Throughout his books he wrote as a philosopher emphasizing what to accept and what to reject in decision-making. Hence, in the practical running of clubs for lads he included only working-class boys, excluding the clerical and the destructively rough ones as he was looking for results. He included only those who had reached the upper class of Sunday School and ran the club as a benevolent despot. Although the club was held on every week night to keep the boys off the streets the two main aims for Green were to know the boys, not to entertain them, and to bring them by stages to acknowledge Christ as Lord and Saviour as the only power against temptation. Hence the nature of Green as evangelist was demonstrated and this is a recurring theme throughout his books. He held a compulsory Bible class for the members of the club as this provided the opportunity to interest them in religion as “The boy is an essentially reasonable young animal.”27 He realized that “Amongst the simple and uneducated people the familiar is more welcomed and enjoyed than the novel or original.”28 This seemed to encourage him to repeat his material.
As he was conscious of the temptations besetting the society of the day he never failed to condemn: “As occasion serves the sin of drink and of gambling and of foul language.”29 Drunkenness and gambling became two of his targets in his writing on morality. The care of his parishioners on the broader front was most important to him as “the destruction of the poor is their poverty,”30 and he believed by their conversion to Christianity they would attain a life worth living.
With his lads in Bible class he aimed to bring them to a living experience of a relationship with God, helping them to recognize in their own souls’ experience something analogous to that of the Biblical characters since, for him, human nature does not change. He told the Bible stories in his own words, drawing out the meaning and illustrating them with personal anecdotes. In this way their interest was maintained and the Bible became a storehouse of spiritual experiences. The lads were encouraged to look for vital experiences as Green stressed the importance of experience and discipline, the lads trusting him with their characters in the process of formation and the men with their life experiences on which to reflect. This demanded an orderly development from the religion of the discipline of childhood to the freedom of manhood. However, the recognition of biblical experiences should lead to the desire to receive dogmatic teaching, which itself is definite and the condensed statements of past experiences formulated by the Church. Green considered it necessary to explain what the Christian religion is, and what it is for. He believed the Catholic Faith should be accepted as the philosophy for life, which needed plain and definite explanations which could be understood, believed, remembered, and acted on.
He presented a progression in three stages. The first was to encourage the boys to accept their physical, mental and spiritual resources which made up their characters as God-given. The second was to encourage them to accept the love of God. As Green believed faith comes before knowledge he asked them to have faith in him and to trust what he said and then to find out the truth for themselves through their experiences in life. The third was the triangular nature of the Christian religion with duty towards God, towards self for the development of the soul, and towards their neighbour. He developed this theme with duty to God at home, at work and amongst companions.
This orderly, three phase course of instruction was given in Teaching for Lads under ‘Our Religion’.31 The Bible Class members were first presented with the demands of religion and, relating them to their experience, were encouraged to accept the demands. There are twelve lessons mapped out in ‘Our Religion’ including 34 illustrations of which 29 are from Green’s personal experiences, three are historical and one each from the Bible and from missionary accounts. This included the love of God, the spirit of discipline and the development of a prayer life.
The second course aimed to relate the experience of Bible characters and incidents to the boys own experiences. He instilled in the boys that Bible Class was not worship, nor a substitute for it, and that a Sunday without worship was miss-spent.32 His optimism was shown in the fact that he believed that boys of about 12 to 14 years of age could understand simple teaching about God, their own souls, the strength which comes from Christ pleading his sacrifice, and the power of prayer. He knew the worst years to try to influence boys were between 15 and 16 years when their psychological and physiological years were against them.
The third course was the preparation for Confirmation if requested and with the parents’ and Green’s consent. The syllabus was based on the doctrine taught by the Book of Common Prayer, but stressed that Confirmation is not so much about making promises but the conscious receiving of the Holy Spirit.
As Green was convinced of the need for sound, dogmatic Catholic teaching he regarded Confirmation preparation to be the only possible chance to present an “absolutely, satisfactory, reasonable and consistent philosophy of life.”33 There is little mention of God the Father in the Confirmation preparation as this doctrine had been covered extensively in the previous two courses, but he introduced the need and object of religion to be the means whereby fallen humanity is remade by the Holy Spirit in the image of Christ.34 On a practical level he explained the benefit of auricular confession and absolution as a way whereby temptations are met and conquered. His knowledge of literature as illustrations for doctrine is indicated by Kipling’s ‘Thrown Away’ in his Plain Tales from the Hills.35 On a practical level the Confirmation Service was explained word by word. It was a community event and the whole congregation was expected to attend the rehearsal. The confirmees had to attend a service of Holy Communion before work on the day at 5am and their mothers at 9.30am! Each candidate had a sponsor. As an indication of his personal interest in each candidate Green taught them individually how to pray and gave each a notebook for subjects and intentions. He stressed the need to pray regularly. “Otherwise God was being mocked and it was better not to pray at all.”36
Thereafter, the demands on a communicant were extensive with public worship every week and the reception of Holy Communion once a month, although Green regretted that “Matins had usurped the place on the Lord’s day which rightly belongs to the Lord’s own service.”37
Before the monthly reception of Holy Communion a preparation class was held when the communicants were led through self-examination leading to confession to strengthen the soul, leading to good resolutions. This was done by the help of guidelines on a card for the participants to complete as he believed boys needed rule, regularity and order. The preparation included also a short meditation on a biblical text with an explanation and an illustration.
Green was sympathetic to boys from bad homes but, optimistically, considered them to be rarer than imagined, and he put on probation a boy who lapsed with a point of honour to admit his relapse. He was convinced that “it is the personal touch that saves.”38
In the final section of Teaching for Lads Green gave the outlines of addresses for communicant classes. Under ‘Faith’ he gave his concept of mind. This is important as it was the definition made by St Augustine of Hippo: “We say that the mind has three ways of working, or three powers, namely, the intellect by which we know, the affections