RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 20137, 30 March 1929, Page 5

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

[By Foil WARD.]

Soar wc now where Christ has led, Following our exalted Head, Made like Him, like Him ire rise: Ours the cross, the grave, the skies. THE GOSPEL OF THE LIVING "CHIU ST. The truth which the first Christians sot forth to teach was not by them regarded as a doctrine; it was a fact of personal experience. They had not read it in a book nor learned it from the lips of others. They knew that Jesus was alive. They took pains to write of that which their eyes had seen and their hands had handled of the word of life. To us, of need:sity, that experience lacks some of the elements of vividness that made such an appeal to them. Strain our imagination as we will, we cannot very well put ourselves in the place of his first disciples. And yet their faith is not unlike ours, and our errors are very much akin to theirs. We can understand them. And we can understand tho bewildering joy of the proclamation, “He is risen.” Me need not wonder that they doubted. We may rather be glbd that they were not too ready to believe. Jf they had not doubted we might feel that wo must doubt. It may be a sad confession that “ The Great Companion is dead”; hut if He remains dead, then has humanity lost one of its noblest and most blessed hopes. It is a hope we cannot afford to cheirsh unless it is based on truth. Let us he glad that those to whom this great hope burst forth in the dawn of Easter morning did not too suddenly embrace it. They could not afford to bo mistaken, and neither can we. But if our experience lacks something of their background it has a common root with theirs. “We having the same spirit of faith ’’ join our Easter hope to Zthcirs. For wc have seen what sin does in our own lives and in tho life of the world. We have seen our Lord crucified and have lia'd our sorrowful share in the act. Wo have made our easy promises, and in tho hour of temptation have lorsaken Him and lied. And if He is dead, and dead through our sin, our hope is dead in Him. But if He lives, then “ the spirit of Him . that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies through His spirit that dwelleth in you.” Tho truth, then, does not wholly come to us second-hand. “Me hear the glad cry of that first Easter echoing down the ages. “He, is risen.” We hear it from voices not our own. but our voices join with those of tho long ago. We, having the same spirit of faith, believe, and therefore speak.

St. Paul - never failed to enumerate himself among tho witnesses of tho ressureetiou. He had not seen Christ after tho flesh, ami did not consider it necessary. He lived in the power of tho resurrection of Jesus. I hat resurrection ho considered the lull proof of our Lord's divinity: “ Ho was declared to ho the Son of God, with power by the resurrection from the dead.” He counted it assurance of life everlasting—the God of .Peace that brought again from tho dead our Lord Jesus, would make us perfect in Him in this life and the life to come. ( Wo shall do very wrong if wc think j of the resurrection of Jesus simply as j a fact of ancient history. Indeed, J that is for us only a minor aspect ol the event. - What makes it signili-| cant for us is not simply that Jems came back to those who loved Him twenty centuries ago, hut that He, i ever liveth, and is with those who I love Him now. Jesus took up again j the life He laid clown._ Ho is now] living, a personal experience in the I lives of men and women, not as a ! Galilean peasant in the flowing rubes of long ago, but as the high ideal, the | motive power in tho heart ol every revent child of God. It is not enough that we teach the resurrection of Jesus. M'c are to live resurrection life. M T c are to be the proof to the world of a Christ that liveth for ever. The world is not likely to spend much time looking up the ancient proofs of tho resurrection of Jesus, but it is likely to be impressed if it can discover in our lives tho truth that the Lord liveth and roignelh. In if anywhere l , tho Lord hath arisen. I lie Christian Church should lie no tomb in Joseph's garden: it should he the living body ol the living Christ. Even this is not the last nor yet the best word that we are to remember about the Easter story. It is our best promise that we ourselves shall live again. We need not wonder what men are hesitant, about life alter i death. We live 'in a world _ where j everything dies, <! What man is there ■ that liveth and shall not see death ? i There is no such, such man. so far as i physical death is concerned. But Ho j who is (he resurrection and tho lile , said: “ He that believeth in me shall ! never die.” Living the eternal life boro and now. we prepare to enutinuo j living the life that can never die. Iho : incredible inspiring hope that springs i somehow in the human breast finds its confirmation in the resurrection ol Jesus our Lord. Easter is not simply the assurance of our Lords immortality; it is God’s promise that wc mav share eternal lile with Him. WYE. Barton, D.D., LL.T). THE MINISTER AND the SUNDAY SCHOOL. It is one of those questions which he on the threshold of every ministry. What part, shall the minister play in the life of the school ? M hat task in connection with it shall he undertake. It goes without saying that “ circumstances alter cases.” The place ol the minister is sometimes determined by the fact that the work has to ho done, and there is no one else to do it. lor example, if there really is no other superintendent and no other Bible class leader, ,tho minister can do no other j than step in. But is this the ideal arrangement where other possibilities I exist S' Hero again, for some men, it , might be, and "we have no desire to. attempt to fix a hard and fast ruleBut where the school is well ami nilp | staffed —as every school ought to be —there is another function lon , the minister, and, since it is sometimes overlooked, it may bo worth while heie > to commend it. I

THE GENERAL SUPERVISOR. Ju a special sense the minister is tiio supervisor and leader of the whole organisation connected with his church. . This work involves him in constant attention to the Sunday school, because of the place the school holds, but it loibids his becoming so absorbed in the school as to have no time or mind ioi other valuable work. Hence many a man sets before himself the ideal of being an encourager and inspiring personality for ail the church’s work. This requires a certain detachment, but it gives scope for a varied ministry which some men have succeeded in making very effective. It is a wide ministry in which the school naturally shares. _ . A man with such an ideal will f g ive a great deal of time to his teaeners. lie will make them feci that, it he lf j not actually one of them as a lonelier he is at least behind them all. I will know that their work is his worx, and his work is theirs. Ho may meet them for preparation of the. lesson, and , for periods of devotional. ,On occasion j

he may lead them in campaigns aiming at decision. Often he will be present when they are doing the job, remembering that his presence is symbolic ami means much by way ol encourage meat and cheer. A LINK BETWEEN CHURCH AND SCHOOL. Li this way tho minister becomes a very important link between the church and the school. One of our present needs is to increase the number ol .such links, it is indeed fataljy easy for the school to develop on its own lines, and for the church steadily to drift apart. Mdien young children attend divine worship it is important that they should find in the “ solemn ” building something with which they are familiar. 'They do not know the organ or tho choir, or the anthem, otteii they do not know the hymns. It is a great gain if they know tho man who stands in the pulpit, and if his voice sounds the same at 11 a.in. as it does when he closes school or speaks in their freei a tmosphere. Duo other thing which experience seems to teach. While the minister will not be a stranger to the lower end of file school, he will give his closest attention to the upper. Here are the adolescents from whom he is Imping soon to get: a decision, if he does any teaching at all, it would probably be best that lie should do it here. On occasion, at least, lie ought to find opportunity of addressing the senior classes. And if lie can link his interest hero- with other week-day organisationwhich touch the same hotly of young people so much tho better. As a general supervisor, the minister will, of course, think of such aids as a teachers’ library, training classes, social meetings, and so forth. Much could bo said concerning each of these matters. It suflices here to remark that a minister can do much by planting seed-thoughts and stimulating new ideas. Others can bo found to carry them out. Let him sec to it that the ruts do not become graves. How to get his new ideas accepted, that is his problem. However, it is a problem that a brave man tackles with patience, but also with persistence. To get things clone is .sometimes a greater work than actually doing them. To get things done is tho minister's task.