Josephine L. Baldwin

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Canaanites were heathen people, and on all sides Abram saw idols and idol worship. But he knew something far better than that, and as he journeyed through the land he built altars to the true God and offered sacrifices wherever he pitched his tents.
In all this Abram was earning a name for himself, though he did not know it. He loved God so much that he listened for his voice. When God spoke he obeyed gladly; and he showed his love by praise and prayer and worship. Would you like to know the name that Abram earned? ”

“ Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God, and to thee shall be sent a Son in whom the promise made to Abraham shall come true, for he shall bring blessing to all the people of the world. He will come as a little baby, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. ”

“ How far do you think it legitimate to expand the Bible story? Was the part not given in the Bible narrative true to your conception of the times in which the story has its setting? Bible stories sometimes need expansion to make them complete and interesting to the children. It was not a necessity in last Sunday’s lesson, but was chosen simply as a way of introducing the lesson story. In all our story work it is not important that the story shall always be something that has actually happened, but it must be something that, given certain conditions, could and would be likely to happen. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This is the God-given time for so strengthening the foundations of religious belief for the [17] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is often hard to obey, because the command is to do some hard or disagreeable thing, and the harder it is to obey, the more temptation there is to do unwillingly what we are told to do, and to be cross about it. When one obeys in that spirit all the beauty of the obedience is taken away. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.... ”

“ 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. ”

“ In expanding Bible stories we must keep the facts not only true to life, but true to what we know of the age to which they relate. There are many fictitious stories that are true, that is, true to life and to the principles that underlie all action. There are others that are both fictitious and false. Take, for example, the so-called Sunday school stories of fifty years ago in which the good boy was so abnormal and impossible that every normal boy who read the book revolted from the type with a natural and healthy hatred. ”

“ When a man is taking care of large herds of cattle, what does he need to find for them? It is not easy to find pasture for a great many cattle, and it would be very tiresome and even impossible to go back every night to the home. It would not be comfortable to sleep on the ground with no protection from the rain or cold. Who was it that first thought of having a tent to live in, and carrying it with him wherever he went? So Jabal was the father of all such as take care of cattle and live in tents. Are there any people to-day who live in tents all their lives? ”

“ 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. ”

“ We had a story of two brothers. What were their names? (Let the children tell the story briefly.) What was it that made Cain do such a dreadful thing? Could he have conquered the sin that crouched like a wild beast at the door of his heart, if he had tried?
I am going to ask you four questions, and I think you can answer each one of them in the words of a Bible verse. Who made the world? What did God give Adam to do in the Garden of Eden? Can anyone hide from God? Tell me two things that love does and one that love will never do. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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 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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ The moral necessity of the catastrophe is emphasized by God’s long attempt—in the preaching of Noah for a hundred and fifty years—to win men back to goodness, to induce a voluntary change of heart. The outstanding feature of the story is the covenant, which henceforth runs through the history of Israel, and of the spiritual Israel.... The emphasis laid upon the sanctity of life is especially worthy of note. The sons of Noah might well have believed that God held life cheap after its widespread destruction. ”

“ How does God tell you and me what he wants us to do? (Guide the conversation so that the children themselves will mention the Bible, God’s message, and the Sunday school and church where the meaning of the message is explained to us and where we try to help each other to be doers of the Word. Teachers at school and those who guide and direct in the home should also be mentioned.) You see that as you obey these helpers that God has given to you, you are learning to do according to all that God has commanded you. What has Jesus said of those who hear the Word of God and keep it? ”

“ The average junior child must be stimulated by incentives if he is to form and fix in his life those habits which lie at the foundation of Christian character. Commendation for work well done is the highest type of reward, and to this reward every child who does good work is entitled. In order to be perfectly certain that credit is given where credit is due, an accurate record is necessary, and with this loose leaf record plan it is easy to keep accurately the credits of each pupil as well as of the class as a whole. ”