force are known as teachers.

8. Bible Study. The most prominent trait in the Sunday school of the present is that it has become the most extensive movement for instruction in the Sacred Scriptures that the world has yet seen. All these millions of members, young and old, are engaged in the study of one book—the Holy Bible. Many of these millions, indeed, study the Bible superficially, unintelligently, with narrow interpretations and crude methods; yet in the Sunday schools of the lowest type as well as of the highest some portion of the Bible every week is brought to the scholars' attention. That the Bible is so generally known and so widely circulated, that the demand for this ancient book warrants the printing of more than ten million copies every year, is due more to the Sunday school, with all its defects of method, than to any other institution. This concentration of attention upon the Bible has grown gradually in the Sunday school. In the eighteenth century Sunday school, both of England and America, religious instruction was only one of its aims; and it was instruction in the catechism and forms of worship rather than in the Bible. But by slow degrees the Bible came more prominently to the front, until now the Sunday school is everywhere the school with one text-book. He who surveys the Sunday school through the inner eye beholds it on one day in each week covering the continent with its millions of students, all face to face with some portion of the great text-book of religion. The thoughtful observer will reflect that a people whose children and youth come into weekly contact with the living word will not wander far from the path of righteousness.

II

The general characteristics of the Sunday school, as they have gradually developed during its long history, must be considered in any plan for organizing and conducting an individual school. The institution should be studied both ideally and practically: practically, to ascertain what the Sunday school has been and is now; yet ideally, with a view to developing its highest efficiency and largest usefulness. Such a plan for the specific Sunday school may be called its constitution. It is desirable to have the constitution in written or printed form, but it is not necessary. There is no more complete system than the government of Great Britain, yet it has no written constitution; and Mr. James Bryce has shown us in America that the instrument known as the Constitution of the United States by no means represents our own actual method of government. In every nation there is an unwritten law, wrought out of a people's consciousness, which is more imperative and enduring than any parchment scroll or printed form.

The general principles to be maintained in establishing and developing a Sunday school are the following:

1. Aim. The primary aims of the Sunday school are religious instruction, character-development, and effective service. It is not to teach history, nor science, nor sociology, but religion; and not merely to impart a knowledge of religion to the intellect of its pupils, but, infinitely more important, to make religion an effective force in the life of the individual scholar. As a Christian institution, in the definition given by one of its greatest leaders,[2] "The Sunday school is a department of the Church of Christ, in which the word of Christ is taught, for the purpose of bringing souls to Christ, and of building up souls in Christ." If it be in connection with a Jewish synagogue or temple—as are some of the best Sunday schools or Sabbath schools in our land—it is for the purpose of instruction in the faith of the ancient fathers, and of making their teachings live again in the men and women of to-day. A true religious education, such as the Sunday school seeks to give, will include three aims: (1) knowledge, (2) character, (3) service. There must be an intellectual grasping of the truth; a character built on the truth, out of faith in God, and the life of God inspiring the human soul; and service for God and humanity. The Sunday school seeks to develop not only saints in fellowship with God, but workers for God, who shall strive to realize on earth the kingdom of God, not seeking to be ministered unto but to minister. There have been centuries in the past when the Christian ideal was the cloistered saint, living apart in communion with God. But that was a pitiably incomplete conception of the perfect man. In our age we have the larger ideal of saintliness with service; and to promote this should be the aim of every Sunday school.

2. Method. To attain its aim the Sunday school employs the teaching method. The Sunday school is not, as some weak-minded people have called it, "the nursery of the church." Nor is it, as it has been named, "the Bible service"; for, although it holds a service, it is more than a service. It is not—or should not be—a gathering of groups, large or small, where silent hearers listen to sermonettes by little preachers, miscalled teachers. It holds a service imbued with the spirit of worship, yet worship is not its central purpose. It should have music, but it is not primarily a service of song. It should be pervaded by an atmosphere of happiness, but mere enjoyment is not its object. The Sunday school is a school: and the very word shows that its aim is instruction and character formation, and its method is that of teaching. For the work of a Sunday school the essentials are three:

(1) There must be the living teacher who is fitted to inspire, to instruct, and to guide. His part is not merely to pour knowledge into his pupils, but to awaken thought, to guide the search for truth, to call forth expression in character and in action.[3]

(2) There must also be the scholar who is to be taught. It is his part in the process of instruction not merely to listen and to remember, not merely to receive impressions, but to give expression to the teaching, in life, in character, in influence, and in service. The true effectiveness of the teaching in the Sunday school will be shown by the reproductive power of the truth in the life of the scholar.

(3) There must be a text-book in the hands of both the teacher and the pupil. In any school for religious instruction one book will of necessity stand prominent, that great Book of books which records the divine revelation to man. The Sunday school may teach history, geography, institutions, doctrines, literature of the Bible, but these only as a framework or a foundation for the education of the heart into a personal fellowship with God. This character-molding, faith-impelling force is the divine truth taught in the Bible through the experiences and teachings of patriarchs, prophets, priests, psalmists, sages, and apostles, and above all by the words and life and redemptive work of the Master himself. And the subjects of study in the Sunday school need not be limited to the text of Scripture. There may be extra-biblical material for the teaching of character and service; and all this should be open to the Sunday school.

3. Relation to the Church. However independent of the church organization the Sunday school may have been in its beginnings, and however self-dependent some union Sunday schools may of necessity be in certain churchless