How to Teach Religion - Principles and Methods by George Herbert Betts
page 86 of 226 (38%)
page 86 of 226 (38%)
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purity and clean living. We must make him feel a deep sense of
responsibility for the full development and fruitful use of his own powers and abilities. In short, we must with all the wisdom and devotion we possess _bring him to accept the life of Jesus as the ideal and pattern for his own life_. Fine appreciations.--What one admires is an index to his character. More than this, the quality and tone of one's admirations finally build themselves into his nature and become a part of his very being. Life is infinitely enriched and refined by responding to the beauty, the goodness, and the gladness to be found around us. In Hawthorne's story of The Great Stone Face, the boy Ernest dwelt upon and admired the character revealed in the benignant lines of the great face outlined by the hand of the Creator on the mountainside until the fine qualities which the young boy daily idealized had grown into his own life, and Ernest himself had become the "wise man" whose coming had long been awaited by his people. It is not enough therefore to learn the _facts_ about the lives of the great men and women of the Bible or of other times. The story of their lives must be presented in such a way that _admiration_ is compelled from the learner: for only the qualities the child appreciates and admires are finally built into his own ideal. It is not enough that the child shall be taught that God created the world and all that is therein; he must also be brought to appreciate and admire the wonders and beauties of nature as an evidence of God's wisdom, power, and goodness. It is not enough that our pupils shall come to know the chief events in the life of Jesus and the outline of his teachings; they must also find themselves lost in admiration of the matchless qualities of his great personality. |
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