eat mental chasm between them. Their coming together and
thinking on common ground involves the _Point of Contact_. There must
be contact if an influence for good is to be exerted. Either the teacher
must succeed in bringing the boys to where he is "in thought," or he
must go to "where they are."

Teachers in Bible lessons all too frequently hurry off into the Holy
Land, going back some two thousand years, and leaving their pupils in
Utah and in the here and the present. No wonder that pupils say of such
a teacher, "We don't 'get' him." To proceed without preparing the minds
of pupils for the message and discussion of the lesson is like planting
seed without having first plowed and prepared the ground.

In the Bible lesson, it would be easy to bridge over from the interests
of today to those of Bible days. Suppose our lesson is on Joseph who was
sold into Egypt. Instead of proceeding at once with a statement as to
the parentage of Joseph, etc., we might well center the interests of
these various-minded boys on a current observation of today--a
wonderfully fine harvest field of grain. They have all seen that. Make a
striking observation relative to the grain, or put a question that will
lead them to do that for you. Having raised an issue, you continue by
inquiring whether or not the same conditions have prevailed elsewhere
and at other times. Did they prevail in the days of Israel? The step
then to the story of Joseph's dream, etc., is an easy one.

This illustration, though simple and more or less crude, indicates that
to establish a point of contact, we must reach out to where the pupil
now is, and lead easily and naturally to where you would have him go.
Surely we cannot presume that he has already traveled the same
intellectual road that we have gone over.

Suppose we face a group of adolescent boys to teach them a lesson on the
importance of their attending church. If we proceed with a preachment
on their duties and obligations, we are quite certain to lose their
interest. Boys do not like to be preached at.

We know, however, that they are interested in automobiles. By starting
out with some vital observation or question out of the automobile world,
we may count on their attention. Following the discussion thus raised,
we might then inquire the purpose of the garages that we find along all
public highways. We could dwell upon the significance of repairs in
maintaining the efficiency of cars. Now we are prepare