PRINCIPLES OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE LECTURES
PRINCIPLES
OF
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED UNDER
THE AUSPICES OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL
COMMISSION OF THE DIOCESE OF NEW YORK
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
THE RIGHT REVEREND HENRY C. POTTER, D.D., LL.D.
Bishop of New York
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
LONDON AND BOMBAY
1901
Copyright, 1900,
BY
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
First Edition, November, 1900,
Reprinted, January, 1901 ; September, 1901
ROBERT DRUMMOND, PRINTER, NEW YORK.
PREFACE.
THE following Lectures were originally delivered
in the Autumn of 1899, in St. Bartholomew s Church,
Madison Avenue and Forty-fourth Street, New
York. They formed what was called "The Chris
tian Knowledge Course of Lectures on the Principles
of Religious Instruction. This Course was arranged
under the auspices of the Sunday-school Commission
of the Diocese of New York, which had been ap
pointed by the Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, D.D.,
LL.D., Bishop of New York, at the Diocesan Con
vention of 1898, to consider what steps should be
taken for the improvement of the Sunday-schools of
the Diocese. It had long been felt that our Religious
Schools were not all that they should be, either in the
Curriculum of Study or in the general Training of
the Teachers.
The Church has not advanced with the Day-
school along the lines of educational reform. The
study of pedagogical principles has been made an
essential in secular education, while the Church has
largely overlooked it, as applied to her Sunday-
schools; and almost completely ignored it in the
training of her Clergy. And she has done this,
in spite of the fact that in theory the Teaching
Function of the Church is her most ancient and
vi PREFACE.
characteristic one, lying at the very heart of her
commission.
The basic principle, therefore, underlying these
Lectures is that the Sunday-school is a school. Its
problems are educational problems. Its scope of
instruction, its curriculum, its text-books, charts,
maps, the equipment and training of its teachers, the
hours and times and places of its work, all these are
questions to be considered in the light of educational
principles. Hence it is important to consider Re
ligious Education first from the standpoint of acknow
ledged leaders in the cause of secular education.
This Course of Lectures, covering roughly the entire
field, each lecture presenting its own point of view,
and all converging on the one general object, was
arranged and carried out with the generous co-opera
tion of the following gentlemen : The Right Reverend
Wm. Croswell Doane, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of
Albany; the Very Reverend George Hodges, D.D.,
Dean of the Cambridge Divinity School ; Professor
Charles De Garmo, Ph.D., of Cornell University;
President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University; Pro
fessor Frank Morton McMurry, Ph.D., Professor of
the Theory of Teaching," in Teachers College,
Columbia University; Professor Charles Foster Kent,
of Brown University; and Professor Richard G.
Moulton, M.A., of Chicago University; together
with the following Members of the Sunday-school
Commission: Professor Nicholas Murray Butler,
Ph.D., LL.D, of Columbia University; Dr. Walter
L. Hervey, Examiner of the Board of Education,
New York, and former President of Teachers Col-
PREFACE, vii
lege; and the Reverend Pascal Harrower, Chair
man of the Commission.
The particular Topics covered by the Lectures
were The Relation of Religious Instruction to
Education as a Whole, " The Educational Work
of the Christian Church," "The Present Status of
Religious Instruction in England, France, Germany,
and the United States," "The Content of Religious
Instruction," "The Sunday-school and its Course
of Study, " " The Preparation of the Teacher,
"The Religious Content of the Child s Mind,"
* * The Use of Biography, " " The Use of Geog
raphy, " and "The Bible as Literature."
With deepest thanks to the learned gentlemen,
who by their aid and encouragement have made
possible the production of this Volume, and with the
earnest hope that it may prove of material benefit to
all who are interested in the work of Christian
Education, the Course of Lectures is now placed
before the Church and her teachers.
Members of tbe Commission.
Rev. PASCAL HARROWER, Chairman, West New Brighton, New
York.
Rev. WM. WALTER SMITH, M.A., M.D., Secretary, 25 West H4th
Street, New York.
HENRY H. PIKE, Esq., Treasurer, 134 Pearl Street, New York.
Rev. HENRY MOTTET, D.D. Rev. WM. L. EVANS, M.A.
Rev. JOHN P. PETERS, D.D. Rev. CHAS. A. HAMILTON, M.A.
Rev. E. WALPOLE WARREN, D-D. Rev. ERNEST C. SAUNDERS, B.D.
Rev. DAVID H. GREER, D.D. NICHOL AS M.BUTLER, Ph.D., LL.D.
Rev. WM. S. RAINSFORD, D.D. WALTER L. HERVEY, Ph.D.
Rev. LESTER BRADNER, Ph.D. CHARLES W. STOUGHTON, Esq.
INTRODUCTION.
THE occasion for the Lectures gathered in this
volume is one with which thoughtful men and
women can hardly fail to sympathize. No one who
takes into account the forces that make for the best,
whether in character or conduct, can be insensible
to the pre-eminent value, in their development, of
the influences that touch the deepest springs, and
find their sources in the highest inspirations. That,
I suppose, is the object of what we call education.
We have, in a child s mind, something ductile,
fluent, impressionable. His earliest perceptions and
apprehensions are apt to be its deepest, most deter
minative, if not always its most enduring ; and if so,
nothing can transcend the importance of the condi
tions, agencies, and instruments by which these are
made.
In this view it must be owned that the modern
Church has not adequately recognised its responsi
bilities nor improved its opportunities, as a teacher
of the young. There have been ages when that
office belonged almost exclusively to it, and when
its failures were due, not perhaps to its want of zeal,
but to its want of wisdom. To-day the conditions
X INTRODUCTION.
are quite different. Under republican institutions,
and with us in the United States, the functions of the
State as a religious teacher through an established
religion, have as most of us I presume believe, wisely
ceased. That fact ought undoubtedly to have awak
ened and stimulated the Church to increased en
deavours to supply what a Christian man must hold
to be fundamental to a right education, and which,
now, the Church or the family alone can give. Our
American situation, in other words, has lifted the
Sunday-school into a position of preeminent import
ance which, we must acknowledge has been but
feebly and imperfectly recognised.
Under these circumstances, the pages that follow
are opportune, and, I think they will be found, per
tinent and helpful. They are the fruit of various and
earnest thought, of large experience, and of a high
purpose. I am glad to believe that they will lift the
office of the Sunday-school to a higher plane in the
estimate of thoughtful people, and will open its aims
and methods to the more appreciative sympathy of
all who, whether as pastors, parents, or teachers, are
in any way responsible, to use an old phrase, for
" godliness and good learning " in the young.
HENRY C. POTTER.
CONTENTS.
i.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND ITS RELATION TO EDUCATION.
By NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, Ph.D.,
Professor of Philosophy and Education in Columbia University.
PAGE
True education a unitary force 3
" Education" defined. Adaptation to environment, and capacity
to control environment. Education first a matter of principle,
and secondly one of methods 4
Chief principle found in man s relation to environment. " En
vironment " defined as, man s physical surroundings, and that
accretion of knowledge, resulting in habit and conduct, called
civilization " 5
Environment both physical and spiritual. Spiritual environment
(civilization) divided into science, literature, art, institutional
life, and religious beliefs. All these necessary to education. ... 6
Religious training part of a general education. Its separation
from education an outgrowth of Protestantism and Democ
racy. Ethnic or racial religions include religious training in
education. So with Christianity before the Reformation.
Change and separation followed. Democracy assisted in school
secularization. Reduction of religious teaching to lowest pos
sible terms. Only the Bible, Lord s Prayer, and Hymn left.
The Bible thrown out as sectarian. Legislation against sectarian
instruction in State schools. Wisconsin decision against Bible-
reading. The Church and home circle the proper sources of
xi
Xll CONTENTS.
TACK
religious instruction. State schools and the Government alike
"Godless." This the American and French doctrines. Hence
all State education incomplete 6
Education not wholly a State duty. Family, Church, and social
factors. Though schools are secular, religious instruction still
necessary , I r
What are Church and family doing for education ? Is religion
important? Civilization unintelligible without it. Its univer
sality. Religion a part of Man s psychical being 12
Moral and civic instruction no substitute for religion. Absurd
results of contrary view in France. Confusion of religion with
ethics obscures both 14
Church, Sunday-school, and family the proper agencies. Sun
day-school part of general educational work. Combination of
small parishes. Teachers must be trained and paid. Their
labour educational, not philanthropic. Supervision by Sunday-
school Board. Course of study now too u pious." Wider scope
and gradation. Religion in education ; not religion and educa
tion. Radical but necessary changes 15
The alternative, religious ignorance. Examples in universities.
The key to the heart. Knowledge reacts on feelings. Benefits
of wide education. . 18
II.
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
By the Rt. Rev. WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE, DD., LL.D.,
Bishop of Albany.
Christ s Prophetic, Priestly, and Kingly offices the three func
tions of the Church. The Prophetic function illustrated by the
Sermon on the Mount. This mission that of the Church to
day. The Apostles work of imparting the Faith 23
" Teaching," in relation to rules of Faith and Life, defined. This
teaching the great Apostolic Mandate. St. Paul s labours. The
Church the great religious teacher to-day. Early Christian
Schools and their Influence 24
Extent of true Christ ion education. Scott Holland on the old
CONTENTS. xi 11
PAGB
(ireek masters of theology. The Church foremost in education
in the Middle Ages. The Church s work to-day inadequate.
Contrasts and contradictions in the Universities. Not so irre-
l : gious as depicted 27
Modern theologians weakness not the result of weakness in the
Faith itself. The great Verities of the Faith beyond all investi
gation. Never in antagonism with science, reason, or philoso
phy. No real conflict of Classroom and Chapel 31
Attitude of Church toward education a difficult problem. State
schools secular from necessity. Parochial schools inadequate.
Broad associations best for the student for later social environment 34
Problem met by Church Halls in Universities. How the Church
Hall would teach. Correlation of Science and Religion, Philoso
phy and Faith. The teachings of history, geography, and litera
ture 36
The Church s existing machinery chiefly the Sunday-school.
A modern makeshift replacing neglect of home and parents.
The Catechism the Church s basis of instruction. Duty of the
Clergy to train teachers. " Society for Home Study of the Holy
Scriptures " 39
The Pulpit as a Church organ for education. Not eloquence
needed, but teaching of Faith and Life The Old Word in
modern phrases 41
III.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY,
AND THE UNITED STATES.
By CHARLES DE GARMO, Ph.D.,
Professor of the Science and Art of Education in Cornell University.
Origin of religious instruction in English schools. Lancaster s
labours for the Dissenters. Bell s Church of England work.
Lancaster s scheme of paid and pupil teachers. Its failure 49
Government grants for voluntary schools. Failure of the sys
tem. Organization of Board schools. Religious instruction
made optional. Government inspection of secular education.
xiv CONTENTS.
PAGE
American schools unfavourably contrasted. Rise of the Sunday-
school system. Two systems of religious instruction side by side 52
In France no religious instruction in public schools. Weekly
holiday for denominational religious teaching 56
In Germany day-schools impart the religious teaching. Thor
oughness of the system. Curriculum broad and complete.
Critical spirit in the Universities. Difference in teaching for
scholars and for the masses. Religious feeling neglected. New
curricula now being formulated 56
The United States compared with Europe. Threefold purpose
of religious instruction. Deficiency of Christian knowledge com
pared with Europe. Superiority over Europe in Christian spirit
and Christian conduct. Improvements suggested. Better peda
gogical system needed. Arrangement of material for various
ages. Period of adolescence crucial. Wrong treatment after
adolescence 62
Reaction in England favours subjective spiritual life. Whitefield s
and Wesley s systems of religious exercises. Similar tendencies
in America. Need for wiser treatment. Man s relation to his
fellow men. Universal conditions, not accidental circumstances,
paramount. Improvement of Sunday-schools 7
IV.
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
By the Very Reverend GKORGH HODGES, D.D.,
Dean of the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass.
Content of religious instruction determined by its purpose. The
day-school, the private school, and the public school 79
Purpose of the Sunday-school to train Christians and Church
men. Parish work designed to build up Christian and Church
character 80
Content of religious instruction consists of Church material and
Character material. What constitutes Character material.
Church material. The light of personality. Church History 81
The distribution of material, or order of teaching. Found in the
CONTENTS. xv
PAGE
Sunday-school arid the Congregation. The Sunday-school and
its grades. Teaching in the Congregation 85
The Infant School. Small children have only memory and imag
ination. Teach what may be partly understood. Imagination
best appealed to through Bible stories. Systematic and graphic
teaching. Re-translation of Bible for children s minds 86
The Main School. Course of Instruction. The Catechism re
cited and explained. The Bible. The historical books. Teach
ing both content and contents. What may be omitted. The
Prayer Book taught by use. Sample Service. Special Ser
vices. Stereopticon exhibitions 89
The Congregation. Sunday Services. Need of systematic in
struction. Haphazard Preaching. The Preacher s studies.
The Confirmation Class. What the order of instruction should
cover. Mid-week Services. The young Minister s experiment
station. Definite Bible-study. Sunday evening Services. Ser
mon or Lecture. Requirements of a Lecture course 94
V.
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
By the Reverend PASCAL HARROWER,
Chairman of the Sunday-School Commission, Diocese of New York.
Principle underlying the present course of lectures. Church
school educational. Importance of education. Object of the
Church school. The school s work for civilization 105
History of the Church school. The child the pivot of society.
The Jewish estimate of childhood. Christ and the child. The
early Church and its ministry to children. Mutual relations of
preaching and teaching. Martin Luther. Archbishop Dupan-
loup. The ministry of catechizing. Pedagogical training of the
ministry 107
Preparation of a course of study. Church school more than a
Bible school. Curriculum a problem for trained educators. The
subject-matter, or lesson-material Hi
The Church Catechism. Errors in teaching 113
xvi CONTENTS.
PAGK
The Bible. International Sunday-School Lessons. Defects of
this and similar schemes. What the Bible is. Its educational
value. Bible-study in American colleges. Moral value of liter
ary Bible-study. The method of Jesus 114
Nature-study. Jesus near to the heart of Nature .... 121
Sacred geography 122
History. The "Free Church" Text Books. The Oxford
Manuals 123
Christian ethics. The contemporary Christ. First contact of
youth with the world. Responsibility of the Church 124
The Prayer Book and the Christian Year 125
Conclusion. The Church needs the aid of trained educators . . . 126
VI.
THE PREPARATION OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
By WALTER L. HBRVKY, Ph.D.,
Examiner, New York Board of Education; Former President,
Teachers Cpllege.
Primary assumptions as to function of teacher and teaching.
Three problems: Subject-matter; Pupil; Teacher 131
The Subject-matter. Two ways of learning and teaching : The
Poet s and the Philosopher s ways 132
The Poet s way. Power of dramatic imagination. Its use in
Bible-teaching. Illustration : SS. Peter and John at Beautiful
Gate of the Temple. Telling the story realistically. Illustra
tion : Story of "Cadmus" as told by Bullfinch, Addison, and
Hawthorne. Application of this method to religious teaching . . 132
The Philosopher s way. Getting at the meaning. Illustrations.
Danger of wrong interpretations. Precise meaning of every
paragraph to be sought 140
Directions for the study of any subject-matter. Buried meta
phors. Illustrations. Personal assimilation. Pupil s know
ledge of the subject. Catechism, etc., compared with the Bible 144
The Pupil. General principle in dealing with him. The prin
ciple applied. Ideas in pairs. Illustrations. Paraphrasing.
Appreciation of Roman history evidenced in modern slang. A
CONTENTS. xvn
PAGE
Biblical title-page. Special rule from general principle. Intro
ducing a subject to the class. Additional points of insight re
quired by teacher. Illustrated by Hamlet and Guildenstern.
An argument for child-study 147
The Teacher. Must distinguish between external and internal
authority. Must help the pupil to find the truth for himself.
Must set the Bible in its proper place. Must lay stress on Jesus
Christ in the child-life 154
General negations. What not said or meant 157
VII.
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
By G. STANLEY HALL, D.D.,
President of Clark University.
The study of child-development a recent movement. The child
the general type of the species. Difficult to observe laws of
child-growth in Sunday-school teaching 161
Principles of child-evolution. The stages passed through in all
animal formations. This law necessary to perfect humanity.
Froebel s doctrine. The corner-stone of the new pedagogy.
The coming of Christianity 165
The child s religious evolution follows same general law. Seen
in his fetish-worship and in his love of Nature and his personifi
cation of her. Natural religions also prove it 168
Importance of Nature-study in the Sunday-schools. Power of
Nature in all savage and primitive religions. Something of such
religions should be taught in Sunday-schools. Proper uses of
the Bible in teaching. Personal application of Christ s saving
grace should come later 172
Importance of the adolescent period of youth. Altruism the es
sence of religion. The end and aim of education. The time for
completing religious education. Cultivation and elevation of the
sentiment of love. Danger of neglect of these principles. Reli
gion must not be awakened too early. Precocity. Adolescence
and conversion. Science and the reality of sin. Degeneration.
xviu CONTENTS.
PAGE
Terrible effects of sin upon conscience. Bible shows close
connection with Psychology 178
Childhood the best period for teaching and training. Shown by
study of biology. Childhood the noblest humanity. The teach
ing best for children 186
VIII.
THE USE OF BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
By FRANK MORTON McMuRRY, Ph.D.,
Professor of "The Theory of Teaching," in Teachers College,
Columbia University.
The two fundamental principles of all instruction. Law must
control all instruction, religious or secular. Object of instruction
is to develop permanent interest 193
Importance of biography in religious instruction. Depends on
our aspect of the Bible. This must be decided before attempting
to teach. This decision equally important in day-school instruc
tion. Bible content, and hence Bible instruction mainly history 195
Selected summary of a biographical Bible instruction. This
treatment does not exclude Biblical literature or underlying
truths. Illustrations from the story of Joseph. History the
groundwork of this teaching 197
Reason for the biographical treatment of the Bible in teaching.
Tendency of children to personify everything. Geography, his
tory, Nature-study, and science now taught by personification
method 198
Why biography interests and holds the child. It gives facts cor
rectly. Therefore close relation is needed between the various
lessons. No such relation in present systems. Biography, be
ing concrete, appeals to children. Literature accepts this prin
ciple. Sunday- schools have ignored it, to their detriment.
Illustration of possible abuse. Proper relation of concrete to
abstract ten to one. Hence religious instruction should be main
ly by narrative. Biography forms good groundwork for other
CONTENTS. xrx
PAGE
facts. Helpful in reviews, and a good basis for examination of
teachers 201
Age best suited for study of biography. Teachers must deal
chiefly with facts 210
IX.
THE USE OF GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
By CHARLES FOSTER KENT, Ph.D.,
Professor of Biblical Literature and History in Brown University.
Biblical geography of utmost importance in any thorough study.
Its use in Sunday-schools. Makes history real. Geography
of Palestine moulded character and history of its people. In
geography past and present meet. How to make its results of
practical value. Importance in general education. Biblical
geography now incompletely taught. Importance of good
Sunday-school libraries 215
Suggested books for Sunday-school libraries. Palestine.
Egypt. Babylonia. Asia Minor 224
Wall-maps . 226
Palestine Exploration Fund. Maps and books 226
Divisions or departments of Biblical geography. Descriptive
geography: Palestine, Egypt, and Assyria. Physical geography:
Palestine, its six zones and rivers. Geological geography.
Commercial geography. Racial geography. Historical geo
graphy 227
How to study Biblical geography. Make its scope comprehen
sive. Study the earth in its relation to man. Geography but a
step to Bible -study 240
Does scientific study produce personal religious interest? Per
sonal faith seldom unsettled by it. New interest in the Bible and
its teaching is produced. College students taking elective Bible
courses. Increasing number of Bible students in universities.
Necessity of true scientific methods. 242
Samaria and Judea are merged rather than possessed of a true
boundary 248
xx CONTENTS.
X.
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE.
By RICHARD G. MOULTON, M.A.,
Professor of Literature in Chicago University.
PAGE
What literary study of the Bible is. Fundamental principle of
intimate connection between matter and form in literature.
Illustrated by Solomon s Song and the two views of its inter
pretation, the application of Bible verses, and the true literary
form of Psalm VIII 251
Three main forms of Bible-study: Devotional, Higher Criticism,
and Literary. Devotional : possible errors in interpretation,
with illustrations. Critical and literary, illustrated by Book of
Micah 258
Our right to a literary study of the Bible. Original form lost in
the "Age of Commentary. " Steps toward recovery of true form 265
How to study the Bible as literature. Necessity of suitable
printing. Present imperfect printing. Study by Books, not by
verses. Illustration from Deuteronomy. That Book chiefly one
of orations. Analysis of Deuteronomy. The principle enun
ciated. The Bible a library rather than a single volume.
Contents of the real Bible library 268
Literary study of the Bible. Three stages. The stage of
Stories, illustrated by Genesis. The stage of Masterpieces,
illustrated by Deborah s Song. The stage of Complete Literary
Groups, illustrated by Bible History in the Old Testament.
Analysis of the Pentateuch, illustrated by Bible Philosophy or
Wisdom. Analysis of the Books of Wisdom 277
General conclusion. 287
TOPICAL INDEX 289
I.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND ITS
RELATION TO EDUCATION.
By Professor NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, Ph.D., LL.D., of
Columbia University.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE I.
True Education a Unitary Process.
Definition of Education.
Educational Principles.
Environment, Spiritual and Physical.
Elements in Spiritual Environment or Civilization.
Religious Training merely part of Education as a whole.
Its Separation an outgrowth of Protestantism and Democracy.
Pre- Reformation Period.
Rise of Protestant Influence.
Democracy and Sectarianism.
State-supported Schools exclude Religion.
Supreme Court Decisions against Religious Training in State -Schools.
General American View.
View in France.
Family and Church supplement the State Instruction.
Place and Importance of Religion.
Universality of Religion.
Moral and Civic Instruction no Substitute for Religion.
The Work of the Sunday-school.
Its Organization and Methods.
Its Teachers.
Its Courses of Study.
Religious Ignorance seen even in Universities and Colleges.
Heart and Feelings best reached by developing Intellect and Will.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND ITS RE
LATION TO EDUCATION.
THE problems of what is called religious education
are part of the problem of education as a whole.
True education, as distinguished from the innumer
able false uses of the word, is a unitary process. It
knows no mathematically accurate sub-
J True ednca-
divisions. It admits of no chemical analy- tionauni-
sis into elements, each of which has a real tary process
existence apart from the whole. When stretched
upon a dissecting-table, education is already dead.
Its constituent parts are interesting and, in a way,
significant; but when cut out of the whole, they have
ceased to live. They are no longer vital, or truly
educational. For this reason I insist that while
there is and may be a religious training, an intellec
tual training, a physical training, there is no such
thing as religious education, or intellectual educa
tion, or physical education. One might as well
imagine a triangular or a circular geometry. We
do not at once feel the force of this statement,
because of our loose, inaccurate, and inexact use of
the word " education."
In my view education is part of the life-process.
3
4 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION.
It is the adaptation of a person, a self-conscious
being, to environment, and the develop-
SuSon, f ment of ca P acit 7 in a person to modify or
control that environment. The adaptation
of a person to his environment is the conservative
force in human history. It is the basis of continuity,
solidarity. The development in a person of capacity
to modify or control his environment gives rise to
progress, change, development. Education, there
fore, makes for progress on the basis of the present
acquisitions of the race. Its soundest ideals forbid,
as a matter of course, both neglect of the historic
past, and the blind worshipping of that past as an
, \ , idol. The importance of the past lies in its lessons
v\ for the future. When the past has no such lessons,
_jye forget it as quickly as possible. The survival of
a tendency, a belief, or an institution is evidence that
it is at least worth studying and that it must be
reckoned with. These tendencies, beliefs, and insti
tutions are studied and reckoned with for the purpose
of discovering their vital principles and of putting a
value upon them. The working out of those vital
principles is the future.
In this view, education is first and chiefly a matter
of principles. Then, and secondarily, it is a matter
of methods. The place, character, and function
Educational of religious training are to be settled, and
principles, on \y to ^ e settled, by reference to funda
mental educational principles.
The first of these principles, and one of the most
far-reaching, is discovered in framing an answer to
the questions, What is the present environment of a
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION. 5
human being ? What do we mean by the use of
the word environment, and what do we
Environment,
include in it, when we speak of it as that
to which education tends to adapt a person ? We
mean, I think, by the word "environment" two
things: first, man s physical surroundings, and,
second, that vast accretion of knowledge and its re
sults in habit and in conduct, which we call civiliza
tion. Natural forces play no small part in adapting
human beings to both elements of environment, but
the process of education is especially potent as re
gards adaptation to the second element, civilization.
Civilization man s spiritual environment, all his
surroundings which are not directly physical this it
is which has to be conquered, in its elements at
least, before one can attain a true education. It is of
the highest importance that we make sure that we
see clearly all the elements of the knowledge which
is at the basis of civilization, and that we give each
element its proper place in our educational scheme.
We may approach the analysis of our civilization,
or spiritual environment, from many different points
of view, and perhaps more than one classi- g iritual
fication of the results of that analysis may environment
be helpful. The classification which I
suggest, and which I have stated elsewhere in detail,*
is a fivefold one. It separates civilization into man s
science, his literature, his art, his institutional life,
and his religious beliefs. Into one or another of
these divisions may be put each of the results of
* See Butler, " The Meaning of Education," pp. 17-31.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION.
human aspiration and of human achievement. Edu
cation must include knowledge of each of the five
elements named, as well as insight into them all and
sympathy with them all. To omit any one of them
is to cripple education and to make its results at best
but partial. A man may be highly instructed and
trained in science alone, or in literature, or in art, or
in human institutions man s ethical and political
relationships or in religion, but such a man is not
highly educated. He is not educated, strictly speak
ing, at all, for one or more of the aspects of civiliza
tion are shut out from his view, or are apprehended
imperfectly only, and without true insight.
If this analysis is correct, and I think it is, then
religious training is a necessary factor in education
E li ion an< ^ mus t b e given the time, the attention,
training one and the serious, continued treatment which
division! of ifc deserves. That religious training is not
edncation, a t the present time given a place by the
side of the study of science, literature, art, or of
human institutions, is well recognised. How has
this come about ? How are the integrity and the
completeness of education to be restored ?
The separation of religious training from education
as a whole is the outgrowth of Protestantism and of
Its separa- Democracy. A people united in professing
tion an ont- . . .
growth of a religion which is ethnic or racial, or a
testant- na ti O n giving adhesion to a single creed or
Democracy, to one ecclesiastical organization, always
unite religious training with the other elements of
education and meet no embarrassment or difficulty
in so doing. During the undisputed dominance of
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION. ^
the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, education
not only included religious training as a matter of
course, but it was almost wholly confined to religious
training. Theology was the main interest of the
Middle Ages, and the theological interest
. Protestantism.
caused religious training to permeate and
subordinate whatever instruction was given in other
subjects. Music was taught, that the church services
might be well rendered. Arithmetic and astronomy
were most useful in fixing the Church Festivals and
the calendar. With the advent of the Protestant
Reformation all this was changed. Religion_was
still strenuously; insisjtgd upon .as a subject of study,
but the other subjects of instruction became increas-
.i .__ . . .--.--"... - . .
ingly independent of it and were gradually accorded
a larger share of time and attention for themselves
alone.
Protestantism, however, would not by itself have
brought about the secularization of the school, as it
exists to-day in France and in the United
States. Democj^fry and the conviction
that trTe support and control of education by the
state is a duty in order that the state and its citizens
may be safeguarded, have necessarily forced the
secularization of the school. Under the influence of
the Protestant Reformation and that of the modern
scientific spirit, men broke away from adherence to
a single creed or to a single ecclesiastical organiza
tion, and formed diverse sects, groups, parties, or
churches, differing in many details from each other
the differences, I regret to add, being far more
weightily emphasized than the more numerous and
8 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION.
more important points of agreement. When the
state-supported school came into existence,
State support ^ t t f re } igious diversity found ex-
of schools, *
pression in dissatisfaction with the teach
ing, under state auspices, of any one form of religious
belief. The first step toward the removal of this
dissatisfaction was to reduce religious teaching to
the lowest possible terms; and these were found in
the reading of the Bible, the recitation of the Lord s
Prayer, and the singing of a devotional hymn at the
opening of the daily school exercise. But even this
gave rise to complaint. Discussions arose as to
whether a single version of the Bible must be used
in these readings, or whether any version, chosen by
the reader, might be read. A still more extreme
view insisted that the Bible itself was a sectarian
book, and that the non-Christian portion of the com
munity, no matter how small numerically, were sub
jected to a violation of their liberties and their rights,
when any portion of the public funds was used to
present Christian doctrine to school children, even
in this merely incidental way. The view that the
state-supported schools must refrain absolutely from
exerting any religious influence, however small, is
one which has found wide favour among the American
people. It has led to more or less sweeping provi
sions in State constitutions and in statutes against
sectarian instruction of any kind at public expense.
A judicial decision on this subject of great interest
and of far-reaching importance is that rendered in
1890 by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, in the
case of the State ex rel. Weiss and others vs. the
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION. 9
District Board, of School District No. 6, of the city of
Edgerton.* In this case the essential ques- Wisconsin
tion at bar was whether or not the reading conrHe-
of the Bible, in King James version, in cision.
the public schools was sectarian instruction, and as
such fell within the scope of the constitutional and
statutory prohibitions of such instruction. In an
elaborate and careful opinion the court held that
reading from the Bible in the schools, although un
accompanied by .any comment on the part of the
teacher, is " instruction " ; that since the Bible con
tains numerous doctrinal passages, upon some of
which the peculiar creed of almost every religious
sect is based, and since such passages may reason
ably be understood to inculcate the doctrines predi
cated upon them, the reading of the Bible is also
sectarian instruction ; that, therefore, the use of
the Bible as a text-book in the public schools and
the stated reading thereof in such schools, without
restriction, "has a tendency to inculcate sectarian
ideas," and falls within the prohibition of the consti
tution and the statutes.
In this decision there are some very interesting
observations on the general question of religious
training and the place of the Bible in education.
The court says, for example: "The priceless truths
of the Bible are best taught to our youth in the
church, the Sabbath and parochial schools, the social
religious meetings, and, above all, in the home circle.
There those truths may be explained and enforced,
* Wisconsin Supreme Court Reports, 76: 177-221.
io RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION.
the spiritual welfare of the child guarded and pro
tected, and his spiritual nature directed and culti
vated, in accordance with the dictates of the parental
conscience. Judge Orton, in a supplementary
opinion, adds: "[The schools] are called by those
who wish to have not only religion, but their own
religion, taught therein Godless schools. They
are Godless, and the educational department of the
government is Godless, in the same sense that the
executive, legislative, and administrative depart
ments are Godless So long as our Constitution
remains as it is, no one s religion can be taught in
our common schools."
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin has given forci
ble, definite expression to the view held by the large
General majority of American citizens, and has
American clothed that view with the authority of law.
It is in this sense and for substantially the
reasons adduced in the decision which I have quoted,
that the American public school is secular and that
it can give and does give attention to four of the five
elements of civilization which I have named science,
literature, art, and institutional life but none to the
fifth element religion.
In France, the great democratic nation of Europe,
the case is quite similar. The famous law of March
Viewing 2 ^ J 1 882, excluded religious instruction
Trance, from the public schools, and put moral and
civic training in its stead. M. Ribiere, in defending
this provision before the senate, used almost the
exact language later employed by the Supreme
Court of Wisconsin. He held that the elementary
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION. n
school, maintained by the state, open to all, could
not be used to teach the doctrines of any sect; that
it must be neither religious nor anti-religious, but
wholly secular, neutral. M. Paul Bert, who pre
sented the measure to the chamber of deputies,
pointed out that the religious neutrality of the
school was the logical outcome of the principle of
the freedom of the individual conscience. " In our
eyes," M. Bert continued, "this argument has so
great force that, without the prohibition of religious
instruction in the schools, compulsory education
would appear to us to be not an advantage, but a
danger. In order that opportunity should be given
to parents to provide religious instruction for their
children this is explicitly stated in the law the
schools are closed one day each week, other than
Sunday. In France, Thursday, not Saturday as with
us, is usually taken as the school holiday.
This, then, is the condition of affairs in the United
States and in France as regards religious training in
education. The influence first of Protestantism and
then of Democracy has completely secular- State edn-
ized the school. The school, therefore, incomplete,
gives an incomplete education. The religious
aspect of civilization and the place and influence of
religion in the life of the individual are excluded from
its view. This is the first important fact to be
reckoned with.
The second fact is that the whole work of educa
tion does not fall upon the school. It cannot do so
and ought not to do so. The family, the Church, the
library, the newspaper, society itself, are all educa-
12 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION.
tional institutions as truly as is the school. The
school is the most highly organized of them
alL Its aims and methods are the most de-
source of finite. But it is quite untrue to suppose that
nothing enters into education save through
the medium of the school-programme. Therefore,
it does not follow that because the school has become
secular, all religious influence and training have
necessarily gone out of education. If the school is
not distinctly religious, it is even more distinctly not
anti-religious. The real question, then, is: What
are the other educational factors, especially the family
and the Church, doing to see to it that school instruc
tion is rounded out into education through their
co-operation ? It is the duty of the family
and the and the Church to take up their share of
Church, t h e educational burden, particularly the
specifically religious training, with the same care,
the same preparation, and the same zeal which the
school gives to the instruction which falls to its lot.
Before coming to the implications of this position,
there are one or two suggestions which must receive
Place and P assm g notice. It is said by a very few
importance it is true that there is no such thing as
religion other than mere superstition, and
that religion is not universal in any event, and there
fore that the fifth element of our civilization is but an
empty name. It is urged, with Petronius, that fear
first made the gods, and with Feuerbach that religion
is man s most terrible ailment. These contentions
seem to me to arise from simple ignorance, alike of
history and of human nature. There is a response
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION. 13
from the human heart and from the recorded thoughts
and deeds of civilized men, based neither on
credulity nor on fear, to the description of Hegel,
that "religion is, for our consciousness, that region
in which all the enigmas of the world are Definitions
solved, all the contradictions of deeper- of religion,
reaching thought have their meaning unveiled, and
where the voice of the heart s pain is silenced the
region of eternal truth, of eternal rest, of eternal
peace." If religion may be defined, in Dr. Mar-
tineau s words, as "the belief and worship of
Supreme Mind and Will, directing the universe and
holding moral relations with human life," then
civilization is unintelligible without it. Much of the
world s literature and art, and the loftiest achieve
ments of men, are, with the religious element with
drawn, and without the motive of religion to explain
them, as barren as the desert of Sahara. This
proposition hardly needs argument. * The religiosity
of man is a part of his psychical being.
In the nature and laws of the human mind,
in its intellect, sympathies, emotions, and
passions, lie the well-springs of all religions, modern
or ancient, Christian or heathen. To these we must
refer, by these we must explain, whatever errors,
falsehood, bigotry, or cruelty have stained man s
creeds or cults; to them we must credit whatever
truth, beauty, piety, and love have glorified and
hallowed his long search for the perfect and the
eternal. . . .
" The fact is that there has not been a single tribe,
no matter how rude, known in history or visited by
14 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION.
travellers, which has been shown to be destitute of
religion under some form."
But it is also urged that a satisfactory substitute
for religious training is to be found in moral and civic
Moral and instruction. This view is widely held in
civic instruc- France and has led to some rather absurd
tion no sub- _
statute for consequences. So scholarly a writer as
religion. ]y[ r Thomas Davidson has just now urged
this view upon us Americans, f He is able to do so,
however, only by completely identifying religion and
philosophy and (as I think) a bad philosophy at
that in his definition of religion. But, in fact, the
field of moral and civic instruction is quite distinct
from man s religious life; it belongs to the institu
tional aspect of civilization. The moral aspect of
life has long since come to be closely related to the
Eeli ion is religious aspect, but nevertheless the two
not ethics. are quite different. A religion, indeed, may
be quite immoral in its influences and tendencies.
It may lead to cruelty and sensuality, and yet be a
religion. There have been not a few such. To con
fuse religion with ethics is to obscure both. Religion
must be apprehended as something distinct and
peculiar, if it is to be apprehended at all. Matthew
Arnold was absolutely wrong when he wrote : * Re
ligion is ethics heightened, enkindled, lit up by feel
ing; the passage from morality to religion is made
when to morality is applied emotion. " It is still
* Brinton, " Religions of Primitive Peoples," p. 30.
| " American Democracy as a Religion," Internationa! Journal of
Ethics, October, 1899.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION. 15
easier to make clear and enforce the distinction
between morality and religion, if we substitute for the
general term religion the highest type of all religions,
Christianity. It is Christianity, of course, which we
have in mind when speaking of religion.
My argument thus far has aimed to make it clear
that religious training is an integral part of education,
that in this country the State school does The proper
not and cannot include religious training in Jf^JJus r
its programme, that it must therefore be education
, . , i i are the fam-
provided by other agencies, and on as high ^y and the
a plane of efficiency as is reached by in- Church,
struction in other subjects, and that moral and civic
training is no possible substitute for religious teach
ing. The agencies at hand for religious teaching are
the family and the Church, and in particular the
special school, the Sunday-school, maintained by the
Church for the purposes of religious training.
The Sunday-school is in this way brought into a
position of great responsibility and importance, for it
is, in fact, a necessary part of the whole educational
machinery of our time. It must, therefore, be made
fully conscious of the principles on which its work
rests and of the methods best suited to the attainment
of its ends.
The Sunday-school must, first of all, understand
fully the organization, aims, and methods of the
public schools ; for it is their ally. It must The Sunday-
take into consideration the progress of the sch o1 -
instruction there given in secular subjects, and must
correlate its own religious instruction with this. It
must study the facts of child-life and development,
1 6 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION.
and it must base its methods upon the actual needs
and capacities of childhood. It must organ-
(a) Organiza- . . fe
tion and ize its work economically and scientifically,
method, an ^ ft must demand of its teachers special
and continuous preparation for their work. It must
realize that it is, first and above all, an educational
institution and not a proselytizing one, and that the
inherent force of the truth which it teaches is far
greater than any attempted bending of that truth to
special ends. It must cease to be merely a part or
the missionary work of the parish, and become a real
factor in the educational work of the community.
It must give more time to its work, and the
traditional division of time on Sunday will have to be
gradually readjusted in order to make a serious
Sunday-school session possible. A Saturday session
may also be planned for. It must recognise that
ordinarily no single parish or congregation can make
proper provision for the religious training of all the
young people under its care. The very largest
parishes and congregations may be able to maintain
a fully equipped Sunday-school for children from five
to eighteen, but the smaller parishes and congrega
tions in towns and cities must learn to combine for
their common good. Each parish or congregation
may readily, and ought always, to maintain a Sunday-
school of elementary grade, but several adjoining
parishes or congregations must combine in order to
organize and support a proper course of religious
instruction for children of secondary school age and
beyond, say from thirteen to eighteen years. In a
whole city, unless it be New York or Chicago or
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION. i?
Philadelphia, one, or at most two, training classes
for Sunday-school teachers should be sufficient.
Furthermore, Sunday-school teachers, like all other
teachers, should be paid. They should be selected
because of competence and special training;
they should be led to look upon their work
not as philanthropy, not even as missionary work,
but as something which is larger than either because
it includes both, namely, education. The several
Christian bodies, so long as they remain distinct, will
naturally maintain their own separate Sunday-school
systems ; but within any given branch of the Christian
Church, be it Protestant Episcopal, Presbyterian,
Methodist, or other, all of the principles just stated
can be applied. Sunday-schools so organized could
be given the same systematic professional supervision
that is provided for the secular schools. Each body
of Christians in a given community could have its
own Sunday-school board and its own Sunday-school
superintendent and staff of assistants. Between
some Christian bodies actual co-operation in Sunday-
school instruction ought to be possible. For the
proper organization and conduct of this religious
instruction, there must be a parish or congregational
appropriation, or, better far, an endowment fund, to
bear the legitimate cost of religious teaching and its
systematic professional supervision.
The Sunday-school course of study must be looked
after. It is at present I say it with all respect too
exclusively pious. Religion is much more
<c> Course
important in civilization and in life than of study.
the Sunday-school now teaches. It is more real.
1 8 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION.
It touches other interests at more points. The
course of study of the future must reveal these facts
and illustrate them. It must be carefully graded
and adjusted to the capacity of the child. It must
reach out beyond the Bible and the Catechism. It
must make use of biography, of history, of geography,
of literature, and of art, to give both breadth and
depth and vitality to the truths it teaches and
enforces. It must comprehend and reveal the fact
that the spiritual life is not apart from the natural life
and in antagonism to it, but that the spirit interpene
trates all life and that all life is of the spirit. The
problem, then, is not religion and education, but
religion in education.
This, it may be said, is a radical programme, a
Aradical counsel of perfection. Perhaps so. If so,
programme, it will provide something to work toward.
It will at least bring religious teaching under the in
fluence of those principles and methods which have
of late years so vitalized all secular teaching. It will
give to it modern instruments, text-books, and illus
trative material.
Before dismissing these suggestions as impracti
cable, because in part unfamiliar, it is well to face the
The altema- alternative. It is that religious knowledge,
tive. and with religious knowledge a good deal
else which is worth saving, will go out of the life
of the next generation. What appears important
enough to the elder generation to be systematically
organized, conscientiously studied, and paid for in a
terrestrial circulating medium, will deeply impress
itself upon the younger. What is put off with a
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION. 19
hurried and unsystematic hour on Sunday will not
long seem very much worth while.
Already the effects of the present policy are being
seen. To the average college student the first book
of Milton s Paradise Lost is an enigma. Religious
The epithets, the allusions, even many of ignorance
even m
the proper names, are unfamiliar. This is colleges.
due to ignorance of the Bible. It is necessary
nowadays to know something about Christianity as
well as to be a Christian. The study of history and
of geography, in connection with the spread and
development of Chistianity, is fascinating. The study
of biography, in connection with the people of Israel
and Old Testament history generally, may be made
to put plenty of life into much that is now dead facts
to be memorized. For older pupils, the study of
church history, and of the part played by religious
beliefs and religious differences in the history of
European dynasties, politics, and literature will make
it plain how moving a force religion is and has been
in the development of civilization. Such pupils, too,
are able to appreciate the Bible as literature, if it be put
before them from that point of view. It is too often
treated as a treasury of texts only, and not as living
literature which stands, as literature, by the side of the
world s greatest achievements in poetry and in prose.
The heart is the ultimate aim of all religious
appeals. But the heart is most easily reached by
informing the intellect and by fashioning Heart best
the will. Knowledge and conduct react on ?$*
the feelings, and the feelings, the heart (so and will.
to speak), are educated and refined through them.
20 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION.
This fact will never be lost sight of by any competent
religious teacher, and his purpose will never be to
amass in his pupils knowledge about religion alone,
but to use such knowledge to direct, elevate, and re
fine the religious feelings and to guide and form con
duct into character.
It is along such lines as these that the develop
ment of the Sunday-school, from a phase of parish
mission work into an educational institution of
co-ordinate rank with the secularized school must
take place. There are numerous local problems to
be solved, no doubt, and not a few practical diffi
culties to be overcome, but, if the ideal be once firmly
grasped and the purpose to reach it be formed, the
result cannot be doubtful.
II.
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
By the Rt. Rev. WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE, D.D., LL.D.,
Bishop of Albany.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE II.
The Three Functions of the Christian Church.
The Prophetic Function, as Christ fulfilled it.
The Church carries on His Work.
Definition of Teaching.
Teaching the Apostolic Mandate.
The Church the Great Religious Teacher.
The Extent of Truly Christian Teaching.
Canon Scott Holland s View.
Educational Work of the Church To-day.
Religion in the Universities. Wrong View and its Answer.
The modern Theologian s Weakness due to Erroneous Theories of
the Faith.
The Great Verities of the Christian Faith are above Investigation.
Science and Religion not opposed to each other.
The State-schools and Religious Education.
Inadequacy of Parochial Schools and Colleges.
Every Large University should have a Church Hall.
How the Church Hall would educate.
The Wide Responsibility of the Church.
The Modern Machinery now existing : (a) the Sunday-school; (b]
the Pulpit.
The Sunday-school and the Catechism.
The Sunday-school and the Teachers, their Training, etc.
The Place of the Pulpit.
Need for Preaching of Faith and Life, more than for Eloquence.
It is the same Old Word given in modern phrases.
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
IT is a plain and simple fact, a trite saying, a
truism, almost, that in the three offices of our Lord s
anointed Messiahship lie involved the three
Three func-
great functions of the Christian Church, tionsofthe
Prophet He was, and priest and king. Church>
And so there are in the Church, or rather so He
continues in the Church, the things which St. Luke
says He only " began to do and to teach" ; because
in the Church s faith, in the Church s sacraments,
and in the Church s polity or order, He teaches and
offers and rules. We are concerned with the
prophetic office, as He filled it, and as He entrusted
it to the Church to carry on.
Run along the lines of the story as we find it ft in
Holy Scripture and ancient authors." The Divine
Master spent His earthly ministry, until the Prophetic
time of the fulfilling of its final purpose, in ^tM*
what the Apostles describe as their chief filled it.
function, "prayer, and the ministry of the Word."
Sitting upon the mountain of the Beatitudes, He
began His public teaching with the unfolding of that
marvellous system of ethics, the clearest and most
23
24 THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH.
comprehensive compendium of morality, of the rule
of life, of the relation between man and God, and
between man and man, that was ever spoken to
mortal ear: depicting character, defining motive,
dealing with the great principles of obedience, of wor
ship, of prayer, of self-denial, of almsgiving, of mar
riage, of modes of speech ; and detailing the great
characteristic virtues of meekness, mercifulness, and
righteousness, and purity, and poverty of spirit, and
peacemaking: so that the world sits at His feet to
day, as did the people who heard the words fall from
His lips, astonished at His doctrine. And from
that day on, everywhere, in the synagogue, in the
upper room, in the house, and in the streets; in the
fields, on the lake-shore, and in the ship; by para
bles, by doctrinal discourses, above and beyond all,
by His life and example, He is the Prophet, the
Teacher, the Educator of the world.
And this was the mission that He gave to His
followers. They were to " disciple all nations by
The Church k a P tism > an ^ tnen to teach them to
carries on observe all things, whatsoever He com-
isworkl manded them." This was the work for
which He specially endowed them with the Holy
Spirit, "to bring all things to their remembrance,
whatever He had taught them, " " and to guide them
into all truth." So that we are ready to expect,
what we actually find, the absorption of the Apostles
in the occupation of teaching. I am not particularly
in love with the Revisers tendency always to translate
didaxrj by the word * teaching, because it seems a
little to dilute the fact that this dida was a distinct
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. 25
and definite form of words, the "faith once for all
delivered to the saints." But I am quite sure that
we come short of the meaning of the word, and the
.method and the purpose of the early
Church, if we confine the teaching office
only to its religious side; the faith, the
doctrine certainly, but even more than this, the whole
teaching and training of the Christian life. As
between the rigorists, who know nothing in religion
but doctrine, and the sensationalists, who substitute
emotional excitement for the impression upon the
intelligence of fixed and positive truth, there is not
much to choose. Teaching has to do with the rule
of faith and with the rule of life. It appeals not only
to the feelings, to the conscience, to the will; but to
the intelligence of men.
And so we find when the Angel of the Lord de
livered the Apostles out of the common prison,
where they had been cast because they Teaching the
refused to obey the demand * not to speak Apostolic
at all or teach in the name of the Lord
Jesus," the message to them was, (and they obeyed
it,) "Go, stand and speak in the Temple to the
people all the words of this life. " * And daily, in
the Temple and in every house, they ceased not to
speak and teach Jesus Christ.
Nor is it otherwise with the great Apostle born
out of due time," whose glory was, when he was in
prison that * the Word of God was not St. Paul,
bound ; and the closing record of whose story
in the Book of the Acts is that Paul dwelt two
whole years in his own hired house and received all
26 THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH.
who came in unto him, preaching the Kingdom of
God, and teaching the things which concern the
Lord Jesus Christ.
We are somewhat familiar with that old word,
"the schoolmen," a technical mediaeval title for
Christian philosophers. And we are still more
familiar with a certain modern softness of speech
which we have invented, to do away with what seems
a coarse and controversial word, namely, "parties
in the Church," when we call them " schools of
thought. But we do not realize, in either the
The Church me diaeval or the modern use of the word,
the great the facts to which it bears witness, namely,
that the Church is the great teacher ; that
its educational work is in many ways its first and
largest work ; and that, very early in its story, Chris
tian schools were founded and carried on, in which
the great teachers were trained, and were training
disciples, in the particular form of truth which pre
sented itself to them. They were tremendous reali
ties and tremendous influences. Antioch and Alex
andria and Rome stand for the great educational
forces of the post- Apostolic age, as they represented
what we may perhaps call Oriental, Greek, and Latin
philosophy and theology. Nor were they given over
only to the discussion of technical theological ques
tions. Having from the very first to avoid that
curious combination of natural religion and Christian
philosophy called gnosticism, they reached out into
all departments of thought and study and investiga
tion.
That oldest contest between the two thoughts of
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. ?-7
the Transcendence and the Immanence of God has its
counterpart in what we may call the transcendence
and the immanence of Christian teaching. One is
the theory that the Church is only set to teach the
articles of the Christian faith, with its great reservoirs
of resource in the Bible, tradition, and the
Extent of
Creeds ; and the other, the far truer theory, true Christian
that, because of the oneness of truth, no teachill S
matter what its source or what its special subjects,
Christianity has to do with every department of
education. The schools, as they were called, were
the successors of the Porch and the Grove. Plato and
Aristotle were succeeded, or one perhaps might say
continued, by Clement of Alexandria and Origen.
And every weapon of intellectual polemics was
gathered into the Christian armoury of defence. The
sword of Goliath, as he represents unconsecrated
intellect, was taken into the hands of the anointed
of God, with which to complete the victory over this
giant error.
Canon Scott Holland says with great power in his
41 Logic and Life ": "We have lost much of that
rich splendour, that large-hearted fulness of
power, which characterizes the great Greek la ^, g w rdgi
masters of theology. We have suffered our
faith for so long to accept the pinched and narrow
limits of a most unapostolic divinity, that we can
hardly persuade people to recall how wide was the
sweep of Christian thought in the first centuries, how
largely it dealt with these deep problems of spiritual
existence and development, which now once more
impress upon us the seriousness of the issues amid
28 THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH.
which our souls are travelling. We have let people
forget all that our creed has to say about the unity
of all creation, or about the evolution of history, or
about the universality of the divine action through
the Word. We have lost the power of wielding the
mighty language with which Athanasius expands the
significance of creation and regeneration, of incarna
tion and sacrifice, and redemption and salvation and
glory.
Nor is this only an early phase of the Church s
work. It has been its characteristic feature all along.
Those great universities and schools of the Middle
Ages, especially from the thirteenth century on, with
their great names of Abelard and Peter Lombard
and Duns Scotus and St. Thomas Aquinas, "the
angel of the schools," as he was called, were the
continuance of this method ; and the old foundations
of learning in England and on the Continent bear
witness to the fact, not only that in those times
learning and knowledge were almost confined to
ecclesiastics and ecclesiastical establishments; but
that the Church recognised its duty to educate
Christianity and to Christianize education. That
curious creation, Mallock, who poses and poises on
a seesaw of sophisms, between apparent agnosticism
and concealed Roman Catholicism, thinks that the
security of the Bible depends now upon that Church
which locked it away, for ages, from the people in
an unknown tongue ; and fills its Lectionary, not
with Scriptures, but with the legends of her innumer
able and often questionable Saints.
Tempting as this line of thought is, I am con-
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. 29
strained to turn from it to more immediate and per
sonal considerations of the question which is assigned
to me, namely, "the Educational Work ^Educational
the Christian Church to-day. " And I wish work of the
to speak of it along two lines: first, the
need that Christianity shall lay hold upon the people
with strong and vigorous hand: and secondly, that
the preaching of the Church to-day needs to be
deeper and broader and stronger, in its definite and
persistent presentation of doctrine.
I confess myself old-fashioned enough to have
been shocked and startled by a recent editorial in a
New York newspaper headed " Religion in intheUni-
the University. Beginning with the state- versities -
ment that, instead of compulsory attendance at re
ligious services, the students attendance is sought
by making the service attractive in the chapels them
selves, in their musical programme, and in the elo
quence and the distinctively modern sympathies and
breadth of view of the preacher, the article goes on :
Yet his pulpit utterances are often in sharp contrast
to the teachings of other departments of the university.
He talks earnestly of God and of the influence of God
in the w r orld; but his conception of God, if judged by
his way of expressing it, is apt to be totally at vari
ance with that expounded by his neighbour, the pro
fessor of philosophy. He talks of love, but his
hearers have already learned that there can be no
affection for the unknowable. He insists that men
ought always to pray ; but his words of petition and
request sound strange to the student of science, who
cannot take a step in his own department save on
3 THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH.
the assumption of the invariableness of natural law.
He holds up the Bible as profitable for reproof, for
correction, and for instruction in righteousness, and
as in truth the very word of God; but those who
listen are being- elsewhere taught to approach the
Bible, as they approach any other document, to dis
cover its composite authorship, to test rigidly its
statements of alleged facts, and to separate its myths
and legends from its historic records. No wonder
that many an earnest student comes to feel that
somehow things do not hang together, and that
the emotional interest of the religious service is a
bit divorced from its intellectual basis. The grounds
of this discrepancy are mainly to be found, we
think, in the persistent adherence to ancient formu
las and modes of expression, which still encumber
so much of even the most advanced theological
thinking."
I believe this is an unfair statement of university
teaching in most of the great universities of America.
Somewhat careful inquiry has only discovered that
individual professors, in some few instances, turn their
influence, in the classroom and in their personal in
tercourse with the students, towards rationalism and
unbelief; but I cannot find, and I cannot believe,
that in any university in this country, this is either
the purpose or the tendency of the teaching, as a
whole. But granting its possible truth, the remedy
proposed by the writer is worse than the disease. As
a reduction to an irrational and illogical impossibility
I know nothing more extraordinary. Any parent
who, with the knowledge of the fact (if it be a fact),
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. 3 1
sends a boy into the presence of such a poisonous
personality must be held accountable for the ship
wreck of his faith.
" The modern orthodox theologian," the writer
continued, is still too often under the tyranny of
words and names. He still talks of the atonement,
of redemption, of the Holy Spirit, of the T ,
resurrection, and of the future life, appar- theologian s
ently unmindful of the fact that many of wea
the terms themselves belong to a view of things
long since rendered untenable Himself much
in sympathy with modern thought, and not igno
rant of the havoc which science and philosophy
have played with old formulas, he still hugs the past,
and fancies that the outgrown clothes of a former
time may still be made to fit the bodies of critical
and thoughtful men. The intention is good, but the
result disastrous. There can be no sure and fruitful
appeal when one s words must constantly be inter
preted, and their particular shade of meaning care
fully or acutely explained. It is the weakness of
modern theology that, with the best intentions and
the utmost honesty of purpose among those devoted
to it, it is still bound to an outgrown terminology,
and shows too little willingness to cut loose from its
moorings and push boldly out into the main stream
of human knowledge and thought. It is this un
willingness to venture something, this impotency of
expression when talking of the religious life, that
gives to theology so little influence, as yet, in the
university, and makes some of the most eloquent of
modern preachers seem, to a company of college
3 2 THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH.
students, like birds who, despite much beating of
the air, somehow fail to fly.
All this is a sheer insult to the intelligence of
thinkers, to the honesty of teachers, to the immuta
bility of truth. It is a petitio principii, a begging of
the whole question, to which an answer of absolute
denial is the only one that can be presented. The
atonement, redemption, the resurrection,
Erroneous
theories of the luture me, are not words or names,
the faith, Certain theories about them, representing,
for instance, the anger of the Father appeased by
the sacrifice of the Son ; or teaching a limitation of
the redemption to certain elect persons, or an irre
sistible redemption compelling universal salvation,
no matter what the opposing will of the individual
may be; or turning the Christian doctrine of the
resurrection into a statement, whose object-lesson
is a mummy and whose process is embalming, these
are, like all human accretions and additions, in
process of stripping off and falling away ; not because
of science and philosophy, but because of the gradual
return from human theories to divine truths. This
is one of those curious instances of a complete con
fusion of thought, under an apparent clearness of
expression. The great verities of the Christian faith,
dreamed of and foretold from the first ages of man s
conscious thought, and brought to light by the
The great teaching of Jesus Christ, are before and
Christian beyond and above and apart from all ques-
faith are tions of philosophy or science or intel-
above all in
vestigation, lectual investigation. They are facts that
centre in, and gather about, and grow out of, the
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. 33
one great fact, and the one great personality of
human history, namely, the Incarnate Son of God.
They are not in opposition to, or in contradiction of,
or in antagonism with, any achievement of science,
any attainment of reason, any conclusion of philoso
phy. They are in the upper air, the higher realm
of belief. The words that express them, all imper
fectly, are nevertheless so radiant with the life that
they contain, holding it as a crystal holds the light,
that if you break them even into their component
letters, each one will still hold and still show forth
the illumination and the vitality. They are to-day,
as they have been through all the centuries, the con
solation and the inspiration of the human race. And
while the progressive inquiries of philosophy and the
advancing discoveries of science do need and demand
re-statement, yes, even the creation of a vocabulary,
the coining of a new language, because the words
must express hitherto unknown facts; the cardinal
points of theology, the essential verities of religion,
the fundamental articles of the Christian faith, stand
and will stand, as they have since Nicea, Chalcedon,
and Constantinople framed the old symbols, un
changeable as the everlasting hills.
What is to be done, then, about this greatly ex
aggerated conflict between the classroom and the
chapel, between the pulpit and the pro- Oonflictof
fessor ? First of all, I think, the " ne sutor classroom
supra crepidam," the cobbler sticking to andcha P el -
his last. By which I mean to say that most of the
trouble is made by the crude conclusions of secular
teachers, and by the cruder contradictions of religious
34 THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH.
teachers. There are a good many very different
spirits of investigation among men, along all lines of
study. Of course the one object ought to be to dis
cover truth ; to accept it at all costs and in all con
fidence when it is found, whatever may be the
seeming difficulties. The cost may be the sacrifice
of some opinion, cherished because associated with
the traditions and impressions of all our lives; but
the confidence ought to be that no real discrepancy
can exist between or among any truths that God
yields up to our knowledge, out of any of His
innumerable treasure-houses. The real trouble is
(and it is folly to conceal it) that religious teachers
are too often contending for certain views and notions
and opinions of or about the truth, instead of for the
truth itself. And the other greater trouble is (and
it is folly to conceal that) that many of the so-called
scientists hail with such ghoulish glee any discovery
which apparently shows the errancy of Holy Scrip
ture, that they give the impression, at any rate, that
their chief object in life is to diminish the authority
of the Bible. This of course is aside from the prac
tical suggestion of this discussion.
The attitude of the Church toward education is a
problem difficult to solve. Beginning with our
The State public-school system of education and going
schools, up to the university, we must face the fact
that the State is obliged to educate all children, for
her own protection against the dangerous element of
illiteracy: and that the State must, so far as her
schools are supported by taxation, absolutely refuse
to allow any distinctive religious teaching in them.
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. 35
I am not forgetting the fact of the equally dangerous
element of what one might call criminal literacy;
that is to say, of the possibility, where no attempt is
made to affect the conscience or the character, in
schools, of simply making criminals more capable
by knowledge, than they would be without it. If
learning the three R s, as they are called, means
merely to induce boys to become railroad-wreckers
by reading the American equivalents for the Penny
Dreadful ; to make accomplished instead of clumsy
forgers ; or to make men more competent than they
would be if they were ignorant of arithmetic, to
make false entries and so rob their employers; it
goes without the saying that the State has hurt itself
by its very effort at education. But at the same
time it is idle to argue the question, it seems to me,
as though it were an open one, as against the
common-school system, which, even if it is without
religion, ought not to be called "Godless"; or to
attempt by any device, out of school hours, to inject
religious teaching into it. The moralities, the
recognition of God, of personal responsibility, of the
conscience, of law, of duty, all these there may be,
but the teaching of dogmatic religion is an impossi
bility in the unhappy divisions of our Christian
bodies; and the theory of teaching an undogmatic
religion is as self-contradictory as the imagining of
an invertebrate mammal, of a man without a back
bone. And while in abstract sentiment, I should be
thankful if every child of ours were trained in a
parochial school, and then went on through a
Church school and a Church college, I recognise the
36 THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH.
practical impossibility and the possible disadvantage.
Inadequacy The impossibility, because no one com-
BoCT^ niunion, much less all the religious bodies,
colleges, could by any possibility compete with the
State in the attempt to make a large number of
denominational schools, as thorough and complete as
the tax-supported schools are. And a possible dis
advantage exists, because in order to make a homo
geneous community it is better that all sorts and
conditions of children should be thrown together in
school and college life. The divisions of Christendom
are bad enough in the inevitable separations of public
worship. To perpetuate them in general education,
and to inject them into our institutions of charity,
would be disastrous to the fellowship of men in the
duties of their common citizenship. Where they may
be had, by all means let us have our Church schools
and our Church colleges, where the Church can
demonstrate its capacity for training the three-fold
nature of a child ; with the best athletic advantages,
with the highest intellectual cultivation, with the
most positive spiritual training and development of
the soul. And let us thank God for St. Paul s, and
Groton, and St. Marks; for St. Mary s, and St.
Agnes, and St. Margaret s; for Trinity, Hobart, and
St. Stephen s; Sewanee and the rest; and may they
be multiplied and prospered !
What I should be most glad of would be the
carrying out of what has been in the conception of
one at least, I know, of our great university presi
dents, namely, the founding of a Church hall, with
its dormitories, its commons, its chapel, as one of the
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. 37
grouped colleges in every great university of the land.
First, that the small college might have Every large
the benefit of the advantages of the big Diversity
should have
university; and secondly, and still more, a Church
that the Church s system of teaching might hal1
show its power, side by side with any other system in
the world. Because it is to be insisted on that the
Church has a system of education in the largest
sense of the word. She will teach astronomy upon
the principle that * the heavens declare fl ^ ^
the glory of God, and the firmament church
sheweth His handywork. " She will teach would teach,
the languages, with a view to bringing out of the
old classics those dim dreams which outlined the
completed truth of Revelation, when the glorious
Greek language had found its final purpose in lend
ing its splendid seed-power of suggested meaning to
the o-Ttepnohoyos, the babbler, the seed-scatterer,
the impersonation and representative of the one
Sower who went out to sow. Or she will gather
out of them, as St. Paul did from Aratus, the forgot
ten truth of God s all-fatherhood; and the distortion,
in the devious twist of traditions, of the truths found
in their due place and relation, only in the primeval
revelation of God to man. The Heracles of Balau-
stion s Adventure will be a prophecy of the only
victor over death :
" To herald all that human and divine,
I the weary happy son of him, half god,
Half man, which made the god-part, god the more."
The Sibylline oracles in her translation will be
broken echoes of the Hebrew prophets. She will
3 8 THE EDUCATIONAL IVORK OF THE CHURCH.
point out in her ethical system the patient progress
of the divine presentation of morality, which recog
nised the necessity of adaptation and slow growth and
gradual uplifting, until it rose from the enactments
and prohibitions of Mount Sinai, to the sublime
height of motive and character in the Sermon on the
Mount. She will teach history, in order that it may
unfold the equally patient providence of God in His
dealing with the children of men, revealing little by
little the divine purposes in the development of the
human race. Her geographical maps will contain,
not the camps of armies only, or the ports of com
merce, or the centres of accumulated wealth, but the
pathways of the Pilgrims, the tracks of the Crusaders,
the lighthouses of learning in ages of surrounding
darkness, and the way of the ships through the
waves, which carried round the world preachers of
the everlasting Gospel. And her literature will not
content itself in the study of what the French people
call beautiful letters," with the literce humaniores,
but will lead men on and up to the litercz diviniores,
the unequalled and unrivalled dignity and glory of
the English Bible and the Book of Common Prayer.
And what else, what more, in the existing condi
tion of things is the practical possibility of educational
work, which this Church can do and should do in the
Wide re world ? I have tried to emphasize my own
sponsibility conviction that the Church s commission
of the Church, and the Church > s duty inc lude, by the
Divine Intention, education in the largest and com-
pletest sense of the word ; that, as in the past, so now
and for all time, she ought to influence and impress
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. 39
the literature and the learning of the world, colouring
it, consecrating it, controlling it for the service of
God. I feel free therefore to deal with two matters
as to the distinct and definite trust which is her
highest honour and her greatest responsibility,
namely, the positive and perpetual assertion of the
truth as it is in Jesus," of " the faith once for all
delivered to the saints. " And her natural and usual
machinery to this end is of course in catechetical
teaching and in preaching.
For the first, there is the existing machinery of the
Sunday-school, which is on the one hand, I think,
unduly exalted, arid on the other unwisely The Sunday-
decried. It is of course a modern make- sch o11
shift devised to deal with great masses of children
otherwise uncared for and unprovided with any
religious training in homes or in churches. It can
never be the substitute for either parental or pastoral
responsibility. But as a recognised and wide-spread
machinery, it cannot be ignored and it ought to be
improved. I am sorry to say that I think it is suffer
ing to-day from the same evil influences which so
largely infect and infest the public ministry of the
word ; namely, the sensational recourse to all manner
of strange devices to attract and entertain and amuse.
The childhood of a Christian child in the Church is
divided into two parts, separated from each other by
the act of confirmation. And the Church has pro
vided for the first of these periods a Manual of
Training, incomparable in clearness, comprehensive
ness, logical sequence, and theological sufficiency, in
the Catechism. We have a superabundant set of
40 THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH.
manuals upon this Manual, which have I am afraid
overlaid, in some degree, what Mr. Keble called its
" heavenly notes." To learn it, until its wise and
The Gate- well-weighed words enter into and make
chismin part of a child s thought about religion, is
the Church, the first thing . to be done . and then to keep
it fresh in memory, by its frequent repetition; and
then to gather about its various statements the scrip
tural proofs of its every separate phrase ; and then
to illustrate it by the parallel passages, which abound
in the Collects and various Offices of the Book of
Common Prayer; and then to develop them and
apply them as they reach out and touch the faith,
the obedience, the worship, the means of grace, the
life. Next in importance, in value, in power of in
fluence to the creeds, the Catechism ought to be the
framework, about which all other instruction shall
build the beauty and the fulness of the system of the
Church.
In order to do this the first essential is the training
of the teacher. They cannot teach what they do not
Teachers know. And that training depends largely
thTSector s u P on ^ e Rector s realization of his own
personal duty, responsibility. Really and truly, the Sun
day-school teacher is only the alius or the alia
through whom he does his duty. And no Sunday-
school is complete, or is in the way of large accom
plishment, that is not preceded and prepared for by
the Rector s class for his teachers. And for the
period after Confirmation, there ought to be classes
or some other provision for the constant study of the
Word of God. Slowly and without the recognition
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. 41
which it richly deserves, the Society for the Home
Study of Holy Scripture and Church History The teac]ier g
is leavening the Church. If every woman, preparation,
who teaches in a Sunday-school, were a member of
this Society, the result would be felt in energy, in
interest, in what the Prayer-book calls * the live
liness of the Word, and in effect. Bible study with
all its side-lights, yes, and with all its foot-lights, of
technical and textual criticism, Bible study, critical
and devotional, is the great desideratum of our day.
And this Church, which saturates her children with
the Holy Scriptures, which knows no public
Bible study,
service without the foremost place given
to the reading and hearing of the Word, which dares
and is determined to put the whole Word of God, in
the language which they understand, openly, freely,
continually, before her people; this Church in her
relation to education must foster the study of the
Bible in every possible way.
The next place of educational value and power is
the Christian pulpit. Diverted and degraded and
for a time almost displaced from its high
dignity, as the place of the prophet, we The place of
the pulpit,
need to recognise far more than I think we
do its due position in the Church s work of educa
tion. I know all that can be said and is said about
sermons. I remember the phase (passing somewhat
now) when it was thought necessary to belittle the
pulpit in order to magnify the Altar, when people
sneered at what they were pleased to call the
" sacrament of preaching. " Carried along with the
debris of that great current of spiritual life, known
42 THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH.
as the Oxford movement, and thrown up like rubbish
on shallow places where it stuck, as though it were
the only outcome and purpose of that rushing and
swelling tide, this idea never was in the minds or
hearts or examples of the men who were behind the
movement. Their very first power was their preach
ing. The massive weight of Pusey s learning; the
crystal purity of Keble s poetry and prose; the in
comparable beauty of Newman s sentences; the ring
of Manning s earlier English, these were the forces
of the prophets, " clamantes in deserto. " That
their influence led to more reverent worship, higher
appreciation of sacramental grace, more regard for
disused and forgotten customs and traditions of
primitive ages, is perfectly true. But they never
Proper taught and never meant to teach, and it is
preaching, a cor rupt following of their great leader to
hold that one can only dignify the sacramental, by
depreciating the homiletical, element in the Christian
ministry. Those two queer object-lessons of the
old-fashioned arrangement (modern old-fashioned, I
mean), by which either the pulpit got behind the
Altar in the place of chief honour and conspicuous-
ness, or got right in front of the Altar to obscure, if
not to conceal it, had, I have no doubt, their inten
tional significance. But it is high time for men,
charged with the ministry of Jesus Christ, to rise to a
clear vision of the duty and the dignity of preaching.
Not the least power of the Altar is its proclamation;
as the Master made the cross not merely the one
only Altar of a true and perfect sacrifice, but also the
pulpit of the seven sentences and of the seven
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. 43
silences, which have filled the wide world and drawn
all men unto Him. There are very, very few, (here
and there one,) with special power as prcacJicrs.
What is commonly known as the popular preacher
is too often a very poor caricature of the prophet.
There is hardly a more pitiful or painful element in
our modern religionism than the column in the
Saturday newspaper which gives the subjects of the
so-called sermons for the next day. But the ques
tion is not of personal power or of personal popu
larity, much less of sensationalism and excitement.
It is simply one of directness, earnestness, care
fulness, thoroughness, plainness, completeness, in
bringing home to men s hearts the message of God.
Not latitudes nor platitudes ; neither altitudes nor
attitudes; but the preaching, which dear Archbishop
Benson said was neither high nor low nor broad, but
deep. In all time, God has been pleased to take
and use and consecrate the wonderful gift of articulate
speech, and the marvellous organs of the human
voice, to be the medium through which He should
communicate with man. The old segnius imitant
does not apply to this. Nothing will take its place ;
and the talk about the Sunday newspaper or the
magazine as satisfying this need is idle and untrue.
It is an excuse which would, I believe, be done
away with if (and which is now contradicted where ?)
men throw themselves into the simple, straight
forward, earnest delivery of their message to their
brother men.
It is not eloquence that is needed, it is teaching,
definite, distinct, positive, plain, insistent, about the
44 THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH.
two inseparable things, the Faith and the Life; the
Notelo- ltf e of faith, and the faith in the life. Let
quencebut us magnify our prophetic office. Not pass-
teaching of .
Faith and ing events, not popular excitement, not
Life. personal views; and on the other hand,
not remotearchaisms and unhuman speculations ; but
the old truth in the new words, translated, that is
to say, into the language of common speech.
They showed me the other day, at the Oxford
University Press, what they call the 4< knapsack
Bible," made exactly to fit into its place; and
bound in the same stuff of which is made the uni
forms of the British soldiers in South Africa. That
The Old is the thought. The Old Word of God,
modern 1 taught in phrases that fit the mental opera-
phrases, tions of the time ; and presented in a form
that adapts itself to the habits and needs of the
leaders and fighters and sufferers and conquerors of
the world. It is the marvellous advance of chemical
science, which has revolutionized the treatment of
physical disease; more even than the discoveries of
materia medica: new media, new solvents, new com
binations of the old healing herbs and roots and min
erals, found everywhere side by side with the diseases
they are meant to cure. For us, the mysteries of
truth and grace, which the great Healer once for all
has made known to us, can have no additions. It
rests with us to find in the knowledge of ourselves, in
the study of mankind, in careful keeping ourselves in
touch with the subtle vanities of old deceits, and old
diseases of the soul, as they take new form and
colour, in the changing circumstances and conditions
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. 45
of the world ; it is for us, God guiding and helping
us to deep insight and wide outlook, to find the ways
and words, through which we may be such evangelists
and physicians, that "by the wholesome medicines
of the doctrine that we deliver, all the diseases of
men s souls may be healed. " And the healing will
be, as the St. Luke s Day Collect asks for the prev
alence of the prayer, through the merits of Jesus
Christ, our Lord."
III.
THE PRESENT STATUS OF RELIGIOUS
INSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND,
FRANCE, GERMANY, AND
THE UNITED STATES.
By Professor CHARLES DE GARMO, Ph.D., of Cornell
University.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE III.
Religious Instruction in England.
Origin of Religious Instruction in the schools, through Lancas
ter and Dr. Bell.
Lancaster s simple scheme of paid teachers, with multiplying
scholars.
Its failure.
Government Grants the next step.
Organization of Board-schools the final one. Similar to
American schools.
Religious Instruction made optional in the Day-schools.
Rise of Sunday-schools, under Robert Raikes, 1780.
Thus two systems in England.
Religious Instruction in France.
None in the Public Schools. Thursday holiday for Church
and home instruction.
Religious Instruction in Germany.
Day-schools impart practically all.
Most thorough system in the world.
Critical spirit in universities.
Kirchner s view.
Religious Instruction in the United States.
Threefold end of all Religious Instruction.
Inadequacy of America in point of Christian Knowledge.
Compares favourably in points of Christian Spirit and Chris
tian Conduct.
Improvements suggested in American Schools.
Arrangement of Material for Childhood, Adolescence, and
Youth.
Crucial Period of Adolescence.
Wrong Treatment after this period.
"Religious exercises " in England and America.
Great need for wiser action.
Man s Relation to his fellows.
Need for Improvement of the Sunday-schools.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND,
FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA.
OF the four countries, embraced in our survey,
two, namely, France and the United States, England
have only private or denominational instruc-
tion. England has a double system, having tem,
a Sunday-school organization scarcely inferior to our
own and a system of religious instruction in Day-
schools reaching nearly all of the children
of the empire. Germany relies pre-emi
nently upon the official instruction in religion given
in her Day-schools, supplementing this by an amount
of Sunday-school instruction which reaches less than
a tenth of her children.
Whenever we think of a possible system of religious
instruction in our Day-schools, an end most ardently
desired by all who believe that the young origin of re-
should be thoroughly trained in religious %iousni-
, , struction in
knowledge, we look instinctively to Eng- English
land, as an example of what can be accom- schoolSi
plished in a free Protestant nation, where the people
are determined to regard this as an essential of any
acceptable school system. A brief survey of the
educational history of England for the last hundred
years will show the genesis of her school system.
49
5 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
When the nineteenth century opened, education
in England was a prerogative of the aristocratic and
well-to-do. The masses of the people were in dense
ignorance of everything that their personal experi
ence failed to teach them. There was no system of
public schools and but a meagre and unsatisfactory
provision of any kind for the masses. It was, how
ever, a period of activity in religion, so that in
England as in Germany, at the time of the Reforma
tion, the leaders in religious life began to feel very
keenly that it was the paramount duty of every lover
of his kind to see that all the children were trained
in the elements of religious knowledge. At this
time, England, if not poor, was at least penurious
with respect to education. Democracy was only
beginning to feel the impulse of a new life, and the
idea had not dawned upon statesmen that the people
as a whole had any responsibility for the care of in
dividual children.
In answer to this awakening consciousness of
religious need among the people, there came forward
two men, Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell. The
Lancaster labours of Lancaster began first, and cul-
andBeil, minated in the organization of the famous
British and Foreign School Society, which represented
in general the dissenting elements of English religious
life. From the activity of Dr. Bell, beginning at a
somewhat later date, arose the much greater National
Society, which represented the interests of the Church
of England. There began at this time an exceed
ingly active rivalry between these two societies for
the control of elementary education.
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 5 T
It is an interesting circumstance that both of these
systems proposed to establish the social and religious
regeneration of the nation at a very nominal cost.
Lancaster brought with him from India an Lauca3ter , s
idea which enabled him at once to com- scheme,
mand the warmest admiration of every philanthropist
in England, since he proposed a system which would
give intellectual life just as spiritual life is supposed
to be given, without money and without price.
His scheme of education is to be paralleled in the
mechanical world only by the schemes for perpetual
motion which attack ambitious but untrained minds.
His plan was an exceedingly simple one. He pro
posed himself to take a class of ten boys and instruct
and drill them in a limited field of knowledge with
great thoroughness ; then to have each of these ten
boys gather another class of ten boys, and teach
them what he himself had been taught. Similarly,
each of these hundred boys would gather a class of
ten other boys about him and instruct them in the
knowledge which he himself had gained. Thus, at
one stroke, a single teacher would be able to teach
a thousand boys. Nothing could be more alluring
from a financial standpoint to a people not yet
awakened to the duty of society for educating its
young.
Rival religious bodies seized upon the idea with
great avidity and established schools everywhere.
It would be a poor community that could not furnish
one good teacher for a thousand children. But since
the leading motive of the organization and main
tenance of this school was the religious one, it followed
52 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
as a matter of course that training in the catechisms,
Howit creeds, and formulas of the respective
succeeded, churches formed the centre of the instruc
tion. After the schools had been thus conducted for
the first quarter of the century, it was found that the
best efforts of a community were unable to meet the
growing necessities of the schools for more and better
teachers, and for the equipments necessary for carry
ing on the great system of public education. It was
found that there were large areas of country in which
no provision whatever was made for the education of
the poor.
Appeal was made to Parliament in 1833 for assist
ance, and, after much debate, Parliament responded
by its first grant of a hundred thousand dollars to
Government these so-called voluntary schools. Most
grants, o f them were under the control of the
National Society, which represented the Church of
England. From 1833 onward to the present, gov
ernment grants increased in amount and regularity,
until they have now arrived at enormous propor
tions.
The schools under ecclesiastical control continued
to be the sole means for public education down to
1870. At this time, parliamentary investi-
tto system, g a ticm showed that there were large gaps
in the system, which it was quite impossible
for the private schools to fill. They therefore estab
lished a system of public education under the title of
Board schools. School districts were laid out, school
boards elected, local taxes levied, and a system of
education, not unlike our American free public
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 53
schools, was inaugurated. All of these schools at
first, however, charged tuition fees, as the Qrf . Qof
Church schools have always done. But the Board-
sentim-ent for free public education has so s
developed, that, in London and Birmingham and
many other places, the Board schools are now abso
lutely free, as they are in this country. The Board
schools have naturally grown in popularity and ex
tent, until, from the beginning in 1870, they have
increased their attendance so that now 42$ of all
the children attend these schools; 44$ attend the
schools of the Church of England under the control
of the National Society; 3$ attend the Wesleyan
schools; 5$ the Roman Catholic; and nearly 6$
attend British undenominational and other schools.
When the Board schools were established, the
question of religious instruction naturally arose.
After extended discussion, it was finally concluded
that religious instruction must be given, but that it
could not be denominational. Therefore, the Board
schools are not allowed to teach catechisms or creeds
or church formulas, or to institute distinctive ecclesi
astical ceremonies.
There naturally arose very early, in connection
with government grants to private Church schools,
the question of religious toleration in connection with
the instruction of religious subjects. It was very
soon seen to be absolutely necessary that people, who
were so situated that they could attend only Church
schools, should be protected in their religious rights
wherever the belief of the parents differed from that
of the institution to which they sent their children.
54 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
It never would do, Englishmen thought, to allow a
Eeli ious g reat church corporation like the National
instruction Society to spread its religious propaganda
among the people at the expense of the
government. It was therefore very quickly provided,
in the so-called "conscience clause," that the
religious instruction of the school should not be
forced upon the children of unwilling parents, and it
was finally arranged that such religious instruction
must be given either at the beginning or the close of
the school day, so that pupils might absent them
selves from these exercises without losing any of the
advantages of the school. In this way there was
established a system of religious instruction, denomi
national in the Church schools and undenominational
in the Public Board schools, which could reach
almost every child in the land.
A second corollary of public grants to private in
stitutions was that every school, which availed itself
of the advantages of the grants, should subject itself
to governmental inspection. There thus grew up
in England a system of school examinations by
government authorities such as no other English-
speaking nation has, and in connection with this the
famous system of payment by results. When it was
said in Parliament that these schools might use the
government grants almost solely for spreading their
religious doctrines and might neglect all the great
purposes of a secular education, Mr. Lowe cut the
Gordian knot by proposing that the schools should
receive grants in proportion to the efficiency of their
instruction in secular branches, and he carried the
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 55
majority of Englishmen with him when he said that
if these schools were poor, they should at least be
cheap, and if they were dear, they should at least
be efficient. It was early provided, however, that
there should be no inspection of religious training in
the private schools. In the Public Board schools, if
I mistake not, examinations are offered in religious
subjects. We can thus see how a great, free,
democratic people has succeeded in providing
elementary instruction for every child in the land,
and at the same time has provided religious train
ing for all who desire it in connection with secular
education.
The outcome of such a system is in startling con
trast to the system which has developed in our own
country, whereby religion as a subject of contrasted-
instruction appears to be forever banned withAmeri-
from our public schools. The constitution
of almost every state in the Union forbids the sub
sidizing of church schools at public expense, while
the division of our population into a large number of
powerful religious organizations makes it practically
impossible to obtain public consent to any form of
religious teaching.
In England, as is well known to this assembly,
there began a system of religious instruction in
Sunday-schools under the leadership of
Robert Raikes in 1780. These schools Sunday-school
have steadily grown in popularity, exten- S 7 st em.
sion, and efficiency, until the number of students
under their tuition is greater than the number of
children in the Day-schools of Great Britain. We
5 6 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
thus see growing up side by side a double system of
religious instruction in which the Day-schools may
be presumed to give the body of religious knowledge,
while the Sunday-school would naturally be relied
upon to impart the true religious spirit to the know
ledge acquired, since, far more than the Day-school,
it enjoys the sanctions of the Church and the influence
of the religious ceremonial. Ideally, therefore, the
English system leaves little to be desired in its
opportunities for bringing up the youth of the land,
in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
Turning now for a moment to France, we find
a country predominantly Roman Catholic in confes
sion, although both Protestant and Jewish
religions likewise enjoy state support. It
would seem that in a country, in which all large
religious bodies are subsidized by the state, it would
be natural and easy to have a regular system of
religious instruction in connection with the Day-
schools. This, however, is not the fact. No reli
gious instruction whatever is given in connection with
the secular schools, but Thursday is set apart as a
No religious school holiday, in which children may
in S pubiic n receive religious instruction at the hands of
schools, the several denominations to which their
parents belong. To what extent the children are
actually instructed, I am not informed. The Sunday-
school naturally, under such conditions, would not
have a flourishing growth in France. We find that
but some sixty thousand scholars are enrolled in
such institutions.
Turning now to Germany, we find that practically
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 57
all serious religious instruction is imparted in the
Day-schools, and predominantly by the
, r / . Germany,
regular teachers employed for secular in
struction. The Sunday-school in that country, as in
France, has had but a meagre development, less
than one-tenth of the children receiving any Religious in-
instruction whatever in such institutions, section
given by
In explaining the German system, it is state-schools.
important to remember that there are but two strong
religious organizations in that country, the Roman
Catholic, chiefly at the south, and the Lutheran,
chiefly at the north, both being under state support
and control. In that country, moreover, practically
all schools are under direct governmental control,
and in very important particulars have their policy
directed from central government bureaus. Thus,
for instance, the curriculum of study is in the main
prescribed by the cultus minister. The subject of
religion always stands first in programmes of studies,
both as they emanate from the bureau, and as they
stand in the daily school programme. Four or five
hours of religious instruction per week are required
in every German school.
Probably in no other country in the world is the
religious instruction so systematically and thoroughly
given as in Germany. The principal func- Mogttllo .
tion of the German school is officially rough in the
declared to be the making of God-fearing,
patriotic, self-supporting citizens. The Germans
would no more think that religion could be omitted
from the programme of instruction, than that mathe
matics or languages could be left out. Every teacher
5 8 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
in that country receives religious training for his
work, although not every teacher gives religious in
struction in the schools. This is usually assigned to
those who are best fitted by temperament and
acquirements to impart it.
The hour for religious instruction is the first one in
the morning. The curriculum in the early grades is
Their system mac ^ e U P of Bible stories, mostly biographi-
and cunicu- cal, the memorizing of Church hymns, the
Catechism, and selected Scriptural texts.
In the middle grades, it is the aim to present a tole
rably complete idea of the Christian religion, as
expounded by Luther, some Church history, and the
meaning of the forms and ceremonies of the Church.
In the upper grades of secondary instruction, no
more formal memorizing is required, but there are
frequent reviews to help the pupils retain what they
have previously learned. The general study of the
history, antiquities, and literature of Holy Writ and
the history of the Christian Church is introduced.
Special attention is given in all classes to broad
reading, research, and exegesis, not of passages alone,
but of complete parts and books. When the Bible
is placed in the hands of the children, it is always
an expurgated edition. A favourite method, however,
is instruction by means of text-books covering selec
tions from the Bible commentary, geography and
history of the Holy Land, history of the Jews, sum
mary of the New Testament teachings, Luther s
small Catechism, the Church Calendar and the
Church hymns.
Of the effect of this instruction upon the whole
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 59
people, there are many views. Prof. Russell, in his
book on German Higher Education, calls ,
Critical
attention to the fact that, since the rise of spirit in
modern biological science, the critical spirit universities -
has entered the schools of theology. Young men
have been leaving the universities for years with
these ideas in their minds, and the definite amount
of religious knowledge, which was once supposed to
be essential to every man s education, has been
steadily growing less. Not a third as much is
required to-day as was insisted on thirty years ago.
The teachers are not so well grounded in their
beliefs, while the feeling of uncertainty in the teacher
begets uncertain results in the classroom. Pupils
consequently take less interest in the subject; many
of them say openly that the teacher is obliged to
teach them what he himself does not believe. Prof.
Russell also makes the following citation from the
Krcuszeitung of November 25,1 894 : "As matters
stand at present, we have a double-entry system of
spiritual bookkeeping. For the masses, so far as
they attend the elementary schools, and theoretically
for pupils of secondary schools as well, we have
instruction in religion on the lines of positive Chris
tianity, in the name and by the authority of the state.
In the universities, on the contrary, where the young
men are being educated who will in time succeed to
the leadership in Church and state, something
entirely different is put forward in the name of
science. Doctrines are preached which stand in
sharpest contradiction to those given to the people.
This is excused on the ground that religion is for the
60 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
people, and for them it is good enough as it is.
Science, however, occupies another field and seeks
a different patronage. The two do not come in
contact."
The clergy are also dissatisfied with the results,
which they would better by giving more time to
What reform religion. This, however, is opposed by
is possible. ^ e SC 1 100 } m en, who say that it is not more
religion, but a better quality that is needed. They
say that some text-books give as many as three hun
dred and fifty different scriptural texts to be learned
by heart. It is no wonder that " the letter kills the
spirit. The school men also complain that their
scholars know the history of the Jews better than the
history of the Germans. The remedy, they say, is
not more formal study, for pupils might spend all
their time on religion, memorizing the entire Bible,
yet come out irreligious. Better no Catechism at all
than so many tears in learning it.
Prof. Russell also cites the opinion of Prof.
Kirchner of Berlin, who speaks for the majority of his
colleagues when he says : "If the religious feeling
is not revered, awakened, and fostered in the home,
the school can do very little. As a rule,
ner s opinion, ^ e vearnm g toward God in a child s soul
is very slight. A surfeit of religious doc
trines, maxims, hymns, forms, ceremonies, prayers,
as experience proves, often produces a result pre
cisely opposite to the one intended. Not the school,
but the Church has the largest share in fostering the
increase of piety. Least of all should the school be
pressed into the service of a rigid orthodoxy; it
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 61
should not forget that the educational point of view
must be its standard. Lessons in religion ought not
to be hours dedicated to devotion, but to instruction
given in a grave, cheerful manner. The school must
be content to establish in its pupils genuine religious
feeling and sound morality. The means of doing so
is on the one hand instruction, and on the other the
teacher s example. Hypercritical sanctimoniousness,
external attendance to Church forms, nay, even
polemics against those who hold a different faith,
leave no good result. In the choice and treatment
of subjects, the standard must be genuine religious
stimulation rather than dead knowledge, scholastic
erudition, or barren forms."
The ministry have now accepted this idea, for the
new curricula now lay especial stress upon the subject
of instruction. " The religious instruction is to be
so imparted that emphasis shall be laid upon the
living acceptation and the inward appropriation of
the facts of salvation and the Christian duties, and
especial attention be given to the apologetic and
ethical side. Along with considerable diminution in
the amount taught, especially by cutting out the his
tory of the Church and dogma leading to the New &erman
taking sides in religious controversies, the curricula,
instruction, so far as it is based on history, is to be
limited to the occurrences of enduring significance for
the ecclesiastical and religious life. Prof. Russell
concludes his account by saying: " I rarely found a
schoolboy whose judgment I considered of value in
other matters, who was not deeply impressed with
the worth of his religious training. There is much
62 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
doubt, much senseless criticism abroad in the land,
but its sources are not to be sought in the schools.
On the contrary, the religion of Protestant Germany,
as it is presented in the schools, is one of the most
powerful forces for the making of unity in German
life."
We have now before us in briefest outline an
account of the religious instruction of the three
The United foreign countries assigned for consideration.
States, These facts will form a basis for an exami
nation of our own religious instruction of the young
as compared with that of other countries.
The leading purposes to be attained by such in
struction may perhaps be grouped under three heads.
fid First, the development of intelligence in
purpose of religious matters; second, the inculcation
instruction, of a Christian spirit, or permanent attitude
of mind; and third, the cultivation of habits of
Christian conduct. When we compare religious
teaching in our own country with that of Germany
and England, with respect to the first head we find
that their system is immeasurably superior to our
own. In the first place, in both countries there is
more or less systematic preparation of teachers for
this class of work. In Germany, teachers are per
haps more carefully prepared for imparting religious
information, than in any of the secular
America J
compared branches. The same thing is true to a
with Europe, somewhat less extent in Great Britain. In
the next place, they have a regular graded course of
instruction adapted to the mental powers of the
children, the whole course forming a consecutive
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 63
and more or less complete survey of the whole field.
Then, they devote as much time to this subject as to
almost any branch of secular learning.
Turning to our own country we find religious in
struction entirely excluded from the Day-schools,
consequently narrowed down to thirty or
forty minutes of actual teaching per week. American
We find the work in charge of anybody adequate!
and everybody who is willing to undertake
it. The classes are taught by people of all possible
grades of intelligence and of biblical knowledge.
And finally, we find but slight attempt at adapting
the subject-matter of instruction to the intellectual
capacity of the children, so that it is quite possible
for children to attend Sunday-school from the very
earliest years until adult life without acquiring very
much fundamental knowledge of the Scriptures.
Instead, therefore, of a graded course of instruction,
with adequate time for presentation by a trained
body of teachers, we have heterogeneous selections,
presented in the main by untrained teachers, and for
but very brief periods once a week. In addition to
all this, our system is woefully lacking, in that it fails
to reach at all a large part of the children. In
Germany and England practically all of the children
receive this thorough-going instruction, but with us
only a part of them receive it for extremely brief
periods per week, and for only such portion of their
lives as their inclination, or the inclination and cir
cumstances of the parents, determine. Therefore,
from the standpoint of the development of religious
intelligence, the American system must be pro-
64 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
nounced the most fragmentary, partial, inefficient,
haphazard system in the world.
When we come to the second great purpose to
be attained by religious instruction, namely, the
America inculcation of a Christian spirit, we have
better for perhaps not so much cause for regret. I
Christian
spirit, think it is the almost uniform testimony of
observers that the Christian attitude of mind is not
always to be measured by the amount of religious
knowledge a people may possess. There is such a
thing as formalism in religion, so that it is quite
possible for a people to possess a high degree of
intelligence in such matters with a low degree of
active Christian spirit. It is quite possible for the
religion to remain a thing apart from actual life.
The extent to which the mental attitude toward God
finds its counterpart in the mental attitude toward
one s fellow-men does not depend primarily on
the amount of religious knowledge one has. It
depends upon the quickening power of God within
the soul, upon breadth of sympathy, upon the
development of the social instincts, upon the inculca
tion of human interests in the heart. Primitive his
tory gives us many illustrations of races who pray
to their gods and prey upon their fellow-men. My
own observation leads me to think that the influence
of religious teaching in America is more potent in
arousing this human sympathy, this Christian attitude
of mind in the community and in the state, than is
the case in any of the countries with which we are
contrasting our own. We are accustomed to think
that religion is a life, rather than a doctrine or a body
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 65
of knowledge, and it can be a life only to the extent
to which the Christian spirit is inculcated in the
youth.
And finally, with respect to cultivation of the
habits of Christian conduct, I think we need not be
ashamed of the results in this country, as ^^
compared with those in England, France, Christian
or Germany, especially if we take into con- c
sideration the extremely limited agencies that we
have for directly influencing the conduct of the
young.
As to possible improvements that suggest them
selves from this comparative study, though it is easy
to see what were good to be done, it is extremely
difficult to see how it can be done. There _
r 1 T -11 Improve-
are, however, a few points that I will raise mentssug-
for your consideration. The first is the estedi
query whether it is not practicable in our American
Sunday-schools to provide a better and more child
like presentation of religious knowledge in the earlier
classes of the Sunday-school. The Day-schools
have long since found out that the success of their
instruction depends in large measure upon the selec
tion of the subject-matter and the methods of its
presentation in accordance with the psycho
logical laws of the child s interest and Better
pedagogy
growth. While it is of course possible to needed,
present in a way almost any portion of the
Bible to a class of young children, whether from the
Old Testament or the New, from the Gospels, the
Epistles, from the miracles in the Old Testament or
the parables in the New, from chronology or revela-
66 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
tion, yet it is evident, to one who looks at the subject
from the standpoint of the child s capacities and
interests, that much of this matter is introduced at
great expense, whether we consider the powers of
acquisition or the spiritual value of that which is
acquired. Would it not be more profitable to confine
the earlier work to the Old Testament stories, such
as those of Joseph, Jacob, Abraham, and Daniel; to
Suggested sucn histories, as that of Samuel; and to
changes, simple narratives of the life of Christ ?
These matters are of eternal interest to the child and
form a basis for a mastery of scriptural knowledge.
Along with such instruction could appropriately go
the memorizing of the Ten Commandments, of suit
able proverbs, and of portions of Scripture of deep
religious and moral import, expressed in the trans
parent language of the Scriptures.
In the earlier years of such instruction, it ought
to be assumed that every child is a child of God;
that by virtue of this fact he belongs in the Christian
family, and that it would be a disaster if, for any
reason, he should be considered as excluded from it.
The Sunday-school should be a place for strengthen
ing him, especially in his mental attitude toward his
playmates and others with whom he comes in con
tact.
As the period of adolescence approaches, every
effort of the religious teachers of the child should be
Crucial devoted toward fixing in his mind a per-
periodof manent Christian attitude toward every-
ace thing in the world. The study of primitive
races and of genetic psychology show that this is
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. ( 7
one of the crucial periods in the life of every indi
vidual. Physically, the whole body and nervous
organism of the child is in its most plastic and most
rapidly growing state. Strong impressions made at
this period are likely to have a lasting effect. It is
at this time that we find the birth of the social in
terests. The altruistic feelings begin to arise, a new
consciousness of selfhood, and its importance in the
world dawn upon the child. We find that, in primi
tive races, this is the period for solemn initiation into
the deeper life of the tribe. Boys are often put
through extremely trying physical ordeals; a loop
of flesh, for instance, in the back may be pierced by
a thong and tied to a revolving pole placed hori
zontally, and the young man be expected to tear
himself loose. It was at the completion of his
fourteenth year that the Roman boy assumed the
toga mrilis. It has long been the custom of the
Roman Catholic and the Lutheran Churches to con
firm both boys and girls at this period. Especial
pains is taken at this time to impress upon them the
importance and seriousness, the sanctity and neces
sity of a religious life. It is said that children are
often separated from the rest of the family, given
long periods of meditation in which they are admo
nished to think upon their eternal salvation, of death,
the grave, the judgment. They are led to feel and
express contrition for sinful conduct and feelings.
Then, when all these ordeals are safely passed,
absolution is granted, when everything becomes full
of light and joy and happiness; the children don
new garments, made especially for this occasion,
68 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
march in procession and formally enter upon their
Church-membership. These things have a deep
import for the American Protestant Sunday-school.
Children ought not to be allowed to drift on and on,
with the general assumption that they are lost and
the vague hope that some time they will be redeemed ;
but direct conscious effort should be made to initiate
them into a distinctively religious life. The wisdom
of such a process is not founded upon individual
opinion, but finds its deep foundation in the history
and practices of the race, in the psychical nature of
the adolescent mind and body.
What should be the quality of the religious in
fluences brought to bear upon the child when he has
passed this crucial period ? Here I am inclined to
Pro erin- think is a matter worthy of our deepest
fluences after consideration. The history of Protestant
adolescence, religion shows that from the earliest times
much emphasis has been laid upon purely individual,
subjective states of mind. And this original tendency
was vastly accentuated by religious observances,
recommended and inculcated by Whitefield and
Wesley. They insisted upon a positive and vigorous
subjective experience, accompanied by equally vigor
ous and objective utterance as a necessary condition
of salvation. In the older times, if a man had been
asked, " What is your assurance of salvation ? " he
might perhaps have answered, "The welfare of my
nation, my community, my family, myself. Accord
ing to our thrift, our property, our health, our
physical comfort, our freedom from the pains of war,
or the desolation caused by natural forces, in these
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 69
things I have a warrant for believing that I stand
within the favour of the Lord." Those who read
the Book of Job appreciate what this test of divine
favour means. With Whitefield and Wesley, how
ever, a new test of divine favour is introduced. Not
my outward condition, but my inward state is the
criterion of my eternal welfare. If I have had the
necessary mental experience, if my feelings have
passed through a certain crisis, if I have expressed
in public my contrition and my joy, then am I certain
of my salvation, then can I "read my title clear to
mansions in the sky. And since that time, Protes
tant denominations have been disposed to emphasize
the necessity of these subjective states, so that the
religious teaching, and the assumptions underlying the
teaching and furnishing the basis of its spirit, have
been the necessity of constant participation in these
psychical states, so that we find the emphasis laid
upon such things as rest and joy and inward peace ;
upon temptations and prayers ; upon trials and resig
nation to them; upon trust; a sense of sin, of atone
ment, of love of God and hope of Heaven, of a desire
for strength against the ills of life. We find a
disposition to constant introspection, to a self-testing,
to see if we have the feelings, necessary to a public
analysis of how we feel or should feel. Now all of
this, or most of it, it seems to me, is not natural to the
heart and mind of youth. What yearning has the
active, restless mind of a boy for rest and inward
peace ; what experience has he of the trials of life or
resignation to them ; how long can he seriously think
of death and the grave and the judgment ; how can
7 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
he be expected to have an intense love of God ; how
can a lad who never fears a physical hurt seriously
dwell upon his hope of Heaven ? How can he have
an intense longing for fortitude against a host of ills
which he never experienced ; how, in short, can a
mind which is by nature intensely objective, con
crete, synthetic, ever cultivate a deep introspective
spirit; how can he be expected to analyze his feel
ings, and especially to analyze the feelings which he
never has or which he can have only w r hen he is
abnormally trained ? Such ideas do not belong to
youth; they are forced and unnatural. I confess
that I sometimes look on with little less than wonder
when I see a young collegian of sixteen to eighteen
conducting a prayer-meeting, exhorting his fellows
to these subjective experiences, with all the vigour
that a college boy would work up an enthusiasm for
an athletic contest. Can one rationally expect a
youth under twenty to enjoy a prayer-meeting ?
What has he to pray for in public ? If he says his
prayers when he goes to bed, he is doing as much
as can be expected of a youth. I do not know what
the statistics may be as to the personnel of the
teachers in our Sunday-schools, but I suspect that
most of them are women, and it may be that this fact
is partially responsible for the attempt to inculcate
the states of mind, which are at best those of maturity,
if not those that are more common in women than
in men.
There was in England a special reason why there
should be a reaction against Puritanism in favour of a
more intense subjective religious life among the
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 7 T
people. As Prof. Patten shows in his " Development
of English Thought, the Puritans had
arisen largely to suppress the vice that had
become so common in connection with rural .
, , i r i T- i- t- 1 religious life,
and social pleasures ol the .hnglish people.
These customs had arisen out of their earlier, more
primitive clannish life, their outdoor festivals, their
May-pole dances, and their numerous social gather
ings which had degenerated so that they became
scenes of debauchery and had to be suppressed. The
Puritans succeeded in driving them out of existence ;
they made the home the sole seat of social pleasures,
and in this way deprived the people of a means of
social expression, to which they had for ages been
accustomed. There was naturally, therefore, a great
suppressed longing for the manifestation of this old
racial feeling, so that when Whitefield and Wesley
devised a system of religious exercises which would
allow the people to come together again, and when
moreover they insisted upon a set of psychical ex
periences which gave vent to these old disused social
feelings, there was an immediate and wide-spread
response to the new opportunity. If the people
could not go to May-pole dances and outdoor festi
vals, they could at least go to class-meetings and
camp-meetings ; they could meet together again in
the Church and express in new ways their old social
feelings.
It is not to be wondered at either that in the more
primitive stages of our development in this country
those ideas should be warmly welcomed by the people.
A rural or pioneer community has but small oppor-
72 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
tunity for indulging their social natures ; the young
men work, week in and week out, alone
Early atti
tude of on the farm, seeing almost nobody, having
no social functions to perform, living an
isolated life. Under such conditions there would
be a natural receptivity to a set of religious exercises
which should lend a dramatic social interest to life,
as was the case in the ever-recurring religious
revivals. There, on the one hand, the young man,
whose social nature had been starved for the
remainder of the year, found an opportunity to look
on at an exceedingly dramatic performance. He
beheld his neighbours, his friends, and acquaintances
at the mourner s bench, alternately groaning with
despair and shouting with victory; he beheld the
preacher in an ecstasy of divine rage or joy, the band
of singers shouting out their songs of praise ; and at
the same time he felt that dread possibility that he
himself might at any moment be transformed from a
spectator to an actor in the drama. The point I am
making is that the emphasis upon these psychical
experiences, their public expression and a later
rehearsal of these initial experiences, was based upon
a real need of society first in England as a whole,
and later in the primitive, non-social condition of the
American people.
While, on the one hand, I should acknowledge at
once that there was an historic justification for insist
ing upon such religious experiences, I do, on the
other hand, claim that the need for them has largely
passed away, and that a new spiritual attitude should
be maintained in all our religious work. While I
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 73
do think that every youth, in the early period of
adolescence, should pass through a some- jjeedfora
what analogous experience in his religious new view,
feeling, so that his attitude toward Christian conduct
may be permanently right, yet I think the emphasis
from this time on ought to be laid, not upon subjective
experience, not upon introspective analysis, not upon
the straining after feelings which are unnatural to
youth, but upon a positive, objective, and more active
expression of religious life, which finds its manifesta
tion in actual work in the community. The plant
of Christian character ought to thrive and grow in
the human soul ; but in some sense I think it ought
to grow just as the intellect grows, not by pulling
it up by the roots to see how fast it is growing or
how much it has grown, but by exercise upon those
things that continue its unconscious development.
We push a boy on in his arithmetic and encourage him
to try hard examples ; we rejoice with him when he
masters them ; we try to awaken his eager interest
in science or literature or language, assured that
while he is doing these things he is growing in in
tellectual strength. We never think, however, of
trying to make him self-conscious, of trying to make
him examine his own mind to see how far he has
gone ; that matter takes care of itself. And so largely
in the life of feeling, we want him to feel correctly
about a thousand things, but we never ask him to
feel that he feels. So in the religious growth. I
cannot believe that this constant importunity to turn
the mind in upon itself, in order that it may be con
scious of its own processes, of its own states, is any
74 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN
more wise or needful for actual growth than would
a similar process be in the intellectual field.
That the problem is a difficult one under existing
conditions, I should be the first to grant. Religion
itself in England and America has ceased
Emphasize
man s rela- to be largely subjective. Emphasis is no
nhw-men lo n g er laid upon the saving power of doc
trines or beliefs, the individualistic attitude,
whereby a man s chief concern is to save his soul in
another world, is no longer insisted upon; but the
attitude of a man in society, his social interests and
duties, the welfare of the country, the protection of
the youth from contaminating influences of men, who
would destroy that they themselves may be enriched,
pure politics, social activity, reciprocity, solidarity
of the community in the things that make for
righteousness, for well-being, good conduct, these
are the things that are emphasized in the pulpit,
these are the things it seems to me that should be
emphasized in the Sunday-schools. If the introspec
tive analysis of states of feeling has been remanded
to a secondary position in the Church, there is all the
more need that it should sink into its proper relations
in the Sunday-school. Adults may perhaps indulge
harmlessly in introspection, if they find pleasure in
so doing, but such a custom is contrary to the whole
instinct and nature of youth. If the emphasis upon
psychic experience was a natural outlet for the
pent-up social feelings of a race, as in England, or
of primitive communities in pioneer America, so in
the religious training of youth, if we would attain
the highest excellence, we must rely not upon the
ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. 75
occasional needs arising from locality, or condition
in life, but upon the permanent needs that grow out
of the very nature of the youthful mind, g^ia meet
Here we shall be responding to universal universal
... -1,1- conditions,
conditions, not to accidental circumstances,
for I firmly believe that religious instruction, like
secular instruction, can reach its highest success only
when it is in fundamental accord with the nature of
the mind that is to be educated.
Finally it may be said that in this country, although
we have done much, we have still more to do. We
have first of all, and perhaps hardest of all, i mpr0 ve Sun-
to secure adequate time for religious train- day-school
. methods,
ing. Thirty or forty minutes per week are
not enough to secure the requisite religious intelli
gence. Then we must have in some way a better
trained body of teachers to do the work. We must
be able to rely not upon occasional consecrated
effort ; but to consecration we must add preparation.
Then, again, we must attempt to adjust our instruc
tion to the nature of the children s minds and not
present, indiscriminately to tottering age and vigor
ous manhood and budding youth and feeble childhood,
the same lesson at the same time. We must too, I
think, take a lesson from modern psychology and
ancient race experience, and recognise more fully
than we are doing the supreme importance of bring
ing the mind into the line of Christian sympathy and
Christian conduct at the age of early adolescence. And
finally we must, as I have said, adapt the spirit of our
instruction to the spirit of youth. A mighty work
to do, it may be thought, but mightily worth doing!
IV.
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS IN
STRUCTION.
By the Very Reverend GEORGE HODGES, D.D., Dean of Cam
bridge Divinity School.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE IV.
Content of Religious Instruction determined by its Purpose.
Compared with Purposes of Public and Private Schools.
All Religious Instruction in entire Parish has the same end in view.
The Content of Religious Instruction, (a) Character and (b) Church
Material.
(a) Character Material, Catechism and Bible.
(b) Church Material, Prayer-book and Church History.
The Distribution of Material found in (I) the Sunday-school, and (II)
the Congregation.
The Sunday-school, in Infant School, Main School, and Bible Classes.
The Congregation, in Confirmation Class, Sunday Services, and
Mid-week Service.
1. The Sunday-school.
A. Infant School. Develop (i) Memory by Creed, Lord s
Prayer, Decalogue, Hymns ; and (2) Imagination by
Bible Stories.
B. The Main School. Teach (i) Catechism, (2) Bible,
and (3) Prayer-book, (i) Catechism recited and ex
plained. (2) Bible, the Historical Books only. (3)
Prayer-book, by actual use in Services. Special Ser
vices, Christmas, Easter, Stereopticon, etc.
2. The Congregation.
(i) Sunday-morning Services. Use Systematic Courses of
Sermons. (2) The Confirmation Class. Full Course
of Church Doctrine and Practice. (3) The Mid-week
Services. Definite Bible Study. (4) The Sunday -
evening Services. Use Lecture System, to interest,
instruct, and convict.
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUC
TION.
THE content of religious instruction is determined
by the purpose for which the instruction is given and
by the persons who are to be instructed.
What is the purpose of religious instruction ?
What is it for ? We know what the Day-school is
for: its immediate intention is to train and
inform the mind; its ultimate intention, if religious
. . -. . 1 t instruction,
it is a Private school, is to prepare young
persons for society; its ultimate intention, if it is a
Public school, is to prepare young people for citizen
ship. These intentions are by no means realized in
full by administrators of secular education. The
Trustees and the Board are sometimes but
dimly aware of them. And the school, private and
public, fails accordingly to render its natural and
needed service to the community. But this is the
true ideal, and towards it an encouraging number of
educators are working. The private school is to
make boys into gentlemen, and girls into gentle
women, well-mannered, appreciative of what is good
in art and letters, and understanding the relation
between privilege and responsibility. The public
school is to make boys into intelligent voters, and
79
So THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
girls presently into intelligent voters, and thus
to assist the state by raising the general level of its
life, cultivating public spirit, making young persons
acquainted with the history, the present conditions,
and the possibilities of their own country, common
wealth, city, or township, teaching the relation
between the ballot and the office and the social wel
fare of the people.
What is the purpose of the Sunday-school ? It is
to do for Christianity and the Church what the
private and the public schools are meant to do for
Aim of the soc i et y and the state. It is to make the
Sunday- boys and girls good Christians, sincere
disciples of Jesus Christ, knowing Him,
believing in Him, loving Him, and obeying Him,
showing their discipleship by the gentleness, the
thoughtfulness, the honesty, the purity, and the
unselfishness of their lives. And it is to make
the boys and girls good Churchmen, understanding
the Church, its history, its principles, its customs,
its blessings, devoted to the Church, making the
most of it for the good of their own individual lives,
using it to help them to do right, and making the
most of it for the good of the community, using the
Church for the general establishment of the Kingdom
of Heaven. This is the purpose of the Sunday-school.
It is to train Christians and Churchmen. It is to
build up character in the Church, with the appliances
#/~the Church.
The same is true of all other systematic religious
instruction in the Parish. It holds in the pulpit as
well as in the schoolroom. The parish priest will
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 81
be a teacher as well as a preacher. The difference
between teaching and preaching is partly
that preaching may appeal to the emotions,
while teaching appeals to the understanding
only; but chiefly that the preacher tries to bring
about an immediate result, to lead to conviction,
resolution, and amendment before the end of the
hour, while the teacher uses a more patient process,
takes a longer time and a longer look, endeavours
to prepare the learner to listen to the sermon, and
to assist the will gradually by informing the mind.
But all the teaching, wherever given, will be for the
purpose of training Christians and Churchmen. That
is, it will have both an individual and a social inten
tion; an individual intention, to build up Christian
character; and a social intention, to make Christian
character strong, abiding, and serviceable by the aid
of the Church, by bringing the individual into rela
tion with the sacramental influences which make for
character, and by bringing him also into relation with
the institutional conditions which will increase his
efficiency, as the efficiency of the soldier is increased
by keeping step with the regiment.
The content of religious instruction as determined
by its purpose will consist, therefore, of two kinds of
material: character material and Church Content() f
material. It is neither wise nor desirable religious
to make a sharp distinction between these
two. It is perhaps true that in the Middle Ages,
when the social idea prevailed in the Church as it
did in the state, people were made Churchmen with
out being made Christians ; the most frequent and
82 THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
emphatic teaching of the Church had to do with
attendance upon Sacraments and Services, and with
the position and power of the ecclesiastical institution.
It is certainly true that at the present day, in this
individualistic age, people are often made Christians
without being made Churchmen ; they have no appre
ciation of the privilege of the sacraments, no loyalty
to the Church as an institution, and little sense of
social religious responsibility. What we want is
that they shall be made Christians and Churchmen
at the same time, as we want a man to be at the
same time a gentleman and a good citizen. Ac
cordingly, what we call character material is Church
material also, and what we call Church material
is a contribution to character. The difference is
not so much in the details as in the general tend
ency.
Where, then, shall we find our character material ?
What ought one to be taught in order to be a
Character Christian ? There is excellent authority
material, f or saying that one ought to be taught the
Creed, the Lord s Prayer, and the Ten Command
ments, the Commandments as the moral heritage
Subject- f tne Old Testament; the Prayer as the
matter, expression of the spirit of the New Testa
ment, as illustrating and teaching the Christian
attitude towards God and towards man; and the
Creed, as the voice of the mind and heart of the
Church. These, then, are in immediate relation to
The Gate- character, because they instruct us How to
chism, ac^ How to pray, and How to think.
They are assembled in the Church Catechism. Let
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 83
us, therefore, set down the Church Catechism first
among our character materials.
The Catechism, however, is not enough for the
purposes of instruction. It lacks the power of per
sonal example. We need to see men, who
Trie Bible.
have acted in obedience or in disobedience
to the Commandments, that w r e may perceive how
they fared. We need to see men, who have lived
the life of prayer, and to hear their words of devo
tion. We need to see men, who have thought as the
Creed thinks, and to see what sort of men they were,
and how they came to think these thoughts, and
what they meant. Abstract statements, dogmatic
pronouncements, ethical precepts, are like a library
in the dark: the truth is there, but we cannot see to
read it. A single concrete example is like a match
which brings light into the darkness and makes
things plain. Where shall we find such examples ?
They are scattered through all literature, they are to
be found some of them in the daily paper, and
they live on our own street ; but they are nowhere so
clearly seen, with the spiritual meanings so directly
taught, as in the pages of the Bible. Let us add
the Bible, then, to our store of character material.
Taking thus the Catechism and the Bible as our
text-books for instruction in character, where shall
we turn for good learning in the matter of church
the Church ? The Church book is the material,
Book of Common Prayer. In order to be an intelli
gent Churchman one must know that book, whence
it came, what it is and means, and how it is to be
so used as to get the best blessing out of it.
84 THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
The Prayer-book, however, like the Catechism
lacks the illumination of personality. It does not
The Prayer- ^ ac ^ tm s so seriously as the Catechism,
book, because it stands in more close and evident
relation to our own personality. It is our own book,
and as we use it year by year associations gather
about it, new meanings appear in it interpreted by
our own experience, and its words become the words
of our own hearts. There is a great difference
between a treatise on prayer, and the very act of
prayer; a great difference between the Command
ments quoted in order from the Book of Exodus and
the Commandments followed each by the response,
4 Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts
to keep this law " ; a great difference between the
explanation and the realization of the Sacraments.
That is the difference between the Catechism and the
Prayer-book. But as we added the Bible to the
Catechism in the material for the upbuilding of
Christian character, so we need to add Church His
tory to the Prayer-book in our material for the
upbuilding of Christian Churchmanship. The History
Church of the Church, if we can read it right, will
History. teach us the origin, the progress, and the
position of the Church, will make us see how differ
ent it is from other associations of Christians, will
make us appreciate it and be intelligently loyal to
it; and it will assist us to be good Churchmen by the
examples of the strong men and devout women, who
have lived in the Church s spirit and have derived
strength and devotion from the Church. So that the
study of Church History is like the study of our own
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 85
ancestors. It may be dull enough, and often is : but
undertaken aright it will give us a natural and sus
taining family pride, and will fill our memories with
the words and deeds of those who from their kinship
offer us an inspiring example. We are not willing
to learn without correction the question of the little
girl who said, " Mamma, whom are we degenerated
from ? " We would rather be in the mind of the
man who turned his back on his temptations, and
from being a common tramp became a decent citizen,
because he remembered that one of his progenitors
had been a commanding officer in the War of Inde
pendence. The history of the Church is somewhat
more difficult to study than the other subjects of
religious knowledge, because there is no one satisfac
tory book which contains it. It is hardly possible
to make much use of it, for that reason, in the
Sunday-school. But it ought to be taught, and
taught with regularity and system, in every parish.
It cannot be omitted from the content of religious
instruction.
Here, then, we have our material: character
material in the Catechism and in the Bible, Church
material in the Prayer-book and in Church history.
The distribution of this material, the order of
teaching, the use which shall be made of the content
thus determined for us by the purpose for Distribution
which the instruction is given, must be of the
decided by considering the persons who are
to be instructed. They are found in two com
panies: in the Sunday-school and in the Congrega
tion. The Sunday-school is divided into three
86 THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
sections: the Infant School, the Main School, and
the Bible Class. The Congregation meets for
systematic teaching upon three occasions: at the
Confirmation Class, at the Mid-week Service, and at
the Sunday-evening Service.
What shall be taught in the Infant School ? These
little children cannot read, and they cannot follow
Infant a l n g tram of reasoning, but they bring
School, ^0 their lessons two inestimable qualities,
which many of them will never have again in a like
degree : one is memory, the other is imagination.
We will make use, then, of their memory. We
will try to store it with that which is worth remem-
The eda Derm g- Here, however, we are at once
gogicsof confronted with the question which the
zmg> pedagogues have debated and have for the
most part decided: Should children be taught to
memorize what they do not understand ? The peda
gogues say, "No." The catechetical method, so
far as it consists in fixed questions and invariable
answers, has no respectable position now, except in
Sunday-school. It must be confessed that the
memorizing of the Church Catechism, as that exer
cise has sometimes been conducted, is not to edifica
tion. It has made the children hate the Catechism;
and its results have been generally discouraging.
One of the classic instances is * My duty towards
my neighbour " as it was written out by a small
child after it had been taught in an English Sunday-
school :
My dooty tords my nabers to love him as
myself, and to do to all men as I woud they shall
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 87
do and to me, to love, onner and suke my father
and mother and bay the Queen and all that are pet
in a forty under her, to smit myself to all
. Illustration
my goones teachers spartial pastures and O f wron g
masters, who oughten myself lordly and m emoriter
every to all my betters, to hut nobody
by would nor deed, to be trew and jest in all my
dealins, to beer no malis nor atred in your arts, to
kep my ands from pecking and steel my turn from
evil speak and lawing and slanders, not to civit and
desar other mans good, but to learn labor trewly
to get my own leaving and to do my duty in that
state if life and to each it lies please God to call
men."
Nevertheless, it is both profitable and necessary
that the memory should sometimes outrun the perfect
understanding. When the memory gets altogether
out of sight of the understanding, things are amiss
indeed. But that need not happen. It is true of
every one of us that there are sentences in
our memory words of prayer and praise,
verses of high poetry, utterances of saints understand-
inff i
and wise men which our understanding
has not even yet fully overtaken. We do not even
yet know w r hat they mean. But the day will come
when our experience shall teach us, and in that
day the remembered word shall be an interpreter
and a counsellor. We want to put such words into
the memories even of little children. They cannot
understand the Creed, nor the Ten Commandments,
nor even the Lord s Prayer; but they can under
stand something about them. And that is all that
88 THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
can be said of us. Let us then bring those great
words into the Infant School, teach them with such
iteration that the children can never forget them,
and tell them what they mean just so far as we can
make it plain and they can see it.
It is a good plan to make the Creed, the Lord s
Prayer, and the Ten Commandments a part of the
regular opening service of the Infant School, and to
follow the recitation by a lesson every Sunday in
some simple text-book which takes them up in order,
word by word. To these stores for the memory,
may well be added words of hymns, and fitting texts
of Scripture; the Scripture texts being preferably
taught alphabetically " A soft answer turneth away
wrath " ; < Be merciful, " Be patient.
The imagination of the child will be appealed to
in the instruction given in the Bible. The best way
to teach the Bible in the Infant School is
imagination
in the Infant to tell Bible stories. I would begin with
School. Adam and go straight through to the last
chapter of the Revelation of St. John. It is neces
sary that this be done systematically and graphically :
systematically, in that the order of the stories be laid
out at the beginning of the year, and followed Sunday
after Sunday; graphically, in that the stories be
brought as close as possible to contemporary life,
and the heroes and heroines be made real. The
content of this instruction will need re-translation to
adapt it to the understanding of small children.
Pharoah in his dream will see cows instead of
kine, and the Prodigal Son will dispute his dinner
with pigs instead of * swine. The men will obey
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 89
the command which Michael Angelo gave to
Donatello s St. George; they will "march." The
battle of the lamps and trumpets, for example ; the
children will stand as breathless spectators of that
splendid fight. They will look out through the dark,
and see the dim outlines of the tents of the Midian-
ites. They will watch the army of Gideon, as they
hide behind the trees to light their lanterns. They
will see them creeping silently over towards the
sleeping camp, every man a sharp sword in his belt,
in his left hand a lantern hidden in a pitcher, in his
right a trumpet. Suddenly the word is given, crash
go three hundred stout trumpets against three hundred
breaking pitchers, and the lights shine out, and the
trumpets make a noise like that of forty nights-
before-the- " Fourth " in one, and every brave
Israelite shouts with all his might, " The sword of the
Lord and of Gideon! " And then the wild panic,
and the flight, with Gideon hot after them.
Let us then set down as the content of religious
instruction in the Infant School, the Creed, the
Lord s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, with
the words of hymns and Scripture texts storing the
memory; and stories from the Bible, stirring the
imagination.
In the Main School, instruction will naturally be
given in the Catechism, the Bible, and the 1^1^
Prayer-book. School.
It is well, in the Main School as in the Infant
School, to make the catechetical instruction a part
of the Opening Service. It may take the place of
that which in liturgical language we call the
9 THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
1 lesson. It does not seem advisable the time
being so brief to read at the service the portion of
Scripture which is presently to be studied. That
has a space of its own. Take a Catechism lesson
instead. There are two purposes which this lesson
is to attain : it is meant to impress the exact words
of the entire Catechism upon the minds of the
children, and it is intended also to bring as much as
possible of its meaning into their hearts. The
Catechism falls naturally into five divisions: the
Covenant, the Creed, the Commandments, the Lord s
Prayer, and the Sacraments. If one of these after
another is recited by the school in concert every
Sunday, that will take the scholars through the
Catechism ten times a year; and without seriously
wearying them. Let this recitation be followed by
a five-minute explanation (never longer) of a single
phrase, in order, each Sunday a fiftieth part of the
whole. Thus the Catechism will be gone over with
interpretation once in the course of a year.
As for the Bible, the historical books lend them
selves most naturally to the purposes of Main School
instruction. They are interesting, and abundantly
Bible use his- suggestive, and they teach truth in the most
torical books convincing way, by example. It is neces-
only, here. ^^ howevei% tQ bHng aU ^ BiWe books>
at least by allusion, into the content of instruction,
even in the Main School. The children ought to
be taught not only the content, but the contents of
Holy Scripture; I mean the names of all the books
in their succession, so that they may be able to find
their way about among them. Whatever the system
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 9 1
of lessons, the Bible ought to be so taught, that every
scholar shall know what Joseph did in Egypt, and
Joshua in Canaan, what Amos wrote about in his
prophecy, and St. Paul in his epistle to the Galatians,
and the great successive words and deeds of the
Ministry of Christ.
This may be attained by taking for one year the
history from Genesis to Ruth the era of the origin
and establishment of the Old Testament people ; and
for the next year the history from I. Samuel to
Esther the era of the Old Testament Kingdom,
united, divided, destroyed, and restored; and for
the third year one of the Gospels ; and for the fourth
the Acts of the Apostles ; with a fifth year given to
the Books of the Bible, in their order, having the
scholars read a brief characteristic passage of each
book and giving them a brief analysis of each book,
which will sufficiently answer the question, What is
it about ?
Taking thus the historical books for the chief con
tent of instruction in the Main School, the remainder
of the Bible poetry, prophecy, and epistles may
be assigned to the Bible Class, to be L eave
studied a book at a time carefully and Poetry,
thoroughly. The Main School lessons EpistleTto^ 1
may be adjusted to some one of the many Bible Classes,
excellent systems, whose rival attractions perplex
the rector and the teacher; or they may be arranged,
as I have just suggested, by the rector himself, fitting
them to his own teachers and his own school. The
Bible Class lessons, almost of necessity, will be
chosen for the individual class. While there is an
9 2 THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
ideal advantage in haying the entire body of Bible
students intent upon the same lesson, and studying
it, old and young together, around the evening lamp
on Saturday night, this ideal is now so rarely realized
that it is perhaps better to frankly abandon it, and
minister to the harmless, natural pride of young
persons of sixteen years of age and over by giving
them lessons which are quite different from those
studied by the youngsters. Let us take, for example,
for six months the Book of Psalms ; and for the next
six months, the Epistles to the Corinthians ; let us
spend a year in the Book of Daniel and the
Revelation of St. John; let us study Isaiah for
twelve months; and the minor prophets, one each
month. Once in four or five years, the Bible
Classmay profitably be turned into a Prayer-book
Class, taking the book from the title-page to the
Articles.
In the Main School, the Prayer-book is best
taught, in my judgment, by actual use of it in the
Prayer-book Service. It is intended partly for purposes
by actual of worship, and partly for purposes of in
struction. It gives us helpful forms of
praise and petition, and it appoints us Holy Seasons
whereby certain great truths, on which our praises
and petitions rest, are called to our remembrance.
What we want is that these forms and seasons shall
become a part of the lives of the children. The
forms may be taught by the ordinary services of
the school, and the seasons by certain special
services, designed to emphasize and illustrate
them.
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 93
The ordinary Service of the Sunday-school becomes
not only an act of worship but a means of profitable
instruction partly by the use of the Book of The School
Common Prayer in that Service, allowing Service.
no service-card or leaflet to take its place ; and partly
by so arranging the Service that in the following of
it every scholar shall learn to "find the places."
This may be accomplished by the use of some such
service as this :
1 . Hymn or hymns.
2. The Lord s Prayer, and versicles.
3. One psalm, or a part of a psalm, from the
psalter for the day.
4. The lesson, from the Catechism.
5. A canticle, sometimes from Morning Prayer,
sometimes from Evening Prayer.
6. The Creed, and versicles.
7. The collect for the day, and prayer.
8. Hymn.
This is not so much of a Service as to appear to
make the Sunday-school a substitute for the Church.
At the same time, it is enough to give the children
that familiarity with the book, which will prepare
them to take an intelligent and devout part in the
Church service.
It is helpful, also, as a matter of instruction and
reminder, to have the Sacrament of Baptism adminis
tered in the presence of the school, several times a
year, and to have the children follow the service in
their books.
Special Services marking the seasons of Christmas
and Easter are held in all Sunday-schools ; but the
94 THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
number of days thus brought happily to the attention
Special f the children may easily be extended.
Services. j$ v the use of the stereopticon, picture
services may be held on the evenings of Epiphany,
Good Friday, and Ascension Day. The service
may begin with hymns and prayers, and then the
appropriate pictures may follow as the Gospel story
is re-told. Thus on the evening of the Epiphany,
the pictures may begin with the Annunciation and
go on to our Lord s visit to the Temple, when He was
twelve years old. On the evening of Good Friday,
the pictures may begin with the Triumphal Entry
into Jerusalem and proceed through all the days of
the Holy Week to Easter. On the evening of
Ascension Day, the pictures may illustrate the
miracles and parables and other events of our Lord s
Ministry. Such a service is not a difficult nor an
expensive matter. The rent of fifty pictures with a
lantern and screen and the attendance of a man to
operate them will not cost more than fifteen dollars.
The pictures are the most beautiful in the world,
the great paintings which men whom God has inspired
have made for the Church, the treasures of galleries
and cathedrals, the masterpieces of Raphael and
Angelo and Da Vinci ; here they are assembled in
any parish church for the delight and instruction of
little children. The impressive effect of such services
is very great; the children recognise and understand
and appreciate and remember. The great Christian
Days shine with a new light.
The content of religious instruction in the Parish
will be determined by the Sunday-school ; it will also
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 95
be determined by the Congregation. In every
parish, the Sunday-school is systematically Ingtruction
instructed. The work may not be done of the Con-
very wisely nor very well, but in some g
manner it is done, and what I have been saying has
travelled over roads familiar to you all. It is not
enough, however, to instruct the Sunday-school,
there is imperative need of the systematic instruction
of the Congregation.
The Congregation is of course instructed it is
to be hoped in every parish every Sunday, in the
sermon. But the most admiring parishioner can
hardly say, in many parishes, that the instruction
thus given is systematic. Systematic instruction
implies a reasonable and progressive and visible
purpose, adding precept to precept, like Generally
the building of a house, for the accomplish- tematio,
ment of a certain action or conviction or the acquire
ment of a certain knowledge. It means that the ser
mon which is preached on Sunday has a logical as
well as a chronological relation to the sermon which
was preached a week ago. And that is a condition
which is not realized of a Sunday morning in two
pulpits out of fifty in all Christendom. On the Sun
day before last, the preacher talked about loaves and
fishes ; last Sunday, his theme was the Day of Judg
ment; and here he comes with a sermon on the
doctrine of Inspiration. This is a rather haphazard
fashion of dealing with so serious a matter as religion,
and its results are plainly seen in an imperfectly in
structed laity.
The people need systematic instruction ; but they
96 THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
do not need it any more than the parson needs to
give it. For his own sake, as well as for their sake,
preaching ought to be supplemented by teaching.
For the life of the minister is one of continual dis
traction and interruption, whereby actual study is
made very difficult. To this is added the perplexity,
which arises from the many-sided character of the
life which the minister lives. There are twenty
ways in which he may spend his day: how shall he
choose ? The result of this interruption and per
plexity is that in a good many cases the
People and ,. J.
Clergy need minister lets his reading go. He ceases
systematic to be a student. He knows that there
teachingi
are great books being written, which trans
late the truths of the ages into the language of
our own time, but he knows nothing about them,
except what he chances to read in a Review. As
for the masters of theology and the facts of history,
he has, as he thinks, no time for them. Happy is
he, if he continues to read even his Bible to any pur
pose. The chances are that he reads more in the
Bible in the course of the services on Sunday, than
he read during the whole previous week put together.
It is inevitable that the ministry of such a pastor
and preacher should suffer. He cannot preach well
unless he himself is preached to ; and he must find
his sermons in books. Under these circumstances,
the conscientious minister will apply the goad of
necessity. He will compel himself to read. This
he will do by improving three natural occasions for
such compulsion: the Confirmation Class, the Mid
week Service, and the Sunday-evening Service. He
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 97
will decide upon such subjects for these occasions, as
will make it absolutely necessary for him to study in
order to speak upon them; and he will make his
decision so public and irrevocable, by announcement
from the chancel and in type, that neither indolence
nor interruption shall be able to effect his escape.
Under these circumstances, for the good alike of
minister and people, what shall be the content of
instruction in the Confirmation Class ?
T-U /- c 4.- /-t -*. - i Th eConfir-
The Confirmation Class, it is plain, is mation
meant not merely to prepare young persons ^ la8Si
for Confirmation, but to make them intelligent citi
zens of the Kingdom of Heaven. The intention of
the instruction, then, will be to set forth for their
learning the great outlines of Religion : the things
which one should believe and do in order to be a
good Christian. This must be done simply and
briefly; for the hearers are young and the time is
short. How it may be done best, everybody must
decide for himself; every minister must make his
own plan. The essential thing is that there be a
plan, that it be a large one, which shall make a
considerable demand upon both teacher and taught,
and that it be announced and maintained.
Such a plan, however made, will have a certain
invariable content. The order and the treatment
will differ, but the things to be taught will be about
the same everywhere. Every pastor will
teach his people who are preparing 1 for Content of
r c *s t -. /- r if -. Confirmation
Confirmation what Confirmation is, what is lectures,
implied in the Commandments, what the
Creed means, what is intended in the Creed by the
9^ THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
phrase 4< the holy Catholic Church," how to pray,
and how to come aright to the Sacrament of the
Lord s Supper. Setting down these matters, then,
in order, and making six lectures out of them, or
twelve, if the conditions permit, by subdivision,
we have such an exhibit of the content of Confirma
tion instruction as this:
First lecture:
1 . Baptism.
2. Confirmation.
Second lecture:
1 . Character.
2. Commandments.
Third lecture :
1. The Creed (general).
2. The Creed (particular).
Fourth lecture:
1. The Church.
2. The Churchman.
Fifth lecture:
1. The Lord s Prayer.
2. The Prayer-book.
Sixth lecture:
1 . The Holy Communion.
2. The Communion Service.
The Mid-week Service is the young minister s
experiment station. Here he tries his various
schemes upon the saints, and finds out whether they
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 99
will work. The saints will not mind it; they
come to church in the middle of the week because
they are good Christians, and the young TheMid .
minister s failures will not drive them away, week Ser-
When, by some happy fortune, the experi
ment succeeds, some other persons will be added to
the little company. And in the mean time, whether
anybody else gets anything out of it or not, the
young minister gets much. It is likely that after an
extended series of experiments, he will settle down
to a regular instruction in Holy Scripture from which
he will not lightly depart. He will make the Mid
week Service his goad of necessity for the definite
and genuine study of the Bible.
He may so arrange the lessons as to go along with
the Sunday-school, thus attracting the teachers;
taking the History of the Jewish Church, with
Stanley; and the Life of our Lord, with Edersheim;
and the Apostolic Church, with Farrar; and the
Messages of the Books, with Professor Sanders and
Professor Kent. Or he may take certain great
books, and read them ;o his people, with comment;
as Isaiah, interpreted by George Adam Smith. Or
he may take the Biography of the Bible, and draw
out the lessons taught by the lives of its men and
women ; or the Geography of the Bible, for the sake
of making the events and the people more distinct
and alive against the background.
It is plain that such a course of study, persevered
in, will enrich both the preacher and his people. It
will illuminate the lessons which are read in Church,
so that the hearer and the reader shall find a message
ioo THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
from God in much which seems at present to mean
nothing. It will give suggestions for new sermons,
and give the congregation a new understanding and a
new interest. It will make the Bible a new book, and
bless the parish which comes thus into possession of it.
There remains a third occasion, which the minister
may employ, if he will, for the shaping of his own
study and for the systematic instruction of
The Sunday-
evening the people. That is the Sunday-evening
Service, Service. The Sunday-evening Service is
the parson s perplexity. What shall he do with it ?
He may do either one of two things : he may preach
the gospel in the old way, with a text and a written
sermon ; or he may preach the gospel in a new way,
without a text, and with a lecture in the place of a
sermon. If he chooses to abide in the old way, he
will have a small congregation of exceedingly
respectable people, most of whom know more about
the Christian religion than he does; and his sermon
will be either an old one or a rather poor new one:
for it is not in human nature to go on week after
week writing two good sermons. To write even
one good one is for most of us a tremendous under
taking, and we miss the mark a good many times ;
but two good ones is out of our reach altogether.
Suppose that the preacher stops trying to do that.
Suppose that at his second Sunday Service he gives
up his paper and his text, and speaks in-
Systematic formally, following a line of topics which
plan! ne nas announced to the congregation.
His first purpose is interest: he wants
to get a congregation. His second purpose is in-
THE CONTENT OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION- 101
struction : he would teach himself and them. His
third purpose is conviction: he would bring his
hearers close to the spirit and power of Jesus Christ.
Not one of these three purposes can be omitted, but
they will stand thus in the order of impression. The
congregation will come, because what the preacher
says interests them; they will come, because what is
said instructs them ; and they will speedily discover
that the interest is not for its own sake, and the in
struction is not for its own sake, but that throughout
the preacher speaks, no matter what his subject be,
as a man of God, having for his supreme endeavour
the bringing of the lives of men into the obedience
and love of God.
Suppose that in this spirit there be given every
year a course of instruction in the History of the
Church, a series of six or eight lectures, perhaps in
Lent, taking era after era, year by year. Thus :
1. The First Six Centuries.
2. The Middle Ages.
3. The Reformation on the Continent.
4. The Reformation in England. A suggested
5. The Puritan Revolution. course -
6. The Evangelical Revival.
7. The Oxford Movement.
8. The Church in America.
It is a history as full of God as the Old Testament,
whose saints are as high examples as the patriarchs,
whose preachers are as eloquent as the prophets, and
in whose mighty movement the arm of the Lord is
made as plain, as in any era of the ancient people.
It ought to be made available for doctrine, for
102 THE CONTENT Oh RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous
ness.
There is no end to the content of religious instruc
tion, profitable to the Sunday-evening congregation.
The preacher may occupy all the chairs of the
theological school in turn. He may be professor of
liturgies, of Biblical literature, of Biblical theology,
of systematic divinity, of ethics. And the congre
gation will grow, and the preacher will grow.
Thus in the Sunday-school and in the Congrega
tion, by the Catechism, by the Bible, by the Prayer-
book, and by the History of the Church, shall be
attained, God helping us, the end for which all the
whole content of religious instruction is intended,
the upbuilding of Christian character, the training of
Christian Churchmanship.
V.
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND ITS
COURSE OF STUDY.
By the Reverend PASCAL HARROWER Chairman of the Sun
day-school Commission, Diocese of New York.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE V.
The principle underlying the present Course of Lectures. Church-
school. Sunday-school.
Education one of the most important subjects.
The object of the Church-school.
What the school represents in the history of civilization.
The approach to the subject on its historical side.
The child the pivot of society.
The Jewish estimate of childhood.
Christ and the child.
The early Church and its ministry to children.
The mutual relations of preaching and teaching.
Trumbull s Lectures.
Martin Luther.
Archbishop Dupanloup.
The ministry of catechizing.
Pedagogical training the need of the modern Ministry.
The preparation of a Course of Study not a simple matter.
Questions involved in it.
Church- school not exclusively a Bible School.
Curriculum a problem to be studied by trained educators.
The Subject-matter, or Lesson Material.
1. The Church Catechism.
Errors in teaching-method, not in the matter taught.
2. The Bible.
The International Series of Sunday-school Lessons.
The Bible crowding out the Catechism.
Defects of this and similar schemes.
What the Bible is and is not.
President Hadley on Bible Study.
Its educational value.
The Bible in American colleges.
Recommendations of the U. S. Bureau of Education.
Moral value of the literary study of the Bible.
The bearing of these on the Bible in the Church-school.
The method of Jesus.
3. Nature-study in the Church-school.
4. Sacred Geography.
5. History.
6. Christian Ethics.
The contemporary Christ.
The first contact of youth with the world.
The responsibility of the Church.
Conclusion.
The Church must call to her assistance those who have been
trained in matters of Education.
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND ITS COURSE
OF STUDY.
THE principle underlying this course of lectures is
that the Sunday-school, or rather let us call it, the
Church-school, is an educational institution. Its
problems are educational problems, its work is edu
cational, it deals with minds that lie in the educational
or school period of life. What theories we may
indulge in as to material and form of lessons, the
arrangement and details of management, the quali
fications and work of teachers, these are subordinate
to the one fact that the Church-school is a School.
It is subject to the same laws as govern school wprk
elsewhere. As these are or are not clearly appre
hended and applied, the school succeeds or fails.
The question of education is one of the most im
portant that can engage our minds. The modern
system is a very comprehensive one. It
, c , . . Education,
covers a large number of subjects. Apart
from the actual and available knowledge it gives to
fit men for the various duties of their professional and
business careers, there is another result that must also
follow from it, before we can call it truly successful,
and that is the character it produces. Something
fine and strong in character must be the last test of
105
io6 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
education. Coming to the particular question of
religious education, so far as that is involved in the
Sunday-school, it is a question of the deepest interest
whether the methods commonly in use have produced
the result we have a right to expect. It should fit
men for the duties of life. It should ground them
firmly in certain truths, and make these part of their
very character and common knowledge, before they
can become a permanent factor in their lives.
Now the only way by which this can be accom
plished is by school training. * There are two
The Church Churches, " to use a phrase of Principal
and the Salmond s, " the Church of to-day and the
Church of to-morrow." For the older
ones, who are bearing the burdens and doing the work
of to-day, the Church provides her Sacraments and
Services, but for the children, who are the Church
of to-morrow, the school must do the main and im
portant work. We are not to overlook the home,
and the many other sources of influence in the social
environment of the child. But it still remains that
education implies careful and regular instruction.
The school, in whatever form it may have existed
from age to age, however crude its nature, represents
the effort to put the child in possession of himself
and in possession of the world about him. It was
there that he became part of the race, and imbibed
the ideas and truths, political or social or religious,
that made his manhood what it was. When we
speak, therefore, of the Church-school, we are not
thinking of a haphazard gathering on Sunday morn
ing, to read a few verses from the Bible, and join in
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOLITS COURSE OF STUDY- 107
the somewhat confused, yet sacred, duties of the
hour. We are really guilty of using a misnomer,
when we call such a gathering a " school." It lacks
definite and intelligent organization, it follows no
clear method of work, its course of study is restricted
and lacks both breadth of subject and progressive
movement of truth, and fits nowhere into the natural
development of the child. There can be, therefore,
no more important work undertaken by the Church
than to meet this question of religious instruction,
and order it upon the best and surest foundation
possible.
I. First, let us approach our subject on its histori
cal side. We commonly place the origin of the
Sunday-school some hundred or more years
back. But in its essential relation to the the Church-
child, it is in reality as ancient as religion. S(
From the beginnings of human life, the child has been
the pivot on which history and institutions and
religion swung. It is important to keep this in mind
because it determines largely the significance of the
School in the economy of the Church. If it be
something irrelevant to the Church, something
merely annexed to it, a rather questionable and per
haps impertinent intrusion upon its life, then we may
dismiss it, with its disorganized mass of ill-trained and
misdirected effort, as something that has no claim
upon our respect.
On the contrary, no department of modern Church
work has the authority of a more venerable tradition.
Without dwelling upon ancient Jewish history, we
need go no further than to refer to that profound inter-
io8 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
est in childhood which underlay the whole structure
The Jewish of Jewish civilization. Coming down to the
estimate of age of Jesus, we find that the religious in
struction of children commanded the most
serious interest. Every synagogue had attached to
it one of these schools. Later on, in the various
provinces, and wherever Jewish colonies were estab
lished, schoolmasters were appointed, who should
take charge of all boys from six or seven years of
age. These schools were one of the most impressive
features of their national life. They were regarded
as fundamental to the very perpetuation of the race.
We are living in an age, happily, when child-study
is coming to the front in all systems of teaching.
But we cannot overlook the fact that the Jewish
people based their whole structure of life upon the
child and his teaching. And this work was also
based upon a love for the child of the deepest and
most beautiful character. Child-life was holy to
Jewish thought. When our Lord, speaking of chil
dren, said: " Their angels do always behold the face
of My Father which is in Heaven," He was ex
pressing the true Jewish estimate of childhood.
As Christianity passed out on its mission, it carried
this noble estimate of childhood, enriched with the
Childhood in Peculiarly strong and tender authority of
the Early the Holy Childhood. There are forces
stronger than laws. It would have required
a wrench, more violent than we can easily express,
for the Christian Church to have broken with this old
thought of the child. This it is that explains the
pervading presence of childhood through the New
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY. 109
Testament. Everywhere we meet it. We are never
left long without the sound of the children. They
move ever through the story of the Apostolic Age
with the benediction of the Christ-Child upon them.
The early Church, true to this instinct, went at
once to the childhood of the Empire. She gathered
them, in every possible way, into her schools. One
of the charges made by Celsus against Origen was
that Christians carried on their most powerful and
insidious propaganda, through the children whom
they lured into their schools. Origen allowed the
charge, but claimed that the teachings of Christianity
were directly favourable to the child s welfare and
would promote reverence for, and service of, parents.
The early Church made the school the connecting
link between herself and the world. When the
Emperor Julian determined to take the control of
education into the hands of the state, he declared
that unless he could arrest the movement of the
Church in the school, the progress and triumph of
Christianity were inevitable. In his Yale Lectures
on the Sunday-school, to which I am here Trumbnii s
glad to make my deep acknowledgment, "YaieLec-
Dr. Trumbull has carefully traced the his- Sunday-
tory and progress of this great educational schoo[ "
work, a work which only reveals its larger dignity
and importance as we come thus into the fuller
knowledge of its facts.
We are accustomed to attach special importance
to the work of preaching in the propagation of the
Christian faith. But while allowing the fullest recog
nition of its value and place in the Church, it remains
no THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL-ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
true that the woof and web of Christian character and
faith are wrought out during" the school
Preaching
and teach- period of life. Ideas cannot become the
mgi permanent possession of the world, which
do not first enter through the door of childhood.
When Luther had brought about the Reformation in
Germany, he at once saw the necessity of the Church-
school. <( Young children and scholars are the seed
and source of the Church," was the way he echoed
the familiar proverbs of the old Rabbis.
But Luther took St. Paul s position, and claimed
that aptness to teach was a pre-requisite for the work
of the ministry. "I would," said he,
Btl^iT 4 " that nobod y should be chosen as a
minister, if he were not before this a school
master. So deeply did he estimate the need of this
that he followed up his work of preaching with the
publication of two catechisms which he prepared for
the instruction of children.
Let me also call attention to the movement in
France, within our own century, led by Dupanloup,
the illustrious Archbishop of Orleans. He
Dupanloup tells us how France had suffered from the
cat d ecMsf s r , eat decay of faith in the last century, and how,
in his own diocese, he had found the clergy
not only indifferent themselves, but also totally in
capable of teaching their children. To meet this he
instituted conferences, and began his great pedagogi
cal work of training them in the art of catechizing.
The hope of France lay in the catechism, the school
ing of the children, and he cited with eloquent words
the example and work of those great catechists of
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY, in
the Church who had devoted themselves to the per
sonal instruction of the young: such men as St.
Charles Borromeo, who instituted the Confraternity
of Christian Teaching in Milan, of the illustrious Jean
Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris, who
in his old age held the catechism for children in the
Church of St. Paul at Lyon ; of Abbe Fenelon and
Bossuet, and Borderies, Bishop of Versailles, who
began his work as a catechist of the Church of the
Madeleine.
The significance of these facts is most important.
In nothing is the Ministry of the Church so poorly
equipped as for this work of religious in-
Z TI. r *.- e^i. u ^ed of the
struction. The function of the preacher is Ministry in
important, but the function of the teacher the P reseilt
is of even deeper importance. The Church
does not prepare her clergy for this work, and yet in
theory she makes them primarily responsible for it.
Yet nothing would so richly enhance the power of
the Christian pulpit, and deepen the influence of the
Ministry, as the thorough training in the art of teach
ing to which Luther referred, and which the very
conditions of the present age so imperatively demand.
Until this has been done, and the Church grasps the
importance of the pedagogical training of her minis
try, we cannot expect her to give her children that
religious training, which alone can secure her proper
influence upon the life of the nation.
II. The preparation of a course of study for the
Church-school would at first seem to be a very
simple matter. It depends primarily, of course, upon
the study-material appropriate to such a school. If
H2 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
it is first and only a Bible School, then it can admit
only the Bible into its curriculum. Its
Questions lessons will be taken from the Bible, and
involved in
a curriculnm. all things will converge upon that text
book. Even in this case, there must be
exercised the highest possible wisdom to arrange
and edit the subject-matter of instruction in accord
ance with approved educational principles. But the
Church School is something more than a Bible-
school. It is a school of Christian knowledge, and
must gather into its course of study more than the
content of the Bible. So far as may be, this course
must give to childhood and youth the largest possi
ble knowledge of the principles of religion. What
religion is, what it has done for man, what it proposes
to do, all the naturalness and truth of it, how it fits
into the young heart of life, how all its wonderful
experiences lie wrapped up in the soul and mind of
the child, this is what a man should learn in the
school days of his life.
Now the arrangement of the subjects involved in
such a curriculum as this is no slight task. It will
certainly require as careful consideration,
Ciirriculum
a problem as broad and thorough knowledge ot the
for trained child, as are involved in the matter of
educators. it-
secular education. We are not to consider
such a question already settled by past experience.
Nothing could more fairly command the attention
and study of our wisest educators. And it cannot
be expected that the Church can properly solve this
question until she has called to her aid those who
are qualified experts in matters of education.
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL-ITS COURSE OF STUDY- 113
Let me now ask you to consider the subject-matter
of such a religious education as the Church should
give her children. We are not now speaking of the
arrangement of these subjects in curriculum. That
is a matter that must follow the selection of subjects
to be taught.
i. If we start at the point of view of the Church,
as expressed in her Baptismal formula, we shall con
sider the child as from that moment the
declared member of a divine family. That c a t ec hi^.
family is based upon certain truths. It has
a certain history in the past, a certain life with its
traditions, its usages and customs and ideals. It is
a family, with its laws of fellowship, with an im
memorial faith that has been from age to age wrought
into clearer shape and structure through the experi
ences of innumerable souls. The ground of this faith
is unchangeable, its perpetuation is assured, because
it represents in the last analysis of its principles the
essential experience of man as man.
This is the fact that determines the place which
the Church Catechism occupies in the training of the
child. If we read it, with this in mind, we shall find
its value unique. It is most guardedly free from the
subtleties of definition. It give us statements of truth
in the form of statements of fact. It has a statuesque
simplicity. It sets forth the truths of religion in
figure, so to speak, as things seen and tangible to the
senses, rather than as speculations of the mind.
There have been many grave errors committed in
teaching the catechism, and often no doubt the child
has acquired nothing beyond a parrot-like repetition
H4 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
of words. Yet on the other hand, this result lies
rather in the method of teaching than in
?e"ohii!?, the matter taught. A certain little lad had
been taught to define the mystery of the
Trinity, and had in vain cudgelled his brain with the
strangely meaningless words. One day in the
country he was watching the men stowing hay in the
barn-loft. Suddenly he saw three doors opening
here and there into the huge black interior, each
separate, yet each a door opening into the one great
structure. It is needless to say that the boy had
solved to his own satisfaction the doctrine of the
Trinity. He had found his own point of view, and
the truth had at last swung into his vision.
Bishop Brooks once said to the students of Yale
University in his * Lectures on Preaching that
there was no truth too great and deep for
Bishop
Brooks on them to preach, if they would only preach
Preaching. it That {s the Divine art of the teacher
also, the art of getting truth within view of the child,
finding, as Mr. Patterson Du Bois tells us, the point
of contact where the child and the truth touch each
other. We need not fear to teach Christian doctrine,
if we only teach it.
2. Again, such a course of study must teach the
Bible. But let us distinguish carefully between the
Bible as a wonderful library, gathered
The Bible. .
through many centuries, with its epics and
histories, its dramas and poems, its proverbs, idyls,
and stories, carrying us onward through the eventful
life of a great race, between this and the Bible as
a text-book. I would not speak a word in dis-
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL-ITS COURSE OF STUDY- 115
paragement of the very remarkable work, done dur
ing the last thirty years in the interest of The Inter _
the International or Uniform Series of national
Sunday-school Lessons. He would indeed
be ignorant of the facts, who should deny that that
series of lessons has rendered great service in the
cause of religion. It has called attention to the Bible
as never before. "It has," to use the words of
Dr. Vincent, whose name commands the reverence
of all who would serve the childhood of the Church,
"it has driven teachers to the study of educational
principles and examples; it has led to general
schemes and outlines of Bible study; has increased
the intellectual power of plain men in the Church;
has led young and scholarly men to appreciate the
higher intellectual standards, and has tended to
connect Biblical and scientific study. The one great
Text-book has thus increased the power, the teach
ing power of our Sunday-schools. Such a testimony
from such a source is not lightly to be dismissed.
* But, and we quote again, "it is possible that
enthusiasm in such a scheme as the Inter- _
The Bible
national may have to some extent crowded excluding
back some exercises which hitherto found CatecMsm -
large place in the Sunday-school. So much regular
Bible study may have had this effect. The historical
method of studying history may have left too little
time for verbal memorizing. The Bible may have
taken the place of the Catechism. " *
It is sufficiently clear from these words that the
* "The Modern Sunday-school," pp. 252-3. The Rev. John H.
Vincent, D.D.
n6 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
methods of Bible study so commonly followed in
Sunday-schools during the past generation have not
proved altogether wise or successful. The Bible is
not a book to be used in this way. It does not lend
itself to the principles of the uniform lesson. Lessons
favourable to the adult student are not necessarily
useful for the child. There is no known law of
education, by which a series of lessons can be selected
from the Book of Psalms, or the Prophecies of Isaiah
or Jeremiah, which can be equally useful in all grades
of a Church-school.
The Bible is a vast storehouse of historic and
literary and spiritual wealth. It has something of
What the that infinite variety that meets us in Nature.
Bible is. It is pre-eminently a book created out of
human life. It reflects everywhere this life, with its
ceaseless change, its exhaustless variety of experi
ence, its deep undertones of mystery and sorrow,
the tragedies and sins and toils of men, the play and
interplay of souls, the sweep of empires, the rise
and growth and fall of nations. Such a Book cannot
be measured off and divided by hard-and-fast rules
into uniform lessons, without two results: first, a
faulty and forced interpretation of its selected
passages, and second, a superficial and unworthy
conception of the Book as a whole. Yet, on the
other hand, we cannot teach religion without the
Bible, just as we cannot teach music without the
works of the great masters.
Speaking of the value of the Classics in secular
education, President Hadley of Yale University has
recently pointed out the fact that their moral value
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL -ITS COURSE OF STUDY, n?
lies in the remoteness of the standards which they
set before the student. They lift before the p regident
modern age standards which are not affect- Hadley on
ed by the shifting ideas and standards of
the present. " The morality which ripens in such a
soil may be fantastic; but it is powerful, it is dis
interested, and it leads the boys outside of themselves,
. . . and nothing in secular education has been found
to take the place of this classical background as a
means of stimulating the growth of such a spirit.
And then he adds these words : The Bible is in
many ways like the Classics, in possessing this sort
of moral influence upon those who study it; and in
some respects, of course, it far exceeds them in t/ie
intensity of its workings.
Now right here is the point I desire to emphasize,
that such a conception of the Bible recognises its
singular and wonderful value to education Educational
as education. It has too generally been value of
, the Bible,
considered a Book whose proper use lay
in its presenting a certain raw material for the con
struction of theological systems. Men have claimed
for its widely separated writings an artificial unity,
which has been the creation of their imagination,
rather than the note of its own inner life. The Bible
is not to be so treated. It is not a storehouse of
texts, which one uses by means of concordance and
reference words to create altogether fantastic systems
of belief. Rather, the Bible is so entirely the Book
of Religion, that we cannot get its true meaning unless
we study it book by book, and, if I may say so, set
aside largely the sort of study of it which has been
nS THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
so common in the past, and which must prove largely
inadequate to the deeper knowledge of it as the Book
of Religion. There is a unity in it deeper than
that of separated texts, a unity of spirit and soul,
the unity of a great race, finding through a thou
sand years and more the ever-deepening knowledge
of itself and its God.
At this point, allow me to call attention to the
suggestions made by the United States Bureau of
United States Education, for the study of the Bible in
Bureau of American colleges. In reviewing the
Education. , ., ,. ,, , ,,
general situation, the report observes that
* the history and literature of the Hebrews and the
Jews may and should be studied as other history and
literature are studied. The peculiar religious element
need not be dealt with, and modern sectarianism is
not found in the Bible. Such a large and influential
portion of universal history and literature should not
be ignored or left to chance instruction." The
following are some of the suggestions made :
"i. The aim should be some Bible
Suggestions
for Bible work in every college in the country, state
institutions included.
" 2. Bible study should be conducted in the best
modern way, with the use of the best books, and
with the most skilful teachers obtainable. It is im
portant that the colleges understand that modern
methods and radical higher criticism are not synony
mous.
"3. The college Bible course should be so free
from avowed and direct devotional aims that the
teacher can demand as thorough work as in any
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL-ITS COURSE OF STUDY. 119
college course. Bible study will then take its place
as a worthy part of the college curriculum.
"4. The assignment of the systematic curriculum
work to a trained specialist should not and will not in
terfere with extra-curriculum devotional Bible classes.
"5. It would seem a natural outcome of the care
ful differentiation of devotional study of the Bible
from the curriculum study, which has been recom
mended above, that an important objection to the
requirement of Bible study from college students dis
appears, viz., that it interferes with the sovereign
rights of an American. It seems that a boy reaches
the age of consent earlier in religious matters than
in intellectual. Horace s Odes and Greek philosophy,
but not the Psalms or the teaching of Jesus, may be
required studies for him.
"On the other hand, the absence of the strictly
devotional element would for many destroy the chief
argument for making Bible study required. It would
seem, however, that moral and religious profit from
the study of the Bible does not disappear with the
disappearance of the immediately devotional ele
ment; that Bible truth, presented without appeal or
invitation, presented as judicially as possible ; that
the facts of the Bible, recited as the facts of profane
history are recited ; that the ethics of the
Bible, studied as any other subject is studied ^ * lue
(and no conscientious scruples, however Bible study
abnormally developed, can stand in the
way of such treatment), ought to form in the end as
potent an influence over thoughtful men and women
as could be demanded.
120 THE SUNttAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
"6. It is a sad commentary on former methods
that the phrase prohibiting teaching which is sec
tarian in religion should be quoted as forbidding
Bible study. Doubtless the legal difficulties differ
in the various states. It may be that the time has
not yet come when it would be fitting to press the
claims of formal Bible study upon certain state
institutions. Meantime, there is an abundant oppor
tunity, with rare, if any, exceptions, to include
Hebrew history in ancient history, Biblical master
pieces of literature in literary courses, Biblical ethics
in general ethics, until, in entire conformity to law,
the students are put in possession of a fair knowledge
of Bible facts."
The suggestions are of the greatest value and sig
nificance. They point to a new and deeper use
of the Bible in schemes of religious as well
Suggestions
important as secular education. We shall use it as
to Church- literature a divine and inspired literature,
schools.
it is true, but still a literature. We shall
use it with such naturalness and freedom, with such
intellectual and spiritual earnestness, with such fresh
ness of thought and feeling, that it will become to
the childhood of the world a living and human book.
We shall do much to take from it the stamp and
atmosphere of unreal devotionalism by getting back
into the Book itself.
This was indeed the method of Jesus. You will
recall His mode of dealing with the Pharisees when
Method of He replied to them after this manner:
Jesus, < < YOU know within your hearts the truth of
which I speak. But instead of following this inner
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY. 121
voice you allow a literal and narrow traditionalism
to dethrone your reason, your own sense of eternal
things. " It is for us to-day to learn this higher
method, to use it and trust it. The child who is
taught the story of Jonah, for example, in a narrow
and unsympathetic spirit may give up his faith with
Jonah. On the other hand the child who is taught
that the faith of the soul rests on that which lies
behind Jonah, discovers that the prophet to Nineveh
was a man face to face with conscience, and not
merely the hero of what to the growing lad seems
an impossible and unreal adventure. True religious
education must put the child in possession of the
Bible, in such a sense and so far as to make it touch
his life in the simple realities of his growing experi
ence. God, Who gave Himself to the boy Samuel,
must through our ministry give Himself to the
children of our present age.
3. Once more, the Church must draw the child
close up to God as revealed in His works. Have
we ever stopped to notice how saturated Nature-
the Bible is with nature ? Why, it begins stnd y-
in a Garden, and its last chapter sets the Heavenly
city in the midst of trees and meadow-lands, and
through it flows " the river of water of Life clear as
crystal." Everywhere, God touches man through
the earth, this outward life of flower and star and
mountain and storm. With this in mind, it is sugges
tive to note how ordinary methods of teaching reli
gion have used nature as a kind of outside illustration
o
and adornment of truth, rather than as something out
of whose very life itself flow the truths of the spiritual
122 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
world. There is a vast difference between Nature-
study, as a concrete element in religious teaching,
and telling stories about flowers and birds. When
J su los J esus told men to consider carefully the
to the heart lily, how it grows, He was telling them
of Nature. ^^ ^ ^^^ find j n ^ unfolding Hfe
something to fill their own life with richer sacredness
and power. Not some growth meaningless to their
life, but rather a growth into its own wondrous beauty
by the eternal life of God working within it, as it
worked in their own souls.
4. Without dwelling at too great length on the
various subjects connected with Religious Instruction,
Geography let me briefly suggest some of them in
Church- addition. The history of the world is a
school, history of changes in the map of the world.
I think we have all been impressed with the general
ignorance of young people in all questions of Sacred
Geography as compared with their knowledge of what
may be termed, for the sake of distinction, Secular
Geography. Yet it is unquestionable that no really
clear knowledge of the religious history of Christianity
can be had unless it embraces some measure of
geographical knowledge. Why so ? Because Bibli
cal Geography furnishes a concrete introduction to
the life and teachings of the Bible. It brings the
past into close and vital relations with the present.
It should therefore be made a definite department in
our Sunday-school curriculum. For this purpose
we need reliable and scientific text-books, with the
best maps available. Geography should be studied
progressively and thoroughly, not impersonally, but
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY. 123
always from the point of view of its relation to man.
It is not an end in itself, as merely so much knowl
edge, but only an indispensable aid to the full under
standing of the message of God, revealed through
and to mankind.
5. Once more, the Church School must make far
more of History than is commonly done. At present
there seems to be no adequate attempt to
give young people such definite knowledge. p ! ace of
The Christian of to-day is in danger of
finding himself, as it were, suspended in air, with no
firm standing in historic facts. Between the times
of the Apostles and our own age there is a vast
history, of which the average Christian is almost
absolutely ignorant. It may be stated, and, I fear,
without much danger of question, that with the
exception of two or three names and events, even
the scholars in our Bible Classes have very little con
ception of those great historic movements that have
made the modern world what it is. Yet the Faith
of to-day is rooted in this great corporate life of the
world, and the works of Christ, the Gesta Christi,
as the late Charles Brace so happily put it, have filled
the past nineteen centuries with events which are
marvellous in their power to strengthen the hold of
Christ upon modern life and thought. It is interest
ing and important in this connection to notice that
this conviction of the value of history in _,
y The Free
the religious instruction of the young has Church"
led to the preparation in Scotland, under Text - b oks.
the editorship of Principal Salmond, of extremely
fine Manuals of Church History, written for the Free
124 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
Church Sunday-schools, and that the Oxford Church
Text-books, for a similar use, are now
52fc* in course of publication in England. The
range of subjects covered in these manuals
is very great, embracing not only history, but re
ligious doctrine and worship, and the study of New
Testament ethics as applied to modern life.
6. It is beyond question important to interpret
present-day life in the terms of Christian truth. The
Christian ancient Jewish Church was contemporary
Ethics, w ith the life of the race at every point.
The singular charm and power of the Bible is that
it is vital at every point with the experience of the
age, in which its saints and its sinners lived. The
secret of power in Christianity must be the same.
Christ must be contemporary with the twentieth cen
tury or He will become an obsolete factor in the
growing life of humanity. God reveals Himself to
day whether the day be that of Moses or Isaiah, of
St. Paul or Luther, or of Lincoln and Gladstone, of
Maurice and Beecher and Newman. God is the God
of those now living, even as He was in their own
day the God of the dead. Therefore the instruction
of our youth must be abreast of the present problems
which they are to face.
Talk with any thoughtful man of business, and he
will tell you that what he needs is to feel the
The business strength of a powerful moral force im-
world, mediately identified with his daily work.
He will confess that his perpetual danger lies in the
ease with which this present life, with its glamour,
its almost brutal frankness, and its insidious yet
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY- 125
tyrannous demands, confronts him. The laws of
ethics, their ideal statements and standards must
enter man s life in its youth.
There comes a time in this period of adolescence,
when the youth is already passing out to the work of
the world, going into offices, taking his first
lessons in business, looking through and periences
within to the inner structure of the business of y uth -
world. The Church has a right to assume that the
boy shall begin to study the moral problems that
now confront him. It is a period when he finds
himself drifting out from the influences of the Church.
He is trying to adjust himself to the world as he sees
it, and he feels far more keenly than we often realize
the break between the ideals and the ignorances of
childhood and the first rough disillusioning of early
manhood. The Church must include Ethics in the
religious instruction of her youth, if she would send
them out properly equipped to meet the dangerous
sophistries of the world. The boy must carry within
himself a moral antidote to the temptations of his
own manhood.
7. I have not dwelt upon the important part
which the Prayer-book and the Christian Year must
play in any scheme of religious education. The Prayer-
Some one has said that if the Christian Year, * ok a . nd the
Christian
with its cycle of Holy Days and Seasons, Tear.
had been the invention of any one man, he would have
established his claim upon the perpetual gratitude and
veneration of the world. This is none too high an
estimate. The Prayer-book is probably the most
remarkable Book of Worship Christianity has pro-
126 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY.
duced, and is also its finest statement of faith. These
subjects are to be taught and taught thoroughly.
And by their use in Worship, by their continual pres
ence and influence in daily life, they become imbedded
in the memory and affections forever. Their educa
tional value is beyond estimate. They create their
own atmosphere, provide their inconceivably rich
associations and traditions, and must be a constituent
element in the educational work of the Church.
III. In conclusion let me go back to the point
from which we started out: the Church-school is a
school, and must do its work in accordance with the
principles of education as applied elsewhere. This
must be the position, from which any real advance is
to be made. Further, we must bear in mind that,
whatever success the Sunday-school has had in the
past, has been gained more in spite of the faulty
methods generally used than in accordance with
correct methods. The time has come
Demand
for new when the wide-spread dissatisfaction with
methods. p ast me thods calls for an earnest effort to
correct them. There are many difficulties in the
way of accomplishing this result. But the Church
certainly has upon her side in this great task the
interest, the experience, the costly skill, and rich
devotion, of the leading educators of the age.
This work is one that demands more of expert and
highly trained intelligence, than at present
Church needs can be found within the Ministry of the
cltor f s! dU ~ Church. As in the creation of her cathe
drals, she calls to her aid those who
have been trained as architects and builders, and in
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ITS COURSE OF STUDY. 127
her worship those, whom God has inspired with
the gifts of music and song; so in the education
of her children, the Church may well command the
service of those whose lives have been consecrated
to the Ministry of Education, and whose minds have
been inspired with that gift of God s Spirit, by which
they are called to rightly divide the words of know
ledge and truth. Indeed it is by so doing that the
Church will prove herself faithful to that most sacred
trust of guiding the youth of the world into the truth
and knowledge of God.
VI.
THE PREPARATION OF THE SUNDAY-
SCHOOL TEACHER.
By DR. WALTER L. HERVEY, Examiner, New York Board
of Education; Former President, Teachers College.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE VI.
Primary assumptions.
Three Problems: (a) Subject-matter, (//) Pupil, (c) Teacher.
The Subject-matter, two ways of treating it.
The Poet s Way.
Power of Dramatic Imagination.
Its use in the Bible work.
Illustrated by S. Peter and S. Paul at Beautiful Gate of
Temple.
Also by the " Story of Cadmus."
Applied to Bible Teaching.
The Philosopher s Way.
Illustrations of its use.
Danger of Wrong Interpretations illustrated.
Important to find precise meaning of each paragraph.
Directions for the Study of any Subject-matter.
Knowledge and the Pupil.
Catechism compared with Bible.
The Pupil.
General Principle in his treatment by teacher.
Illustrations of its use.
Special Rule from General Principle.
Additional Points of Insight needed by teacher.
Illustrated by Hamlet and Guildenstern.
The Teacher Himself.
External and Internal Authority.
Help the Pupil to find the Truth himself.
Proper Place of the Bible.
Jesus Christ in the Child-life.
General Negations.
THE PREPARATION OF THE SUNDAY-
SCHOOL TEACHER.
IN attacking this problem of the preparation of the
Sunday-school teacher, I shall assume that the
Sunday-school teacher, who has read the primary
chapters that precede this, understands assumptions,
pretty clearly what he is preparing for ; and I shall
further assume that we are in substantial agreement
that religious teaching is not a matter of form, or of
convention, the teaching of certain things which it
were a shame not to know, and that it is not
primarily a matter of knowledge, but is an affair of
life : that religious teaching has to do primarily with
the normal life and growth of spiritual beings, and
that its end and aim is to raise up a generation of
well-nourished and normally growing children who
have keen interests and true tastes, "who love and
hate aright, and who know what they know in the
right way.
In pursuit of this aim it is necessary that T^ prob .
every teacher should grapple with three lemstobe
, . met: I, The
problems: the problem of the subject- subject-
matter of instruction, the problem of the j^ .j 11
pupils to be instructed, and the problem of in. The
himself and his conception of the truth. teacher,
131
I3 2 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
I. The teacher s mastery of his subject of what
does it consist ? What must the teacher have done,
I, The sub- or ^ e a ^^ e to ^ before it can be said of
ject-matter. him, * He is master of that which he would
teach " ? In other words, How must a Sunday-school
teacher know his Sunday-school lesson in order to
teach it ? There are two chief ways of
grasping any truth : one we may call the
way of the poet, and the other the way of
the philosopher. I should say that the teacher must
have both.
By the * way of the poet I mean the power to
create, to put life into persons and things. And I
have in mind that dramatic imagination which
enables Kipling to find the soul of an engine or a
ship; which makes him able to look on the world
(a) The through a horse s eyes, talk horse-talk,
poet s way, even the horse-slang of the back pasture
and make the horse that played polo say : * My
hock is swelled as big as a nose-bag. Ernest
Seton-Thompson s stories of Vixen, Rag, and Wahb
are in this respect not less truly dramatic than
Browning s "Ring and the Book," for in both the
author identifies himself with the life which he de
picts, and touches the springs of that life.
This dramatic imagination the teacher must have.
For how can the teacher depict so vividly that those
Power of w ^ near seem also to see, if he have not
dramatic the vision himself? How can he read
with such expression that the words make
pictures in the minds of those who listen, unless in
his own mind there lives the image he would create
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 133
for another ? The teacher, like the poet, is a maker ;
he is a creator ; it is his office to take material from
the Catechism, from the Bible, from Nature, from
human experience, that but for him might be with
out form and void, and make it live.
In preparing to teach, or to tell a Bible story,
therefore, the first thing a teacher should do is to
put himself into the place of the chief char
acter, and then to put himself into the place t jg Bible.
of each of the other characters in turn. He
must think what the past of each has been ; he must
stock his own mind with the memories they must
have had ; he must think what is their present out
look on life, and their hopes and fears for the future.
Let us take, for example, the story of Peter and
John s affair with the elders, as told in the early
chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. Peter
JT ,,,,,, . ,, Illustrated by
and John had healed a lame man at the g ti Peter and
Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and had then St -
the Temple,
preached to the crowds of people that ran
together unto them in the porch that is called Solo
mon s, greatly wondering " ; and then, as the narra
tive tells, * As they spake unto the people, the priests
and the captain of the Temple and the Sadducees
came upon them, being sore troubled because they
taught the people, and proclaimed through Jesus the
resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on
them, and put them in ward unto the morrow ; for it
was now eventide. But many of them that heard
the word believed ; and the number of the men came
to be about five thousand. And it came to pass on
the morrow, that their rulers and elders and scribes
134 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
were gathered together in Jerusalem ; and Annas the
high priest was there, and Caiaphas, and John, and
Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of
the high priest. And when they had set them in
the midst they inquired, By what power, or in what
name, have ye done this ? " Then follows the
story of Peter s brave and telling reply, and the
complete discomfiture of the great men who would
have been glad to do away with them, as they had
with their Master some three months before, but that
they feared the people.
The narrative is a very brief and plain one. Those
modern aids to emotion, and devices for depriving
men of the necessity of thinking for themselves, are
conspicuous by their absence. There are no head
lines to make you feel, and no editorials to keep you
from thinking. Nothing is easier than to read the
words of this story, and to miss the points of the
situation. I do not say that boys and girls ought to
be expected to put themselves wholly at the point of
view of Peter and John ; but that they can to some
extent, and to a greater extent than they sometimes
do. Their difficulty is not wholly due to the fact
that the passage is set for Sunday reading and study,
though I think it more than likely that its unreality
is enhanced by the fact that the passage comes out
of the Bible and is read on Sunday. I do not
believe that Sunday is quite so real as other days, or
the Bible quite so real as other books, though I
firmly believe in fact I know that both can be
made so.
The wise teacher, therefore, in preparing a lesson
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 135
on Peter and John, will not deceive himself. He
will be fully conscious that boys and girls
have, under certain circumstances, a char-
acteristic way of dealing with words, a way
which is not wholly peculiar to boys and girls either.
Words, coming through the ear and seeking admis
sion to the mind, they receive with outward sem
blance of hospitality, show them to a back room,
remote from the living-room, and keep them there,
with no warmth except that which they may supply
to one another, and no food except what they may
have brought with them. When the words are
wanted by the teacher they are, or may be, pro
duced, in about the same state of preservation as
when they were stored. Such words as Annas,
Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, in the passage be
fore us, are especially liable to be put into cold
storage in this way; abstract terms also, and anything
that is not understood, or made real, or at least felt.
How shall this sort of burial alive be avoided ?
How may the teacher make sure that the words of
the story shall be taken into the living-room where
they may make friends with the family and the
favoured guests already there, and become part of
the life of the little community gathered round the
hearthstone ? The answer is : The teacher may
make words live for his pupils by first of all making
them live for himself.
For who were Peter and John ? They were just
poor fishermen, and for some time back they had not
been even fishermen. They spoke in such a way
that educated people could tell at once that they were
136 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
"unlearned and ignorant men." Moreover, it was
only about three months ago that these
words men had fled for their lives for fear of these
same gentlemen who had seized them and
locked them up the day before. And who were
these gentlemen ? Why, they were men in authority
in the Church, they were among the most important
and powerful people in the city. They had had
people put to death before now for disagreeing with
them. The social and official distance between Peter
and John and Annas and Caiaphas was as great as if
two Italian chestnut-venders should be haled before
the presence of His Honour the Mayor, and the
Corporation Counsel, and the Controller, and His
Honour the Mayor s brother; and the courage dis
played by these fishermen in * talking right up to "
the high priest was certainly not less than might be
shown by the poor Italians if, in that dread presence,
they spoke brave words in their defence. For Peter
courageously struck out from the shoulder and
accused these men of having crucified Jesus by whose
power the miracle of healing was done ; and they
actually cowed their questioners, so that all they did
was to threaten them if they ever did such a thing
again. And so, when Peter and John said that if it
came to a choice between obeying God and obeying
them, they would easily know which to do, these
great men could do nothing but impotently threaten
them some more, and let them go.
And what were the feelings of these people ?
What, for example, were the feelings of the man
who had been lame for forty years, and a beggar for
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 137
almost as long, as he looked on Peter and John ex
pecting an alms, as he heard one of them
say Silver and gold have I none " ? as Put yourself
he heard but such as I have give I thee ? \^ t
as he found that he could walk ? as he
went to his home and back again to the Temple
the next day, not to beg, but to praise God ? These
feelings are worth entering into, they can be entered
into, and they should be entered into by the teacher
preparing the lesson. So also into the inner life of
each of the other actors in the drama in turn the
teacher should enter: the group around the high
priest, their discomfiture, and their schemes for
accomplishing later what they had been baffled in
now ; and Peter and John with their fearless courage
when under fire, and their jubilant rejoicing with
their friends after it was all over. I even think that
the teacher, who wished to establish perfect rapport
with the situation, might imagine and construct the
accounts of the affair that might have appeared in
the public prints of the day, assuming that there
were such things as public prints, the account
appearing in the official paper of the established
Church, that in the Christian s paper, that in the
secular paper, with titles and headlines as real as
life. He should, in a word, make the story live in
his own mind, not only by transporting himself to
antiquity, but also by translating the story into
terms of modern life, though there are grave dangers
in this, of which I shall speak later on.
And now, lest by my crude illustration I deter any
from attempting to carry out the principle I advocate,
138 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
allow me to cite a classic instance from the hand of
A further a master. First I will read an incident
illustration, f ro m the story of Cadmus, as it appears in
Bullfinch s " Age of Fable," and in Addison s trans
lation of Ovid, and then alongside of these I will
place the version in Hawthorne s Second Wonder
Book, beginning at the point where Cadmus has
sown the dragon s teeth.
"Scarce had he done so," says the Bullfinch
story, "when the clods began to move, and the
points of spears to appear above the surface. Next
helmets with their nodding plumes came up, and
next the shoulders and breasts and limbs of men
with weapons, and in time a harvest of armed
warriors.
Here is Addison:
" He sows the teeth at Pallas s command,
And flings the future people from his hand ;
The clods grow warm, and crumble where he sows,
And now the pointed spears advance in rows ;
Now nodding plumes appear, and shining crests,
Now the broad shoulders and the rising breasts ;
O er all the field the breathing harvest swarms,
A growing host, a crop of men and arms."
Succinct and fairly vivid recitals both. Now for
Hawthorne :
"The sun was shining slantwise over the field,
and showed all the moist, dark soil, just like any
other newly planted piece of ground. All at once
Cadmus fancied he saw something glisten very
brightly, first at one spot, then at another, and then
at a hundred and a thousand spots together. Soon
he perceived them to be the steel heads of spears,
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 139
sprouting up everywhere like so many stalks of grain,
and continually growing taller and taller. Next
appeared a vast number of bright sword-blades,
thrusting themselves up in the same way. A
moment afterwards the whole surface of the ground
was broken by a multitude of polished brass helmets,
coming up like a crop of enormous beans. So
rapidly did they grow that Cadmus now discerned
the fierce countenance of a man beneath every one;
in short, before he had time to think what a wonder
ful affair it was, he beheld an abundant harvest of
what looked like human beings, armed with helmets
and breastplates, shields, swords, and spears; and
before they were well out of the earth, they
brandished their weapons, and clashed them one
against another, seeming to think, little while as they
had yet lived, that they had wasted too much of life
without a battle. Every tooth of the dragon had
produced one of these sons of deadly mischief. Up
sprouted, also, a great many trumpeters M But I
must leave you to imagine how the author has, by
the use of mere words, made us hear the tremendous
and ear-shattering blasts of martial music, just as he
has made us see, with our own eyes, as he certainly
must have seen with his, the sprouting of this crop
of men ; for if he had not been an eye-witness of the
scene, how could he tell us later on " how the earth
out of which they had so lately grown was incrusted
here and there on their bright breastplates, and
even begrimed their faces ; just as you may have seen
it clinging to beets and carrots when pulled out of
their native soil ?
140 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
From the Bullfinch account you gather that the
warlike crop came up, but from the Hawthorne story
you learn that they grew, and you feel that you must
have seen them growing yourself. The latter story
has sound, colour, atmosphere, movement, life. Once
heard it is a thing to live in the imagination for ever.
And now let me make an important qualification.
Nowhere is good taste and a certain reserve more
requisite than in such appeals to the imagination as
these I advocate. The typical negro sermon is a
Application warning against excess and offence against
to teaching, taste. Moreover, the bow of Hawthorne is
not for every one s stretching. But every teacher can
prepare himself by exercising his own imagination,
however much he may be constrained to refrain from
elaborate attempts at expanding before the class.
The essential thing is that the teacher make the sub
ject live in his own mind. If he has done that, he
will find little by little that his very inflections and
tone and gestures show that something is behind
them. He will find the imagery creeping into his
speech, and will see the answering light coming in
his pupil s eyes, and in the strength of that assurance
he may venture farther flights until he finds that he
too is a member of the guild of those who can make
the " eyes see pictures when they re shut."
But the poet s way must needs be followed up by
the way of the philosopher, by which I mean that
the teacher in preparing his lesson should
philosopher s make a desperate effort to find out what it
wa y- means. For if metaphysics, as Professor
James has said, " is only an unusually stubborn effort
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 141
to think clearly, a philosopher is only a man who
tries to penetrate the disguise of things and find out
what they really are. Every man you meet on the
street, every character you run across in a book,
every story, every parable, has a meaning more or
less definite and precise, more or less susceptible of
being expressed. It is the teacher s business to
form for himself as clear a notion as he can of that
meaning, to express it in his own words, or find
other words in which to express it better.
I am speaking for myself and I may be speaking
for others when I say that effort is required to
search out the true meaning of a man or a book, and
that that effort is sometimes so great that it does not
come natural to make it. We all of us take our
judgments at second hand once in a while, some ot
us most of the time ; and it is a rare and precious
thing to meet one of those balanced and judging
minds that are bent on giving every one his absolute
due, in spite of prejudice and in spite of custom.
Have you ever figured out for yourselves the pre
cise meaning, to yourselves at least, of the Book of
Jonah, or tried to view the characters of
Jacob and of David as wholes, or studied
the parables of our Lord with intent to see the prin
ciple of which each was the illustration ? This sort
of thing the teacher must do, for if he fail here he
may find himself teaching particulars unillumined by
the rays of universal truth, and hence inapplicable
to your case or mine. For if we do not know the
meaning of a fact, how can we use it ? Not only is
a meaning an illuminator, throwing light on blind
142 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
facts and showing their applicability; it is also a
bond, binding together individuals that are useless
alone. Professor Moulton in his book of Bible Stories
from the New Testament has grouped his material,
and given telling names to the groups. For exam
ple, under the heading, "A Specimen Day in the
Life of Jesus, he groups several incidents, and
thereby makes both the incidents and the life mean
more to us. An Encounter with a Foreigner is
one of his titles, and later on, in the Acts of the
Apostles, we read of missionary adventures, including
the Mob of Ephesus and the Conspiracy. I
need not dwell on the difference between calling a
lesson < The XIX. of Acts, " or < Paul at Ephesus,
and "The Mob of Ephesus"; or the difference
between "Christ and the Syrophenician Woman,"
and "An Encounter with a Foreigner." In the
one case you have what the incident is called; in
the other you have what it really is.
There is no doubt that this is a work of difficulty,
and a work fraught with considerable danger. There
is danger that we may seek serious and formal morals,
where there exists nothing that will not be spoiled
by formulation ; as when one attempts to read into a
song, like Tennyson s
" Alone and warming his five wits
The white owl in the belfry sits,"
a meaning so formidable as that This expresses
the yearning of the solitary after social life " ; or as
when one might try to read into some of Haw
thorne s vague allegorical stories, meanings of which
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 143
the author was but dimly conscious when he wrote
them, and of which, when asked to explain what he
meant, he said, " I suppose I had some idea about
what those things meant when I wrote them, but I
declare I don t know what it is now."
There is danger, too, that we shall get wrong or
partial meanings, as did the little German peasant
boy whom I once heard in the religion
class, reciting the lesson on how Abraham
delivered Lot from the four kings. The twpretations
illustrated,
time had come for the last of the formal
steps," and the child was trying to formulate in set
terms the lesson of the narrative. Abraham helped
Lot in his time of need," said he, after considerable
questioning. " Well, what do we learn from that ? "
Said the boy after much cogitation, " My neighbours
ought to help me in my time of need. "
Granting that there are some things of which the
meaning is something felt, rather than something
thought, there are plenty of meanings that
must, by the teacher at least, be sought
out and made thinkable by being expressed every para
graph read,
in terms, and I want to suggest two ways
of doing this. First, let the teacher, in his Bible-
study or in ordinary reading, school himself in
finding and stating the precise meaning of each
paragraph he reads ; for if a paragraph is rightly
constructed, it has a topic that may be expressed in
a single sentence or a single phrase. And second,
having done this, let him in like manner arrive at the
meaning of a whole chapter or an entire book, by
grouping together these topic sentences into a topic
144 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
paragraph. By way of summary of these points I
am now going to quote from a syllabus which, at the
request of the Commission, I have prepared for the
use of teachers studying one of the books in the
Course ; for the directions for study here given seem
to me to be applicable to the teacher s study of any
book.
1. Read the whole chapter (or lesson) through
once for the purpose of getting a general idea of
Directions what it means. When you have finished
for the study thi rea ding close the book, and write a
of any sub-
ject-matter. brief statement in answer to the question,
4 What is the point of this passage ?
2. Read the chapter, sentence by sentence, para
graph by paragraph, trying to grasp the meaning
clearly, precisely, personally.
Some of the words contain buried metaphors,
pictures; see that you see these pictures, and are
prepared to make others see them.
Some of the sentences are expressed in abstract
language, conveying a general truth ; find concrete
illustrations of every one of these. Where the author
uses an illustration, find other illustrations of your
own.
Where the author uses one form of statement, use
another of your own. See in how many ways you
can say the same thing. (There are many ways of
putting things, as there are many flies in the fisher
man s book.)
This is the step of clearness, of detail, of pictur
ing, of amplification and enrichment of materials.
Its purpose is to make the truth clear, definite,
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. MS
concrete, and so warm, living-, and ready for
action.
3. Read the chapter, paragraph by paragraph,
asking yourself, What question is answered by this
paragraph ? " " What short statement will precisely
express the point of this paragraph (and so be the
answer to the question just framed) ? " 4 What
maxim, or text, or proverb, or pithy saying applies
at just this point ? How is this paragraph related
to the whole, does it express a new thought, or
amplify one already developed, does it suggest a
paragraph or sentence in another connection ? How
does it follow from what precedes ? how lead to what
follows ? In a word, if it is a link, what are the
co-ordinate links ?
Make an outline of the chapter or the book, with
heads and sub-heads, being careful not to make
heads sub-heads, or sub-heads heads. And with all
this thinking, be alert for personal meanings, for
applications.
This is the step of comparing, condensing, gene
ralizing, binding together into wholes. Its purpose
is to get at the truth by weeding out ideas that
seemed true when standing alone, but which on
comparison are seen to be false; and, by massing
and organizing, to make our mental forces into reg
ular troops instead of guerrillas and bushwhackers.
To sum up: First a rough general view, such as
a civil engineer might gain by riding over the
country he is to survey. Second, clearness as to
facts ; warmth in details ; putting yourself into the
thing, whether it be thing done, thing seen, or
146 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
thing felt. Third, compacting parts into wholes,
seeing ends from beginnings, organizing for action.
And at each step the thought of personal assimila
tion, and of use : What does this mean to me ? Is
it true ? Could I defend it ? Do I disagree with it,
and why ? How can I use, apply, follow, live it ?
How make it live in the minds and lives of my
pupils ?
Before leaving this part of my subject I want to
make the same qualification I made in speaking of
the teacher s dramatic imagination. When I speak
Knowied e ^ ^ e teacner s need to know as well as feel
and the the meaning of that which he teaches, I do
not necessarily imply that the pupil should
also have this knowledge with equal explicitness.
It is sometimes well that he should hear, or at once
make for himself, a clear and definite formulation,
and it is sometimes better that the moral or the prin
ciple should remain just beneath the surface, ready
to break through of itself in due time. The full
discussion of this point does not belong to the present
subject. The point I am now making is that the
teacher at any rate must be clearly conscious of that
which he is teaching as a rational whole, and he
must be conscious of the meaning of that whole for
himself and for his pupils. For if the teacher have
this clear view of the way, he will be able to lead
the pupil toward the light where he can see for him
self; but if the teacher have it not, he will be as the
blind leading the blind, where both fall into the
ditch.
In treating of the teacher as poet and philosopher
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 147
I have spoken as if the teacher s work were confined
to the teaching of concrete passages, like catechiam,
the stories of Scripture. I have not for- etc,, com
pared with
gotten that the teacher must also prepare the Bible for
to teach relatively abstract matter such as teacllin g
that found in the Catechism, or in the Sermon on
the Mount. But the difference between teaching
a concrete passage and an abstract text is only
apparent. In the story the teacher must construct
in his own mind a fabric which is partly particular
and partly general : he must fill in colour, and atmo
sphere, and detail, and he must find the meaning;
and so make the story live. In the Catechism he
must do precisely the same thing: he must make
the dead words live, by clothing them with imagery,
which is, as it were, flesh and blood to them, and
must breathe into them the breath of human sym
pathy and human application. The only difference
is in the data. In the one case the story you
have given the concrete and your problem is to
invest it with universal meaning. In the other case
the text or Catechism you are given the universal
and your problem is to invest it with particular signi
ficance and application. In either case you are to
give the touch that makes alive: for the particular
deed is not alive except it be lighted up by the word,
and the general word is not alive except it be clothed
upon by a deed.
II. And now we come to the second element in
the teacher s preparation. For it is not n, ^he
enough that the teacher know the subject he P u P i]
is to teach. He must also know the person he is to
148 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
teach. It is not enough that he accomplish the feat
of putting himself at the point of view of Peter and
John, of David and Abraham; he must also get on
the inside of each member of his class, and look out
on life through his eyes, be circumscribed with his
limitations of imagery and of language, feel with his
feelings, like with his likes, burn with his burnings.
The teacher must be his subject before he can teach
it. He must be his pupil before he can teach him.
For only thus can he find the point of contact
between both.
This principle finds illustration every time a
teacher translates his thought into terms of the child s
understanding, explaining what he has not seen by
The princi- what he has seen ; as when the teacher
pie applied, helps the child to understand the draft of
a stove by showing him the draft in a lamp-chimney ;
or teaches the child, who knows fog but not steam,
that steam is a kind of fog ; and to another child, who
knows steam but not fog, he explains fog as a kind
of steam. A teacher who has little regard to this
need of sacrificing one s own point of view and
entering into the consciousness of the one he is try
ing to teach, will be apt, when explaining the
curious phenomenon of liquid air how it boils when
placed on ice, to say that the liquid air is so much
colder than the ice that it boils when placed on it,
and will mystify his pupils, for who ever heard of a
thing boiling because it was colder than something
else ? The true teacher will readily resolve the
mystery by reducing to a common denominator
either saying that liquid air boils on ice because ice
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 1 49
is so much hotter than liquid air, or that the tea
kettle boils over fire because the water is so much
colder than the fire. Skill in this fine art of reducing
ideas to a common denominator is the sine qua non
of all good teaching.
The good teacher drives his ideas in pairs, has at
least two strings to every bow. If he be a geography-
teacher, wishing to give an idea of the
Illustrations,
magnitude of Alaska, he says : Place the
original thirteen colonies down on Alaska ; now turn
them over as if their edge were a hinge ; turn them
over again, and you have enough territory yet un
covered to hold all of Europe. " Or if density of
population be the subject, he will say: "Take the
entire population of the United States and put them
in Texas, and the density is no greater than in
Belgium." Or if he be a Latin teacher, he will be
continually shocking his pupils into a livelier con
sciousness by such means as paraphrasing the Latin
proverb "You can t squeeze water out of a pum
ice," by, "You can t suck blood out of a turnip."
Sabura, a street in Rome, he will paraphrase by
" Bowery " ; trojugenas, by " upper ten " or " first
families of Virginia ; endromis, a woollen cloak
worn by gladiators, by " sweater " ; toga and alceus,
by frock coat and patent leathers ; and the
phrase gladius am, which boys will always translate,
a sword of a grandfather, or the sword of the grand
father, or a sword of the grandfather, all of which are
mere words, he will translate by the more modern and
real and common-sensible " grandfather s sword."
And if as the result of his efforts he overhears his
15 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
pupils on the playground saying, "Awful socks for
old Caesar when that chap Ariovistus said he d no
business in his Gaul," he will not be shocked, he
will rejoice ; for has he not here a proof that a spark
from the subject has caught the tinder of the child s
mind ?
I once heard a great teacher teach the Book of
Amos to a class of over five hundred pupils. The
first verse was one of those things that seem formal
and perfunctory until you see their significance.
44 The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen
of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the
days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of
Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years
before the earthquake. " Why, said the teacher,
"here we have a title-page, with the name of the
author and who he was, and the date. In Pro
fessor Moulton s "Modern Reader s Bible" you
will see the title-pages written as such ; and you will
find also poetry and dialogue written as poetry and
dialogue are usually written, and orations like those
of Moses in Deuteronomy called by their proper
modern name, to the enhancing of our ability to
comprehend their meaning and their marvellous
power; for, when the orations of Moses are reduced
to a common denominator with those of Cicero and
Demosthenes, we are at once able to place them
where they belong, immeasurably beyond both.
Out of this general principle there grows the
special rule that the teacher must be careful how he
introduces a subject to a class. Now at first thought
it seems as if it ought not to make such a vital differ-
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 151
ence what the first step is whether the boy learned
his Catechism question first, and then had gpecialrule
it explained to him, or first had it ex. from general
plained to him and then learned it. He P nnclpe
has to learn it some time and he has at some time
to have it explained. What difference which comes
first ? But it really does make a great deal of differ
ence in most things, doesn t it ? whether we begin
at the right end or the wrong end, whether we put
the cart before the horse or behind him, whether we
begin with the soup or with confetti, whether we step
down from the second-story window by the aid of a
ladder previously placed in position, or step down
without the aid of the ladder placed in position after
we had had our fall, and whether we learn to slide
down a rope before the fire or afterwards. And
these figures are not so far out of the way; for a
proper beginning does serve, does it not?, as a ladder
to help us climb step by step to the truth we are
trying to understand. The condition of a child s
mind, after he has been given a form of words of the
meaning of which he has as yet no inkling, is not
unlike the condition of a child s stomach when he
has been fed a heavy meal for which he has no
appetite. It is possible in either case to help the
child to some semblance of digestion, or at least to
keep the dose from killing him, but not without loss,
and perhaps not without producing in the child a
rooted distaste for that kind of food.
A fact or idea unloaded upon a mind not made
ready to receive it is like a minister supplying a
strange pulpit in an inhospitable community. There
I5 2 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
is no one at the train to meet him ; no one offers to
entertain him; the inn has but one bed and that is
not made up, and there is no fire in the room. The
people come to church, but they do not greet him
before the service, or respond during the service, or
thank him after the service ; and the man is so chilled
that the virtue in him is frozen at its source. Some
men there are who cannot be frozen out, and there
are some truths that will live and thrive anywhere,
whether they be prepared for or not. But in most
cases some sort of preparation is necessary. This
may take the form of the arousing of curiosity
regarding that which is to be presented; or of a
demand for the solution of a problem. It may be
accomplished through establishing emotional or in
tellectual congruity : by arousing feelings akin to the
tone of the story, or by calling to remembrance
kindred facts or ideas, and stationing them at the
threshold as a kind of reception committee, for it
is the * law of the mental jungle that only on the
introduction of some one already in can entrance be
granted to him who is without.
In planning this preparation the teacher should
remember that there is possible an artistic and ele
gant way, whereby meanings are conveyed without
explicit or formal statement, whereby the subject of
the lesson is made to be felt without being, as yet,
formulated, whereby the introduction shades into the
body of the story without jar or jolt. In general
I should say that the teacher should aim to make
the preparation indirect rather than direct, informal
rather than formal, and as brief as possible.
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 153
There are other essential qualities and aspects of
the teacher s knowledge of his pupils, but the limits
of my time forbid, and the plan of this Additional
course makes it unnecessary, that I should P oint sof
-, -. . insight which
enter upon them. Suffice it to say that in a teacher
addition to the sympathy which the teacher needs>
must have with the child s point of view, there must
be the teacher s insight into the child s stage of
religious development, into the method of his growth,
into the difference between boys and girls, into the
relative place of action and of contemplation, and
into the peculiar dangers that beset the path of one
who would provide proper nutrition and exercise.
This insight is essential. For if the teacher have
not this knowledge and the skill to use it, he will be
like poor, prying Guildenstern, trying to niustrated
peep through the chinks of Hamlet s in- by Hamlet,
scrutability. Guildenstern, you remember,
has been set to find out Hamlet s secret,
and he knows no other way but plain pumping.
Hamlet gives him a lesson in pedagogy which
might be taken to heart by many a teacher, and
which is the classic argument for knowing the mind
you would teach.
" HAMLET. . . . Will you play upon this pipe ?
"GUILDENSTERN. My lord, I cannot.
" HAM. I pray you.
"GUILD. Believe me, I cannot.
" HAM. I do beseech you.
" GUILD. I know no touch of it, my lord.
" HAM. Tis as easy as lying: govern these ven
tages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath
154 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
with your mouth, and it will discourse most elegant
music. Look you, these are the stops.
"GUILD. But these cannot I command to any
utterance of harmony ; I have not the skill.
"HAM. Why, look you now, how unworthy a
thing you make of me ! You would play upon me ;
you would seem to know my stops ; you would pluck-
out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me
from my lowest note to the top of my compass : and
there is much music, excellent voice, in this little
organ; yet cannot you make it speak. Sblood, do
you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe ?
Call me what instrument you will, though you can
fret me, you cannot play upon me."
III. And now we come to that in the teacher s
preparation which lies at the root of everything else,
and is the fundamental dynamic in all
III, The
teacher teaching a something which I can try to
himself, describe but hardly know what to name.
I mean the quality that enables the teacher of re
ligious truth to speak as one having authority, and
not as one who takes things at second hand, or as
one who has allowed himself to be overwhelmed by
a load of conventional lore which he cannot make his
very own, or as one who does not know whom he
has believed. But let us here distinguish between
two things radically different. For there is an
External and authority that works from without and there
internal is an authority that works from within;
authority. and the working . of these j s v j ta n y different
each from the other.
External authority says, "You must believe be-
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 155
cause I say so, or because the Book says so." Its
attitude is one of compulsion from without. The
voice of authority that speaks from within says, " I
must believe because I cannot do otherwise because
this is the truth, and I know it. " External authority
says, " This is true because it is the Bible." Inner
authority says, "This is the Bible because it is
true." The teacher, who depends on outer compul
sion, is continually desirous of making his pupils
think as he thinks, and believe as he believes. The
teacher, who aims only to arouse the inner voice in
the depths of the child s own soul, seeks
only to help the child to find the truth, tAndthe
In the class of the former you will find a trutl11
teacher trying to teach by talking at the pupils and
trying to convince by talking them down. In such
a class you will even see the questions of the class
frowned down, slurred over, postponed till a later
time that never comes as if questions were not the
terminal buds of the child s growing life. Such a
teacher is trying to press the death-mask of his own
arrested development upon the living faces of his
pupils. In a class of the latter type the teacher is
not less positive, but he is more honest, more patient,
and more fair.
I do not mean that teachers of the former type are
confined to the Sunday-school, or that teachers of
the latter type are found only in secular schools.
Far from it. And yet the tendency is to regard
religious teaching as the proper field for authority
(in the narrower sense), and secular teaching the
proper field for private judgment. And from this
I5 6 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
distinction there has arisen that gulf that tends to
divide the one realm from the other, with the in
evitable result of making" one realm less real than
the other.
It has often been thought that the Bible should be
looked upon and treated as something separate and
Pro eratti- s P ec ^ a ^ to be rea ^ at set times, and in a
tiide toward special, holy tone ; and to be interpreted in
a special way, different from that used re
garding any other book. This mode of isolation has
borne its proper fruit. Led or forced to simulate
emotions they had not had time to come by honestly,
the children brought up on that theory developed an
attitude toward the Bible which was partly aversion,
partly apathy, and which was wholly unreal. I
know of one girl, reared in a Christian home, who
did not lack intelligence in other lines, who reached
the ripe age of thirteen before she realized that the
doings recorded in the Bible occurred on this earth,
she having all along thought that they had transpired
in heaven. Let no one fear that the Bible will be
lowered or shaken by being treated in an every-day
common-sensible fashion. Let us not fear to tell
the truth about Bible characters. If some were
rascals, say so, man-fashion, without fumbling or
evasion. If the old Israelites attributed to their God
commands that outrage our children s sense of justice
and mercy, do not excuse that which is brutal, or
attribute it to God, but rather explain how such
things were the fruit of a rude age, point out the
steps of growth, and the contrasts between the Law
of Moses and the Gospel of Christ. And when the
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. 157
child asks the inevitable question, "Is it true ? " or
"Is it fact or story ? " if you do not know, say so ;
and if you can, add that this was a story the Israelitish
mothers told their children, or that it is certainly a
beautiful story, or that it doesn t seem to make very
much difference whether it really happened or not,
for we can easily see what it means. It is a fatal
blunder to attempt to prop up the Bible by external
aids. If the Bible is worthy of love and reverence,
the child rightly taught will inevitably come to love
and revere it. If you force reverence, or the sem
blance of love, you destroy that which must be at the
root of both the honest judgment, the personal
liking, and the sense of reality.
For the same reason I urge the looking at Jesus
Christ first of all as a man. Let the child dwell on
his manliness before dwelling on his God-
Jesus Christ
hood. If the child learns to like Jesus, the in the child-
man, as a dear friend, he will be the more life
ready to worship the Christ as the Son of God. This
order seems to me essential. If you begin with the
supernatural side, the natural side can never be
quite so natural. But if you begin with the natural
side, you will be in due time compelled to say with
Thomas, " My Lord and my God. " There are ex
ceptional cases ; but even those not thus compelled
to believe are certainly in far better case than if they
had begun with formally accepting the Godhead of
Christ and had never reached and many never do
reach the human friendship of Jesus.
And now let me distinctly set forth what I have
not said or meant. I have not said or meant that
158 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
we should not accept that which we do not under-
stand. And I have not said, and do not
Conclusion.
intend to say, that we should not teach
children anything they do not at the moment under
stand fully. I have not said that we should not con
form for a time, at least, to conventions into which we
cannot at the time enter with the heart. And I have
not said that the teacher, however determined to be,
with Rossetti, "one of those whose little is their
own," and determined to let his pupils stand upon
the solid rock of their own sense of what is good and
true and beautiful, shall not be respectful and even
reverent toward that which has long been sacred to
others, but which he has not yet grown into himself;
and seek to inspire his pupils with a like spirit.
You will observe that in discussing the teacher s
preparation I have not mentioned lists of books to
be read, or spoken of the teacher s need of becom
ing familiar with authorities and helps ; with ancient
manners, customs, and geography; with modern
trades and occupations; with pictures and poems;
with the principles of education and the practice of
those who are masters of the art of teaching,
though I believe that the teachers study of all these
things should be thorough and constant. I have
thought it a better plan, in treating a theme like this,
to aim to set forth an ideal of good teaching, rather
than to speak of many things a teacher should know
in order to teach ; believing that we touch the springs
of action better by giving a desire for the end than
by pointing out means in detail, and that " He who
loves flowers will find out all about soils."
VII.
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE
CHILD-MIND.
By President G. STANLEY HALL, D.D., of Clark University.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE VII.
Study of Child-development.
The child the type of the species.
Difficulties of the Sunday-school.
Child-evolution.
Stages passed through.
Necessity for this law of development.
Child s religious evolution the same in manner.
Illustrated by Fetish-worship.
And by Nature-love.
And by Natural Religions in the world.
Nature-study in the Sunday-school.
Power of Nature in Primitive Religions.
Natural religions, study of, in the Sunday-schools.
Personal application of Christ s Saving Grace best taught at Confir
mation Age.
The Adolescent Period of Youth.
Danger of neglect of these Principles at this time.
James Stuart Mill s View.
Adolescence and Conversion.
Science and Sin.
Awful results of Sin on the Conscience.
Psychology and the Bible.
Childhood the best period of life.
Biology s Witness.
Childhood the noblest humanity.
Teaching best suited for the child-age, before adolescence.
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE
CHILD-MIND.
IF I were a clergyman, as I wish, indeed, I might
be for an hour, to speak upon this subject, and if I
could take a text, it would be, "Suffer little chil
dren to come unto me : for of such is the kingdom
of heaven."
I shall undertake, as best I may, to outline some of
the results of the recent movement for the study of
the child nature, which bear upon the work of the
Sunday-school, and which seem to me may be help
ful for all who may be superintendents or teachers in
it.
There has been, as many of you are aware, within
the last decade, a general movement, that has spread
throughout the civilized world, for studying gtud of
the mental and physical traits of childhood. Chiid-de-
Children are measured with the greatest
minuteness. Every dimension of the hand, the
brain, the skull, the chest, has been minutely studied,
in order to ascertain the rate of growth of the body,
and the circumstances that must further and that
must retard the growth. These studies are all made
upon very many children, and the average is then
computed, and has chief significance.
161
1 62 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
But it is of none of this that I wish to speak now,
but rather of a still larger body of investigations
upon the mental content and the emotional activities
of childhood.
And let me preface what I have to say, by the
general conclusion of all these biological investiga
tions. It is that childhood is the very best period
of human life ; that then all human faculties are at
their best; that it is the paradise from which growth
is always more or less of a fall. The child represents
the species, the general form of human nature.
Adults are specialized in this, that, or the other direc
tion. Men, particularly, who are far more special
ized than women, have to sacrifice, always, part of
their nature for the completer development of other
parts.
The modern conception, then, of childhood is
that its later stages, at least, are almost always, in
all modern civilizations, more or less of a decline,
and that Wordsworth was right when he spoke of
the child as coming from a far country, with partial
forgetful ness. It is as if the old pre-existence theo
ries of the soul were more or less true.
In all its activities, physiological and psychical,
then, the child is nearer the type of the species, and
has less of the limitations of the individual,
the type of The doors of the prison-house have closed
the species, U p On him, far less tightly than they have
upon us. It used to be said, in the days when per
haps the recognition of the intuitive power of woman
was at its very best, seventy-five or a hundred years
ago, in the time of Goethe, that the woman s
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. 163
instinct was the surest of all compasses by which
those who wished to go back to first principles and
base their work on their study of human nature
should act : as Goethe says, * das ewige weibliche,
"the eternally womanly." Woman s instincts
are greater instincts, are of greater breadth and are
less specialized, than man s. So that woman s
instinct was thought to be, by these investigators of
that time, the highest in the world. But we are
gradually coming to recognise something that is still
more generic, namely, childhood at its best. It is
the most truly and really divine thing in the world.
It is the most complete and whole thing we have.
So that the boundaries of the child s nature are so
wide, its sympathies, its power of appreciation, its
capacity to grasp, at least in a cursory and superficial
way, something from all the environment of know
ledge or moral character that is about it, are so great,
that we know that, in everything that is essential to
high and holy and happy living, the boundaries of
the child s nature are far more nearly coterminous
with those of the race than are those of the adult,
or even of the woman.
The conditions under w r hich the Sunday-school
works are hard conditions very hard. A little
time, but once a week, perhaps, or twice; Difficulties
teachers that rarely, if ever, have any pro- oftheSun-
fessional training, and that, too, in this day " sc
day when professional training in education is a real
science ; when the character of the professional
teaching never stood so high and never was growing
so rapidly. In that time the Sunday-school has,
1 64 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
less than any other department in the whole educa
tional field, felt the influence, on the whole, of these
unfolding movements.
Then, besides that, we are suffering under the
influence of the " Uniform-lesson System." It has
done a great work in the world. It has brought
into sympathy and rapport the great body of Bible-
teachers in the world. But it has done its best work,
and has now a limitation in so many places and
ways, that those of us who are familiar with Sunday-
school work, I think, will hesitate a good while
before we are willing to say that those are not right
who declare that its usefulness is at an end, and that
we should supersede it by far more individual train
ing, in subject-matter and methods, even in the
Infant Sunday-school.
The true source of appeal in all matters educa
tional, then, is human nature and human need. So
that all religion has done its great work in the world
because it has rightly appreciated and correctly met
the great and most crying needs of humanity. And
so education is now making an appeal to first prin
ciples. It is going back and asking, by all the
methods that it can command, What is the real nature
of childhood, and What are the deeper interests of
childhood ? What are its real capacities ? What
kind of mental food does it need, in order to bring
every power of mind and body to the fulle st and best
development of which each child is capable ?
That is the work. The bond, especially in re
ligious work, should be a personal tie from the heart
of every child to the heart of every teacher. We
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. 165
know that the Day-school suffers very much under
the uniformity of the modern class-graded system,
and we are now, in very many ways, trying, and
successfully in many directions, to emancipate our
selves from the rigidity of this procrustean grade
system, so that the school shall be a thing of rescue
a rescue not merely from sin, but a rescue from
the calamity of mistaken vocations. To discover
the thing that a child can do best is a work of
rescue. It is a child-saving, a career-saving, an
economizing kind of work greater, perhaps, than
any other kind of educational work that can be done.
Now when we look at the child, what do we find ?
We find this great result, which came with surprise
to many of us as it slowly dawned, and as chiid-
the hand mounted up and became so evollltio11
formidable that not one single person here present
can look the facts in the face and get the common
information that is now available, without accepting
it. It is this : that the child normally represents the
history of the human race. That it has, in its early
stages, a great deal of the animal about it. There
is a great deal in its physical and psychical nature
that suggests the higher animals. We know that
every child has at least 133 rudimentary organs in
its body (so called), which are atrophied, and which
suggest that something a little like what the evolu
tionists tell us must be true. Why is it, for instance,
that a few months before birth I had an immense
organ here, for breathing in the water complete gills
which gradually transformed, so that soon after birth
the upper part of them had been twisted around into
1 66 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
the nostrils, the lower part had been turned around
and grown into the vocal cords, another part had
been spiralled around into the cochlea, or the organs
of hearing ? Why is it that I was a gill-breathing
animal at one time, suggesting aquatic life ? Why
is it, too, that the infant has all the caudal appen
dages ? Why is it that we have the vermiform
appendix, and why all these 133 different organs,
of absolutely no use, but many of them a positive
disadvantage in our human stage ? What do they
mean ? They mean that we pass up the whole his
tory of animal life, and that from the time a few
months before birth, up to maturity, every child
Stages passed represents in his history every stage of ani-
through. mal life, as repeated since the world began.
You and I have all been a union of similar organs :
those organs have divided, and those halves divided
again, until at last it has appeared that we were
going to be an invertebrate, then a protovertebrate,
then a metazoan, then a vertebrate, and then one of
the higher vertebrates, and then a quadrumanal, and
then a bimanal creature, and finally a man, and
then, perhaps, a man of high character.
Of course the early stages are passed over with
great rapidity. They are telescoped into one
another, so that it is with great difficulty that they
can be detected. We have lived thousands we
don t know: possibly millions of years in a day,
an hour, perhaps a minute, in the earliest stages of
our development. But something, we know not
what, some unknown and inscrutable formative prin
ciple, has pushed us on and up through all the lower
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. 167
stages, and it has persevered until at last we have
reached the highest of all human organisms and
have developed even a brain and nervous system
that most marvellous of all material things: four
thousand million nerve-elements, on the average;
every cell composed of scores of millions of mole
cules, and broken up into a number of scores of
parts, invisible even to the microscope: the brain,
the only organ through which God has ever spoken
to the world, or ever can; the mouthpiece of the
Absolute, through which every revelation has come.
All that has been developed in us in a few years
from beginnings that, so far as any method of science
can discern, are on a level with the lowest forms of
animal life. So that there is a great deal of what
might be described as the tadpole-tail function, if
you will accept that familiar parable. I Necessity for
sometimes used to ask my students how thislaw -
many of them believed that the tadpole s tail ever
fell off when it became a frog; and most of them
thought it did. But every naturalist knows that
there never was a tadpole s tail in the world that fell
off: and that is the point of all we have to say.
Never a tadpole lost his tail. It was absorbed: and
the very matter and blood that went to make tail was
simply made over again into legs. And if the tad
pole s tail is cut off, then the legs never grow, and the
frog is condemned to pass his life in a lower aquatic
stage. He never becomes an amphibian, and never
gets up on the land. That is the parable of the tad
pole s tail. There are plenty of others, with rudi
mentary histories that illustrate the same general
1 68 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD- MIND.
law, which is that the lower organ has to be devel
oped, or else the higher, which supersedes it, will
never grow. You may say, "To develop the frog
nature of this tadpole, I will clip off this tail, so that
the energy will go into the legs and he will get
mature a little earlier, and the legs will be strong.
That is what we do in the training. We forget that
Froebel was right when he said, "Every child
must live out completely every complete stage of
childhood, or he can never develop into complete
maturity. So that w r hen I say every child recapitu
lates the history of the race, I say that that must be
taken as the cornerstone of the new pedagogy, in
religion as in everything else.
Now Christianity came in God s own appointed
time. It came late in the history of the world : if
scientists are right, very late. But why ? Because
mankind was not ripe for it. And the child has to
repeat a great many of these pre-Christian stages of
evolution in its own life.
One of the most striking and interesting results of
modern psychological studies, or studies in the
growth of the souls of children, consists in
showing, with such overwhelming masses f
Evolution, evidence, how every child repeats the his
tory of the race in its religious development. It is
a fetich-worshipper. Every child that has a fair
chance at life passes through the stage of being a
fetich-worshipper. Examine the contents of a boy s
pocket. You will find, very probably, a pretty
stone, a bit of lead, a curious piece of coal or old
junk iron or ore a lot of these things ; a knot of
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. 169
wood with a curious spot in it something that he
has, perhaps, carried in his pocket for a long time.
In severe weather it is wrapped up, so that it won t
feel cold. It is taken with the child wherever he
goes, so that it will have been to New York, Phila
delphia and Boston, and shared the child s experi
ences. The temperature is regulated for its benefit.
And sometimes we find this fetich-worship surviving
very curiously in different persons. I know a lady
who has a string of spools that she played with as a
baby. She can t go to sleep without that Fetich-wor-
string of spools. She keeps it in her top shi P
bureau drawer, and, whenever she is specially tired,
sits down and gets it out and takes a good look at
it, and is refreshed and rested thereby. That is
simply an exceptional survival of the fetichism that
is common to all children. Some toy, some utterly
unconsidered trifle, is, by an instinct, almost always
frowned upon and therefore somewhat secreted and
never mentioned to adults, but by an instinct that
is almost universal in childhood, some insignificant
trifle is invested with many of the attributes of per
sonality. It has something in it that corresponds
with something or other in the soul of the child.
And so it goes on up to higher and higher stages.
Who has not seen the passionate love of children
for particular flowers ? How many children in the
country find a chance to know enough of Nature to
feel its real influences and to learn that
Nature-love which is the first religion of byNature-
every race that has existed in the world ? love>
Who has not seen cases of this Nature-love, very
170 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
obvious ? The little girl, perhaps, talking to the
flowers, thinking they speak to her; saying her pray
ers to them, wishing and hoping they won t be cold,
and covering them up, not to save them from wilt
ing, nor because there is any danger of frost, but
that they may feel the warmth she wishes. She
imagines she hears voices whispering in the
trees.
Every child is dwarfed in some function of his
soul, who has not been brought in contact with
animal life: and the more of it, the better. The
animal soul is described by some people as the
human soul without the inspiration. Suppose, for
instance, that a child knows a peacock has seen it
strut and spread its feathers. Suppose it finds a
parable in which that bird is referred to. It is
familiar with the qualities that are implied in the
human life. We say of a lady, "She is a parable:
she is a peacock. And so all other animals are
psychological specimens, and the first school of
human nature, that precedes all others, is to know
them. That is why ysop and all these many fables
have had such far-wrought influence on the childish
soul, as vehicles by which morals, and sometimes
even religion itself, are taught. Children talk to
their pets, and believe they are interested. They
personify them, as you know. They think they go
to Heaven with them. They believe the doll speaks,
and shares all their own sympathies. I know a little
girl who learned French in order to talk to the
French doll that her mother brought her from Paris,
so strong was the doll passion, which usually de-
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND, i? 1
velops in her at about the age of eight or nine years,
in the average child.
And when you pass up higher, you find these
natural religions there manifesting themselves. A
son of a friend of mine, who lives in Washington a
boy about four some two or three years ago, when
I was visiting this friend, was in the back u atu ral
door of the house, as the full moon was Religion,
rising: and as I sat there, I overheard him saying
something like this: " Moon, come down and speak
to Henny. Good moon, Henny love you." It
may not have been exactly those words, but in that
childish way addressing the moon a kind of primi
tive prayer or orison, or something of that sort.
And I believe that something very deep and striking
and important was taking place between that child s
soul and the moon.
We forget that many people have had no higher
religion than this. For instance, Socrates, in his
trial, says, before his judges, to Miletus, his chief
accuser, " O Miletus, with all your rage against me,
you surely would not go so far as to say that I do
not believe that the sun and moon are the supreme
gods in this universe." Nobody would say that.
Of course he didn t. Every Greek believed that the
sun and moon were the supreme deities, and said
their prayers to them. And some of the gods and
goddesses, as you know, had some of the most beauti
ful temples that ever were reared in the world, as
products of the religious sentiment. And so on,
from the rudest kind of fetich-worship from the
simple stone ebenezer. The Palestine Exploration
172 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
people tell us that the chief thing they find there is
the stone set up one stone on another by the
primitive population, perhaps not simply because
they were idols of stone, as some people say. Per
haps there was a good deal of symbolism, and they
represented something, as they certainly do in all
higher forms of idolatry all through the worship of
inanimate objects, up to the worship of sun and
moon and stars, which have implanted a sentiment
so deep in man, that one of the deepest thinkers we
have ever had declared that the undevout astronomer
was mad. From the lowest to the highest, we see
the religious effect of nature : and it has first place,
and it must have ; for it is detrimental, it is cutting
off the tadpole s tail, to try to teach the higher forms
of religious sentiment without the child having had
a good radical experience with the lower forms. It
is assuming that we can skip stages in human evolu
tion, which Nature s stern decree makes it impossible
for us ever to pass by. We must always pass
through them all.
When we come to ask the practical question,
whether or not we would teach Nature in the Sun-
Nature stud day-school, we may well pause: but for
in the Sun- myself, I am quite convinced of the wis-
00 dom of two recent Sunday-school pro
grammes that I have seen, which give a place for
teaching Nature, as from the religious standpoint.
There is nothing that stimulates the child sentiment
of awe, reverence, and dependence sentiments which
all religious philosophy now agrees in making the
basis of religion in the soul there is nothing that
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. 173
teaches these sentiments, stimulates them, causes
them to grow, like a judicious course of Nature-study.
Of course, I don t mean the study with the micro
scope, or the technique of names or nomenclature,
but I mean the poetic aspect of nature, the spontane
ous sentiment that springs up in every warm-hearted
child when coming in contact with nature. On a
summer s day, take a group of children into the
woods, and you find that, although in the meadow
and open land they may have been jolly and running
and climbing, the moment they enter the forest there
is a hush. They feel a certain sort of awe in the
gloom and sombreness of a quiet summer forest.
That sentiment, Professor Zeller tells us and he is,
perhaps, the most competent man to speak on that
subject Professor Zeller, in his " History of the
Religious Sentiment among the Ancient Romans,"
says that that sentiment of awe in the presence of
the forest was the only religious sentiment that the
ancient Romans ever developed at the root of all
the religion they ever had. And we know, in the
latter part of the Roman Empire, it was at least rich
enough to produce in their people a rank growth
of superstitions, such as the world has never seen.
And the child should have a chance to develop that
at its proper time, in order that the sentiments on
which the higher forms of religion rest, and without
which every kind of religious development is defec
tive, may come to their highest perfection.
When we look over the history of savage religions
and primitive religions, especially the ethnic re
ligions, we find that there is hardly one single ob-
174 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
ject in all nature that has not been worshipped by
its Power in some sava g e race. Max Muller tells us
Primitive that it would be difficult to find anything
eigions, SQ re p u i s } ve> so insignificant, so vulgar,
even, that it had not been made by some race,
somewhere, the object of superstitious and supreme
worship. And we know that in the three thousand
deities of the Arians almost every kind of natural
object was somehow represented and personified.
Of course, particularly the sky. We have plenty of
sky-worshippers to-day. The clouds \vhat would
become of the imagination if it were not for the
clouds ? The child in the country gazes at them,
and he forms palaces, and sails, wild scenes of Judg
ment day, crowds of angels : he sees great ships, and
flags everything that can be conceived of: and the
clouds have had an immense influence in giving a
sense of reality to something up above us. I am
inclined to agree with M. Renan, who tells us that
the clouds, and thunder, and mountains, each had
more to do than any other one factor, he thinks, in
shaping the religious conceptions of the ancient
Hebrews. But however that may be, no one who
knows children can doubt that they have a very deep
and instinctive love and reverence for objects in
Nature, and that they do pass through a great many
more of these ancient idolatrous stages than we
know, and the dictum of modern science is that these
have their place; these instincts must be developed.
The objects are more tangible, they are more con
stant. And just as that child is unfortunate who has
never had a mother to watch over it until it grew to
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. i?5
years of maturity : especially that infant is unfortunate
who has not been able to gaze into its mother s eyes,
and to develop toward her precisely those sentiments
of reverence and love and dependence which later,
turned toward God, constitute so much of the
essence of religion, just so, the child who has not
had access to Nature and has not felt her uplifting
power is liable to build his religious life upon the
sand, because it has not the solid foundations in the
primeval life of the human soul to rest upon.
Of course this is only one fact. We have to-day
a great many schemes of instruction from the Bible.
I had one come to me yesterday, and brought it
down on the train, and looked it over. It Natural re-
is very liberal more liberal than almost JfgJ^Ty-
any that I have seen. It recognises Nature- schools.
worship at the beginning of the course, and at the
end of the course. It insists upon some training in
ethnic religions in other religions than Christianity.
It accepts as rather fundamental the dictum that,
just as philologists tell us that he who knows only
one language really knows none, because he does
not know it comparatively, and does not know the
derivation of words, just so it is true that he who
knows but one religion really knows none adequately.
So that it has even introduced something about Bud
dhism, and two or three other of the higher ethnic
religions, at the latter part of this course. I do not
know what the justification of that might be. Per
haps we may question it. But I think there can be
no hesitation whatever in insisting that the mytho-
pceic and sentimental aspect of Nature, and some of
1 76 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
its great facts, should be taught to children in the
Sunday-school in a way to bring out natural religion
all there is of it to make the most and the best of
it, because that is the best foundation on which to
build the higher structure of Christianity.
It seems to me we cannot say very much, perhaps,
upon the order of Bible-study. We have it in these
various programmes, sometimes beginning
* n ^ le m iddle and going both ways, some
times beginning with the ancient heroes in
the Pentateuch, sometimes beginning with the New
Testament and working backward. But it does seem
to me that the Bible, certainly the most consummate
text-book in psychology that the world has ever
seen, not only knows and touches the human heart
at deeper and more points than any other, but that
the order of its books, in the main, is the most
pedagogic. It begins with the most majestic sweep,
and gives us a background of the universe. To me,
as an educator and psychologist, that question is not
of so much consequence, because the main point is
to teach the dependence of all things upon God.
Criticism has its place, the scientific estimate has its
place, but not in the Sunday-school. The Sunday-
school is to edify, it is to cultivate the heart and the
feelings, out of which the intellect springs, of which
the intellect is only a sort of dried specimen, so to
speak. The heart, in which we live, which is the
largest thing in us, is to be educated. The Sunday-
school is to educate the emotional and the instinctive
nature, and is not for the training of the reason, ex
cept incidentally, so far as it may be made to min-
/ /// A /:7,/<;/OaV CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. i?7
istcr to this nature. In that respect it seems to me
it differs very largely from the Day-school.
If this order, in general, be followed, that would
bring the stress of teaching Christianity, from the
New Testament, a little later than we put
it. And while I would by no means
advocate, as some have lately done, that of Christ s
the child be kept in ignorance of Chris-
tianity until he reaches the age of twelve or at Confirma-
fifteen, until the dawn of that transforma
tion of adolescence which takes the child out of his
own individuality and makes him a member of the
race, yet I am entirely convinced that if we wish to
work with Nature, and not against her, it is necessary
that the chief stress of the New Testament teaching,
and the chief personal application of the experience
and the saving work of Christ, be applied not much
earlier than the decade in which the Episcopal
Church confirms, than the time when the Roman
Catholic and the Lutheran churches confirm, than
the time when the very careful statistics in the Pres
byterian and the Methodist and the Baptist and the
Congregational churches show that most conversions
take place, with children twelve or thirteen or there
abouts, until the beginning of this transformation.
Nature indicates there the necessity of new and larger
views, the necessity of regenerative processes, be
cause then the child s whole nature is turned about.
It has lived for self until then, and properly. For the
most part, it is necessary. It is necessary, rather,
that the child up to that period should grow in body,
soul, and strength, and get knowledge; that it should
1 78 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
be done for. But here is a great break the break
when most children leave school for good. The
average age of leaving school in New York, Boston,
Chicago, and St. Louis is just about thirteen or four
teen years, or thereabouts. It is just about the time
when Nature decrees a break, when children can
support themselves, and there is a tendency to run
away, because there is the point where the genera
tions break off a little from each other, as it would
seem.
But it is especially the time of life when the
thoughts of young man and maiden begin to turn to
other things than self. The great instincts of
altruism begin to be felt, and to transform the soul,
and far off and dimly, at first, looms up the great
conception that life is, after all, not to be lived for
self, but for others, and the instinct of subordination,
The Adoies- ^ saci *ifi ce > f being ready to die for what
cent Period one would live for, begins then, and if life
is complete, if people do not stop their
mental growth, if they are not, by some accident
of education or environment or heredity, condemned
to live their lives out upon a plane far lower than
Nature intended them to be lived, if none of these
things occur, and they come to complete maturity,
then altruism has its complete work, and sacrifice
and work and service are a passion, not only a
duty, but a passion and joy. And that is the
essence of religion, that is its work in the human
soul, to subordinate self, and to make the life of
the race, and the larger life of God, have supreme
dominion over the heart. Love is the greatest thing
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. i?9
in the world, and to fix it on the greatest objects in
the world is the end and aim of Education : and
this comes chiefly at adolescence. It begins then.
Children are more animal than we have thought
them to be. We must think more of animals than
we thought. They are more of savages than we
thought them to be. We must have a larger esti
mate of savage life than we had, if we are to under
stand them aright. They come to their highest
intuitive development in a very few years, and the
dawn of this critical period, and the time for the con
summating and completing of religious education, is
then. I believe that in all our Sunday-schools the
consummate care of the superintendent and the
teacher and the Rector should be bent not so much
upon the lower classes, important as they are, but
upon the classes of boys who are in early teens, and
perhaps a little later, who are coming into maturity,
and have no guide, almost nothing in the school,
almost nothing in their environment, to really develop
and cultivate and elevate this great sentiment of love,
than which nothing is more liable to go astray and
become perverse ; than which, if it is perverted, noth
ing works greater havoc in the soul and the body.
To elevate and expand this, so it shall take hold of
what is eternally good, true, and beautiful that is
the time, and that is the immortal work of the
Sunday-school teacher.
To love and to be interested most in those things
that are most worthy of love and of interest that is
the end of life: and religion is the only thing, in all
this vast mass of cultures that our curriculums are
I So THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
trying to train in so many ways religion is the only
thing that can ever lead us to that consummation.
I think that in some of our communions we have
Danger of been premature; we have sought for too
toe^Prin- speedy results. A great many have sought
ciples, to reap where they had not sown. They
have endeavoured to pick open the bud before it was
ready to blossom of itself. We have even revival
sermons, I believe, still, to children; and one of
these revivalists was kind enough to send me a list of
his conversions, and I figured up over four thousand
of them, and found that the average of the children
he had converted was nine years. Now whether or
not so early an age is the age at which the consum
mate effect of religious training ought to be aimed at,
I question whether the soul is expanded enough.
We know what the results of precocity are. If chil
dren s minds are brought in contact with great things
that they cannot grapple, there is a kind of inocula
tion that takes place. They are vaccinated. They
have the chicken-pox form, instead of the severe
form, and they are prevented from taking a deeper
and more permanent transforming interest in these
things: and I am very strongly persuaded, for one,
that while a great deal of good may be done in many
cases, there is a very grave danger in bringing home
the supremest questions of religion to young people
until those instincts and those passions are developed,
which are stronger than any other in life, and which,
if misguided, may lead to destruction. When those
are unfolded, they need every restraint that religion
can possibly afford, and they should receive the
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. 181
strongest and the best training. There should be
no course of training that makes possible rubbing
the bloom off, or dulling the effect of all these, but
in their pristine power they should be applied when
they are most necessary to check passion and to
subdue rampant personality and selfishness, and to
civilize and humanize the soul.
I am inclined to think that John Stuart Mill said
a rather good thing about this. He said that teach
ing children to be good too early was a little like
early rising. People who were very early j g Mm , 8
risers, he said, in the morning, were quite View,
apt to be very proud of it all the forenoon, and then
rather stupid in the afternoon, and very uninteresting
in the evening. And I am inclined to think that
something of that occurs in those who wake up too
early to religious truths. They may be very interest
ing as precocious children or boy prodigies, possibly ;
but I think they grow uninteresting and sterile in the
afternoon of life, and in them often the power and
stress of religion somehow loses its force. It does
not grow with the years and strengthen with their
strength, as it really ought to do.
Then to leave this there is another point of
view which must not be overlooked. Science in
many ways is coming to reaffirm many of Adolegcence
the old principles of religion. Take this andConver-
of conversion. There are a great many
people who think that there is not much in it, that
Confirmation, and so on, do not mean very much.
There is great reason to believe that the next five
years will see a revolution of sentiment in all the
182 THl- RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
churches, on this subject; that it will come to us
from science, which will show that Nature has a real
regeneration in the soul at this time; that the in
terpreting faculties, the imagination, and the senti
ments are immensely quickened. There is a vast
new literature on this subject of adolescence. It
shows that mankind becomes different in a very few
years. Stature increases. Boys begin to grow
especially at twelve, and grow for a few years and
then stop. They grow in their weight; their brains
develop in a remarkable way. Their muscular
strength increases, new interests, new passions arise ;
new dangers, of course; and it is the time of greatest
prevalence in the line of crime. Later statistics
show that before the close of the years of adolescence
most of the crimes are committed not the deepest
and darkest crimes, but the most. So that it seems
as though good and evil struggle together for the
mastery of the human soul at no other time of life so
much as at this time.
All we know, then, of this period seems to indi
cate that it is a kind of regeneration, of the same
sort which takes place in the soul, and that religion,
in formulating it, has simply been true to Nature,
giving it its crown of development.
So, too, with regard to sin. I am very strongly
persuaded that not many years will pass before we
Science and shall have from science a very strong plea
Sin> for more preaching of sin from the pulpit.
I say this with great diffidence, and I hardly meant
to put it quite so strongly, but I will not go back
now, for I very rarely get an opportunity to talk
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD- MIND. 183
back from the pulpit; my place is in the pews. But
I do feel very strongly persuaded that we ought
to have a little of the old-fashioned doctrine of sin
preached. Augustine preached it. The Church
deifies some of our good Calvinistic friends for
preaching it. We do not hear so very much of it:
but it is a dreadful thing. Read a book like Nordau s
" Degeneration." Read the modern studies in
criminology that are being made. Read the litera
ture that is abroad, stamped with the marks of
human decadence. Look at life as you see it. Is
not sin a real thing ?
One of my students investigated with great labour,
a while ago, and culled from the newspapers various
advertisements that are circulated in all the papers
of this country, to young men, warning them against
the errors of youth, and adding that they could be
cured with so many bottles, at so much, perhaps.
And he found that there were now no less than
seven of these great societies publishing syndicates,
if you please for the circulation of the answers to
these advertisements. The business is conducted in
this way. Scare advertisements are sent out. Un
wary youth write, asking questions. These Awful results
young men, most of whom are normal, are of sin on Con-
instructed to send in their complaints. s<
They write their letters with their hearts blood.
I have read them. I bought a thousand at the
syndicate price, and looked them over. The most
awful letters that I ever read because most of
them, as I say, were ingenuous young men, and
though perfectly normal, were made to think,
184 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT Of- THE CHILD- MIND.
through the neglect of their parents and their
teachers, that they were all wrong and corrupt, and
they are made to buy these nostrums and to eat out
their own soul and become cankered by a sense of
sin they ought not to feel, in very many cases. It
is most fearful reading. We estimated the number
of these letters. We know what they cost. They
cost twenty-five dollars a thousand the first time, the
second time twenty dollars, and so on until they
have been sold five times because the young man
will perhaps buy of the fifth different company, and
the fifth time the syndicate price is five dollars a
thousand for those letters, written with the utmost
secrecy by young men, many of them from our best
families. And there are now on sale such letters
from four and a half million young men in this
country, that can be bought at those prices.
Now don t tell me that sin is not a real thing, that
it does not need to be preached. It is sin shown,
not so much in the acts, as in the consciences of these
young men. It is the power exercised over them
by their delusive impressions of their own acts, by
reason of the tendencies which exist in their hearts,
and in their nature, which need right guidance.
The recent studies from many points studies in
psychology, studies of the emotions, of the brain, of
the whole nervous system, with many experiments
Ps cholo conducted in the laboratory, show, in a far
and the more minute way than has ever been shown
before, that there is a very close rapport
between psychology and the Bible a rapport which
amounts to sympathy, and which perhaps is going to
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. 185
amount almost to identity. This is to be the point
of contact between science and religion, in that day
which is speedily coming. And I believe we shall
realize that there has been a vast amount of energy
lost because we have thought that the primary reve
lation of God in His works could be set over against
the revelation which God has made to us in His
holy word. The two are one. They reinforce each
other. All the essentials of the two are implied in
each. And I am myself hopeful enough to believe
that when this old view shall be ended, and that
when this sad chasm between them, in which so
many unsightly and rank weeds have grown up, is
closed, out of a full heart we shall be able to ex
press some such sentiment as Daniel Webster did,
in that famous speech of his, you remember, which
I might almost parody by saying, When our eyes
shall behold for the last time, perhaps, the sun of
this century, or the sun of the next decade, they will
not see him shining upon a culture divorced, broken,
but rather upon the two great wings of human in
terest, Science and Religion, the standards of both
high advanced, and bearing no such miserable
inquiry as What is Science worth ? or those other
words of delusion and folly, Religion first, and
Science afterwards : but everywhere men will unite
in feeling that the two are one and inseparable."
And when it comes, we shall realize what an im
mense amount of energy has been los_, and how
much we have faltered in our upward strivings in
religious work, because we have been intimidated by
science. The higher ranges of science, that deal
1 36 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
with the human soul, reinforce every one of the great
fundamental tables of the Bible. And it is high
time that we recognise this, and adopt all that it
can give us into the Sunday-school and the pul
pit.
I must add one final thought. It is almost ex
actly the thought with which I began.
The best period in life is childhood the best
period of human life. It is the richest and the
Childhood largest. It has most sympathies, most
periodof delusions, most capacities, most pleasures,
Life, between birth and complete maturity,
which we now believe does not occur till well on in
the twenties, and perhaps even later, as the best
authorities tell us but in the growing period of life
is found almost all that makes life worth the living.
Biology tells us that every cell and tissue of the
human body is simply a servant of those minute pro
ductive elements which pass on the sacred torch of
Biology s life from one generation to another. They
witness. are i mmO rtal. We are all literally physical
parts of our parents, back, back to Adam. The
primitive cell divides, the pieces divide again ; finally
two collide, and become two organs. There is no
death, there is no corpse. That is the way in which
life began. There was physical immortality. But
later organs were necessary for special purposes, and
it was with specialization that death began. Biol
ogists describe this origin of death in the world
thus: "It is the lower functions, the more special
ized, that die: but that immortal part that still repre
sents and passes on this sacred torch of life to the
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OP THE CHILD-MIND. 187
further generations that is the master tissue that
everything else serves."
And so of childhood, we may say that childhood
represents, often, the noblest humanity. It is the
human nature at its very best, highest and fullest and
richest, before sin has very deeply entered for the
child, before the teens, cannot commit any so very
grievous sin nothing compared to the temptations
that assail it later in life. Wordsworth
, Childhood
was right. He was speaking literally, and the noblest
biology reinforces him in all those glorious hnmamt y-
ascriptions of transcendent insight to the human
child s soul. It does not reason, it can hardly walk
in thought, but its intuitions are subtle. There is not
a thing in the environment to which it is not respon
sive. It is like a seed which is in the soil. Perhaps
the sunlight does not shine directly upon it, but
there is not a ray over it, not a drop of moisture
above it, that does not refresh it in every particle
of its being, and does not quicken it to new life.
Is it so with the soul of the child ? It is, as I said,
the soul of the race. It is generic, it is complete.
There have been none of the necessary subtractions.
And civilization is measured by a new standard.
The Church, the home, the school, are good only
so far as they are means of bringing human nature
to a fuller and completer maturity. That is the
highest thing to be gained to develop the race on
and up, and thus evolution always proceeds. It
starts off from childhood. To bring to maturity is
to keep young, to carry childhood into old age, and
keep it green, so that there shall be no decadence,
1 88 THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND.
and old age shall not be repulsive, as it often is.
The best possible test of every human culture is
whether or not it can preserve that curious and
unique and divine freshness of soul that is the
peculiar badge and characteristic of childhood
whether it keeps us eternally young. That is genius.
Genius is nothing but childhood perpetuated into old
age. And the best, the highest service that can
possibly be rendered is the service and the ministry
to childhood.
The Roman Catholic Church is waking up upon
this subject. I heard, in France, this last summer,
some very remarkable things about a new movement
in this direction, which I wish to know
Teaching
best for more about. And I think our churches
children. . . . i r
are coming to realize now as never before,
that it is a far higher thing, because it does more
good, to really reach children before they are
highly matured, than to preach and work for par
ents. Not but that that work is needed sadly
enough, but it requires higher talent, greater
capacity, more genius, more full mastery of know
ledge, to teach children. The true teacher can go
through the highest and most consummate mastery
of expert subjects, and make them interesting to a
little child. Any one who ever saw Professor
Huxley talk to his own children would realize that
there was not a thing that that great mind knew in
science, that he could not make fascinating to the
little child. And so in religion. Mastery in the
knowledge of religion, sympathy with Christ, that
makes us really interested in His mind and will, is
THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF THE CHILD-MIND. 189
best tested by capacity to lead and minister to child
hood.
So that the child is leading" us again, as never
before. And if some methods of thought change in
the world, if some of us lose a little confidence in
the ideas that have guided us hitherto, there is one
test that is sure, because it comes right up from the
heart of Nature, and is the criterion by which every
other truth soever in the world must forever be
tested : whether or not it ministers to the more com
plete growth and maturity of childhood.
VIII.
THE USE OF BIOGRAPHY IN RELI
GIOUS INSTRUCTION.
By Professor FRANK MORTON McMURRY, Ph.D., Professor
of " The Theory of Teaching," in Teachers College,
Columbia University.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE VIII.
The two Fundamental Principles of all Instruction.
Law controls all kinds of Instruction.
Object of Instruction is to develop Permanent Interest.
Importance of Biography in Religious Instruction.
Depends on our aspect of the Bible.
Decision important in Day-schools.
Bible Instruction primarily History.
Selected Summary of Biographical Bible Instruction.
Literature and underlying Truths not excluded.
Illustrations.
Yet History the Groundwork.
Reason for Biographical Treatment of the Bible.
Child uses Personification.
Hence even Geography taught by Personification.
Also History, Nature-study, and Science as well
Why does Biography interest ?
Because it gives Facts connectedly.
Hence close Relation needed between Lessons.
Difficulties in Sunday-school Lessons.
Because Biography is Concrete.
Literature accepts this Principle.
Sunday-schools ignore it.
Abuse illustrated by Story of "The Match Girl."
Proper Ratio of Concrete to Abstract, 10 : I.
Hence Instruction should be mainly by Narrative.
Biography forms good groundwork for other Facts.
Also helpful in Reviews.
Good basis for Examinations of Teachers.
Age best suited for Study of Biography.
All Teachers deal best with pupils by using Facts.
THE USE OF BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS
INSTRUCTION.
SOME statement of fundamental principles is first
necessary, as a basis for the remarks that
Two Funda-
are to follow. I desire, therefore, to men- mental Prin-
tion two such guiding thoughts. ci P les<
In the first place, law prevails in religious teach
ing, as in other kinds of instruction. We know that,
in the physical world, the man who _
I, Law con-
Opposes himself to natural law invariably troisaii
suffers, no matter what his intentions may Instruction
be. We know also that in the ordinary field of in
struction we are subject to what is called < psychical
law. He who follows that law meets with excellent
results, and, to the extent that any one ignores it,
he meets with bad results. Sometimes there is a
tendency, in the field of religion, to feel that the
situation there is different; that, if teachers mean
well, whether they possess proper knowledge or not,
good results are somehow assured. There is no
warrant, however, for believing that the Lord will
interfere with law more in this case than in the
others. This is one of the presuppositions for our
later argument.
193
194 BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
In the second place, what we are aiming at
primarily in religious instruction is the development
of a permanent interest in religious facts.
II, Object is JL _
to develop To be sure, we often aim at knowledge, a
k now l e dge of religious truth, and of the
historical facts contained in the Bible. But
in the Sunday-school, as in the Day-school, we are
growing more and more inclined to accept an inter
ested attitude of mind as the largest immediate end
to work for. If the instructor brings about a proper
attitude toward the Bible, namely, that of deep in
terest, he has the best guarantee of future thinking,
feeling, and acting along that line. No matter how
much knowledge one may possess, it may easily lie
dead, a stored, unused capital ; but it must be pre
sented in a certain skilful manner in order to awaken
permanent interest ; it is therefore merely a means
to an end rather than the highest immediate end in
itself.
There, then, are my two fundamental presupposi
tions. It is especially important to remember the
Our love latter, since it will directly influence the
based on later discussion. The thought might be
knowledge. worded differently by saying that we are
aiming at lave, a religious love as our highest
direct object. Of course this object is based upon
knowledge, for clear ideas must be the basis of most
permanent interests. But since we can impart a fair
degree of knowledge without arousing a love and
in fact it is very often done we must fix the larger
purpose in mind and hold it before us continually.
Knowledge does not necessarily include love; but
BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 195
love for religious thought includes knowledge to a
fair degree and is an outgrowth from it. The one is
larger than the other, and guarantees far more for
the future. Any thoughtful normal-school teacher
will admit that what he most cares to develop among
young teachers is a love for teaching, rather than a
knowledge about teaching. In making this asser
tion, therefore, about the worth of interest as a
teaching aim, I am in full harmony with those
engaged in the professional training of teachers.
Our first problem for consideration is this: "To
what extent is biography a subject of im- importance
portance in Sunday-school Instruction ? " ? f Biography
in religions
Is it merely a matter that affects method ? instruction,
Or does its influence extend much farther ?
The answer depends entirely upon our conception
of the Bible. If the Sacred Book is primarily litera
ture, in distinction from history; biography De ^
cannot play a prominent part in its teach- our aspect
ing. Or if it deals mainly with abstract oftheBible -
religious truths pertaining to religious life, biography
cannot be of great importance in Sunday-school
instruction. On the other hand, if the Bible is con
ceived of, as containing principally religious history,
biography can prove of great influence.
It is particularly important that this problem be
solved before we proceed further. In the Day-
school, it is necessary that the teacher know
... ^, . . . . Decision im-
m every recitation whether he is giving in- por tantm
struction primarily in early reading, litera- Da 7- scll oois,
ture, history, or in some other study. Instructors
in normal schools find that young teachers commit
196 BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
one of their gravest errors at this point; for when
one is not quite sure as to what his subject is, he
fails to grasp his principal points fully enough to
separate them clearly from all others. He is then
in danger of drifting from thought to thought, and
not accomplishing a definite piece of work. The
proper state is reached when the teacher can say:
4 It is this and not something else ; and only such
subject-matter will be admitted into the recitation as
will contribute to this one end. I make no attempt
to prove this statement, at present, owing to lack of
time ; I merely assert that, if a teacher will keep his
bearings and accomplish ends, he must carry clearly
in mind the nature of each of his studies, and admit
only such matter as is in accord with it. Applying
this thought to the Sunday-school: if the Bible is
at one time history, at another literature, and at a
third abstract religious truth, the teacher is in
danger of shifting from one to the other, and pursu
ing no definite purpose.
Let me say, without argument, that I conceive of
Bible instruction as concerned primarily with history.
I do not dare assert that most of the Bible
stmction is history; but so far as the presentation of
primarily jf- s subject-matter to children is concerned,
History,
I believe that most good can be accom
plished by working principally with the historical
portions. I therefore map out for myself a few of the
great characters for study.
Starting with the Patriarchs, I should choose
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, Moses and
Joshua; the Judges would follow, and then would
BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 197
come the Kings, especially Saul, David, and Solo
mon. In the New Testament, the prin
cipal topics would be the Life of Christ,
with His Disciples, and that of St. Paul.
This is a very brief summary of the selections, if we
conceive of the Bible as containing for children
primarily history, and that biographical history.
We see that in determining the use of biography in
religious teaching, we are first compelled to take
some position in regard to the nature of the Bible
content. Then, if it is chiefly history, we must
decide whether it shall be biography or race-history;
and if the latter, whether it shall be a simple narra
tive of the principal events in the development of
the Jewish race, or rather the historical growth of a
few great ideas, to which the race-development itself
would be quite subordinate.
Although, as already stated, I am considering the
Bible to be history and have chosen to present it in
biographical form, these facts do not by
any means exclude all the literature and andunder-
the abstract truths from the attention of lying truths
uot excluded,
children. The many events contained in
the biographies need to be interpreted in some
manner; that is, they must lead up to important
generalizations of some kind. These would be the
great religious truths that the Bible contains; and
these truths are often presented in an especially
attractive form, either in single verses or in whole
chapters, the literature itself need not be neglected.
Suppose, for example, that we are treating the Story
of Joseph. The early part of it suggests numerous
198 BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
verses. His early treatment by his brothers calls to
mind first St. John xv. : Whosoever hateth
Illustrations, . . . . . , , ,_
his brother is a murderer. When the
children picture him in the pit, they can recall
several verses to comfort him. They should answer
in Scripture, when asked, what Commandments his
brothers had broken. The relation between the
historical incidents recited and the great Bible truths
can further be emphasized by calling up in this con
nection Gal. vi. 7: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap " ; Heb. xii. 6: " Whom the Lord
loveth, He chasteneth " ; Prov. xxviii. 13 : " He that
covereth his sins shall not prosper ; but whosoever
confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy."
These are some of the verses that could well be used
to express central thoughts connected with the Story
of Joseph. Some of the Psalms and some selections
from other literature might also express underlying
thoughts of this historical narrative.
Thus it is plain that in arranging for the Bible in
struction of children to be historical, much room is
provided for Bible literature and abstract
Yet History
the ground- religious truths. But history shall consti-
workl tute the groundwork or body of the in
struction, and only so much of the other two shall
be admitted as is necessary in order to present, in
proper form, the principal generalizations that the
history suggests. This plan, if generally agreed upon,
would eliminate much of the moralizing of the Sun
day-school, which accomplishes little more than the
development of a positive dislike for such instruction.
Thus far I have expressed a preference for
BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 199
biography without giving reasons. Let me now
attempt to prove, that biography is an especially
interesting form of subject-matter. The
Reason for
little child wants to endow its playthings biographical
with its own characteristics. He endows treatment<
his doll with the ability to feel, to become sick, to
be comforted, to take medicine, and to be made
well again. So long as the objects about him lack
life, they are unrelated to the child; but so soon
as they are given personality, he is drawn
, , t Child nses
toward them, he loves and enjoys them. p er soninca-
This fact is so important in school work tion<
that good primary teachers regularly make use
of personification in dealing with young children.
The popularity of certain books is another proof that
biography is particularly interesting. If boys and
girls, eight to ten years of age, were asked to tell
how a man might live, if he were placed on an island
by himself, how he would make his clothing, obtain
his food, etc., the problem might excite little in
terest. But the moment the situation is personified,
the moment a man by the name of Robinson Crusoe
is placed in that condition, and opportunity is given
to follow him from day to day, the narrative is made
highly entertaining. Boys and girls weep with
Crusoe when he is seriously ill, and they rejoice
when he becomes well again. Thus, feeling is pro
duced the moment personality is introduced. Omit
the thread of life due to personality, and we have an
essay. It may contain an equal amount of truth,
and be just as clearly put ; but it has not that element
which boys and girls most like.
200 BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
Teachers of geography take advantage of this fact
by using a book called " The Seven Little Sisters."
Its purpose is the description of the prin-
HenceGeog- c jp a l climates on the globe, and it is
rapny even l
is taught by attained by relating some of the experiences
Persomfica- of Httle girls> who Hve Jn different parts of
the world. There are several other books
that are used in geography in the same manner.
" Pilgrim s Progress is a story on the same plan.
If the experiences of a Christian had been described,
merely to tell the truth, and not to excite interest,
this tale would have been very different. But by
means of the personification of the various tempta
tions with which Christian meets, we see him vividly,
and accompany him in his struggles with the most
intense feeling. Perhaps no book illustrates this
general thought more forcibly than does Uncle
Tom s Cabin." Our nation first truly felt the
curse of slavery when this story became known.
Hiawatha" illustrates the same truth. In some
schools it is now the custom to study Indian life in
some detail, without any Indian in particular to talk
about. But most teachers choose Hiawatha as the
basis of such work. He represents Indian character
istics, and in following him children obtain an
insight into the race-life that is tinged with emotion,
learning to love certain attributes, while disliking
others. This recalls the thought at the beginning
of the lecture, that all education is aiming to reach
our emotions. Knowledge is desirable, indeed
necessary; but knowledge, alone, lacks life. It is
an interest in knowledge, a love for it, that is the
BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 201
source of energy and action; and these books, that
arouse the feeling of love, through the attractiveness
of a personality, are a most valuable means for the
development of such a character as the school wants.
School work in history is much influenced by the
superior value of biography. Children are made
acquainted with John Smith, Sir Walter
Raleigh, the Jesuits, Washington, and
Lincoln, often practically living with one
of such men for weeks at a time, and learning to
love some of the ideals for which they stood.
Much the same idea is entering into Nature-study
in the grades, and into science in the High-school.
It used to be the plan in this field to cover Andin
briefly most of the forms of life, at least Nature-study
the various classes and orders. But there and Science<
is now a strong tendency, especially in the higher
work, to concentrate largely on only a few types
of life; for instance, on the Crayfish, as the repre
sentative of one large division, and another typical
fish as representative of another. It is not true
biography; but it approaches it, inasmuch as there
is something like a personality present.
I have merely attempted, by these examples, to
show that biography is of special interest, and that
we are building upon that fact in Day-
, . ir i 11 - . Why does
school instruction. You might well inquire Biography
why biography excites so much interest. interest?
I know that I have no full answer to that question,
but I should like to contribute two thoughts toward
its solution. The first is the fact that there is such
a close connection in the series of incidents that
202 BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
make up each story. I am convinced that Sunday-
school teachers, as a rule, do not realize the great
importance of establishing such connection among
the facts that they offer. Those of us who
1, Because
it gives facts have been connected with colleges or uni-
connectedly, vers ities easily recall how a one-hour course
in such institutions is usually abhorred, by students
at least, and probably by the professors also. The
reason is that a one-hour course, measuring one
recitation period per week, has its periods so far
apart that one loses its connections. No matter if
a good lecture is delivered to-day, before another
week rolls by it will have been so largely forgotten
that the student will have to start in his subject
anew. For this reason, it is not customary to have
many one-hour courses.
In Day-schools, it is a very common complaint,
from instructors in music and art, that, because they
are allowed only two hours per week, they
can accomplish but little. The children,
between being so young, too, nearly forget between
the periods what they have once learned.
Judging Sunday-schools from this point of view, what
conclusion do we reach ? The period of actual in
struction, coming once per week, seldom exceeds
thirty minutes, and the attention of pupils is expected
to be less fully concentrated than in other branches
of study. Certainly if ever there is need of the help
secured by a close connection, between topics from
Sunday to Sunday, this is the time. Nevertheless,
the subject-matter is not so related. A few years
ago the highest unit, as a rule, was the one-day s
BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 203
work; and probably a majority of Sunday-schools
follow that plan at the present time. Instead of
receiving some impetus from the preceding lesson,
the work begins, each Sunday, anew. And, very
often, even if a teacher ardently desired to obtain
material help from the past lessons, it would be use
less to make the attempt, because the topics them
selves are unrelated. Yet it is certainly possible so
to select and arrange subject-matter as to obtain a
close sequence of thought from Sunday to Sunday,
and to sustain a considerable degree of interest.
That is very commonly done in teaching the story
of Crusoe to seven-year old pupils in the Public
schools. Suppose that a child has reached the point
where Crusoe has managed to cut a suit of clothes
from the hides of goats. When a new lesson is
begun, interest is quickly established, for the moment
the question is put, * Where did we leave Crusoe ? ",
the answer is readily given.
In the Sunday-school instruction that I have
known, the most enjoyable part of the period usually
came during the last few minutes. Cannot
many of you teachers recall how you have
yearned for just five minutes more ? You school Les-
had worked your way up to your point, and
a few minutes more seemed equal in worth to the
preceding thirty. This difficulty will be partially
met, if there is such a close connection between
topics from Sunday to Sunday as good biography
affords. The thread of thought could be speedily
regained, and a high degree of momentum might
be reached long before the close of the recitation
204 BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
period. Not merely this : we can remember a large
number of facts far more easily if they are woven
into a narrative. Whatever is isolated is easily for
gotten, as, for instance, the brief news items, and
"nuggets" from the newspapers. But that which
is to prove deeply interesting, and to be long held
in memory, must constitute part of an extensive
chain or series or complex of thought. It is chiefly
this kind of knowledge that can have much effect
upon conduct. The work of tying thought together
is one of the largest duties of a teacher, and is
beginning to be so recognised throughout the coun
try. Indeed, knowledge is nothing more than
related thought; and unrelated facts, or even small
groups of unrelated facts, are unworthy of being called
knowledge. Until the Sunday-school instructor,
therefore, has made provision for a very close relation
of topics from week to week, he has neglected one
of the first essentials of good teaching.
We have now seen one of the reasons for urging
the importance of biography. Another reason is the
fact that biography is remarkably concrete.
Biography Concrete subject-matter is the kind that
is concrete, children especially like; and, what is
more, it is the kind that they must have if they are
ever to reach generalization. Yet Sunday-school
instruction is prevailingly abstract. There is no
truth better fixed in all science than that of Induc
tion. Every principle of the physical world is
reached and explained through concrete data; there
is no other way for the mind to obtain them. And
if we, as teachers, offer such generalizations, without
BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 205
the concrete data, we offer only empty words to the
learner. It may be that he has already collected
sufficient data to interpret the words himself, and in
that case he is profited ; but even then he shows no
exception to the law.
Literature accepts the same general truth. Any
drama of Shakespeare, or any good novel with hun
dreds of phases, aims to present very few
Literature
large thoughts, or underlying truths to the accepts this
reader. Most of the space is occupied P 111101 ? 16
with concrete details, with incidents of one sort or
another, that are necessary as a groundwork. Prob
ably there are one hundred pages of such matter to
one of abstraction, simply because the human mind
requires such an abundance of concrete facts, as the
basis of broad generalization.
Contrast this with Sunday-school practice. A
few days ago, in preparation for this lecture, I
searched about for a sample of the Sunday-school
Lessons, that are ordinarily presented. I gunday .
found a Quarterly in recent use, whose schools
lessons varied from 9 to 17 verses, averag- lgn01
ing about 12. The average number of moral truths
suggested, to be drawn from each lesson, was five
and one-half, and the actual space occupied by them
was about one-third of that occupied by the verses.
There is certainly little of the inductive spirit in that
kind of instruction. I was much impressed with the
importance of this point during the past Abuse illus-
week, while listening to a class, composed f^he Match
largely of experienced Day-school teachers. Girl."
About thirty of them were discussing the method of
206 BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
presenting Literature to children, and one was outlin
ing his treatment of the fairy tale, 4 The Little Match
Girl." It is a story well suited to children seven
years of age, and the young man in question briefly
related how the little girl was attempting in vain to
sell matches on a cold, snowy afternoon in a crowded
city. Finally, as it grew dark, she started across
the street just as a carriage came hurrying along,
and in her haste to escape injury she lost one of her
slippers. At this point, after having consumed per
haps two minutes with the narrative, the young man
paused, and suggested that if a class of children were
present, he would next ask them the following ques
tions : * What do you think of the people who rode
in that carriage ? What should they have done ?
Why didn t they get out and help her ? What do
you think of such hard-hearted people ? " Then,
after telling of some of her further vain attempts to
sell matches, he again interrupted the story with the
question : * Do you think the people might have
bought some ? Were they cruel in not buying
some ? What is your opinion about that ? The
young man himself was entirely inexperienced in
teaching; but among the others present there was
no tendency whatever to tolerate such instruction.
The feeling was strong that, if one is presenting a
story, he should do so with few or no interruptions
for moralizing, unless the pupils themselves plainly
express a demand for such conversation. Attention
to the moral should rather be given at the close of
the narrative. But more important than that, these
teachers had also reached the conclusion that if the
BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 207
narrative occupied as much as ten recitation periods,
one additional period should prove sufficient
for the moral; or, in other words, the ratio
between the time devoted to the concrete to abstract,
story and that to a moral truth should be
fully ten to one. Even then, after having laid such
a good basis for a generalization, moralizing should
be altogether omitted, unless the teacher is convinced
that he has the full confidence of the children, and
that the story is well understood and appreciated by
them. It was generally agreed that, otherwise, dis
cussion of moral truths and attempts to apply them
to the lives of the children are likely to result in
more harm than good.
You recall that, at the beginning of my remarks,
I proposed to base most of what I said upon two
truths, namely, that religious instruction is controlled
by the same psychological principles as any other
instruction ; and that a deep interest should be the
highest immediate aim of the teacher of religion.
If these statements are really true, and if the teachers
above referred to were sound in their views as I
believe they were we reach some important con
clusions. Most of the time given to the Heilce R e .
Bible instruction of children should be con- ligurasin-
sumed with narratives and not with abstrac-
tions ; very little moralizing, at the proper mainly nar-
. , i 11 rativeand
time, is far better than irequent moral talks. no t moral-
Most effective work is accomplished when izin s-
one prepares the ground well by means of stories,
and is watchful enough to take advantage of a few
208 BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
fitting opportunities for the consideration of abstract
religious truths.
According to what has preceded, Sunday-school
instruction should consist mainly of history from
week to week. In following the lives of Moses,
Joshua, David, etc., very vivid pictures should be
built up, and children should really/^/ the incidents
portrayed in the lives of their heroes. Then they
are in a position to appreciate references to under
lying religious thoughts, and at such times conversa
tions, touching deep religious truths and their
application to their own lives, are fully in
place.
While thus advocating Biography, I do not forget
that it is not the highest form of historical study.
In following the development of a whole nation, we
are pursuing broader lines of work than in observing
the life of an individual. But that is employment
better suited to adults than to children.
There is one objection to biographical study that
should be borne in mind. That is the tendency,
while dealing with a great hero, to forget
the mass Of the P e P le - The " e man is
separated from society and idolized, while
proper teaching of history brings pupils into the
closest touch with great social problems. The
Hebrew characters are, however, to some extent
exceptional, for they live for their people. Joseph,
for example, gives his life for his race, and it is
possible to bring out that thought frequently.
These biographies furnish an excellent outline for
BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 209
the other Bible facts that are later to be acquired.
That is one element of their worth. When 3, Biography
children have become men and women, forms good
. - groundwork
they are greatly in need of a framework on f or other
which to fit whatever additional facts they facts
learn. Biographical study involves a fair classifica
tion of knowledge, for the ideas are necessarily
arranged in great series. A striking difficulty with
the majority of Sunday-school teachers is the fact
that their knowledge is in a chaotic state. Having
studied one lesson at a time, with little reference to
what preceded or followed, they may have become
acquainted with many details, but these are not organ
ized, and their knowledge lacks unity. If most of
what we as children learned in the Sunday-school
had been centred about eight or a dozen biographies,
we might have had a real system of events in which
innumerable other fragments of knowledge, that
have in fact been lost, might have been tied.
The need in biographical study of delaying to
teach the moral or religious truth until the narrative
is reasonably complete has already been re- 4 MSQ
ferred to. But this is by no means one of helpful in
the minor elements of worth in biography.
It might further be mentioned that since it is so easy
and natural to compare great men, a biographical
arrangement of subject-matter makes special provi
sion for reviews. This itself is one of the most valu
able tests of the proper arrangement of a curriculum.
I have only one other suggestion. It is so easy
to comprehend what is included under a dozen
biographies, and relatively so easy to amass that
2io BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
amount of knowledge, that it might be in place, in
5, Good for tne near njture > to require all who desire
Examinations to teach in Sunday-schools to pass an ex-
for Sunday- . . . . .
school teach- ammation upon that portion of Bible
ers - subject-matter. As was said at the begin
ning, good intentions do not guarantee good re
sults in instruction. For that purpose clear know
ledge is necessary, and obedience to law. Sunday-
school instructors are probably even more in need
of organized knowledge of Bible facts than of
method. Yet it has been very difficult to map out a
certain quantity of matter which any teacher should
possess as a minimum requirement. This, it seems
to me, might be a practical minimum. And if
teachers passed through an examination in the prin
cipal biographies in the Bible, they would certainly
be far better fitted to teach religion than they now
are.
If I were asked at what age I should recommend
the exclusive use of biography in the Sunday-school,
I should say that, having the same problem in the
Day-school work in regard to the biography there
taught, our answer is that we should give biography
Age for until perhaps twelve years of age. Many
Biography, would prefer to continue it, I think,
throughout the grades of the Common-school, or at
least until the last year, when the pupil is thirteen
years of age. But inasmuch as so many Sunday-
school teachers have not yet put the different facts
together that make up the biographies of the Bible,
they could well afford to continue somewhat longer
with biography.
BIOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 211
I have said enough about the personality of the
teacher. If the children have great confidence in
her, then her mere assertion of moral and
religious truths is likely to have much mus tdeai
weight. But as an instructor, she is deal- chiefl y with
ing primarily with facts, the truths con
tained in the Bible. She may affirm all that she well
can. That is one side of her influence. But her
actual instruction must deal with this subject-matter,
and the only way by which she can influence, that
is, reach the understanding and feeling and life, in
the presentation of the subject-matter, is to follow
the development of the mind. She is there subjected
entirely to mental laws. I wish that I could know
whether you feel that my idea in regard to the rela
tive time devoted to moralizing in Sunday-schools is
correct, and whether my experience is exceptional
or not. But I have attended at least one class in
Sunday-school, as a child, where nearly every verse
was supposed to teach an abstract truth, so that
when each one was read, the teacher asked, "Now
what do we learn from that ? Again I repeat that
the plan of work probably originated in the supposi
tion that the Bible conveys mainly abstract religious
truth, and that each verse is a unit in presenting it.
My desire is to suggest that each verse is not neces
sarily related to any religious truth directly. It may
be merely one small item in a group of facts which
together lead to such a truth.
IX.
THE USE OF GEOGRAPHY IN RELI
GIOUS INSTRUCTION.
By Professor CHARLES FOSTER KENT, of Brown University.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE IX.
Importance of Biblical Geography.
Illustrations of its Use in Sunday-school.
It makes History real and living.
Geography of Palestine moulded the character and history of its
people.
In Geography the Past and Present meet.
How to make its results of practical value to students.
Its importance for a General Education.
Biblical Geography incompletely taught in Sunday-schools.
Good School-libraries important to reach best results.
Suggested Books for School-libraries on Palestine, Egypt, Baby
lonia, and Asia Minor.
Wall Maps, Colton s, etc.
Palestine Exploration Fund, its Maps and Books.
The Divisions or Departments of Biblical Geography.
Descriptive Geography. Palestine, Egypt, Assyria.
Physical Geography. Palestine.
The Six Zones or Divisions of Palestine.
The Rivers of Palestine.
Egypt and Babylonia.
Manufacture of Physical or Bas-relief Maps by Pupils.
Geological Geography.
Commercial Geography.
Racial Geography.
Historical Geography.
General Suggestions on Study of Biblical Geography.
Make its scope comprehensive.
Study the earth in its relation to man upon it.
Remember that Geography is but a Step to Bible-study.
Answer to Question : " Does Scientific Study produce Personal Re
ligious Interest ? "
Personal Faith is not unsettled.
New Interest in Bible is created.
The Majority, electing College Bible Courses, not those en
tering the Ministry.
Bible Students in the Universities. Number growing rapidly.
True Scientific Methods the only ones to apply.
Answer to Question as to Natural Boundary between Samaria and
Judea.
It is a case of merging, rather than of true boundary.
THE USE OF GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS
INSTRUCTION.
MODERN investigation is demonstrating more and
more clearly to how great an extent the faith as well
as the history of every people is determined by their
environment.
Fortunately that chapter of revelation, written so
many ages ago by the hand of God on the surface
of the earth, and which we call Biblical
geography, can be read as distinctly to-day O f Biblical
as three thousand years ago. The noble Geography.
results of the scientists who have laboured, especially
during the past century, enable us to appreciate its
significance and meaning as never before in human
history. No longer do we regard the earth as man s
foe, jealously withholding from him her treasures and
secrets, but rather as his true friend and teacher-
rigorous at times, but always just and thorough, if
he will but learn.
In this age, in which almost every department of
genuine scientific investigation is throwing its floods
of new light upon the pages of the Bible, geography,
in the broad sense in which that term is now used,
brings to the students of God s Word its rich contri-
215
216 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
button ; and we miss much if we do not avail our
selves of all that it offers.
It is sufficient merely to suggest a few of the many
ways in which the study of Biblical geography can
be made of the greatest value to the earnest scholar
and practical teacher. No longer is it possible to
see with the physical eye the peoples whose life and
thoughts are recorded in the Bible ; but we may view
through our own eyes or those of modern travellers
the scenes of their activity. A personal interest is
at once aroused, which is shared by the youngest as
well as the oldest pupil. Thus Biblical geography
furnishes a natural and concrete introduction to each
department of Bible-study.
One of my legal friends, not long ago, was asked,
not because of his especial acquaintance with the
Bible, but because of his inventive spirit
and earnestness, to assume charge of a
difficult Bible-class. It was not the tradi
tional class of incorrigibles, but rather a representa
tive class with which we, as superintendents and
teachers, have to deal constantly a class of boys
from fourteen to sixteen, coming from homes of cul
ture, acquainted with the elements of Bible history
and literature ; boys looking forward to college and
business life ; with ambitions, in touch with the mod
ern spirit, but boys, nevertheless, whom none of the
many teachers who had attempted it had been able
to hold; boys, just cutting loose from their moorings
in the Sunday-school, who present the most difficult
problem with which we have to deal. My friend
realized that methods other than the ordinary must
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 217
be adopted, and proposed that they study ancient
Jerusalem. They began, of course, with the Jeru
salem of to-day. With the aid of maps and guide
books they studied the city, until none of them
would have been lost in its maze of streets and
alleys. Not satisfied with a mere knowledge of the
surface, they began to dig beneath the modern town,
following the results of the Palestine Exploration
Society, tracing the walls of the ancient city and
becoming acquainted with its contents and environ
ment, until in time they were so enthusiastic over
the City of Jerusalem, that not only did they meet
each Sunday afternoon, but in addition they were
frequently found during the week at the home of
their teacher. When they had mastered Jerusalem,
ancient and modern, they themselves suggested that
they take up the study of some one of the books of
the Bible which were most closely associated with
Jerusalem. Naturally they selected the Gospel of
St. John, and they burrowed through the wealth of
learning and religious teaching contained in that
marvellous book, until as the months went by they
came naturally and almost unconsciously into touch
with the Mind of the Master. If the enthusiasm of
the teacher was any guide, nothing could have kept
the members of the class from their Bible-work ; for
often have I seen him, as he went down to his office
in the suburban train, talking with a brother lawyer
in regard to some question raised by the Book of
John. I have seen him keep a line of clients wait
ing, while he presented some of his conclusions in
regard to the interpretation of a certain passage.
2iS GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
At present the class are studying Hebrew history.
They started with Jerusalem, with something con
crete ; by natural stages they became interested in
new subjects, until step by step they are covering
the Old and the New Testament.
Biblical geography also provides the only effective
corrective to one of the greatest dangers threatening
all study of the Bible. Unconsciously and
Makes His- .
toryreal almost inevitably, children, at least, rele-
and living, gate t j le events anc ] characters of that
ancient Oriental world (so different from the one
with which they are familiar) to a nebulous realm,
far removed from earth and the realities of life.
Biblical geography not only assigns them to a
definite place, but also takes them from the land of
clouds and makes them real and living.
It further establishes their reality, by revealing the
conditions and forces which produced those events
and shaped those characters. The location of the
land of Canaan in the centre of a circle of hostile
nations shows at once why it was absolutely neces
sary for the Hebrews, if they were to maintain their
independence, to unite under a king like Saul, and
not only to defend themselves, but also to extend
their conquests until they became masters of Pales
tine, from the coast plains on the west to the desert
on the east. The contrast between the narrow,
intense, bigoted Jews of New Testament times, and
the fickle, self-indulgent, generous Samaritans is
explained when we compare the rocky, unproduc
tive, sombre hills of Judea with the open, rolling,
richly fruitful fields of Samaria. Man in antiquity
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 219
certainly was influenced far more than to-day by his
environment ; and yet we must still go to the Scottish
highlands to understand Scotch character, or to sea
girt Holland to appreciate the Dutch.
The background of the thought and revelation of
the Bible is the life of the peoples who figured in it,
and the background of their life and history
is the land in which they lived. As we are
coming universally to realize that the his- moulded th
character
torical is the only true method by which to and history
study the Bible, even so, as a logical
sequence, we must recognise that its his
tory can never be thoroughly or half understood
without an intimate knowledge of its geography.
Not only upon the history and character of every
people has geography left its stamp, but also upon
all human thought and literature. Pre-eminently is
this true of the Bible, for no people of antiquity lived
in closer touch with Nature than did the Hebrews.
The topography and natural characteristics of Pales
tine are reflected in almost every psalm, prophecy,
and parable which they have given us. The cedars
of Lebanon, Mt. Hermon, the flowing springs, the
restless sea, the lion of the wilderness, the eagle of
the mountains, the lily of the valley, the humble
sparrows of Palestine, are as familiar to us through
the literature of the Bible, as the scenes which greet
our eyes each day. Nature was the great storehouse
from which the Biblical writers drew their varied
figures and illustrations. Hence the study of that
Nature is one of the most important and illuminating
commentaries upon the marvellous literature which
220 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
they have given us. The study of geography throws
back the curtain and reveals the theatre and stage-
setting amidst which the greatest drama of human
history was enacted. It makes clear the actual rela
tions of the different actors to each other. With the
aid of our enlightened imagination we can make them
live, and lo ! that ancient life is again a reality.
The picturesque valley of Michmash ceases to be
merely a lonely glen, and suddenly becomes the
scene of that courageous attack of Jonathan upon the
Philistine garrison which turned the tide of battle
and gave the Hebrews their independence. The
Jerusalem of to-day grim, stony, dirty, and un
attractive in itself has been the theatre of that which
was basest and crudest and meanest, and at the
same time of all that was noblest and bravest and
best in human history.
On these theatres the past is brought into close
and vital relations with the present. On the plain
of Megiddo Thotmes III., Necho, and Napoleon
inGeo ra h wa ^ * n tne same well-beaten paths. After
past and journeying over the hot plains of Samaria,
present meet, ^ traveller feels> as he sits by the wdl Qf
Sychar, the same thirst as prompted the Saviour to
speak to the woman whom He once found there
drawing water. Visiting in person, or through the
eyes of geographers viewing those Oriental lands,
we find the wide chasm which yawns between that
ancient life and our own suddenly bridged, and we
ourselves indeed live in the past, and for the first
time understand its life, think its thoughts, and
appreciate the rare simplicity, beauty, and power of
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 221
its literature. Above all God s revelation, recorded
in the Bible, ceases to be a distant theological ab
straction, and becomes a personal, objective reality.
Realizing the value and importance of the study
of Biblical geography, the practical question at once
arises, How can its results be brought to Howmake
the great body of students who command its results
our earnest attention ? Although it may ^f^? 1
seem aside from our purpose, I cannot dents,
refrain from emphasizing the need of a more thorough
study of Bible lands in our public and preparatory
schools. The field of Biblical geography is broad,
and its bounds are constantly being extended. With
all the other opportunities and demands upon the
short Sunday-school hour, it is impossible to go into
the details of this study. They properly belong to
the secular schools. The importance of the history
and literature of which they are the background
certainly justifies their claim for a place side by side
with the geography of Greece, Italy, and England.
Unfortunately that place is not now accorded them.
Together with the Hebrew and Jewish classics they
have been almost entirely excluded from
, . . - Important
our secular schools. It is a significant fact for a general
that the province of Victoria, Australia, education -
which a few years ago decreed that the name of
Christ should be expurgated from all text-books, is
already seriously agitating the question of introduc
ing Bible-study into the Public-schools.
It is an anomalous state of affairs which exists
to-day throughout the Christian world: while we
compel our pupils to study the pagan, French,
222 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
German, and English classics, we almost completely
ignore that body of literature and that history which
have done more to mould our modern life and
thought than any others.
The forces which drove the Bible from our Public-
schools have spent themselves, and in the light of
modern methods of study the old objections are no
longer valid. Shall we all who love truth unite,
irrespective of creed, in restoring the Bible to its true
place ? Already in most of our leading colleges and
universities the restoration has been effected, and the
large number of men electing the Biblical courses
demonstrates the wisdom of the step.
When once the restoration is effected in our
primary secular schools, the Sunday-school teacher
will have what is now so sadly lacking a basis of
knowledge on the part of the pupil, upon which to
build. One of the greatest defects in our Sunday-
school system of to-day is that, in our commendable
eagerness to mould the moral character of our
scholars, we seek to enforce ethical truths by means
of facts and illustrations with which they and often
we ourselves are only imperfectly familiar. The
spirit of the age calls for more fact, if not less
preaching, and we will fall far short of our aim if we
refuse to recognise its demand.
No one will deny that at present Biblical geography
is ordinarily taught in our Sunday-schools without
Biblical Geo- system and in a haphazard, incomplete
completely manner. The reason is chiefly because
taught in it has no definite place in the Sunday-
school school curriculum. It only finds a place
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 223
in the ordinary classroom when an event must be
localized. No time is given for that broad, compre
hensive study which simplifies, co-ordinates, and
illuminates all details. Until the Public-school re
lieves us of the responsibility, each Sunday-school
teacher, or at least each graded Sunday-school,
should devote certain time better months than
weeks, for the ultimate profit in interest and intelli
gence will richly repay to the systematic study of
Biblical geography.
Geography, in the modern scientific sense, is such
a new study that it is not surprising that thoroughly
satisfactory text-books are not at hand. When
we once fully appreciate the need, they will be
speedily forthcoming. Advanced students Good gchool
are better provided with books to-day libraries im-
than the primary department. Since we por
have no one text-book or books which meet that
need, we are obliged to depend upon reference
libraries. Our Sunday-schools should, without
exception, be equipped with complete reference
libraries, containing all the really valuable books
bearing upon Bible-study, and many duplicates of
the most useful.
It is a most unfortunate anomaly or medievalism
in our modern Sunday-school system that in this age
when our homes are filled with more good and in
teresting literature than we can possibly find time to
read, not only our Mission-schools, where conditions
are different, but also the Sunday-schools in which
you and I are interested, have libraries filled with
story-books, not always of the highest character,
224 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
while in most cases you may search in vain for up-
to-date reference-books, bearing upon that subject
which is supposed to be the chief object of Sunday-
school instruction.
I think at this point it will be of practical value to
speak somewhat in detail of those books which
should find such a place on our shelves and
Suggested especially in our Sunday-school libraries.
books for
school-li- The historical geography by George Adam
^Palestine, Smith is in many ways the most important
contribution ever made to the geographical
study of Palestine. With the soul of a scholar, and
with that picturesque style which characterizes all
that comes from his pen, he leads us through Pales
tine, not aimlessly, not merely as travellers; but
with a broad outlook he gives us definite impressions
of its different zones, and points out, with his rare
skill, their distinctive characteristics and the influ
ences which they have exerted upon the people who
have lived among their hills and valleys. Unfor
tunately it is a book whose price perhaps precludes
putting it into the hands of every scholar ; but it cer
tainly should find a place in our Sunday-school
libraries. Another important book has been recently
issued by Townsend MacCoun, who approaches his
theme, "The Holy Land in Geography and His
tory, not with the technical knowledge of a Biblical
specialist, but with the preparation of a practical
maker of geographies and maps. In the details of
the maps, in the originality which he has manifested,
in the practical way he presents the facts, he has
given, especially in his first volume, which deals with
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 225
the physical geography, an exceedingly useful hand
book for Bible teachers and scholars.
Some of you are familiar with Hurlburt and Vin
cent s "Manual of Bible Geography." While there
is much that is good in it, I regret to say that it
does not represent the results of modern investiga
tion, which are in themselves helpful and stimulat
ing. While it may be useful for primary pupils, the
advanced students demand something more funda
mental and suggestive.
Thompson s "The Land and the Book" will
never cease to have a real value. It lacks the
scientific arrangement of the work of Professor
Smith ; but we are able, looking through the eyes of
this man, who was a keen observer of life, to travel
through Palestine, and see its sights and almost feel
that we are there in person.
The same is true of Dean Stanley s work, old but
valuable, " Sinai and Palestine," for the graphic pen
of that gifted English scholar has illuminated for all
time the land of sacred memories.
As we pass beyond the sphere of Palestine (for
our subject is broad to-day) to the study of Egypt,
which is so closely related to Palestine, I
urge you all to read the opening chapters (
of Professor Erman s " Egyptian Life. Especially
in his description of Egypt do we find much that is
stimulating and exceedingly fascinating.
The same is true of Douglas s " History of Civili
zation " (in the first volume, chapter 2).
As we pass to Babylonia, we have rich literature,
coming from the great host of explorers who have
226 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
delved below the surface and have given us pen-
pictures of that which the spade has un-
(c) Babylonia,
covered. We are all interested in the
volumes published by Rev. John P. Peters, D.D.,
giving us the results of the explorations of the ex
pedition sent out by the University of Pennsylvania.
For the study of Asia Minor, we are much better
equipped than ever before, as a result of the original
work of Professor Ramsey. His * Geography of
(d) Asia Asia Minor is exceedingly valuable, and
Minor, for the missionary journeys of St. Paul, we
all must have at hand his " Travels of Paul. " I
would also recommend Stanford s "Compendium of
Geography, especially in its studies in Greece and
Italy.
In Wall Maps, I regret to say that we are not
well equipped. The maps which are in many ways
w 11 M t ^ ie k est vet published are those issued by
Colton. They are valuable because they
can be seen at a distance, because they present the
broad outlines, the salient points in the landscape,
and leave out the details; but they are not up-to-
date. They do not fairly represent the modern con
ceptions of Biblical history, and do little towards
introducing us to the physical geography of Pales
tine. Other maps available are open to the same
general criticism.
It is with pleasure that I speak of the work of the
Palestine Palestine Exploration Fund, familiar, I
Exploration am sure, to most of us. Its chief geo
graphical results are made accessible to all
in the great map of Palestine, based upon careful sur-
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 227
veys conducted by the Fund. It will remain for a
long time the basis of all other maps of Palestine.
The Wall Map contains too many details
J (a) Maps.
to be useful except for personal reference;
but the large bas-relief map, although expensive,
is the most profitable help which a Sunday-school or
Bible Class can possibly acquire. Smaller sizes are
issued, and may be advantageously put in the hands
of students, but the large relief map, showing the
hills and valleys, making Palestine s contour familiar
through the eye to the youngest student, is invalu
able for the classroom.
Besides these excellent maps, which have added
so much to our knowledge, we place the books which
the Fund has also issued. Two or three
are especially serviceable. I refer to Con-
der s "Tent Life in Palestine," which we may use
side by side with Thompson s " The Land and the
Book in studying the land as the scientific traveller
sees it. The recent volume by Dr. Bliss on "Ex
cavations at Jerusalem enables us to reconstruct
now the southern walls of the city, and to trace with
comparative definiteness the outlines of the Jerusalem
of David and Nehemiah. In addition, the Palestine
Exploration Fund issues a Quarterly Statement,
which keeps us in touch with the latest results of
excavation. Many of them are most suggestive and
stimulating, especially at this time, when the Fund
is trying to identify the old Philistine town of Gath.
As we pass from the consideration of helps to that
of method, I can only hope to offer a few practical
suggestions. As geography has been reduced to an
228 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
exact science, its content has been greatly extend-
DeDartments ec ^ F ur or ^ ve distinct departments are
of Biblical now included under it, and each presents
Geography, its peculiar pro bl e ms and results. The
first is that of Descriptive Geography, which treats of
i, Descriptive the relations of seas and mountains and
Geography, cities. While in many ways the least inter
esting, it is one of the most important departments.
I recall a description of Palestine which I happened
to overhear in one of our city Bible-classes, con
ducted by a theological student. After much dis
cussion, the class concluded that the Holy Land was
about 400 miles long, and the Sea of Galilee 50
miles long. From practical experience with college
classes, I have become convinced that the same
fallacies are deep-seated. The reason, of course, is
not difficult to find. The maps of Palestine are
usually so greatly enlarged that they give a false
impression of its relative size, which can only be
corrected by studying. Two wall maps should be
the possession of every Sunday-school class: the
one of Palestine, and the other of the lands of the
Eastern Mediterranean. No event of Biblical his
tory should be studied without being localized. By
the use of the map the teacher imparts facts through
the medium of the eyes as well as the ears, and at
the same time commands the attention of the whole,
class.
Where wall maps cannot be conveniently used,
ask your pupils, as you begin, for example, the study
of the Life of Christ, to draw a map of Palestine, not
presenting minutiae, but indicating the location of
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 229
the larger cities, the mountains, the rivers, and the
seas. If they seem incapable themselves of drawing
a correct map, give them tracing-paper, and direc
tions so that from a convenient map they can copy
the outlines. Then, as the study progresses, ask
them at each stage to indicate the Journeys of the
Master, and the places at which He taught and per
formed His miracles. I am assured, from practical
experience, that at the end of this study you will
find that there is a definiteness, an interest, a back
ground of knowledge in the minds of your scholars,
which will make the acts, and teachings, and per
sonality of Jesus a living reality. Map-making, in
connection with the study of St. Paul s Missionary
Travels, will prove equally profitable. When the
landmarks and boundaries are fixed, we should
always endeavour to illuminate the Descriptive
Department of Geography by pointing out the signi
ficance of location and relative distances. The land
of Palestine itself is a superb illustration.
(a) Palestine,
Do we not see, as students of geography,
the significance of its boundaries ? Here is a land,
bounded on the west by the Great Sea and on the
east by the trackless desert a narrow isthmus con
necting the two great centres of ancient civilization,
the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and the
valley of the Nile. Nature destined it to be the
great highway over which nations must pass for
commerce and conquest. As we study the location
of the homes of the Hebrews, high up among the
hills, we can foresee exclusion for a period with
opportunities to grow and develop apart from the
230 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
great stream of the world, while the testimony of
later history is not needed to make it evident that
Palestine, the key to the East and West, is destined
to be the pathway of marching armies, the battle
field of mighty nations, and that its soil and peoples
will be the object of fierce contention.
As we turn to the land of Egypt, The Land of
the River, we find that on both the east and west
it is bounded by the barren desert, which
effectually guarded it from all danger of
attack from these quarters. Thus its location at
once explains how it was possible for the inhabitants
of the Nile, without interruption or attack, to build
up that civilization which survived through the ages.
A study of its location also discloses the Achilles
Heel of Egypt, the narrow isthmus connecting
Africa with Asia, through which came its later con
querors and those Semitic invaders who mingled
their blood and civilization with that of the resident
peoples, making the population and life of the Nile
Valley a strange composite.
Again, as we study the territory of Assyria,
located as it was on the edge of the broad valley of
the Tigris and Euphrates, bounded on the
ssyna, east ky t k e mounting which gradually lead
up to Central Asia, in antiquity the teeming centre
of human population, we can see in imagination,
streaming down from those heights, the fierce in
vaders, eager to seize the attractive Land of the
Plain. We can see the Assyrians taking up the
sword to protect themselves, perforce becoming a
warlike people. Having acquired the art of war and
<,rOGR^PHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 231
tasted the fruits of victory, it was but natural that
they should set out upon that career of conquest
which made them masters of Southwestern Asia and
a portion of Africa.
Even more interesting than descriptive geography
is that great field which we designate as Physical
Geography. It possesses a peculiar fas
cination for all, because it brings us into 2i Physical
Geography.
vital touch with Nature herself, because
each land possesses a marked individuality, and
because from these physical characteristics came the
influences which moulded the life of peoples who lived
among its mountains and valleys. To-day, as never
before, we recognise that the physical contour of the
earth is the potter s wheel with which the Infinite
Potter shapes the different members of His great
creation. Consequently we study the physical
geography of Palestine not merely with
; . (A) Palestine.
scientific interest, but because it is the first
chapter in God s revelation. Although so old, it is
a chapter which we may easily read to-day, because
it is written on the rocks and the hills and the
valleys of Palestine. At first that land seems but a
confused series of valleys and hills and elevated
plateaus, but a closer study reveals an order, and
soon six distinct divisions or zones are dis- i tss i x
tinguished. When we understand the zonGS -
bounds and characteristics of each of these, our in
timate and intelligent acquaintance with Palestine is
established. The first zone includes the <Si) Firgt
so-called coast plains, along the Eastern zone -
Mediterranean. Beginning on the north, there is a
232 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
plain only five to ten miles in width, shut in by moun
tains which rise abruptly on the east, a fertile terri
tory, but too small to support more than a limited
population. This narrow strip of land, opening to
the sea, both inviting and compelling inhabitants to
go forth and find their food and their fortunes on the
sea, was the cradle of those ancient mariners, the
Phoenicians. Further south, the plain of Acre
broadens until it ends abruptly at the base of Mt.
Carmel, and on the east merges into the plain of
Esdraelon, which itself constitutes one of the zones
of Palestine. Around the northwestern base of Mt.
Carmel runs a very narrow strip of land, connecting
the coast plains on the north and south. To the
south of the mountain, which is in reality a bold
elevated plateau crowned with fertility, lies the ever-
widening plain of Sharon, in ancient times inter
spersed with forest and fruitful fields, to-day a great
undulatory flower-bed, dotted with the black " tents
of Kedar " and a few fellahin villages. Below the
plain of Sharon, the headlands of Judah stand back
twenty to twenty-five miles from the sea, leaving a
rolling, healthful, fruitful plain, which at an early
date became the home of the Philistines. Like all
the coast plains, it was exposed to attack from every
side. The necessity of constantly being on the
defence developed a brave nation of warriors, who
dwelt in strong fenced cities and struck many a
deadly blow against the Hebrews living among the
eastern hills.
The second zone of Palestine is the district lying
between the Philistine plain and the central uplands,
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 233
known as the Shephelah or foot-hills. It is not a
land of natural defences, but open and roll- ^ Second
ing. Here raged, during the barbarous zone
period of the Judges, the intermittent warfare between
the highlanders and lowlanders.
The third great zone of Palestine, which we desig
nate as the central plateau, is separated into three
distinct divisions, each with characteristics (c) Third
clearly marked. The northern division is zone -
Galilee, which is watered by the streams which flow
from Mt. Hermon. It consists of a series of elevated
plateaus, with broad deep valleys, capable of sup
porting a vast population, and studded with orchards,
cultivated fields, and thickly clustered cities. Galilee
gradually merges into the plain of Esdraelon on the
south, which in turn bounds Samaria on the north.
Samaria with its fruitful valleys, with its rounded
hills, some of them rising to the height of two
thousand feet, but covered to their tops with trees
and fields and provided with copious springs, is a fair
land, but open to the outside world, whether friendly
or hostile. The influence of their physical environ
ment upon the character and history of the Israelites
is clearly marked. They were a pleasure-loving
people, eager for alliances with their powerful neigh
bours, open to foreign influences, and naturally the
first to receive the blows of Assyria, and the first to
fall before them. They presented a marked contrast
to the peoples who inhabited the hills to the south.
As we pass below Bethel, the landscape becomes
more grim, the valleys more narrow, the hills more
rocky, and we realize that we are in the land of Judea,
234 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
the land of the shepherd rather than the paradise of
the agriculturist ; Judea, which borders on the desert,
where life is a desperate struggle ; Judea, which pro
duced such intense, courageous men as Isaiah and
the prophet Amos. Naturally the southerners were
slowest to adopt the agricultural civilization of
Canaan, while they retained more of the life of the
desert and clung more tenaciously to the principles
of independence and the pure faith in Jehovah.
Secluded and protected by their natural defences of
headland, sea, and desert, they fell last into the
hands of foreign conquerors and so survived nearly
a century and a half after their northern kinsmen had
ceased to constitute a nation.
Going still further eastward, we come to the next
great zone of Palestine. In striking contrast to the
(d) Fourth three divisions which we have already con-
zone, sidered is that great chasm in the earth s
surface which we know as the Valley of the Jordan,
along which the river which gives it its name flows
towards the earth s centre, plunging down over
twelve hundred feet below the level of the ocean,
until it reaches the sea of death. No region in
the ancient world possesses greater scientific and
dramatic interest than this fourth zone of Palestine.
Its chief historic significance lies in the fact that in
early times its depths effectually separated the
Hebrews of the east and west, making it necessary
for them each to develop their civilization independ
ently ; while in later generations it protected the
Jews from the incursions of the hostile people of the
desert.
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 235
Climbing" up the hills of Moab and Gilead, we
come to the fifth zone of Palestine, and are in the
midst of rolling, grass-covered hills, pierced (e) Fifth
by deep ravines, through which dashing zone -
torrents pour their waters into the Jordan. Here
the nomad from the desert receives his first lessons
in agriculture. Here the Hebrews lingered for a
time, learning valuable lessons and gaining strength
before they streamed across the Jordan to possess
the land of Canaan. Here the half-tribe of Manas-
seh, and the clans of Gad and Reuben found their
permanent homes.
The sixth and last zone of Palestine, which, unlike
the others, cuts across the central plateau from east
to west, we know as the plain of Esdraelon. (f) Silth
It is a rough, three-cornered triangle, with zone -
one angle at the extreme northwestern end of Mt.
Carmel, another deep down in the hills of Samaria,
and the third running up past Mt. Tabor and Galilee.
In appearance it is a great, level, treeless plain,
watered by the muddy Kishon and its confluents.
Strategically it is the key to Palestine, for broad
valleys connect it in every direction with the other
zones. Across it ran the great highways of com
merce. It was also most natural that it should have
been the great battle-field of Palestine.
Thus this land of sacred associations no longer
appears to us to be a mere confusion of hills and
valleys, but a miniature continent with its distinct
zones, each with their marked peculiarities and inde
pendent moulding influences, each producing different
types of men and life.
236 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
As we study the rivers of Palestine, we note the
same suggestive facts: no rivers inviting commerce
i ts pierce the land; the only stream (the
rivers, Jordan) which could thus be utilized flows
to the Dead Sea, whose barren, gloomy shores are
rarely trodden by the foot of man. Thus the very
drainage system of Palestine determined the life of
the Hebrew people, shutting them in by themselves,
until the great stream of the world s history should
take them and bear them out to new experiences
and new life.
If we find the physical contour of Palestine is sug
gestive, equally so is that of the strange * * Land of
the River, exempt from rain during most
of the year, and fed instead with moisture
and fertility by the waters which come down from
Central Africa. As we study its peculiar contour,
we see again how it was possible to develop there
an early civilization, and how the incentives were at
hand for men to strive and toil for the noble in art
and civilization.
Even more suggestive is the physical contour of
ancient Babylonia. Lying between the two great
(C) Baby- rivers, it was originally in part submerged
lonia. and seemingly useless. The long struggle
required to bring it into a state of cultivation not
only gave to its conquerors a dwelling-place almost
unequalled, but also developed a sturdy, energetic,
remarkable race of men. For building purposes they
found the wonderful brick-making material, and in
the beds of the rivers clay on which they could easily
inscribe their thoughts. From the mountains to the
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 237
north and east came the invaders, who gave them
the incentive to build and to use the materials placed
by Nature in their hands. The western land,
opened for commerce and for conquest, invited them
ever to strive for greater attainments. Thus we see,
in God s great Providence, that the valley of the
Tigris and Euphrates prepared the way for the first
lessons in human civilization, which we can trace
back to-day, in the light of modern excavations, so
many thousand years.
If we are awake to the value of the study of
physical contour, it is possible for us with the aid
of modern methods to fix its important Manufacture
results in the minds of our pupils, not only f ndus of
J bas-relief
by the aid of bas-relief maps (which have maps,
been suggested), but also by their own efforts im
pelling them to make bas-relief maps for themselves.
The process is simple: a shallow case, putty, per
haps coloured ; a bas-relief map as a guide to suggest
the general outlines ; the facility which comes from
trying and training; and before long you will find
your students reproducing in miniature the land of
Palestine, travelling in imagination among its hills
and valleys, learning themselves the lessons which
that land teaches. Incidentally you will find that
some of them will provide your classes with bas-
relief maps which will be of lasting helpfulness.
The Geological Formations also present many
suggestive facts. A broad outlook will
help us to grasp the details. Underneath
Palestine, extending from the Taurus
Mountains in the north to the Sinaitic peninsula in the
238 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
south, is found first granite ; then a layer of limestone
supplemented in the east by loose quartz and sand
stone, and by the black volcanic rock. It explains
at once why we find in the valleys of Palestine so few
inscriptions. It makes the wonder all the greater
that such a vast volume of literatjure has been pre
served, representing the thought of that early people.
We can appreciate the difficulties under which they
laboured. Unlike the people of the valley of the
Euphrates, who had easily moulded clay at hand,
the Hebrews must cut their inscriptions in the soft
friable limestone or in the hard black basaltic rock,
both giving very unsatisfactory results. Thus we
can clearly understand why we have so few monu
mental remains from the Hebrews, and why they
learned the lesson of writing so late. We can also
appreciate why they treasured with such fidelity in
their memory and by the hands of their scribes their
sacred writings and thus preserved them intact to the
present.
If the time permitted, we would take up the study
of the great arteries and highways of Palestine. Of
those months which some of us as teachers
4. Com
mercial are going to devote to the historical study
Geography, Qf Bible landg> j et ys devote a por tion to
studying the highways, which represent the com
merce and the conquest of ancient times: those
highways which ran along the Arabian Desert, down
to the land of Egypt ; that which ran from Damascus
on the north; that other highway which ran from
the coast of Egypt, touching Southern Palestine ; and
then turn towards Southern Egypt itself. We find
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 239
the question raised, oftentimes, Why did Jesus
leave Nazareth among the hills, and live at Caper
naum ? The answer is to be found in the fact,
that Capernaum was on the highway which ran
from Damascus down through Palestine to Egypt.
He chose Capernaum that He might be in the
centre of commercial life, that He might be in touch
with the great stream that went through it. So
we find the commercial geography of these ancient
lands throwing floods of light on the thought of
national development and the development of litera
ture. In connection with the Missionary Journeys
of St. Paul, note how he followed the lines of the
world s commerce. In the map of his journeys,
you have the map of commercial enterprise on the
Eastern Mediterranean.
With profit we might explore the great field of
Racial Geography. Propound to yourselves and
your students, " What was the home of the
Semitic people?" "From what centre
did they spread ? " What was the
course of these migrations ? " * What were the
dominant races ? Trace, for example, the peoples
which finally settled in Palestine. First came the
Phoenicians, who occupied the fertile coast plains;
then their kinsmen, the Canaanites, who early seized
the rich inland plains. Following them, long after
according to their traditions, came the ancestors of
the Hebrews. Finding Palestine already crowded,
they passed on to their temporary dwelling-place on
the borders of Egypt. Trace the migrations of the
Aramaeans, as they moved westward and southward
240 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
to conquer the territory immediately north of Pales
tine and to build up a powerful kingdom with its
capital at Damascus. Trace the flood coming from
the north, which left its deposit on the southern coast
plains in the person of the Philistines. Note how
the horde of northern invaders was stayed at last by
Cyrus the Persian. Note how Eastern civilization
and influence still moved victoriously westward,
until in time it was met by the Greek. By Alex
ander, the tide, which had so long been setting
westward, was turned back, and the Greek race and
civilization swept over Southwestern Asia, leaving
lasting deposits in, and especially on the outskirts of,
Palestine.
Then beginning with the earth itself, having
become acquainted with its physical contour and its
peoples, study the varied political boun-
6, Historical daries, the Historical Geography of Pales-
Q-eography,
tine. Perhaps of all the fields which we
have considered, none is less supplied with useful
maps than the great field of historical geography;
for each period calls for a most carefully prepared
map. As we take up the successive stages of
Hebrew and Jewish history, it is necessary that we
ourselves, w.ith our classes, develop the varied
changes in the commercial and racial geography,
noting also those forces other than the spirit of man
which moulded nations and determined their boun
daries. Thus, when we come to historical geogra
phy, the other departments of geography merge, and
we have a united whole.
In the short space which remains may I present a
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 241
few general suggestions ? Shall we endeavour, in
the first place, to make our study compre- General
hensive ? Comprehensive, in that we do suggestions.
not dip in here and there at random, but rather try
to take broad outlooks. It is much easier to under
stand the geography of Palestine from
1-1 -R IT T T Make stndy
some mountain-top, like Mt. Hermon or com prehen-
Mt. Tabor, than it is from deep down in sive<
the valleys. First study the general outlines, then
their relations to each other, then their significance
as a composite whole; and then, when you have
fixed those in your minds and in the minds of your
students, you are ready to study and understand the
details.
In all our investigation, do we also fully realize
that the object of geography is not merely acquaint
ance with this or that portion of the earth s
P , . . Study the
surface, but rather to study the earth in its earth in its
relation to man ; to study descriptive and relation *
physical geography because of the light
which they throw upon man s development and
thought ? The point of view should be that of man,
and all should therefore lead up to man as the goal
of the study. Historical, commercial, and racial
geography are but the records, written in vanishing
lines upon the face of the earth, of man s activity.
It may, in conclusion, be well to emphasize the
true relation of geography to Bible-study. Geography
It is not an end in itself. We make a mis- but a step
take if we keep our students always study- Jj ^ e
ing geography merely. It is only a means
to an end, it is a background, it is the stepping-
242 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
stone to the consideration of the life of a people ; and
the knowledge of the life of a people who inhabit a
land is the introduction to the study of their thought
and their faith ; and the life and faith and thought
of the Hebrew race present to us the message of
the Eternal. Therefore the geography of the lands
which moulded the people of the Bible, which deter
mined to a great extent their character, which reveal
many of the motives and forces which, in the hands
of the Creator, moulded their life, their history, their
thought, and their faith, is the most illuminating and
fascinating commentary upon His Word which God
has placed in our hands. May He grant that we
may use it faithfully, intelligently, and successfully !
1 I would like to ask about the results that
this system is going to produce, with reference to
the length of time required for instruction.
"Does Scien- It is very important to get truth into the
tific Study m inds of students, but Herbert Spencer
produce Per-
sonalKeli- has admitted that information does not
giouslnter- proc ] u ce action. I understand that this
scientific method does give a good deal
of interest to the constructive imagination, but
how much life it also gives I am not quite sure.
Some sceptical, inquiring minds do not get much
impression of scientific truth, unless they get it from
the teacher. I should like to illustrate by a few of
the sceptical, inquiring minds: there are many
students in our colleges who are of that class.
Now, from Professor Kent s observation, I should
like to know if studying about the Bible has given
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 243
these minds a personal impression of the power of
the vital truth of the supernatural life in Christ.
What interest comes into the student s life from this
study ?
This question is an exceedingly important one.
I wish we had the students here to answer the ques
tion, because they would answer best. I
can tell you of the character of the students Answer -
themselves, which is suggestive. We have in the
first place many men who were trained in their
homes to study the Bible. They have also received
in the Sunday-schools, of course, a certain prepara
tion which they find useful in their study. In an
experience with hundreds of students, I do not recall
a single instance of a case that has come to my
attention of a man whose faith has been _
Personal
unsettled. The only approximation to that faith not
has been in the case of a man, weak in the B
faith, who said, "It is going to shake so many of
my conclusions, that I will not go on." I am not
sure but that the latter end of that man was worse
than the first." But men who have gone on, men
who have passed through the so-called destructive
period, and have seen the great constructive trend
of modern Biblical study, these men come to me
and say: " I don t believe this and that as w . ,
JNew interest
I did before, but I do find I have a new in Bible
desire to enter into Sunday-school work.
I feel that I have a mission to perform. I find new
interest in teaching. I find that there is a new
interest on the part of the pupils I find that where
hitherto I had no success as a teacher, I now have
244 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
success. So much for the men that perhaps need
it the least.
I am surprised and gratified to find that in our
colleges a very large proportion of the men who are
taking the general courses in Biblical literature are
not those who are going on to enter the ministry,
or who are necessarily known as religious ; but they
are thoughtful men, who want to know the truth,
men who have rebelled perhaps against the way in
which Bible truth has been presented to them ; men
who, if you ask them at the beginning of their
Biblical study, will say they have no religion at all,
but men who, unconsciously perhaps to themselves,
are being brought into touch with the truth,
The majority, and find themselves on the side of truth,
lege Biblical an( ^ thus are drawn into the vital, living
Courses, do work. I recall the words of cheer and en-
not enter
the Ministry, couragement of a recent President of Brown
University. Since this was a personal
statement, I feel a great deal of hesitation in men
tioning it, but I think it partly answers the question.
He said that the Biblical work (including the work
of the Biblical Research Club, which brings to the
students a large number of very helpful lectures each
year) was in his opinion as powerful a religious factor
in the life of Brown University as a certain other
prominent institution which would naturally be men
tioned in that connection. That is the testimony,
it seems to me, which comes from all the presidents
and professors and students of our universities, where
regular Biblical departments are established. And
what is the reason ? It is not because the Biblical
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 245
professors arc preachers. It is not because ordinarily
we try to impress a moral upon our students. It is
because by the use of modern methods, in all
earnestness and fidelity, we endeavour to lead them
to the truth, and believe that when one has once
found the truth, imperfect though that finding 1 must
always be, the truth itself will speak, will draw, will
influence, will inspire, far more than any additional
words of the teacher.
Especially to educated university men, Bible-
study is genuinely interesting. The students tell
their own story, it seems to me. Students do not
elect courses unless they consider them of practical
value. Fortunately, in most of our colleges and
universities, the Biblical work is entirely elective,
and usually confined to the junior and senior years.
In many of our modern universities, while some of
the other courses have fallen off in numbers, the
classes in Biblical study have doubled each
Bible stu-
year. At Harvard, the classes number dents in
between one hundred and a hundred and universities,
fifty. At Yale, they number between a hundred and
a hundred and seventy-five. At Brown, we have
over one hundred taking Biblical courses this term,
of whom fully eighty-five are not contemplating
entering the Ministry ; which fact seems to me sug
gestive. They do not elect them because they are
easy courses, for one of the greatest obstacles which
we have to deal with in our Bible-study, which is
not confined to the university or the Bible-class, is
the idea that the Bible can be studied somehow with
out any effort, without any time, without any know-
246 GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
ledge. To dispel that illusion, we are obliged to
make those courses among the most difficult in the
college curriculum. Yet the men continue to elect
them. And why ? We believe, because they help
them. It seems to me that such courses alone will
save our thoughtful, educated young men of to-day
from the threshold of scepticism. In the study of
history, we are accustomed to apply certain methods.
They are the only methods that we ourselves
would trust, to get at the facts. In literature,
they are obliged to study the question of intrinsic
value. They appreciate the necessity of studying
questions of detail, which, though not the most im
portant, throw light upon questions which are im
portant. They acquire scientific habits of study.
Is it in keeping with human nature and the
tific Methods mm d of to-day to confine those methods
the only ones entirely to so-called secular history and
to apply, .
literature, and say, when it comes to
Biblical teaching, "We will not apply those
methods; we will trust them in this, but we will not
trust them in that field ? All the truth has not
yet been found, nor is it all encased in creeds and
dogmatic theologies. We cannot, and would not if
we could, exclude scientific methods from the Biblical
field. We need in all our Sunday-school classes
to-day teachers to take the young man by the hand
and say, * We will apply those methods with the
same earnestness, zeal, and consecration to the
study of that ancient life and literature," instead of
saying, " We will have nothing to do with them."
The latter mistake has been made for the last gen-
GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 247
eration or two, but it is being corrected to-day by
earnest scholars and teachers, in the spirit of hu
mility, in the spirit of carefulness, of self-sacrificing
effort, and always with enthusiasm. We believe in
truth, we believe in the Bible because it is God s
Word, we believe in a God back of the Bible, and
therefore we are not afraid of the application of true
methods which we trust in other lines of investiga
tion. We are going forward shoulder to shoulder,
trying to find the truth, assured that not one particle
of truth will be lost, that the old truth will only
reappear in different clothing, adapted to the life of
to-day ; that all the change will only result in adapt
ing it to the new methods of thought and ideas.
Fifteen or twenty years hence, perhaps sooner, we
are all going to say, That is just what I always
believed. It is only expressed in a different form. "
Then we shall all realize that faithful men, whose
opportunities have enabled them to be leaders in
this movement for truth, have been doing, some
times amidst opposition, an important work; and we
shall see that, after all, this present din and smoke
and dust conceals no deadlier foe than the opponent
of progress ; that all we are trying to do is to build
a new and larger house for truth. The question is
very suggestive. Are there other questions ? I do
feel most strongly the vastness of the subject. We
have only dipped into it here and there. I was not
sure, at each step, that I was meeting the needs of
this audience; but when you ask questions, I feel
that we are getting at the heart of the matter.
24 s GEOGRAPHY IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
Is there a natural boundary between
Question, .
Samaria and Judea ?
No, it is a case of merging. Samaria merges
into Judea. As you go southward, you gradually
miss the springs and the verdure-covered
hills. The valleys become narrower. The
real boundary is the valley of Michmash, which runs
up from the Jordan. When you pass that deep
cafion, you come to Judea proper. The fact that
there was no natural boundary explains how con
stant was the warfare between the North and the
South during much of their history. There was no
such natural division between Samaria and Judea
as there was, for example, between Galilee and
Samaria.
X.
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE AS
LITERATURE.
By Professor RICHARD G. MOULTON, M.A., of Chicago Uni
versity.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE X.
The Literary Study of the Bible, What is it ?
The Fundamental Principle that there is intimate Connection
between Matter and Form in Literature.
Principle illustrated by Solomon s Song.
Two Views of its Interpretation.
Illustrated by application made of Bible Verses.
Also by what is the True Literary Form of Psalm VIII.
Three Main Forms of Bible-study, Devotional, Higher Criticism.
and Literary.
Differentiation of each form.
The three forms illustrated.
Devotional. Possible errors shown by study of Book of Job.
Also by error in Quotation from Shakespeare.
Critical. Illustrated by Book of Micah.
Literary. Shown in the same Book.
Our Right to the Literary Study of the Bible.
In the "Age of Commentary " the proper Form became ob
scured.
The Three Steps towards Recovery of Form.
How to engage in Study of the Bible as Literature.
Suitable Printing required.
Illustration of present imperfect Printing.
Study of Bible by Books, rather than by Verses.
Illustration from Deuteronomy.
The Oratory of Deuteronomy.
Analysis of the Book of Deuteronomy.
Principle enunciated.
Use of Bible as a Library.
Contents of the Bible Library.
Literary Study of the Bible. The Three Stages.
Stage of Stories.
Illustrated by Genesis.
Stage of Masterpieces.
Illustrated by Deborah s Song.
Stage of Complete Literary Groups.
Illustrated by Bible History in the Old Testament.
Analysis of the Pentateuch.
Illustrated by Bible Philosophy.
Analysis of the Books of Wisdom.
Conclusion.
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
I DEEPLY appreciate the opportunity of speaking
to those who are gathered in connection with these
lectures ; the more so, because I am aware that the
studies I am here to represent have only an indirect
connection with that which is the immediate subject
of these lectures. I am to speak of the Bible as
Literature. Now it is true that Sunday-schools do
not expect to teach the Bible as literature. All I
claim is that the literary study of the Bible has a
collateral interest for those who are concerned with
Sunday-school training ; that it is a subject which
they cannot afford to neglect.
To reach the connection between the study I am
representing and the immediate purpose of these
lectures, we have not far to seek. There is the
great fact that the Christian revelation has been
conveyed in the form of literature. That being so,
who can deny that literary study is an adjunct of
Christian education of the education that is dis
tinctively Christian ? But then there is a great area
of education of education that we want which
cannot be called distinctively Christian. Here a
second consideration arises: the general literary
251
252 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
culture of this time suffers far more by the neglect
of the literary study of the Bible than does even the
education that is distinctively Christian. Those two
links are sufficient to connect the studies that I am
discussing with the main purpose of these lectures.
The first thing I want to make clear is this : that
we understand the term * literary study of the
Bible " in a clear and definite sense. The
What is the . , .
"Literary phrase is used in many different meanings,
For if the Bible be literature, then in a
certain sense every kind of Biblical study may be
called literary study. But I say that I want to
advocate a distinct and specific literary study of the
Bible, and it is the study of its literary form.
Literary form is the essence of the study to which I
am inviting you this afternoon.
When we talk of other literatures, what do we
understand ? We know that Greek Jiterature is
made up of the tragedies of ^Eschylus, the dramas of
Euripides, the epic poems of Homer, the history of
Herodotus, the philosophic dialogues of Plato, and
a great many other literary types. When we talk
of German literature, we understand, again, dramas
and epics and essays and philosophical treatises, and
many other literary types. If we talk of French
literature, we mean all these varieties of literary
form. If, then, the Bible is justly called literature,
we ought to be prepared to find that the Bible is
made up of epics, and lyrics, and dramas, and essays,
and philosophic treatises, and epistles, and a great
many other of these literary forms. Now the specific
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 253
literary study of the Bible, to which I direct your
attention to-day, is the study of these great literary
forms in connection with Scripture, epic, lyric,
dramatic, philosophic, and the like: the study of
these forms and of their numerous subdivisions, and
of the literary mechanism by which these literary
forms realize themselves. And the foundation prin
ciple of this particular literary study of the Bible is
this: that a clear grasp of the outward literary form
is essential to the understanding of the matter and
the spirit.
May I assume that fundamental principle ? I fear
not. My experience is that very few people have
recognised this intimate connection in Th ^,
literature between matter and form. They mental prin-
know perfectly well for I am speaking of
educated people that a man cannot be sure that he
understands an English sentence unless he is able to
parse it : but it does not occur to them to go on from
grammar to more purely literary form, and say,
* * You cannot be sure that you have grasped litera
ture unless you have clearly understood the outward
literary technical form. And therefore I should
like to dwell upon this foundation principle for a
short time : that, whether you are taking broad views
of whole pieces of literature, or whether you are
studying minute sections, little texts or verses, in
both cases alike, the clear grasp of the outward tech
nical form is essential to the matter and the spirit.
I will illustrate. In the first place, I will suppose
that you are taking broad views of whole books of
literature at once. Now there is in the Holy Scrip-
254 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
tures a certain book called Solomon s Song,"
Principle or The Song of Songs, a book very
v lolo 8 * mysterious to the ordinary reader. It
mon sSong," so happens that literary experts are di
vided into two opposite schools with regard to the
exact literary form of that book. One school says
that Solomon s Song is a drama. The other school
says Solomon s Song is not a drama, but is a series
of lyric idylls. Now, mark, that is only a distinction
of literary technique between drama and lyric idylls.
I am not going to discuss which of these views is
correct. My point is, what a difference it makes to
the book which of these two views you accept.
Those who think that Solomon s Song is a
drama are practically agreed as to the plot
of that drama. They say it is this : that Solomon and
a certain humble shepherd lover are contending for
the love of the fair Shulamite, the heroine of this
poem. Solomon and the humble shepherd lover
contend for her love, and in the latter part of the
poem in what our modern phrase would call the
Fifth Act Solomon gives way, and the humble
shepherd and the Shulamite are united in wedlock.
Now, let us look at the other side. Those who
say that the work is a series of lyric idylls have
clearly a very different instrument of inter-
Second view. . T
pretation to bring to bear upon it. In a
drama you understand that the incidents must appear
in their proper order, in the order of time. We
would distinguish a drama, for example, from a novel.
If you were reading a novel you might, in Chapter
XX, find some great crisis, and the heroine is deliv-
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 255
orcd by the hero, supposed at the moment to be on
the other side of the world. That is Chapter XX.
Now in Chapter XXI the story goes back in time, to
explain how this hero, supposed to be in Australia,
came in reality to be in New York. It is quite pos
sible for a novel to go back, but you can see that it
is impossible for a drama, which presents scenes, to
go back in time. It appears then that the incidents
in a drama must appear in the order of time, but in
a series of lyric idylls the story may refer to events
apart from the order of time. Thus I am saying
that those who take the view that Solomon s Song
is a series of lyric idylls have a very different instru
ment of interpretation to bring to bear upon that
poem, with this result: that, according to this view
of the book, Solomon is himself the humble shepherd
lover. The story now becomes this: that King
Solomon, visiting his vineyards upon Mount Lebanon,
came by surprise upon the fair Shulamite, who fled
from him. Then he wooed her in the disguise of a
humble Shepherd, and won her love. Then he
came in all his state, to claim her as his queen, and
they are actually being united in the royal palace
when the poem opens.
Now, remember, I am not discussing which of the
two views is correct: but I have brought out, have
I not ? what an enormous difference it makes to the
poem which of those technical views you take up.
The whole story not some trifling matter of inter
pretation, but the whole story comes out quite
differently, according as you assume that the poem
is a drama or assume that it is a series of lyric idylls.
256 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
This is our principle: a clear grasp of the outward
technical form is essential to the matter and the
spirit of the whole poem.
I will next suppose it is a question of what we call
a verse, in the Bible. You have selected a verse
for your meditation. I will suppose that the verse
is this : Out of the mouth of babes and
Illustrated sucklings hast Thou ordained strength,
tiono? verses, because of Thine adversaries." You want
to interpret that verse. Turn to your
commentators. Every commentator has a different
interpretation. One tells you that it refers to a
historic incident: but those who take that view do
not seem to agree what the historic incident is.
Another commentator will tell you that it is a
metaphor. Another will say it is a prophecy: we
know it is used as prophecy, but he thinks prophecy
is the original meaning. Now my point is that all
these commentators are neglecting our fundamental
principle of looking to the exact technical literary
form. The Eighth Psalm, in which that verse
occurs, is, I would suggest, erroneously printed in
our ordinary Bibles. Observe, I am not discussing
any difference of translation : take any translation
you please. But I say the passage is presented in
wrong literary form. In most Bibles the Eighth
Psalm appears as a series of equal paragraphs, laid
out in parallel lines from beginning to end. Now
the true literary form of the Eighth Psalm is un
doubtedly what we call an " envelope figure. " The
meaning of the very technical term * envelope
figure " is, a little poem in which the first line and
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 257
the last line are identical, and all that comes be
tween is, as it were, " enveloped " between The Ul . erary
that common opening and close: that is, form of
, . . Psalm viii.
all that comes between is to be read in the
light of the common opening and close. As the
psalm is printed in the ordinary Bibles, a series of
equal parallels, the opening apostrophe is made to
read thus:
" O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the
earth ! who hast set Thy glory above the heavens."
Accordingly the second verse, which presumably
opens the general thought of the psalm, becomes
what I have quoted : Out of the mouth of babes
and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength, because
of Thine adversaries. But now if you present that
poem in its true literary form, as an envelope, then
the opening apostrophe becomes no more than this:
"O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in
all the earth ! We know that no more than this
is the opening apostrophe, because these words
recur at the close, and the meaning of an envelope
figure is that the opening and the close are identical.
If then the opening be, as I say, "O Lord, our
Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! "
then what follows, what presumably opens the
thought of the psalm, is this: "Who hast set Thy
glory above the heavens, out of the mouth of babes
and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength ! That
the Architect of the mighty heavens should have
selected man, a mere babe and suckling in compari
son, to be His representative, that is the thought
258 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
of the psalm. And now the whole poem flashes into
organic unity. "When I consider the heavens, the
work of Thy hands, the moon and the stars, which
Thou hast ordained, what is man, that Thou art
mindful of him, and the son of man, that Thou
visitest him ? Thou hast made him but little lower
than the angels," and so on. The whole psalm
becomes a clear unit when once you have repre
sented it in its true literary form. You have no
need to seek for historical references, you have no
need to seek for deep metaphors. The meaning of
the whole is as clear as can be, if only you read it
in the true technical form of an envelope figure.
This is an illustration of what I am calling the
fundamental principle of that literary study of the
Bible to which I am inviting you: that the clear
grasp of the technical literary form is essential to
grasping the matter and the spirit. Whether you
are dealing with great books of literature, or whether
you are dealing with little verses, a knowledge of the
literary form is essential to a grasp of the matter and
the spirit.
Now in this specific sense the literary study of the
Bible stands as one of the three main forms of Bible-
Three main stu dy- BV the other two I mean, in the
forms of first place, the Devotional study of Scrip-
11 y< ture; in the second place, that which has
come to be known amongst us of late years as the
Higher Criticism. I am not discussing which of
the three is the more important. We would all
agree that the devotional use of Scripture must have
the first place. But I am distinguishing, and plead-
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 259
ing for, the distinction of literary study in the sense
that I have described, from the devotional use of
Scripture, on the one side, and the Higher Criticism,
on the other side.
The devotional use of Scripture well, we all
understand what that is. You read portions of
Scripture with your soul in a devotional
spirit, seeking to bring your soul into tune
with what you read, as God s own message
to you. That is the devotional use of Scripture.
The Higher Criticism I understand as a purely his
torical analysis of Scripture. Those who belong to
that school of thinking might not agree
with me: I am speaking from the outside.
But as I survey Bible-study as a whole, it
appears to me that what we have come to call the
Higher Criticism is a strictly historical analysis of
Scripture one that sets before itself historical
problems, and solves them by historical methods.
The Higher Criticism deals with questions of this
kind. The books of the Bible, are they by the
authors whose names have been traditionally attached
to them ? Do they belong to the ages to which we
have been accustomed to ascribe them ? Nay, are
they books at all, or are they compilations from
various sources, which need splitting up into frag
ments, the different fragments having very different
degrees of authority, validity, and authenticity ?
Now those, you see, are purely historical questions,
and those who deal with them deal with them, quite
rightly, by historical methods. We concede that
these matters are inevitable. Historical questions
260 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
must be faced and met with historical ma
chinery.
But what I am anxious to bring out is, that the
literary study of the Bible, in the sense I have
described, is something entirely distinct,
something that it would be desirable to
differentiate both from the devotional use
of Scripture, on the one side, and from historical
analysis of Scripture, on the other side. I want to
point out that both of these, the devotional use and
the Higher Criticism, stand in need of the literary
study of the Bible. Both may go wrong I mean,
may go wrong in their own department of devotional
exercise or historical analysis if they have over
looked that which I am claiming, in the literary
study of the Bible.
And this is so important that I propose to illus
trate it. First, I will take the devotional use of
The three Scripture. I want to show how this, in its
kinds of sphere of devotional exercise, may go
study illus- . 7 S
trated, (a) wrong by ignoring the literary form of
Devotional, Scripture. I will suppose a plain, straight
forward Christian, one who makes no pretensions to
scholarship, but who of course has his rights to the
devotional use of Scripture, like the wisest I will
suppose that he sits down to read a chapter of the
Bible. He is reading in a devotional spirit, that is
to say, he is seeking to bring his soul into tune with
what he reads, as God s own message to him. And
in doing this he feels himself very safe. Now I
want to suggest to you that our plain Christian is not
as safe as he thinks. For suppose that the chapter
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 261
he has sat down to read is a chapter from the Book
of Job, and he has omitted to observe that it is a
continuation of the preceding chapter, which opened
with the words, "Then answered Eliphaz the
Temanite. " So that he is reading the words of
Eliphaz the Temanite. Now in the last chapter of
Job, as you all know, God is represented
. , r i r T i Book Of Job,
as saying that the three friends of Job,
Eliphaz and the other two, have not said of Him the
thing that is right. So that our plain, straightfor
ward Christian, in his devotional use of Scripture, has
been trying to bring home to himself, as God s mes
sage, something spoken by a speaker whom God
Himself repudiates. Clearly there is something
wrong somewhere. How has he gone wrong this
plain, straightforward Christian, in his devotional use
of Scripture ? I say, by overlooking a point of liter
ary form : by overlooking the dramatic character of
the Book of Job.
There is, as everybody understands when his
attention is called to it, a great difference between
dramatic and other literature, in this way : if you are
reading a work of philosophy say a work of Herbert
Spencer or John Stuart Mill then any sentence that
you come upon represents the mind of the author.
But if you read a sentence in a drama, does that
sentence necessarily represent the mind of the
author ?
" Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
Devised at first to keep the strong in awe,
as Shakespeare says." Shakespeare never said it.
That is a common mistake. You will find that
262 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
couplet in the plays of Shakespeare, but Shakespeare
does not say it : Shakespeare makes some-
ShakesDeare,
body else say it. And does it make no
difference when you find that the somebody else who
is made to say those words is the greatest villain that
history or fiction has ever portrayed ? It is obvious,
when attention is called to it, that in dealing with
drama you may not assume that the words you find
represent the mind of the author. You must see
into whose mouth the words are put : and if they are
put into the mouth of some one evil and tyrannous,
opposed to the general character of the author, they
are more likely to represent the opposite of what he
thinks than his own thoughts. Thus our plain,
straightforward Christian has, in his devotional exer
cises, gone wrong, it seems to me, through ignoring
this point of literary form. He has read words in
the Bible as though they belonged to philosophy or
essay, and overlooked the fact that they belonged to
drama, and are to be interpreted from the dramatic
standpoint. So that we see the devotional use of
Scripture cannot dispense with the literary study of
the Bible.
But now I go to the other side the Higher Criti
cism: that is, the historical analysis. And I will
not, this time, take a plain, straightforward
Christian, but I will take one of the great
est of the historians one of those to whom the
Higher Criticism owes most. And I am bold enough
to say to you that Wellhausen goes wrong in his
own department of history through ignoring a point
of literary form. The passage I have in my mind
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 263
belongs to the latter part of what is our Book of
Micah: but without your referring to your Bibles, I
can give you the general drift of it. If you read the
last two chapters, as they appear in our modern
Bibles, you find that in the midst of your reading
there comes a sudden and startling change. For
some time you have been reading of nothing but
terror, woe, and distress. All of a sudden, in the very
next verse, you come to buoyancy, and hope, and
confidence. Now of course, startling changes need
explanation. My suggestion is that the Higher Criti
cism the historical analysis looks only to history
for explanation, and finding this startling change
from distress to hope, the critics are driven by their
methods to say, Why, this hopeful passage must
have come in by mistake. It is an interpolation
and, moreover, an interpolation of a different age,
because the age of the prophet Micah would not
warrant this buoyancy of spirit, this hopefulness."
And therefore Wellhausen, followed by the greater
part of the historical critics, holds that that part of
Micah is the interpolation of a later age. And I
quote Wellhausen in particular, because he puts it
so epigrammatically : Between verses six and
seven there yawns a century. Now, the literary
study of the Bible says : * No, between verses six and
seven there yawns a change of speakers.
This part of Micah is dramatic. You are
not left to infer this : you are absolutely told that it
is so. All this part of the Book of Micah opens with
this title : The voice of the Lord crieth to the city,
and the man of wisdom will see His name. Now,
264 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
any one who is familiar with prophetic literature will
recognise at once in those words the title of a
prophetic drama one of the many prophetic dramas
in our Old Testament. He will also recognise that
the title of this drama warns the reader to expect an
addition to the usual dramatis persons. In the
prophetic drama the dramatis persona usually con
sist of these the Prophet, God, and the guilty Nation.
But in these words, * The voice of the Lord crieth
to the city, and the man of wisdom will see His
name," you have promised you an addition to the
usual dramatis personce, in the Man of Wisdom the
faithful remnant, the favoured one in whose behalf
Divine interposition is to take place. Now, this
being the title of the drama, all that follows the title-
verse bears out the description. Following the title-
verse you have, in the first place, Divine denuncia
tion of Israel as a corrupt nation, and a warning of
impending evil. Then follows the speech of the
guilty nation words of woe; how all is over, and
the chance of salvation gone ; nothing left but cor
ruption : * Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confi
dence in a guide : keep the doors of thy mouth from
even the wife of thy bosom." Then the Man of
Wisdom speaks: "But as for me, I will look unto
the Lord. Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy:
when I fall, I shall arise." Between the two verses
there is not an interval of time, there is nothing more
than a change of speakers. The thing is perfectly
obvious to those who, not confining themselves to
historical methods, will also keep their eyes upon the
literary form.
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 265
So the literary study of the Bible, in the sense that
I have designated the study of literary form, follows
upon the principle that form is essential to matter.
And it is one of the three main divisions of Bible-
study. I do not claim for it any greater importance
than for the other two, but I do claim for it atten
tion, and my claim goes further: that neither the
devotional use of the Bible, in its area of devotional
exercises, nor the historical analysis of the Bible, in
this department of the Higher Criticism neither of
these can afford to do without the literary study of
the Bible. Without it, each is liable to go wrong,
even in its own sphere.
Such, then, is the literary study of the Bible, as I
understand it. But, at this point, I think I ought to
meet an objection, I won t say in every
mind, but an objection that will make itself a literary
prominent in many minds. You will say, study of the
Is not such literary study of the Bible a
new thing ? Is it not against anything that connects
itself with Scripture, that it should be new?"
Now, it is perfectly true that the literary study of
the Bible, as I have denned it, is a new thing: but
a glance at the history of Scripture is sufficient to
explain that.
No one questions that the original authors of the
Bible, quite apart from inspiration of a
In the "Age
more sacred character, were also men ot ofCommen-
the highest literary power. No one, ^ry, lite-
rary iorm
surely, will question that this age in which became ob-
we live is an age that can and does appre
ciate literature. But between our modern times
266 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
and the times of the original writers of Holy Scrip
ture there intervenes a long roll of centuries, which,
I think, are best described by the phrase, " The Age
of Commentary. In this intervening period shall
I say twenty centuries, talking in round numbers ?
in this intervening period, between the time of the
original writers of Scripture and what we call modern
times, the age of commentary has obscured literary
form. It is an age that includes what we call the
Middle Ages of Europe, and extends to the age of
rabbinical discussions. It is fair to say that, in this
long period of time, those who discussed Scripture
had no conception whatever of the Bible as litera
ture. It did not belong to their habits of thought.
Think of the rabbinical commentaries. Their treat
ment of Scripture was to superimpose upon the
written word interminable verbal comments. The
slightest clause w r as sufficient as a foundation for
long and interminable controversy. When you
come to the Middle Ages of Europe, you find that
when they refer to Scripture they do not refer to it
in a literary sense. You do not find the doctors of
the Middle Ages discussing St. Paul and Isaiah, or
arguing about the Epistle to the Galatians. They
simply think of individual clauses, verses, sentences.
Indeed, the whole habit of their minds was to look
upon Scripture as a series of propositions. When
Martin Luther, representing the very heart of the
Middle Ages, enters upon his work in the Church,
what does he do ? Does he write a theological
work ? Does he write a book at all ? He did this
afterwards : but what he does while he is still under
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 267
the influence of the Middle Ages is to nail on the
door of a church ninety-five propositions separate
sentences or texts, numbered I, 2, 3, 4, up to 95 ;
and he is prepared to discuss with the whole
world on any one of those ninety-five propositions.
Luther s adversary puts one hundred and three
propositions on the door of another church, and he
is ready to fight these before the whole world.
Their way of looking at Scripture was wholly
prepositional. So, putting together the Middle Ages
of Europe and the ages of the rabbis, you see they
are entitled to the name of the age of commentary.
There was not the slightest conception of the Bible
as literature: but they looked upon the Bible as
materials for commentary, or, in other words, texts
for comment.
All this was, no doubt, a state of things altogether
favourable to the preservation of the Sacred Word,
this minute attention to clauses and verses. But
literary form, literary distinctions between dramas
and essays and poems and the like all these lie
buried beneath the monotonous surface of texts,
which appear in these verses divided off and num
bered I, 2, 3, 4, just like Luther s ninety-five pro
positions. It takes a long time to recover from a
burial of twenty centuries.
The first step in recovering this submerged literary
form was taken by Bishop Lowth some century and
more after our King James translation. Firstste
The proper distinction between verse and towards
prose had been unrecognised until he redis
covered it. And the second step was taken within
268 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
my own memory, and probably in that of many \\ ho
Second are here, in the Revised Lectionary of the
8te P- Church of England ; for the chief difference
of the new lectionary was that it had shaken itself
free of chapters. And the third step was taken in
the Revised Version of the Bible, which has gone
Third far to free itself from divisions. These are
step. t^ s i ow steps, extending over centuries,
that have been taken in recovering the literary form
submerged under that age of commentary. But the
greater part still remains to be done, and we must
recover the full form, the dramatic form, the form
of essay, the form of philosophical treatise, the form
of song, we must restore every possibility of literary
form that the commentaries of centuries have taken
from us, before we can expect to arrive at the proper
interpretation, before we can apply the outward
literary form to the interpretation of the matter and
the spirit of Scripture.
Now I turn more particularly to practice. As a
How to en- practical matter, how are we to set about
gage in lit- the literary study of the Bible in the strict
offifble^ 7 sense in which l define {t l note three
points.
In the first place, we must make use of all the
devices of modern printing to bring out the true
1. Use literary form. Shall I shock you if I say,
printing, what I am accustomed to say that the
Bible is the worst-printed book in the world ? Not,
of course, as regards paper, or typography, or bind
ing. If you think that literature consists in typo
graphy and printing and binding, then when you
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 269
have bought a Bible you have a right to be satisfied.
But in everything else, the Bible is the worst-printed
book in the world. The most trifling poem sent to
a local newspaper is printed with more attention to
literary form than the great literature of the Holy
Scriptures.
Imagine this. Imagine a few plays of Shakespeare,
a few poems of Wordsworth, a few essays of Emer
son, one of Motley s histories imagine all these
printed in a single volume. Then imagine i llustrati(m
that the printers, in order to save space, of present
blot out the distinction between one lackofform -
speech and another in the dramas, knock out the
names of the speakers, knock out the distinctions
between one poem and another, and the titles of
the poems; knock out the distinctions between
verse and prose, and print these dramas, and poems,
and essays, and histories, all in solid type like the
columns of the newspaper, without the newspaper
titles. Imagine, further, if you can I am putting
a great strain upon your imagination imagine
further that, in order to have this matter brought
into this solid form, it occurs to somebody that it
might be very useful as exercises in parsing for
children, and therefore the solid matter is broken
up into nice little verses and sentences, of a length
suitable for use in parsing, and the whole divided
into twenty or thirty such exercises. If your im
agination can go as far as that, then you have the
exact literary form in which our Bibles are printed.
Dramatic form, lyric form, distinction of speakers,
distinction of titles, and what not, all struck out, the
270 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
whole thing printed solid ; and yet not solid ; broken
up into verses and texts, not, I grant, for purposes
of parsing, but the injury to literary form is precisely
the same.
I am saying, then, that one of the practical steps
in the proper study of the Bible is to restore the
literary form, print the poems as poems, the essays
as essays, and the letters as letters, etc. That, I
may say, is a task which I have essayed in the
editing of the Modern Reader s Bible. But what I
have endeavoured to do must be done by others.
It will be done, I hope, before long by authority;
and the Bibles that are in regular use amongst us
will come to be printed in the proper literary form.
Passing over this, which is a matter for the few, I
come to my second practical suggestion, one which
appeals to the many or to all. It is a sim-
2. Study by . y .
books not pie practical principle, a mere rule of
verses, thumb, and yet it is one so important that
I believe on it may be founded the whole system of
the literary study of the Bible. And it is this: that
whereas in traditional use the unit has been a verse,
in the literary study of the Bible the unit must be a
book. A book at a sitting, that is my rule of
thumb. I say, in traditional usage the unit has been
a verse. Is not this a fact ? Nothing more harmful
ever happened to the Bible than the division I have
spoken of into verses into texts for comment. The
result is that most people think of the Bible as a
collection of isolated verses, isolated texts. I speak
with all reverence when I say it is as if the Bible
were a Divine scrap-book. Now, in place of texts,
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 271
let us have whole books. I mean by a book a
whole poem, a whole song, a whole essay, a whole
epistle, and the like. Are you using the Bible as
authority in matters of theology ? Then do not
search all over the Bible for texts to support the
particular doctrine, but look at an epistle as a whole
at a prophecy, or unit of prophecy, as a whole.
Are you seeking to enjoy the Bible ? Do not sit
down and read a chapter, but take some literary
unit, a poem, as a whole, or a particular division of
history. Dare I go further ? Are you seeking a
subject for a sermon ? Would that you might be
induced not always to preach from texts, but some
times to take as your theme a whole book of Scrip
ture! Seek to bring into the compass of the ser
mon s length the spirit and matter of a complete
work. And the dullest of your audience will rouse
up and bless you.
This, then, is the simple practical principle: a
whole book at a sitting. I have said that I know
not anything more important than this in the prac
tical work we have to do. May I give an example ?
Perhaps no book of the Bible can better illustrate
this point than the Book of Deuteronomy. Just fix
your attention upon the history of the epoch
when the Book of Deuteronomy first ap- Illustration
. . ^, fromDeu-
pears in history. Observe, I don t say, teronomy,
when it was first written: that is quite
another question. But when the Book of Deutero
nomy first appears in history, it was I use the word
advisedly the most sensational book that had ever
been thrown into the world. As the result of that
272 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
book a whole nation rushed into a spiritual revolu
tion a revolution that went to the farthest bound
of Judea. Of course, spiritual revolutions that are
rushed are not always the best. But Israel had
caught the flame, and it never entirely went out.
Prophets like Jeremiah their thought and their
language ring through and through with the influence
of this newly discovered Deuteronomy. The pious
Israelite read portions of it every day of his life.
In the time of our Lord it still appeared to be the
favourite book of devotion. Yet the modern Chris
tian, in his devotional use of Scripture, what use
does he make of the Book of Deuteronomy ? If your
experience is the same as mine, you will be aware
that he usually has a vague idea that Deuteronomy
has something to do with law. I have heard it
called a dull book: this most sensational of books
is looked upon by the ordinary reader as uninterest
ing. Turn now to the Higher Criticism, and you find
the Book of Deuteronomy a storm-centre of con
troversy. But observe this : that if you examine any
historical analysis of the book, I venture to say you
will find five-sixths of it occupied with just fifteen
chapters in Deuteronomy, because these chapters do
present historical difficulties. For all the rest of the
Book of Deuteronomy, the Higher Criticism discusses
it as so much hortatory matter. Now, in the kind
of study I am advocating, it is just this * hortatory
matter that is the main consideration.
From the literary point of view, the Book of Deu
teronomy is the oldest, grandest oratory. Its title
should be, " Deuteronomy, or, The Orations and
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 273
Songs of Moses." Considered simply as oratory, if
I may speak my own opinion, there is nothing in
Greek or English to surpass it. This much, how
ever, you can learn if your literary sense
is alert, by simply dipping- into Deutero- rator y of
Deuteronomy.
nomy. But if, instead of dipping into it,
you read it through to the end, you learn some
thing else. You learn that it is oratory, growing
gradually into drama ; for it is a series of orations,
presenting a great situation one of the most terribly
pathetic of all situations. In all that vast assembly,
Moses is the only one who understands what the
promised land is, and Moses is the only one who
must never enter it. This pathetic situation breaks
into the majesty of his periods. "The Lord was
angry with me for your sakes : that is the phrase
under which Moses veils the breakdown of his whole
lifework. All the way through the majestic periods,
this pathetic note is forever sounding, and as you
pass from the beginning of the book to the end, you
are growing nearer and nearer the climax.
The first of the orations brings out the deposition
of Moses from his office of leader. The second is
the handing over of the Book of the Covenant
hitherto spoken by word of mouth, now for the first
time seen in writing the handing over of the Book
of the Covenant to the custody of the Levites and
Elders. The third of these orations is in Analysis of
connection with that first of Commination the Book -
Services, the ceremony of the blessing and the
curse. And you may search literature through and
through, and you will find no language that comes
274 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE
near the scathing denunciation with which that third
oration reaches its climax. There is the fourth ora
tion, entitled the Covenant in the land of Moab.
From oratory the book springs to song. The im
pulse comes to Moses to put his words in the form
of poetry, and we have his song of Jehovah the
Rock. And then you have the finale. The whole
nation knows how Moses is going on that journey
from which he shall never return, and all are anxious
to catch the last glimpse of him. And because the
people are so numerous, the heads of the tribes
come out from among the people and line the path
by which their leader will pass. You catch the
step of Moses, slowly traversing the way between
those heads of the tribes, and scattering to each
burning words words of fire which were the pro
phetic war-cries of the tribes, until he has tra
versed the whole line, and turns to lift his hands in
the final blessing:
" There is none like unto God, O Jeshuron,
Who rideth upon the heaven for thy help,
And in his excellency upon the skies.
The eternal God is thy dwelling place,
And underneath are the everlasting arms."
Then Moses turns and passes on that journey on
which none may accompany him. And from that
grand outburst of poetry you drop to simple, bare
prose, fittest of all tones for the purpose of conveying
the solitary ascent of the mountain, the long gazing
over the promised land, the death far from his people,
the burial in the sepulchre which no man knoweth;
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 275
and the days of the weeping and mourning for
Moses were ended."
I say, this book, neglected by the ordinary Chris
tian, discussed for its historical difficulties by the
Critical School, is one of the oldest, greatest literary
treasures magnificent oratory, growing gradually
into the greatest of dramatic climaxes. You get
that by reading a book at a sitting.
Here, then, we have the main principle that I
would lay down. If you like, I will put it for you
in technical language. Not the interpretation of
exegesis, but the interpretation of perspec- principle
tive. Exegesis is the Greek for a person- enunciated,
ally conducted tour the personally conducted tour
that takes you into every remote point of the un
known land, and flashes up for you every darkest
corner. Without this on the part of some one or
other you can have no other kind of sight. But the
age of commentary has gone on so long that the
materials collected for illumination have blotted out
the thing to be illuminated, and we want now to
supplement the interpretation of exegesis with the
interpretation of perspective the book-at-a-sitting
plan. Take your stand at a sufficient distance to
be able to survey the whole at one view. Sweep
through your book the first time : of course it leaves
you a great deal that you do not understand. Sweep
through a second time, and difficulties of the first
reading have vanished in the light of the whole.
Sweep through it again, and yet again : each time
you gain a clearer view, and from first to last what
you gain is a hold on the book as a whole.
276 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
The third point needs only mention. Apply this
to the Bible as a whole. The Bible disappears as a
3 Use book, to reappear as a library. And in
Bible as a the literary study of Scripture, of course
this library must be handled in a literary
sense of division ; the history by itself, the wisdom
by itself, the poetry and idylls by themselves,
prophecy by itself, and so on. Thus the Library of
the Holy Sciptures would be somewhat as below.
Here must be distinguished to the eye, Story [narrative appealing
to the imagination and emotions], History [narrative appealing to
the sense of record], and the Historic Documents [such as in modern
books would make up Appendices and Foot-notes].
Whereas Historic Criticism deals with the Bible as materials with
which to investigate past history, the literary study recognises " The
History of the People of Israel as Presented by Itself." This makes a
beautiful and philosophical unity, when the different parts are divided
according to their bearing upon the central idea of a Chosen People
conscious of a sacred mission.
Bible History.
Genesis The Foundation of the Chosen People.
The Exodus [Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers ]. The migration to the
Land of Promise. Constitutional History.
[Deuteronomy, or the Farewell of Moses: Orations and Songs illus
trating a crisis of the history.]
The Judges \_Jiidges, Joshua, part of Samuel}. The struggle from
a Theocracy to a Secular Monarchy.
The Kings and Prophets [part of Samuel, Kings ]. The Secular
Monarchy and Theocracy side by side.
The Chronicles The Ecclesiastical History of Israel.
Wisdom, or Bible Philosophy.
The Proverbs Miscellaneous Observations of Life, with Adoration
of Supreme Wisdom. [In short literary forms.]
Ecclesiasticus Miscellaneous Observations of Life, with Adoration
of Supreme Wisdom. [In longer literary forms.]
Ecclesiastes Observation turned upon Supreme Wisdom, and
breaking down in religious despair.
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 277
Wisdom of Solomon Observation directed upon Life as enlarged
by the idea of Immortality, and recovering its tone of Adoration.
The Book of Job Various attitudes to questions of Life embodied in
different speakers of a drama.
[To which may be added, in the New Testament : Wisdom
Christianized (Epistles of St. James and First St. John) Wis
dom applied to the Life of Christ in the Gospel of St. Matthew. ]
Poetry.
The Psalms The Lamentations.
Biblical Idylls [Solomon s Song, Ruth, Esther, Tobif\.
Prophecy.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the (so-called) Minor
Prophets.
New Testament.
St. Luke and St. Paul : The History of the New Testament Church
as presented by Itself. [The Gospels and Acts, with the Pauline
Epistles inserted at their proper places : thus a counterpart to
Old Testament History.]
The writings of St. John.
Other Gospels and Epistles.
I come now to that which is the real purpose of
our lecture, and for which I have been preparing
in all I have said the application of all this to
Christian education. You will not expect from me
any detail of the plan. I simply want to lay down
the general principle thoroughly here as to the way
in which you will apply this literary study of the
Bible to education of different grades.
I recognise three stages: the stage of stories, the
stage of masterpieces, the stage of complete
literary groups. First, the stage of stories. Literary
I take the distinction between story and stages.
history. It is very important to insist up
on this, because I believe the distinction is very
278 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
little understood, or, rather, is misunderstood. Most
people seem to imagine that the story is something
i, Stage tnat ls not true something which is made
of Stories, U p by somebody, out of his own head,
whereas history, we know, is all true. Now I want
to say that the distinction between history and story
is not that at all. As a matter of fact, the differ
ence between story and history is a question of the
mode in which it is put before us. Narrative that
addresses itself to our sense of record is history.
Narrative that presents itself to imagination and
emotion, to the creative faculties that is story.
This distinction between history and story has
application, of course, to the Sacred Scriptures. But
there is a difference between story in the Bible and
story in other literature. In most literatures the two
things are perfectly separate, and are left to separate
literary men. A class of poets and fictionists repre
sent one, a class of grave historians represent another.
It is one of the literary peculiarities of Scripture that
story and history are combined. The Bible is a rich
story-book, but the stories gravitate to that history
of which they form a part. Indeed, in your ordinary
Bibles there is nothing to distinguish what is story
and what is history. And that is a pity, because
you must give a totally different mental attitude to
the two. Just as, in using a microscope, you alter
the focus for each new object that you look at, so you
want to bring a totally different attitude of mind to
bear upon story from the attitude of mind you have
had in studying history.
You sit down to read the Book of Genesis. You
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 279
will find it for the most part traversing long periods
of time in a few lines. All of a sudden
you come to the name Joseph, and the
whole character of what you are reading
transforms itself. You get more interested. There
is personality. There are moving spectacles of life
in the background. There are mysteries of dream
land becoming clear as events fulfil them. Sudden
mutations from a prison to a prime minister s throne;
strange double situations, where Joseph recognises
his brothers and is not recognised by them ; divine
Providence coming as a climax, bringing out how
the cruel act of the brethren has led simply to pro
viding the salvation for Egypt and all the world ; all
these followed by the peaceful conclusion. You go
on reading Genesis, and you will find yourself deal
ing in a few paragraphs with economic changes that
must have taken centuries to have made themselves
felt. There is thus a marked distinction between
the portion relating to Joseph and what preceded
and what followed it : this is the distinction between
story and history.
The Bible is rich in stories, but the stories have
merged themselves in the history of which they are
a part. The story is used as a mode of historic em
phasis ; and in any properly printed Bible you ought
to have something it might be no more than a title
to warn you where you pass from story to history,
that you may change your mental focus. Story, in
the sense in which I am speaking of it, is the natural
food for children. Thus you want, as your first
stage in the literary study of the Bible, Bible stories,
280 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
isolated from the history to which they belong, and
Titie-divi- presented by themselves. You want not
sions, very much teaching with these stories.
The youthful mind studies life : these stories give you
palpable life, ready for any degree of teaching and
criticism you desire. And what you do in this way
of criticism ought to have reference to this great prin
ciple, that our first duty to a story is to love it.
But one thing more may be done in this first stage of
stories. While the stories themselves should always
be left as they stand, yet in the selection of them a
great deal may be done. They should be so selected
as to illustrate the grand divisions of history. And
so, in the first stage, the young mind will uncon
sciously be studying history all the while tha t it is
appreciating story; that is, the stories will illuminate
the great features of the historic periods which at a
later stage the reader will be called upon to correlate
for himself. He will find, when he comes to study
history as such, that he is moving from one to
another of the incidents with which he has already
become familiar.
The second stage I call the stage of masterpieces.
Story is only one of the literary forms of Scripture.
You have, of course, oratory; you have
2. Stage of . * /.
Master- lyric, you have dramatic essays, philosophy,
pieces, an( j t k e ijk e j n w h a t we ca n the second
stage you want to accustom the youthful mind to take
an interest in literary forms as such, always remem
bering our foundation principle, that a grasp of the
literary form is essential for the matter and the spirit.
Now literary forms are best taught by masterpieces.
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 281
I use the term 4 masterpieces simply to imply that
certain things are more suitable than others for
giving a grasp of the form, which is what we are
looking for. These masterpieces must be absorbed.
They must be studied and studied, and assimilated,
to such an extent that not simply the matter, but the
form itself, becomes dear to the youthful mind.
Thus, to take a brief illustration: among the lyrics
of Scripture there is nothing greater than Deborah s
Song. But it is one thing to read Deborah s Song
as it appears in its prose form in the fifth Illustrated
chapter of the Book of Judges. It is quite by Deborah s
another thing to see Deborah s Song pre
sented in its true literary form, as an antiphonal
chorus: a chorus of women, led by Deborah, and
a chorus of men, led by Barak and how they
answer one another, and then unite. Now these
choruses of men and women clash with one another,
then they unite in an apostrophe to Heaven. The
chorus of men describe the miserable condition of
Israel, the chorus of women break in with the words
"I Deborah arose, a mother in Israel." The
chorus of men appeal to the men that ride upon
white asses and sit in judgment, the chorus of women
cry to the assemblies of women in the places of
drawing water. Then you have the gathering of the
tribes. You have the chorus representing the tribes
that came to the battle, and those that refused, and
those that changed their minds. The men sing,
4 4 By the waters of Reuben there were great re
solves." The women reply sarcastically, Why
then staid ye by the sheepfolds, to hear the pipings
282 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
for the flocks ? And the men answer, * By the
watercourses of Reuben there were great searchings
of heart. The men describe the kings coming to
fight: the women chime in, The stars in their
courses fought against Sisera. The men shout,
"Curse ye Meroz, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants
thereof, because they came not to the help of the
Lord." The men describe the strange ending of
Sisera, how Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite,
received him :
" She put her hand to the nail,
Her right hand to the workman s hammer ;
And with the hammer she smote Sisera,
She smote through his head,
Yea, she struck and pierced through his temples.
At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay ;
At her feet he bowed, he fell,
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead."
The women, with delicate imagery, picture the
mother of Sisera looking through the lattice, and
saying: "Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarry the wheels of his chariot ? They repre
sent the mother and her wise ladies questioning
among themselves, while waiting for the spoil.
And then all together join in the final cry to
Heaven: "So perish all Thine enemies; but let
those that love the Lord rejoice as the sun, when he
goeth forth in his might." I say that Deborah s
Song read as prose, in the fifth chapter of Judges, is
a very different thing from Deborah s Song presented
in its true literary form, with these clashing choruses
of men and women. It is such effects as these that
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 283
we should seek to bring out in this stage of study of
masterpieces.
We proceed towards the third stage, the stage of
the complete literary group. We may deal now with
Scripture as it stands, but not in historical
,. . . t ..... j r -.1 3 Stage of
divisions, not in divisions made for theo- the complete
logical purposes, but in the proper literary Literai 7
Group i
divisions the study of history as history,
of drama as drama, of prophecy as prophecy, of
philosophy as philosophy.
Let me take an example. Nothing, perhaps, illus
trates our subject the distinction between literary
and other studies better than the study of ni uatr ated
Bible History. In the first place, the great b 7 Bible t
historic tract that stretches from Genesis to old Testa-
the Chronicles, and on to Nehemiah and menti
Ezra this must be presented properly to the eye.
We must have a distinction made to the eye between
the historic narrative, and the appendices of statistical
reference, and the stories which are used to illustrate
the history. That is one thing. But there is some
thing more than that. In the historic analysis of
Scripture, these historical parts are used as mate
rials from which to work up to the actual history.
Literary study of the Bible takes quite a different
view. Here it makes no matter what your historical
view of the Bible is whether you look upon its his
torical books as representing the actual facts, or
whether you look upon them as accretions of a later
age, or whether you cannot make up your mind
between the one view and the other. The literary
study of the historic books takes them as the history
284 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
of the people of Israel, presented by themselves.
It is not a question, " How far does this present the
actual history ? " Be that as it may, in the Bible
we find the history of Israel as understood by the
people themselves.
A grand piece of literature is this first portion of
Scripture, a grand piece of historical literature,
bringing out the nation s sense of its divine mission.
First you have Genesis, the formation of the chosen
people. Then the Exodus (not the Biblical Exodus,
but Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers) ; this is the journey
to the Land of Promise, and at the same time the
period of constitutional development, where all the
constitutional documentary history is found massed
Analysis of together. Story is used here, as ever, to
Pentateuch, illuminate. At the beginning, you have
the story of the plagues of Egypt, in which you see
Israel as a horde of slaves under the taskmaster.
Near the close, you have the grander story of
Balaam: a man coming to curse Israel, who is over
powered by the spectacle of their greatness, and
turns his curse into a blessing. At that point you
break off from history to oratory: you have the ora
tions and songs of Moses, constituting his farewell
to Israel. For the next division of the history, we
have the Books of Joshua and Judges. There you
will find the struggle between the theocracy, or
government by an invisible God, and the tendency
to assimilate Israel to surrounding nations. The
next grand division is the Kings and the Prophets,
where the tendency to secular government is repre
sented in kingship, and the prophets stand forth to
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 285
represent the original theocracy; so together they
are like the government and opposition of modern
constitutional countries. And then, a little later,
there comes the time when, on returning from exile,
they are no longer a nation, but only a Church.
This gives us the Chronicles, with the Books of
Ezra and Nehemiah, the ecclesiastical history of
Israel. We must then study the historical parts
of Scripture as a literary whole, and from the lite
rary point of view.
I will take just one more illustration : the wisdom
or philosophy of the Bible. I venture to say that
no literature of the world has a philoso
phical literature which makes so perfect by Bible
and complete a unity. If you were study- phlloso P h y-
ing this from the point of view of historic analysis,
your attention would be called to such points as the
dates of the various books, the circumstances of the
age, how a book was influenced by the secular litera
ture and thought of its times, and the like. All that
is perfectly proper in its own sphere. What I want
is to show how very different a thing is what I am
calling the literary unity of Biblical wisdom. Through
it all runs a distinction between the two meanings
of the term * * wisdom. You might call it wisdom
with a small /, and Wisdom with a capital W. "
The wisdom with a small w is the wise observation
of human life and conduct. The Wisdom with the
capital W who shall define that ? The sense of
harmony and unity running through the whole uni
verse, and man s inner nature: something like what
we mean by Providence.
286 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
Now with this thought before us, observe the
separate books. First, you have the Proverbs
isolated observations of life, in the very shortest of
literary forms, proverbs and epigrams, with hymns
of adoration to the great Wisdom, the Wisdom that
runs through the universe. In Ecclesiasticus, the
second of these books of wisdom, you have again
isolated observations of life, but in longer
Analysis of .
the Books of literary forms: the maxim and the essay
Wisdom. come in. But here, again, you have
hymns of adoration to the Wisdom that runs
through the universe as a whole. The third book
is Ecclesiastes. Here you have this great literary
interest, that for the first time analytical observation
is turned upon the universe as a whole, and not
simply upon life and conduct. The literary observa
tion turned upon the universe as a whole breaks
down in religious despair. You no longer have
hymns of adoration to Wisdom: but instead you
find elegies on the theme, " Vanity of vanities, all
is vanity. But now comes the corrective, in the
fourth book, the Wisdom of Solomon, from the
Apocrypha. Once more observation is turned upon
the universe as a whole, but it is a universe enlarged
by the thought of immortality. The opening words
are, " God made not death, neither hath He pleasure
when the wicked perish: for righteousness is im
mortal." With this enlarged conception of human
life, observation may rest upon it, and see again
wisdom ; and the whole resolves into a great scheme
of Providence. Four separate works represent four
different philosophical attitudes. Then comes the
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 287
grand climax. The Book of Job takes these four
different philosophical attitudes, and puts them into
the mouth of four different speakers, in a drama, and
draws them into unity in a dramatic plot. Now I
say, in no other literature of this world will we find
so perfect a literary unity running through its wisdom
and philosophy.
Shall I, in conclusion, be confronted with this
objection, that what I have advocated is "reading
the Bible like any other book ? My
Conclusion,
answer is, * Do you or do you not believe
that the Christian Revelation is conveyed to us in
the form of literature ? Once you grant that, then
I say you must commence with the literature. You
must first deal with the books as books : and when
you have grasped their outward literary form, then
you go on to their matter and spirit. First that
which is natural; afterwards that which is spiritual."
First in time, I mean; afterwards, in time, that
which is spiritual. I have never known any excep
tion to the experience that attention to the literary
form brings a harvest of spiritual force.
And let me end as I began. You who are
specially concerned with the organization of Sunday-
school teaching, look for a moment outside your
immediate sphere. Are you, of all people, content
with the secularization of literary culture ? For that
is what it comes to. We are accustomed I don t
speak of Sunday-schools now we are accustomed,
in the schemes of our high schools and colleges and
universities, to send our young people, for their
literary culture, to literatures which spiritually are
288 THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
at the opposite poles from ourselves to the great
literatures of Greece and Rome, which spiritually are
negative to us; where the highest passion is sensu
ous passion, the highest conception of Providence is
mocking fate, where philosophies are philosophies in
which God is a traditional accident: and all the
while we have in our own very hands, being familiar
with it from our very childhood, one of the oldest,
grandest literatures, in which lyrics are not inferior
to the lyrics of Greece, oratory is equal to anything
that the world has ever produced, philosophy has an
application to our actual life ; which gives us dramas
such as no theatre could ever attempt dramas in
which all space is the stage, all time is the period,
and God Himself is one of the chief actors. Is it
not reasonable that we should accustom those who
are seeking higher education to associate literary
beauty with that which is in harmony with our
spiritual feeling, and not simply with that which is
opposed to it ? And you whose immediate concern
is to deal with the teaching of Sunday-schools, see,
in carrying out your tasks, that you lay a foundation
for bringing together, in later life, the study of the
Classics and the literary study of the Bible.
TOPICAL INDEX.
I. History of Religious Education.
Beginnings in Jewish system, p. 107 ff.
Origin of Teaching Function of the Church, p. 23 ff.
Religious Education in the early Church, p. 109.
" " in the Middle Ages, pp. 26, 28.
Effect of the Reformation, p. 6 f.
Origin of Religious Instruction in England, p. 49 ff.
First Sunday-schools, p. 55 f.
Work of Dupanloup in France, p. 1 10 f.
II. Present Condition of Religious Education.
The Public School and Religion, pp. 8 ff., 34.
Age of Revivals past, p. 71 f.
Religious Instruction in England, p. 52 ff.
" " in France, p. 56.
" " in Germany, p. 57 ff.
America and Europe compared, p. 62 ff.
Responsibility of the Sunday-school, p. 15.
Biblical Study in the Universities, p. 244 f.
Lack of pedagogical training for the Ministry, p. ill.
Need of the Church for Educators, p. 127.
Need of better religious Pedagogy, pp. 65 f., 75, 126, 163 ,
Danger of Secularization in Literary Study, p. 287 f.
III. Organization of Religious Education.
Religious Education part of Education as a whole, pp. 3, 6, 27,
106, 131.
289
2 90 TOPICAL INDEX.
The Agencies for Religious Education, p. 15.
The Sunday-school essential to the Church, p. 107.
Organization of the Sunday-school, pp. 15 ff., 85 f.
Training of Sunday-school Teachers, p. 40.
Examinations for Sunday-school Teachers, p. 210.
Payment for Sunday-school Teachers, p. 17.
Confirmation Instruction, p. 97 f.
Systematic Instruction of a Congregation, p. 95 ff.
IV. Content of Religious Education.
Definition and Purpose of Religious Education, pp. 4 f., 62, 79 f.,
105 f., 133, 196.
Division into a) Character material, p. 82 f.
l>) Church material, p. 83 f.
Courses of Study, pp. 17, 66, 86 ff., 91, 113 ff., 118 ff.
Necessity of a curriculum for Sunday-schools, p. 112.
Religious Study of Nature, pp. 121 f., 172!
Sacred Geography, p. 122 f., Lect. IX.
Religious Study of History, p. 123 ff.
Christian Ethics, p. 124 f.
V. Methods of Education in Particular Subjects.
a) The Catechism, pp. 40, 86 f., 90, 113 f., 147.
b) The Prayer-book, pp. 92 f., 125 f.
r) The Church Year, p. 94.
d) The Bible.
Value of Bible Study, pp. 41, 118 ff.
How to teach it, pp. 114 f. , 118 ff., 156 f., 176 f., 196 ff.
Literary Study of Bible, Lect. X.
Forms of Literature, p. 252 f., 276 f.
Importance of, pp. 252 ff., 260 ff.
Differentiated from other main forms :
a) Devotional Study, p. 260 ff.
b) Critical Study, p. 262 ff.
Lack of appreciation for in Past, p. 265 ff.
Beginnings and growth, p. 267 f.
A Book as a Unit, p. 270 f.
Bible a Library, p. 276 f.
TOPICAL INDEX. 291
Three Stages of Literary Study :
a) Story and History, p. 278 f.
b) Masterpieces, p. 280 ff.
c) Literary Groups, p. 283 ff.
Proper Printing of Bible, p. 268 f.
Reading like any other Book, p. 287.
Influence of Scientific Study on Piety, p. 242.
Reliance on Scientific Methods, p. 246 f.
Danger of Unreality in Teaching, p. 134.
Supported by Psychology, p. 184 f.
Geography of the Bible, Lect. IX.
Its Contributions, p. 215 ff.
Illustration of Helpfulness of, p. 2i6f.
Antidote to Unreality, pp. 218, 220.
Influence on Character and History, pp. 219 f., 241.
Important for General Education, p. 221 f.
As a Sunday-school Course, pp. 222 f., 241 f.
Authorities on, for Sunday-school Library, p. 224 ff.
Maps of, pp. 226 f., 228.
Departments of :
a) Descriptive, p. 228 ff.
b) Physical, p. 231 ff.
c) Geological, p. 237 f.
d) Commercial, p. 238 f.
e) Racial, p. 239 f.
/) Historical, p. 240 f.
Geographical Zones in Palestine, p. 231 ff.
Advantage of Map-drawing, p. 229.
Making Bas-relief Maps, p. 237.
f ) Christ, p. 157.
VI. The Science of Teaching.
Instruction based on Laws of Mind, p. 194.
The three Problems of Instruction, p. 131 f.
Two Ways of Learning, pp. 132 f., 140.
Dramatic Imagination, p. 132 f.
The Teacher a Creator, p. 133.
The Art of Story -telling, pp. 135-143.
Reality, p. 135 ff.
292 TOPICAL INDEX.
Reserve in using imagination, p. 140.
Clear notion of meaning, pp. 141, 143, 146.
Difference in titles, p. 142.
Dangers : too much meaning, p. 142 f.
" wrong interpretations, p. 143.
Importance of Biography, pp. 195-211.
Value of Personification, p. 199 ff.
Why Biography interests, pp. 201 ff., 204.
Danger in it, p. 208.
Useful for Reviews, p. 209.
Age for Biographical Teaching, p. 210.
Knowing the pupil, p. 147 f.
The Common Denominator, p. 148 f.
Preparation necessary to receive Truth, p. 151 f.
Lines of Insight needful, p. 153.
Connection between Lessons, p. 202 ff.
Necessity for the Concrete, p. 204 ff.
Memoriter Methods, p. 86 f.
How much moralizing is needed, p. 205 ff.
Reliance on internal authority, p. 155.
Directions for studying any subject-matter, p. 144 f.
Use of Stereopticon, p. 94.
Bad effects of " Uniform Lessons," p. 164 f.
VII. Child Study.
Its Development, p. 161.
Childhood the Best Period of Life, pp. 162, 186 f.
Child the Type of the Species, p. 162 f.
Passes through Stages of Race Life, p. 165 ff.
Each stage to be lived out, p. 167 f.
Religious Evolution of the Child, p. 168 f.
Fetich Worship, p. 169 f.
Nature Worship, pp. 169 f., 174.
Adolescence, pp. 66 ff, 177 f., 181 f.
Evils of Revivalism, p. 180 f.
" " Subjectivity, pp. 68 f., 73 f.
Salvation best taught here, p. 177 f.
Important to teach Love, p. 178 f.
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THE OLD TESTAMENT, $1.25 THE NEW TESTAMENT, $1.25 THE
PRAYER BOOK, $1.25.
A Key to the Narrative of the Four Gospels.
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By JOHN PILKINGTON NORRIS, D.D. i6mo. 50 cents.
New Testament Churchmanship and the Principles
Upon Which it Was Founded.
By the Right Rev. HENRY YATES SATTERLEE, D.D., Bishop of
Washington. I2mo. $1.50.
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Boyhood: A Plea for Continuity in Education.
By ENNIS RICHMOND. Crown 8vo. 154 pages. $1.00.
of individual instruction and per
sonal teaching, and many of them
have so much appreciated its im
portance as to seek some means and
methods by which it may be realized.
Such persons will find in this book
not only strong confirmation of their
views but also some wise suggestions
for securing their adoption in prac
tice. It bristles with strong and
vigorous sentences that cling to the
memory long after the book has
been laid aside."
Principal C. C. Ramsay, in
Book Reviews," New York : "A
book which should be read I do not
hesitate to say by every teacher,
parent, and prospective parent in the
civilized world. Though he has
written a small book the author has
stated with great simplicity and the
force of profound moral conviction
some vital but neglected truths of
education ... we have in this
little volume a unique treatment of
neglected aspects of school and home
education. All educators have heard
Through Boyhood to Manhood : A Plea for Ideals.
By ENNIS RICHMOND, author of " Boyhood : A Plea /or Continuity in
Education." Crown 8vo. 200 pages. $i.oc.
This is a companion book to " Boyhood," by the same author, but the
object with which it is written is different. The ground on which the writer
has taken a stand is that, given the ordinary life of the ordinary young man,
and given the fact that it is at his public school that the young man acquires
his standards and his outlook upon life, there are in the public school sys
tem some definite points of weakness, which it is the obvious duty of all;
who care for true education to look into and alter.
Training of the Young in Laws of Sex.
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Haileybury College; Author of " Mothers and Sons," etc. Second Im
pression. Crown 8vo. $1.00.
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youth of both sexes."
Literature: "It is the most
able plea for a bold and sensible
policy that we have seen."
St. Andrew s Cross, New
York: "It is rare to find a writer
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tical, delicate and yet distinct in state
ment. These qualities are most
marked throughout the book, written
as it is out of a large experience with
boys, and a sympathetic understand
ing of their needs gained through the
head-mastership of a large English
public school. . . . His argu
ments are reinforced by practical
suggestions, which should prove
most helpful to every parent anxious
to equip the young soul for the
battle of life. We heartily recom
mend this book, confident that its
counsel will prove both wholesome
and helpful, and that it will be an
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The History of the Book of Common Prayer.
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Studies in the History of the Book of Common Prayer.
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The Prayer Book: Its Voice and Teaching.
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Paul s. Crown 8vo. $1.00.
A Commentary on the Thirty-nine Articles of the
Church of England.
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Catholic Faith and Practice A Manual of Theology.
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Philadelphia. Part I., pp. xlv~34O. Large crown 8vo. $2.00. Part
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Manual of Christian Doctrine Chiefly Intended for Con
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Introduction to the Study of the Bible.
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The Doctrine of St. John An Essay in Biblical
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adelphia. Crown 8vo. Pp. xx-n6. Cloth. $1.50.
"This essay aims at interpreting the theology of St. John as a whole.
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The Oxford Library of Practical Theology.
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STONE, M.A., Principal of the Missionary College, Dorchester.
A Series of Volumes dealing with Practical Theology, of which the object
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ligion to that large body of devout laymen who attend our churches, but who
have not the necessary time to study the learned treatises which appeal to
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come more definite and precise instruction, who now content themselves,
either with following the current fashion in religious matters, or who obtain
such scraps of information as may be found in periodical religious literature.
The point of view from which the different subjects will be treated may be
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The Following Volumes are Now Ready.
Crown 8vo. Each, $1.50.
Religion. By the Rev. W. C. E. NEWBOLT, M.A., Canon and Chan
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Holy Baptism. By the Rev. DARWELL STONE, M.A., Principal of
Dorchester Missionary College.
Confirmation. By the Rt. Rev. A. C. A. HALL, D.D., Bishop of
Vermont.
The History of the Book of Common Prayer. By the Rev.
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Holy Matrimony. By the Rev. W. J. KNOX LITTLE, M.A., Canon
of Worcester.
The Following Volumes are in Preparation or are Proposed.
The Incarnation. By the Rev. H. V. S. ECK, M.A., formerly Vice-
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Sunday. By the Rev. W B, TREVELYAN, M.A., Vicar of St. Mat
thew s, Westminster.
Prayer. By the Rev ARTHUR JOHN WORLLEDGE, M.A., Canon and
Chancellor of Truro.
Visitation ol the Sick. By the Rev. E. F. RUSSELL, M.A., of St.
Alban s, Holborn.
The Holy Communion. By the Rev. F. W. PULLEN, M.A., Mission
Priest of St. John Evangelist, Cowley.
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The Message of the World s Religions. i6mo. $0.50.
CONTENTS: Judaism. By Rabbi Gustav Gottheil, D.D. Buddhism.
By Professor T. W. Rhys Davids, Ph.D., LL.D. Confucianism. By the
Rev. Arthur H. Smith Mohammedanism. By the Rev. George Washburn,
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anity. By Lyman Abbott, D. D.
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CONTENTS: "The Pilgrim s Progress" and The Life Divine. By the
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D.D., Bishop of Central New York The " Holy Living and Dying." By
Armory H. Bradford, D.D. Browning s " Saul." By Hamilton W. Ma-
bie Keble s "Christian Year." By Henry Van Dyke, D.D.
CONYBEARE AND HOWSON S ST. PAUL.
The Life and Epistles of St. Paul.
By the Rev. W. J. CONYBEARE, M.A., and the Very Rev. J. S. How.
SON, D.D. Revised Cheaper Edition. With 40 Illustrations and 4
Folding-out Maps and Plans. I2mo. 872 pages. $1.25.
St. Paul and His Missions.
By the ABBE CONSTANT FOUARD, Honorary Cathedral Canon, Pro.
fessor of the Faculty of Theology at Rouen, etc., etc. Translated with
the Author s Sanction and Co-operation by the Rev. GEORGE F. X.
GRIFFITH. With Maps. Small 8vo, gilt top. $2.00.
The Churchman, New York
" We give a hearty welcome to this
life is delightfully fresh and interest
ing. . . . We feel that we know
expectations of students who have
known it, but we think that even they
will be hardly prepared for so delight
ful and interesting a book as this of
the life of St. Paul. . . . The
setting and presentation of St. Paul s
book of the Abbe Fouard s. His : St. Paul better than we did before
Saint Peter and the First Years of we took up the Abbe s work.
Christianity will have raised the " There are good maps, a full in
dex, and an abundant supply of
notes and references. . . . On
the whole, we believe there are few
lives of St. Paul which the ordinary
Bible student will find more attrac
tive and helpful than this."
The Last Years of St. Paul.
By the Abbe CONSTANT FOUARD. Translated, with the Author s
Sanction, by GEORGE F. X. GRIFFITH. With Maps and Plans. Small
8vo, gilt top. $2.00. [Just Published.
The Voyage and Shipwreck oi St. Paul.
By JAMES SMITH, of Jordan -hill. With Dissertations on the Life and
Writings of St. Luke, and the Ships and Navigations of the Ancients.
With Numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo. $2.00.
Longmans, Green, <r Go s Publications.
The Art of Teaching.
By DAVID SALMON, Principal of Swansea Training College. Crown
8vo. 289 pages. $1.25.
This book is devoted to the exposition of teaching as a Technical Art,
founded on experience, philosophical principle and scientific observation.
In the Introduction the author adopts Milton s definition of " a complete
and generous education," but points out that the school teacher is really
only one factor in physical, moral, and intellectual culture, and that, even
to be efficiently so, he has need of professional training. His aim must be
directed to secure the utility, discipline, and pleasure of the taught as
results of exercised activity. The author takes up in successive chapters
(1) Order, Attention, and Discipline, and gives rules applicable to the
regulated and successful exercise of these that they may become habitual ;
(2) Oral Questioning how to proceed with and succeed in it, and what to
avoid while engaged in the process ; (3) Object Lessons what to aim at in
giving them, and how to accomplish the intended result ; (4) Reading,
Spelling, Writing, and Arithmetic how they should be taught, and the
relative merits of various methods of procedure ; (5) English, including
Composition, Grammar, and Literature ; (6) Geography, and how to make
the teaching of it educative and valuable ; (7) History, and the methods of
giving it a living (not a bookworm) interest ; (8) the Education of Infants
as a speciality.
\From the New York Nation.]
Salmon s contributions to elementary school literature are many and valu
able. It suffices to mention his "Object Lessons," "School Grammar,"
"School Composition," "Stories from Early English History." He has
now collected into the volume before us his views on the " Art of Teach
ing." The treatment of the subject is orderly, thorough, authoritative. He
takes up first the fundamental matters of order, attention, discipline. Then
comes a charming discussion of the art of oral questioning. Next follows an
estimate of the claims upon attention of the main subjects of elementary study,
with invaluable hints as to the teaching of each. The subjects treated are :
Reading, Spelling, Writing, Arithmetic, English, Geography, History. This
is, indeed, familiar ground, but the treatment is so able, so acute, so com
prehensive, that there is constant variety and constant interest. A very
valuable portion of the volume is the section of sixty pages on Infant Edu
cation. Not only are the history and development of the kindergarten here
admirably discussed, but the original and valuable contributions of England
to the Education of young children are set forth. Most wise and helpful is
Salmon s discussion of the best ways of teaching the elementary studies.
This portion of the book is a true teachers manual. It is a genuine pleasure
to commend without qualification this admirable manual. It is a worthy
companion to Fitch s "Lectures on Teaching," and, like that book, ought
to be on every teacher s shelf.
H. C. Missimer, Superintendent
of Public Schools, Erie, Pa.: "I
have read Salmon s Art of Teach
ing, and believe it to be the best work
on the subject yet published. It is
simple, direct, clear, practical, and
has evidently been written by one
who has had experience with every
problem and difficulty of the school
room.
Longmans, Green, & Go s Publications.
Teaching and School Organization.
A Manual of Practice, with Especial Reference to Secondary Instruc
tion. Edited by P. A. BARNETT. Crown 8vo. 438 pages. $2.00.
The object of this Manual is to collect and co-ordinate for the use of
students and teachers, the experience of persons of authority in special
branches of educational practice, and to cover as nearly as possible the
whole field of the work of Secondary Schools of both higher and lower
grades.
The subjects treated in the 22 chapters are as follows : The Criterion in
Education Organization and Curricula in Boys Schools Kindergarten
Reading Drawing and Writing Arithmetic and Mathematics English
Grammar and Composition English Literature Modern History Ancient
History Geography Classics Science Modern Languages Vocal Music
Discipline Ineffectiveness of Teaching Specialization School Libraries
School Hygiene Apparatus and Furniture Organization and Curricula
in Girls Schools.
A Manual of Clay-Modelling for Teachers and Scholars.
BY MARY LOUISA HERMIONE UNWIN. With 66 Illustrations and a
Preface by T. G. ROOFER, M.A. Balliol College, Oxford. I2mo.
$1.00.
The course set forth in this Manual is suitable for children of six or seven
years of age and upwards. It is a great advantage to young children to
learn to handle the clay and to become accustomed to using it. They may
begin with the simplest objects, such as beads, round or flat, of different
sizes ; cherries with string or wicker stalks ; a sausage, or cigar ; a small
saucer, or a basket, a bun, or an open pea-pod with loose peas in it made
separately ; a pat of butter, or a cottage loaf, are also suitable. For the
work of advanced pupils, or for the higher classes in schools, more difficult
subjects may be attempted.
Kindergarten Guide.
By Loi s BATES With numerous Illustrations, chiefly in half-tone, and
16 colored plates. Crown 8vo. 388 pages. $1.50.*
In addition to a full description of the kindergarten gifts and occupations,
the book shows how ordinary subjects may be taught on kindergarten
principles.
Churchman, New York : A long needed hand-book for the kinder
garten teacher. . . . The whole course of instruction is elaborately
explained with full illustrations, so that the teacher possesses, in this I2mo
volume, a complete compendium for her work."
Journal of Education, Boston, Mass.: "Never before has there been
so full, varied, and detailed a treatment of the subject from the standpoint
of teacher, parent, and child. No family in which there are little children
should be without this sum of all kindergarten virtues."
Longmans, Green, 6- Co s Publications.
EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY.
Edited by the Right Rev. MANDELL CREIGHTON, D.D., Lord Bishop
of London. I2mo. Each volume. 80 cents.
The English Church in Other Lands. By the Rev. II. W. TUCKER,
M.A.
The History of the Reformation in England. By the Rev,
GEORGE G. PERRY, M.A.
The Church of the Early Fathers. By the Rev. ALFRED PLUMMER,
D.D.
The Evangelical Revival in the Eighteenth Century. By the
Rev. J. H. OVERTON, M.A.
The University of Oxford. By the Hon. G. C. BRODRICK, D.C.L.
The University of Cambridge. By J. BASS MULLINGER, M.A.
The English Church in the Middle Ages. By the Rev. W. HUNT,
M.A.
The Church and the Eastern Empire. By the Rev. H. F. TOZER,
M.A.
The Church and the Roman Empire. By the Rev. A. CARR.
The Church and the Puritans, 1570-1660. By H. OFFLEY WAKE-
MAN, M.A.
Hildebrand and His Times. By the Rev. W. R. W. STEPHENS, M.A.
The Popes and the Hohenstaufen. By UGO BALZANI.
The Counter- Reformation. By ADOLPHUS WILLIAM WARD, Litt. D.
Wycliffe and Movements for Reform. By REGINALD L. POOLE,
M.A.
The Arian Controversy. By H. M. GWATKIN, M.A.
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