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THE KING’S BUSINESS
Starving and Poisoning of the Scholars in Our Sunday Schools A lawyer , who is a Bible class teacher, has recently sent to us Part I of the Second Year Senior Studies of the Keystone International Graded Sunday School Lessons, published by the American Baptist Publication Society, and asks our opinion of them. In the Foreword the writer of these lessons says, “ For more than a generation the OLD TESTAMENT has been studied in Sunday Schools with the chief emphasis, on the biographical and historical narratives. Facts, names, dates, outlines, and verses and passages have been committed to memory. Critical notes, analyses, archaeological re searches, Oriental sidelights, anecdotes, practical applications, and the whole paraphernalia o f pedagogical inventions have been marshalled for the purpose of making Old Testament study profitable and interesting. And yet no one seemed to suspect that all this work was expended on the casket while the priceless jewel which it contained only received scant attention.” This, char- * acterization of the work done in the Sunday School for the past generation is a gross slander upon it. It is perfectly safe to say that more of the priceless jewels to be found in the Word of God have been brought to light by the Sunday School work that has been done in the last generation than are brought to light in this series of “ Senior Studies.” In fact, we have not met anything in Sunday School literature that squanders so many pages without bringing anything really vitally important to light as these very studies. They are utterly jejune and unprofitable. Further on in the Foreword the writer says, “ The purpose of this course is to trace rapidly the growth of religious ideas from their first and' crude manifestations in the persons and in the life of the patriarchal age down to the close of the Old Testament period.” This then is “ the priceless jewel which is contained” in the Old Testament. The man who says that this and this alone is the priceless jewel contained in the Old Testament is indeed a blind reader of the Book. Pretty much the whole series of studies is devoted to this one thing, tracing the growth of religious ideas. That there is a growth, no one will deny; Bible students have known that and taught that for years. But the growth is not as stated in this series of lessons. The studies are full of historical inaccuracies. For exam ple, we read on Page 4, “ There was a time when Milton’s ‘ PARADISE LOST ’ Was read almost as generally as the Bible and when it exercised a great influence in shaping religious thought.” Anybody who knows anything about the history of English literature knows that this is not true, that the statement is utterly wild and unscientific. Milton’s “ Paradise Lost” doubtless was read more a generation ago than it is today, but it was never read anything like as generally as the Bible, and it never exorcised the influence in shaping re ligious thought that a certain school of modern thinkers would have us imagine that it did. The writer goes- on to tell us that it was due to Milton that “ naturally the religious degradation of the human race was regarded as the direct result of Adam’s fall.” Undoubtedly the degradation of the human race was regarded as the direct result of Adam’s fall, but this was not in any way due to Milton, but was due to the plain teaching of the Bible as recorded for example in Genesis 5; Romans 5. We read further, “ All the higher conceptions held by the Hebrews were supposed to have been transmitted to them in a direct line .from Adam and to have been only reminiscences; of the primitive
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