CHAPTER IX

I.References for StudyTaylor,Religion in Social Action, chaps. vii, viii. Dodd, Mead & Co., $1.25.E. J. Ward,The Social Center, chap. v. Appleton, $1.50.II.Further ReadingLofthouse,Ethics in the Family. Hodder & Stoughton, $1.50.III.Topics for Discussion1. What is the special social importance of the family?2. How do children acquire their social ideals from the home?3. What are the advantages which the home has as a school?4. How do homes train for the responsibilities of citizenship?5. Can you describe any plans of community councils in the home?6. How would you promote community service in the family?7. What are the dangers of unsocial and selfish lives growing in the home?

I.References for Study

Taylor,Religion in Social Action, chaps. vii, viii. Dodd, Mead & Co., $1.25.

E. J. Ward,The Social Center, chap. v. Appleton, $1.50.

II.Further Reading

Lofthouse,Ethics in the Family. Hodder & Stoughton, $1.50.

III.Topics for Discussion

1. What is the special social importance of the family?

2. How do children acquire their social ideals from the home?

3. What are the advantages which the home has as a school?

4. How do homes train for the responsibilities of citizenship?

5. Can you describe any plans of community councils in the home?

6. How would you promote community service in the family?

7. What are the dangers of unsocial and selfish lives growing in the home?

14This chapter is, with the publisher's kind permission, taken, with sundry minor changes, from the author's pamphlet,The Home as a School for Social Living, published by the American Baptist Publication Society in the "Social Service Series."

The modern child is likely to miss one of the great character enrichings which his parents had, in that he is in danger of growing up entirely ignorant of the poetic setting of religious thought in historic and dignified hymns. The great hymns have done more for religious thought and character than all the sermons that have ever been preached. Even in the adult of the purely intellectual cast the hymn, aided by rhythm, music, repetition, and emotion, is likely to become a more permanent part of the mental substratum than any formal logical presentation of ideas. How much more will this be the case with the child who feels more than he reasons, who delights in cadence and rhythm, and who loves a world of imagery!

Very early life's ideals are presented in poetic form; plays, school-life, love of country, friendships, all take or are given metric expression. So, for children, hymns have a perfectly natural place. The child sings as he plays, sings as he works, sings in school, and, as long as life andmemory hold, these words of song will be his possession; in declining years, when eyes are failing and other interests may wane, fragments of childhood's songs and youth's poems will sing themselves over in his memory; while in the years between how often will some stanza or line spring into the focus of thought just at the moment when it can give brave and helpful direction!

Those years of facile memorization should be like the ant's summer, a period of steady storing in mind of the world's treasures of thought. No man ever had too many good and beautiful thoughts in his memory. Few have failed to recall with gratitude some apparently long-forgotten word of cheer, light, and inspiration stored in childhood. The special virtue of the hymn, among all poetic forms of great thoughts, is that memory is strengthened by the music and the thought further idealized by it, while frequent repetition fixes it the more firmly and repetition in congregational song adds the high value of emotional association.

But what kinds of memory treasures are being given to the modern child in the realm of religion? In by far the greater number of instances in the United States neither church nor Sunday school nor home brings to him any knowledge of the great hymns of religion.15In the churches that usethese hymns the child is frequently not in the Sunday services; he is in the children's service or the school, while in the majority of churches a weak-minded endeavor for amusement has substituted meaningless rag-time trivialities for rich and dignified hymns. Perhaps the custom of encouraging congregations to jig, dance, cavort, or drone through the frivolities of "popular" gospel songs is only a passing craze, but it is a most unfortunate one; it tends to divorce worship and thought, to make worship a matter of purely superficial emotions, and to form the habit of expressing religion, the highest experience of life, in language, often irreverent and almost always trivial, slangy, or ridiculous. It is an insult to the intelligence of children to ask them to sing

We're pilgrims o'er the sands of time,We have not long to stay,The lifeboat soon is coming,To carry the pilgrims away.

It is the duty of parents to know what their children are learning in the Sunday school. Not only are they often missing the opportunity to lay up the treasure of elevating, inspiring thoughts; they are acquiring crude, mistaken, misleading theological concepts in the hideous, revolting figures of "evangelistic songs"; they are storing their minds with atrocities in English and in figures of speech; they are acquiring the habits ofsentimentality in religion and inhibiting the finer, higher feelings. They are blunting their higher feelings by repeating incongruous and nauseating figures of being "washed in blood," or they are carelessly singing sentiments they do not understand.

What can the family do about this? It ought to assert its rights in the church. It ought to protest and rebel against the debauching of mind and the degrading of religion (all for the sake of selling trashy books at $25 per hundred). A parent would do better to keep his child from church and Sunday school than to permit his mind to be filled with the sanguinary pictures of God, the mediaeval theology of the modern songbook, and its offenses against truth in thought and form. But the family can work positively and more effectively by providing good hymns for children in the home.

Almost without exception all children will sing if encouraged early in life. In the family group one has only to start a familiar song and soon all will be singing. It is just as natural to sing "Abide with Me" when the family sits together in the evening as it is to start "My Alabama Choo-choo." Children like the swing of "Onward, Christian Soldiers" just as much as in the northernstates they like "Marching through Georgia." If they do not know the hymns the home is the best of all places in which to learn them.

A large section of real family life is missing in families that do not sing together. A home without song lacks one of the strongest bonds of family unity, and the after-years will be deprived of a memory dear indeed to many others. Days often come when the wheels of family life seem to develop friction, when little rifts seem to throw the members far apart, but the evening song brings them together. The unity of action, of feeling, the development of emotions above the day's irritation and strife, all help to new joys in family living.

We may well think of the fine songs and the great hymns together. There is no fixed wall between "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory," and "The Son of God Goes Forth," nor between "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Jerusalem the Golden." The modern home has the musical instruments to lead in song—though they are not always essential—and lacks only the planning and forethought to develop the joys of song. It must provide the thought that applies the simpler forms of musical expression to the sweetening and enriching of life.

Let no one say, "My family is not musical." That simply means that your family does not taketime for music and song. Build on the training in patriotic and folk-songs given in the schools; sing these same songs over in the home and then associate with the best of them the best of the hymns. Cultivate the habit of binding the whole realm of feeling in music together, the hymns and the songs, to make religion mean beauty and devotion and to make the finer sentiments of life truly religious.

This costs time and thought. Someone must plan that the books of songs and hymns are provided, that the opportunity is given, and that wise, unobtrusive leadership is there. Have ready several copies of the book containing the best hymns. Think out your plan of procedure in advance, selecting the songs, or at least the first one. Then at the right time simply begin to play that song and you will scarcely need to invite the children to sing with you.

Should anyone doubt whether children will enjoy singing good hymns, he may purchase a few records for the phonograph, for example, "O Come All Ye Faithful," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," "O Zion Haste," "Holy, Holy, Holy," "Abide with Me." These will suit those of from ten upward; younger children will enjoy "Can a Little Child Like Me," "Brightly Gleams Our Banner," "Jesus Loves Me." "I Think When I Read That Sweet Story," and "For the Beauty ofthe Earth," though they will join gladly in the other hymns. Or, instead of using the phonograph, sit down quietly at the piano and play these hymns, with just enough emphasis for the children to catch the rhythm, and they will soon be standing at the piano singing with you.16

The child is a playing animal. Play is not an invention of the devil, designed to plague parents and to lead children to waste their time. It is nature's best method of education, for when a child plays he is simply reaching forward in his activities to the realization of his ideals. Play is idealized experiences. There is always a significance of wider and maturer experience in children's play. Therefore the family must find space and time and adaptation of organization to the child's need of spontaneous, free activity in play.

The special religious value of play lies in the fact that the child in his games is experimenting with life, learning its lessons; especially is he learning the art of living with other lives. It is our religious duty to see to it that our children becomeused to living in society by playing in social groups. Scarcely anyone is more to be pitied than the lonely child standing in the corner of the playground, able only to watch the games, because parental prohibition has already made him a solitary and unsocial creature.

The educational potencies of play are so great that we dare not leave its activities to chance. Parents must study the power of play, its psychological and educational values, in order to direct its activity to the highest good.

The adequate care of a child's play-life will involve, in addition to the trained intelligence of the parents, provision for space in the house and also outdoors, willingness to subordinate our peace and our pleasure to the child's play at times, a reasonable though not necessarily expensive provision of play materials, attention to the character of the plays and playmates. The home will not lose its harmony and beauty if it is filled with playing children. Its function has to do with their development rather than with the preservation of chairs.

I.References for StudyH. F. Cope,Hymns You Ought to Know, Introduction. Revell, $1.50.W. F. Pratt,Musical Ministries. Revell, $1.00.H. W. Hulbert,The Church and Her Children, chap. x. Revell, $1.00.II.Further ReadingFor a list of great hymns seeHymns You Ought to Know, edited by Henry F. Cope, and mentioned above. It contains one hundred standard hymns with a brief account of each hymn and of each author.E. D. Eaton, "Hymns for Youth,"Religious Education, December, 1912, VII, 509.See report of the Commission on Worship in the Sunday School, inReligious Education, October, 1914.Read especially the chapter on this subject in H. H. Hartshorne,Worship in the Sunday School. Columbia University, $1.25.III.Topics for Discussion1. What special advantages do songs and hymns have in their pedagogical power?2. What hymns do you remember from childhood? In what way are these hymns valuable to you?3. What changes would you like to see in the hymns the children learn today?4. What difficulties do you find in training children to sing in the home?5. Is it worth while to teach children to play? What games have special educational value? What games have religious significance or value? Give reasons for your opinions.

I.References for Study

H. F. Cope,Hymns You Ought to Know, Introduction. Revell, $1.50.

W. F. Pratt,Musical Ministries. Revell, $1.00.

H. W. Hulbert,The Church and Her Children, chap. x. Revell, $1.00.

II.Further Reading

For a list of great hymns seeHymns You Ought to Know, edited by Henry F. Cope, and mentioned above. It contains one hundred standard hymns with a brief account of each hymn and of each author.

E. D. Eaton, "Hymns for Youth,"Religious Education, December, 1912, VII, 509.

See report of the Commission on Worship in the Sunday School, inReligious Education, October, 1914.

Read especially the chapter on this subject in H. H. Hartshorne,Worship in the Sunday School. Columbia University, $1.25.

III.Topics for Discussion

1. What special advantages do songs and hymns have in their pedagogical power?

2. What hymns do you remember from childhood? In what way are these hymns valuable to you?

3. What changes would you like to see in the hymns the children learn today?

4. What difficulties do you find in training children to sing in the home?

5. Is it worth while to teach children to play? What games have special educational value? What games have religious significance or value? Give reasons for your opinions.

15One of the best collections of suitable religious songs isWorship and Song. Pilgrim Press, $0.40.16An excellent plan is worked out inThe Children's Hour of Story and Songby Moffat and Hidden, Unitarian Sunday School Society, in which children's stories are given and following them suitable songs and hymns with the music for each.

15One of the best collections of suitable religious songs isWorship and Song. Pilgrim Press, $0.40.

16An excellent plan is worked out inThe Children's Hour of Story and Songby Moffat and Hidden, Unitarian Sunday School Society, in which children's stories are given and following them suitable songs and hymns with the music for each.

If we would teach religion to our children we must adopt the method of Jesus; that of telling stories. The story has the advantage, first, of its natural interest, and, then, of the indirect manner of its presentation of the truth, together with the fact that that truth is embodied in a statement of life and experience. Besides, story-telling to any person of active interests is one of the easiest and most stimulating methods of teaching.

So much has already been written on the art of telling stories that only a few suggestions are needed here. First, understand why you tell the story. Normally a double motive enters in, namely, the conveyance of truth in life, at the same time affording real pleasure to the listeners. Either motive alone will be inadequate. You cannot convey the truth without the desire to give pleasure; you cannot make the pleasure worth while without the truth. But this is the place to insist that the truth which you desire to convey must find its way to the conviction of the child through the story and not through any moral or preface or particular statement which you maymake. The moral or lesson must be clear to you but carefully held in reserve to direct the matter and manner of the story.

Secondly, be prepared to pay the price of this most effective method of instruction. It will cost the reservation of a certain amount of time both for acquiring the story and for relating it. It will require careful thought and planning, especially to be sure that the story is told in sympathy with the child's world. People who are too busy to tell their children stories are, perhaps fortunately, coming to realize that they are too busy to have children. If it looks like a waste of time to turn off the lights and sit by the firelight for from twenty to thirty minutes, we shall need to revise our estimates of the value of child-character. Nor must we shrink from the investment of time in preparation for the narration of the story; if it is worth telling, it is worth telling well.

Thirdly, keep a record of sources of stories. This may be preserved in a notebook. One parent used a card-index for this purpose. There are a few books published containing good collections.17You will find most valuable your own little book in which you have noted down the fugitive stories and short selections which are to be found in general literature.18

Fourthly, do not tell a story so as to close the child's interest in the narrative. Stories ought to lead to inquiry and further reading in the book or other source from which they have been drawn; indeed, story-telling is one excellent method of quickening an interest in reading.

Fifthly, allow the children to retell the stories to one another. Often the whole family will be entertained and helped by the explanation which a small child will give of the story he has learned by hearing it repeated a few times from his mother's lips.

Sixthly, telling Bible stories to children in the quiet hour is the best of all methods to stimulate their interest in the Bible itself. It is much better to tell the story in your own language than to read it either in the Bible or in a paraphrase. For one reason, you will never tell it twice the same way, and children will watch with interest changes in the narration. As soon as they can read, securesome of the simple Bible narratives and put these in their hands.19

A home without books is like a house with only one window; it can look out in only one direction, in that of the present. It knows only a limited world; its children have a short measure of the joy of life, they can know here only those whom they see today, their friends must be few, their world narrow and confined.

If the books are not in your home the children will find them elsewhere. Unless the school kills the taste for reading, as it sometimes does, the young folks will open ways somehow into the ideal realm of books. As they grow up, the book takes the place of the story. The printed page is the child's key to all routes of travel, routes that lead to other times and lands, routes that lead to other people and into their hearts and minds. The child sees conduct and feels it as it is in action in lives before him, but he begins to discriminate and to analyze it only through reading; souls are revealed where the purpose of the writer is that the reader may see the springs of action in the character portrayed. Fiction, biography, travel,and adventure soon pass from the merely exterior happenings to the discovery of meanings in character.

Since the book needs only one for its enjoyment, while the story requires two, there is less control over reading. There is only one way to be sure that children are not devouring vicious books and that is to make sure that they have an ample supply of healthful, helpful ones. This is especially necessary in a day that caters to sloth in reading. The tendency is for reading to take the facile decline from book to cheap magazine, from magazine to newspaper, and from the newspaper to skimming the headlines and the "funnies." The cheaper papers appeal to the lowest intelligence and strike at the line of least moral and mental resistance. Reading enriches the life but little and may impoverish it greatly unless there is developed the habit of drawing on the world's great treasures of thought and feeling. Open windows in your children's souls by giving them books; keep them open by encouraging the reading habit. Great souls wait for them, willing to converse and become their friends and teachers if they will but take down these books from the shelves and open them with an eager mind.

What can be done to quicken a love of good reading in children?Recognize that not all children develop this appetite at the same age, that girls read more than boys, that boys usually have a period of decline in reading interest from seventeen to twenty-one or even later. But everything really depends on whether we ourselves love good books and keep them on hand. One of the life-centers of a family should be the bookshelf, while the picture of the evening lamp and the reading group will constitute one of its best memories. Where books are at hand and where they are used daily, the children need little urging to read. Now this does not mean that yards of choice editions make a book-loving family. There is a difference between bindings and books. It means books known and loved, familiar friends for daily converse, books on handy shelves and fit to be used as common food.

Do you know what your children read?Do you watch as carefully the food of mind and spirit as you do that of the body? Do you show an interest in the books they plan to draw from the public library? Can you guide them intelligently when they ask for suggestions of interesting books? Do you know the healthful, suitable ones?

The Sunday school might aid greatly in promoting the habit of selecting and reading good books. Children often come home from day school clamoring for some book which the teacher has recommended as interesting and valuable. The Sunday-school teacher's recommendation would also carry weight. In every church, whether there exists a Sunday-school library or not, there ought to be a library or book committee which would watch for the right reading for the different grades and would cause the titles of good books to be placed on a bulletin board. Further, such a committee might very well place a copy of the book selected in the teacher's hand in order that the teacher might call the attention of the class directly to it. Of course the range of selection should be as wide as the world of books and should include fiction, romance, song, and story.20Parents could do the same sort of thing. Why not talk up the best books we remember? As to those old-time books, we need to realize that tastes change. Perhaps they owed much of their interest to their vivid descriptions of contemporary life. Therefore we must commend the new books, those that belong to the children's own days, too. This can be done, provided we really know the books,not by saying, "We should like you to readSandford and Merton," but rather, "There is a capital story inCaptains Courageous; have any of you read it?" Leave the matter there, or, at most, go only far enough to stimulate interest.

I.References for StudySt. John,Stories and Story Telling, chaps. i-v. Eaton & Mains, $0.50.Forbush,The Coming Generation, chap. viii. Appleton, $1.50Winchester, "Good and Bad Books in the Home," inThe Bible in Practical Life, p. 38. Religious Education Association, $2.50.II.Further ReadingPartridge,Story Telling in School and Home. Sturgis & Walton, $1.25.H. W. Mabie,Books and Culture. Dodd, Mead & Co., $1.25.III.Methods and MaterialsON STORY-TELLINGE. P. St. John,Stories and Story Telling. Eaton & Mains, $0.50.Wyche,Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them. Newson & Co., $1.00.L. S. Houghton,Telling Bible Stories. Scribner, $1.25.Bryant,How to Tell Stories for Children. Houghton Mifflin Co., $1.00.E. M. and G. E. Partridge,Story Telling in School and Home. Sturgis & Walton, $1.25.DIRECTING CHILDREN'S READING IN THE HOMEMacy,A Children's Guide to Reading. Baker & Taylor Co., $1.25.Field,Finger Posts to Children's Reading. McClurg, $1.00.Arnold,A Mother's List of Books for Children. McClurg, $1.00.For a short practical list see the different lists classified under Sunday-School Departments in W. S. Athearn,The Church School, particularly pp. 54, 83, 118, 169. Pilgrim Press, $1.00.IV.Topics for Discussion1. Do you remember any stories which especially impressed you as a child? What were their qualities? What were the qualities of their narration?2. What are your difficulties in story-telling to children?3. Is the habit of reading books passing among children? If so, what are the reasons?4. What responsibility has the public library toward the child's selection of books? toward promoting book reading?5. How many families co-operate with the library?6. How might the church co-operate?7. Does the reading of newspapers by children affect their general habits of reading? In what ways?8. What personal difference is there, if any, between the effect of a borrowed book and of one the child owns?

I.References for Study

St. John,Stories and Story Telling, chaps. i-v. Eaton & Mains, $0.50.

Forbush,The Coming Generation, chap. viii. Appleton, $1.50

Winchester, "Good and Bad Books in the Home," inThe Bible in Practical Life, p. 38. Religious Education Association, $2.50.

II.Further Reading

Partridge,Story Telling in School and Home. Sturgis & Walton, $1.25.

H. W. Mabie,Books and Culture. Dodd, Mead & Co., $1.25.

III.Methods and Materials

ON STORY-TELLING

E. P. St. John,Stories and Story Telling. Eaton & Mains, $0.50.

Wyche,Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them. Newson & Co., $1.00.

L. S. Houghton,Telling Bible Stories. Scribner, $1.25.

Bryant,How to Tell Stories for Children. Houghton Mifflin Co., $1.00.

E. M. and G. E. Partridge,Story Telling in School and Home. Sturgis & Walton, $1.25.

DIRECTING CHILDREN'S READING IN THE HOME

Macy,A Children's Guide to Reading. Baker & Taylor Co., $1.25.

Field,Finger Posts to Children's Reading. McClurg, $1.00.

Arnold,A Mother's List of Books for Children. McClurg, $1.00.

For a short practical list see the different lists classified under Sunday-School Departments in W. S. Athearn,The Church School, particularly pp. 54, 83, 118, 169. Pilgrim Press, $1.00.

IV.Topics for Discussion

1. Do you remember any stories which especially impressed you as a child? What were their qualities? What were the qualities of their narration?

2. What are your difficulties in story-telling to children?

3. Is the habit of reading books passing among children? If so, what are the reasons?

4. What responsibility has the public library toward the child's selection of books? toward promoting book reading?

5. How many families co-operate with the library?

6. How might the church co-operate?

7. Does the reading of newspapers by children affect their general habits of reading? In what ways?

8. What personal difference is there, if any, between the effect of a borrowed book and of one the child owns?

17Laura E. Cragin,Kindergarten Bible Stories. Fifty-six of the Old Testament stories. There is also a companion volume of New Testament stories.James Baldwin,Old Stories of the East. Fresh and interesting versions of the familiar Old Testament stories.Kate Douglas Wiggin,The Story Hour. Good stories and a suggestive introduction on story-telling.Half a Hundred Stories for the Little People, by various authors.18A List of Good Stories to Tell to Children under Twelve Years of Age, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, $0.05. There are references to books in which the stories may be found, including 25 Bible stories, 16 fables, 14 myths, 14 Christmas stories, 7 Thanksgiving stories, etc.19Such as O'Shea,Old World Wonder Stories; George Hodges,The Garden of Eden; Cragin,Old Testament Stories; Mary Stewart,Tell Me a True Story.20The H. W. Wilson Co., White Plains, New York, publishes a list ofChildren's Books for Sunday-School Libraries.

17Laura E. Cragin,Kindergarten Bible Stories. Fifty-six of the Old Testament stories. There is also a companion volume of New Testament stories.

James Baldwin,Old Stories of the East. Fresh and interesting versions of the familiar Old Testament stories.

Kate Douglas Wiggin,The Story Hour. Good stories and a suggestive introduction on story-telling.

Half a Hundred Stories for the Little People, by various authors.

18A List of Good Stories to Tell to Children under Twelve Years of Age, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, $0.05. There are references to books in which the stories may be found, including 25 Bible stories, 16 fables, 14 myths, 14 Christmas stories, 7 Thanksgiving stories, etc.

19Such as O'Shea,Old World Wonder Stories; George Hodges,The Garden of Eden; Cragin,Old Testament Stories; Mary Stewart,Tell Me a True Story.

20The H. W. Wilson Co., White Plains, New York, publishes a list ofChildren's Books for Sunday-School Libraries.

If we keep clearly in mind the aim of religious education in the family as that of the development of the lives of religious persons, the place and value of the Bible will be evident. It will be used as a means of developing and directing lives. This will be quite different from a perfunctory use because our fathers used it or a use under the compulsion of the fear lest some strange evil should befall us, some visitation of an offended deity.

Children need the Bible as a part of their social heritage. Just as they get a larger life, inspired and stimulated by the realization of their connection with the past of their family and their country, so the Bible brings them into connection with the religious history of the race. General history brings heroic forefathers into the stream of consciousness; we feel the push of their lives. So the Bible reveals the stream farther back and makes us part of the process of life in unity with great characters and great movements.

The child has a right to the Bible as his literary heritage. Here in the Bible is the precipitation ofthe ideals of a people unique in the place which religion held in their lives. Here is a literature which is the source of much of the best in the language and reading of the child's life. Its phrases are beautiful and convenient embodiments of religious ideals; they will have a steadily developing richness of meaning as life opens out to the child.21

The difficulties in the way of the use of the Bible in the home are: the crowded programs, or a lack of time due to the absence of any program for the days; a feeling of unnaturalness in the special reading of this book; the decay of the custom of reading aloud; parental ignorance of the Bible and especially of its beauties for the young; and the excessive amount of task-reading frequently required by the schools. The Sunday school also sometimes offends in this respect by overemphasis on academic tasks for home work.

First, let parents use the Bible themselves. Use the books as you wish children to use them. This will be the longest step you can take toward the solution of the problem.

Secondly, use the Bible naturally. When children have an aversion to the Bible it is due usuallyto two causes: the peculiar place and use of the book which makes it a thing apart from life, and often an object of dread; and the practice of using it as a task-book, to be opened only in order to prepare Sunday-school lessons. Just as it takes years to overcome the aversion set up against English literature by its analytical study in the schools, so that the child becomes a man before he voluntarily reads Dickens, Thackeray, the poets, and essayists, in the same manner we have succeeded in making the Bible undesirable to youth. If you read passages aloud, use the tone of voice which would be appropriate if this was a new book not bound in leather. Read it for pleasure as one would read a literary masterpiece—not because opinion might frown on you if you had not read the classic. Does someone object that that would be to degrade the Bible to the level of secular writings? You cannot degrade a literature; it makes its own level and our labels do not affect it. Certain it is that a pious tone of voice will not protect the Bible from the secular level. But to use it unnaturally will degrade it in the opinion of those who hear us.

Thirdly, make its use a pleasure. All children enjoy story-telling and listening to reading. Many parents practice the children's hour, some period in the day when they will, alone with the children, read and talk with them. Let the Bible story bethe reward of a good day, something promised as an incentive to good behavior. Children delight, not alone in the story itself, but in rhythmic passages, in the poetic flights of Isaiah and the beautiful imagery of the Psalms. To them it is natural and pleasant to think of the hills that skipped and the stars that sang and the trees that gave forth praise. They know the song of nature and are happy to find it put into words.

Fourthly, use the Bible as a book of life. How many times a day do questions of conduct arise in the family! How often do children ask what is right, and freely discuss the question! Here is a book rich in precept and example on at least many of the questions. There are pictures of actual lives meeting real temptations; there are the epigrammatic precepts of Proverbs and of the teachings of Jesus. Call attention to them, not as settling the question out of hand, but as testimony to the point. Accustom children to getting the light of the Bible on their lives, remembering that this book is a light and not a fence nor a code of laws.

Fifthly, use the Bible in worship. This does not conflict with the plea for its use naturally, for worship should be as natural as any of the social pleasures of the family. Here select those passages for reading which count most for the spirit of worship. It is a good plan to read a short passage,suitable for memorizing, so frequently that children learn it and are able to repeat it in concert. Be sure that all the passages read or recited are short. It will often be wise to preface the reading with a brief account of its original circumstances, so that all may hear the words as the actual utterances of a real man living in real life.

Sixthly, provide material which helps to make the Bible interesting, and which helps children to see its pictures through the eyes of geography and history.22

Seventhly, make the use of the Bible possible at all times for all. See that as soon as the child can read he has his own Bible, that it is in large, readable type, as much like any other book as possible. It is no evidence of grace to ruin the eyes over diamond-text Bibles. If possible, also provide separate books of the Bible, in modern literary form and some in the idiom of our day.23

It is doubtful whether good comes from the use of the Bible as a riddle-book, nor do the "Bible games" tend to develop a natural appreciation ofthe book. There is no new light but rather a confusing shadow thrown on the character of Joseph by the foolish conundrum concerning Pharaoh making a ruler out of him. Sending a child to the Bible to discover the shortest verse, the longest, the middle one, etc., trains him to regard it as an odd kind of book, to think of it as a dictionary, and to use it less.

We assume too readily that a knowledge of the separate details of biblical information, such as the date of the Flood, the age of Methuselah, the names of the twelve tribes, the twelve apostles, the books of the two Testaments, is the desired end. But one might know all these things and many more and be not one whit the better. For the child surely the desirable end is that he may feel deeply the attractiveness of the character of Joseph or of Jesus, may say within himself, "What a fine man; I want to be like him." Be sure the persons are real, that you see them living their lives in their times, just as you live your life now.

I.References for StudyT. G. Soares, "Making the Bible Real to Boys," inBoy Training, pp. 117-40. Association Press, $0.75.W. T. Lhamon, "Bible in the Home,"Religious Education, December, 1912, p. 486.G. Hodges,Training of Children in Religion, chap. x. Appleton, $1.50.II.Further ReadingThe Bible in Practical Life.Religious Education Association. Numerous references to the use of the Bible in the home in this volume.Patterson Dubois,The Natural Way, sec. iv. Revell, $1.25.III.Methods and Materials"Passages of Bible for Memorization,"Religious Education, August, 1906.Louise S. Houghton,Telling Bible Stories. Scribner, $1.25.Johnson,The Narrative Bible. Baker & Taylor Co., $1.50.Hall and Wood,The Bible Story, 5 vols. King, $2.00 by subscription.Courtney,The Literary Man's Bible. Crowell, $1.25.The above are but a few of the many collections of biblical material.IV.Topics for Discussion1. What are the conditions which seem to make the reading of the Bible different from other reading? Is there a sense of unreality about it as a book? What are the causes?2. Try the experiment of reading the story of Joseph at one sitting. Try to retell this to children.3. What biblical material stands out in your memory of childhood? In what degree is this due to the art of the story-teller or the reader? to the character of the material?

I.References for Study

T. G. Soares, "Making the Bible Real to Boys," inBoy Training, pp. 117-40. Association Press, $0.75.

W. T. Lhamon, "Bible in the Home,"Religious Education, December, 1912, p. 486.

G. Hodges,Training of Children in Religion, chap. x. Appleton, $1.50.

II.Further Reading

The Bible in Practical Life.Religious Education Association. Numerous references to the use of the Bible in the home in this volume.

Patterson Dubois,The Natural Way, sec. iv. Revell, $1.25.

III.Methods and Materials

"Passages of Bible for Memorization,"Religious Education, August, 1906.

Louise S. Houghton,Telling Bible Stories. Scribner, $1.25.

Johnson,The Narrative Bible. Baker & Taylor Co., $1.50.

Hall and Wood,The Bible Story, 5 vols. King, $2.00 by subscription.

Courtney,The Literary Man's Bible. Crowell, $1.25.

The above are but a few of the many collections of biblical material.

IV.Topics for Discussion

1. What are the conditions which seem to make the reading of the Bible different from other reading? Is there a sense of unreality about it as a book? What are the causes?

2. Try the experiment of reading the story of Joseph at one sitting. Try to retell this to children.

3. What biblical material stands out in your memory of childhood? In what degree is this due to the art of the story-teller or the reader? to the character of the material?

21See M.J.C. Foster,The Mother the Child's First Bible Teacher.22Mackie,Bible Manners and Customs.Chamberlin,Introduction to the Bible for Teachers of Children.Worcester,On Holy Ground, 2 vols.23For example, Moulton,Modern Reader's Bible. The new Jewish renderings of Old Testament books are good, especially the Psalms.

21See M.J.C. Foster,The Mother the Child's First Bible Teacher.

22Mackie,Bible Manners and Customs.Chamberlin,Introduction to the Bible for Teachers of Children.Worcester,On Holy Ground, 2 vols.

22Mackie,Bible Manners and Customs.

Chamberlin,Introduction to the Bible for Teachers of Children.

Worcester,On Holy Ground, 2 vols.

23For example, Moulton,Modern Reader's Bible. The new Jewish renderings of Old Testament books are good, especially the Psalms.

Family worship has declined until, at least in the United States, the percentage of families practicing daily worship in the home is so small as to be negligible. If this meant that a general institution of religion had passed out of existence the fact would be highly significant. But it is well to remember that family worship has never been a general institution. We have generalized the picture of the "Cotter's Saturday Night" so eloquently drawn by Burns; it has been applied to every night and to every fireside. Daily family worship was observed in practically all the Puritan homes of New England; but there is no evidence for it as a uniform custom, either in other parts of this country or in other parts of the world, save perhaps in sections of Scotland. True, there were many families which observed the custom; but there were also many families of church members and doubtless of truly religious people in which family worship as a regular institution was unknown. This has been especially true in the type of family life which has developed under modern social conditions. Further, even so simple an exercise as grace at meals has not always been a general custom.

But the fact today is that family worship is so rare as to be counted phenomenal wherever found. The instances, though not general, were common a generation ago. Many are living to whom family worship afforded the largest part of their conscious and formal religious education. Following the morning meal, or, occasionally, the evening meal, the family waited while the father, or the mother in his absence, read a portion of the Scriptures and offered prayer. In other families the act of worship would be the closing one of the day, perhaps participated in by the older members only, the younger children having repeated their prayers at bedside on retiring. A thousand happy and sacred associations gather about the memories of these occasions: the sense of reverence, the feeling that the home was a sacred place, the impression of noble words and elevating thoughts, the reflex influence of the prayer that committed all to the keeping and guidance of God.24

Parents need to see the values in family worship. We have been insisting on the primary importance of the religious interpretation of the family as aninstitution, on the power of the religious motive, and the atmosphere of religion. But wherever there is a truly religious motive and a permanent religious atmosphere these will find definite expression in acts easily recognized as religious. Love is the motive and atmosphere of the true home, but love blossoms into words and bears fruit in a thousand deeds. The life of love dies without reality in act. Ideals are precipitated in expressive acts. So is it with religion in the home; it must not only be real in its sincerity, it must be realized, must pass over into conduct and action, as suggested above in chaps. vii and viii. And it must do this in ways so sharply defined and readily recognized as to leave no doubt as to their meaning. True, all acts may be religious and thus full of worship—this is most important of all—but worship expressly unites all such acts in a spirit of loyalty and aspiration.

Worship is a necessity for the sake of the ideal unity of the family life. Just as the individual must not only feel the religious emotion but must also do the thing called for, so must this united personality of the family give expression to its faith and aspiration, its motives and emotions, in such a manner that, acting as a social unit, all can together put the inner life into the outer form. The social value of family worship is the strongest reason for its maintenance. It is the united actof the family group, the one in which group consciousness is expressly directed to the highest possible aims. Every period of worship brings the family into unity at an ideal level.

The expression of religion in definite forms is necessary for children, too, as furnishing a means by which they can manifest their feeling of the higher meaning of family life. The reality of that feeling is stimulated in the daily, common life of the right family; the hour of worship is one out of many definite forms of its concrete expression. It is the form which gathers up the totality of feeling and aspiration into an act of worship and praise toward God, the Father of all families. It is evident there cannot be true worship in the family that is irreligious in its essential qualities, in its character, in its ideals and atmosphere.

The period of worship is a necessity in interpreting to all the spirit and meaning of a religious family. It objectifies the inner life. It makes definite, tangible, and easily remembered the general impressions of religion. It precipitates the atmosphere of religion into definiteness. In the chemical laboratory of a university there is usually a decided atmosphere of chemistry, but no one expects to become a chemical engineer by absorbing that atmosphere, nor even to attain a simpleworking knowledge by merely general impressions. Definiteness aids in gathering up our knowledge, our impressions.

The reading of the Bible in the home will give, when the passages are wisely chosen, forms of language into which the often chaotic but nevertheless valuable and potential emotions of youth fall as into a beautiful mold; they become remembered forms of beauty thereafter.

Family worship furnishes opportunity for direct religious instruction. When the home life has its regular institution, as regular as meals and play, the formality, the apparent abnormality of conversation about religion, is absent. Children expect and look forward to the period when the family will lay other things aside to think on the eternal values. Their questions in the breathing-space that always ought to follow worship become perfectly natural and sincere.

Family worship lifts the whole level of family life. Ideally conceived, it simply means the family unity consciously coming into its highest place. Children may not understand all the reading nor enter into the motives for all parts of the petition, but they do feel that this moment is the one in which the family enters a holy place. They feel that God is real and that their family life is a part of his whole care and of his life. One short period of natural reverence sends light and calm allthrough the day. Where the home is the place where true prayer is offered, the family is the group which meets in an act of worship; here and into this group there cannot easily enter strife, bickerings, or baseness. One short period, five minutes or even less, of quietness, of united turning toward the eternal, gives tone to the day and finer atmosphere to the home.

What our community life might be like without the churches, faulty or incompetent as we may know some of them to be, what that life would lose and miss without them is precisely, and perhaps in larger degree, what the family life misses without its own institution of regular devotion and worship.

We can always afford to do that which is most worth while doing; our essential difficulty is to shake off the delusion of the lesser values, the lower prizes, to realize that, of all the good of life, the characters of our children, the gain we can all make in the eternal values of the spirit, in love and joy and truth and goodness, is the gain most worth while. We tend to set the making of a living before the making of lives. We need to see the development of the powers of personality, the riches of character, as the ultimate, dominant purpose of all being. Once grasp that, and holdto it, and we shall not allow lesser considerations, such as the pressure of business, the desire for gain, for ease, for pleasure, for social life, to come before this first and highest good; we shall make time for definite conscious religion in the life of the family.25

There are three simple forms which worship takes in the family: first, grace offered at the meals; secondly, the prayers of children on retiring and, occasionally, on rising; thirdly, the daily gathering of the family for an act of the spirit. The statement of the three forms reads so as to give them a formal character, but the most important point to remember is that wherever they are true acts of worship they are formal only in that they occur at definite, determined times and places. The acts have no merit in themselves. Merely to institute their observance will not secure religious feeling and life in the home. These three observances have arisen because at these times there is the best and most natural opportunity for the expression of aspiration, desire, and feeling.

1.Grace at meals.—Shall we say grace at meals? To assent because it is the custom, or because it was so done in our childhood's home, may make an irreligious mockery of the act. Perhaps, too, there are some who even hesitate to omit the grace from an unspoken fear that the food might harm them without it. All have heard grace so muttered, or hurriedly and carelessly spoken, void of all feeling and thought, that the act was almost unconscious, a species of "vain repetition."

There are two outstanding aspects of the asking of a blessing—the desire to express gratitude for the common benefits of life, and the expression of a wish, with the recognition of its realization, that at each meal the family group might include the Unseen Guest, the Infinite Spirit of God. That wish lifts the meal above the dull level of satisfying appetites. Just as, in good society, we seek to make the meal much more than an eating of food, "a feast of reason and a flow of soul," so does this act make each meal a social occasion lifted toward the spiritual. The one thought at the beginning, the thought of the reality of the presence of God, and of the nearness of the divine to us in our daily pleasures, gives a new level to all our thinking.

How shall we say grace, or "ask a blessing"? First, with simplicity and sincerity. Avoid long, elaborate, ornate phrases. It is better to err inrhetoric than in feeling and reality. The sonorous grace may soon become stilted and offensive. It is better to say in your own words just what you mean, for that will help all, even to the youngest, to mean what they say with you.

Vary the form of petition. Sometimes let it be the silent grace of the Quakers; sometimes children will enjoy singing one of the old four-line stanzas, as

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