The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-09-17

practical agree
ment, 1t is the failure everywhere to
measure up to the ideal of teacher
and pupil concerning Bible study.
No one doubts that the present sys-
tematic study of the Book is vast
improvement over the catechism, and
question and answer "helps," of half
a century ago. Nevertheless the pres
ent is but the chrysalis stage of the
study, and the christian world is be-
ginning to stir uneasily in its shell
preparatory to breaking forth into
new and larger life. Since the inter-
national lesson system was inauGu.
rated teachers and pupils have worn q
rut of so-called study through the
Bible from Genesis to Revelation, so
that if the teachers library has been
equipped with lesson help he finds
himself to-day going over precisely
the same ground that he has Travelled
three or four times previously, chap
ter for chapter and verse for verse.
He follows a well-beaten trail blazed
for him thirty or forty years ago, and
recks not of the vast uneXplored
world of enlightenment, instruction
and pleasure lying all around him. 1t
is a world in which the traveller clings
to the stage coach in preference to
the Pullman car, preferring crude and
primitive ways of living to habitations
of modern improvements.
Of course, it is practically impossi-
BILE for individual schools, or teachers
of individual classes to break away
from the procession and start on a
new path of exploration for them
selves. To do that would break up
uniformity of study, in many ways
most desirable and introduce a chaotic
state generally, but the protest, long
and loud and insistent can, at least,
be made until the international COM
mittee Is compelled to heed popular
opinion and provide for it. We may
not refuse to keep step longer in the
endless belt line to the same old tunes
that were ground out in our childhood,
we owe something of reverence to
antiquities and to customs that have
long become obsolete, but we can
march under protest and be ready to
hail deliverance from whatever guar
ter it comes.
Brighter Outlook.
Meanwhile evidences accumulate
that things are Frightening to better
day. Theological seminaries are TAX
ing up the training of ministers for
Sunday school leadership; universi-
ties are Offering Bible courses, and
extensions; training schools for Sun
day school teachers have been opened
and summer schools multiply; CORE
spondence systems have been
evolved; plan of graded lessons
has been approved and committee
is at work preparing them. This is
the most hopeful sign of the times in
Sunday school work. If these graded
lessons are prepared by men instead
of fossils, if those who are engaged
in the task are more interested In
the warm-blooded youth of to-day
than the mummies of Egyptian and
Assyrian catacombs, IL they do not in
sist upon the use of portions of the
Bible for children of any age abso
lutely incomprehensible to the ma
turest minds, then we shall have g
renaissance of Bible study epocha
dul pIOpASIlC VI IuIulS 6OOu'
New Methods Needed.
It Is in this sense that we need 6
new Bible, new teachers and new
methods. Given these conditions the
Sunday school of the Iuture will bt
a vast improvement over the past
The teachers of the future will no
be callow boys and girls, whose ig
norance Is dense, whose ability to In
struct is minus quantity. The.
will be trained instructors, qualified
to bring forth from the treasury O
the word, things new and old. w
shall no more think of putting an ie
norant person to teach Sunda
school class than we should set
blind man to lead the blind. Tn
Sunday school will be a school, nc
an aggregation of classes. Classe
will be composed of students, not
mutual admiration society. ATTEND
ance will be regular, not haphazart
Teachers, possibly will be paid fo
their work, not drafted on account c
their good looks or influence or col
nection with the best families. w
shall initiate nature which grade
children by age. capacity, home el
vironment, future prospects. Their
will be classes In good citizenship an
social service. In word, the Sunda
school of the future will be the churc
at study, being trained to rightly
vide the word Of life, that each ma
have his portion IN due season.
Such a Sunday school will have L
need for doubtful measures to dra
pupils. They will come to 1t as hu
CRY men to a banquet when there
anonh0h and tn enora