SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 288, 3 December 1892, Page 2

SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK.

CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS AND

TEACHERS.

The " Relation of the Sunday-school to the Church " was considoroa aba Baoetl!)P f ,i lasb nighb in the social hall at the Y.M.U&' Rooms. There was a good attendance oi minisbers and teachers of variouß denominations. The Rev. J. Berry presided. After a hymn had been sung, the Rev. Mr Miner engaged in prayer. The Rev. Mr Guy ana Mr Murray also led tho meeting in pray6l after another hymn had been sung. ' The Chairman said the meeting wasi trie outcome of certain conversations held a the Ministers' Conference. It was »» that tho teaching in their Sunday-schools might be, and ought to be mow skilfully performed. The last census afforded food for reflection. It revealed a considerable falling off in the attendance at the Sunday Schools. It showed 102.WU children attending Sunday-schoolsj °M 141,000 attending "public schools. It was evident that there wore a good many children in New Zealand who did not attend Sunday-school. Duting the lasbhve years the attendance at tho public schools had increased 12 per cent., while the bull-day-schools had only increased 2 per cent. Another point was that while the attendance of girls had increased that of the boys had decroased. Ho hoped in the discussion they would avoid pessimism. All discouragement camo from the devil and not from above. , - Tho Rev. Mr Ferguson next addressed tho meeting. He said that the Sundayschool and the Church were nob necessarily related. Ho had found cases where the echool was really tho mother of the Church, at the same time, no doubt some Church had supplied the teachers. He considered the great duty of the Church was to provide teachers for the Sunday-schoola. He noticed thab connected with the Auckland Sunday-school Union there.were 23 unsectarian schools. He considered that teachers required aptness to teach, Bible knowledge, and consecration to the work. He advocated classes in which to train teachers. He believed in ministers attending the Sunday-school and taking part in tho work. He referred to the fact .that the State education system did nob supply religious teaching, therefore extra responsibility was thrown upon the Church. He considered ib was the duty of the teacher to create in the scholar a love for the Church. He considered that the Christian Endeavour Society filled the* gap between the Sunday-school and the Church. Mr Murray also advocated teaching teachers the art of imparting knowle-ge. He regretted thab there were to-day thousands of young men and women who had passed through their Sunday-schools and were letting their religion go. One wea~\ ness was thab the Bible was not taught with authority. They should teach the Bible as the inspired Word of God. Mr David Goldie said the ministers ought to remember that teachers only had the children for aboub an hour to teach them to love the Church. He thought they should go back to the old Scotch system, and let tho ministers take more interest in the children and the families. Ministers seemed to have little hold on the people, and he believed the fault was greatly due to themselves. The ministers had the whole v.e_k to go amongsb the people, whereas the teachers had to work for their living during tho week. In two many cases their ministers were architects and. tot builders. They wanted the ministers to lead in good work. They heard aboubth.ir secular system of education, but they did nob hear of ministers going to the schools to impart religious instruction altho.^h tho buildings were at their disposal. The Rev. Scott-Wesb said bhere was nothing to be gained by black balling either side. He considered the Church was tho Home, and the Sunday-school scripturally had no exisbence outside of Church. One thing thab struck him was the lack of children in the churches, the sere point was that they were creating a Church oubside of the Church. Ib was due bo the selfishness of grown upChrisfcians thab children were being lost. Some time ago he .tart.d a ten minutes' talk to the Church, and be found many more children attending tho services. He also believed that these huge anniversary services wero doing immense harm to religion. They were making huge musical shows, in which worship of God was a secondary matter. The children were trained for weeks for a musical show in the Choral Hall. Could they wonder then that they were lapsing into barbarism 1 He knew ib was like sacrilege to speak aboub anniversary services, but still it was beat to be honest. Children should get their main teaching in the churches. Tho Rev. Mr Munro said an onslaught on ministers was a favourite practice with some people. He wished to state that for five years he had gone to Rerauera public school every morning. He .was sorry Mr Goldie had mado charges against the ministers without bringing proof. He considered thatsufficientcare was takon in choosing teachers. He considered thatallteachers should be either members of the Church or make a confession of faith to the ministers. Many of their teachers were too worldly, dancing at all hours, and then going to school on Sundays to talk to the children about their souls. It was nothing but sham. The teacher oughb to be as consecrated aa the teaching.

Mr W. Lyon said he considered ministers and teachers could find enough to do with their own faults without casting stones'at others. He admitted that the state df aflairs at_ present was net satisfactory, and both ministers and teachers must take their Bhara of tbe blame. He contended that there was still a great amount of faithful earnest teaching in the Sunday-schools. He agreed with Mr West on tho subject of anniversaries.

Mr Bradstrcet considered thab even as thero. were teachers who were unfit to teach, just so bhere wore minisbers who wore unfib to preach. Matters were therefore even on that point. With regard to anniversary services and musical matters he thoughb Mr Wesb musb have forgotten thab Mr Jude was in town. Aa a matter of fact many parents only went to church on tho anniversary Sunday to hear the children sing. Still that afforded an opportunity for tho minister to speak to non-church-going parents. He thoughb they should stop throwing stones to try to get at something practical.

The Rev. Mr Miller considered that the teachers were nob selected wibh sufficient care. Ho advocated the minister taking more interest in the Sunday-school, but contended they had an earnest desire to work amongst tho young. He had conducted a Bible class in the Onehunga Public School, bub ib was hard to conduct classes successfully. Ho tried it for 18 months, and found it to bo a failure.

Mr King said that un explanation of failure was that many children belonged to unconvorted parents, who did not cont'd their thoughts during the week. There wero also many Christian people who took no care of their children on the Sunday, The Rev. Mr Robertson considered ithe Conference had beon a pleasant one and they must bo thin skinned if they could not stand a little free speaking. He considered thab anniversaries were degenerating into showy effect. He could stand a good deal in a musical way, but they were really going too far. A collection was then made, after which the Conference closed with devotional exercises.