THE SABBATH SCHOOL TEACHER: DESIGNED TO AID IN ELEVATING AND PERFECTING THE SABBATH SCHOOL SYSTEM. BY REV. JOHN TODD, AUTHOR PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA: NORTHAMPTON: PUBLISHED BY J. H. BUTLER. PHILADELPHIA: W. MARSHALL & CO. JUL 12 1939 BV1520 .70 HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION MONROE C. GUTMAN LIBRARY Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by J. H. BUTLER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. ΤΟ SAMUEL H. WALLEY, Esq., ОР BOSTON, AT WHOSE EARNEST SOLICITATION I COMMENCED THIS WORK,— IT IS NOW MOST RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. REV. JOHN TODD, Philadelphia, March 31, 1837. Pastor of First Congregational Church. REVEREND AND DEAR SIR, By the unanimous vote of the Teachers of your church, I am directed to express to you their grateful acknowledgements for the instruction received from your course of lectures lately delivered to them, and with much earnestness to urge their immediate publication. I am most happy in being the medium of communicating to you the above request, and respectfully add my own solicitation, that Sabbath School Teachers throughout the world, may possess themselves of this complete system of Christian education, and thus advance the Redeemer's kingdom, by carrying into practice the useful hints contained in your instructive lectures. I am, Reverend Sir, Yours, in christian bonds, M. B. DENMAN, 4 PREFACE. THOSE Who know the difficulties to be encountered in writing upon the subject treated of in this book, will charge me with great boldness for the attempt; while those who do not know these difficulties, so far from being able to conceive them, will feel that the field is boundless, the materials abundant, and that nothing could be easier than the making a book satisfactory to every body. One word will sum up the difficulties,the ground is too new. On most other subjects, we have the experience and the wisdom of the great, and the wise, perhaps of ages. They are matured and registered on the printed page. But to this subject no one mind has devoted its undivided attention and its unwearied energy, with a view to aid others by its investigations. What has been given to the public, has been by men who commenced their labors in the dark, and felt their way along as well as they could, picking up such hints as the periodical press of the day afforded. This department of benevolent enterprise is nearly new in the church, and the years of experience which she has had, have been too few to perfect or mature the system. The reader will find in these pages, not all that he could wish,—perhaps not all that he might reasonably expect;—but I have done all that I could, to aid the Teacher, and more than I should have dared to promise, had I known, when commencing, into what a region of chaos I was about to plunge. Let the reader remember that |