Learning is a process which few, including me, fully comprehend. Experience is most often identified as the greatest of all teachers. Some say there are just two ways to learn: from our own experience and from the experiences or others. If it be more complicated than this my learning is over.

Everything I know or think I know I learned from my own experience or by listening to or reading about or seeing the experiences of others. Please do not ask me to quantify my learning. Learning is good. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" saith the Lord, Hosea 4:6. All learning, however, is not necessarily beneficial because the things we learn or do as a result may be derived from improper motives of self or others.

Sunday School is a case in point. When I was a youngster I cared not for any kind of school, Sunday School was no exception. I didn't care for public schools because they were compulsory. Compulsory learning is contradictory, i.e., is not of God, because it compels many to do who lack the capacity to do. Sunday Schools as such, have no biblical foundation in fact and are one of those things we learn from others. My Uncle John Lew was Supt. of Sunday Schools for over 75 years and had a perfect attendance record for one 50 year stretch during that time. He learned this from my Grandfather Lew Archer.

The modern system of protestant Sunday Schools, according to the American Educator Encyclopedia 1965 edition at page S-570, is the outgrowth of a movement begun by Robert Raikes of Gloucester, England. He became interested in the neglected children of his neighborhood and set up Sunday Schools for them and "hired" (emphasis mine) teachers to instruct them in reading, writing and religion. From this I suspect Sunday Schools are the outgrowth of a single charitable act by a single charitable man.

The same source as above relates, "The first organization of Sunday School workers (emphasis mine) in the United States was the American Sunday School Union (emphasis mine) organized in 1824. It was zealous in the work of establishing schools in all the states. Through its influence, 150,000 Sunday Schools were organized within the next hundred years. The Sunday School movement became interdenominational and international. It is represented by the World Sunday School Convention and the International Council of Religious Education."

It is my desire that all you Christian leaders out there who have put millions upon millions of young people throughout the world on a guilt trip for not attending Sunday School and paying their union dues-

Have a good week!