RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22392, 13 October 1934, Page 21

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

By AHPLIUS. A CHILD'S PRAYER. I thank Thee, dear Lord Jesus, For all the trees and flowers, Tbv, gifts of love, the sunshine And many happy hours. I thank Thee, too, for food and clothes, For picture books and toys; Please teach me to be always kind TO other girls and boys. Oh bless all those who love ra# And let me grow to be A happy, helpful little child To shflw that I love Thee. A.CHILD'S RELIGION. A child's religious life falls into four stages. The first stage is that up to about eight years of age, the second from nine to 11, the third from 11 to 14, and the fourth beyond that. At each respective stage children need exactly the truth to which they can give their whole response. What truth can a boy of eight accept and understand and respond to? As a. rule the first thing we can teach him is. the fact that behind each lovely, beautiful thing in his life is his love of a Divine friend, and behind the love of father and mother is the love of a Heavenly Father. To Him we should give as "many stories of Jesus as possible so that he can begin to understand that the Heavenly Father is like Jesus.

The next stage is the care of God, and it is here that religion first enters into the child's life as a definitely helpful experience. It is a very common thing for a small child to have a fear oi the darkness and terrible things that inhabit the darkness. Nothing is more pathetic than the sight of a hyper-sensi tive little child in the hands of a grownup person who does not understand or sympathise with it. A great source of the child's fears is the child's own imagination. The same imagination, however* that produces things of terror also helps to put them right. The imagination that can dream such terrible things by day, let alone by night, can make the things which arb true and comforting real and vivid and living to the child. Helpful stories give his imagination many pictures to work upon, and enable him to produce comfort able and beautiful things. The\powei of a child's imagination cannot be over estimated. It gives the teacher _ the supreme opportunity to teach spiritual religion, for the unseen is often more to the child than the. seen.

From_ nine to 11 the boy begins to know a" little more about his own relationship Jto Jesus, and he is never so much a nero-worsbipper as during thib period. If we can only show Jesus to him as a Hero, the child will put Him on a pedestal and will want to grow like Hjm. Appeal to the child's emotions. Some people niay say that emotion is a dangerous thing. Is it? We can never train the child without an appeal to his emotions. Tests have proved how unmistakably children are actuated .by their emotions, and the hero emotion' is perfectly safe. It can do nothing but good, bo matter how strongly it may be felt.

In lessons on the sufferings of Jesus children should not be taught to pity Him, because pjty looked upon the sufferer from a superior point of view, but they should be led to sympathise with Him and to see how brave, unflinching, and fearless He was in the hour of death. It was pity that produced the idea of the pale Nazarene, from which Nietzsche shrank, and in place of which he dreamed of the superman, and exalted himself to that position. Pity for hqathep boys and girls who know not the name of Jesus issues later in children growing up to describe them as " niggers," whereas whop children are taught to have compassion upon and sympathy with the heathen in his forlorn estate they are fired with the desire to send the, Gospel ot Christ to them, to raise them to a bettter state of life. /•;.-'.-

From 11 plus to 14 years the boys and girls in the Sunday school are called intermediates. This is the time of the more rapid growth of conscience in tho child. He begins to label things right or wrong for himself, and God js preparing him for that independence which will distinguish.his life later by quickening his moral judgment. He is going out to battle with the world in the workshop and the office, and he requires to be trained and fortified for the struggle. What is known as the "gang spirit" takes possession of him, and it operates either for good or for bad. From 15 Vears onwards is, in some respects, the most difficult period. , New physical and mental life and new spiritual outlook comes in these middle teens, and amid the many destructions there also dawn golden opportunities, and spiritual crises often occur which, if made the most of. affect the lite for good henceforth.

THE MAIN TASK. The task of the Church is to foste? spiritual life through religious messages and exercises. It will have its part in social, educational, and other reforms, for nothing that hinders or burte men is outside the interests of the Master; but these necessary endeavours should never side-track the Christian from his main purpose. The agencies for rendering this service are: (1) Preaching arid teaching; (2) worship, public and private"; (3) social service. At times jn history one aspect or other ; has been over-emphasised. But the Gospel is meant 'to be a balanced appeal to the whole of man's personality—his mind, ?n knowing God; his affections, in love for God and man; his will, in active service As its part of this task the school has: (1) To develop, intelligent, consecrated lives for God's work. This involves winning, holding, and guiding the scholar; The aim is to bring the young into touch with Ood and to.teach them to share the Master's outlook as regards men and life as a whole. Christ is.to be present not only in conversion but as the Constant standard of each life. The school will aim to give (a) Christian knowledge, (b) Christian character, (c) Christian service. (2) The second great aim of the school should be t 6 tram workers for the various phases of church life. "Determine what - kind of a church you want in your community and then build a school competent to sustain every department of this church.' Ihis riieans that the school work will be educational in the sense of both guidance ana practice. It will seek to train'those who will be ready and fitted to do the church s work; but will not (as a school) undertake to do that work. In the same way it will train young people in missionary matters but will not seek to do the work of a missionary committee. Everything in the school programme should have educational value. The church, is organI ised to' use; the school to tram. _ Ihe ideal is to have such a school that it will be constantly presenting to the church efficient, energetic, working Christians. THE GOOD MOTHER. Already investigations are taking us back by devious ways to some of the old simplicities. A report of a Medical Research Council on poverty, nutrition and growth, which deals largely with child lite in the slums of three Scottish cities gives Striking confirmation of this. Of all the influences examined none was found to equal in importance that of the mother. All the observers in all the areas reached the same conclusion. The children of art efficient mother, of a good mother, were found to be definitely heavier and taller than the children of an indifferent mother. In well-kept homes the children flourished, in badly-kept homes they were under-sized and under-developed. Hence no legislation, education, or social changes have real value in child training if the home has not the right maternal influence. This is a position which experienced observers have maintained throughout the generation. The face cannot rise any higher than its toothers. Anything which lowers the quality of the hofne, whether it be bad housing, or the social functions which take people away from the home, is ulti-' mately ruinous to character and to the State. THE POWER OF FORCE AND THE POWER OF LOVE. "In our dealings with China to-day we are apt to forget the past. But the words Lest tfe Forget are still upon the walls of the British Legation in Peking. If those words are to remain, let us not forget that China too has memories. If China has used force against us, we have used force against China. If China is apt to forget what we have suffered at her hands, we are apt to forget what China

has suffered at ours, no matter on whose side the right, on whose side the wrong. The marks remain. They are facts; we cannot escape their influence. The present is the child of the past. The legacy of force has never yet been love. Even in China, where we find so man" things the direct opposite of our own experience, no exception to this rule has ' ever been proved."—R. 0. Hall in "China and Britain."