Sunday School Spirit

In order to maintain a genuine spirit of Sunday school unity it is desirable to have the whole school meet together from time to time for the common tie and uplift of worship in the mass.  The exercises of festival occasions also help to bring this about, and the common gatherings, regular or special, of the school, tend to magnify the united leadership of officers and teachers.  These should never interfere with the work of instruction, the main objective of the school, but should supplement it.  Departments should be made to feel their partnership in the Sunday school enterprise, and this may be brought about by the reading of the departmental and school minutes in each department.  Continued emphasis should be placed on the oneness of the school—­“All one body, we.”  Thus we may hope for Christian comradeship and loyalty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON BOYS’ DEPARTMENT

Boys’ Work Message.—­(Men and Religion Movement) ($1.00).

Cope.—­Efficiency in the Sunday School ($1.00).

Huse.—­Boys’ Department in Springvale, Maine (American Youth,
February, 1911) (.20).

Stanley.—­The Boys’ Department in the Sunday School (American Youth,
April, 1911) (.20).

Waite.—­Boys’ Department of the Sunday School (Free leaflet).

XII

INTER-SUNDAY SCHOOL EFFORT FOR BOYS

This volume so far has discussed nothing save the work among teen age boys in the local Sunday school, in Organized Class or Boys’ Department.  This is as it should be, “beginning at Jerusalem” and taking care first of the local school.  To magnify the church and church school, however, in the eye of the boy and to make it his central interest or the center of his interests, it is necessary to view Sunday school effort in a larger way than the work of the local school.  The Sunday school must become city-wide in its scope and effort.  Common town-wide activity, such as outings, athletics, camps, entertainments, lectures, campaigns, etc., must be promoted jointly.  Not only this, but the Christian boys of the community must be taught the democracy of Christianity and be led to work together in Christian service for each other and with each other for all the boys of the city.  Something of this has been attempted in some places, but always under adult rule.  Adult supervision—­not rule—­is always necessary.  Thus city camps and Sunday school athletic leagues have flourished as adult effort for boys.  That which is contemplated in the following two chapters is distinctly work by boys for boys in the Sunday school field.  The need of adult help to organize and set things going is recognized as necessary, good and the proper thing.  The value of the work will consist in the enlistment of the boys themselves and the participation in and direction of the proposed work by the boys.  Boys are not as exclusive, limited or provincial as adults.  Their interests are wider than the local church.  The task is to couple those interests with the local church as the center of greater community-wide activity, and to direct them to effective service.