  In order to find out what Sunday-school teachers are doing in the matter of stories, illustrations, and picture-work generally, the writer prepared and distributed to a thousand teachers the following blank: One response NOW is worth twenty a month hence. STORY-TELLING. To Sunday-school Teachers: For the purpose of devising means for the better preparation of Sunday-school teachers, the President of the Teachers College, New York, requests the teachers in your Sunday-school to answer the following questions. To save time and trouble use both sides of this sheet. Whenever possible answer by crossing out the term that does not apply. In every case where the answer is based on experience with children, state the age of the children. Please do not hesitate to return this blank, even if you have answered but a few questions. Sources.—To illustrate the lesson do you use Bible stories, stories from good literature, or stories invented by yourself? Subject.—Do you find your children more interested in stories of people or of nature? Kind.—Which of the stories have you found more effective, modern or classic? Stories told or read? True or fictitious? Those based on poetry or prose? Stories in which the moral is set forth or hidden? Experience.—What stories are you going to use in the Sunday-school lesson for next Sunday? Precept.—If you do not use stories, what other means do you employ to enforce religious and moral lessons? Do you "moralize," and if so, with what obvious result? Environment.—What means do you use of making the dress, customs, etc., of Bible people seem real to children? Picture-work.—Do you use blackboard illustrations? What other objective helps? Examples.—What stories have you found especially helpful? Purpose.—What is your purpose in using stories in the Sunday-school? Principles.—Do you succeed in having such unity in the lesson that the stories all contribute to one main thought? Mention five requisites for a good story-teller. Mention five qualities in a good story. To these questions fifty-eight replies were received. Very few, however, gave the ages of the children, and the smallness of the number of replies—which after all is by no means discouraging—tends to vitiate the data as bases for generalization. Space forbids giving more than a single group of typical answers. Some of the most helpful of the suggestions have been embodied in the foregoing. Further replies from thoughtful teachers will be welcome. Question—Mention five requisites for a good story-teller. Answers: Sympathetic voice, manner, and face. More knowledge of the subject than one wants to use. The teacher must be interested, bright, imaginative, clear in thought and expression. Clear apprehension of the point to be made, clear knowledge of the subject, understanding of the peculiarities of his hearers, tact in making application, and dramatic power. Power in word-painting—with a sense of perspective. Unconsciousness of self. A gift for mimicry. Graphic description. Sympathy with children. Power to hold attention and keep to the main thought. Animation, personal magnetism, originality, wit. Conciseness, force. Pleasant manner. Ability to repeat a story without hesitation. Power to put one's self into the time, circumstances, etc., of the story. Love of story-telling. Quiet manners. Gestures, good voice. Small [easy?] words. Ability to make the children help tell the story, by making them gesture, point, express sorrow, surprise, etc., and answer questions. A good story-teller asks intensely interesting questions at exactly the right point. A passage from Herbart forms a fitting close to this study: "The intent to teach spoils children's books at once; it is forgotten that every one, the child included, selects what suits him from what he reads, and judges the writing as well as the writer after his own fashion. Show the bad to children plainly, but not as an object of desire, and they will recognize that it is bad. Interrupt a narrative with moral precepts, and they will find you a wearisome narrator. Relate only what is good, and they will feel it monotonous, and the mere charm of variety will make the bad welcome. Remember your own feelings on seeing a purely moral play. But give to them an interesting story, rich in incidents, relationships, characters, strictly in accordance with psychological truth, and not beyond the feelings and ideas of children; make no effort to depict the worst or the best, only let a faint, half-conscious moral tact secure that the interest of the action tends away from the bad toward the good, the just, the right; then you will see how the child's attention is fixed upon it, how it seeks to discover the truth and think over all sides of the matter, how the many-sided material calls forth a many-sided judgment, how the charm of change ends in preference for the best, so that the boy who perhaps feels himself a step or two higher in moral judgment than the hero or the author, will cling to his view with inner self-approbation, and so guard himself from a coarseness he already feels beneath him. The story must have one more characteristic, if its effect is to be lasting and emphatic; it must carry on its face the strongest and clearest stamp of human greatness. For a boy distinguishes the common and ordinary from the praiseworthy as well as we; he even has this distinction more at heart than we have, for he does not like to feel himself small, he wishes to be a man. The whole look of a well-trained boy is directed above himself, and when eight years old his entire line of vision extends beyond all histories of children. Present to the boy therefore such men as he himself would like to be." Printed in the United States of America. THE PRIMARY DEPARTMENT Old Testament Stories For Little Children. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.25. By LAURA ELLA CRAGIN More "Kindergarten Stories" from the Old Testament in language little tots can take in. The value of the book apart from the excellence of the manner of telling the stories, lies in the fact that Miss Cragin has made these stories follow closely the events of the Old Testament. Experimental Object Lessons Bible Truths Simply Taught. 12mo, cloth, net 75c. By CHARLOTTE E. GRAY "The simple and instructive character of this book including its adaptation to young minds and hearts, makes it the "very thing" for Sunday school scholars and teachers."—Religious Telescope. Object Lessons for Children Or Hooks and Eyes, Truth Linked to Sight. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. By C. H. TYNDALL, Ph.D. "For busy Sunday-school workers and others, we know no better work of its kind."—Cumberland Presbyterian. Talks to Children 12mo, cloth, net 50c. By T. T. EATON: D.D. "It Reproduces Scripture History in the terms of modern life, and gives it both a vivid setting before the youthful imagination and a firm grip on the youthful conscience."—Independent. The Shepherd Psalm for Children With half-tone Frontispiece and 13 outline Illustrations, 16mo, cloth, net 35c. By JOSEPHINE L. BALDWIN "Equally adapted to teach the teacher how to teach, to teach the child how to learn, and to teach what ought to be learned."—Christian Advocate. The Lord's Prayer for Children Illustrated. 12mo, cloth, net 50c. By MARTHA K. LAWSON "Miss Lawson is a specialist in the science of child study. The book is invaluable to Primary teachers and leaders of Junior classes."—N.Y. Observer. Seed for Spring-time Sowing A Wall Roll for the use of Primary, Sabbath School and Kindergarten Teachers. Compiled by Mrs. Robert Pratt, 75c. Practical Primary Plans Illustrated with diagrams. Revised and enlarged. 16mo, cloth, net $1.00. By ISRAEL P. BLACK "The author goes through all the material, physical and spiritual requirements for successful primary teaching."—Christian Advocate. Our Children for Christ A Series of Catechetical Lessons on the Religion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. New Improved Edition. 16mo, paper, net 10c. By REV. DOREMUS SCUDDER The Conversion of Children 12mo, paper, net 25c. By E. PAYSON HAMMOND, M.A. FOR THE SUPERINTENDENT The Sunday School of To-day A Compendium of Hints for Superintendents and Pastors, with Suggestions and Plans for Sunday-School Architecture by C. W. Stoughton, A.I.A. Graphically illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.25. By WM. WALTER SMITH, A.B., A.N. "A veritable mine of information and inspiration. It is not too much to say that no pastor, superintendent, officer, or teacher of the Sunday-school, can afford to neglect this volume."—Standard. Secrets of Sunday School Teaching 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. By EDWARD LEIGH PELL, D.D. The key-note of this book is given by the author in his Preface, where he says: "I have tried not to lay too much stress on methods." While he puts "motives" first, however, he does not ignore "methods," but presents those which modern practice has proved to be effective. How to Conduct a Sunday School 12mo, cloth, net $1.25. By MARION LAWRANCE, General Secretary of the International S. S. Association. "Every superintendent, teacher, pastor, officer, should own it. A perfect mine of hints and plans from the most experienced Sunday-school leader of the day."—Sunday School Times. Thirty Years at the Superintendent's Desk Lessons Learned and Noted. A multum in parvo of practical suggestions. Net 25c. By J. R. PEPPER The Working Manual of a Successful Sunday School Cloth, net 50c. By MARION LAWRANCE "Valuable suggestions for superintendents, ministers."—S. S. World. The Modern Sunday School in Principle and Practice 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. By HENRY F. COPE "We know of no more scholarly nor practical manual. Thoroughly scientific, intelligible to the man of average experience, it gives the newest experiments with all grades."—Heidelberg Teacher. The School of the Church Its Pre-eminent Place and Claim. 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. By J. M. FROST, D.D. "Commended for its careful analysis of the relation of the Sunday-school to the Church, the teaching function of the spiritual factors in that function."—Standard. The Church and Her Children A practical Solution of the Problem of Child Attendance. 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. By HENRY W. HULBERT "Pierces to the heart of one of the most important and significant concerns of the present-day church—the problem of fixing the habit of church attendance in children."—Continent. Sunday School Success 12mo, cloth, gilt top, net $1.00. By AMOS R. WELLS "The best hand-book on methods of work and mastery of difficulties we have yet seen. There is not a dull chapter in it."—Evangelical Messenger. The Work of the Sunday School A Manual for Teachers. 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. By RAY CLARKSON HARKER "A manual for teachers. Treats of some of the supremely significant factors that must be properly handled in every school."—United Presbyterian. Three Years With the Children 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. By AMOS R. WELLS "Abundant and suggestive methods for all sorts of addresses to children, blackboard talks, object lessons, conversations, etc."—Baptist Union. Children's Story-Sermons 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. By HUGH T. KERR, D.D. "The story sermons are so attractive, so simple, so full of action, and interest and incident, that they will be valued for the re-reading" and re-telling to the delight of the child."—Sunday School Times. Little Ten-Minutes Talks of a Pastor to His Children. 12mo, cloth, net, $1.00. By FRANK T. BAYLEY The Advance says: "Dr. Bayley seems to be able to create a good story out of the commonest experiences." FOR THE BEGINNERS Kindergarten Bible Stories Old Testament. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.25. By LAURA ELLA CRAGIN "Altogether it is the best book of Bible stories we have seen in a long time. The author's gift in bringing out the lessons of the stories is especially noted."—Christian Observer. Old Testament Stories for Little Children Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.25. By LAURA ELLA CRAGIN "Insight, historic imagination, graphic fancy and tender love in these narratives are combined with faithfulness to Scripture."—Western Recorder. Bible Stories to Tell Children Illustrated, net $1.00. By W. D. MURRAY "The idea in re-telling some of the old Bible stories by means of conversations carried on by the actors is to make the children feel what the heroes thought and felt."—Christian Endeavor World. Tell Me a True Story Tales of Bible Heroes for Children of To-day. Illustrated, cloth, net $1.25. By MARY STEWART Henry van Dyke says: "It brings the meaning of Christianity to the children's level." The Shepherd of Us All Stories of the Christ Retold for Children. Illustrated, net $1.25. By MARY STEWART There is a touching beauty and clearness about Miss Stewart's pictures of the Christ life which will ineffaceably impress itself upon the child heart. Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed. This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be renamed. 1.F. 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your written explanation. 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