RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 22881, 12 February 1938, Page 6

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

[By Forward.!

“ The impression that one gains from the investigations and from a wide, experience of’ the work of the Sunday schools is that the organisation lives along a thread of personality. In Sunday school work, more than in that of any other kind, we depend, next to the grace of Christ, upon the character of the individual worker. Persona! responsibility in this matter is a most vital thing, and its realisation is tho very nerve and soul of all successful Christian efforts.” FOR THE NEW TEAR. It was after Christmas. _ A church worker lounging by her window was looking out across the bright lights and •deep shadows of a great city. The lights within the room were dim. The sweet music of a great organ was stealing from the radio in the corner. “ Another year almost gone,” thought the church worker, “where has it gone!” What has it brought me!' What haveI done to make my corner of tho world a better place in which to live?” For some time her thoughts tumbled over, each other, and then, suddenly, it seemed that she was not alone. Quite distinctly she heard a voice; “ But why not think of mo during the new year? It is I who should concern you to-night. Pick out a few lovely happenings from events of the old year if you will, and plant them in your garden of memory; but after that, forget those things which are behind and walk forth unto those things which are before. Look well to tho New Year, and use me wisely and well. Then, when my 18 score days and five are gone, you may rest assured that, regardless of where the old year may have gone, it will have brought you growth in wisdom and knowledge, growth in love and service to your fellow men, and growth in fellowship and communion with God the Father.” , The church worker accepted the challenge and determined to be done with idle dreaming of what might have been. She turned off the radio, turned, on the brighter lights, opened her desk, and began writing. She scratched out much as she wrote,, it seemed. Sometimes she threw whole sheets of paper into the waste-paper basket, but when she finally finished she had worked out for herself a programme for growth iu Christian living; books she would read, conferences she would arrange with those whose experiences would be helpful to her, meetings she would attend. All these were planned in general outline, but most of all she planned definitely to take on only as many activities as her time and strength would permit her to do well. To have a quiet time alone somewhere each day. and never to seem rushed or hurried became a firm determination with her. As the closing thought for the little meeting, this church worker had with herself, she recalled, with new meaning, those lines from . the Sanskrit. Listen to the salutation of the dawn! “ Look to this day, For it is life—the very-life of life. In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your existence, I The bliss of growth, The glory of action, The splendour of beauty. For yesterday is but, a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision ; But tp-day, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness And every to-morrow a vision of hope, Look well, therefore, to this day.” Such is the salutation of the dawn. LOOKING FORWARD, There are great advantages to a Sunday school and great ease of mind to superintendent and teachers if there be a regular practice of “ looking forward.” The opposite to that is meeting each lesson just as it comes upon us, and living “ from hand to mouth.” Supposing the whole staff knows not only the lesson of the coming Sunday, but has read over with care the scheme for, say, the next three months, what advantage is there in that? For one thing, illustrative material can be provided as it cannot be if we only discover a week ahead that a certain picture, model, or book would be helpful. There are, for instance, simple outline ’ sketches of Eastern folk, scenery, maps, incidents; little models to be cut out and built up by the children, of such things as an Eastern house, boat, sheepfold; scenes of missionary life, and sketch maps, to be got at prices low enough for almost any school to obtain. Then there are beautiful coloured pictures in almost endless variety, in all sizes from stamps to wall sheets. Few schools can supply these regularly for each class and fewer for each child, but again few schools could not afford a small picture on occasion for each class. And some lessons would be greatly helped by that, but such help is only possible where superintendent and teachers look forward and order them in good time. Then there is the choice of suitable hymns. It is assumed in most serial orders of worship that children know all the hymns in the book or are able to use a hymn in worship at first sight. Practical men know that the reality is very different, yet there comes a lesson which a new hymn most perfectly suits, or we find a new hymn which ,we wish for a special season. By looking forward, we can meet that situation,the hymn is explained and illustrated and well taught to the children, and when the lesson or the season comes round it is there, a prepared act of worship.

So it is with the offering of money. Certain causes fit iu more movingly with some lessons than with others, and if we have decided what special causes we are going to support, the order of giving is best decided by putting them beside the lessons to which they are most akin. That necessitates looking forward. So again it is only by looking forward that we can prepare the way for special lessons, missionary lessons, League of Nations lesson, temperance lessons, etc. Books can be read and guidance given to teachers, expectation raised among scholars, in a way that cannot be done if the lessons are just met as they come. There has been brought to my notice an instance of a class which looked forward with great profit. The teacher gave them the scheme for the next period of lessons, and went over it in some detail, so that they grasped it as a whole. A large portfolio was provided, and the class was asked to bring every kind of illustration or help it could, for any part of the scheme, not just for the next Sunday. Guttings from newspapers,' pictures, incidents of like or contrast«d_ conduct, poems, references to the Bible, to lesson books, to history to school life, came in plenty. Models were made; maps were drawn; outline pictures were coloured. What was suitable was put in a class scrapbook out of the collecting portfolio. What was told was written out and inserted. The model was stored for a future lesson. The class gripped

these lessons till the lessons gripped them. I am sure that many groups of boys and. girls would respond to such a farsighted plan, and that it would arouse interest among the home folk also. It is good to look forward. —George S. Stewart. Once again as the Sunday schools take up their work for the year this column is opened in order to assist the workers by passing on to them the thoughts of others. Readers are invited to share their experiences and their successes by sending articles for the column. Your problems may be the problems of others, and your solutions may help others to solve their problems. Articles or reports should reach Box 117 not later than Tuesday of each week.