November 1928
657
T h e
K i n g ' s
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authors and we can verify the circumstances to which they relate. If time permitted, many examjples of such com parison might now be given. In reference to the writings of the New Testament, a lawyer examining the testimony of these authors as wit nesses, by the legal rules of evidence, in order to ascer tain whether, if they had thus testified in a court of jus tice, they would be entitled to credit, and whether their narratives, as we now have them, would be received as genuine documents, coming from the proper custody, would find it necessary to receive the testimony. Of course, in this discussion, we lay aside all consid erations as to the antecedent probability of a revelation, and all questions of inspiration, and consider these writ ings as they would be looked at in a court of law. I would add, however, in closing, that the Christian believer accepts the New Testament, not in the way it is looked at in this paper, but in view of its adaptedness to the wants and requirements of the human soul-B-here for a few years in the body and appointed to leave it—and founds his faith far more upon moral grounds than upon historical or legal evidence as to authenticity or credibility. demonstrated that great fundamental pedagogical prin ciple of teaching a pupil —^not just a lesson. Reading between the lines we feel sure he was instant in season and out of season, putting as much intelligent thought and earnest preparation into this work as into any other business. Also he was a comrade of the boys, going with them on week-day hikes and expeditions and direct ing their natural activities into interesting and profitable channels. The result was that he built up a large and enthusiastic class of boys, so anxious to come to Sunday school that one mother humorously complained, “I used to have to drive my boy to go, but now on Saturday night he says, ‘For goodness’ sake, mother, wake me up so I ’ll be on time for Sunday school.’ ” He did more than just getting them to come, too. He appears to have vitally interested them in certain worth-while topics of practical religion—religion applied to life. He also definitely inter ested them in Christian service, local social service and missionary service. W h ere W e B eg to D iffer With many of Mr. Ullman’s ideas we find ourselves in hearty accord. In all too many cases our Sunday-school work is sadly in need of improvement. It should and cer tainly can be put on a basis where it will command the interest and respect of almost any boy or girl whose whole training and environment are not against it. Where the home influences, either passive or active, are all the other way, even the best kind of a Sunday school finds it ex tremely hard to reach the boys and girls, though often they do it. This is a very important side of the question but is only one side. Mr. Ullman’s contention, that the Sunday school needs improvement, is another and is absolutely right. But if we understand the article rightly, there are several important question's that need to be raised. Mr. Ullman speaks of “saving the Sunday school.” Is that the way to look at it? Is any organization, for its own
and the narrators being independent and without concert, there remains no legal inference but the reality of the fact testified to {Starkie, 487). I am speaking now of the ordinary tests of truth in our everyday tribunals, and of the rules which, in our daily experience, judges instruct juries to apply in weighing and reconciling the testimony of different witnesses. C onform ity W it h E xper ience Respecting the conformity, of the testimony of the New Testament writers with experience and truth, this is conceded in general by skeptics, except where the facts are such as do not frequently occur in human experience, particularly as regards the miracles of Christ. The witnesses should be compared with themselves, with each other, and with the surrounding facts and cir cumstances. That is what is done in our ordinary courts, and an examination of the statements of the New Testa ment writers, according to these rules of law, will lead to a conviction of their truthfulness as well as their ability. The contemporary writings which have come down to us have been found (as before stated) to confirm these writ ers. We can compare their statements with contemporary i N the August number of Forum Magazine, there appeared an interesting article by Roland G. E. Ullman^ entitled “Saving the Sunday School.” That it has attracted wide attention is evidenced by the fact that it has been liberally quoted and commented upon in various periodicals, including referred to as one teacher who has solved the perplexing problem of vitally interesting young people in the Sunday school. The editors of Forum very courteously sent ad vance proof of Mr. Ullman’s article to T h e K ing ' s B u s i ness , in common with other religious magazines, and we read it with interest and profit. The gist of the article is th is: When Mr. Ullman was a boy he attended Sunday school only in a desultory way, drifting from one to another with various friends, all of whom seemed to find Sunday school dull and unin teresting. In general the condition was that of a “holy war” between the .pupils and teacher, with the pupils vic torious. Even in his early years Mr. Ullman wondered “if the questions of faith had to be handled in a way repugnant to the youthful mind,” and then and there resolved “that if ever I undertook to teach a Sunday- school class I was going to make it interesting regardless of how unconventional my method or choice of topics.” .Now be it said to Mr. Ullman’s everlasting credit that in spite of this early bias, when he arrived at years of maturity, instead of standing outside and railing against the Sunday school, he took a Sunday-school class, and that a hard one, and tried what could be done. The class was one of junior boys, uninterested and unruly. Mr. Ullman organized them on a parliamentary basis, gave them work to do, departed not only from the regular methods of teaching (if there are any such), but from the regular les sons, choosing objective topics and those that the boys were keenly interested in. In fact, he seems to have
H&l .¿Xfe. eèà? What About “ Saving the Sunday School” ? B y M iss F lorence M . C ha ffee
The Literary Digest of August 25, where Mr. Ullman is
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