The speaker may construct an agreeable and instructive exercise for the children if he reviews for them some of Christ’s parables in the following way: Let him hold in his hand a Bible, and open it and talk to the children as if the pages were covered with pictures, the pictures illustrating Christ’s parables. Imagining he sees one scene of the parable, let him describe the picture vividly, and then, turning in imagination to another picture,—the concluding scene of the parable,—let him ask the children to tell what he will see.
For example, he may say: “I am looking at the picture of a man sowing grain in a field. The man is very earnest, and is sowing his seed far and wide. There is a beaten path running through the field, and some seed has fallen, I see, on the path. In one corner of the field is a great mass of weeds and brambles. The sower is so eager that he has scattered seed even here. And here in another part of the field is a lot of stones, but the seed has fallen among the stones also. On the next page is another picture, showing what became of the seed that the sower scattered. Can any of the boys or girls tell me what this picture looks like?”
Or the parable of the prodigal son may thus be described: “Here is a very interesting picture—a picture of a lot of swine feeding in a field; and on one side, sitting on a stone, is a young man who seems tired and sick. His head is in his hands, and I think he is weeping. But I will turn the page. Good! Here is a much pleasanter picture. I wonder if some of the children can tell me what it is.”