RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22836, 21 March 1936, Page 5

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

By Ampi.ius.

" Christians at Home and abroad have been regulating their plans and activities too much by precedents and by visible resources, and not enough by the obvious designs of God and by His invisible and boundless resources." SIGNIFICANCE OF EASTER. The observance of Easter will with all age groups be more than a review of the incidents in the Easier story. If Easter is to have its full significance an approach in special studies and worship must be made three or four Sundays before Easter Sunday. The worship period should be carefully planned, and service following an Easter theme and moving to a climax on Easter Sunday, or, if the class is in camp on Easter Sunday, the climax should come the Sunday following. Special picture studies should be taken in the worship period. "Faithful Unto Heath," by Poynter, is a picture depicting loyalty arid can be Jinked to the loyally of' Christ. "He stedfastly set Ills face lo go to Jerusalem." "Christ in Gcthsemane." by Holl'man, is a picture which makes a tremendous appeal to young people. "The Disciples Running to the Tomb," by Nurnand, portrays Peter and John on their way to see for themselves the astounding fact they have heard. Wonder, doubt, fear, astonishment are all apparent in their faces. "The Women at the Tomb" and "He is Not Here. lie is Risen," are pictures which should be used in connection with this season. A study of Easter hymns is another approach which brings home to the adolescent the Easter message. Joy is characteristic of hymns suited lo young people, and for this reason Easter hymns make a special appeal, and should be carefully chosen. Hymns gain very much with boys and gills of this age, and are sung with more intelligent interest and keener enjoyment if they know something of their history, or sometimes the story of the music will serve the same purpose. Easter camp is an experience which every adolescent should have. During adolescence, the heart is open as never before and never after, to the appeal of God to the soul. It is inevitable that normal young people should seek to know God in intimate and personal and meaningful terms. Easter camp aims to

awaken the spiritual life, and the particular associations of the • Easter season along with the fellowship of labour, play and worship makes a tremendous appeal to the adolescent. Easter offers an opportunity for the dramatic presentation of the Easter ines- . sage. This should be given after church on Sunday evenings, and is a most telling, method of presenting truth to young people. Careful preparation is necessary if Easter is to have its full signifieence, for this important age group. There are certain interpretations of the Easter message that become possible, especially during this time, because of the characteristics and needs of this stage of growth. Junior and senior Bible class people are now intensely interested in Ihe significance of inner spiritual experience. They will need to sense the fact, not so much of a " stone rolled away," but of the presence of Jesus. He was there becomes a significant; fact. To the adolescent, the heart of the Christian faith is a profound conviction that the spirit of Jesus is not dead, or conlined in any kind of tomb, but is an ever-present dynamic force in the lives of men —the Living Christ to Whom our loyalty goes forth. WORSHIP IN SUNDAY SCHOOL. We have long been familiar with the Sunday school as «■ place of instruction — Biblical instruction, it i.s true, but yet instruction. It is significant that the idea of the Sunday school as a place of worship is really beginning to grip the minds of men. Religious educators are awakening to the fact that invaluable as Scripture teaching is, (he greatest need of the life is spiritual quickening, the winning of the .soul to God. Our young people must not only know about God, they must know God Himself, and be able to think of Him and speak of Him as One whom their own hearts have experienced: One whose near and all-glorious presence they may continually realise. To know God after this manner is to be worshipful. To behold the beauty of the Lord is to add to faith, reverence. And this addition to faith young people make naively and naturally. The child can be led to feel intensely the wonder of the Divine presence all about him. ESSENTIALS OF WORSHIP. If the room which you use for junior worship is plain, or even ugly, without any grace or beauty of architecture, and unadorned, do not give up in discourage-

nient and decide that to enrich the child's environment is a hopeless task. It i» indeed desirable to have an attractive setting for worship in the way of those factors that meet the eye and delight the ear, but these are not' altogether eesential. There comes to mind the picture of a little group that worshipped an en- . tire winter in an ugly little garage while the church was being erected. Except for a haiidful of flowers which a teacher brought each Sunday, there was not a single lovely thing at which one might look. All the money was being U6ed tor the new building and its furnishings. A decrepit old organ was the only available musical instrument. The furniture consisted of a few old benches and a dozen cast-off chairs. Yet such a lovely spirit prevailed in the group that even yet, after the lapse of several years, there are those who never go by on the street without looking past the fine church architecture to the little garage, with a grateful memory of some of the experiences which went on under its roof. VACATION SCHOOL OF RELIGIOUS STUDY. The New Council of Religious Education, which is at present located in Christchurch, is composed of official representatives of the Protestant Churches, and is doing much to further the cause of religious education throughout the Dominion. Among its present activities is the planning of tht- vacation scliool of religious study, to be held in Christ's College, Christchurch, next month, during the school's vacation. From the syllabus of study just to hand a profitable time is promised. The central theme is "The Incarnation," and for the Old Testament course of four lectures, the Book of Jeremiah has been .chosen because it is the prophecy of the New Covenant; while the New Testament course of four lectures will be the Fourth Gospel as the Gospel of the Incarr.ate Word. The single lectures are the " Old Testament Preparation for Christ," " The Philosophical Approach to the Incarnation," " The Church and the Incarnation," and " Modern Tendencies in Europe," and among the speakers are the Revs. T. Paterson, J. M. Bates, and the Eev. Canon S. Parr. The inaugural address will be given by the Bishop of Christchurch, who is president of the New Council. This school has been planned for ministers and lay workers, and affords a ui.'ique opportunity of hearing from scholars some of the results of presentday theological study, in excellent surroundings.