Writing to Former Scholars. 337 PART II. The Teacher's Other Work. SECTION IV. Reaching Scholars when Absent. ing of them, and hence a new fitness for her work. with them, through this correspondence, which was the result of an enforced absence. In that case, as in many another, teacher and scholars were brought closer together through being apart for a while. It may be recalled, just here, that it is a historic fact that in the days of the Roman Empire, a newly married couple deliberately parted from each other for a season, in order to gain that better understanding and that higher appreciation of each other which, it was claimed, could come only through correspond- Nearer while ence by letter. Even if teachers and scholars do not act upon this suggestion to the extent of absenting themselves from each other in order to get nearer together, every teacher can wisely improve an enforced absence by gaining a new view of his scholars, and a new hold on them, also, by means of a loving correspondence during that absence. separated. way. In many cases a permanent absence of the teacher or the scholar from his class, is made to bring good results through the continued correspondence of the teacher with his former scholar or scholars. Thomas Arnold never lost his interest in one of his old Dr. Arnold's scholars; and in all his busy life he found time to write to many of them, even long after they had left his school. There are Sunday-school teachers who still correspond faithfully with their scholars of long ago. And many a mature Christian can testify of the spiritual gain to himself which was a PART II. The Teacher's Other Work. SECTION IV. Reaching The army mail. When to write. result of letters from his Sunday-school teacher years after he had left her class-without any seeming benefit from her teachings or her influence. Within my knowledge, a class of girls in a New England Sunday-school were accustomed for a long time to look forward with as much interest to the reading of a weekly letter coming to them from a former teacher, as to almost any Sunday-school exercise; and they treasured permanently the letters thus received, each scholar in turn taking one of the letters to be kept and to be re-read again and again. One Sunday-school teacher whom I knew,and there may have been many like her in this,—kept her hold, during all the years of our civil war, on her widely scattered scholars who were Union soldiers, by her faithful and untiring correspondence with them each and all; and the grateful replies to her letters were, before the close of the war, to be numbered by the hundred. There was no influence from home or camp which did more for the spiritual welfare of those young men, than the influence of that Sunday-school teacher's correspondence. There is a power for good in Sunday-school correspondence which many have not yet realized. If you are away temporarily from your scholars, write to them. If they are absent for a season from your class, write to them. If they have permanently left the school, write to them. If you have left them for a new field of labor, write to them. If you are still The Accepted Time. near them, write to them. If you love them, write you 339 PART II. The Teacher's SECTION IV. and tell them so. If want them to love your other Work. Saviour, write to them of your desire. If they are your fellow-disciples, and you would cheer and instruct them in the Christian life, write to them accordingly. Absent. absent. If your scholars are with you face to face, feel that now is the most hopeful time for your endeavors in their behalf. If your scholars are absent from you, or you are absent from your scholars, in the providence of God, feel that now is the time for your still more hopeful endeavors for their good, in Present, or another way than is possible while you are with them face to face. Whether your scholars are present or absent, now is the accepted time for you to be a means of good to them. You are blameworthy if you fail to improve that time according to its peculiar opportunities and possibilities. PART II. SECTION V. V. HELPING SCHOLARS TO CHRISTIAN DECISION. The End and Aim of Sunday-school Work; Confounding Conver- IN all that is done by the Sunday-school teacher for the scholars of his class, whether it be in the line of instruction or of influence, whether it be in the class or outside of it, with the scholars present or with the scholars absent, the great end and aim of the teacher's work ought never to be lost sight of; on the contrary, all that is done, or that is attempted, should be in the direction of that end and aim, and with a desire to their attaining. It would be a pity, The end and indeed, if everything else were attended to by a teacher except the one thing of things which deserved that teacher's first and chiefest attention. And now what may fairly be counted the end and aim of Sunday-school effort? aim. The Sunday-school teacher comes to his scholars as a representative of Christ. The end and the What Conversion Means. 341 PART II. The Teacher's other work. SECTION V. Scholars to Helping Christian aim of the representative ought, surely, to be the same as the end and the aim of Him whom he represents. "To this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living." To this end the Sunday-school teacher comes from Christ to the scholars, that they may be fully submissive to him who would be Lord of both the dead and the living, and that they may be conformed to his image, through faith. The Beloved Disciple declares his aim, as a representative of Christ, in all that he has shown of the words and works of his Master, and that aim should be the aim of every loved and loving disciple of Christ in all that he John's aim. shows of those words and works. "These are written," says John, "that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life through his name." The bringing of the scholars into the faith and the likeness of Jesus, is the only proper end and aim of the Sunday-school teacher's endeavors. It is sometimes said, it is in fact very often said, that the scholars' "conversion " is the great end and aim of all Sunday-school effort; but that is more than an imperfect way of stating the truth: it is a vague and, moreover, an erroneous method of state- Conversion ment. In the first place, as this phrase is commonly employed, the error is made of confounding "conversion" with "regeneration." The primary meaning of conversion is the new turning, the voluntary not the end. |