officers, he should be present at all business meetings and make a
careful record. Every motion should be stated clearly, with the names
of its mover and its seconder, and the action taken. A statement should
be given of every committee appointed, its purpose, and the names of its
members. All committees should be expected to present written reports,
however brief. A concise summary of each report, in a few sentences, or
a single clause, should appear in the minutes of the meeting at which
the report is presented; and the report itself should be filed for
reference in case it should be needed. A committee once named is on the
minutes, and cannot be ignored nor forgotten until its report has been
presented and adopted, and the committee has been formally discharged.
For example, it is not sufficient for the committee on the Christmas
entertainment to hold the entertainment; it must afterward report that
the entertainment was held on a certain date; must have its report
adopted, and receive its discharge. It should be the duty of the
secretary from time to time to call for reports of committees named in
the minutes of previous meetings, to insist that a report be rendered,
and that some action be taken upon it.
(2) _Record of the School._ In every well-ordered Sunday school the
secretary summarizes in writing the attendance in each department, the
total attendance, the number of new scholars, and other items to be
preserved, including the weather, which may sometimes account for a
small attendance; also a comparison with the record of the same Sunday
last year. This report should be read to the school by the secretary at
the call of the superintendent, or posted before the school; and it
should also be recorded in a book which will contain the statistics of
the school through a term of years.
(3) _Records of Classes._ The secretary and his assistants should
prepare the books in which the class record of attendance is recorded.
The name of each scholar should be given correctly and fully (for
example, not "F. Jones," but "Frederick Jones"). The secretary should
see that the record of attendance for each Sunday is accurately kept. He
will need to give special attention to classes where substitutes take
the place of absent teachers, and to see that the record for the day is
not neglected. As often as the arrangement of the class books requires
the rewriting of the names of the scholars, he should transcribe the
list, always writing every name in full. In looking through the class
lists he should note the names of those who have been absent for a
series of sessions, and should report them to the superintendent, for
consideration and for investigation of every habitual absentee. If these
scholars can be visited, many of them may be retained in the school.
(4) _Records of Scholars._ In addition to the record in the class books,
another record should be kept of every member of the school, including
every officer, teacher, and scholar; a card catalogue, each name upon a
separate card, and all the cards filed in alphabetical order. The card
for each scholar should give besides his name the date of his entrance
to the school, either the date of his birth or his age at
entering--approximative, if above eighteen years; his residence, with
street and number in a city; parents' names; class to which he is
assigned; his relation to the church or congregation, and any other
important facts. The card should contain the record of every promotion,
and its date; of any changes in residence, and other details, so that it
becomes a reliable and complete history of each individual in the
school. In many schools the birthday of each member is kept upon the
record, and is recognized by sending a birthday card. If a scholar or
teacher leaves the school the fact is recorded, and the card is then
taken from the regular catalogue and filed permanently in the list of
"former members."
(5) _Literature of the School._ The secretary should be in charge of the
literature used by the school, its text-books, lesson-quarterlies, and
other periodicals. He should see that the literature is ordered in full
time, should receive it, keep it in his care, and attend to its
distribution. The particular text-book for each grade is fixed by the
superintendent; and the secretary should receive from him direction as
to the lesson helps for each grade.
(6) _Correspondence._ The secretary should conduct all correspondence in
behalf of the school or of the teachers as a body, unless for a special
purpose the chairman of a committee be in charge of correspondence
relating to his work.
The secretary who with the aid of his staff undertakes to do all the
work that rises before him will not find his task a light one. But his
department carried on with vigor will greatly promote the success of the
Sunday school.
X
THE TREASURY AND THE TREASURER
1. =In the Early Sunday School.= A study of origins has shown that in
the earliest Sunday schools in America, as in England, provision was
made for the payment of officers and teachers. In the first schools
established in and near Philadelphia, each paid teacher had charge of
what would now be considered a department, and the practical teaching
was given under his direction by scholars, who were called monitors. But
in a new country, where the settlements were small and the people mostly
poor, the system of paid teachers soon passed away, and the schools were
carried on by voluntary and unpaid workers. It was fortunate for the
American Sunday school that in its beginnings it required but little
money. For the place of meeting any chapel or schoolhouse or settler's
cabin would serve. The literature was exceedingly meager--a few
Testaments and spelling books, and generally these were brought by the
teachers and scholars. When the earliest lesson books were published,
they were not quarterlies, nor annuals, to be thrown away after one
using, but were studied year after year. The largest item of expense was
the library; and as this was an institution for the entire neighborhood,
the families willingly contributed toward it. Not until the Sunday
school had become thoroughly founded did the question of its financial
support arise as a problem.
2. =In the Modern Sunday School.= As the Sunday school advanced in
position, in influence, and in better methods of work, its expenses
naturally increased. Now, in the opening of its second century, its
financial requirements are far greater than they were even a generation
ago. It asks for special and suitable buildings, with rooms and
furnishings adapted to the educational needs of its several departments;
for a periodical literature suited to teachers and scholars of every
grade, and requiring to be renewed every year; for an organ or
piano--often for several, with an orchestra added; for an equipment of
song books different from those in the church service; for
entertainments and gifts at Christmas, and a day's outing for all in the
summer; for libraries containing popular books for the scholars and
helpful works for the teachers in their work. The demands of a large and
growing Sunday school, in city or country, are great, but in nearly all
congregations the funds for the support of the Sunday school are
obtained with less effort than those for any other department of church
activity, and in this liberality the Christian people show their wisdom
and insight.
3. =Practical Ways and Means.= The methods of financial support for the
Sunday school are exceedingly varied. The simplest plan is through a
regular weekly contribution in the classes. Where attention is given to
the collection, and an appeal is occasionally made in its behalf, the
school will generally obtain the funds needed for its own support. When
the special need arises for the purchase of a piano or a library, some
entertainment may be held which will by its profits swell the receipts.
The objection to these methods, which are almost universal, is that they
appeal to self-interest, and fail to educate the members of the school
in true liberality. It is for _our_ school, _our_ piano, _our_ library,
that the appeal is made and the money is contributed. The scholars
should be taught to give to the cause of Christ and his gospel, and not
merely to interests from which they themselves are to receive a reward.
4. =The Ideal Way of Giving.= The more excellent way is for the church
in its annual estimate of expenses to include a fair, even liberal,
allowance for the Sunday school, and at intervals through the year pass
over to the treasury of the Sunday school the funds appropriated, to be
expended according to principles and regulations provided. Then let
every officer, teacher, and pupil in the school, from the Adult
Department to the Primary, and even to the Beginners, make his own
weekly offering to the church. Most church schools contribute to the
cause of foreign missions; but there is equal reason why they should
give to all the general benevolent objects for which the church receives
an annual collection. This plan would unite the church and the school
more firmly, would avoid multiplying and conflicting objects for which
funds are raised, and, best of all, would train every child in the
Sunday school to systematic giving upon the true gospel principle, which
is "not to be ministered unto, but to minister."
5. =The Sunday-School Treasurer.= The work of the treasurer is very
different from that of the secretary; yet the two offices are often held
by one person. In that case they should be regarded as distinct
positions; the election to the two offices should be separate, and not
at the same time for one person as secretary and treasurer. At every
business meeting a separate report should be presented for the two
departments, and the treasurership should not be regarded as a branch of
the secretary's work. If the plan outlined in the last paragraph be
adopted as the method of providing for the financial needs of the Sunday
school, it might be well to choose the treasurer of the church as
treasurer of the Sunday school, thus giving unity to the financial
administration of the entire organization.
6. =The Treasurer's Work.= This will require a person who is known as
careful in accounts, as well as honorable in all his dealings.
(1) _His Charge._ All the funds of the Sunday school should pass through
his hands. If money is raised for any purpose, or a money-making
entertainment is held, the treasurer should take charge of the receipts
and pay the bills. For this purpose he should be ex officio a member of
all committees required to receive and disburse funds.
(2) _Bank Account._ Except in small and remote places, the treasurer
will find it desirable to keep an account with a bank in behalf of the
school, and deposit therein all moneys received. Under no circumstances
should he deposit Sunday-school funds as a part of his own private
account, but should keep separate accounts as an individual and as
treasurer.
(3) _Reports and Vouchers._ At each meeting of the governing board of
the school he should present a statement of the condition of the
treasury, with exact mention of all moneys received and paid since the
last meeting; and for every payment he should show a receipt or voucher,
and on it the "O. K." or approval of some qualified person who knows
that it is correct.
(4) _Bills._ He should receive all bills against the school, and should
inform himself concerning them, in order to be able to answer any
questions raised by members of the board. He should present at the
meeting a statement of all the unpaid bills on hand, with a forecast of
bills expected, and obtain a vote of the board upon each bill that is to
be paid.
(5) _Checks._ It is desirable to pay bills as far as possible with
checks, as the check will often serve as a receipt; and the receipted
bills should be filed together for reference.
(6) _Audits._ An Auditing Committee should be appointed, to examine the
accounts of the school from time to time, and always when the treasurer
completes his term, alike whether he is reelected or gives place to a
successor. This committee should either present a written report, or
should sign their names to the treasurer's report, with the indorsement,
"Audited and found correct."
Most of the above recommendations, perhaps all of them, state the
methods that would be followed by any intelligent, businesslike
treasurer. But in the continent-wide area of the Sunday school, of
necessity, not all treasurers are intelligent or experienced in business
methods; and there are doubtless many who may profit by these
suggestions.
(7) _Study of Benevolent Interests._ One of the most important duties of
a treasurer in a modern Sunday school is to study the different
charitable objects that present themselves to the school, decide upon
their merits, and then present them understandingly to the members of
the school, with a view to eliciting their interest and training them in
the spirit and habit of intelligent giving. This important task raises
the treasurership out of mere mechanical service, and constitutes it one
of the directing forces in the school.
XI
VALUE OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY
1. =The Library of the Past.= Until quite recent times the Sunday-school
library was understood to be a collection of books, mainly of an
entertaining character, kept in the school, distributed at its sessions,
and read by the scholars, for enjoyment rather than for instruction.
Such a library was regarded as an essential of the Sunday school.
However small or however poor the school, it must have a library. Books
were scarce, and desirable books were high in price. There were no free
public libraries, and few circulating libraries. The library was
regarded as the principal attraction of the school, and it drew the
scholars. Many children attended two Sunday schools in order to obtain
each week two library books. The books were read by all the family; and
in many homes the Sunday-school library furnished most of the reading
matter. The literature may not have been of the highest grade, but, with
all its defects, the Sunday-school library of the past was a useful and
valuable institution.
2. =Its Decline in the Present.= In recent times, and especially in
well-settled and cultured communities, the Sunday-school library has
lost much of its importance. Very many schools have closed their
libraries; and in the schools continuing their use only a small
proportion of the scholars obtain books. Inquiry has shown that in
cities and suburban towns a school of two hundred members will include
not more than thirty who make use of the library. When the library is
closed scarcely any complaints from the scholars are heard; nor is the
closing of the library followed by a loss of scholars. Publishing houses
which formerly issued fifty new books each year, especially for
Sunday-school libraries, have entirely abandoned this branch of
business. It cannot be maintained that the Sunday-school library for the
entertainment of the scholars now holds a prominent place, or is a
factor of success, in the best American Sunday schools.
3. =Causes of Decline.= It is not difficult to find reasons for this
present lack of interest in the Sunday-school library. Books are now far
more abundant than they were formerly. They are sold cheaply, and are to
be found in almost every home. The periodical literature in circulation
to-day is apparently a hundredfold greater than it was two generations
ago. Every city and almost every town has its public library. Many
schools are furnished with free libraries. Readers can scarcely find
time for the books and magazines that are open to them. Moreover, the
Sunday school now stands in such recognized honor and power that it no
longer needs the old-time library as a bait for scholars. The library
for mere recreation does not readily fit into the general scheme of
education in the modern Sunday school. Then, too, the educational work
of the school demands such an outfit of books and periodicals, renewed
each year, that the additional expense of the library is a heavy burden.
Sharp criticism is passed upon the quality of the books in most
Sunday-school libraries, as being almost wholly stories, and stories of
a cheap and commonplace character, many of them absolutely injurious.
The conducting of the library is often found to interfere with the order
and work of the school. These are among the causes which have led to
disuse of the library in many Sunday schools.
4. =The Uses of a Good Library.= Notwithstanding the objections to the
Sunday-school library, its neglect by many scholars, and its abolition
in many schools, the fact remains that the majority of Sunday schools
still retain the library, and claim that it is needed. There are even
places where the Sunday-school library holds its own constituency in
competition with the town library; and in small villages the Sunday
school supplies most of the books in circulation. The principal claims
made in behalf of such a library are the following:
(1) _Family Needs._ Every family needs good reading matter. The books
that interest the young generally interest the old also. People who
would be at a loss to select a book from the shelves of a public library
will read the book brought to them from the Sunday-school library. The
reading of the library-book fills leisure time on Sunday afternoons and
on long winter evenings.
(2) _Moral Influence._ While most Sunday-school books as literature are
open to criticism, yet in the realm of ethics they generally present
high ideals. The characters depicted in them may not be symmetrical, but
on the whole they are earnest and upright. Youth admires heroism; and
the personalities portrayed in popular Sunday-school books are
generally heroic, even though they may be unduly emotional. The boys who
are picked up by the police in railroad centers, armed for fighting
Indians or robbing trains, generally carry an assortment of cheap
novels, but they are not from Sunday-school libraries. If the criterion
be ethics and not literature, most Sunday-school books will stand the
test.
(3) _Aid to the School._ As has been already suggested, the original aim
of the library was to attract scholars to the school. In many places
this influence is no longer needed; but there still remain communities
where scholars are obtained and families are interested by means of the
library. And it is an open question whether if the library had advanced
step by step with the other departments of the school, if the same
attention had been given to the supply and management of the library as
has been given to the educational work, if the right books had been kept
upon its shelves, and advanced methods had been sought in their
distribution, the library of the Sunday school might not still be a
vigorous and successful institution.
5. =Principles of Selection.= If the governing board of the school
decides that a library for general reading by the scholars is desirable,
the question at once arises as to what principles shall determine the
selection of books. A few of these principles may be stated:
(1) _Variety._ The library should represent more than one department of
literature. So general is the taste for stories that the tendency will
be inevitable to overload the library with works of fiction. Therefore
special care should be given to include in it the lives of great and
good men--heroes, statesmen, explorers, leaders of the church, and
missionaries. All of these present life on its romantic side, and may be
found written in an entertaining manner. Upon the shelves should also be
placed history and science--not in many-volumed treatises for scholars,
but in popular books for young people. In fact, there are few
departments of a good public library which may not properly be included
in the library of the Sunday school, especially in places where the
school is expected to supply the reading matter for the community.
(2) _Popularity._ Merely to place books on the shelves of a
Sunday-school library will not insure the reading of them. This library
aims to be emphatically a circulating library. Its books are not for
show, but for use; and their place to be seen is not on the shelves of
the library-room, but in the homes of the scholars and teachers. It is
absolutely essential that no book be placed in the library unless it is
sufficiently interesting to be taken out and read, for an unread book is
worse than useless in the Sunday-school library. Although its principles
be as sound as the Ten Commandments, if it be dull it must be condemned.
Students may be willing to plod through an uninteresting book because it
is profitable, but ordinary readers, especially youthful readers, will
turn from it. Books should not be purchased because they are good, or
because they are cheap; nor, on the other hand, should they be chosen
only because they are popular; yet an interesting, popular quality
should be an absolute requirement in every book placed upon the library
shelves.
(3) _Literary Quality._ Books are influential teachers, and a style like
that of Hawthorne or Eliot will unconsciously mold the language of those
who read it. On the other hand, the habitual readers of the slang in the
comic paragraph of the newspaper will talk in a careless and inelegant
manner. Of course, all books should be excluded from the library which
deal in low, profane, or immoral language, without regarding the
specious plea that such describe life as it is. We do not need to learn
the language of the slums to know life; and, as one writer has said, we
do not want a realism that can be touched only with a pair of tongs. The
best pirate story in the English language is one that is without an oath
from cover to cover,[10] and we would not exclude it from the
Sunday-school library. Let us seek for writers whose expression is
direct, smooth, and cultured. The Sunday school in its literature as
well as its teaching should lead upward toward refinement of taste.
(4) _Moral Teaching._ The ethical standard of every book in the
Sunday-school library should be of the highest. Not that every paragraph
should end with the application like the _Haec fabula docet_ of AEsop's
fables, or that the characters in a story should be of a "goody-goody"
kind, or that none but good people should appear upon the page. There
must be some shadows in the perspective that the light may stand in
contrast. But in no case should wrong, or sin, or the doubtful
moralities of modern society be made attractive. Moral problem stories,
in which the boundary lines of right and wrong conduct are crossed and
re-crossed until right seems wrong, and wrong seems right, should have
no place. "Should love stories be admitted?" Not if the element of love
enters as the dominant thought of the book. A story should not be
forbidden because there is a pair of lovers in it; but it should not be
accepted if the book shows no higher motive than to set forth their
passion. Books should be sought that will inculcate a noble manliness
for young men and a noble womanliness for young women, and there are
such books in numbers sufficient to fill the library shelves.
(5) _Christian Spirit._ It is not required that every book should set
forth and illustrate a spiritual experience. It may be religious without
preaching religion. But the morals it inculcates should be founded upon
the gospels and inspired by faith. It should be reverent in its
treatment of the Bible, of the church, and of the ministry. A book or a
story designed to weaken belief in the Scriptures as records of the
divine will, or holding the church up to scorn, or showing a minister as
its villain, should be kept out of the Sunday-school library. Criticism
or discussion of the Bible, of the church, and of the ministry has its
place, but its place is not in the Sunday school. The Sunday school is
distinctively a religious and a Christian institution, and the
atmosphere of the Christian religion should pervade its library.