(The questions at the end of this chapter will be helpful in getting the child to express himself.)
4. How Can I Know the Best Bible Stories to Tell to Children?
Remember two things: that, as children develop, different types of stories appeal to them, and that everyone of these types is found in THE BIBLE STORY. It is a fact that, while the Bible is a universal story book, many of its best lessons cannot be put in story form and are therefore left out of any collection of Bible stories. Consequently the child is missing much that he might profitably have. THE BIBLE STORY meets a great need of the times by bringing to children all the lessons of the Bible, some by means of simple treatments of interesting things and some by means of longer stories of its heroes and heroines.
_Simple Good-Night Talks for Little Tots_
The following paragraphs in "The Golden Book" contain the sweetest, most constructive lessons to be found in the whole Bible and are beautiful good-night talks for very young children. The questions at the end of this chapter are listed according to pages in "The Golden Book" and will help in getting the child to repeat the story.
What Jesus Said about Birds and Flowers. 106 G.B.
It will be helpful to the mother who is constantly appealed to by her children for special kinds of stories to know where to find them in THE BIBLE STORY.
Children are fond of listening to stories about other children like themselves. THE BIBLE STORY contains many such.
The Boy Who Came when He was Called. 132 G.B.
The Boy Who was Raised from the Dead. 193 G.B.
The favorites of all children beyond the first year or two of school are the stories of great heroes. A large part of "The Golden Book" is given up to stories of Bible heroes, and the following volume is made up of the lives of these same heroes in the words of the Bible text and is consequently more difficult. The beauty of this arrangement is that after reading the easy story in "The Golden Book" a child will want to read more, and as soon as he is able will enjoy going further with his great heroes in the volumes that contain the Bible text. He will understand seemingly difficult passages in the succeeding volumes of the set because of the substantial background formed by the simple treatments in "The Golden Book." The list of simple hero stories is here given together with the corresponding stories in the Bible text in other volumes.