school, so every first-class Sunday school must
be. There can be no efficient, regular, and satisfactory work done in a
Sunday school without a system of grade.

On this subject there is extensive inquiry, yet general lack of
information. The majority of superintendents and teachers have either no
conception or at best an exceedingly vague idea of what constitutes a
graded Sunday school. We propose in a few words to set forth what are
the essential features of a graded Sunday school.

The first essential is that the school be divided into certain general
departments, which may be three, four, or five in number. In our opinion
the best division is into the four departments--Primary, Intermediate,
Junior, and Senior. These departments should exist in reality, as well
as in name, and each department should be recognized as a separate
element in the working of the school.

A second essential is that of a definite and fixed number of classes in
each department. It is not a graded Sunday school where a teacher and
her class are advanced together into the Senior Department whenever the
pupils reach the specified age. The inevitable result of such a course
will be to have in a few years in the Senior Department a large number
of "skeleton classes," each with a few members, which is the very evil
to be avoided in the graded system. There should be in each department a
definite number of classes, proportioned to the size of the school, and
this number should be kept uniform. A Sunday school is always "dying at
the top," by the loss of its scholars after the age of fifteen years.
For this fact there are many causes, some necessary, others avoidable.
But, whatever be the cause, it is a fact to be provided for in the
management of the school; and the provision should be, not in adding new
classes, but in advancing scholars from the Junior Department and
filling up senior classes already organized. The classes in the Senior
Department should be kept few in number, but kept full in size.

A third essential of the graded Sunday school is that of regular
promotions from grade to grade, with change of teachers. It is not
necessary for the pupils to pass from one class to another every year in
the Sunday school, though this is done in the public school. While a
pupil remains in the same department he may continue in the same class
and with the same teacher. But when he passes from one department to a
higher, or from Junior to Senior, t