February 1926
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
64
There has been a woeful lack of proper supervision. Too often programs have been deficient, and worst of all, the various educational agencies, such as the Sunday School, Young People’s Societies, and various clubs, have gone about their own piece of work with blissful disregard of all other agencies. Because of this there has been great over lapping in some places and dreadful gaps in others. The result of all this has been that even the children who are in our churches have grown up with only a vague and scat tered knowledge of the Bible and the great facts of Chris tian History and experience, with no proper conception of and feeling for Christian worship, and with no vital expe rience to send them out with a great passion for Christian living and work. Now, how is our new course in Christian Education in the Institute related to all this? Well, we are studying the situation, the importance of the work, its needs, the present condition in the churches and the new programs which are coming into view which aim to supply an ade quate training in these things. Since the educational work of the Church must be carried out through and by the Church we are trying in our various classes to train out* young people to go out and work intelligently and accept ably in the churches, not to tear down everything that has already been done, but to build upon that for larger things. We like them to be able to work effectively in the Sunday School, the Young People’s Societies, and other educa tional organizations, and help to intelligently relate all work and activities of these organizations; to meet the educational needs of young people ¿long the lines of Chris tian instruction, worship and expression; to give such train ing in the Bible, in missionary work, in the history of the Church, and in other allied subjects as shall vitally affect the lives of those trained; and most o f all to win our boys and girls to a personal and intelligent acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Master, and having won them to this to build them up in every way possible in their grow ing Christian life. In all our work we never lose sight of the fact that winning them to this personal acceptance of Jesus is fundamental.
the past, because the Church now is the sole great agency to give any systematic Christian training to our boys and girls. They used to be helped in this matter by the Public Schools and by the homes. So thoroughly were the Public Schools of our country founded upon "the Bible and Religion that in the early days any education at all was religious. But now the schools have become secularised and no longer to any extent educate in religion; the home, partly through neglect, and partly through modern living conditions, sel dom furnishes the Christian training that it should; hence the Church is left alone in the field. One of its large duties is to try to furnish means and inspiration to put part of this training back in the home where it belongs, and thus in a limited sense to carry out the sound and recognized educa tional maxim: "The chief duty of a teacher is to render her services unnecessary.” We next have to face the questioh: How is the Church, left as the sole agency for this most important work of nurture and training in Christian Religion, meeting its task? Statistics and surveys show that she is touching less than fifty per cent of the children and young people of our country and is adequately training less than ten per cent of them. Juvenile judges, social workers, business men, relig ious and secular educators, and all sorts of workers who come in contact with our young people are telling us plainly that we must pay more attention to their Christian train ing if we would save them, save our civilization, and save the very soul of the Church itself. They tell us that we Church people are very poor Christian economists when we Just play at this task; we loqp our young people and then turn all the machinery of our churches into a frantic effort to reclaim them. As we study the educational situation in the Church it is very easy to see why she has failed in her teaching work. Generally speaking, she hasn’t realized the importance of . the task. The time and support given it wouldn’t have been adequate for a decent training in mathematics, to say nothing of a training in all that is involved in Christian education. Many of the teachers are entirely untrained.
§ i i A Message for M in isters
ashamed to have known by everybody, will not make men have confidence in a minister. There are those who, under such circumstances, would praise his good fellowship, but in the day when their hearts are wrung and they wish a minister of God to kneel in prayer for them, they would not turn to their companion in frivolity. The minister ought to be a gentle man always, and it is worth his while to learn the forms by which gentle ness is expressed. He should be courteous and not dictatorial nor over bearing in his speech. He should be hearty and friendly in attitude, not with affectation, but in sincerity. He ought to be scrupulously faithful in keeping every promise or implied promise. All of this is only saying that the minister among men ought, as the servant of Christ, in the name and spirit and for the sake of his. Lord, to seek to do good to all men, and that to this end he ought to pray to grow in grace and the knowledge of his Saviour.
Every minister ¿as need of mingling with men. He ought to love people because they are human. He ought to learn to talk with any set of men any where, and find a common interest somewhere. He will be helped by learning for himself what men are thinking about, what interests they have, what viewpoints they hold. The minister who knows men can adapt his way of preaching the truth to the needs of men. Many ministers have been overwhelmed to find how inadequate is the sermon they have prepared to interest, reach or help audiences of men who have no respect for religion, no church manners, nor any of the responses that make the church atmosphere. No affectation of broadness and lib erality that leads to inconsistency will make men think more of the minister. No lowering by him of the standards— whatever they may do themselves— will keep their respect. The accept ance of an invitation, however urgently given, to do in the privacy of their company what he would be
EVERAL years ago Dr. W. L. Presbyterian C h u r c h of Pittsburgh, gave a series of messages on the “ Office and
:-------McEwan, Pastor of the Third
Functions of the Ministry." One of thèse addresses was on "The Minister with Men.” We were greatly im pressed with it, and are passing on some helpful selections to our minis terial friends and to young men who are looking forward to the ministry: The preseht age in our own country makes large demands on ministers of the Gospel. There never has been a time when the' preaching function of the minister was more important, nor when a truly Scriptural sermon was more appreciated and more effective. Whatever may be that elusive thing we call personality— the thing which makes each man himself and differ entiates him from others— it is certain '’ that when he truly dedicates himself to the Lord Jesus Christ, as he answers the divine call to the ministry, he has taken the fundamental step that fits him for service to his fellow men.
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