That they are possible is assumed. That they are probable is likewise
assumed. That they are real is a fact of personal experience. Mistakes
anywhere are mischievous. In Sunday-school they are often ruinous. Let us
classify them. They are _first_, mistakes of manner and method; _second_,
mistakes of purpose and expectation; _third_, mistakes of thought and
action. Let us examine our classification:
_I. Manner and Method._
It is a mistake (_a_) to recognize differences in social position or
station between members of a class. In the Sunday-school all meet on a
common level. There is no rank in the Christian kingdom. All are peers of
the realm, and Jesus Christ is the only Lord.
(_b_) To be in any degree partial to any scholar. All should be favorite
scholars in this school.
(_c_) To seem uninterested in anything pertaining to the general interest
of the school. If the teacher is devoid of interest the scholar will be.
(_d_) To scold or threaten in the class, even under provocations such as
do occur in Sunday-school. Scolding always exercises an ill effect, and a
threat is but a challenge.
(_e_) To pretend to be wiser or better versed in Bible lore than one
really is. In Bible teaching, real knowledge is real power—but a manner
that assumes to know what it does not is only the lion’s skin on the ass’
head.
(_f_) To neglect thorough study. Wherever there is good teaching there
will be at least two students. One will be the teacher. Witness Dr.
Arnold, of Rugby.
(_g_) To neglect private prayer in the teacher’s preparation. Said old
Martin Luther, “_Bene arâsse est bene studuisse_.”
(_h_) To depend upon lesson-helps in the class. Crutches are not becoming
to an able bodied man. But some teachers bring out the lesson crutches on
Sunday morning and hobble through Sunday-school on them.
(_i_) To expect the superintendent to discipline each class. He is no
more responsible for class order than a commanding general for the order
of a corporal’s guard.
(_j_) To use the lesson verse by verse, ending each with the Æsopian
interrogation, “_Hæc fabula docet?_”
_II. Purpose and Expectation._
It is a mistake (_a_) to seek only for a scholar’s conversion. If growth
does not follow birth, death will. Upbuilding in Christ is one great
purpose of the school.
(_b_) To seek only to create interest in the lesson. There may be _deep
intellectual interest created, and no spiritual interest_.
(_c_) To teach for the purpose of performing duty. That robs the teacher
of one chief essential to success—_heartiness_.
(_d_) To teach for the purpose of inculcating one’s own peculiar
religious views. Paul’s purpose was the right one—“to know nothing save
Christ and him crucified.”
(_e_) For the teacher to expect the pupil’s interest in the Gospel theme
to equal his own. It is contrary to sinful nature.
(_f_) To expect home work by pupils, unless it has been prepared for by
patient effort.
(_g_) _To expect conversion as the immediate result of teaching_, and to
grow discouraged and abandon the work because the expectation is not at
once realized. God’s way and time are his own.
(_h_) _Not to expect conversion as the ultimate result of teaching_; and
hence to fail to direct every effort to that end.—“In the morning sow thy
seed,” etc.
_III. Thought and Action._
It is a mistake (_a_) _to think teaching easy_. It has taxed the noblest
powers of the noblest men.
(_b_) To think it an insignificant or puerile employment. The two
greatest names of the ages, heathen and Christian, were nothing if not
teachers: Socrates—Immanuel.
(_c_) To think the Sunday-school a children’s institution only. The three
great Christian institutions are the home, the church, the Sunday-school,
and the constituency of each is the same.
(_d_) To be irregular in attendance at Sunday-school.
(_e_) To be unpunctual.
(_f_) To be lax in discipline.
(_g_) To fail in example, whether in connection with school work or daily
life.