The Sabbath-school Index

worship and service of God. It is the
Church of God caring for the children on the Sab-
bath day. Every song of praise, as well as every
prayer and reading and study of the Word of God,
together with every exhortation, address or sermon,
should rise to a high and holy act of simple, life-like,
child-like devotion. The place should be comfort-
able, attractive, light, airy and cheerful. It should
be dry and well warmed. The walls may be covered
with prints, hymns, and Scripture mottoes; or, as
some of our wealthy congregations have done, they
may be frescoed beautifully with illuminated texts or

paintings representing Scripture scenes, to attract the children to the house of God-to their Sabbath Home. Especial care should be taken that the seats provided are adapted in size, height, and form, to all ages and sizes, from the wee ones in the infant classes up to the larger scholars and the members of the adult classes. The three-sides-of-an-octagon form of seat is found to answer well, and is much cheaper than the circular seats. Infant classes will need a room by themselves, and sometimes raised seats are to be preferred. A good blackboard and crayons, with good maps, should be furnished to every room, together with a well-selected library, both for teachers and scholars. Keep on file a few good Sunday-school papers and magazines. It would be well also to have a few reference Bibles and a Bible Dictionary. But the glory of the Sabbath-school is the open Bible, the living Teacher, the Church Militant and aggressive. Said De Witt Clinton: "The Sunday-school is one of the three great powers by which the moral world is to be moved." Says the Rev. Dr. Daggett: "The Sabbath-school is to do vastly more than all other agencies of the Church." Said John Angell James: "In a few years we shall look upon all the past progress of the Sunday-school but as the beginning, as a kind of first-fruits, an earnest of the future of this great institution of the Christian Church." Said the Rev. Dr. Campbell, of the British Banner, London: "With respect to countless multitudes, it is mainly the work of the Sunday-school teacher to

carry out the command of our Lord to preach the gospel to every creature. The Sunday-school, for the individual, for the family, for the Church, for the nation, and for the world, is one of the principal mottoes to be inscribed on the banners of the faithful; and many well-meant but feeble agencies on which much religious activity is now frittered away, will, we believe, at length be merged in this grand institution. The conviction is strong in our mind that the Sunday-school Union, as a great central source of light, life, and power, is on the threshhold of a glorious career of usefulness, and will speedily become, in the hands of the great Master, an agency for good to an extent beyond all present appreciation by the Christian Church.”

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The Sabbath-school Index: Pointing Out the History and Progress of Sunday ...