The oral treatment of these stories in the third or fourth year of school is the only mode of bringing them before the children in their full power, and they are well adapted to easy oral narrative and discussion. The language is the genuine, simple, powerful old English, and the teacher should become thoroughly saturated with these simple words and modes of thought. The dramatic element is also not lacking in many parts, and can be well executed in the classroom. Many opportunities will be furnished to the children for drawing pictures illustrating the stories. Many of the most famous masterpieces of painting and sculpture represent the persons and scenes of these tales. The great heroes of Christian art have exhausted their skill in these representations, which are now being furnished to the schools by the large publishing houses. Even the costumes and modes of life are thus brought home to the children in the most realistic yet artistic way.
An acquaintance with such early stories of Hebrew history is an introduction to some of the finest literature of the English language. First, that dealing with the Hebrew scriptures themselves, as the books of Moses, the psalms of David, and second, a number of the great poems of English masters, as the "Burial of Moses" and Milton's "Samson Agonistes." In short, we may say that these stories are the key to a large part of our best English thought.
Adler, in his "Moral Instruction of Children," says: "The narrative of the Bible is fairly saturated with the moral spirit; the moral issues are everywhere in the forefront. Duty, guilt, and its punishment, the conflict of conscience with inclination, are the leading themes. The Hebrew people seem to have been endowed with what may be called 'a moral genius,' and especially did they emphasize the filial and fraternal duties to an extent hardly equalled elsewhere. Now it is precisely these duties that must be impressed upon young children, and hence the biblical stories present us with the very material we require. They cannot, in this respect, be replaced; there is no other literature in the world that offers what is equal to them in value for the particular object we now have in view."
If we could only contemplate the patriarchal stories as a part of the great literature of the world, on account of its typical yet realistic portraiture of men and women, we might use this material as we use the very best derived from other sources. Mr. Adler remarks that "this typical quality in Homer's portraiture has been one secret of its universal impressiveness. The Homeric outlines are in each case brilliantly distinct, while they leave to the reader a certain liberty of private conception, and he can fill them in to satisfy his own ideal. We may add that this is just as true of the Bible as of Homer. The biblical narrative, too, depicts a few essential traits of human nature, and refrains from multiplying minor traits which might interfere with the main effect. The Bible, too, draws its figures in outline, and leaves every age free to fill them in so as to satisfy its own ideal."
Moreover, their use is not a matter of experiment. For hundreds of years they have held the first place in the best homes and schools of Germany, England, and America, and their educative influence has been profoundly felt in all Christian nations.
We have several editions of the stories adapted from the Bible for school use. In the Bible itself they are not found in the simple, connected form that makes them available for school use. One of the best editions for school is that published by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., called, "Old Testament Stories in Scriptural Language." A free and somewhat original rendering of the stories is given by Baldwin in his "Old Stories of the East," published by the American Book Co. Both of these books have been extensively used in the schools of this country. The oral treatment of the Bible stories in the schools has not been common in this country, but it has all the merits described by us in the chapter on oral instruction. In fourth and fifth grades these books may serve well for exercises in reading.
In a great many schools of this country they can be used and are used without giving offence to anybody, and where this is true, they well deserve recognition in our school course because of their superior presentation of some of the great universal ideas of our civilization.
BOOKS FOR TEACHERS OF BIBLE LITERATURE
The Modern Reader's Bible, twenty-one volumes (Richard Moulton). The Macmillan Co.
Children's Series. Old Testament and New Testament Stories. In two volumes. The Macmillan Co.
Stories from the Bible (Church). The Macmillan Co.
Story of the Chosen People (Guerber). The American Book Co.
The Literary Study of the Bible (Moulton). D. C. Heath & Co.