Arizona sun., 1949-02-04


eaching in season AAA1s'SS ass
and out of season. DR.. Foreman
He was a product
If the Sunday School, in a sense.
During his childhood he would go
10 the synagogue school weekdays
and especially on Sabb2ths; we
Know that by the time he was
crown it was his custom" to at
end synagogue service.
And in every Jewish COM
munity the synagogue was the
place where for two hundred
years and more, children and
youth and older people had been
taught the Word of God.
If Christians today are faithful to
Christ's example, we also will keep
at the job of teaching our religion
to every child within our reach.
Hody and Soul
DEADERS of the gospels will note
IL that when Jesus went home
from the synagogue on the Sabbath,
his days work was not done. He
would spend hours, sometimes till
far into the night, healing people
brought to him for cure. Jesus min
istered to mind and soul. Jesus
was interested in personalities.
whole people, not half-people. Our
minds have to be fed, but we live in
bodies, and bodies have no little to
do with personalities. Jesus was
not content with teaching sick peo-
ole; he made sick people well. So
the church today, if it is faithful to
Christ's principles, will consider
people as complete personalities.
The Common People
WYE FIND that Jesus did not in
w sist OH university audiences.
Indeed, he never spoke to univer-
Sity audience. His teaching was
always in the midst of groups of
very plain people. There were great
universities in those days, but it
was not necessary for any one to.
De graduate of one of them in
order to enter Jesus school, or to
understand what he taught. He
taught the plain people plainly.
In all our teaching we try to
use the pupils language and to
Put cur Christian ideas in the
thoughts that the pupils can un-
derstand.
At the best seminaries, young
ninisters-to-be are carefully taught
low to put the great Christian doc
rires in ways that the simplest peo-
lie can understand. Teaching over
ceorle's heads is not teaching them
It all.
God and Education
~ESUS did not try to teach people
carpentry. or arithmetic, or ge-
1graphy. No doubt he could have
Zone so. But he had something
more important on his mind, some
hing which he alone could teach.
'e taught religion, or in other
words he taught the truth about
God and about man, and about
right relations between God and
man. So the teaching church,
whether in the Sunday school or in
the books written by its scholars or
in its schools and colleges, when it
follows Christ's example, is always
teaching religion first and foremost
We DO not believe that religion is a
secondary issue. something you can
take or leave"
Religion on Two Feet
JESUS did more than talk. He
lived His whole life and charac-
ter we're saying more loudly and
plainly what his words said.
So the Christian church to-
day, when it is faithful to Christ,
must translate into actual living
the faith she teaches in Sunday
school lessons, in catechiSmS
and books and sermons.
What we do, as Christians, speaks
louder than what we say. Every
Sunday school teacher needs to re-
member that what is said on Sum-
day is important, but what the
teacher does on Monday is more
impressive by far. The reason why
Jesus was more effective than John
the Baptist was that John, after all,
was a Voice, while Jesus was a
Friend. Are you who teach others
about God simply Voice? A pho
nograph could do as well.
Copyright by the International Coun.
| Gil of Religious Education on behalf of
40 Protestant denominations. Released
| ES WNU Features.)