The Rise of the Sunday School / 115

mean that sooner or later English would become the language of the church service. Amstutz answered the opposition by emphasizing that Bible teaching would be carried on in the German language. By 1883 a new church was built and twelve classes had been formed. Rather interesting is the fact that teachers and choristers served in this Sunday school who were members of other denominations. German classes lingered till 1924 though the transition to English was well under way long before that date.

The coming of the Sunday school to the Sonnenberg Church took place as a division occurred in the congregation over the question of the church's role in education. Apparently some of the Sonnenberg congregation favored the support of the "Oberholtzer faction" which arose among the Mennonites of eastern Pennsylvania in 1847. This included donations to an institution of higher learning at Wadsworth, Ohio. Dissent arose in the congregation on the issues involved and those favoring the Wadsworth institution formed the Salem Mennonite Church near Dalton where they started a Sunday school in 1886. This Sunday school attracted youth from the Sonnenberg Church with the result that this church also started its own Sunday school (exact date unknown) which became "evergreen" probably in the winter of 1892-93.

The Martins Church in Wayne County organized its Sunday school in 1880."' Apparently young people from the congregation had been attending a Dunker Sunday school at Fountain Hill, and activities in connection with this did not satisfy certain members of the Martins congregation. A more positive reason was the feeling of many that a program of Christian nurture of youth was definitely needed.

Growth in Many Communities

Sunday school at the Beech congregation in Stark County dates from about 1881. Opposition to it was strong for a while and it was discontinued only to be reopened permanently in 1888 with Jacob Schmucker and Michael Maurer as superintendents. Though teaching of German was one of the purposes of the Sunday school, here as elsewhere the transition to English was going on. However, the decline in the use of German was gradual. Despite the fact that J. A. Liechty was ordained to preach in English in 1903, the use of German continued among some of the older persons until as recent as 1934.