Chapter VI: Part 6

#17. General Characteristics.#--A broad survey of this period reveals the fact that in a peculiar way God is preparing life for entrance upon the larger opportunities and responsibilities of maturity. There is new physical strength, new intellectual vigor, greater power of absorption and assimilation, a wider diffusion of interest. The curiosity of earlier years becomes a real spirit of investigation along lines of interest, and questioning, not alone to find out facts, but also foundations of belief begins to appear. The individuality of each child stands out more distinctly and emphasizes itself in two marked ways--first, the desire for prominence, and, second, an independence of spirit and action. Yet, with all this independence, the boys and girls are easily dealt with if authority is administered by one whose personality has commanded respect and love.

#18. Specific Characteristics.#

(1) _Energy,--physical and mental._ Though this has already been referred to in a general way, it must have special mention as one of the most marked and important features of the Junior period. Physical vigor is apparent in the force of bodily movements so trying to sensitive nerves--God's provision for the excess of nervous activity. It also appears in the type of games belonging to this period and the intensity with which they are played. The new mental power is evident in the ability to perform more difficult and complex mental tasks, to reason more clearly, and to attend more closely.

(2) _Development of the social instinct._ These years mark the rapid development of insistent and insatiable desire for close companionship with others. There are no standards of attainment nor social distinctions according to which friends are chosen. The "gang" or the club is based entirely on kinship of spirit among those of the same age and sex. Often geographical lines enter in, and the boys of a certain street or district will band together, and not uncommonly be the sworn enemies of other gangs for no more valid reason than love of contest, growing out of the instinct of rivalry. But this martial aspect of gang life is not a characteristic of all the social tendency of the period. There is a drawing of child to child for peaceable purposes, the joy of common sympathies and interests and the fun of expeditions and good times together. This social awakening is God's plan for leading the life into larger relationships preparatory to taking its place in the world. What the companionship is in its influence upon character and ideals is the serious question for the home and the Sunday-school teacher.

(3) _Hero-worship._ This is pre-eminently the hero-worshiping period, with all that means in incentive to effort, in patterns of life, in imitation, in character-building. In mature years, the ideal of life is either a composite from many lives or, if it be one individual, a dissected individual, certain qualities picked out for admiration and emulation,--and over the rest, a mantle of charity. This analysis of character and discrimination is possible only to an intelligent and developed life. The child accepts his hero in his entirety. Whatever he does is right and is the goal of effort in imitation.

The physical element enters largely into the ideal of this period because of the prominence of the physical in the child's life, and, unhappily, physical and moral strength are not always balanced. Too much of the literature written to supply the ravenous desire of this age for reading portrays physical strength in criminal and in daredevil molds, and the moral side of the ideal is not only unfed, but perverted. The Sunday-school teacher must help the home at this point to supply the boys and girls, through books and living personality, with all the elements of worthy and imitable ideals, since the task of finally shaping these ideals lies in the years just beyond.

(4) _Memory in the height of its power._ The broader the responsibilities to be assumed, the greater the demand upon the soul's resources to meet them. Just at the threshold of a larger life, the mind comes into its greatest power of retention. During the years from about nine to fifteen, conditions never to return so favorably make possible the fullest, broadest, and more accurate storing of the mind. The exact wording of a passage of Scripture is as easy to secure as the general sense of its meaning. Whole chapters do not tax the pupil beyond his mental ability. The mechanical, literal side of instruction, which deals with maps and names and facts about the Word, written and incarnate, should now be given. Held tenaciously and exactly in memory, they will reveal the spiritual treasure they contain to the larger spiritual vision of the next period. The careful selection and explanation of that which is to be memorized, so necessary in the preceding period, is not as necessary during these years. The enlarged experience of the child will make some meaning inhere in everything which is brought to him, so that it is not the dead weight it would have been earlier. Yet an abundant supply of food, intellectual and spiritual, for the present needs of an active, investigating, and tempted life must not be overlooked in eagerness to store for the future.

(5) _Habit formation._ The two physical conditions necessary for habit formation, easily impressed brain cells, and activity making these impressions, are at their best during this period. Every time an act is performed, a nervous force passes through the brain, stimulating nerves and muscles to action, and leaving the trace of its passage. Each repetition of the action deepens the tracing, until little pathways are established, and the nervous force follows these naturally and involuntarily. Sooner than is realized the pathway is so deep that only by effort can a given thought or nervous stimulus express itself in any other way than by passing through the accustomed channels out into the old action,--and this is habit.

The early stages are easy, usually unconscious, but any change when the path is deep and the cells hardened means greatest effort, and often unavailing struggle with self. The drunkard who in his sober moments implores the saloon-keeper to refuse him liquor, no matter how he may plead for it later, reveals the fact that habit or the tendency to follow the old brain paths may become stronger than desire and will and all outer human influence and incentives combined. Therefore the habit-forming period, when pathways may be traced in any direction, becomes one of the most responsible and wonderful of the life.

Test Questions

1. What are some of the general characteristics of the Junior Age? The years included?

2. Name five specific characteristics of the Junior Age.

3. How does energy show itself at this time?

4. What are some of the signs of the social instinct?

5. What is the great purpose of that instinct?

6. How may hero-worship be used by the teachers?

7. What teaching material is peculiarly well suited to the memory-activity of this period?

8. What is the process by which habit is created?

Test Questions for Review

Lessons 1 to 5

1. Give several reasons why it is important for the Sunday-school teacher to know the pupil.

2. How may the teacher best come to know the pupil?

3. What are the special characteristics of children of the Beginners age?

4. How would you develop true faith in a child?

5. What is the difference between influence and precept? Illustrate both.

6. How would you guide a child's activity in the right direction?

7. What results may properly be looked for in the Beginners age?

8. What general difference is there between children of the Beginners and the Primary age?

9. Describe and illustrate perception, memory, and imagination.

10. What is the difference between children's and grown people's motives for service?

11. Mention several characteristics of the Junior age.

12. What is the social instinct, and how does it show itself?

13. What sort of teaching material is well adapted to the Junior age?

Lesson 6

Junior Age (Concluded)

#19. Opportunities of the Junior Age.#--No period offers opportunities bearing more directly and openly upon the formation of character than the Junior period, when manhood- and womanhood-to-be are so rapidly determining. Out of these opportunities five may be selected as most significant:

(1) _The opportunity to gain spiritual ends through social means._ The more a teacher can enter into the fun-loving, companionship-craving side of the pupil's heart, the greater his power over that life for distinctly spiritual things. It is after the party or the picnic or the tramp together that the personal message can be spoken.

(2) _The opportunity to arouse and to guide the pupil's effort through heroic ideals._ Sermonizing on what they should do is practically valueless with boys and girls of this age, for considerations of duty weigh little until the larger moral consciousness of the next period. Furthermore, they live but for the day, and do not appreciate the relationship between present action and future character. What they may do later as a result of their own convictions and understanding, they may be inspired to do now through the hero who has aroused their admiration and desire of imitation.

(3) _The opportunity to establish right habits of life._ The pathways of service through which the Christian life ought to express itself must be definitely and painstakingly traced in this period and the next. Motives for the action may not be the highest, and must often be supplied by another. For example, the daily Bible reading that ought to be prompted by real love for the Word later may now be done for love of the teacher--or because the promise was given, but in any event it is leaving its indelible impress--and making the "Quiet Hour" more assured in the future.

(4) _The opportunity to build Bible knowledge into character._ Impressions are necessary and effective in their place, but something more definite is needed for stability of character. The opportunity of supplementing impressions with facts is the one offered by this Golden Memory period. Two points should be noted:

/#
(_a_) The mind is growing in its power to associate facts.
The association of events around a person or a place is
easily made now, and toward the end of the period sequences
of time and cause and effect are grasped.

(_b_) The Holy Spirit can bring to the remembrance only that
which has been in the mind. Therefore the teacher who stores
the memory at this time with Scripture passages makes it
possible for God to speak to the heart in later years.
#/

(5) _The opportunity to lead to open confession of Jesus Christ._ This is not to force, it is not to play upon the child's emotions, and lead him to do that which has no foundation in a consciousness of his own relation to Christ, but something is radically wrong in the home and something lacking in the teacher's work, if the boys and girls do not really love the Lord Jesus in this period. They do not understand it all, but the essentials of a Christian life they may have,--love, faith, penitence for wrongdoing, and the desire to serve Christ. Their experience cannot be that of an adult, for they have not his insight. But just as surely as the love and caress of the child is precious and acceptable to a mother even before there can be any comprehension on his part of the sacrificial character of mother-love, so is child-love precious and accepted with the Master even before the child grasps the great spiritual contents.

#20. Needs of the Junior Age.#

(1) _The presentation of Christianity as something to do rather than to be._ The boys and girls do not live in inner experiences in these years, but in outward, energetic action; therefore, what they may do for Jesus Christ and others needs emphasis. This presentation also includes a Christ who appeals to boyhood and girlhood, the wonder-worker of Mark, the God-Man of Matthew and Luke, and the victorious King of Revelation.

(2) _Opportunities for service._ These must be carefully devised by the teacher, with the twofold purpose of giving immediate expression to the desire to do something and leading to the formation of habits of Christian activity.

(3) _Christian heroes._ The teacher ought to be a Christian hero himself. Out of missionary literature, out of the lives of great men who have lived, out of Bible characters, heroes must be multiplied. The Sunday-school lessons ought to be hero studies, not sermons. Heroic literature ought to be put into the hands of the children--either directly or through indirect suggestion in some curiosity-arousing reference to the story. This means the most effective type of instruction during all the week as well as Sunday.

(4) _A lesson requiring work on the part of the pupil._ Telling a Junior class primary stories will deplete it in numbers and weaken it in strength. Assigned work to be prepared at home, questions, note-books, map-making, anything to stimulate and utilize the activity of mind and body through interest, not compulsion, is the great necessity of the lesson hour.

#21. Difficulties of the Junior Age.#--Three difficulties may be encountered.

(1) _A misdirected energy._ Energy means finest growth and development if it is under direction and control, but devastation otherwise. The key to the situation is in the teacher's personality, plus a plan for the hour's work, appealing to interest and calling for constant activity, either mental or physical, on the part of the pupil.

(2) _Evil associates._ The teacher cannot guard the child through the seven days of a week; often the home does not, and in this new social interest there is a danger from evil associates. Better pastoral work by the teacher, a closer co-operation with the home, and substitutive--not prohibitive--measures avail much in meeting this difficulty.

(3) _The enticement of bad literature._ This period and the next are the time of greatest hunger for reading and there is a real danger from the temptations of pernicious books. Satan has emissaries on the school-grounds and in the candy store, and boys and girls are his shining marks. The substitutive measures here again are the only wise and effective ones.

#22. Results to be Expected in the Junior Age.#--The results of work in this period ought to appear in an increase in Bible knowledge, the strengthening of right habits and manly ideals of life, and back of it all the warm love of boyhood and girlhood for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Test Questions

1. How may spiritual ends best be gained?

2. How may the pupil's efforts in right doing be aroused?

3. What is needed in this period in addition to impressions?

4. What essentials of the Christian life may the pupils readily have at this period?

5. What aspect of Christianity appeals most to pupils of this age?

6. What method of teaching should be substituted for story telling?

7. What three difficulties may be encountered in the Junior Age?

8. What results may be expected?

Lesson 7

The Intermediate Age--Twelve to Sixteen

#23. General Character of the Period of Adolescence.#--The Intermediate age ushers in a time known as adolescence, including the years approximately from twelve to twenty-four, during which life passes from childhood to maturity. The period is marked by the development of new physical powers, new emotions, new ideals and conceptions of life, and a new spiritual consciousness. The change from the old life to the new, from the narrow to the broad, from interests selfish and small to interests as far-reaching as the world and eternity, is often accompanied by more or less upheaval in the soul and this period of re-adjustment may be a time of "storm and stress."

Two facts out of the many suggest the critical nature of adolescence:

(1) During these years the pupil is most susceptible to the power of influence. It does not touch his life simply as an impression, but as an impelling, determining force inciting him to action.

(2) Life rarely changes in its tendencies and character after full maturity has come. There is a physical reason for this in the hardening of the brain which fixes the pathways of habit and renders new lines of thought and action difficult. Therefore, in all probability as life emerges from adolescence will it enter eternity.

#24. General Characteristics of the Intermediate Age.#--Many of the characteristics of the Junior age are still evident, though modified by fuller development. Physical energy has increased and the mind has greater power, especially in its ability to reason. No disillusioning has come to destroy the old hero-worship, but with even more intensity each life clings to that one who embodies its aspirations. The hunger for general reading reaches its climax in this period, to be succeeded by specialized interest in lines determined by the taste of the individual.

Lacking still the self-control of manhood, breaking from the old life and dimly apprehending as yet the meaning of the new, under the domination of impulse and influence as well as of dawning conviction, the Intermediate age offers particularly trying problems with its great opportunities.

#25. Special Characteristics of the Intermediate Age.#

(1) _The functioning of new physical powers._ This is one of the most significant changes in the Intermediate period, because of its physical effects and its reflex influence upon the mental and emotional life. Severe temptations often have to be met, questioning and unwise introspection, and the teacher ought to be a confidential friend as well as instructor.

(2) _A condition of instability and easy excitation._ The nervous system is abnormally sensitive and quickly disturbed. The mind is keyed to vigorous, intense, and often unbalanced thought, but it is in the feelings that the lack of poise is most manifest. Whether the teacher can assign causes or not, he is conscious that the emotions are a veritable tinder-box, easily kindled into a great fire by a very little matter. Superlatives, slang, and the highest pitches of enthusiasm are common experience, and because action and reaction are equal and opposite, periods of depression corresponding to those of exhilaration are almost inevitable.

(3) _A new personal consciousness._ There are several marked evidences of its existence.

(a) Care for appearance. In the beginning of this period,
what others think is a matter of supreme indifference, but it
is not long before a desire to appear well manifests itself.
Solicitude as to one's personal looks is supplemented by
anxiety over the condition of the home, the standing of the
family, the social position and dress of the companions.
Naturally, judgment of others is based on outward appearance
rather than on real worth of character.

(b) Desire for appreciation. An intense longing is
experienced to have talents, accomplishments, wits,
efforts--everything which pertains to self valued at par or
above. For this cause there is frequent public parade of
wares, as in the case of the smart youth or the girl who
draws attention to herself by loud talking and laughter. The
same longing works self-consciousness, embarrassment, and
awkwardness in others who feel themselves deficient, neither
class as yet apprehending the truth that character, not
external show, wins the truest meed of praise from the world.

(c) A sense of approaching manhood and womanhood. This makes
the life sensitive beyond expression to reproof or criticism,
particularly in public. It also explains the restlessness and
desire to enter at once upon the life-work.

(4) _Increasing Social Appetite._ The boy who said in answer to a remonstrance over his presence in the billiard hall and bowling alley, "A fellow has got to have fun somewhere," voiced the sentiment of all his confreres in the Intermediate period. The desire for good times is paramount, and its right indisputable in the conception of the young people. The delight in healthy outdoor sports continues with the athletically inclined, and ought to be fostered as a safety valve for surplus energy, a diverter of self-centered thought, and a tonic for excitable nerves. In the latter part of this period, however, the love of fun gives place to a love of functions, either the helpful sort of social commingling or the danger-filled type, marked by late hours, excitement, and overwrought imagination. This transition comes from a growing mutual attraction between the sexes which has succeeded the repulsion evident in the early part of the period.

(5) _The Development of the Altruistic Feelings._ Though these feelings are not unknown to childhood, their vigorous development does not begin until the Intermediate period. The pupil now experiences an impulse from within to sacrifice for others and make his life a source of blessing. The new sense of God and his claims intensifies and vitalizes the desires. Unselfishness appears, interest in the welfare of others as well as self, and willingness to do for them even at personal cost. These are the feelings that make it possible to say "Brother," and to love the neighbor as one's self. They can come only as the meaning of life is better understood. They can remain only as they are given constant expression in action.

(6) _A Spiritual Awakening._ Even though the pupil may be a genuine Christian, there comes to him at this time a larger consciousness of God and the soul's relation to him, and with it a call to full surrender. Whereas the childhood relation to God was based on feeling, there is now the element of will-power which must ratify by deliberate choice that which love has prompted. If the pupil is not a Christian, this awakening comes as God's call to accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and crown him Lord of the life as well. If the call is not heeded now, its tones grow less and less distinct, until, in the strident cries of the world, they may be silenced forever.

Test Questions

1. What is meant by adolescence?

2. What is the general character of the period?

3. What two facts indicate the critical nature of this period?

4. What six special characteristics mark this period?

5. What two signs of personal consciousness?

6. What desire is paramount at this time?

7. What is meant by altruistic feelings? Describe their development.

8. What new element now enters in to affect the relation to God?

Lesson 8

The Intermediate Age (Concluded)

#26. Opportunities of the Intermediate Age.#--There is a significant difference in the purpose of the opportunities presented during childhood and during adolescence. If they were to be summed up in key-words, that for childhood would be absorption; for adolescence, adjustment.

The opportunities of childhood converge toward supplying the soul with material needful for growth--influences, impressions, and a mass of facts more or less unconnected in the beginning. But this is only the first step in character building. These materials must be arranged, facts must be related to one another, and the life must be related to other lives in real interest, sympathy, and service. This process of relating fact to fact, life to life, and each soul anew to God is the paramount task of adolescence, even though absorption continues with almost unabated strength.

Analyzing the opportunities which are presented to the Intermediate teacher in this new adjustment of life, three stand out prominently:

(1) _The opportunity to foster high ideals._ Whether it be consciously defined or not, every one has that toward which ambitions and effort go forth, and this ideal determines what character shall be. No one can give an ideal to another, as a book is handed over, for it is a personal thing, to be fashioned by each soul for itself out of that which it has absorbed through the years.

It is in the transition from childhood to maturity that every life decides what (for it) seems most worth while, and to this ideal makes surrender of thought, desire, and effort. Is not God's gracious purpose evident, in that this is the time when life is most easily influenced?

(2) _Opportunity to develop self-reliance._ A life cannot count for God and for others unless it can make decisions and meet tests by itself. The power to do this comes only through effort to do it. During the Intermediate age, the young people may be more and more thrown upon their own resources, permitted to decide matters for themselves, learning wiser judgment through mistakes as well as successes. One of the most serious errors on the part of the teacher lies at this very point, dictating instead of suggesting, choosing for the pupil instead of allowing him to choose, thinking for him instead of stimulating every power of his soul to rise to a personal solution of the problem in hand. If strength and independence of character do not come in these years of adjustment, the probabilities are that life will always be weak and vacillating.

(3) _The opportunity to strengthen the altruistic feeling or "love for the other."_--In the broadening and deepening experience of adolescence such conceptions as love, suffering, sacrifice, and surrender reveal a new meaning and strange force of attraction. No opportunity comparable to the one presented in this awakening ever returns, as the soul, with life before it, stands at the divergence of the paths, one leading toward God and service, the other away from him into self, and deliberate, decisive choice to be made.

If through the influence of the Holy Spirit the pathway of service be chosen, two laws of God tend to make it permanent; (a) The law of growth and development. If the feelings have proper nourishment, _i. e._, something to arouse them, and are given expression in action, they will just as surely grow strong as a well-nourished, vigorous body, and obviously, the stronger the feelings of loving interest, the more assured is the life of service. (b) The law of habit. A feeling will become habitual if continually indulged and expressed, and it is during adolescence that habits are permanently fixed.

#27. Needs of the Intermediate Age.#--The needs of this period are of two sorts--important and imperative. It is exceedingly important that the pupil be treated with consideration, respect, and appreciation, that he be given good literature, that he be guarded and guided in his social life. It is imperative, however, that he be established in the right relation to God and to his neighbor at this time of new consciousness of these relationships. Four things will definitely further this supreme end:

(1) _The teacher with the vision of what may be done._ If he is not disobedient to the vision, it will lead him to close fellowship with God and the pupil, for two things are evident,--he cannot lead the pupil unless he is in sympathetic touch with him, nor can he lead him to any higher place than he himself occupies. If he be in vital relation with God and live with the pupil in his ambitions, discouragements, successes, temptations, the most dynamic external force that can operate in this period will be his to wield, namely, a spiritual personal influence.

(2) _Definite decisions._ The danger-point in this crisis lies in permitting these newly awakened feelings to be dissipated without decision and action. If this occurs they weaken, the impulse to take the right stand lessens, and irresolution finally becomes the tacit choice of the self-seeking life.

(3) _Definite responsibilities._ A life of service is made up of definite servings. The beauty and duty of loving sacrifice appeal to the emotions, but a concrete thing to be done calls the will into action. To every pupil should be given definite tasks both in the class itself and in the church, in order to arouse effort and make the thought of service habitual.

(4) _Definite objects of benevolence._ The teachers of the Intermediate age can almost determine when the world shall be given to Jesus Christ. At no time can a permanent interest in missionary enterprises and philanthropies at home be so easily launched as now if the subjects considered be concrete, enthusiastically presented on a basis of facts, and followed by definite response in gift, prayer, or service.

#28. Difficulties in the Intermediate Age.#

(1) Lack of mental balance and consequent instability of conduct.

(2) The fascination of the social world and the growing interest of each sex in the other.

(3) The half-way position between childhood and maturity which retains the immaturity of childhood, but feels the selfhood of the man.

(4) The attraction of the external rather than of intrinsic worth. In this is the key to many of the problems. What appears to advantage allures, even if it be not the best. This gives superficial standards of measuring people and things and easily opens the way to harmful influences at the critical time when ideals and life purposes are forming. The teacher himself is the most important factor in the solution of these problems, not by any attempt to force, but by a patient, suggestive, and inspiring touch upon the pupil's life.

#29. Results to be Expected.#--The pupil ought to leave this period in the right attitude toward God and toward his neighbor. To render this attitude strong and unchangeable is the work of the next period.

Test Questions

1. What is a keyword for the opportunities of the Intermediate Age? Explain its application.

2. Name three important opportunities of this age.

3. What serious error may the teacher commit in this period in impairing the pupil's self-reliance?

4. Name four needs of the Intermediate age.

5. What is the danger-point in bringing a pupil to definite decisions?

6. What great responsibility as to benevolences rests upon the teacher?

7. Name four difficulties of the Intermediate Age.

8. What results may be expected?

Lesson 9

The Senior Age--Sixteen to Maturity

#30. General Characteristics of the Senior Age.#--The Senior age includes the two periods technically known as middle adolescence, from about sixteen to eighteen, and later adolescence, from eighteen to full maturity, about twenty-four. Of these, the earlier period is the climax of the "tempest-tossed" years. The later period witnesses the final adjustment of the pupil to life and its problems. These years are marked by uncertainty because the pupil does not understand himself, by emotional upheaval connected with the development of the deeper feelings of the soul, and by a struggle between the old ideal of selfishness and the new ideal of service.

#31. Special Characteristics of the Senior Age.#

(1) _Continued development of the higher feelings._ The power of the soul to feel for others, appearing in the Intermediate age, has grown stronger if properly nurtured. In addition there comes a new love for the beauties of Nature and a reverence for her laws, a love of the arts and the great causes that men espouse. There is the thrill of awakening love between man and woman. Highest of all, the soul is now able to give response to the right simply because it is the right. Duty has real meaning and conviction becomes a motive power.

As the large vision of what life may be dawns upon the soul, unbounded enthusiasm and courage possess it. There are no heights too dizzy to be reached, no obstacles too difficult to overcome. But enthusiasm often alternates with depression and self-distrust, leading to indifference, apathy, or recklessness. This is the explanation of the vacillating conduct almost universal during the early part of this period.

A critical spirit toward others is common, as merciless scrutiny reveals how far the majority come from the high standards of life so newly appreciated. The frank openness of childhood has been succeeded by a tendency to shut the deeper thoughts and feelings away from others, and while there is an unspeakable longing to share problems and perplexities, the veil is not easily drawn aside.

(2) _The rapid development of the reasoning power of the mind._ This crowning expression of the intellectual power of the mind has not been wanting before, but it comes to full flower in this period. In the first delight of being able to see inner relationships, to argue, to relate cause and effect, reason is given the place of honor and everything must pass in review before it. This very often precipitates a conflict between reason and faith through failure to see that a thing is not necessarily opposed to reason even if it cannot be understood by reason; and a period of doubt in religious matters may ensue.

(3) _Maturing of the will power._ This makes possible self-control, gives power to act independent of the impulse and influence which always determines a child's actions, power to hold steadily to a certain course even against strong opposition. This is the kingly possession of the soul with which Almighty God has chosen to leave freedom. But the soul tends to act as it has formed the habit of acting through the years under the direction of others. In the light of this fact, the importance of the earlier work of the teacher is emphasized.

#32. Opportunities of the Senior Age.#--The opportunities discussed in the Intermediate age still obtain in this period, but to them may be added three peculiarly favorable at this time.

(1) _The opportunity to give help in choice of life vocation._ The choice of that place where each shall invest his life is one of the most serious and complex problems that the pupil has to meet. Loving and sympathetic counsel often stimulates a young man or woman to aspire in the choice instead of settling down into easy mediocrity. The call of the ministry, the mission field, settlement work, every vocation involving the setting aside of selfish ambitions, is most loudly heard at this time, and often a word is sufficient to turn the decision in that direction.

(2) _To strengthen foundations of faith._ The questioning of this period makes it possible to ground belief in the verities of the Christian religion. Faith need not be blind. God gives a reasonable basis for all he asks us to accept. The careful study of facts which are the starting-point of faith will help the doubting soul to trust beyond the point of sight, and enable him to give a reason for the hope that is in him.

(3) _To establish broad interests._ If the pupil is narrow and circumscribed in his thought at this time, the fault lies in large measure at the teacher's door, for every impulse is to stretch in interest to the farthest limit in every direction. There will never again be such an opportunity to establish the world-wide interests begun in the Intermediate age, for life settles in a groove in adulthood and new interests do not readily appeal.

#33. Needs of the Senior Age.#

(1) _The influence of lives that will bear the test._ In this doubting, critical period of life, the daily life of others is the unanswerable argument for or against the power of the gospel. If for no other reason than to establish the faith of her young people, the church ought to walk in white.

(2) _Sympathy and confidence toward the pupil._ Some one has said that the word "hunger" will express the period of adolescence, and for nothing is the pupil so hungry as to be understood, appreciated, and trusted. The teacher is privileged to live into the life of the pupil at every point, and be the sympathetic friend who shall help him to work out his high calling in Christ Jesus.

#34. Difficulties of the Senior Age.#--The very things that constitute the strength of this period present many of its difficulties. The greater mental power coming with increased reason and will is apt to give rise to self-sufficiency and the doubt already mentioned. Opinions are readily and dogmatically launched, and to reverse them wounds pride. Advice may be secretly welcomed and outwardly scorned. This is the period when there is danger that wisdom may perish if the youth meet an untimely end. But far more dangerous is the tendency toward the sowing of wild oats which is so often evident. A certain recklessness easily grows out of the disturbed emotional nature and excesses lie not far beyond. For all of these difficulties, faith and prayer, an attitude of helpfulness at every point, and the love that never fails, afford the only solution.

#35. Results to be Expected.#--As the pupil emerges from the period of development into maturity, he ought to be "strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus," with interest and love as broad as that of his Master, and "thoroughly furnished unto every good work."

Test Questions

1. What are the general characteristics of the Senior Age? The years included?

2. Name three special characteristics.

3. How would you explain vacillating conduct during the early part of this period?

4. Name three opportunities of the Senior Age.

5. How may doubters be helped in this period?

6. What are two special needs of this period?

7. The chief difficulties?

8. What the results to be expected?

Lesson 10

Maturity.

The limited space of a single chapter permits only a suggestive discussion of this important period, so often neglected in the study of the pupil.

#36. General Survey.#--(1) _Keyword, "Service."_ As childhood's task is absorption, and the task of youth adjustment, so the task of maturity is service. That which has been taken in must be given out again, enriched and enlarged by its stay in the soul. This is "the last of life for which the first was made," and to fail here means to miss the meaning of living.

All the factors necessary for service are now ready. Experience and study have supplied something to give, mental discipline and unimpaired physical strength supply the power for service, the broad outlook reveals the need and place of service, and the soul's awakening toward God and the neighbor have supplied the motives for service.

(2) _Physical and mental power at the height._ Waste and repair in bodily tissues are balanced during the prime of life. If development has been normal, the will is resolute, and judgment and reason are dominating and wise, for experience has given large data from which to draw conclusions. While the "Golden Age of Memory" is far in the past, the power of retaining new knowledge through the old is strong. To enter upon unfamiliar lines of thought, however, at this time and achieve any mastery is a mark of genius at least for hard work. The soul has capacity now for the highest feelings that can stir the heart of man, yet the character of those it really experiences is determined by what life has been feeding upon. The love, joy, and peace which give glory to maturity and old age grow alone out of thought upon true and pure and lovely things and those of good report.

(3) _Development specialized, not general._ Out of the many calls and lines of interest, each life has made choice of one or more, according to taste and circumstances. Along these lines growth and development proceed. It is not that life could not continue the many-sided expansion of adolescence, but growth demands nourishment, development demands activity. The need for the expert, the multiplicity of cares and the force of habit make it difficult to "keep up" along many avenues.

(4) _Time of achievement._ Achievement may or may not be that service which manhood owes. The purpose in the task determines that. To souls especially endowed and favorably environed come the riches of intellectual research, of creation in the arts, of successes in the business world. To the many, achievement means only struggle here, but waiting treasures laid up with God.

(5) _Time of soul hunger._ The teacher of men and women always faces hungry hearts. If the soul has not found satisfaction in God, the pangs of starvation are inevitably there. If the soul does know God, there is unspeakable longing for a clearer revelation and a deeper consciousness that in the midst of life's weakness and aspiring

"God's goodness flows around our incompleteness,
Round our restlessness His rest."

#37. Opportunities Presented in Maturity.#--But three great opportunities out of the many can be suggested:

(1) _The opportunity to be somebody's ideal._ Every successful life is the pattern for some eager, ambitious boy or girl. Did not Paul's exhortation to Timothy look toward this as well, when he besought him to "be an ensample in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity"?

(2) _The opportunity to count for the kingdom._ There are two lines of Christian work which call loudly to-day to men and women--personal evangelism and the missionary enterprise. These are the doors most imperative for the soul in possession of power, experience, and resources to enter. Beyond these doors lies the solution of every one of the world's problems.

(3) _The opportunity to grasp the doctrines of Christianity._ The relation of truth to truth cannot come until the mind can deal with the abstract. The little child grasps some of the facts of Christianity, but the adult mind has the power to deal with infinite reaches of truth, interdependent and self-illuminating. This is the "solid food for full-grown men."

#38. Needs of Maturity.#--(1) _Adequate spiritual nourishment._

The time of disillusionment has come, much of the optimism and buoyancy of youth have gone. Life is found to be a struggle even with its victories, and responsibilities and sorrows weigh. The teaching must present a Saviour and a salvation sufficient for great heart needs. It is for the deep things of God that life's experiences have made mature souls hungry, and there is pathos in the superficial dole meted out by so many teachers--superficial because they themselves have never lived "down deep."

(2) _The broad outlook._ To busy men and burdened women, the class ought to be a place of vision. Absorbed in one's tiny corner through six toiling days, the seventh should give opportunity to lift up the eyes and look on fields glorious in their incoming harvest. There is refreshment and inspiration and incentive now in the news from China and Japan and the islands of the sea. The teacher must bring the world-view to the class if he believes that world service is God's thought for manhood.

(3) _Emphasis on personal responsibility._ This is the pivotal point upon which a life of service turns, and it ought to be the focal point of teaching. Long enough has stress been laid on the conditions in the world and what ought to be done. The need now is for a prophet to say, "Thou art the man!"

#39. Difficulties.#

(1) _Pre-occupied soil._ "The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it becomes unfruitful."

(2) _Fixedness of habit._ Life's attitude is settled in thought, feeling, and will, and a change is possible only through the Spirit who can make all things new.

(3) _The sin of idolatry._ Every life that has not put God first now worships at the shrine of a self-elevated idol, the tangible expression of its ideal. To dethrone it from love and substitute Jesus Christ shakes to the foundations.

(4) _Weakness of spiritual aspirations._ It is a law of the feelings that repression instead of expression weakens a feeling and tends to its destruction. If the life has refused to act upon its impulses toward God through the years, the task of making the feeling strong enough to lead into action now is one beyond the power of the teacher. It must be done by God, who "is able to raise up even from the dead."

#40. Results to be Expected.#--As life nears its meridian and the west grows clearer, it ought to be with unveiled face and character changing into His likeness in beauty, love, and self-surrendered service.

Test Questions

1. What is the keyword of maturity?

2. Name four characteristics.

3. For what has the soul special capacity at this time?

4. What special opportunities are presented by maturity?

5. What are three needs of maturity?

6. What must definitely mark the teaching?

7. What three difficulties appear?

8. What results are to be expected?

Test Questions for Review

Lessons 6 to 10

1. What essentials of the Christian life may a Junior readily have?

2. How may we stimulate a Junior's efforts in right-doing?

3. What results may we look for in this age?

4. Explain the period of adolescence.

5. What are the signs of personal consciousness at this time?

6. What affects the adolescent's relation to God?

7. What important opportunities has the Intermediate age?

8. What must be guarded against in urging decision at this time?

9. What years are included in the Senior age?

10. Why are doubts to be expected in this age?

11. What results should be aimed at with Seniors?

12. What is meant by "maturity"?

13. What is the goal for this age?

NOTE.--A helpful treatment of the whole subject of child nature is found in Mrs. Lamoreaux's book "The Unfolding Life."

THE TEACHER

MARTIN G. BRUMBAUGH, Ph.D., LL.D.

LESSON PAGE
1. What the Teacher Should Be 181
2. What the Teacher Should Know 184
3. What the Teacher Should Do 187
4. What the Pupil Should Do 190
5. What Teaching Is 193
6. What an Educational Principle Is 198
7. What an Educational Method Is 201
8. What the Concrete Means in Teaching 205
9. What Instruction, Drill, and Examination Can Do 209
10. What Will-Training Leads To 212

Teaching Hints

Leaders of classes, and individuals pursuing these studies
apart from classes, are urged to read the chapter entitled
"Teaching Hints," on page 259, before beginning this section

Lesson 1

What the Teacher Should Be

#1. The Value of Character.#--We teach more by what we are than by what we know. Emerson once said, "What you are thunders so loud I cannot hear what you say." Everywhere the character of the teacher is counted a vital part of his equipment. Even in secular schools the teacher is required to possess a good moral character. How much more should we demand high moral and spiritual standards of the teacher in the Sunday-school! But mere goodness is not enough. We must demand, in addition to personal worth, certain other salient qualities in the person who stands before childhood as a teacher of God's truth.

#2. Training Always Needed.#--There is a common notion that teachers like poets are born, not made. This is fallacious for two reasons: (a) we do not know till we try whether or not we can teach; (b) we do know now that the greater number of teachers are made by training and not by inherited qualities. Then, too, we are told that born teachers need no training, that they can teach without preparation. This notion is false, because the best native power may be made better by proper training. We call a doctor who has had no training in medicine a "quack," and it is not too much to say the same of untrained teachers. Hence all of us will be the better fitted for our work in the Sunday-school if we have in addition to our native powers such added power as prayer and training assuredly give.

#3. A Living Example.#--The teacher should be not only a professing Christian, but a living example of the kind of life we want every child to live. It is unfortunate to place the destiny of a human soul in the care and under the directing thought of a teacher who neither believes nor lives a consistent Christian life. The teacher should be _kindly considerate_ of his pupils[.] No amount of fine teaching power can compensate for the lack of such kindly concern for the welfare of his pupils as will best lead them to crave in their own lives the same courteous and considerate qualities. He should also be perfectly _sincere_ and _frank_. There can be no such thing as "playing a part" in the presence of children. They discern with an intuition that is as certain as logic the sincerity or insincerity of the teacher. It is a mistake to flatter, to scold, to threaten or to cajole pupils. These are the marks of poor teaching. A perfectly frank teacher will never cheapen his sacred opportunity by any trick or device that has the ring of insincerity.

#4. Enthusiasm.#--The teacher should be an _enthusiast_. I had the good fortune to hear Bishop Phillips Brooks speak to a great body of men in Boston. There was in his whole manner such sincerity and enthusiasm as to carry conviction to each one in his audience. He had a good thing. He believed in it with his whole heart. He was enthusiastic in its praise. He had tested it and found it good. He wanted others to share the same splendid good. His address left an impression that years cannot dim. His enthusiasm made him a great teacher. This does not mean that one should speak in a loud tone, in high-pitched voice, with vehement manner and gesture. These are marks of weakness, not of strength. But it does mean that one should be confident of the worth of his message and anxious to impress its worth upon others. Enthusiasm is born of sincere conviction in the correctness of the thing one aims to teach.

#5. Directness.#--Much of all that is best in teaching is the result of a mastery of the theme in such way as to make all the statements and questions of the teacher _clear and direct_. One must consider his language carefully. To the child in the class words may mean quite a different thing from what they mean to the teacher. One must have the pupils' point of view, and then make all his teaching so pointed, so specific, that the meaning must be clear.

#6. Alert Insight.#--The teacher must be _alert_ and _aggressive_, discerning the favorable moment to say great truths; with his thoughts more upon his pupils than upon his text. Otherwise his power to govern is weakened and the interest of his pupils is lessened if not wholly lost. To accomplish the best things one must know in advance the scope and purpose of the lesson, and watch for the moment when, with interest at its height, he will best succeed in reaching the deepest fountains of purpose in the soul of the pupil. This quality of insight in the teacher's equipment will put the class upon a basis of work. The pupils will quickly realize that the teacher is imbued with a purpose; that he proceeds in a business-like way to accomplish a result which is seen to be of value. The very directness of the teacher is an asset of great significance. This always appeals to young persons. They like a lesson that is full of snap and action. They will not long abide a dull and dreary dragging over a subject--be it ever so fruitful in guidance.

#7. Love.#--The teacher must be a sincere _lover of childhood_ and _of the Master_. In the final chapter of the great Gospel by John, Jesus examines Peter and indicates the basis of great teaching power. It is well to study this narrative carefully. Picture Peter, at the dawn, weary and disheartened, coming from his fishless quest. The Master meets him and asks him but one question, but he asks that question three times, and each time he follows Peter's reply with the command "Feed." The lesson is plain--he that loves most feeds best, and the measure of one's power to teach the truth of God to his children is the measure of one's love for the Master Teacher. Where there is no love there can be no great teaching.

Test Questions

1. What should be counted a vital part of the teacher's equipment?

2. Is it true that teachers are "born," not "made"? Give two reasons for your answer.

3. Name two ways in which a teacher can be a living example.

4. What are some of the evidences of a teacher's enthusiasm?

5. Whose point of view must the teacher take?

6. What manner and method in teaching do pupils like?

7. What is the measure of one's power to teach the truth of God to His children?

Lesson 2

What the Teacher Should Know

#8. He Must Have, before He Can Give.#--We can give only what we possess. This law holds throughout. Peter understood this when he made the memorable reply to the beggar's request for alms: "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee." It follows that whatever we wish the pupil to know the teacher should also know, and he should know more than he can hope to teach.

#9. He Should Know His Bible.#--What do we wish the pupil to learn? Answering this will answer in part the question, What should the teacher know? Manifestly, then, the teacher should be familiar with the Bible. How very fragmentary and unsatisfactory our knowledge of the great Book is until we have studied it in a definite and systematic way--in the way we study our history or our geography. The teacher should at least know the salient features of the incomparable Text and should have well fixed in memory many of the great utterances that lie like flecks of gold upon its sunny pages.