CATECHISATION.
We have spoken of the importance and benefits of home training
and instruction. We endeavored to show that Christian parents are
under the most solemn obligation to instruct their children in the
truth of God's Word. We also endeavored to show that, in order to give
their children a clear understanding of the saving truths of the
Bible, they could do no better than to diligently teach them Luther's
Small Catechism; that this was really Luther's idea and purpose when
he wrote that excellent little religious manual; that the first
catechetical class ought indeed to be in the family, with father and
mother as teachers;--that this home class ought to be carried on so
long and so persistently, that in it the children would become
perfectly familiar with the contents of the book; so familiar indeed,
that they would know all the parts that Luther wrote perfectly by
heart. Luther's Small Cathechism, _i.e._, the parts that Luther wrote
himself, is really quite a small book. By giving only a little time
and attention to it each week, the parents could easily, in a few
years, have all their children know it as perfectly as they know their
multiplication table. And such ought to be the case.
After these beginnings have thus been made, and while the home
instruction is still going on, the work of the Sunday-school teacher
comes in as a help to the home class. In every Sunday-school class
there ought to be, with each lesson, some instruction in the
Catechism. To this end each teacher, in a Lutheran Sunday-school,
ought to be familiarly at home in this most important text-book. The
teacher should endeavor so to teach these lessons, that the pupil
would learn to love and appreciate the Catechism more and more. Thus,
the school ought to be a helper to the home. And thus, home and school
together, working in harmony for the same end, would prepare the
children for the pastor's catechetical class.
If this good old-fashioned custom were kept up in all our
households and schools, then would the pastor's catechetical class be
more of a pleasure and a profit to himself and his catechumens. It
would then be the pastor's part, as it should be, to review the
contents with his class, and thus to find how well the preparatory
work had been done. Then could he devote his time and energy to what
is really the pastor's part of the work, viz., to explain and set
forth clearly the meaning of the Catechism, and show how it all
applies to the heart and life of every one.
It is not at all the pastor's place, and it should never be
expected of him, to act the school-master, to see to and oversee the
memorizing of the answers. It is his office to expound and apply the
truth, to make the doctrines clear to the minds of the learners, and
to show how they are all related to the individual life.
But, alas, how little is this understood or practiced! How many
parents, who call themselves Christians, and Lutherans, seem to think
that they have nothing to do in this whole matter! They seem to think
that if they send their children once a week, for a few months, to the
pastor's class, they have done their whole duty. They do not so much
as help and encourage the children to learn the lessons that the
pastor assigns. And thus does this part of the pastor's work, which
ought to be among the most delightful of all his duties, become
wearisome to the flesh and vexatious to the spirit. Scarcely anywhere
else in all his duties does a pastor feel so helpless and hopeless and
discouraged, as when standing week after week before a class of young
people who have such poor instructors at home.
Christian parents, if you desire your sons and your daughters to
become steadfast and useful members of the Church of Christ, see to it
that you do your part in their religious instruction. Insist on it,
and even use your parental authority, if necessary, that your children
learn the Catechism and regularly attend the pastor's instructions.
We believe that the trouble in this matter lies largely in the
fact that catechisation has become unpopular in our fast age. It is
looked upon as a mark of old-fogyism, if not as an evidence of the
absence of "spiritual religion!" The new measures and methods of
modern revivals are more acceptable to the fickle multitude. They seem
to point out a shorter route and quicker time to heaven. As a boy once
said to the writer: "I don't want to belong to your church, because I
would have to study the Catechism all winter, and down at the other
church I can 'get through' in one night." That boy expressed about as
clearly and tersely as could well be done, the popular sentiment of
the day.
Yielding to this popular sentiment, many churches, that once
adhered strictly and firmly to the catechetical method, having either
dropped it entirely or are gradually giving it up. And in order to
clothe their spiritual cowardliness and laziness in a pious garb, they
say: "The Bible is enough for us." "We don't need any man-made
Catechisms." "It is all wrong anyhow to place a human book on a level
with or above the Bible." "We and our children want our religion from
the Spirit of God, and not from a Church Catechism," etc., etc.
Do such people know what they are talking about, or do they
sometimes use these pious phrases to quiet a guilty conscience? Do
they know what a Catechism is?
Look at it for a moment. What is the nature and object of
Luther's Small Catechism? Is it in the nature of a substitute for the
Bible? Does it purpose to set aside the Bible? We can scarcely muster
patience enough to write such questions. No! No!
Any child that can read this little book knows better. The
plainest reader cannot fail to see that it is intended as a
_help_ to understand the Bible. Its purpose clearly is to awaken
and develop in the reader or learner a more intelligent appreciation
and love for the Bible. It contains nothing but Bible truths. Its
design is simply this: To summarize and systematize the most important
truths and doctrines of the divine Word. To so arrange and group them
that even a child may learn what the Bible teaches as to creation,
sin, salvation, and the means whereby it may be attained.
We have the assurance, also--and we believe that history and
observation will bear out the statement--that those who appreciate and
have studied a sound scriptural Catechism most thoroughly, appreciate,
understand, love and live their Bibles most.
Of the contents, arrangement and intrinsic value of Luther's
Small Catechism, we will speak in the next chapter.