The story is not yet complete.  Still the world writes its progress in the names of its great ones.  And yet, as always, the Church must look for its progress to its Christ-kissed men and women.  While teen age boys and girls escape us at the rate of one hundred thousand a year, the need for leadership is among us.

There is no boy problem.  There is no girl problem.  Boys and girls are the same yesterday, today and forever.  The processes of their developing life are as the laws of the Medes and Persians, without change, eternal as the hills.  Like the poor, they are always with us.  There is neither boy nor girl problem; it is a problem of the man and a problem of the woman.  Leadership is the key that unlocks the door of the teen age for the Church.

The need of the Sunday school in the teen age today is leadership.  The organized classes for men and women can solve the problem of the Church among the teen age boys and girls.  The number of teachers an organized adult class produces is the measure of its ultimate usefulness in the Kingdom.

The problem of the Sunday school, then, can be solved by men teachers for boys’ classes.  The more masculine the Sunday school becomes the deeper will be the boy’s interest.  A virile, active Christianity will challenge the boy; and all other things being equal, the man teacher can present such a Christianity.  In some places this will not be possible because of the dearth of men due to the lack of any sense of Christian obligation on the part of the males of the community to the growing boy.  Where real men are missing, we will be forced of necessity to fall back on the big-hearted women that have so long stood in the breach.  It may be well, also, to add that merely being a male does not constitute a man or manhood.  Some men will need to strengthen themselves to do their duty as the leaders and teachers of boys in the Sunday school.

None but the strongest teachers should be selected.  A boy of high school age quickly detects weakness in a teacher.  Selection of just “any one” to teach a class is sure failure.  The most important element in organization is leadership.  The teacher should aim to become more of a leader than teacher.  Boys’ classes should be taught by men, and women should teach classes of girls.  It is impossible for a man to lead girls, and just as impossible for girls to be led by a man.

With the period of adolescence come problems which can be understood and solved only by those who have passed through the same experience.  Manly Christian leadership will help boys to grow naturally into Christian manhood, while only the kind, sympathetic touch of the conscientious Christian woman leader can help the girl in developing normally into honored and respected Christian womanhood.

The conscientious Christian leader will keep in mind his obligation to the individual members of the class.  By reading and study he will become acquainted with the characteristics of the teen age life, with a view to planning such activities, for both the Sunday and the mid-week session, as will eventually result in the development of stalwart Christian manhood.