(3) _Visit._ The field belonging to the school should be bounded definitely, and should be thoroughly and systematically canvassed. It should be divided into districts, and each district assigned to a visitor and a committee, who should know who may be included in the proper constituency of the school. For this work many schools and churches employ a paid visitor or a deaconess; and none can surpass the zeal or fidelity of many who enter upon such a vocation. But the schools which cannot afford professional workers include some teachers and some adult scholars who can give a portion of their own time to the same task. An organized class of men might be named which grew into over a hundred members through persistent work by a simple plan. A lookout committee, after careful inquiry, would report the names and addresses of men eligible for membership. Then the members in order and by appointment, in groups of two, called upon each candidate, formed his acquaintance, and invited him to the class. Sometimes thirty or forty men would call, but in time almost every man visited yielded to the friendly social influence, became a member, and soon after a worker for the class. 5. =A Danger.= A caution may be needed with reference to all these plans of recruiting the school. Advertising may be carried to the excess of becoming sensational. Invitations may be pressed upon scholars in other schools. The effort for increase may degenerate into unfriendly rivalry. A good plan may work evil when worked in a selfish spirit. And a too-rapid growth is sure to be unhealthy. The late B. F. Jacobs said, "God pity the Sunday school that gets a hundred scholars at one time!" A quiet, steady, diligent, persistent effort for the school will be of permanent benefit, rather than a spasm of enthusiasm. XVII THE TESTS OF A GOOD SUNDAY SCHOOL In the United States more than a hundred thousand Sunday schools are in session every week. Some of them are very good, many are only moderately efficient, and some are poor in every respect. The question arises, what constitutes a good Sunday school? Is it possible to establish some standard of measurement by which the rank of any Sunday school can be fixed? In such a standard there must be several factors, for the points of excellence in Sunday school are not one, but many. It is the aim in this closing chapter to ascertain the criteria or the tests of a good Sunday school. The statement of these tests involves the summing up and in some measure the repetition of much already given throughout these pages.