118 / The Rise of the Sunday School

elected superintendent in 1889 and thereafter steady advancement was made by the Sunday school. C. Z. Yoder of Wayne County visited the school and made a helpful address. In 1873 the North Lima congregation voted for an "evergreen" Sunday school as did also Midway. Soon after this Leetonia voted for the same yearround program. Thus within a few years there were three "evergreen" Sunday schools where there had earlier been only one for about five months of the spring and summer.

The Maple Grove Church near New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, built a meetinghouse in 1872 and in the next year organized their Sunday school.'' The purpose of teaching the German language was uppermost at the outset. The usual hesitancy in accepting this new method prevailed for a while but in time this changed and in 1906 the school became a year-round institution. The use of the English language in the Sunday school had been introduced in 1896 and gradually spread to all the classes.

The Meaning of the Sunday School to the Life of the Churches

Much has been claimed for what the Sunday school movement did to bring new life to the Mennonite congregations. It is difficult to separate its influence from that of other movements of the same time which were related to it, e.g., the growth of literature, charitable activities, and evangelism. However, a few things can be said with relative certainty about the Sunday school movement and its influence in the churches.

1. It encouraged lay participation. Teachers were needed and they had to be recruited from the rank and file of the congregation. Heretofore the activities of the church were almost entirely in the hands of the , ministers. There is a real sense in which the Sunday school movement helped the churches to recover their original Anabaptist lay character and emphasis.

2. The temperance movement was encouraged by the rise of Sunday schools. While the movement against strong drink and narcotics had support outside of regular church channels the Sunday schools across the nation did much to reinforce it. The International Uniform Lesson Series gave regular attention to the problem by offering a quarterly temperance lesson. As the Mennonite Sunday schools came more and more to adopt these lessons, the temperance movement grew among them.

3. The Sunday school movement without question stimulated