LITURGICAL EDUCATION OF THE CHURCH'S YOUTH.

To comprehend the nature of Christian worship as a whole, and the elements constituting the same, and by which modified in particular, and directed in general, is the task of those who minister to the youth of the Church. Upon the manner, method and line of procedure in which the worship by the youth is performed, conducted and taught will depend a correct, stimulating and edifying form of worship in the congregation that develops from the youth in the schools of the Church.

The non-liturgical Sunday School grows the non-liturgical congregation. This is under the law "that which ye sow ye shall also reap." It is a well established fact that "men do not gather figs from thistles." Recognizing this law how can a liturgical congregation, one in full sympathy and spirit with every scriptural element in the liturgy, help being the outgrowth of a correctly taught liturgical youth?

There are several sides to every child that may be recognized: the subjective, the objective and the physio-psychological basis. These several sides enter into the growth of every child. In the subjective aspect it draws in, absorbs and appropriates ideas, notions, customs and practices which it applies objectively as the mode of expression; as the thought in action; as the feeling performed; as the deeper experiences developing his consciousness of God.

The average pupil in the Sunday School has not arrived at the mature age of reasoning, but accepts in pure faith that which is placed before it. The memory holds whatever may be taught, and the necessary action required in the mode of worship will be most readily acquired and utilized with utmost ease until it is part of the pupil's life to "rise" in repeating those parts of the

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Sunday School Service that demand "rising," and to participate in the parts that are "said" or "sung." This "saying," "singing" and "rising" have become parts of the child's life when engaged in worship in either the Sunday School or that of the congregation.

The child has a sense of things orderly. The Sunday School being conducted along lines of good order and decorum soon impresses this sense of order upon the psychical side of the child and it learns orderly methods and with growing years becomes impressed with the deeper meaning of song, prayer and Scripture teachings.

Through its objective sense it may quite unconsciously learn to approve and accept the purest form of worship and could give no intelligent reason why it would feel spiritually wronged to be asked to use any form with which it was not familiar.

It is well known that where there is physical order there will the more readily follow mental order. The mentality is affected. When this is done the lower basis for order is left, to enter a higher, the realm of mind, soul. From the sphere of mind it is but a step to the metaphysical, realm of pure spirit, the spiritual domain. Here again enters the law of good order which directs the spiritual man to the presence of Him Whose demand is that He shall be worshipped in the beauty of holiness.

There is a tendency to repeat the acts which have often been done. Herein lies the power of a fixed service in the schools of the Church. Services wrought out of the Scriptures, tried by centuries of usage and found helpful and edifying when once woven into the inmost nature of religious life by constant practice during the appropriating age of youth in the Sunday School will give zest and spiritual power not otherwise obtained in the congregation.

Habit gives facility in doing acts which have been often performed. At first it is quite a difficult task to repeat the multiplication table rapidly, but the habit of repetition produces the momentum that gives the velocity or rapidity. In the Sunday School the constant repetition gives the momentum required to render an acceptable service. Then back of it all lies the fact that the nature and character of the Service has become ingrained into the life, conscience and individuality of the pupil until the spiritual essence pervades his very being when he engages in the

solemn acts of worship in either school, home or congregation. This law of habit was appointed for good by Him Who made all things and pervadeth all things.

Those ideas which are attended with deep feeling are called up more readily. The child that has learned its lessons at home, in the Church's school, will, when at mature age, learn the meaning of the "Confession of sins," sorrow and contrition, with pardon through the tender mercies of Christ the Redeemer.

It is another well established fact that the easily recited lesson is as easily forgotten and those retained longest required the greatest amount of intellectual energy. The song ditty, sung to "quick-step" time, vanishes with the martial music which is played to be forgotten. But the hymn, psalm and canticle that required time and energy to master will endure while life endures. When the principle of right worship and scriptural practice is carried through the very life of the Church's school, it will grow into one of higher ideals, loftier conceptions of the dignity and spirit of holy worship.

It is important that the directors of thought in the Sunday School teach their pupils word for word the significance of every act in the performance of the different parts of the Service and the source and meaning of all the words in the Service in both Church and Sunday School Services.

As the Sunday School age of children is the recognized "memory-age," it would be well to constantly keep in mind the fact that this is the golden age to teach all the truths of our holy religion. When once the form has been learned it leaves no room for those of an unchurchly and unscriptural character.

It is the duty of all parents to educate their children. Specially so with Christian parents is it to train them in "the fear and admonition of the Lord." How, when and why to worship is a part of the training children should receive at home and in the Sunday School, and the catechetical class. Make the Lutheran Service an intellectual endowment and a spiritual possession more to be desired than "fine gold."

We plant and water, but it is God that giveth the increase (1 Cor. 3: 7), and this saying is applicable to the teachings of the pupils in the Sunday School and class, and of their growth in a knowledge and practice of pure liturgical principles.

The psychic side of the child must not be forgotten. It is

from this side the spiritual growth comes.

Through this side the child is approached with a proper conception of liturgical development and orderly life in its acts of devotion both public and private.

There is a psychic power that lies in wonder, reverence and awe. It begets reverential attitudes of the mind toward the house of God, its altar, its lectern, its pulpit and its religious acts and sacred associations that appeal to its sub-conscious feelings, sentiments and emotions which are motor forces that grow into the acts of worship by the child, the man.

Christianity being life, its acts are exhibited in the moving springs of that life; its feelings. These, again, are seen in the orderly manner, the liturgical concept of religious devotion. The attitude toward the holy place of worship differs from that toward the public hall, as its use and purpose is different. In the approach to God's house the modes of procedure are deferential, reverential. The advance to it is from the human side toward God. It begins in earliest sacred impressions and ends when life here ends.

The laws of repetition, of attention, and of reproduction fix the form and content of the Service in the Sunday School, also the Church Service, and exhibit themselves in religious action. These Services have become parts of the life that is full of faith and reverence.

By observing these laws and principles the Pastor will be able to develop the youth in a knowledge not only of Christian doctrine, as set forth in the teachings of the Church, but also in the meaning and significance of the great Festivals of the Church Year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost, and to impress the nature, character and peculiar feeling attached to, and connected with, each of these festival seasons, with the distinctive type of worship most suitably adapted to each period and best calculated to make a lasting impression and bring out the deepest and most heartfelt praise and devotion.

He will thus be able to teach those whom he is preparing for active membership in the Church, the hymns designated for each season of the Church Year; the use of the Psalter; the design of the Chief Service and the Minor Services; the purpose of the Confessional or Preparatory Service; the object of the Communion Service and the significance of each act in the Service, with its distinct meaning, scriptural authority and evident spiritual neces