G.R. Balleine’s devotional and Sunday school books

 

 

I've put together a chronological timeline of G.R. Balleine’s devotional and Sunday school books, mapped as far as bibliographic records allow. It shows how he built a complete syllabus across Scripture, doctrine, ethics, and the liturgical year.

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Timeline of Balleine’s Sunday School & Devotional Works

Year	Title	Focus
1910s–1920s	The Young Churchman: Lessons for the Sundays of the Church’s Year	Core syllabus for weekly lessons across the liturgical year.
1920	The Goodly Fellowship: 52 Lessons on the Prophets of Israel and Judah from the Days of Samuel	Old Testament prophets.
1923	Lessons from the Life of Christ	Narrative of Christ’s ministry.
1920s–1930s	What Jesus Said	Teachings and sayings of Christ.
1930s	The Commands of Christ	Ethical/doctrinal lessons drawn from Christ’s words.
1930s–1940s	Lessons on the Acts of the Apostles	Early Church and apostolic witness.
1940s	Lessons on the Creed	Doctrinal foundations of the Apostles’ Creed.
1940s	Saints and Holy Days	Biographical sketches and liturgical explanations of feast days.
1940s–1950s	Children of the Church: A Year’s Lessons on the Catechism	Catechism instruction for children.
1950s	Christianity in Action: 52 Lessons in Christian Ethics	Moral and ethical teaching.
1950s	Lessons on the Boys and Girls of the Bible	Biographical sketches for children.

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Observations

Early phase (1910s–1920s): Core syllabus (Young Churchman, Goodly Fellowship, Life of Christ).

Middle phase (1930s–1940s): Expansion into doctrinal and liturgical teaching (Commands of Christ, Acts, Creed, Saints and Holy Days).

Later phase (1940s–1950s): Ethics and catechism volumes (Christianity in Action, Children of the Church, Boys and Girls of the Bible).

Publisher: Almost all issued by Home Words (London), ensuring parish distribution.

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Why this matters

This timeline shows Balleine’s curriculum‑building arc: starting with Scripture, then layering in doctrine, liturgy, and ethics. By the 1950s, he had created a comprehensive cycle of parish education manuals that could sustain Sunday schools for years.