. We must not simply aim to cover so much biblical material, even
if we select it as well as we may to come within the child's grasp; we
must have his real religious needs, his religious growth, and his
spiritual development in mind, and provide for these.

Adapting graded lessons to young children.--In the graded series of
lessons now most commonly used in the church schools the material is, on
the whole, fairly well selected to meet the needs of the _beginners_ and
the _primary section_. Interesting stories are told, and much nature
material presented. The work is, of course, all presented to the pupils
by the teacher, as the children cannot yet read. In some cases the
stories used are undoubtedly too difficult, and not a few of them lack
the elements of good story-telling.

Yet the instruction usually centers about the topics most needed by the
child at this time--the love and care of God both for our lives and in
the world of nature about us; the Christ-child and his care for
children; lessons of kindness, obedience and love in the home, etc.
Because of this directness of appeal the child responds to the material
and the teacher finds her task much easier and more fruitful than with
the difficult topics of the ungraded lessons.

Graded lessons not all well adapted to ages.--As the graded lessons
pass on into the _junior_ age, the adaptation of material is generally
less successful than for the primary grades. The topics are based less
on the interests and spiritual needs of the child, and more on the
material. The lessons for the greater part consist of biblical material
only, and are often too difficult for the child to be interested in them
or to understand them. No coordinating principle relates the topics to
each other, and the material consequently comes to the child in rather
disconnected scraps. Too frequently this material, because it belongs to
a later stage of development, is without any particular or direct
bearing on the learner's experience, and hence not assimilated into his
life.

The remedy here is to use a larger proportion of story material, of
biography, of lessons from nature, and of such gems of literature as
carry a spiritual message suited to the child. The caution is to avoid
over-intellectualizing the child's religious instruction, and to make
sure that we do not outrun his rate of development in the material we
give him. The same principles should carry over into the intermediate,
or pr