The Boy and the Sunday School A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age Boys   By: John L. Alexander

A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age Boys

JOHN L. ALEXANDER

Superintendent Secondary Division International Sunday School Association Author and Editor "Boy Training," "The Sunday School and the Teens," "Boys' Hand Book, Boy Scouts of America" "Sex Instruction for Boys," etc .

=Introduction by= MARION LAWRANCE

General Secretary, World's and International Sunday School Associations

ASSOCIATION PRESS NEW YORK: 347 MADISON AVENUE 1920

COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEN WHO MUST FACE ALL THE PROBLEMS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TO THE MEN WHO HOLD THE KEY TO ALL THE LIFE AND PROGRESS OF THE SCHOOL THE SUPERINTENDENTS OF NORTH AMERICA.

INTRODUCTION

The Sunday school chapter of Church history is now being written. It comes late in the volume, but those who are writing it and those who are reading it realize as never before that the Sunday school is rapidly coming to its rightful place. In the Sunday school, as elsewhere, it is the little child who has led the way to improvement. The commanding appeal of the little ones opened the door of advance, and, as a result, the Elementary Division of the school has outstripped the rest in its efficiency.

Where children go adults will follow, and so we discover that the Adult Division was the next to receive attention, until today its manly strength and power are the admiration of the Church.

Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that the middle division, called the Secondary, and covering the "Teen Age," has been sadly neglected the joint in the harness of our Sunday school fabric. Here we have met with many a signal defeat, for the doors of our Sunday schools have seemed to swing outward and the boys and girls have gone from us, many of them never to return. We have busied ourselves to such an extent in studying the problem of the boy and the girl that the real problem the problem of leadership has been overlooked.

The Secondary Division is the challenge of the Sunday school and of the Church today. It is during the "Teen Age" that more decisions are made for Christ and against him than in any other period of life. It is here that Sunday school workers have found their greatest difficulty in meeting the issue, largely because they have not understood the material with which they have to deal.

We are rejoiced, however, to know that the Secondary Division is now coming to be better understood and recognized as the firing line of the Sunday school.

What has been needed and is now being supplied is authoritative literature concerning this critical period. Indeed, the Sunday school literature for the Secondary Division is probably appearing more rapidly now than that for any other division of the school.

This book is a choice contribution to that literature. It comes from a man who has devoted his life to the boys and girls, and who is probably the highest authority in our country in this Department. The largest contribution he is making to the advancement of the whole Sunday school work is in showing the fascination, as well as the possibilities, of the Secondary Division. We are sure this little book will bring rich returns to the Sunday schools, because of the large number who will be influenced, through reading its pages, to devote their lives to the bright boys and fair girls in whom is the hope, not only of the Church, but of the World.

=Marion Lawrance.=

Chicago, June 1, 1913.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Foreword 13

I The Home and the Boy 23

II The Public School and the Boy 32

III The Church and the Boy 37

IV The Sunday School or Church School 41

V The Boy and the Sunday School 48

VI Fundamental Principles in Sunday School Work with Boys 57

VII Method and Organization 62

VIII The Organized Sunday School Bible Class 74

IX Bible Study for Boys 93

X Through the Week Activities for Boys' Organized Classes 104

XI The Boys' Department in the Sunday School 120

XII Inter Sunday School Effort for Boys 135

XIII The Older Boys' Conference or Congress 138

XIV The Secondary Division or Teen Age Boys' Crusade 158

XV Sex Education for Boys and the Sunday School 176

XVI The Teen Boy and Missions 193

XVII Temperance and the Teen Age 202

XVIII Building up the Boy's Spiritual Life 208

XIX The Teen Age Teacher 215

XX Danger Points 265

XXI The Rural Sunday School 268

XXII The Relation of the Sunday School to Community Organizations 277

FOREWORD