How to Teach Religion | Page 6

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enthusiasm they give to the Sunday school is a free-will offering to a
cause in which they believe. All this is inspiring and admirable, but it
also contains an element of danger.
For it is impossible to set up scholastic and professional standards for
our teachers of religion as we do for the teachers in our day schools.
The day-school teacher, employed by the state and receiving public
funds, must go through a certain period of training for his position. He
must pass examinations in the subject matter he is to teach, and in his
professional fitness for the work of the teacher. He must have a
certificate granted by responsible authorities before he can enter the
schoolroom. He must show professional growth while in service if he is
to receive promotion or continue in the vocation.
Greater personal responsibility on church school teacher.--Naturally, all
this is impossible with volunteer teachers who receive no pay for their
services and are not employed under legal authority. No compulsion
can be brought to bear; all must rest on the sense of duty and of
opportunity of the individual teacher. Yet the Sunday school teacher
needs even a more thorough background of preparation than the
day-school teacher, for the work of instruction in the Sunday school is
almost infinitely harder than in the day school. Religion and morals are
more difficult to teach than arithmetic and geography. The church
building usually lacks adequate classroom facilities. The lesson
material is not as well graded and adapted to the children as the
day-school texts. The lessons come but once a week, and the time for
instruction is insufficient. The children do not prepare their lessons, and
so come to the Sunday school lacking the mental readiness essential to
receiving instruction.
This all means that the Sunday school teacher must rise to a sense of
his responsibilities. He must realize that he holds a position of
influence second to none in the spiritual development of his pupils. He
must remember that he is dealing with a seed-time whose harvest
involves the fruits of character and destiny. With these facts in mind he
must ask himself whether he is justified in standing before his class as
teacher without having given the time and effort necessary for complete

preparation.
The teacher and his Bible.--The teacher should know his Bible. This
means far more than to know its text and characters. The Bible is
history, it is literature, it is a treatise on morals, it is philosophy, it is a
repository of spiritual wisdom, it is a handbook of inspiration and
guidance to the highest life man has in any age conceived.
To master the Bible one must have a background of knowledge of the
life and history of its times. He must enter into the spirit and genius of
the Hebrew nation, know their aspirations, their political and economic
problems, and understand their tragedies and sufferings. He must know
the historical and social setting of the Jewish people, the nations and
civilizations that surrounded them, and the customs, mode of life, and
trend of thought of contemporaneous peoples.
Not all of these things can be learned from the Bible itself. One must
make use of the various helps and commentaries now available to Bible
students. The religions of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Greece,
and Rome should be studied. Ancient literatures should be placed under
tribute, and every means employed to gain a working knowledge of the
social medium out of which the Christian religion developed.
The teacher's knowledge of children.--Time was when we thought of
the child as a miniature man, differing from adults on the physical side
only in size and strength, and on the mental side only in power and
grasp of thought. Now we know better. We know that the child differs
from the adult not only in the quantity but also in the quality of his
being.
It is the business of the teacher to understand how the child thinks.
What is the child's concept of God? What is the character of the child's
prayer? How does the child feel when he takes part in the acts of
worship? We talk to the child about serving God; what is the child's
understanding of service to God? We seek to train the child to loyalty
to the church; what does the church stand for to the child? We teach the
child about sin and forgiveness; just what is the child's comprehension
of sin, and what does he understand by forgiveness? We tell the child

that he must love God and the Christ; can a child control his affections
as he will, or do they follow the trend of his thoughts and experiences?
These are not idle questions. They are questions that must be answered
by every