p. 12 | The Reading Courses by Lora Clement

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 9, 1915

The Reading Courses

By Lora Clement

LORA CLEMENT

WHAT are your children reading? Are you acquainted with their favorite books? Do you ever read with them or help them in selecting the good and best in literature?

One is confronted at every turn by a bewildering assortment of books and magazines. It is estimated that the total annual book production of this country alone is eighty million copies. How can our boys and girls be expected to find their way safely through this flood of printers' ink without guidance? Mental development and physical development hold many parallels. Food plays an important part in each, but too often the choice of mental “daily bread” is omitted from the code of parental responsibility, and children and young people are left to select books which suit a passing fancy, when, if their interests were rightly directed, they would just as readily form the habit of purposeful reading, and make friends of authors really worth while.

In the world of literature, as truly as in the world of men, one's character is judged largely by the company he keeps. Any young person would be glad to claim as friends the books outlined in the Missionary Volunteer Reading Courses, and the long winter evenings which will soon be here offer ample opportunity for making their acquaintance. Will you not enlist the interest of your boys and girls, your young men and women, in this rapidly growing reading circle? Missionary Volunteers answer the roll call in German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Japanese, and Spanish, as well as in English. For the completion of the last Junior and Senior Courses 1,913 certificates were issued; and to parents who are anxious to select interesting and profitable books for their reading tables, we most heartily recommend the Reading Courses for 1915-16, which begin in October.

Junior Course No. 8

Three excellent books are suggested for the boys and girls, at a total cost, in set, of $1.75. “Livingstone the Pathfinder,” by Basil Mathews, is a book brimful of pen and camera pictures of the great missionary-explorer who pioneered the way to the very heart of the Dark Continent. It is vivid with experiences, and throbs with action, yet brings a full realization of the power of a life fully consecrated to God. “Friends and Foes in Field and Forest,” by Mrs. Vesta J. Farnsworth, is just the book to stimulate an interest in nature study, and lead the children who read it to a deeper reverence for nature's God. Stories of Bible boys and girls, told by Mary Steward in “Sketches of Bible Child Life,” have the charm of the long ago in bringing out many practical lessons for the present, and a careful reading cannot fail to create an interest in the study of the Book of books.

Senior Course No. 9

The books selected for the Senior Missionary Volunteers cost only $2.35 per set this year, postpaid. They are intensely interesting, and instructive as well. The first is entitled “Things as They Are,” by Amy Wilson Carmichael, and it gives the reader an insight into “real India.” Most books tell the brighter side of mission life, but here we meet the joys and sorrows of those who labor in a country where sin holds sway. These pages cannot be read with passive interest; they fire the heart with ambition for service, and send the reader to his knees in the making of the consecration.

Part 2 of “The History of the Sabbath,” by Andrews and Conradi, traces the observance of the seventh day from the first five centuries through the Dark Ages and the Reformation period to the present time, and its historical evidences are invaluable. Acquaintance with its contents will be especially prized by the young people who desire to know facts. William Miller is widely known as the “father of Adventism.” The history of his life and work as contained in the third book of the Senior Course shows clearly the power of God in the transformation of character and the use he makes of human agencies in the carrying forward of his work in the earth. The book is a challenge to our young people to more thorough Bible study and a deeper consecration to the service of our King.

How to Join

The names of those who wish to enroll in either course should be sent to the conference Missionary Volunteer secretary. The books may be ordered from your tract society. Weekly assignments for reading circle members appear in the Instructor, and Reading Course certificates are granted to those who read all the books in any course and write satisfactory answers to the review questions. From fifteen minutes to half an hour daily devoted to this systematic reading will make it an easy task to complete the course by next June.

The story is told of a beggar to whom there appeared one day, as he sat discouraged by the roadside, a beautiful being whose outstretched arms were laden with blessings. She passed by slowly, offering treasures he longed to possess, but the man regarded her only with indifference until she finally disappeared. Then suddenly realizing what he had missed, he hurried after her, and meeting a traveler inquired, “Have you seen a beautiful stranger going along this road carrying just what I need?” “Yes,” replied the traveler, “her name is Opportunity, but once offered and once refused, she never returns.” Just now the courses outlined bring opportunity within the grasp of our young people. Will you not, as parents and friends, urge them to seize it?