AIMS IN BIBLE STUDY
"Accurate Bible Knowledge" and "Character building" were the keynotes of the instruction given at these meetings. A third object, that was constantly kept in view, was the training and development of their youthful voices for public address in religious meetings. This was accomplished by making a large use of the concert drill, both in reading and repeating the classic and beautiful passages of the Bible.
The tendency of the new pupils to speak and act badly from sudden impulse, was freely admitted at these meetings. As a means of enabling them to put a check on their impulsive dispositions and acquire the art of self-control, the following questions were prepared and asked of each, at the opening of the lesson hour.
1. During the week that has passed, have you refrained entirely from the use of profane or quarrelsome words and actions?
2. Have you been uniformly respectful and obedient to all of your teachers?
3. Are you using your spare moments each day for some good purpose, that will promote your best interests?
The cordial and helpful co-operation of Miss Adelia Eaton, our first matron, in connection with this Bible memory work at the period when it was most difficult to awaken interest and enthusiasm in it, was very greatly appreciated. Although her presence was not required, she voluntarily arranged to be present at every meeting. She seldom if ever participated in the meetings, but she invariably arranged the room in the most convenient form for the meeting and continued to patiently aid and encourage those of the girls, to whom this memory work was the hardest, until the last moment before the meeting. The increased attendance of later years, made it advisable to hold these Bible meetings in the chapel, and there both classes met together.
TRAINING THE MEMORY
The memory, the natural power of retaining and recalling what has been learned, is the basis of all progress in study. It is the faculty that enriches the mind by preserving the treasures of labor and industry. The beauty and perfection of all the other mental faculties are dependent on it. Without its aid there can be no advancement in knowledge, arts and sciences; and no improvement in virtue, morals and religion.
Those who cannot read acquire knowledge by hearing, and their vision is occupied principally with large rather than small objects. It was soon a matter of observation that the children of illiterate parents in whose homes there are no books, find it very difficult to learn to read, after they have passed fourteen years of age. That which is natural and easy in childhood, becomes more difficult the longer it is delayed. They form the habit and find it much easier to acquire knowledge like their parents by the ear, or "by air" as it is sometimes called, than by poring over the letters and words of a printed line in a book. Many that are over fourteen before they are sent to school shrink from the mental discipline and labor of learning things so small as letters and words, and seek relief by looking elsewhere than on the printed page.