So far as Sunday Schools help children, it is because of this spirit
of faithfulness, and not because of the form which it has assumed.

In choosing, then, whether you shall send your child to a Sunday
School, choose by the presence or absence of this spirit. If you know
the teachers of the Sunday School to be earnest, loving, and devoted,
you may with safety assume that their personal influence will make up
for what is archaic in their method of teaching. Where the spirit is
present only in a few, or where it manifests itself only occasionally,
as at seasons of revival, you may well hesitate to let your child
attend. A great improvement would come about if parents would show
a greater interest and encourage proper teachers to take charge of
classes. It is a thankless task at present.

[Sidenote: Theory Not Practice]

There is one great danger in the teaching of any Sunday School--one
which the best of them cannot wholly escape--and that is, that, in the
very nature of things, they teach theory and not practice. Harmful as
this may be, indeed as it surely is in adult life, it does not begin
to be so harmful as it does in youth, for the young child, as we have
seen, is and should remain a unit in consciousness. His life, his
intellect, and his will are one--an undivided trinity. The divorce of
these three is at any time a regrettable occurrence; the divorce of
them in early life is an almost irreparable disaster.

[Sidenote: Useless Truths]

The current theory is that children will learn many truths in the
Sunday School which they will not put into practice then, perhaps, but