sayings of the sages, the stirring hymns of the Church and the exploits of heroic missionaries. 3. To help him to form habits of obedience to parents and teachers, and to the fundamental laws of God for human society as clearly taught and accepted. 4. To prepare for conversion, which often occurs toward the end of the period, in which cases the child commits himself once for all to a life of trustful and loving obedience to God, his Father and Lawgiver and Guide. Lesson Material This is the period for presenting in consecutive narrative through the Sunday-school, the dramatic stories of the Bible; stories of adventure, conflict and achievement; stories of primitive men of faith, the patriarchs and judges, struggling for the supremacy and maintenance of law and order; stories of the kings and prophets, warning a people wavering between a sturdy and simple compliance with the will of Jehovah, and a lax but demoralizing conformity to the prevalent self-indulgence and luxury; stories of the Christ, heroic in his self-giving service to the needy and in his lonely opposition to his enemies; stories of the followers of the Christ, apostles, martyrs, reformers, Pilgrims and pioneers of a new civilization. These last should include missionary information in the form of dramatic stories of adventure and Christian heroism. It is a time also for memorizing; psalms, proverbs, hymns, embodying the exultant faith and heroism of the seers and poets; laws, e.g., the Ten Commandments, and other moral injunctions in the Old Testment, and the new Commandment of Jesus. Agencies The Home. The school and the playground now vie with the home in their appeal to the interest of children and in their demand for a share of time and attention. Nevertheless, more hours out of the twenty-four are still spent in the home than anywhere else, and every parent should make it his first duty to know what becomes of the rest of the time. The parents should know what fills the minds of their children at this age; what subjects they study at school, what topics command their attention among their playmates, who the playmates are and where they play. Only thus will the parent know what to reinforce and what to counteract, in the teaching of his child. Fathers and mothers should watch scrupulously for any evidence of slovenly habits of speech and should seek to forestall any tendencies to impurity or obscenity by maintaining close and confidential relations with their children and imparting to them necessary information in frank talks that are free from evil suggestion. By example, and by careful attention, parents may do much to encourage habits of private devotion and worship. In the home, parents may co-operate with the Sunday-school, not only by encouraging the children of this age to make faithful preparation of the tasks assigned them, but still more effectively by furnishing oppor tunities and incentives to put into daily practice the teachings of the Sunday-school. Thus the parent may well lay special stress upon the importance of prompt and habitual obedience, upon regularity in all habits which have to do with physical and mental well-being, upon industry, patience, kindness and cheerfulness, a chivalrous attitude toward those who are younger or weaker, truthfulness, honesty, and respect for the rights of others. Some regular duties, like the feeding of the birds or the care of a household pet, will help to cultivate a sense of responsibility. At the same time, alternatives should be frequently presented, as a means of training the will through the exercise of the power of choice. This is the time of all others for training in the forming of right habits and for training the will. The church may help the home by calling the attention of parents to these duties, in sermons and informal conferences, and by providing opportunities for discussion of parents' problems in parents' classes. School and Playground. During this period these are potent agencies for training. The Sunday-school teachers of children at this age should become familiar with the training given by these other agencies. In a progressive and resourceful community much intelligent effort will be put forth to direct children at their play, to help them form standards of honor and fair-dealing, to encourage a proper ambition and the puttingforth of one's best. Where such direction is systematically given, the Sunday-school teacher needs only to present such teaching as will best relate itself to these opportunities for self-expression. The Sunday-school. The Junior Department of the Sunday-school will usually comprise four grades, corresponding to the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh school grades and including children of about nine, ten, eleven and twelve years, respectively. Each grade may be taught as a class unit, if a separate class room is available. Otherwise, the sexes may be taught separately in classes of not over eight or ten pupils. The teacher may be of the same sex as the class, although it is even more important that the teacher for this age should be well trained, and should possess decision, firmness and resourcefulness, coupled with a keen sense of justice and a kindly spirit. The equipment should include carefully graded lesson material, a room for each grade, furnished with a table and chairs of convenient height, or still better, with individual desks or chairs with a broad arm for writing or drawing. It will be of advantage if the four class rooms can be thrown together into one large assembly room. This room should have a musical instrument, pictures of heroic characters and dramatic biblical scenes, a supply of stereograph pictures showing the places in Palestine, Egypt and Asia Minor most significant in Biblical history, and a carefully selected list of historical wall maps. Training in Worship is much needed at this period; children need to have the sense of God, as their Helper and Friend, made very real to them, to cultivate an attitude of reverence and trust, and to express this attitude naturally and spontaneously in prayer both public and private, to learn simple prayers for common worship and a store of fine hymns which should be dramatic in quality set to tunes with strongly marked rhythm. Both prayers and hymns should voice their present experience, feeling and need. This training may be given in part through the Home, especially through intimate bed-time talks relating to private prayer and the cultivation of a worshipful spirit. The Sunday-school, through the weekly program of the Junior Department, will provide training in group worship. This program may be varied from month to month and composed in part of material memorized in connection with the class work. In the separate Sunday-school grades or classes teachers should talk with their pupils in a frank and familiar way about the meaning of prayer and thanksgiving and the offering of gifts. Pupils should be encouraged to write original prayers, to select favorite hymns for memorizing and otherwise to exercise initiative in worship. These original prayers and hymns may occasionally form a part of the program of departmental worship and every opportunity should be taken for connecting the ma terial of instruction with the act of worship. The same group of children may meet if desired at another hour, on Sunday or week-day, as a Junior Endeavor Society, when the stories of the hymns and informal talks on prayer may be given. All this training by the different ages should be planned together so that each may supplement the other. Training in service, missions and benevolence also forms a part of the work of the Junior Department of the Sunday-school. The aim should be, (1) to make habitual certain fundamental attitudes, by giving opportunity for their frequent expression in conduct: the attitude of respect for elders, expressed in common acts of courtesy and thoughtfulness, and in obedience toward those in authority; the attitude of good-will, expressed in acts of helpfulness toward parent and teacher and in generosity and kindness toward companions and playmates; the attitude of chivalry expressed in defense and protection of those who are younger and weaker; the attitude of sympathy, expressed in kindness toward all who are sick, unfortunate or in pain; the attitude of sincerity and responsibility, expressed in truthful speech, fair play and in fidelity and industry in the performance of all duties; (2) to widen the area of goodwill, so as to include not only the home, the school, the play-ground and the Sunday-school, but in addition the weak, the sick, the aged, the ignorant and the unfortunate in the community, state and nation and even more remotely in the world at large. The Sunday-school grade or class will train in service, by suggesting specific acts of service to be performed in the home and other familiar relationships - or by encouraging the pupils to suggest these for themselves. In such training, the home and the Sunday-school may co-operate, the parent suggesting to the teacher convenient and simple forms of service which may be mentioned in connection with the teaching and which the parent will remember to emphasize at home. The grade or class may as a group undertake special kinds of service, such as defraying the expense of some child's illness, or providing a happy Thanksgiving or Christmas day, or warm clothing for some needy family, or arranging an outing or party in the country for children of the city streets, or adopting a boy or girl to send through school in some mission field, or participating in relief sent to the sufferers from some catastrophe all of which forms of service may naturally grow out of, or be connected with, the teaching of the lessons in the grade. In all these the teachers will encourage the pupils to exercise all possible initiative in making decisions and in determining the form in which service shall be rendered, while freely offering suggestions themselves whenever the instruction naturally leads to some form of expression. Much of this service may be organized by the Junior Department, thus gaining the advantage of a wider participation and enthusiasm. The children should be taught to regard their weekly offerings as one form of personal service and these should be devoted to concrete objects of their own choosing. This training in service and benevolence may be carried still further in the Junior Society for Christian Endeavor, or in classes or grades organized as Boys' and Girls' Clubs. All these should include the same children as the Junior Department of the Sunday-school, and their programs of training and instruction should supplement each other. Training in evangelism may be given at about twelve years of age in the Pastor's Class, but not in the same class with older children. Having become familiar with the main outlines of the life of Jesus the pupils will need to know the meaning of that life of perfect obedience to his Father's will, and through this simple teaching and intimate and familiar conversation brought to dedicate their own lives to God, reserving for a later period the discussion of theological doctrines and matters of church organization. The Teacher's Equipment for the Junior Department should contain additional books bearing especially upon work for these ages. GROUP V. Boys and Girls, 12 to 16 Years Profound changes, usually occurring at about the 11th to the 13th year (earlier in girls than in boys) mark the entrance upon the next stage of experience; first, a period of rapid physical growth begins; and, second, important mental changes and an awakening to a new consciousness of self, accompany the physical changes. How to manage the new body, and what to make of the new self, constitute the chief problems of the individual at this period. Youth is now living in two worlds the familiar world of childhood, yet with the stature and appearance of maturity; repudiating the discipline of childhood but unequal to the responsibilities of the adult; conscious of physical energy, but unable to co-ordinate the movements of limbs and muscles in their unequal growth, and therefore awkward and sensitive; capable of abstract thinking and desiring to be reasoned with, not commanded, consciousness of self impels to a search for the true self, or ideal, and to the scrutiny and merciless criticism of other persons, living or dead; cleaving with intense loyalty to those of the same sex and age whose qualities challenge approval and sacrificing self freely in the interest of their common good, while underneath are the stirrings of the awakening sex instinct, mysterious and irresistible. This is a time of strange contrasts and contradictions, perplexing alike to pupil and teacher, a time of danger and of opportunity, demanding the utmost wisdom, sympathy, tact and patience. Aim 1. To assist young people to make, as comfortably and completely as possible, the transition from childhood to adult life, from a world regulated by rules to a world controlled by reason; from self-seeking to self-giving and self-sacrifice; from individualism to whole-hearted participation in activities of the social group, whether civic, philanthropic, religious or otherwise; from a loyalty limited by the boundaries of family, class or immediate circle of friends to a loyalty reaching up through Christ to God and extending outward to all God's creatures everywhere. 2. To this end, to present to them models of character, the great virtues of loyalty, chivalry, generosity, moral heroism, forgiveness, purity, honesty, fidelity, patriotism not as abstract qualities, but embodied concretely in human lives, past or present. -- 3. Following these partial and imperfect but typical examples, to set before them the person of Jesus, as the perfect embodiment of life in human form — perfect alike in his relation to God and to fellowmen, perfect also in self-mastery and self-realization. Through such presentation to secure the commitment of their lives to Jesus Christ as Friend, Example, Ideal, Saviour and Lord. 4. To provide opportunity for the normal expression of moral and religious feeling, in prayer, in song and in personal and social service. 5. To furnish group leadership, unobtrusive and sympathetic but wholesome and constant; thus training in group loyalty and in natural. forms of co-operative endeavor. 6. To bring into intelligent and sympathetic relationship with the Church, its worship, its work and its missionary and benevolent enterprises. Lesson Material The chief interest of young people at this age is in life, or more accurately, in lives; lives which embody ideals. The material of instruction will therefore best consist of life studies, biographies not in the literary sense-but sketches of personality, quickly and vividly drawn, disclosing the person himself, his thoughts, purposes, ambitions, struggles, achievements, satisfactions. The biographical material in the Old Testament may first be studied in this way, laying special emphasis in the . instruction upon personal relationships, the individual's consciousness of God, his struggle against sin, his friendships, his self-sacrifice, his worship, his service to his times and to all time. New Testament biographies, the biographies of the leaders in the Christian church through the |