Yet human experience and human problems are broader than the Bible.  New ages bring new conditions and new needs.  Eternal truths may take on new forms to meet new problems.  God inspired the writers of his Word, but he also inspires other writers, whose works are not included in the canon.  He echoed in the voice of Isaiah and Jeremiah, but he also touches with the flame of eloquence other lips than those of the prophets.  He spoke to the child Samuel, but he also speaks to-day to every heart that will hear his voice.  He flamed from the burning bush for Moses, but in like manner he shines from every glowing sunset for those whose eyes can there behold his glory.

Breadth and richness of religious material.—­The sources of material available for the religious education of childhood are therefore as broad as the multiform ways in which God speaks to men, and as rich as all the great experiences of men which have left their impress upon civilization.  Besides the beautiful story of God creating the earth, we have the wonderful miracle of constant re-creation going on before our eyes in the succession of generations of all living things.

Besides the deathless accounts of the heroism of such men as Elijah, Daniel, and Paul, we have the immortal deeds of Livingstone, Taylor, and Luther.  Besides the womanly courage and strength of Esther and Ruth, we have the matchless devotion of Florence Nightingale, Frances Willard, Alice Freeman Palmer, and Jane Addams.  Besides the stirring poetry of the Bible, and its appealing stories, myths and parables, we have the marvelous treasure house of religious literary wealth found in the writings of Tennyson, Whittier, Bryant, Phillips Brooks, and many other writers.

Material to be drawn from many sources.—­The material for religious teaching lying ready to our hand is measureless in amount, and must be wisely chosen.  In addition to material from the Bible, which always must be the center and foundation of the religious curriculum, should be taken other material from nature; from biography, history, and life itself; from literature and story; from science and the great world of objects about us; from music, and from art.  All of this multiform subject matter must be welded together with a common purpose, and so permeated with the religious motive and application that it will touch the child’s spiritual thought and feeling at many points of his experience.

At no moment, however, must we forget that our primary purpose is not simply to teach the child stories, literature, history, or science, but religion.  By the proper use of this broader field of material religion may be given a new and more practical significance, and the Bible itself take on a deeper meaning from finding its setting among realities closely related to the child’s daily life.

MATERIAL FROM THE BIBLE

The very nature of the Bible requires that we make the most careful selections from it in choosing the material for religious instruction of children.  Not all parts of the Bible are of equal value as educational material, and some parts of it have no place in the course of study before full mental development has been reached.