RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22024, 5 August 1933, Page 23

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

By Amplius. THE SCULPTOR. I took a piece of plastic clay And idly fashioned it one day. And as my fingers pressed it. still It moved and yielded to my will. I came again, when days were passed; That bit of clay was hard and fast. The form I gave it, still it bore. And I could change that form no more. Then I took a piece of living clay And gently formed it, day by day, And moulded with my power and art A young child’s soft and yielding heart. I came again when years were gone; It was a man I looked upon. Pie still that early impress bore, And I could change it nevermore. A MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT. One wonders how far the ideas of the superintendent and his staff concide with regard to the functions that each fulfils. Perhaps 75 per cent, of the teachers might have ideas and ideals that to all intents and purposes are identical, it is the remaining 25 per cent, or even 10 per cent, that give the superintendent anxiety. Recognising this fact, most superintendents will agree that it is well worth while to formulate some rules for the tremendously important work to which we have put our hands.

It is a good thing for the superintendent to set down in black and white what methods he has in his own mind with regard to the work and worship of the Sunday sessions. In my own case, for instance, I found it by no means easy to do this. Even when I had very considerably altered two printer’s proofs I was by no means satisfied. Fortunately, just then I happened upon a friend who is an expert at publicity and is just as keen on the greater business of the Kingdom of God as he is about the great commercial undertaking, the destinies of which he controls. We spent three hours on my second proof, and I am submitting the result to the judgment of the readers of the Church School Journal. It is not perfect, of course; in fact, we have already decided on some alterations when we reprint the document. Our memorandum of agreement as it stands may not suit many other schools, yet it may have some value_ in suggesting what might be done in this connection or even some value in suggesting what should not be done. These are the rules of the great game as played in the Intermediate Department of the Muswell Hill Sunday School: 1. As to preparation. That the teacher gives up any engagement that can be given up for the preparation class on Tuesdays from Bto 9 p.m. It is unthinkable that any teacher will face hie class at any time unprepared. 2. As to absence. That no teacher ever stays away on Sunday afternoon without sending word to the superintendent—if possible, by Thursday night. No teacher lets anybody else be in hie place if he can be there himself. A class of boys or girls without a teacher is a terrible sight. It should never be seen in any school —especially ours. 3. Ae to punctuality. . That it is no grudging service that is given. The superintendent expects himself to be present 15 minutes before the school begins. Hs expects the teachers to be present 10 minutes before the start, and they expect the orderlies to be present five minutes before the worship period begins. 4. As to discipline. That each teacher aims at so handling his class as to make it the most helpful in the work and worship of the school. Each class rises automatically, and remains standing for the invocation, hymns, and prayer unless otherwise requested. 5. As to time table. That it is as much as anybody’s job is worth to interrupt a class during the second lesson period of 20 minutes. C. As to absentees. That each teacher sees and seizes the great opportunity presented by a pupil’s absence to pay an early visit to the home. A post card is always sent by the secretary to the pupil after the first and second absences, and an advice to the teacher after the third. 7. As to our aim. That each teacher has a definite purpose in all the work and with his class on Sundays and on week days. Isn’t it well worth years of prayer and effort so to lead a boy or girl that Christ may win his rightful place in that young heart?—Stanley Sowton. THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER. “We are too busy not to pray.” The children are busy also. From dawn to dark the hours are full of work and play, to say nothing of “the pictures,’ which commandeer so large a part of their mental and nervous energy. How shall we help them to cultivate a little quiet spot where the soul may find poise and life its equilibrium? Surely an important part of the work to be done in our junior departments concerns this matter of training the children to pray. To many a child, all the teaching he will ever get on prayer is that woven into the Sunday hour. We cannot be artificial with anything less than the systematic planning, week by week, that prayer may be a vital and intelligent part of the service. We believe it is worth while to plan so that junior boys and girls may take a large part in the acts of prayer. One of the most delightful discoveries in this matter of departmental prayers is that the children love, not only to repeat the words of the leader, or to make response alter each thanksgiving and petition, but to suggest these for themselves and to have their thoughts put into fit words and woven into public worship. That is an important and vital thing, but it should nob be allowed to exclude the use of encient and beautiful words which help to make a kind of standard and to enrich and ennoble the vocabulary of prayer. The day of the long, unbroken prayer spoken by one voice over the heads of the children is passing from our junior departments, judged inadequate to our aim of teaching the child to pray. We realise that attention and co-operation are essential if prayer-time is to be training time also. And experience shows that it is better to divide the prayer into portions separated by a short silence, a response, a call to think of a new subject, than to crowd many thoughts into a continuous series of petitions. Of course the practice of prayer in the department presupposes the atmosphere of prayer. “ Atmosphere ” is one of the keywords of graded school theory. But alas! how easily it slips out of the most carefully planned service! Perhaps the most vital single factor in producing the atmosphere for prayer concerns the choice of the item that immediately precedes it. The quiet reading of a beautiful sentence —Bible words or a hymn verse —followed by silence, or the soft singing of a prayerverse, is often helpful. Direct talk about “ reverence ” has a strange way of defeating its aim. The reverence of a child is his direct and entirely unconscious response to an atmosphere in which order, strength, and beauty blend. It is of the spirit, and only spiritual influences can move it. That is by prayer-time in the Sunday school makes the highest demands on leader and teachers alike. Sincerity, purpose, and poise should blend in the personality of him who would teach a child to pray.