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Show ARMY PLANS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK fen Thousand Delegates to Great Convention in San Francisco. UNIFORM LESSONS . PROVE BENEFICIAL Many Features for Greater ' Progress Will Be Discussed Dis-cussed on Coast BY FREDERIC J. HARKIH. For the past sir montha the Sunday schools all over America have been forming their plana for lhe aisem-blage aisem-blage of a mighty gathering in San Francisco for tbe week beginning today. to-day. An army of at leaat 10.000 Sun-dav Sun-dav arhool workera ia expected to attend at-tend this thirteenth annual convention of the American Sunday School aneo-eiation, aneo-eiation, which includea both Canada and the United State. Preceding the convention by ten daye there haa been an adult elaaa (our of 10 Sunday school workera divided into eight different parties. Theae have atopped in varioua tewna along their way and helped thoueanda of other Sundav school workers who have been denied the privilege of attending the big convention. They have held meet-inge meet-inge of various kinds, aa time permitted, per-mitted, at which the latest eubjeete of Sunday school work were brought forward. for-ward. These partiea have covered Mints- evtenHiar from the Miesisainni valley to the Pacifif eoaat. Three of them etaHed from Chicago and one each from Winnipeg, St. Paul, Memphis and New Orleans, and their work will greatly augment thnt of the convention in ereating renewed enthusiasm enthu-siasm for Sunday school advancement. Non-Sectarian Association. There are now nbout 300,000 Sundav Sun-dav achoola :n the United States. Their enrollment approximates 18.000.000, and the number of teachers and offieera is at least 1,800,00. While it is gener-allv gener-allv understood that each Sunday school represents some particular church and that every Protectant church haa ita own Sunday school, tha latest atatia-tica atatia-tica show that 21 per cent of. the churches in America, mostly rural, have no Sunday achoola and do no Sunday school work. In one state in the union there are 608 churches which have no Sunday school in connection. However., there are quite a number of union or. undenominational Saaday sebeeis which ' . include a scholarship reaching at leaat to 100,000. . Tha Sunday - School . association in non-eectarian and tha adoption of the uniform graded lesson system haa dene more than anything else to break down denominational barriers between the Sundny schools of all the Protectant churches. While the first uniform lea-sons lea-sons were put forth by the Sunday School aasociation eighty-nve yeara ago, their general adoption by all the churches ia comparatively recent, and the new system ia a great improvement improve-ment over the earlier iaeuea. Plan Promotion System. Tha graded lessons proved an advance ad-vance step in several ways. It already haa done much toward retaining the interest of the older pupils. There are four courses, namely: beginaera, for children under 8 yeara; primary, for children from 6 to S; general, for pupils pu-pils from 9 to 14, and tha advanced adult, for thoae older than 14. Promotion aystema are now being planned in the Sunday achoola, modeled after the methods obtaining in tha pub. lie schools, and these will add atill more to the efficiency of the graded lesson system. The advantages of a uniform system of Sunday school in-'struction in-'struction are obviona, and there are few schools in the United Statee which are hot using the same lessons. The different church denorainationa issue Sunday school periodicals of their own, but almost without exception they publish pub-lish the Bible lesson aa arheduled and arranged by tbe Sunday School aasociation. aaso-ciation. With uniformity of lessons and a regular ayatem of promotion, cornea the need of uniformity in tha qualification of teachers, which is one of the mat. ters to which the convention will give special attention. The time ia coming when a Sunday school teacher will need to have a knowledge of pedagogical methods aimilar to that required by the public school teacher, ia addition to n thorough and adequate knowledge of all scriptural subjects. , , CCTreapondanoa Bchoola. Training achoola for Sunday aehool workera are already ia exietenee and their number ia multiplying. Special summer eoureee in thia work will be ' held in varioua parte of the country- A large number of thsee will be located in the mountains or at resorts, so that the students find their surroundings aa ' leaaaat aa those of an ordinnry vaca-ion. vaca-ion. Correspondence schools throngh which advanced Sunday school work may be atndied at home are also being arranged for. With the demand for trained work-era work-era cornea the question of, paid Sunday school workera. whieh haa already bean met ia some achoola with good success. Tha volunteer teacher cannot, of necessity, ne-cessity, give the time and effort to hia work that would he poeeible if it were remunerative. The faet that all Sunday Sun-day arhool . work haa been volunteer up to thia time haa had ita drawbacks aa well as its advantages. Many n class of bright, intelligent young people peo-ple haa diabanded beeaaee it waa inflicted in-flicted with n teacher who, however ela-cere ela-cere and honest in intentions, lacked tha intelligence nnd personality to hold tba attention of tbe elaaa. If a teat of aualifirationa obtains, tha incompetent teacher will no longer he the bugbear of tha progressive superintendent. and ay School Buperyiaor, One of tha latest developments ia Suadav school work ia the establish-meat establish-meat of a snpei visor Who leeks person- , (Continued oa page . ARMY PLANS Continued from page . ally after all tae details of Run. lav school work, many of which will cue ape the not ire of the ordinary superintend ent. Tha supervisor will note the condition con-dition of the school library and the books most, in demand. Th music, the equipment of materials for the work of the different r lapses, no lea than the course of the Pundav school lesson, will receive hit attention. From Berkeley, C'al., cornea a siiBges tlon likelr to be brought prominently forward during the present convention This is that the Protestant churches of a town unite in paving for the serv ices of a Sunday school supervisor, who shall divide his time among the Sunday schools of different churches. This experiment has been tried during the vear in several churches with good results. . In the opinion of the most progressive leaders, the work of Hun-dav Hun-dav school supervisor will develop into a new profession within the next tea vears. In addition to the spiritual and religious qualifications and a pleasing personality, such a supervisor must pna sess no email amount of versatility and originality. Permaiiant Endowments. He 'will have a hard position to fit), and shmiM. and doubtless will, command com-mand at least a romfnrtahle income, for tha churches are at last beginning to aj-talixa that even in lay religious work tha labor ia worthv of his hire. The development of the paid and trained Sunday school worker will re ?uire a larger eipenditure of money or RnndaY achool work, and many ehurchea are now working towards the establishment of permanent Sundav school endowments. Pome of these Tha Sundav school of a Congregational church in Chieago received an endow ment last winter of .10.tHo. Quite a sum her of schools are building up their own permanent endowment fund. A Stmdav school in Brooklyn. N. V.. has for five rears raised a thousand dollars annus. It for thia purpose and others are following its example. The e i pen see for the equipment of s Rundav school are increasing! heavy The periodicals are attraetivelv gotten up as regards appearance and ma terisl. Manv of the best paid writers in the world contribute to their columns col-umns and their illustrations compare favorably with those of other juvenile publications. The Sundav school li brarv ia a continuous source of eg nense. as it is in a certain way the rival of the free public ltbrarv. Staraopticon Used. There must he a considerable amount of nrnnev spent for snpplie for the work in the classes of vnuager children. Tn manv large schools the heginners are taught bv trained kin dergartners. who reonire all the materials ma-terials used for their work in other schools. The introduction of water color work in illustration of the les son stories is onlv one of the innovations innova-tions in the modern Sundav school. The stereopticon ia used in an in creasing number nf schools for teach ing the lesson hy means of pictures. All of these methods require the e oenditure of money never thought of in the dam when the eqnipment of a school demanded nothing more than a few eheaplr hound Bibles. The drama tir.ation nf the Hundar achool lesson i another method of attraction lately be ing used. There are manv parts of the scriptures which lend themselve to dramatic effect. The-up to date Hun day achool workers are verv liheral in their views as to the utilization of every scheme likelv to hold the atten t inn of their pupils. Temparanc Workers. Sundav school wort is now under stood to have a fourfold object, mm' Iv: spiritual, socisl. civic and world wide. lis spiritual side deals with it-rehirious it-rehirious intruction. which was formerly for-merly its sole object. The social side mav he made tn include many thing tending to promote the pleasure ami social intercourse .among the mem hers, flasses mxv form roeinl and recreation elnhs of various kinds, and in manv rases the Punilav school bs become the best social asset of the chorrh. Th un to date 8undav school has a civic depsrtment. which mil work for anr apparent need in the sir of village or cilv improvement. Temperance work is alwava an import ant feature in Sundav school civics. |