Robinson.—­The Adolescent Boy in the Sunday School (American Youth,
April, 1911) (.20).

VI

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES IN SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK WITH BOYS

Five fundamental principles must be kept in mind when work with boys in the Sunday school is attempted, and without these five principles very little will be accomplished: 

1. The first of these is the Fourfold Life.  A boy lives physically, socially, and mentally, as well as spiritually.  He lives seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, not merely an hour or an hour and a half on Sunday.  His spiritual impulses are received and find their expression in the physical, social and mental activities in which he is engaged during the week.  Any work that is attempted with a group of boys which ignores this fourfold life of the boy cannot be a success.  The man, then, who plans to work with boys must plan to touch the various phases of the boys’ lives as he works with them, and he must also do this work in proportion, not putting too much emphasis on any one phase, but allowing equal emphasis on all.  The ideal for a perfect work with boys is that which is gleaned from a study of the boyhood of Christ, for the boy Jesus, “grew in wisdom” (mentally), “and in stature” (physically), “and in favor with God” (spiritually), “and with man” (socially).  The secret of the life of the Christ as a boy lies in his symmetrical and well-balanced growth.

2. The second principle is Progression. In a successful church work with boys the activities must be graded and progressive.  The public school could not command the presence of a boy if the work which it gave him today was the same as that of last week, and that of last week the same as that of a year ago.  The inherent interest of the public school to a boy is that he is discovering new things for himself, or being taught new things all the while.  This principle must be incorporated in church and Sunday school work to keep the continued interest of the boy.  It must be observed, not only in Bible study (and this should be graded), but also in the physical, social, mental and service activities in which the boy finds himself engaged.

3. The third principle is Service.  Too long has the church bribed her boys and expected them to remain with her and in her service after offering them wages for doing the thing which they ought to have done for sheer love of it.  Socials and clubs and athletic organizations and other devices have been used as a bid to hold the boy, instead of being used because the church owed these things to the boy as part of his all-round development.  “Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also”; and it stands to reason that the heart of the boy will be where he is giving most of himself.  If he is investing himself heavily in the interest and service of the church, that is where his interest will be.