.
APPLICATION TO SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK
The Sunday School is such an important factor in religious training that
a special application of the foregoing discussion to its methods and
work seems wise. It is evident that plans can not be detailed, but only
some principles underlying the methods be suggested.
THE CRADLE ROLL
In the first department known as the Cradle Roll, nurture can be given
by the Sunday School only as it touches the parents. Any Cradle Roll
work that culminates in the sentiment of securing the babies' names and
calling them, "Our Sweet Peas", has missed its purpose. A peculiar
opportunity comes with the flood tide of new parental love. "If I had
not been a Christian when my boy was born, I could very easily have been
led to Christ, my heart was so tender and full of gratitude," said the
father of an only son.
The Sunday School will nurture its babes through choosing as Cradle
Roll Superintendent, a consecrated Christian woman, trained in the
school of life's experience, who can come close to other mothers because
she, too, has known the valley of the shadow and the sacred joy of a new
born life in her arms. A unique opportunity is hers to lead the parents
to Christ or into closer fellowship with Him, and to help them
understand the meaning of the life He has lent them.
THE BEGINNERS' DEPARTMENT
The Beginners' Department will care for the years between three and six.
Nurture will be concerned first with the teacher.
The Teacher.--The child's conception of Christ will be what he sees in
the teacher. He can not conceive of any love or tenderness or gentleness
greater than appears in her. A mother came to the teacher of her little
boy one day and said, "John was playing on the floor this afternoon, and
all at once he stopped and watched me, and then said, 'Mamma, I wish you
were as much like Jesus as my teacher is'" The lesson, the music, the
prayer and all the differentiation of the day and place tend to elevate
the teacher above those who share his daily life, and envelop her with
an atmosphere more mystic and holy. She is connected not with clothes
and bread and butter episodes, but wholly with the thought of Jesus, and
stands by His side in the child's thought and love, and if he love not
the teacher whom he has seen, he can not love God whom he has not seen.
Even the physical charm of the teacher will make his picture of the
Christ more beautiful. Nurture demands above all else that
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