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BIBLE-STUDY IN THE

I.

YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN

ASSOCIATIONS

MRS. J. S. GRIFFITH

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

I. The Adaptability of Bible-Study to All Departments of Association Work. 1. To Women in Universities and Colleges. The American Committee has for several years recommended to the student associations the same courses which are used in the Young Men's Christian Associations. These courses are known as the Student Cycle. They have been prepared primarily for college students and are arranged for daily work. Fifteen to thirty minutes each day are required for personal preparation. The cycle includes: Studies in the Life of Christ; studies in Old Testament Courses; studies in the Acts and Epistles; studies in the Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles.

There are now 535 institutions of learning affiliated with the American Committee, representing nearly 40,000 students, who are members of the Young Women's Christian Association. Last year 10,567 were registered in association Bible classes.

2. To Business Women. We realize that adapting Bible-study to business women necessitates suiting courses to all grades of intellectual ability, to many phases of society, with great inconvenience in meeting, and with much indifference on the part of many. With these difficulties in mind, it will be understood why associations have introduced so many methods and have recognized the necessity of having more short-term courses in the city association than in student work. In carefully reviewing the reports that have been received recently, it is apparent that many of the courses recommended by the International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Associations for city work are being used. These include: The Life and Works of Jesus according to St. Mark; studies in the Life of Jesus; studies in the Life of Paul; Christ among Men; inductive studies of the Gospel of John. In addition to these, various short courses that have been taught at summer conferences are used, besides many outlines prepared by the local teachers. Much remains to be done in systematizing the Bible work in cities, and practical plans for more thorough national supervision are now in operation. In several city associations there are more than 200 persons registered in the Bible classes. It has been necessary, in many cases, to introduce various means that will bring out the principles and teachings of the

Bible without having it take the form of a Bible class. Chapel talks are given when all the pupils who desire to do so meet for a ten minutes' service before the opening of the evening classes.

Drop-in classes are becoming quite popular at the noon hour, and enable the teacher to give a simple, practical Bible lesson with helpful thoughts for every-day living. Life problem talks are often given and heartily received in factories, when it would be impossible to bring a direct evangelistic appeal. Several associations are using the leaflet which has been prepared by Miss Helen Miller Gould for the purpose of forming circles for the memorizing of Scripture. Series of Bible lectures by eminent Bible teachers have been largely attended in several cities and have resulted in real awakening in the interest of Biblestudy.

3 To Women in their Homes. The Bible work that is most popular and effective among the third group of women are the board Bible classes and the neighborhood classes. The association is an interdenominational movement, so the board members and committee workers are representative women from the different churches. Therefore, when a board of directors becomes interested in their own association Bible classes it not only deepens their own spiritual life and makes them more effective board members, but it prepares them for better service in their own churches.

Neighborhood Bible classes have unlimited possibilities, and are increasing rapidly. If some highly respected woman opens her home one morning a week, invites her friends, and secures a good teacher, there is little difficulty about the class being sustained.

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II. The Agencies Employed in the Development of Bible-study. The Summer Conferences. The American Committee conducts ten days' conference for Bible study, for the consideration of approved methods in association work, and for the development of the spiritual life. At each of these gatherings, from two to five Bible classes are taught. Many young women have received their first impetus to Bible-study at these conferences, and numerous classes have been formed all over the country as a result of the enthusiasm shown by the delegates upon their return.

The Director of Religious Work. It has been only recently that one person has been asked to give exclusively her time to the organizing and strengthening of Bible classes, gospel meetings, personal workers, and groups, and to study the means by which the young women caring only for the classes to which they belong may be brought into touch with the directly spiritual part of the work. Five cities

employ such women, and several others are planning to add a director of religious work to their staff next autumn.

3. National Supervision. It must be apparent to all that a great deal of Bible work is being done when there are 10,567 enrolled in student Bible classes, 306 separate Bible classes in the city associations, and 19 classes to be taught at the summer conferences of 1905. Yet in a very real sense this is a year of beginnings, as the National Bible-study. Department is being organized, and past experience proves that rapid strides are made as soon as the National Committee can give the proper amount of supervision and can provide the right workers.

III. The Principles Underlying Successful Association Bible Work. The importance of adequate courses of Bible-study is fully appreciated. Numerous interviews are being held with well-known Bible teachers on the subject, so that the courses now in print and of real value may be utilized. The Bible-study Department will serve as an index finger pointing classes to the courses best adapted to their use, and it will not assume to meet the varied needs through the preparation of entirely

new courses.

The importance of competent instruction is recognized also. Horace Mann says, "The problem is not the founding of the school, but the finding of the schoolmaster." In student Bible work those in the classes should study in such a way as to prepare themselves to teach others. If the 10,000 young women now enrolled in student classes had this thought thoroughly instilled, and should study throughout the college course with this aim in mind, it would do much in solving the problem of finding Sunday school teachers, leaders of our young people's meetings, and Bible teachers for our city association Bible classes.

MRS. CHARLES N. JUDSON

PRESIDENT YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, BROOKLYN NEW YORK In all the associations connected with the International Board and they are located in all of our larger cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific the study of the Bible is most important. All have Bible classes on Sunday, and most of them have Bible-study classes through the week. Of course, the kind of Bible-study that can be done by the overworked, unstudious working-girls must differ widely from that done in schools and colleges. The historical courses seem to be unpopular, neither do the students who attend the Sunday services care so much for the critical study, but they enjoy and talk about that which can be made practical and assimilated in every-day life. The topical

plan meets with the largest measure of success. Biographical talks and characters from the Bible are also much enjoyed.

The Bible-study classes differ from the Sunday services in having smaller numbers taking up the study as they would any other topic and doing real work. These courses of study cover a broader field and are more thorough. The enthusiasm which is developed in these classes depends largely on the teacher. The aim is to open up the beauties of the wonderful Book, to foster the love for it, and to teach the pupils how to find its spiritual help for themselves.

The mid-day services at the factories are a special feature of many of our associations, and though brief and simple and practical, they are much enjoyed.

Another method of reaching the young women is through the "Familiar Talks " on some every-day topic which will be of interest to them. Sometimes they are announced with a fanciful title or one rather mysterious, so that curiosity will draw them to be listeners, and talkers too, for the aim has been to draw them out, and to make them formulate their ideas by putting them into remarks or questions. Under the general topic of "What shall we talk about?" Paul's instructions to the Philippians was made to cover a winter's monthly talks, by taking one topic at a time, and giving it a special title; for instance, the "good repute " was called "What other people think of us." "Prisoners," "Other people's queer ways," and "The power of friction" were topics which gave opportunity, through every-day things, to touch a deeper thought.

THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF BOYS

EDWARD B. KAIGHN, M.D.

BIBLE CLASS TEACHER, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

What are the characteristics of the adolescent boy differentiating him from the child and the adult? To mention but a few, there are the manifest physical signs of rapidly lengthening arms and legs and broadening shoulders; the disappearing of rounded childish features for the squarer jaw and stronger lines of dawning maturity; the shifting of the voice, with many creaks and squeaks and growls to a lower clef, the rapid increase in weight, and the incipient signs of a mustache. These and many other physical characteristics are evident to the dullest observer. The psychological characteristics are probably just as great, if not so strikingly obvious. The senses, as a rule, become keener, the power to reason strongly develops, and the feelings are increasingly under better control than during childhood. It is common experience that the adolescent has spells of laziness or dullness, or great activity or crankiness. His views of right and wrong, justice and injustice, and the good and the bad are apt to be rigid, and he is willing to measure himself by the standards he sets for others. He is at once practical and very much of an idealist. He is secretive and self-conscious, and a confirmed hero-worshiper. When in physical danger he is courageous to the point of foolhardiness, but in moral situations somewhat of a coward. A new-born social impulse impels him to associate with boys of his own age in a more or less well-organized gang. The sentiment of the gang determines many of his actions, and strongly influences his states of mind. His interest in out-door life is strong, as shown by his fondness for hunting, camping, and athletics. He finds restraints of any sort irksome, and he wants liberties denied his younger brother. It is a time of forming warm friendships with older people, as well as with those of his own age.

The spirit of altruism seems to have its birth in adolescence. The unwillingness of a child to subordinate himself in his games is in marked contrast to the team play manifest in adolescent sports. That it is a time of religious impressibility all studies lead us to believe. Just to what degree this spiritual awakening may be due to an unconscious effort on the part of the adolescent to correct the faulty teaching of earlier years, or to realize those states of feeling expected to accompany the conversion of a mature sinner, we do not know.

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