T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
285
May 1928
which our great hymns and religious literature have come, ha the thrilling story of modern missions and in other types of Christian service. This becomes extra-Biblical material with which every teacher should be familiar and which she should use to supplement and illustrate her work. Simple studies in church history, biography, hymnology, religious literature, missions, etc.,¿should find place in Vacation Church Schools, or in various Clubs, Week-Day work, or Expressional Societies, for our boys and girls. T he Q uestion of M ethods Another question now arises, a question o f methods. Does it make any difference how this material is pre sented? -Absolutely, if we wish to meet the needs o f the child and make this wonderful Book interesting and living and dynamic for him. Certainly the material used should be adapted to the age: certainly the best o f pedagogical and psychological principles—which themselves came from God and which Jesus always employed— and the best and most effective methods should be used. W e have the greatest material in the world to present, and the most interesting and important audience to whom to present it; moreover, there are nowhere else such vital issues as are involved in our work. It is a tragedy and disgrace that usually our methods o f presentation are so trivial and slipshod and utterly unworthy our material, or audience or the issues. W e need to “ study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed” along this line. There can be no greater inspiration and help to one who wishes to become a good teacher of. the child and of the Word than to make an actual study of Jesus Christ as a teacher. In our interest in the other phases of His life and work— His redemptive work, His kingship, His per fect life, His deity—we have lost sight of the fact that’ from a merely technical point of view, He was the greatest teacher of all time. It is amazing to find out that there are no great pedagogical principles which are known and considered necessary today, but were actually employed by Jesus in His teaching. Principles dealing with attention, interest, points of contact, illustration, preparation, use of the concrete, art o f questioning, story telling, and every other important subject engaging the interest and attention of writers on pedagogy were not only perfectly familiar to Jesus, but were understood and actually used by Him as they never have been and never will be by any one else. Just as people who wish to become great artists or musi cians spend much time in studying the masterpieces of their art, so we should study our great masterpiece. There are people who claim to fear that a consideration o f Jesus as a teacher will detract from His deity, but quite the opposite is true. Any real and unprejudiced study o f Him as a teacher furnishes the strongest proof that He was God. N o one else ever knew and employed the great peda gogical principles as He did. Socrates, Aristotle, Pesta- lozzi Froebel, Thomas Arnold, Mark Hopkins and many others, were great teachers, but they never understood as Jesus did all the laws of the human mind and heart. More over, He, unlike these other men, never had to learn or experiment with these things and never showed improve ment in methods. The first lesson He taught was as per fect as His last. What is the answer to this? No one could have understood and used these laws as Jesus did, except the one who created them. He must have been God. So our study o f Him as a teacher but furnishes another proof o f His deity. It sets before us, also, a masterpiece of teaching which has been and will always remain un equaled.
Book we find that the two just dovetail into,each other: in the Book are just the special things the child needs in each age o f his life. This thing couldn’t have happened. : It must have been planned. So we center our teaching mate rial around the Bible fo r the sake o f the child. Perhaps some o f us need to have our Lord come into our midst and correct our attitude about the Bible as long ago He cor rected the religious attitude about the Sabbath. Can you not hear Him say “ The Bible was made for man, not man for the Bible” ? From the point of view o f practical, individual need, what is the greatest need o f the individual and the world today? Surely it is the one expressed by our Conference theme— to know Jesus Christ and to make Him known. Imagine how it would change us, our cities and towns, our country, the world in all its life and activities, if Jesus, Christ were really known in a vital, personal relationship by individuals and nations. But how are people to-become acquainted with Him? First, through the pages o f the Bible that portray that matchless life and work. And the great tragedy today is that most o f our boys and girls have never really seen or been thrilled by Him as He moves through the marvelous gospel stories. , We need the Bible as our great textbook because it meets our needs in making Jesus Christ known to us. T he B ible A L iving B ook The fact that the Bible is such a rich mine of teaching material does not lessen our work or relieve our minds from understanding it. In fact it puts a greater burden upon us to do work worthy o f the material. The Bible is not a magic, mysterious book whose mere learning or carrying about as a charm or ¿show has saving quality. Neither is it a book of dull, dry preeepts, obtained in some mysterious way like the Book of Mormon or the Koran. It is a great library that has sense, connection and a living dynamic message. It will reveal itself to the most humble but never to the lazy mind. It was a great word that Jesus spoke when He said that among other ways o f loving we are to love the Lord our God with our minds. Until we bring to our Bible the mind’s love for God and study it earnestly, patiently, honestly and inquiringly, we will never discover the great riches of the Book, or be able to use it to meet the needs of our pupils. So the Bible is the great textbook of our work, and that for the sake of the child. ■But there is other material we need in our curriculum. Very rpughly, such material may be divided into two classes:— (1 ) Material that helps us to understand the Bible. Among these may be mentioned the Concordance, Bible Dictionary, maps, histories both sacred and secular o f Bible people and Bible times, books o f Bible manners and customs, etc. The last is especially necessary. The Bible was written in an oriental setting which needs to be under stood. It is the universal testimony o f missionaries to the Orient that the experiences and teachings -of the Bible be come much more real and living to them after being in those countries. Any teacher would find it a wonderful help to take a course or study a good book on Bible man ners and customs. (2 ) Books that show us how the Bible with its mes sage and teachings has worked out in human life and experience. The Bible and the Christ it portrays could never be a great reality to us if we felt their work all stopped two thousand years ago. The marvelous thing is that the Bible and Christ have been working ever since— in the History of the Christian Church, in the lives of a great army o f saints and martyrs, in the experiences out o f
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