# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1900_S21
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1900. 21

[concern themselves with it]. And if then the possible good, blessed influence of the Sunday school is undermined by the secular weekday school, or even brought to nothing, what is to become of the poor children in the end?

In short, where in a congregation the Sunday school takes the place of the Christian weekday school entirely, the word of God in Col. 3:16 is not fulfilled: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly," for the children as for the old. To such a congregation the apostle's word to the congregation at Corinth does not apply: "In everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge, so that you are not lacking in any gift." 1 Cor. 1:5, 7.

Just in most recent times one hears also from the circles in which the Sunday school is the only religious educational institution many complaints about the great ignorance of the young in divine things. A few examples of this. The "Presbyterian" reported in the year 1897 that in a Presbyterian Sunday school in Los Angeles, Cal., consisting of 280 members, teachers and pupils, a prize was offered to anyone who without further preparation could recite the Ten Commandments without error. Four ventured it, none received the prize! The "Churchman," a paper of the Episcopalians, reports in its issue of 16 December 1899: At Harvard University a student put the question in the university question-box: "Where do I find something about Samson?" The answer was: "In the Book of Judges." The next day the first asked further: "Where do I find the Book of Judges?" and he had first to be told that it is a biblical book. At a high school for girls a pupil put the question: "What are the Ten Commandments, really, which I so often find mentioned in the poet Chaucer?" Through many newspapers there went some time ago the inquiries which Dr. C. F. Thwing, president of Western Reserve University, made. Of the 85 students to whom the questionnaire was put, a fourth knew nothing of the crown of thorns and of the manna; about 30 could give no information about the smiting of the rock, the angel who wrestled with Jacob, and Jacob's ladder; about 40 could not recall the story of Esau, Ruth, the mark of Cain and the angel in the empty tomb. Remarkably, all the girls except three could tell of Lot's wife and all except ten of the serpent, while 22 of the 34 young men knew nothing of either. Hezekiah's shadow remained insoluble to 75 of the 85, Jonah's gourd reduced 66 to silence, while Joshua's moon and Peter's linen cloth found 60 victims each.

One may gladly grant that from such examples of a truly hair-raising ignorance of biblical history, the main subject of Sunday school teaching, no conclusion fitting all Sunday school pupils can yet be drawn; still they show without any contradiction