The Duty of the Church in Relation to Sunday Schools [pp. 377-393]

in relation to Sunday Schools.
pugnant forces of two or more powers, which have a natural
fitness to counteract eaq,h other."*
We think this remark pertinent to our argument, as furnishing the highest motive next to the immediate desire of
glorifying God, that can be presented to stimulate the zeal of
the disciple, and as another incentive to the Church to seize
with eagerness any new mode that is offered of elevating the
standard of piety.
Collectively, the Church is bound to provide for this department upon an adequate scale. The necessary accommo(lations and facilities should be furnished by it; and the
care of these details should not be superadded to the duties of the teachers, any more than the financial concerns of
the congregation should be laid upon the minister. The
time ought long since to have arrived when every house of
worship should have a separate building for its Sunday
Schools, admitting of the necessary subdivision of pupils, in
distinct apartments, with a chapel for at least occasional services for the children exclusively. A small fund would furnish an amount of moral and religious reading sufficient to
benefit many hundreds of families at once. Over these circles of subordinate agency, the minister and other ecclesiastical
officers should maintain a kind superintendence. They should
consider it part of their pastoral and official duty to inspect
their operations; to be familiar with the process and nature of
the instructions afforded. The maintenance of purity and orthodoxy requires that they should not be ignorant of the character, capacity, and views of those who have the almost exclusive care of a large portion of their rising charge. The schools
constitute, literally, the nurseries of the Church: from them are
continually presented applicants for union with it, and their
character will soon determine that of the whole body. The
official guardians of the young, no more than parents, should
feel that this part of their charge is alienated to the teachers.
Parental fidelity is important to maintain the influence of the
teacher, and the spiritual officers are bound to extend their
episcopacy over persons holding such responsible stations as
the directors of the minds of the young.
In most churches at this day, (we again remind our readers
that our observations are general, and refer to the Christian
community at large,) the only ecclesiastical provision made
* Saturday Evening,' Art. xii.
385