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Religious Education: The official journal of theReligious Education AssociationPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/urea20

TEACHING THE OLD TESTAMENT TO CHILDRENMiss E. R. Murray aa Maria Grey Training School , Brondesbury, EnglandPublished online: 10 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Miss E. R. Murray (1915) TEACHING THE OLD TESTAMENT TO CHILDREN , Religious Education: The officialjournal of the Religious Education Association, 10:3, 283-284, DOI: 10.1080/0034408150100314

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0034408150100314

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CHILDREN AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 283

For two years we have offered in the Winnetka CongregationalChurch, an opportunity for such a class. The first course was tenweeks on the physical development of the boy and its relation toreligion. The basis of this course was Tyler's "Growth and Devel-opment." The interest was such that the mothers asked to havethe course repeated and given during the evening so that theirhusbands might attend. This was done. In connection with thiscourse there was added a discussion of the games which naturallycome in the various periods of childhood, also stories, property,punishments, money, appetite, saving, giving, etc., using St. John's"Child Nature and Child Nurture," which makes a splendid basisfor this discussion. This course took fifteen weeks.

A second course on the problems of boyhood, of fifteen weeks,has just been finished. A good book to be used as a basis for sucha course is Johnson's "Problems of Boyhood." There are otherbooks on these subjects. The outline in brief is as follows: A Dis-cussion of Boyhood, Habits, Honesty, Property Rights, Games ofChance, Speech, Sex, Stimulants, Courtesy and Respect, Self-control, Efficiency, Loyalties, Citizenship, Clubs, Choice of Life-work, Boy and His Religion.

These were discussed from the point of view of the parentaiding in the development of the boy. Some members of the classchanged their point of view regarding their responsibility, otherswished they had had such a course when their first baby came; someof the men have begun to "cut" business hours a little so as to getin more time with their boys.

TEACHING THE OLD TESTAMENT TO CHILDREN*Miss E. R. MURRAY

Maria Grey Training School, Brondesbury, England

"If our aim is to bring home to modern children the Fatherhoodof God, we shall do well to omit the earlier stories. Otherwise what-ever we may ourselves believe, we may land ourselves in difficulties.

"I believe that many young teachers will here be glad of a littlehelp as to how to treat these and other difficulties. One sometimeshears the suggestion made that the teacher's own belief need notinfluence her telling of Bible stories, that as she tells her fairy storiesand myths, which are only true to her for the spiritual truth wrappedup in them, so she can tell her Bible story. 'Let every man be fully

•Taken by permission of the publishers, Warwick & York, Inc., from "Education and Life."

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284 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

persuaded in his own mind,' but let neither man nor woman tamperwith his or her own honesty, or set up a wall of silence betweenteacher and child. To young teachers I should like to say, Dealhonestly with your child. Tell him you do not understand, yet youbelieve, if that is your position; or tell him that the stories are froman ancient book, not written down till long after they happened, andsome of them copied from older books which are lost, and that whatseems to you important is—and then emphasize whatever truth youwish to impress. If the child still presses, 'Do you believe?' thentell the truth in this, as in other matters. There is only one way inwhich we can still believe that God selected one people for His specialfavor. The Bible contains the traditions, the history, and literatureof a great people, of the people with the keenest God-consciousness.It shows us how that God-consciousness developed from the timeGod walked in the garden and spoke with a human voice, to theclimax of 'God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worshipHim in spirit and in truth.' We cannot believe in a God who sentbears to devour naughty children, who sent fire from Heaven topunish not only the presumption of certain men, but all their inno-cent offspring. But we can well believe that the Israelites saw God'swrath in some catastrophe, as do all primitive people and many whoare not primitive. We do believe that interference with God'spurpose brings destruction and suffering, not only to those who err,but to many who are innocent.

"The teacher who is ready to approach serious questions withrespect for the opinions of others, and with humility as to her own,is not likely to find much difficulty. She williiave no desire to showoff her own intellectual superiority by flippant treatment of what issacred to others, and she will have still less desire to make childrenquestion the wisdom of their own parents. One useful hint is thatwe need never be in a hurry to teach to children what is new to our-selves. What is'new to us bulks so largely in our minds, that it isapt to seem much more important than it really is. It need not, forinstance, hurt a child to believe that disobedience, the eating of aforbidden fruit, put Adam and Eve outside the happy garden ofParadise where sin puts us all every one. No parent is likely toobject if the teacher should add, that if God sent an angel to keepthem out, it was only until they had made themselves good enoughto go back, and that some time He would send another angel to guidethem, that they might 'enter through the gates of the city,' where'they that do His commandment have a right to the tree of life.' "Dow

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