger," Gustafson's "The Fountain of Death," and
Strong's "Our Country" and "The New Era."
I wonder that so few Sunday-school libraries contain the great
Christian poems, such as "Paradise Lost," Browning's "Saul," Lowell's
"Vision of Sir Launfal," Arnold's "The Light of the World," and many
more that would illuminate the lessons.
Many fascinating books of science for young folks have been written
expressly from the Christian stand-point. Why not add to the library
such books as Kingsley's "Glaucus," Burr's "Ecce Coelum," Agnes
Gibberne's "Sun, Moon, and Stars," Keyser's "In Bird-land"?
I may seem to be suggesting books for the older scholars mainly. Let
me here urge that equal care and thought be spent on the volumes for
the little tots and the "intermediates." Their books are not so
interesting to the mature-minded committee, and so they are more
likely to be chosen at haphazard.
This is especially true of the books for the primary department. Two
or three pounds of their diminutive volumes are shoveled up in a mass,
read by title, and tucked in at the end of the list. This carelessness
is especially injurious, because it is at their age that the reading
habit is formed, and it is of the utmost importance that the tiniest
books in the library shall be bright, helpful, and of real literary
value. To discover these will prove one of the most difficult tasks of
the conscientious committee.
Do not give up the old favorites. When Susan Coolidge's "Katy Did"
series wears out, give the old books away to some poorer school and
get a fresh set of the same. Remember that new scholars are all the
time entering, and that there is no recommendation for a book so
effective as the young people's own testimony, "I have read it, and I
know you will like it."
Have an eye to the paper and type and binding. Many books intended for
Sunday-school libraries are printed on stiff, pulpy paper, that
refuses to remain open at any place without cracking the back, and use
a cramped and formal typography more suitable to a funeral sermon than
to a book intended to attract young folks.
If your funds allow, it is an admirable plan to obtain more than one
copy of certain books especially likely to be needed by several
classes at once, such as books on Christian evidences, on the Bible,
and on the themes of the current lessons.
It is one thing to gather a library, and quite another to get it used,
and well used. The first point is to introduce it to the teachers.
They must consider these "teachers in 8vo" to be their assistants, and
must be thoroughly acquainted with them. _Every teacher should read
every book in the library that is within the range of his scholars'
comprehension._ How otherwise can he guide their reading? Of course
the most hasty perusal will be sufficient, provided it shows the
teacher the heart of the book. A teacher should learn the useful art
of rapid reading.
Let the teacher, as part of his preview of the quarter's lessons, make
out a list of library books that teach the principal truths of the
quarter ahead of him, and give this list to each scholar with the first
lesson. A few minutes of each teachers' meeting might well be spent in
giving suggestions regarding the use of the library to illustrate the
next lesson. Let the teacher often refer to these books in the course
of his teaching, learn what appropriate books each scholar has been
reading, and get him to give the class some account of them.
Often it will be well for the teacher to ask some scholar to read a
certain story or biography or poem during the week, and be ready to
tell about it for an illustration of next Sunday's truths.
If you have no teachers' meeting, once in a while the librarian may
mention at the prayer-meeting some library book of timely helpfulness,
or the pastor might even speak of it from the pulpit.
It is far better to buy the books a few at a time. In some schools a
new book is added to the library every Sunday of the fifty-two. The
chairman of the library committee comes forward with the book in his
hand, and describes it in a few bright, brisk sentences. Its title and
number are plainly written on the blackboard in front of the school.
The choice is varied,--now a book for the youngest, next week one for
the older scholars.
Some libraries have a special case for the new books, where every one
can readily find them and examine them. Indeed, the scholars are far
more easily introduced to all the books, new and old, if they have
free access to the shelves and can handle the books themselves, thus
coming to know each as an old friend. By the way, I do not believe in
covering the books. Covered books have no individuality.
Happy the school that has a good-sized room for its library. Some even
get it by placing the books in a house next door to the church.
I have known schools to get acquainted with their books by coming
together for a "library evening," in which the wealth of the library
was disclosed by various speakers, each trying to interest the school
in one book, or class of books.
After all, the library catalogue may be the best agent of
introduction. Every library should have one, though it is only a
home-made affair, manufactured on a typewriter or a hectograph. Every
book should be briefly described, so that the scholars may know, for
instance, the scene and purpose of each story, the kind of man
described in each biography, and whether it is a book for old, young,
or primary scholars. Some librarians mark one catalogue for each
class, indicating the books especially pleasing to scholars of the
average age of the class, so that the teacher may guide their
selection. Others divide the catalogue into sections, each containing
the books appropriate to one division of the school.
Not only should a teacher know _what_ his scholars are reading, but he
should find out _how_ they read. He should try to teach them the art
of reading. The demoralizing habit of reading merely for the moment's
pleasurable excitement and the next moment's forgetting may be formed
as easily with Sunday-school stories as with newspapers.
Some librarians, to this end, place in each book a slip of paper, and
the scholar is expected to write upon this at least one thing he has
learned from the book, telling at the same time how he likes it.
If the scholars, as will likely happen, are reading little but
stories, the librarian himself can do much to promote more solid
reading by reporting every month to the school the number of stories
read, the number of biographies, etc. This report may be made by
classes, and teachers and scholars should be urged to make a better
record next month.
Let me close this chapter with a few points regarding library
management.
It is poor economy of labor to change the librarian frequently, so
much of his usefulness depends on his familiarity with the books, and
that familiarity requires time to gain. If you can find a librarian
that does not especially need the benefit of the Bible study, one that
loves and understands children, keep him in office as long as may be.
But be sure to give him an assistant to aid the children in their
selections, or record the books while the librarian is consulting with
the children; also to take the librarian's place when he is sick or
absent, or possibly to take turns with him in presiding over the
library, so that each may recite the lesson half the time.
The books will be gathered up on the entrance of the scholars. A table
or a basket or an usher may be placed at the door for this purpose. If
the scholars cannot be given access to the books and select them
themselves, the librarians will pass quietly around among the
classes, leaving the new books at each table; but these books are
never to be given to the scholars until just before they leave.
The most effective record, yet a very simple one, may be made by any
librarian. Give to each scholar a card bearing his name and his
number. On this he writes a list of about ten numbers of the books he
prefers. As the librarian places his card in one of these new books,
that number is scratched off and the date written opposite. At the
same time the librarian writes the scholar's number and the date in
his library catalogue after the number of the book taken out, and upon
a list of the scholars' numbers writes the number of the book after
the number of the scholar. When the book is returned lines are drawn
through these records. Thus at any time the librarian can see what
books are out, who has them, how long they have had them, what books
each scholar has read, and how often each book has been taken out.
As the Sunday-school library should teach punctuality, among other
good things, the librarian should strictly require every book to be
brought back at the end of the week or fortnight, no matter who the
scholar may be, or whether the book is in much or little demand. It
may not be best to establish any system of fines, but a postal-card
notice should be sent in aggravated cases, and sometimes the teacher
should be asked to look up the book. It will spur the scholars to
promptness if they know that each instance of tardiness is recorded
against their names on the library's records.
The proper care of books is another good thing the library should teach.
Any marked blemish in a book should be noted when it is sent out; and
when a book is injured by a scholar, the librarian should always speak
to him about it, or get the teacher to do this if the child is a
stranger to him. A plainly printed slip urging careful handling,
forbidding dog's ears, and the like, may well be pasted in each book.
It is sometimes possible and advantageous to open the library at some
time during the week, especially on prayer-meeting evenings, when the
older folks can select their books, or, for the benefit of the
children, on Friday afternoons after school.
Some classes will like to have little libraries of their own,
containing Bibles for each scholar, Bible atlas, a Revised Bible, a
Bible dictionary, a concordance, etc. Always it is well to arrange for
the entire school a special reference library, the contents of which
will largely change from quarter to quarter. In it will be placed the
general Bible helps and whatever books are of special interest for the
quarter's lessons. The scholars may be sent to these reference shelves
during the lesson hour. At least one school has a special case, always
open, for books of this nature, and places the case in the front of
its main schoolroom.
On the whole, it will be seen that this chapter is a plea for a
Sunday-school library that is a corporate part of the Sunday-school
teaching, that will help the teacher on Sunday, and carry his teaching
through the week. Such a library virtually adds scores of the wisest men
and women to the teaching force of the school, and multiplies by many
hours the pitiful thirty minutes given to the lesson.