cess of the so-called "North Dakota Plan" rests: (1) The Bible is not taught on public property. (2) No State funds are used in its teachings. (3) The course is entirely voluntary.

The success of the work in North Dakota is due to three facts: (1) The plan was inaugurated by an educator of recognized standing, as an educational, and not as a religious, movement. The examinations have to do with the Bible as history and literature, and have no reference to its religious teaching; the injection of this element is left to the teacher in the local Sunday school. (2) It was promoted by an interdenominational agency. When the plan is finally adopted in any State, we believe there is no agency so well suited to promote the plan as the State Sunday School Association. (3) No passage of the Scripture is referred to in the syllabus which is not found in the three generally recognized versions of Scripture, viz., The King James, The Revised and the Douay.

The North Dakota Sunday School Association has never done a finer piece of work, in the opinion of its officers, than to co-operate with the public school forces for the promotion of Bible study.

Additional Facts and Thoughts from Address by Mr. Snow at Michigan Sunday School Convention, Nov. 14, 1913.

The committee met and began its work by laying down certain fundamental principles, which might be formulated as follows:

First. Religious instruction, as such, must not enter into the syllabus or the examination. Important as religious instruction is, we must not violate our fundamental American idea of the separation of the Church and State. The justification of Bible study, so far as the schools are concerned, is found in the great value of a knowledge of Scriptural history and litera

ture as broadly cultural subjects. This idea must be constantly and consistently borne in mind and strenuously insisted on.

Second. Every suspicion of sectarianism, or of anything suggesting it, must be avoided. Accordingly, no text-book, except the Bible itself, shall be prescribed. Of this any version may be used. The Catholic may use the Douay version; the Protestant the King James or the Revised Version, as desired. The desirability of consulting Bible Dictionaries and standard historians and commentators will be urged; but individual teachers must select their helps for themselves.

Third. All suspicions of partisanship must be carefully avoided. There must, therefore, be no insistence on any theory of authorship or any system. of chronology. "Higher Critics" and "conservatives" shall have full opportunity to present their special views to their classes. In the examination any recognized system of chronology will be accepted and no such disputed question as "Who wrote the Pentateuch?" will ever be asked.

Fourth. The work in both Old and New Testaments must be preceded by a careful study of Biblical geography, and the whole study must be as concrete and objective as possible.

Fifth. Attention must be called to the beauty of Biblical style by an insistence on the learning of a number of memory-passages, in the choice of which, however, there shall be considerable latitude.

Sixth. The work, as a whole, must amount to enough to occupy ninety hours of recitation besides the time for preparation, this being the amount of work usually required in order to secure a half-credit in the high schools of our State.

The High School Board, after careful consideration, voted to approve the syllabus, and voted that a half unit

credit should be given to any high school student successfully passing a State examination upon this syllabus.

While the State School Board has approved the syllabus, it still remains necessary for each local high school board to specifically adopt and approve the course before credit can be given to students in that particular high school. The number of units of credit required for graduating from North Dakota high schools varies with the local schools, some requiring fifteen units of credit and some sixteen. The Bible thus becomes an elective in North Dakota high schools. The State cannot, of course, spend any money upon the printing of the syllabus, nor would it be justified in especially promoting the adoption of this course. But the State Sunday School Association finds this to be its opportunity, and comes forward with the proposal to bear all necessary expenses and do the publicity work.

Solves a Big Problem

The Sunday school finds here its finest opportunity of helping to solve the "Teen Age Problem." The lamentable "leak" in our Sunday school enrollment which begins with the early teens and ends its devastating work by the later teens has been deplored by all Sunday school workers. Various causes for this have been found, but it is generally agreed that one of the chief causes is the failure to present a sufficient and attractive challenge in the course of study presented to the young people.

Experience already indicates, by the numerous inquiries which are received from all parts of the State regarding this course, that at last we have found a challenge which our high school students are glad to accept. Classes are being organized in all kinds of Sunday schools in all parts of the State. In many cases

of the public

the superintendent schools is himself the teacher of such a class in his own Sunday school. Letters are being received from high school students asking for a copy of the syllabus and information regarding the conditions for receiving credits.

Commendation Everywhere

Not a word of criticism of the plan has been heard by either Professor Heyward, the high school inspector, or Professor Squires, the author of the course, or by the general secretary. On the other hand, most enthusiastic commendation has been heard on every side. In at least one instance which has come to our attention, a Catholic priest has been the teacher of a class using the syllabus as a guide.

The

It is hoped and expected that classes will plan to pursue the study during ninety lesson periods. If the classes meet on Sunday only, this will mean two years of work. High School Board does not require a certain number of hours of study to secure this credit, but only asks that the pupil shall be able to pass the examination in order to secure the credit. However, the examination is made sufficiently difficult so that it will be advisable for pupils spend at least two years of study, if work is done on Sundays only, to be sure of passing the examination. See below copy of the questions used at the January and May examinations.

100 Pass Examinations

to

About 100 students successfully passed these examinations during the last school year (ending June, 1913). Many more, perhaps 75, papers were sent up to the Examiners which had been judged worthy of receiving credit by the local teachers and just how many students tried the examination and were not able to write a paper

which was considered worthy of credit by the local teacher, nobody knows. Many more students are taking two years for the work and will come up for their examination this year. But we are satisfied that our young people in North Dakota are studying the Bible as they never did before. Our office knows of 103 cities in North Dakota alone which are interested, and 1,533 copies of the syllabus have been sent out by mail upon request and many hundreds have been distributed at conventions and institutes. We are not boasting, but after a year's experience we believe our North Dakota plan is one worthy of imitation in all States.

In first three annual examinations, up to close of school year 1913-14, 209 papers were sent to State Examiner (after local sifting), of which 181 passed. Fifty-nine high schools were represented by an average of three each. In Jan., 1914, 82 were examined, 72 passed, 20 of whom were from a Catholic Academy that used the Douay version.

Extract from Statement of a Joint Committee of North Dakota State Educational Association and State Sunday School Association.

"One or two things ought to be made. clear in justice to the High School Board. This is not a Protestant movement. A Catholic can carry it on in his own Bible with or without the immediate supervision of the priest or spiritual adviser. Again, it is not really a religious movement, so far as the schools are concerned. The examination will not bear on religion, but merely on Biblical history and literature. Sunday schools or other religious agencies may use it and blend as much religious instruction therewith as they please. From the point of view of the school, the religious, instruction is incidental,

Press Comments on North Dakota Plan.

Speaking of the results and the working-out of the details after actual trial, a writer in the "Homiletic Review" says:

"The great literature of which no intelligent person can afford to be ignorant is here placed alongside of the modern literature which it permeates. It is offered to the youth of the State as one of the elective studies to be seriously pursued by all who choose to take it, and to count like all the rest with equal credit to those who pass examination on it. That the examination is strict and thorough, copies of the papers presented this year give proof. The opportunity thus offered is well safeguarded from objections. The work done is to be done at home. Parents and church teachers are there free to advise and direct, as they desire, to suitable books. The State prescribes none, and regards all versions of the Bible as equally sufficient for its purpose, that the student shall know the Bible history, the stories of its great characters, its noble style, its influential ideas and ideals that have modeled our civilization. Through the lack of such knowledge in many of his hearers the preacher's work is heavily handicapped by the need of imparting the knowledge which it is his mission to apply."

"The Lutheran Observer," March 13, 1914, quoted above and added:

"Unfortunately, the work only benefits the scholars in the higher grades. Those in the lower schools who drop out before they reach the high school need this Bible course as much if not

more than their more favored fellows, and a simpler course might well be arranged for them. It is a plan that has possibilities for expansion, and no doubt we shall hear more of it later, not only in the State which has been first to adopt it, but in other States which will take up the idea."

A knowledge of the Bible is an essential element in a good education. Whether or not one is interested in the Bible as a manual of devotion, it is imperative that he should be familiar with it as a literature and as a history; for no literature and no history have more vitally affected Anglo-Saxon civilization. English literature has been greatly influenced by Biblical style and is strewn with allusions to Bible stories and teachings. Shakespeare is said to have over seven hundred such allusions; Tennyson, over four hundred. As Charles Dudley Warner put it: "The Bible is the one book that no intelligent person can afford to be ignorant of. All modern literature and all art are permeated with it. It is not all a question of religion or theology or dogma; it is a question of general intelligence. A boy or girl at college in the presence of the works set for either to master, without a fair knowledge of the Bible is an ignoramus and is disadvantaged accordingly."

And yet actual experience proves that the average young person has a very imperfect knowledge of this wonderful book. This syllabus has been prepared with the hope that the boys and girls of North Dakota of high

school age may be led to a serious study of this great literature. With a Bible containing maps, the diligent student will be adequately equipped, although other helps, if available, may, of course, be used to advantage. The essential thing is to study the Bible itself, to glean its history and the life stories of its great characters, to note the simple beauty of its style, and to grasp its ideas and ideals.

To every high school student who duly passes an examination based on this syllabus, a half-credit will be given on his high school course.

Physically, Palestine is divided into four regions or strips running north and south.

1. The first is a plain along the coast from five to twenty-five miles in width and of great fertility. Here were the chief cities of the Philistines and the famous Plain of Sharon.

2. The second is a hilly zone with elevations from three thousand to four thousand feet high in the north, but toward the middle flattening out into the Plain of Esdraelon, watered by the river Kishon. South of this the surface again breaks into hills and becomes more and more rugged, until near Hebron it attains an elevation of over three thousand feet.

3. To the east this hill country slopes rapidly to the deep gorge of the Jordan Valley, the deepest depression on the face of the earth. The Jordan rises on the slopes of Mt. Hermon some distance north of the Sea of Galilee, and descends rapidly until at the Sea of Galilee it is 682 feet below sea level. It continues to descend through a winding course of nearly two hundred miles (only sixty-five in a straight line) until at the Dead Sea it is 1,292 feet below sea level. The Jordan Valley varies in width from about four miles in the north to about fourteen in the south. In the north it is fertile; in the south, alkaline and arid. The Dead Sea is forty-seven miles long and ten miles wide. South of this lake is the gravelly desert Arabah, gradually rising to a height of six hundred feet above sea level and falling away again toward the Red Sea.

4. To the east of this great cleft of the Jordan and extending to the desert is a pleasant hilly region (Bashan, Gilead, Moab, and Edom) rising to a plateau about two thousand feet in height. This section is well watered and admirably adapted to grazing.

The great variety in the country is conducive to a corresponding diversity

in its plants and animals. The authorities mention 113 species of mammals, 348 of birds, and more than 3,000 varieties of flowering plants.

2. The Relation of Palestine to Other Lands

Palestine lay on one of the main routes of travel in the ancient world. To the southwest was Egypt with its mighty civilization; to the northeast, Mesopotamia with its powerful empires, across Palestine, between the Nile and the Euphrates, swept for many centuries the caravans and armies of the world. There were four main highways corresponding to the four divisions of the country already mentioned. One road followed the coast, leading from Egypt through the Philistine cities (Gaza, Ashdad, etc.), to Phenecia (Tyre and Sidon), and so on, to the north. A second traversed the central range of hills and the Plain of Esdatelon, passing through Samaria and Jerusalem, and so south to Beersheba, where it turned west toward Egypt. On the north it led to Damascus and thence eastward across the desert to Mesopotamia (Assyria, Nineveh, Babylonia, Chaldea, Land of Shinar). A third route followed the Jordan Valley Jordan Valley on its eastern side, extending down to Elath on the Red Sea and turning thence to Sinia and beyond. On the north this road also led to Damascus. The fourth highway likewise led from Elath, connecting with caravan routes across the desert to the east to the east and proceeding north through Moab, Ammon and Gilead to the ancient emporium of Damascus. Along these roads and their branches and connectiors surged the tide of oldworld traffic. By the southern routes the Israelites entered the land; by the northern they were, centuries later, led forth into captivity, and in due time. returned to re-occupy their ancient home.