Sunday Schools.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume I, Issue 9, 1 March 1911, Page 133

Sunday Schools.

f d the Teachers. In the diary of the late Archbishop Tait were found these words : — " The great Sunday School move- " ment calls for prayer. It seems to "be the leaven which may preserve " the land amid festering corruption. " Five million scholars and half-a- --" million teachers must be a power "for good, though there be many "failures." What a power for real good a Sunday School teacher may prove. An influence extending through so many years. And if we realise that some of the children, alas! have no other opportunity of learning about God, save m that one short hour of the week; how great becomes the responsibility of making the best, and wisest, and fullest use of it. How great the need on our part of careful, prayerful preparation. How great the need of earnest intercession for each child m the class. How great the need of a consistent example. How great the need of punctuality and perseverance. How great the need of sympathy and love. The personal element counts for so much, — the personal sympathetic bond between teacher and child, — and this depends so much on character; on a character built up by the teacher's close touch with the Great Teacher. No teacher can ever hope to win his children for Christ and make them His disciples, if he has not first a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The teacher who is most animated with the Spirit of Christ, whose longing for souls is most intense, and whose use of prayer is most constant, will be the one who is most desirous to give of his very best to God. In other words the teacher to be successful must be one who has learned something of the meaning of the word " Consecration." " Do not do as I do, but do as I say," will never answer m the Sunday School. Children are so quick to notice, aye, and to imitate. While we watch over the spiritual life. of others we must take diligent heed to our own. Our part is to help the children to pray ; have we ourselves learned the lesson ? do we really pray ? Our part is to teach the children reverence, love, knowledge of the Word of God. What do we our-

selves know and understand of the Scriptures ? We wish our children to become true worshippers of God m His House, later on Communicants. Are we ourselves regular m our public worship ? are we " faithful Communicants"? These questions we have to face, for our life speaks more forcibly than our words. It is impossible to separate a man's message from his life, and if the life is Christ-like, and just so far as it is so, it will speak of the Christ. And for success we must give out sympathy, love. A clear stream of warm sympathy must flow from teacher to scholar if real progress is to be made. Many a teacher, far less qualified to teach than otners m the Sunday School, succeeds ofttimes better than those others just because of the real sympathetic interest he takes m each child, because the very tone of his voice reveals the love m his heart. " Therefore give us love." H.N. The Rev. C. E. L. Corfield, Rector of Heanor, who has been offered a Hon. Canonry m Southwell Cathedral, is famous as the organiser of the largest Sunday School m the country. Last year the total number of scholars on the books was 3400. Heanor is a large straggling colliery Parish with a population of 12,000. Mr Corfield is a great enthusiast for Sunday School work, and has done a great deal to further it m the Diocese of Southwell and throughout the Midlands. He has often spoken on the subject at Diocesan and other meetings. He attributes the success of his School largely to his plan of keeping the same teachers for the scholars, and letting them grow up together. All the children that enter one year of a certain ago are put into one class, and a new teacher is selected from one of the elder of the scholars. This teacher grows up with the children, and remains with the class when the scholars are long past School age, and are, m fact, middleaged or elderly men and women. The class is the heart of the whole organisation, and is a permanent institution.