CHAPTER PAGE I. An Interpretation of the Family 1

     II.  The Present Status of Family Life 10

    III.  The Permanent Elements in Family Life 27

     IV.  The Religious Place of the Family 37

      V. The Meaning Of Religious Education in the Family 46

     VI.  The Child’s Religious Ideas 60

    VII.  Directed Activity 75

   VIII.  The Home as a School 87

     IX.  The Child’s Ideal Life 101

      X. Stories and Reading 110

     XI.  The Use of the Bible in the Home 119

    XII.  Family Worship 126

   XIII.  Sunday in the Home 145

    XIV.  The Ministry of the Table 164

     XV.  The Boy and Girl in the Family 173

    XVI.  The Needs of Youth 183

   XVII.  The Family and the Church 198

  XVIII.  Children and the School 212

    XIX.  Dealing with Moral Crises 218

     XX.  Dealing with Moral Crises (Continued) 231

    XXI.  Dealing with Moral Crises (Continued) 240

   XXII.  Dealing with Moral Crises (Concluded) 249

  XXIII.  The Personal Factors in Religious Education 259

   XXIV.  Looking to the Future 268

Suggestions for Class Work 281

A Book List 290

Index 297

CHAPTER I

AN INTERPRETATION OF THE FAMILY

Sec. 1.  TAKING THE HOME IN RELIGIOUS TERMS

The ills of the modern home are symptomatic.  Divorce, childless families, irreverent children, and the decadence of the old type of separate home life are signs of forgotten ideals, lost motives, and insufficient purposes.  Where the home is only an opportunity for self-indulgence, it easily becomes a cheap boarding-house, a sleeping-shelf, an implement for social advantage.  While it is true that general economic developments have effected marked changes in domestic economy, the happiness and efficiency of the family do not depend wholly on the parlor, the kitchen, or the clothes closet.  Rather, everything depends on whether the home and family are considered in worthy and adequate terms.