USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The Religious Education Association : proceedings of the first annual convention, Chicago, February 10-12, 1903 > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32
258
259
INFORMAL DISCUSSION
will be disappointed. There is no instruction-in-the- Bible-while-you-wait plan that will ever be successful.
There is one thing that I believe, and that is that the International Lesson system will respond to the demand. I went out of Chicago some years ago on a morning train-and it is one of the delightful things in Chicago that there are trains to go out of it-when I read of the peculiar case of a man who was the victim of what the physicians called "delayed sensation ; " that is, you could prick him with a pin, and there would be an appreciable time before he could feel the prick. Now, you Doctors of Divinity know what that is. You have preached to your congregations and tried to reach the conscience, and you have probed, and probed again and again, and you have not attained any response for some time. You were speaking to victims of "delayed sensation." That was the trouble at Denver The appeal for an advanced course was not then responded to; but its force, I am assured, has by this time been felt, and the next convention, in 1905, will grant what we want. It is merely a case of " delayed sensation."
FREDERICK C. MOREHOUSE, EDITOR "THE LIVING CHURCH," MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
My appearance on this platform was as totally unex- pected ten minutes ago as anything could have been, and I think it is an illustration of the bad effect of environ- ment. I got into an environment of people who had the habit of talking, and I caught it.
There are just two things that I shall try to say, because these may be helpful in drawing up the scheme for future work. The first is, not to start with the idea that we are going to agree in a week on one particular plan. It has seemed to me that the tendency of the speakers was that so-and-so is undoubtedly the best way to do our work, and while we may not agree on this
260
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
today, we are pretty apt to agree tomorrow, after we have thought of it a little more. This organization, if it is really to be helpful and to be a success in the work, should not attempt to draw lines for work upon one defi- nite and only mode of work; that is to say, the best results can be obtained in the first instance by codifying and digesting the material already in existence. It is the bane of religious organizations, of Sunday-school institutions, and the like, that the temptation is to start out by producing something new.
I knew some time ago an organization for Sunday- school work in the East that began by appointing a committee to get up from the start a new course of text- books that was to cover every conceivable line of thought in connection with religious work. They appointed their committee, consisting of more or less eminent men, and that committee actually did the work and published the text-books, and I think it would be difficult to find a more useless series than was the result. Why ? Because great books are not produced in that way. A committee, to begin with, is the very worst thing to produce a work. The man who has the work at heart can produce it, but a committee foreordained cannot. So then, if we take for our first idea the thought of collecting what is already in existence, and issuing a list of them perhaps on a digested plan, saying that if you want graded systems of such and such character, you will find this and this already in existence, that will be the first work to be done.
The second work is to find a pivotal point, if possible, in the instruction to be given. What is the chief thing, the essential element, in Bible teaching ? I am not here to tell it, but if you can, by correspondence or otherwise, obtain a consensus of opinion as to what, from Genesis to Revelation, is the pivotal point of the Bible, and can then get that into circulation, you will find that much
261
INFORMAL DISCUSSION
better results will be achieved in Sunday-school work. Let me suggest here such a work as Professor Butler's How to Study the Life of Christ-not because there may not be limitations to that work, but because it shows an attempt to grapple with that subject, to lay your finger on the exact point that is the pivot of your teaching.
REV. CHARLES W. PEARSON, PASTOR UNITARIAN CHURCH, QUINCY, ILLINOIS
I wish to say a word to this great Convention, and I am embarrassed in doing so, because I do not feel at lib- erty to say the thing that is most in my mind. [Cries of "Say it! say it !"]
Well, under this authorization I will say it, and I say it in all charity. When a watch-spring is broken, the great thing to do to make the watch go is, not to polish the case, but to get a new main-spring. I believe that, so far as there is any paralysis in the Christian church today, it is due to an incredible theology. What we need is to get down to the basis of what we really believe. You know the little girl defined faith as "believing what everybody knows is not true." Now, I will not say anything more on that particular line.
There is a beautiful motto of the Evangelical Alli- ance: "In things essential, unity; in things non-essen- tial, liberty ; in all things, charity." It is a very appropriate sentiment for this day, the birthday of Abra- ham Lincoln, who uttered that great parallel sentiment : "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us go forward."
This Convention is too large and too heterogeneous, and the time of its sessions quite too short, for it to define a program in detail for Christian belief or Chris- tian action. We may, I trust, at any rate all believe in the creed of Jesus : "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
262
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself."
John Wesley, in the early days of Methodism, used to ask his fellows: "What shall we teach this year ?" Not meaning what new truth was there, but what truth needed special emphasis at that time. I should like to suggest to this Convention another, a second text : "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." We must appeal from the past religious consciousness to the pres- ent religious consciousness. We measure wheat by bushels; we measure cloth by yards; but when we meas- ure the distance of fixed stars we have to take the diameter of the earth, or even, still better, the orbit of the earth, as our parallax. If we are to measure the Bible, we must do it by the greatest measuring rod there is-by all science, by all history, and, most of all, by conscience, the present religious consciousness illumi- nated by the Holy Spirit.
REV. PHILIP STAFFORD MOXOM, D.D.,
PASTOR SOUTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
I should not appear a second time upon this platform, but there is one word I should like to say. The minister's wife was late to church-a very unusual thing. She came to the door, and, as she saw the people coming out, she said to her husband: "What, is it done ?" He replied : "No, my dear, it is said ; it remains to be done."
It will be somewhat so when we close this Convention. And yet this will not be wholly true, for the true thing said is an achievement, it becomes a solid fact of which men must take account in the world; and it will be so here.
Now, the one suggestion I have to make is that we pastors, when we go home, go simply to tell the people about this Convention. Every man is full enough of it
263
INFORMAL DISCUSSION
to speak effectively and instructively with only a little preliminary meditation-which he can find on the rail- way if he has to go as far as I do. And he can do this, whatever may be his congregation; because, in the first place, this movement is progressive, it is a forward move- ment. Second, because it is conservative ; that does not mcan that it is a backward movement. If you stop to think of it, there is really nothing conservative in this world that is not alive. We have been in the habit of calling dead things conservative, but death is dissolution ; a graveyard is not a conservative place, save for the tombstones. The vital thing is the conservative thing, and this thing is alive; it is at once progressive, and conservative of all that is good in the past. Third, because it is comprehensive. I think if I had had a doubt about the modern inspiration of the sincere man, it would have been removed by the consideration of this one fact of the marvelous comprehensiveness of this scheme with- out being at all vague or mystic. It sweeps the circle ; there is room enough in it for everybody to work.
And, then, in the fourth place, it is co-ordinated. This is what we have needed. We have our brain fila- ments, multitudinous brain filaments, but they are all at odds. Now we are bringing them together for coherent thinking, for definite purpose, for the great result of achieving in human society the kingdom of God. I believe it is a time for devout and humble thanksgiving for this movement.
REV. A. WELLINGTON NORTON, LL.D., PRESIDENT SIOUX FALLS COLLEGE, SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA
I should like to say a word of hopefulness on this occasion. Although at present at the head of a denomi- national college, my earlier years were occupied with questions touching the supervision of the public schools, and I believe that there is no institution in our land that is of more vital importance than the public school.
264
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
The home has been assumed to exist everywhere, but in fact the homes are not so numerous as the places where people stay over night. Then also there are five days in the week in which the child is directly under the influence of the teacher in our public schools, and this makes the public school very important. We should remember that the question in the public school is not between religion and non-religion, but between religion and ir-religion; there must be one or the other.
I am sure, from my knowledge of the training of teachers throughout this country, that there is a broader outlook and a greater hopefulness than our speakers yesterday, it seems to me, expressed. There is not a man who has the responsibility of training teachers but gives a broad outlook upon this very question that we have before us. Let me indicate the outlook that is given to those teachers: The school is an institution whose object is the betterment of human life, physically, intellectually, and spiritually. Have we any broader outlook than that here this morning ? It seems to me not ; and these impressions, made on the thought of our teachers in all the training schools, may be transferred to the pupils by the inductive teaching of morals. That I know is feasible, because I have seen it tried over and again among students three-fourths of whom were Roman Catholic. By skilful teaching the great ethical principles of the Bible may be developed in the children's minds, such as: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, even so do ye also unto them;" and, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The public schools are ready for a work of this kind - not the teaching of theology or dogma, or putting mottoes on the walls, but the bringing forth in the human heart of that truth which the human heart always recognizes, namely, God and his love.
265
INFORMAL DISCUSSION
DIRECTOR EDWARD O. SISSON,
BRADLEY POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, PEORIA, ILLINOIS
What we want is co-operation ; and the greater con- stituent of co-operation is not a common aim, usually, but mutual sympathy. The common aim is more easily had than the sympathy. The present conflict in religion is not a conflict between denominations, but rather that struggle which has sometimes been called " the conflict between religion and science," in other words, between that human activity which aims at testing facts, which we may call science, and that which aims at applying facts to life, which we may call religion. Now, the man who has given his attention largely to testing facts is likely to feel, unjustly, some contempt for the emotional or reli- gious nature. And the man who has given his attention more largely to applying facts to life, to religion and emotion and sentiment, is likely to feel -and in many cases does feel, as we all know -a great deal of suspicion of the man of science.
It seems to me that the greatest hope of this Conven- tion is to bring these two spirits into unity; to show the man of science that to test facts without applying them to life is dilettantism and sloth; and to show the religious teacher that to apply ideas to life without testing them is giving to the patient poison out of a bottle labeled "medicine."
REV. C. R. BLACKALL, D.D.,
EDITOR OF PERIODICALS, AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
This Convention has been a series of surprises. When I came to Chicago to attend its meetings, I supposed that if we had two or three hundred people who would come together to consider the great questions pro- pounded, we should count it a great success. My first surprise was in the Auditorium, when I looked out upon that vast congregation; my second surprise was yester-
266
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
day, as I came into the morning session ; my third was in the afternoon session, and my fourth in the evening session. A further surprise in regard to this Convention is that, as in the Denver International Sunday School Convention there was an absence of the elements which in so large degree form this Convention, we have had present so large a number of the representative and influ- ential educators of this country.
I desire to warn this Convention of a possible danger : there will inevitably be a decided difference of opinion in regard to what has been done and what the new organi- zation proposes to do, and I plead in all sincerity that the management shall be willing to go a little slow, if necessary. As President Harper well said this morning, we cannot revolutionize- he did not say these precise words but that was the import, as I understood him - we cannot revolutionize this world in a very few months ; we might as well understand that we must work for the future rather than for the immediate present. If we do that, if we are willing to take one step at a time, and not overstep our ground, we shall make greater progress than if we attempt to cover the whole field at one stride.
This, then, is my appeal to the Convention, that it shall be in large degree conservative, to wait and to abide its time, to expect that there may be misappre- hension - and not only misapprehension, but sometimes misstatement with regard to the purpose of the Conven- tion and its outcome; and that we abide God's time for the successful accomplishment of what I believe he has set this great body to do for the advancement of Bible study in this country.
SIXTH SESSION
PRAYER
REV. ERASTUS BLAKESLEE,
EDITOR "BIBLE STUDY UNION LESSONS," BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
We thank thee, our Heavenly Father, for this Con- vention. We thank thee for the spiritual power with which it has been pervaded, and for the lofty impulses which it has brought to us. We thank thee that so many hearts have joined together in one common cause. We have worked in our several places with such faith and patience as we could command, and now we are to go forward unitedly unto larger things. We thank thee, O God, that thou dost guide the affairs of thy church - that when men seeking to do thy will are at their wits' end, not knowing what to do, when they are diverse in counsel and do not see how they can come together, thou dost take the matter in charge, and in thine own good time dost open the way before them.
As we come to the closing session of this Conven- tion, we would praise thee for what we have heard and seen while here, and would ask that thy blessing may go with us as we separate. We shall continue the work that thou hast given us to do ; and, as soldiers on the battle- field are filled with new courage at thought of the fel- low-soldiers on their right hand and on their left, so we shall be encouraged for our future work at thought of this multitude who are striving with us to bring men to a better knowledge of thy Holy Word.
We thank thee, O God, for the faith which thy people have in thy Word. We thank thee that they know from their own experience that in it are the fountains of life. We pray that the influence of this Convention, and of
267
268
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
the organization that may be established this afternoon, may be very potent for the opening of this Word to the children and youth of this generation. Grant thy bless- ing upon what is done here at this time. Grant that in all the future of this organization there may be no self- ishness or self-seeking, but that its members may be filled with brotherly affection one for another, and with a sincere and earnest purpose to aid one another in doing thy work.
Our Heavenly Father, we pray that by our united efforts the majesty of Christ's presence in the world may become more and more apparent. We pray that his love and gentleness, his righteousness and power, may pervade the hearts of men more and more, until the whole earth shall be filled with his glory.
We are glad to commit this great cause into thy care and keeping, asking that thou wilt use us as thy instru- ments to carry out thy purpose in bringing the light of the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, thy Son, to the hearts of those who need it. We ask these things in the name and for the sake of him who died for us, to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, be praise forever and forever. Amen.
THE RELATION OF THE NEW ORGANIZATION TO EXISTING ORGANIZATIONS
REV. FRANK W. GUNSAULUS, D.D.,
PRESIDENT ARMOUR INSTITUTE AND PASTOR CENTRAL CHURCH, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
The purpose of this paper is to discover the relation of the new organization to existing organizations, in the light of its scope and purpose as described this morning by President Harper. With the contents of that paper I am in heartiest agreement. Nothing could be truer than that the organization that is really needed is one that shall not confine itself to Sunday schools, but one that shall in a very true sense correlate the existing forces making toward improvement in religious education, form them into an effective unity, and become thus the means of inducing co-operation rather than competition. The relation of any new organization dealing with religious education to organizations in the same general field will naturally be determined by the purposes and scope of its work. Were its scope other than that described by President Harper, it would be a rival concern rather than a clearing-house ; and it is from this point of view of co-operation, conditioned by careful and conservative examination and inquiry, governed by a spirit of deepest devotion to the heavenly Master, that any decisions must be formulated.
I. The relation of the new organization to the Ameri- can Institute of Sacred Literature, and the Council of Seventy.
In view of the resolution passed by the Council of Seventy at its meeting on Tuesday afternoon, no discus- sion is here necessary. We owe it, in large measure, to the Council of Seventy that this Convention was called.
269
270
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
But this Convention is larger in scope than the parent that has given it birth. It is but just that the child should be allowed to have its own life and history. The relation of the new organization to these existing organi- zations will be that of co-operation, no more and no less than that which is possible for other organizations of the same general class.
There are many correspondence schools which are seeking to interest and to direct persons in the study of the Bible. There is need for some correlation of their efforts and for the frank discussion of the ideals. Each appeals to its own constituency, and there should be no rivalry between them except rivalry for service. In all departments of the new organization there should be given an opportunity which has never yet been accorded for the friendly and helpful exchange of ideas. If the new organization were to do nothing more than to place upon a genuinely scientific and practical basis the whole matter of instruction in religious matters by correspond- ence, it would deserve the heartiest gratitude of the American public. Today as never before is education being brought by correspondence schools to every corner of the United States. It is fitting that as technological, literary, historical, and other forms of instruction are brought to the great American people, there should be carried with them, in equally effective, or if possible in a superior, way the correspondence lessons dealing with religious truth. The American Institute of Sacred Lit- erature, as one of many which are endeavoring to bring about this sort of education, deserves gratitude; but from this new organization it will receive no more con- sideration than would be given a society of the same sort doing similar work under a different name.
2. Relation of the new organization to the Interna- tional Sunday School Association.
It should be said as definitely as possible that the
RELATION TO EXISTING ORGANIZATIONS 271
new organization should by no means be antagonistic to the existing Sunday-school organization, whether as represented by the International Executive and Lesson Committees, or by the great organization which has grown up about the uniform system. We do not understand that it is generally held by representatives of this system that the adoption of the uniform lesson is necessary for loyalty to the Sunday-school organization as it exists in cities, states, countries, and the world. So far as we know, there are schools everywhere which do not use the uniform lessons, but which are loyal members of the local Sunday-school associations and whose superintendents are among the most earnest promoters of Sunday-school work of this sort. Should any Sunday school care to adopt a thoroughly graded system of lessons, there is no reason why it should not do so, and there is every reason why it should remain loyal to the wonderfully efficient organization which has done so much for the cause of the religious training of the young.
It should also be said very distinctly that, as this new organization is in no sense to be co-ordinate with the International Sunday School Association in scope and purpose, so in actual work its office should be that of the assistance of existing Sunday-school operations just in so far as circumstances render it desirable and possible. In many particulars it might conceivably be of great service to the present Sunday-school movement in assisting in its investigations as to a curriculum, in its stimulation of interest in religious education, and in the rendering of substantial aid to the efforts of organization already made. For it to regard itself, or to be regarded by others, as occupying any other than a place of co-operation and assistance to Sunday schools and the present Sunday- school movement would be most unfortunate. Its pur- pose should be, and, if we can understand what is out- lined, the purpose is to be fraternal and positive help. It
272
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
will seek to preserve the Sunday school, and to increase its religious effectiveness, both in the way of the conver- sion and in the way of the Christian nurture of young souls. Farthest possible from it will be a desire to substitute education for spiritual life, or methods for prayerful, con- secrated interest on the part of the teacher in the young lives with whom he has been intrusted.
A word may be in order here as to the relation of the new organization to the various houses engaged in pub- lishing Sunday-school literature. In my opinion, this relation should be that of absolute independence. Offi- cials of such houses, whether private or denominational, should not be included in the lists of officers and directors of the new Association. Publication is a business by itself, with enormous financial interests at stake. The new organization should keep itself absolutely free from any entangling alliances which will put it under obliga- tion to any publishing establishment. It should be free to recommend to any school desiring its advice the pub- lications of any house or houses. In no other way will it be able to serve the broad interests for which it stands.
3. Its relation to the various Young People's Societies.
It may be an immense help to such organizations, both in stimulating them to emphasize the educational features of their work and in assisting them to place those features upon a more effective basis. In my opinion the educational possibilities of Young People's Societies, both in practical and in literary lines, have never been fully utilized. It is not at all beyond the range of pos- sibility that by the assistance of some great unifying Association, which stands above all petty rivalries, the educational features of the Young People's Societies may be so developed, and so correlated with Sunday-school work, as to become vastly superior to its present status.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.