The Old Testament rich in story material.—­The wonderful religious and ethical teachings of the Old Testament belong to a child-nation, and were written by men who were in freshness of heart and in picturesqueness and simplicity of thought essentially child-men; hence these teachings are in large part written in the form of story, of legend, of allegory, of myth, of vivid picture and of unrimed poetry.  It is this quality which makes the material so suitable to the child.  The deeper meanings of the story do not have to be explained, even to the young child; he grasps them, not all at once, but slowly and surely as the story is told and retold to him.  If the story is properly told, the child does not have to be taught that the Bible myth or legend is myth or legend; he accepts it as such, not troubling to analyze or explain, but unconsciously appropriating such inner meaning as his experience makes possible, and building the lesson into the structure of his growing nature.

If full advantage is taken of the story as a means of religious teaching, the grounding of the child in the fundamental concepts and attitudes of religion can be accomplished with certainty and effectiveness almost before the age for really formal instruction has come.

The ethical quality alone not enough in stories.—­Many stories of highest religious value are available from other sources than the Bible, yet no other stories can ever wholly take the place of the Bible stories.  For the Bible stories possess one essential quality lacking in stories from other sources; the Bible stories are saturated with God.  And this is an element wholly vital to the child’s instruction in religion.

We cannot teach the child religion on the basis of ethics alone, necessary as morality is to life.  We cannot help the child to spiritual growth and the consciousness of God in his life without having the matter we teach him permeated and made alive with the spirit and presence of God in it.  Nor is there the least difficulty for the child to understand God in the stories.  The child, like the Hebrews themselves, does not feel any necessity of explaining or accounting for God, but readily and naturally accepts him and the part he plays in our affairs as a matter of course.

Stories from other than Bible sources.—­But once a sufficient proportion of Bible stories is provided for, stories should be freely drawn from other fields.  An abundance of rich material possessing true religious worth can be found in the myths, legends, folk lore, and heroic tales of many literatures.  These are a treasure house with which every teacher of children should be familiar; nor is the task a burdensome one, for much of this material holds a value and charm even for the older ones of us.

Later writers have enriched the fund of material available for children by treating many of the aspects of nature in story form, thereby opening up to the mind and heart of the child something of the meaning and beauty of the physical world, and showing God as the giver of many good gifts in this realm of our lives.  There are also available the stories of history, and of the real men and women whose lives have blessed our own or other times, and whose deeds and achievements will appeal to the imagination and stir the ideals of youth.