the most completely express God's plan for his life?" When we can answer
such questions as these we shall have defined the aim of religious
education and of our teaching.

The knowledge aim.--First of all, life demands _knowledge_. There are
things that we must know if we are to avoid dangers and pitfalls.
Knowledge shows the way, while ignorance shrouds the path in darkness.
To be without knowledge is to be as a ship without a rudder, left to
drift on the rocks and shoals. The religious life is intelligent; it
must grasp, understand, and know how to use many great truths. To supply
our children with _religious knowledge_ is, therefore, one of the chief
aims of our teaching.

Yet not all knowledge is of equal worth. Even religious knowledge is of
all degrees of fruitfulness. Some knowledge, once acquired, fails to
function. It has no point of contact with our lives. It does not deal
with matters we are meeting in the day's round of experience. It
therefore lies in the mind unused, or, because it is not used, it
quickly passes from the memory and is gone. Such knowledge as this is of
no real value. It is not worth the time and effort put upon its mastery;
and it crowds out other and more fruitful knowledge that might take its
place.

To be a true end of education, knowledge must be of such nature that it
_can be put at work_. It must relate to actual needs and problems. It
must have immediate and vital points of contact with the child's common
experiences. The child must be able to see the relation of the truths he
learns to his own interests and activities. He must feel their value and
see their use in his work and in his play. This is as true of religious
knowledge as of knowledge of other kinds. The religious knowledge the