"What we make children love and desire is more important than what we make them learn."
"Even a child is known by his doings. (Proverbs 20:11)
"According to church statistics it costs $10,000.00 to save an adult, and only a few dollars to save a child." Why not invest your money in evangelizing the children.
FOREWORD
A surpassing love for children, the rare gift of simplicity in statement, a firm belief in the regeneration of boys and girls, a passion for their salvation, ability to hold their attention while teaching them the Word, and many years of experience in developing her message and method, have given to the author of these Bible studies a peculiar fitness for preparing them.
The Gospel in every lesson is a blessed and marvelous achievement.
By this method, through constant review with the eye and the ear, the child - even the small child - soon "thinks through the Bible," in a rudimentary way.
Teaching the Bible to children dispensationally is, as far as I know, a new venture. Everywhere these lessons have been used, this feature has met with the fullest commendation.
- J. Irvin Overholtzer
PREFACE
"All thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children" (Isaiah 54:13).
"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of Life" (John 6:35).
"Feed my lambs" (John 21:15).
Some fifteen years ago, it was my privilege to sit under the teaching of Dr. B. B. Sutcliffe and there receive my first glimpse of the Bible as a whole, and the plans and purposes of GOD through the ages.
I wondered why, after faithful attendance at church and Sunday School for 25 years (having joined at an early age), the Bible should still be a closed book, that I should have no knowledge of it, other than the usual familiar stories.
I felt keenly the wrong done, not only to myself, but to thousands of other children and young people, who grow up in the church and Sunday School without receiving clear, definite teaching of the Bible.
I began to realize that the Bible was not only deep and profound, but it was also clear and sane, with a beautiful simplicity that would appeal to very little children, if given to them simply.
So I began to give some of the teaching I was receiving for the first time (but which I felt I should have received very early in life), to the children in my Primary Department. They were not only delighted but fascinated with the lessons.
And now, after more than fifteen years of teaching children (from three to thirteen) the fundamental truths of the Bible, I am fully convinced that GOD has prepared the hearts of little children for His Word, and that there is no place in any evangelical church or Sunday School for mere nature stories, hero stories, or even stories with a good moral lesson attached.
The time is so short and precious that everything said and done should have some bearing on the Word of GOD. The younger the children, the greater the responsibility of the teacher to give them the truth as it is in CHRIST JESUS.
To supplement the work of the Sunday School, there is being formed all over this continent as well as others, Week Day Bible School Classes, the object of which is to give young children the Gospel, and to lead them to accept JESUS as their personal Saviour; then to give them a view of the Bible as a whole, relating the familiar stories with prophecy, and with GOD's plans and purposes for the ages, that very early in life the child may read the Bible for himself with interest and profit.
For this purpose these lessons have been developed. They have been used for several years, with great profit to children and adults alike.
After many requests that they be printed so that they might benefit young teachers who do not have the opportunity to receive expository teaching of the Bible, they are sent forth with much prayer that GOD may use them to the salvation of many souls, and for the deepening of the spiritual life of the teachers of children.
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).
"And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20).
- THE AUTHOR
Moody said, "I believe myself that if children are old enough to come to Sunday School they are old enough to come to Calvary. Let us make up our minds, GOD helping us, to win the children for CHRIST. A little lamb in Noah's Ark was as safe as the elephant."