story-telling and
listening to reading. Many parents practice the children's hour, some
period in the day when they will, alone with the children, read and talk
with them. Let the Bible story be the reward of a good day, something
promised as an incentive to good behavior. Children delight, not alone
in the story itself, but in rhythmic passages, in the poetic flights of
Isaiah and the beautiful imagery of the Psalms. To them it is natural
and pleasant to think of the hills that skipped and the stars that sang
and the trees that gave forth praise. They know the song of nature and
are happy to find it put into words.

Fourthly, use the Bible as a book of life. How many times a day do
questions of conduct arise in the family! How often do children ask what
is right, and freely discuss the question! Here is a book rich in
precept and example on at least many of the questions. There are
pictures of actual lives meeting real temptations; there are the
epigrammatic precepts of Proverbs and of the teachings of Jesus. Call
attention to them, not as settling the question out of hand, but as
testimony to the point. Accustom children to getting the light of the
Bible on their lives, remembering that this book is a light and not a
fence nor a code of laws.

Fifthly, use the Bible in worship. This does not conflict with the plea
for its use naturally, for worship should be as natural as any of the
social pleasures of the family. Here select those passages for reading
which count most for the spirit of worship. It is a good plan to read a
short passage, suitable for memorizing, so frequently that children
learn it and are able to repeat it in concert. Be sure that all the
passages read or recited are short. It will often be wise to preface the
reading with a brief account of its original circumstances, so that all
may hear the words as the actual utterances of a real man living in real
life.

Sixthly, provide material which helps to make the Bible interesting, and
which helps children to see its pictures through the eyes of geography
and history.[22]

Seventhly, make the use of the Bible possible at all times for all. See
that as soon as the child can read he has his own Bible, that it is in
large, readable type, as much like any other book as possible. It is no
evidence of grace to ruin the eyes over diamond-text Bibles. If
possible, also provide separate books of the Bible, in modern literary
form and some in the idiom of our