RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23885, 12 August 1939, Page 19

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

By Ampliuft

SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION In spite of inclement weather, a little band of enthusiasts was present at the monthly meeting of the Presbyterian Sunday School Union, held at Opoho. Six schools were represented. Mr G. Morrison conducted the opening devotions, and welcomed the visitors. The Rev. H. Hogg, president, welcomed the speaker for the evening, Sister Iris Wilson, youth secretary, who gave a talk on Sunday school work, dealing with several aspects of it. < ■ The speaker stressed the fact that the general trend of the life of any individual was made in the earlyyears, first of all in the home, and then in the important stage of childhood, w,hich was dealt with in Sunday school. As knowledge of how to teach had increased, Sunday school teachers had also to find out the best methods in order that the best work would be done. There were two aspects of the work of Sunday school teaching which had to be considered. First, the teaching of facts about the Bible and the Christian faith, and, second, the personal awakening of the soul to God. If teachers were to make the facts they taught vital, they needed to watch all that they did, not only their teaching, but their lives. They had to use the methods which had been proved best for teaching facts. _ The same principles applied to learning in the Sunday school as in the day school. An important one was that Sunday schools had to be graded. Grading was a recognition of the fact that at different stages of development children needed different teaching. Miss Wilson outlined the scheme of grading in use in the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand—cradle roll, four and five years; primary, about seven and eight, or up to standard I; junior, Standards 11. 111, and IV; intermediate, Forms I, 11, and 111. This varied in individual cases, according to circumstances Fortunately, the teachers of to-day did not meed to choose the lessons to be taught, as this was done by committees composed of experienced workers. The importance of the Cradle Roll as a link between the church and the home was stressed, a short outline was then given of the work of each of the departments of the Sunday school, using the characteristics of children of the various groups as a basis. The importance of the intermediate department . was stressed, the weakness of this pan or the work in general being pointed out. There were few schools which had a properly organised intermediate . department, separate from the juniors, and it was at this stage of life that the Church lost so many of its young people. The best teachers were needed to grip the boys and girls of _ intermediate age, those boys and girls in that intermediate stage between childhood and adolescence, and to give them a living Christian faith. Lessons given in the lower departments might be repeated in this department, but with a different emphasis, to show the spiritual significance of such stones. It was necessary, also, to inculcate in these years Christian, principles and Christian habits, leading the boys and girls up to a time of personal commitment to Christ as Saviour. , The importance of worship in the training of the children was pointed out. Worship for children needed careful thought and self-discipline on the part of the one who would lead therm and hymns and prayers had to be carefully prepared., . . The value and work of the framing class was also discussed. In a training class there were three mam things to study—the child, the lesson, and the method of presenting that lesson. The work was so important that it was worth paying the price and giving the time to the training class. We might have up-to-date building and equipment and good teaching, anff yet fail u we did not make that teaching and knowledge part of their lives. On the other hand, we could not awaken the soul to God unless the child knew what sort of a God He was. We had to have deep conviction, deep earnest: ness and consecration ourselves, m order that God’s love and sympathy might shine through to others. At the conclusion of the address Mr Morrison expressed the thanks of those present to Sister Ins Wilson for her thought-provoking address, and the meeting was formally closed; with _the benediction. The Opoho staff then entertained the visitors at supper, when a happy time of fellowship was spent together. Mr A. Campbell expressed thanks on behalf of the visffors. The meeting next month will bejield- at Concord, when it is hoped there will be a large delegation from the city schools. .

THE TEACHER’S PREPAREDNESS It is a maxim of the spiritual life and. indeed. I suspect of all life, that you cannot lift anyone higher .than you have got yourself. Well I am certain that if anyone is. *oing to have the demon of teaching in his soul he must himself first .have a. vital experience of Jesus Christ. It is not enough for him to have learnt Christianity as a theory or to have accepted it as , a code of behaviour, or to have a vision of a new economic order, or a hope for a warless world. He. must know Christianity as a revolutionary force in his own soul. Our business is hot to convey the knowledge of a text book, but to share an experience. At the heart of that experience is something dramatic that has been likened to the change from bondage to liberty, from darkness to light. All the record of the Gospel is of men who staggered with wonder in the experience of Christ actually freeing *hem from the evil things that have held them hard. It is the rapture of the discovery that God is always like Christ, the same wonderful forgiving love. There are no bursts of anger in God that shriek against our sin. That is the Gospel—that despite our folly, or wilfulness, despite our spoiling of Gods world, despite all that we have done and are likely to do. God goes on loving us. It is futile going on with our Sunday school work unless we know this nower of Christ to do such things in our own lives. We are not coaching children for an examination: we are introducing them to a wonderful Christ, and we cannot do that unless we know Hi s power ourselves. When we have that experience our work becomes a labour of love, I remember a day when I was being inducted into a charge, and was being introduced to the people there and to the visitors of that day. To mv surprise. I came to mv old Sunday school teacher. She said, “Maurice, I am proud of you. Quite honestly my heart beat more quickly then than at any other time on that memorable day, and I said, How much do I owe to you? ”, We were just an old-fashioned school. She knew no modern methods, though, of course, we are all the better for them. We met in the kitchen, where we boys often turned the tops on when she was not looking, and she boxed my ears more than once. She is dead now, but I feel the debt. The simple truth is this, she loved me. and she loved me because she loved Jesus She did not care how much trouble she took, or how much overtime she worked. She loved me, and all my life she followed my career with the same deep affection and unceasing prayer. Nothing can take the place of that. I was talking with a distinguished minister recently about the state of our churches, about the apparent failure of ministers and the lack of zeal in so many of our people, and he said, “We don’t love them enough.” That- was true. A minister is no good without love. A Sunday school; teacher is no good without love. Do we love the children? It is not easy to love “dirty little grubs.” but love makes all the difference. You can tell the difference. whether work is being done in the school as a drudgery for sheer duty’s sake, or for love. God knows what will happen to them if -we do not love them. The , shops try to make money out of them on Sundays. But owners want them for their profit. The brewers are setting out to capture the new generation. They do not do it because they love them. We must love them in Christ’s name.

So let us remind ourselves now that the work is God’s much more than it is ours, and that the exceeding greatness of the power is of God and not

from ourselves. No man has ever done any great and lasting work of religion unless he has been humbled by the sense of self-distrust, and raised with the consciousness of a Divine power working in him. —Rev. S. Maurice Watts. : ■ ■ ’ :