The Sunday School Teacher in His

Work, Spirit and Motives.

A SERIES OF FIVE ARTICLES.

BY REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D. D.,

of Charleston, S. C.

Published in the Southern Presbyterian.

1859.

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER IN HIS WORK, SPIRIT AND MOTIVES.

No. I. THE MOMENTOUS CHANGE.

Among the "fellow helpers to the truth," there is nobody more important, more needful in the church of Christ, more auxiliary to the ministry of the Gospel, than that interesting body to which I propose more especially to address myself on the present occasion, that is, Sunday School Teachers.

1. We would remind you, brethren, in the outset, of the magnitude and momentousness of the holy task, to which you have consecrated yourselves in the sight of God. To think lightly of the work, would be to disqualify yourselves for the work. It would be to wither the right hand of your energy in this holy employment.

And can you lack for abundant reasons why you should think most seriously and solemnly of the undertaking? Take a child—a little child-one child, and look upon it, and what is it? But look at it as a christian ought; and what mind can compute its worth? The stone that the unskilled eye may pass over as rough and not worthy of regard, may arrest the eye of the skilful lapidary, and he may gather it up with all care and with all appreciation, because he discerns beneath the rough crust the hidden diamond. And so it is here. In that casket of clay-in the form of a little child, there is enshrined a diamond which, if it be but burnished and polished by the grace of Christ, may hereafter shine forever in the diadem that enriches His brows upon the throne of heaven. The soul of the child will be the soul of the man; and that child's soul is of the same wealth as the soul of the mightiest monarch. In the sight of God it is the same, because its lifetime is eternity. It is, in a sort, a finite infinite; for whatever has eternity annexed to it has a kind of infinitude belonging to it.

But remember also, that each little child placed beneath your kind care on the Sabbath morn, has been redeemed at the price of that blood which is emphatically styled "the blood of God." Look at that little one in the light of Gethsemane and Calvary, and say can you esteem it lightly or indifferently? But remember still further that "their angels do always behold the face of your Father, which is in heaven," and therefore "take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones." If God sends angels down to minister to the lambs of his fold, what honor and dignity, and privilege is it that you should be fellowworkers with angels-fellow-workers with the hosts of heaven. 36-VOL. VI.

No. II. THE HIGH PURPOSE AND AIM.

2. But suffice us to remind you further, of the high purpose and aim that ought to be kept steadily in view in your interesting undertaking.

Except the aim be single, the whole work will be defective. Unless you aim high, you cannot expect the blessing of God, and therefore you cannot anticipate that success shall crown your labours. What then is the purpose of all christian education, and pre-eminently of Sunday School education? It is to train an immortal and fallen, yet redeemed being, through grace unto glory. Every child brought beneath your care is to be regarded as dead in Adam, but as capable of being made alive in Christ, as "by nature a child of wrath, and heir of hell, but through the redemption that is in Christ called to be a child of God, and an heir of heaven, nay as sealed and signed in the visible covenant to be a "member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." You are, therefore, to train and to teach, not professed heathens, but professed christians, and to seek that they may know so soon as they are able to understand the solemn vow, promise and profession to which they are pledged, "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," and obedience to all the commandments of their Father in heaven. Then indeed, will the covenant, of which baptism was the seal, stand fast, and be with them, "an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure," which shall be "all their salvation and all their desire." What a beautiful sight is a well ordered, tranquil, hallowed Sabbath Seminary, viewed in this light as a nursery for heaven, where those that name the name of Christ, and are to be regarded as solemnly dedicated to Christ, are brought to together that they may be taught to know him, whose name they bear, and learn to be His faithful soldiers and servants, fighting manfully under his banner, against sin, the world and the Devil, even to their lives end.

No lower aim, then, should be kept in view by the christian teacher in the Sunday School, than that the child may be "in Christ a new creature, old things passing away and all things becoming new." Everything short of this is short of Salvation, and everything short of Salvation is short of Heaven. It is well that the child should be influenced morally, influenced socially, to have the mind stored with holy precepts, and with "Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," but all this is but the means to the end. The end is, the renewal of the child in the image of God, its acceptance in righteousness to Jesus, its meekness for the "inheritance of the saints in light." Ever keep this steady before the eye of your soul, my beloved "fellow helpers" of the church of Christ, in that tender, endear