DAVID ANOINTED BY SAMUEL By courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York A Bible story told in silver. This picture is of Byzantine mosaic on silver. The article is a silver dish. DAVID KILLING THE LION By courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York This is a Bible story told in silver work. The date is about 500 A.D. It is Byzantine mosaic work on silver. T Home Bible Study HE younger members of the family may be instructed and interested in the Bible through the telling of Bible stories and the dramatic portrayal of Bible scenes and characters. Many mothers, however, will wish some definite suggestions with respect to what may seem to them a more serious study of the Bible. The Sunday school is a splendid institution, but after all it has a very limited opportunity; often not more than twenty-five hours of actual time in the whole year are at the disposal of the school for lesson study. The lessons are necessarily fragmentary and the courses leave large and very important areas of the Bible, like the Prophets and the Epistles, almost untouched. The older members of the family, especially those boys and girls who feel that they are too big for Sunday school, are left wholly unprovided with any definite Bible reading or study. DO IT IN THE HOME In all cases the earnest mother will not desire to leave the religious education of her children wholly to the Sunday school. The home is the place above all others in which to give that instruction, that love of higher things, without which any life is a failure. Some mothers may not have time and some may possibly feel that they do not possess the ability to avail themselves of the suggestions for home story-telling and dramatic representation of Biblical scenes, though they are worth a trial by every one, and sometimes unsuspected abilities are developed by the trying. However, the following definite suggestions are made even for those who use at times other methods. I. For the Youngest Children. A COURSE IN BIBLE STORIES For this purpose use Volume I. Here will be found a large number of Bible stories retold in simple language and suited to the younger children. The pictures and poems may be used effectively in connection with the Bible stories. One of the stories may be 159 read every night as a "bedtime story" in place of other material. The child will quickly learn to read the simple sentences and stories of the first part of the volume. The child who is made familiar with this volume will very soon come to have a good knowledge of the Bible and a sound basis for future reading and study. These stories told in simple language should be supplemented very soon by readings from the Biblical text, for children should be accustomed at an early age to the music of the Biblical language. There are versions of the Bible in which the whole book is told in short and familiar words. This is wholly unnecessary and deprives the child of the discipline and training which come from familiarity with noble and exalted language. John Ruskin was required when he was a boy to read the whole Bible from beginning to end, and he says that he profited by it, but there are very few boys who possess the genius, to say nothing of the patience, of John Ruskin! To most children this would be a bitter task performed grudgingly and rebelliously, and it would be worse than useless, resulting in a life-long distaste for the Bible. There are wiser methods. The child will understand at a very early age the simple portions of the text, the actual stories upon which the retold stories are based. MEMORIZING BIBLE PASSAGES The child should also be taught to memorize portions of the Bible. The portion memorized will then be the abiding treasure of the child's mind, available in after days in time of weariness and sickness, at night, when the Bible text is not at hand. The writer had a friend whose husband was dying. He asked her to repeat some of the great poems. "Unfortunately," she said, "I had never learned the great poems which he loved, but I repeated 'The Lord is my Shepherd' and that comforted him greatly." She could not have found in the whole range of literature a greater or a more comforting poem. The shorter Psalms, the words of Jesus, and the greater passages from the epistles will be found especially valuable for the purpose. The following passages are suggested: Psalms 1, 8, 19, 23, 24, 28, 34, 42, 47, 70, 80, 84, 90, 91, 93, 95, 96, 97, 121, 130, 134, 147, 148, 149, 150; Isaiah 40:28-31, see 4:133; 52, see 4:158; 53, see 4:160; 55, see 4:163; 60, see 4:171. Then take portions of the Proverbs; many of the short sayings such as, anger, A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up are particularly valuable for the training of children and they "stick" in the child's mind, as they were intended to do. The Beatitudes, Matt. 5:1-12; see 6:76. The Lord's Prayer, Matt. 6:9-13; see 6:143. The Lost Sheep, Luke 15:4-7; see 6:155. John 14; see 6:325 John 15; see 6:329 I Corinthians 13; see 7:208. II Corinthians 4:16-18; see 7:227. Gal. 6:1-10; see 7:259. Ephesians 6:10-20; see 7:277. Revelation 21:1-4; see 7:463. Revelation 22:1-5; see 7:466. This by no means exhausts the list of great passages, and doubtless there are favorite passages of different individuals not noted here. It is a characteristic of the Bible that it appeals to different people in different ways and the comfort which one finds may not be exactly that which helps another. Of course, a child will not learn all or perhaps more than a few of the passages given. The mother should go through the list and select those things which will be most valuable. If only one or a few are really learned, the possession will be valuable, the child's mind will be the richer because it has had impressed upon it some of the most beautiful expressions of great thoughts of the ages. A new method of memorizing is recommended. By this method a passage is learned entirely and not piece-meal by lines or a few words at a time. Secure the child's complete attention; read the passage over, perhaps ten, perhaps twenty times, being sure that it is absolutely clear in meaning even after the first reading; and |