RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20952, 15 February 1930, Page 5

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

By Amplius. There is no chance, no destiny, no fate Can circumvent, or hinder, or control The firm resolve of a determined soul. Gifts count for little; will, alone, is great. No man can place a limit on thy strength; All heights are thine, if thou wilt but believe In thy Creator and thyself. At length Some feet, must tread all heights now urattained. • Why not thine own? Press on. Achieve, PERSONAL. Congratulations to Miss Lylio Buchanan on her appointment as travelling secretary to the New Zealand Young Women’s. Presbyterian Bible Class Union. Miss Buchanan was a well-known Bible class member in the Waikato district, who, feeling the need for training, came to Dunedin to study religious education in the Otago school, qualifying for the diploma, after two years’ work. Last year she completed the three years’ course of training in the Presbyterian Women’s Training Institute, and so comes well'equipped to her work The union is to be congratulated on its choice of a travelling secretary. ANNO DOMINI, 1930. By Mr S. G. M'Farlake, (President, Otago branch New Zealand Council of Religious Education). In acceding to a request that I should "say a few.words" in this, the first religious education column of the new year, I can find no other starting point than the obvious one—that this is a uew year. Most of those for whom these words are specially set down will, next Sunday, face afresh their work in the schools of the various churches of’ our town and province. To how many has the resolution already come, and been affirmed This year shall be the best yet?” I would we should all, by the grace of God, so resolve. , My. message, then, consists' of some thoughts as to why those of us engaged in the religious training of the young, need so to resolve, and some suggestions a§ to how we may. come nearer than ever to the realisation of our ideals. First, Why? Earnest Hayes’s statement of the'Challenge of To-day supplies an answer. He says; “Even to the superficial observer it is clear that this is the hour of opportumty for church and Sunday school alike. . . , Unless the Sunday school of to-day explores the child of to-day for the new world order of peace and righteousness, all the work of generals and statesmen will be undone in the world of to-morrow” These -words were written with the situation in Great Britain in mind, but the truth and the challenge they contain are no less for us in these southern lands. To-day is the day of onportumty and'challenge. The work is hampered by social habits and the lack of interest on the part of. so many parents and church members; but the secular system of education makes the work of the Sunday school, not only a complement to that of the day school; but a vital element in the child s true education. Where are the men and women of tomorrow who will love peace and righteousness with a great love, who will give disinterested service for social betterment, who will so love the children of a new generation that they.will give time and thought and prayer to their highest good ? Mostly in our Sunday schools In brief then,, if we believe that religion is essenS -* fationaU character, jf we believe t x- Righteousness that exalted a believe that the children are worthwmg from a materialistic life then surely, we dare not slacken effort' but rather must do-all that in us lies for these high ends., , - „.S ai > and arg.i ment of others. Dr Thistleton Mark says. of increasing the member(?hul'ch'to P, u t work into the cbo ?J’ e Tbos ® members derived from the are much more valuable to w^ an other s (tamed after manv years. We .love our church, do we not?' NT? Ra ven ;.m Modern Education,” draws a- picture of e +? ee< u^ or t, a c °nsecrated resources ?/ ti3e churches being brought to bear on 1 1 10UB Ration when ho writes. The absence of young peonle fromour congregations, the shortage! recruits from church work, the leakage between the Sunday school and church membership, the drift from church-going colleges, the evidence of ignorance and rrrehgion in the armies-these were all proof that something. was seriouslr . Wlt .j> °ur teaching of the faith ? f - I *i? b i- erTera Vlew the religious out-’ look with dismay, and call us to a mission t!L Created th® heathenism of the » generation. Surely, then, there 8 “ ec(i ror the Sunday school and every g S W Wu fllmi ar i purposefl and aims; now anal] we make more effective tVm building of the bulwarks and defence against personal spiritual failure ■ and national moral decay. Of course the first and properly the first,answer S fnf| SB d° rat ?- oU s sel y es seriously and with full devotion to the task, fully persuaded it is in line .with God’s purposL But thm answer has for far too long been regarded as the complete answer. It is Most Sunday school and young .neonle’s ZZ} fl 8 P rimaril .y teaching We must then spare no pains to fit ourselves to be teachers. If there are sMli ;- ! fourf.7 8 -!]°° ls those who hlvi never sought guidance on how to teach tnav they, feelsuch omission as a grave mil “ e - a blunder at the outset, wd? n“g], unf°rg iva ble. Magazines, books, schools all offer themselves to-day to assist tbf cult C^ r6 to t S’ou < i. afford - 1° lutions of dife S jim',- principles and methods ,® ai s ln interpretation and capitalising of experience. The first impact vou have on your Sunday school class is that of - a. task well done, -Tliev knmr te e a C eTsV. y & !t , that those; who ‘efsly o teach should make some effort ment the knowledge, “hey give pVcemeai -thp^nd™ o !, l ar ? a , nd interesting study ing at to i be tau f>ht, by ni asteroology. h ° elements child psyAnd again, the difficulty and high import of our subject matter challenges our best intellectual effort. Surely to-dav w e cannot be content merely to teach’ dogma and the Bible; surely we must dis tinguish between what is mo7al spintua! food for childhood and youth and what is not; surely we shmiM first things first, and to offend by thoughtlessly teaching what will nnf stand the light of criticilra in after lifethat -truth shall stamp and seal all we say and do. seal. r , P ß 7 hop Barnes, writing on the problem snvs h “As ‘nriJJ - f °i r r W?B education, sajs, As a punciple of religious edtiea. . I " n ’, you , ml ! st show what Christianity IV s ®°“ e . f° r human society, and so iustifv the Christian belief that it is still of supreme importance for mankind A beginning should be made with the storv of early Christian missionary enterprise as told in the Acts of the Apostles But rf-emus history „f Europe, and especially of our own country, should he used_ to supply stories of Christian heroism, hope, and love. . . Kv’tv Enghsh child ought to know of George Fox, John Wesley, and William Boothof missionaries like Carey and Henrv Martyr,; of women like Elizabeth Wry and Sister Dora. Such are the sil+ English Christianity; they iultifv * existence and prove its power? As their • a . re - studied, sectarian differences ” 16 6VanCe ’ Cllri6t is secn to be 1 P 1 fhnt you think over the problem of what to teach every effort that in you lies that the children ol your church shall have what they peed, and not liave the-dry bones n'v iriif 1 ' I a “ 7°’ Unless tb ® Christian ''ay or life b-e shown to them as tlnng which always has worked and' works now; they will not want' to essav to S mr mri? t ,f k - AH our consecration to om -work, all our preparation, all our study, all our teaching from week in week, will fall short of Kuition 1V0 ’. ““£er God, turn out from our schools and Bible classes, our societies and clubs men and women who will reproduce the’ Chnst.an character The task of saving the world from itself and for God’s purposes has to be done afresh in each generation-only by high resolve, constant endeavour, the renewing of spiritual e expanding of the “Utmost for if + w gheSt ’ Can “ our see to tLrf ° De m ,° re x step 18 taken towards that time and state which shall usher Ch ™t b 3 ltS blesslDßs > the Kingdom of

fJ { J° ™ ch ? mJ ? wc ’ for children, foi tie Church, for the nation, for the Kingdom, in Gods name, go forward this Our Lord laCe 513 Ver ' ,y be a year of