take up in succeeding years the detailed study of the nine or ten great
groups of writings which are found in the Bible. The natural and easiest
method of approach to those of the Old Testament would be through a
careful, constructive study of the history of the Israelitish race,
perhaps beginning with the definite historical period of Saul and Samuel
and concluding with the advent of Rome. Far better than any modern
history of Israel is that marvellous history written by its own
historians, which begins with the book of Samuel and ends with I
Maccabees. Analyzed and arranged in their chronological order, these
narratives tell the story with rare fascination and suggestiveness.
[Footnote: Volume II of the "Student's Old Testament": contains the
narratives from Samuel through I Maccabees, thus arranged.]
[Sidenote: _Study of the prophecies and earlier narratives_]
On the basis of this detailed study of the historical background, the
work and teachings of the prophets could next be traced in their true
and chronological order. No Old Testament field is more neglected and
none is more intensely interesting, when once the student understands
the problems and aims of each great prophet. None has a more practical
message for to-day, provided its supreme truths are interpreted into
modern terms and conditions. After becoming intimately acquainted with
the Hebrew prophets, it would be possible to go back and study with a
new understanding and appreciation the early narratives which gather
about the beginnings of Hebrew history. Then the intricate problems of
the first eight books of the Bible would vanish in the light of a fuller
knowledge. Above all, that which is essential and permanent would stand
out in clear relief.
[Sidenote: _Study of the devotional literature_]
From the earliest fruits of prophetic activity it would then be
profitable to turn to the later, represented by Lamentations and the
Psalter. Here the best results require a classification of the different
psalms according to their themes, so that their teachings can be studied
systematically and as a whole. In this field of study the student comes
very close to the heart of the Old Testament and the heart of the God
who speaks through it.
[Sidenote: _Study of the wisdom literature_]
Less spiritual and yet intensely interesting and practical is the great
department of the Old Testament known as the wisdom literature. _He that
walketh with the wise shall be wise_ (Prov. xiii. 20) is as true to-day
as when first uttered. This literature is a great mine of truth, almost
entirely neglected by the Christian world. Systematic classification
is the first requisite for the profitable study of the Proverbs and the
later Wisdom of Ben Sira. From these the student may pass on to the
fuller treatment of the omnipresent human problem, so sublimely
presented in the book of Job, and to the many fundamental questions
raised by Eccleslastes and the Wisdom of Solomon.
[Sidenote: _Study of the Old Testament laws and institutions_]
Last of all a year might well be spent in the study of the unfolding and
concrete application and illustration of Israel's ethical and religious
principles in the legal codes and institutions of the Old Testament.
Many of these have found a higher expression, some are but symbolic, but
others still have permanent authority and value. Studied as a whole and
on the basis of a logical classification, this little understood field
would also cease to be a jungle, and Instead would yield its own
practical spiritual fruits.
XVI
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION--THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM OF TO-DAY
[Sidenote: _The practical realization of these possibilities_]
This very brief and fragmentary outline of methods and possibilities of
Old Testament study is not an impossible dream. In colleges and in a few
Bible schools it is already being tried with the gratifying results
that might be anticipated. To put it at once into force in most of our
Sunday-schools would be absolutely impracticable. It is presented simply
as a suggestion of a definite and practical goal toward which to work.
With careful adjustment, these courses, adapted to different ages,
could be arranged so that at least the intermediate grades in the
Sunday-school would be studying in the same field at the same time. This
plan provides for no graduation from the school of the Bible. It assumes
that the Christian world is at last awakening to the real significance
of religious education and to a recognition of the fact that the
ultimate solution of our gravest national and social problems is to be
found only in the inculcation of the true ethical ideals in the mind of
the individual. It also assumes the fundamental principle that no
worthy ends can be attained without real work, enthusiastic devotion,
systematic methods, and above all a definite and worthy goal. It rests
on the belief that the sense of gradual conquest and the attainment
of practical results will alone inspire permanent devotion and evoke
faithful work, and in the end prepare the individual scholar for the
intelligent and loyal service of God.
[Sidenote: _The overwhelming responsibility of the Sunday-schools_]
Frank confessions are good for a cause as well as for the soul. We must
admit that most of our Sunday-schools, with their vast resources in
opportunity, in financial support, and in the devotion of the teachers
and officers, do not permanently hold their scholars, and in the great
majority of cases do not give them a thorough or systematic knowledge,
even of the most vital teachings of the Bible. The ignorance of its
literature and history on the part of even, the more intelligent
students who enter college, is almost past belief, as many of us can
testify from personal observation. The limitations in time and equipment
of the Sunday-schools are undoubtedly great in comparison with those
of the secular schools; and yet the responsibility now thrown upon the
Bible schools is even greater than upon the latter. Parents have ceased
to instruct their children in spelling and the multiplication-table
because they have found that the teachers can do this better. Without
justification, but by analogy and because they are themselves often
unacquainted with the Bible, or uncertain regarding its interpretation,
they are more and more leaving the religious education of their sons and
daughters to the Church and the Sunday-school.
[Sidenote: _The transcendent importance of religious education_]
It is safe to say, and this without reservation, the most fundamental
problem in England and America to-day is the problem of religious
education, because this lies at the roots of all else--political,
social, and theological. When the Christian world awakens to its
profound significance, and when its ideals and methods are raised, even
to a level with those of the public schools, the other grave problems
will be near their solution. If the individual is thoroughly taught
during the impressionable years of childhood and youth, the fundamental
principles of ethics and religion, society and the state will have no
difficulty in meeting their problems; but if not, these will perforce
continue to remain unsolved.
[Sidenote: _Important that the Old Testament be taught in the
public schools_]
It is a time for all earnest men of every denomination or creed to unite
in meeting this need. In the Old Testament, Jew and Christian, Catholic
and Protestant, stand on common ground. The modern inductive historical
methods of study have prepared the way for union; for they aim to
support no denominational interpretation, but simply to attain the
truth. The last reasons, therefore, why the literature, history,
geography, and ethical teachings of the Old Testament should not be
taught in our public schools are rapidly disappearing, and the hundreds
of reasons why any system of secular education is incomplete without it
are coming to the front. With this fundamental basis of knowledge and
instruction, the work of the Sunday-schools could also at once be placed
on a far more effective plane. It is a consummation for which every
intelligent citizen should earnestly work.
[Sidenote: _The task of the Church in the present century_]
The achievement of the last century was to complete the work of the
Protestant Reformation and rediscover the Bible. The task of the present
century is to instil its essential teachings, thus revealed, into the
mind of the individual, so that they will become controlling factors in
human life. Here lies the great responsibility and opportunity of the
Christian Church. If it is to renew its hold on modern men, it will be
through the mind as well as the heart, and its most efficient method
will be--as it always has in reality been--religious education. Horace
Bushnell proclaimed the watchword of the Church triumphant: "Christian
culture."
[Sidenote: _The examples of the prophets and Jesus_]
His, however, was no new discovery. The Hebrew prophets, priests, and
sages were not primarily preachers, but teachers. The prophetic messages
which fell on deaf ears, instilled into the minds of a few humble
disciples, in time won acceptance from the nation. Jesus himself was not
so much the preacher as the Great Teacher. His earliest public preaching
was but the net cast to catch the few faithful disciples. When these had
been secured, he turned his back upon a popular preaching ministry, and
devoted the best part of his brief public work to instructing a little
group of disciples. History completely vindicates the wisdom of his
method. Only by following closely on his footsteps can the Church hope
to realize its true mission, especially in this age, when the heart and
will must be reached through the mind. In this respect, it must also
be confessed that the Catholic are far in advance of the Protestant
churches and Sunday-schools, where the preaching still overshadows the
teaching.
[Sidenote: _The call for a teaching ministry_]
To inspire and direct thorough religious instruction, carefully trained
leaders are needed. The demand to-day is for a teaching as well as a
preaching ministry, with an apostolic sense of a mission and a message.
Men with natural gifts and the most thorough preparation are wanted to
raise the standards and to organize and transform, as they alone can,
by personal contact, the teaching corps of our Sunday-schools into
effective forces. Such men and women certainly can be found. It is a
conviction, based on a wide experience, that many of the ablest students
in our colleges and universities, who for many valid reasons do not
feel the call to a preaching mission, would gladly and enthusiastically
devote themselves to the work of religious instruction, could they be
sure of a field, when their preparation was complete. Our universities
and seminaries already have the facilities and could readily assume this
important responsibility. As soon as our large city churches and the
federated churches in our smaller towns, demand a teaching pastor as
the permanent director of their Sunday-schools, and of the religious
educational work under their charge, they will enter upon a new career
of permanent conquest. The needs are undoubtedly great, the volunteers
are at hand, thorough preparation can be assured; but the call must
come from the Church, united and awake to its supreme opportunity and
responsibility.
[Sidenote: _The antiquated methods of our Sunday-schools_]
It must also be confessed that our religious systems--if such they may
be called--are still in the experimental stage. They are far inferior in
every respect, except in the self-sacrificing devotion of the teachers
and officers, to those of the secular schools. What is most vital to our
national and individual life is most neglected. Instead of the latest
and best pedagogical methods, the most antiquated largely prevail.
Saddest of all, the Bible which is being taught in the majority of our
schools is the Bible of later Judaism and the Middle Ages, not the Book
of Books which stands forth in the light of God's latest revelation, as
a message of beauty and life to the present age. It is not strange that
there is a growing distrust of the Sunday-school among many intelligent
people, and an appalling apathy or distaste for Bible study in the mind
of the rising generation.
[Sidenote: _The crying need for improved courses of study_]
If we shut our eyes to these facts, they will remain; but if we frankly
face them, a decade of intelligent and devoted work will effect a great
transformation. The first step is obviously along the line of improved
courses and methods of study. Many different courses are at present in
the field. All have their merits, and to those who have developed them
highest praise and credit is due. Some have been prepared to meet
immediate and practical needs, but ignore the larger unities and the
historical background, and in general neglect the results of modern
educational and biblical knowledge. Some have been worked out in the
study and have a strong academic flavor, but do not meet the needs of
the average scholar or teacher. Others are models of pedagogical
perfection, but lack content. Progressive Sunday-schools are trying one
system after another, and meantime the note of discontent is rapidly
rising. The crisis is too serious to admit of personal rivalries or
prejudices.
[Sidenote: _How to meet this need_]
The moral of the situation is simple: that which will fully meet the
needs of the present must be a combination of all that is good in
existing courses, and embody what is best in the scholarship and methods
of to-day. Like the most effective systems in the past, it must be
wrought out in the laboratory of practical experience. It must be
planned from the point of view of actual needs and conditions. It
must also have a worthy and definite goal and a high ideal. It should
emphasize the importance of fundamental religious instruction, as well
as preaching. All that is practical and permanent in modern educational
methods should be utilized. It should preserve the existing superb
Sunday-school organization, and, as far as possible, the unity of the
splendid system now under the direction of the International Committee.
Finally, it should incorporate the positive and illuminating results of
modern constructive biblical research. The task cannot be accomplished
in a moment, nor by one man nor a small group of men. It is certainly
important enough to command the best experience, the ripest scholarship,
and the most unselfish devotion.
[Sidenote: _The advent of a new era in the history of the kingdom of
God_]
When this task has been thoroughly performed, and the ablest of our
educated men and women have been enlisted in our Bible schools, the
cause of religious education will command the respect of the world, not
merely because of the fundamental need which it aims to meet, but also
because it is effectually meeting it. The Christian Church will also
find itself in sympathy and touch with that which is best and most
significant in modern life and thought. Religious teachers and
scientific investigators will work shoulder to shoulder in a common
study and interpretation of God's many-sided revelation. Pastors will
feel the solid foundations of historical truth beneath their feet.
Leaving behind the din and distractions of the transitional period, the
disciples of the Great Teacher will go forth with fresh zeal to make the
eternal truths of the Bible regnant in the lives of men, and the kingdom
of God a reality in human history.