p. 118 | Sketches of Sabbath-School History: Early Lessons and Helps

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, February 24, 1885

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 62, No. 8

Sketches of Sabbath-School History: Early Lessons and Helps

By C. C. L.

SKETCHES OF SABBATH-SCHOOL HISTORY.—NO. 3.

The early Sabbath-schools had none of the helps which we deem so essential now. They had no maps, no class record books, no record books for the secretary, no system of reporting at all. They had no lesson books for the children; they had no music adapted to Sabbath-school use. Teachers had no weekly notes upon the lesson, nor articles of instruction in the REVIEW and Signs,—indeed the Signs had not then been thought of. The idea of carrying the message to the Pacific Coast had probably never entered the minds of the pioneers of the cause. The only helps the schools did have were the lessons published from time to time in the Instructor. The first series of lessons employed was that prepared by Eld. White for the first volume of the paper. Every number contained four lessons, one for each week. They comprised the subjects of the Sabbath, the Law of God, the Life of Christ, and the Second Advent. When the author had written nineteen lessons upon the subjects already named, and was about to write more upon the book of Daniel, he examined the “Berean’s Assistant,” prepared by J. V. Himes in 1844, and decided to copy from it a portion of the lessons on the book of Daniel. The lessons written by Eld. White were in the form of a synopsis, followed with questions; those from the “Assistant” were composed of questions, with references appended for obtaining the answers. These lessons from Daniel were seventeen in number. They were followed by four lessons from the New Testament, and afterward by eight comprehensive lessons upon the Sanctuary, by Eld. U. Smith, making fifty lessons in the entire series. There were also published during the year nine lessons for children.

For eight months, beginning with January, 1854, there were no lessons published. At the end of this time, Eld. W. wrote in the REVIEW as follows:—

“When we commenced the publication of the Instructor, we intended to furnish original Sabbath-school lessons, one for each week in the year. This we did do for several months; but poor health and other duties obliged us to give them up. We then gave the best lessons we could select from other works, but found it exceedingly difficult to obtain a series of lessons suited to the present wants of the youth. We feared the results,—that the children would lose their interest in their little paper, and that the Sabbath-school in some places might be given up. We have not lost our interest for the religious instruction and salvation of the youth, and feel resolved to do our duty in this department.”

“Bro. R. F. Cottrell has undertaken the work of preparing Sabbath-school lessons. Four of them are given in No. 8 of the Instructor [1854]. They are excellent. They contain sound reasoning from plain scripture testimony; and at the same time are simplified and brought to the capacity of children. Their value cannot be estimated.”

It is exceedingly interesting now to study these fifty-two lessons. They certainly merit the praise bestowed upon them by Eld. White, and must have been a great blessing to the Sabbath-schools. Bringing out as they did the most essential features of all that is embraced in the “commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” they formed just the matter needed by our people; and in 1855 they were republished in book form under the name of the “Bible Class,” and were widely used among the Sabbath-schools for a number of years. In 1858 the Battle Creek school had been through the book three times.

From the time Bro. Cottrell’s lessons closed in the Instructor of July, 1855, until February, 1856, no regular series of lessons was published. In the Instructor of the last-named date, a series of “Scripture Lessons” from the first epistle of John was begun. The series comprised twenty lessons, each lesson consisting of from three to five verses of Scripture in consecutive order. Other Scriptures were referred to in the questions; but they were all designed to throw light upon the four or five verses of the lesson. The shortness of the lessons gave opportunity for great thoroughness.

No more lessons were published until 1863; but each number of the Instructor contained “Questions for Young Bible Students,” which were used at least by the Battle Creek Sabbath-school, in general exercises. In February, 1863, a series of lessons was begun in the REVIEW for advanced classes. These lessons were prepared by Eld. U. Smith, and consisted of questions upon different points of present truth, being based upon standard publications of the REVIEW Office, which were used as text-books. The “History of the Sabbath” and “Thoughts on Daniel” were thus studied in thirty-two lessons, ending in November, 1863.

Up to this time the lessons prepared for Sabbath-schools had been too mature for children. Although some of them had been thought to be adapted to the child-mind, experience showed them to be “too heavy” for children to carry. A great want had long been felt for lessons written in a simple and pleasing manner upon Bible subjects that could be understood and appreciated by quite young children.

In the Instructor of September, 1863, a series of lessons was begun from the pen of Miss A. T. Patten, before referred to as one of the editors of the Instructor.

These lessons, from their remarkable scope and power, from their entire originality, pursuing a course never before marked out by S. D. Adventists, from their adaptability to a younger class of scholars than had been reached by the lessons hitherto written, deserve more than a passing notice. I do not know how a better idea can be given of the style in which they were written than by copying one entire, selected chiefly with reference to its brevity:—

“THE TEMPTATION.”

“Ever since Satan and his angels were shut out of heaven, he has been opposed to the will of God, and has tried every means to get mankind to sin. He does not want people to serve the Lord; for he knows that while they obey God he can have no power over them, to lead them to yield to his temptations. Satan came to Eve in the garden of Eden in the form of a serpent, and told her that it would be good for her to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, which God had commanded them not to eat or touch. He told her it would make them wise, and made her believe what he said. She yielded to the temptation and ate of the fruit; and then persuaded her husband to eat also. So they became sinners by breaking God’s commandments. It was very wrong for Eve to stop and listen to the words of the tempter. As soon as they had eaten the fruit their eyes were opened, and they knew that they had sinned. They then learned what sorrow was, and knew that they had brought it upon themselves by disobeying God. Let us remember that it is wrong to disobey God, even in little things; and that the Bible says— “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Jas. 4:7.”

Here follows a number of questions upon the lesson. Each lesson, like the above, had one plain pointed text to be committed to memory. The series reached 104 lessons. After a few preliminary lessons about God, Jesus Christ, heaven, and the angels, a regular, systematic course was pursued, beginning with the creation, dwelling upon the history of the flood, the lives of the patriarchs, and the experiences of the children of Israel, and taking up some of the most important Old Testament characters. The principal events in the life of Christ are then brought out, and lessons given upon his death, resurrection, ascension, and second advent, also upon the conversion, labors, and epistles of Paul; and the series closes with a short, clear, and simple statement of the plan of salvation. These lessons were well received by the Sabbath-schools, as they deserved to be; for they were an excellent series, and the best hitherto published for the children of our people.

In 1868–9 another series of lessons, written by

Joseph Clarke, was published in the Instructor. About the same course was followed as the series last described, only the subjects were taken up more minutely, and the series closed with the entrance of the Hebrews into the promised land.

These lessons were pursued under the form of supposed conversation or series of questions and answers between teacher and pupil.

We are thus brought to the close of the first period of Sabbath-school history, and here leave the subject, to be resumed under the history of the remaining periods. C. C. L.