Sunday-School Success: A Book of Practical Methods for Sunday-School Teachers and OfficersWells, Amos R. (Amos Russel)
Religion
Sunday-School Success: A Book of Practical Methods for Sunday-School Teachers and Officers
Wells, Amos R. (Amos Russel)
Sunday schools
Another section of your library should contain books that bear
directly on the work of the school. There must be the best works on
teaching, such as Trumbull's "Teachers and Teaching," Schauffler's
"Ways of Working," Boynton's "The Model Sunday-school," and Du Bois'
"The Point of Contact." There must be some account of the Bible, like
Rice's "Our Sixty-six Sacred Books"; some brief and attractive manual
of Christian evidences, like Fisher's or Robinson's; some life of
Christ, like Geikie's or Farrar's; some account of the history,
polity, and teachings of your denomination. Thompson's "The Land and
the Book," Smith's "Historical Geography of the Holy Land," Geikie's
"Hours with the Bible," Taylor's "Moses, the Lawgiver," Deems' "The
Gospel of Common Sense," Pierce's "Pictured Truth," Butterworth's "The
Story of the Hymns,"--each of these is a type of a class of books
helpful to teachers,--and to scholars also, if they can be brought to
read them. Add, for the temperance lessons, such books as Banks' "The
Saloon-keeper's Ledger," Gustafson's "The Fountain of Death," and
Strong's "Our Country" and "The New Era."
I wonder that so few Sunday-school libraries contain the great
Christian poems, such as "Paradise Lost," Browning's "Saul," Lowell's
"Vision of Sir Launfal," Arnold's "The Light of the World," and many
more that would illuminate the lessons.
Many fascinating books of science for young folks have been written
expressly from the Christian stand-point. Why not add to the library
such books as Kingsley's "Glaucus," Burr's "Ecce Cœlum," Agnes
Gibberne's "Sun, Moon, and Stars," Keyser's "In Bird-land"?
I may seem to be suggesting books for the older scholars mainly. Let
me here urge that equal care and thought be spent on the volumes for
the little tots and the "intermediates." Their books are not so
interesting to the mature-minded committee, and so they are more
likely to be chosen at haphazard.
This is especially true of the books for the primary department. Two
or three pounds of their diminutive volumes are shoveled up in a mass,
read by title, and tucked in at the end of the list. This carelessness
is especially injurious, because it is at their age that the reading
habit is formed, and it is of the utmost importance that the tiniest
books in the library shall be bright, helpful, and of real literary
value. To discover these will prove one of the most difficult tasks of
the conscientious committee.
Do not give up the old favorites. When Susan Coolidge's "Katy Did"
series wears out, give the old books away to some poorer school and
get a fresh set of the same. Remember that new scholars are all the
time entering, and that there is no recommendation for a book so
effective as the young people's own testimony, "I have read it, and I
know you will like it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account