It is possible that the forgetting of this simple fact in the planning of material for adolescent pupils is one chief reason for the tragic loss of interest in the Sunday school which so often occurs at the adolescent stage.

Text books of religious material.—­The text book type of religious material differs more in the organization and arrangement of material than in the subject matter itself.  The lessons are not based on a set cycle of biblical material, though, of course, such material is freely used.  Usually one topic or theme is followed throughout the text, the number of lessons or chapters provided being intended for one year’s work.  The following titles of texts now in use suggest the nature of the subject matter:  “God’s Wonder World,” “Heroes of Israel,” “Heroic Lives,” “The Story of Jesus,” “The Making of a Nation,” “Our Part in the World,” “The Story of a Book,” “The Manhood of the Master,” “Problems of Boyhood,” “Social Duties,” “The Testing of a Nation’s Ideals.”

Beyond question, the material we teach our children in religion should be organized and published as real books and not as paper-covered or unbound serial pamphlets.  There is really no more reason why we should divide religious material up into lessons to be dated, and issued month by month, than why we should thus divide and issue material in geography, history, reading, or any other school subject.  Children who are accustomed in day schools to well-made, well-bound books, with good paper and clear, readable print, cannot be expected to respond favorably to the ordinary lesson pamphlet.  The child should be encouraged and helped in the building of his own library of religious books, but this can hardly be done as long as his church-school material comes to him in temporary form, much of it less attractive on the mechanical side than the average advertising leaflet which so freely finds its unread way to the waste basket.

Many of the Sunday school leaflets carry at the top (or the bottom) of the page an advertisement of the denominational lesson series—­matter in which the child is not concerned, which injures the appearance of the page, and which lowers the dignity and value of the publication.  And some lesson pamphlets are even disfigured with commercial advertisements, sometimes of articles of doubtful value, and always with the effect of lowering the tone of the subject matter to which it is attached.  Religious material printed in worthy book form escapes these indignities.  That textbooks in religion will cost more than the present cheap form of material is possible.  But what matter!  We are willing to supply our children with the texts needed in their day-school work; shall we not supply them with the books required for their training in religion?  If the texts prove too much of a financial burden for the children or their parents, there is no reason why the church should not follow the example of the public school district and itself own the books, lending them for free use to the pupils.