Chapter I: Front Matter

Sunday-School Success

Sunday-School Success

A Book of Practical Methods
for Sunday-School Teachers
and Officers

By

Amos R. Wells
Author of "Business," "When Thou Hast Shut Thy
Door," "Social Evenings," etc.

NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
Fleming H. Revell Company
Publishers of Evangelical Literature

Copyright, 1897, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

THE NEW YORK TYPE-SETTING COMPANY

THE CAXTON PRESS

Preface

In these pages I have described the methods of the most successful teachers and Sunday-schools I have known. While a large part of the book is the direct fruit of my own experience in Sabbath and secular schools, it sets forth, as every teacher will understand, what I have learned from my failures rather than from my successes.

Though the volume has something to say on all the great Sunday-school problems, it does not pretend to be a complete manual; indeed, who could prepare one on so stupendous a theme? If it justifies its appearance among the admirable treatises already published for Sunday-school workers, it will be because it presents with frankness the methods found helpful by an average teacher, who never had charge of a large school or a large class, but in district school, small college, and small Sunday-school has struggled with the practical problems of a teacher, and in some of them at least, like Sentimental Tommy, has "found a way."

A large number of these chapters have appeared in the "Sunday-school Times," and others in the "Sunday-school Journal" of the Methodists, the "Pilgrim Teacher" of the Congregationalists, the "Westminster Teacher" of the Presbyterians, the "Baptist Teacher," and the "Golden Rule." I am grateful to these periodicals for permission to include this material in my book.

AMOS R. WELLS.

BOSTON, September, 1897.

Contents

PAGE

I. THE TEACHER'S CROWN 9

II. WHO SHOULD TEACH IN THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL? 14

III. PREPARING THE LESSON 21

IV. SOMETHING ABOUT TEACHERS' MEETINGS 32

V. A TEACHER WITH A SCHEDULE 39

VI. MY LESSON CHART 42

VII. THE VALUE OF A MONOTESSARON 46

VIII. GETTING ATTENTION 52

IX. KEEPING ATTENTION 57

X. THE IMPORTANCE OF QUESTIONING 64

XI. A GOOD QUESTION 69

XII. INSPIRING QUESTIONS 75

XIII. TRIGGER-TEACHING 80

XIV. GALVANIC TEACHING 85

XV. SERIAL TEACHING 89

XVI. TEACHING THE PSALMS 95

XVII. THOSE TEMPERANCE AND MISSIONARY LESSONS 104

XVIII. TOPICAL LESSONS 114

XIX. INTRODUCING THOUGHTS 119

XX. ILLUSTRATIONS AND APPLICATIONS 125

XXI. RIGHTEOUS PADDING 130

XXII. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE NEWSPAPER 134

XXIII. ON TAKING THINGS FOR GRANTED 139

XXIV. UTILIZING THE LATE SCHOLAR 143

XXV. SIDE-TRACKING THE TEACHER 146

XXVI. THE PROBLEM OF THE VISITOR 150

XXVII. "UNDER PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT" 154

XXVIII. THE TEACHER'S THREE GRACES 160

XXIX. SOMETHING TO BELONG TO 163

XXX. THROUGH EYE-GATE 167

XXXI. FOUNDATION WORK 178

XXXII. THE TRIAL BALANCE 193

XXXIII. AT THE HELM 201

XXXIV. THE SUPERINTENDENT'S CHANCE 209

XXXV. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND THE WEATHER 213

XXXVI. A PROFITABLE PICNIC 217

XXXVII. A SINGING SUNDAY-SCHOOL 221

XXXVIII. A PRAYING SUNDAY-SCHOOL 227

XXXIX. S. S. AND C. E. 233

XL. TEACHERS IN 8VO 241

XLI. AROUND THE COUNCIL FIRE 256

XLII. THE INCORPORATION OF IDEAS 267

XLIII. FROM A SUPERINTENDENT'S NOTEBOOK 272

XLIV. FROM A TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK 287

Sunday-School Success