Only recently has the value of teaching by stories been taken seriously in the Sunday-school. It is likely Robert Raikes, the founder of the modern Sunday-school movement, never thought of telling stories to “the terrible bad boys,” the waifs from the alleys of Gloucester, whom in 1780 he gathered into his first Sunday-school in that city. Nor did the four teachers whom he hired at one shilling each week seem to dream of the children’s thirst for stories. They were perfectly content to teach these “young savages” to repeat simple prayers, the Church of England catechism, Bible questions and answers, and to sing Doctor Watts’ hymns; and occasionally Robert Raikes gave them a crack on the head with his walking-stick in order to impress some knotty point of instruction. But the recent study of child-nature, and the influence of modern psychology and pedagogy on the church, have clearly marked out a better way. In the religious training of children, no less than in their general education, story-telling is seen to be the easiest, simplest, and most effective means of impressing upon a new generation the lessons that have been learned by those who have gone before.
Dr. H. E. Tralle, in “Teacher-Training Essentials,” says: “All in all, the story method is probably the most valuable of all methods of teaching in the Sunday-school.”
“Of all the things that a teacher should know how to do,” says President G. Stanley Hall, “the most important, without exception, is to be able to tell a good story.”
Every Sunday-school teacher who would be successful in teaching modern boys and girls must give attention to this golden method of instruction, and should, as early as possible, learn this “the easiest of all the creative arts,” the delightful art of story-telling.
But oral story-telling has value in the Sunday-school outside the class instruction. The story form is the best expression of children’s worship, and should be employed in what is called “the opening and closing exercises.” A short story is soon told, but its influence abides long after “the address” is forgotten. Let the story-tellers and their stories be selected with care, and many a dull opening or closing exercise will be enlivened and enriched. Bible stories, Christmas and Thanksgiving stories, missionary stories, altruistic stories, stories of hymns, stories of noble acts of children recorded in our daily papers, all are serviceable. Many of the stories in this volume have been told again and again in the opening and closing exercises of Sunday-schools with good results.
Dr. Richard Morse Hodge well says: “If you do not tell stories at the services of a Sunday-school, please reflect that some one else may be telling stories to the same children at some other time and place; may be doing more to promote their worship of God than what you may be doing for them by a less intelligent method of conducting the Sunday-school services.”
STORIES IN CHURCH SERVICES FOR CHILDREN[1]
“Stories are better than sermonettes. A five-minute story, well told, from the pulpit often outweighs an hour’s discourse. Children under twelve rarely learn through abstract terms. Such explanations bore them, since they are first incomprehensible, and after a story are superfluous. Stories are better than object-lessons, since stories appeal both to the intellect and the emotions. Suppose a minister holds in his hands a watch and observes that if it goes wrong it has to be remedied from the inside, so also if a child goes wrong he has to be altered in the heart. This is clear so far as it goes, but it does not instruct a child how to adjust his heart any more than it teaches him how to be a watch-repairer. But suppose the minister tells a story of how ‘once upon a time’ a boy failed to be obedient until he fell in love with his mother. He then deals with the problem practically, directly, and naturally. The boy is full of interest, and the minister is religiously educating and inspiring. Story illustration is essentially the art of explaining the unknown by the familiar, an untried experience by an experience already gained, as Jesus used agricultural parables for peasants and fishing experiences to unenlightened fishermen.”
A number of ministers I know are telling five-minute stories from their pulpits each Sunday morning to the delight of both young and old; at the same time enriching their service of worship and solving, as far as it can be solved under present conditions, the vexed problem of how to get children to remain to the preaching service of the church. Others are successful in weaving into their shortened discourses choice stories which hold attention and illume and enforce the truth presented.