Sunday School, by George

 

Editor’s note: George L. Hepp, long-time and beloved Sunday School Superintendent, passed away on Saturday, 10 July 1926, at the age of 61.  Memorial services were held at the church the next day during the Sunday School hour and at his home on the following Tuesday.  The typescript of this eulogy by Henry T. Muth was found in the Archives files.  Spelling, punctuation, and grammar are reproduced as they appear in the original. Handwritten surnames inserted into the text are indicated by italics and brackets.

"Attendance last Sunday 328." That is what it says on the bulletin board tucked away next to the Sunday School honor rolls hanging in the north east room on the third floor of the Brother's House. It must have been too hot or too cold for the lukewarm members to venture out on this day for surely with a total enrollment of 641 including the "Home Department" and the "Cradle Roll" the ordinary attendance figure would be much higher.

George L. Hepp was thirty two years of age in 1896 when he became Superintendent of the Lititz Moravian Sunday School which he would nourish for thirty prosperous years. "Mr. Hepp" as he was addressed by everyone was not overpowering but he was gifted with blessed assurance, a vital trait in a leader.

In the business world Mr. Hepp was a vender of "Diamonds, Watches and Fine Jewelry" at 21 East Main Street, the store with the largest glass show window in town. Because of its unique dressing this show window arrested the attention of even the most casual passerby and on days when you should attend Sunday School, a funeral, or celebrate a worthy holiday, the window's blinds were respectfully drawn signifying the occasion.

Mr. Hepp conducted our Sunday School with equal circumspection never overlooking the slightest detail that might aid in promulgating the gospel.

Happily in Mr. Hepp's time parents knew what was best for their children and so it was a rare child that was not enrolled in the "Cradle Roll Department". Soon after learning to walk and talk the "Cradle Rollers" found themselves sitting on the front benches in Miss Ella's [Buch] "Primary Department" at one thirty on a Sunday afternoon listening to the grand Sunday School orchestra under the leadership of Mr. Hepp playing an inspiring overture for the days session.

At the conclusion of the overture Mr. Carper dutifully appeared from the far side of the dais carrying a long wooden pole with a hook on one end. From long experience Mr. Carper would deftly hook the handle on one of the two rolled up wooden partition blinds seperating the east wing or "Primary Department" from the main room. With a mighty tug Mr. Carper pulled the blind to within arms reach, then grasping the large brass handle in his hand he continued the door's downward course crashing to the floor with a resounding bang. Those whose attention was elsewhere were now alerted to the activity at hand and fixed their eyes upon Mr. Carper's repeat performance on the second door.

With the seperating wall in place the "Primary Department" under Miss Ella's leadership continued their own program of Sunday worship. Very often this program was highlighted by Miss Maggie's [Bricker] intriguing gesticulatory recital of the Twentythird Psalm at which every member of the "Primary Department" became proficient before graduating to the "Intermediate Department".

Having progressed to the "Intermediate Department" which entitled one to sit up front in the main auditorium there was no further need of paternal persuasion to maintain Sunday School attendance. Here with the boys classes on the right side of a central aisle and the girls on the left we sat in the center of all action. This was not revival action, rather and more lasting, it was action in learning about and understanding the Bible as taught by Mr. Hepp and his disciples.

When the Sunday School orchestra with an average membership of twenty finished the days overture Mr. Hepp extended greetings and made announcements while Mr. Carper was proceeding with the ritual of closing off the "Primary Department". Mr. Hepp then called on some worthy teacher or visitor to offer an opening prayer following which Mr. Hepp read the daily text and the scripture lesson.

Next we pupils aided by our teachers rearranged the teachers chairs and pupils benches to form isolated cubicles for the teaching of the lesson. With everyone doing their part this noisy operation took less than a minute and while our teacher marked the attendance record our class treasurer passed the offering tins, one for current expenses and one for foreign missions.

Taking assigned turns in reading aloud the alternating light and dark printed paragraphs in our "Quarterlies" depicting the days lesson was the founding of the days session and we would soon drift into discussion led by our teacher. Sometimes our teacher would present personal experiences in expounding on the days text. Naturally any relation by our Sunday School teacher was accepted as gospel and now in retrospect it is easy to understand how and why we formed lasting opinions of our teachers.

The ringing of a chorus of strategically placed electric bells powered by wet cell batteries on a shelf in the Sunday School secretary's office signaled a warning followed in four minutes by a second ringing terminating the lesson session.

With the benches and teacher's chairs returned to normal position we all joined in singing a Sunday School hymn accompanied by the orchestra conducted by Mr. Hepp. While we loudly sang the last verse of the hymn Mr. Hepp adroitly lowered the overhead roller mounted, map of the Bible lands, and the chart with the names of the books of the Bible and other revelent facts. Finishing the hymn Mr. Hepp laid aside his musical baton in favor of the great baton, (a bamboo fishing rod) long enough to reach the extremities of either map or chart suspended from the ceiling.

Quickly tap taping on Peter's name Mr. Hepp brought our attention to the chart saying, "Let us begin by naming the disciples." and off we would go, "Peter, Andrew, James, John, James the lesson, Jude, Simon, Matthew, Thomas, Philip, Nathaniel, Judas." I just learned from Mary Rice the other day that it is "James the lessor." not lesson, oh well.

Mr. Hepp then presented his version of the day's lesson using the map and chart where applicable and often resorting to legerdemain, such as clearing the black water in a glass fish bowl with a simple tap of his magical baton; indicating the power of just a drop of righteousness to clear the blackest bowl of iniquity. O that today's statesmen had attended our Sunday School.

There were sessions when Mr. Hepp would omit presenting his version of the day's lesson to favor a discourse by one of our missionaries home on leave. Or as on the Sunday nearest to Memorial day Captain Heitshu of Kissel Hill dressed in his Civil War uniform orated to us about the evils of the conflict. So too on Temperence Sunday Miss A. Virginia Grosh, president of the local W. C. T. U. brought us a message on the dangers of intoxicants. Her portrayal of the poisons in alcoholic beverages by suddenly exposing a large goblet filled with snakes (paper that is) was always convincing enough for us to sign the pledge for another year.

Finally the closing exercises were punctuated with a rousing hymn while the secretary Mr. Kautz posted the day's challenging attendance and contribution figures on the board hanging on the wall by his office door next to the stage. It is remarkable that during the years I watched Mr. Kautz perform this task he was never caught short by Mr. Hepp's crisp offering of the benediction followed by the orchestral recession.

Our Sunday School boasted a free lending library with three librarians Miss Buch, Mr. Grube, and Mr. Breneman. Here we borrowed "Black Beauty", "Beautiful Joe", the series by Horatio Alger and all the books about "Tom Swift" and his doings.

Members of Mr. Hepp's Sunday School accepted every Sunday as special but better than that Mr. Hepp had extra special Sundays such as Easter Sunday when everyone attending received a potted blooming hyacinth to take home. On Mothers day everyone received a red carnation if your mother was living or a white carnation if the parent had passed on. It is to be remembered that Mr. Hepp's carnations still had that nose tingling cinamon aroma not common in the hybrids of today. Rally day when each class tried to have a hundred percent attendance was celebrated with an inaminate award such as a decorated book marker or a particularly ornate Rally day badge.

Christmas Sunday with its special exercises could be the most memorable Sunday of the year especially if your class was chosen to take part in the program and you had a memorized speech to say up on the stage in front of all those people. Was there ever a Sunday School child who missed this quaking experience?

Greater than the entertainment of the Christmas program were the lavish gifts presented to each attendant during the singing of the closing hymn. These gifts repeated year after year consisted of a large orange from the far away southlands and a pictorially printed paper box shaped like Noah's Ark filled with solid chocolate animals made at the "Ideal Chocolate Factory" in Lititz. There are still Moravians in Lititz who extoll the delightful taste of sucking an orange while a chocolate bear slowly disolves in your mouth.

Beyond the celestial rewards gained by consecutive attendance at Sunday School we were awarded quarterly badges which, up front before the whole Sunday School, were pinned on to our left breast pocket. After the first year of perfect attendance the awards came farther apart although of different quality such as silver, gold, and finally a diamond pin was awarded to the Haisch boy who after his sixtyfour quarters of perfect attendance had long since gained manhood. That was the day we sang a special hymn while Mr. Haisch walked up front to have Mr. Hepp joyously affix the diamond studded award to his lapel.

This was the era when it was the fashion for churches to hold or relate to revival services and in Lititz these services were usually conducted by a popular itinerant preacher such as Billy Sunday or Sunny Jim both of whom served in Lititz accompanied by their vital song leaders and pianists.  Mr. Hepp conducting a certified "Front Line Sunday School" sometimes yielded to congregational pressure and invited a visiting evangelist with his song leader and pianist to conduct a Sunday School session during their stay in our community.

Except for the excitement of having our sedate hymns sung louder and faster than customary and sitting gaping at the clouds of dust the obese song leader with his size fourteen foot pounded from the carpet covered stage as triumphantly we sang, "He is trampling out the vintage -," there were few if any unordained converts gained at these session. Perhaps these evangelists with their song leaders and pianists had a place in the scheme of things but certainly it was not in Mr. Hepp's Sunday School.

It is still distressing to recall our twelve year old classmate Gene's dilemma during one of these evangelistic sessions. We were all standing for Jesus and singing about His softly and tenderly calling "Come home, come home," when Gene with a bawl and burst of tears sat down, Embarrassed before our Lord not to mention the rest of the on-singing Sunday School scholars we classmates aided by our teacher Miss Sophie (Bricker) huddled over Gene urging him to stand again for Jesus.

The singers were finishing the next to last stanza when Gene stopped crying to say, "I want to stand for Jesus but my mother said I can't join church untill I'm thirteen and I'm only twelve." Proving her worth as a Sunday School teacher Miss Sophie quickly convinced Gene that he was not joining church by standing for Jesus but showing his intentions. And so with shining tears of joy in our eyes our whole class was able to stand for Jesus and softly and tenderly help to sing the last stanza.

During Mr. Hepp's time the Lititz Springs Park was owned and operated by the Lititz Moravian Congregation and so it was fitting for the Moravian Sunday School to have their picnic in the park. Here too as in the Sunday School Mr. Hepp's capable leadership made our picnics a success even though there were times when we had to cope with adverse weather. Often these Moravian picnics were preceded in the early afternoon by baptismal services for infants. These services took place at the head end of the park where Reverend Hagen used water from the bubbling spring.

Music for our picnic was played both afternoon and evening by "Beck's Band" under the leadership of Mr. Beck our erstwhile church organist and choirmaster. Of course there were the games, the nail driving contest, catch a live chicken, raw egg on a mouth held spoon race for the ladies while the men contested the eating of pie and watermellon and bag races. More exciting were the celebrated tub races propelled through the cold spring water in the head end of the park. After the last prize for the games was awarded and just before the picnic supper there was the great peanut scramble in which young and old alike participated.

After the picnic supper at which free coffee and icecream was furnished for all, Mr. Hepp aided by Mr. Carper and Mr. Zellers and using "Brazel's Superior Hot Air Balloons" entertained us with a balloon ascension. This ascension was a highlight of the day and took place seventy feet southwest of the stone arched bridge where today picnickers thrill to music broadcast from the band shell.

There in the tall grass Mr. Carper and Mr. Zellers placed their stepladders and climbed high enough to hold the top of the unfolded red, white, and blue striped eight foot paper balloons to each of which Mr. Hepp attached a different biblical message after first reading them to us.

Next kneeling in the grass Mr. Hepp struck a barn-burner match on the flank of his trousers and carefully ignited the hot air generator in the base of one of the balloons. As the balloon filled with hot buoyant air Mr. Hepp held it close to the ground while Mr. Carper and Mr. Zellers straightened out the folds and then on a signal just before its seams burst they set the balloon free to carry our biblical message through the skies perhaps to some less fortunate soul in need of spiritual sustenance.

As the last of the usual six balloons drifted away in the sky darkness became apparent in the park and the members of the "Young Men's Sunday School Class" appeared carrying burning torches to light the way for the "Grand March". The march was led by Mr. Hepp, a color guard bearing our church and national flags, and then the band playing "Onward Christian Soldiers." followed by the picnickers singing and marching as to war. Having started at the bandstand which was north of the stone arched bridge our parade marched west to and around the head end of the springs and back on the south side of the creek to and across the stone arched bridge terminating at the bandstand, where standing on the top step Reverend Hagen pronounced the benediction.

Such was one of the thirty growing years under the dynamic and gratutious leadership by George.