ur hundred years after Christ had lived on
earth before we had a list of the New Testament books such as our Bible
now contains. In the middle of the second century only about half of the
present New Testament was in use as a part of the Scriptures. Some of
the books which we now include were at one time or another omitted by
the Christian scholars, and several books were at one time accorded a
place which are not now accepted as a part of the Bible. The authorship
of a considerable number of the books of the Bible is unknown, and even
the exact period to which they belong is uncertain.

The different writers wrote with different purposes--one was a
historian; another a poet; another, as Paul, a theologian; another a
preacher; another a teller of stories and myths, or a user of parables.
Paul wrote his letters to local churches or to individuals, to answer
immediate questions or meet definite conditions and needs. Jesus left no
written word, so far as we know, and the first written accounts we have
of his life and work were begun forty or fifty years after his death.

The problem of selecting Bible material adapted to children.--The
Bible was therefore a slow growth. It did not take its form in
accordance with any particular or definite plan. It never was meant as a
connected, organized textbook, to be studied in the same serial and
continuous order as other books. It was not written originally for
children, but for adults to read.

Its enduring quality proves that the writers of the Bible lived close to
the heart and thought of God, and were therefore inspired of him. But we
can grant this and still feel free to select from its lessons and truths
the ones that are most directly fitted to meet the needs of our children
as we train them in religion. We can love and prize the Bible for all
that it means and has meant to the world, and yet treat it as a _means_
and not an _end_ in itself. We can believe in its truth and inspiration,
and still leave out of the lessons we give our children the sections
which contain little of interest or significance for the child's life,
or matter which is beyond his grasp and understanding.

Material which may be omitted.--This point of view implies the
omission, at least from the earlier part of the child's religious
education, of much material from different parts of the Bible; these
irrelevant sections or material not suited to the understanding of
childhood may remain for adult stud