Try writing out the story of Jonah, without the book. Compare your work with the original. How might you have been less diffuse? What necessary points did you omit? Did you use more or fewer general terms than the original? Were your words and expressions so picturesque as those in the text?
_Examples._ By way of ill.u.s.trating the meaning of the foregoing points, it may be interesting to note the difference in concreteness, _i.e._, in the _picture_, to be found in the following paragraphs, all of which are intended to mean practically the same thing.
(_a_) One bidden to obey and refusing, but afterward obeying, is a better example of obedience than one who obeys in word but not in deed.
(_b_) Some one who was requested to do something refused in word, but obeyed in deed; another complied, but only in word. Which was the better example of obedience?
(_c_) If some one in authority should tell some one to do something and he should refuse but afterward comply, and should tell another to do something and he should say that he would without doing so, which of these really would perform the will of the one who gave the command?
(_d_) A certain man had some children. One day he told one of them to go and do some work that he wanted him to do. But the child said that he wouldn"t, etc.
(_e_) Compare with these the same thought clothed in the concrete and picturesque words of our Lord himself:
"But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.
"He answered and said, I will not: but afterwards he repented, and went.
"And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
"Whether of them twain did the will of his father?"
It would be equally possible to take the same clear-cut, dramatic picture and load it down--smother it--with words. But this kind of picture-work it is unnecessary to ill.u.s.trate.
_Expression._ Read each of the parables of Jesus, picturing in your mind everything that can be seen, heard, or felt. "Put yourself in his place" regarding every one spoken of. When you have thus pictured the story, and while you are picturing it, read aloud, or tell the story.
The expression will take care of itself--_if only you see and hear_. In this simple principle is contained the whole art of expression, _i.e._, of giving forth something which is within.
_Environment._ What kind of country was Palestine? If Palestine were taken up from the sh.o.r.e of the Mediterranean and planted on your state, where would Dan and Beersheba lie respectively? Wherein did its divisions differ, in respect of people, surface, products, occupations?
The four routes of Christ"s princ.i.p.al journeys are given as follows: Bethlehem to Jerusalem, 6 miles north; Bethlehem to Egypt, 250 miles southwest; Nazareth to Jericho, 60 miles southeast; Nazareth to Jerusalem, 65 miles south. Trace these routes on a sand map and on the blackboard. Describe the country pa.s.sed through, the occupations of the people, the mode of travel, the length of time required.
Account for the roughness of the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.
What kind of place was Caesarea Philippi, and what kind of stream is the Jordan at that point?
_Sketching._ The teacher should practice until he can make, with the flat crayon, something that looks like a mountain, a road, a tree--a sc.u.mble for the foliage and a stroke or two for the trunk, a man--two strokes will do for him (some teachers prefer to cut out pictures and pin them on the board). It must be admitted that this method of trial and error is dangerous. But there are self-taught teachers who do pretty well.
_Map-drawing._ To learn to sketch a map is a more hopeful task. Every one should be able to follow on pad or blackboard a campaign, a flight into Egypt, and a march up into Canaan; and to trace the journeys of Jesus and of Paul.
The following directions will be found helpful in drawing, free-hand and with only two construction lines, the map of Palestine:
Draw a horizontal line, and on it with the span of the hand, or with any convenient unit, measure three units, indicating their extremities by the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, from left to right. At the right extremity of this line, which we designate 4, draw a vertical line five units in length (4-9). From the upper extremity of this line draw to the left a line parallel to 1-4, one unit in length (9-10). Join points 1 and 10 with an irregular line, thus indicating the coast. A perpendicular let fall from 10 to 3 would indicate the course of the Jordan, the source lying nearly opposite 8, the Sea of Galilee opposite 7, the Dead Sea between 4 and 5; and Judaea, Samaria, Galilee, and Phoenicia will each occupy, roughly speaking, one and a half units. The princ.i.p.al mountains, cities, routes, may be indicated by initials, signs, or in any other appropriate ways. Each unit being 40 miles in length, the dimensions of Palestine and its parts may be derived. This same system may, of course, be used in drawing any map.
Miss Lucy Wheelock says that "the most satisfactory map is one which the teacher makes herself, drawing the outlines with a blue marking crayon on a sheet of white silesia, or finished cotton cloth, and putting in thin strips of wood or rollers at top and bottom, so that it will hang easily."
_The sand table_, especially with work for younger children, is indispensable. This every one can learn to make and manage and can fit out with the needed materials. Let no one shrink from the simple task of getting together the equipment and learning to model a map of Palestine.
The following description of the way of making a sand map of Palestine has been kindly furnished by Miss Juliet E. Dimock of Elizabeth, N.J., whose theory and practice in primary cla.s.ses are alike admirable:
"Any carpenter will make for you a board, four feet six inches long, and two feet six inches wide, with a raised edge of one and one half inches. Paint the surface a bright blue, to represent the waters of the Mediterranean. Procure about fifty pounds of molders" sand from a stove foundry. The new sand is preferable to that which has been used for casting, owing to its lighter color. Study a good map of Palestine until you have a clear idea of the coast-line, the sea-coast plain, the mountain region, with its princ.i.p.al peaks, the Jordan valley, and the eastern table land."
(A relief map is desirable as a guide. The relative heights of mountains are given in Hurlbut"s "Bible Geography." A cross-section of Palestine showing relief is given in the "Bible Study Union Lessons,"
Old Testament History, Progressive Grade, First Quarter, Appendix pp.
(V.), (VI.). The Bible Study Publishing Co., 21 Bromfield Street, Boston, Ma.s.s.)
"Cut a paper pattern of the rivers and have them cut out of tin by a tinsmith. Use mirrors for the waters of Merom, the Dead Sea, and the Sea of Galilee, and white cord for the roads.
"When you are ready to go to work, place the board on a table and empty upon it your box of sand, which should be dampened until it can easily be molded by the hand. Raise the head of the board, until the children can see your work; if the sand is damp enough to keep its place, it can be inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees. At first the children will be interested in seeing you form the map; the coast-line, with its "camel"s hump" for Mt. Carmel, the mountains, with snow-capped Hermon towering above them all, the seas, rivers, roads, and finally the white paper boats on the Mediterranean.
"Take five minutes every Sunday for a supplemental lesson on the history of the land, beginning with the first settlement of the country by the Canaanites, the family of Noah"s grandson. Use the map also, whenever it is possible, to ill.u.s.trate the lesson for the day; either as a map, or by building up the sand into a city, a garden, a temple, or a palace. The supplemental course might begin with the Garden of Eden, with as great a variety of trees, flowers, and animals, as may be easily obtained. And by turning the board around, the map of the ancient world may be made, and the stories of Noah, Babel, and Abram"s journey from Ur of the Chaldees. Use small objects to make the places on the map, and replace them with initial blocks when the children are sufficiently familiar with the story to tell it to you. A very little ingenuity on the part of the teacher will suggest the objects to be used, which can be readily cut out of colored card-board.
"After school, return the sand to its box and pour at least a quart of water over it. It will then be in good condition for next Sunday"s use."
_Specifics._ True picture-work has, as we have seen, a true bearing upon the question, How to help children conquer their faults. "Don"t,"
even "Please don"t," is ineffectual and unpedagogical. So is every means that is direct and negative instead of indirect and constructive.
It is a thousand times easier to empty a tumbler of air by filling it with water than by the use of the air pump.
And so, just as we know that singing has a marvelous power to sweeten and calm the spirit of a young child, so a story is often the shortest and the most effective means to bring him to himself. A story is a specific. The right story will heal its proper disorder. There is danger here, "tis true; "the intent to teach," as Herbart writes, spoils it all. Stories should be given as food rather than as medicine.
There is all the greater need, therefore, for practice.
Find, adapt, make up stories to meet the needs of a child who is idle; of one who is mean, lacks self-control, is slovenly, careless, untruthful, etc.
_Texts._ On the other hand, it is just as necessary that ill.u.s.trations attach themselves to their proper principles, as that principles find the concrete key that will serve as their open sesame into the child"s mind.
Mr. Barrie tells of a newspaper writer who never conversed five minutes with a friend without getting a suggestion for a leader or a "story."
The teacher ought to be no less fertile in finding texts, and in pressing everything he meets--whether in books, in newspapers, or on the street--into the service of the Sunday-school lesson.
For example, the street car on which you ride to school or to business in the morning suddenly stops. It stands still three, five, fifteen minutes. You are late. Twenty others are late. Reason, a careless truck-driver has driven an inch too near the track. What does this ill.u.s.trate?
A pound of cotton, worth a few cents, may be made into yarn and become worth more; into chintz and be worth still more, etc. What is the truth hidden in this fact?
A thoughtful teacher, in reply to the question, "What stories have you found especially helpful?" contained in the blank on story-telling (Chapter X.), gave the following:
"Cato"s words, "Carthage must be destroyed" (the power of words); Hercules at the parting of the ways (the necessity of choice); Macbeth"s "I have lived long enough" (the end of a wasted life); The Ancient Mariner--"He prayeth best" (the secret of prayer); the parable of the wicked husbandmen (irreverence)."
VIII.
BOOKS, PICTURES, AND ILl.u.s.tRATIVE MATERIAL.
The teacher should be a capitalist. He should not run dry every Sunday, and fill in during the week only enough for the next lesson; as a schoolboy who fills his mind with facts and empties it on examination day. The true teacher is independent of the "Quarterly." He uses it but does not lean on it. For the facts there given are, as a rule, isolated, and so half dead; the ill.u.s.trations are at best warmed over.
Neither can give a strong head of steam. There is not enough, and what there is is cold.
Other remedies for this condition are suggested elsewhere. Here it is urged that the teacher must be a reader of books. The following are given as types. They have been selected after searching the lists of many publishers, and are recommended only after a personal examination: