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Dr. Griffin's Text.

217

PART I.
The
Teacher's
Teaching
Work.

CHAPTER 4.
Methods
of the
Teaching
Process.

me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe.”
And then, to give added force to his often repeated
injunction, he says: "Rejoice in the Lord alway:
again I will say, Rejoice." It ought not to be irk-
some to any teacher, to review his scholars in an
important truth which he would have fastened in
their minds; and to them it is safe. It was in that
same letter to the Philippians, that Paul said again,
of his review-methods, "Many walk, of whom I Tongue and
told you often, and now tell you even weeping."
Old Thomas Fuller says of this improvement in
Paul's later form of putting the truth: "Formerly
he had taught it with his tongue, but now he
taught it with his tears; formerly he taught it with
words, but now with weeping."

tears.

hammer text.

There has been no time since the days of Paul
when there was not an added power in simple
repetition, as a means of fastening a truth in the
minds of hearers or readers. Many a preacher gives
a trip-hammer force to the text from which he
preaches, by bringing it down on the ears of his A trip-
hearers at the conclusion of every section-if not,
indeed, of every few sentences-of his discourse, until
that text is sure to be remembered by all who
listen to him, even if nothing else that he brings
to them finds a sure lodgment in their memories.
The story is told of Dr. Edward Dorr Griffin,
preaching a remarkable sermon during one of his
earlier pastorates, at a season of spiritual declension,

PART I.
The
Teacher's
Teaching
Work.

CHAPTER 4.
Methods
of the
Teaching
Process.

A threefold cord.

Refrains and choruses.

66

when he fastened the attention and impressed the
minds of all his hearers, before he had uttered a
single word of his own, by the simple threefold
repetition of his text, in solemn earnestness: "My
soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation
is from him." "My soul, wait thou only upon God;
for my expectation is from him." My soul, wait
thou only upon God; for my expectation is from
him." That threefold repetition of the text was a
whole sermon in itself. The preacher did not lose
the hold thus gained on his hearers, until his
whole congregation was swayed with strong emo-
tion under the power of his message from God to
them; and that sermon was the beginning of a great
awakening in his field of labor.

The power of repetition, as a means of impressing
and fastening a thought or a truth, is evidenced in
all the varied range of literature. It is shown in
those refrains and choruses of popular songs, which
are remembered when all the other lines or verses
are forgotten. It stands out in those reiterated words
which make and mark the remembered burden of a
poem, like the "Nevermore," of Poe's Raven, the

66

Stitch, stitch, stitch," of Hood's Song of the Shirt, or the "Break, break, break," of Tennyson's Song of the Sea. And it is scarcely less prominent in the prose, than in the poetry, of secular literature. Dickens often fixes the lesson of one of his plainly marked characters by the tireless repetition of a single dis

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PART I. The Teacher's Teaching

Work. CHAPTER 4. Methods of the

Teaching

Process.

tinctive or idiosyncratic phrase, in connection with that character, such as Mr. Toots's, "It's of no consequence;" Captain Cuttle's, "When found, make a note on;" and Mr. Micawber's, "Until something turns up." Again, it is in the ceaseless knitting, knitting, knitting, of the heartless enemy of a hated race; in the ever-recurring sound of the echoing footsteps of progressing destiny; and in the grim sawing, sawing, sawing, of the blood-craving citizen, -that his Tale of Two Cities has its more thrilling The Tale of effectiveness. And so it is to a greater or less degree in the work of other impressive writers. It would, indeed, be a pity if the Sunday-school teacher were not to avail himself of this recognized power of reiteration and repetition as a means of enforcing and fixing the truths he is teaching.

A few review questions on last Sunday's lesson may wisely be asked at the beginning of each Sunday's teaching exercise. A few questions tending to bring out the chief points of the day's teaching may follow at the close of that exercise. All the way along in one's teaching work, review questions, designed to bring up afresh and fasten anew important truths which the teacher wishes not to be for. gotten, may be asked, in conjunction with the current teaching. Sometimes, the mere repetition of a question, immediately on its being answered, may tend to impress and fix the answer itself in the mind of the scholar who gives and repeats the answer, as

Two Cities.

All the way along.

PART I. The Teacher's

Work. CHAPTER 4. Methods of the Teaching Process.

would not otherwise be possible. For example, in Teaching studying the story of Daniel continuing to pray in spite of the threatened lions'-den, or of the three Hebrew children defying the furnace-fires, or of Peter and John preaching God's truth at the risk of imprisonment, a teacher might ask a scholar, "What lesson is there for you in this story?" And the answer might come back, "We ought to do right in spite of everything." "What do you say is the lesson?" asks the teacher again. "We ought to do right in spite of everything" is again answered. "What do you say is the lesson?" asks the teacher, for the third time. And for the third time the scholar answers, "We ought to do right in spite of everything." Can there be any doubt that that scholar is more likely to realize the force of his own answer, and to have the truth of it more firmly in his mind, in consequence of that repetition?

Say it again.

At any time and always.

At stated times, and at other times, at any time and at all times, review questioning is in order, for the making firm and secure in the scholar's mind, of that which has once been put there, but which will pass out of mind unless it be often recalled to memory. You know what you deem of most im portance in all that you have caused your scholars to know through your teaching. Let that be the main subject of your review questioning.

Better than Repetition.

221

III.

NEW-VIEWING THE WHOLE.

A Threefold Work in Reviewing; How a Child Learns to Read; Gain of a Perspective; Three Lessons New-viewed; The Thirteenth New Lesson; Specimen New-Views.

PART I. The Teacher's Teaching

Work. CHAPTER 4. Methods of the Teaching Process.

In addition to all the gain which comes from the work of reviewing, in the teaching-process, as a means of testing the measure of knowledge already attained by the scholar, and, again, as a means of fastening in the scholar's mind the truth already taught to him, there is a farther gain in this work, as a means of securing a new view of the truth which has been taught by the teacher, and which has been learned by the scholar. Indeed, this new-viewing of the truth is the chief gain of all reviewing at stated seasons, as in distinction from A chief gain. occasional and incidental reviewings; and, again, it is the more important feature of reviewing,-as essential to the completion of the teaching-process,-in its distinction from reiteration, repetition, recapitulation, or revision.

A word or a statement of truth uttered by a teacher, or by a scholar, can be at once reiterated,

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