1. =Representative Character.= The first test of a Sunday school is found in its relation to the community around it. The Sunday school is not a bed of exotic plants, dug up from their native soil, potted and protected in a conservatory. It is an outdoor garden wherein are cultivated the flowers and fruits that are indigenous to the region. A true Sunday school is a group of people drawn out of the larger world around it, and representing every element in that world, both as regards social life and age. If it represents the rich and the prosperous only, it is not a good school, unless the neighborhood is unfortunate in containing only such people. If it is a mission school for poor people in the midst of a self-supporting population, it is not a good school. If it includes few members above sixteen, and none above twenty-five years of age, it is not a good school, for it should embrace all ages from the infant to the grandfather. The school which is to stand on the roll of honor is one that fairly represents its constituency.
2. =Organization.= Another requirement for a good school is that it be well organized as a graded school. There may be Sunday schools which make up by their spirit for what they lack in system; yet the exceptions are few to the rule that in Sunday-school work organization is essential to success. It is true that machinery creates no power; there is nothing in a constitution and by-laws to make an institution successful. It is the efforts of living men and women that bring to pass results. But organization directs and economizes power; so that, other elements being equal, the graded school quickly becomes the best school. We have already seen that a graded school is one with departments defined, with the number of classes in each department fixed according to the needs of the school, with promotions at regular periods, based either on age or examination or merit, or on all three factors in combination, with lessons graded according to the departments, and, as its most important element, with a change of teachers when the pupil is promoted from a lower to a higher grade or department. The graded system is not easy to establish; it requires firmness and tact in the authorities, and a self-denying spirit on the part of teachers; but it will abundantly and quickly repay all it costs in effort and sacrifice, and it is an essential in a really good Sunday school.