NOTE

PLAN 1: When the Graded Lessons were first issued the yearly courses were grouped to correspond to this well-known classification of pupils, and the text books were marked in accordance with this plan.

PLAN 2: The departmental grouping by a series of three years to a department corresponds to the school grading where Junior High Schools have been organized and is now recommended by many denominations.

Care must be taken to select the Graded Course by age and titles, as indicated in the left column, rather than by department names.

Copyright, 1918, by N. S. Barnes.

Prepared for teachers of children about nine years of age

STORIES FROM THE
OLDEN TIME

TEACHER’S TEXT BOOK

Course IV, Part I

Prepared by JOSEPHINE L. BALDWIN

HENRY H. MEYER, Editor

THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN
NEW YORK CINCINNATI

Copyright, 1909, 1913, 1917, by Josephine L. Baldwin

The memory verses from the American Standard Bible
are copyrighted, 1901
by Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York

To Mrs. J. Woodbridge Barnes
WHOSE CLEAR VISION, WISE LEADERSHIP, AND
UNDAUNTED COURAGE HAVE MADE POSSIBLE
THE INTERNATIONAL COURSE OF GRADED
LESSONS, AND WHOSE CRITICISM AND SUPERVISION
HAVE BEEN INVALUABLE IN THE
PREPARATION OF THESE LESSONS FOR PUBLICATION,
THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED

CONTENTS

OUT OF CHILDHOOD INTO YOUTH

Traits of Boyhood and Girlhood

At the beginning of the period of childhood for which the Junior Course is intended, approximately nine years of age, there appears to be in the life of the normal boy or girl a real transition as the traits and interests of earlier years give way to those of full fledged boyhood and girlhood. Strange premonitions of impending physical and mental changes now appear, with suggestions of riper years that are rapidly approaching. The physical and mental changes of this period are accompanied by an awakening of social consciousness. This is noticeable in the friendships formed, in the increase of love and sympathy for others and in the dawning recognition of obligations toward others. The opposite of the same tendency is reflected in the sense of rivalry and emulation and, especially in boys, in the developing spirit of pugnacity, tempered with a tendency to defend the weak. This growing social consciousness brings with it also a stronger consciousness of self, a clearer recognition of right and wrong and an awakening of conscience which now begins to take the place of rules made by others as a guide to action.

The Inner Life of the Spirit

The normal growth of the inner life of the spirit is likewise rapid, the spiritual awakening which may be counted on during this period bringing with it the first religious crisis in the life of the boy and girl. For this crisis the most careful preparation should be made. When the spiritual awakening comes, the child should be given an opportunity to choose for himself to live as God’s child in obedience to his laws and in loving unselfish devotion and service for others. When the choice has been made, the new sense of responsibility which follows must be fostered and the child aided by suggestion and encouragement in daily conduct to follow right habits of thought and action. The meaning, need and the helpfulness of worship may be taught through actual participation in services of worship suited to the pupil’s age and the manner of his natural expression of religious impulses and aspirations.

Materials and Methods

The materials provided in the course of religious instruction for this period take into account the growing interest of the pupil in definite information and knowledge. This material includes stories with a rich coloring of adventure and connected historical narratives appealing to the interests of this age. By the use of these materials the mind of the pupil is stored with the best Biblical images of strong and noble character as his studies introduce him to the great heroes and champions of the faith of past ages. Much emphasis is laid upon religious privileges and duties, while profitable occupation exercises are suggested to insure a daily reinforcement of the lesson taught in the Sunday school hour. By precept and example the teacher may inculcate habits of neatness, accuracy, punctuality, patience and other virtues. He may watch over the religious life and as a wise specialist in the field of soul nurture may anticipate and prepare the way for each successive stage of that life’s unfolding.

This Text Book

The introductory chapters of this Teacher’s Text Book, entitled Our Juniors, Their Teachers and Lesson Helps, present in detail the aims, the methods and the underlying principles governing this Junior Course. A careful study of this chapter together with the introductory chapters for the other years of the course will be found most profitable.

The Course and the Writer

We would unreservedly commend the writer of this course, Josephine L. Baldwin, to the confidence of all teachers. She writes, not from theory alone, but from long, practical experience in teaching Junior children. Every one of the lessons contained in this course she has taught repeatedly. As a teacher of teachers, therefore, she speaks with authority in the suggestions and directions contained in this Teacher’s Text Book. The stories and suggestions regarding method in the form in which they are here presented, are the rich fruitage of her expert knowledge and training. There are no better courses for use with children of junior age than this course. It is a tool well fashioned for its intended use. As such it will not furnish a substitute for intelligent study and devotion on the part of the teacher, nor will its use lessen the dependence of the teacher on Divine help and inspiration in teaching; but these personal qualifications being present, this Junior Course and the graded system, of which it is a part, should yield large returns for the Kingdom in the stimulation, growth, and enrichment of the religious experience and life of children.

The Editor.

OUR JUNIORS, THEIR TEACHERS AND LESSON HELPS

Graded Instruction

Reasons for Having a Graded System

The reason for having a graded course of instruction for the Sunday school is that the children differ year by year in knowledge, capacity, interests, and needs. Graded lessons are simply an attempt to meet these differences with instruction suited to each year of the developing life. The aim of religious education is to fit the child for complete Christian living, to make him not simply a religious individual but a useful member of society, intelligently devoted to the highest welfare of his fellows and of mankind. In order that this may be accomplished he must have knowledge and his knowledge must lead to action. There is a broad purpose underlying the graded lessons which is thus stated in terms of the children’s religious needs.

The Purpose of the Graded Course

The purpose of the graded lessons is to meet the spiritual needs of the pupil at each stage of his development. The spiritual needs, broadly stated, are these:

1. To know God as he has revealed himself to us in his Word, in nature, in the heart of man, and in Christ.

2. To exercise toward God the Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, trust, obedience, and worship.

3. To know and do our duty to others.

4. To know and do our duty to ourselves.

The Material Used

The material through which this purpose is to be attained is taken mainly from the Bible and treated as story, biography, history, or literature according to the period for which it is used. There are certain facts, not found in the Bible, the knowledge of which is essential if the pupils are to see God in the present day world. Therefore, many nature lessons are given to the little children, incidents in the lives of modern followers of the Lord are provided for the older children, and broader studies from the field of modern reform and of missionary movements for young men and women. There are also lessons on the Book itself and how it has come to us. All of these lessons start outside of the Bible and lead back into it for their explanation. The Bible lessons begin with the Word and go out into life for their application. The one is just as biblical as the other.

The Junior Course

Arrangement of Material

In the Graded System the Junior Course follows the two-years Beginners’ Course and the three-years Primary Course. In those earlier years the stories are not chosen chronologically but are grouped under themes. The sense of time dawns when the child is about nine years old, therefore the Graded Lessons for the Juniors are arranged chronologically, at first by periods and later in a straight chronological course from the Conquest of Canaan to the end of New Testament History.

The Aims

The aim for the Junior lessons as a whole is:

To help the child to become a doer of the Word, and to lead him into conscious loyalty to Jesus Christ.

The aims for each of the four years are these:

1. To awaken an interest in the Bible, and love for it; to deepen the impulse to choose and to do the right.

2. To present the ideal of moral heroism; to reveal the power and majesty of Jesus Christ, and to show his followers going forth in his strength to do his work.

3. To deepen the sense of responsibility for right choices; to show the consequences of right and wrong choices; to strengthen love of the right and hatred of the wrong.

4. To present Jesus as our Example and Saviour; to show that the Christian life is a life of service; to deepen interest in the Book which contains God message to the world.

In the first year all but eight of the fifty-two lessons are the elemental stories taken from the first five books of the Bible. This is as it should be, for these stories appeal more strongly at this time than at any later period. As the first twenty-six lessons are found in the book of Genesis the stories are easy to find and the child is not perplexed and confused by having to search for the one he wants among many books with unfamiliar and difficult names. He is led by easy stages in his Bible readings, and through the charm of the stories, together with his growing ability to handle the book in which they are found, the child not only becomes interested in the Bible but learns to love it.

The second part of the aim implies obedience, and that may be said to be the key-word of this year’s work. (See the Junior motto and verse for the year on the inside of front cover of the Work Book.) With these children, it is largely the absolute obedience of the immature. This form of obedience is a temporary virtue which must eventually be lost in self-control. But no one can attain the most perfect self-mastery who has not first learned to yield obedience to rightful authority. The transfer of the seat of authority from without to within should keep pace with the child’s growth in knowledge, in emotional balance and control, in moral strength, and in the ability to form accurate judgments. The teacher’s aim is to bring the child’s will into line with God’s will for him.

The Correlated Lesson

In the Junior period it is essential that two lessons be given every week, the one the regular lesson in the Junior Graded Series and the other a lesson dealing with the more mechanical part of the instruction. This is called the Correlated Lesson because it is closely related to the main lesson. The reason for having it is that during the Junior period there is a large amount of information which must be given in order that the pupils may grasp the truths in the lesson stories and learn how to handle the Bible with ease.

In the first year the books and divisions of the Bible must be taught. In the other years Bible geography becomes increasingly important as a background for the lessons, and this is the time when it should be studied; for the sense of location dawns at about the ninth year and the interest in geography is at its highest during the Junior period. Some knowledge of the manners and customs of Bible lands is necessary for an understanding of many of the stories. All through the Junior period are required frequent drills on essential facts and all material for memorization in order that those things may be permanently held in memory.

A Junior child cannot profitably pay attention to one subject for more than twenty minutes consecutively. The lesson story on any given Sunday requires that much time, so it would be impossible to combine with it in one Junior lesson period the necessary correlated information. Fifteen minutes should be devoted to the Correlated Lesson, preferably the first quarter of the Sunday-school hour, to be followed by the service of worship and all the other exercises, leaving the last twenty minutes for the lesson of the day.

In schools where this plan is followed and the lessons are well taught, the memory texts are both learned and remembered. The children are familiar with Bible lands and can associate events with the places where they occurred. They understand the strange customs of Bible times and therefore are not puzzled by accounts that would otherwise be unintelligible. They know the Bible as a book and can find references easily. The upper grade Juniors can find a score of the great passages in the Bible without having the reference given. In schools where the correlated lessons are not taught the children are not only ignorant of many things they ought to know, but do not gain the benefit that they should get from the course of study.

The Junior Period

Beginning and End

Only broad and general statements can be made concerning the division lines between the different departments of the Sunday school, especially after the end of the Primary; but the largest factor in deciding when the Junior period begins is the ability on the part of the pupils to read well enough to be able to read in the Bible without too much stumbling. The end of the period is indicated by the beginning of adolescence, and this fixes the Junior period of the normal child as extending over at least three years. The course provides studies for four years.

Characteristics

The general characteristics of the children in this period are marked, differing in many important particulars from those of the period before and still more sharply from those manifested in the adolescent years. There is a reaching out for and a choice of companions differing from the happy-go-lucky way in which the Primary child accepts his neighbors as playmates and a growing tendency to concentration in groups or gangs accompanied by the most intense loyalty to the members of the group. The normal interests which have an important bearing are those in reading, heroes, the forces of nature, and the attainment of results. Intellectually, the child begins to seek for reality. The historic sense develops, and the sense of location both develops and matures during this period. There is a deep regard for authority if rightly administered by one who the child feels has a right to rule over him. Memory is strong and retentive. A deep-seated, though egoistic, sense of justice is apparent. This is preeminently a time when habits are formed and fixed.

There are limitations here, as in every other period. The child is and must be more or less self-centered, because this is a time when he must pay attention to himself and get himself adjusted to the world about him before he can send his energies out in service for others, as will be normal in the next period. The reasoning power is very weak, depending upon sequence rather than causality. The interest in people is altogether in conduct and not at all in character; what a person does is what these children care about, not what he is.

Spiritual Needs

The study of even these few characteristics so briefly stated makes it evident that the children have special spiritual needs; that is, certain phases of the great fundamental truths which underlie all religious teaching will make the strongest appeal and be most helpful at this time. For instance, in God’s relation to us, it is not the Fatherhood of God which will appeal more strongly, but the Kingship of God, his authority, his wisdom, his justice and power; but with this presentation of the majesty of the Creator must be closely associated the thought of God as a daily Companion, as a Saviour from the power of sin, and as the Giver of eternal life and a heavenly home. Our relation to God as subjects of the King, and as dependent upon him for guidance, is linked with the thought of the privilege of cooperating with him in such forms of service as are possible to children, and in such manifestations of love as find natural expression in prayer, praise, and worship.

The Junior in his relation to others must be taught to play fair, to obey those in authority, to cooperate heartily in the duties and joys of the home life, and to champion right causes, whether standing alone or in company with others. The duties the child owes to himself which can best be taught and are most needed in this period are the formation of right personal habits, making right choices, and establishing right conceptions of progress.

The Junior Teacher

Personality

A great deal is said about the characteristics of the Junior pupils and how these affect the plans that are made for their instruction. They also have a bearing upon the type of adult who should deal with the children in this formative period. It should not be necessary to say that the teacher must be a Christian and a church member, for consistency and common sense alike would demand that he who seeks to prepare recruits for the army of the Lord must be in active service himself. He cannot say, “Go”; he must be able to say, as the Master did, “Come, follow me.” The blind cannot be leaders of the blind. But there are many kinds of Christians and church members-persons who differ in temperament and in ways of looking at religious truth.

The Junior period is a time when the pupils are searching for realities. If normal children, normally trained in the home and church, they have almost unbounded credulity, which during this period rapidly develops with growing knowledge and experience into true faith. This is the God-given time for so strengthening the foundations of religious belief for the children that in the succeeding periods, when doubts will normally arise and sometimes beat most insistently upon the house of their faith, it will stand firm because built upon a rock. It is a crime to suggest doubts to Junior children or to surround them with an atmosphere of uncertainty. The teacher who attempts to guide children in this period should know what he believes, and believe it with all his heart, and speak with no uncertain sound. This may seem an almost impossible condition in an age when most learned scholars find innumerable points of criticism upon which they cannot agree, and concerning which many declare themselves to be agnostic; but there are certain great fundamentals which all must believe if they are to be intrusted with the leading of the young, and those who are chosen for Junior teachers should have the temperament which puts emphasis upon the positive and constructive in belief rather than upon the things which lie on debatable ground.

A person who has not a keen sense of justice, and who is not able to be impartial and to keep in the background any personal preferences that he may have, should not attempt to teach Juniors. The children will apply to themselves the most rigid rules if given an opportunity for self-government, and will rejoice in obeying them, but they will resent with the utmost intensity the slightest ruling of a teacher or superintendent which has in it a taint of partiality or injustice. This does not mean that the teacher of Juniors must be ideally perfect. The impossible is not required of anyone in God’s work; but because “we teach only a little by what we say, much more by what we do, and most of all by what we are,” it is more important that the Junior teacher should cultivate those qualities in himself which appeal most strongly to the Junior child than it is that the lessons chosen for the children shall present those qualities through the lives of the heroes of the past.

The best teacher is one in whom the pupil feels the presence of religion as a concrete, natural thing. The best Sunday-school teaching is an initiation of the pupil into sacred things, and initiation is a process of admitting one to a society of persons and fellowship. Many persons have been asked to say what in their experience as Sunday-school pupils most influenced them for good. The reply, apparently the invariable reply, has been, “The personality of the teacher rather than the content of formal instruction.” Nothing in the way of methods or advice can take the place of wholesome, winning personality that actually lives in the realities of the Christian experience and truly admits pupils into the fellowship of this life.[1]

Opportunity

It is the aim of the Sunday school “gradually to bring to completeness or perfection the worthy qualities and characteristics of each pupil, and repress the unworthy, to the end that he may do the work and exert the influence of a true Christian in his environment.” The Junior period is a time when the Sunday-school teacher is given a unique opportunity for helping to realize this aim. In the child’s physical life this is a time of slow growth and bodily vigor, which makes possible a degree of concentration in work and study not to be expected in the earlier years. It is a time when the memory is both strong and retentive, and the child may make the greatest treasures of holy writ his own for all time if he learns them in these years.

The brain cells are still plastic, though hardening rapidly. It is therefore easy to get the child to act along suggested lines, and through incentives and rewards to secure that regular, voluntary repetition of the right act which is necessary for the formation of a habit. The fact that this is the great habit forming and fixing period of life makes evident at once the large opportunity and the corresponding responsibility of the Sunday school in its relation to Junior children.

Teachers, while endeavoring to exemplify the virtues which they inculcate, should constantly aim to help their pupils to form such habits as regular Bible reading and study, church attendance and attention (which is even more important), punctuality, cooperation, industry, thoroughness, perseverance; cheerful, systematic, intelligent giving, reverence and orderliness. It is tremendously important that the children shall form character building habits at this time; for “whatever is found in the life as habits of thought, feeling, and action at the dawn of adolescence will then be greatly magnified and strengthened.”

Another fact which emphasizes the opportunity this period presents is that at some time during these years, usually toward the end of the period, comes the first great age of spiritual awakening, when the child may be expected to become conscious of his relationship to Christ, and proclaim his newly realized loyalty. In the eyes of the church the child is a member of the kingdom of heaven. It now becomes the duty of the church “to see that the child does not lose his spiritual inheritance; that he is kept in the kingdom and so trained that at the time when he becomes fully conscious of his relationship to the Divine, he will choose to claim his inheritance as a child of God and lead the life for which it calls.”

It is sometimes said that Junior children are “trying,” and this is absolutely true. Each class tries its teacher, not because the children wish to be aggravating, but because it is ordained that they shall gain their knowledge and experience by testing each new situation in which they find themselves, and each new person with whom they are brought into close contact. What they are seeking is reality, and they will experiment until they find out what is true about their teacher. They are not endeavoring to get their own way, though that may often seem to be the case. They never like a teacher who is weak and vacillating, but if in the testing process they discover a teacher who knows what he tries to teach, who is firm and kind, impartial, just, and loving, they will yield to that teacher the truest respect, admiration, loyalty, and affection. The Junior teacher should rejoice in the opportunity that his task affords. There is no other time in the life of a Sunday-school pupil when such a ready response will be made to the right influence, example, and instruction.

Guides for Study and Teaching

The Teacher’s Text Book

Two text books are provided with the lessons—one for the teacher and one for the pupil.

In the teacher’s book it has been the aim to give as much material for the individual study of the lesson as is possible within the prescribed limits of the book. Bible passages that throw light either upon the truth to be taught or upon the meaning of the lesson story have been carefully selected. The quotations from the commentators will also be found valuable. The plan of study that will bring the best results to any teacher using this book is first to read carefully the lesson passage and any history intervening between the lesson and the preceding one, to study what is said by the commentators and the Bible references that are given, and to glance over the suggestions under Lesson Preparation.

When these things have been done the teacher should turn away from all books and ask himself, “How can I best present this lesson to my class?” and with the needs of his own pupils in mind, plan the lesson for presentation. After the plan is settled the method of presentation as given in this book will not prescribe a method but may be helpful in the way of suggestion. The importance of individual preparation cannot be emphasized too strongly, for no ready-made lesson can be perfectly fitted to any class.

The lessons for the first half of the quarter are taken from the “morning stories” in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. These stories nourish the soul of the child as few other stories can, because they keep the child in the presence of God. It is a God who not only creates, but guides, loves, reproves, walks, and talks with man as one friend with another. The nine-year-old child is hardly yet beyond the stage where the fancies of fairy tale and myth make a strong appeal. For that reason it seems to him perfectly natural that God in visible presence should meet and converse with his children. These stories, therefore, strengthen the God-consciousness within him, and awaken a response which results in the realization that he, too, may have personal relation with his loving, heavenly Father.

“The ancient Hebrew had no notion of science. He did not ask for the immediate cause of physical events. It entirely satisfied his instinct for ultimate truth to assume that thunder was God’s voice; that God had planted those cedars whose life reached back before the memory of man. He related all mysteries to God, and in that relationship his mind rested and his heart was satisfied.”[2]

This is equally true of the child. His heart is satisfied with God, and he is not troubled with any questions concerning whether these early stories relate actual happenings or not. They are gloriously true because they tell the truth about God. They give the child an axis for his universe, and that is what he is seeking. The teacher should not try to interpret the stories, but simply tell them as nearly as possible in the splendid simplicity of the Bible language.

The Pupil’s Book for Work and Study

This book guides the pupil in his Bible reading and study, indicates verses or passages for memorization, and through the handwork furnishes him an opportunity for making the lesson his own. There are several reasons why this book is of high educational value. One is that it serves to fix the facts clearly in mind and facts are the basis of ideas. Ideas cannot be clearly seen until the facts are mastered.

But the book does much more for the pupil than to put him in the possession of knowledge. It gives him an opportunity to practice obedience in a different way from anything to which he has been previously accustomed. In the Primary Department the children do an increasing amount of handwork, but they do it with the help and under the supervision of their teachers. The nine-year-old child must learn to work by himself and to obey printed instructions.

Teachers examining this work for the first time may think that the pupils’ books for the first year are so stereotyped as to leave no room for originality. That is true in a sense, and the work has been prepared purposely in this way, for before the pupils can do original work, they must have a certain basis of knowledge. They must learn how to follow printed instructions carefully, and be able to make themselves do the thing they are told to do at the time they are told to do it. If through the books of the first year the pupils should learn to be both accurate and punctual, we might feel well repaid even if no other results come from this study. But the fact is that while doing the work exactly as it is assigned they will get the greatest benefit from the lesson themselves, for the spirit of obedience generates an atmosphere in which all the Christian graces possible to a child can best develop and flourish.

The work book ministers to the child’s growing sense of responsibility. If he accepts the responsibility and honestly tries to meet its requirements his character is strengthened thereby. If he shirks his duty his moral nature is weakened.

No teacher can afford to allow the children to neglect the work book. If they do not do the work there outlined, they cannot learn the lessons, no matter how well the stories may be told in class. The child learns not by hearing but by doing. On the other hand the book must never be thought of as an end in itself, but only as a means to an end. In one school the most perfect work book shown in the exhibit represented the most abject failure from the standpoint of religious education. It was made by a boy whose mother had compelled him to do the work and supervised it rigidly. He hated it with his whole heart because he was never permitted to play until that work was done. The mother was exceedingly proud of the book. To have it completed and neatly done was the end she had been seeking, and that she had attained. But the book was well-nigh worthless in the teacher’s estimation because it did not represent the child’s own initiative and volition. When the pupil, incited by example and suggestion and rewarded by commendation, chooses to do the work, the book becomes one of the important means by which the great end of character building is accomplished for him.

The teacher should always have a copy of the Pupil’s Book for Work and Study and do the work in it just as he would like to have the children do it. Of course it should be better done than any child can possibly do it. If the teacher colors the pictures with water colors, uses illuminated initial letters, and writes neatly and plainly, his book will be a great incentive to the children to do the very best possible work themselves.

In the beginning of the first quarter’s work the teacher should remember that these children are still to all intents and purposes Primary children unaccustomed to working alone. It is exceedingly important that each teacher should meet the children of the class during the week after teaching the first lesson and show them how to cut out the pictures for that first lesson and paste them in the book. The children would then be certain to start right, and though it may not be true that “well begun is half done,” a good beginning is so encouraging to the child that he is much more likely to keep up the work and to find it enjoyable. But if he makes mistakes or neglects to do the work at the beginning it is doubly difficult to interest him later. The week day gathering to start the children on their handwork might be called a Work Book Social, ending with games and light refreshments. When the children arrive have them take their books and read carefully with you the instructions on pages 2 and 3 before doing the pasting and writing for Lesson 1. Suggest that the picture sheet be handled very carefully so that the pictures needed for later use may not become marred or defaced in any way. Encourage the children to keep the book clean and neat. In order that the cover may not be soiled from use, it is well to make a cover for each book from manilla paper and place the picture sheet between the manilla cover and the cover of the book so that there will be no danger that the pictures will be lost as the book is carried home. Explain that the reading is to be done each day just as indicated in the book. Great stress should be put at all times upon the doing of these specified tasks regularly and keeping strictly up to date with them, in order that the children may form the habit of daily Bible reading and study.

Incentives and rewards will be found necessary as means for inducing the children to choose to do the work. Juniors do not love work, but are interested in the attainment of results, and when wisely led will learn later to love work for work’s sake. Among the incentives there should be a department Honor Roll, and a Class Banner. The first year children who complete their books satisfactorily should be given a social or outing at the end of each quarter. They like public recognition of every kind, so the prospect of having the book appear in the exhibit on promotion day is a strong inducement for doing good work.

Because of the necessary wear and tear on the book and the danger that it may be lost in carrying back and forth, it is not best to have the pupils bring their books every week to the school all through the year; but in the beginning it is desirable to have the book brought each week so that the teacher may see how the work is being done. After the children are well started the teacher can use his own book in the class in giving any necessary instruction.

The Children’s Bible

In the beginning of this Junior work every pupil must have a Bible of his own, the American Standard, if possible. If the parents will not or cannot provide one, the school must do so, for the child cannot possibly do the work as outlined unless he has a Bible to work with. It is also essential for other reasons. No one can be interested in a book which he does not know how to handle, and it is impossible for any child to become familiar with the Bible if the only time he uses it is on Sunday during the Sunday school session.

If some of the children have a King James Version and some the American Standard, explain that both are translations into English from another language, that the King James translation was made three hundred years ago and that of the American Bible finished at the beginning of this century. Tell the children also that because we think the American Standard gives the meaning more clearly we use it in these lessons whenever any memory texts are printed.

The Rainbow Bookmark

There is no question but that learning the books and divisions of the Bible is one of the hardest tasks that the children will meet during the Junior period. Most of the books have names that are in a foreign language and therefore especially difficult to learn. But as the children commit anything to memory easily in this period, and as the interest in new words is strong, the work is not nearly so hard as adults are apt to think it. But whatever the difficulty may be it is essential, if the children are to get the best results from the Junior work, that in this first year they shall learn the names of the books of the Bible, and learn how to handle the Bible and find references quickly.

The use of the rainbow bookmark has been found helpful in interesting the children in the study and making it easier for them, and in awakening in them a desire to use their own Bibles. Its bright colors are attractive, and the rainbow standing for God’s promises has a beautiful meaning, which is joyfully recognized by the children when they hear the story of The Flood. The bookmark is also useful in conducting department or class drills.

This bookmark is made of nine ribbons in the prismatic colors with indigo and purple, darker shades of blue and violet, and a white ribbon to mark the Gospels. The colors are used in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue (light), white, indigo, violet, and purple. The ribbons put together in such a way that they will not tear the leaves of the Bible can be secured of the publishing house at 25 cents for each bookmark.

How the Bookmark Is Used

The bookmark is placed in the Bible by putting the ribbon at the end of the division for which it stands. In this way red follows Deuteronomy, and marks the five books of Law or the Pentateuch. Orange, following Esther, marks the twelve books of History. Yellow, following the Song of Solomon, marks the five books of Poetry. Green, following Daniel, marks the five books of the Major Prophets. Blue, following Malachi, marks the twelve books of the Minor Prophets. White, following Saint John, marks the four Gospels. Indigo, following Acts, marks the one historical book of the New Testament. Violet, following Hebrews, marks the fourteen Pauline Letters. Purple, following Jude, marks the other seven letters. Revelation, the one book of Prophecy in the New Testament, has no ribbon.

There is a peculiar fitness in having white, the combination of all the colors, for the Gospel story, which is the center and climax of all the Bible narratives, and it is very desirable to have the life of Christ marked in a peculiar way which will set it apart from the rest and emphasize its importance. In the regular order indigo, the darkest and least attractive of all the ribbons, would mark the Gospels, and there would be but one ribbon for the letters, which leaves a series of twenty-one names to be learned in one group.

The Bookmark as a Reward

This device is first mentioned in connection with Lesson 8. In the correlated work for Lesson 9 slips of paper of the bookmark colors are suggested as markers for the memory texts, and the children in this way begin to learn the kinds of books in the Bible. A sheet of paper for each color is not difficult to secure and would make enough strips for several classes.

If the school can afford to give them, the bookmarks make a fine reward to give to the children when they have learned the books and divisions perfectly. If the parents can afford to buy them and the school cannot, suggest that they do so but ask them to wait until the children know the names of the books, so that it will come as a reward in any case.

Promotion Requirements and Honors

The Basis for Promotion

In any graded course of study the pupils are expected to earn promotion from grade to grade by attaining a certain required average in their work. In the Junior Course the Pupil’s Book for Work and Study is, as the name implies, both a guide in study, and a means of fixing in mind the knowledge which has been gained. To meet the requirements of this book the pupil must do the daily Bible readings, learn the memory text or texts each week, do whatever reading is required, and learn the hymns that are printed in the book. At the beginning of the course the pupils should understand that the doing of the work for which the Work Book calls is a requirement for promotion. In all schools seventy-five per cent out of a possible one hundred is accepted as a passing average. Therefore, three out of four Work Books satisfactorily completed during the year entitle the child to promotion. Knowledge that the requirements of the Work Book must be met in order to earn promotion is with many children one of the strongest incentives that can be presented to them for doing that work regularly and well.

Recognition for Extra Work

Every child should be incited to do more than merely meet the requirement that passes him from one grade to the next. It is to furnish this stimulation that extra honor work is provided. If the child chooses to complete the fourth Work Book he earns an honor in that way. If the hymn given for illustration is illustrated that gives another honor. Learning the optional memory passages, prayers, and hymns is a third method of gaining honors; and regular attendance upon the church service a fourth.

I. STORIES OF THE BEGINNINGS

LESSON 1
THE CORRELATED LESSON

At the beginning of this lesson the teacher and each pupil should have his Bible in hand.

Let us look at this book of ours which is the finest story book in all the world. What name do you find on the back of the book? The word Bible means “The Book,” and that is the best possible name for God’s Word, because it is the Book of all the world, the one of which more copies are made, sold, and read than of any other. In the last hundred years 316,000,000 copies of the Bible were sent out by the different Bible societies of the world.

Now let us look at this wonderful Book. Turn to the title-page and we will read together what we find there. Containing what? So there are two great divisions in this book of ours, one called the Old Testament and the other the New Testament, and it is just as you would think from the names. The Old Testament tells of things that happened long, long before those that are told about in the New Testament. (Drill on the names of the two parts of the Bible until the class is familiar with the words.)

Now let us look at the page opposite the first book of the Old Testament. What do you find there? (The Names and Order of the Books of the Old Testament.) So you see our Bible, the great Book of the world, is not simply one book but a whole library of books. How many books are there in the Old Testament? (If there is time it might be well to let each one count for himself.) So the Old Testament has 39 books.

(Follow the same plan with reference to the New Testament, and when the pupils have found that there are 27 books have them find the number of books in the Bible by adding the two numbers. When you have drilled on these figures and facts sufficiently give to each pupil a copy of the Pupil’s Book for Work and Study and show them the first part of Lesson 1, letting them tell what words are to be written in the spaces as the work for the following day at home. Do not let them look ahead at the other lesson, as that is to be taken up after the lesson has been taught.)

LESSON 1
In the Beginning

Teaching Material.—Genesis 1:1 to 2:3.

Pupil’s Reading.—Genesis 1:1-5.

Memory Text.—In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1.

LIGHT FROM OTHER BIBLE PASSAGES

Nehemiah 9:6; Job 12:7-10; 26:7-14; Psalms 19:1-6; 33:6-9; 74:16, 17; 90:2; 95:4, 5; 104:1-35; Jeremiah 51:15, 16; Amos 4:13; John 1:1-3; Revelation 4:11.

FROM THE COMMENTATORS

What, then, are the truths taught us in these chapters? The first is that there has been a creation, that things now existing have not just grown of themselves, but have been called into being by a presiding intelligence and an originating will. No attempt to account for the existence of the world in any other way has been successful. A great deal has in this generation been added to our knowledge of the efficiency of material causes to produce what we see around us; but when we ask what gives harmony to these material causes, and what guides them to the production of certain ends, and what originally produced them, the answer must still be, not matter but intelligence and purpose.—The Expositor’s Bible, Genesis, Marcus Dods.

The record is not a geological treatise, but a hymn of praise to God, magnifying his mighty works, indicating man’s high relation to him, and hallowing the weekly Sabbath, which is man’s day of rest.—The Handy Commentator, A. R. Payne Smith, Dean of Canterbury.

The cosmogony of Genesis shows, in opposition to the conceptions widely prevalent in antiquity, that the world was not self-originated; that it was called into existence, and brought gradually into its present state, at the will of a spiritual Being, prior to it, independent of it, and deliberately planning every stage of its progress. The spirituality, not less than the dignity, of the entire representation is indeed in marked contrast to the self-contradictory, grotesque speculations of which the ancient cosmogonies usually consist. “It sets God above the great complex world process, and yet closely linked with it, as a personal intelligence and will that rules, victoriously and without a rival.”—The Book of Genesis, S. R. Driver.

If anyone is in search of accurate information regarding the age of this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, or stars, or regarding the exact order in which plants and animals have appeared upon it, he should go to recent textbooks in astronomy, geology, and paleontology. It is not the purpose of the writers of Scripture to impart physical instruction, or to enlarge the bounds of scientific knowledge. So far as the scientific or historical information imparted in these chapters is concerned, it is of little more value than the similar stories of other nations. And yet the student of these chapters can see a striking contrast between them and extrabiblical stories describing the same unknown ages handed down from prescientific centuries. Here comes to view the uniqueness of the Bible. The other traditions are of interest only as relics of a bygone past. Not so the biblical statements; they are and ever will be of inestimable value, not because of their scientific teaching, but because of the presence of sublime religious truth in the crude forms of primitive science. If anyone wishes to know what connection the world has with God, if he seeks to trace back all that now is to the very fountain-head of life, if he desires to discover some unifying principle, some illuminating purpose in the history of the earth, he may turn to these chapters as his safest and, indeed, only guide to the information he seeks.—The Christian View of the Old Testament, Frederick Carl Eiselen.

AIM

To present the thought of God as the Creator of all things, the rightful ruler of the universe, and to establish in the child an attitude of reverence toward God as Creator, and toward nature as his work.

LESSON PREPARATION

The best possible preparation for the teaching of this lesson and the accomplishment of its aim is to saturate one’s mind with the God-permeated story of the creation in the lesson passage, and other Bible passages given, in which God stands preeminent as the almighty Creator of the universe.

In the Intermediate period, the four years that follow the Junior, it would be highly interesting, and instructive as well, to discuss with the class the various creation stories that are found in the writings of antiquity, and to compare them with the story as given in Genesis; but these children have not the historical background that would be necessary to enable them to appreciate such discussions. What they are most intensely interested in is the deeds of people. Not what people think or what they are, but what they do, attracts the Junior child; and in like manner it is not the attributes of the Deity, but his power manifested in the universe, creating, ruling, and overruling, that will hold the attention and minister to the spiritual needs of those we teach.

LESSON PRESENTATION

Point of Contact

(Show a picture representing a person or persons in the act of prayer. The well-known Angelus is perhaps one of the best for this purpose. Question on it, and get from the children, if possible, the story of the call to prayer.)

The sweet sound of the bell borne on the evening breeze from the steeple of the village church comes to the field where the workers are busy with their tasks. What do they do as they hear it? To whom are they speaking when they bow their heads?

Let us think for a moment of another scene. It is in another country far away from this, and the people look very different from those in our picture, but they too are bowing, not simply the head but the whole body, for they are kneeling and their heads are bowed to the earth. What do you think they are doing? Yes, they are praying, but to what? As we look toward the east we see that the sun is just rising above the horizon, and it is the sun that those people are worshiping. In that country and in others we could find people who worship the moon in the same way, and the reason why these things are done is that all people everywhere have a desire in their hearts to worship, and these people have taken the things that they see which seem to them to be the most wonderful and have made gods out of them. They know nothing about this greatest Book in all the world, which you and I know and love, and so they do not know of the great and good God to whom you and I pray, and whom we call our Father.

If we could see those people and talk with them what would we wish to tell them? It seems to me that for these people, the first story to tell from God’s Word would be the first story in that Book, one that we have heard, perhaps, many times, but which we never tire of hearing, and which we are to hear once more to-day.

The Lesson Story

It seems strange, does it not? to think of a time when there was no earth; but there was such a time and there our story for to-day begins. All was black darkness where this world now is, but God was in his heaven, for in his Word we read, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” So in the eternity of long, long ago God lived and ruled, and he was thinking of a people whom he would make in his own image to be his children, and of the home that he would make for them. Then it was that from the great black space of the universe darkness fell away, for God said, “Let there be light: and there was light. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.” Under the almighty hand of the Creator, at his command, this planet that we call the earth began to swing in its orbit, but it was wrapped in vapors until God spoke again saying, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” At his words the clouds gathered together above, separating themselves from the waters upon the earth, “and God called the firmament Heaven.” (From this point try reading the story from the Bible, but have it so thoroughly in mind that if you find the attention of the pupils wavering in any degree you can return to the other method. Whether you read or tell the story of the six days, have the pupils open their Bibles and read with you the first three verses of the second chapter.)

“In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:11).

What a beautiful story it is, and how glad we are to know that all the wonders of the earth and sky and sea are the handiwork of our Father! “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).

The unwearied sun, from day to day,

Does his Creator’s power display,

And publishes to every land

The work of an almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,

The moon takes up the wondrous tale,

And nightly, to the listening earth,

Repeats the story of her birth;

While all the stars that round her burn,

And all the planets in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll,

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

This is what the poet has said about the moon, sun, and stars in the heavens, and then he says that though there is no voice or sound that we can hear, still they truly sing and always of God their Creator. This is the way that the poet has told the story to us:

What though in solemn silence all

Move round the dark terrestrial ball?

What though no real voice nor sound

Amid the radiant orbs be found?

In reason’s ear they all rejoice,

And utter forth a glorious voice;

Forever singing as they shine,

“The hand that made us is divine.”

—Joseph Addison.

The most wonderful thing of it all is that though our God is so great he tells us in his Word that we may speak to him in prayer. That is the meaning of the Angelus bell calling to prayer every day, and it is the meaning of other bells which on one day in the week ring sweet and clear, not as a call to prayer in the midst of work or play, but as a call to worship on the day that is holy, set apart from the duties of the week, and made a day of loving service and praise to our God.

THE PUPIL’S BOOK FOR WORK AND STUDY

If you have not already done so, read carefully the comments and suggestions on page 22, concerning the necessity for helping the children to start the work in their books correctly. Read what is said on page 26 about promotion requirements and let your pupils know at the beginning of their work how important it is for them to do regularly what is asked of them in the Work Book if they wish to earn an honorable promotion at the end of the year.

LESSON 2
THE CORRELATED LESSON

(Holding your Bible, review something in this way:)

What is this book called? What does the word Bible mean? Into how many parts is the book divided? What are they called? Why is the first called the Old Testament and the second the New? How many books are there in the Old and how many in the New? How many in the Bible? What is the name of the first book in the Bible? Who can spell that word? What does it mean? What is the first verse in the first book?

(Open your Book for Work and Study that the pupils may see your first lesson neatly written and the pictures pasted. Even though you have had the children together during the week as suggested on page 22, in order that you might help them work out this first lesson in their books, it will be an encouragement to them if you examine each book and commend the work heartily when it is possible to do so. If any have not yet done the work it is of the utmost importance that you have them stay after Sunday school or see them either at their homes or your house before next Sunday. To allow the first week’s work to be neglected will leave the child to conclude that it is not very important after all and that you do not really care whether it is done or not. As soon as possible the children must learn to do the work without assistance, but at the beginning they will need both help and stimulation. Speak of the fact that if they do all the work in the Junior Course and keep their books, they will have a little library of twenty-three books illustrated with many beautiful pictures. Tell them of the exhibit of Work Books when the work of all the Juniors will be shown to other people in the Sunday school and to the parents and friends of the children. Whatever you can do to make the child see the value in his book and arouse his pride in his work will be a great help to him in establishing habits that make for strength of character. To allow a pupil to fail to do his work is to encourage a neglect of duty and indifference to just obligations, which will inevitably weaken his moral fiber.)

LESSON 2
The Garden of Eden

Teaching Material.—Genesis 2:4-25.

Pupil’s Reading.—Genesis 2:9, 15-25.

Memory Text.—And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Genesis 2:15.

LIGHT FROM OTHER BIBLE PASSAGES

Proverbs 14:23; 18:9; 22:29. Ecclesiastes 9:10; 11:6; Romans 12:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:11, 12.

FROM THE COMMENTATORS

Man is not made simply to enjoy life; he is to labor and work. Even such a garden as the one described in verse 9 gives scope for man’s activity; he is to till it, to develop its capacities, and adapt it to his own ends, and to keep (Isaiah 27:3) or guard it, against the natural tendency of a neglected garden to run wild, and against damage from wild animals or other possible harm.—The Book of Genesis, S. R. Driver.

But man is not designed solely to till and keep the garden. There are dormant in him capacities of moral and religious attainment, which must be exercised, developed, and tested. A command is therefore laid upon him, adapted to draw out his character, and to form a standard by which it may be tested. It is a short and simple command, unaccompanied even by a reason; but it is sufficient for the purpose: man’s full knowledge of what he must do or not do can be attained only as the result of a long moral and spiritual development, it cannot exist at the beginning. And the command relates to something to be avoided: the acknowledgment and observance of a limitation, imposed upon his creaturely freedom by his Creator and Lord, must be for man the starting point of everything else.—Die Genesis Erklärt, August Dillmann.

It is not enough to place man in the garden: further provision is yet required for the proper development of his nature, and satisfaction of its needs, a helper who may in various ways assist him, and who may at the same time prove a companion, able to interchange thought with him, and be in other respects his intellectual equal, is still needed.—The Book of Genesis, S. R. Driver.

In order to complete man’s happiness three primal laws were given. The first was work; this was embittered later in consequence of man’s sin, but is still his greatest blessing, whether he recognizes it as such or not. We find this to be true, for whenever man evades work, and seeks pleasure only, his whole nature becomes impoverished, and deprived of the stability of earnest purpose and responsibility which ought to be his birthright. The gift of law, even in its rudimentary stages “thou shalt not,” is the second great blessing to man. The moral law, putting man into the right relationship between good and evil, is as necessary as the great laws of the physical world are to the universe. Further, with the revelation of that law was given also the penalty of transgression. “In the day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die.” “The wages of sin is death.”—Bible Lessons for Schools, Genesis, E. M. Knox.

AIM

To help the pupils to realize that work is a part of the infinite plan for the development of character; to make it evident that it is noble to be a worker, and to lift the everyday duties of home and school from the plane of drudgery to that of joyous cooperation in God’s purposes.

LESSON PREPARATION

The gospel of the dignity of labor has never been adequately preached, therefore the preparation for this lesson may include the entire reversal of what has been ground into the teacher’s consciousness from the beginning until now, concerning the place of work in the world. For many years people have read the Lord’s words to Adam after the fall, which consigned him to the task of wresting his sustenance from the unwilling earth, as if that were the introduction of work into the world, and as if it were, therefore, brought in simply as a punishment for disobedience. This was evidently the thought in the mind of the poet who sang,

Dear work! art thou the curse of God?

What must his blessing be!

Throwing aside all such misconceptions, read the material for this lesson with the thought of finding in it how, under the ideal conditions of Eden, work was given to man which would require the use, and therefore minister to the development of his physical powers in tilling the ground; how his mind was given exercise in plans for guarding or “keeping” the garden and in naming the animals; and how the higher spiritual powers were called into service when he was given a companion in association with whom the emotions of love and tenderness would find expression. It is implied also in Genesis 3:8, that God was wont to meet with Adam and Eve in the garden and talk with them there.

The picture that we get as we study this passage in this way has in it the elements of congenial employment, companionship, obedience to the highest law, and communion with God, and these are exactly the elements that will bring the nearest approach to the ideal in any life to-day.

LESSON PRESENTATION

Introduction

I wonder if you can remember the time when you first began to ask such questions as these: Who made the world? Who made the moon and stars that shine in the night, and the sun that lights and warms the day? Who made the trees and taught them how to grow? Who made all the animals? Who made the fish that swim in the water and the birds that fly in the air? Have you ever asked such questions? They are the questions that children have been asking always, ever since there were any children in the world, and the story that answers all these questions for us is one that mothers have told to their children for thousands of years. Do you know what story I mean? Who can answer the question, “Who made the world?” by using just one verse from the Bible?

The Lesson Story

Our story to-day is about a garden. It was a beautiful garden, more beautiful than anything you and I have ever seen. In it were all kinds of trees and plants, grasses, flowers, and herbs. A river watered the garden. Animals lived in the garden; birds made their nests in the trees and flew across the blue of the sky, filling the air with their sweet songs. Everyone who has heard or read the story of the Garden of Eden thinks of it as a beautiful place in which there was nothing to distress or make one afraid.

The story tells us that God made this garden as a home for the man whom he had created in his own image. “The Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden”—to do what do you suppose? Just to amuse himself all day long? No, God did not put Adam into the garden that he might have a pleasant place in which to do nothing. He was put into the garden “to dress it and to keep it.” He was to find the greatest joy working in the garden, picking the fruits, caring for the growing things, and in guarding them from anything that might not be good for them. Even in the garden there was studying to be done; for Adam studied the animals and the birds, watched them at their play, saw how they lived, and gave to each a name that was suited to it. This kind of work was pleasant, but Adam could not make companions of the animals, and though he had work to do Adam was lonely. God saw that this was so, and he said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.” And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and when he awoke he found a woman at his side whom God had given him to be his companion and friend. Now he was no longer lonely, for he had some one with him who had a mind and spirit like his own, who could talk with him and help him in his work as none of the animals could possibly do. So Adam and Eve were happy in obeying the heavenly Father. They found pleasure in doing what he told them he would like to have them do, and in keeping from doing what God had said they must not do. Let us read from God’s Word just what this was. (Verses 16 and 17.)

When the sun had gone behind the western hills, and the refreshing breezes of the early evening were making the air sweet and cool, and the birds were singing their good-night songs, then it was that the sweetest of all the joys of the day came to the pair in the garden, for we are told that God walked with them in the cool of the day.

Have you ever thought you would be glad if there were no such thing as study? Have you ever wished that you could play all day and never do any work? I suppose all of us have felt that way sometimes, but would it be best for us? Would we be happy very long if we had nothing to do but play? Not very long. I have often heard boys and girls say at the end of the long summer vacation that they were glad to go back to school. And this story, which pictures for us a garden of beauty and happiness, tells of study and work as well as play, of loving companionship and through it all a spirit of cheerful obedience to God. (Memory Text.)

THE PUPIL’S BOOK FOR WORK AND STUDY

Show the picture for this lesson and go over the work for the coming week as carefully as you think necessary, but not so elaborately as to rob it of all freshness for the child when he comes to take it up by himself.

LESSON 3
THE CORRELATED LESSON

What was the name of our story last Sunday? In what book is that story found? In what chapter were your readings for the week? Tell me what you found in the picture for the lesson. If you were asked to write a title under the picture what would you choose? (Tell the children they may write a title in their books.) What work was given to Adam that he did with his hands? What did he have to think and plan for? What was the memory text of the lesson? Suppose the heavenly Father had not cared to have his children do any work, how do you think that verse would have ended then? “The Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden”—to do what? (To have a good time, may be suggested.) Do you think he would have had a really happy time without anything to do? No: God himself is not idle, and his children, because made in his image, cannot be really happy unless they do something worth while with the powers that he has given them. I suppose there are some kinds of work and study that you have to do that you do not enjoy doing, but you can do anything if you remember that it will please the heavenly Father, your own father and mother, and others who love you. Your play afterward will give you much more pleasure, and the best of it is that, after a while, you will learn to like the work. What command did God give to Adam about one of the trees in the garden?

(Show your book and find out what the pupils have done in theirs. Discourage emphatically any attempt to do this work ahead of the lesson-teaching in the school. The tendency in the beginning will probably be on the part of many to rush ahead with the work while it is novel, but when the novelty has worn off there will be a reaction and it will be difficult to get the work done at all. Keep in mind constantly that one great purpose to be accomplished through the work book this year is to teach the children to follow instructions implicitly.)

LESSON 3
Hiding from God

Teaching Material.—Genesis 3:1-24.

Pupil’s Reading.—Genesis 3:1-15.

Memory Text.—Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah. Jeremiah 23:24a.

LIGHT FROM OTHER BIBLE PASSAGES

Psalm 139:7-12; Proverbs 28:1, 13; Jeremiah 2:17, 19; Romans 5:12-19; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22.

FROM THE COMMENTATORS

As of the tree of life which stands in the paradise of the future it is said, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life”; so in Eden man’s immortality was suspended on the condition of obedience. And the trial of man’s obedience is imaged in the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From the childlike innocence in which man originally was, he was to pass forward into the condition of moral manhood, which consists not in mere innocence, but in innocence maintained in presence of temptation.... Only by choosing the good in presence of the evil are true manhood and real maturity gained.—The Expositor’s Bible, Genesis, Marcus Dods.

Like the great Teacher of Nazareth, the prophetic author of this marvelous story was dealing with the deepest experiences of human life. His problem was to make clear and plain even to children the nature of that inner struggle which we call temptation. He accomplishes his end by the use of the simple story and dialogue. Attention and interest are fixed from the first on the experiences of a certain man and woman. The story has all the personal charm of those fascinating popular tales which come from the ancient East. Its prologue, the primitive story of creation, was old centuries before the days of Moses. In the first scene the actors are the serpent, the woman, and the man. In the dialogue between the serpent and the woman is brought out vividly the struggle that raged in her own mind between her natural inclinations and her sense of duty. In the second scene Jehovah appears. The acts and motives of the man and woman and the terrible consequences of sin are portrayed so concretely and dramatically that even the youngest and simplest reader can fully appreciate them. The thoughtful reader, however, soon discovers that the marvelous biblical narrative is far more than a mere record of the experiences of a primitive man and woman. Like the inimitable parables of Jesus, it is a chapter from the book of life.—Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History, Charles Foster Kent.

Among the many religious teachings with which this marvelous story abounds may be noted: (1) Innocence does not become virtue until it is tested and proved by temptation. (2) If the testing is to be effective, the temptation must be of a character to appeal to the individual tested. (3) Sin is not God’s but man’s creation. (4) To sin is to act in accord with the baser and more selfish rather than the nobler and diviner motives. (5) An act of sin destroys a man’s peace of mind and purity of thought. (6) Sin unconfessed is a sin constantly committed, and it absolutely prevents even God himself from forgiving the unrepentant sinner. (7) In keeping with the law of cause and effect, sin brings its own inevitable punishment. (8) The worst effect of sin is the severing of the normal, harmonious relations between God and the individual. (9) Most of the pains and ills of life are the result of some one’s sin. (10) Man must learn in the school of pain and toil the lesson of obedience. (11) Even though guilty and unrepentant, man is still the object of God’s unceasing love and care—Ibid.

AIM

To show through the story of the first disobedience the character and consequences of all sin, and to point out the only way to escape from it.

LESSON PREPARATION

The story that we have in this lesson must make an appeal to every child because there is no child in our Junior Department who has not had the experience of being disobedient, and also, doubtless, of trying to hide both the sin and himself from the one disobeyed. Probably there can be no more effectual way of beginning the preparation of this lesson than for the teacher to think back to his own experience as a child, and recall in what manner he made his way back through repentance and forgiveness to a complete restoration of the feeling of loving freedom that should exist between parent and child. The attitude of the one in authority is always a very important factor, but even with the most wise and loving of parents or guardians, the natural tendency of the one who transgresses is to concealment. With the facts of the story clearly in mind and the memory of one’s own experience as a guide, it should be easy to make the children realize that disobedience always brings unhappiness in the end, and a sense of separation from those who love us; that the worst thing anyone can do is to try to hide a disobedient act, because the only way to get back to the right road again is through the opposite course—brave confession instead of cowardly hiding or denying, repentance and the determination to forsake instead of clinging to the wrong.

Prayer is always the most essential part of our lesson preparation, and in this lesson especially we need to pray that we may be given such heavenly wisdom and so much of love in our own hearts that we can make the children see the heavenly Father as a God of infinite love and compassion, one who hates sin but loves the sinner. Many people who are now teaching children have testified that in their own childhood, from the way in which these Old Testament stories were presented, they saw in God only an avenging Deity, eager to punish or destroy. We must always remember that Jesus never presented his Father and ours in that way, and that he whose life was given to provide a way of escape for sinning humanity said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”

LESSON PRESENTATION

Introduction

(Describe the happy home life of a family of children, each having his own work to do in the home, each taking a pride in doing his work in the best way, and tell of the playtime following the work. Picture the children going down the street to meet their father as he comes home from work, and the joys of the evening time when all are together. Then tell of a day when the playtime was not so happy because one of the boys did not care to play. He said he was not sick, but he certainly was cross, and took no pleasure in any of the things that he generally loved to do. When the time came to go to meet father he would not go, but instead went to his own room. Of course the father missed him and when he found his boy was not ill he was anxious to know what the trouble could be.) Can you guess what it was that made Walter wish to hide from his father that night?

The Lesson Story

What a beautiful garden that was of which we heard last Sunday! And how happy Adam and Eve were as they did the work God had given them to do, and enjoyed the loveliness of the place which God had given them for a home, looking forward each day to the time when he would come and walk and talk with them there! But there came a sad day, when all that was changed. The garden was just as beautiful, but Adam and Eve found no pleasure in it. The work was there to be done, but they had no heart for it. Open your Bibles to the second chapter of Genesis and read with me verses 16 and 17. That does not mean that the moment they disobeyed they would die, but that the sin would open the door for death to enter the world, and that some day death would come to them as the result of disobedience.

One day the tempter said to the woman, “Is it possible that God has said that you must not eat of the fruit of all the trees of the garden?” Eve answered (Genesis 3:2, 3). The serpent said: “That is not true. You will not die. The real reason why God does not wish you to eat of the fruit of that tree is that when you do so you will become as a god yourself, for you will know good and evil.” It seems strange that Eve would listen to anyone who said that what God had told her was not true, but she did. She even began to look at the tree and its fruit and to long to have it, until, finally, she took it and ate, and gave some to Adam, and he ate. Then they did know good and evil, for they could remember the days when they were obedient and the happiness that they had, and now through shame and fear and the wretchedness of a guilty conscience they saw what evil is, and that with their own hands they had opened the door to let it into their lives. There was no longer any joy in the thought of the heavenly Father’s coming to the garden, and they tried to hide themselves from him. “Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah.” How would you answer that question? Of course they could not hide from God, and it would be the worst possible thing to do if they could. God knew of the wrong they had done and the punishment that the sin must bring to them, but his only wish was to help his sinful children, for he loved them then as always. (Have the children read verses 9 and 10 to themselves and then answer this question:) What reason did Adam give for hiding himself? Was that the true reason why he was afraid? No, for he had been naked before and had never been afraid. It was his sin that made him afraid. (Read verses 11, 23, 24.)

You have guessed that the boy I told you about in the beginning of the lesson had disobeyed his father, and that that was the reason why he wished to hide. You knew because you have sometimes felt like hiding yourself for the same reason. So you can see how this old, old story tells what we know is true when it shows us that wrong doing separates us from the one whom we have disobeyed and makes us miserable. What was it that spoiled the happy home that Adam and Eve had in the Garden? What was it that spoiled Walter’s good times? Yes, disobedience; and it is always so. Those who break God’s law have to suffer for it in some way. But how glad we are to know that God loves us so much that when we are sorry and tell him so, he will forgive us and give us a chance to try again. Listen while I read you something that the Bible says about this. (Psalm 86:5; 1 John 1:9.)

THE PUPIL’S BOOK FOR WORK AND STUDY

There probably will not be anything in the work outlined for this week that the children cannot easily do. It would be well, however, to call their attention to the memory text printed on page 8. Have them pronounce the name of the book from which it is taken, and help them to find the reference and read the words from the Bible. Ask them what the “a” after the reference means, and if they do not know, have them read again the paragraph explaining this on page 3. The easiest way for the children to find the book of Jeremiah when unfamiliar with any of the books is to open the Bible in the middle. The book opened to will be Psalms, which you can explain is the hymn book of the Bible, and then they can turn the leaves to the right until they reach the book of Jeremiah. Tell them that the name is that of the man who wrote the book.

LESSON 4
THE CORRELATED LESSON

Get the facts of last Sunday’s story briefly from the children, leaving most of the time for the answers to Wednesday’s question in the pupil’s work book concerning what they think Eve should have done when she was tempted to disobey God. Another question which it will be helpful for the children to think through and find an answer to is, After Adam and Eve had disobeyed the heavenly Father, what should they have done right away when they realized the wrong and felt the shame? If each pupil can be brought to see, through thinking it out for himself, that the only possible help for one who has done wrong comes from God, and that Adam and Eve should have gone to God to confess their sin and ask forgiveness instead of trying to hide from him, the conclusion will point its own moral and each child will make his own application.

See how many know the memory text and the name of the book in which it is found. If there is time, read to the children Psalm 139:7-12, letting them follow you with the Bible open before them. Ask all to read softly with you, each making it his own prayer, verses 23 and 24.

LESSON 4
Cain and Abel

Teaching Material.—Genesis 4:3-15.

Pupil’s Reading.—Genesis 4:3-15.

Memory Text.—Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not. 1 Corinthians 13:4a.

LIGHT FROM OTHER BIBLE PASSAGES

Job 11:14,15; Romans 6:12,16; Colossians 3:12-14; James 3:14; 5:9.

FROM THE COMMENTATORS

The narrative ... impressively shows how sin, having once appeared, became hereditary in the human race, and speedily developed into its most revolting form. Its details enable us to see how jealousy, when indulged, leads to hatred and murder, and violates not only the ties of humanity but those of family affection; how the sinner casts off all regard for the truth and for his natural obligations; how progress in sin adds to the misery of man’s lot; and “conscience doth make cowards of us all.” The truths taught are, that God looks on the hearts of his worshipers, seeks to restrain the sinner ere he yields to passion, marks the death of the innocent, and graciously mitigates his punishment when his mercy is sought.—The One Volume Commentary, James R. Dummelow.

Those who do not serve God hate him who does because they cannot help wishing that they were like him, yet they have no intention of imitating him, and this makes them jealous and envious. Instead of being angry with themselves, they are angry with him.—Sermons, Thomas P. Newman.

The reason of the rejection of Cain’s offering was that he had not been “doing well.” (“It would be strange if the gods looked to gifts and sacrifices and not to the soul.”—Plato.) Notice that the offering is secondary: Abel and his offering, Cain and his offering; the man and his state of spirit are the important elements.—Commentary on Genesis, Marcus Dods.

AIM

To help the child to feel the beauty and strength of the love that envieth not, and to awaken within him a desire to possess it.

LESSON PREPARATION

Envy is defined as “selfish ill-will toward another because of his superior success, endowments, or possessions.” It is a feeling which is apt to be displayed by children comparatively early because of the greater success of their classmates in school, or of the larger possessions of those whose parents have either more money or less wisdom in spending it than their own. It is so ugly a trait and so insidious in its attacks that it is well to have a lesson like this which shows the sin in its most hideous form. The story of Joseph’s brethren, who hated him because he was more worthy than they, and of Saul, who viewed with murderous jealousy the popularity of the young David, are other instances of the direction in which envy inevitably carries those who yield to it. In preparing the lesson imagine how the two boys probably differed in their boyhood, for “great crimes are committed only by men whose characters have been gradually debased by lesser sins.” Kent points out nine vital truths illustrated by the story of which the preceding quotation is one. Another which Juniors would be able to understand is that God patiently points out to the offender the right way and endeavors to influence him to follow it. Another is guilt unconfessed cuts a person off from his fellows.

LESSON PRESENTATION

Introduction

I am thinking of a strange picture in which a flaming sword that turns in every direction closes the way into a garden. Back in the distance I can see a place over which the sun is shining with warmth and beauty. Trees and plants and birds and flowers are all glad in the sunshine, and the animals are running and playing for very joy; but there are no people there. What garden is it that I see? Were there ever any people in it? Who were they? What command was given to them there? When they disobeyed that command they could no longer live in that beautiful home, and when they went out from it the flaming sword was placed there to show them that they could never hope to go back to the place where they had been so happy while they were innocent and obedient children of the heavenly Father.

Suppose some one should ask us to tell how people might have a happy home in these days—what would we say? I should say that first of all the people in the home must love and be glad to help each other. (Let the children express their own ideas freely but guide the conversation so that the essentials of obedience, cheerfulness, and kindness will be mentioned.)

The Lesson Story

I have a story to tell you to-day about two brothers. When the first one was born his mother named him Cain, and as she looked at him she said to herself, “I hope my boy will be strong to fight against evil.” But as he grew older the face of the mother became sad as she watched her boy, for soon she saw that he was yielding to evil tempers instead of fighting against them. After a time another baby boy came to the home, and he was called Abel. Together the two boys grew, the father and mother teaching them and hoping the best things for them. When each was old enough to choose the way in which he would make his living Cain became a farmer and tilled the ground, planting seed and raising fruits and grains. Abel became a shepherd and spent his time raising and caring for his sheep.

It seems from the story that Abel succeeded better than Cain, and Cain became envious and jealous of his brother. The Bible does not tell us so, but we may be quite sure that Abel was a cheery, pleasant, unselfish, helpful son to his father and mother, and that Cain was gloomy, selfish, and cross in the home. Cain saw the difference between his brother and himself, but instead of trying to be like Abel he simply hated him for his goodness.

During their boyhood days Cain and Abel had seen their father bring offerings to the Lord, and as boys they had taken their part with their father and mother in the family worship; but when they were grown men each must do for himself what their father had done for them when they were young. So it came to pass that Cain and Abel brought their offerings to God, Cain bringing some of the fruits that he had raised, and Abel bringing the best of his flock. God was glad to accept the offerings of Abel because the spirit in which Abel brought his gift was one of love and joy. God can read the very thoughts of our hearts, and as he looked at Cain he saw envy and jealousy and hatred choking every good thing in his life, and because he was cherishing such evil thoughts, his offering could not be acceptable to the God of love. When Cain saw that his offering was not accepted he became very angry, he scowled and hung his head. Then the Lord said to Cain: “Why are you angry, and why is your countenance fallen? If you will do what is right, you will please me. If you do wrong, sin is like a wild beast crouching at your door, wishing to destroy you; but you can rule over it if you will.” See how tenderly the heavenly Father showed Cain his wrong, and tried to help him back into the right way. But Cain let sin, that is like a wild beast, stay at his door, and did not try to conquer it. After a while he said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out into the field,” and when they were in the field alone together, Cain in his envy and hatred of his brother rose up against him and killed him. Open your Bibles at the fourth chapter of Genesis and read with me verses 9 and 10. God told Cain that he would be from that day a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. Cain answered, “My punishment is greater than I can bear, for I shall be driven away from thy face, and anyone who finds me will kill me.” But the Lord appointed a sign for Cain which would show people that they must not kill him, and Cain went away from his father’s house.

Sin had ruined another life. As it had driven Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, so now it drove Cain away from his home, and left his father and mother in the greatest sorrow they had ever known.

How dreadful envy, jealousy, and hatred are, and how much unhappiness they have brought into the world. Is there anything strong enough to conquer this sin which God said is like a wild beast? Yes, love is stronger than anything else in the world. Envy cannot even stay where love is. “God is love,” the Bible says, and he will help us to be loving and kind if we ask him. “Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not.” (Have this text repeated, and if the conditions are such that you can do so, close with a sentence prayer.)

THE PUPIL’S BOOK FOR WORK AND STUDY

Read to the class the directions given under Thursday’s work for finding 1 Corinthians 13:4a, and let them find the verse without comment or other explanation on your part, in order to make sure that they are able to follow such printed directions. Of course it is important that they should be able to find the verse, as it is the memory text of the lesson.

LESSON 5
THE CORRELATED LESSON

Home Preparation

Take some small blank cards or slips of heavy paper and prepare them for use in the class by writing plainly on one side and on the other these things: First card (1) Genesis, (2) Beginnings. Second card (1) Genesis 1:1, (2) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Third card (1) What story is in Genesis, chapter 2? (2) In what book and chapter is the story of the Garden of Eden? Fourth card (1) What story is in Genesis, chapter 3? (2) In what book and chapter is the story of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? Fifth card (1) What story is in Genesis, chapter 4? (2) In what book and chapter would you look for the story of Cain and Abel? Sixth card (1) Where is the verse that begins, “Love suffereth long”? (2) Repeat 1 Corinthians 13:4a. Seventh card (1) Where could you find the question that begins, “Can any hide himself in secret places”? (2) Repeat Jeremiah 23:24a. Eighth card (1) What is the meaning of the word “Bible”? (2) The Book. Ninth card (1) How many parts has the Bible, and what are they? (2) Two, Old Testament and New Testament. Tenth card (1) The Bible contains how many books? (2) Sixty-six. Eleventh card (1) How many books in the New Testament? (2) Twenty-seven. Twelfth card (1) How many books in the Old Testament? (2) Thirty-nine.

Review in Class

Explain to the pupils that each one is to have a card on which is some question, and if he can answer it, he is to keep the card, if he cannot answer it, the one next to him on the left may try, and so on around the class. If no one can answer, the card is to be laid aside to be drilled on later. If it is answered, the one who gives the correct answer keeps the card. Most of the cards are made out in such a way that it makes no particular difference which side up they are placed; that is, whichever side is up will suggest to one who knows what is on the other side. But in the questions on the Bible, books, etc., the cards should be placed with the question up. Of course it is obvious that the pupil who has the most cards in his possession at the end of the review has done the best work in it.

LESSON 5
Review

Teaching Material.—Genesis, chapters 1-4.

Pupil’s Work.—Answering questions and reading Genesis 4:20-22.

LESSON PREPARATION