1 ' 1 Training Teachers of Religion Following the presentation of the papers printed below, a resolution originating in the Department of Teacher-Training and framed by the Council of Religious Education was adopted in the general convention of the Religious Education Association at Washington, D. C., February 13, 1908. This resolution is as follows : “In view of the pressing need of leaders who can properly instruct Sunday-school teachers and others in the principles and methods of religious education, we urge the universities to pro- vide in their departments of education for specific training with reference to such leadership The State University and Teachers of Religion DANIEL B. PURINTON, Ph. D., LL. D. President University of West Virginia, Morgantown, W. Va, The relation of the state university to all matters of religion is a delicate and difficult one. It involves questions of church and state and manifold other considerations upon which good men do greatly differ. This difference arises, I take it, from various and somewhat divergent views of the nature of religion itself. Now religion is not a superstition, an inheritance or a creed. It is a life. As such, it has three chief elements, the intellectual, the ethical, the emotional. It includes a perception, an obligation, an attitude. In the Christian religion at least, all these elements are essential. Each is primal, none is negli- gible. There is a proper sense in which instruction may be given in all these aspects of the Faith. But religious instruction is peculiarly important and fruitful on its intellectual and ethical sides. Teachers of religion must be both mentally informed and morally sound. All experience proves that there is no ethical strength or certitude without the superior sanctions of religion. And the importance of the intellectual element is seen in the his- tory of all religions whatsoever. Every faith that has shaped the history and destiny of men has been largely intellectual. Mr. Lecky has justly remarked that every conquering religion has addressed the heart. With equal justness we may add that it has addressed the head as well. The religion of Plato and Aris- totle was of this character. The dominant faiths of the Orient today are eminently intellectual. Indeed there is vastly more of philosophy in them than of religion. In every age the Christian religion has involved the active use of the human intellect. In 49 1 95 3 b 50 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION our own age Christian intelligence is specially needful for pre- serving the foundations of the Faith, for propagating the princi- ples of the Faith, and for carrying forward the constructive activities of the Faith. Perhaps never before was this intellectual need of religion quite so imperative as now. Doubt and criti- cism are everywhere current in religious circles. The one cannot be met by ignorance, nor the other by a sneer. Men will no longer believe either as their fathers did, or because their fathers did. Neither will they accept religious faith as a synonym for mental inertness or inanity. We must address their intelligence and give them a reason for the hope that is within us. And this can readily be done. The exercise of faith is not at all unreason- able. On the contrary, it is the necessary foundation of all reason- ing, whether mathematical, historical, philosophical or religious. And certainly it is more reasonable to accept than to reject the divine, historic Christ. But this acceptance becomes more and more a matter of intelligence and conviction. And herein the function of the state university in religious matters at once emerges. While such an institution must be strictly non-partisan in politics and non-sectarian in religion, nevertheless it is manifestly proper that any university should offer exact and sympathetic instruction as to_the great facts and principles of the Christian Faith, which is easily the most stu- pendous phenomenon in all human history, and at the same time the basis of all civilization and ethical law in our own country. For this reason among others it is both the right and the duty of the state university to recognize teachers of religion and to provide for their proper instruction. The University of West Virginia has recognized this right and this duty and has already made some provision accordingly. Since the movement which led to this recognition is altogether unique in the history of state universities, it is perhaps worth while to devote time to a de- scription and explanation of the movement itself. Early in the spring of 1904, there came into the mind and heart of the General Secretary of the State Sunday School Association of West Virginia an earnest desire to furnish special instruction for teachers and other Sunday school workers in the state who might wish it. Other state Sunday school associations were organizing summer schools for this purpose, but in West Vir- ginia no such provision was made and no possibility of it was in sight. This became a matter of grief and great anxiety to the secretary. About the same time it occurred to the president of the state university that something ought to be done by that institution for the Sunday school teachers of West Virginia. Already the university was providing special instruction in its summer school for the secular teachers of the commonwealth, RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 51 and it did not seem right that the hundreds of Sunday school teachers throughout the state should be left out of such provision. For were they not teachers as well as the others? And were they not teaching virtue and civic righteousness? And as such instructors were they not even more useful to the state than other teachers? And if so was not their exclusion from the university summer school an unjust and unrighteous discrimina- tion against them? About the time that these troublesome ques- tions were running through the presidential head, a county Sunday school convention was held at Morgantown, the seat of the state university. This convention brought together the presi- dent of the university and the secretary of the state Sunday school association. Whereupon each discovered what had been in the mind of the other concerning this important matter. This dis- covery led to the organization during the following summer of a School of Methods for Sunday School Workers in connection with the University Summer School. In this university move- ment the state Sunday school association co-operated at once and heartily. At the next meeting of the regents of the university the action of the president in organizing the school of methods was unanimously approved and authority was given for its con- tinuance. Four sessions of the school have already been held and the fifth is being arranged for next summer to begin June twenty-ninth. Instruction is given by members of the university faculty, by officers of the state Sunday school association, and by Sunday school specialists brought from other states of the Union. Among the specialists hitherto engaged for such service are the following: Marion Lawrence, General Secretary Interna- tional Sunday School Association, Toledo, Ohio; W. C. Pearce, Teacher Training Secretary, International Sunday School Asso- ciation, Chicago; Dr. R. G. Moulton, University of Chicago; Dr. H. M. Hamill, Superintendent Teacher Training Work, Methodist Episcopal Church South, Nashville, Tennessee; Dr. Richard S. Holmes, Editor the Westminster, Philadelphia; Dr. Charles Roads, General Field Worker, Methodist Episcopal Church, New York; Sarah E. Griswold, Chicago Normal School; Nannie Lee Frayser, Primary Superintendent for the State of Kentucky, Louisville; Rev. E. M. Fergusson, Trenton, New Jersey; Dr. J. T. McFarland, Sunday School Secretary Methodist Episcopal Church, New York; Dr. H. T. Musselman, Superintendent Teacher Training American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia; Dr. E. S. Lewis, Vice President Interna- tional Sunday School Association, Columbus, Ohio; Dr. F. J. McConnell, Brooklyn, New York; Dr. Joseph Clarke, General Secretary Ohio Sunday School Association, Columbus; Charles G. Trumbull, Editor Sunday School Times, Philadelphia. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION n These representatives of the leading Sunday school workers in America have brought to the school of methods, each his own peculiar and appropriate contribution toward the accomplishment of its great purpose. This purpose is to give pastors and Sunday school superintendents and teachers the best available instruction and the highest genuine inspiration in the modern methods and principles of Sunday school work. To this end the widest pos- sible range of topics has been selected for discussion. As illustrative of this range of topics I may venture to quote at random from one of the schedules of study — that of 1906. Here are some of the subjects taken up at that session: The Higher Values, The Teacher’s Preparation, Observation Classes, Bible Study, The Spiritual Side of the Teacher’s Work, The Big Boy and How to Deal with Him, The Teacher Teaching, The Art of Illustration, Sunday School Music, the Old Book and the New Man, Sunday School Officers and Their Duties, Teacher and Pupil, Theory and Conditions, Child Study, The Law of the Teacher, The Preservation vs. the Rescue of the Child, The Law of Child Growth, The Best Method for Local Teacher Training, The Law of the Superintendent, Ethical and Civic Significance of Sunday School Work, Stereopticon Lecture on Palestine, Psy- chological Basis of Grading a School, Graded Supplemental Work, The Home Department, The Child, The World-Wide Sunday School Movement, Sunday School Organization, Depart- mental Work in Sections, Primary, Junior, Intermediate, Senior, Superintendents, School Officers and Pastors. For the next ses- sion we expect in addition to such topics as these just named to emphasize the department of teacher training. Experts will give special instruction therein and at the close of the school interna- tional diplomas will be awarded. Attendance upon the school of methods has been fairly good — indeed, quite good under existing circumstances. We enroll about a hundred students each summer and the number promises to be larger hereafter. These students are from all parts of West Virginia and from some other states. They include pastors, Sun- day school officers, superintendents and teachers of all grades. And a more earnest intelligent, conscientious and appreciative company of students it would be hard to find anywhere. The work when compared with that of older summer schools con- ducted by Sunday school associations of other states, is very grati- fying indeed. And we are hoping to make it still broader and better in the future. I have said that this movement is unique and exceptional among state universities — and so it is. Since its inception a num- ber of presidents of such universities have made inquiries concern- ing the work with an evident view of introducing something of RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 63 the kind into their own institutions. Last summer the University of Georgia, as I am informed, conducted a work of this charac- ter in connection with its summer school. No other state institu- tion in America, so far as I know, has in any direct and open fashion attempted to provide for the distinctive needs of teachers of religion. It is quite possible that in some of the states any such attempt might be met with a degree of hostility or at least of criticism. In West Virginia, it is gratifying to know, that as yet not even the slightest evidence of such criticism has appeared. On the contrary words of hearty approval and commendation have been received from all quarters, especially from pastors and Sunday school officers have come numerous unsolicited statements of the gratifying improvements in their work which have resulted from the presence of some of the workers at a single session of the school of methods. As it seems to me, no citizen of any state has the slightest ground for just complaint in case the state university should offer instruction to teachers of religion in that state. And this opinion has not been reached without due deliberation. The true relation of the state to education, when carefully considered, not only justifies this conviction, but actually necessitates it. Notice for a moment the fundamental principles that relate to the educational functions of the state : 1. Ethical education is necessary to good citizenship. The higher the type of society becomes, the greater will be the need of such education, which, in its best form, is impossible when divorced from the superior sanctions of religion. 2. The state and the state alone has both the right and the duty to prepare the citizen for good citizenship. And this must be done, by force if need be. 3. The state need not actually educate all its citizens. If parents, public minded citizens, corporations, guilds or religious bodies are disposed to engage in this work, they may rightly do so and thus relieve the state from the responsibility of furnishing instruction. 4. But no one can ever relieve the state from the obligation to oversee the work of education by whomsoever carried on within its borders, and to secure to all its citizens at least so much instruc- tion as may be needful for good citizenship. 5. All education must be carried on in the name of the state. Even the denominational university must hold its property, carry forward its work and confer its scholastic honors in the name and by the authority of the state. Any teaching of doctrines immoral, treasonable or otherwise harmful to the state must be promptly suppressed by law. 54 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 6. In case any genuine educational need for good citizenship is not supplied by other agencies, it must be met by the state itself. The proper instruction of teachers of religion, at least in the ethical aspects of their work, would seem to be such a need. 7. Therefore the state should furnish such instruction, in case it is not otherwise available. If these principles are at all correct, it is distinctly worth while for all the states of the Union to take into serious and sym- pathetic consideration the claims of that great and goodly com- pany of Sunday school teachers — more than fifteen hundred thou- sand in number — who are doing more than all other teachers combined to elevate the type of life and improve the character of citizenship in the American Republic. The topic assigned for this discussion would seem to intimate that there is a real relation between the state university and teachers of religion. And the writer of this paper most heartily believes that this intimation is absolutely correct. Surely state universities have some respon- sibility in this great and essential matter of religio-ethical educa- tion. One of them has recognized its obligation and is honestly trying to meet it. It is earnestly to be hoped that other state institutions may “go and do likewise.” Conference in Kansas City A conference for eastern Kansas and western Missouri was held on Monday and Tuesday, March 9 and 10, in the Grand Ave. Methodist Church, Kansas City, under the auspices of the Ministers’ Alliance, of that city, co-operating with the Religious Education Association. The following papers were presented: Action Aggressive and Intelligent, Hon. Henry M. Beardsley. Education and the Life of the Nation, Henry F. Cope. The Pulpit in Relation to Biblical Theology, Prof. W. M. Patton. The Pulpit in Relation to Social Science, Rev. Paul H. Linn. The Pulpit in Relation to Spiritual Dynamics, Rev. Burris A. Jenkins. The Present Condition of Sunday School Work in Kansas City, Rev. Albert Bushnell. The Importance of Teacher Training, Rev. J. H. Hardin. The Religious preparation of the Parents through the Home Department, Mrs. Charlotte F. Wilder. A Rational Evangelism, Rev. Geo. H. Combs. The Seat of Authority in Evangelical Religion, Rev. T. E. Chandler. The TreLining of Teachers of Religion in Universities and Colleges FRANK K. SANDERS, Ph. D., D.D. Boston, Mass. The problem of obtaining an abundant supply of good teachers thoroughly fitted for their work is far from simple. It is not solved by the normal school. A public school authority has stated that there are approximately five hundred and eighty thou- sand teachers in the secular schools of the United States : of these the normal schools graduate each year perhaps fifteen thousand. It is well worth while to have these thoroughly trained men and women, but we do not, and need not regard them as the only answer to the query concerning the source from which we may draw our supply of good teachers for the public schools. A noted professor of the theory of teaching in a prominent Teachers’ College recently said that, estimated on a scale of five, two-fifths of a teacher is personality and an intelligent interest in the subject taught, two-fifths is academic culture and general experience, acquired partly in life, and partly in professional service, and one-fifth is special training. What he has said applies in religious as well as in every other sort of educational activity. Technical fitness can be more safely disregarded than can the general preparation for intelligently grasping the relations of facts and for enthusiastically presenting them. A teacher who is interested in doing a certain piece of work; who realizes an obligation to it, whose enthusiasm and devotedness are elicited by it ; who- is capable of mastering it, will readily overcome any technical hindrances and will be likely to approximate and rapidly adopt correct methods. The genial superintendent of the great Sunday school at St. George’s Church, New York, Mr. Pike, recently remarked, “We have a carefully graded school with every requisite. We take pains to secure well qualified teachers ; but what I must have after all, are the best men and women I can find who will im- press their pupils with what they are.” All this goes to show that when we discuss the relation of our universities and colleges to the problem of training religious teachers, we need not confine our attention to the establishment of departments of religious pedagogy, but may consider the question in its broadest aspects. We must inquire what can be done that is within the reach of the average college or university and that may affect a broad circle of students. Before giving specific consideration to this question we may ask whether we have to rule out of our inquiry all state insti- tutions. Is the preparation in a general way of men and women to be intelligent teachers of religion a legitimate function of such institutions? This question is answered rather variously by their governing Boards. These object, and rightly, to the pro- 55 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION *6 motion of anything which savors of sectarianism, and often re- fuse to sanction officially any sort of religious activity. Their prejudice, however, is due in part to ignorance, and may yield before the exhibition of a “better way.” The fact that a few state institutions are trying experiments which are productive of approvable results will do more than argument to open the way for others. The question as to what should be done by our educational institutions may be easily approached from the standpoint of experience. There are schools which are actually making some contribution to this question today. I shall not aim to mention every institution which may happen to have a course which can be regarded as preparing a student, directly or indirectly, to do his Christian duty. Practically all first-rate schools afford ex- cellent instruction in theoretical and practical ethics, in the philosophy of religion, and in psychology. Many have recog- nized the importance of pedagogy.- The more pertinent query from our standpoint is whether any one of them offers a course in the psychology of the growing mind, or courses in Religious Pedagogy, or gives opportunities for instruction in Biblical Lit- erature and other related subjects. We also need to discover whether they are aiming in any definite way to relate the depart- ments already well established to these more lately exhibited needs. Our inquiry is distinctly a practical one, and will therefore omit all consideration of such work as is done in the Teachers’ College of Columbia University, although this institution is a recognized pioneer along the lines of Religious Pedagogy. Its sphere, however, is that of the specialist. It is confessedly teaching the subject in mind with great efficiency by inspiring those who are preparing themselves to take up the profession of teaching with the broadest possible ideals regarding their work, insisting that these ideals shall be in the truest sense re- ligious. This work at Columbia, however, does not affect the main body of students or the general public, although it does not exclude either. Among the institutions which are approaching the subject in broad fashion, I mention first the University of Chicago. It contributes in four ways to the problem of arousing its student body to a sense of their duty and opportunity in religious instruc- tion, and of giving them the ability to meet these responsibilities. Professor Henderson of the Department of Ecclesiastical Sociol- ogy, gives regular courses on Religious Education which may be elected by any regular candidate for a degree. In the summer quarter, when a wide variety of matured students flock to the campus for instruction, courses are regularly given in the Phy- chology and Pedagogy of Religion. During the whole year first- rate courses in Biblical Literature are available for all students. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 57 During each year likewise, special courses of lectures are pro- vided on themes pertaining to religious education, given regularly by men who are outside of the faculty. These lecture courses take a wide range. One was recently completed by Secretary Henry F. Cope of the Religious Education Association on “The Problems of the Sunday school.” The University of Chicago has organized this kind of work more thoroughly than any other 1 institution to which my attention has been directed. There is afforded, moreover, in the Sunday schools of several of the large churches in the immediate vicinity of thv University, a sort of laboratory in which students of religious teaching are making a constant test of their theories. The teaching force of these schools is drawn, to a considerable extent, from the ranks of the students, but the schools themselves are not under University direction. Yale University is beginning to develop some interesting plans in relation to the preparation of students for the responsibilities of religious teaching. The Department of Pedagogy was about to organize, several years ago, courses in Religious Pedagogy, available to general as well as to special students, but was pre- vented by the continued illness of Professor Sneath. It stands ready to co-operate with the Department of Biblical Literature in any effective scheme. The latter department, under Professor Kent and his associates, accomplishes a far-reaching work of enlightenment and instruction. It affords a variety of courses in Biblical Literature which are elected by undergraduates, grad- uate students and divinity students alike, courses intended to lay broad foundation for religious thinking and instruction. I do not give these since they are detailed in the University catalogue. Professor Kent is offering this year (1907-08) a course worth describing. It is a well attended Seminar on “The Aims, Methods and Principles of Religious Education/’ the continuation and development of a somewhat similar piece of work last year. Every member of the class has joined it because of a desire to be prepared to deal as a leader with the practical problems of religious education in the Sunday school and church or in the community. I describe its work in the words of the leader: “We have taken up thus far (this year and last) First , the history of the Sunday school movement ; second, the definite aims and agen- cies of religious education ; third, the psychology of the individ- ual ; fourth, Sunday school organization ; fifth, a critical study of , all the leading Sunday school courses in the field; sixth, the requisites and outlines of a properly graded curriculum ; seventh , the preparation of an outline of lessons on selected subjects and passages for the different grades” . . “We hope to make the > work of this Seminar of real value to the religious world. We have already put into form a series of charts relating to the 58 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION psychology of the growing mind, which may prove as useful as the series of Biblical maps has been.” . . . “The class is full of enthusiasm over the unexpected values of the work. The, course would seem to have become an institution here at Yale.” The university and the churches of New Haven have co- operated in organizing a Religious Education Federation. Under its auspices are held monthly conferences at which the problems of successful Sunday-school work are discussed with the teachers of the city. It also offers courses of lectures, maintains courses for the specific instruction of teachers upon the Sunday school lessons and seeks to raise the recognized standards of efficiency. In this connection, excellent laboratory opportunities are inci- dentally afforded the special students of the department. Brown University, at Providence, R. I., is showing an equal willingness “to interweave the life of the University with that of the community and of the state,” as its wise and virile presi- dent happily expressed one deliberate purpose of his administra- tion. The University, through Professor Fowler, and his facul- ty, has developed and maintained for its own students, chiefly undergraduates, strong series of constructive courses in Biblical History and Literature. It long ago planned to reach out in helpful influence to a wider circle. It arranged a course of lectures, each year, on Biblical subjects. The appreciation of these by the public led, some years ago, to the organization of the Providence Biblical Institute, an association with which the University co-operates closely, furnishing lecture halls without charge, but for which it is not officially responsible. The In- stitute is a very flourishing organization today, doing an important work for the city of Providence. It maintains classes as well as lecture courses. In 1907, as a result of a gradually established confidence in the methods and plans emanating from the University, the Rhode Island Sunday School Association united with the University and for the sake of affording opportunities for teacher-training, for the sake of affording opportunities for Teacher-Training. The University extends to the School the free use of its libraries and collections and furnishes the class rooms for the classes, but is not directly responsible for the appointment of teachers for the classes or of lecturers. It is an experimental enterprise, but seems to be working well. At Northwestern University, Evanston, 111., there is a well organized department of Biblical History and Literature. The work which more directly illustrates my theme is given by Professor George A. Coe, as a part of the work of the Department of Philosophy. He offers a regular course on Education in Re- ligion and Morals, in which his well-known volume is used as a basis, the class work being greatly enlarged by library RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 59 assignments, details for personal research and themes. His Seminar in the Philosophy and Psychology of Religion has in past years been fruitful in creating students of actual conditions and innovators upon custom. One such student, whose creative powers were thus awakened, is now at work upon a Master’s thesis, “The Problem of the Small Sunday School,” a really vital and important theme. “Yet,” writes Professor Coe, in a personal letter, “we are not doing here at Northwestern, all told, more than a fifth of what we might do.” The methods outlined above represent fairly the present trend in the adaptation of the resources of a University to the task of meeting a great public need. These are not the only institu- tions interested in these problems, but they have been alert to the opportunity. It is not the object of this paper to make a complete catalogue of the contribution of each one of our insti- tutions of higher learning to the subject under discussion, but rather to describe the experiments which have proven to be fruitful and are clearly practicable. Were there space for the data, the working plans of such Universities as Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, or the University of Georgia might be detailed. But they, offer no new suggestion, so far as the writer has been able to ascertain. The unique plans of the University of West Virginia are detailed in an accompanying paper by President Purinton, whose enthusiasm and foresight made them possible. The State Universities of the West, which draw their support from public funds, are debarred from any use of those funds for sectarian purposes. Four at least of these institutions have found it possible to distinguish between sectarianism and religion and to use their resources to some degree in the promotion of the interests of religious education. The University of North Dakota does this through an affiliated college which is denomina- tionally controlled. The University of California co-operates freely with a group of affiliated divinity schools. The University of Minnesota maintains a department of Biblical Literature. The University of Kansas holds an annual conference of several days’ duration, under the leadership of some imported expert on Biblical questions in co-operation with the department of Philosophy, to which the clergy and laity from all over the state are invited. Our colleges are generally denominational in origin and prevailingly responsive to religious claims. Nearly every college recognizes in some fashion the religious interests of its students, either by a first-rate Department of Biblical History and Litera- ture as in all the colleges for women, in Amherst, Ohio Wesleyan, Western Reserve, Beloit, Colorado, and many others, or by make- shifts of Varying value. These examples will suffice to indicate the recent attempts to meet the broader need. 60 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Without doubt the best planned and most scientific adjust- ment of college resources to the purposes of religious educa- tion has been made at Ripon College, Wisconsin, this past year, under Professor William J. Mutch. It is fully described in Ripon College Bulletin, Number 25, dated January, 1908. Eight courses, rotating in a two-year cycle, are offered by the Depart- ment of Philosophy and Education, each course three hours a week for half a year. For the current year they are the History of Education, Principles of Education, Religious Education, and a Biblical course on the Hebrew History- Prophets. For the alternating year the Philosophy of Education, Secondary Edu- cation, Problems of Grading and Curriculum, and the Content and Method of the Teaching of Jesus. These are all culture courses in a college of liberal arts, but have definitely in view the future opportunities and responsibilities of the students. Sup- plemental to these courses is a church school, of which Professor Mutch is the superintendent, which serves as a laboratory. The college is also organizing a system of observation work with the city schools and the college as the field. At the close of each college year a ten days’ institute of teacher-training is held under the auspices of the college, and throughout the year it stimulates by extension lectures a public interest in better organized effort for the training of teachers of religion. There is no limit to the work except that imposed by nature. A scheme of a different order is that being worked out at Wesley College, associated with the University of North Dakota. Its emphasis is as distinctly Biblical as that of Ripon College is educational. Wesley College offers, under Professor W. N. Stearns, a series of courses in Biblical Archaeology, History, Languages and Literature and provides also for Normal courses in the Bible and in the Principles of Pedagogy and of Sunday School Organization and Management. Public lecture courses are given in connection with this work. Students of the Uni- versity may elect these courses as a part of their work for a degree, and students of the Biblical courses only have access to the general advantages of the University. The scheme is a development of that recognized at several other State Uni- versities, where instructors, deriving their support from a denom- ination, offer courses in the English Bible of which University students may take advantage, but not as a regular part of their course for a degree. In a somewhat similar way Washburn College, Topeka, Kansas, has recently established a School of the Bible, which purposes to afford varied advantages, not alone to regular Academic students, but to special students of theology and religious education. This school is in the process of develop- ment. A third type of development is best represented by the chair of Applied Christianity at Iowa College, Grinnell, held by Pro- RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 61 lessor Steiner. Its stress is sociological, but its influence very varied. One marked result of Dr. Steiner’s instruction has been the relatively large number of picked men and women who are devoting themselves to a preparation for religious leader- ship in the future. I need not detail his courses, since the catalogue is readily obtained. In his work personality counts for as much as the curriculum. This very practical survey makes it clear that a number of institutions of higher learning today are working tentatively in the direction of training their students and those who will come within their range of influence for religious leadership, not as ministers, but as laymen and laywomen. They are doing this as a proper recognition of their responsibility to the public by which they are surrounded and of the importance of the religious needs just coming to be appreciated. Three results may be fairly expected from the participation of our colleges and universities in the responsible work of educating teachers of religion and leaders of religious life. They will greatly increase the number of available leaders in the church ; they will gradually formulate higher working standards; they will broaden the vision and enlarge the capacity of those who are entrusted with the important work of religious instruction. Institutions avowedly Christian in their sympathies should gladly enter into these opportunities. They may move forward to four sorts of achievements. First and fundamentally they may offer to their own students thorough, constructive courses in Biblical History and Literature, thus laying broad and safe foundations for intelligent service in the religious world. The practical outcome of Professor Coe’s work, related above, can be duplicated in the experience of every college Biblical teacher in the land. Wherever he may go, after years of instruction, he finds his old pupils the religious leaders of their own communi- ties and the earnest students of religious problems. It is a puzzling fact that many a college president still con- tinues to regard any one of ministerial training as an eligible candidate for the chair of Biblical Literature or of Religious Pedagogy. Such a department calls, however, for a teacher of the ripest culture, most thorough technical preparation and finest character, a man of large mindedness and broad sympathies. He should be in some way a maker and moulder of men. The personal influence of such men as Northrop and Thatcher was an asset of the older Yale about which the alumni never tire of talking. If such a man can be found who has had some pastoral experience and is thoroughly trained for his specific work, no college could afford to pass him by. These institutions may, in the second place, secure from the Departments of Philosophy and of Education courses which RELIGIOUS EDUCATION €t bear upon the principles and methods of religious education, both pedagogical and practical. They can also arrange in model schools for the actual laboratory training in methods of teaching, which is characteristic of the Normal School. They can, finally, plan through special classes, lecture courses or Summer Schools, to invite the general public to share in these opportunities. Such a union as that in Rhode Island between the State Sunday School Association and the representatives of the University could be organized and made fruitful in many states. Whether such courses should be organized by one depart- ment or by several is a question of organization. So far as they relate to methods or principles of education they belong to the Department of Pedagogy. In actual practice the courses will often be organized and maintained by the one who holds the chair of Biblical Literature. State institutions are in many ways more restricted in the scope of the work they may do. It would seem, however, that they too could do much of this service without incurring criticism. There is no sectarianism in the approach to the Bible from a standpoint purely historical and literary. Nor need the Depart- ment of Pedagogy be hindered on that account from giving a course applying the principles of teaching to the problems of Biblical or religious instruction. Such institutions may make a large use of their Young Men’s or Women’s Christian Associations. These, under proper encour- agement will carry forward Biblical work of a high order. The primary objective of these Associations is a devotional study of the Bible, but the leaders of Association work, particularly the International Committee at New York City, are having pre- pared, year by year, courses by real scholars, which are worth the attention of any student. Many of them hold Summer Schools at which, as President Purinton has shown elsewhere, a greater freedom is possible than during the regular academic year. There are Normal colleges in great numbers, which should give consideration to their very unusual opportunity for pro- moting an interest in education from the religious as well as the secular point of view. No data are available except at the Teachers’ College of Columbia, which is showing what can be and should be done. This survey, fragmentary as it is, will be of use, if it may chance to suggest a more advantageous use by some institutions of resources already at their disposal. It may inspire others to provide opportunities the importance of which they have over- looked. To realize the great culture value of courses which are likewise directly practical is to ensure their ultimate provision by every enterprising institution of higher learning. The Teacher Training Work of the Inter- national Sunday School Association REV. E. MORRIS FERGUSSON Secretary New Jersey Sunday School Association, Newark, N, J, In the North American field, the Sunday-school officers and teachers number about a million and a half. Nearly all of these are in the fellowship of the International Sunday School Association and its constituent state, territorial, and provincial auxiliaries. They are therefore potential subjects of teacher- training influence along interdenominational lines. The first and fundamental work of these associations is to ascertain, through a systematic annual canvass, the number and location of these officers and teachers, with their pupils, the statistics needed to reveal the educational progress of their Sun- day schools, and the names and addresses of their superintendents. This is regularly accomplished as respects a large proportion, probably at least two-thirds, of the whole number. In consider- ing the vast array of American and Canadian Sunday-school teachers, therefore, we are dealing, not with an unknown and unreached mass, but with an army, divided into companies by states, counties and townships or other local units, marshaled under its officers, standing at attention, and for the most part earnestly waiting for some wise and appropriate words of instruc- tion and command. Many lines of helpful effort have in the past suggested themselves to friends of these waiting hosts, corresponding in some degree to the many needs which sympathetic acquaintance is continually revealing. Denominational leaders have published, planned and pushed ; summer assembly managers have held classes and offered diplomas; institutions like the University of Chicago have offered correspondence instruction and extension work ; and for the graded and specialized primary teachers there has been a generation of co-operative and wondrously fruitful effort. All this must be classed as teacher-training. Into all these labors the International Sunday-school Association has entered, gathering up the traditions and results of early effort, correlating and unifying divergent practices and purposes, sim- plifying and standardizing the resultant statements of method and plan, and, by the sweep and momentum of its flexible and com- prehensive organization, bringing to the many, the remote, and the inert those impulses and activities which ordinarily are char- acteristic of the progressive few. In other words, the general policy of the International Sunday-school work has been applied to the special problem of teacher-training. The preparing of manuals for Sunday-school teachers was a task not neglected by the earliest friends of the cause in 63 64 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION America ; and since those formative days the industry has flour- ished. Most of these undertake to cover but a part of what the average teacher or teacher-candidate is supposed to need. The excellence of some consists in the scholarly and authoritative nature of the matter, and of others in the clarity and simplicity of the form. The ideal manual, however, is still hopefully awaited, as the two excellences mentioned are seldom even approx- imately combined. Much of the weakness of the typical normal manual seems to be due to the assumption so frequently made, that the reason why a teacher is inefficient is that he is ignorant. Such an assumption naturally arises from the fact that the ignorance of the inefficient teacher is at once the characteristic most easily observed and the want most easily supplied. But when we have supplied the lacking information, we have not necessarily added to the efficiency of our teacher; for his inefficiency may be due, not primarily to his ignorance, but to a fundamental misconception of the teacher’s task, or a lack of sympathy for childhood, or an unwillingness to pull in the school harness, or a temperamental self-distrust, or an unawakened and undedi- cated soul. Added knowledge, obviously, will not reach these needs by any intrinsic worth it may possess of itself. Only when the presented information finds waiting some appetite of the soul can it enter the life and become the creator of power. And only as the teaching plan for the training-class provides prompt and fit outlets of expression, either in research or in service, for the new life thus awakened, may we expect that the teacher- training project will really train our teachers. Otherwise, we are but filling them. Appreciating this need, the International Sunday-school Asso- ciation has through some of its leaders and departments sought to reach the teachers in other ways than through formal class instruction ; notably in the free, organized interchange of thought, stimulus, and experience secured at the summer school, the insti- tute and the graded teachers’ union. Pressure has also been brought to secure from the theological seminaries a ministry “able to teach others also.” But in the usual specific and limited sense of that awkward word, “teacher-training,” the International Sunday-school Association has done a work which is worth our study and which asks for our co-operation. While a few of the state and provincial associations, notably Illinois, New York and Nova Scotia, have for many years prose- cuted the work of organizing and leading what was formerly called normal Sunday-school teaching, no unification and expan- sion of the movement was attempted under International auspices until the time of the Ninth International Sunday-school Con- vention, held at Atlanta in 1899. At this time the International RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 65 Primary Union became more truly than before a department of the work; and under the lead of the chairman of its central committee, Mrs. J. Woodbridge Barnes, it projected a training course especially for primary teachers, selecting the materials from various books, and providing for individual enrolments, examinations and recognitions at the office of the International Primary Department. The co-operation of all the state primary superintendents, local unions and other friends of the work was enlisted; and in hundreds of weekly union meetings the sections of the training course were pursued and candidates prepared for examination. Following this pioneer International movement, the few states and provinces previously making teacher-training an organized branch of their work rapidly increased in number. The call for International direction and unification of the teacher-training forces of the country was heard by the International Executive Committee. Much was done informally by Dr. H. M. Hamill, at the time the Field Superintendent of the International work, who had for many years directed this department in the Illinois Sunday-school Association. More was done when the work was formally committed to the hands of an International Teacher- training Superintendent, also an Illinois worker, Mr. W. C. Pearce, who still holds the office. In the summer of 1903 a Committee on Education was formed, for the special purpose of fostering all forms of teacher-training. Of this Committee Dr. Plamill was made chairman, and Mr. Pearce acted as execu- tive secretary. The latest report issued by Mr. Pearce is to the effect that fifty-six state, territorial and provincial Sunday-school associa- tions now have teacher-training departments, and that the num- ber of reported enrolments, which was nine thousand at Denver, 1902, and increased to 34,000 at Toronto, 1905, is now far beyond the latter figure. We may estimate it at fifty thousand, or five per cent of the million teachers whom we saw at the outset to be connected by available channels of communication with the International Sunday-school work. Since the advent of the Committee on Education, the Primary Department — now the Department of Elementary Grades — has endeavored to withdraw from its former direct leadership of teacher-training for elementary teachers, and seeks to turn over all candidates to the care of their respective state and provincial teacher-training departments. Its work on this behalf relates now simply to the furnishing of material for elementary grades specialization, in connection with the regular first and advanced standard courses. A series of leaflets, defining the work of the cradle roll, and of the beginners, the primary, and the junior departments, has lately been issued from the International office at Chicago, and represents the present proposal of material for RELIGIOUS EDUCATION such specialized work. Other lines of special instruction in method are needed, and will no doubt soon be supplied. Meanwhile, however, the great denominations have made new beginnings of teacher-training effort, and have launched forth into various and exceedingly inco-ordinate schemes for the stimu- lating and training of their respective teaching forces. To unify these schemes so as to gain good for all from the separate excellences of each, and to make possible a basis of common work for the denominational leaders and the interdenominational asso- ciative bodies, the Committee on Education called a conference. Postponed from August, 1907, this was held in Philadelphia, January 7 and 8, 1908, at the istance of Secretary Pearce and under the chairmanship of Professor M. G. Brumbaugh as vice- chairman, Dr. Hamill being abroad. At this conference, the several denominational plans of teacher-training were explained • and informally considered, and much unconscious and whole- some unifying was germinally begun. It was heartily agreed that standardization is desirable. A “first standard course’’ for pupils needing elementary instruction, and an “advanced standard course” for students able to do work of higher grade, were agreed on as to names and specifications, as follows: It is the sense of this Conference in defining the minimum requirements for the Standardized Course for Teacher-training: (a) That such minimum should include fifty lesson periods, of which at least twenty should be devoted to the study of the Bible, and at least seven each to the study of the Pupil, the Teacher, and the Sunday School. (b) That two years’ time should be devoted to this course, and in no case should a diploma be granted for its completion in less than one year. (c) That there should be an Advanced Course, including not less than one hundred lesson periods, with a minimum of forty lesson periods devoted to the study of the Bible, and of not less than ten each to the study of the Pupil, the Teacher, the Sunday School, and Church History, Missions or kindred themes. (d) That three years’ time should be devoted to this course, and in no case should a diploma be granted for its completion in less than two years. Important advances were also made in the formulating of working plans for the enrolling of training classes in Sunday schools, the exchange of enrolments between the denominational and the interdenominational offices, and the granting of examina- tions and conferring of diplomas. While no party to the arrange- ments is less free than before, and no diminution is likely in the healthy divergence of scholastic standards which must ever prevail over so wide a field, the teacher-training forces of the continent are now at one as never before; and they are moving forward to the practical realization of their ideals. The Department of Teacher Training Minutes of Meeting at Washington, D. C. The Department of Teacher Training met at 2:30 p. m. on Thursday, February 13, 1908, in Room 312, Y. M. C. A. Building. On motion of the Rev. E. M. Fergusson, Dr. Robert R. Doherty was elected Chairman. On motion of Miss Marianna C. Brown, Miss Rose C. Talbott, of Folts Mission Institute, was elected Recording Secretary. Devotions were led by Mr. Eugene C. Foster of Philadelphia. A paper was read by the Rev. E. Morris Fergusson, Gen’l Sec’y New Jersey Sunday School Association, Newark, N. J. on “The Teacher-Training Work of the International Sunday School Association.” A paper was read by Dr. Daniel B. Purinton, President Uni- versity of West Virginia, on “The State University and Teachers of Religion.” A paper was read by Dr. Frank Knight Sanders, Secretary The Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society, Bos- ton, Mass., on “Training Teachers of Religion in the Universities and Colleges.” On motion of Miss Brown a Committee on Nominations was appointed, as follows : Mrs. Barnes, Miss Brown, Mr. E. C. Foster. The Rev. E. Morris Fergusson distributed to those present copies of a paper read by him before the Summer Assemblies Section of the R. E. A. in Boston February 1 5, 1908, on “Summer Sunday School Institutes.” Discussion was opened by Mrs. J. C. Fernald of Washington, D. C. The report of the nominating committee was as follows : President — Frank Knight Sanders, Ph.D., D.D., Boston, Mass. Recording Secretary — Rev. Lester Bradner, Jr., Ph.D., Provi- dence, R. I. Executive Secretary (elected by the Board) — Mrs. J. Wood- bridge Barnes, Newark, N. J. Members (re-elected) — Professor E. P. St. John, Hartford, Conn. ; Rev. Carlton P. Mills, Winchester, Mass. Members (new) — Mr. Charles A. Oliver, York, Pa.; Miss L. B. Miller, Herkimer, N. Y. ; Rev. Franklin D. Elmer, Winsted, Conn. ; Miss Marianna C. Brown, New York, N. Y. On motion of Mr. E. M. Fergusson, the Executive Committee was requested to prepare a year-book for the R. E. A. Per L. B., Jr. Rose C. Talbott, Sec’y. 67 The West Virginia University School of Sunday School Methods An announcement just issued calls attention to the fifth session of the School of Methods for Sunday School Workers which will be held at West Virginia University from June 29 to July 4, 1908. During three days of that week, namely, June 28, 29 and 30, a conference of the Religious Education Association will be held. At the same time, the regular Summer School of West Virginia University will be in session. It will be, therefore, a period of unusual interest and opportunity. The School of Methods has never before offered so many or so distinguished instructors. Its faculty list this summer contains a half dozen of the great names in American Sunday School work, and the Religious Education Association will bring us at the same time some of the foremost leaders in religious and edu- cational work. No tuition fee is charged. A registration fee of one dollar is charged, but students registered in the regular Summer School are not required to pay even this nominal fee. The purpose of the School of Methods is to give pastors, Sunday school superintendents, and teachers an opportunity to be instructed in the most modern methods and principles of Sunday school work by those who are recognized as experts and leaders in their various departments. As indicating the plan and character of this school of methods in religious education, the program for the period in which the school meets in conjunction with the R. E. A. Conference is given. The speakers for the special conference are : Henry Frederick Cope of Chicago, General Secretary of the Religious Education Association. Professor George A. Coe of Northwestern University, Evans- ton, Illinois. President T. E. Cramblet of Bethany College. President Carl G. Doney of West Virginia Wesleyan College. Rev. John Wiley Francis, Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Parkersburg. Rev. James E. Bird, Pastor Methodist Episcopal Church, Clarksburg. The program of the Religious Education Association will be as follows: Sunday Morning. M. E. Church, Geo. A. Coe. Subject: The Relation of Education to the Kingdom of God. Baptist Church, Henry F. Cope. Subject: Religion and Educa- tion. Presbyterian Church, Carl G. Doney. 68 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 69 Sunday Afternoon, 3 :oo O’Clock. Commencement Hall. Mass meeting on Religious Education, conducted by Mr. Cope and Mr. Coe. Sunday Evening. M. E. Church, Carl G. Doney. Baptist Church, Geo. A. Coe. Subject: The Meaning of the Movement for Religious Education. Presbyterian Church, Henry F. Cope. Subject: The Improve- ment of Religious Education. The program includes work covering the following sections of teacher-training credit : Section 2 : Sunday School management. Section 3 : The teacher; the pupil. This will enable teacher-training students who have already passed the first examination to complete the course necessary for the international diploma. Other students may receive certificates for the work of these two sections and take the first examination later. These courses will be in har- mony with the Hurlbut Normal Lessons and the Westminster Teacher Training course number one. The topics in italics con- stitute the program of the Conference of the Religious Educa- tion Association. Monday Morning. The Sunday School as an Educational Agency . . . .Henry F. Cope Bible Study H. T. Musselman Sunday School Management Geo. W. Mead Psychologic Foundations of Religious and Moral Training Geo. A. Coe Monday Afternoon. Elementary Section (Beginners) Mrs. J. W. Barnes The Sunday School as an Educational Agency. . . .Henry F. Cope What is the Sunday School Charles G. Trumbull Educational Value of Young People’s Societies, James E. Bird; and General Discussion. Sunset Meeting (on the campus) conducted by Charles G. Trum- bull. Practical Problems of Moral and Religious Training in State Schools, Geo. A. Coe ; The Religious Element in Education, Carl G. Doney. Tuesday Morning. Elementary Section (Beginners) Mrs. J. W. Barnes Elementary Section (Intermediate) Mrs. Mary F. Bryner Bible Study H. T. Musselman Sunday School Management Geo. W. Mead 70 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Principles of Religious Education , Henry F. Cope ; Psychologic Foundation of Religious and Moral Training, Geo. A. Coe. Tuesday Afternoon. Elementary Section (Beginners) Mrs. J. W. Barnes Elementary Section (Intermediate) Mrs. Mary F. Bryner The Trained Teacher— His Mission and Message H. T. Musselman Sunset Meeting (on the campus) conducted by Christopher Humble. Evangelism Through Religious Education, T. E. Cr amble ; The Educational Element in Religion, J. W . Francis. The program for the rest of the week provides a series of one-hour studies led by well-known Sunday school experts. The whole is the working out of part of the plan described in an article on another page of this magazine by the President of West Virginia University, D. B. Purinton, LL.D., to whom the credit is due for this practical method of religious education. Bible Teacher’s Institutes The Young Men’s Christian Association, of Detroit, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Wayne County S. S. Association and the Guild of the Religious Education Associa- tion of Detroit, recently united in conducting a Bible Teachers Institute. The lectures were given by Prof. Theodore G. Soares, of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, each lecture being given twice, in afternoon and evening. The outline of the course follows : i. The Modern Idea of the Meaning of Religious Educa- tion. The fundamental principles of effective teaching as applied to our problem. 2. A Study of the Personality to be Educated. The different methods required at different ages. 3. The Materials of Religious Education. Why should the Bible be the text book? How best use the Old Testament? the New? 4. Religious Teaching and the Religious Decision. Conditions of effective and permanent appeal. 5. The Progressive Training of the Teacher. A ten-days’ Institute is to be held in Ripon College, June 10-19, for the training of teachers in the church schools. It is a serious effort to apply the best educational methods to the work of religious education. Dr. Richard C. Hughes, President of Ripon College, will give a course of daily lectures on the Bible. Dr. William J. Mutch, Professor of Philosophy and Education will give courses of instruction in “Principles and Methods of Teaching,” and in “The Organization and Work of the Church School.” Text Books for Old Testament Stvidy Suitable for use in Academies, High Schools and Colleges JOHN MERLIN POWIS SMITH, Ph.D. The University of Chicago One of the greatest needs of the literature of religious edu- cation is a series of text-books upon the Old Testament, adapted to the needs of students in colleges, academies, high-schools, and adult Bible classes. There is an abundance of technical literature upon the Old Testament; nor is there any lack of semi-popular literature ; but of books adapted to the guidance of students in the task of actually studying the Old Testament itself, there is a great lack. The following list is therefore of necessity made up, not of outlines of courses of study nor of guides to study of any sort, but rather of works which summarize the results of study in fairly popular and attractive form. Of course, every student should possess himself of a copy of the American Standard Revised Version, which is published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York City, in more than a hundred different styles, at prices ranging from twenty-two cents up. McFadyen, J. E. Old Testament Criticism and the Christian Church. New York: Scribners, 1903. $1.50. This is an admirable setting forth of the modern scientific method and point of view in the study of the Old Testament. The spirit and method are irenic and the discussion is full enough to be instructive and helpful. It concerns itself not merely with the changes in the formulation of Old Testament teaching, but takes up also the implications and significance of criticism as they affect the theology and activity of evangelical Christianity. Vernon, A. W. The Religious Value of the Old Testament in the Light of Modern Scholarship. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1907. Pp. vii-f8i. $0.90. This is a much more concise presentation of the results of the critical method of study as applied to the Old Testament than the foregoing. It is not as winning in its method of ap- proach to the subject, but it offers in brief space and in attractive literary form a summary of the aspects of Old Testament religion, newly emphasized by the historical method of study. McFadyen, J. E. An Introduction to the Old Testament. New York: Armstrong, 1905. Pp. xii+356. $1.75. This is the best popular introduction to the literature of the Old Testament. It offers the information concerning the origin and character of the various books of the Old Testament that the average man desires and it is distinctly within the range of the capacity of the non-technical student. Ottley, R. L. A Short History of the Hebrews to the Roman Period. New York : Macmillan, 1901. Pp. 324. $1.25. 71 72 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION A conservative and judicial summary of the results of modern study as they affect the construction of the Old Testament his- tory. Its spirit is progressive, but the methods and results are sufficiently conservative to make the book a good work to put into the hands of those beginning the study of Israel’s history. Wade, G. Woosung. Old Testament History. 2 d ed. New York: Dutton & Co., 1903. Pp. 532. $1.50. Dr. Wade’s volume is somewhat more advanced in its histori- cal and critical principles and methods than that of Ottley, and it is therefore adapted to the demands and needs of a better prepared class of students, being much more extensive and full in its consideration of the various problems afforded by the Old Testament narratives. Mitchell, H. G. The World Before Abraham, according to Gen. i-xi, with an Introduction to the Pentateuch. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1901. Pp. 303. $1.75. This is an admirable introduction to the complicated questions of Hexateuchal criticism. It gathers up the important facts and presents them in a way intelligible to any thoughtful student. Along with this it furnishes a commentary upon the first eleven chapters of Genesis which afford good ground for class w r ork in the early ideas and institutions of Israel’s life. Kirkpatrick, A. F. The Doctrine of the Prophets. (The Warburtonian Lectures for 1886-1890.) London and New York: Macmillan, 1892. Pp. xix+544. 6s. This is the best available popular summary of the history and contents of Old Testament prophecy. Its critical standpoint is that of a mediating scholar. It constitutes a very good intro- duction to the study of prophecy, and will be found of much value in the teacher’s own preparation for his work. Harper, W. R. The Priestly Element in the Old Testament. An Aid to Historical Study for Use in Advanced Bible Classes. (Constructive Bible Studies : College Series.) 3rd edition. Chi- cago: The University of Chicago Press, 1905. Pp. 300. $1.00. President Harper’s book is the only one in this list that actually sets the student to work and guides his efforts as he proceeds, but it makes very severe demands upon the student’s time and intellect, and can be used only in the most advanced classes. It deals with the legal literature, the Psalms, the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles, and the ritualistic ideas and institutions in Israel. Davison, W. T. The Wisdom Literature of the Old Testa- ment. London: C. H. Kelley, 1893. Pp. 315. 2s 6d. This is a splendid and simple introduction to one of the richest fields in Old Testament literature. It could be used by a good teacher as the source of much information and inspiration in the study of such books as Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 73 Kent, C. F. The Wise Men of Ancient Israel and Their Proverbs. Chicago: Silver, Burdett & Co., 1899. Pp. 208. $1.25. This is a careful introduction to the book of Proverbs and the history of the proverbial literature together with analyses of the contents of the book and summaries of its most important teaching. In the light of this book the study of Proverbs might be made of real interest and value. Davison, W. T. The Praises of Israel. An Introduction to the Study of Psalms. London : C. H. Kelley, 1892. 2s 6d. No better popular guide to the study of the Psalter could be desired than this. In the hands of a skillful teacher the book of Psalms would become a new thing to an advanced class. Marti, K. The Religion of the Old Testament: Its Place Among the Religions of the Nearer East. (The Crown Theologi- cal Library.) New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907. Pp. vii+251. . $1.25, This is a splendid bird’s-eye view of the religion of the Old Testament as interpreted by modern scholars. It is altogether too summary for class use, but will be found useful in giving the teacher a connected, comprehensive view of the entire course of Israel’s religion which will enable him to study things in their proper relations. Prof. Marti is one of the most radical of historical critics. Ottley, R. S. The Religion of Israel. An Historical Sketch. London: C. J. Clay & Sons, 1905. Pp. 227. 4s. This is a somewhat more detailed summary than that of Marti and also distinctly more moderate in its conclusions, but not so attractively written nor so thoroughly straightforward and scientific in its method. But on the whole it will be found more acceptable to most teachers than Marti’s book. Hastings, J. A New Dictionary of the Bible, with maps and illustrations. New York: Scribners, 1908. $5.00. This volume, which is just about to be published, should be in the library of every Sunday school and accessible to every teacher and advanced student. It is the only popular Bible Dictionary that presents the results of the newer methods of Bible Study. Its articles are thoroughly scholarly and in each case carry the name of the author. The New Century Bible. General Editor, Walter F. Adeney. Revised Version with Notes, Index and Maps. New York: Frowde, 1904* $0.90 per volume. Nine volumes are now pub- lished. To any one desiring a popular yet thoroughly scientific com- mentary on the Old Testament, this series is to be highly recom- mended. It is slightly more severe in its demands upon the * student than is the Cambridge Bible, but its volumes are uni- formly of high grade. Whe^t has the R. E. A. Accomplished ? “Quickened the conscience of the churches with respect to their responsibility for the young; stimulated an extraordinary interest among educators the country over in the moral and religious ideals of education; has been a chief factor in produc- ing a remarkably rapid acceptance of the principle of graded lessons for the Sunday school; has stimulated investigation and publication on many phases of religious and moral education; has produced and printed a large body of fresh material on this subject; has established a permanent exhibit and bureau of infor- mation; has brought widely scattered workers of many faiths into a delightful fellowship; is the only body in existence that effectively represents the unity of education.” — George A. Coe, Ph.D., Professor Northwestern University, Evanston, III. “The Association has brought together thousands of earnest hearts and expert heads interested in religious education; cre- ated four noble volumes of literature on present ideals and meth- ods, the like of which exists nowhere else; given a stimulus to thousands of Sunday schools and hundreds of communities which they never knew before its organization ; and made more bracing morally, the atmosphere of thousands of homes, schools, col- leges, young people’s associations, and other agencies for religious education.” — Rev. William C. Bitting, D. D., Pastor Second Baptist Church, St. Louis, Mo. “The Religious Education Association is steadily accomplish- ing precisely those purposes which were outlined for it at the first convention. In the Young Men’s Christian Association it has led to the more general adoption of thorough, scholarly courses of biblical study, it has aided in the discovery and equip- ment of trained teachers and leaders, it has stimulated the pro- duction of valuable material for study, it has brought leaders to substantial agreement as to the methods and foundations of the religious education of young men, it has broadened the outlook of workers so that education has been directly related to evangelism, it has economized energy, inspired effort and effected far reaching improvements.” — L. Wilbur Messer, Gene- ral Secretary Young Men’s Christian Association, Chicago, III. “Has justified all the attention given to it during the past five years by the impetus which it has given to the general move- ment for higher standards and finer ideals of religious training. It has contributed much to the efficiency of other organizations working in the same field. It has fastened public attention upon the importance of its objective, and has furnished an opportunity for the co-operation of religious leaders of varied types in giving definite forms to their ideals.” — Frank Knight Sanders, Ph.D., Secretary Congregational S. S. and Publishing Society, Boston, Mass. 74 The Press and the Ethical Life of the Nation j. a. Macdonald Managing Editor the Globe, Toronto Two facts conspire to put upon the Press an obligation higher than the interests of its own counting-room. One is the fact of its direct, immediate, vital relation to the people. As no other institu- tion or agency the Press goes into the homes of the people, of all the people, and to a degree creates the atmosphere of their lives and influences the current of their opinions. The great educa- tional seats of learning reach but the saving remnant of our popu- lation, but the Press is the university of the common people. That fact carries with it an obligation which no responsible newspaper man will obscure or disregard. The second fact making for obligation is the freedom of the Press on this continent from any form of State censorship. One great storm-center in the Anglo-Saxon struggle for liberty, one of the strategic points gained, was the freedom of the Press. That freedom for which brave men stood against the power and the tyranny of the Kings is surely betrayed 'by the Press of to-day every time it is made to serve unjust or unworthy or merely selfish ends. By the fight and the blood of the great reformers was this freedom won, and only as the Press stands true to the truth and the right and the life by which the Nation lives and is made free can it justly claim the freedom for which Milton strove. What, then, is the function of a free Press in the life of a dem- ocratic Nation? What are its duties? ( 1 ) First is its very obvious duty to be a newspaper, a gath- erer and purveyor of news. The Press is the mirror of the Na- tion’s life. That life is filled with facts of all sorts. Those facts — some of heroism, some of sacrifice, some of brave endurance, and some of treason and outrage and lust and crime — those facts of daily life are mirrored in the daily Press. Make the facts clean and comely and the picture in the mirror will be fair to look upon. (2) But the Press is more than a mechanical reflector of the incidents of life. It is a teacher as well. Whether it will or no, it must teach. It may renounce the high dignity, it may repudiate the obligation, but its own traditions, its inherent powers and the tremendous facts of daily experience make it a teacher of the 75 76 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION masses. For weal or for woe, for truth or for error, for dignity or for shame, the newspaper of to-day, with its story of yester- day's life the world over, by its selection of news, by its emphasis, its proportion, its perspective, by its features as well as by its reasoned arguments, is foremost among the forces making for the education of the democracy, sometimes, it may be, educating men in the arts of heaven, sometimes in the arts of hell. (3) But the Press, by its professions as well as by its meth- ods, is also a guide and leader in the democracy. There are those in the craft who usually declare that a newspaper is simply and merely a reporter of news; but let an occasion arise and they throw to the winds their self-imposed limitations, and by all the arts known to the profession — by the color they give their news, by its emphasis, by its shrieking headlines, as well as by editorial comment and argument and appeal — they seek to influence public opinion, to change it, to guide it, to lead it. No, there is not among us one man with the true instinct of the profession who thinks it his whole duty, or who would be content, merely to tell what has been done. There is upon him the insistent obligation, and there is within him the irrestible impulse to tell also what ought to be done. That sense of “ought” in the Press, as in other human institu- tions, may be warped by selfishness or ignorance or prejudice, but it is there, ingrained in the very fiber of the journalistic craft and acknowledged by the public. There gathers around a newspaper an atmosphere of authority which is something other than the personality of any one of the men who make or control it, and that prestige gives distinction and command to the leadership of the Press in the democracy. Leadership in the democracy. When one thinks of what that means, of the untamed forces, the pent-up passions, the unregu- lated desires of human nature that surge unresting in the human crowd, one might well draw back from a duty so perilous, from an obligation so critical, as is involved in the function of leadership which belongs to the Press in this democratic Nation. Now let me mention some of the needs of the Press which must be had in mind if it would worthily discharge its func- tions in the life of the Nation. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 77 (1) The Press must accept frankly, intelligently, its demo- cratic responsibility. It must widen its horizons and elevate its s * standards to those of a national institution. National, not in the sense of State endowment or special privilege, but national in spirit, in motive, in ideal, conscious of the uniqueness of its func- tion, of the prestige which comes to it out of the fidelity of past generations, prestige and a power which a degenerate Press may waste, desecrate, never quite lose. As he is a traitor to the genius and honor of his profession who, being a lawyer, thinks first and most carefully of his fees, or, being a physician, of his charges, or, being a preacher, of his stipend, or, being a teacher, of his salary ; so the newspaper man who disregards the spirit of his profession and turns his task into a trade for his own gain has foresworn his birthright and is untrue to his high calling in the democracy. The opportunity of reaching the crowd which the inventive genius and the freedom of his democratic age have made possible carries with it for the Press the very distinct democratic obligation which may indeed be declined, but only at a loss of honor to the Press and of strength to the Nation. (2) The Press needs to guard vigilantly, sacredly, its own independence. That independence which enables a newspaper to take the course which its own sense of duty dictates is threatened from many quarters, but from two sides the attacks are charged with more than ordinary danger. One of these is the influence of the political parties. The daily newspapers are for the most part identified, closely or remotely, organically or sympathetically, with some one or other of the political parties. There is in that relationship no necessary dan- ger to the Nation. The danger comes only when party prejudice or party zeal blinds the Press to the essential facts. For myself, I stand for party journalism, for its integrity, and for its useful- ness ; but the party name which a newspaper of any worth accepts is merely an indication of the historic principles which it avows and of the ground upon which it stands, and in no sense carries with it adherence to party prejudices, much less the obligation to stand for party men or party measures irrespective of political principle and public duty. Independence within party lines is the desideratum in all self-respecting party journalism. That granted, 78 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION with intelligence, alertness, and public spirit, and the nation has a safeguard in the political Press. But even more menacing is the attack made upon the inde- pendence and integrity of the Press from the side of capitalism. During recent years the enormous growth of franchise-holding corporations — transportation, electric, mining, manufacturing, and the like — and the extent to which corporations and capitalists have succeeded in securing and controlling great organs of pub- lic opinion, create one of the most serious problems in the democ- racy. In England several of the greatest and most influential newspapers have been bought up by men whose business interests would be served by a change in the fiscal policy of the country, and those newspapers that for a generation stood for the rights of the people have been swung to the advocacy of the privileges of one class to which their owners belong. The same thing has hap- pened in America. On both sides of the line private individuals and private corporations have stolen their way into the sanctum of the Press, and, unawares, have chloroformed public opinion into quiescence while they acquired public franchises or lobbied through the Legislative Assembly iniquitous amendments. That is the real danger in the democracy. The Press is the mirror of the people’s life ; but it may be blurred by unclean hands. It is the mouthpiece of the people’s rights ; but it may be muffled by the pressure of private interests. It is the prophet to the people’s conscience ; but it may be seduced and made to speak Peace, Peace when there is no peace. I repeat to you the arresting words spoken on more than one occasion to Canadian newspaper men by that most distinguished member of the craft in Canada, Mr. Goldwin Smith : “Gentlemen, this is the question of first con- cern, alike to us whose calling is involved and to the democracy whose interests are at stake, What is the power behind the Press ?” That question has meaning for you as well as for us. A purchased Press, a suborned Press, a dishonest, servile, lying Press is at once the shame and the curse of the democracy, and makes for its decay. (3) The Press, if it would hold its place and come to its own, needs to accept unhestitatingly the ethical obligation. I speak for the men behind the scenes, for the best men in the journalism of RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 79 this continent, when I say that there needs be no nook or corner in any newspaper office where “there aren’t no Ten Command- ^ ments.” Falsifying the statements of political opponents, exploit- ing the tragedies of the home circle, featuring the smut of social % indecencies, offending good taste with the vulgarities of cheap humor and bad art — these things are not journalism, and when the spasm is past the Press will come to the merciful deliverance for which its best workmen devoutly pray. (4) The Press, if it is to discharge its function in the life of the Nation, needs the intelligent support and sympathetic co-oper- ation of the forces and agencies making more confessedly for in- telligence, steadiness, and righteousness in the community. Whatever accusation I might bring against the Press in a gathering of newspapermen, or whatever words of reproof and exhortation I might address to myself and my fellows in the craft, when I stand before you men from the schools and universities and churches, when I speak to men of light and leading to whom the people give heed, I am constrained to some hard say- ings. There are gracious and notable exceptions, but in the main the attitude of leaders in the circles of intellectual culture and re- ligious activity has not been helpful to the Press. Indifference or distrust or antagonism has too often been the characteristic of that attitude. You, or men like you, men of your set, have politely damned us as philistines, and too many of us have accepted the damnation and worked to deserve it. Even some of the best of you will not study our conditions or make allowances for our lim- itations. You see an item here or a story there that might better have been withheld ; but you do not care to know of the number- less stories that are suppressed — stories that you and the good people of your class as well as the man in the street and the club would read with avidity — suppressed solely because public justice did not demand their publication, and because private individuals might be spared the sting and the shame. You know of one here or another there who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, but you give no heed to the splendid fact that on the staff of every * great daily newspaper are men on small salaries who might have been rich had they only taken the bribe of some capitalist or cor- poration or stock- jobbing concern. You scoff at what you call 80 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION “newspaper style,” forgetful that the presses will be running long before your polished paragraph is written, and that the eager crowd in the street will not wait while you verify quotations and balance the niceties of syntax. More than that. You forget the Press is not set apart in the grove on the wide rimmed campus where there is perspective and elbow-room, but in the thickest of the crowd, with the tramp of the democracy in its ears and the dust of the mob in its eyes. You may call the elect to some quiet place and there discourse in steady tones; we must stay with the crowd, touched by their emotions, shut in by their life. If we rise too high above them they will not hear, if we travel too far ahead they will not follow. You can wait for the results of your teaching and preaching, we must do our work in the span of this hour, for a newspaper has no to-mor- row. And, worst of all, you are apt to forget that, mighty though the Press may be, it has within itself no prescriptive right against decay and no power making for its own redemption. The prob- lem of the Press, in the last analysis, is the problem of the people. Make your people good and clean and truth-loving, and your Press will be free from guile. I tell you solemnly that the best journals on this continent withstood the downgrade in your coun- try’s life and fought their fight inch by inch against the material- ism and mammonism and pleasure-lust of your people. But the odds were against them, and reinforcements from the church and college and circles of culture were too slow or their forces were misled. And in the day of America’s Armageddon, unless a power stronger than the Press, a power more redemptive, more dynamic, more divine, works for the regeneration and steadiness of our democratic institutions the cause of democracy itself is lost, the pillars of its house will fall. But I am no pessimist. The best is yet to be. There is a sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees. A new life is stirring in the pulpits and classrooms and homes of this land. A new note has been struck. And the Press will not fail ; the Press will swing true to the ideals of the democracy. And, when the fight is on, a free Press will stand as the last citadel of the people’s rights and the first hope of the new Nation. 3 0112 062267882