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C HAPTER
1

III

SCHOOL'S TRUE EV ANGELISJ\1

THE SUNDAY

BY CHARLES

GAL,LA UDET TRUMBULL, ,

'EDITOR

'''THE

SUND ..L\Y ,SCH ,QOL, TIM .ES, ,'' PHILADELPl"'.{IA, 1

PENNSYLVANIA

rl''he,re ar ,e m ore tha :n thirty millio 11 perso ,ns rep orte,d in

the enro]lment of the Sunday Schools o,f tl1e world. But if
all these persons, and all cl1urch members as well, knew ,vhat
the Sunday School is really for, the enrollment would leap
Upwar ,d millions up 0n milli,ons,.
, The Sund .ay School is of ten spoken . of as the child of
tl1e cl1urch, or tl1e ch.urch of tomorrow, or a branch or devarttnent 0 'tl1e church. It is mor e than any and , all of these.
1
1
1
Tl1e tru e Sunday S choo,l is the Cl1urch of Jesus Christ englaged in syst en1atic ,study an.d teacl1in,g 0 the Word of G1od
for three great purposes : to bring into the body of Christ
those within tl1e membership of the Sunday School who are
not yet members of tl1e chu1,c:h or of Christ; 'to train 'UP tho se
Who are in Christ into a full-grown knowledge and ap,propria tion of the riches which are theirs because they are Christ's ;
and to send out into the world fully equipped, victoriou .s soulWinners who shall be Christ's living .epistles to those who do
not yet l<:nowHim ,.
T'l1e whole superb work of the S,und,ay School C'enters
about its t ext-book, the Word of God. Bible study in the
Sunday School is made the means of the thtee-f old purpose
0 the Sunday School.
The Sunday S,chool is the great organized movement of the Church of God for Bible study
Which l1as for its end salvation, character building, and equiptnent for evang elism. Or to des,cribe th e work of the Sun1

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45

The Fundamen ,tals

46

day School partly in theological ter ms, the purpose

of the
Sunday School is Bible stu ,dy for justifica tion, san .ctificati on
and service .
Whoever needs to know what tl1e Bible has to say about
next-world freedom from tl1e penalty 0 our sins, and thiswo1rld freedom from the po,wer of 0ur sin, together with the
su.pe.rnatural power of God .as, th e equipm ,ent of the f ttll gro ,wn
man for servic e, may properly b,e in the Sunday 1School. Only
those who do no~ need the fulle st possible message of the
Bib l,e on the s e subj ect,,s can logically stay out side the Sunday
,Sch,o.o,1.
And that mea.ns that f ew can 1,ogica11y or safely stay
outside the Sunday School. The true S,unday School is the
whole Church of God engaged in systematic Bible study to
ascertain the whol ,e will of Go d as r,evealed in His Word for
thei ,r lives+ Witl1 the cradle roll at one end of the age limit
for non -attending membe rs and the home departmen t at tl1e
other end for non-attending members, there is little reason
today for any on,e to rema in outside tl1e membership, o,f the
,Sunday Scl1ool. It is not necessary to attend t.he Sunday
services of the Sunday School in or der to be a member in
full and regular standing~ Liter ally the entire church membership can with great pro ifit be enroll ed : babies, invalids,
,shut-ins, tr ,aveling men, mothers tied down by home dutie ,s,
railroad men .., telegr ,aph or telephone operators,
the Sunday
School welco mes the representatives
of every walk in life.
Blessed stories are told ,of the home. dep artm en.t, such as of
the engineer miles fro m his SundaJ' Sch ool, safeguarded i11
the cab ,of his l ocom otive by his nea ,rness to his Lord, and
rejoicing in his privilege of studying the same Sunday School
les son that the boys, and girls in the home school are poring
over. Or about tl1e telegraph operators wl10, miles apart fro Jl1
each o,th,er, co,mpare : not es over the wir ,e about 't heir Sund.ay
School lesson. Cradle roll members don't do much reading or
studying for themselves; but when the enthusiastic, tactful,
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The Sunday Schoo,l''s True Evangelism

47

loving cradle roll superintendent hurries aro,und to a home in

the neighborhood and asks for the name and enrollment of
th~ baby not yet twenty-four hours old, you may be sure
that that household, especially the father and mother, are
not
offended
at
this
show
of
interest
in
the
little
life
which

ls all the world to them. - And stony hearts that may have
seemed hopelessly remote from the Gospel have been warmed
and Won to a wide -open acceptance of the love of Jesus
Christ because the littlest member of the family first entered
the Sunday School through the cradle roll.
. 1'hus it is that, from any way we look at it, the true Sunday School is a migl1ty evangelistic agency. If the Sunday

it one.

The true Sunday School of the Church of Jesus

splendor of the Good News better known, both to those

Within and without.

A young crockery merchant in New vork State who
rejoiced in Christ as his Saviour had found tl1at when he
to be used for the saving of others, his Lord took him at his
\Vo,rd. Saving souls became his great joy .and interest. He
Wanted to do more systematic work in that line, and to know

et there were sixteen thousand young men in that city.

ire Sunday S,chool just then meeting as one class in a rear

0

r? tn, this man-hunter

noticed some young men waiting out-

lttcht and with him find a place for a Bible class that he

The Fundamentals

48

tl1e,n a,nd ther ,e ask ed tl1em to form with him. They liked the
novelty of the idea, an~ the class was f or1ned, the n1embers
sitting on the back of a s.eat while their teacher aced tl1em,
standing. Under the scaffolding, amid dirt and plaster, he
taught l1is first men's class, praying and telling the lesson
sto ry in simple language.
From that b eginning the young crockery merchant got
more and more intere ste d in bringing together young men for
organized Bible study in Sunday School classes. In si)C
mo ntl1s his class of eighteen had grown to one hundred and
eight. In tl1e n ext seventeen y ears, three hundred ,and fifty ,..
two men were won to Chri st in that one class. He gave up
his crockery bu siness to give his whole time to young men's
Sunday School Bible classes. After he l1ad brought tl1ree
hundred thou sa nd men into the Sunday Scl1ool for organized
effort and systematic Bible study, his ideas got large, and
he we11t on unti ,J, he ,actually be,gan to tallc about wanting a
million not dollars, but men. It is not as easy to get a mil ..
lion men enrolled in an organized Bible class movement as it is
to get 'three h un dred th ,ousand, even if you have a whole
conti11e,nt to work in; and perl1aps some didn't expe ct to see
''tl1e man wl10 wants a million," as he liked to call him self,
succeed during his lif e-tin1e i11 his expansive ,vi sh. But he
got his million; and now he signs his letters , ''Yours for 3
1

million more."
Marsl1all A. Hudson, Fou11der and Pre s,ident
of tl1e World's Baraca Bib,le Class Union, has shown wl1at
ju st one depart1n ent of the tr L1e Sun da,y School can be and do
as a mighty evangelistic agency. His worlc wottl .d not staY
limited to men, but has reacl1ed out to a similar work for
women, the Philathe ,a movement.*
The quiet, persistent, undef eatable evangelistic work of
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*Two little books telling of Mr. Hudson's methods, one oil

the B,ar,aca work for men, the oth er 0 n the Ph1l1atl1e,a work fot
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New

ork, at 50c each.

The Sunday School's True Evangelism

49

Widely known ,as is. tl1.e blessed work of the Bar,aca and
.Philathea classes, but none the less effective on that account.
of a city church on personal soul winni ng, and had, among
?ther things, urged the duty of being willing to risk mistakes
111
doing this work, rather than make the greatest mistake of
saying nothing for Christ. After the meeting a woman came
up and told him of her experience. She was a Sunday School

ace talk upon tl1e subJect with the girl, but finally determined
he found her

1n ;

and although she had ample opportunity

age failed her 1 and, talking about anything and everything but

. YeWithout hav1ng once mentioned the subJect.

Starting home
1
n. discouragement, the teacher had not gone far from the house

e doorway why she had called to see her, and in a blunder-

ouse for the second time, and went home, but not before the
0

he.r.
.At the next communion service o,f their chur~h the teacher

d her how glad she was that she had taken this step.

And

'

so

'

then she said to her, ''Tell me, what was it that finally in~
fluenced you to do this?''
''Why, it wa ,s what you said to me that day y,ou called,''
was tl1e reply~
And a Sunday S cl1ool teacher was gla,d that she had
dared to ''make a, mistake'' for her Lord.
There ar e many metl1ods of evangel.ism. of which the Sunda,y School makes blessed use. ''Decisio n Day'' when wisely
,obs erved has res ulted in gre ,at 'b1elssing,. On this day a direct
appeal to accept Jes ius Chris t as Saviour is n1ade from the,
platform to the school or the department as a whole, and oppo1rtunity is given for f ormal respo :nse i.n the way of signed
cards 0r otherwise. T 'he ob1,
se.rv1anc e 0 f su ch a da.y is mo st
blessed wl1en the re has been earnest, . faithfu t preparatio n for
it in prayer, by teachers and officers. It seems better not to
have the day an.nounced in advance to the ~chool,, but only to
teac.her,s an d offi1c,ers, that they ma,y p r,epare for i,t in, prayer
a11dir1 personal work.
But the all-tl1e-time evang ,elisn1 o,f the faithful teacl1er is
the surest an d most effective. Most eff ective, that is., if accompanied by all-the -time prayer . Prayer meetings of thie
teach ,e.rs for the conversio11 and consecration of tl1.,e pupils is
a secr ,et of the continuously evangelistic Sunclay School.
What sort of teachi1tg is done in ,the Sunday ScJzool in
which, true ev an.gel1:S1n
is co,nspicuous?
It is teaching th ,at ass1.1mes that the whole Bible ii1
s the
ins,pired W 0 rd of' God; unique, authoritat ,ive, inf al'lib'le. The
acceptance of destructive criticism's theories and conclusions
can have no place in this t,eaching.
The evangelistic school knows that all men (and ''1nent'
1neans1men ., women and 1c.hildren ) are lost unt .il sa.v ed by tl1e
b]ood of Jesus Christ. The teaching in such a school brings
out clearly the lost condition of the entire human r:ace by
nature, a,nd reco .gnizes no, possibility of salvation by education1 character, or any other works of man . . It gives full
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The Sunday School) s Trite Eva,ige lism

51

recognition to ed11cation as the duty and privilege of the

Christian, but it does not substitute education for salvation.
The evangeli stic Sunday School holds up the Lord Jesus
Christ as the only Saviour of men, accepting the Word of
the Holy Spirit that ''neither is there any other name under
heaven, that is given among men, where in we must be saved."
A.nd because no man or created being can save another created
being that is spiritually lost, the uncreated deity of Jesus as
Saviour is recognized and declared.
Tl1e new birth, accomplished by the Holy Spirit in the one who believes in Jesus
Christ as Saviour, m arl{s the passage from death unto lif e,that is the Gospel of the evangelistic Sunday School.
Tl1e workers in suCh a Sunday Sc]1ool know that no human
being can save a sou l; they know that no human being, no
tnatter ho,w faithfully and truly he tells tl1e story of salvation
and 0ffe1s the Gospel invitation, can win another soul- to
Christ or enable that soul to believe on Christ as Saviour. It
s reco,gnized tha t tl1is act of acceptance and belief i.s not the
result of hum .an teaching or telli ng or persuading 0 1r inviting,
biut is a supernatural work of God. The ref ore the evangelistic
teacher depends chiefly upon prayer to succeed in ihe cl1ief
lllission of the Sunday Schoo l. Tl1e teaclier recognizes that
.Prayer is the great secret, the great essentia l of effective evange]istn. The evangelistic teacher prays souls into salvation
before even expecting to be used to that end in teaching or
Personal conve rsat ion.
Not all so-called Sunday Schools are evangelist ic. Not all
are being supernaturally u sed of God in tl1e iniraculous work
of bringing lives into the new birth and the new ]if e in Christ
Jesus. There are dangers that tl1reaten the Sunday School
of today probably more than in any preceding gener ati on.
These dangers not only threaten; they are disastrou sly and
effectively at work in many schools.
Tl1e under111ining wo rk of the destructive criticism has
Crept into Sunday Schoo l lesson helps. Not only in so-called
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II

52

The Fundamentals

"independent" courses of Bible study but in helps on the International Le ssons, issued by regular denominational boards,
are found lesson con11nents that assume the error and human
authorship of parts of the Bible instead of inerrant, inspired
authorship. It has been a distres sing thing to many to note
thi s terrible encroachment of the Adversary as he. uses the
very tools of the Church of Christ to lead teachers and pupils
a way from the hope of eternal life. For, as has been well
pointed outj the Adversary's first 1nove is to discredit parts of
the Bible, th en the aton e111entof Jesus Christ, then the deity
of Chri st. And without a Saviour who is God the "evan
gelisn1" of the Sunday School is not the Good News.
Not long ago "The Sunday School Times" had occasion to
investigate a certain "Completely Graded Series" . of Sunday
School lessons (not the International Graded Lessons) of
which the pub lisher said: "These lessons are already in use
in thous ands of up-to-date Sunday Schools. The various
cour ses of study have been prepared under the direction of metl
who are r ecognized as authorities in this country in religious
education, and they therefore en1body the results of the latest
scholarship ." Upon looking into the lesson courses themselves,
such stateme nts as the following were found:
1

"It is easy to see that the age that produced the Gospels
would not be anxious for scientific accounts of the deeds of
Je sus , but that it would expect of I-Iin1 exactly the acts that
are attrib ut ed to Him. It is possible therefore that sorI1e
events, like the restoration of the centurion's servant, were
si1nple coincidences; that others, like the apparent walking of
Jesus on the water, were natura l deeds which the darkne ss
and confusion caused to be misunderstood; that others, like
th e turning of water into ,;vine, were really parables that became in course of time changed into miracles. As nearly all
the miracles not of healing had their prototypes in the Old
Testament, 1nany of then1 at least were attributed to J est15
because men expected such deeds from their Messiah, ar1d
l
, finally became convinced that He must have perforn1ed therJl
-EDITOR."

"'

The foregoing p,aragraph was f ron1 a help for the Inter mediate teacher. In a s,i,.1nilar volume for the J11
ni or t,eacher
'there appeared tl1e following discussion ,of tl1e rea,sonable ness
of miracles :
1

''There ar 'e some scholars who find traces of th is tende11cy

t,o magnify 'the n1arvelous even i,n tl1e Gospels tl1emselves,
whi .ch, with all tl1eir uniquene ss, ar ,e hun1an docu111ents, "''ti.tten by flesh and blood hu1nan beings. For example, in our
story of Jairus' dat1gl1ter., Marl<'s account, as we have see n,
leaves u s in doubt whether the little gi rl was really dead, or
011ly in a swoo ,n, or sta te of co ma. I11 Matt l1,ew's later ,a ccou11t,
however, we find that Jairus says to Jesus, 'My daughter is
ev,en now dead.' Wl1en they reach tl1e house, flt1te players,
hired for the funeral, are already on the scene . TI1is increases
the ma rv el of tl1e story, but does not seem . to add to its mora1
signifi,c,ance,. It is po ssibie that n,ot a f,ew of the a,ccounts of
niiraculous deeds, attributed to Je sus, are the product of tl1is
same tendency. By this is meant the tenden ,cy to magnify tl1e
marvelous, as seen i11 apocryphal legends, arising f 1om a 'vul.gar craving for signs, and won,der.s.' ''
1

Jttnior teache rs \Vere told, in ex planation ,of the omission

of the story of A11anias and Sapphira .:
''This fear is explained b,y tl1e stol'""Y of Ana ,nias and
Sapph ira , wl1ich preced es tl1is sentence in the complete text
~ Acts. This story is like a nun1b e1 of other ancient narrativ es, in th at the facts are proba bly recorded with substantial
accuracy; b,ut the atttho ,r's own interpretation of these facts
~eems to tts,, i.11 tl1ese da,ys, not . a.l togetl1e1 satisfactory . There
1~ Il0 reaS,011 for dottbting the accoun t of the d,eception practised on the apostles by this unscrupulous couple, Ananias and
Sapphira; nor the accot1nt of Peter's r ebuk e ; nor the statetnent that they both died shortly after re ceivi11g tl1e rebul{e.
In that perio ,d o,f the world's l1istory people would inevitably
conclude that this d,eath was a direct n1anif estatio ,n O'f tl1e
Divine wrath invoked by Pete r. This int erpretation, however,
seems inc onsistent with the Christian conception of God as a
loving and patient Fathe r. On account of the primitive ideas
Whic'h it reflects, t]1e st,ory has been omitted :from the Junior
1

B'bl
J _ e.;,

The Fundamentals

54
'

As was editorially s,tatcd in ''The Sunday Scho ,ol Times,"

whi .ch discus ,sed this series of lessons, it is, only too true that :
''There are those wl10 have not taught the whole Cl1rist of the
New Testament and the Old, but have been bus,y about the
presenting of a different and lesser Person. They have followed and taught Jesus of Naza :reth as the i,deal teacher and
leader, acknowledging Him as indeed the most extra ,ordinary
development among the noblest sons of God, and tl1e Gosp el
story of Him as usually reliable, but they have not been pre senting J esus unreservedly as the eternal Christ i11 all that tl1e
Scriptures in their uttermo st struggling for full expression
c.laim tl1at He is; , a,s all that He w,as., very Life itself' t,o the disciplined mind and the revolutionized pe rsonality of Paul ; as all
tha t IIe is to tlriose wl10 daily teslti f'y in word and deed t,o
libe rty from the crushing bondage of sin by His indwelling.''
The san1e editoiria.] di scus.sed the peril of teachin .g a
1
' 'modifie 1d Cl1ris1t.'' It went on to say:
1

'

'"It is no uncom1non thing to find t each ers of the Bibl e who

are tl1us teacl1.i11g a modifi.e,d Christ. The caution :a.ry attiti1de,
to sa.y the lea st, o,f a typ ,e of influ .ential scholarship, on the
trustwor tl1iness of the Scrip ,t ures, an,d 'tl1e encouraging of st1s--,
pen ded opi11ion as to the claims of Christ, are more confusing
and insidi.ous, in their re sult s on tl1e n1ind and the lif'e than a
flat denial of cheris l1ed trt1,tl1 by conf ess ,ed unbeli evers. The
Ne,v Testament writers, on the one ha:11d,are not wl1olly able
wit hin the ,range of human vocabt1laries to find langu ,age th ,at
will release the streams of in sp i1ed truth conc erning tl1e Lord
Jesus. In th eir most rapt' ecstasy, as in the ir apolog etic, tl1ey
can11ot exa lt the Cl1rist as they would, becau .se not He, bl1t
language, is inadequate.
They simply cannot say enougl1 of
Hi111.. But, on the other hand, there is. ,a type o,f modern
scholarship not without its influence upon the trained and un-
trained Bible teacher alike, wl1ich is car eft1l not to say too
much of Jesus. Th ere is a restraint in its deliverances about
Him, a cauti ,ous and re served detachment, which woul d seem
to belong as a method rather to the outside observer than to
the inner di sciple . Ethical and social lead ership and supremacy are fre ely attributed to Je sus, but this type of Biblical
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The Sunday School'~ True Evangelism

55

scholarship does not seem, in dealing with Jesus, to be dealing with the same eternal Christ who was disclosed to John
and Peter and Paul and others of like mind and experience.
Indeed, the limitless ascriptions of John, the sweeping declarations of Peter, the passionate abandon of Paul, by no means
characterize this kind of scholarship. On the contrary, its
] esus is far less than the New Testament Christ; its New
Testan1.ent a record quite open to reasonable doubt. Yet the
superior advantages of lesson helps embodying the results of
this attitude toward Jesus and the record of his life are
widely urged upon teachers and pupils in the Sunday School
today."
Just here those who have the Sunday School at its highest
point of evangelistic efficiency should have clearly before them
the facts concerning the course of Graded Lessons issued by
the American Section of the International Committee. It is a
seventeen year course, of which sixteen years of study have
been issued, running from the first year "Beginners, for fouryear-olds, through the third year Senior, for nineteen-yearolds." The writer had occasion to discuss this course of lessons in the columns of "The Sunday School Times" ju st before
the International Sunday School Convention held in Chicago
in June of 1914, and takes the liberty of printing here a portion of what was said at that time:
"These lessons are renclering a greatly needed service in
awakening the Sunday School world to the claims and rights
of the child. They are showing what a supremely delicate
and difficult task it is to bring to the child, in the way that
child nature is entitled to, the instruction that God intends. It
is to be hoped that these lessons have mad,e it impossible for
the Sunday School ever to go back to what may have been its
!armer carelessness, indifference, and ignorance on this subJect.
"There is welcome evidence that the Graded Lessons are
resulting in bringing pupils to decision for Christ. Mrs.
Bryner, the International Elementary Superintendent, recently
Published in the state Sunday School papers the results of her

The Fundamentals
inquiry of state and provincial el,ementary superintendents
concerning the spiritual resttlts that can be reported from the
int roduction of the Graded Lessons; and tl1e testimony was
most encouraging.
One school reported that the numb ,er of
Junio ,rs coming naturally int,0 the chur ch had increased .seventy-five percent sin,ce the adoption of these lessons in that
scl1.oot,
''In the First Year Senior there is. excellent topical study
,offered on 'The N,eeds of th ,e W 0 1ld,' 'The St.andard 0 Su c,cess ,' 'Tl1e Challenge to the Individual;' and this year offers
also two complete book studies, t.akin,g up the Book 0 f Ruth
in tl1ree lessons and the Epistle of Ja1nes in nine lessons.
''The opportunity for com .plete book sttt dy is still further
extended in the Th'ird Year Senior, just issued by t'he Les.son
Committ~e, offering opportunity for bri,ef, rap ,id surveys of
more than twenty of the b,ooks of tl1e N ,ew Tes,tament. , Tl1e
doctrine of salvation is well taught here also, in a lesson devote 1d t,o 'Developing the TI1eolo,gy of Salvati on.,'' f ro1n Ro mans.
''In such p oints as these, and in many other admirable opp,o,rtu .nities for t.horough-go ,i.ng Bible stt1dy., the Interna t.ionaI
Graded Lessons off er the S,unday School a rich field for
profitable worlcl.
''Yet in spite of all this there are other factors in tl1is
series ! o,f Graded Lessons , tl1at ar ,e fairly chatacterized a .s regrettab 1le and harmful . If 011,e asks why these words should
be used, here is the answer:
,,tBec,ause there -are elements here thlat tend to 1ninimize
or ignore the unique an .d supreme character and authority of
the Bible as the inspired Word of Goel;I tl1at tend to blur the
line between the natural and the supernatur .a1 ;, that tend to
place nature study on the same plane ,as, Bible study in gainin ,g
a knowle ,dge of God; and that tend to a lack of empl1asis on
certain vital d octrinal teaching , of t.he Gos pel of c hrist.

''Extra-Biblical lessons have been inserted througl1out this

Gr ,ade d series, that is, lessons th e material for whic .h i.s drawn
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57

. The Sunday School's T'rue Evangelism

chiefly fro1n other literature than the Bible. .In one instance
-in the Second Year In te1--me
:,diat,e, a full six months is de\roted to the study of 'Later Christian Leaders,' including such
characters as Lutl1er, Calvin, John Wesley, the Earl of Shaf tes ..
bury, and Florence Nightingale; and th ree months of tl1e six
a.re devoted to the sltudy of a single mod.ern missi on1ary, Al.exander Mackay. A note from the Les son Com.tnittee points
out that the material upon which these tl1ree months' lessons
.are ba.sed is f ound in the well-k 11own b0 ok 'Ug ,anda's White
Man of Work,' tl1e Committee having previously said: 'It is
1nten.de:d that a mo1~ecaref uI analys ,is of a single character
shall prepare the pupil for the nine n1ontl1s' study in the life
of Christ which . will immediately follow in the lessons for tl1e
Third Year Intermediate.'
Ju st what effect will it have upon
fourteen-year-old s to bring in a bool<:of tl1is sort, as, in a
sense, parallel m.aterial to the Bible' 's r ecord o.f the life of our
Lord Jesus Christ? To be sure, Scripture material is sug..;
gested for eacl1 of these extra-Bi 'b li,cal l,essons, but the S cripture material is subo,rdinate, and the extra -Biblical n1aterial is
the main theme for study.

''As is well kno wn, in response to a widespread pro test the

Lesson Committee in 1911 isSued Bib ,lical lessons to run
Parallel to all the extra-Biblical lessons in the Graded S,eries,
an,d to make such other n1inor n1odi.fication,s as seen1ed to it
desirable. These Biblical lessons do not replace the extraBiblical lessons ;. they 'take their place beside the extra-Biblical lessons in the lists already issued.' The International Lesson Comn1ittee the ref ore stands before . the Sunday School
World committed to o,ff ering the Sunday SchOol constituency
tnaterial from other sources than the Bible as its chief material
for study in numerous Sund_ay School sessions.
'' And it has , been done with deep-seated conviction on the
Part of thosi1
e who f.avor it. At. the conferenc e on the International Lessons held in Philadelphia in 1914, . a prominent
leader in the work of the Graded Le ssons said pt~blicly, and
ts -

11

The Fund .amental's

58

witl1 intense earnestness : 'We deny at every point that our

c,our .se is a BrBLE cours .e; ou1 course . is a CH I.LD-TEACHING
,
course ..
''As we speak of 'the Sunday Scl1001't oday, we refer to the
very limit.ed opportu .nity for Bi.b.le study offered in the ses,sion
of an hour o,r .so on Sunday, where the actual Bib .le situdying,
B.ibte teaching period is about thirty minut ,es. This is the
church's chfef a.nd onl.Y Bible teaching service, at present, in
t.he vast 1najority of chur ches. To give any o,ther f 01m of
matef"ial tl1an th ,e B.ible the right of way in tl1is r,estricted
peciod is a perilous thing. The church must have a service of
Bible study and Bibl,e. te.aching. Its very li,fe, and the life of
the home and the community, depend upon this. Nothing tl1at
is ext1~a-Biblical can be permitt .ed to encroach upon tl1at vital
pa .rt of the ,church's work.. It will be a sad day in,deed when
t!1is question is considered even debatable by the majority of
tl1e 1nemhersof the Churc .h of Chri .st on ,earth.
''It is important to recognize also that there is no real
dilemma between the Bible and child-tea .ching. We do 'not
have to choose between the two ,. W e must have them both,
and we can. Th e Bible is God's best pro,vision for cl1iidteacl1ing1.
''There is a real danger, also, in using nature as the chief
material for Sunday School teaching ,. even with th,e youngest
beginners . Nature study has its valued place as material to
illustrate Bible truths , Our Lord use,d it in tha t wa.y. But
tl1ere is no s,ucl1 reve lation of God in nature as there i.s. in the
Holy Scriptures. Nature is natural; the Bible is supernatural.
Th ,e two a:re in no sense equal revelations of the : heart of ,God
and of the Gospel 0 Chris t . . Indeed, nature is a sin-distorted,
sin-cursed thing . God made this very plain when He said in
t.he Garde .n of E.den, 'Curse,d is the ,ground for thy sake ;
. . . . . thorns also and thistles shall it bring f orth to
thee,' as He told Adam and Eve how they had degra .ded even.
the ea.rth beneath tl1.eir feet throu .gh t11,eir sin. It n1ay not be
1

The Sunday School's True Evangelism

59

necessary or wise that the little child should be taught this;

but it is very necessary that the teacher should have this in
lllind in using nature material to illustrate the ways and the
love and the protection of the Heavenly Father. It puts sharp
limitation s upon our use of nature materials, and it suggests
that such nature material, in and of itself, should not be the
leading material in any lessons for Sunday School study.
. "Apart from the question of nature studies as such, there
is present in the International Graded Lessons the modern
steadily encroaching atmosphere of the 'natural' as over
against the 'supernatural.'
The atmosphere in many col1eges
today is an atmosphere that denies the supernatural. There
are evidences, here and there throughout this scheme of 1essons, of such a handling of the Bible as one would give to any
other book. Such lesson titles, for example, as 'Gideon, the
Man Whom Responsibility Made Great' ( First Year Intertnediate), 'Abraham-. .The Challenge of an Ideal' ( Second
Year Senior), 'The Development of Religious Ideas in Ear1y
Israel' ( Second Year Senior), are hints of this; as is also
the note on Lessons 17 to 22 of the First Year Intermediate,
~David, the Man Who Showed Himself Friendly' : 'the aim
is to show that David's power to make and retain friends exPlains his career and his character.' This ignoring of God's
sovereign grace as the secret of David's career is not sufficiently offset by the close of the note, that David's 'intimate,
<:onstant, and childlike fellowship with God was the supreme
friendship of his life, exalting and directing his actions.'
"And there is a certain inadequacy in some lesson topics,
a failure to reveal the stupendous riches of the Scripture truth
that is to be taught. An example of this is to be seen in the
'I'hird Year Senior topics for the study of the Epistle to the
Galatians: 'Paul's Assertion of Independence,' 'The Bondage
?f Tradition,' 'The Christian Idea of Freedom.' The wordtng of these topics does not do justice to the great eternal
Spiritual truths of bondage to sin under the law versus the

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The Fund amentals

60

lif ,e oif victor ,y,-by-f ree do m in Christ

gloriously brings out.
1

which this Epistle so

''Many would have been glad to see somewhere in these

lessons, among the many statements of aim and purpos ,e of tl1e
courses ! for the. ,diffe.r ent years, .a dec.la1"a
't.ion O'f aim tl1at the
pupil shall come to recognize man's lost condition as consti
tuting our need of a Saviour. This is nowhere stated. It is
sta ted that the less ons have the aim of bringing the pupil to
the personal acceptance of Jesus as Saviour and Lord ; and
that is good. But a clear declaration of the universal need
of tl1e n ew birth would have given increas .ed doctrinal
st r,ength to the serie .s. This lack is accentuated by sucl1 expressions , as the fallowing : 'The average age of thirteen calls
for a new ~ype of J,essons whi,ch shall mal<:etheir ,appea1 to
t'he new sense of selfhood and the n,e"r l1t1nge.1 f'or a satisfying
personal ideal.' The emphasis seems tO be chiefly 'to deepen
the impitlse to do right,' rather tl1an to .show ( not n eces,sarily
to the yo ungest children, I but c,ertain ly somewhere du1'"ingth e
s,eries) the hopelessness of any one's , doing right excep t
through the regenerating presence of the Holy Spirit mad e
pos sible by the acceptance of Christ as Savi our."*
Against all such encroa,ch1nen,ts upo 11 t.he Word . of God,
upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and upon a clear vision of
men's eternal need of that Gospel, the Sunday School of true
evangelism must stand with the firmness of the Rock of Ages.
Only the power of Chri st can enable us to stand thus firn1ly '
in the strength of Christ. He is doing ju st this, with blessed
results , for Sunday Schools that ask I-Ii111to do so upon His
own ter1ns.
1

*Repres enta tives of two denom ina tional Sunday S,c'hoot Pub
li,shi11g B'oar J ,s have stated tha t th ,e h elps 1 p ub lisrh.ed by them are
free from the ob j ,ectio 11sn.ote d.
_ I. J._Van Ness, Editorial. S ecret ary of the ~outl1ern Baptist
Sunday School Bo,ard (N ashv1lle, T enn essee) , wr1tes: ''M any de,.
nomination s have made radical modifications for themselv e s. The
South er n Baptist .s l1ave iss .t1ed a complete series of p,eri ,o ,dicals f,or
thes e l,esso nS, using only B iblica .l mater ial, and making
materia
l
.
1
-

Tl1e Social Service program, w11ichincludes .so many tl1ings1

Christian in spiri t, but which in many cases so disastrously
puts fruit ahead of root, is a danger against wl1ich tl1e S unlday 1
Scl1ool n eeds to guard, espec ially in its adult c:lasses. Th e
salvation ' of society regardless of the salvation of tl1e indi vidual is a l1opeless tasl{; and the Sun day Scho ol of tr ue
evangelism will not enter upon it.. But the Sunday Scho iol
that b1ings the good news of Jesus Christ to tl1e individt1als
of any community lifts society as tl1e us11al So ci.a] Service
program can never do. A striking illustr .a.tion of tl1.is principle has been noted in the w 1orl< of Evangelist '''B.illy'' S1unday.
Sund .ay pr eacl1es the ind ivid ual Gos,pel of tl1,e ap ,ostolic cl111rch.
I-le says little abotit social service. But the community-results
where S unday's evangelism has h.a.d a.n opportunity are revo]a~
1

changes in tl1e le ,ssons f'or the B eginners, Primary and Jur1ior DePartments.
The Lesson Co ,mmitt ,ee of the Souther n B apti .st Co11~entio 1n enti1~ety reconst .ructed the Intermediat e cours 1C'S, using in
Con1mitt ee ,
the m ,ain t.he ma .terial put ou t by tl1e Inter11ational
but .tna .:king chan ,ges in the a1rangem ent a11d in tt1e titles.
Tl1e
series of ]1ess ,ons which we ar e putting out is essen ti :al ly different
from tha .t which you condemn, and has few, .i..f any, oi th e .Points
'Which you poin t out."
Marion Stevenson 1 of the Chri .stian B 0 ar d of Publication (St.
~ ,ouis, Mo.); writes:
''It . should be noticed t l1at we a1'"e fo ll,ow,..,
111g the Biblical
l es,sons so stron g ly approved b .Y the Internationa l
S,unday sc t1oo l Ass ociation at S:an Fr ;ancisco and also at Chi ..
cag 0. A ,s :y ot1r editor ial stan ,ds, it is a blanl{et indictm ent ,of
the Graded Les .sons, to which we woul 1d r 1esp 1ond tl1at we are
n ot guilty.
The characte .ristics comp tain ,e1d. of .are trt1e 0 f hardly
except that published
by the S,yndi ,ca t ie.
any graded literature
!3,ut the Syndicat ,e is a ditninis1'1ing asso ciation~ S ince it s 0 r ga n~z1ation the Presbyterian
bodies have withdr .awn and are prepar-
Ing t h eir own literature, thus leaving th e Synd icate to t he Metho
dist Church, N o,rth and South ., and to tl1e Congregationa lists .
S ome smaller denominations
are selli11g agents for th e Syndicate
tnate rial. But fr om the first the Baptists, North and South, and
th re CI1t1rches of Chris ,t, have eh osen their own writers.
The in ..
di ctments aga in st. the Syndi cate m aterial may not th ,erefore be
draw11 ag a inst all grade ~d lesson lit erature . ~They are certainly
~ot t rue in regard t,o the graded literature prep ar ,e d by the Christian Board of Publication.''
~
Every movemen t away from the perils that wo ,uld injure th e
S~nday ,School is to be h eartily w elcomed; a11d the writer gladly
give.s prominence to these letters of denomin .ational leaders.
1

1
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The Fund amentals

62

tionizing. There is no socia l service worker in America today

whose work can compare, in the very result s for Whi,ch the
social .service p rog ram a:ims,, with tl1,at of ,Sunday's. And so
the Sunday School of true eva11gelism will d,o an effective .
work in social service; but it will do it in tl1e Lo1d's way.
1

One last word. If the Sunday !School is real.1.y to do its

work ,as an evangeliz ,i,ng la.gent ., the Sunday S1ch.ool must co1nsist 0 f workers whose personal Iivesl are ra diant : with vic't0 ry.
The S unday School of true evangelism declares with Convincing poVt~er the 1nessage of the victorious life.
H ,ere is an evangel, a Good New ,s, which is all too new to
many a f ollow,er of th ,e Lord Jesus Cl1rist who rejoice :s jn
the Sunday Schoo l a .s hi s fi-eld of s,ervice. But our Lord
wants it to be the experienced possession of His every follower.
Evang elism that is lirn,ited to the G0 od N'ews that there is
f reedo m f'1-om the penalty of ot11 sins is onl y a h.alf-way
evangelisin.
It is a crip ple,d, halti1rigevangelism~ If w,e wo11l,d
tell ''that sweet story of old ,'' let us tell the whole story.
And the whole story is that our Lord l esus Clirist came,
not only to pay the penalty of our .sins, but to break the power
of our sin. I-le laid aside His glory and came from heaven
to eartl1, not 011ly tl1at m en migl1t be saved f ron1 dyi11g the
second death, ! but also that they 1night live without sinn ing in
tl1is prese11t life. Here is Good News indeed; so good that to
many it sound s too good to be true. But, praise God, it is
'true '! Wl1e,n the Ho 1ly Spir it s,aysl t:o us, ''S ,in .s,11.allnot h.ave
dominion ov,er, you: for ye are not under law, bu t under
grace,'' He means it. When Paul declared in the exultant joy
of the Spirit, ''The taw of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
made me free f r,om the law o ,f sin,' ' he m lea.nt it. It was trite.
An,id th e same Spirit of life i.n Christ , Jesus i,s rna:kin,g men f 1~ee
to day from the law of sin, when they are ready to take 1-Iim
at His w,ord, When the beloved Apostle wrote, under the
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The Sunday School's True Evangelism

63

direction of the Holy Spirit, "My little children, these things

Write I unto you that ye may not sin," he meant just that.
When our Lord Jesus Himself said, first, "Every one that
con1mitteth sin is the bondservant of sin"; and then, instead of
leaving us h6pelessly there, went on to say: "If therefore the
Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed," He was
trying to tell us what His whole salvation is.
The victorious life is not a life made sinless, but it is a life
kept from sinning. It is not, as has well been said, that the
sinner is made perfect here in this life, but that the sinner
even in this life has a perfect Saviour. And that Saviour is
lllore than equal, while we are still in this life, to overcoming
all the power of our sin.
The Keswick Convention in England has for forty years
been blessedly used of God in spreading abroad the Good
N'ews of the Gospel of victory over sin. The Iif e that is surrendered unconditionally to the mastery of Jesus Christ and
that then believes :inconditionally in the faithfulness of that
Saviour Lord to make His promises true, begins to realize
the meaning of the unspeakable riches of God's grace.
There
are
Sunday
School
teachers
who
are
rejoicing
today
.
in the privilege of telling their classes the whole message of
true evangelism. May God mightily increase the numbers of
those who shall bear witness, by their victorious lives and by
their eager glad message, to the whole evangelism of the
Word: the saving and the keeping power of our wonderful
lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Then, ''If He shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him
at Bis coming."