PC-NRLF 
 
 SB EfiM 375 
 
 
 
 
 of Bible Cl 
 
 Ed 
 
 win 
 
 Q 
 
 ee 
 
_ 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES: 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 
 
The TEACHING OF 
 BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 
 
 With special reference to 
 Classes of Young Men and Boys 
 
 EDWIN F. SEE 
 Q 
 
 Of THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 F 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF 
 
 YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS 
 
 1905 
 
Copyright, 1906, by 
 The International Committee of 
 Young Men's Christian Associations. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART ONE 
 
 THE TEACHER: HIS WORK, QUALIFICATIONS 
 AND PREPARATION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 I. WHAT Is TEACHING? 1 
 
 II. THB TEACHER'S QUALIFICATIONS 7 
 
 III. THE TEACHER'S PREPARATION 13 
 
 IV. THE CONNECTION OF BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT 18 
 
 V. ADOLESCENCE. . . 25 
 
 PART TWO 
 
 THE STUDENT: HIS PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND 
 SPIRITUAL NATURE. 
 
 VI. ATTENTION INTEREST 35 
 
 VII. PERCEPTION APPERCEPTION 43 
 
 VIII. MEMORY IMAGINATION 49 
 
 IX. FEELINGS WILL 57 
 
 X. HABIT 65 
 
 XI. THE SPIRITUAL NATURE 71 
 
 XII, REVIEW 79 
 
 V 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAET THREE 
 
 THE LESSON: THE TEACHER'S APPROACH TO 
 THE STUDENT. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XIII. ADAPTATION 83 
 
 XIV. METHOD 90 
 
 XV. REVIEWS 96 
 
 XVI. THE ART OF QUESTIONING 102 
 
 XVII. THE ART OF QUESTIONING (Concluded) 109 
 
 XVIII. THE ART OF ILLUSTRATING 115 
 
 XIX. THE ART OF ILLUSTRATING (Concluded) 124 
 
 XX. THE LESSON STUDY 130 
 
 XXI. THE TEACHING PLAN .. . 137 
 
 PART FOUR 
 FINAL SURVEY 
 
 XXII. THE TEACHER'S RELATION TO THE INDIVIDUAL 
 
 STUDENT 145 
 
 XXIII. THE TEACHER'S MISTAKES 152 
 
 XXIV. JESUS AS A TEACHER 160 
 
 XXV. EXAMINATION 170 
 
 APPENDIX . . 175 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 In this book are presented the notes of a course of study 
 pursued by classes of young men under the leadership of 
 the writer for several seasons. The leaders of over fifty 
 other classes in different parts of the United States and 4 
 Canada have used these notes in manuscript or pamphlet 
 form, and from them now comes the request for their 
 publication. 
 
 No claim for originality is set up for the contents of this 
 book. An effort has been made to assemble from a some- 
 what wide field of reading material on the principles and 
 methods of teaching which seems to be within the range of 
 the average teacher of Bible classes for men and boys. 
 
 These notes are intended then for the average teacher 
 upon whom, under our present economy, dependence must 
 be placed for the leadership of the largest number of our 
 Bible classes. It is the purpose of this book to make a sim- 
 ple statement of the elementary principles of teaching in so 
 far as they are applicable to biblical instruction. The writer 
 has assumed to be a middleman between some of the writers 
 of the extensive literature of the subject and some of those 
 busy people who are charged with the important duty of 
 teaching biblical truth to our young men and boys. For this 
 reason a considerable number of Illustrative Quotations 
 have been introduced, and while full references are made 
 to the sources of the material here presented for the use \, ; 
 of those who can and will take the time to read widely on 
 the subject, these quotations are offered for those who have 
 not the time to read them in their original setting. The 
 writer hopes that he will not be regarded as reflecting too 
 
 vH 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 severely on his own work in stating that he regards these 
 quotations as the best part of the book. 
 
 The needs of teachers of Bible classes for young men 
 and boys have been especially borne in mind. The em- 
 phasis has been naturally laid in books concerning religious 
 instruction on the characteristics of childhood and early 
 adolescence. This is the time of character forming, and 
 attention to religious culture during this period is in the 
 nature both of wise construction and prevention. At- 
 tempts to make up in later life for deficiencies of education 
 at this period must be in the nature of the case more or 
 less pathological and corrective. And yet there must be 
 a psychology of later adolescence to which a larger degree of 
 attention should be given than has been bestowed upon it 
 for the sake of those who have not had wise training in 
 earlier years. In the selection of material for this book, 
 this need has been kept in the foreground. 
 
 One of the crying necessities of the Church and its 
 allied organizations to-day is for trained Bible teachers. 
 The training has a twofold aspect, looking towards a larger 
 grasp of the subject and a better method. Such training 
 should be marked by an endeavor to furnish comprehensive, 
 historic, biblical knowledge, and by an endeavor to inculcate 
 approved methods of conveying this knowledge to others. 
 These two elements by the plan here proposed are carried 
 along at the same time in a training class of teachers who 
 devote a portion of the lesson period to a study of the 
 principles and methods of teaching as outlined in these 
 pages, and another portion to the study of a common Bible 
 lesson which is to be taught by them during the ensuing 
 week to classes of which they themselves are teachers. By 
 this method the members of the training class are not only 
 prepared to teach an individual lesson, but are familiarized 
 with the principles which will help them in the instruction 
 of any lesson. 
 
PAET ONE 
 
 THE TEACHER: HIS WORK, QUALIFICATIONS 
 AND PREPARATION 
 
I. WHAT IS TEACHING? 
 
 Teaching has three principal objects : The communication 
 of knowledge, the stimulating of the activity of the student, 
 and the development of character. As applied to the instruc- 
 tion of Bible classes therefore teaching has for its objects the 
 impartation of scriptural truth, the awakening of the men- 
 tal and spiritual activities of the student, and the rounding 
 out of his life. 
 
 1. The communication of knowledge. This is the pri- 
 mary object of teaching, and whatever stress may be laid 
 on the other two objects must not be construed as detract- 
 ing from the importance of this aspect of teaching. Noth- 
 ing can take the place of the information that comes 
 through the process of teaching. No amount of enthusiasm 
 or exhortation can make up for the absence of the knowl- 
 edge that must be the foundation of all true character. 
 Especially is this true of the knowledge that comes to the 
 student through the Bible. This has an inherent value that 
 does not belong to any other subject of instruction. "Ye 
 shall know the truth," says Jesus, "and the truth shall make 
 you free/' 
 
 2. Stimulating the activity of the student. The com- 
 munication of knowledge, however, is only a part of the 
 teaching process. The imparting of items of information 
 like the passing of tangible commodities from one hand to 
 another does not constitute instruction. "Teaching is not 
 telling." The self-activities of the student must be aroused. 
 The work of learning is an unfolding process. There is 
 that in the student which awakened and quickened by the 
 
 1 
 
2 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 act of teaching develops the truth from within. This is the 
 meaning of such definitions as these : 
 
 "Teaching is simply helping the mind to perform its 
 function of knowing and growing." Laurie. 
 
 "Teaching is the process by which one mind from set 
 purpose produces the life-unfolding process in another." 
 Tompkins. 
 
 "Teaching is enabling another to re-state the truth in 
 the terms of his own life." DuBois. 
 
 "To teach is to cause to learn." Jacotot. 
 
 "Teaching is causing another to know." Hart. 
 
 One of the best definitions of teaching is found in the 
 prayer of the Psalmist, "Open thou my understanding." 
 In this view of teaching the teacher is a wise guide of the 
 active processes going on within the student. There is 
 much that the student may and does learn without a 
 teacher. Think of all the knowledge that comes to one 
 without the active co-operation of any teacher. One of the 
 most important duties of the teacher, therefore, is to stand 
 guard over the activities of the student and give them wise 
 direction. Dr. John Dewey says, "I believe that the teach- 
 er's business is simply to determine on the basis of larger 
 experience and riper wisdom how the discipline of life shall 
 come to the child." 
 
 The value of this process of self-activity is very great. 
 Dr. Thomas Arnold of Eugby said that "the effort a boy 
 makes is a hundred times more valuable to him than the 
 knowledge acquired as the result of the effort." Dean Stan- 
 ley says of the teaching method of Dr. Arnold that it "was 
 founded on the principle of awakening the intellect of every 
 individual boy." Two advantages will result from this 
 method of teaching: First, the knowledge secured by it 
 will make a more vivid impression and will be longer re- 
 tained in the memory. When a boy was shown a globe 
 and manifested surprise that the earth was round, he was 
 
WHAT IS TEACHING? 3 
 
 asked : "Did you not learn that in school ?" "Yes," he re- 
 plied, "I learned it but I never knew it." Second, the pro- 
 cess implies a mental and spiritual training, a development 
 of the powers of the student, which could not be secured 
 through the mere communication of knowledge. 
 
 The teaching of students in the Bible contemplates the 
 awakening, not only of their intellectual activities, but of 
 their spiritual activities as well, the quickening of spiritual 
 processes, the stirring of spiritual faculties, which will 
 enable the student to grasp and appreciate spiritual 
 truth. 
 
 3. The development of character. Teaching has for its 
 object, not only the communication of knowledge, and 
 the stirring of the mental and spiritual activities of the 
 student, but the development of character as well. Teach- 
 ing eventuates in education. It may be well, therefore, 
 to glance at a few definitions of education : 
 
 "The adaptation of a person, a self-conscious being, to 
 environment and the development of capacity in a person 
 to modify or control that environment." Butler. 
 
 "Education has to do with the development of power, 
 or faculty, and aims at a full, harmonious realization of the 
 normal capacities of man." Sully. 
 
 "Education is any process or act which results in knowl- 
 edge or power or skill. Education is a more comprehensive 
 term than teaching, and teaching more comprehensive than 
 instruction." White. 
 
 "Education is such a preparation of the individual in 
 physical, intellectual and moral capacities as will enable 
 him to secure the highest enjoyment from their use here 
 and hereafter." Roark. 
 
 "Education cannot be better described than by calling 
 it the organization of acquired habits of conduct and ten- 
 dencies to behaviour." James. 
 
 "Education it the process of development or drawing out 
 
'4 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 the faculties of the individual man and training for the 
 various functions of life." Wickersham. 
 
 "Education is not the training of the mind but the train- 
 ing of the man." Huntington. 
 
 "The object of education is the realization of a faithful, 
 pure, inviolate and hence holy life." Froebel. 
 
 The significance of that teaching which results in educa- 
 tion is apparent in these definitions. Teaching is regarded 
 as having to do with the life of the student, and with 
 his whole life. Knowledge is communicated, the mental 
 and spiritual faculties are awakened, not for the value that 
 the knowledge or the awakening have in themselves, but 
 for their reflex influence on the daily life of the student. 
 When asked what Oxford could do for its students, Prof. 
 Jowett replied, "Oxford can teach an English gentleman to 
 be an English gentleman." 
 
 Especially is this true of the teaching of the student in 
 the Bible. That teaching of the Bible class which results 
 only in intellectual knowledge of the contents of the Bible, 
 or in awakening the curiosity of the student concerning its 
 statements, has fallen far short of its greatest efficiency. 
 "Thy word have I hidden in my heart" "Wherewithal shall 
 a young man cleanse his way ? By taking heed thereto ac- 
 cording to thy word." These are the legitimate uses of the 
 knowledge that comes to the Bible student. The chief object 
 of Bible teaching is the molding of character. Burton and 
 Mathews have truly said that "it cannot be too strongly or 
 too often affirmed that a merely intellectual, non-religious 
 study of the Scriptures is not only spiritually unfruitful 
 but unscientific." 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING.f 
 
 The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp 2-3; 81-94. 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 6-34. 
 Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 29-32. 
 Psychology in Education. Roark, pp. 13-15. 
 
 tSee appendix. 
 
WHAT IS TEACHING? 5 
 
 Elements of Pedagogy. White, pp. 133-136. 
 Principles of Religious Education. Butler, pp. 3-7. 
 Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton and 
 Matthews, pp. 3-9. 
 
 My Educational Creed. John Dewey, pp. 3-9. (15 cents.) 
 Unconscious Tuition. F. D. Huntingdon, pp. 3-4. (16 cents.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 What argument and appeal and exhortation wholly fail to 
 accomplish, can, with some minds perhaps to a certain extent 
 with all minds be accomplished little by little through in- 
 struction, conveyed either in the exposition of teachings or in 
 the study of history, and especially of biography. And, in the 
 second place, it must certainly be acknowledged that the most 
 solid results in character cannot be obtained except upon a 
 broad foundation of knowledge. Principles and Ideals for 
 the Sunday-school. Burton and Mathews, p. 7. 
 
 Knowledge cannot be passed from mind to mind like apples 
 from one basket to another, but must in every case be re-cog- 
 nized, re-thought by the receiving mind. All telling, explain- 
 ing, or other acts of so-called teaching, are useless except as 
 they serve to excite and direct the pupil's voluntary mental 
 powers. The teacher is a sympathizing guide whose familiar- 
 ity with the subjects to be learned enables him to direct the 
 learner's efforts, to save him from the waste of time and 
 strength, or needless or insuperable difficulties, and to- keep 
 him from mistaking truth for error. But no aid of school or 
 teacher can change nature's modes in mind work, or take 
 from the learner the lordly prerogative and need for knowing 
 for himself. The eye must do its own seeing, the ear its own 
 hearing, and the mind its own thinking, however much may 
 be done to furnish objects of sight, sounds for the ear and 
 ideas for the intelligence. The Seven Laws of Teaching. 
 Gregory, pp. 82-85. 
 
 Religious nurture, as well as general education, is develop- 
 ment by self-expression. It is the unfolding of a divine germ 
 present from the beginning in the child-personality. It is 
 training within religion, not merely preparation for it. Re- 
 ligion of a Mature Mind. Coe, p. 317. 
 
 The teaching of the Sunday-school must aim directly at 
 the acquisition of knowledge of the Bible on the part of the 
 pupil. But none the less consciously must it aim at the at- 
 tainment of that moral and religious result which belongs 
 to the school because it is a part of the work of the Christian 
 church. The central element in the school cannot remain un- 
 affected by the ultimate purpose for which the institution 
 itself exists. The teaching of the Sunday-school must seek 
 as its ultimate aim the conversion of the pupil and his de- 
 velopment in Christian character. Principles and Ideals for 
 the Sunday-school. Burton and Mathews, p. 5. 
 
 Christianity assumes, I 'take it, that the end of religious 
 education is never mere knowledge of learning, but to bring 
 
6 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 the individual into life the largest, richest, highest life; 
 and that life it conceives to be the sharing of the life of 
 God his character and Joy. John thus reports Christ as say- 
 ing: "I came that they may have life, and may have it abun- 
 dantly." The Psychology and Pedagogy of Religion. Pro- 
 ceedings of Religious Education Association, Vol. I., p. 68. 
 Henry Churchill King. 
 
 The primary principle of education is the determination of 
 the pupil to self-activity the doing nothing for him which 
 he is able to do for himself. Sir William Hamilton. 
 
 Unfortunately, education amongst us at present consists 
 too much. in telling,. not in training. Horace Mann. 
 
THE TEACHER'S QUALIFICATIONS. 
 
 II. THE TEACHElR'S QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 The teacher has a twofold relation : One to his subject, 
 and the other to his student. 
 
 1. Relation to the subject. In the teaching of Bible 
 classes, the subject is the truth of the Scriptures, and of 
 this the teacher must have as complete and intimate knowl- 
 edge as he can secure. Nothing will take the place of such 
 knowledge no amount of enthusiasm, no earnestness of 
 appeals, no knowledge of the principles of teaching. 
 
 He must have a knowledge that extends far beyond the 
 scope of the particular lesson that he is teaching, for that 
 lesson bears a relation to the whole range of biblical truth, 
 and the significance of the individual lesson can only be 
 determined by its relation to the whole. Keeping just ahead 
 of the class will not suffice. 
 
 His knowledge of the subject must be more than intel- 
 lectual. It should be of a kind that has taken hold of his 
 own life. He should have reached a spiritual apprehension 
 of the knowledge that he is trying to communicate. He 
 should have attained that spiritual discernment without 
 which Paul tells us that "the things of the spirit of God 
 are foolishness to a man." The teacher's knowledge of his 
 subject should be of the kind that possesses him. It should 
 weigh him down as a burden until it is transferred to an- 
 other. As one has well pointed out, the teacher must 
 not only know that which he would teach, but, if he is 
 true to his office, he must also teach that which he knows. 
 "Woe is me/' said Paul, "if I preach not the Gospel." 
 
 2. Relation to the student. The teacher bears a relation 
 
8 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 not only to his subject but to his student as well, and the 
 latter is no less important than the former. Many teachers 
 become so absorbed in their own enjoyment of the subject 
 that they forget the bearing of the subject on the student. 
 Mr. H. Thiselton Mark tells us that he once knew of an old 
 gentleman concerning whom there was a tradition that he 
 always closed his eyes when he was teaching, and that he 
 became so wrapt up in his subject that the boys in his class 
 were able to slip away and leave him to pour forth his 
 lesson to almost empty benches. The teaching process 
 may be represented by a triangle, one side of which stands 
 for the subject, another side for the student, and the third, 
 connecting the other two, standing for the teacher. Too 
 much emphasis cannot be laid upon the direct connection 
 between teacher and student, which shall not be broken by 
 the subject. That teacher had come to a realization of 
 this fact, who, when he was asked by a friend if he was 
 teaching Latin, replied, "No, I am teaching boys/' So of 
 the Bible class teacher, it might be said that he is not 
 teaching the Bible but boys or men the Bible. For after 
 all, it must be borne in mind that even the Gospel is a 
 means to an end, and while it is the word of life, it is also 
 the channel through which the influence of the teacher's 
 personality is to be conveyed to the life of the student. 
 
 The relation of the teacher to the student has several 
 aspects : 
 
 (1) The teacher must have a knowledge of the student. 
 To use a common expression, he must know human nature. 
 His knowledge should extend to the physical, the mental, 
 and the spiritual characteristics of each of his students, to 
 the environment of their daily lives, and the ambitions and 
 purposes that control their actions. Neither should this 
 knowledge be merely intellectual. It should not consist 
 of a curious observation of the mental or spiritual traits 
 of the student. Prof. James says that he cannot too strong- 
 
THE TEACHER'S QUALIFICATIONS. 9 
 
 ly agree with his colleague, Prof. Munsterberg, when he 
 says that the teacher's attitude toward the child being con- 
 crete and ethical is positively opposed to the psychological 
 observer's which is abstract and analytical. 
 
 (2) The teacher must be an example to the student. He 
 must be the bodily personification of the subject of his > t . 
 instruction, what Paul calls "a living epistle." Carlyle re- 
 plied to a young man who wrote to him that he expected to 
 be a teacher, and asked him for his advice : "Be what you 
 would have your pupils be." A high school principal of 
 my acquaintance made it a rule in the selection of teachers 
 to choose only those whose personal character he wanted 
 his students to emulate, this rule being based on the fact 
 that character is chiefly influenced by example working 
 through unconscious imitation. Of Lord Chatham it was 
 said that everybody felt that there was something finer in 
 the man than anything that he said. Emerson doubtless 
 had some such thought as this in mind when he said, "What 
 you are speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say." 
 It is especially true of the Bible class teacher that he 
 should be an embodiment of his own teaching, for, as we 
 have seen, his chief object in teaching should be the de- 
 velopment of the character of his students, and nothing so 
 vitiates the force of his instruction as a recognition, which 
 is generally quick and keen on the part of the student, of 
 elements in the life of the teacher that do not conform 
 to the spirit of his teaching. Nothing will so conduce to 
 this end as the cultivation of a Christ-like character by 
 the teacher. He should try to make it possible for the stu- 
 dent to look through him to Christ. Not in such a supreme 
 degree can the teacher say, as Jesus said, "Follow me," but 
 this should be his objective. Paul said, "For though ye 
 should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not 
 many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I begat ye through the 
 Gospel. I beseech you, therefore, be ye imitators of me." 
 
10 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 (I Cor. 4:15-16) ; and again, "Be ye imitators of me, even 
 as I also am of Christ." (I Cor. 11 :1.) 
 
 (3) The teacher must be a friend of the student. This 
 belongs to the sphere of the "Teacher's Other Work than 
 Teaching." To be a true friend of the student the teacher 
 must enter into the life of the student outside of the class 
 session. He will need to know the temptations to which 
 the student is subjected in every-day life, the kind of 
 home in which he lives, the companions with whom he fel- 
 lowships, the ambitions and motives that master him. 
 
 (4) The teacher must be a teacher. It would be well if 
 he were a natural teacher, one who, even in the absence of a 
 knowledge of the formal principles of teaching, has the 
 native ability to inculcate knowledge, and inspire to a search 
 for the truth. If he have such native ability, none the 
 less he needs to have the knowledge of the principles of 
 teaching to which reference will be made later. If he have 
 it not, there is all the greater reason why he should apply 
 himself to the acquirement of those principles which, 
 whether consciously or unconsciously used, go to make suc- 
 cessful teaching. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 *The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 16-27. 
 ^Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton and 
 Mathews, pp. 10-12, 22-24, 98-102. 
 How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 24-29. 
 Unconscious Tuition. Huntington, entire essay. 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, Part II. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 What the teacher knows he must teach. There is an Inborn 
 need and desire in man for expression. It is the instinctive 
 impulse to tell in some way, by word or action, our thoughts 
 and emotions so soon as they become vivid and intense 
 enough. It is the teaching passion. "While I was musing the 
 fire burned ; then spake I with my tongue." Other motives 
 and impulses may mingle and aid, but this Is primary and 
 fundamental. The hot heart hot with visions and discov- 
 ered truth forces speech, or teaching which is better than 
 speech. The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 16-17. 
 
THE TEACHER'S QUALIFICATIONS. H 
 
 The teacher must master the lesson material until it pos- 
 sesses him, until he is his message and, in some measure, he 
 can say as our Master, who is the Supreme Teacher, "I am 
 the Truth." The Bible Record. Wieand. 
 
 Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit 
 of God, for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot 
 know them because they are spiritually judged. But he that 
 is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of 
 no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord that 
 he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 
 7. Cor. 3:14-16. 
 
 It is axiomatic that the teacher who gains no spiritual help 
 from his study will impart none in his teaching. If his 
 method of study is such that it brings him no uplift or 
 strength, it can hardly have a different effect upon his pupil. 
 Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton and Mat- 
 hews, p. 22. 
 
 A teacher's study of his every scholar is quite as important 
 as his study of his every lesson. Teaching and Teachers. 
 Trumbull, p. 49. 
 
 There is vastly more 2eal and enthusiasm among religious 
 teachers for Bible study than for the study of human life, 
 for which the Bible was given. Biblical Material Adapted. 
 George E. Dawson, in Proceedings Religious Education Asso- 
 ciation, Vol. II., p. 74. 
 
 The old-fashioned schoolmaster was supposed to need Just 
 two qualifications knowledge of the subject, and ability to 
 maintain discipline. Everything and everybody was taught 
 in the same way, without regard to age. To-day a competent 
 teacher must add at least one other qualification; he must 
 understand the stage of the pupil's growth and adjust meth- 
 ods of instruction thereto. The educational process is to be 
 carried on from the standpoint of neither the teacher nor the 
 subject, but from that of the child. The inner side of the 
 pupil's life, his spontaneous interests, his characteristic ways 
 of getting at things, constitute laws for the educational proc- 
 ess. The Work of a Boys' Department. George Albert Coe, 
 p. 35. 
 
 In most situations in none more than a school what a 
 man is tells for vastly more than what he says. Nay, he may 
 say nothing, and there shall be an indescribable inspiration 
 in his simple presence. Unconscious Tuition. Huntinp- 
 ton, p. 38. 
 
 A teacher's spirit, a teacher's character, a teacher's atmo- 
 sphere, and a teacher's life impress and influence a pupil quite 
 as much as a teacher's words. Teaching and Teachers. Trum- 
 bull, p. 32. 
 
 The Sunday-school teacher is not simply a teacher. His re- 
 ligious influence on the pupil ought not to be limited, cannot 
 be limited, to that which he brings to bear through the knowl- 
 edge of the Bible which he imparts, or which the pupil under 
 his instruction gains. He is, or ought to be, the friend and 
 
12 THE TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 pastor of the pupil as well as his instructor. Principles and 
 Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton and Mathews, p. 98. 
 
 A teacher inevitably influences more by what he is seven 
 days in the week, than by what he says one day in the week. 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 272. 
 
THE TEACHER'S PREPARATION 13 
 
 III. THE TEACHER'S PREPARATION 
 
 The teacher's preparation for his work should extend 
 both to the matter and the manner, to the substance and the 
 method of his teaching. 
 
 1. The teacher's preparation in the subject-matter of his 
 teaching may be regarded in its general and in its special 
 aspects : 
 
 (1) The teacher's general preparation extends over his 
 whole life. This is what Lyman Beecher intended to con- 
 vey when he replied to the question, how long it took him 
 to prepare a certain sermon, "Twenty years." The earnest 
 teacher will make all sources of culture and discipline con- 
 tribute to his efficiency as a teacher. Here all the knowledge 
 that he secures from whatever source, whether from litera- 
 ture, the sphere of his daily calling, or his association with 
 men, will come into play, and the accumulation of years 
 will go into the efficient teaching of a single lesson. He 
 will seek a knowledge of the Scriptures as a whole, and to 
 that end he will not be satisfied with a study of the more 
 or less fragmentary lessons of the series of studies which 
 he may be conducting, but will engage for himself if neces- 
 sary in a systematic and thorough course of biblical study, 
 even though such a course may require years for its com- 
 pletion. 
 
 (2) The teacher will give special preparation to each 
 recurring lesson. Even though it may be familiar ground 
 over which he is expected to lead his class, he will familiar- 
 ize himself afresh with it, remembering that the essential 
 element in teaching is not the perfunctory communication 
 
14 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 of knowledge but the transmission of the message of the 
 lesson surcharged with the teacher's own personality. The 
 biographer of Phillips Brooks tells us that Dr. May, one 
 of his instructors in theology, was a saintly man, whose 
 conscience did not extend into the sphere of scholarship ; it 
 did not invade the province of church history. His sense 
 of fidelity as a teacher was not disturbed by his cutting 
 the leaves of a new text-book in the very presence of the 
 class who were reciting from it. When a young teacher 
 asked President Garfield, then a professor in Hiram Col- 
 lege, the secret of his power, he said, "See to it that you 
 do not feed your pupils on cold victuals." The necessity of 
 making a fresh impression in order to the greatest effect 
 on the student, the limitations of the lesson period calling 
 for the economizing of time, and the presentation of the 
 most salient suggestions of the lesson, the nature of the 
 subject-matter, having to do with the supremest interests of 
 the student's life all these and other considerations call for 
 the most thorough and renewed preparation of each lesson 
 by the teacher. 
 
 2. The value of the teacher's preparation in the method 
 of his teaching should not be underestimated, least of all 
 by the teacher. President Eliot in his inaugural address 
 in 1870 said, "The actual problem to be solved is not what 
 to teach but how to teach." The effect of the best subject- 
 matter is oftentimes lost for want of a proper method of 
 presentation. Emphasis on method need not be construed 
 into a lack of appreciation of the necessity of the very best 
 personality in the teacher. Dr. White in his Elements 
 of Pedagogy has truly said that "the more scientific a 
 system of teaching may be the more essential is the teacher." 
 On the other hand, doubtless many a teacher of masterful 
 personality has succeeded in spite of an objectionable meth- 
 od. These considerations, however, do not lessen the im- 
 portance of method in teaching. 
 
THE TEACHER'S PREPARATION 15 
 
 The teacher's preparation in method may be of two 
 kinds: 
 
 (1) There are what are called natural teachers. These 
 men have the preparation of a native endowment. A com- 
 mon illustration of such endowment is found in persons 
 who can play the piano by ear, although they may be unable 
 to read a note of music. Paul speaks of those who are 
 "apt to teach," and says that bishops should have that 
 qualification. 
 
 (2) There is also a preparation in acquired methods of 
 teaching. It is possible to apply the elementary principles 
 of pedagogy, or the science of teaching, to biblical instruc- 
 tion and secure more effective teaching of the Bible. We 
 have a recognized religious pedagogy. One of the objects of 
 this study is to familiarize ourselves with the elementary 
 principles and methods of teaching which are observed in 
 so-called secular instruction. It should be borne in mind as 
 a fundamental proposition that the mental faculties em- 
 ployed in the reception of spiritual truth are the same as 
 those employed in the reception of any other knowledge. 
 The teacher of Sunday has to do with the same minds as the 
 teacher of Monday. It is true that there are added ele- 
 ments in the reception of the spiritual truth that are not at 
 work in the impartation of intellectual knowledge, but in so 
 far as the mental powers are engaged in the reception of 
 spiritual truth, they are governed by the same laws and 
 subject to the same condition as in the reception of any 
 other form of truth. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the study of the best 
 methods of teaching will be either unnecessary or detri- 
 mental to him who has native ability as a teacher. If by 
 reason of native capacity a teacher has fallen into right 
 methods of teaching, an acquired knowledge of the prin- 
 ciples which he has been unconsciously practising could 
 hardly make him less effective as a teacher. If he has 
 
16 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 proved efficient in spite of his lack of formal knowledge 
 of the fundamental laws of teaching, how much more effi- 
 cient should he prove to be with that knowledge. It is only 
 the teacher who places too great reliance on the mere knowl- 
 edge of correct methods of teaching who is injured thereby. 
 It is necessary to distinguish between the science and art 
 of teaching. In science "we know that we may know." In 
 art, "we know that we may produce/' The science of teach- 
 ing has to do with the formulated principles of teaching. 
 The art of teaching has to do with the application and use 
 of those principles in the actual instruction of students. A 
 teacher may know the art of teaching without the science. 
 The ideal teacher will have both. As James says, "Sciences 
 never generate arts directly out of themselves. The science 
 of logic never made a man reason rightly and the science 
 of ethics never made a man behave rightly. The most such 
 sciences can do is to help us to catch ourselves up and 
 check ourselves if we start to reason or behave wrongly; 
 and to criticise ourselves more articulately after we have 
 made mistakes." 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 The Elements of Pedagogy. White, pp. 210-215. 
 Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 3-12. 
 The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 7-12. 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 105-115. 
 Principles of Religious Education. Butler, pp. 15-16. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 When teaching involves the direction of book study by 
 pupils and testing of results, the teachers' daily preparation 
 must determine the proper assignment of lessons a most im- 
 portant duty. Much of the aimless study of pupils is due to 
 the fact that the ends to be reached have not been clearly set 
 before the mind. The knowing of what to do is no small 
 part of. the doing of it, and it is not much too strong to say 
 that a lesson properly assigned is half mastered. The writer 
 has sometimes gone so far as to claim that a very good esti- 
 mate of a teacher's skill can be based on the manner in which 
 he assigns lessons or tasks. The Elements of Pedagogy. 
 White, p. 214. 
 
THE TEACHER'S PREPARATION 1? 
 
 The Sunday-school must, first of all, understand fully the 
 organization, aims, and methods of the public schools; for 
 It is their ally. It must take into consideration the progress 
 of the instruction there given in secular subjects, and must 
 correlate its own religious instruction with this. It must 
 study facts of child-life and development, and it must base 
 its methods upon the actual needs and capacities of child- 
 hood. It must organize its work economically and scien- 
 tifically, and it must demand of its teachers special and con- 
 tinuous work. "Religious Instruction and Education"; Nich- 
 olas Murray Butler in Principles of Religious Education, pp. 
 15-16. 
 
 Whereas, with few exceptions, there had been a large 
 amount of teaching, but very little thinking about it, the 
 nineteenth century laid new emphasis on the method of 
 teaching. Some of the finest ideas which have ever entered 
 into the human mind have failed of their influence, because 
 the men that had them did not know how to present them. On 
 the other hand, ideas that have greatly influenced men have 
 owed much to the form in which they were expressed. The 
 vast influence of the Bible writers, for example, does not re- 
 side merely in what they say, but in the manner and spirit 
 in which they say it. The Teacher and the Child. Mark, p. 58. 
 
 We do not for a moment believe that science will make an 
 artist. While we contend that the leading laws of objective 
 and subjective phenomena must be understood by him, we by 
 no means contend the knowledge of such laws will serve in 
 place of natural perception. Not only the poet, but also the 
 artist of every type, is born, not made. What we assert is, 
 that innate faculty alone will not suffice; but must have the 
 aid of organized knowledge. Intuition will do much, but it 
 will not do all. Only when Genius is married to Science can 
 the highest results be produced. The success of eve'ry ap- 
 pliance depends mainly upon the intelligence with which it is 
 used. It is a trite remark, that, having the choicest of tools, 
 an unskillful artisan will botch his work; and bad teachers 
 will fail even with the best methods. Education. Spencer, 
 pp. 66, 102. 
 
 A teacher may work in conformity with these laws without 
 knowing them, gaining right ideas of procedure from experi- 
 ence; but the better way is to study the laws governing the 
 teaching process, work in accordance with them, and thus 
 reach the desired result without making the many mistakes 
 which otherwise would surely be made. The Sunday-school 
 Teachers' Normal Course. Pease, Vol. II., pp. 149-150. 
 
 Psychology is a science, and teaching is an art; and sciences 
 never generate arts directly out of themselves. An interme- 
 diary inventive mind must make the application, by using 
 its originality. Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 7-8. 
 
18 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 IV. THE CONNECTION OF BODY, MIND AND 
 SPIRIT 
 
 1. Unity of man. The treatment of man as body, mind 
 and spirit is apt to be misleading. We are prone to think 
 of these as separate entities, with different agencies for the 
 training of each the gymnasium for the body, the school 
 for the mind, the church for the spirit. On the other 
 hand, great emphasis should be laid upon the unity of man. 
 Instead of saying, as one did, "I have a body, I have a 
 mind, I am a spirit," we should say, "I am a man body, 
 mind and spirit." These three must go together in any 
 comprehensive plan of religious education. So the gymnas- 
 ium has come to recognize the relation of the body to mind 
 and spirit; the school to recognize the relation of mind to 
 body and spirit; and the church to recognize the relation of 
 spirit to body and mind. The attempt to develop any 
 one of these departments of manhood without relation to 
 the others will result unfortunately. Joseph Cook once 
 said, "Educate a man's body alone and you have a brute; 
 educate his mind alone and you have a sceptic (and we 
 might add, educate his spirit alone and you have a bigot) ; 
 educate his body and his mind (and his spirit) and you 
 have the noblest work of God, a man." The triangle, which 
 has come to be the symbol of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association, with one side standing for body, another for 
 mind, and the third, connecting the other two, for spirit, 
 and the whole constituting a unit, is a true representation 
 of the intimate relationship existing among these three 
 departments of manhood. As Dr. Coe says, it is "a symbol 
 
CONNECTION OF BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT 19 
 
 of symmetry. It stands for the best that was in the Greek 
 ideal, but raised to a higher potency through Christ." So 
 we emphasize the saving of the entire life. It is not simply 
 the soul that is to be developed and prepared for useful- 
 living here and hereafter, but it is the entire man body 
 mind and spirit. Jesus said (Matthew 16:27 K. V.) 
 "Whosoever would save his life shall lose it, and whosoever 
 shall lose his life for my sake shall find it; for what shall 
 a man be profited if he shall gain the whole world and for- 
 feit his life, or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
 lifer 
 
 It is the purpose of this study to emphasize the close 
 relationship of these three departments of manhood body, 
 mind and spirit. For a scientific description of the con- 
 nection between body and mind, which has been traced with 
 reasonable clearness, the student is referred to the books 
 mentioned below, or to almost any textbook of psychology. 
 We shall make no attempt in this place to follow the 
 workings of the cerebro-spinal system, but shall simply note 
 the most evident effects of the body on the mind and spirit 
 on the one hand, and of the mind and spirit on the body 
 on the other, as an indication of their close relationship. 
 
 2. Effects of body on mind and spirit. These are of 
 such a common character, and are so apparent to all, as to 
 call, in most cases, for no elaboration : 
 
 Indigestion causing depression of mind. 
 
 Bodily fatigue producing mental inaction. 
 
 Certain physical diseases causing melancholia. 
 
 An over-wrought nervous system resulting in peevish 
 temper. 
 
 A hearty meal superinducing drowsiness. 
 
 Stimulants taken into the body exciting the mind. 
 
 Narcotics taken into the body dulling the mind. 
 
 "Mental action/' says Dr. Roark, "may be wholly sus- 
 pended by reducing the supply of blood to the brain 
 
20 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 through a pressure upon the arteries of the neck far short 
 of that necessary to produce death. A clot of blood no 
 larger than a wheat grain, or a minute splinter of bone from 
 the skull pressing upon the surface of the brain, is sufficient 
 to change a man of culture into an ignoramus, or one of 
 eminent character into a moral wreck. Every surgeon can 
 give instances of a change in mental or moral character as 
 the result of accidents to the head. Epilepsy and congenital 
 idiocy may be cured in children by trepanning." Recently 
 an incorrigible youth was brought before the Juvenile Court 
 in a western state and his parents asked that he be sent 
 to a reform school. A physician made an examination and 
 discovered a depression in the lad's skull, and his parents 
 then remembered that he had had a fall several years be- 
 fore. Three pieces of skull were removed and there was 
 found a hard growth that was pressing upon the brain. 
 When this was removed the boy's evil disposition seemed 
 to leave him, he was obedient to his parents and, at his own 
 request, was sent to school. Annie Payson Call, in "Power 
 through Repose," says that the best and surest way to gov- 
 ern one's temper is to lower the voice, and calls attention to 
 the fact that when two people are in an argument, as the 
 excitement increases the voices rise. "The fate of nations," 
 a witty Frenchman once said, "is often determined by the 
 digestion or indigestion of a prime minister." Not less 
 is it true that the spiritual nature is affected by bodily 
 weakness or pain. The great Dr. Alexander was once asked 
 if he had a full assurance of faith. He replied, "Yes, except 
 when the wind is in the east." Other things being equal 
 the man of the most helpful spirituality will be the one who 
 enjoys the best health. 
 
 3. Effect of mind and spirit on body. Some familiar 
 illustrations of the effect of mind and spirit on body, to 
 which the student may add from his own experience, are 
 as follows : 
 
CONNECTION OF BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT 21 
 
 Extreme pleasure or pain causing loss of appetite. 
 
 Conversely, joy and hope promoting health and vigor. 
 
 Mental worry causing physical weakness. 
 
 The mention of fruit causing the mouth to water. 
 
 Mental fatigue producing physical weariness. 
 
 Great fear turning the hair white. 
 
 A sudden fright paralyzing the heart or brain. 
 
 Anger producing redness or pallor. 
 
 In this connection it should be noted that the various 
 emotions have characteristic bodily expressions. For exam- 
 ple, anger is manifested by tense muscles and clinched fists ; 
 mental excitement by trembling limbs. 
 
 Spencer calls our attention to the fact that "digestion 
 of the food, the circulation of the blood, and through these, 
 all other organic processes, are profoundly affected by cere- 
 bral excitement." 
 
 Annie Payson Call says that she has made nurses practise 
 lifting while impressing the fact forcibly upon them by 
 repetition before lifting and during the process of raising 
 the body and lowering it, that they must use entirely the 
 muscles of the legs. This use of the brain in the guidance 
 of the body has made the work of lifting the burden one 
 of comparative ease. Dr. Gulick, in his "Studies of Ado- 
 lescent Boyhood," states that students have a stronger grasp 
 of the hand than manual laborers because the former use 
 the nerve centres, which supply the stimulus to the muscles 
 which operate the hand, the most. 
 
 This connection undoubtedly accounts for frequent mind 
 and faith cures. As on the one hand actual illnesses may 
 be produced in people by the frequent repetition of the 
 statement by different persons to them that they do not 
 look well, so on the other hand, actual illnesses may be and 
 oftentimes are subdued and overcome by causing the mind 
 to believe that no disease exists. A study of such mind 
 and faith cures as "Faith Healing, Christian Science and 
 
22 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 Kindred Phenomena" by Dr. James M. Buckley would 
 serve to emphasize the importance of this influence of the 
 mind and spirit on the body. Hypnotism is another mani- 
 festation of this influence. 
 
 4. Applications to Bible teaching. (1) The religious 
 teacher should give direct attention to the development 
 of the physical powers of his students. The applications of 
 biblical truth should be brought to bear directly upon the 
 habits of the body. "Wherewithal shall a young man 
 cleanse his way ? By taking heed thereto according to thy 
 word." (Psalm 119:9.) As the wrong uses of the body 
 will have an unfavorable effect upon the spiritual life, 
 such wrong uses should be guarded against with rigorous 
 care. As Spencer says, "The fact is that all breaches of the 
 laws of health are physical sins" Purity of thought results 
 in purity of life. (Matthew 5 :28 ; Philippians 4 :8.) Clean- 
 liness is not only next to godliness but is a form of godli- 
 ness. "Get a boy," says Dr. Dawson, "to realize that a 
 certain course of action makes his muscles flabby, puts it 
 out of his power to ever be a strong, vigorous man, and 
 that boy is going to think twice before he does that thing. 
 Make a boy understand that bad habits are going to destroy 
 his good health, impair his eyesight, or his hearing, destroy 
 in a very real and tangible sense his soul, and he is going to 
 think twice before he indulges in them." 
 
 (2) Physical activity on the part of younger students 
 should be directed rather than repressed. An outlet for this 
 activity will be found in the use of the hands, as in keep- 
 ing notes of and illustrating the lesson, and in the drawing 
 or making of maps. 
 
 (3) The physical conditions of the classroom should be 
 considered, and where necessary, improved: its seating, 
 ventilation, heating, etc. 
 
 (4) The members of men's Bible classes which meet in 
 the evening after the fatiguing labors of the day, or on Sun- 
 
CONNECTION OF BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT 23 
 
 day after the toil of the week, should have special con- 
 sideration, and the work of the classroom and the as- 
 signment of home work so adjusted as to add as little as 
 possible to the physical draft upon the student. For such 
 classes the work of the classroom should be varied as much 
 as possible. One of the ways of effecting this variety is to 
 pass occasionally from the consideration of abstract themes 
 to concrete subjects, or to such exercises as drawing. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 *The Teacher's Handbook of Psychology. Sully, pp. 27-43. 
 
 The Story of the Mind. Baldwin, pp. 101-122. (40 cents.) 
 
 Psychology and Education. Roark, pp. 21-24. 
 
 Elements of Pedagogy. White, pp. 31-33. 
 
 The Spiritual Life. Coe, pp. 71-89. 
 
 The Work of a Boys' Department. Coe, pp. 30-31. (20 
 cents.) 
 
 The Physical Boy. Luther H. Gulick, "Association Boys," 
 April, 1902, pp. 38-47. ($1.00 per annum.) 
 
 Power Through Repose. Annie Payson Call. ($1.00.) 
 
 The Physical Basis of Character in Man's Value to Society. 
 Newell Dwight Hillis. ($1.25.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 We begin with the unity of the educational process. The 
 Greeks, taking symmetry as an ideal, trained mind and body 
 co-ordinately; but Christian asceticism neglected the body, 
 holding it to be a clog upon the soul. Moreover, mediaeval 
 thought, at least in some of its currents, separated spiritual 
 culture from general mental culture, as though the mind and 
 the soul were two separate things. The influence of these 
 ideas is still visible throughout the Christian world. For the 
 most part, religion takes no account of the physical powers, 
 and frequently but small account of the intellectual, aesthetic 
 and even the moral faculties. But it is a maxim of modern 
 education that the individual is to be educated as a unit. 
 The Work of a Boys' Department. Coe, p. 30. 
 
 Moreover, it is of peculiar moment to the religious teacher 
 to take account of the unity of man. Because he ought to 
 face the exact facts and to know and to obey the laws of his 
 divinely given nature, the religious teacher least of all can 
 afford to ignore either the physical or psychical conditions in- 
 volved in the unity of human nature. On the physical side 
 he should not forget, for example, the effects of fatigue 
 that surplus nervous energy is the chief physical condition of 
 self-control nor the close connection of the muscular activity 
 and will, nor the physical basis of habit. On the psychical 
 
24 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 side, the religious teacher needs to consider the possible help- 
 ing or hindering influence of intellectual and emotional condi- 
 tions. The moral dangers of intellectual vagueness and of 
 strained and sham emotions may be taken as illustrations. 
 "The Psychology and Pedagogy of Religion." Henry Churchill 
 King, in Proceedings of the Religious Education Association, 
 Vol. I, p. 68. 
 
 There is necessarily a general harmony between the soul 
 and the body. They not only develop together, though not 
 always in the same ratio, but their activity and energy gen- 
 erally vary with each other. When the vital energies of the body 
 are lowered by drowsiness, languor and disease the psychi- 
 cal activities are depressed. When the soul is energized by 
 strong and buoyant emotions and desires, the bodily powers 
 respond to the quickening influence. Elements of Pedagogy. 
 White, p. 33. 
 
 The cerebro-spinal system Is sometimes compared to a tele- 
 graphic system, of which the brain is the great central office; 
 the spinal chord and ganglia, less important central offices; 
 the nerves the connecting lines, the special sense organs 
 the points from which messages are sent in, and the 
 muscles the individuals to whom messages are sent. The 
 similarity may be illustrated by tracing a sensation and its 
 results. If you touch a hot stove, the little nerve buds in 
 your finger are excited; the afferent nerves carry the news 
 of the accident to the brain, which sends out along the ef- 
 ferent nerves a sharp command to the muscles of the arm to 
 contract, and withdraw the finger. Psychology in Education. 
 Roark, p. 24. 
 
 Dr. Josiah Strong, in Religious Movements for Social Bet- 
 terment, traces the origin of the greater amount of attention 
 that is given to-day to the betterment of social conditions to 
 the larger recognition of the interdependence of the body and 
 mind and the influence of physical conditions on spiritual life. 
 He says: "It is found that there is an intimate relation be- 
 tween a bad environment and bad habits; that bad sanitation 
 has not a little to do with bad morals; that bad ventilation 
 and bad cooking are responsible for much drunkenness. We 
 are learning that whatsoever society sows, that must it also 
 reap; that pauperism and intemperance, vice and crime are 
 as natural as any other harvests; and that to expect to escape 
 effects without removing their causes is to mock God, who is 
 a God of law." 
 
ADOLESCENCE 
 
 iV. ADOLESCENCE 
 
 1. Stages of development. The first twenty-five years 
 of the life of a human being, extending from infancy 
 through childhood, boyhood and youth, to manhood, may 
 be roughly divided as follows : 
 
 Period of infancy and early childhood, 1-6 years. 
 Period of later childhood, 6-12 years. 
 
 Period of adolescence, 12-25 years. 
 
 The period of adolescence in turn may be divided into 
 three stages, the characteristics of which, as indicated in 
 single words by Dr. Forbush, Mr. E. P. St. John, and Dr. 
 Coe respectively, are appended. The significance of these 
 descriptive words will appear in the development of the 
 subject: 
 
 Early adolescence, 12-16, ferment, physical, impulsive. 
 
 Middle adolescence, 16-18, crisis, emotional, sentimental. 
 
 Later adolescence, 18-25, reconstruction, intellectual, 
 reflective. 
 
 2. Characteristics. As the emphasis in this discussion 
 will be laid upon the period of adolescence, the Bible classes 
 in mind being composed almost entirely of boys over twelve 
 years of age and young men, the characteristics of the 
 periods of early and later childhood will be mentioned only 
 to furnish a background for a proper consideration of the 
 characteristics of the adolescent period. 
 
 1-6. This is the period of greatest physical activity. 
 The child is a bundle of instincts. He is dominated by 
 
THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 curiosity, manifests extreme confidence and is exceedingly 
 imitative. 
 
 6-12. Self -consciousness begins now to assert itself. 
 Imagination runs riot, emotions display themselves, mem- 
 ory is developed, and becomes tenacious. The play instincts 
 are now largely developed, but they are of an individualistic 
 character and without special aim. There now comes the 
 dawning sense of personal responsibility. The child lives 
 in the present, is frank and confidential, and obedient to 
 authority. 
 
 12-16. For the sake of conciseness and definiteness, the 
 characteristics of this period will be named in single 
 phrases, and will be designated as physical on the one hand, 
 and psychical or mental and spiritual on the other hand: 
 
 Physical. 
 
 Period of rapid growth. 
 
 Heart increases in size. 
 
 Larnyx and lungs enlarge. 
 
 Large arteries increase. 
 
 Muscles grow rapidly. 
 
 Vocal chords elongate. 
 
 Shoulders broaden out. 
 
 The senses are strengthened. 
 
 Circulation becomes more 
 rapid. 
 
 The skin becomes more sen- 
 sitive. 
 
 The voice is deepened. 
 
 Needs more sleep and food. 
 
 The beard grows. 
 
 Brain stops growing by 15. 
 
 Changes peculiar to the male. 
 
 Period of least mortality. 
 
 Mental and Spiritual. 
 
 Assertion of selfhood, various- 
 ly described as self-asser- 
 tion, self-sufficiency, self- 
 feeling, and braggadocio. 
 Egoism developing later 
 into altruism. 
 
 Social organization with same 
 sex. Also known as gang 
 instinct. 
 
 Team work in games. 
 
 Restlessness of mind. 
 
 Enthusiasm in sports. 
 
 Appearance of fighting in- 
 stinct 
 
 Full of energy. 
 
 Secretiveness with parents 
 and others. 
 
 Feeling of loneliness. 
 
 Desire for sympathy. 
 
 The wandering instinct 
 
 Longing for the remote and 
 strange. 
 
 Possessed by ideals. 
 
 Desire for quick results. 
 
 Bashful with other sex. 
 
 Time of hero worship. 
 
 16-25. The characteristics of this period may also be in- 
 dicated in single phrases as follows: 
 
ADOLESCENCE 27 
 
 16-18. 18-25. 
 
 Sentiment for opposite sex. Guided by reason. 
 
 Romantic interest Feeling of independence. 
 
 Sense of mystery of existence. Constructive activity. 
 
 Period of doubt climax 18. Reconstruction of faith. 
 
 Yet very positive. (20-30, Starbuck.) 
 
 "Sceptic and partisan." Gu- Leanings to life occupation, 
 lick. 
 
 3. The age of conversion. The history of national and 
 ecclesiastical customs, as well as the result of scientific in- 
 vestigations, point to the period between twelve and six- 
 teen as one of critical religious importance. We are told 
 that it has been a world-wide custom to celebrate the ad- 
 vent of adolescence with feasts, ceremonies and mystic 
 rites. This is the age of confirmation in the Roman Cath- 
 olic Church, the Church of England, the Episcopal Church 
 in America, the Lutheran and other churches. 
 
 A number of bodies of men have been canvassed with 
 reference to learning the average age of their conversion. 
 The following is the summary of the result of several such 
 canvasses in one tabulation by Dr. Coe (Spiritual Life, 
 p. 45) : 
 
 Cases Average 
 Examined Age 
 
 Graduates of Drew Seminary 776 16.4 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association 
 
 Officers 526 16.5 
 
 Starbuck's Conversion Cases 51 15.7 
 
 Starbuck's Cases of Spontaneous 
 
 Awakening 75 16.3 
 
 Members of Rock River Con- 
 ference 272 16.4 
 
 Coe's Cases of Decisive Awakening 84 15.4 
 
 1784 16.4 
 
 When, therefore, Dr. Stanley Hall speaks of conversion 
 as "a natural regeneration" and "a physiological second 
 birth," and Dr. Starbuck calls it "a distinctively adolescent 
 phenomenon," they are not simply reducing this critical 
 religious experience to the terms of physiology or psychol- 
 ogy, but recognizing that in the orderly development of 
 
28 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 the life of the boy, according to the laws of God, the 
 physiological and psychological changes which come to him 
 at this period are part of a religious experience as well. 
 As Dr. Coe says, "When the approaching change has her- 
 alded itself, the religious consciousness also tends to awak- 
 en. When the bodily life is in most rapid transition, the 
 religious instincts likewise come into a new and greater 
 life." 
 
 4. Applications to Bible teaching: (1) By all means 
 note the physical and mental stages in the life of the 
 student, especially from twelve to eighteen, and adapt the, 
 instruction accordingly. It should be borne in mind, that 
 as "the child is not a diminutive adult/' so the boy is not 
 a small edition of the man. He has a psychology all his 
 own. The trend of his life and the character of his experi- 
 ence are not simply different in degree but different in kind. 
 This fact should be borne in mind not only in the prepara- 
 tion of a curriculum of instruction, but by the individual 
 teacher in his adaptation of each lesson to the members of 
 his class. 
 
 (2) The boy of twelve needs a male teacher. As in the 
 home the boy of this age turns naturally from the mother 
 to the father for leadership and guidance, so in the in- 
 struction of the classroom, he will naturally pass from the 
 tutelage of women, who, up to this time, have been his most 
 appropriate and most effective instructors, to that of men, 
 into whose life and experiences he is beginning to pass. 
 
 (3) An appeal should be made to the student's disposi- 
 tion to activity in his religious instruction during the en- 
 tire period of adolescence. He now enters a period of 
 restless doing and should be made to feel that religious in- 
 struction may eventuate in doing. The mere passive study 
 of the Bible will not meet the requirements of this period, 
 but means of helping others and practical methods of doing 
 good should be pointed out to the student through the 
 
ADOLESCENCE 29 
 
 instruction. The "immediateness" of the youth's ideals 
 also should be recognized and the opportunity for the ex- 
 pression of his activity in these directions should not be 
 delayed. Dr. Dawson thinks that God should be presented 
 to young persons as an active God, and that our ideas are 
 still too much colored by that older transcendent idea of 
 God as one who has finished his work a king on his throne. 
 As a corollary to this, the student should be stimulated to 
 do the thing that is hard. The representation of the Chris- 
 tian life as being "carried to the skies on flowery beds of 
 ease" is not an appropriate aspect in which to present it 
 to the student at this period of his life. 
 
 (4) This period also calls for the manifestation of sym- 
 pathy on the part of the teacher. The boy especially can 
 be easily repelled at this, the most critical period of his 
 life, from all religious influences. His day-dreams must 
 be respected ; his doubts, neither ignored on the one hand, 
 nor magnified by antagonism on the other. 
 
 (5) The rising social instincts of this period should be 
 recognized and utilized. The class might appropriately be- 
 come a club, with its organization, its officers, and its objects 
 of united endeavor. 
 
 (6) The peculiarities of this period call for certain char- 
 acteristics in biblical instruction : 
 
 a. The Bible should be presented to the student as his- 
 tory or story or poetry as the case may be. It should 
 come to him in its natural form as literature rather than 
 in systematic form as theology or doctrine. This is the 
 period for the discovery of facts, and not for the formula- 
 tion of dogmas. 
 
 I. Biography will appeal to the student during this 
 period. The lives of the patriarchs, prophets and the 
 apostles as men should be held before the student. In this 
 time of hero worship he demands the "personalizing of re- 
 ligion/' The sacrifices of the early heroes of faith, the ad- 
 
30 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 ventures of St. Paul, the manliness of Christ, these should 
 be portrayed in vivid colors and allowed to make their own 
 appeal to the dramatic element in the student's life. 
 
 c. The Bible instruction during this period should be 
 objective and concrete. The student has not reached the 
 age of introspection. He should not be allowed to indulge 
 in morbid speculations concerning the truths of Scripture, 
 but should have them presented to him with the aid of con- 
 crete illustrations and objective applications. 
 
 (7) Most important of all, have respect to the "age of 
 conversion." This critical period in the life of the boy 
 should not be allowed to pass without a surrender of his 
 will to God and a decision to follow in the footsteps of Jesus 
 Christ. This period once passed without such surrender 
 and decision, the boy may find himself as a man launched 
 on the sea of doubt or dissipation, whence his return to a 
 religious anchorage will be through much storm and stress 
 and after many devious wanderings. 
 
 (8) Mr. Pease, in his Bible School Curriculum, has sug- 
 gested that for the period of middle and later adolescence 
 the teacher must depend more upon guiding the young man 
 by an appeal to his reason than by an appeal to his affec- 
 tion, or by an authoritative presentation of truth which is 
 to be accepted without question ; must enlist the student in 
 some form of active service, and must treat each case sepa- 
 rately, instead of depending wholly or mainly on mass 
 teaching or class teaching. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, 
 Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education. 
 G. Stanley Hall (2 Vols., $7.50 net. The standard and compre- 
 hensive work OB this subject). 
 
 *The Boy Problem; A Study in Social Pedagogy. William 
 Byron Forbush, pp. 9-41. (75 cente.) 
 
 *The Religion of Boys. Luther Halsey Gulick. Association 
 Boys, April. 1902-August, 1903. 
 
 A Boy's Religion. George E. Dawson. (10 cents.) 
 
ADOLESCENCE 31 
 
 The Work of a Boys' Department. Coe, pp. 37-40. 
 
 The Religious Life of Boys. Edward K. Allen, Association 
 Seminar, October, November, December, 1902. ($1.00 per 
 annum.) 
 
 Moral and Religious Education. Forbush. How to Help 
 Boys. ($1.00 per annum.) 
 
 The Spiritual Life. Coe, pp. 29-103. Education in Religion 
 and Morals. Coe, pp. 247-267. 
 
 The Psychology of Religion. E. D. Starbuck. ($1.50.) 
 
 The Pedagogical Bible School. S. B. Haslett, pp. 100-203. ($1.25.) 
 
 Principles of Religious Education. Hall, pp. 159-189. Me- 
 Murry, pp. 191-211. 
 
 *A Chart of Childhood and a Chart of Adolescence. Edward 
 P. St. John. (15 cents each; 2 for 25 cents.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 As Professor H. M. Burr says, "If the boy's ideal of man- 
 hood is Fitzsimmons, he immediately sets about punching 
 some other boy's head. If he thinks the life of an Indian the 
 ideal, he straightway takes to the woods or whoops it up in 
 the alley, as the case may be." For this reason the wise boys' 
 club leader who proposes an attractive new plan will take heed 
 always to carry it into effect at the very next meeting. The 
 Boy Problem. Forbush, pp. 20-21. 
 
 Of interest in this connection is the fact, not generally 
 known, that during adolescence is the period of greatest ques- 
 tioning in regard to religious matters; it is the period of 
 doubt. Mr. F. S. Brockman, in an unpublished study of the 
 religious life of 251 preparatory and high school students, has 
 clear and interesting facts upon this matter. Ninety-three 
 had religious doubts. They were arranged by years as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 13 to 15 8 
 
 16 to 19 19 
 
 20 to 22 15 
 
 23 to 25 11 
 
 26 to 29 1 
 
 Mr. Brockman says, "The doubts arising from mental de- 
 velopment are normal and in every way helpful and healthful. 
 It is but the readjustment of faith when one is beginning to 
 think, and should result in stronger faith." Association Boys. 
 October, 1902. Gulick, p. 166. 
 
 We may safely lay it down as a law of growth that is almost 
 a universal tendency for the perplexity, uncertainty and nega- 
 tion of adolescence to be followed by a period of reconstruc- 
 tion, in which religious truth is apperceived and takes shape 
 as an immediate individual possession. * * * The com- 
 mon trend of religious growth is from childhood faith, through 
 doubt, reaction and estrangement, into a positive hold on re- 
 
32 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 ligion, through an individual reconstruction of belief and 
 faith. The Psychology of Religion. Starbuck, 280, 283. 
 
 When an Omaha boy arrives at puberty he is sent forth into 
 the wilderness to fast in solitude for four days. To develop 
 self-control, he is provided with bow and arrows, but is for- 
 bidden to kill any creature. Arrived on the mountains, he 
 lifts up his voice to the Great Spirit in a song that has been 
 sung under such circumstances from before the time that the 
 white man first set foot upon these shores. The words of the 
 song are, "God! here, poor and needy, I stand!" The melody 
 is so soulful, so appealingly prayerful, that one can scarcely 
 believe it to be of barbarous origin. Yet what miracles may 
 not religious feeling work? The boy is waiting, in fact, for 
 a vision from on high a revelation to be vouchsafed to him 
 personally and to show what his life is to be, whether that 
 of a hunter, or of a warrior, or of medicine man, etc. Do you 
 not perceive how the very same impulses sway both the In- 
 dian boy and the boy of civilization? Here is the desire to 
 come into personal relations with the divinity; here is the 
 facing of ultimate mystery and of destiny; here is the most 
 troublesome problem of youth that of the lifework. The Spir- 
 itual Life. Coe, pp. 48-49. 
 
 Objective righteousness is not predominantly fostered in 
 the church, and in so far does not correspond to the best char- 
 acteristics of young manhood. During the last twenty-five 
 years, in our prayer meetings and churches, we have heard a 
 great deal of the following topics (we do not mean that these 
 topics are exclusive, or that they particularly characterize the 
 meetings of the present day) : Faith, the feeling of love to 
 God, the sense of sin, repentance, the significance of the atone- 
 ment, joy in Christian life, anticipation of Heaven, en- 
 durance of trials, the resistance of evil, endurance of 
 suffering, anticipation of the joys of Heaven, patience. 
 Such topics as these do not correspond to the dominant char- 
 acteristics of young manhood of which I have been speaking, 
 in two ways. First, they are predominantly emotional, and 
 second, predominantly introspective. They are not related 
 most definitely to doing things, this doing things that is the 
 representation of the objective religious life which must char- 
 acterize young manhood. The emotional nature appears to be 
 more highly developed in women than in men. These virtues 
 are more virtues of endurance, of conservatism, of femininity, 
 than they are of objective righteousness, of katabolic man- 
 hood. And it is not to be expected that any institution that 
 lays prominent emphasis upon topics of this kind will succeed 
 In permanently interesting or holding the allegiance of men 
 whose predominant and best characteristics are of another 
 kind. The Association Outlook. Gulick. December, 1893, p. 42. 
 
PART TWO 
 
 THE STUDENT: HIS PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND 
 SPIRITUAL NATURE 
 
ATTENTION INTEREST 35 
 
 Man 
 
 VI. ATTENTION INTEEEST 
 
 We have seen that man is regarded as having three 
 departments, known as body, mind and spirit. Mind, in 
 turn, is found to have three great capacities designated as 
 knowing, feeling and willing. The capacity to know, in 
 turn, is now to be considered in various aspects, the first 
 of which we call "Attention." This division of the powers 
 and capacities of man may be represented by the accompany- 
 ing diagram: 
 
 Body 
 
 "Attention 
 
 f Knowing, 
 MindJ Feeling 
 
 [ Willing 
 Spirit 
 
 1. Definition. The power the mind has for know- 
 ing itself, its own acts, states and purposes, is called "con- 
 sciousness." Consciousness also includes the power of the 
 soul to know itself as the knower. This is the great central 
 fact of the mind. Indeed, it is so fundamental that it is 
 often regarded as being synonymous with the mind itself. 
 It is this that gives me my sense of personal identity, that 
 gives me the knowledge that I am I, without which there 
 would be no basis for other mental operations. 
 
 When consciousness is concentrated on a single object 
 we have attention. Hence attention has been appropriately 
 defined as "focussed consciousness." Attention is that at- 
 titude of the mind in which one or more of its powers 
 
36 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 are fixed upon something that is presented to it from 
 without or within. Attention is not a separate faculty 
 of the mind like memory or imagination. It is rather a 
 state of mind affecting one or more of the faculties. The 
 word attention comes from two words, meaning "to stretch 
 towards." It is therefore the reaching out of the mind 
 for a particular thing with which it may be concerned at the 
 time. Sully speaks of attention as "the ability to detain 
 objects before the mind." As the operator of the stereop- 
 ticon has the power to detain a particular view of the mov- 
 ing panorama while he passes others on into obscurity, so 
 the mind determines which of the many sensations and 
 images passing in review before it shall be held for more 
 careful consideration. 
 
 2. Two kinds of attention. Attention has been divided 
 into two kinds which have been variously designated as 
 voluntary and involuntary, voluntary and spontaneous, com- 
 pelled and attracted. The first is that which is commanded 
 by the will. It must not be expected that attention secured 
 in this way shall be sustained. The most disciplined mind 
 has difficulty in fixing itself for any length of time by sheer 
 force of will on a given object. The chief value of com- 
 pelled attention is as an introduction to attracted attention. 
 The teacher may compel attention at the beginning of the 
 lesson, but unless it soon pass into attracted attention it 
 will not be sustained. 
 
 Therefore we lay emphasis on involuntary or spontan- 
 OUB, or attracted attention, and it is at this point that 
 interest comes in. President Schurman says that "Interest 
 is the greatest word in education," and another says that 
 "Interest is the motive power of attention." That which 
 the mind is interested in it will fix itself upon with eager- 
 ness. Gregory compares attracted attention with mental 
 hunger seeking its food and delighting itself as at a feast. 
 So absorbed does the mind become in that in which it is 
 
ATTENTION INTEREST 3? 
 
 interested as to be unaware of sensations that come to it 
 through ordinary channels. Soldiers are said to have be- 
 come so absorbed in battle that they have not known when 
 they were wounded. Henry Clay,, when in delicate health, 
 was compelled to speak on one occasion, and asked a friend 
 to stop him at the end of twenty minutes. Repeated pull- 
 ing of his coattails, pinching, and even running of a pin 
 into his leg, failed to divert his attention from his sub- 
 ject, and he finally sank exhausted into his chair at the 
 end of two hours. 
 
 3. How to secure attention. Without attention there 
 can be no teaching. As well commence before the class is 
 assembled, or proceed after it is dismissed, as to attempt 
 to teach without the attention of the students. Negatively, 
 then, attention is not to be secured by clamor on the part 
 of the teacher. It may not be claimed by any appeals. The 
 teacher who in loud tones calls for attention is not so apt 
 to secure it as the one who lowers his voice or ceases for the 
 moment altogether. The pause in the vibrations of the 
 machinery aboard ship causes the passengers to awake, 
 whereas an increase in the vibrations might only lull to a 
 sounder sleep. "Nothing," says Gregory, "can be more 
 tmphilosophical than the attempt to compel the wearied 
 attention to new effort by mere authority. As well compel 
 embers to rekindle into a blaze by blowing." 
 
 Among the methods of securing attention, we turn first 
 to those which inhere in the subject-matter itself, which 
 have to do with the handling of the material in such a 
 way as to arouse interest when it could not otherwise exist, 
 and later to artificial devices : 
 
 (1) Contact. It is a fundamental law that interest is not 
 usually aroused on the one hand by that which is entirely 
 new, so new that there is nothing in the mind with which the 
 object can be related, nor, on the other hand, by that which 
 is very familiar, so familiar that it presents no new situa- 
 
38 THE TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 tion to the mind for its consideration. Miss Edgeworth 
 reports that a company of Esquimaux taken to London had 
 no interest in its sights because they were too new and too 
 strange. On the other hand, it is safe to say that the average 
 Londoner walked the same streets at the same time with- 
 out being any more interested because the sights were too 
 familiar. A combination of the new with the old is neces- 
 sary to attention. "The old in a new setting, or the new in 
 an old setting, is the arrangement that insures interest." 
 
 The teacher in introducing a new subject to the student 
 must commence at that point in the student's present knowl- 
 edge which is nearest to the subject in hand. This Mr. 
 Patterson DuBois calls "the point of contact." Here the 
 teacher must attach his subject. This process Mr. DuBois 
 again calls "interest grafting." For example, when Mr. 
 Henry Clay Trumbull was called upon to interest a class 
 of mission school boys in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, he 
 asked, "Boys, did any one of you ever see a sheep shear- 
 ing?" One boy responding affirmatively, Mr. Trumbull 
 continued, "Boys, just listen all of you ; Billy here is going 
 to tell about a sheep shearing he saw in the country." After 
 the description Mr. Trumbull asked of the narrator, "How 
 much noise did the sheep make about being sheared ?" "He 
 didn't bleat a bit," was the reply. "Well, now," asked Mr. 
 Trumbull, "how does that story agree with what the Bible 
 says about sheep shearing ?" 
 
 In the case of older students the biblical material may 
 oftentimes be related to the dominant interests of life 
 as they appear in the pursuit or occupation of the t>tuden$. 
 Instead of coming to the Bible with exegesis, th$t is, t& 
 draw out of it instruction which may be applied at random 
 to this or that interest of life, it is legitimate at times 
 to come to the Bible from the standpoint of these interests 
 and find what light the Bible has to shed upon them. The 
 question that may be absorbing several students may be 
 
ATTENTION INTEREST 39 
 
 their relation to their employers. What the Bible has to 
 say about the relation of the workman to his employer 
 would be sure to arouse the interest of such and to command 
 their attention. (A course of study based on such topics as 
 these and covering a wide range of vital interests in the lif n 
 of young men has, in fact, been prepared and has been foun< 
 to produce just the results here indicated. It is entitled 
 "Life Problems/' and is published by the International 
 Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations.) Prof. 
 Charles De Garmo has written a book on Interest and Edu- 
 cation, the fundamental proposition of which is that interest 
 arises primarily from the activities put forth by men to se- 
 cure the requisites for their physical survival. Interest in 
 this view of the case becomes an effort at self-expression. We 
 must bear in mind that the biblical material abstractly con- 
 sidered is not, as a rule, of overpowering interest to the boy 
 or young man, but by associating the biblical material with 
 that which is dominating his life at the time, a point of 
 contact is effected and interest is grafted by which the 
 dominant interest of the life is carried over into the biblical 
 material. The ideas and concerns of the student's every- 
 day life by this process reach out and absorb into them- 
 selves the spiritual nutriment of the biblical material. All 
 this is in accordance with a principle which Prof. James 
 describes as follows: "Any object not interesting in itself 
 may become interesting through becoming associated with 
 an object in which an interest already exists. The two 
 associated objects grow, as it were, together: the interest 
 borrowed sheds its quality over the whole and thus things 
 not interesting in their own right borrow an interest 
 which becomes as real and as strong as that in any natively 
 interesting thing." 
 
 (2) Change. Novelty is another condition of sustained 
 attention. The same routine followed in the instruction 
 of each lesson will soon result in flagging interest. It must 
 
"40 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 be remembered that sustained attention is the acquirement 
 of a few, and new topics must be introduced, startling ques- 
 tions offered, and every effort made to avoid sameness in 
 the method of the lesson. Archbishop Whateley said 
 that "curiosity is the parent of attention." 
 
 (3) Concreteness. Untrained minds especially are not 
 interested in abstract themes. Such themes must be put 
 into concrete form in order to command attention. "The 
 native interests of children lie altogether in sensation." 
 That which lies at hand therefore will distract attention 
 from abstract subjects presented by word of mouth. Illus- 
 trations of the subject in hand drawn from the daily life of 
 the student will contribute to this end. The use of object 
 lessons and blackboard drawings will also serve to bring 
 the subject within the grasp, and so within the range of 
 interest of the student. If it is not practicable to use a 
 blackboard, a class slate, or paper, may be drawn into 
 requisition. Even the motions of illustrating on black- 
 board, slate or paper, are better than nothing. 
 
 (4) Concentration. The intensity of attention will vary 
 according to the number of topics which the mind is called 
 upon to consider within a given time. The teacher may 
 possibly secure the attention of the student to a number of 
 thoughts in a lesson hour, but the attention will be super- 
 ficial in the case of each. A wise, selection of subjects to 
 be impressed should be made. Better a profound attention 
 to one important lesson to be learned than a superficial 
 interest in a number of topics. 
 
 (5) Suggestiveness. The wise teacher will not exhaust 
 the subject in hand and will leave avenues of interest to 
 be followed out by the student. Adams says, "The in- 
 teresting person supplies the premises but he leaves his 
 hearers to draw their own conclusion. That is their share 
 a share that they enjoy but your dull man does not spare 
 a single detail." 
 
ATTENTION INTEREST 41 
 
 (6) The teacher should be interested in his subject. 
 Interest is contagious. Nothing will so arouse the interest 
 of the student in the subject as to note that the teacher 
 himself is possessed with it, is on fire with it, is intent on 
 conveying it to some one else. 
 
 (7) Many devices have been suggested for the securing of 
 attention aside from methods which grow out of the han- 
 dling of the subject-matter. Some of these may be noted 
 briefly as follows : Do not commence until attention is 
 secured. Pause when attention is interrupted. Arrange 
 for change of posture. Vary the method of procedure, but 
 keep the lesson in view. Provide against distractions from 
 the outside. Stop when there is evidence of fatigue. Eead 
 in concert. Read elliptically. (See "Attention," by Fitch, 
 p. 54.) Prepare questions that will awaken thought. Ask 
 questions first, then call the name of the student who is 
 to answer. Ask questions promptly. Address question to 
 wandering student. Use illustrations suited to the age 
 and attainments of the student. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. \ 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 70-78, 138-149. 
 Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 91-115. 
 Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 28-47. 
 How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 44-50. 
 Primer on Teaching. Adams, pp. 32-46. 
 Point of Contact in Teaching. DuBois, pp. 49-81. 
 Teacher's Handbook of Psychology. Sully, pp. 135-167. 
 Psychology in Education. Roark, pp. 47-55. . 
 Education in Religion and Morals. Coe, pp. 112-118. 
 The Art of Securing Attention. J. G. Fitch. (15 cerits.) 
 Securing and Retaining Attention. J. L. Hughes. (50 cents.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 In teaching you must simply work your pupil into such a 
 state of interest in what you are going to teach him that every 
 object of attention is banished from the mind; then reveal it 
 to him so impressively that he will remember the occasion 
 to his dying day ; and finally fill him with devouring curiosity 
 to know what the next steps in connection with the subject 
 are. Talks to Teachers. James, p. 10. 
 
 Until it pleases God to impart to a little child, either through 
 the instrumentality of wise teaching or otherwise, an appetite 
 
'42 THE TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 for sacred truths, he has no natural curiosity about them. 
 He is naturally very inquisitive about things that surround 
 him; he is curious to learn about the sun, and the moon, and 
 the stars; about distant countries; about the manners of 
 foreigners; about birds and beasts and fishes; nay, even about 
 machines and many other human inventions; but about the 
 nature of God, and about man's relations to him, and the great 
 truths of the revealed religion, you know that there is rarely 
 any real curiosity in a child's mind. You do not find the appe- 
 tite for such knowledge as this already existing there. You 
 have to create it; and until you have created it, he cannot 
 give you the fixed and earnest attention you want without an 
 effort which is positively painful to him. The Art of Securing 
 Attention. Fitch, p. 45. 
 
 No good teaching without attention; no attention without 
 interest; no interest without objects. And the argument holds 
 good for all grades of students from the kindergarten to the 
 university. The university of to-day has "object lessons" in 
 almost every department of study, as witness the splendidly 
 equipped laboratories, museums, maps, pictures, etc., that are 
 in daily use. No teacher of a country school should for a 
 minute think that he can teach well without illustrative ma- 
 terial, any more than the professor of chemistry can without 
 a laboratory. It is only necessary to remember that the ap- 
 paratus must be adapted to the pupil's ability and advance- 
 ment, and to the subject of instruction. Psychology in Edu- 
 cation. Roark, p. 49. 
 
 A young man applied to a city dry-goods jobber for a po- 
 sition as salesman. "Can you sell goods?" was the merchant's 
 first question. "I can sell goods to any man who really wants 
 to buy," was the qualified rejoinder. "Oh, nonsense!" said 
 the merchant "Anybody can sell goods to a man who really 
 wants to buy. I want salesmen who can sell goods to men 
 who don't want to buy." Teaching and Teachers. Trum- 
 bull, p. 139. 
 
 There is a curious microscopic creature of the ponds, called 
 the amoeba, the very name of which signifies constant change. 
 Simple as its life is, the changes that take place in it are 
 typical of the life-processes in all the higher animals, and 
 even of the processes of the growth of the mind. What does 
 this speck of jelly (or protoplasm) do in order to live? It 
 has a power, in the first place, of stretching out a part of it- 
 self towards any object that may eerve it as food, extemporiz- 
 ing a sort of mouth. The second power which the amoeba has 
 is that of retaining the valuable parts of the food material, 
 by which means it maintains its life, repairs organic waste 
 and grows. The mind has two similar powers. It stretches 
 out toward that which answers to its hunger or its "interest," 
 and BO supplies itself with the materials whereby it lives and 
 grows. This act of "stretching out towards" an object pre- 
 sented to the mind we call attention. The Teacher and the 
 Child. Mark, pp. 19-20. 
 
PERCEPTION APPERCEPTION 
 
 VII. PERCEPTION APPERCEPTION 
 
 I. PERCEPTION 
 
 1. Meaning of perception. The mind receives its knowl- 
 edge of the outside world through nerves which have 
 their source in the brain and extend to various portions of 
 the body. We may call the nerves which carry impressions 
 to the brain from the outside "incarrying," and those which 
 convey impulses from the mind outward "outcarrying." 
 Sensation is the mental state produced by a stimulus ap- 
 plied from the outside to an incarrying nerve. The sharp 
 point of a .pin is applied to the end of my finger and 
 immediately an impression is conveyed along the nerve lines 
 to the mind. This impression is called sensation. Percep- 
 tion is the recognition by the mind of that which causes the 
 sensation. The infant without experience is unable to 
 recognize the sensation as having been produced by a pin- 
 point, and is therefore without a perception. Indeed, it is 
 only in infancy that sensation is not followed immediately, 
 as a rule, by perception. In later years the accumulations 
 of experience enable the mind to refer the sensation im- 
 mediately to the object producing it and so perception is 
 formed. One sometimes has an undefined impression of 
 discomfort in sleeping caused by insufficient covering. This 
 may be called a sensation. When the sleeper is sufficiently 
 aroused to understand that he is cold, and that he must 
 draw more covering over him, he may be said to have a 
 perception of cold. The agents through which sensations 
 are received are called the senses. These are five in num- 
 ber, and are called taste, smell, touch, hearing and sight. 
 
44 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 These are here indicated in the order of their refinement, 
 taste and smell being the lowest in form, while sight is the 
 most delicate and complex. Perceptions received through 
 the medium of the senses are sometimes called sense-per- 
 ceptions. 
 
 2. Training of perceptions. Great emphasis is laid to- 
 day on the training of the perceptions in denniteness and 
 accuracy. The mind is thus developed in its powers of 
 observation. The forms of objects are receiving closer scru- 
 tiny and the student taught to outline these not only by 
 verbal description but also by hand. Manual training has 
 been introduced into our systems of education, and the 
 student is learning to work with his hand as well as with 
 his head. The habit of observation, attention to details, 
 precision, honest adherence to facts, and self-reliance, are 
 among the intellectual advantages rising from this train- 
 ing of the perceptions. 
 
 But there is a moral value as well in the training of the 
 senses and perceptions. Roark notes that the education of 
 the senses means the training of the mind to the proper 
 use and enjoyment of the materials which the senses furnish 
 to it, and adds that "the mind will see only what it is 
 capable of seeing however much more there may be to see 
 and however ready the eye and nerve fibre and brain may be 
 to do their work." In the same direction, Miss Harrison, in 
 her "Study of Child Nature," says that "the habit of con- 
 trasting or comparing in material things leads to a fineness 
 of distinction in higher matters. John Ruskin and like 
 thinkers claim that a perception of and love for the beauti- 
 ful in nature leads directly into a discernment of the beau- 
 tiful in the moral world." We may safely leave this train- 
 ing of the senses and perceptions to the schools. The sub- 
 ject is introduced here simply to emphasize the fact that 
 in importing methods of manual training, including draw- 
 ing, the making of models and other objects, into biblical 
 
PERCEPTION APPERCEPTION 45 
 
 instruction, we are bringing in the help of a natural and 
 congenial agency, and thus once again religion is doing no 
 more than claiming its own. 
 
 Outside of the moral training involved in the work of 
 making such objects, the use of them is of incalculable value 
 to the teacher of the Bible. No teacher who desires to con- 
 vey accurate conceptions of facts which are based on Orien- 
 tal forms and customs will be without the map and black- 
 board. Even a crude representation of a house in Pales- 
 tine, with its access to the roof from the outside, would 
 give meaning to the story of the letting down from the 
 roof of the paralytic into the presence of Jesus. A brief 
 consideration of the form of the Sea of Galilee with its 
 mountainous environment would explain the sudden and 
 severe storms which swept down upon that lake and threat- 
 ened the safety of the boats upon its surface. A map of 
 Palestine with lines indicating the tours of Jesus up and 
 down, and hither and thither, gives a consecutiveness to 
 the study of His life and works that is afforded by no other 
 means. (Valuable suggestions concerning the materials 
 needed and the methods of making pulp and other maps, 
 are given in a course of study intended for Boys' Bible 
 Classes, entitled Men of the Bible, published by the In- 
 ternational Committee of Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tions, 3 West 29th street, New York. Map Modelling, by 
 Maltby; Pictured Truth, by Pierce, and The Blackboard 
 in the Sunday-School, by Bailey, will be of service. See also 
 Lesson XIX, on Object Illustrations.) 
 
 Every wise teacher will command as many channels of 
 sensation as possible rather than allow other students or 
 the school environment to do so. The more senses the 
 teacher can command the greater the impression. The eye- 
 gate should be used as well as the ear-gate in conveying 
 knowledge to the mind, and to this should be added, as has 
 already been indicated, the gateway of touch. 
 
46 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 II. APPERCEPTION" 
 
 1. Definition. The derivation of this word from "ad" 
 and "perception" gives an immediate clue to its meaning, 
 which is that certain mental acts are added to perception. 
 A more ordinary word for apperception is assimilation, 
 which suggests that the mental process indicated by the 
 word is akin to the taking up by the body of that which 
 comes to it in the form of food or other sustenance, and 
 digesting it, and making it a part of that which has prev- 
 iously been received. It is a "spontaneous act of the mind 
 in immediately seeking something in its store of ideas with 
 which to classify a new idea ; the translation and interpre- 
 tation of the new in the terms of the known/' The South 
 Sea Islanders who were familiar with sheep called the first 
 hog that they ever saw a "grunting sheep." Mr. Rooper 
 has given to a book on the subject of apperception the title 
 "A Pot of Green Feathers," because that was the name 
 applied to a pot of ferns by a child who had never seen 
 ferns before. 
 
 2. Application to Bible Teaching. It is important that 
 the teacher should be familiar with this principle of mental 
 operation and should work in accordance with it. In 
 bringing to the student something new he should consider 
 what the student has already acquired to which the new 
 subject may be attached and into which it will fit. This 
 body of acquisitions already secured by the student has 
 been called "an apperceiving mass." The skilful teacher 
 will consider whether the information that is to be con- 
 veyed to the student in a given lesson will find a congenial 
 and effective reception in the body of acquisitions which 
 the student has already made. Especially is it important 
 in the case of religious instruction, which has to do with 
 thoughts and ideas which are not so easily handled as more 
 concrete knowledge, that the teacher should convey the 
 
PERCEPTION APPERCEPTION 4? 
 
 spiritual truth in such a way as that it will attach itself 
 naturally and effectively to other thoughts and ideas which 
 the student may already have acquired. For example, the 
 fatherhood of God can be conveyed to the mind most effec- 
 tively through the knowledge which the student already pos- 
 sesses of the meaning of the fatherhood of ordinary family 
 relations. (See Lesson XIII on Adaptation for further de- 
 velopment of this subject.) 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 The Teacher's Handbook of Psychology. Sully, pp. 106-133, 
 168-206. 
 
 *Psychology in Education. Roark, pp. 67-68, 155-159, 
 163-164. 
 
 Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 33-36; 58-60, 155-168. 
 
 The Blackboard in Sunday-school. Henry Turner Bailey, 
 pp. 24-31. (75 cents.) 
 
 *The Point of Contact. DuBois. 
 
 A Pot of Green Feathers. (Apperception.) T. G. Rooper. 
 (25 cents.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 The more different kinds of things a child gets to know by 
 thus treating them and handling them, the more confident 
 grows his sense of kinship with the world in which he lives. 
 An unsympathetic adult will wonder at the fascinated hours 
 which a child will spend in putting his blocks together and 
 rearranging them. But the wise education takes the tide at 
 the flood, and from the kindergarten upward devotes the first 
 years of education to training in construction and to object- 
 teaching. I need not recapitulate here what I said awhile 
 back about the superiority of the objective and experimental 
 methods. They occupy the pupil in a way most congruous with 
 the spontaneous interests of his age. They absorb him, and 
 leave impressions durable and profound. Compared with the 
 youth taught by these methods, one brought up exclusively by 
 books carries through life a certain remoteness from reality; 
 he stands, as it were, out of the pale, and feels that he stands 
 so; and often suffers a kind of melancholy from which he 
 might have been rescued by a more real education. Talks to 
 Teachers. James, pp. 59-60. 
 
 The teacher ought always to impress the class through as 
 many sensible channels as he can. Talk and write on the 
 blackboard, permit the pupils to talk, and make them write 
 and draw; exhibit pictures, plans and curves; have your dia- 
 grams colored differently in their various parts, etc., and out 
 of the whole variety of impressions the individual child will 
 
48 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 find the most lasting ones for himself. Talks to Teachers. 
 James, p. 139. 
 
 Very often the teacher must introduce ideas into the mind 
 of the pupil, not so much for their immediate importance as 
 for the use to be made of them at future lessons. There is 
 no greater charm for any one than to find that a certain fact 
 known in one connection, suddenly becomes to be of use in an 
 entirely new way. To maintain interest each new lesson 
 should be impressed upon the background framed by all that 
 has gone before. Primer on Teaching. Adams, pp. 37-38. 
 
 Another problem in grafting interest is presented by the 
 mother of a boy of twelve, who, she says, "cares for nothing 
 but horses. He will not read, nor listen to reading." According 
 to the principle of "grafting" the solution is simply to begin 
 with some book about horses. Even so badly written a story 
 as Black Beauty may serve as a stepping stone. Then per- 
 haps Kipling's story The Maltese Cat of the horses who 
 really played a polo game, and that other horse story in The 
 Day's Work, A 'Walking Delegate. Then The Bell of Atri, by 
 Longfellow, and the story of Pegasus in Hawthorne's Wonder 
 Book. By that time, and even much earlier, the boy will easily 
 be led to books of exploration, and books about strange people; 
 and then, before you know it, your boy is interested in his- 
 tory. The Point of Contact in Teaching. DuBois, p. 80. 
 
 What does the child care about the revolt of the ten tribes 
 or the repairing of the temple, or the woes upon the Phari- 
 sees? Primarily nothing. These topics are as foreign to his 
 thought as the problem of evil or the law of the correlation of 
 forces. His only possible interest must come through associa- 
 tion. If he has revolted from authority at home or in school, 
 if the meeting-house in his village has been extensively re- 
 paired within his memory, a wise teacher may be able to ex- 
 cite his interest in similar experiences of people long ago. The 
 boy may be led from his quarrel with his companions as to who 
 should be president of the boys' club, to that of the disciples 
 as to who should be first in the kingdom of God; and from 
 the effects of wild companions upon himself to the effects of 
 similar companions upon Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. 
 The Blackboard in Sunday-school. Bailey, pp. 29-30. 
 
MEMORY IMAGINATION 49 
 
 VET. MEMOKY IMAGINATION 
 
 I. MEMORY 
 
 1. The Office and Development of Memory. White de- 
 fines memory as "the power of the soul to represent 
 (re-present) and re-know objects previously known or ex- 
 perienced." There are three elements in this definition, the 
 retaining of that which has passed through the mind, the 
 reproduction of it, and the recognition of it. Conscious- 
 ness has to do with the present, memory with the past. 
 Without consciousness we should have no to-day, without 
 memory no yesterday. Locke said that "without memory 
 man is a perpetual infant." 
 
 The memory receives a marked impulse at the age of six 
 to eight, and grows notably from that time to the age of 
 twelve or fourteen. This, therefore, is the memorizing age. 
 Teachers who have students of twelve and upwards in their 
 classes are apt to find them with memories vigorous and 
 retentive. 
 
 Memory is of two kinds, verbal and logical, according as 
 that which is recalled is in the exact words or in the asso- 
 ciation of ideas. An accurate verbal memory is oftentimes 
 associated with inferior mentality, and is not the type to be-; 
 cultivated with the greatest assiduity. 
 
 2. The Laws of Memory. While it has been claimed that 
 the natural general retentiveness of the mind cannot be 
 improved, in other words, that the original endowment of 
 the memory cannot be enlarged, there are certain laws for 
 the use of such powers of memory as have been vouchsafed 
 
50 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 to us that may make them more effective than they would 
 otherwise be. These may be reduced to three : 
 
 (1) Interest and Attention. It is of the utmost impor- 
 tance in order to retention that the first impressions should 
 be strong and clear-cut. That which comes to the mind 
 with the greatest vigor and clarity at first will be retained 
 and reproduced most easily. So it has been found of ad- 
 vantage in order to memorize words that they should be 
 repeated articulately. In this process attention is found to 
 be most helpful, not compelled attention, but the attention 
 growing out of interest. It is found that men usually have 
 retentive memories in the things that are concerned with 
 their daily pursuits. Their vital interest in these things 
 insures retention. It is truly said that, "The art of memory 
 is the art of paying attention." Joseph Cook put it in an- 
 other way when he said that attention is the mother of 
 memory and interest the mother of attention, and to secure 
 memory one must secure both her mother and her grand- 
 mother. 
 
 (2) Repetition. Another reason why we remember the 
 things that have to do with our daily pursuits is that we are 
 constantly repeating them. Repetition should be varied. 
 That which has been presented verbally should be repeated 
 with the aid of the blackboard. That which has been pre- 
 sented to the mind through the ear should be presented 
 again through the eye, and again, if possible, through the 
 touch, so that the impression may be made upon the mind 
 through as many senses as possible. The central thought 
 of the lesson should be repeated, each time in some new 
 aspect. For the same reason frequent reviews are necessary. 
 
 (3) Association. Coleridge mentions as three memory 
 arts for students, sound logic, healthy digestion and a clear 
 conscience. Those things which are most closely connected 
 are most easily remembered. They may be connected by 
 continuity, by similarity, as sign and thing signified, or as 
 
MEMORY IMAGINATION 51 
 
 cause and effect. The memory seems to call for hooks on 
 which it may hang appropriate subjects of knowledge, and 
 here, as in the household and office economy, the rule is 
 found effective that there should be a place for everything 
 and everything in its place. James says that the art of 
 remembering is the art of thinking, and adds that the con- 
 necting is the thinking. Dr. Pick urges that when we wish 
 to fix a new thing in either our own mind or a pupil's, our 
 conscious effort should not be so much to impress and re- 
 tain as to connect it with something else already there. 
 
 3. Memory and Character. It has been said that nothing 
 is ever wholly forgotten. Coleridge mentions the case of 
 an ignorant woman who when stricken down with a fever, 
 in her delirium, gave utterance to Hebrew and Greek pas- 
 sages. It was afterward explained that the woman had once 
 been a servant in the family of a clergyman whose habit it 
 had been to read the Scriptures aloud in the original He- 
 brew and Greek. James tells us that "Prof. Ebbinghaus's 
 experiments show that things which we are quite unable 
 definitely to recall have nevertheless impressed themselves 
 in some way upon the structure of the mind. We are dif- 
 ferent for having once learned them. The resistances in 
 our systems of brain paths are altered." It cannot be too 
 strongly impressed upon the mind of the student that every- 
 thing that he takes into his mind contributes to its making 
 or marring, and that, although we may not be aware of it 
 at the time of its reception, that which is received makes its 
 impress upon the mind and so on the character and will 
 inevitably develop itself in later life. "Take heed what ye 
 hear." (Mark 4 : 24.) "Thy word have I hid in mine heart 
 that I might not sin against thee." (Ps. 119 : 11.) 
 
 4. Memorizing of Scriptures. So much protest has been 
 entered against the memorizing by children of passages of 
 Scripture the meaning of which is not clear to them, that 
 we are in danger of going to the opposite extreme and the 
 
52 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 treasuring of the great scriptural landmarks in the memory 
 is to a considerable extent ignored. The student is not shut 
 up, however, to memorizing Scriptures with whose truths 
 he is not familiar. If the Twenty-third Psalm may not be 
 regarded as a picture of the experience of the young, the 
 First Psalm must certainly have application to the life of 
 the boy and the young man. The Ten Commandments and 
 the Lord's Prayer, and many other utterances of Jesus, may 
 be brought within the range of the memory age and should 
 be added to the storehouse which the child is filling for 
 future use. Ruskin said that the twenty-six chapters of the 
 Bible he learned from his mother constituted the most val- 
 uable part of his education. Here again the laws for the 
 government of the memory may be effectively employed. 
 For example, in the First Psalm, to which reference has 
 been made, the attention of the student might be called to 
 the fact that there is a progression in the course of the 
 wicked man so that at first he walks, then stands and finally 
 sits among objectionable companions, and that there is also 
 a progression in the wickedness of those with whom he 
 associates who are first the ungodly and then sinners and 
 finally the scornful. 
 
 II. IMAGINATION 
 
 1. The Office and Development of Imagination. White 
 defines the imagination as "the power of the mind to repre- 
 sent and modify or recombine objects previously known." 
 Imagination is the picture-forming power of the mind. We 
 need not confuse the work of the memory and that of the 
 imagination as is sometimes done. The memory reproduces, 
 the imagination modifies, combines, creates, but always 
 works on the material which is furnished to it by the 
 memory. 
 
 Imagination manifests itself at an early age, sometimes 
 as early as two years, and is very marked at three or four. 
 
MEMORY IMAGINATION 53 
 
 As with memory there seems to be an accession of imag- 
 inative power at six or eight, and the teacher of students 
 of twelve and over, while he will discover the imagination 
 to be less wayward than at an earlier period, will find it 
 vigorous and active and a helpful ally in the processes of 
 development. 
 
 Imagination has an important place in the daily occupa- 
 tions of men no matter what those occupations may be. 
 "There is no occupation in life," says Roark, "which may 
 not be the better followed with the aid of imagination. The 
 ditch digger who can see the effect of his next blow before it 
 is struck ; the bricklayer who can see the next brick in posi- 
 tion before it is placed : the blacksmith who can shape the 
 bar to the ideal which he projects upon the anvil these do 
 far better work than those who can see nothing but their 
 memory images or the things actually before them." Prof. 
 Johnson shows how imagination is necessary in the work 
 of the soldier, of the statesman, and of the historian. Tyn- 
 dall, too, speaks of a "scientific imagination," which implies 
 the ability to form reasonable hypotheses which afterward 
 are subjected to tests and verification. 
 
 2. The Imagination and Bible Study. Prof. Johnson has 
 written a book which he has entitled "The Religious Uses of 
 the Imagination." Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis has a chapter 
 in one of his books on "The Imagination as the Architect of 
 Manhood." Horace Bushnell once wrote an article bearing 
 the title "The Gospel a Gift to the Imagination." The im- 
 agination, then, has a very real place in moral and spiritual 
 development. "Where there is no vision the people perish." 
 More specifically, it is a help in the effective interpretation 
 of the Bible in terms of to-day. Lange, in his book on Ap- 
 perception, says that "when a child transports himself 
 into the unknown and distant region of Bible history, there 
 come to the help of the new names certain familiar and 
 similar notions." This is not only a characteristic of child- 
 
54 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 hood, but belongs to the great prophets of the faith, men 
 who with the aid of the imagination have brought the scenes 
 of the Bible into the life of to-day and interpreted the his- 
 torical past in modern terms. Dwight L. Moody was force- 
 ful not only by reason of his great faith, but also because 
 of his imagination. Henry Drummond says that imagina- 
 tion is the primary faculty of the new evangelism. George 
 J. Romanes said very truly that "to believe necessitates a 
 spiritual use of the imagination." It should be noted also 
 that the parables of Jesus are a creation of the imagination. 
 Educators have recognized geography and history, in- 
 cluding biography, as studies that are especially helpful to 
 the imagination, and in which imagination may have the 
 largest play. Roark says again: "To get anything out of 
 histor} r , the student must be able to put himself back into 
 the time of which he reads must see the people, their 
 modes of dress, the circumstances of their daily life ; must 
 feel their emotions and desires, their hopes and ambitions ; 
 must understand their arts and sciences ; must make himself 
 one of them before he can form any adequate idea of 
 events or the relations and causes of events in any given 
 period. Young people can image these things with won- 
 derful facility and fidelity, and will do so if only the teacher 
 in oral lessons, or text-book drill, will supply the stim- 
 ulus of interest, and set the material before the creative 
 faculty in the right way. Still more is this true in the 
 study of biography, for in this there is the powerful at- 
 tractiveness of personality." Students should be encour- 
 aged to transport themselves in imagination into the 
 midst of the events recorded in the sacred history. They 
 should be led to clothe the characters of the Bible with a 
 new life and find themselves in familiar touch with these 
 great personalities. In this way the imagination will make 
 its contribution to character. The characters of the Bible 
 will come to be the ideals of the student, "and ideals are the 
 
MEMORY IMAGINATION 55 
 
 standards which imagination forms and sets before us 
 as the measures of our conduct." Thus unconsciously will 
 the student be led to make the best characters of the Bible 
 his ideals and to formulate his life according to their 
 models. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 Teacher's Handbook of Psychology. Sully, pp. 207-304. 
 
 ^Psychology in Education. Roark, pp. 79-97, 109-117. 
 
 The Elements of Pedagogy. White, pp. 51-58. 
 
 *Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 116-143. 
 
 Principles of Religious Education. Hodges, pp. 86-87. 
 
 Memory Work in Character Forming. Walter L. Harvey in 
 Proceedings of the Religious Education Association. Vol. II., 
 pp. 31-37. ($2.00.) 
 
 Religious Uses of the Imagination. E. H. Johnson. ($1.00.) 
 
 A Man's Value to Society. Hillis, pp. 123-162. ($1.25.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 It is only classified knowledge that is, knowledge placed 
 in its real relations that can be most effectively retained 
 and produced for use. Unclassified knowledge is almost use- 
 less. Some minds seem to be mere junk-shops of knowledge, 
 filled with fragments and scraps of learning, tumbled together 
 as they came, with no orderliness or method in their arrange- 
 ment. Others are like a well-arranged, well-kept museum, 
 where everything is properly named and classified, and where 
 everything can be got without delay and with small effort. 
 Psychology in Education. Roark, p. 92. 
 
 The excesses of old-fashioned verbal memorizing, and the 
 immense advantages of object-teaching in the earlier stages of 
 culture, have perhaps led those who philosophize about teach- 
 ing to an unduly strong reaction; and learning things by 
 heart is now probably too much despised. For, when all is 
 said and done, the fact remains that verbal material is, on 
 the whole, the handiest and most useful material in which 
 thinking can be carried on. * * * I should say, therefore, 
 that constant exercise in verbal memorizing must still be an 
 indispensable feature in all sound education. Nothing is more 
 deplorable than that inarticulate and helpless sort of mind 
 that is reminded by everything of some quotation, case, or 
 anecdote, which it cannot now exactly recollect. Nothing, on the 
 other hand, is more convenient to its possessor or more de- 
 lightful to his comrades, than a mind able, in telling a story, 
 to give the exact words of the dialogue or to furnish a quota- 
 tion accurate and complete. Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 
 131-132. 
 
 It is probable that modern revolt from the tyranny of words 
 has led us to undervalue the legitimate service of language in 
 
56 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 learning. In many cases, the embodiment of knowledge in 
 precise verbal form is clearly of the highest consequence. 
 This applies to such things as definitions and rules where the 
 words are carefully selected for a special purpose and cannot 
 be altered, and also to poetry and passages of prose where the 
 literary form is an element of value. Even in learning such 
 a subject as history the verbal memory has its rightful part. 
 What the teacher has to take care of is that he uses the child's 
 verbal memory only as an auxiliary to the retention of ideas 
 after these have been made clear and duly connected with one 
 another, and never as a substitute for this, and that his pupil 
 is not slavishly dependent on the particular words of 
 the lesson or the textbook, but is able to put his knowledge 
 into other forms when required to do so. That is to say, 
 learning by heart is permissible if it does not degenerate into 
 an unintelligent learning by rote. The Teacher's Handbook of 
 Psychology. Sully, pp. 258-259. 
 
 The classes of history textbooks intended for use in classes 
 below the college freshman should contain a good deal of 
 biography and should group events about the lives and deeds 
 of eminent men and women. And even all the way through 
 the college or university course, in other studies, as well as in 
 history also, it is well to give imagination this element of the 
 personal about which to group many of its combinations. The 
 history of the struggles and achievements of great mathemati- 
 cians, chemists, physicists, serves to intensify the creative 
 power of other minds. It is mainly through its exercise in 
 literature, history and biography, that imagination builds the 
 moral character. In this building it has its highest function. 
 Psychology in Education. Roark, p. 215. 
 
 Parents and teachers should set before boys and girls the 
 best characters in literature, history, and biography; not in 
 any goody-goody way, not with too much stress upon the de- 
 sirability of imitating them, but in a frank, cordial, rational 
 way. Men and women cannot afford to do otherwise with 
 themselves. What the imagination habitually contemplates, 
 that will it form into the ideals in whose image we make our- 
 selves. Psychology in Education. Roark, p. 216. 
 
FEELINGS WILL 57 
 
 IX. FEELINGS WILL 
 
 I. FEELINGS 
 
 The mind has three functions designated respectively as 
 knowing, feeling and willing. We have considered soma 
 of the powers that are concerned in the act of knowing: 
 attention, perception, memory, imagination. We now turn 
 to the feelings. It should be borne in mind that these 
 powers are not separated to such an extent as the various 
 designations of them would seem to indicate. This division 
 of the powers of the mind is to accommodate our own 
 thought about them. As a fact there are few processes 
 of the mind in which attention, perception, memory and 
 imagination are not all involved. 
 
 1. Definition and Classification. Perhaps the simplest 
 definition of feelings is that furnished by Koark in which 
 he describes them as "mental states of pleasure and pain." 
 The following classification of the feelings has been tab- 
 ulated from Sully's description of them in his Handbook 
 of Psychology (pp. 407-507), the feelings noted in paren- 
 theses being additions to the author's classification : 
 
 (1) Bodily feelings sense feelings: 
 
 a. Organic, as feeling warmth and cold. 
 &. Special sense, as feeling from touching objects, 
 soft and smooth, or hard and rough. 
 
 (2) Mental feelings emotions: 
 
 a. Instinctive or egoistic fear, anger, rivalry, love 
 of activity, of approbation (envy, jealousy, hate, 
 shame, pride, ambition). 
 
58 THE TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 &. Social love, sympathy (imitativeness, pity, phi- 
 lanthropy, patriotism). 
 c. Sentiments 
 
 (a) Intellectual Wonder, curiosity. Object, 
 
 truth. 
 
 (&) ^Esthetic Taste. Object, the beautiful. 
 (c) Moral Reverence for duty and moral law. 
 Object, moral goodness. 
 
 2. "The Premiership of the Feelings." This is the phrase 
 of Patterson DuBois to describe the important place feel- 
 ings hold in our mental processes and in the economy of 
 the world. "Feeling," he says, "rules the world. It was 
 not the intellectual convictions alone of Paul, Savonarola, 
 Luther, Knox, Bunyan, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Wilberforce, 
 Washington, Mrs. Stowe, Whittier or Lincoln, that wrought 
 such reformations, but rather their ardor, their zeal, cour- 
 age, sympathy, their hates and loves, their hopes and fears 
 in short, those stirrings of the soul which stand imme- 
 diately behind the will as goads and credentials to action." 
 
 The feelings are oftentimes not given their due place 
 because the mention of the name brings to the thought 
 those feelings which when not controlled result in harm, 
 as anger, envy, jealousy and hate. A glance at the cate- 
 gory of feelings given above, however, will convince one 
 as to the large place the feelings have in all helpful rela- 
 tions. 
 
 3. Direction. The feelings should be kept under control 
 because in full sway they overpower and subdue the func- 
 tion of knowing. Perception, memory, judgment, are flung 
 to the winds when the feelings are in the mastery. By the 
 control of the feelings it is not intended that they should 
 be repressed. Such feelings as fear, anger, the love of 
 activity, pride and ambition, have their proper place. In- 
 deed it would not be difficult to show that nearly all feel- 
 ings have their good as well as their evil aspects. It is said 
 
FEELINGS WILL 59 
 
 of the Puritans that they over-emphasized the intellect, and 
 under-emphasized the feelings, and one of the arraignments 
 of their descendants is that they have to too large an extent 
 repressed the emotional life. Sully truly says that the 
 teacher "should bear in mind that the frequent wounding of 
 any feeling is apt to deaden it. A boy who never gets recog- 
 nition when he feels that he deserves it tends to grow 
 indifferent to it; or, if he be unusually sensitive, an even 
 worse result may ensue in the shape of a secret feeling 
 of resentment at injustice." 
 
 The feelings should be wisely directed towards right con- 
 duct. The awakening of emotions which do not find an 
 immediate outlet into channels of helpful activity will re- 
 act unfavorably upon the person in whom the emotions are 
 produced. Sully says "The worth of the social and moral 
 feelings resides in their organic attachment as motives 
 to definite lines of conduct." Touching stories descriptive 
 of human need and suffering should therefore be sparingly 
 used except as they point the way to some specific case of 
 need or suffering which may be relieved. The stirring of the 
 emotions in evangelistic meetings unless it be followed by 
 personal intercourse with the person displaying such emo- 
 tion and. faithful following up until feeling results in action 
 and action in conduct, is detrimental rather than helpful. 
 
 4. Development. The feelings call for wise development : 
 fear in the apprehension of that which injures the life, 
 anger in the denunciation of that which is wrong, pride in 
 elation over that which contributes to character, ambition 
 in the direction of the highest and best things. Systematic 
 attention should be given to the cultivation of the feelings. 
 Charles Darwin tells us in his Autobiography how he failed 
 to develop the sentimental side of his life, and came to dis- 
 like music and poetry. It would be well for those whose 
 occupations call for the almost exclusive use of the powers 
 of sensation, perception or judgment to read poetry system- 
 
60 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 atically. The higher emotions should be cultivated espe- 
 cially in the development of the religious life. Devotional 
 books should have a larger place in the reading of Christian 
 people. The Psalms which are pre-eminently the expression 
 of religious feelings constitute the most valuable reading 
 for this purpose. 
 
 5. Use of the Feelings in Teaching. The feelings may be 
 utilized by the teacher in the work of instruction to great 
 advantage. There may be generated in the student a gen- 
 erous spirit of rivalry to surpass his fellows in the gaining 
 of knowledge; there may be stirred within him emulation 
 of the best points in the character and conduct of those 
 about him ; curiosity may well be excited in order to arouse 
 interest in the subject in hand; wonder may be aroused 
 which will lead to the pursuit of further knowledge (Max 
 Muller says that "all science begins and ends in wonder") ; 
 a sense of shame over failure to accomplish, and of pride 
 over accomplishment, may be appealed to ; a spirit of esprit 
 de corps which shall result in a desire to have the class 
 or school stand well may be stimulated; admiration for 
 noble characters studied and the susceptibility to influences 
 of personality may be utilized. "Would you stir the emo- 
 tion or heroism of some youth," says Dr. Hillis, "ply him 
 with great epochs and hours in the life of Lincoln or the 
 biography of Gladstone. Stories of courage stir the emotion 
 of courage. Tales of heroism arouse the feelings that are 
 heroic." For this reason the biography of the Bible con- 
 stitutes a most desirable source of instruction for those 
 whose characters are to be developed and conduct influ- 
 enced. The grandeur of the character of Moses, the courage 
 of David, the heroism of Paul, the manliness of Christ, will 
 stir feelings of admiration and emulation which cannot but 
 result in nobler character and improved conduct. 
 
FEELINGS WILL 61 
 
 II. THE WILL 
 
 1. Koark defines the will as the power of the mind to de- 
 termine and execute. The will should be respected. It is 
 the sovereign power of the mind. The breaking of the 
 child's will has been recommended. John Wesley wrote: 
 "Break your child's will in order that it may not perish. 
 Break its will as soon as it can speak plainly or even before 
 it can speak at all. It should be forced to do as it is told 
 even if you have to whip it ten times running. Break its 
 will in order that its soul may live." This treatment is as 
 pernicious as the repression of the feelings, and the wise 
 course, as in the case of the feelings, is in the direction of 
 the will rather than in its repression. Henry Clay Trum- 
 bull truly says that a broken will is worth as much in its 
 sphere as a broken bow. Indeed, the development of char- 
 acter means that the will shall have as wide a latitude as it 
 is possible to give to it. This involves risk and danger, 
 but in the interests of personality and character there is no 
 other course. 
 
 2. The will should be directed. The training and de- 
 velopment of the will mean the training and development of 
 all conscious forces of mind so that the movement in re- 
 sponse to sensations and suggestions may naturally be in 
 the right direction. To this end the function of knowing 
 should be developed so that from the wider range of choices 
 presented the most helpful selection may be made. McAl- 
 lister says "that we find that the development of the will 
 consists in attaining knowledge that is, in securing a stock 
 of ideas, in consistently holding on to right ideas no matter 
 how unpleasant, and in acquiring habits of acting upon 
 these definite ideas which we call right. Let us not forget 
 that preaching, talking about being good, soon becomes a 
 bore. Let us seize upon practical opportunities and lead 
 
62 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 the pupils not only to feel and to think, but to do." This 
 is the philosophy of the title of the famous sermon by Dr. 
 Chalmers on "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection/' 
 the new interest and the new desire outweighing and there- 
 fore checking the old interest and desire. 
 
 3. The will has to do with character. It has been well 
 said that "character may be defined as the sum of our 
 choices." Character is not only indicated by the kind of 
 choices that we make, but it is also affected by those choices. 
 The character may be developed by the choosing of the 
 more difficult course when two courses of action are pre- 
 sented for selection. It was in this way that the character 
 of Moses was formed who chose affliction with his own 
 people rather than the luxury of the Egyptian palace. 
 
 It is not according to the economy of God that men 
 should be forced into His kingdom. The Maker of the will 
 respects the will, and offers a choice to those whom He 
 invites into His service. "I have set before you life and 
 death, blessing and cursing : therefore choose life that both 
 you and thy seed may live : That thou mayest love the Lord 
 thy God, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him : for He is 
 thy life and the length of thy days." (Deut. 30:19, 20.) 
 
 "The problem of personal choice," says Coe, "does not 
 normally grow acute until the beginning or middle of ado- 
 lescence ; that is, not much before the years from twelve to 
 fifteen, though it may rise in minor and gradually increas- 
 ing degree before that age." This is the age then when 
 special attention should be given to the deliberate choices. 
 We have found in the study of adolescence that it is during 
 the latter part of this period that the youth is most likely 
 to make the supreme choice in the selection of the spiritual 
 principles and ideals of his life. Every effort should there- 
 fore be made at this time to give sway to the trend of his 
 nature in this direction, and to check those forces which 
 would stand in the way of his best choice. 
 
FEELINGS WILL 63 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 THE FEELINGS. 
 
 Teacher's Hand Book of Psychology. Sully, pp. 407-507. 
 
 Psychology in Education. Roark, pp. 118-147. 
 
 Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 45-63. 
 
 *The Natural Way. Patterson DuBois, pp. 69-173. 
 
 *Imago Christi. James Stalker, pp. 300-313. ($1.50.) 
 
 Mistakes in Teaching. James L. Hughes, pp. 105-106. (50 
 cents.) 
 THE WILL. 
 
 Teacher's Hand Book of Psychology. Sully, pp. 508-571. 
 
 Psychology in Education. Roark, pp. 150-154, 217-228. 
 
 Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 169-196. 
 
 The Natural Way. Patterson DuBois, pp. 278-314. 
 
 Education in Religion and Morals. Coe, pp. 187-191. 
 
 ^Proceedings Religious Education Association. Cloyd N. Mc- 
 Allister, Vol. II., pp. 326-329. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 Mere emotion that evaporates without a deed is weakening. 
 Hence the harm of crying at the theatre and "with no lan- 
 guage but a cry." Any working of the feelings without op- 
 portunity to act is likely to result in impairment. It produces 
 a soft sentimentality. Hence the common outcry against 
 emotionalism. The Natural Way. DuBois, p. 170. 
 
 The teacher will endeavor by every legitimate means to in- 
 duce those for whom he labors to express every newly aroused 
 religious emotion and purpose in some definite act which will 
 tend to make it of permanent moral effect. To arouse emo- 
 tion which produces no effect on conduct is a serious peda- 
 gogical mistake. Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. 
 Burton and Mathews, p. 103. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that we ought not to think too much 
 about our own feelings, dance attendance on them, or use them 
 unduly as a plea and a motive. A friend of mine used to say 
 that he had no patience with people who are always getting 
 their feelings hurt that is, using their hurt feelings as a 
 line of defence for their own actions. On the other hand, 
 our best success in life depends largely upon our recognition 
 of the feelings of others. The Natural Way. DuBois, p. 96. 
 
 It is not a good plan to stir the emotions of impenitent 
 scholars by any earnest appeals without giving the scholars 
 thus aroused a specific and an immediate opportunity to decide 
 at once for the right. If scholars are moved to strong feeling 
 concerning their spiritual condition and needs without being 
 called on to take a stand at once on the side of duty, they 
 are injured rather than helped through the involved strain 
 upon their feelings. Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 
 350. 
 
 Darwin says: "Up to the age of thirty or beyond it, poetry 
 
64 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 of many kinds gave me great pleasure; and even as a school- 
 boy I took intense delight in Shakespeare, especially in the 
 historical plays. I have also said that pictures formerly gave 
 me considerable, and music very great delight. But now for 
 many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry. I have 
 tried lately to read Shakespeare and found it so intolerably 
 dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost my taste 
 for pictures or music. My mind seems to have become a kind 
 of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections 
 of facts; but why this should have caused the atrophy of that 
 part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I 
 cannot conceive. * * * If I had to live my life again, I would 
 have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music 
 at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain 
 now atrophied would thus have been kept alive through use. 
 The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possi- 
 bly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the 
 moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our 
 nature." Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 71-72. 
 
 We may then lay it down for certain that every representa- 
 tion of a movement awakens in some degree the actual move- 
 ment which is its object; and awakens it in a maximum de- 
 gree whenever it is not kept from so doing by an antagonistic 
 representation present simultaneously to the mind. The ex- 
 press flat, or act of mental consent to the movement, comes 
 in when the neutralization of the antagonistic and inhibitory 
 idea is required. But that there is no express fiat needed 
 when the conditions are simple, the reader ought now to be 
 convinced. Psychology (Briefer Course). James, p. 426. 
 
 One school of psychologists would have us believe that there 
 IB no such thing as will; that all movements, even in the 
 adult, are due to reflex action or to the direct influence of 
 motor ideas: that Is when we think of some movement it is 
 desirable to make, the idea stimulates the appropriate motor 
 nerves, and these, discharging into the requisite muscles, cause 
 them to contract. This theory "short-circuits" the current 
 of action, as an electrician might say, and cuts out will alto- 
 gether. The eye is stimulated too much by a strong light; 
 the painful impulse flows Into consciousness, and starts an 
 idea of lowering the window blind; this idea starts the mole- 
 cules to vibrating in the motor nerves running to the arm and 
 hand, and by the contraction thus caused in the proper muscles 
 the blind is lowered. This fairly illustrates the materialistic 
 explanation of will action. Psychology in Education. Roark, 
 pp. 161-152. 
 
HABIT 65 
 
 X. HABIT 
 
 1. Definition and description. Habit has been defined 
 by Roark as "that condition of the mind or body which is 
 manifested in the tendency to unconscious repetition of acts 
 or states." SulJy says of habit that "we are said to do any- 
 thing under the influence of habit when we carry out a 
 familiar and oft-repeated action in response to some initiat- 
 ing stimulus with scarcely any conscious or psychical pur- 
 pose or any attention to the precise form of the action." 
 The most simple and yet most profound definition of habit 
 is that it is "second nature." 
 
 All authors agree that habit has a physiological basis, 
 fcliat the sensation which the nerve carries to the brain for 
 the first time cuts a path, speaking figuratively, through 
 the brain, and that the same sensation, if repeated and not 
 prevented from doing so, will follow the same path. When 
 this has been done so many times as to be repeated uncon- 
 sciously, habit has been formed. 
 
 Unfortunately the word habit is popularly associated with 
 tendencies to repetition of that which is evil. As in the 
 case of the feelings, the word suggests bad habits rather 
 than good habits. As James says, "We talk of the smoking- 
 habit, and the swearing-habit, and the drinking-habit, but 
 not of the abstention-habit, or the moderation-habit, or the 
 courage-habit, but the fact is that our virtues are habits as 
 much as our vices." Even so intelligent a writer as R. L. 
 Stevenson says, "Evil was called Youth until he was old 
 and then he was called Habit." We must not ignore the 
 fact, however, that habit refers as distinctly to tendencies to 
 the repetition of the good in our lives as of the evil, and 
 
66 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 that moral character, as we shall see later, is in a sense 
 the sum of all good habits. 
 
 2. The importance of habit. We have only to consider 
 for a moment how large a part habit plays in the affairs 
 of our daily life to realize something of its importance. 
 James says, "Ninety-nine hundredths or, possibly, nine 
 hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of our activity is 
 purely automatic and habitual, from our rising in the morn- 
 ing to our lying down each night. Our dressing and un- 
 dressing, our eating and drinking, our greetings and part- 
 ings, our hat-raisings and giving way for ladies to precede, 
 nay, even most of the forms of our common speech, are 
 things of a type so fixed by repetition as almost to be 
 classed as reflex actions. To each sort of impression, we 
 have an automatic, ready-made response." 
 
 What a gain this is in the actual living of one's life must 
 be very apparent. When we consider with what pains and 
 at what cost the child learns to walk, later to talk, and 
 later to read, who can estimate the loss of time and energy 
 that would be involved if each of these acts instead of be- 
 coming a habit had to be performed by a conscious effort of 
 the will throughout one's life ? Some one has made the in- 
 teresting though, perhaps, fanciful suggestion, that orig- 
 inally the heartbeats of man and the higher animals may 
 have been produced by a conscious act. 
 
 Another consideration that enforces the importance of 
 habit is its unalterableness when formed, except by the 
 most strenuous exertions, and then sometimes without com- 
 plete success. Habit has been compared to paper which 
 easily resumes the folds according to which it has been fold- 
 ed before; but, unfortunately, unlike the paper which may 
 easily be folded in a new place, the mind does not so easily 
 lend itself to a different impression. One hardly knows 
 whether or not to agree with James that "nothing we ever 
 do is in strict scientific literalism wiped out," but whether 
 
HABIT 67 
 
 absolutely true or not, the chains that bad habit produces 
 are of a kind from which the body and mind free them- 
 selves only by agonizings and tears. The reverse is also 
 true and it is a source of comfort that good habits fixed are 
 not easily broken up at the solicitation of evil. 
 
 "Sow a thought and reap a deed. 
 Sow a deed and reap a habit. 
 Sow a habit and reap a character. 
 Sow a character and reap a destiny." 
 
 So true is the above statement that habit may even inter- 
 fere with development unless carefully guarded. Not only 
 do bad habits prevent the development of the character 
 in right directions, but good habits, while they are not at all 
 contradictory to, but rather in harmony with moral char- 
 acter, fall short of adding to the sum of a person's moral 
 and spiritual attainments. For example, a person may have 
 formed right habits with reference to the use of language 
 which is good as far as it goes, but something more than 
 habit will be needed to enlarge his vocabulary and deepen 
 his appreciation of the best literature. As Sully says, 
 "Fixity in definite directions must not exclude plasticity 
 and modifiability in others. The complete and absolute rule 
 in habit marks the arrest of development." 
 
 3. The formation of habits. The physical basis of habit 
 suggests the importance of formation of right habits in 
 early life. Not only is this important because of the fixity 
 of habits that come with a period of years, but also, and 
 more especially, because of the plasticity of the nervous 
 system early in life. Childhood is, of course, the chief 
 habit-forming period of life. It is then the largest pro- 
 portion of physical habits are formed, and it is then that 
 habits are changed with the least difficulty. This is recog- 
 nized in such universal proverbs as the one: "As the twig 
 is bent so is the tree inclined." The period under twenty 
 
68 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 is important in the formation of mental and personal habits. 
 It is said that a person rarely ever learns to speak a lan- 
 guage without an accent after twenty. The training of this 
 period in habits of thought and speech, in manners and 
 conduct, are apt to continue with a person through his life. 
 The period between twenty and thirty is important in its 
 formation of professional and business habits. 
 
 James gives four rules for the forming of good habits, 
 and concludes his illuminating chapter on Habit with the 
 remark that we append to this summary of his laws : 
 
 (1) Launch yourself with as strong and decided an ini- 
 tiative as possible. 
 
 (2) Never suffer an exception to occur until the new 
 habit is securely rooted in your life. 
 
 (3) Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on 
 every resolution you make and on every emotional prompt- 
 ing you may experience in the direction of the habits you 
 aspire to gain. 
 
 (4) Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little 
 gratuitous exercise every day. "As we become permanent 
 drunkards by so many separate drinks, so we become saints 
 in the moral, and authorities and experts in the practical 
 and scientific spheres, by so many separate acts and hours 
 of work. Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot 
 of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he 
 keep faithfully busy each hour of the working day, he may 
 safely leave the final result to itself. He can with perfect 
 certainty count on waking up some fine morning to find 
 himself one of the competent ones of his generation in what- 
 ever pursuit he may have singled out." 
 
 As has already been said, moral character may be re- 
 garded, in a sense, as the sum of all good habits. "Virtue 
 itself/' Dr. Maudsley says, "is not safely lodged until it 
 has become a habit." The development of character, how- 
 ever, implies the breaking up of evil habits and the sup- 
 
HABIT 69 
 
 planting of them by good habits. Here come in the stress 
 and discipline of life, which round out manhood and make 
 character complete. How applicable this is to religious ex- 
 perience and instruction must be apparent. The formation 
 of habits in religious exercises, in acts of unselfish service, 
 in turning away from solicitations to evil, is all important 
 in the development of the spiritual life. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 Teacher's Hand Book of Psychology. Sully, pp. 72-73, 159- 
 161, 204-205, 399, 414, 422, 524-529, 551-555. 
 
 *Talks to Teachers. James, pp. 64-78. 
 
 Psychology in Education. Roark, pp. 26-27, 55-56. 
 
 *Work. Hugh Black, Chapter 2 on "The Habit of Work." 
 ($1.50.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 We usually hear of the evil of this great force, the power 
 of bad habits and the difficulty of breaking them. Habit is 
 spoken of as if it were a diabolic influence menacing us on 
 every side. We forget that it is a law of life designed for 
 its best interests. We forget that it is full of good and bless- 
 ing, and is meant not to destroy but to conserve and strength- 
 en human life. Work. Hugh Black, p. 40. 
 
 First, habit simplifies our movements, makes them accurate 
 and diminishes fatigue. Man is born with a tendency to do 
 more things than he has ready-made arrangements for in his 
 nerve-centres. Most of the performances of other animals 
 are automatic. But in him the number of them is so enor- 
 mous that most of them must be the fruit of painful study. 
 If practice did not make perfect, nor habit economize the 
 expense of nerves and muscular energy, he would be in a 
 sorry plight. As Dr. Maudsley says: "If an act became no 
 easier after being done several times, if the careful direction 
 of consciousness were necessary to its accomplishment on each 
 occasion, it is evident that the whole activity of a lifetime 
 might be confined to one or two deeds that no progress could 
 take place in development. A man might be occupied all day 
 in dressing and undressing himself; the attitude of his body 
 would absorb all his attention and energy; the washing of 
 his hands or the fastening of a button would be as difficult 
 to him on each occasion as to the child on its first trial; and 
 he would, furthermore, be completely exhausted by his exer- 
 tions. Psychology (Briefer Course). James, p. 138. 
 
 Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most 
 precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all 
 within the bounds of ordinance, and saves the children of 
 fortune from envious uprisings of the poor. It alone pro* 
 
70 THB TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 vents the hardest and most repulsive walks of life from be- 
 ing deserted by those brought up to tread therein. It keeps 
 the fisherman and the deck-hand at sea through the winter; it 
 holds the miner in his darkness, and nails the countryman 
 to his log-cabin and his lonely farm through all the months of 
 snow; it protects us from invasion by the natives of the desert 
 and the frozen zone. It dooms us all to fight out the battle of 
 life upon the lines of our nurture or our early choice, and 
 to make the best of* a pursuit that disagrees, because there is 
 no other for which we are fitted, and it is too late to begin 
 again. Psychology (Briefer Course). James, p. 143. 
 
 It is now generally accepted that habit has a physical basis 
 and that it is dependent upon molecular changes in the brain 
 or, to speak rather crudely, upon brain paths through which 
 nervous force makes its escape in time of neural excitation. 
 These paths have been likened to the channels which a little 
 stream of water cuts for itself as it falls upon a pile of sand. 
 To state the same thought in another figure, just as a coat 
 settles into wrinkles to fit the peculiar form of the wearer's 
 body and will not easily modify itself to another form, so the 
 mind takes a certain form of nervous discharge or manifests 
 a special form of neural activity. Again it may be illus- 
 trated by a paper which, folded in a particular place, ever 
 after tends to fold in the same place. The Child and the 
 Bible, Hubbell, p. 48. 
 
 Locke says as the years advance, they bring greater freedom 
 from restraint and the boy must often be left to his own guid- 
 ance because no mentor can be ever at his side except the 
 one created in his own mind by sound principles and steady 
 habits. It is true this is the best and safest one and therefore 
 worthy of the highest consideration; for we must expect no- 
 thing from precautionary maxims and good precepts, though 
 they be deeply impressed on the mind, beyond the point at 
 which practice has changed them to firm habits. Habit. Paul 
 Radestock, p. 4. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL NATURE 71 
 
 XL THE SPIRITUAL NATURE 
 
 We have considered the physical nature with its varied 
 relations to the other powers, the mental nature with its 
 three-fold function of knowing, feeling and willing, and, 
 more specifically, such powers of knowing as attention, in- 
 terest, sensation, perception, apperception, memory and 
 imagination. We turn now to the spiritual nature. Before 
 proceeding, however, we ought again to remind ourselves 
 that these divisions of our powers do not exist in their 
 actual operation but are devices for the purpose of facilitat- 
 ing our thought concerning them and to aid in their de- 
 scription. Man is not a body plus a mind plus a spirit. 
 As we have seen, he is not even a spirit plus a mind and 
 body; but he is a man, spirit, mind and body, and what 
 we call the spiritual nature is simply the right attitude of 
 the entire man in all his powers toward what is. Of faith, 
 for example, which is a spiritual power, the author of "Lux 
 Mundi" says, "It is not a faculty, but the whole man in re- 
 lationship to God," and Dr. Cuyler says of faith, "Faith is 
 winged intellect : man's best thought in his best moments." 
 This prefatory statement has an application which we must 
 note as we pass along. The distinction which we some- 
 times make between intellectual and devotional Bible study, 
 may be very misleading. If it means that we conceive of 
 a Bible study that may be engaged in without the use 
 of the intellectual powers, and for the cultivation of a spir- 
 itual nature which we think of as being entirely separate 
 from our mental nature, we shall make a grievous error. 
 We must remember what has already been stated, that the 
 
y% THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 same mental faculties are involved in the reception of spir- 
 itual truth as in the reception of any other form of truth, 
 and that there is no access for knowledge to the spiritual 
 nature except through the intellectual faculties. It has 
 been truly said that "all intellectual study is not devotional, 
 but all devotional study should be intellectual as well." 
 
 1. Eeality of the spiritual nature. We are told that God 
 made man in His own image, and from the time of that 
 statement down to that of its modern correlative, that "re- 
 ligion is the life of God in the soul of man," there has been 
 a recognition, more or less distinct, of that element in man 
 which responds to and reaches out for a divine being. It is 
 this element within a man that we know as the spiritual 
 nature, or as the religious sense, or religious instinct, or 
 religious impulse. According to Coe, there are three things 
 that the assumption of such a nature does not imply, and 
 three things that it does imply. Negatively, it does not 
 imply : ( 1 ) That the possessor of this religious nature is all 
 right as he is; (2) that he can grow properly by a merely 
 "natural" process without divine help; (3) that the life 
 principle can take care of itself without our help. Posi- 
 tively, it implies: (1) That the possessor of this religious 
 nature has more than a passive capacity for spiritual things, 
 but that just as animals go forth in search of food, so a 
 positive spiritual nature goes forth spontaneously in search 
 of God; (2) that nothing short of union with God can 
 really bring a human being to himself, but that failing to 
 find Him, we lose even ourselves; (3) that the successive 
 phases in spiritual growth are so many phases of a grow- 
 ing consciousness of the divine meaning of life. ("Educa- 
 tion in Religion and Morals," pp. 61 and 62.) 
 
 It is at this point that we find the strongest argument 
 for the existence of God as well as for the existence of 
 a spiritual nature in man. We find in all normal men 
 a reaching out for a power beyond them, and as the 
 
THE SPIRITUAL NATURE 73 
 
 turning of the bird towards the warmer climate implies 
 the existence of such a climate, as the turning of the 
 fish towards the sea implies the existence of such a sea, so 
 the stretching out of the soul towards a power higher than 
 itself, its refusal to be satisfied until union is effected witl 1 
 God, implies that God must be. "Thou hast made us f o 
 Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in 
 Thee." 
 
 The reality of the spiritual nature has a vital applica- 
 tion to the religious instruction of boys. To appreciate the 
 force of this application we must revert to our definitions 
 of Teaching and Education : "Teaching is simply helping 
 the mind to perform its function of knowing and grow- 
 ing." "Teaching is the process by which one mind from 
 set purpose produces the life-unfolding process in another." 
 "Teaching is enabling another to re-state the truth in the 
 terms of his own life." "Education is the process of de- 
 velopment or drawing out of the faculties of the individual 
 man and training for the various functions of life." Re- 
 ligious instruction or education, then, will draw out the 
 powers of the spiritual nature and train them for the func- 
 tions of life. Coe has indicated how a different concep- 
 tion arose in earlier years: "Christianity's first great task 
 was to win men from heathenism. It had to deal with 
 maturity, not with childhood, and it was thus that the 
 standpoint of maturity appears to have become all-con- 
 trolling. A mature heathen could become a Christian only 
 by a decisive transformation. He must change from one 
 set of religious beliefs to another, from one set of re- 
 ligious practices to another, from the permitted immoral- 
 ities of paganism to the ethical standard of Christianity. 
 He must repent and have a new heart, and baptism was the 
 culmination or even the means of this inner renewal. Not 
 unnaturally it came to be taken for granted that there is 
 only one process whereby one can become a Christian the 
 
74 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 process that appears in its fulness in the conversion of the 
 pagan. The child before baptism was unregenerate, but 
 by baptism was regenerated, or, before some inner experi- 
 ence of regeneration, he was in a condition of depravity 
 which must be supernaturally removed before spiritual life 
 could begin." It was to meet this belief that Horace Bush- 
 nell wrote his "book on "Christian Nurture/' in 1847, in 
 which he took the position that "the child is to grow up 
 a Christian and never know himself as being otherwise. 5 ' 
 Or, as another stated it later, "Instead of saying that a 
 person must be converted to God in order to be religious, we 
 may say that he must be converted from God to evil before 
 he can be irreligious." In order to proper instruction, then, 
 the religious nature of the normal child should be expected 
 to develop and ripen into such a consciousness of God and 
 such a relation to Christ that the voluntary decision to en- 
 ter upon the Christian life will not be in the nature of a 
 cataclysm, but a natural stepping over the line. 
 
 2. The powers of the spiritual nature. The chief power 
 of the spiritual nature is faith. Faith is defined by the 
 author of the Epistle to the Hebrews as "the substance of 
 things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It has 
 also been defined variously as the eye of the soul, as the 
 nerve of sensation for the soul, as the sixth sense, as spir- 
 itual perception. In all of these definitions the dominant 
 thought seems to be that faith is the power through which 
 man receives a knowledge of spiritual realities. The analogy 
 between sense perception of material objects and faith per- 
 ception of spiritual verities is interesting and suggestive. 
 As in sense perception the essential element is the recogni- 
 tion of the object which causes the sensation, so in faith 
 perception the vital feature is the recognition by the soul 
 of the Divine Being or the spiritual truth producing the 
 spiritual thrill. As in the case of seeing with the eye it is 
 only the abnormal man who is without the power, so in the 
 
THE SPIRITUAL NATURE 75 
 
 case of seeing by faith it is only the man who has destroyed 
 his power of seeing, or otherwise been brought into an ab- 
 normal condition, who is without spiritual perception. Dr. 
 Abbott says, "The religious perception is far more common. 
 than art perception ; the capacity to know, honor, and love 
 God is far more widely found than the capacity to appre- 
 ciate music. Indeed it would be quite within bounds to 
 say that in the world of humanity those who have no appar- 
 ent power to perceive the invisible divinity and no spontane- 
 ous impulse to reverence it, are fewer in number than those 
 who lack the organs of sight and hearing, and that the testi- 
 mony to the reality of a God, directly and immediately 
 though spiritually perceived, is quite as uniform as the tes- 
 timony to the reality of a physical world by the senses of 
 sight and hearing." As the power of the eye may be culti- 
 vated so the power of spiritual perception may be developed 
 by appropriate means, and as the failure to use the eye for a 
 series of years would result in impairing its sight, so the 
 failure to avail one's self of the power of spiritual percep- 
 tion would result in the loss of that power. "The natural 
 man/' says St. Paul, "receiveth not the things of the spirit 
 of God, for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he 
 know them because they are spiritually discerned." (I Cor. 
 2:14.) 
 
 3. The stages of growth in the spiritual nature. As the 
 analogy of the office of the mental powers served us in a 
 study of the spiritual power of faith, so the analogy of the 
 development of the mental faculties will serve us in appre- 
 ciating the growth of the spiritual powers. We have seen 
 that perception, the memory, imagination, and other men- 
 tal powers have their appropriate times in the life when 
 they begin to assert themselves, and special periods when 
 the range of their activities widen. We might expect, 
 therefore, to find stages of growth in the spiritual nature of 
 the individual in accordance with which specific religious 
 
76 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 experiences might be looked for at appropriate periods. For 
 example, we have seen that the development of the spiritual 
 nature during the period of adolescence is such that we may 
 reasonably expect the boy at that time to pass into a con- 
 scious acceptance of religious responsibility. The most 
 general application of this fact to religious instruction is 
 that we must not expect the boy to have the religious ex- 
 periences of the adult. St. Paul says again, "When I was a 
 child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought 
 as a child ; but when I became a man I put away childish 
 things." (I Cor. 13:11.) Drummond said of cant, that 
 an old woman has her religion, and a boy has his religion, 
 and that when the boy apes the religion of the old woman, 
 he is guilty of cant, llie putting of the language of adult 
 experiences into the lips of the youth not only makes him 
 unnatural, but must be detrimental to his real religious 
 development. The same remark would apply to the as- 
 sumption by boys or men of one temperament of a type of 
 religious experience that belongs to another temperament, 
 or the expression of sentiments that go with the meditative 
 and aesthetic characteristics by those in whom the militant 
 and active elements are most pronounced, or the assumption 
 of the feminine element, in their religious life, by boys 
 
 and men. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 * The Epistle to the Hebrews. Chapter XI. 
 
 The Spiritual Life. Coe, pp. 205-260. 
 
 Education in Religion and Morals. Coe, pp. 22, 37-39, 60-63, 
 195, 208. 
 
 *In Aid of Faith. Abbott, pp. 31-51. ($1.00.) 
 
 Man's Value to Society. Hillis, Chapter VII. 
 
 Christian Nurture. Horace Bushnell. ($1.25.) 
 
 The Work of a Boys' Department. Coe, pp. 12-25. (20 
 cents.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 Of the three elements, body, mind and soul, which make 
 up a responsible human being, two only have been hitherto 
 treated as fit subjects for scientific inquiry. From six thou- 
 sand years of contemplation of the phenomena of human life 
 and thought, only two sciences have emerged. Physiology 
 
THE SPIRITUAL NATURE 77 
 
 has told us all that Is possible of the human body: Psychology, 
 of the mind. But the half is not accounted for. We wish, 
 further, a spiritual psychology to tell us of the unseen real- 
 ities of the soul. The New Evangelism. Drummond, p. 261. 
 
 When I ask myself what is the real basis of my religious 
 belief in God, in immortality, in Christ, in the Bible, I find 
 that basis is my own consciousness, receiving and responding 
 to the invisible truth : and when I begin to ask what is the real 
 basis of that belief in the great body of Christians, most of 
 whom have neither the education, the time nor the books for 
 independent philosophical investigation, I see that this same 
 inward witness is the one which attests to them the truth, 
 which they are often, for that reason, puzzled to attest to 
 others. A French deist argues with a Christian friend at con- 
 siderable length against immortality. The friend replies in a 
 sentence: "Probably you are right. I presume you are not 
 immortal; but I AM." In Aid of Faith. Abbott, pp. 36-37. 
 
 The whole work of education consists in helping the de- 
 velopment of what is already there. The basal assumption 
 of education in religion is that the child has a religious 
 nature, and that this nature is not a mere empty capacity 
 waiting to be filled, but rather a positive impulse, trend or 
 law. Instead of saying that a person must be converted to 
 God in order to be religious, we may say that he must be 
 converted from God to evil before he can be irreligious. Hib- 
 bard boldly took this position, agreeing with Bushnell that 
 "the child is to grow up a Christian and never know him- 
 self as being otherwise." In the mind of Froebel, the chief 
 founder of the kindergarten, the religious conception of man 
 was, in fact, fundamental and all pervasive. "Every child," 
 he said, "in right of its soul, is to be received as something 
 divine appearing in human form as a pledge of God's grace, a 
 gift of God." The special destination of man he conceives to 
 be "to become fully and clearly conscious of his own essence, 
 the divine that is in him, and to make it manifest in his own 
 life." The divine in man, which is his essence, is to be un- 
 folded and brought to his consciousness by means of education. 
 Education, therefore, has to raise the human being to a knowl- 
 edge of himself and of humanity; to a knowledge of God and 
 of nature, and to the pure and holy life which follows from 
 this knowledge. This coming to religious self-consciousness 
 will involve something that may be called a decision. It is 
 more or less deliberate counting of oneself a Christian. But 
 this kind of decision must not be confounded with the de- 
 cision of a rebel when he lays down arms. It is a ratification 
 rather than a reversal. The Work of a Boys' Department. 
 Coe, pp. 20-23. 
 
 The doctrine of a new birth was never given prominence 
 in any apostolic appeal to the unconverted. Our Lord did 
 not preach it to the common people. His only mention of 
 it was made in a talk by night with a theological professor 
 on the philosophy of salvation, It has been sadly perverted 
 
78 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES. 
 
 by being thrust in the face of young children, or of older 
 unrepentant sinners, as if it were something which limited 
 their personal duty or barred their privileges. It has been 
 made a barrier and a stumbling-block to those who would 
 enter the service of Christ. Conversion has been given a 
 place in the plan of salvation which only Christ should oc- 
 cupy. And the eyes of loving little ones, or of longing peni- 
 tents, have been directed away from the living Saviour to 
 a single fact in God's process of redemption. Teaching and 
 Teachers, Trumbull, pp, 344-345, 
 
REVIEW 79 
 
 XII. REVIEW 
 
 This review, coming midway in the course, should be a 
 written one, and the rules of an ordinary examination 
 should be observed in its conduct. The students should 
 write the answers to the questions on uniform paper, and 
 without the use of books or conference with other members 
 of the class. Fifteen questions are given. Only ten ques- 
 tions should be answered, the student making his own choice 
 from the fifteen, and no credit should be given for answers 
 to more than the first ten questions chosen by the student. 
 The teacher should mark the answer to each question on a 
 scale of ten, and a total of 75 on ten questions should be 
 considered sufficient to pass. It will be found that this 
 form of review will be an excellent preparation for the 
 more formal examination at the close of the course. 
 
 1. What is teaching? 
 
 2. What four relations does the teacher bear to the 
 student ? 
 
 3. Why should the Bible class teacher have a knowledge 
 of the principles of teaching ? 
 
 4. Designate an ordinary effect of the body on the mind, 
 of the mind on the body, and of the spirit on the body, with 
 scriptural references. 
 
 5. Name some of the characteristics of boys between 
 twelve and sixteen, and indicate how religious instruction 
 should be directed to suit these characteristics. 
 
 6. What three powers has the mind? 
 
 7. What is attention? 
 
80 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 8. What is the distinction between sensation and per- 
 ception ? 
 
 9. What is meant by apperception? 
 
 10. What principles should be observed in requiring chil- 
 dren to memorize portions of Scripture ? 
 
 11. How may imagination help in Bible study? 
 
 12. Why should the feelings not be repressed ? 
 
 13. What is the will? 
 
 14. What considerations make the formation of good 
 habits important? 
 
 15. What does the right view of education suggest as to 
 the decision of the normal boy to become a Christian? 
 
PART THREE 
 
 THE LESSON: THE TEACHER'S APPROACH TO 
 THE STUDENT 
 
ADAPTATION 83 
 
 XIII. ADAPTATION 
 
 1. The teacher should adapt himself to the language of 
 the student. The meaning of words is notoriously illusive. 
 The word that conveys one signification to this man may 
 convey an entirely different signification to that man. The 
 teacher and the student may see the same word in totally 
 different lights, and thereupon may hang the failure of an 
 entire lesson. Henry Clay Trumbull tells of an intelligent 
 Sunday-school teacher who proceeded on the assumption 
 that the members of the class understood the meaning of the 
 "passion" as applied to the sufferings of Christ, and whose 
 method of teaching was revolutionized by the discovery that 
 they had no conception of the word. The teacher should 
 study the vocabulary of his student. This may be done 
 by inducing the student to express himself, and carefully 
 observing his choice of words. It has been said that of the 
 one hundred thousand words in the English language, few 
 men understand more than twenty thousand, and the vocab- 
 ulary of a child of ten rarely contains more than fifteen 
 hundred. The folly of taking for granted that the student 
 understands the language of the lesson at every point, there- 
 fore, is very apparent. Gregory well says that "not what 
 the speaker expresses from his own mind, but what the 
 hearer understands and reproduces in his own mind, meas- 
 ures the exact communicating power of the language used/' 
 It is of little consequence that the teacher may be fluent 
 in speech and is able to express himself in a wealth of lan- 
 guage if the student fails to understand the meaning of 
 the words used ; for, it must be again recalled, that teaching 
 
84 THE TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 implies the self-activity of the student and unless the spark 
 of intelligence is struck in the mind of the student, no 
 fires of activity will be kindled. 
 
 The lesson is effective to just the extent of the student's 
 appreciation of the language which serves as the vehicle 
 of the thought. All this has a special application to the 
 language of the Bible. It must be borne in mind that much 
 of the scriptural language is archaic and that the mean- 
 ing of many of its words was acquired by the teacher after 
 careful instruction or long experience. The learner's lack 
 of such instruction and experience must be borne in mind. 
 Mr. Trumbull quotes the effort of Mark Twain's new min- 
 ister and a rough Nevada miner, who wanted to arrange 
 for funeral services over a dead comrade, to make them- 
 selves understood to each other, as an illustration of the 
 necessity of a common basis of language between the teacher 
 and the student. It should be noted also that the lan- 
 guage of the Bible is very often the language of the spiritual 
 realm, and care should be exercised in interpreting this 
 language to the learner in the terms of his own experience. 
 The stock phrases which are frequently used by Christian 
 people in speaking of their spiritual experiences sometimes 
 stand in the way of the acceptance of the truth by those 
 whom they are trying to interest or influence. 
 
 2. The teacher should adapt himself to the knowledge 
 and experience of the student. The adaptation should be in 
 matter as well as in method. The mere simplifying of lan- 
 guage will not necessarily bring the instruction within the 
 range of the student. The boy is not a diminutive adult, 
 and the cutting down of his father's suit will not be ac- 
 ceptable to him ; he must have one made for himself. The* 
 boy or youth will not tolerate anything like condescension 
 in the use of language towards him, and the great danger 
 is not so much that the language of the teacher will not 
 be intelligible to him as that the subject-matter itself shall 
 
ADAPTATION 85 
 
 not touch the plane of his experience. Neither will the 
 diminution of the amount of instruction on a given sub- 
 ject meet the requirements of the case. Here, too, the 
 adaptation must be in quality as well as in quantity. White 
 says that forty years ago elementary text-books in the 
 schools were prepared "on the basis of the theory that 
 primary pupils may be taught the same kinds of knowledge 
 as the pupils in the higher grades, and by essentially the 
 same methods, the only radical difference between the pri- 
 mary and advanced instruction being in the amount of the 
 knowledge taught, the former covering daily less ground 
 than the latter. The only essential difference between the 
 elementary and higher books in all branches was the fact 
 that the former were thinner than the latter." 
 
 Our biblical instruction has not yet freed itself from 
 this conception of adaptation and it is still thought by 
 many, even by those who are in sympathy with graded sys- 
 tems of instruction, that the subject-matter of the Bible 
 may be adapted to younger students either by simplification 
 of the language or the amount of material covered. It is 
 doubtless on this account that older boys are so frequently 
 found to be acceptable leaders of younger boys in their 
 Bible study. The older boy is nearer than the adult to the 
 younger boy in the plane of his experience, in his con- 
 ceptions of life and truth, and in his use of language. He 
 does not take for granted, as the adult does, the existence 
 of knowledge which has not yet come to the boy. Prof. 
 Payne, an eminent English teacher, has said, in recognition 
 of this truth: "A man profoundly acquainted with a sub- 
 ject may be unapt to teach it by reason of the very height 
 and extent of his knowledge. His mind habitually dwells 
 among the mountains, and he has therefore small sympathy 
 with the toilsome plodders on the plain below." Adaptation 
 does not imply that great truths may not or should not be 
 taught to younger students, but that they must be brought 
 
86 THE TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES. 
 
 to the student at the point of his own knowledge and ex- 
 perience to which they appropriately belong. He must be 
 led by easy stages from the known to the unknown. 
 
 This brings us again to the subject of apperception, to 
 which we have already given some consideration, and which 
 we found to be "a spontaneous act of the mind in imme- 
 diately seeking something in its store of ideas with which 
 to classify a new idea; the translation and interpretation 
 of the new in terms of the known." So far as this act is 
 one of classification on the part of the student, it might 
 well be considered under our next topic, "Method or Sys- 
 tem." So far as the utilization of the principle by the 
 teacher is concerned, it should be considered under the head 
 of Adaptation. "It is easy to add to what is already dis- 
 covered," says Pestalozzi, "and no wise teacher endeavors 
 to commence instruction in a new subject before finding 
 something in the mind of the student, be he boy or adult, 
 into which the new may be grafted." To no subject of in- 
 struction does this apply more forcibly than to religious 
 truth. Here, as Bailey well says, "our teaching must be 
 correlated with the life of the pupil. What does the child 
 care about the revolt of the ten tribes, or the repairing 
 of the temple, or the woes upon the Pharisees ? Primarily, 
 nothing. These topics are as foreign to his thought as the 
 problem of evil or the law of the correlation of forces. His 
 only possible interest must come through association. If he 
 has revolted from authority at home or at school, if the 
 meeting-house in his village has been extensively repaired 
 within his memory, a wise teacher may be able to excite his 
 interest in similar experiences of people long ago. The boy 
 may be led from his own quarrel with his companions as to 
 who should be president of the boys' club, to that of the 
 disciples as to who should be first in the kingdom of God ; 
 and from the effects of wild companions upon himself to the 
 effects of similar companions upon Rehoboam, the son of 
 
ADAPTATION 87 
 
 Solomon/' Jesus made frequent use of this principle. At- 
 tention has been called to the fact that strangely enough 
 He did not make use of illustrations drawn from His own 
 work as a carpenter, but from the more common experience 
 of His auditors with nature, or as fishermen, or in the ordi- 
 nary round of household duties. Paul, too, observed the 
 same principle in opening his address to the Athenians 
 when he said, "I perceive that in all things ye are very 
 religious." 
 
 3. The teacher should adapt himself to the needs of the 
 student. We must remind ourselves again that a mere 
 intellectual study of the Bible can have no desirable re- 
 sult. As a book intended primarily for the development of 
 the spiritual life any other treatment of it is abnormal. 
 Those who engage in Bible study for any other purpose 
 may be likened to those "who are always learning and never 
 coming to a knowledge of the truth." An observance of the 
 principle of adaptation will serve us here also. The in- 
 culcation of spiritual principles and moral duties should 
 be based on such acquaintance in these directions as the 
 student has made already. The application, however, need 
 not be made in a set way at the conclusion of the lesson. 
 Indeed, it should not be always so made, to be most effica- 
 cious. The instruction which attaches itself with hooks 
 of steel to the present experience and attainments of the 
 student will make its own application. Miss Blow notes 
 that the mind of the child may be trusted to do its own 
 universalizing, and Patterson DuBois says, "Our moral tags 
 or applications are the ruin of many of our Bible and other 
 stories for children," and we might add that they are often- 
 times the ruin of our Bible instruction for older students 
 as well. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 *The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 49-80. 
 *Prlmer on Teaching. Adams, pp. 54-62. 
 *The Point of Contact in Teaching. DuBois, pp. 21-45. 
 
88 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 79-91. 
 Education in Religion and Morals. Coe, pp. 107-109, 174-175. 
 ($1.35.) 
 Elements of Pedagogy. White, pp. 100-104. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 Our working rule should be to use as simple language as we 
 can without straining, that is without unnaturalness, and to 
 explain no words except those representing ideas that really 
 form part of the actual lesson. But we do not require to ex- 
 plain the exact meaning of ox, or ass, or manservant. If the 
 pupil does not understand an expression, no great harm is 
 done. It is only a matter of postponing a bit of knowledge. 
 But if a wrong meaning is conveyed harm has been done. 
 Primer on Teaching. Adams, pp. 59-60. 
 
 Find what your pupil knows of the subject you wish to 
 teach not of some text-book, but of the facts and elements of 
 the subject. This is his starting-point. Make the most of 
 the pupil's knowledge. Let him feel its extent and value as a 
 means of learning more. Lead him to clear up and freshen his 
 knowledge by attempting a clear statement of it. This will 
 bring him to the border of the unknown. The Seven Laws of 
 Teaching. Gregory, p. 76. 
 
 Modern method recognizes the fact that the individual mind 
 in its development repeats the order of development of the 
 race mind. Mankind, in its progress from a rude and savage 
 state, passes through three broadly marked "culture epochs." 
 In the cnildhood of the race, myths and legends, accounts of 
 demigods and heroes, abound. All objects in nature are en- 
 dowed with personality, and natural phenomena are explained 
 as the acts of gods or demons. As the race advances, imagina- 
 tion and superstition are modified by close observation and in- 
 creasing experience, a beginning is made in empirical science, 
 and the practical arts are established. As progress continues, 
 pure science takes the place of empiricism, and the search 
 for the relations and causes of things gives rise to philosophy 
 and speculative investigation. Civilized man passes through 
 these three stages of mind growth in his individual life, and 
 the processes of his education should be in accord with them. 
 For the child there should be fairy stories, fables, the per- 
 sonification of natural forces, and true biography of the world's 
 heroes. For the youth there must be much observing and 
 experimenting, trial of many things and accumulation of facts 
 in every field of knowledge. For the man there must be in- 
 vestigation and inquiry into ultimate causes the why and how 
 of things. A little reflection will show that all that has been 
 said so far regarding method can be summed up in the one 
 principle: The processes of education should conform to the 
 order of mind growth. Psychology in Education. Roark, pp. 
 276-277. 
 
 In moat cases some sort of preparation is necessary. This 
 may take the form of the arousing of curiosity regarding that 
 
ADAPTATION 89 
 
 which is to be presented, or of a demand for the solution, 
 of a problem. It may be accomplished through establishing 
 emotional or intellectual congruity; by arousing feelings akin 
 to the tone of the story, or by calling to remembrance kindred 
 facts or ideas, and stationing them at the threshold as a kind 
 of reception committee for it is the "law of the mental jun- 
 gle" that only on the introduction of someone already in can 
 entrance be granted to him who is without I should say 
 that the teacher should aim to make the preparation indirect 
 rather than direct, informal rather than formal and as brief 
 as possible. Principles of Religious Education. Walter L. Her- 
 vey, p. 152. 
 
 But there is a still higher and more fruitful stage in learn- 
 ing. It is found in the study of the uses and applications of 
 knowledge. No lesson is learned to its full and rich ending 
 till it is traced to its connections with the great working 
 machinery of nature and of life. Nature is not an idle show, 
 nor is the Bible a mass of old wives' fables. Every fact has 
 its uses, and every truth its application, and till these are 
 found the lesson lies idle and useless as a wheel out of gear 
 with its fellows in the busy machinery. The practical rela- 
 tions of truth, and the forces which lie hid behind all facts, 
 are never really understood till we apply our knowledge to 
 some of the practical purposes of life and thought. The boy 
 who finds a use for his lesson becomes doubly interested and 
 successful in his studies. What was idle knowledge, only 
 half understood, becomes practical wisdom full of zest and 
 power. Especially is this true of Bible knowledge, whose 
 superficial study is of slight effect, but whose profounder learn- 
 ing changes the whole man. "The letter killeth; the spirit 
 giveth life." The Seven Laux of Teaching, Gregory, pp, 109410, 
 
90 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 XIV. METHOD 
 
 "A teacher/' says Roark, "must know the three M's, 
 Matter, Mind and Method," and adds, "A teacher with 
 good method and limited knowledge will do far better 
 work than one with full knowledge and poor method : with- 
 out method he is not a teacher at all, no matter how much 
 subject-matter he knows." 
 
 We have been discussing the teaching of the lesson with 
 reference to the preparation of the student to receive it 
 by reason of what he already has in his possession. We are 
 now to discuss : 
 
 1. The teaching of a truth with reference to other truths, 
 with which it may be connected, whether already in the pos- 
 session of the student or still to be acquired by him. Each 
 lesson may be compared to a building "fitly joined to- 
 gether," in which each material of construction has its 
 appropriate place, and in which if any material is improp- 
 erly placed the whole structure is affected. There is an 
 orderly arrangement of the materials of the lesson by which 
 one step suggests the next step, just as certainly as the laid 
 foundations of the building suggest the superstructure. In 
 taking this step we proceed in accordance with the laws 
 of association. The fact that in teaching we are dealing 
 with spiritual truths, while in building we handle material 
 things, in nowise lessens, but rather emphasizes the im- 
 portance of proceeding with a due regard to method. Half 
 truths, isolated facts, detached scriptural texts, have been 
 the bane of the Christian church. It is due to the failure 
 of systematic comparison of truth with truth that the Scrip- 
 
METHOD 91 
 
 tures have been quoted in support of erratic views and even 
 of immoral positions. What is true of the individual lesson 
 is also true of the entire series of lessons in which the 
 student may be engaged. " 'Sufficient unto the day is the 
 lesson thereof is a motto that is subversive of all true 
 teaching," says the author of the Primer on Teaching. To 
 illustrate from the series that we are now following, we 
 saw how closely our last topic of Adaptation was connected 
 with Apperception. We found that imagination could only 
 be considered intelligently in the light of memory, and that 
 attention was best discussed in connection with interest. 
 A further glance at the three main parts which go to make 
 up this series shows that we first discussed, The Teacher: 
 His Work, Qualifications and Preparation ; next, The Stu- 
 dent: His Physical, Mental and Spiritual Nature; and that 
 we are now considering The Lesson: The Teacher's Ap- 
 proach to the Student. The underlying connection of each 
 series of lessons undertaken by the student should in this 
 clear and comprehensive fashion be brought home to him. 
 2. Inductive and deductive methods of study. Induction 
 is a conclusion from a number of observed facts or princi- 
 ples. Deduction is proceeding from known facts or prin- 
 ciples to results. Or to use the definitions of the dictionary, 
 induction is an ascent from particulars to generals ; deduc- 
 tion is a descent from generals to particulars. To illus- 
 trate: we have noted that the pendulum of a clock grows 
 longer in warm weather causing the clock to run slower. 
 The railroad tracks lengthen in warm weather filling up the 
 spaces between the ends which are left in the laying for 
 this purpose. A metal ball which will just pass through a 
 ring when it is cool, if heated will be found to be too large 
 to go through the ring. Here are three ordinary facts 
 which taken together, and in conjunction with a large 
 number of similar facts, indicate that heat expands metals. 
 This may be regarded then as an induction from a number 
 
92 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 of observed facts. The apple falling from the tree, the book 
 from the hand, the man from the building, are observed 
 facts which with others of the same kind point to the law 
 of gravity. This, too, was discovered inductively. Deduc- 
 tion, on the other hand, is the laying down of a principle 
 or a hypothesis and an investigation for facts that will prove 
 this principle or hypothesis. The inductive or experimental 
 method is now generally adopted in the scientific world. 
 Applying this principle to the study of the Bible, we have 
 what is sometimes known as "Inductive Bible Study." The 
 study of the Bible in the past has been too largely deduc- 
 tive. People have come to the Bible with preconceived no- 
 tions looking for statements to confirm those notions. They 
 have laid down theological propositions and then have gone 
 to the Bible for "proof-texts," with which to demonstrate 
 those propositions. The inductive method of Bible study 
 leads one to read the various sections of which it is made 
 up with a purpose to learn what the writers said and what 
 they had in mind when they said it. One of the important 
 principles of this method of study is that the text must be 
 studied first and the conclusions must be drawn last. As we 
 shall have occasion to note in our study of the Lesson Study 
 and Teaching Plan, in coming to the Bible we are to take 
 up the text first. This will be accompanied by a study of 
 individual words and topics, this followed by classification, 
 and last of all will come the teaching or application of 
 the lesson to the individual life. 
 
 3. The right order of teaching. Phillips Brooks once ad- 
 vised theological students to try to interest their auditors in 
 a subject in the same way in which they first became in- 
 terested in it. This has t3en called "the order of discov- 
 ery," the order in which the human race first learned these 
 facts and truths. That which is first in the order of logic 
 may not always be first in the order of teaching. Patterson 
 DuBois, in commenting upon a discussion of the manner 
 
METHOD 93 
 
 of teaching botany to children, quotes from a writer in the 
 Popular Science Monthly as follows: "Dr. Jacobi would 
 use the flower, in beginning to teach children botany, be- 
 cause it is the most attractive, makes the largest impression 
 upon the senses, is easy of apprehension, and leads to the 
 appreciation of specific differences. . . Miss Youmans 
 would begin with the leaf, on the assumption that it is 
 simpler than the flower, and, in tracing its scientific rela- 
 tions, deeper intellectual pleasure is received. . . Begin- 
 ning with roots, as so many systematic teachers have done, 
 and following with stem, leaves, flowers, and ending with 
 fruits as the ultimate work of the plant, although logical 
 to adults, full of regular sequences, and scientific from 
 one standpoint, is unscientific from another." Mr. DuBois 
 also quotes a writer in the Sunday-school Times who tells 
 of the experience of a high-school girl who tried to interest 
 her brother in geology beginning with the story of how the 
 earth was made, while he was anxious to begin by being 
 told how the sidewalks were made. The logical order of 
 teaching would call for instruction in the alphabet and the 
 spelling of words before learning to read. To-day, however, 
 the beginner is taught to read first after which the letters 
 and words have an interest and relation which they could 
 not have had before. It follows from what has been said 
 that religious instruction can best be inculcated by follow- 
 ing the order of discovery, the point of contact with experi- 
 ence, and not at first by a logical arrangement of spiritual 
 truths. This is the order of life rather than logic. This 
 is the method of the Bible. Jesus formulated no system o 
 theology. As the student learns the flower before he studies 
 botany, the stars before astronomy, the minerals before 
 mineralogy, so he should be brought into contact with re- 
 ligious truth on the plane of his own experience before 
 giving attention to the arrangement of truths in logical 
 order. 
 
94 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 4. Teaching maxims. The following maxims may serve 
 to summarize some of the suggestions that have been offered 
 under Adaptation and Method. These have been gathered 
 from a number of authors noted in the References for 
 Reading, and have special application to elementary 
 teaching : 
 
 Observation before reasoning. 
 The concrete before the abstract 
 Facts before principles. 
 Processes before rules. 
 Particulars before generals. 
 The simple before the complex. 
 The known before the unknown. 
 Things before names. 
 The present before the remote. 
 Activity before reflection. 
 Sensation before introspection. 
 The direct before the circuitous. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 *The Point of Contact in Teaching. DuBois, pp. 49-81. 
 Psychology in Education. Roark, pp. 265-283. 
 Teacher's Hand-Book of Psychology. Sully, pp. 402-405. 
 Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 15-27. 
 Primer on Teaching. Adams, pp. 62-90. 
 Elements of Pedagogy. White, pp. 70-80, 138-139. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 A great mass of unconnected facts is of little value. What 
 Is important for us is not the number of facts we collect, but 
 the number we can use because we have discovered the rela- 
 tion in which they stand to each other. Primer on Teaching. 
 Adams, pp. 62-63. 
 
 Mr. James Newton Baskett wrote: "Recently I attempted 
 to describe the oven-bird to a country boy who, I knew, haa 
 often seen it, but did not know it. I went through plumage, 
 size, song, nest, etc., but the case looked hopeless. At last 
 I mentioned the habit of alighting near the limb and running 
 out toward its tip. His face brightened. 'Is he a kind of high 
 stepper?' he asked, picking up his feet exactly as the bird does. 
 In this way the boy has become a helpful observer learning 
 how to observe. His descriptions are so accurate that I often 
 diagnose birds from them before he is through. He had a new 
 interest in his farm work. He could never have got it from 
 systematic ornithology." No more can the child get his inter- 
 est In religious truths through systematic theology, catechisms, 
 or other adult forms of conventionalized and abstract thought, 
 
METHOD 95 
 
 or images based on material things with which the child has 
 never come into sense contact. The Point of Contact in Teach- 
 ing. DuBois, pp. 66-67. 
 
 In commenting on the course in physical geography in Pesta- 
 lozzi's school Froebel says: "Particularly unpleasant to me was 
 the commencement of the course which began with an ac- 
 count of the bottom of the sea, although the pupils could 
 have no conception of their own as to its nature or dimen- 
 sions." The Point of Contact in Teaching. DuBois, p. 69. 
 
 It is of no use to start with an abstract statement, motto 
 text or doctrine of any kind. Everyone must do his own 
 abstracting. Out of the concrete, objective experiences of life 
 only can we deduce or generalize our abstractions of knowl- 
 edge. The Point of Contact in Teaching. DuBois, p. 6. 
 
 The first fact which the teacher needs to get firmly in mind, 
 and to keep aware of in all his teaching, is that the logical 
 order of development of a subject is not always, not even 
 often, the psychological order. The beginner must be taught 
 to read before he knows the alphabet or can spell: short sen- 
 tences and words mean something to children, letters do not. 
 Yet a logical method would require the letters to be first 
 learned, their combination into words next, and last of all 
 the building of words into sentences. To teach arithmetic 
 logically would be to begin with the abstract ideas of unity 
 and number, and from these to unfold all number relations 
 and processes. To teach arithmetic psychologically is to begin 
 with concrete things, and show how a number of objects may 
 be increased and diminished. Psychology in Education. Roark, 
 pp. 268-269. 
 
 Deduction passes from the general to the particular; in- 
 duction from the particular to the general. Deduction states 
 the rule and then seeks or supplies examples; induc- 
 tion supplies examples and then seeks the rule. Now in teach- 
 ing there is room for both; each in its own place. As a rule, 
 the Sunday-school teacher is prone to use the Deductive Method 
 only. His lesson too often consists in merely telling the pupil 
 certain things, and then illustrating by stories and other 
 examples. Primer on Teaching. Adams, p. 66. 
 
96 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 XV. REVIEWS 
 
 1. The elements of a review. Three progressive steps are 
 involved in the reviewing of a lesson: a repetition of it, a 
 second view or viewing again of it, and a new view of it. 
 The repetition of it may be, to a certain extent, mechanical. 
 The second view of it, or a viewing again of it, may com- 
 prehend simply those elements which were recognized in 
 the first view or original learning of the lesson. This is 
 valuable. The new view of it, however, seeing it in new 
 aspects and relations, is by far the most important phase 
 of reviewing. 
 
 2. The importance of reviews. Comparatively few un- 
 trained teachers appreciate the importance of reviews. With 
 some this is simply the result of neglect or thoughtlessness ; 
 with others, the positive feeling that time spent on reviews 
 is time largely lost. Trumbull says, "The schools of the 
 Jesuits, as perfected under Aquaviva three centuries ago, 
 were quite in advance of anything the world has yet known 
 in the educational line; and their power and effectiveness 
 were such as to stay, in large measure, the progress of the 
 Protestant Reformation in Europe. The methods of those 
 schools are still worthy of imitation at many points. In 
 their system of teaching, review, as a means of fastening 
 the truth taught, was given a large prominence." On this 
 point Robert Herbert Quick says : "One of the maxims of 
 this system was, 'Repetition is the mother of studies.' Every 
 lesson was connected with two repetitions: one, before it 
 began, of preceding work, and the other, at the close, of the 
 work just done. Besides this, one day a week was devoted 
 entirely to repetition." A teacher's appreciation of the 
 
REVIEWS 97- 
 
 importance of the review will be measured to some extent 
 by the time he spends upon it in the class sessions. Gregory 
 says that the best teachers give about one-third of each 
 lesson hour to reviews. Another has said that if one-half 
 the teaching time were thus to be spent there would be a 
 gain. Hughes urges : "We must repeat and review, and re- 
 view and repeat until it seems absurd to repeat any longer, 
 and then experience will show us the necessity for repeating 
 and reviewing again/' 
 3. Objects of the review : 
 
 (1) The first object of the review is to fix the lesson in 
 the mind. We have seen in discussing the subject of 
 Memory how necessary repetition is to retention. Even the 
 most familiar knowledge may apparently pass out of the 
 mind unless it is refreshed by repetition. Trumbull tells 
 us that Dr. Yung Wing, the Chinese student, who had his 
 second education in America, after his graduation from 
 Yale College, when he returned to his native land found 
 himself under the necessity of learning the Chinese lan- 
 guage over again because it had not been reviewed by him 
 in the years of his absence from China. 
 
 (2) Reviews test the knowledge of the student and show 
 what he has learned and what he has failed to learn in a 
 lesson or a series of lessons. There is no other way of 
 accomplishing this result except by reviews. We have seen 
 in discussing the subject of Adaptation that not what the 
 teacher says but what the student comprehends measures 
 the value of a lesson to him. So it is not what the student 
 learns but what he remembers that measures the value of a 
 lesson to him. As Gregory says, "Not what a man gains 
 but what he keeps constitutes his wealth." 
 
 (3) Reviews afford a new view of a lesson or series of 
 lessons. The first contact with a lesson may bring out only 
 one aspect of the truth, one relation to the life of the 
 student. A new view may add important knowledge of 
 
98 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 other aspects and relations of the subject. This is espe- 
 cially true of the study of the Bible. No book repays more 
 amply for reviewing than the Bible. Its truths are so many- 
 sided and so profound that not the first nor the second nor 
 the third survey reveals them in all their aspects and rela- 
 tions to life. How often the preaching of a second sermon 
 from the same text will bring to the mind suggestions and 
 inspirations that were entirely absent from the first. 
 
 (4) The review of a lesson or series of lessons oftentimes 
 reveals the orderly progression of events or truths, and 
 enables the student to trace their relationship without the 
 confusion of details which sometimes comes with the first 
 study of a lesson. The review in this particular is like 
 standing on an eminence from which the principal features 
 in the landscape may be seen emerging more clearly and 
 definitely from the less prominent objects. 
 
 (5) Reviews test the teacher's work. This constitutes 
 not the least value of reviews. The methods of many a 
 teacher have been revolutionized, as we have seen, by the 
 discovery through a review that the work of the class- 
 room had failed to penetrate the mind of the student. The 
 earlier this discovery is made in a course of study the 
 better. Hence the importance of commencing reviews early 
 in a series. 
 
 (6) Reviews awaken interest and attention. The new 
 aspects of the truth that are brought out, the facility in 
 handling the truth of a lesson, that comes only with its 
 perfect acquisition through repetition, give zest to the 
 further prosecution of a lesson or series of lessons by the 
 student and keep him constantly alive to their possibilities. 
 
 4. The conduct of reviews : 
 
 ( 1 ) Reviews are in order : before each lesson in a survey 
 of the previous lesson; in the middle of each lesson; at 
 the close of each lesson ; at the close of a series of lessons ; 
 at the end of a month or a quarter or a year. 
 
REVIEWS 99 
 
 (2) The review is pre-eminently the student's exercise. 
 Here above all other places the lesson should not degenerate 
 into a lecture by the teacher. 
 
 (3) The reviews should be prepared by the teacher and 
 student as carefully as the original lesson. 
 
 (4) No attempt should be made in the review to cove: 
 all the ground covered in the original lesson. Emphasis 
 should be laid on those facts or teachings which are along 
 the main trend of the lesson or series. Special attention 
 should be given in the review to those portions which the 
 teacher has had the greatest desire to have the members 
 of the class appreciate in the original lesson. 
 
 (5) Emphasis should be laid in the review on applica- 
 tions of the lessons to the life of the student rather than 
 on illustrations or further development of truths. Note the 
 use of this principle by Jesus and Paul John 21:15-17; 
 Phil. 3 :1, and 4 :4, 5. 
 
 (6) A selection of the truths of lessons to be emphasized 
 in review will be brought more clearly to the mind by the 
 use of the blackboard. Care should be exercised, however, 
 not to allow ingenious designs to overshadow the truths to 
 be conveyed. 
 
 (7) Brief and spirited drills of the members of the class 
 on phases of the lesson, important texts and teachings, are 
 always in order, and are important applications of the rule 
 of repetition. 
 
 5. Previews. A preview is a view beforehand of a lesson 
 or series of lessons for the purpose of getting a bird's-eye 
 view of the course to be covered and the ends to be ac- 
 complished. It is quite as important in starting out on a 
 lesson that the teacher should know where he is going and 
 what he is aiming at as it is to review the ground which 
 he has covered at the completion of the course. 
 
 The value of a preview is found: (1) In helping the 
 mind to establish the relation between the lessons of a series, 
 
100 THE TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 or, as in the case of a single lesson, in the selection of 
 the more important phases of the truth to be emphasized. 
 (2) In helping the memory to retain the truths inculcated 
 by reason of the association which is traced among them 
 through the preview. 
 
 6. Examinations. Examinations are a form of review 
 having special reference to the testing of the student as to 
 what he has learned or failed to learn in a series of lessons. 
 Some prejudice has existed against the conduct of written 
 examinations in connection with Bible study courses, but, 
 as Trumbull has said, "Bible knowledge is to be secured 
 through the same mental processes as any other knowledge, 
 and the testing of the knowledge gained by a scholar in the 
 study of the Bible must be by the same method as his 
 testing in any other department of knowledge." There 
 seems to be no good and sufficient reason why written exam- 
 inations at the close or during the progress of Bible study 
 courses, should not be conducted with the same adherence 
 to rigid standards as is observed in the conduct of exam- 
 inations in any other department of study. This is espe- 
 cially true of courses of study that aim at a systematic and 
 thorough instruction in Bible knowledge. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 199-235. 
 
 *The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 118-134. 
 
 How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 69-74. 
 
 The Elements of Pedagogy. White, pp. 147-148, 193-209. 
 
 Sunday-school Teachers' Normal Course. Peaae, Vol. 2, pp. 
 
 -4-167. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 The true measure of your scholar's knowledge on any sub- 
 ject of study, is not what you have declared to him, not what 
 he peemed to understand of your teaching, but what he can 
 restate to you in his own language as you and he go over 
 it again together. It is a very common thing for us to say, 
 when we are asked about one thing or another about some- 
 thing that we have often had in our minds that we know all 
 about it, but cannot express our knowledge in. words. As a- 
 rule, this is not a true statement of the case. If we have 
 definite knowledge on a given subject of inquiry, we can ex- 
 
REVIEWS 
 
 press that knowledge in words; and just to the extent of our 
 inability to express ourselves are we lacking in deflniteness of 
 knowledge. The truth is, that we have a good many vague 
 ideas on many a subject, which we confound with real knowl- 
 edge of that subject. And so it is with our scholars. Teach- 
 ing and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 208-209. 
 
 Not what a man gains, but what he keeps, constitutes his 
 wealth. So in learning it is not the lesson learned, but the 
 knowledge that we retain, which makes us wise and intelli- 
 gent. How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, p. 69. 
 
 Our images tend to grow, in distinctness, completeness, and 
 in readiness to appear, with the number of repetitions of the 
 sense presentations. Where the repetition of the presentation, 
 itself is impossible, the renewed reproduction of it may serve, 
 even though less effectually, to bring about the same result. 
 Thus by recalling in talk with a friend some experience in 
 which we have shared, the memory-images are kept alive. Re- 
 peating verses inaudibly helps to some extent to preserve the 
 memory of them. It is hardly necessary to emphasize the 
 point that in training the memory a judicious use should be 
 made of the principle of repetition. Such repetition enters 
 into the very process of giving instruction. Thus when a 
 teacher after each step in an oral lesson writes down the 
 points reached on the blackboard, he introduces a new sense- 
 vehicle, the eye, and so tends to fix the subject by a form of 
 repetition which avoids monotony, and introduces a new link 
 of association. Repetition may also be secured by the even- 
 ing work, writing out notes, and what should go with this, 
 a talk about the lesson with an intelligent parent. In all 
 these ways the value of repetition is realized without its 
 monotony. The Teachers' Hand-Book of Psychology. Sully, pp. 
 215 and 254. 
 
 A review is something more than a repetition. A machine 
 may repeat a process, but only an intelligent agent can re- 
 view it. The repetition done by a machine is a second move- 
 ment precisely like the first; a repetition by the mind is the 
 rethinking of a thought. It is necessarily a review. It is 
 more: it involves fresh conceptions and new associations, 
 and brings an increase of facility and power. The Seven Laws 
 of Teaching. Gregory, p. 119. 
 
 When we enter a strange house we know not where to look 
 for its several rooms, and the attention is drawn to a few of 
 the more singular and conspicuous features of furniture. We 
 must return again and again, and resurvey the scene with 
 eyes grown familiar to the place and to the light, before the 
 whole plan of the building and the uses of all the rooms with 
 their furniture will stand clearly revealed. So one must re- 
 turn again and again to a lesson if he would see all there is in 
 it, and come to a true and vivid understanding of its meaning. 
 We have all noticed how much we find that is new and inter- 
 esting in reading again some old and familiar volume. The 
 Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 120-121. 
 
102 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 XVI. THE ART OF QUESTIONING 
 
 1. Methods of instruction. Of the methods of conduct- 
 ing the lesson in the classroom there are four that should 
 have special attention. They may be designated roughly 
 as the lecture, the seminar, the recitation or topic, and the 
 question or conversational method. 
 
 (1) The lecture method. By this method the teacher 
 proceeds with an orderly and, for the most part, uninter- 
 rupted presentation of the thought of the lesson. This 
 method calls for little or no preparation in advance by the 
 student. Some of the advantages of the lecture method of 
 teaching are : 
 
 That it enables the teacher to present in somewhat satis- 
 factory form the result of his own investigations of the 
 subject and permits him to make evident the connection in 
 the line of thought he is following. 
 
 That it allows for the play of his own personality. 
 
 That it enables the teacher to reach a greater number 
 of auditors and is therefore best suited to a large class. 
 
 That it gives little opportunity for the members of the 
 class who are prepared to precipitate controversial ques- 
 tions and half-baked theories on the class. 
 
 That it results in saving of time. 
 
 Each of these advantages, however, should be tested in 
 the light of the object to be accomplished in the students. 
 
 Some of the disadvantages of the method are : 
 
 That it permits the attention of the student to wander 
 from the subject. 
 
THE ART OF QUESTIONING 103 
 
 That it often fails to excite his mental activity. 
 
 That it affords no means to the teacher for learning the 
 capacities of the student, or to discover whether he is gain- 
 ing knowledge and power from the subjects that are pre- 
 sented. 
 
 Whatever may be the adaptation of this method of 
 teaching to more mature classes of students, it would 
 seem, on the whole, as though by itself it were not suited 
 to the instruction of younger students or those of inferior 
 mental training. 
 
 (2) The seminar method. By this method the members 
 of the class are assigned topics in the line of which they 
 make original investigations and report their findings to the 
 class instead of being called upon to make recitations from 
 specified portions of books. It is almost needless to add 
 that this method used exclusively is only suited to more 
 mature students and those with trained minds, although 
 with older boys and young men it is possible to make such 
 original investigation an incidental feature of class work. 
 
 (3) Recitation or topic method. By this method the 
 student is expected to prepare stated lessons from a text- 
 book and to present what he has learned by topics as they are 
 called for by the teacher. The advantages of this method 
 are: 
 
 That the student is trained thereby, in the expression of 
 thought, if he be stimulated to translate the language of 
 the book into his own words. 
 
 That it furnishes the student with a more connected and 
 orderly conception of the arrangement of the lesson. 
 
 That, provided the text-book is adequate, the short- 
 comings of the teacher are supplemented by the thorough 
 and systematic presentation of the subject in the book. 
 
 The disadvantages of this method are : 
 
 That the students are confronted thereby with the temp- 
 tation to mechanical and parrot-like presentation of the Ian- 
 
104 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 guage of the book without any adequate apprehension of its 
 meaning. 
 
 That is brings to the teacher a temptation to be listless 
 and indifferent, or, in other words, that greater responsi- 
 bility is thrown upon the text-book and less on the in- 
 structor. 
 
 (4) The question or conversational method. By this 
 method, after careful preparation by the teacher and stu- 
 dent, the former elicits the knowledge that the student has 
 of the subject in as orderly a fashion as possible by a series 
 of questions, often resulting in the play of conversation 
 between teacher and student. The advantages and disad- 
 vantages of this method will be considered in detail be- 
 low. Before proceeding to a discussion of these it may 
 be said at once that no one method should be employed 
 exclusively, but that for the average class of boys and young 
 men up to eighteen years of age a wise combination of the 
 recitation method with the question method, with an em- 
 phasis on the use of questions, seems to be the best. 
 
 2. Advantages of the question method : 
 
 (1) By the question method the interest and attention 
 of the student are aroused and his self-activity is stimulated. 
 The question method, therefore, conforms to the require- 
 ments of the definitions of teaching in our first lesson, and 
 especially to the fundamental necessity for attention noted 
 in our discussion of that subject. For untrained or im- 
 mature minds nothing so quickly stimulates the self-activity 
 of the student and quickens and retains his interest and at- 
 tention of a well-placed question. Gregory well says : "The 
 true stimulant of the human mind is a question, and the 
 object or event that does not raise any question will stir 
 no thought. Question is not therefore merely one of the 
 modes of teaching, it is the whole of teaching; it is the 
 excitation of the self-activities to their work of discovering 
 truth, learning facts, knowing the unknown/' 
 
THE ART OF QUESTIONING 1Q5 
 
 (2) For the same reason tke question method helps the 
 student to retain knowledge conveyed to him. We have 
 seen that interest and attention must precede memory. The 
 information, therefore, which is brought to the student at 
 the point of a question will more probably be held in mind. 
 
 (3) The question method brings out a variety of thought 
 on the subject of the lesson. The class receives thereby not 
 simply the thought which it was in the mind of the teacher 
 to elicit by his question, but a thought which is sometimes 
 even fresher and more vigorous and which would have been 
 lost to the class had not a question set in motion.the mental 
 activity of some student 
 
 (4) . The question method seems to be the only method of 
 testing adequately the knowledge possessed by the student. 
 Nothing can be more deceptive than the apparent attention 
 and appreciation of the members of a class who are re- 
 ceiving instruction by the lecture method. The expres- 
 sion of the face, the eye, the whole attention of the stu- 
 dent,, may betoken intelligent .appreciation of the subject, 
 but a well-directed question will at once strip off the mask 
 and display the lack of knowledge beneath. 
 
 This was the method and this the purpose of Socrates. 
 Although one of the greatest teachers that ever lived, he 
 did not lecture nor require his students to recite. He sim- 
 ply asked them questions. If they were conceited, he asked 
 them questions which showed them their ignorance, and put 
 them in a frame of mind to learn. If they were sincere in 
 their search for truth, he asked them questions which set 
 them on their way and helped them to find that for which 
 they were looking. The chapter of John Adams, in his 
 "Primer on Teaching," on the Socratic method, would re- 
 pay a careful reading. 
 
 (5) For the same reason the question method brings the 
 teacher into closer contact with the student and reveals 
 to him not only what knowledge the student actually pos- 
 
106 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 sesses, but his methods of thinking and, in some cases, the 
 purposes of his life. 
 
 (6) The question method oftentimes arouses the con- 
 science. Jesus often used the method with this result. To 
 the twelve Jesus said, when many had deserted Him, 
 "Would ye also go away ?" which brought a protestation of 
 loyalty from Simon Peter (John 6: 66-68). Again, He 
 asked which of the three, priest, Levite or Samaritan, 
 proved neighbor to the man stripped by the robbers, and on 
 receiving the answer said, "Go tliou and do likewise" (Luke 
 10: 35-37). Of similar import was the question, "What 
 shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and 
 lose his own life ?" 
 
 3. Disadvantages of the question method : 
 
 (1) The chief defect of the question method is that 
 while it conduces to careful preparation to a larger degree 
 than the lecture method, it does not conduce to such prep- 
 aration, to as large an extent, as the recitation method. 
 This should be guarded by the teacher by a wise combina- 
 tion of the recitation and question methods and making sure 
 that the questions lead the student over a specified portion 
 of a subject which he finds evolved in the text-book. 
 
 (2) The question method does not develop the powers of 
 self-expression by the student as does the recitation method. 
 Too often the question is answered in incomplete sentences 
 and with much less attempt at thoroughness than that which 
 characterizes the formal recitation. Here, too, the teacher 
 must combine the two methods and supplement the deficien- 
 cies of the question method by requiring intelligent and 
 thorough statements in reply to his questions. 
 
 (3) It is doubtless more difficult to follow the orderly 
 arrangement of the subject when the information is elicited 
 by questions. This defect may be remedied to a considera- 
 ble extent by the teacher preparing his questions with a due 
 regard to the systematic unfolding of the subject, and the 
 
THE ART OF QUESTIONING 
 
 student, by careful preparation in the text of the subject, 
 familiarizing himself as though for a recitation with its 
 progressive development. 
 
 (See References for Reading at the end of Lesson XVII.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 It is only the unskilful and self-seeking teacher who pre- 
 fers to 'hear his own voice in endless talk, rather than watch 
 the working of his pupil's thoughts. The Seven Laws of 
 Teaching. Gregory, p. 97. 
 
 The chief and almost constant violation of this law of 
 teaching is the attempt to force lessons into pupils' minds 
 by simply telling. "I have told you ten times, and yet you 
 don't know!" exclaimed a teacher of this sort. Poor teacher, 
 can you not remember that knowing comes by thinking, not 
 by telling. The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, p. 102. 
 
 The awakening and stirring power of a skilful question 
 lies largely in this principle of the shock. It startles the in- 
 telligence as 'with an impinging blow. The ordinary questions 
 read from the 'book, where the pupils have already seen and 
 answered them may have their uses, but they lack all power 
 to startle and stir the mind. They simply call for the repeti- 
 tion of thoughts already studied and known. To produce its 
 highest effect, the question must have the element of the un- 
 expected in it. The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 
 37-38. 
 
 Instruction may be given, indeed, without the use of the 
 question; but if one will verify the results of instruction, and 
 ascertain precisely the amount and character of his pupils' 
 comprehension of a subject, he must resort to the questibn. 
 Many teachers, finding it easier for themselves, and perhaps 
 more interesting for their pupils, adopt the lecture system, 
 and in familiar talks give to their classes whatever they 
 wish to communicate. Pleased with the apparent interest and 
 attention with which their instructions are received, they 
 rashly conclude that they have discovered the true way of 
 teaching. A few questions carefully put would speedily unde- 
 ceive them, and show them how imperfect and fragmentary the 
 conceptions which their pupils have formed. How to Teach 
 the Bible. Gregory, pp. 57-58. 
 
 This was the idea of Socrates, who, when he would teach, 
 always began his work by asking questions of his scholars, 
 in order to open their minds, and to secure their co-work with 
 him in the teaching-process; and who insisted that he who 
 would be a 'learner must not merely be a listener and a re- 
 citer, but must also be "one who searches out for himself." 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 94. 
 
 Mr. Gall introduced the plan of a "limited lesson," includ- 
 ing a few verses of Scripture to be made the subject of 
 simple questioning, with a view to enable the scholar to kuow 
 
108 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 what those verses declared, and to express his understanding 
 of them in his own words. From this beginning our entire 
 modern system of Sunday-school teaching including all our 
 question-books and lesson-helps took its start. And the 
 sound principles on which this method rested ought not to 
 be lost sight of, at any stage of our progress. Teaching and 
 Teachers. Trumbull, p. 177. 
 
 Lord Bacon said "A wise question is the half of knowledge." 
 Art of Questioning. Fitch, p. 56. 
 
 It is only when the questioning spirit has been fully awak- 
 ened, and the power and habit of raising questions have been 
 largely developed, that the teaching process may give way 
 to the lecture plan, and the student may be turned into the 
 listener. Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, p. 99. 
 
THE ART OF QUESTIONING 109 
 
 XVII. THE AET OF QUESTIONING (Concluded.) 
 
 1. The preparation of questions. He makes a mistake 
 who thinks that the conduct of a class session by the ques- 
 tion method is the easiest form of teaching. No method is 
 more difficult. We rightly speak of the art of questioning. 
 It is an art that is secured only by the most careful study 
 and the most patient and persistent practice. Woe be unto 
 that teacher who thinks that the question method may be 
 used to cover up a lack of careful preparation on his own 
 part for the lesson. Even the writing out of questions in 
 advance need not be considered too painstaking or methodi- 
 cal a preparation of the lesson. Trumbull tells us that "it 
 is a matter of history, that when Dr. Chalmers was Profes- 
 sor of Moral Philosophy in St. Andrew's University, he had 
 a Sunday-school of the poorer class of children in his neigh- 
 borhood, and that he was accustomed to write out carefully 
 the questions he would ask those children on the Sunday's 
 lesson." While the questions should not be read in the class 
 session, the very writing of them contributes to exactness 
 and to orderly progression on the part of the teacher. The 
 teacher will find questions that may have been prepared by 
 the authors of the courses he may be following suggestive 
 and helpful in preparing his own questions, but should not 
 slavishly adopt them for his own use. 
 
 2. Characteristics of effective questions : 
 
 ( 1 ) Questions to be effective must be clear, and clearness 
 involves simplicity, conciseness and defmiteness. All the 
 powers of the student should be reserved for the answering 
 of the question, and he should not be called upon to spend 
 
HO THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 time and effort in deciphering the obscure language of a 
 question. "Nothing," says Fitch, "discourages and depresses 
 a teacher more, or sooner destroys the interest of the chil- 
 dren in a lesson, than the asking of questions which they 
 cannot answer." But simplicity does not mean that ques- 
 tions should be so easy as to call for no thought in answer- 
 ing them. Questions may be so easy as to produce ridicule, 
 while the question that is most simple in form may call for 
 the most profound reply. Among questions that are too 
 simple may be instanced those which call only for the an- 
 swer Yes or No, or those which have been designated as 
 leading questions, i. e., those questions whose form suggests 
 the answer to be given. Especially should this be avoided 
 on points with which the student is supposed to be familiar. 
 For the sake of simplicity the question should be concise, 
 and not too long or involved. For a similar reason it should 
 be definite. Definiteness of thought on the part of the 
 teacher will produce definiteness in answers. 
 
 (2) Questions to be effective must be arranged in such 
 an order as to suggest the progressive and systematic devel- 
 opment of the subject and enable the student to see the 
 ground which he is covering and, at the close, the end which 
 all the time the teacher has had in view. In order that the 
 questions may contribute to the purpose of the lesson they 
 should be so arranged as to lead to a spiritual result. 
 
 (3) Questions should be suggestive. We should here 
 distinguish between questions which are asked for the sake 
 of instruction and those which are propounded for the pur- 
 pose of testing the student's knowledge. We have already 
 uttered a warning against leading questions and those which 
 suggest the answer. Nevertheless, questions should be sug- 
 gestive of fields of thought to the student and set in motion 
 his mental and spiritual activities. The best books are the 
 suggestive books. In some cases, indeed, where ground new 
 to the student is being covered, the question may neces- 
 
THE ART OF QUESTIONING HI 
 
 earily suggest the clew to the answer. The author of the 
 Primer on Teaching tells us that there was a reason why 
 Socrates should have demanded that everything should be 
 elicited from the student, because of his belief that all 
 knowledge was only a remembering of things that men had 
 known in some former existence, but to-day the student 
 should not be expected at the point of a question to evolve 
 from his inner consciousness knowledge to which he has not 
 yet been introduced. Fitch in his Art of Questioning tells 
 of an eminent teacher, who used to say of the interrogative 
 method, that by it he first questioned the knowledge Mo 
 the minds of the children, and then questioned it out of 
 them again. Even questions which are asked in order to 
 test the student's knowledge of the subject should contribute 
 to the great work of instruction that the teacher has in 
 hand. T6 that end they should be constructive. They 
 should not be frivolous, nor on the other hand should they 
 be entangling and controversial. 
 
 The teacher should never forget that he is, first of all, a 
 teacher, and that his work as examiner is simply to help 
 him in his work of teaching. 
 
 3. The putting of questions. The following suggestions, 
 though brief, may be profitable in indicating the methods 
 of putting questions. These suggestions have to do rather 
 with the manner than the matter of the questions. 
 
 (1) Propound the question first and call the name of the 
 student who is to answer afterwards. This will insure the 
 attention of all because of the uncertainty as to the person 
 who is to answer. No intimation should be given to the 
 student who is expected to reply even by looking at him 
 while the question is being framed. 
 
 (2) Questions should not be asked of members of the 
 class in regular rotation, either in alphabetical order or in 
 the order of their seating. In order to insure an opportun- 
 ity for all to recite, the names of members of the class might 
 
112 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 be written on slips, shuffled together and then drawn out at 
 random. Even this plan should not be followed with too 
 great regularity for reasons that will appear in the follow- 
 ing suggestion. 
 
 (3) Address questions to the inattentive, but do not 
 repeat the question if in their inattention they have not 
 heard it. 
 
 (4) Questions should be put with promptness and an- 
 imation. Alert questions will stimulate prompt replies. 
 While questions should follow one another without delay, 
 reasonable time should be given for an intelligent reply. 
 
 (5) Questions should be presented without the use of a 
 text-book in which they may be printed, or paper on which 
 they may have been written. 
 
 (6) Commence the lesson with the simplest questions. 
 Give an opportunity for the mental machinery to get un- 
 der motion. 
 
 (7) Address questions in a pleasant manner. Impa- 
 tience should not be displayed over stupid replies or evi- 
 dences of ignorance. Give due weight to all replies, whether 
 correct or only approximately correct. Do not greet a 
 wrong answer with an abrupt expression, or emphasize it 
 by repeating it. Slide over it easily and press for another 
 reply. Do not gaze or stare at the student who is answering 
 the question. 
 
 (8) Persist with patience until the answer to a given 
 question is secured from some member of the class. The 
 form of the question may be modified if necessary, but the 
 teacher should not be impatient to furnish the answer to a 
 question which he has propounded to the class. 
 
 (9) Elliptical questions are in order, provided they are 
 not used too frequently, and provided, also, that that por- 
 tion of the statement which is left for the student to supply 
 is an important part of it for example, "If any man suf- 
 fer as a Christian let him not be * * * " 
 
THE ART OF QUESTIONING H3 
 
 (10) In the teaching of classes, where answers may not 
 reasonably be expected, the instruction may be couched in 
 the form of questions which the leader will answer himself, 
 and in this way some of the advantages of the question 
 method be reaped. 
 
 (11) In the combination of the lecture method and the 
 recitation method, the rule should be as Trumbull suggests, 
 first questions, then comments. 
 
 (12) Every effort should be made by the teacher to 
 bring about a questioning attitude in the classroom. The 
 students should be encouraged to express their questions 
 to the teacher, and also to one another. Dr. Stalker says, 
 "Socrates asked questions which his disciples tried to an- 
 swer. Jesus provoked his disciples to ask questions which 
 he answered." 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. LESSONS XVI. AND XVII. 
 
 *Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 37-38, 96-104, 113-114. 
 How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 57-62. 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 176-196. 
 *The Art of Questioning. Fitch. (10 cents.) 
 The Art of Securing Attention. Fitch, pp. 54-55. 
 Mistakes in Teaching. Hughes, pp. 72-73. 
 Securing and Retaining Attention. Hughes, pp. 59-62. 
 Elements of Pedagogy. White, pp. 178-192. 
 *Primer on Teaching. Adams, pp. 90-116. 
 Principles and Ideals for the Sunday-school. Burton & 
 Mathews, pp. 45-59. 
 
 Normal Course. Pease, Vol. I., pp. 146-149. 
 Revised Normal Lessons. Hurlbut, pp. 93-96. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 Only through his own full knowledge of the subject can he 
 understand the difficulties met by the pupil, or be able to de- 
 termine when the pupil has mastered the lesson, and to follow 
 it with thorough drills and reviews. As well insist that a 
 general need know nothing of a battle-field because he is not to 
 do the actual fighting, as that a teacher may get on with 
 slight knowledge because his pupil must do the studying. 
 The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, p. 97. 
 
 We may take a hint, I think, from the practice of the bar in 
 this respect; and, especially in questioning by way of exam- 
 ination. We may remember that the answers of the children, 
 if they could be taken down at the moment, ought t<nlb&J*V 
 
114 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 a complete, orderly, and clear summary of the entire contents 
 of the lesson. The Art of Questioning. Fitch, p. 47. 
 
 The questions used in recitations should be so arranged as to 
 unfold the subject in a logical order a very important mat- 
 ter. The order in which a subject is unfolded may make 
 the pupil's knowledge clearer and more permanent, or it 
 may confuse and muddle it. The teacher's tests should be 
 logically arranged and systematic. The Elements of Pedagogy. 
 White, p. 179. 
 
 Vague and indefinite questions I have always observed pro- 
 duce three different results according to those to whom they 
 are addressed: the really thoughtful and sensible boy is sim- 
 ply bewildered by them, the bold and confident boy who does 
 not think answers at random ; a third class not very keen, but 
 sly and knowing nevertheless, acquire a knack of absorbing 
 the structure of the teacher's sentences so as to find out 
 which answer he expects. The Art of Questioning. Fitch, pp. 
 40-41. 
 
 When a lawyer, in examining or in cross-examining a wit- 
 ness on the stand, shall read off all his questions from a paper 
 held in his hand; when any two men who are discussing 
 politics shall stand up before each other and read off their 
 questions and answers to each other; when two persons in 
 ordinary conversation shall follow closely their written notes 
 in all that they saw on both sides then, and not before will 
 it be time for a Sunday-school teacher to consider the pro- 
 priety of his relying on a printed set of questions, in his en- 
 deavor to aid a scholar to know what he would cause him to 
 know, and in his effort to ascertain how much that scholar al- 
 ready does know. Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 187. 
 
 As Mr. Beecher has forcefully phrased it: "Food proffered 
 when there is no appetite is nauseating. Information prof- 
 fered prematurely is worse than wasted. It is stupefying, har- 
 dening." Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 181. 
 
 The educational value of a well-chosen question is that it 
 enlarges a child's intellectual horizon, suggests a new possi- 
 bility of knowledge, a new fact or explanation of fact, and so 
 stimulates his powers of thought. The parent and teacher 
 alike should aim at fixing in a child's mind a habit of inquiry 
 by repeatedly directing his attention to what is happening 
 around him, and encouraging him to find out how these events 
 are brought about. Here, of course, great discernment needs 
 to be shown in selecting problems which the child's previous 
 knowledge will enable him to grapple with. This exercise of 
 the young mind in discovering the reasons of things involves 
 a training in orderly recollection; in stimulating him to go 
 back to past experiences in search of fruitful analogies, as 
 well as to principles already acquired in search of explana- 
 tions. The Teacher's Hand-Book of Psychology. Sully, p. 399. 
 
IHB ART OP ILLUSTRATING 115 
 
 XVIII, THE ART OF ILLUSTRATING 
 
 1. Kinds of Illustration. The word illustration is de- 
 rived from the Latin word meaning "to light up/' An 
 illustration is something that sheds light on a subject by 
 comparison which is made between the subject that is to be 
 illuminated and an object that is already known to the 
 student. For example, a locomotive is sometimes called an 
 iron horse. Illustrations are of two kinds, designated as 
 verbal and visible or material. We confine our attention in 
 this lesson principally to the former. Verbal illustrations 
 may be made in a single word or phrase, in a comparison, 
 or a story. 
 
 (1) Very many of our words and phrases are of an illus- 
 trative character. We speak of a storm of anger, of a 
 down-hill career, of a burning question. The style of many 
 of our most forcible preachers, like Spurgeon, Cuyler and 
 Moody, has been marked by this illustrative character. 
 These men seem to have thought in pictures, painted in 
 single words or phrases. The Bible is full of such illustra- 
 tions. The Oriental mind naturally expresses itself in 
 figures of speech : the heart is said to tremble, and to pant ; 
 despised persons are spoken of as dogs ; the fields are called 
 upon to be joyful. 
 
 (2) Illustrations are frequently made by direct com- 
 parison, as : "He shall be like a tree/' "God is our refuge/' 
 "The light of the body is the eye." 
 
 (3) The story is a familiar form of illustration. As 
 Gregory says, "The illustration may be framed purposely 
 for the subject, as were the parables of our Lord and the 
 
THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 fables of ^Esop and others, or they may be selected from 
 history or common observation." 
 
 2. The Value of Illustrations. (1) Illustrations seem to 
 satisfy an inherent necessity of the human mind. Spencer 
 says, "The truths of number, of form, or relationships in 
 position, were all originally drawn from objects, and to 
 present these truths to the child in the concrete is to let 
 him learn them as the race learnt them." Eaces in their 
 infancy speak in the language of pictures. The language 
 of the Indian is pictorial. The child loves the story, revel- 
 ing in the narrative and never tiring of the repetition 
 of it. Men never grow so old that they do not enjoy a 
 story, and that address, other things being equal, which is 
 pointed with a story is apt to be most pleasing to the mind. 
 
 (2) Illustrations aid perception. "The eye," it has been 
 well said, "is the pioneer of all learning." Sense percep- 
 tion, as we have seen, is the fundamental channel of all 
 knowledge. The comparison, the picture, the object, the 
 story, conveys to the mind what an abstract statement is 
 powerless to convey. The example helps one's compre- 
 hension of the rule in arithmetic or grammar. The picture 
 throws a flood of light on the definition of the dictionary. 
 Herein is fulfilled one of the great laws of teaching, that 
 the concrete shall precede the abstract. 
 
 (3) This leads us to note that illustrations are built on 
 the principle of proceeding from the known to the un- 
 known. "Every new plan," says Dr. Hervey, "or way of 
 looking at things, or doctrine, is received into the mind on 
 one condition only that it be introduced by a comrade al- 
 ready there. Then when the new idea calls from without 
 its fellowf answers from within and an entrance is effected." 
 When a friend in travelling abroad has witnessed some 
 strange object and attempts to give us a description of it, 
 he naturally resorts to a comparison of it with something 
 that we have seen in our own country or neighborhood. 
 
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATING 
 
 Especially is this true of religious instruction. The ideas 
 are so different from those with which we are familiar in 
 everyday life that it would be almost impossible to carry 
 them to the human mind except by comparison with the 
 objects of sense perception. God is, therefore, portrayed 
 as having the parts of a man : He is the king, the father, the 
 lover. Heaven is described as a place ; it has walls, streets, 
 length and breadth. Duty to God is represented under the 
 forms of the service of a servant in 'the household, in the 
 vineyard, in the care of money. Jesus 'likens" various 
 phases of the kingdom of God to the mustard seed and the 
 leaven, to the growth of the seed, to a king taking account 
 of his servants, to ten virgins going to a wedding. So 
 Jesus, when He wants to convey to the* disciples the- thought 
 of spiritual growth through connection with Him, resorts 
 to the simile of the vine and the branches, or feeding upon 
 bread or drinking water. How naturally He illustrates this 
 great spiritual truth to the woman of Samaria, and how else 
 could it have been conveyed to her so forcibly as through 
 the familiar object of water which she had come to draw ? 
 
 (4) Illustrations attract attention, and through atten- 
 tion enlist interest, and through these assist memory. We 
 have seen how fundamentally necessary attention is to all 
 learning. "We have seen also how interest must precede sus- 
 tained attention, and attention must precede memory. We 
 might add another" link at the beginning of this chain, and 
 show how necessary illustration is to interest. The child, as 
 already noted, craves the illustration and is held by the 
 story when abstract teaching would fall on listless ears. The 
 older student comes back from a mental wandering at the 
 sound of a story. How many a sermon has been remem- 
 bered because of a striking illustration which has brought' 
 back in its train by association of ideas the whole? group of 
 thoughts presented. 
 
 (5) Illustrations quicken the imagination. Here again 
 
118 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 we have to do with a mental capacity that is of utmost 
 service in all learning, and that is, in. turn, stimulated by 
 the illustration. The fondness of the child for the story is, 
 perhaps, accounted for by the fact that the imagination 
 plays so large a part in its mental activities, preceding, like 
 perception, the full development of the reflective powers. 
 It is to this element in the life of the child that the story 
 appeals. It is not unnatural that illustrations should thus 
 appeal to the imagination. The imagination is the picture- 
 forming power of the mind. The mind revels in picture 
 material and an illustration is in the last analysis only a 
 picture. 
 
 (6) Illustrations help reasoning. Adams, in his Primer 
 on Teaching, calls our attention to the fact that illustra- 
 tions are a form of deductive reasoning, being by their very 
 nature examples of a general principle or law. The prop- 
 osition which the mind fails to reach by abstract reasoning 
 may be grasped by the aid of a concrete example in the form 
 of an illustration. 
 
 (7) Illustrations arouse the conscience. If allowed to 
 tell their own tale and point their own moral, illustrations 
 are powerful for the conveying of moral and religious truth. 
 No case is more to the point than the story of the lamb 
 with which Nathan awakened the sleeping convictions of 
 David and carried to his mind a sense of guilt. Dr. Her- 
 vey quotes Miss Wiltsie's experience in reaching* the con- 
 science of a boy through a story. "There was in my kinder- 
 garten," she writes, " a little boy whose deceit and cruelty 
 were quite abnormal; he would smile in my face with 
 seraphic sweetness while his heavy shoe would be crushing 
 his neighbor's toes. * * * He seemed incorrigible. At 
 last I wrote a story entitled 'The Fairy True Child/ into 
 which I put my strongest effort to reach this untruthful 
 child. I told it to the class, and before it was concluded 
 this boy's head was low upon his breast, his cheeks aflame 
 
THE ART OP ILLUSTRATING H9 
 
 with conscious guilt. No direct reference was made to him ; 
 no other child thought of him in connection with the story. 
 The next day he asked to have it repeated, and his conduct 
 was noticeably better; the story became his normal tonic, 
 and one glad day he threw his arms about me, saying he 
 wanted to keep his Fairy True Child always." 
 3. Characteristics of effective illustrations : 
 
 (1) Illustrations should illustrate. An illustration may 
 be compared with a pane of glass whose function it is to per- 
 mit a person to see clearly the objects outside the window. 
 A pane of glass that is defective attracts attention to itself 
 and prevents the person from seeing clearly outside objects. 
 In the same way illustrations should be so transparent that 
 the mind loses sight for the time of the illustration in its 
 contemplation of the- truth which it is supposed to illumine. 
 For the same reason illustrations should never be used for 
 their own sake. Stained glass windows are useful in their 
 place, but not for the purpose of furnishing the inmates 
 of the building with a view of people moving in the street. 
 It is a great temptation to some speakers to repeat a good 
 story for the effect of the story without reference to the 
 making of a point; indeed, a point is sometimes made to 
 permit the- telling of the story. This may be admissible 
 in. an after-dinner speech, but not in the classroom. Dr. 
 William *M. T&ylor, as quoted by Dr. Hervey, told once of 
 a conversation with a carpenter, in which he advised him 
 to- use. certain decorations. "That/' said the carpenter. .'. 
 f 'would violate the* first rule of architecture. We must never * 
 construct ornament, but only ornament construction." So 
 it is in story-telling. 
 
 (2) Illustrations should be simple. The purpose of the 
 illustration is to make clear what it would otherwise be 
 difficult to understand. The folly of supplying for the 
 illumination of a subject a long or complicated illustration, 
 which itself needs to be illuminated, must therefore be ap- 
 
120 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 parent. Illustrations should not be too long or abound with 
 too many details which confuse the mind and prevent it 
 from fixing on the point to be illustrated. 
 
 (3) It is a mistake to use many illustrations. Illustra- 
 tions should be used to illuminate only those points of the 
 lesson which might otherwise be obscure. Two illustrations 
 presented in quick succession, illuminating the same point, 
 are apt to neutralize each other. 
 
 (4) Accurate knowledge is necessary to the preparation 
 of effective illustrations. The teacher should have accurate 
 knowledge of the subject he is trying to illustrate. At no 
 point is haziness or indefiniteness in the teacher so apparent 
 as in his attempt to illustrate a subject which he himself 
 does not understand. As Gregory says, "The power of illus- 
 tration comes only out of a clear and familiar knowledge. 
 The unknowing teacher is the blind trying to lead the blind 
 with only an empty lamp to light the way." Almost equally 
 as important is it for the teacher to have accurate knowl- 
 edge of the realm from which he draws his illustration. 
 Otherwise he may make himself ridiculous to some of his 
 auditors who have a clearer knowledge of the field of his 
 illustration and detect absurdities in it. as did the audi- 
 tors of the speaker known to the writer, who, in describing 
 the moral pitfalls attending the steps of a young man, told 
 of a man wandering among the oil wells of Pemwvlvania 
 and falling into one of them and being lost ! Mr. Beecher 
 says, "If you should undertake to 'work ship' in an audience 
 where there is a good old sea captain, and you should make 
 a mistake and speak as though you thought the taffrail 
 was the rudder,*he would feel contempt for you." 
 
 (5) Illustrations should be within the range of the 
 knowledge and experience of the student. Tlie very prin- 
 ciple of the illustration is to proceed from the known to 
 the unknown, to find something in the experience of th* 
 student to which the new knowledge may be attached. "To 
 
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATING 121 
 
 compare the unknown with the unknown," as Gregory says, 
 "is to set the blind leading the blind. Of what use is it 
 to talk of Titanic strength to one who never heard of 
 Titans, or of oceanic grandeur or mountain sublimities to 
 those who never saw either ocean or mountain ?" 
 
 (6) Illustrations should not be pressed too far. Every 
 illustration must of necessity contain subsidiary features 
 which do not go to illustrate the subject in hand. Some 
 well-meaning students of the Bible have pressed the sym- 
 bolism of the Tabernacle, the parables of Jesus and other 
 illustrations of sacred writ to an absurd and harmful de- 
 gree. "No parable goes on all fours." Children especially 
 are apt to grasp the subsidiary elements of an illustration 
 and to press its ridiculous or irrelevant features to the 
 front. As a rule an illustration should not be expected to 
 illuminate more than one point, and that the point under 
 emphasis at the time. 
 
 (7) Illustrations must not be regarded as proofs. While 
 they are an aid to reasoning, as has already been indicated, 
 they are not intended to demonstrate a proposition unless 
 they are facts that point with many other facts to a general 
 law. So strenuously did Locke feel this that he argued 
 against illustrations as the enemies of truth because they 
 lead the mind astray by their analogies. Some people will 
 close an argument with a story as though in triumphant 
 demonstration of the truth of their position, whereas it is 
 simply an effort to make more clear their own view of the 
 case. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 * Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 153-166. 
 ^Picture Work for Teachers and Mothers. Walter L. Hervey, 
 Ph.D. (30 cents.) 
 
 *How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 50-57. 
 *Primer on Teaching. Adams, pp. 116-129. 
 The Art of Securing Attention. Fitch, pp. 60-67. 
 The Teacher and the Child. Mark, pp. 62-67. 
 
THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 Yale Lectures on Preaching. Henry Ward Beecher, Vol. I., 
 Chapter on Rhetorical Illustrations, pp. 1&4-180. ($1.50.) 
 The Art of Illustration. C. H. Spurgeon. ($1.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 Happy the teacher who has inherited by nature or attained 
 by art a facility in forming clear and simple illustrations. He 
 may lack many other useful qualifications, but with this one 
 he can scarcely fail to be interesting and instructive. It needs 
 but little examination to show us that all great orators and 
 popular writers excel in this power of illustration. Take 
 any of thegreat speeches of Burke or Webster, even the most 
 argumentative, and they will be found to sparkle all through 
 with illustrations, sometimes given in full-wrought figures, 
 but more frequently in fit words or phrases which suggest 
 picturesque analogies, and resemblances as full of beauty as 
 of light. How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 50-51. 
 
 That was a profound and true saying uttered by President 
 G. Stanley Hall not long ago, that "of all the things that a 
 teacher should know how to do the most Important, without 
 any exception, is to be able to tell a story." Picture Work, 
 Hervey, p. 31. 
 
 Almost all other forms of illustration depend upon what is 
 known as analogy. Before we can have an analogy we must 
 deal with four ideas. These must be arranged in pairs in such 
 a way that the relation between the first pair of ideas is the 
 same as that between the second pair. "I am the vine, ye are 
 the branches." Here the four ideas are, I (i. e., Jesus), the 
 vine, ye (i. e. t Jesus' followers), the branches. To bring out 
 the analogy the four ideas must be placed in two groups, 
 Jesus and Jesus' followers in one group, and the vine and its 
 branches in the other. Thus it is stated in this way: Jesus 
 has the same relation to His followers as the vine has to its 
 branches. An analogy can be stated in the same way as you 
 used to state a proportion problem when you were at school. 
 
 Jesus : His followers : : the vine : its branches. 
 This is read, as you no doubt remember: "As Jesus is to His 
 followers, so is the vine to it* branches." The statement is 
 equally true if the second pair is put first: as the vine is to 
 the branches, so is Jesus to His followers. In illustration it is 
 usually better to place the better known pair first. The dis- 
 ciples were supposed to know the relation between the vine 
 and its branches, and were called upon to observe that the 
 same relation held between Jesus and His followers. Primer 
 on Teaching. Adams, pp. 119-120. 
 
 But the true use of illustration by a teacher is in his avail- 
 Ing himself of that which the learner already knows, as a help 
 to the understanding of that which the learner does not yet 
 know. Every scholar already knows something. Every teach- 
 er ought to know more than his scholar. In the teacher's 
 effort to cause his scholar to gain fresh knowledge, he can 
 wisely make use of an illustration of a light-shedding com* 
 
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATING 123 
 
 parison out of the scholar's stock of knowledge, to make clear 
 a truth beyond the scholar's present possessions, but within 
 the teacher's realm of knowledge. And without this work of 
 light-shedding, everything else that any teacher does or is, 
 goes for naught in the process of teaching. Teaching and 
 Teachers. Trumbull, p. 154. 
 
 Finally, the points of practical story-telling may be thus 
 outlined: 1. See it. If you are to make me see it you must 
 see it yourself. 2. Feel it If it is to touch your class it must 
 first have touched you. 3. Shorten it It is probably too long. 
 Brevity is the soul of story-telling. 4. Expand it. It is prob- 
 ably meager in necessary background, in details. 5. Master 
 it Practice. Repetition is the mother of stories well told; 
 readiness, the secret of classes well held. 6. Repeat it. Don't 
 be afraid of retelling a good story. The younger the chil- 
 dren are, the better they like old friends. But everyone likes a 
 "twice-told tale/ 1 Picture Work. Hervey, pp. 42-43. 
 
124; THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 XIX. THE ART OF ILLUSTRATING (Concluded.) 
 
 1. Visible or material illustrations. We turn our at- 
 tention in this lesson to illustrations which are known as 
 visible or material. Among them may be cited illustrations 
 by means of objects, blackboards, maps and pictures. 
 
 (1) Object illustrations. We must distinguish, first of 
 all, between object illustration and object-lessons. In ob- 
 ject-lessons the object is studied largely for its own sake, 
 in order to discover its properties and to develop the powers 
 of observation and sense perception in the student. Thus 
 a student would study a plant to discover its classification 
 and the laws of its growth, or a precious stone to detect 
 its points of difference from other precious stones. But 
 in object illustration the plant would be used to illum- 
 inate some statement concerning growth, it may be in the 
 spiritual life or in the development of the mind, while the 
 precious stone would be brought to view to illustrate the 
 value of small articles or the beauty of nature's productions. 
 Among the objects which Dr. Shauffler, in his book on 
 <r Ways of Working," suggests may be used to illustrate re- 
 ligious subjects are : the flower seed, to illustrate the resur- 
 rection; the magnet, to illustrate the unknown power of 
 the Holy Spirit ; the watch, to illustrate the complex char- 
 acter of the human frame as it sets forth the wisdom of 
 God; a blank book, to illustrate how God keeps a record 
 of our lives; an artificial flower, to represent hypocrisy; 
 a single strand of thread, easily broken, but being mani- 
 folded, hard to break, to represent the binding force of evil 
 habits; an ordinary trap, to suggest the deceptiveness of 
 
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATING 135 
 
 temptation; the processes of photography, to illustrate the 
 sensitiveness of the heart to good and evil influences. 
 
 ..s in the case of verbal illustrations, so the use of object 
 illustrations should be safeguarded in order to the greatest 
 effectiveness, (a) The objects so used should not be per- 
 mitted to absorb the interest in* themselves. Like verbal 
 illustrations, they should be used for the purpose of illus- 
 tration and not for their own intrinsic attractiveness. 
 (b) For the same reason, the object should be kept out of 
 the sight of the class until it is to be used, and removed 
 from the sight as soon as it has served its purpose, (c) Ap- 
 propriate objects should be used. Some of the appropriate 
 objects used by Jesus were the little child, the washing of 
 the disciples' feet, the bread and wine, (d) Object illus- 
 trations, like verbal illustrations, should be used sparingly. 
 An occasional introduction of this feature will be more 
 effective than its regular use. 
 
 (2) Blackboard illustrations. Too much cannot be said 
 in advocacy of the use of the blackboard in teaching. No 
 successful teacher in our day schools would attempt to pro- 
 ceed without such, assistance, and its use is not less essen- 
 tial in religious instruction. When it is not feasible, because 
 of an aggregation of classes in a schoolroom, to make use 
 of a stationary board, class slates or small portable boards 
 should be substituted. For classes of younger students the 
 illustrations will take the form of maps, diagrams to indi- 
 cate forms and relative location of the objects described, 
 designs to impress the teaching of the lesson. For older 
 students the noting of important words in the lesson, the 
 writing of summaries or conclusions to be kept in note- 
 books, as well as occasional drawings to illustrate some 
 phase of the truth that is under consideration, are always 
 helpful. The most important general comment that can 
 be made on methods of using the blackboard is that for the 
 greatest interest the work should grow in the class under 
 
126 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 the eye of the student. While the teacher without ability 
 in this direction may feel impelled to bring a ready-made 
 sketch into the class, he should prepare himself, if possible, 
 to acquit himself with credit in this particular, even under 
 the critical eye of students who may have had greater ad- 
 vantages in the art of drawing than himself. Fortunately, 
 drawing is now a recognized feature of the curriculum of 
 our day schools, so that the new generation of Bible teachers 
 will be able to do justice to this method of instruction. For 
 those who have not enjoyed such advantages valuable sug- 
 gestions are offered in such books as "Illustrative Black- 
 board Sketching," by W. Bertha Hintz; "The Blackboard in 
 Sunday-school/' by H. T. Bailey, and "Pictured Truth," 
 by Robert F. Y. Pierce. 
 
 (3) Maps. The drawing of maps is an important phase 
 of blackboard illustrations. This should be associated with 
 the use of wall maps, or those found in many Bibles, or 
 that can be purchased separately. Relief maps of Palestine, 
 the Sinai Peninsula, the Bible lands, are published by the 
 David C. Cook Publishing Company, Chicago, 111., for five 
 cents each. "Map Modelling," by Maltby, will give assist- 
 ance in the making of maps, as will "The Bible Atlas," by 
 J. L. Hurlbut (Rand, McNally & Co.). Instructions for 
 the making of a sand map will be found in Hervey's "Pic- 
 ture Work." 
 
 (4) Pictures. Copies of classical pictures and famous 
 paintings may be procured for class use, at one cent each, 
 of the Perry Picture Company, Maiden, Mass., and the 
 W. A. Wilde Publishing Company, Boston, Mass. Photo- 
 graphs of scenes in the Holy Land, at ten cents each, may 
 be secured of the Globe Bible Publishing Company, Phila- 
 delphia. Underwood & Underwood, of New York, furnish 
 stereopticon views of the Holy Land with greatly improved 
 stereoscopes for class use. 
 
 2. How to secure illustrations. (1) Cultivate the im- 
 
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATING 127 
 
 agination. As illustrations quicken the imagination, so 
 they are furnished by the imagination. He who is entirely 
 devoid of imagination will have much difficulty in produc- 
 ing original illustrations. 
 
 (2) Develop the habit of observation. A constant pur- 
 pose to find illustrations in the ordinary experiences of 
 everyday life will soon bring to the teacher an inexhaust- 
 ible storehouse of such helpful material. 
 
 (3) The ability to formulate illustrations grows by exer- 
 cise. Mr. Beecher tells us that the use of illustrations came 
 to be as natural to him as breathing, but that he came to 
 use fifty, to one in the early years of his ministry, when 
 they were comparatively few and far apart; but he devel- 
 oped the tendency that was latent in him and educated him- 
 self in that respect, so that whatever skill he had in this 
 direction was largely the result of education. Gregory says, 
 "A teacher who persists in the effort will soon find that 
 illustrations occur to him more and more readily, and that 
 unexpected and heretofore unnoticed analogies and resem- 
 blances will strike him from all directions." 
 
 (4) Each lesson should be studied with reference to its 
 picture-making features. The imagination should be 
 brought to play upon the material of each lesson in such a 
 way as to elicit from it that which will appeal to the love 
 of the pictorial in the student. Dramatic situations, vivid 
 coloring, heroic actions, should not be overlooked. 
 
 (5) Among the sources of illustrations may be men- 
 tioned the following: (a) The Bible. No book is more 
 prolific in illustrative material than the Scriptures them- 
 selves. David in his Psalms, Solomon in his Proverbs, 
 Isaiah and Ezekiel, Jesus and Paul, wrote and spoke in 
 language that was saturated with the picture element. 
 (6) Nature. This was a fruitful source of the illustrations 
 used by Jesus. The fields, the lilies, the seed, the harvest, 
 were all used by Him to illustrate spiritual truths. A study 
 
128 < THE TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 of the natural sciences, which are but an orderly collation of 
 the facts of nature, will also repay in appropriate illustra- 
 tions for biblical subjects, (c) History and biography are 
 full of the best illustrative material best because it is 
 taken from life and from the realm of actual facts, (d) 
 Fiction an imaginative form of history and biography 
 also abounds in illustrations for him who has his eyes open 
 for them, (e) Books of illustrations. These are suggestive 
 to him who has not yet acquired skill in securing illustra- 
 tions for himself. The best book of illustrations, however, 
 is the one that is prepared by the student for himself, the 
 scrap or note book, in which he enters from the record of 
 daily life in the newspapers, or from any of the sources 
 noted above, incidents and facts which will illuminate his 
 teaching of religious truth. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 Picture Work for Teachers and Mothers. Hervey. 
 
 Ways of Working. A. F. Schauffler, D.D. ($1.) Object and 
 Blackboard Teaching, pp. 95-118. 
 
 The Blackboard in Sunday-School. Henry Turner Bailey. 
 
 Map Modelling. Dr. A. E. Maltby. ($1.) 
 
 Pictured Truth. Robert F. Y. Pierce. ($1.25.) 
 
 Illustrative Blackboard Sketching. W. Bertha Hintz. (30 
 cents.) 
 
 Securing and Retaining Attention. Hughes, pp. 62-66. 
 
 The Life of Jesus. W. H. Davis and Prof. J. A. MacVannel ; 
 Men of the Bible. W. H. Davis and Prof. George Allen Hub- 
 bell ; Travels of Paul. Melvin Jackson and Prof. W. G. Ballan- 
 tine. (25 cents each.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 Words are not the only medium through which mind speaks 
 to mind. The thinker has a hundred ways to express his 
 thoughts. The eye talks with a various eloquence; and the 
 skilled orator finds in the lip and brow, in head and hand, 
 in the shrugging shoulder and the stamping foot, organs for 
 most intelligible speech. The gestures of John B. Gough 
 often tell more than the clearest sentences of other speakers. 
 A German described him as "the man what talks mit his coat- 
 tails," referring to some illustration in which the facile orator 
 has made a flirt of his coat-tails tell the idea he wished to 
 express. Deafmutes can talk together by the hour by signs, 
 without spelling out a single word. Among savage peoples 
 
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATING 129 
 
 whose language is too meager to meet the native needs of their 
 minds, symbolic actions supply the lack of words. There is 
 also speech in pictures. From the rudest chalk sketch on the 
 blackboard to the highest work of the painter's art, no teach- 
 ing is more swift and impressive than that of pictorial repre- 
 sentation. The eye gathers here at a glance more than the 
 ear could learn from an hour of verbal description. Seven 
 Laws of Teaching. Gregory, p. 57. 
 
 In a Sunday review once a lesson happened to be on Samuel, 
 and I was to speak to the scholars. I asked if there were any 
 boys there by the name of Samuel and four boys arose. Choos- 
 ing the best looking of them, I called him to the platform, 
 blindfolded him, then I put the end of a thread into his hands, 
 myself holding the other end, and said, "Samuel, when you 
 feel this draw, follow." In this way I led him all about the 
 Sunday-school room, the only connection between him and 
 myself being that thread. The whole school arose to watch. 
 Presently I said, "Samuel, hold back/" He stood still, I kept 
 on, the thread broke. Going back to the platform, I said, "See 
 how Samuel was led safely so long as he followed the pull of 
 the thread. See how he lost his connection with me when 
 he held back; so the Samuel of our lesson followed when God 
 called, and said, 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.' If 
 he had held back and refused, God's guidance would have 
 been offered in vain." Ways of Working. Shauffler, pp. 102- 
 103. 
 
 The attractiveness of the object chains the child's atten- 
 tion to the thing rather than the thought, and we spend our 
 whole lives in trying to spring away from things of sense 
 to spiritual things. Such display materially defeats the pur- 
 pose intended to be accomplished. The Point of Contact in 
 Teaching. DuBois, p. 98. 
 
 Not merely for children, but for grown folk too is this 
 kind of picture work a means of teaching. In a densely 
 populated quarter of New York City there is to-day a minister 
 who is not content with mere word-pictures. He brings into 
 the pulpit the objects themselves it may be a candle, a plumb 
 line, a live frog, an air pump. Ezekiel went still further, and 
 not only used objects but actions to enforce and illustrate his 
 terrible sermon: "To the amazement of the people, setting 
 them all wondering what he could mean, he appears one day 
 before them with a fire, a pair of scales, a knife, and a barber's 
 razor. These were the heads, and doom was the burden of his 
 sermon. Sweeping off, what an Eastener considers it a shame 
 to lose, his beard and the hair also from his head, this bald 
 and beardless man divides them into three parts, weighing 
 them in the balance. One-third he burns in the fire; one-third 
 he smites with the knife; and the remaining third he tosses 
 in the air, scattering it on the winds of heaven." Thus the 
 prophet under divine direction foretells the disgrace, division, 
 destruction, dispersion of his people. Picture. Work. Hervey, 
 pp. 12-13. 
 
130 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 XX. THE LESSON STUDY 
 
 One method of conducting this lesson is the actual study 
 of a scriptural passage in the class session as though the 
 members of the class were in their own home, devoting the 
 entire time of the session to the study. The following is 
 a study of Acts 17:1-15 actually worked out in such a 
 class session. The books used were Reference Bible, Au- 
 thorized and Revised Versions, Modern Speech New Testa- 
 ment, Concordance, Bible Text Book, Atlas, Bible Diction- 
 ary, Commentaries and Note Books. The crosses, made as 
 the lesson was worked out, indicate significant facts to be 
 gathered up and emphasized in preparing the material for 
 the Teaching Plan. 
 
 LESSON STUDY OF ACTS 17: 1-15 
 
 How the Thessalonians and the Bereans received the Gospel. 
 
 1. Text. 
 
 (1) Read it over. Read it again aloud. 
 
 X Dominant impression from these readings the 
 contrast between the Thessalonians and the Bereans 
 in the reception of the Gospel. 
 
 (Because the lesson seems to center here, and for 
 lack of time to do more, special attention will be de- 
 voted to vs. 10-13.) 
 
 (2) Read Revised Version in comparison with Author- 
 ized Version. 
 
 V. 11. "Examine" for "search." 
 
 V. 12. "The Greek women of honorable estate" 
 for "honorable women," indicating social status of 
 the women. 
 
THE LESSON STUDY 131 
 
 V. 13. "Proclaimed" for "preached." 
 
 "Stirring up and troubling" for "stirred 
 up." 
 
 (3) Modern Speech New Testament (or The Twen- 
 tieth Century New Testament) . 
 
 V. 11. "Nobler disposition" for "more noble." 
 V. 12. "Gentle women" for "honorable women." 
 XV. 13. "Incited the mob to riot" for "stirred up 
 the people." (A point of contact here, 
 especially for class of boys.) 
 
 (4) The Student's Own Version. The story written 
 in his own words. 
 
 (5) Eeferences. 
 (a) Marginal. 
 
 V. 10. Acts 9:25. "Let down by the wall in a 
 basket" Not the first time that Paul 
 had fled from danger. Was this cour- 
 ageous ? 
 .V. 11. Isaiah 34:16. "Seek ye out of the book 
 
 of the Lord." 
 
 Luke 16:29. "They have Moses and the 
 prophets." The Scriptures the Bereans 
 had to search. 
 
 John 5:39. "Ye search the Scriptures." 
 (&) Concordance. 
 Yields only John 5:39, and Acts 17:11, as 
 
 above. 
 
 '(6) Bible Text Book (under Scriptures). 
 X V. 11. John 7 :52. "Search and look." An in- 
 quiry to learn whether the truth had 
 been spoken. 
 2. Explanations. 
 
 (1) Geography, History, Biography and Cus- 
 toms. 
 Map. Paul's second missionary journey. 
 
132 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 Thessalonica and Berea in Macedonia 
 northwest of the ^Egean Sea. 
 Bible Dictionary. Berea fifty miles south- 
 west from Thessalonica, 23 miles from 
 the sea; not a city of great fame; not 
 mentioned in the Epistles of Paul. 
 l (2) Comments. 
 
 (a) Original. 
 
 X V. 11. Why were the Bereans more 
 
 noble? 
 
 They displayed openness of mind. 
 
 Searched the Scriptures daily. 
 
 Studied whether these things were so. 
 
 Here we are getting at the very heart 
 of the lesson. 
 
 V. 13. "Stirred up and troubled." 
 Would not receive the Gospel themselves 
 and would not allow others to receive it. 
 Traveled fifty miles to make a discord. 
 (&) Commentary. 
 
 (International Revised Commentary, 
 by J. S. Howson; or Cambridge Bible, 
 by J. R. Lumby ; or Handbook for Bible 
 Classes, by T. M. Lindsay. Also "Paul 
 the Missionary" by W. M. Taylor, and 
 other biographies of Paul.) 
 X V. 11. (Howson.) "Nobility of 
 soul shown in the patient spirit of in- 
 quiry." Suggesting duty of honest in- 
 quiry. 
 
 V. 11. (Taylor.) "Success of the 
 Christian teacher depends upon the 
 spirit of the hearers as really as upon 
 manner in which he presents the Gos- 
 pel/' 
 
THE LESSON STUDY 133 
 
 3. Observation. 
 
 We now have the material before us. What shall we do 
 with it? Now is the time to sit back and think over it. 
 Now is the time for it to lie in solution, perhaps for several 
 days. Now is the time for prayer, with which we are sup- 
 posed to have begun, and in the spirit of which we are sup- 
 posed to have continued the study. What is the general im- 
 pression ? Is not the impression made by the first reading, 
 and re-reading of the lesson, confirmed, namely, the contrast 
 between the two ways of receiving the Gospel represented by 
 the Thessalonians and the Bereans ? 
 
 X How the Bereans received it : 
 
 (1) Openness of mind, i. e., a sympathetic attitude. 
 
 (2) Searched the Scriptures daily, i. e., an earnest and 
 daily study. Note that they were not yet Christians. 
 
 (3) Whether these things were so, i. e., a spirit of 
 honest inquiry. Did not take everything for granted. 
 
 Eesult: They believed. Men say, "I can't believe." 
 One cannot believe until he has studied something to 
 believe. 
 X How the Thessalonians received it : 
 
 They would not receive the Gospel and would not allow 
 others to receive it. 
 
 4. Teachings. 
 
 The contrast. Two ways of receiving the Gospel. 
 Which is my way? Am I a Berean or a Thessalonian ? 
 
 Comments on this method of study. The method will 
 be recognized as inductive the laying of a broad founda- 
 tion of historical statements and facts on which the super- 
 structure shall be built ; the proceeding from facts to prin- 
 ciples. Therefore we insist upon a thorough study of the 
 text first, before any helps are consulted, and the study of 
 those helps first that bear on the text rather than upon the 
 interpretation. The inexperienced teacher will make the 
 
134 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 mistake of proceeding too quickly to a search for the spir- 
 itual application of the lesson. This search should be with- 
 held until the text has been fully studied and the location 
 and history of the places and the biography of the people 
 concerned have been fully fixed in the mind. Only as this 
 is done can right inferences be drawn and justifiable ap- 
 plications made. The facts should be allowed to lie in so- 
 lution as long as possible and crystallize naturally. In 
 making a selection of points to be emphasized thosesshould 
 be chosen which come naturally out of the study and which 
 are homogeneous in character. It will be noted in the above 
 study that several interesting lines of investigation were 
 not followed up, but that the study followed very closely 
 the contrast between the spirit of the Thessalonians and 
 that of the Bereans in the reception, of the Gospel. 
 (See Lesson XIV on Method.) 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 23-27. 
 
 How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 30-37. 
 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 116-124. 
 
 *The Teacher and the Child. Mark, pp. 69-87. 
 
 Normal Course. Pease. Second Year. pp. 156-159. 
 
 Ways of Working. Schauffler, pp. 53-76. 
 
 The Point of Contact in Teaching. DuBois, pp. 103-131. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 Read the whole chapter (or lesson) through once for the 
 purpose of getting a general idea of what it means. When 
 you have finished this reading, close the book, and write 
 a brief statement in answer to the question: "What is the 
 point of this passage?" (This direction is naturally more 
 applicable to the study of a piece of pure literature, than of a 
 practical essay like The Point of Contact.) 
 
 Read the chapter, sentence by sentence, paragraph by para- 
 graph, trying to grasp the meaning clearly, precisely, per- 
 sonally. 
 
 Some of the words contain "buried metaphors," pictures; 
 see that you see these pictures, and are prepared to make 
 others see them. 
 
 Some of the sentences are expressed in abstract language, 
 conveying a general truth ; find concrete illustrations of every 
 
THE LESSON STUDY 135 
 
 one of these. Where the author uses one form of statement, 
 use another of your own. See in how many ways you can 
 say the same thing. (There are many ways of putting things, 
 as there are many flies in the fisherman's book.) 
 
 This is the step of clearness, of detail, of picturing, of am- 
 plification and enrichment of materials. Its purpose is to 
 make the truth clear, definite, concrete, and so warm, living, 
 and ready for action. 
 
 Read the chapter, paragraph by paragraph, asking yourself, 
 "What question is answered by this paragraph?" "What short 
 statement will precisely express the point of this paragraph 
 (and so be the answer to the question just framed)?" "What 
 maxim, or text, or proverb, or pithy saying applies at just this 
 point?" "How is this paragraph related to the whole? Does 
 it express a new thought, or amplify one already developed? 
 Does it suggest a paragraph or sentence in another connec- 
 tion? how does it follow from what precedes? how lead to 
 what follows? in a word, if it is a link, what are the co-ordinate 
 links? 
 
 Make an outline of the chapter or the book, with heads 
 and sub-heads, being careful not to make heads sub-heads, 
 or sub-heads heads. And, with all this thinking, be alert for 
 personal meanings, for applications. 
 
 This is the step of comparing, condensing, generalizing, 
 binding together into wholes. Its purpose is to get to the 
 truth by weeding out ideas that seemed true when standing 
 alone, but which, on comparison, are seen to be false; and, by 
 massing and organizing to make our mental forces into regu- 
 lar troops, instead of guerillas and bushwhackers. 
 
 To sum up: First, a rough general view, such as a civil 
 engineer might gain by riding over the country he is to sur- 
 vey. Second, clearness as to facts; warmth in details; putting 
 yourself into the thing seen, or a thing felt. Third, compact- 
 ing parts into wholes, seeing ends from beginnings, organizing 
 for action. And at each step the thought of personal as- 
 similation, and of use: "What does this mean to me? Is it 
 true? Could I defend it? Do I disagree with it, and why? 
 How can I use, apply, follow, live it? How make it live in 
 the minds and lives of my pupils?" Syllabus to Point of Con- 
 tact. Hervey, pp. 3-5. 
 
 "What? Why? What of it?" is a plan of study of allitera- 
 tive methods for the teacher, emphasized by Prof. W. C. Wil- 
 kinson, not as original with himself, but as of venerable au- 
 thority. "It is, in fact," he says, "an almost immemorial 
 orator's analysis. First, the facts; next, the proof of the 
 facts; then the consequences of the facts." This analysis has 
 often been expanded into one known as "The Five W's: When? 
 Where? Whom? What? Why?" Teaching and Teachers. 
 Trumbull, p. 120. 
 
 Goethe says: "Nothing is worse than a teacher who knows 
 only as much as he has to make known to the scholar." Teach- 
 ing and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 123. 
 
136 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 In the study of the Sunday-school lesson the teacher should 
 have three principal ends in view: 1. To teach a thorough 
 understanding of its meaning; 2. To ascertain the practical 
 lesson which it teaches; 3. To find the illustrations and ex- 
 planations by which it can be made plain and impressive to 
 his class, flow to Teach the Bible. Gregory, p, 30. 
 
THE TEACHING PLAN 
 
 XXI. THE TEACHING PLAN 
 
 Among the advantages of preparing a teaching plan are 
 the following : 
 
 1. The elimination of the unessential. When the drift 
 of the lesson and its central thought have been determined, 
 it will be comparatively easy to separate minor and inci- 
 dental points from those which bear directly upon the main 
 point to be emphasized. This can best be done by the care- 
 ful preparation of a teaching plan. 
 
 2. Economy of time. Herein lies the secret of being 
 able to finish the lesson within the lesson period. It is not 
 the amount of material that causes so many teachers to 
 come, to the end of the lesson period and find that they have 
 not reached the main point of the lesson, but it is the failure 
 to plan the material in such a way that what is essential 
 may be presented within a given time, 
 
 3. The lesson that is presented in accordance with a 
 teaching plan will be followed in logical sequence, and on 
 that account will be more easily remembered by those who 
 are taught. 
 
 4. Better results are secured, the arrangement of the 
 points of contact, the right setting of illustrations, and the 
 orderly leading up to the application to be made. 
 
 The following is a teaching plan for a lesson in Acts 
 17 :1-15, based upon the material secured in the study of 
 our last lesson, and actually worked out in a class session : 
 
 Lesson Plan for Acts 17 :1-15, especially verses 10-13. 
 
138 THB TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 (Prepared with reference to a class of boys from 16-18 
 in mind.) 
 
 1. Preparation. 
 
 A great international complication now under discussion. 
 Two countries involved. 
 
 One open-minded, receptive to new influences. 
 The other closed, prejudiced, tied to traditions. 
 
 2. Presentation. 
 
 Read around Acts 17:10-13. 
 The Bereans : 
 
 Displayed openness of mind. 
 
 Searched the Scriptures daily. 
 
 Studied to see whether these things were so. 
 The Thessalonians : 
 
 Go back and read Acts 17 :1-10. 
 
 Map showing relative location of and distance between 
 Thessalonica and Berea. 
 
 Would not receive the Gospel themselves and would 
 not allow others to receive it. 
 
 Traveled fifty miles to make a discord. 
 
 Incited the mob to riot. 
 
 3. Association or Comparison. 
 
 Note the contrast between the Bereans on the one hand, 
 and the Thessalonians on the other. 
 
 Note a similar contrast in the reception of Christ, by 
 the woman of Samaria on the one hand, and the Scribes and 
 Pharisees on the other. 
 
 The same kind of contrast to be noted in the business 
 methods of two men, one progressive, up-to-date, open- 
 minded, with reference to new methods, searching to see 
 whether they are desirable; the other, with a closed mind, 
 prejudiced against everything that is new, trying to hold 
 others back in their progress. 
 
 4. Generalization. 
 
 The proper attitude toward a study of the Scriptures, 
 
THE TEACHING PLAN 139 
 
 or any other truth, one of open-mindedness, sympathy, and 
 eager search and inquiry. 
 
 The duty of honest inquiry. Douht is not a sin. !The 
 sin is in the closed mind. 
 
 5. Application. 
 
 Are you a Thessalonian or a Berean ? 
 
 Do you find yourself questioning with reference to state- 
 ments that are made to you? Not a wrong attitude if ac- 
 companied by open-mindedness, sympathy and a desire to 
 know the truth. 
 
 The Bereans believed. Men say, "I can't believe. " One 
 cannot believe until he has studied something to believe, 
 
 FIVE STEPS THE TEACHING PLAN. 
 
 1. Preparation. It is the object of this etep to effect 
 in tfce student a relation to the lesson, to establish a point 
 of contact. This is usually done by an illustration. If 
 possible, the illustration should contain a point similar 
 to that to be emphasized in the lesson. Any new material 
 should be introduced under this heading. 
 
 2. Presentation. Here the new material is introduced. 
 The reading of the passage will now generally be in order. 
 The facts of the lesson are brought out and their connection 
 with the facts of previous lessons. Maps and pictures may 
 be introduced at this point. 
 
 3. Association or comparison. By comparison, contrast- 
 ing, illustrations, by placing the material in new relations, 
 the endeavor is here made to get further suggestions. This 
 is really "the working up" of the lesson. 
 
 4. Generalization. We have now the introduction or 
 statement of general principles arising out. of the material 
 secured under the head of Presentation, and worked up 
 under Comparison. 
 
 5. Application. Here we have the relation of the gen- 
 eralization to the individual life of the strdent. 
 
140 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 'How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 38-44. 
 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, pp. 125-137. 
 
 *The Teacher and the Child. Mark, pp. 57-87, 154-165. 
 
 Normal Course. Pease, Second Year, pp. 160-163. 
 
 *Primer on Teaching. Adams, pp. 67-90. 
 
 How to Plan a Lesson. Marianna C. Brown, Ph.D., pp. 26- 
 67. (50 cents.) 
 
 How to Conduct the Recitation. Charles McMurry, Ph.D., 
 pp. 14-20. (25 cents.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 Whereas, with few exceptions, there had been a large amount 
 of teaching, but very little thinking about it, the nineteenth 
 century laid new emphasis on the method of teaching. Some 
 of the finest ideas which have ever entered into the human 
 mind have failed of their influence, because the men that had 
 them did not know how to present them. On the other hand, 
 ideas that have greatly influenced men have owed much to 
 the form in which they were expressed. The vast influence 
 of the Bible writers, for example, does not reside merely in 
 what they say, but in the manner and spirit in which they 
 say it. The Teacher and the Child. Mark, p. 58. 
 
 In the work of instruction each methodical unity should be 
 carried through the following steps: 
 
 1. It should introduce the new lesson by means of a prepara- 
 tory discussion. 
 
 2. Present the new lesson. 
 
 3. Compare the new in its parts and with older ideas and 
 their combination. 
 
 4. Draw out the general results of this comparison, and ar- 
 range them in systematic form. 
 
 5. Convert the knowledge acquired into use. 
 
 These steps may be fairly illustrated in their general out- 
 lines by an analogy taken from the work of a farmer. 1. The 
 soil is ploughed, harrowed, and made ready for the seed. 2. 
 The grain is sowed upon the ready soil and raked in. 3. The 
 growing grain is cultivated and the weeds destroyed. 4. The 
 harvest is brought in. 5. The grain is used for practical pur- 
 poses of food. 
 
 The analogy is so complete that it scarcely calls for a com- 
 mentary. The preparation is the preparing of the soil of the 
 mind for the seed-corn of instruction. The presentation is 
 sowing the seed upon this prepared soil of the mind. The 
 third stage is the cultivation of the growing crop, the work- 
 ing over of the knowledge Just acquired by means of com- 
 parison. The fourth step is the harvest time, the drawing 
 out of the general truth or law involved in the lesson. Finally, 
 the particular uses to which the harvest grain is put, the 
 application of acquired knowledge to the practical uses of life. 
 How to Conduct the Recitation. McMurry, pp. 16, 54. 
 
THE TEACHING PLAN 141 
 
 Sometimes when our aim is historical or biographical we 
 do well to follow the course of the history pure and simple, 
 merely illustrating our lesson by reference to current or 
 familiar events. Slightly differing in plan and conception 
 from the historical method would be the biological; according 
 to which we should follow the order of growth and develop- 
 ment, and take nature's story rather than man's as our guide. 
 The Teacher and the Child. Mark, p. 80. 
 
 Our preparation of a lesson may be far too rigid; that is, 
 if we intend to follow out that lesson on precisely those pre- 
 pared lines when we come with it into class. Our preparation 
 should give us full command of the subject-matter by bringing * 
 into shape and clearness our own thoughts upon it; and gen- 
 erally speaking, the lesson will follow more or less closely the 
 lines we ourselves have sketched out. But every lesson should 
 be regarded by the teacher as plastic and, in a< sense, unfin- 
 ished, until the interplay of thought between teacher and 
 pupils gives it its final form. The Teacher and the Child. Mark, 
 p. 74. 
 
 It does not require a prophet to see that the five steps 
 in careless hands will degenerate into a dry mechanical rou- 
 tine. It might be even worse than text-book lore, for a good 
 text-book is always better than a poor teacher. It is not in- 
 tended that this plan and these principles shall make a slave 
 of the teacher, but that by a hard-earned mastery of their 
 details, and by a successful application of them to the con- 
 crete materials of study he gradually works his way out into 
 the clear daylight of conscious power. In this way the teacher 
 becomes a skilled architect, with clear ideas of the strength 
 and resistance of materials. How to Conduct the Recitation. 
 McMurry, pp. 17-18. 
 
 John Bright is reported as saying, that whenever he made 
 a speech he had a care to know in advance how he was to 
 begin that speech. He commonly knew what was to be the 
 substance of that speech; although circumstances might 
 change much of its tenor or its phrasing as it proceeded. But, 
 whatever play there might be at any other point, he always 
 knew, before he began a speech, how he was going to end it 
 Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 133. 
 
PART FOUR 
 
 'FINAL SURVEY 
 
TEACHER'S RELATION TO STUDENT 145 
 
 /ERS1TY ) 
 
 og^S" 
 
 XXII. THE TEACHER'S RELATION" TO THE IN- 
 DIVIDUAL STUDENT 
 
 We have considered "The Teacher : His Work, Qualifica- 
 tions and Preparation" ; "The Student : His Physical, Men- 
 tal and Spiritual Nature"; "The Lesson: The Teacher's 
 Approach to the Student." The three remaining lessons 
 will, in a sense, be a review of those which have preceded 
 under the above captions, for while they will be studies in 
 new topics, they will bring in review before the mind many 
 of the principles already discussed. That portion of the 
 hour usually given to a demonstration of a method of teach- 
 ing might profitably be spent for these three sessions in 
 reviewing the entire course up to this point in preparation 
 for the examination, seven lessons at each session. 
 
 Up to this point we have been examining, to a very large 
 extent, the relations of the teacher and the student in the 
 classroom. In the lesson now before us we have to examine 
 some of those relations which should exist between teacher 
 and taught, not only in the classroom, but outside as well 
 "the teacher's other work than teaching." 
 
 1. We remind ourselves, fiist of all, of the principle to 
 which we have already given some attention in our second 
 lesson, that we must not divorce the work of teaching from 
 the personality of the teacher. A crude conception of in- 
 struction is that it is a perfunctory passing over by the 
 teacher to the student of certain facts or items of knowl- 
 edge. A truer conception of teaching is that it is a flowing 
 of influence through the personality of the teacher to the 
 student, a saturation of the knowledge which the teacher 
 
146 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 would convey with the character of the teacher himself. 
 What Phillips Brooks said of preaching is equally true of 
 teaching : "Preaching is the communication of truth by man 
 to man. It has in it two. essential elements, truth and per- 
 sonality. Neither of these can it spare, and still be preach- 
 ing. * * The truth must come really through the per- 
 son, not merely over his. lips, nor merely into- his under- 
 standing and out through his pen. It must come through 
 his character, his affections, his whole intellectual and 
 moral being. * * I think that, granting - equal intelli- 
 gence and study, here is the great difference which we feel 
 between two preachers of the Word. The Gospel has come 
 over one of them. The Gospel has come through the other." 
 
 This means, among other things, that the teacher must 
 love the student and endeavor to influence him, not only 
 through his intellect, but through his affectional nature as 
 well. "Aim at the heart in your preaching" was the ad- 
 vice of an experienced preacher to a class of graduating 
 divinity students. "Not every man- has a head, but every 
 man has a heart. If you aim at the head you will miss some 
 of your hearers. If you aim at the heart you will hit them 
 all. Aim at the heart." 
 
 There is one very apparent reason why this personal 
 and intimate relation should be sustained between teacher 
 and student. Except for it the instruction of the teacher 
 will not carry sufficient weight to offset the evil influences 
 which are at work in the student's life daily and hourly, 
 and which it is one of the duties of the teacher to overcome. 
 The teacher who is with the members of his Bible class 
 but one hour in the week, and knows nothing of their life 
 beyond that hour, can hardly be expected to stem the tide 
 of influences that are at work upon the character of the 
 student during the other one hundred and sixty-seven hours 
 of the week. 
 
 2. Most of the following influences in the life of the 
 
TEACHER'S RELATION TO STUDENT 147 
 
 student may be contributory to the end that the teacher 
 has in view in his instruction of them, or they may be 
 opposed to that end. Hence the necessity that the teacher 
 should be familiar with them in the case of each individual 
 student and enter into them so far as possible. 
 
 (1) The teacher should be familiar with the home life 
 of the student and know whether the influences there are 
 making for or against his advancement in religious instruc- 
 tion. Intelligent, and systematic co-operation between par- 
 ents and teachers in the instruction of youth is most de- 
 sirable. 
 
 (2) Familiarity with the character of the business in 
 which the- members of his class may be engaged, its hard- 
 ships* or its peculiar temptations, will greatly assist the 
 teacher in shaping his instruction and in entering sympa- 
 thetically into their business aspirations and drawbacks. 
 
 (3) The same principle holds with reference to younger 
 classes, theimembers of which may still be attending school. 
 Here, notably a study of the methods of instruction which 
 obtain in the schools among boys or young men of the age 
 of his students, will be a valuable assistance to the Bible 
 class teacher. 
 
 (4) The companionships of a boy or young man may 
 make or mar the character. They will go far towards d&- 
 stroying all the good effects of a teacher's instruction. On 
 the other hand they may be made to subserve the work of 
 instruction. The teacher should attempt the difficult task of 
 wisely guiding the student in his selection of companions. 
 
 (5) What is true of companions is equally true of rec- 
 reations. The more the teacher can enter into these with 
 his students the more easily will he be able to guide them. 
 This, too, will furnish a key to the question of companion- 
 ships. 
 
 (6) In no particular may the teacher be more help- 
 ful to the student than in advising him about his reading 
 
148 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 suggesting books that are both interesting and instruc- 
 tive, and adapted to the particular stage of his growth in 
 the mental life. 
 
 (7) But with no point of the student's life should the 
 teacher be more familiar than with besetting tempta- 
 tions, those which come to him from the nature of his home, 
 his occupation, his companions, his recreation, his reading. 
 These are to be met by offsetting influences which the 
 teacher should study to set in motion lest the instruction 
 of the classroom may be entirely neutralized by them. 
 
 3. The teacher may establish social relations with his 
 students by visiting them in their homes, or inviting them 
 individually or collectively to his own home, or by means of 
 outings, or visits to points of interest. It has been said 
 that the two principal positions of the two great English 
 teachers, Arnold and Bowen, were that, first, the teacher 
 must at all hazards secure interest, and, second, that the 
 students must be at ease with the teacher. 
 
 4. Absentees should be followed up with scrupulous 
 care, especially after their first absences, either by note or 
 a personal visit. The habit of absence once formed, like 
 other habits, is difficult to break. 
 
 5. The connection between teacher and student may be 
 greatly strengthened by the writing of letters. A letter is 
 more of an event in the life of young people than among 
 those who are older, and will be gladly welcomed. Notably 
 will such letters be effective during a period of separation 
 between teacher and student, either when the teacher 
 may be called away on a trip, or when for any reason the 
 student may be absent. Some teachers keep a roll of the 
 birthdays of the members of their classes and write to them 
 as these come around. A letter at such a time may be very 
 effective. 
 
 6. Illness among members of the class especially should 
 not be overlooked. A visit at such a time, some delicate 
 
TEACHER'S RELATION TO STUDENT 149 
 
 attention, will be greatly appreciated, and a tie is apt to be 
 thus formed that cannot be easily broken. 
 
 7. But by far the most important work that the teacher 
 has to do with the individual student is to win him to a 
 complete acceptance of Christ. The Bible class teacher has 
 a peculiarly favorable relation to the student to accomplish 
 this result. It is his province to lay a broad foundation 
 of religious instruction which is the first requisite in form- 
 ing* an intelligent personal relation to Christ. Young men 
 and boys who will not confide in their parents or most in- 
 timate friends concerning their religious feelings and con- 
 victions will often respond to the approaches of a tactful 
 and sympathetic Bible class teacher on this subject. The 
 persistence and earnest solicitude of such a teacher have led 
 thousands of young people to dedicate their lives to God. 
 Especially should the teacher avail himself of those periods 
 in the life of the student at which experience has demon- 
 strated that they are most sensitive to leadings of this kind. 
 The youth of fifteen or sixteen should be the object of the 
 most tender solicitude on the part of his teacher, who 
 should with the greatest wisdom and tact watch his oppor- 
 tunities for leading him into conscious relation with his 
 Lord. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 ^Teachers and Teaching. Trumbull, pp. 241-377. 
 
 How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 74-78. 
 
 Principles and Ideas for the Sunday-school. Burton and 
 Mathews, pp. 98-109. 
 
 Unconscious Tuition. Huntington. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 I can particularly recall two of my teachers, out of several. 
 One made it his whole endeavor to instruct. He declared the 
 truth explicitly and with plainness; but he was at no special 
 pains to influence his scholars personally. The other was a 
 man of less knowledge, but was possessed with zeal for souls. 
 His "teaching" was out of the question-book, and was some- 
 what perfunctory. But when the "lesson" was over, then that 
 teacher would reach forward to his class, and, laying his 
 hands tenderly on the knees of one scholar or another, would 
 
150 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 look into the scholar's eyes, with eyes that were brimming 
 with loving tears, and would say, with a tremulous tenderness 
 that carried the weight of his whole soul into his words: "My 
 dear boy, I do wish you would love Jesus, and give him your 
 whole heart!" All the instruction out of the question-book 
 of one of those classes, and out of the great brain of the teacher 
 of the other class, has long ago passed from the mind of the 
 scholar who tells of this; but the influence of that persistent 
 pleader for Christ and for souls is fresh and potent to-day; 
 and the pressure of these loving hands on that scholar's knee 
 is felt, after half a century, as while those faithful hands still 
 rested there. Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 254. 
 
 We are taught, and we teach, by something about us that 
 never goes into language at all. I believe that often this is 
 the very highest kind of teaching, most charged with moral 
 power, most apt to go down among the secret springs of con- 
 duct, most effectual for vital issues, for the very reason that 
 it is spiritual in its character, noiseless in its pretentious, and 
 constant in its operation. Unconscious Tuition. Hunting- 
 ton, p. 211. 
 
 Tho' truths in manhood darkly join, 
 
 Deep-seated in our mystic frame, 
 
 We yield all blessing to the name 
 Of Him that made them current coin; 
 
 For wisdom dealt with mortal powers, 
 Where truth in closest words shall fall, 
 When truth embodied in a tale 
 
 Shall enter in at lowly doors. 
 
 And so the Word had breath, and wrought 
 With human hands the creed of creeds 
 In loveliness of perfect deeds, 
 
 More strong than all poetic thought; 
 
 Which he may read that binds the sheaf, 
 Or builds the house, or digs the grave, 
 And those wild eyes that watch the wave 
 
 In roarings round the coral reef. 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 There is still another department of week-day work which 
 the benevolent Sunday-school teacher will find it pleasant to 
 perform. It consists of the various friendly services which he 
 may render to his pupils in advising and aiding them In the 
 selection of employment, the performance of their duties, the 
 encounter of ordinary trials, or in more serious difficulties in 
 which they may be occasionally involved. It is, in short, to 
 act the part of an elder and wiser friend, to whom they may 
 appeal for assistance and counsel, and who may help them to 
 steer clear of many of the temptations and difficulties of life. 
 A wise teacher in this way may aid also in the ordinary educa- 
 
TEACHER'S RELATION TO STUDENT 151 
 
 tion of his pupils by kindly inquiries about their studies; 
 offering suggestions in regard to their reading, and to the 
 division and employment of their time, and counsels as to 
 their companionships and amusements. How to Teach the 
 Bible. Gregory, pp. 77-78. 
 
 At the busiest period of his life, when he was preparing 
 lectures which filled his class-room with crowds of students 
 and publishing the books which won him a world-wide reputa- 
 tion, he regularly spent four hours a day walking with stu- 
 dents, besides having one student at dinner with him and 
 another at supper. Imago Ghristi. Stalker, p, 278. 
 
152 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 XXIII. THE TEACHER'S MISTAKES 
 
 1. In regarding telling as teaching. It cannot be too 
 often repeated that "telling is not teaching." Only that 
 which the student thinks out for himself becomes a part of 
 his mental and spiritual equipment. It may be easier to 
 impart the information to the student than to lead him 
 through the comparatively painful process of discovering 
 for himself, but the imparting of information is not all of 
 teaching. A form of this mistake is to allow a bright stu- 
 dent to absorb the time of the class. The telling of the 
 answer to every question by one or a few of the more alert 
 members of the class is as objectionable as the giving of 
 the answer by the teacher. 
 
 2. In regarding knowledge as an end in itself. Charac- 
 ter is the end of education. Knowledge is only a means to 
 character. The teacher's work, therefore, is to lead the 
 student through knowledge to character. In the spiritual 
 realm mere knowledge is not productive of spiritual life 
 any more than in the intellectual realm mere knowledge is 
 productive of power. 
 
 3. In regarding the subject as more important than the 
 student. It must be borne in mind that the subject-matter 
 even in biblical instruction is not an end in itself. The 
 statements of the Bible are the channel through which the 
 teacher conveys to the student a knowledge of God and 
 spiritual truth and influences him to a life of righteousness. 
 
 4. In thinking that it is sufficient to keep just ahead of 
 the student. It is only as the teacher has fathomed all the 
 
THE TEACHER'S MISTAKES 153 
 
 depths of a subject, explored it in all its length and breadth, 
 and studied the relations of its various parts, that he is 
 fully prepared to guide the student intelligently even over 
 a portion of it. The teacher whose spiritual experience is 
 shallow will find himself powerless when he. comes to lead 
 his student into the larger spiritual life. Henry Moore said 
 to Southey, who asked him why he could not write a life of 
 John Wesley, "Sir, the well is deep and there is nothing to 
 draw with." 
 
 5. In neglecting fresh preparation for each lesson. The 
 manna must be gathered each day for the uses of that day. 
 The fact that the teacher has a general knowledge of the 
 subject to be taught, or has covered the lesson with other 
 classes, should not keep him from studying the subject in 
 hand in the light of later knowledge and experience. 
 
 6. In assuming that the same mental faculties are not 
 used in the study of the Bible as in the study of any other 
 subject. A false distinction is sometimes drawn between 
 intellectual and devotional Bible study as though all the 
 powers of the intellect were not brought into requisition in 
 the devotional use of the Bible. Devotional Bible study 
 may be more than intellectual Bible study, but cannot 
 exclude it. 
 
 7. In ignoring the physical life of the student in his 
 mental and spiritual instruction. The body conditions the 
 mind and the spirit. Anything that affects the physical 
 comfort or welfare of the student may effectually prevent 
 him from receiving clear apprehensions of the truth, or 
 from wanting to adopt it into his life. From fresh air in 
 the classroom to the kind of recreation which he enjoys, 
 the teacher should be fully familiar with the physical as- 
 pects of his student's life. 
 
 8. In not suiting the lesson material to the age of the 
 student. A given lesson might be regarded as so much 
 cloth from which a suit is to be made. No tailor thinks of 
 
154 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 cutting the cloth until he has learned the measurements of 
 the person for whom the suit is intended. The same lesson 
 material may be worked up into an entirely different gen- 
 eralization and application, as it is to be taught to a boy of 
 twelve, a youth of eighteen, or a man of twenty-four. 
 
 9. In teaching boys principles that cannot be immedi- 
 ately applied. Boys are impatient of delay in putting into 
 action plans and purposes that are to be wrought out. 
 Ideals should be presented that will admit of immediate 
 effort at realization. The application of the lesson that 
 belongs to the man should not be brought to the attention 
 of the boy. 
 
 10. In trying to teach without first having order and 
 attention. The teacher should not commence the actual 
 study of the lesson with lack of attention any more than he 
 would commence the lesson in the absence of the students 
 and proceed with it after their dismissal. Much depends 
 upon starting right. The step of preparation is all impor- 
 tant. An illustration, a startling question, a point of con- 
 tact is needed to call in the wandering mental activities of 
 the student and rivet his attention on the subject in hand. 
 
 11. In failing to connect new truth with previous acquisi- 
 tions. What does the student already know into which this 
 new thought can be conveyed or to which it may be attached 
 should be the question of the teacher with the preparation 
 of each lesson. Especially in the realm of religious instruc- 
 tion should the teacher seek to find a point in the experi- 
 ence of the student on which to base his teaching. 
 
 12. In insisting upon the language of the book in the 
 recitation. Verbal memory is not the most important kind 
 of retention. It is far from being an evidence of the appre- 
 ciation of the lesson by the student. While the memorizing 
 of Scripture has its important place the student should be 
 tested by being asked to put the statements of the Bible 
 into his own language. 
 
THE TEACHER'S MISTAKES 155 
 
 13. In neglecting the picture element in instruction. 
 The Bible is at many points a book of pictures. He who 
 has no imaginative instincts cannot fully understand it. 
 Whether it be the material picture made by the artist and 
 photographer and presented to the eye, or the mental pic- 
 ture presented by the teacher to the imagination, either is 
 of great importance in conveying an adequate apprehension 
 of the lesson. 
 
 14. In useless stirring of the emotions. This mistake 
 may be made in exciting the feelings to too great a tension 
 from which there is sure to be an unhealthy reaction, or in 
 arousing the emotions without furnishing an immediate 
 outlet for their legitimate use. The stirring of the religious 
 feelings should naturally lead to an appropriate effort of 
 the will in the line of endeavor. 
 
 15. In expecting a mental and spiritual upheaval as a 
 necessary attendant of conversion. It should be expected 
 of the child who has had normal religious instruction from 
 his earliest days of conscious intelligence that he should 
 pass naturally and easily during the adolescent period into 
 a personal acceptance of Christ, and the responsibilities that 
 accompany that relationship. The adult, the trend of whose 
 life has not been opposed to the teaching of Christ, may also 
 be expected, though with a greater effort of the will than 
 in the case of the youth, to come into conscious relations 
 with Him without the storm and stress of the conversion, 
 for example, of Paul. 
 
 16. In using language unfamiliar to the student. There 
 must be a common basis of communication between teacher 
 and taught in order to effective teaching. For a teacher to 
 think and speak in language far removed from that which 
 the student uses is the same kind of absurdity, though less 
 in degree, as it would be for an Englishman who can speak 
 no French to attempt to teach a Frenchman who can speak 
 no English. 
 
THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 17. In trying to teach too much in one lesson. Not what 
 the student hears but what he takes in and remembers is 
 the test of the value of a lesson. Better one or two points 
 firmly fixed in the mind than a dozen hastily skimmed over 
 without assimilation. Industry, not hurry, should be the 
 key-word. Especially does this obtain in religious instruc- 
 tion, in which truth must be given time to sink into the life 
 and develop into character. 
 
 18. In forcing unnatural applications of the lesson. 
 Exotic plants are not the most sturdy. Teachings that do 
 not grow naturally out of the lesson, drawing their power 
 directly from the truth on which the lesson is based, will not 
 be the most fruitful in the student's life. Better draw no 
 moral at all than artificially graft teachings, which it is de- 
 sired to impress, on lessons to which they do not belong. A 
 similar error is sometimes made by teachers in their study 
 of the lesson in hastening to gather applications for the 
 lesson before making a full study of the lesson material. 
 
 19. In neglecting reviews. This is one of the most com- 
 mon mistakes of inexperienced teachers. Under the pres- 
 sure of limited time the temptation is to hurry on to the 
 end of the lesson in forgetf ulness of the fact that "not what 
 a man gains but what he keeps constitutes his wealth." 
 
 20. In putting long and involved questions. The mind 
 of the student should not be embarrassed by the necessity 
 of deciphering the meaning of the questions. It is sup- 
 posed to have enough to do to recall and frame the answer 
 to the question, which should be so simple and transparent 
 as not to detain the powers of the mind in its solution be- 
 fore proceeding to the preparation of the answer. 
 
 21. In not exercising patience in securing replies to 
 questions. This mistake may be shown over the slowness of 
 the student in furnishing correct answers to the question, 
 which may oftentimes be due to the awkwardness of the 
 teacher in framing the questions, or ; what is more common, 
 
THE TEACHER'S MISTAKES 157 
 
 lack of patience may be displayed in the readiness of the 
 teacher to supply the answer himself when he finds that it 
 is not immediately forthcoming from the class. 
 
 22. In using illustrations from fields not familiar to the 
 student. This mistake is a violation of the very funda- 
 mental principle of an illustration which is supposed to be 
 something that sheds light on an unfamiliar subject. The 
 folly of using something unfamiliar to shed light on some- 
 thing that is likewise unfamiliar is most apparent. 
 
 23. In teaching without a definite end in view. The very 
 first question the teacher should ask himself after he has 
 gathered his lesson material, and before it is organized, 
 should be, "What is my object in teaching this lesson? 
 What particular point am I to impress upon the class? 
 What is the dominant impression I desire to make ?" This 
 having been determined he should not lose sight of it until 
 the lesson has been completed. 
 
 24. In dwelling upon minor points in the lesson. This 
 mistake comes from the lack of a comprehensive teaching 
 plan, from a failure to gather all the lesson material to- 
 gether and to weigh the relative value of points secured and 
 then to cast the whole in such form as to lead up to a defi- 
 nite end. In short, this common error arises from a lack of 
 study and method. 
 
 25. In regarding instruction as the sole work of the 
 teacher. This mistake is kindred to the one of regarding 
 the subject-matter as of greater importance than the stu- 
 dent. It must not be overlooked that the teacher has to do 
 with a life full of spiritual possibilities and that all agen- 
 cies, whether of instruction, personal example, or influences 
 of friendship, should come within the sphere of the teacher's 
 use. The disciples of Jesus were not simply His disciples, 
 they were His friends, and all the influences of friendship, 
 as well as of instruction, were brought by Him to bear upon 
 their development. 
 
158 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES, 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 Mistakes in Teaching. Hughes. 
 How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 67-69. 
 The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, pp. 25-27; 46-47: 
 60-64; 78-80; 102-104; 116-117; 132-134. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 The teacher should lead or guide his pupils through the 
 garden of knowledge, and show them which kinds of fruit are 
 beneficial and which injurious; he should also show them the 
 best means of obtaining the fruit, but he should not pluck it 
 for them, and eat it for them and digest it for them. He should 
 teach his scholars how to think ; he should not do the thinking 
 for them. Mistakes in Teaching. Hughes, p. 93. 
 
 In the same way, writers for children often seem to sup- 
 pose that they are placing themselves on the child's plane by 
 the use of certain kinds of youthful expressions and by a kind 
 of forced intimacy of manner, while the situations, the motives 
 and raw material out of which the story or article is made, 
 are foreign to the child's perception, thought or feeling. The 
 Point of Contact in Teaching. DuBois, p. 86. 
 
 In connection with this clear, intelligible use of words, the 
 teacher should take the child's mind back to its own past ex- 
 periences, should remind him of facts in his experience, the 
 recollection of which may contribute to the production of a 
 distinct idea of the place, scene or event. Thus in describing 
 an historical event the several features should as far as pos- 
 sible be related to analogous events in the child's small world. 
 The Teacher's Hand Book of Psychology. Sully, p. 296. 
 
 There is first of all the law of transmutation. These great 
 rich feelings that sweep through the soul are not ends in them- 
 selves. Unfortunately, many go to the theatres or read the 
 thrilling book, merely for the excitement of the emotions pro- 
 duced. But every engineer understands that he must not fire 
 up the engine unless he has some work to do. The feelings 
 are aroused for the purpose of securing the motive power to 
 some great action. And if the emotions are quickened and the 
 aspirations stirred, to be forgotten again in an hour, then the 
 soul is injured. Little by little the finer feelings will harden, 
 the soul will put on a veneer, and It will be all but impossible 
 to reach these persons. The Feelings: Their Uses and Laws. 
 A sermon by Newell Dwight HilHs. 
 
 A Commission from the British Parliament was once set to 
 investigate the language of the coal-miners and other laborers 
 of England, to ascertain the possibility of diffusing useful in- 
 formation among them by means of tracts and books. It was 
 found, as reported, that their knowledge of language, in a large 
 number of cases examined, was too meagre to allow of such 
 means of instruction. Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory, 
 p. 63. 
 
THB TEACHER'S MISTAKES 159 
 
 Study constantly and carefully the pupil's language to learn 
 what words he uses and the meanings he gives them. Secure 
 from him as full a statement as possible of his knowledge of 
 the subject, to learn both his ideas and his mode of expressing 
 them, and to help him to correct his language. Express your 
 thoughts as far as possible in the pupil's words, carefully cor- 
 recting any defect in the meaning he gives them. Use the 
 simplest and fewest words that will express the idea. Un- 
 necessary words add to the child's work and increase the 
 danger of misunderstanding. Use short sentences, and of the 
 simplest construction. Long sentences tire the attention, 
 while short ones both stimulate and rest the mind. The Seven 
 Laws of Teaching. Gregory, p. 59. 
 
 A more serious fault is that of those who, failing to find 
 anything in the lesson, try to graft something upon it, and 
 make it a mere cart to carry their own fancies on. The Seven 
 Laws of Teaching. Gregory, p. 26-27. 
 
 The first violation of the law is the total neglect of reviews. 
 This is the folly of the utterly poor and idle teacher. Second 
 comes the wholly inadequate reviews. This is the fault of the 
 hurried and impatient teacher, who is more anxious to get 
 through the book than to get the book through the mind of 
 his pupils. The third mistake is that of delaying all reviews 
 till the end of the quarter when, the lessons being wholly for- 
 gotten, the review amounts to a poor and hurried relearning, 
 with little interest and less profit. The fourth blunder is that 
 of degrading the review into a lifeless repetition of the same 
 questions and answers as those used at first. This has the 
 form of a review without its power. The Seven Laws of 
 Teaching. Gregory, p. 133. 
 
160 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 XXIV. JESUS AS A TEACHER 
 
 1. Preaching and teaching. While everyone feels that 
 there is a difference between preaching and teaching, it is a 
 difference that is not easily analyzed or described. The fol- 
 lowing distinctions may therefore be subject to modifica- 
 tions and will certainly not be acceptable to all : 
 
 (1) The preacher as a rule presents great principles or 
 truths without necessarily disclosing the processes by which 
 these results have been reached. The teacher deals with 
 certain facts, and the processes by which these facts are 
 developed into generalization axe carried on in the class- 
 room. 
 
 (2) The method of the preacher is one of inspiration, the 
 method of the teacher is one of instruction, a process of 
 building "line upon line, precept upon precept." 
 
 (3) The preacher's method is one of sacred oratory in 
 the literal sense of that word. The teacher's method is 
 usually conversational. 
 
 (4) The preacher speaks to a silent audience. Teaching 
 as a rule consists of the interchange of question and answer, 
 the play of discussion between teacher and taught. 
 
 (5) The preacher speaks to a large number. The larger 
 the audience the more inspired are his utterances likely to 
 be. The teacher does his best work with a small number. 
 
 2. Jesus was pre-eminently a teacher. As a rule, Jesus 
 carried his auditors with Him through the processes by 
 which He arrived at the principles He presented; He did 
 not indulge in impassioned utterances intended to sweep 
 men into the Kingdom of Heaven by the force of eloquence; 
 
JESUS AS A TEACHER 161 
 
 one can hardly imagine that He was other than conversa- 
 tional in His method of teaching ; we find Him calling out 
 the opinions and suggestions of His auditors and building 
 the discussion upon them; He did not seem to covet the 
 opportunity to speak to multitudes, but dealt with the few 
 or even with a single individual. His recorded utterances 
 that might be designated as sermons or discourses are few 
 in number, while there were scores of personal interviews 
 or talks with small groups. Of course, Jesus did preach as 
 well as teach. It is said of Him that immediately after 
 His temptation He began to preach. He applied to Him- 
 self the words of Isaiah, "He anointed Me to preach the 
 good tidings to the poor." But, as sometimes happens in 
 the case of a preacher, the teaching elements of His preach- 
 ing were so dominant that people thought of Him as a 
 teacher, and it is sometimes difficult to say at what point 
 He was preaching and at what point He was teaching. It 
 is recorded of Him that He went about teaching and preach- 
 ing, but His work as a teacher was evidently the dominant 
 impression left upon the minds of those about Him. He 
 was familiarly known as Rabbi, Master, the title given by 
 the. Jews to their teachers. Several times it is said of Him 
 that He taught in the synagogue, and at least once that He 
 taught the multitudes. One would have little hesitation in 
 saying that His greatest work was in the training of the 
 twelve who were called His disciples and might be regarded 
 as His class of students. 
 
 3. Elements of power in Jesus as a teacher. We turn 
 our attention to those characteristics of Jesus which mark 
 Him especially as a teacher the characteristics He pos- 
 sessed aside from the spiritual endowments He might have 
 had, even if He had not been pre-eminently a teacher. It 
 would be interesting for the student to go through the In- 
 terwoven Gospels, making note of each reference to Jesus 
 as a teacher, and from these statements constructing his 
 
162 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 own category of the elements which contributed to the 
 effectiveness of Jesus as a teacher. Those who cannot take 
 the time to do this original work should study the following 
 passages (the first verse only of the passage in any case 
 being indicated) : 
 
 John 1:14; John 14:16. 
 
 Matt. 7 :29 ; Mark 1 :22. 
 
 John 1 :35 ; Luke 9 :55 ; John 20 :27. 
 
 Matt. 4 :1 ; Luke 4:17; Luke 24 :27. 
 
 John 1 :48 ; John 2 :24 ; Luke 9 :47. 
 
 Luke 4:17; Luke 10:26. 
 
 John 3 :1 ; John 4 :1. 
 
 Matt. 13 :1 ; Matt. 25 :1 ; Luke 15 :1. 
 
 Matt. 21:19; Matt 22:19; John 13:14. 
 
 Matt. 19 :21 ; Matt. 12 :50. 
 
 Matt. 5:46; Matt. 7:3, 16. 
 
 Mark 8 :36 ; Luke 7 :40 ; Luke 10 :25, 30. 
 
 Matt. 21:24; Matt. 22:45; Luke 6:9. 
 
 Luke 4 :20 ; John 3 :3 ; John 4 :10. 
 
 Matt 12 :1 ; Matt 26 :45 ; Mark 6 :31. 
 
 Luke 11:1; John 15:15. 
 
 Luke 4 :28 ; John 4 :39. 
 
 (1) His personality. It was said of Him that He was 
 full of "grace and truth." So thoroughly did He embody 
 His own teaching in His life, so much of an example was 
 He of that which He presented in His teaching, that He 
 could say of Himself, "I am the truth." 
 
 (2) His authority. The people immediately detected 
 the strong note in His teaching and distinguished it from 
 the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees. Whether it was 
 less wavering, less mechanical, more consistent, it is very 
 evident that He spoke with full confidence of the truth of 
 that which He was presenting. 
 
 (3) His sympathy. Whether in the call to His disciples, 
 in tender response to their hesitation, "Come and see/' or in 
 
JESUS AS A TEACHER 163 
 
 His patience with slow learners, as in His rebuke to those 
 who would bring fire upon the Samaritans because they 
 would not receive Him, or in His forbearance with the 
 doubting Thomas, the sympathy of Jesus towards those 
 whom He would teach was most evident. 
 
 (4) His simplicity. "Without a parable, He spake IK 
 unto them," and yet His parables in their superficial mean- 
 ing at least were extremely simple as were all His illustra- 
 tions. The Beatitudes, the teaching about the bread of life, 
 the analogy of the vine and the branches, are all clear 
 and transparent and marked by the greatest simplicity. 
 
 (5) His knowledge of Scriptures. So familiar was He 
 with the law and the prophets that He could bring immedi- 
 ately to bear upon the tempter appropriate verses of 'Scrip- 
 ture, could turn without hesitation to the needed place in 
 His reading in the synagogue, or, more remarkable still, 
 could charm the two disciples as they walked to Emmaus by 
 "beginning from Moses and from all the prophets and in- 
 terpreting to them all the Scriptures, the things concerning 
 Himself." 
 
 (6) His knowledge of men. It is said of Him that He 
 "knew all men." He could detect the "reasoning of the 
 heart" of the disciples when they disputed among them- 
 selves who should be the greatest. He excited the surprise 
 of Nathanael by being able to detect the drift of his 
 thoughts while ke sat under the fig tree. 
 
 (7) He proceeded from the known to the unknown. To 
 Nicodemus He unfolded the Sonship of God in the terms 
 of the new birth and compared the moving of the Spirit of 
 God with the coming and going of the wind. With the 
 Samaritan woman He proceeded from the water of the well 
 to the living water of which if she should drink she would 
 not thirst again. 
 
 (8) His adaptation. Whether with Nicodemus, the 
 teacher of the Jews, or with the humble Samaritan woman, 
 
164 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 He was equally natural and at ease in the manner of His 
 approach on the great subjects to be discussed and adapted 
 His teaching with equal facility to both. 
 
 (9) His illustrations. Regarding His parables as illus- 
 trations, as indeed they were in essence, the reader finds a 
 wealth in these gems scattered in bountiful profusion 
 throughout the teachings of Jesus. Seven of them are gath- 
 ered in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew the parables of 
 the sower, the good seed and tares, the mustard seed, the 
 leaven, the treasure in the field, the goodly pearls, the net ; 
 three of them in the fifteenth chapter of 'Luke the parables 
 of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the* lost son; two of 
 them in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew the parables 
 of the ten virgins and talents. His illustrations are always 
 taken from a sphere familiar to His hearers. Nature is 
 the most fruitful source of them; the lily, the harvest 
 field, the tree, the vineyard all go to illustrate and enforce 
 His thought. Object illustrations were often used by Him. 
 The washing of the disciples' feet, the blasting of the fig 
 tree, the tribute money, the child in the midst all help 
 to make clear great spiritual truths. 
 
 (10) He excited His hearers to self-activity. Jesus was 
 not content till the mental processes of those with whom He 
 was dealing had moved them to action. To the young man 
 from whom He had elicited a narration of the moral law, 
 He said, "Go sell." To those who told Him His mother 
 and brethren were without He addressed the question, "Who 
 is my mother and who are my brethren ?" and then added, 
 '^Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, he is my brother 
 and sister and mother." 
 
 (11) His questions. The question was a favorite method 
 with Jesus as with many great teachers in the conveying 
 of truth. "If ye love them that love you, what reward have 
 ye ?" "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's 
 eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye ?" 
 
JESUS AS A TEACHER 165 
 
 "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" 
 "What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and 
 forfeit his life?" "What is written in the law?" He said 
 to the lawyer who asked what he should do to inherit eternal 
 life, and, to permit the lawyer to make his own interpreta- 
 tion as to who was his neighbor, recited the story of the 
 good Samaritan. When He would stir the sensibilities and 
 arouse the conscience of Simon, His host, He told the story 
 of the lender and the two debtors, and asked the searching 
 question, "Which of them loved him the most ?" Sometimes 
 questions were asked, not so much to convey a truth, as to 
 confound His enemies. Those who were trying to implicate 
 Him in His teaching found themselves between the two 
 horns of a dilemma when He pointedly asked, "The baptism 
 of John, whence was it, from Heaven or from men?" 
 Equally confounded were they by His question, "Is it lawful 
 on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm? To save life 
 or to destroy it?" and by that other one, "If David then 
 called him. Lord, how is he his son ?" 
 
 (12) He excited the interest and attention of His audi- 
 tors. The curiosity of Nathanael knew no bounds when 
 Jesus spoke of his experiences under the fig tree. In speak- 
 ing to the Nazarenes, it is said of Him, "He closed the 
 book and gave it back and sat down, and the eyes of all 
 in the synagogue were fastened upon him." He excited 
 the interest of Nicodemus by the saying, "Except a man 
 be born anew he cannot see the Kingdom of God," and that 
 of the Samaritan woman by His saying, "If thou knewest 
 who it is that saith unto thee 'give me to drink' thou 
 wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee 
 living water." 
 
 (13) His care for the physical condition of His disciples. 
 He allowed them to pluck the corn in the corn fields through 
 which they were passing on the Sabbath day and de- 
 fended them in the act. He called them apart into a desert 
 
166 THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 place after their return from a tour of labor, saying, "Come 
 apart and rest awhile." Tb the disciples who were so over- 
 come that they could not watch with Him during His agony, 
 He said kindly and pathetically, "Sleep on now and take 
 your rest." 
 
 (14) His relation to His disciples aside from His in- 
 struction. They are spoken of as "those about Him." After 
 He had finished His formal instruction they came to Him 
 and said, "Lord, teach us to pray." He called them His 
 friends. 
 
 (15) He aroused the conscience. Whether in the case 
 of the Samaritan woman, whom He brought to a knowledge 
 of her sins and to an acceptance of Him, or of the N"aza- 
 renes, whom He also convinced of their unbelief, and drove 
 to desperation, He succeeded in stirring convictions and 
 arousing the conscience. 
 
 4. Discouragements of Jesus as a teacher: 
 
 Matt. 26:56; Luke 9:45; John 12:16. 
 
 Mark 3 :21 ; John 7 :5 ; 20 :25. 
 
 John 6 :26 ; 6 :66. 
 
 Mark 14 :1 ; Luke 6 :7 ; John 8 :3. 
 
 Matt 26 :31, 36 ; Luke 6 :11, 12. 
 
 Mark 16 :7 ; Luke 9 :54 ; John 20 :27. 
 
 (1) Many of those whom He taught did not understand 
 Him. This was not only true of those who were strangers 
 to Him, but it was especially true of His own race and of 
 
 ' His own disciples. It is said especially of the reference 
 which Jesus made in advance to His crucifixion that "they 
 understood not this saying and it was hid from them." 
 More than once it is said that they understood not certain 
 things that were said to them at the time, and it was only 
 after Jesus had been crucified and risen from the dead that 
 they remembered what He had said. 
 
 (2) He met frequently with doubters. His brethren did 
 not believe in Him. His friends thought He was beside 
 
JESUS AS A TEACHER 167 
 
 Himself. His disciple Thomas would not believe unless he 
 were permitted to put his finger into the print of the nails 
 and his hand into the side of the wounded Christ. 
 
 (3) Many of His followers sought material rather than 
 spiritual benefits. They came to Him because they had 
 eaten of the loaves and fishes and had been filled. Whe~ 
 He spoke of His approaching trial many went back. 
 
 (4) He encountered the indifference and opposition of 
 men. Which was harder for Jesus to bear it is difficult to 
 say the apathy of those who simply did not embrace Hia 
 instruction or the antipathy of the Scribes and Pharisees 
 who were constantly seeking to entrap Him and finally to 
 put Him to death. 
 
 (5) The course of Jesus in these discouragements is very 
 suggestive. 
 
 (a) He resorted to prayer. When the Scribes and Phari- 
 sees, "filled with madness, communed one with another 
 what they might do with Jesus," "He went out into the 
 mountain to pray." After He had prophesied that they 
 would all be offended in Him during the night of His pas- 
 sion, He took them to Gethsemane and went aside to pray. 
 
 (b) His patience in the bearing of these discouragements 
 and His perseverance in following up those whom He 
 sought to influence were most marked. When He had risen 
 from the dead, He said to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger 
 and see My hands, and reach thither thy hand and put 
 it into My side." He had evidently planned that the news 
 of His resurrection should be carried by the two Marys 
 to His disciples and Peter. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 Imago Christi. Stalker, pp. 261-280. ($1.25.) 
 Jesus as a Teacher. B. A. Hinsdale. ($1.25.) 
 Teacher Training with the Master Teacher. C. S. Beardelee. 
 (50 cents.) 
 
 How to Teach the Bible. Gregory, pp. 78-81. 
 +The Blackboard, in Sunday-school. H. T. Bailey, pp. 16-23. 
 
168 THE TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 The difference between teaching and preaching is partly 
 that preaching may appeal to the emotions, while teaching 
 appeals to the understanding only; but chiefly that the 
 preacher tries to bring about an immediate result, to lead to 
 conviction, resolution, and amendment before the end of the 
 hour, while the teacher uses a more patient process, takes a 
 longer time and a longer look, endeavors to prepare the 
 learner to listen to the sermon, and to assist the will gradually 
 by informing the mind. Principles of Religious Education. 
 Dean George Hodges, p. 81. 
 
 The audiences to whom Jesus preached numbered thousands, 
 the men to whom he acted as teacher numbered only twelve. 
 Yet perhaps in its results His work in the latter capacity was 
 quite equal in value to His whole work as a preacher. Imago 
 Christi. Stalker, p. 163. 
 
 When poor, discouraged, imprisoned John sent two of his 
 disciples to inquire, "Art thou he that should come?" Luke 
 says that in that same hour Jesus, instead of saying the simple 
 word Yes, cured many of their infirmities, and plagues and of 
 evil spirits, and unto many that were blind He gave sight 
 Then answering, He said unto them, "Go your way and tell 
 John what things ye have seen and heard." "Who is the great- 
 est in the kingdom of heaven?" asked the disciples. And 
 Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst 
 of them. "What thinkest thou," asked the Herodians, "is it 
 lawful to give tribute to Caesar?" "Show me the tribute 
 money," said Jesus. "Whose image and superscription is 
 this?" When He would teach the greatness of a service He took 
 a towel and girded himself and afterward said, "If I, your 
 Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to serve 
 one another." When He would teach the deepest mysteries of 
 our faith, He took bread and gave thanks and brake it and 
 gave it unto them, saying, "This is my body broken for you." 
 Likewise also the cup, saying, "This cup is the new testament 
 in my blood which is shed for you." When the object itself 
 could not be had He used mental pictures. Would He teach the 
 attitude of God and Father toward a lost world? He did it by 
 that vivid panorama of the prodigal son. Was it the solicitude 
 of the Spirit? That was suggested by the picture of a woman 
 searching the house with a candle. Did he wish them to ap- 
 preciate the self-sacrificing love of the Son of God? They were 
 to recall the good shepherd leaving the ninety and nine and 
 going through darkness and danger to find the one which was 
 lost. The Blackboard in Sunday-school. Bailey, pp. 19-20. 
 
 That was the way in which our Lord and His disciples fre- 
 quently impressed a truth to which they attached peculiar 
 importance; sometimes with a slight change in the phrase- 
 ology and meaning and again in the very words first employed. 
 "Jesus looked round about, and saith unto His disciples, How 
 
JESUS AS A TEACHER 169 
 
 hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of 
 God! And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus 
 answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard it 
 is for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of 
 God! It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, 
 than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
 Again, "Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, lovest 
 thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; 
 thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto them, Feed my 
 lambs. He saith unto him the second time, Simon, son of 
 John, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou 
 knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Tend my sheep. 
 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of John, lovest 
 thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the 
 third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou 
 knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said 
 unto him, Feed my sheep." Can anyone doubt that these 
 truths were more firmly fastened in the minds of their hearers 
 by their threefold repetition in immediate review? Nor was 
 that an uncommon method with our Lord, in His teaching. 
 and Teacher*. Trumbull, pp, 215-216. 
 
170 THE TEACHING OP BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 XXV. EXAMINATION 
 
 (The examination should be a written one, and the fol- 
 lowing are the kind of questions that might be presented. 
 The students will answer questions 1, 2, 11, 20, and select 
 six other questions, but no more. If more than ten ques- 
 tions are answered only the answers, to the first ten should 
 be considered. Each answer should be marked on the basis 
 of ten for a perfect answer. Of the 100 possible credits 
 to be secured in this way for perfect answers to the ten 
 questions, 75 should be considered necessary to pass the 
 examination. ) 
 
 1. Give a definition of teaching which shall embody 
 three of its essential elements. 
 
 2. Name three qualifications for teaching that bear on 
 the relation of the teacher to the student. 
 
 3. Why should the Bible class teacher have a knowledge 
 of the elementary principles of instruction possessed by 
 the teacher of any other subject? 
 
 4. Designate three illustrations of common effects of 
 body on mind and spirit, and three illustrations of common 
 effects of mind and spirit on body, and indicate at least 
 one application of these effects to the teaching of the 
 Bible. 
 
 5. Designate at least three characteristics of early adoles- 
 cence and indicate how these should modify biblical in- 
 struction at this age. 
 
 6. Indicate three methods growing out of the treatment 
 of the subject of securing and retaining attention. 
 
 7. What is helpful to memory in teaching, and what 
 bearing has this on the memorizing of Scripture? 
 
EXAMINATION 171 
 
 8. What is the relation of the imagination to memory? 
 Of what use is the imagination in Bible study? 
 
 9. What is the relation of the feelings to character and 
 conduct ? 
 
 10. What gain does habit bring, to living? 
 
 11. What is the chief faculty of the spiritual nature 
 and with what mental capacity would you compare it? 
 
 12. To what in the student should the teacher adapt 
 himself in his teaching? What is Apperception? 
 
 13. Describe the inductive and deductive methods of 
 Bible study. 
 
 14. Name three objects of the review. 
 
 15. Designate five characteristics of a good question. 
 
 16. What is the chief characteristic of a good illus- 
 tration? 
 
 17. Give the principal steps in a lesson study, and a 
 teaching plan. 
 
 18. What responsibility has the teacher for the student 
 outside- of the classroom? 
 
 19. What in your opinion is the chief difficulty an inex- 
 perienced teacher has to contend with in teaching? 
 
 20. Name at least three characteristics of Jesus as a 
 teacher, aside from the spiritual endowments which He 
 might have had, even if He had not been pre-eminently a 
 teacher. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 Bible knowledge is to be secured through the same mental 
 processes as any other knowledge, and the testing of the 
 knowledge gained by a scholar in the study of the Bible must 
 be by the same method as his testing in any other department 
 of knowledge. Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull, p. 199. 
 
 When classes reach an average of ninety per cent, and up- 
 wards in a written examination, the fact may be usually ac- 
 cepted as evidence that both tests and instruction have been 
 grooved, or that much time has been wasted in drilling the 
 more backward pupils to the sacrifice of time and opportunity 
 on the part of other pupils. Elements of Pedagogy. White, 
 p. 203. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 THE OKGANIZATION AND CONDUCT OF A CLASS 
 IN THE TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 
 
APPENDIX 175 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 The Organization and Conduct of a Class in the Teaching 
 of Bible Classes. 
 
 DEMONSTRATION OF A METHOD OF TEACHING. 
 
 A demonstration of a method of teaching by members of the 
 class in turn should be a feature of each lesson period. That 
 is, a member of the class appointed one or two weeks in ad- 
 vance should conduct the class over a Bible lesson by the same 
 method which he follows in conducting the class of which he 
 may be the teacher. 
 
 The following division of an hour is suggested: 
 
 8: 00 to 8:05 P. M. Opening. 
 
 8:05 to 8:10 P. M. Review. 
 
 8:10 to 8:30 P.M. A study of principles. 
 
 8:30 to 8:35 P.M. Assignment of next lesson and of work 
 
 thereon. 
 8:35 to 8:50 P.M. A study of methods: The teaching of a 
 
 lesson. 
 8:50 to 9:00 P.M. Comments on method. 
 
 Of course a member of the class cannot in ten or fifteen 
 minutes cover an entire lesson which as a teacher of his own 
 class he occupies a half hour or an hour in covering. He can, 
 however, demonstrate his method of teaching in a few min- 
 utes, and disclose the characteristics and faults of his ordinary 
 teaching. He should be allowed to proceed, however, as though 
 he had the usual lesson period, arrested a minute or two before 
 the expiration of the time and given an opportunity to present 
 the closing suggestions of the lesson. It would be helpful if 
 the member appointed to render this service would place on 
 the blackboard in advance of the session a brief outline of the 
 teaching plan of the entire lesson so that the teaching of a 
 portion of the lesson may be judged in relation to the whole. 
 Arrangements for the class occasionally to visit or be visited 
 by expert teachers would be desirable. The members of the 
 class should be encouraged to cultivate the habit of studying 
 the methods of the most successful teachers, visiting various 
 Bible classes and reporting on the methods used. Successful 
 
176 APPENDIX 
 
 teachers should be interviewed as to their methods of prep- 
 aration and instruction. Members of the class might prof- 
 itably visit the public schools, or college classrooms, and report 
 on the methods of instruction there observed, and on the 
 difference in methods followed in the teaching during earlier 
 and later adolescence. 
 
 COMMENTS ON METHODS OF TEACHING. 
 
 The comments of the members of the class on the method 
 of teaching should be specific and searching. They should 
 not be allowed to degenerate into complimentary platitudes, 
 On the other hand, they should be sympathetic. It should be 
 borne in mind that criticism is a judgment on the merits as 
 well as on the demerits of a production. Therefore, an effort 
 should be made to emphasize the good points of the teaching 
 method as well as the defects. The comments on method 
 should run to some extent along the line of the principles of 
 teaching which have been considered. Among the comments 
 that were offered in the course of a season in a class of this 
 kind were the following: 
 
 The teacher talked too much himself. 
 
 Made practical application of the subject to the daily life of 
 the student 
 
 Made New Testament application of an Old Testament 
 lesson. 
 
 Manner attractive to the class from the outset 
 
 Assumed position of leadership. 
 
 No wasting of time. 
 
 Showed preparation. 
 
 Selected salient points of lesson for emphasis. 
 
 Too much sameness in teaching not enough variety. 
 
 Should have illustrated on a blackboard. 
 
 Did not ask questions. 
 
 Teaching too abstract 
 
 No practical point to instruction. 
 
 Outline carefully prepared. 
 
 Began with a good story. 
 
 Was interested himself. 
 
 Read scriptural references himself. 
 
 Interpreted the lesson in terms of daily life. 
 
 Alert manner. 
 
 Good illustration of "Thy word is a lamp." 
 
 Although a lesson for boys, used no drawing. 
 
 Took grasshoppers as a point of contact 
 
 Began with references to the present-day politician. 
 
 Commenced the lesson with a diagram. 
 
 The lack of the picture element in a lesson from the 32d 
 Psalm; no attempt to illuminate such words as "Transgres- 
 sion," "Sin," "Waxing old of bones," "Moisture." 
 
 Presented effective incident and appeal at the close. 
 
 Appealed to love of heroism. 
 
 Made practical application of the lesson. 
 
APPENDIX 177 
 
 Questioned the students in rotation in order of seating. 
 
 Made an earnest appeal to the members of the class. 
 
 Made the members of the class think. 
 
 Presented the truth to the class through his own personality. 
 
 Used language beyond the comprehension of class. 
 
 Evidently had a plan for the lesson. 
 
 Presented clear outline of the whole lesson. 
 
 Proceeded systematically. 
 
 Did not review before commencing the lesson in hand. 
 
 Had good way of asking questions. 
 
 riad- prepared his questions. 
 
 Did not give due weight to all answers. 
 
 Did not address questions to special men. 
 
 Answered a question not answered immediately by class. 
 
 Used elliptical questions. 
 
 Made a good word picture of the scene. 
 
 Good contrasts. 
 
 Should have had a map. 
 
 Was drawn into controversy. 
 
 Made an appeal to conscience. 
 
 THE COURSE OF BIBLE STUDY. 
 
 Two plans may be observed in the selection of courses of 
 Bible lessons to be used in such a class: 
 
 (1) If the class is composed of leaders of other groups, 
 and membership in the class is conditioned on the leadership 
 of such a group, a single course of Bible study might well be 
 followed, and the common lesson of the following week taught 
 at each session. This course might be one of the elementary 
 courses of a graded plan, and the selection of a course of 
 study from among them would result in the multiplying of 
 the number of students entering upon the elementary stages 
 of this work and so prepared to be advanced from grade to 
 grade. 
 
 (2) If the members of the class are already teachers of 
 other classes the selection of Bible lessons to be taught in the 
 class might be postponed till the class is brought together 
 and organized, and a course then selected which would be 
 profitable to the largest number, or a selection of lessons 
 might be made from the various courses represented in the 
 class. 
 
 THE TEACHER. 
 
 One need not necessarily be an expert teacher in order to 
 conduct such a course of study as this in the principles of 
 teaching. The elementary principles of teaching are now so 
 well known and are to such an extent common property as to 
 justify others than professional teachers in attempting the 
 leadership of such a class. 
 
 If more expert leadership is required, a school principal 
 or other teacher, or a peculiarly qualified minister or other 
 professional man, might be available as a teacher of the class. 
 
178 APPENDIX 
 
 SELECTION OF MATERIAL. 
 
 The lessons on the principles of teaching outlined in this 
 book will doubtless be found to contain too much to be covered 
 in the time allotted to them in the lesson period, and, perhaps, 
 even for home study by members of the class. A selection of 
 portions especially suited to the needs and capacity of the 
 student should be made by the teacher and assigned in ad- 
 vance. A few points firmly fixed in the mind will be more 
 profitable than a hurried consideration of a large number. 
 
 Henry Clay Trumbull says: "The question of getting 
 through with a Bible lesson in a given time has really little 
 or nothing to do with the length of the lesson itself. One 
 verse might occupy a teacher for a life-time. And a complete 
 lesson could be taught about the whole Bible in ten minutes. 
 A teacher has no more right to expect to serve out to his class 
 all that he finds in a lesson, than a guest at a first-class hotel 
 has to eat every dish that he finds noted on the dinner bill of 
 fare, from -soup to confectionery." In the same strain the Su- 
 perintendent of Schools of New York City says: "The teacher 
 should have the ability to pick out essentials and disregard 
 the other things. This is the only solution of the problem of 
 the so-called overcrowded course of study. The fault lies with 
 the teacher." 
 
 The teachers of classes composed of older boys who are lead- 
 ing classes of younger boys should be especially careful in 
 their selection of material. The more abstruse points of the 
 lesson should be omitted. For example, in the study of Les- 
 son 6 on Interest and Attention, the nature of attention might 
 be omitted and emphasis laid on methods of securing atten- 
 tion. Whole lessons might be advantageously omitted in such 
 classes, notably some of those in Part II, bearing on the intel- 
 lectual powers. It will be safe to omit these subjects if it is 
 found that they have not been covered in any one of their 
 aspects by the same boys in their school work. The time 
 gained by these omissions could profitably be spent in fre- 
 quent reviews. 
 
 CONDUCT OF THE LESSONS IN THE PRINCIPLES OF 
 TEACHING. 
 
 An effort should be made to have members of the class put 
 in concrete forms the abstract principles in these lessons. For 
 example, illustrations of the principle of proceeding from the 
 known to the unknown, the point of contact, the connection of 
 the body and the mind. Especially should students be expected 
 to suggest concrete examples and illustrations of principles 
 from the Scriptures. 
 
 The student should be expected to make notes. The black- 
 board should be in constant requisition. The teacher might 
 write on the blackboard each point that is developed, giving 
 the precise form of the statement that the student is expected 
 to transcribe in his notes. 
 
 General reviews should be conducted frequently. Such sec- 
 
APPENDIX 179 
 
 tions as the first three lessons constituting Part I of the 
 course, or Lessons 6, 7, and 8, covering the intellectual facul- 
 ties, should be reviewed together. The review midway in the 
 course will prepare for the final review or examination, and 
 should therefore be more formal and might be a written one. 
 The demonstration of methods of teaching might be suspended 
 after Lesson 19. The work outlined for Lessons 20 and 21 
 will easily occupy the entire hour, and a portion of the time 
 of Lessons 22, 23, and 24 might be spent in reviewing the 
 entire course in blocks of seven lessons each, leading up to 
 the examination at the close. 
 
 The teacher of such a class will naturally conduct it as far 
 as possible by the question and conversational method. Each 
 teacher will find his own questions the most effective, but in 
 order to suggest the type of questions that will bring out the 
 knowledge of the student concerning these subjects, questions 
 for the first three lessons are here appended: 
 
 Lesson 1. 
 
 What are the three objects of teaching? 
 
 What are the three objects of teaching Bible classes? 
 
 Wherein lies the importance of knowledge? 
 
 Is the teaching process from within or without? 
 
 Give an original definition of teaching, or select one that 
 comes nearest to your idea of the process. 
 
 What relation does the teacher bear to the activities of the 
 student? 
 
 Designate some kinds of knowledge that the boy secures with- 
 out a teacher. 
 
 What advantages come to the student from the securing of 
 knowledge through self-activity? 
 
 What kind of activities is the teaching of the Bible intended 
 to stimulate? 
 
 What is education? 
 
 What relation does teaching bear to education? 
 
 What is the principal object of Bible teaching? 
 
 Lesson 2. 
 
 What twofold relation does the teacher bear? 
 
 What should characterize the teacher's knowledge of the 
 
 Bible? 
 How may the subject under instruction come between the 
 
 teacher and the student? 
 What kind of knowledge of the student should the teacher 
 
 have? 
 Why is it necessary for the teacher to be an example to the 
 
 student? 
 What is necessary in order that the teacher may become a 
 
 friend of the student? 
 
 teaching qualifications should 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
180 APPENDIX 
 
 Lesson 3. 
 What two kinds of preparation does the teacher need for his 
 
 work? 
 What twofold preparation in subject-matter should the teacher 
 
 make? 
 
 What may enter into the general preparation of a teacher? 
 What kind of preparation in Bible study should the teacher 
 
 have? 
 Why should the teacher make special preparation for each 
 
 lesson, although familiar with the ground to be covered? 
 Why is method important? 
 What are natural teachers? 
 What is religious pedagogy? 
 
 Why apply the principles of pedagogy to biblical instruction? 
 What misuse of the science of teaching may the teacher make? 
 What is meant by the science and art of teaching? 
 
 REFERENCES FOR READING. 
 
 The following books are those to which most frequent refer- 
 ence is made in these lessons. All of them might well be 
 placed at the outset in a library where they would be ac- 
 cessible to members of the class. The sixteen volumes may 
 be secured at an expense of less than $15, list prices. Other 
 books than these may be distinguished in the lists following 
 the lessons by the mention of prices in the first list in which 
 they occur. The most valuable books which at the same time 
 are the most available and popular reference books for the 
 particular lesson in connection with which they are suggested 
 are indicated by a star. 
 
 The Seven Laws of Teaching. John M. Gregory. (50 cents.) 
 
 How to Teach the Bible. John M. Gregory. (15 cents.) 
 
 Teaching and Teachers. Henry Clay Trumbull. ($1.25.) 
 
 Talks to Teachers. William James. ($1.50.) 
 
 The Teacher's Hand Book of Psychology. James Sully. ($2.00.) 
 
 Psychology in Education. Ruric M. Roark. ($1.00.) 
 
 Elements of Pedagogy. Emerson E. White. ($1.00.) 
 
 Principles of Religious Education. ($1.25.) 
 
 Principles and Ideals for the Sunday School. E. D. Burton and 
 
 Shailer Mathews. ($1.00.) 
 
 Primer on Teaching. John Adams. (20 cents.) 
 The Teacher and the Child. H. Thistelton Mark. ($1.00.) 
 The Spiritual Life. George Albert Coe. ($1.00.) 
 Education in Religion and Morals. George Albert Coe. ($1.35.) 
 The Point of Contact in Teaching. Patterson DuBois. (76 
 
 cents. ) 
 
 Revised Normal Lessons. Jesse Lyman Hurlbut. (25 cents.) 
 Normal Course. (2 vols.) George W. Pease. (25 cents each.) 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 JUN 17 1S33 
 
 SF? 
 
 1944 
 
 JO A I 
 
 LD 21-50m-l,'3r 
 
2 1 787