“THE GIBBIAN IDEA.”

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5557, 7 April 1905, Page 2

“THE GIBBIAN IDEA.”

(To the Editor “KJZ. Times."} Sir,—Those of your readers who finvw been shocked by the Gibbian idea as to what should be expected of those who teach religion to the young will road the following extract from a "leader" in Hie "British Weekly," of February 9th, 190.", with no little interest:—“So again sympathy is almost the chief requisite of a true teacher. He who aspires to be a great poet, said Macaulay, must first become a little child. He must take to, pieces the whole web of hie mind. lie who aspires to bo a true teacher must . carry out this unweaving process among the knots and tangles of his own prejudices and conceits. Ho must get back into the age and'the mind of his scholars, and look out at the world through their eyes and read the lesson with their understanding. This gift is peculiarly, needed by those of us who teach religion to the young. No task is more sacred or more arduous. As our spirits are touch, ed with the sense of its high issues. W<r shall never rest content with any form of sound words, however correctly recited. We must get behind those glib responses, to learn what ideas the children really cherish about God and duty and heaven. Wo must sit down humb'v side by side with them in the seat of the eimple; and we shall' discover in our midst the unseen Teacher, drawing u» all unto Himself." Such are the views of Dr Eobertson Nicoll, the Editor cf ' the great "organ" cf Nonconformity. —f am, etc., PEESBYTEE. April 5.