Part 12

Sabbath-school teachers should never neglect this privilege, neither should they make careless or indifferent visits. Arouse up and think your visit all out beforehand. Think what in substance you are going to talk about, what you ought to say, so as to make your visit as welcome and as profitable as possible both to parents and scholars. Have an errand to every house. Carry some little book or tract or paper, if convenient. Give them some interesting and valuable information, or make earnest inquiries and give good wishes and prayers for rich blessings, temporal and spiritual. Choose the right time and seek favorable opportunities. Absentees must, of course, be visited without delay, for it may be sickness has detained them. "The sickness of a child is a golden opportunity for the teacher; God himself ploughs the ground and he must not withhold the seed." Especially avail yourself of seasons when the heart is made tender by illness, afflictions, and trials. Then be constant and true, for it may be your harvest-time of souls. "Oh, to be the guiding star of such a little circle is one of the highest privileges of earth." Teacher, may that privilege and blessing be yours.

We add a single illustrative example from "_The Teacher Teaching_:"

"A decently-dressed woman calls at your house and begs for a shawl to protect a neighbor of hers from the cold when she goes out to her daily work. You have a shawl. You have laid it aside for this very purpose. Why not give it to her and have done with it? If you do not know the person who calls, it would be very injudicious to entrust to a stranger what you intended for a third person. It may be pawned for strong drink, or retained by one who is not in want. Better go or send and satisfy yourself that the need exists, and see that it is supplied. You wisely conclude to look for yourself. You find the object of your charity, and ascertain that she is a superior needle-woman, capable of earning her living, but not able to find work where there is none. If she could hire a room in some part of the city nearer the demand for work, she might succeed. You give her the shawl, and with it a few words of encouragement. In a day or two you are at a meeting of the directors of the Industrial Home or Orphans' Society, and allude to the case of this woman. A young lady present immediately recollects a poor woman, whom she has seen during the week, who has a room to rent, and perhaps it would exactly suit. The parties are brought together and the room is taken. Two wants are thus promptly supplied--the want of a _room_ and the want of a _tenant_. But how came the young lady to know of such a room? Why, simply by visiting the mother of one of her class in the Sunday-school. It was not any part of her plan to obtain any such information; nor could she have known that it might be of any advantage to her or to any one else for her to possess it. The indirect result of this simple visit accomplished--what? 1. It secured a tenant for a vacant room, and thus helped a poor woman to pay her rent. 2. It put another poor woman in a comfortable and convenient position to earn her own living. 3. It laid the mother of one of her Sunday-school children under great obligation to her, and thus increased her influence and her power to do good both to mother and child. It will take a strong force to sunder that tie. 4. It brought to the new tenant Christian care and sympathy, which she before lacked, and the way for her attendance on the stated means of grace."

Thus is exemplified, by a single real and comparatively unimportant incident in humble life, the power of the Sunday-school machinery, in its legitimate movements, to improve and elevate social condition and character. It was all the work of that little wheel in our machinery called VISITING.

XXI.

SYSTEMATIC DISTRICT CHRISTIAN VISITATION.

The plan here given in its present form grew out of an exigency in the operations of the Missionary Committee of the New York Sunday-School Union in the summer of 1856.

In their great endeavor to reach the neglected masses of children and youth, more than sixty thousand seemed to be beyond their reach. A more _thorough_ work was needed. Occasional visits and ordinary attention did not so gain the acquaintance and confidence as to rescue these neglected ones. They were the most destitute and needy, and the most important to reach in our city. After much consideration and prayer, this plan was adopted, presented to, and accepted by the churches in New York and Brooklyn, and it was soon adopted by other cities and States also. Everywhere it has developed astonishing results, increasing Sabbath-schools and churches, and speedily transforming dark neighborhoods.

Forty-four churches of various evangelical denominations entered upon the work within a few months after its introduction, and quite uniformly the Sabbath-schools _doubled_ their scholars within the first month or two, and in some marked instances church members and congregations were more than doubled in numbers within six months. As long as it was faithfully worked it everywhere prospered, demonstrating that the plan was a good one.

It is based on the great command, "_Go ye and teach_." It believes that every church-member should be a working Christian, a real missionary; that "every man should _speak to his neighbor, and each one to his brother_;" that every Christian's business should be so arranged as to give a wider scope for his religion, that he may become, in a degree, a voluntary missionary. It proposes to _systematize_ the work. Mere voluntary personal effort is at times so fitful and evanescent as not to be sufficiently reliable.

The plan is for every church to take a definite district as its special missionary field--in the city a certain number of blocks and streets, and in the country a number of miles square, or neighborhoods, properly arranged so as to give every other church a portion of the field to work.

All this is to be subdivided by a committee of the church into small sub-sections of from five to fifteen families, proportionate to the number of able members. A sub-section is assigned to the member, and becomes his or her little parish, on which to bestow especial labor, sympathy, and prayers. He is to visit it every month, invite all the children to some Sunday-school, the family to church, supply with the Bible, tract, etc., and do all possible temporal and spiritual good. Once a month each church devotes one of the weekly prayer-meetings to hearing reports from the visitors, and conferring and praying over this great work. Special care is taken not to proselyte; not to take a child from one school to another, or induce a person to leave one church for another, but to respect the rights of all. Individuals are not considered under any obligations to _confine_ their visits to their assigned districts, but still enjoy the Christian liberty of going everywhere and doing good to all men as they have opportunity.

This work is--1. A holy work. 2. A deliberate work. 3. It is a work of pure good-will. 4. Says Rev. Dr. Chalmers: "No other ministration is to be offered than that of respect and kindness." 5. They are to go just so far "as they will be gratefully met by the population." 6. Visit rich and poor, but carefully select districts adapted to the visitors. 7. Seek the confidence of parents and children; be patient, be persevering, be courageous, be sympathetic, and take no notice of repulses. 8. Enter no house in vain. Leave some kind suggestion, counsel, or sympathy in regard to spiritual or temporal interests. 9. Relieve all want and distress possible; inculcate temperance, cleanliness, and economy. 10. Counsel with mothers with reference to their children. 11. Give a fraternal aspect to your visits, and avoid controversy, and generally even argument.

If each professing Christian in our churches who is able would become responsible for the regular visitation of but four neglected families, every family in our land would be faithfully visited. "What a plain, simple, magnificent idea is here presented!" A regular Christian army of occupation for our whole country. Says the Rev. Dr. Guthrie: "It would everywhere bring life into contact with death, and cover the whole outlying population, even as the prophet with his own body covered the dead body of the child." The motto is: EVERY CHILD IN THE SABBATH-SCHOOL, AND EVERY FAMILY IN THE CHURCH.

XXII.

NEW MISSION-SCHOOLS.

In all our great cities, in the town and country, there are vast numbers of immortal youth far beyond the reach of churches and church Sabbath-schools, and therefore, it becomes necessary to carry the Sunday-school to them. A room is obtained, conveniently located, with seats, books, etc. The children are gathered, taught to read, to sing, to pray, presented with library books, papers, etc., and thus innumerable blessings are sent down into destitute families, and soon, like leaven, the Gospel is seen diffusing itself everywhere among the mass.

Something like seventy of these mission-schools are now successfully sustained in New York City alone, with twelve to fifteen thousand pupils in them. Roman Catholic, Jewish, and other classes of children are in this way easily and successfully reached, and permanently benefited. This instrumentality must be largely increased everywhere. Some five or six different denominations often unite in the labors of one of these schools, and all work together in the most beautiful harmony. This movement is in the highest sympathy with that _aggressive_ feature of the system, before named.

But to come to the details of this work, and how it should be begun and carried on: First choose wisely the location for a new church or mission Sabbath-school. Then select one or more men and women full of life and zeal as a nucleus of interest and labor. Next survey and visit systematically all the families in the district, and present the objects and the value and adaptedness of the Sunday-school to their wants. Pray much and at every step, privately and socially, especially in the early stages of the effort.

Get all ready for a good commencement. Have every thing arranged, so that not a moment of delay in finding the right hymn, or in singing it, will prompt the children to find something else to do. Do not admit children faster than you can conveniently control them. Some superintendents aim at gathering a rush of scholars the first Sabbath or two, and the result is that they lose months in getting to order and control of the children. It is often better to admit only a dozen or two new scholars at a time, and get them well classified and arranged, and in the hands of good teachers. There most be order, and the superintendent must wait for it, although he may not at the first do much beside. Much depends upon starting right. Have Testaments, hymn-books, and Sunday-school papers, if possible, ready on the first Sabbath.

Select a clear, distinct, easy lesson at the first, and whatever is done, let it be well done. Select the teachers carefully, and admit none who have not a good report, and are not of a teachable spirit. Meet with the teachers socially every week, if possible, to aid them with your suggestions and help. Be cheerful, earnest, and respectful to all. Keep up a regular visitation of teachers and scholars, and let your visits bear a fraternal and not an inquisitorial aspect. Prove yourselves the true friends of parents and scholars, and never get out of patience or discouraged because you cannot gain the children of Roman Catholics or Jewish parents at once: it may be only a question of time. At any rate, do them all the good you can at their homes, whether you ever lead them to the Sunday-school or not. Duty is ours--results belong to God. Through the children reach the parents, and through the parents reach the children. Let your errand to the house always be one of kindness and good-will, so that if they do not receive you kindly it will be because they misunderstand you. These visits, however, are almost invariably well received if made in a natural, pleasant manner, proceeding from a "charity which hopeth all things." Respect and honor the parents all you can, whether they commit their children to your care or not. Exhibit our beautiful library books, our sweet songs, our attractive children's papers, and speak of the great kindness and love of the teachers to the children.

It is very desirable to have a course of regular week-day evening lectures for the children and parents. One week it may be "Jerusalem," another "coal," another "coral," and the next "the ocean," and then some subject of natural history, as the "elephant;" and illustrate highly to meet the eyes. Take especial care of the older boys and girls, and strive to introduce week-day exercises that will interest and please them. Appoint them upon committees and to little offices, and give them all something to do--something that they can do, something that they will do cheerfully.

The following, from _The Sunday-School Times_, is a beautiful illustrative example of mission Sunday-school work and teaching. It is entitled "Bill Jones; or, Our Colored Sabbath-school:"

It was one of those perfect Sabbaths in the early June, that I walked with trembling heart along the locust-shadowed sidewalk leading to our little chapel. On that day our colored Sunday-school was to be organized; and we, who only a few weeks since had professed before men and angels to love our Saviour, were to be enlisted as workers in our Master's vineyard.

What can be done to improve the religious condition of our colored population? was a question which had long occasioned anxious thought among the godly of our village. Originally slaves, they had, when the law of liberation was proclaimed through New York, refused to remove farther than the grassy common, where, almost within the shadow of "Massa's house," they were allowed to build their humble cabins. Increased afterward in numbers, the suburbs of the town had become edged with their miserable tenements. One or two attempts had been made to establish preaching among them by a minister of their own race, but thus far without success. True, in the "brick church," a part of the gallery was set apart especially for their use. Still the "dark corner" (as the mischievous boys called it) was only occupied by a few old uncles and aunties, while the rest, though within sound of the sweetest of all Sabbath bells, were as utterly without God in the world as their brethren in Africa.

At length a Sabbath-school was determined on. As most of those able and willing to work were already engaged, one of the officers of the church volunteered to superintend the school, provided he might have the assistance of a band of young girls, who hitherto had been privileged to assemble week after week as a Bible-class in the "pastor's study."

On the first Sabbath about thirty or forty children were assembled of all ages and sizes, with wondering eyes; and in a few moments I found myself seated in a chair before six boys, whom I at once recognized as some of the worst village urchins, always to be seen at the "depôt," or on the "hotel steps," laden with baskets of apples and pea-nuts, their own best customers. I was about to ask for more hopeful subjects, but our earnest superintendent only held out to me the class-book and pencil--and I was alone with my destiny.

Among the names, I registered Andrew Jackson, Andrew Jackson, Jr., Marquis Lafayette, George Washington, and Byron Clarke. When about to inquire the cognomen of the last, I was forestalled by his calling out, in a stentorian voice, "My name a'n't nothing but _Bill Jones_; but I guess you have heard of the boy who sings nigger songs and dances Jim Crow at the 'Harrison House.'" He was unfortunately not mistaken in his notoriety, and the task before me assumed a new magnitude. None of them could read, and after half an hour of A B C, I proceeded to ask some simple questions of Bible history, of which I soon found that they knew absolutely nothing: their ideas of God, even, were as wild as those of the little Hindoos. So I began at the beginning. I spoke of the six days of creation; then of the deluge. When in my account of the ark and its wondrous freight, I was interrupted by one. "Did they have bears?" "Yes," I answered. "And lions?" "Yes." "Elephants?" "Yes." "Monkeys?" "Yes." And finally Billy Jones, all eagerness, "Did they have a _clown_?" And I found to my utter dismay that my youthful auditors, certainly not incapable of association of ideas, had conceived of Noah merely as the proprietor of a menagerie travelling in that wild waste of waters. Truly this was fallow ground. But our superintendent only smiled encouragement, and bade me go forward.

Sabbath after Sabbath rolled on, and rain or shine my six boys were always in their places. They had learned to love the school, especially the sweet hymns; and their quick sympathies had gone out to one who at least always tried to treat them gently and kindly. Of their affection I had many unmistakable proofs. Once I remember walking in one of the quiet streets. I was suddenly startled by three sonorous cheers, and looking up I saw the "Marquis," Andrew Jackson, and Byron Clarke. Though not precisely the most agreeable greeting for a young lady, I could not in my heart do less than wave a return. Again, they frequently brought to our door presents of flowers and fruit. In one instance the latter bore such a striking resemblance to some rosy-cheeked apples in a neighbor's orchard that I was forced to reprove the boy, and the next Sabbath took for our "lesson talk" the eighth commandment. Not many days after the same child made his appearance at the kitchen, his hands filled with the first pond-lilies of the season; and as he gave them to me he said, "There, Miss Esther, you will like them, for _they's honest; God growed them in the outlet_." Never, from that day to this, have flowers brought more true gladness to my heart than did those pure white blossoms, plucked by swarthy hands in the "outlet" where "God growed them."

We established a missionary society among them, and many a penny, previously devoted to fire-crackers and the like, now found its way down the red chimney of our "savings bank." Poor Bill Jones had less to give than any of the boys, and this I plainly saw troubled him a great deal. He had stopped dancing "Jim Crow," first on Sabbath, and of late on week-days; and this being his chief source of revenue, his spare pennies were few and far between. One day, with a bright face, he asked me "if it was not right to do good on Sundays?" Of course I replied yes; and then "if it was wrong to take money for doing good on Sundays?" This was a nice distinction--one which I felt him not capable of understanding should I attempt it. So I simply said, "No, I thought not." Though feeling rather curious, I had no opportunity just then of asking as to these pious earnings. Next Sabbath the teachers were requested to remain a moment. A gentleman arose, not a member of our school, saying that a few hours since he had witnessed a scene which had so touched his heart that he could not forbear cheering us with the glad tidings. Passing the "Harrison House," he noticed that the invariable group of Sunday-noon loungers had deserted their post. Just then his ear was caught by a clear melodious voice singing. It seemed to come from the bar-room. Yes, as he drew near, from the open windows of that den of pollution floated out on the summer air the words:

"Watchman, tell as of the night, What its signs of promise are."

He stepped upon the low platform and looked in. On a table sat a negro boy. About the room were hard-faced young men, and those older, on whose bloated features intemperance had set its livid brand. But they were all listening. The singer finished the last verse, and then began again. This time he sang, "Jesus, lover of my soul."

My own eyes were dimmed, said the gentleman, as he came to the lines,

"Vile and full of sin I am; Thou art full of truth and grace."

It seemed as if for a moment an angel's wing brushed away the shadow from those darkened hearts, and tears moistened cheeks long unused to heart-rain. The singing stopped. "Go on, go on, we will pay you more," said one and another. "I cannot now," answered the boy; "it is time for Sunday-school, but I will sing again next Sunday, if you'll come." And as he put into his pocket the coppers that were handed him, he said, "I wouldn't take these, only I am going to send them to the heathen. I'll sing you the hymn--it's beautiful--about 'Greenland's icy mountains;'" and humming it to himself, "Bill Jones" left the bar-room.

Reader, should it ever be your good fortune to walk down this thickly-shaded village street on a Sabbath morn, you might within those very halls, now pure and white, hear the rich baritone voice of "Bill Jones" leading in some song of Zion, and with him many others, "plucked as brands from the burning."

XXIII.

THE CONVERSION AND CULTURE OF CHILDREN.

Immediate conversion ought to be the aim and expectation of every faithful Sabbath-school teacher. It is indeed a poor excuse to suffer a child to drown because we have but _one_ opportunity of saving it. When a child is in danger of perishing, we do not first try to educate it, but to _save_ it. The fact evidently is, that the great mass of children ought to be led directly to Christ and become child-Christians without delay; and multitudes would so become, methinks, if parents and teachers and pastors had sufficient confidence in the power of God's Word and Spirit, and had faith for the early conversion of children to God.

Nearly one and a third centuries ago that great divine, Jonathan Edwards, of Northampton, wrote the account of the conversion, as he thought, of little _Phebe Bartlett_, at the early age of four years, together with her Christian life for one year thereafter, and the evidences of a gracious change of her heart. The little book has been published since in many of the languages of Europe. Little Phebe Bartlett lived for sixty years after this, and neither herself nor her friends ever doubted that she truly met with a saving change of heart at the early age named by President Edwards. Many of our most learned divines and most devoted and useful Christian ladies date their conversion to the early age of three, four, five, and six years.

We have heard many pastors declare in Sabbath-School Conventions--two on one occasion--"That they never could remember when they did not love the Lord Jesus with all their heart;" and we believe with the pious Richard Baxter that if Christian parents were faithful in the use of the means God has put in their hands, the most of their children would be converted before they are old enough to understand a sermon.

It is a fact that should never be forgotten, that the children, even the little children of our Christian families and Sunday-schools, all _want_ to be Christians more than they want anything else. Little ones of five or six years tell us that they wet their pillows night after night with tears of sorrow for sin, and they long for some one to lead them to Jesus, more than all earthly longings. Such is the testimony of devoted ministers and Christian ladies in great numbers, and many of us can realize it all, most bitterly, if we will only recall our early childhood and live that over again.

Said one little girl of four summers: "Mamma, I should think that anybody that knows Jesus would _love him_."

This is the feeling of properly-trained children in great numbers. They want pure, simple instruction who Jesus Christ is, and what he is to _them_.