Bible Stories
Of all the stories that we may tell our children, first in importance are
the stories of the Bible. During the early years, when the most lasting
impressions are made, when faith is simple, when the thought of God’s
presence and love is natural, the Bible stories should be told over and
over again.
There should be no attempt at this time to interpret the stories or to
bring out theological questions. The stories should be told in all their
original simplicity, using as far as possible the Bible language, which
is brief, strong, picturesque. No possible improvement could be made over
the wording of the Creation Story as told in the first chapter of Genesis
and the first three verses of the second chapter. The children will not
tire of its telling, and it should become as familiar to them as are
their nursery rhymes. The shame is upon us as fathers and mothers that
this is so seldom the case.
The story of the flood, divided into its four parts, as given in the
collected stories of this book, should be made equally familiar to the
children. A comparison of these stories with the Bible narrative will
show that the original language has been retained, and only such detail
and repetition as would confuse the little child, have been omitted. The
literary style is unchanged.
In these stories there is all the charm of the folk-tale with its simple
directness of style, its rapid action, its repetition of words and
phrases, such as “every living thing, of fowl, and of cattle, and of
every creeping thing,” yet it is lifted far above the folk-tale by the
all-pervading thought of God acting in righteousness.
No Bible story is worthily told which does not touch the underlying truth
of the beauty of holiness, and the folly and inevitable consequences of
sin. In preparing Bible stories for telling, the story-teller should have
always in mind what has been called the “basic principle of both Old and
New Testaments”—the perfect God desiring to restore man “to holiness and
true communion with Himself.” But this truth should be inherent in the
story, and not presented in the form of an appended moral.
As to the manner of telling: a Bible story should be narrated with the
spontaneous life that is accorded the telling of any other story. Too
often, through an effort upon the part of the conscientious story-teller
to impress their religious nature, to communicate to the child a feeling
of awe, the Bible stories are told in a truly _awful_ manner, and the
child, without knowing why, learns to dread them. They have been made
to him something unreal, something which he cannot understand, which he
fears. This is the last result that the story-teller has desired, but it
is the inevitable result when sanctimoniousness is substituted for the
“love, joy, and gentleness” which are among the fruits of the Spirit, and
which must fashion the telling of the Bible stories.
Rightly told, the Bible stories arouse in the child the keenest
interest and the deepest pleasure. What child, after hearing the story
of Joseph—the child who dreamed dreams and who wore the marvelous
coat of many colors—being sold into bondage to the Midianites by his
brethren, will not want to hear “what happened next?” And what story
is more beautiful, more filled with wonders and marvels, with love, and
forgiveness, and moral steadfastness, than the story of Joseph? It is
quite as fascinating as any tale from the Arabian Nights, and it excels
the latter a thousand-fold in its fundamental value, for these Old
Testament stories eclipse the myth and the hero-tale not only in their
genuine interest for the child, but because they bring him into conscious
relationship with God—the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; the God
whose throne is for ever and ever, and the sceptre of whose kingdom is
the sceptre of _righteousness_.
It is possible here to give only the briefest outline of the various
kinds of stories which one may choose from this wealth of material. There
are the wonder stories of the creation, the Garden of Eden, the flood, in
the first part of the book of Genesis; the patriarch stories of Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, in the latter part of the same book; the story
of Moses, and all the wonders of the Exodus; the stories of the prophets,
of Joshua, Samuel, Daniel; the hero-stories of Samson, of David’s
encounter with Goliath; of Gideon; the pastoral story of Ruth. In the
New Testament are the stories of Christ’s birth, His life, with all its
boyhood incidents, its parables, and its wonders, closing with His death
and resurrection. The question is not, “What can I tell?” but, “Which
shall I tell?” The fund is practically inexhaustible.
I have a word of caution to offer to the one—be she mother, Sunday School
teacher, or story-teller, who presents Bible stories to children: put
nothing into the stories by way of explanation which the Bible does not
put there, and which will have to be recalled or modified when the child
grows older and begins to ask questions, and to this end do not make the
mistake of confounding the truth taught, with the literal form of its
teaching.
As the child grows older and begins to analyze, to reason, and to ask
questions, then must the story-teller—and let us hope that the chief
Bible story-teller may be the mother—be ready to guide surely and unfold
wisely the deeper and higher meaning of the stories of the Book of Books.