THE BOY

AND THE

SUNDAY SCHOOL

A Manual of Principle and Method for

the Work of the Sunday School

with Teen Age Boys

JOHN L. ALEXANDER

=Introduction by=

MARION LAWRANCE

ASSOCIATION PRESS

NEW YORK: 347 MADISON AVENUE

1920

INTRODUCTION

The Sunday school chapter of Church history is now being written. It comes late in the volume, but those who are writing it and those who are reading it realize—as never before—that the Sunday school is rapidly coming to its rightful place. In the Sunday school, as elsewhere, it is the little child who has led the way to improvement. The commanding appeal of the little ones opened the door of advance, and, as a result, the Elementary Division of the school has outstripped the rest in its efficiency.

Where children go adults will follow, and so we discover that the Adult Division was the next to receive attention, until today its manly strength and power are the admiration of the Church.

Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that the middle division, called the Secondary, and covering the "Teen Age," has been sadly neglected—the joint in the harness of our Sunday school fabric. Here we have met with many a signal defeat, for the doors of our Sunday schools have seemed to swing outward and the boys and girls have gone from us, many of them never to return. We have busied ourselves to such an extent in studying the problem of the boy and the girl that the real problem—the problem of leadership—has been overlooked.

The Secondary Division is the challenge of the Sunday school and of the Church today. It is during the "Teen Age" that more decisions are made for Christ and against him than in any other period of life. It is here that Sunday school workers have found their greatest difficulty in meeting the issue, largely because they have not understood the material with which they have to deal.

We are rejoiced, however, to know that the Secondary Division is now coming to be better understood and recognized as the firing line of the Sunday school.

What has been needed and is now being supplied is authoritative literature concerning this critical period. Indeed, the Sunday school literature for the Secondary Division is probably appearing more rapidly now than that for any other division of the school.

This book is a choice contribution to that literature. It comes from a man who has devoted his life to the boys and girls, and who is probably the highest authority in our country in this Department. The largest contribution he is making to the advancement of the whole Sunday school work is in showing the fascination, as well as the possibilities, of the Secondary Division. We are sure this little book will bring rich returns to the Sunday schools, because of the large number who will be influenced, through reading its pages, to devote their lives to the bright boys and fair girls in whom is the hope, not only of the Church, but of the World.

Marion Lawrance.

Chicago, June 1, 1913.

CONTENTS

Introduction     

Foreword     13

I  —  The Home and the Boy     23

II  —  The Public School and the Boy      32

III  —  The Church and the Boy     37

IV  —  The Sunday School or Church School     41

V  —  The Boy and the Sunday School     48

VI  —  Fundamental Principles in Sunday School Work with Boys     57

VII  —  Method and Organization     62

VIII  —  The Organized Sunday School Bible Class     74

IX  —  Bible Study for Boys     93

X  —  Through-the-Week Activities for Boys' Organized Classes     104

XI  —  The Boys' Department in the Sunday School     120

XII  —  Inter-Sunday School Effort for Boys     135

XIII  —  The Older Boys' Conference or Congress     138

XIV  —  The Secondary Division or Teen Age Boys'