RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 23373, 16 September 1939, Page 4

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

[By Forward.]

THE NEXT ANNIVERSARY. It is surely a very wise step for every school to consider well in advance what is their real object in holding the anniversary as well as to discuss what general plan will best achieve that object. It needs no arguing that if we aim a£ everything in general we shall hit nothing in particular; therefore a clearcut aim is necessary. The aim and object of the anniversary is to provide a red-letter day for the children, a time of inspiration and rededication for the teachers, and an occasion for setting “ the child in the midst ” of the church. It may also provide an occasion for thanksgiving on the part of the children for their Sunday school and their church. The general plan of the anniversary should be carefully drawn up,, and it should definitely exclude certain elements—namely, any attempt to exploit the children for a mere money-making purpose or to provide a well-rehearsed religious performance in which the children have a prominent place, in place of the usual Sunday worship. Special care should be taken to prevent the special nature of the day encroaching upon its atmosphere for worship. Whatever is done to make the ordinary services special for the day, such services should be more devout and more sincerely worshipful than those of an ordinary Sunday. Tho general plan of the anniversary arrangements should include four features—a teachers’ conference or devotional meeting; special Sunday services, graded so ns to provide worship for the three main departments of the school; an afternoon departmental service in which parents and visitors participate, or a rally of all departments, each taking some part, to demonstrate school unity, or a promotion service for teachers and scholars; a week-night demonstration of some aspect of modern Sunday school work, or a tableau or play or a concert. If this fourfold plan is worked out it will be seen that it has met the aim and object of the anniversary as set out above. The inclusion of the first feature ensures that the teachers shall be heartened and inspired to do better work in the new school year just beginning. The careful arrangements of the second will ensure that the day will be full of inspiration and blessing to the children as well as to the ordinary adult congregation. Any of the suggestions under the third point will bring parents, teachers, and children into a happy relationship that cannot fail to help the school forward. The last suggestion is intended not merely to educate tho parents and church members in the varied nature of the work in a modern Sunday school, but should also provid'e the money-raising side of the anniversary.—Ernest H. Hayes.

GENERAL AND MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK,

Dr J. W. Decker, in ‘ The Bible In the World,’ writes;— February 21,1939, found the Rev. E. H. Cressy, secretary of the China Christian Educational Association, and me closing our visit of nearly three weeks in Szechwan, West China. It will always bs remembered as the day we had tea with Generalissimo Chiang and his distinguished wife, undisputed leaders of China’s 400,000,000. Five o’clock found us at the door of their unpretentious residence, with our conductor, Dr Hollington Tong. We were admitted, and a few minutes later were ushered into a modestly furnished parlour, where Madame Chiang was waiting for us. ... Her charming personality and gracious manners soon put us at case. When she learned that I had_ worked for a number of years in Ningpo_ and the countryside there and had visited the generalissimo’s birthplace and the surrounding towns and villages, she smilingly said, “Why, you and ho are ‘ dongHsiang ’ (natives of the same locality), which means not a little in China. We had only a few minutes to talk about China’s great need for relief work, in which she is much interested, when her husband was announced. He came in briskly, an erect, spare figure, clad in a simple khaki uniform with plain brass buttons, and not a single emblem to indicate his rank. We knew he had been engaged for days m a series of very strenuous and important Government meetings, including the duty of presiding at the newly-formed and, from a democratic Standpoint, very significant 11 People’s Council > but his bearing betrayed no weariness. His face was firm and rather ascetic, but there was also calmness and repose, and every evidence of physical health. His rather clipped sentences bespoke a man of few words, ready to decide and to act, and accustomed to being obeyed. Madame Chiang immediately told him I could speak the Ningpo dialect. The response was a quick word in thftt-cija-lect. and a ready smile which emboldened me to cross over to a chair near him. We were soon talking away without an interpreter, though now and then Dr Tong came in with a needed word when my Ningno, rusty from years of disuse, failed me. Tpa was brought in, with cakes, which I am sure were delicious, but I was too busy using the precious moments to taste them> in spite of my host’s insistence. He had generous words of appreciation for the support for China, moral and otherwise, which had come from abroad, quickly silencing my apology that we had not done more. _ Advice regarding mission problems which have arisen because of the conflict was promptly given. There was abundant evidence that this leader of one-foUrth of the world’s people was quietly determined to see China through to victory, and was marshalling the resources of the nation to that end. There was not the slightest suggestion of anything but optimism. . When asked if ho had some special word for me to carry back to our people, he handed me the statement (given below), which he signed in my presence. Then he autographed a picture of himself and Madame Chiang, while we watched in fascination the firm artistry of his Chinese pen. It will be a prized possession for many a day, along with a similarly Autographed volume of Madame Chiang’s messages.

The statement reads; “At this hour of our national crisis we, the Chinese people, are profoundly moved by the earnest increase in the many concrete expressions of sympathy which have been continuously coming to us for over 19 months from our friends in other parts of the world. Christians have left no stone unturned to show their growing interest in the material as well as the spiritual welfare of our suffering people. Missionaries, in particular, have never hesitated to make even the greatest personal sacrifices to heal the wounded and succour the distressed. I weclome this opportunity, therefore, to reiterate the previously expressed appreciation of myself and my countrymen for the unqualified endorsement of the righteousness of our resistance that

has come to us so.spontaneously and in such unstinted measure from the Christian world. I believe that those of our people who will survive the terrible holocausts which have involved- us all in so much loss o f life and human

suffering will emerge victorious irr spirit, and more confirmed than < ver r in the faith that right will alway*' triumph over might, whether in personal. national, or international relations.”-