River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1925-02-05
CHURCH SCHOOL COLUMN

no meaning 1OT the nations.
at has been urged that civiliza-
tion cannot survive materially unless
it is redeemed spiritually. We ask,
can we build a Kingdom of God out
of the world mind stuff as at present
constituted? We answer emphatic
ally, no! The church, then, must by
revolutionary changes in spirit and
method, if necessary, recorder her
life and practice so as to put educa-
ton, as a beginning, squarely along
side evangelism in her work.
Religious Education is the birth
right of the child. The best and the
most natural way for the child to en-
ter into his spiritual heritage is to
grow into it gradually from the be-
ginning. Only those ideals which
have been built into this structure of
character from childhood later be-
come a dynamic and dependable
factor in the life. Spiritual ideals,
lcyalties, devotions, and the con-
seriousness of God in the life cannot
come in a day. They are the pro-
ducts of most persistent training in
religion through the plastic years,
and inevitably lead to a personal
choice of Christ as Savior and friend.
No reclaimed life can ever be what
would have been possible without the
necessity of reclamation. 1t is al
ways too late to be what we might
have been.
"The supreme task of Christian
Education is to provide a teaching
program that will produce new
generation motivated with cooper
alive urge instead of a competitive
one. Spiritual illiteracy,' is the
greatest menace of organized So
ciety.' The evasion of the spiritual
is fatal to national life. The re-
sponsibility for creating a world COM
r1unity mind is at once the priceless
privilege and the unacceptable obliga
tion of the Sunday school, or more
correctly stated, the church school.
The church must rebuild its program
around childhood; must change the
emphasis from adult to youth, and
claim life at its beginning, instead of
retaining it at its end.
1.-THE primary responsibility and
obligation of the church, standing
above all other responsibilities and
obligations whatsoever, is the re-
ligious education of it's childhood
and youth.
''The child is the supreme asset of
the Kingdom of God, and the superb
hope of tomorrow. We must choose
as our chief interest between tend
ing lambs and hunting stray sheep.
Education has been defined as the in
PRODUCTION of control into conduct
The control of the human being must
be in terms of capacity to live up
to ideals, rather than adjustment to
environment.
"There may be such thing as
evangelism that is not educational,
but there can be no such thing as a
Christian Education that is not
evangelical. The whole purpose of
Christian education is to unite the
life of the child with the life of
Christ, and so lead him to be one
with the Father. The Christian
educator determines all his methods
and selects all his materials with this
end in view.
eve must build religious concepts,
attitudes and habits into the child's
expanding life from the beginning,
so that they may become an INSOFAR
able part of the structor. disable
knowledge, right attitudes, skills in
liying-these represent the minimum
demands of the modern Christian
education.
"There is no conflict between
Christian education and evangelism.
Nature and Grace work through the
gradual and cataclysmic. The grace
of God working in the heart is the
essential factor. Far from dlsre-
garding this supernatural factor it
is sought to keep the oond between
the child and his heavenly Father
from ever being weakened or broken.
so that the child of his own volition
will gladly accept Christ. 1t seeks
to train the child and stimulate and
guide his spiritual development that
this Divine grace shall have constant
access to the heart and lie. sus-
tanning, organizing, uplifting power,
acting continuously upon the soul,
rather than expecting it to reclaim
sin-sick soul which has lost its way.
Do not misunderstood. Any sinner
any age, needs salvation, but how
much better to save a child plus a
life. The prophets and the teachers
are the apenriaS which cionioin+Iv