The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-23
Prof. Arthur /. GiIIett'S Address
the Feature of the Autumn
Meeting Of Conference Of Con-
gregationaI Churches
NEW PEDAGOGY NEEDED
TO MEET. DEMANDS
The New Bible, New Home and
New Child Require the Church
to Give More Attention to
Training Young in Sunday
Schools

At the autumn meeting Of the Wor-
cester Central Conference of Congre-
gational Churches yesterday at Park
Church the most important feature Of
the program was an address in the af-
ternoon by Prof. Arthur L. Gillett of
Hartford Theological Seminary on
1.-THE Ministry of Teaching and the
Teaching of the Ministry" His sub
ject, as assigned, was 1.-THE Great
est Need of Our Churches" but
he changed it, he said, to point out
that thing which is the greatest need.
He made a powerful appeal that the
church should adapt itself to the con-
ditions of the times. He divided his
discourse into four heads-the new BIZ
BILE, the new home, the new child, and
the new pedagogy-speaking at some
length upon each one.
He said, in part: ut is with the ut
most hesitation that I speak in your
presence and in this place on subject
that directly, or even by implication,
could be called pedagogical. In a
town which counts as by no means the
least Of its adornments a university
which, by the munificence of its found
er and the genius Of it's executive head
has in the dozen years of its exist
ence, done more for the progress of
education among US than any other
institution in the land, it seems more
than work Of supererogation for one
to utter here, even with bated breath,
the word teaching
First of all, then, let me remind you
Of the duty of the church to teach its
young. Because the state of Massa-
chusetts has come to recognize that 1t
is its duty to teach its children those
things which wiH make them good cit
liens, it does not for a moment follow
that the Church Of Christ is absolved
from teaching it's children those things
which will make them good citizens of
the kingdom of heaven.
Because public education must be
seeularized, it does not follow that the
child must be secularized. In the old
New England theology, a churchly
state felt the responsibility for the ed
ucation of the young. In Germany
and England state church feels itself
similarly holden The Roman Church,
of course, when it is completely organ
lied, is both state and church, and car
ries this sense of obligation with it
wherever it goes.
Characterization has deputed the
eQuCdl1Ol1 I'll lAlC S4ii1O W Lie 6belbC cAAh
the home, the Sunday School being
conceived, I fear, way down deep in
the heart of gregationalism as an
unwelcome substitute for the home
According to modern Congregational
ism the pedagogical responsibility OF
the minister has been at the zero
point With some of our churches ad-
mission is on substantially the terms
that obtain on the Methodist Church,
lacking, however, the period Of proba-
ton and instruction attendant thereto.
We should recall that it was not
ever thus with Congregationalism. AS
originally constituted it's organization
set the teacher side by side with the
pastor. The present is a time when
there is very peculiar and urgent
need of a teaching minister Four
striking facts italicize this urgency. we
have a new Bible, We have new
home, we have new child, we have
a new pedagogy. Here are four lntru-
sively obvious facts. We may rejoice
over them or mourn as our tempera-
ment or digestion may suggest.
"I say we have a new Bible. There
Is a sense of course in which this is
not true. There are just as many words
In the book as there always have been
The Bibles in some of our pulpits read
each Lords Day are the Identical
DOCKS IIOIIl AilSAA lAlC ASooOAtN
read to congregations who brought
their own foot-stoves to the meeting
house More than the. revelation OF
God in Christ is the eternal Gospel OF
redemption which is the same yester-
day, today and forever.
"Still in another sense it is an al
together new book. A book is what ii
Is to him who reads it. Yes, 1t is what
II is even to him who reads it not But
for good or i'll the Bible is not to the
men and women of this generationwhat
It was to the men and women of the
generation ago. The old Bible as a
book of absolute objective certainties
becomes a book Of relative, subjective
certainties. Such a change of attitude
makes the Bible a new book in a way