rcises. Its building, however, is a
model of convenience and adaptation to the work of the Sunday school,
having around the main hall eighteen class rooms, all capable of being
either secluded or opened together at a moment's notice.

We found in out Sunday school certain evils and defects, all of which
may be seen elsewhere. Some of these were: 1. "Skeleton classes" in the
Senior Department, consisting of four or five scholars, being the
remains of what had once been large classes of boys and girls. 2. A
constant tendency among the young people to fall away from the school
after reaching the age of sixteen or eighteen years. 3. Great
discrepancies of numbers in the classes; large and small classes side by
side in the same grade. 4. In almost any given class a lack of unity in
the age and the intellectual acquirements of its members. 5. Great
difficulty in obtaining suitable teachers for new classes, or to take
the places of teachers leaving the school.

After many conversations a conclusion was reached that most of these
evils might be removed, and others of them might be lessened, if the
school were reorganized according to a good system, and then maintained
as a thoroughly graded school. A committee was chosen to prepare a plan.
Correspondence was held with graded schools, all printed information
was carefully studied, a plan was prepared, printed, submitted to the
Sunday School Board, discussed, modified, and finally adopted
unanimously. The following are the principal features of the plan, for
which we make no claim of originality, as each of its elements was
already in successful operation in one or more graded Sunday schools:

1. That the school should be arranged in four general departments: The
Senior, for all over sixteen years old; the Junior, from ten to sixteen
years; the Intermediate, from eight to ten; and the Primary, for the
children younger than eight years. These divisions are not arbitrary,
but represent the average standard of age, to which exceptions might be
made in special cases.

2. In each department the number of classes to be fixed and invariable,
except that in the Junior Department there might be some necessary
elasticity in the number of classes, owing to the varying number of
scholars promoted into the department in different years.

3. Promotions to be made annually, and all at the same time, on the last
Sunday of March. Except in special emergencies no changes in classes to
be made