SUNDAY-SCHOOL CONVENTION, INTERNATIONAL. 



659 



trained assistant, who will henceforth live in 

 England and carry on the work of building Gou- 

 bet submarines. 



When Admiral von Tirpitz was in the United 

 States, serving upon the staff of Prince Henry 

 during his visit, he said that Germany was not 

 ready to set her inventors at work upon subma- 

 rine boats, preferring to use all her constructive 

 ability in improving her battle-ships and cruis- 

 ers. Nevertheless, she is giving some thought to 

 the subject, and her first boat was delivered in 

 September, 1902. The details of its construction 

 have been kept secret, but it is understood that 

 it is built after a combination of the plans of 

 the Holland and Goubet types. It is a small 

 boat, about 35 feet in length, and was built in 

 the United States. 



France is experimenting, with as nearly abso- 

 lute secrecy as is possible, with her own inven- 

 tions, and during the year the Ministry of Marine 

 has given orders for several new types of boat. 

 They also announce the invention of a telescopic 

 periscope that enables them to survey the surface 

 from a depth of 15 meters. The maximum depth 

 permitted by the former instrument was 9 meters. 



During the naval maneuvers off Hyeres, in Au- 

 gust, 1902, on the French Mediterranean coast, 

 the submarine boats Gustave Zede and Gymnote 

 were sent out from the harbor to attack the fleet 

 representing the enemy. Traveling at a depth of 

 10 feet below the surface, they reached the fleet 

 and " torpedoed " 3 battle-ships, the crews of 

 which were unaware of the presence of the sub- 

 marines until the " torpedoing " was done. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL CONVENTION, IN 

 TEBNATIONAL. The tenth International 

 Sunday-School Convention met at Denver, Col., 

 June 26 to 30. The Rev. B. B. Tyler, D. D., of 

 Denver, was chosen presiding officer for the ses- 

 sions. The general secretary's report presented 

 a survey of the past three years of Sunday-school 

 work in affiliation with the convention. There 

 were now 85 paid workers in 45 associations. In 

 educational work, 1,300 normal classes had been 

 reported, Avith 14,000 -members, and the organized 

 work was in excellent condition. The organiza- 

 tion of the last State, Nevada, had just been 

 completed. More than 8,000 home departments 

 were reported. More than 125,000 members had 

 come into the churches from Sunday-schools dur- 

 ing the past year. Statistics were presented 

 showing that there were in the United States 

 139,520 Sunday-schools, with 1,414,589 teachers 

 and 11.462,414 pupils; in Canada, 10,220 schools, 

 82,156 teachers, and 685.870 pupils; in all North 

 America, including, besides these, Newfoundland 

 and Labrador, Mexico, the West Indies, and Cen- 

 tral America. 152.959 schools, 1.511,188 teachers, 

 and 12,297.405 pupils; and in the whole world, 

 254,401 schools, with a total membership of 

 25.8.~>6,582 teachers and pupils. A report of the 

 work done in the South under the direction of 

 the late Rev. L. B. Maxwell, field secretary, re- 

 lated to the organization of the international 

 work among nearly 2,000,000 colored people. The 

 Lesson Committee reported that the total expense 

 involved in its last three years' operations had 

 been met by 27 publishing houses, and that for 

 the next triennium $14.000 had been pledged by 

 individuals and delegations for the international 

 field. An important question was raised as to 

 the system to be followed in the selection of the 

 lessons for the ensuing term of three years. 

 Hitherto one uniform lesson for the whole school 

 had been used and studied in all the schools 

 affiliated with the convention throughout the 

 world; but a conviction had grown up among 



many persons interested in Sunday-school work 

 that this was not the wisest plan, and that a 

 graded system of lessons adapted to the age and 

 degree of advancement of different classes of 

 pupils would be preferable, with an elementary 

 series for the younger pupils, advanced courses 

 for the older ones, and lessons like those at pres- 

 ent in use for the intermediate classes. A begin- 

 ner's course had already been tentatively used, 

 satisfactorily, for one year. The report of the 

 Lesson Committee favored the adoption of the 

 graduated system, with the beginner's course, and 

 a course for advanced classes, dealing with the 

 prophetic, epistolary, and apocalyptic parts of 

 the Bible, and was accompanied with the outline 

 of an experimental course for two years. The 

 plan of the committee was not adopted by the 

 convention, except that it authorized the prepa- 

 ration of a series of special primary lessons. It 

 directed that " one uniform lesson for all grades 

 of the Sunday-school shall be selected by the 

 Lesson Committee as in accordance with the 

 usage of the past five lesson committees ; provided 

 that the Lesson Committee be authorized to 

 issue an optional beginner's course for special 

 demands and uses, such optional course not to 

 bear the official title of International Lesson. 

 Resolved, That at this time we are not prepared 

 to adopt a series of advanced lessons to take the 

 place of the uniform lessons in the adult grade 

 of the Sunday-schools. The Lesson Committee is 

 urged to consider how far a better continuity of 

 Bible study may be secured by alternating at 

 'longer intervals of one or more years the selec- 

 tions from the Old and New Testaments respect- 

 ively. Resolved, That this convention reaffirm 

 the instructions on the subject of temperance les- 

 sons adopted at Pittsburg and reaffirmed at St. 

 Louis and Boston." A committee was provided 

 for to consider what means should be taken in 

 the various States and provinces to secure the 

 reading of the Bible without comment in the pub- 

 lic schools. 



Notwithstanding this action, the friends of a 

 graduated series of lessons continued to urge 

 their views, and even to give formal expression 

 to them. The Executive Committee of the West- 

 ern section of the Presbyterian Alliance meeting 

 at Philadelphia in the later days of October in- 

 structed its Committee on Sabbath-Schools and 

 Young People's Societies to select a course of 

 Bible Lessons for advanced classes and present it 

 to the next meeting of the section for considera- 

 tion;, and this committee, at its meeting, Nov. 

 13, appointed a subcommittee to prepare the 

 course. 



The Council of Seventy of the Institute of Sa- 

 cred Literature in November published a call for 

 a national convention to consider methods for 

 improving the efficiency of Bible teaching in the 

 Sunday-school, the home, the college, and else- 

 where. In its resolutions it declared " that the 

 religious and moral instruction of the young is 

 at present inadequate and imperfectly correlated 

 with other instruction in history, literature, and 

 the sciences; that the Sunday-school, as the pri- 

 mary institution for the religious and moral edu- 

 cation of the young, should be conformed to a 

 higher ideal, and made efficient for its work by 

 the gradation of pupils, and by the adaptation 

 of its material and method of instruction to the 

 several stages of the mental, moral, and spiritual 

 growth of the individual; and that the home, the 

 day-school, and all other agencies should be de- 

 veloped to assist in the right education of the 

 young in religion and morals." 



Assuming that this improvement in religious 



