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LIBRARY OF PRINCETON
* JUN 1 7 1905 * THEOLOGICAL
BV 1463 .R44 1903 Religious Education Association. The Religious Education Association
PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONVENTION OF THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION CHICAGO, 1903
THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION CHICAGO FEBRUARY 10-12, 1903
CHICAGO EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE ASSOCIATION 153-155 LA SALLE STREET 1903
COPYRIGHT BY THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION JUNE, 1903
CONTENTS
ADDRESSES AND DISCUSSIONS
FIRST SESSION
PRAYER
REV. HEMAN P. DEFOREST
PAGE
3
ADDRESSES-The Next Step Forward in Religious
Education
-
.
5-41
PRESIDENT JAMES B. ANGELL
-
5
REV. FRANCIS E. CLARK
7
DR. WALTER L. HERVEY
16
REV. W. C. BITTING
23
PRESIDENT J. W. BASHFORD
31
SECOND SESSION
PRAYER
MR. FRED B. SMITH
42
ADDRESSES-Religious Education as a Part of Gen-
eral Education
44-59
PROFESSOR GEORGE ALBERT COE
.
44,
PROFESSOR EDWIN D. STARBUCK
-
52
ADDRESSES-Religious Education as Conditioned by
Modern Psychology and Pedagogy
60-79
PROFESSOR JOHN DEWEY
60
PRESIDENT HENRY CHURCHILL KING
-
66
ADDRESSES-Religious Education as Affected by the
Historical Study of the Bible
80-99
PRESIDENT RUSH RHEES
80
PROFESSOR HERBERT L. WILLETT
-
88
DISCUSSION - 100-106
REV. PHILIP S. MOXOM
-
100
PROFESSOR W. DOUGLAS MACKENZIE
.
102
REV. WILLIAM P. MERRILL
-
103
V
vi
CONTENTS
THIRD SESSION
PAGE
PRAYER
107
REV. WILLIAM B. FORBUSH
ADDRESSES -Religious and Moral Education through the Home - 108-123
PRESIDENT GEORGE B. STEWART
-
108
REV. JEAN F. LOBA
-
119
ADDRESSES-Religious and Moral Education through
the Public Schools
-
124-147
DR. CHARLES H. THURBER
124
MR. JOHN W. CARR
I38
ADDRESSES-Religious Education through Christian Associations and Young People's Societies - - - 148-163
REV. WILLIAM G. BALLANTINE
148
REV. NEHEMIAH BOYNTON - 156
DISCUSSION
- 164-172
REV. GEORGE E. HORR
-
164
PRESIDENT RUFUS H. HALSEY
-
166
REV. DAVID BEATON
-
169
FOURTH SESSION
PRAYER
REV. A. EDWIN KEIGWIN
ADDRESS -Sunday - School Organization for the Purpose of Religious Instruction 175
REV. C. R. BLACKALL
ADDRESS -The Curriculum of Study in the Sunday School 186
PROFESSOR SHAILER MATHEWS
ADDRESS -Lesson-Helps and Text-Books for the Sunday School -
200
PROFESSOR FRANK K. SANDERS
ADDRESS
-The Teaching Staff of the Sunday School
207
REV. PASCAL HARROWER
173
CONTENTS
vii
PAGE
- 217 -227
REV. RUFUS W. MILLER
217
REV. WILLIAM J. MUTCH 219
REV. SIMEON GILBERT
. 221
REV. SPENSER B. MEESER
- 227
FIFTH SESSION
PRAYER
228
PROFESSOR MILTON S. TERRY
ADDRESS
- The Scope and Purpose of the New
Organization
230
PRESIDENT WILLIAM R. HARPER
DISCUSSION
- 241-257
CHANCELLOR J. H. KIRKLAND 241
REV. EDWARD A. HORTON 244
REV. CASPAR W. HIATT 247
PROFESSOR GEORGE W. PEASE - 250
REV. ALBERT E. DUNNING
-
255
INFORMAL DISCUSSION - 258-266
DR. M. C. HAZARD
258
MR. FREDERICK C. MOREHOUSE 259
REV. CHARLES W. PEARSON 261
REV. PHILIP S. MOXOM - 262
PRESIDENT A. WELLINGTON NORTON 263
DIRECTOR EDWARD O. SISSON 265
REV. C. R. BLACKALL - - 265
SIXTH SESSION
PRAYER
267
REV. ERASTUS BLAKESLEE
ADDRESS -The Relation of the New Organization to Existing Organizations - 269
PRESIDENT FRANK W. GUNSAULUS
DISCUSSION
- 277-292
REV. GEORGE R. MERRILL 277
PRESIDENT CHARLES J. LITTLE 279
MR. L. WILBUR MESSER 284
REV. WILLIAM F. McDOWELL 286
DR. RICHARD MORSE HODGE - 289
PRAYER
REV. FREDERIC E. DEWHURST
293
DISCUSSION
viii
CONTENTS
PROCEEDINGS AND MEMBERSHIP
PAGE
INCEPTION OF THE MOVEMENT
297
COMMITTEES IN CHARGE OF CONVENTION
301
CONTRIBUTORS TO THE CONVENTION
309
MINUTES OF THE CONVENTION
317
CONSTITUTION OF THE ASSOCIATION
334
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
340
MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
355
INDEXES
INDEX OF MEMBERS
409
GENERAL INDEX - 415
THE FIRST CONVENTION ADDRESSES AND DISCUSSIONS
FIRST SESSION
PRAYER
REV. HEMAN P. DEFOREST, D.D., PASTOR WOODWARD AVENUE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, DETROIT, MICHIGAN
Our Father, here at the opening of this Convention, we desire first of all to bring all our hearts and all our thoughts into harmony with thee, that we may drink deep from the fountain which thou dost open for us, and that we may come into quick touch with thee in sympathy, and so feel the throbbing of thy heart and know something of the meaning of thy purpose, as we try to the best of our ability to carry out some of the purposes of thy kingdom. Thou who art truth and light and love, thou who art the divinest ideal of all that we most love and seek for, may our hearts go out to thee, not as a matter of duty, not because we are bound to worship thee, but because down deep in the center of our being we do love thee and desire to come into that close fel- lowship with thee that shall give the quickening touch to all our purposes, and make all the aims and all the accomplishments of this hour such as shall really further the interests of thy true kingdom.
We have come up here from many a quarter of this broad land, and we have not come with empty thoughts or empty hearts ; we have come through the conviction of a great need that seems to stare us today in the face -a need that belongs to thy kingdom, a need the satisfaction of which means much, we believe, to the present generation and to the future. And we ask that, through all our deliberations and through all the quick- ening of our thoughts and the inspiration of our pur-
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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
pose, we may come most of all to be sure of this, that we are finding how to fall into line with the march of thine own purpose, and so to find an impulse for our work that shall inevitably make it a higher power in our lives. We yield all things to thee ; thou art our Master, our Lord. We desire to be loyal in our hearts to Jesus Christ, who has revealed thee to us. We desire to do his work and to follow his bidding, and thereby to come into something of the spirit of his power, as he worked out the problems that are too mighty for us in this gen- eration of great movements and great thoughts in which we live.
Father, we pray that here tonight, in sincerity and simplicity of heart, we may open our souls to that divine power which is over all, and through all, and in us all; to that eternal Spirit that ever quickeneth those who are sincere and true, and guideth those who are in earnest to fulfil the work of thy kingdom.
We thank thee, our Father, that thou art not hard to be found, that thy life is not far to seek, and that we may have it in our spirit from this hour on. And now, Father, thou who hast helped us thus far to offer thee with one accord our common supplication, help us, as we join together, in that prayer, which has come down to us from our Master :
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
THE NEXT STEP FORWARD IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
PRESIDENT JAMES B. ANGELL, LL.D.,
TIIE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
Gentlemen of the committee of arrangements, and my Christian friends from near and from far, I desire to express my sense of the high honor which has been con- ferred upon me by asking me to occupy the chair for the initial meeting of this Convention.
Never, I venture to say, has there been a gathering in our country with higher and nobler aims than this. And when one looks upon this vast assembly, and especially when one sees how many of the great leaders of religious thought have come here from long distances to partici- pate in this meeting, one cannot but hope and believe that the results of it will be permanent and beneficent.
We come here with many differences of opinion upon minor points, even in our faith perhaps ; but we come here, I trust, with one unanimous and burning desire to accomplish the great object for which this meeting is called, and in one common spirit of devotion to our Lord and Master. And just because we are so numerous, just because we have come from so many different branches of the Christian church and from so many different parts of the country, we must not be surprised if upon minor matters there may be differences of opinion among us ; we must not be intimidated by the possibility that in carrying out the great program which has been marked out for us, in accomplishing this great object of improv- ing the moral and religious education of the nation, we shall encounter some difficulties. We need not fear to encounter them with bravery and with confidence in the Master who has led his church through so many places
5
6
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
of peril and trial. For instance, I suppose that we who are here are generally persuaded that the advance in psy- chological and pedagogical study for the last twenty years has led to decided improvement in secular educa- tion. We who believe this believe also that a similar improvement may be secured in religious and moral edu- cation by similar methods and by the careful study of the phenomena of religious experience in the period of youth.
It is possible that there are persons who differ from us in this respect. We must try to find how we can work together to that end which we both desire with all our hearts.
It cannot be denied that we are passing through a period of transition, in some degree, in respect to reli- gious thought and doctrine. But the world has always been passing through transitions in religious thought and doctrine. Yet it must be confessed, I think-for we want to be frank and honest, and face all the difficulties that are before us-that at this time we are perhaps emphatically in a period of transition in respect to the history and interpretation and significance of the Scrip- tures. There are honest differences of opinion in the Christian church at this time upon some of these points. We need not fear to say so and to meet these differences and inquire how they can best be composed.
The amazing discoveries in archæological research, the large additions within the last twenty years to our knowl- edge of the life and religious ideas of the Hebrew people themselves, our more familiar acquaintance with the Assyrian and Babylonian life and thought and their influ- ence on Hebrew life and thought, and the far-reaching consequences of the many modern scientific discoveries, have indeed tended to carry many of us some way from the old positions which we were taught in our boyhood.
On the other hand, there are saintly men and women all about us, men and women to whose religious charac-
7
THE NEXT STEP FORWARD
ter we bow in reverence and respect, who, perhaps from less familiarity with these facts to which I have referred, or from a conservative temperament, or from advanced years (in which men are generally reluctant to modify opinions), or from an honest fear that any change of ancient opinion may be accompanied with peril to them- selves and to their children, look with grave concern and solicitude upon the positions which some of us honestly and reverently hold.
The question, then, is before us: How shall the church be carried along through this period of transition from the old to the new, if it is to be carried at all ? How shall this be accomplished without giving needless pain to many, without perhaps causing some friction and some divisions ? And how shall the children be best instructed amidst the somewhat confused ideas of their elders ? These are serious and solemn questions which force themselves upon us when this subject of religious and moral education is taken up; and we look for light upon them, we look for answers to these questions in some of the discussions and papers which shall be pre- sented to us at this time.
Of one thing I am sure-that we all come here with a sincere love for the truth, if we can find it; that we come here with the irenical and friendly and cordial spirit of Christian brotherhood. I am sure that we have all come here with the desire to find out, if possible, how the whole army of God can be led forward as a single phalanx, with unbroken front, to storm the strongholds of ignorance and sin and win victories more signal than the world has ever yet seen.
REV. FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D.,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
The scope of this conference, I am told, embraces all phases of the religious development and education of the
S
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
young, and I am expected to speak on a department which affords me a most congenial theme-the practical training, as distinct from the teaching, of the youth for actual religious duties.
"The Next Step Forward in Religious Education" is the special theme of the evening. It is quite probable that all people would not agree as to the next step in religious education. That there should be a forward step there is absolute unanimity, and we should probably all be very thoroughly agreed upon taking several for- ward steps.
After all, whether my step shall be the next one taken, or yours, is of comparatively little consequence, if only advance is made and genuine progress along whole- some, natural, scriptural lines. Whether the right foot is put forward first, or the left, is of little importance if one only arrives at his destination in good season. There will be many to suggest forward steps in methods of teaching and much of the time of the Convention will, doubtless wisely, be occupied with these matters; but there is another forward step which I would urge, the importance of which, I believe, all will recognize.
This, as I have intimated, is for an advance step in the line of practical religious education ; of what may be called industrial or manual religious training. The attention of the church has been centered too exclusively upon its teaching function. It has often forgotten that it has a training work to do which is no less important.
For this I would plead, for a larger recognition of the work of the church in training its young people for their future religious activities in the kingdom of Christ.
This work of training, as distinct from teaching, which is the especial function of the Sunday school, is the nor- mal task of every rightly constituted young people's society in the church. Schools of technology in our educational development have been of comparatively
9
THE NEXT STEP FORWARD
recent growth. The schools of technical training in church work, the young people's societies, are of still later growth -so late, indeed, that even today a multi- tude of churches recognize no responsibility for such a training school, and will let it sink or swim, survive or perish, according to the devotion or lack of devotion of the young people themselves, without ever speaking a word of encouragement or lending a friendly hand of help.
Let us consider for a moment this subject under two heads: the need of such a training school, and the results which may be expected from it when rightly constituted.
The need of such a training school is embodied in the very necessities of the church itself. The church of the future, for instance, must have the prayer-meeting, or something corresponding to the prayer-meeting, to awaken and keep alive the spiritual emotions and activi- ties of the laity. Every young people's society may be, and when rightly constituted is, a practical, industrial training school for the prayer-meeting. It inspires in the young men and young women a love for the meeting and familiarity with it. It teaches them in the very best school, that of practical experience, how to take part in it and sustain it, how to lead it, and how to make it a vital, important factor in church life.
It will be a sad, if not a disastrous, day for our non- liturgical churches at least, when the prayer-meeting falls into desuetude, and when the weekly gathering of the church members for conference and for petition becomes a thing of the past or a mere dead formality, which the pastor must carry on his overloaded shoulders. A prac- tical training school for the young people, along the lines at present very largely established, will not only keep alive but greatly increase the efficiency of this vital factor of church life.
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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
The church of the future needs more genuinely social and friendly life. Many a church is dying because of the aloofness and indifference of its members to stran- gers, or it is rent and seamed with class distinctions, and has within it different layers of the social strata which never really coalesce and mingle in friendly Christian intercourse.
But the young people's society is a constant training school in friendliness and sociability. Its members mingle in the same organization, serve upon the same committee, take part in the same prayer-meeting, enter into the same Bible study, and join the same civic club-in fact, they learn to work, not simply for one another, but with one another, and the social attrition and good com- radeship which a learned college president has recently declared to be the best thing about a college course is, in a large measure, also true of a young people's society in a church.
To be sure, it may not be able to break down all class distinctions, or eliminate the horrid spirit of caste which is the spirit of Antichrist; but it can do much in this direction. Let me emphasize again the importance of our young people learning to work with, as well as for, one another. In this land of democracy and equal rights the importance of this thought can hardly be over- estimated. To understand it and act upon it would be to take a great, if not the next great, forward step in religious education.
We have had too many who were willing to go slum- ming, and too little genuine fellowship among our church members who are in different social grades. Many who will patronize the Salvation Army, or support a mission, will have exceedingly little to do with other young people in their own churches who are honestly earning their own living behind the counter or at the carpenter's bench. The social committee of the young people's
II
THE NEXT STEP FORWARD
society is but the expression of the social religious life of the young people, and it is constantly doing its best to destroy this snobbery and to obliterate unholy distinc- tions in the church of God.
Again, the church of the future needs those who are trained in missionary lore, in temperance principles, in giving to God as God prospers them, in Christian citizen- ship, and all the multitude of good things for city, state, and country which cluster under this broad and benefi- cent name. These things will not come by chance. Our young people will not learn them by instinct or evolve them out of their own inner consciousness. If they learn them, they must be taught in a training school of the young people's society, just as truly as the child who would know about Adam and Abraham and Moses and Christ must learn of them in that other school of the church, the Sunday school.
In fact, the industrial training for which I plead is even more imperative. Many children outside of the Sunday school will learn the Bible from Christian parents or will study it for themselves; but there is no way, so far as I can conceive, of learning the industrial work of the church except in some such training school as the young people's society furnishes. For this work can be learned only by doing it. It cannot be taught by text- books, or imparted by instruction. Like every other kind of industrial training, it must be gained by practice. The carpenter learns to build a house with saw and ham- mer and nails in hand, not by reading an elaborate trea- tise on house- building. The painter takes his casel and brush, and practices long and patiently, if he would be an artist; there is no other way. It is exactly the same with the necessary activities of church life. If the church is worth sustaining; if its work is to be done in the future ; if we are to have prayer meetings and mission- ary activities and an earnest religious life ; if the church
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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
is to be a power for good citizenship and righteous living, it must have some such industrial training school. It cannot dismiss it or ignore it.
The instruction of the pulpit and Sunday school may well be likened to the food provided at the family table. It is, very likely, abundant in quantity, and nutritious in quality, but food without exercise makes the sickly, dyspeptic child. Food without exercise in the church is apt to produce no better results.
Even the horses in our stables cannot long live with- out exercise. Fill their cribs never so full of the best feed, they must yet do something to keep healthy. This is a natural law, which is imperative in the spiritual world. There are a great many dyspeptic Christians in all our churches. They are bilious and disappointed and hopeless and useless, except as they become by their continual growling and fault-finding a means of grace to the pastor and other workers. In fact, they have all the symptoms of spiritual dyspepsia. Now, the only remedy for this disease is spiritual activity. "Go to work," said the famous English doctor to his rich, dyspeptic patient ; "go to work. Live on sixpence a day, and earn it."
That the young people themselves need such training as much as the church needs to have them trained, is made plain by the scientific psychologist as well as by the practical worker among the young. "The cure for helplessness that comes with storm and stress in the period of adolescence," says Professor Starbuck, "is often found in inducing wholesome activity." "Faith without works is dead. Many persons have found the solution of their difficulties by actually setting about doing things." Professor Coe confirms the same view when he says: "The youth should by all means be induced to be active in those forms of religious living that still appeal to him at all. The greatest thing we can do for the doubting youth is to induce him to give free exercise to the
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THE NEXT STEP FORWARD
religious instinct. Religious activity and religious com- forts may abide at the same time that the intellect is uncertain how this fits into any logical structure."
I need not dwell upon the wonderful results of such training for the youth in the future years, if it were universally and heartily fostered by our churches. The results would be almost incalculable and beyond descrip- tion. The prayer-meeting would become a tremendous and vital force in every church. It would not be sim- ply a thermometer to register the heat, it would be the generator of spiritual warmth and vigor, to become more and more the pulsating heart of the church from which would radiate innumerable spiritual activities. There would be trained personal workers in every church who would practice the art of soul-winning in their lookout and prayer-meeting committees, and in their hand-to- hand efforts for their young companions. There would be intelligent missionary work and intelligent missionary giving, and the treasuries of the churches would be filled to overflowing ; for it is only an intelligent and trained interest in missions that can ever fill the treasuries.
By fostering such training schools the church would become more and more a power, as the years went by, in all wise philanthropy and sane schemes for benefiting the community; and it would not only have well-formulated theories, but a trained company of youth, constantly recruiting its ranks, who would know what the church and the community needed to have done and how to do it. The tone of our citizenship would be elevated, the atmosphere of our politics would be purified, because the civic club and the frequent convention would keep alive the fires of patriotic ardor.
In their organizations the young people inevitably learn more and more to co-operate one with another. Fellowship between the churches and denominations, and even the Christian nation, would be promoted, and some-
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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
thing at least would be accomplished toward ushering in the reign of "peace on earth and good will to men."
In a measure these results have already been accom- plished. But if the church should relegate the pessimist and the continual fault-finder to the rear, the man who, above all others, is the discourager and destroyer of youthful enthusiasm ; if it would recognize that there is a place and a crying need in every church for such a training school as I have described, as well as a teaching school, and would throw around it warm, protecting, sympathetic arms, without whose kind embrace and lov- ing sympathy no effort for the young can do its largest work or reap its fullest harvest, a much greater advance could be realized.
But the supreme importance of this practical training in the religious life is shown by the fact - not that facility is thus acquired in the performance of duties vital to the life of the church, not that the prayer-meeting is sustained, the missionary activities increased, a demo- cratic spirit of brotherly fellowship promoted, and good citizenship advanced -but that such a training school furnishes an unrivaled opportunity for bringing the chil- dren and youth to Christ, and establishing them in his service and love, and for making them like him in char- acter. Any step in religious education that does not provide for this is a step backward and not forward.
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