DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION Board of Trustees, 1911-1914. E. K. Warren, Chairman. Dr. George R. Merrill, Secretary. W. N. Hartshorn.. H. J. Heinz. Dr. George W. Bailey. A. B. McCrillis. A. H. Mills.. W. C. Hall.. N. B. Broughton. Dr. H. M. Hamill.. H. P. Crowell. Three Oaks, Mich. Middletown, Ohio . Minneapolis, Minn. Chicago, Ill. .Boston, Mass. .Pittsburgh, Pa. .Philadelphia, Pa. .Providence, R. I. .Decatur, Ill. .Indianapolis, Ind. .Raleigh, N. C. . Chicago, Ill. ...Corinth, Miss. .Toronto, Ont. Nashville, Tenn. .Brooklyn, N. Y. ...Omaha, Neb. Washington, D. C. .Fullerton, Cal. ....Chicago, Ill. TRIENNIAL SURVEY OF THE WORK. 1908 to 1911. BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. W. N. HARTSHORN, Chairman. [This report as distributed at San Francisco was illustrated by a picture of a passenger train of seven cars and engine. The cars were placarded with the names of the various denominations and the whole train was labeled "The International Sunday School System." We greatly regret that the cut could not be adapted to these pages.-ED.] The International Sunday-school System made its survey, finished its grade, completed its track, and equipped and operated its first train from Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1872. Mr. B. F. Jacobs, Chicago, discovered the route and was the Superintendent of the Promotion and Construction Department. Rev. John H. Vincent early became his associate. This System has over 28,000,000 stockholders, located all over the world. It is now giving special attention to its "Grades." Also, to straightening its curves and introducing safety signals. The International Sunday-school System, either by its direct line or its branches, aims to reach every Sunday-school on this continent. It is now making surveys to extend its lines around the globe. Its trains are splendidly equipped. Day coaches only. An approved Guide Book has been adopted. Interpreters accompany each train. Each passenger hears the Guide Book interpreted in his own tongue. It may be Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, or any one of the more than twenty other tongues. The International Sunday-school System has more than 16,000,000 regular patrons; a President and board of ninety-six directors who command the services of more than 1,600,000 local and traveling agents who represent the system at over 173,000 stations in the United States and Canada. At each station is a reservoir into which has been gathered material which is available for the use of every station agent along the line. The dividends are paid "on demand" and average a full hundred per cent. The International Sunday-school System of Lessons is Uniform and Graded. One-half billion copies of Lesson Helps are issued annually. Millions of dollars are invested by the different publishers. The Bible is the text-book. The yearly product of Bibles and parts of Bibles is approximately 50,000,000 copies. The total issues of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society have exceeded 300,000,000 volumes. The Bible in whole, or in part, is printed in 526 languages and dialects. The train represented, in its make-up, some of the denominations cooperating to produce and distribute annually more than half a billion copies of the International Lesson Helps used by the Sunday-schools throughout the world. The denominations furnished the men who discovered the Uniform Lesson system, and who promoted its adoption in 1872. From the first Lesson Committee to the present, which is the seventh, its membership has represented the scholarship as well as the leadership of the great denominations. The denominations have presented some of their choicest men for this service. B. F. Jacobs and Dr. (now Bishop) John H. Vincent were leaders in the Baptist and in the Methodist Church; A. E. Dunning represented the Congregational Church; Dr. John A. Broadus, the Southern Baptist; Dr. John Potts the Canadian Methodist; Dr. Alexander G. Tyng, the Episcopal Church; and Mr. John Hall, the Presbyterian. In the development of the organized Sunday-school work, whose unity was made possible by the adoption of the Uniform Lesson system, men from the foremost ranks of the denominations have been commissioned to become leaders in the continent-wide service. The International Sunday-school Association is strong and helpful only so far as it has the intelligent, loyal and enthusiastic confidence and coöperation of the denominations. It cannot exist as a separate entity, apart from its relations to the various denominations. The International and World's Associations, through their multiform agencies, gather into common reservoirs, the tested plans, principles and methods of the Sunday-schools of the world, and through thousands of living "pipe lines' distribute them to the individual schools, so that the most remote or isolated school is brought in contact with world forces. That which is the discovery of each denomination or school also becomes the property of all. Because of this force and power of the denominations and the necessity of close, vital relationships, we welcome the organization of the "Sunday-school council of Evangelical Denominations," representing the leading denominations of the continent. Through this organization, which is very fraternal, the International Association can maintain, by conference and counsel, desirable relations with the denominations. Some of the misunderstandings of the past may be corrected, and mistakes of plan and policy may be avoided in the future. At Buffalo, N. Y., March 11, 1911, an important conference was held, between three representatives of the "council" and three members of the International Committee, to consider matters of common interest, concerning which there had been some misunderstanding. The conference was brief, brotherly and beneficial, and we believe will mark the beginning of a new era of helpful coöperation. Just so far as these conferences may be continued will the work of the International Sunday-school Association, in respect to the coöperation of the denominational forces, be strengthened and advanced. During the three trienniums since the Denver Convention, we have endeavored to utilize the great forces and factors that center in a carefully planned and "thought-out" conference. Perhaps the most potential of these conferences have been held in Winona, Ind., in Boston and in Clifton, Mass. The Winona Lake Conference of 1903; the Clifton Conference of Lesson Editors in 1905; the Boston, or "Fenway," Conference in 1908; of the Lesson Committee, the Lesson editors and writers, publishers and educators, representing a constituency of 13,000,000; and the conference in 1908 at Clifton, of fifty white and twenty-five colored men to consider the moral and religious education of the negro, are perhaps the most notable of these conferences. The conference at Clifton in August, 1908, was declared by one of the leading white men of the South to be "a gathering of more intelligence and experience on the question of negro education than was ever assembled before in this country." Similar conferences have been held in many southern cities, on the problems of the moral and religious education of the negro," and new ways of helpful service have been discovered. We expect that plans will be considered and adopted at San Francisco that will accomplish much in the solution of these problems. We believe that semi-annual "conferences" between the trustees of the International Association and the denominational leaders should be held, and that no plans that are vital in Sunday-school work should be entered upon or undertaken by one force without the knowledge and coöperation of the other. We believe that there should be, at least, an annual conference between the Trustees, our International Secretaries and Superintendents, and all State Secretaries, and representatives from the State Executive Committee. Through these conferences the combined wisdom and experience of these forces could be utilized for the improvement of methods of the work carried on by each state. The wisdom and experience of each would become the valuable asset for all. We believe that there should be, at least, an annual conference of the International Secretaries and Superintendents, with all the denominational State or District Secretaries. For instance: One of the largest denominations employs eight or ten Secretaries. In the states where these Secretaries are employed, and the state interdenominational work is established, there is probably much duplication, and instead of being constructive and coöperating, the work is naturally more or less competitive. Conferences like these will do much to avoid the waste that now prevails. The denominational boards should also be invited to these joint conferences. While, much has been achieved in the conferences held during the last two trienniums, there yet remains much more to be done. When Mr. Jacobs wished to introduce the Uniform System of Lessons, and secure the study of the same topic, and the same text, by all the schools all over this continent, he made his first appeal to the denomination, and the denominational press. There were no other agencies he could so well employ to accomplish his purpose. We are more and more convinced that in the universal use and permanency of any lesson system in this country, or the adoption of standards and methods for education, we must keep in intelligent and close relationship with the denominations. The denominations are permanent-they are abiding and have authority-and now that they are organized, within themselves, they are the most powerful agency in the world for the accomplishment of the things for which the International Association was created. An intelligently planned conference, where all difficulties can be considered, becomes a royal highway, along which all the Sunday-school agencies of the world may pass safely and keep step together. We may profitably inaugurate conferences with the pastors' meetings, which are usually held on Monday, of each week, with the theological seminary presidents and faculties, with college presidents, and with many organizations that exist for the moral and the religious training of the youth and young manhood of this continent. It is fitting that we should quote here, the words spoken by President Taft, in the World's Sixth Convention, Washington, D. C., May 19, 1910: "No matter what views are taken of general education, we all agree-Protestant, Catholic and Jew alike—that Sundayschool education is absolutely necessary to secure the moral uplift and religious spirit."' Let us all get aboard the International Sunday-school System Train. The General Secretary's Report THE GOLDEN GATE. Many conventions assemble at the Golden Gate, but none of them more appropriately than this one, representing the Sunday Schools of North America, for "The Sunday School is the Golden Gate to the Church's Promised Land.'' We are welcomed by our brethren of the Sunset State to a city which fire and earthquake could not destroy, and which has risen Phoenix-like from its own ashes, to lift its triumphant head in splendor and beauty, the pride of the Coast, the admiration of our Land, the surprise of the world. |