RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 20132, 23 March 1929, Page 6

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

[By Fouward.]

Thmi must be Inn: thyself, If thou tile truth would tench ; Thy soul must overflow if thou .Another’s so til wonld’st reach. The overflow of heart it, needs To give the lips full speech. ‘ PROGRESS.’ The third number of volume 7 of ‘ Progress ’ has recently come to l and and provides abundance of interesting and profitable reading. In his editorial Mr A. Id. Reed quotes from the * Workers’ Council’ on iho greatest room in the world—the “ room for improvement,” the keys of which arc consecration, devotion, alertness, perseverance, intelligence, lofty purpose, and a dear-ent aim. Each one of ns has tins room, ami it is with tho object of helping church workers to improve that ' Progress’ is issued. Those interested in worship problems should road carefully 1 The Junior’s Approach to God,’ ‘ Training for Worship,’ and ' Ideantitying the School ’ ; while all superintendents should read ‘The Superintendent Who Wins,’ ‘ First Steps in Organising a. Primary,’ ‘An F.tliciencv Problem,’ etc. There is something for all workers in this issue, from' tho Cradle Roll superintendent to the general .superintendent and the minister. •’ Forward ’ gratefully ackmvlcdges tho receipt of this copy from tho publisher. EVERY SUNDAY EASTER SUNDAY. Would ii net bo well on Easter Sunday to remind yoni school that, every Sunday ii an Easter Sunday P For did not Jesus rise on the, first day of tho week, and for that reason Sunday has ever since been observed as the Christian SabbathP Every Sunday should be clothed wit h tho Easier thought-. Tho S.S. Executive.’ 'IIIE CHILD AND PRAYER. Children literally bring everything to God in prayer At first there is little discrimination. In the early imaginative years a child prays as naturally lor dog or doll or bird as for sister or mother, 'flier are lew exclusions in their prayers. Things uppermost in thought, the immediate desire, the new triend, tho expected gift, may all he remembered in prayer. And so to lie remember':,l is very delightful. To have had a place in a, child's play is a good enough reason for a place in his prayers, and yon may find yourself the subject of a special postscript in the bairn’s petitions. .There are, indeed, few more delightful things than these spontaneous petitions: of children, with all 11 e r unexpectedness. No sooner are set forms learned than the child breaks through them, as though ho must needs nave more direct access. And oii(3 never knows what may be said next, even to God. On I lie evening of her birthday that was to bring her a pair of while kid washing ghees of rather special quality, a minister’- wee lassie, apparently anxious to play her pari worthily, prayed ” Please Got!, make me n swank.”

What a glimpse, also, mlo a child's heart was her pravei loi her playmate. Flu; often prayed for him ; hut one night his name was never mentioned. The mother asked for tho reason. “Hi; was howwid wit me to-day. lie Irow mud in my face.” Nothing mure was said. Presently the mother heard this: “ Please God, you can bless Tommy if yon like, hut yon needn’t do it on my account.” The, child, like the Gent ihg has no difficulty in praying for those who are kind. But when people turn horrid moral difficulty arises, and the first untutored impulse is to appeal to the imprecatory I’salms rather than to (he Sermon on ilm .Yount. The child compromise shows the problem of “ praying for them that pors -cuto yom” Children pray also outside set fiim-s. The regulated evening prayer tails to satisfy. “I often speak to God during tho dav time,” said a little boy, “ just at any lime, whatever I may he doing.’' Curiously, he adds: “ I always go near a lirepl-ce if 1 am in a room ” On -mother occasion. after drawing n picture, he exclaimed: “ "When 1 drew that God was happy.” It is a precious habit of mind thus to live in conscious touch with Cod, to he friendly with Him, and In feel Hint He is interested and friendly, Stevenson once spoke ol the great, misery of ennsTaetlv making discoveries, overcoming dilTicnlt ies. winning triumphs, it you have no friend with whom to share your jo vs. The though- - of God as suph a friend seems to come naturally lo the child. The heart n c prayer is frh-nil-slli-> free, lumpy intercourse with God. This thought of pravei- might to he emphasi-ed and amplified. It should lv> developed, not repressed, am childhood turns to vonth. Youth too often loses the child’s consciousness of God. Heaven, once so near, recedes. Ihe soentanenns ontgrnwings of the soul Godward are freqnent.lv discouraged. Youth is taught to limit rolh'ions feeling and its expression lo official In l nrs7 Vet in so far as religion is

ii cannot Ik l fon(iikml to official p\ | H’iKMons, Sopviccn :ir(‘ jirormironly as they make the friomls-lnp real, ami the more real llie friendship (lie more spontaneous ( he ontbreakings nf tlie soul in eonimnnimi. Many wrong anil adequate notion-, oi prayer are correal ml once prayer is concoivotl as friendship. A common thought of prayer is as ■ duty duo (o (!od, who exacts ii, Ouite’a number of ."iris in a class j attended years ago. 1 found, bad come so In conceive of prayer. Some of lliein repeated “God keep nm safe, (!iis night,” others said a brief petition for soldiers and sailors and for victorv. One girl, reminded by others that thenar was over, replied._ “Oh, [ just go on saying the same.” She had learned it, at. school, and it gave her a form of words. Any form of words apparently served, so long as she went, through the hare Formality of “ saying prayers.” in the tnajoritv of eases the aei of “saying prayers” seemed to satisfy. 'there senied to be no deeper or higher thought than that. In other cases prayer is thought of as begging for things from God. Perhaps there is little more general misconception of prayer both among adults aiid among children. Children arc often encouraged to ask for things both foolish and selfish. Prayer is not a method of getting what we want, a magic way of gratifying onr desires. Teachers at times suggest that, anything asked in prayer is granted by Cod, and in many ways the souls of children are hurt by false or inadequate teaching concerning prayer. 1 remember the hitter indignation of one boy who had prayed for lino weather for a picnic, and had been encouraged to it by Ids people. Tlio day opened and continued with rain. Heaven, it seemed to feel, was either deaf or insulting. He declared lie would have no further need for his Bible; that he had utterly lost Ids faith in God. Nor was it any mock demonstration on his part. One boy ! know, who has since experienced a similar disappointment, has refused to pray. “ They don’t answer my pray-

pin ” jio says, and ho has stopped the practiro. .Adults arc apt to minimise the effect f such disappointments. They have serious and far-reaching results. “ The Lord's Prayer,” _ says one writer. “ apart from that simple petition for ‘daily bread,’ is one impassioned petition for strength and grace of soul.” The disciples have left all and followed. They are to become itinerant evangelists, passing from place to place, dependent on the hospitality of others. Wholly engaged in the work of the Kingdom, they may ask for life's simple necessities, for th e . requisite minimum “ daily bread.” — F. 0. Hogarth.