interests. It is then that the call of the community, business life,
vocation, etc., to say nothing of the sex and the home voice--make their
big appeal. It is his own personal relation to these that makes them
real, and the closer his relation the deeper is his interest. The social
appeal stirs his thought and leads him to investigation. The similarity
of problems at home and abroad gives him contact with other lands, and
makes for him "all the world akin." The best approach to China's need is
the need of the homeland. Good government here is a link of Manchuria
and Mongolia. The underpaid woman in the shop, store and factory of
America is the introduction to the limitations of the womanhood of India
and the Orient. The problem of Africa is real only through the
economic, social and moral demands of Pennsylvania, Illinois, or
California. The value of all of these in his thought is the relation
which he holds individually to any one. The circle of his interests
grows by the widening of his knowledge. The law of his being is to
accept nothing on hearsay. He must prove all things and cleave only to
that which he finds true. This, however, is the path to missionary and
all other interests.
How, then, shall all this be worked out in Bible class and
through-the-week activity? The missionary lesson must not be just fact,
but related fact. The through-the-week meeting that contemplates the
deepening of interest in other lands must be recreational and social.
The contacts must be real, vital, and individual--expressed in the
concrete interests of the now. This is the principle. The method must be
the work of the lesson writer and the missionary expert, and, until this
is achieved, missions must still be but two uninteresting facts for the
teen age boy--Heathen and Collection.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE TEEN BOY AND MISSIONS
Fahs.--Uganda's White Man of Work (.50).
Hall.--Children at Play in Many Lands (.75).
Johnston.--Famine and the Bread ($1.00).
Matthews.--Livingstone, the Pathfinder (.50).
Speer.--Servants of the King (.50).
Steiner.--On the Trail of the Immigrant ($1.50).
XVII
TEMPERANCE AND THE TEEN AGE
Temperance embraces the abstaining from everything that challenges
self-control. The two deadliest foes of young life today are admittedly
alcoholic drinks and the cigarette, and any crusade against these for
the conservation of the boy in his teens should be welcomed. It is well,
however, to keep in mind that profane language, the suggestive story,
undue sex familiarity, athletic overindulgence, excessive attendance at
the moving picture shows, or entertainment places, the public dance, and
other things of like ilk in the community, exert a doubtful influence on
boy life.
Liquor is the greatest plague in a community, and does more to curse the
community than any other one thing. It breaks up homes, causes
divorces, deprives children of their legitimate sustenance, ruins the
life of the drinker, increases taxation, lowers the tone and morals of
the community, and is a detriment to our American life. Cigarette
smoking is bad for anybody. It harms the growing tissue, dulls the
conscience, stunts the growth, and steals the brainpower of growing
boys. In dealing with these facts in the Sunday school let us recognize
then, that they exist, that they are true; and then let us cease merely
to rehearse them from time to time.
The day of exhortation is past. Temperance education today consists in
the presentation of absolute, scientific fact. Sentimentality and the
multiplication of words no longer mean anything. In dealing with the
teen age boy, spare your words, but pile up the scientific, concrete,
"seeing-is-believing" data. By proved experiment let him discover
through the investigation of himself and others--through books,
pictures, slides, etc.--that everything we take for granted is
scientific truth. You do not need today to prove to a boy that liquor
is bad. Physiology in the public school and the everyday occurrences
about him have already furnished him with that knowledge. Furnish him
now with the actual facts of the effects of alcohol on the heart
centers, lung centers, locomotion centers, knowledge centers, and
inhibitory or control centers. Make no statement that is not absolutely
scientific. You cannot afford to lie, even to keep the boy from the
drink habit. Show concretely--better yet through the investigation of
the boy himself--the economic and moral waste of the liquor habit, but,
in everything, let the hard, cold facts speak for themselves. Let the
boy discover for himself that liquor not only would rob him of his best
development, if he should become a victim of the habit, but is lowering
the tone of his community and country now.
In the matter of pledge-signing be sure the boy knows what he is doing.
A written pledge may mean a different thing to you than to the boy. It
is better to discuss the subject minutely with the boy, then let him
write his promise in his own language, without any written guide. Do
not let the boy be anything but true to himself. Be scientific and
educational in all your methods.
When you approach tobacco and cigarettes, do not assume that the boy
regards these as bad. He will readily admit that liquor is harmful, but
will likely to refuse to recognize that the pipe, cigar, or cigarette
are immoral. Your education along this line must be absolutely
scientific. The appeal must be to the self and self-interest. They are
not good for an athlete; the best scholarship is threatened by them;
growing tissue is harmed by indulgence. The appeal must be accurate and
must apply now. Do not quote what will happen forty years hence. Boys do
not fear old age and its frailties. Present enjoyment is too keen. Do
not say that the habit is filthy, etc. Lay the emphasis on health,
physical fitness, the joy of present living. The appeal must be one of
best development. Economic opportunity also may play a part. If business
opportunity is lessened by the habit, prove it. Do not, however, say
anything that cannot be supported with incontrovertible evidence. Stick
to the scientific facts and the appeal to self-interest.
One thing more! Little good comes from denouncing tobacco in general. A
lot of good men, influential men, strong Christian men, use it. If you
have facts concerning the bad effects of smoking on mature men that are
reliable, make use of them, but be sure you are right about it.
Ignorance multiplied by forty or one hundred does not mean wisdom. It is
still ignorance. Keep yourself out of the crank army. Do not be so
intemperate yourself in thought, speech, and action as to lessen your
influence. Temporizing will not do the work, but let us be wise in our
approach to the subject before boys, whose viewpoint cannot be expected
to be that of adults.
Liquor and the cigarette are national perils, and both of them, for the
sake of the teen age boy, must be banished from the land.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON TEMPERANCE AND THE TEEN AGE
Chappel.--Evils of Alcohol (.60).
Horsely.--Alcohol and the Human Body ($1.00).
Jewett.--Control of Body and Mind (Concerning Cigarettes) (.60).
_Scientific Temperance Journal_ (Monthly) (.60 per year).
Towns.--Injury of Tobacco (Pamphlet, $1.50 per hundred).
XVIII
BUILDING UP THE BOY'S SPIRITUAL LIFE
The business of the Sunday school is the letting loose of moral and
religious impulses for life--the raising of the life, by information,
inspiration and opportunity, to its highest possible attainment. The
very highest reach that any boy's life can attain is the ideal of life
that Jesus has set forth. Nothing less than this can be the aim of the
Sunday school. Analyzing this ideal, we find that this means that the
boy must physically, socially, mentally, and religiously find the best,
build it into his life, and attain unto the "measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ." Anything that does not contribute to this end,
in the principle or method of the Sunday school, is wrong. Likewise,
anything, tradition or prejudice, that keeps the school from reaching
the boy for the Christ-ideal is a positive affront to the Lord of the
Church. The Sunday school deals with a living, breathing boy--not a
theory, but a real combination of flesh, bone, muscle, nerve and blood.
It must minister to the needs of this combination in a generous way,
with physical, through-the-week activities, not to induce it to attend
Sunday school for worship and Bible study, but because the highest good
of the combination demands these things. The school also should see that
this living, breathing boy, who, by God's law of life, thinks and moves
by his thought, should receive the best opportunity to develop his mind
by supporting the state institutions in the community for that purpose,
and also in providing culture, recreation-education within the confines
of its own particular sphere. In addition to this, recognizing that the
boy belongs to the social life of the community, and "that no man liveth
unto himself or dieth unto himself," the Sunday school must recognize
its obligation to the community, as well as to the boy, and furnish him
an opportunity for the best social adjustment. The Kingdom of God is a
saved community of saved lives. It is best represented in the Scriptures
as a city, a golden city, without death, crying, or sorrow, all of them
intensely social things, as are their opposites, also. Every lesson the
school gives the boy socially, every chance it affords him to learn by
contact with his fellows of either sex, means just one more effort for
the Kingdom. Moreover, the Kingdom is a community of saved bodies, saved
minds, saved social relations and saved spirits, or a place or group
where the best dominates--the will of God rules over all lesser things,
changing and making them over into the best. Thus the Kingdom is where
life appreciates, enjoys, respects, and honors all of God's gifts,
whether it be body, mind, social relations, or material or spiritual
things. The task of the Sunday school, then, is to reach out
unswervingly, enthusiastically after these ends for the adolescent boy.
Like the commandments, he that transgresseth in one fails in all, in
the largest, truest sense.
The work of the Sunday school, summed up briefly, is to round out the
boy by all good things that he may see and know and acknowledge Jesus
Christ, the Master of Men, as the Master and Lord of his life, too. Any
step less than the joyous acceptance of the Son of God as Saviour of his
life is to miss the mark entirely. This is the end of all Sunday school
principle and method.
Further, Jesus Christ, as Saviour of Life, is not an idea, a theory, a
belief, but a practical, everyday, every-minute influence. "For me to
live is Christ." From this time forth everything in life is done in the
Christ-spirit. The boy does not cease to be a boy in the acceptance. He
is now a Christian boy, not a mature, Christian man. He still loves
play, but play is not marred now by the tricks that minister to self.
Play ministers now both to self and others. It does not nor cannot leave
out self, however. It saves self. So, with all things else in life, real
life that is lived seven days in the week, twenty-four hours in the day
among his fellows--and one week following without break the other.
Saviour of Life means saviour of body, of mind, of social contacts, of
spirit. It means more than formal religion, the attendance of services,
the saying of prayers, the observance of customs--these are all
excellent and necessary, but to be saved by the Saviour of Men means new
life, or life with a new, saved meaning: "I come that they might have
life and that they might have it more abundantly" (overflowingly). This
is the great objective of the Sunday school.
As soon as a life knows Jesus as Saviour, it asks the question, "What
wilt thou have me to do, Lord?" Notice, it is not, what shall I believe,
or what shall I cast out of my life? Doing regulates both of these, and
the "expulsive power of a new affection" settles nearly every problem by
displacement. This, after all, is Christianity--to be "In Christ." "Not
to be ministered unto, but to minister." "He that would be greatest, let
him be the servant of all." The quality of Christianity is Service. The
task of the Sunday school is the raising of the life by information,
inspiration and opportunity to its highest possible attainment.
Christian service is both the highest and the best. To the
acknowledgment of Jesus as Saviour and Lord, then, must be added the
free, voluntary, loving service for others in His name. This is the
Upbuilding of the Spiritual Life of the Boy.
What shall be used, then, for this purpose? Everything that will
minister to the result--Organization, Leadership, Bible Study,
Through-the-Week Activity, Material Equipment, Teaching, Song, Prayer,
Reproof, Inspiration, Guidance, and all else that the Sunday school may
know or discover. Two factors in it all are preeminent: Christ and the
Boy. All else are but means. The boy a loving, serving follower of his
Lord! This is the endless end.
What should the Sunday school do to achieve this? Reach to the utmost,
strive to the uttermost, use every resource, redeem every opportunity,
create, discover and harness every method, hold the boy to his best,
patiently see him develop, give him the material and spiritual elements
for his growth, afford him opportunity to find himself, help him to
crystalize his thought for life and lovingly aid him to meet, know and
acknowledge his Lord.
Thus the boy will be "built up in our most holy faith"--the faith that
loves and serves in healthy life for the joy of living.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE BOY'S SPIRITUAL LIFE
Alexander (Editor).--Boy Training (Chapter on "The Goal of Adolescence")
(.75).
Sunday School and the Teens (Chapter on "The Church's Provision for
Adolescent Spiritual Life") ($1.00).
Boys' Work Message, Men and Religion Movement (Chapters on "The Boy's
Religious Needs" and "The Message of Christianity to Boyhood") ($1.00).
XIX
THE TEEN AGE TEACHER[11]
The greatest problem that faces the Sunday school and Church as it seeks
to meet the needs of the boys and girls of the teen age is leadership.
The organized men's and women's Bible classes may meet that need. In
fact, the success and ultimate value of these classes lie in their
response and ability to face and supply this growing need.
God works best through incarnation. When he wanted to tell men who he
was, what he was, and how he wanted men to live, he spoke through
prophets, priests, patriarchs, and kings, and the Old Testament writings
came to us this way. However, men did not seem to understand the
message, and for nearly four hundred years he ceased to speak. Then,
"in the fullness of time," he came himself in the person of his own
Son--born in the womb after the fashion of a human baby, passed through
boyhood in the likeness of a boy and on into manhood as a man--to teach
us who he was, what he was, and how he wanted us to live; and Jesus is
just God spelling himself out in human history in the language that men
understand. This is incarnation, and as he was compelled to pour himself
out into man to reveal himself to men, so men and women who have seen
him must literally pour themselves out--incarnate themselves--into the
lives of growing boys and girls if these boys and girls of the teen age
are to know him.
Leadership has always been the cry of the world and the Church, and the
history of both is written in biography. The Pharaoh, the Caesar,
Charlemagne, Peter the Great, William the Silent, Henry of Navarre,
Queen Elizabeth, Ferdinand and Isabella, Columbus, the Pilgrim Fathers,
Washington, Lincoln, and the names of the great on the world's scroll
of fame tell the world's story. The Christ, Peter, John, Paul,
Augustine, Savonarola, Huss, Wycliffe, Luther, Zwingli, Knox, Roger,
Williams, Wesley, Finney, Moody, Booth; and "what shall I more say? for
the time would fail me to tell of 'those' of whom the world was not
worthy," and whose splendid achievements fill out the glorious history
of the Church--these, all of these, in their life and effort constitute
the story of the Kingdom.
The story is not yet complete. Still the world writes its progress in
the names of its great ones. And yet, as always, the Church must look
for its progress to its Christ-kissed men and women. While teen age boys
and girls escape us at the rate of one hundred thousand a year, the need
for leadership is among us.
There is no boy problem. There is no girl problem. Boys and girls are
the same yesterday, today and forever. The processes of their developing
life are as the laws of the Medes and Persians, without change, eternal
as the hills. Like the poor, they are always with us. There is neither
boy nor girl problem; it is a problem of the man and a problem of the
woman. Leadership is the key that unlocks the door of the teen age for
the Church.
The need of the Sunday school in the teen age today is leadership. The
organized classes for men and women can solve the problem of the Church
among the teen age boys and girls. The number of teachers an organized
adult class produces is the measure of its ultimate usefulness in the
Kingdom.
The problem of the Sunday school, then, can be solved by men teachers
for boys' classes. The more masculine the Sunday school becomes the
deeper will be the boy's interest. A virile, active Christianity will
challenge the boy; and all other things being equal, the man teacher can
present such a Christianity. In some places this will not be possible
because of the dearth of men due to the lack of any sense of Christian
obligation on the part of the males of the community to the growing boy.
Where real men are missing, we will be forced of necessity to fall back
on the big-hearted women that have so long stood in the breach. It may
be well, also, to add that merely being a male does not constitute a man
or manhood. Some men will need to strengthen themselves to do their duty
as the leaders and teachers of boys in the Sunday school.
None but the strongest teachers should be selected. A boy of high school
age quickly detects weakness in a teacher. Selection of just "any one"
to teach a class is sure failure. The most important element in
organization is leadership. The teacher should aim to become more of a
leader than teacher. Boys' classes should be taught by men, and women
should teach classes of girls. It is impossible for a man to lead girls,
and just as impossible for girls to be led by a man.
With the period of adolescence come problems which can be understood and
solved only by those who have passed through the same experience. Manly
Christian leadership will help boys to grow naturally into Christian
manhood, while only the kind, sympathetic touch of the conscientious
Christian woman leader can help the girl in developing normally into
honored and respected Christian womanhood.
The conscientious Christian leader will keep in mind his obligation to
the individual members of the class. By reading and study he will become
acquainted with the characteristics of the teen age life, with a view to
planning such activities, for both the Sunday and the mid-week session,
as will eventually result in the development of stalwart Christian
manhood.
The successful teacher of the teen age class--
(a) Always sees and plans things from the viewpoint of the pupil.
(b) Teaches the scholar and not the lesson.
(c) Knows personally every member of the class--the home, school,
business, play, social and religious life of every member. This is often
accomplished through an invitation to dinner, a walk, a car ride, or
some other plan, which will bring the scholar and teacher together
naturally. With this knowledge in hand, the teacher can prepare the
lesson to fit the individual needs of the pupil.
(d) Visits the parents.
(e) Is always on hand, unless unavoidably prevented, in which case the
president of the class is notified.
(f) Has a capable substitute teacher to supply in the event of such
absence.
(g) Realizes that the function of his office is that of friend and
counselor.
(h) Follows up an absentee (1) through the other members of the class;
(2) Membership Committee; (3) telephone; (4) postcard or letter; (5)
personal call.
(i) Does not play favorites, nor neglect the less aggressive scholar.
(j) Has a plan and an objective, with special emphasis on the training
of older boys for leadership of groups of younger boys.
(k) Always keeps in mind that the supreme task and privilege of the
teacher are to win the boy to Christ for service in His church.
=The Teacher and the Home=
The Teacher can do his best work when working in conjunction with the
home. It is a good plan to visit the father and mother of the boy. It is
also a pretty good thing to occasionally drop in to see the father and
mother personally, telling them how the boy is getting along. An
invitation extended to the parents through the boy himself to attend a
week-night meeting of the class will also afford a valuable means of
contact with the home and parents.
The Teacher should by no means try to become a father to the boy. The
responsibility and duties of parents must not for one moment devolve
upon him. The following editorial from a New York evening newspaper puts
this idea in a very clear manner, and it should be given careful
consideration by every teacher:
"It takes time to point a boy right. The great merchant can touch a desk
bell to give orders for a steamship or a draft of a million dollars. But
the merchant's young son, age fourteen, cannot be touched off in that
way. The lad has just begun to move out among other boys. They do a
world of talking, these young chaps. The father must watch that talk,
and he can, if he will take the time.
"The older man has every advantage, for he is looked up to and beloved.
It is not so much the 'don'ts' as the 'do's' that constitute his power.
He can inspire with high resolve. He can narrate his own victories over
sore trials and fiery tests of his integrity. He can draw the sting of
poisonous suggestions, moral disheartenings and malice which his child
has been cherishing in his young heart. But this means time, and time
may be money. Yet no money can buy this sort of instruction, nor put a
price on it. The coin is struck in the soul. It is the costliest barter,
the very exchange of the soul.
"Boys who go right have invariably had a world of time spent on them in
this way. Boys go wrong because the father would not take the time from
the market. In after years the same parent will take vastly more time
to try, in tears of sorrow, to straighten out that boy."
=The Teacher and the School=
The Teacher must keep in mind that it is his business to work in
cooperation with all of the forces that are trying to help the boy to
live rightly in his community. The work of the public school must
continue to go on without a break if the ideals of our American
citizenship are to be maintained, and it is the business of the Teacher
to give his support, encouragement and cooperation for the carrying out
of the idea for which the school stands. The public school seeks to give
the boy the necessary education toward his earning a livelihood, and the
business of the Sunday school Teacher is to give him the right impulses
for his moral and religious life--to inspire him to seek the best in
everything. The Sunday school Teacher is in partnership with the public
school teacher in the education of the boy.
Several well-defined and exceedingly clear principles of action
underlie the successful handling of groups of boys:
First, there must be a clear plan well thought out, progressive in its
stages with an aim for each stage. In other words, no man need try to
work with a group of boys unless he knows what he wants to do, not only
in outline but in detail. He must have these details in mind and so well
worked out in his thought, knowing exactly what comes next and just what
is to be added to that which he has already accomplished, as to be
master of the situation at all times and to be the recognized leader.
Not only this, but the boys must feel that he really knows what he is
driving at in everything that he attempts.
Secondly, before the leader of a group of boys tries to do anything with
the group, if he is to be successful, it is necessary for him to make a
frankly outlined statement of his plan. That is to say, he should tell
the boys what the game is and how it is to be played, getting their
approval, and agreement to get in on the deal. He can explain this to
all of the boys at one time or singly to each boy. There is no question
but that he will succeed best if he will go over the matter first with
each individual boy personally, finding out his individual impressions
and opinions, and also having discussion before the group. This being
done the boys know the plan, the leader knows what he is working toward,
and the leader and the boys are partners in the work. Too often groups
of boys are brought together and the aim is so hazy in the leader's mind
that all the boys can possibly see in the scheme is a "good time."