RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 23527, 16 March 1940, Page 6

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

[By Forward.] Be brave and strong, 0 heart! Be patient; do and bear thy part; Fulfil God’s own wise purposes for thee; Shrink not from duty; scorn to fear Whatever lies before thee here; In His appointment see Thy highest good; ask 'Him for nought beside, Bflt in His will abide. EDUCATIONAL EVANGELISM. The words ‘‘ education ” and ‘‘ evangelism ” seem to stand in striking contrast. They seem to suggest opposite mental efforts. Evangelism speaks of the morning and the music and the footsteps of messengers on the mountains ; education reminds us of law and the lesson and the schoolroom. Evangelism—it is the genial moment when the spark lights upon the things that are piled upon the altar and the fire ascends. It is the moment' of fruition. Education—it is the questioning mind and the toilsome gathering of the fruits we put upon the altar. Evangelism—it is a picture of the sower scattering broadcast the seed. Education—it is the cold winter and the straight furrow ; the breaking up of the clod; the patient removal of stones; the burning of thorns. Evangelism—it is the- wind bearing its burden of summer seed. Education —it is the sensitive hand upon the ropes. Evangelism—it is the big thing, the decision day, the day when we shall see what we have Ijeen labouring for, when hearts are quickened and faces aglow. When 1 get to this point 1 turn to Izaak Walton, who says: “Twelve manner of flies, one kind of trout, and special flies for special, places.” And I think of the boy that the teacher has angled for and whose side he has stood by for years. That is education. It used to be a common experience that the evangelist in the Sunday school looked askance at the educationalist. I have been at conferences many and many a. time when an educational subject has been rounded off by somebody remarking: “ After all, it is the spirit that counts.” But the evangel that is not educational is accompanied by peculiar perils. There is much waste. The teacher must follow closely.

•When there is a. mass movement in India what is their plea? “Send us more teachers,” ,We must not separate evangelism and educatioun. They are one, for they belong to the very nature of the soul of the child we are dealing with. The blessed word “ psychology ” can never be left out. We have to go back again and again to the soul of the child, to study the unfolding of powers by which the Almighty makes possible the stature of the manhoodof the soul. We see that imagination weakens and the will grows strong, and there is a conscious struggle between the higher and the lower, and the choice has to be made. We mark the genial moment of aspiration in early youth; we come to the mental struggle of manhood. As we study the soul of the child and youth and man we see that what it is capable of dreaming of it is capable of attaining. The finest education in the world which limits itself to that which may be attained will never reach the heights of freedom which the soul knows is its heritage. The fact of the failure of the soul to rise to its destiny is written across human history. There is a closed door, and when we study the psychology of the soul we find that there is something which is not attained by seeking, but it is a light from above; it is a revelation. It is an evangel. It is a gift mysterious and wonderful, and it comes unearned. So the evangel is a word, a touch, a quickening. It seems to me that of late we have been putting undue emphasis upon the quest of the soul after God, and in that emphasis we have ,been apt to leave the seeking man as the supreme figure. It is not the seeking man who is the supreme figure; it is the Good Shepherd. When we, as teachers, get tired of our work let us not forget that there is Someone Who is seeking much more patiently and systematically than we do, and Someone Who goes on seeking after our work is done, and the one we have sought has slipped through the Sunday school doors. So the soul of the child and the man needs educational evangelism. This is not a modern doctrine. The evangel always had to go through educational channels. We might spend time very profitably thinking how the evangel given by our Lord to His pupils came with infinite sensitiveness to the hearts of men of different temperaments and seemed to fit exactly the need of each. Paul went round the world with no stereotyped Gospel. His Gospel was not composed of one text or one word that would do for everybody. He had a Gospel for the heathen people of Lystra, another Gospel for the men of Athens, and another Gospel for the Ephesians; and each letter he wrote showed an infinitely varied evangel, indicating that' he was sensitive to the needs and problems of the people he addressed. Our work is that of an educational evangelist. Behind the lesson which we prepare with great care and study there must be the force of the evangel. If there is no sense of the living God in the heart of the teacher, I do not see how there, can be any evangelistic power in the lesson. It is our business to find what is the first word of the eternal Gospel for the child we are teaching.—Emily Huntley. CHURCH LOYALTY. One of the first claims on a Sunday school is devotion to the church of which it forms a part. Housed in the property of that church, enjoying its name and support, organised as part of its activities, and engaged to win its childhood and youth, it should surely be clear that the deliberations and policy of that church should bo supreme. Unfortunately there are people who appear to think otherwise, and who hold themselves ready to join up with societies which, under cover of working for the church, ignore its stated wish. The consequence of such action is written plainly in past history. For long years Sunday school work halted and declined. Since the churches have taken over their work, progress in method, organisation, and efficiency is manifest. When the world wakes up to what is being done the numbers also will improve. Schools may be sure that the work they do can best be done by close and hearty loyalty to their church connections. Union with others can be best accomplished through the head.