EMORY UNIVERSITY HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE BY S. N. VASS, A. M., D. D. TEACHER TRAINING BOOK National Baptist Convention, U. S. A. Published by the Sunday School Publishing Board 412-4th Ave., N., Nashville, Tenn. Copyrighted, 1922, Sunday School Publishing Board. TO ANNE VICTORIA VASS, MY SAINTED MOTHER, THROUGH WHOSE SACRIFICE AND CONSECRA¬ TION I WAS TRAINED FOR SERVICE; AND TO MARY ELIZA HAYWOOD, MY LATE BE¬ LOVED WIFE, WHO KEPT THE HOME FIRES BURN¬ ING WHILE I TAUGHT THE BIBLE TO THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE SCATTERED OVER THIS WIDE COUNTRY; AND TO EDNA EARLE MITCHELL, MY PRES¬ ENT DEVOTED WIFE, WHO IS SHARING WITH ME THE HARDSHIPS OF CON¬ STANT TRAVEL IN UNSELFISH SERVICE FOR THE KINGDOM, THIS BOOK IS AFFEC¬ TIONATELY DEDI¬ CATED. AUTHOR. PUBLISHER'S NOTE. The Sunday School Publishing Board of the National Baptist Convention, U. S. A., is sending forth this book as the official teacher training manual for Negro Baptist Sunday Schools of America, and we consid¬ er ourselves fortunate to be able to secure the services of Dr. S. N. Vass as author—a Sunday school expert and a Bible scholar. Dr. Vass has had more than a quarter of a century's experience in Sunday school and Bible work. This book is the first one written by Dr. Vass bearing on this work, and shows the secret of his wonderful grasp upon the Bi¬ ble. If there were no other features to the book but the Bible instruction, it would rich¬ ly repay the price at which we are selling the book. But in addition to the Bible in¬ struction given, every side of teacher train¬ ing is taken up, the methods of successful teaching are brought out, and a study of the (6) A. M. TOWN SEND, A. M., M. D., D. D. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 7 pupil is presented, all of which is very help¬ ful and illustrated with diagrams, and so on. Information is given showing how to make a Sunday school measure up to the right standard, and the book finally closes by set¬ ting for the Sunday school a standard as adopted for the Negro Baptist schools of the country. This book gives in full the Teacher Train¬ ing Course of our Sunday School Publishing Board, and in the introduction there is ex¬ plained the reason for our offering this course. The Sunday School Publishing Board indorses the idea that a thorough knowledge of the Bible is necessary in order to be an efficient Sunday school teacher. Another advantage this book offers over others is the fact that it is the only denominational Teacher Training Book written from begin¬ ning to end by one man, and the book is thus a unity, and not inconsistent with itself. The book is a book of methods. Every¬ thing in the book has practical value has been attested by being ac u „„t Our m every S unaw 8 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Our fondest hope is that it may enjoy the widest possible circulation and use, and be a means of the greatest help to Sunday school teachers and Bible workers. aecieutry, SUNDAY SCHOOL PUBLISHING BOARD, National Baptist Convention, U. S. A., Nashville, Tennessee. S. N. VASS. A. M., D. D. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. My apology for writing this book is the special request from Dr. A. M. Townsend and the Sunday School Publishing Board, and also because I have waited ample time before daring to put in print the methods by which I have studied the Bible for my own benefit for a number of years. The methods here suggested in this book contain the secret of my being able to lecture on the entire Bible without the use of notes. I re¬ gard it as peculiarly fitting that my own tried method of lecturing and teaching should be given in this Teacher Training Book, and that I have not put myself for¬ ward, but have been requested by our Board to do this. The controlling reason why I have not written before was the fact that my Lord and Master wrote no books, pre¬ ferring to personally teach a small group of men. There is just one desire I have, and that is that God will be glorified and my own peo¬ ple helped by this humble effort. (9) ERRATA. Page 23, "second year" should, read "third year," in line 20. Page 35, in line 19, "angels" should read "God." Page 167, in liine 5, "after" should read "namely." Page 370, line 19, "testimony" should read "tendency." Page 382, lines 19, 20 and 21 should read: "Verbal mem¬ ory is the ability to especially remember words, and is of little advantage as compared with the memory of reason." Page 490, in the bibliography, "Bothering" should read "Brothering (the Boy." Page 491, "Part IV" should read "Part V. PLAN OF THIS BOOK. PART I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART II. THE BIBLE. PART III. THE TEACHER. PART IV. THE PUPIL. PART V. THE SCHOOL. To secure diploma, take time and write out neatly on foolscap paper, on one side only, every question after every lesson with the appropriate answer and turn same over to teacher or file same with the SUNDAY SCHOOL PUBLISHING BOARD, National Baptist Convention, U. S. A., 412-420 Fourth Avenue, North, Nashville, Tenn. No diploma will be 'given until pupil has taught one year on supply. (11) GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART I.—GENERAL INTRODUCTION 15. 1. Teacher Training Course of the Sunday School Publishing Board of the National Baptist Conven¬ tion 17. 2. The Significance and Essentials of Teacher Train¬ ing 25. 3. Studying the Bible for Teaching Value 31. 4. Teacher Training in Christian Colleges 37. PART II.—THE BIBLE 43. Quotation from the Bible. 1. The Value of Bible Study to Teachers 47. 2. Our English Bible to Date 57. 3. The So-called Baptist Bible 63. 4. Introduction to the Old Testament 69. 5. Sources of the Hebrew Scriptures 75. 6. Purpose of the Bible 81. 7. Geography of the Bible 85. 8. How to Study the Bible . 93. 9. The Higher Criticism, the Lower Criticism, and Just Plain Interpretation of the Bible 103. 10. Interpretation of the Bible 113. 11. The Historical) Study of the Old Testament 119. 12. The Spiritual Study of the Old Testament __— 137. 13. SpeciaJl Interpretation of the Prophets 175. 14. The Bible Interim 183. 15. Judaism and Christianity _ 189. 16. New Testament Introduction 195. 17. The Gospel's Contribution to the Life of Christ 199. 18. Periods of the Life of Christ 213. 19. Brief Outline of Christ's Life 221. 20. The Life of Jesus 227. 21. The Teachings of Jesus _ 253. (12) HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 13 22. Origin and Growth of the Church 261. 23. An Exposition of Christianity 275. 24. The Triumph of Christianity 285. Bibliography. PART III.—THE TEACHER. 295. Quotation from Rein. 1. The Personality of the Teacher 1 299. 2. Authority in Teaching 309. 3. Essentials of Real Teaching 319. 4. Methods of Teaching 327. 5. The Teacher and His Mastery of the Lesson • 337. 6. The Teacher's Lesson Preparation 343. 7. The Teacher's Lesson Plan 351. 8. Attention 357. 9. The Use of the Question : 363. 10. Self Activity or Handwork 375. 11. The Memory 381. 12. The Will 391. 13. The Feelings 399. Bibliography. PART IV.—THE PUPIL 407. Quotation from Herbart. 1. The Study of the Pupil 411. 2. The Personality of the Pupil 419. 3. How the Mind Learns 427. 4. Studying the Pupils by Groups 437. 5. Childhood 443. 6. Adolescence 457. 7. The Adult 465. 14 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 8. Bible Teaching Values 9. How to Lead a Pupil to Christ 10. The Trailing- of a Pupil Bibliography. PART V.—THE SCHOOL 491. Quotation from Herbart. 1. The Place of the School 495. 2. Public School and Sunday School 501. 3. Sunday School Organization 507. 4. Sunday School Equipment 527. 5. Housing a City School 539. 6. Housing a Country School 547. 7. The Graded Idea 551. 8. The Paetor and the School 563. 9. How to Secure Promptness 569. 10. Recreation 575. 11. The Social Side 581. 12. How to Secure New Teachers 587. 13. Evangelism 591. 14. The Opportunity of a Country Sunday School , 597. 15. The Program of the School 603. Bibliography. 469. 477. 483. PART I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1. Teacher Training Course of the Sunday School Pub¬ lishing Board of the National Baptist Convention. 2. The Significance and Essentials of Teacher Training. 3. Studying the Bible for Teaching Value. 4. Teacher Training in Christian Colleges. I. THE TEACHER TRAINING COURSE ADOPTED BY THE SUNDAY SCHOOL PUBLISHING BOARD OF THE NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION. Our Own Regular Course. This book is in four parts and represents four studies constituting our own Teacher Training Course, viz., The Bible, The Teach¬ er, The Pupil, and The School. Teachers who complete all four parts of this course as it appears in this book, and pass a suc¬ cessful examination on the same, and who have been teaching in the Sunday school for one year, will be awarded the Teacher Training Diploma issued by the Sunday School Publishing Board. Post Graduate Work. Those who graduate from the regular course may take post graduate studies in the Bible, and Departmental specialization, (17) Sig—2. 18 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE £ coals will be affixed for each and suitably sea^«ork. yeRelow we print the course of study as recommended by the International Sunday School Association and the Sunday School Council of Evangelical Publishers. It is the desire of our Board that our teachers will take all the studies of this New Stand¬ ard Curriculum as a post graduate course. It has occurred to us as best to grant the diploma after finishing our own Teacher Training Book which is about equivalent to two years of the course as recommended below, except the Program of the Christian Religion, and How to Train the Devotional Life: The New Standard Teacher Training Course. I. BASIC PRINCIPLES. meet? the^io!qlrs^. *s consti*ucted to equip the teacher to (2) Theco" °f the Pupil's developing- life. ag^slttere contentP +lze-s educational method as over {.£>) The course Material. e order of their immediate of units in by the teacher; HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 19 the first year's work including the subjects deemed most vital; the second year's work supplanting that of the first and preparing for specialization, and the third year pro¬ viding the specialization. (6) The course offers specialized training for the vari¬ ous departments of the Modern Sunday School. (7) The course is co-ordinated, requiring one diploma to be awarded upon the final completion of the course, the partial recognition may be given throughout the course as desired. II. OUTLINE SPECIFICATIONS. First Year. Ten lessons on The Pupil. Ten llessons on The Principles of Teaching. (With em¬ phasis on general psychology.) Ten lessons on How to Teach the Life of Christ. (A typical example of the proper use of Biblical material for the different grades.) Ten lessons on the Sunday School. _(An outline of the aim, curriculum and organization of the modern Sunday School.) Second Year. Ten lessons on The Significance and Teaching VaDue of the Old Testament. Ten Ifessons on the Significance and Teaching Values of the New Testament. (Other than the Life of Christ.) Ten lessons on The Program of the Christian Religion. (Including the social and missionary interpretation of the Gospel, and teaching of missions, temperance and social service.) Ten lessons on How to Train the Devotional Life. (The nurture, training and expression of the spiritual life, es¬ pecially in prayer and public worship.) Third Year. Beginner and Primary Units. Specialized Child Study. Beginner and Primary Age. (Twenty Lessons.) 20 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Story Telling. (Selection and telling of stories togeth¬ er with practice work in class. Ten lessons.) Beginner and Primary Methods. (Including practice teaching and observation. Ten lessons.) (If desired for purposes of publication, the treatment of the above topics for teachers of beginners may be sepa¬ rated from that of Primary teachers.) The Junior Units. Specialized Child Study—Junior Age. (Ten lessons.) Christian conduct for Juniors. (Including special ref¬ erences to habit and Christlike actions. Ten lessons.) Junior Teaching Material and Its Use. (Story Tell¬ ing, Analysis and Emphasis with practice teaching. Ten lessons.) Junior Department Organization and Methods with practice teaching and observation. (Ten lessons.) Early and Middle Adolescence Units. A Study of Earlly and Middle Adolescence. (A special¬ ized study of the pupil, intermediate and senior age. Ten lessons.) The Agencies of Religious Education. (A study of the Early and Middle Adolescent's World. Ten lessons.) Teaching Material and Methods. (Provisions to be made for the observation and practice work in this group. Ten lessons.) Methods of Work with Young People. (Including the whole field of organization and administration. Ten les¬ sons.) Adult Units. The Psychology of the Adult and His Religious Educa¬ tion. (Ten lessons.) Adult Aims and Methods. (Ten lessons.) The Church, Its Activities and Leadership. (Empha¬ sizing the special responsibilities of the Adult Class, in¬ cluding its social activities. Ten lessons.) HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 21 Administrative Units. The History and Principles of Religious Education. (Ten lessons.) The Educational Task of the Local Church. (Ten les¬ sons.) The Sunday School Curriculum. (Ten lessons.) Sunday School Management. (Ten lessons.) It can be seen that the third year of the New Standard Course is given over to De¬ partmental Specialization, and it is the de¬ sire of our Board that our graduates will push right on through in their studies un¬ til they have completed every unit in this third year. Our Board feels it the better plan to is¬ sue the diploma upon completion of How To Teach and Study the Bible, which is our own book, and to allow additional units for post graduate work. Our Plan of Teaching the Course. 1. Our own Teacher Training Course may be taken by regular active Sunday School teachers by organizing themselves into classes, each teacher purchasing a book, the class convening once a week in connection with the regular teachers' meet¬ ing, the time being divided equally. 2. A new department called the Teacher 22 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Training Department composed of pupils 18, 19, and 20 years of age will take the course. This is properly the Young Peo¬ ple's Department, but those looking for¬ ward to graduation with the joint diploma of our Board and the local Sunday School are requested to enter the Teacher Train- inng Department at eighteen years of age. 3. Those who cannot take the study in any class for any reason whatever may take it directly from the Educational Depart¬ ment of our Sunday School Publishing Board, Nashville, Tennessee. Registration at Nashville. Each person taking a Teacher Training Course is required to register with the Board, and each person is to purchase a book. Diplomas will not be issued except to those whose names are registered with the Board at Nashville. New Standard Joint Diplomas. For the encouragement of those perse¬ vering in their studies to the point of com¬ pletion of all three years of the New Stand¬ ard Course, arrangements are also made by which such persons shall not only re- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 28 ceive the Board's diploma and seals, but the joint diploma of the International Sunday School Association will also be awarded. All the studies are to be taken through the Sunday School Publishing Board, and all diplomas will come from Nashville, Ten¬ nessee, the Headquarters of the Board. All the books in the New Standard Course have not been written, nor even decided up¬ on by the different denominations as yet, but teachers wishing to take that full course, after first finishing our own course and passing final examination, may learn the name and cost of the books of the third year by writing the Educational Department, Sunday School Publishing Board, Nash¬ ville, Tenn. By the time our own course is finished, we ourselves will have published another book that may be taken the second year. QUESTIONS. 1. How does our own Teacher Training1 Course differ from the New Standard ? 2. What are the requirements to secure our own di¬ ploma? 3. What are the requirements to secure the New Standard diploma? 4. How much credit will our own diploma contribute toward that of the New Standard Course? 5. Who issues the New Standard diploma? II. THE SIGNIFICANCE AND ESSENTIALS OF TEACHER TRAINING. The Need of Teacher Training is seen on all sides, and certainly any one ought to re¬ ceive suitable training to do anything well. Ignorance of the Bible is appalling. Per¬ haps the greatest of all the needs of teachers is Bible knowledge, for Bible information would largely furnish us with what we need as teachers. Knowledge Begets Enthusiasm along any line and if we had more Bible knowledge we could at least teach with greater en¬ thusiasm, and enthusiasm itself would greatly improve our teaching. The Knowledge of the Pupil is only a par¬ tial study of the great field of Human Na¬ ture and the Bible is full of human nature. To know God is to know man. The New Evangelism is the way some speak of the great triumph that is follow¬ ing the teaching of God's word in our Sun¬ day schools. A new generation is upon us (25) 26 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. and new methods are demanded, and the old way of "receiving converts, branding them and then turning them loose," without any effort at training them in Bible knowl¬ edge is responsible for the foolish vagaries of church members who are prepared to run off after anything that they are told is taught in God's word. Someone has said that Baptists believe so thoroughly in the Bible that we prick up our ears when any one claims to be teaching the Bible. We need converts who come as a result of God's word. The Emphasis Upon the Child in these days ought to show us our opportunity and duty. Never was the child more loved, more studied or more and better under¬ stood; and if we prepare ourselves we ought to get great results and we will. Consecrated Teachers the Need. It mat¬ ters not how thoroughly we may prepare from an intellectual standpoint, if we do not consecrate ourselves and make up our minds to make a sacrifice of ourselves, and of our pleasure, and of our time for Jesus' sake, we will continue to prove miserable failures before our classes. The churches ought to face the situation squarely and get HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 27 down on their knees and pray earnestly for consecrated men and women for this work, for the words of Jesus apply now: "The harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest." Matt. 9:37. The Work of Teaching the Word is God's work. The time is ripe for bringing men and women into line with God's word. It is God's harvest, surely he will help us to se¬ cure suitable laborers, if we take the mat¬ ter to heart and lay it before the Lord of the harvest. The Bible Is a Well Conceived and Delib¬ erately Planned Course of Study for Chris¬ tian people, prepared under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who is the best of all teachers, for it was the Spirit in Jesus that crowned him the master teacher. The great educator, Froebel, taught that the pu¬ pil must advance in mental development in precisely thev same way the human race has gone forward. Now the Bible is the rec¬ ord of the advancement of the human race, and when we ourselves go over the record of* this progress as Iaid^ down in the Bible, and no where else but in the Bible 28 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. itself, the course we thus follow meets the highest dictum of science. THE BIBLE IS THE BEST TEACHER TRAINING BOOK IN THE WORLD. Too Much Science and Too Little of Holy Spirit in present day Teacher Training Standards is largely responsible for the lack of interest in this line. The teacher is asked to study psychology before he studies the Bible in most courses of study laid out. Too Much Taken for Granted is the cause of many a failure to teach properly. The fact is, there is a sad lack of Bible knowl¬ edge even among preachers as well as teach¬ ers, and it is hardly short of a calamity that many persons entrusted to prepare a course of study for Sunday school teachers should insist upon technical terms and pro¬ cesses that the average teacher does not understand. "When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts un¬ to men," Eph. 4:8, which means that Christ's ascension resulted in the Holy Spirit im¬ parting special gifts for service upon a scale never before possible. He will help us to teach if we will honor him by spirit¬ ually studying the Bible properly. Our Teachers Will Study the Bible when HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 29 it is properly presented to them, not in dead outlines, and stereotyped phases, but in a way that wiil cause them to see that "Christ is all and in all." Col. 3:11, "Sir, We Would See Jesus." Jno. 12:21. He will help us to make good as Sunday school teachers if we will do our utmost to help ourselves. But to see Jesus requires much more than an outline study of Jesus' life. To see Jesus we must go back to the Old Testament and study it, not for teach¬ ing values, but for the purpose of getting a line on him even before he came to earth, so that when he is presented to us in the Gospels we shall be prepared to appreciate him. Just as the teacher must arouse the interest of the pupil and get him in the prop¬ er frame of mind before presentation of the subject proper, even so God has left us the Old Testament for that very purpose, and unless our minds are prepared by the prophecy of the Old Testament we shall fail to see Jesus as he is presented in the New Testament. There is no such thing as seeing Jesus and yet remaining sinners and scoffers. We must be sober and morally earnest in studying the Bible and learning of Jesus. 30 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. This means that we will live up to our be¬ lief, for there is no Faith apart from an effort to live the Christian life. QUESTIONS. 1. What will produce enthusiasm in teaching? 2. Define the New Evangelism. 3. How is the Bible a Course of Study? 4. What is the Sunday school teacher's greatest need? 5. How is Christ "All and in all)"? 6. Who was it that said, "Sir, we would see Jesus" ? III. STUDYING THE BIBLE FOR TEACH¬ ING VALUES. In the New Standard Teacher Training Course it is stated "The Course presup¬ poses Bible Knowledge which should be had either in the regular Graded Sunday School Course, or in special courses." But the question arises: What is to be done in case the teachers have not taken the course they are presupposed to have tak¬ en? Another "question is: What is the ex¬ tent of the knowledge of the teacher tak¬ ing the New Standard Course, since it is presupposed ? It is suggested that a strict¬ ly graded literature will have supplied the necessary preparation, but graded litera¬ ture does not furnish either the historical or the spiritual study, but is largely socio¬ logical and ethical and disconnected, .and more on the order of a Bible reading than systematic study. It frankly proceeds up¬ on the hypothesis that the Bible is useful chiefly for reference purposes, and con- 32 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. nected historical and systematic studies is no longer relied upon for results. Indeed the impression is made upon us that if only the teacher knows psychology and peda¬ gogy he need not bother so much about de¬ tail of Bible knowledge. We should cer¬ tainly like to see this theory in action. No effort is made whatever to teach the Bible as such, although it clearly represents the books representing God's choice as consti¬ tuting the best course of study for the purpose of the Kingdom. It is said that the teachers are supposed to have jbaken special courses in the Bible. What reason is there for such presumption? But it all depends upon how much Bible knowledge is presumed, and it is evidently a very slight knowledge. And that is only presumed for surely no reasonable person would presume anything like a thorough knowledge of the Bible on the part of aver¬ age Sunday school teachers, or, what is worse, persons who are not even yet teach¬ ing, for surely this course is for the prepa¬ ration of new teachers especially. Candidly, this new Standard Course falls down in this particular matter and those taking the course should be warned in time HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 33 and put on their guard that some highly responsible authority has blundered in this important matter, and erred seriously. By every law of both psychology and pedagogy worthy of respect in the teaching process, the first essential is the teacher and the first requirement of the teacher is that he should both know and practice what he would teach. Why make an exception here? Our Sunday school teachers need to be reminded that all so-called Christians do not place the . emphasis upon the Bible we have been accustomed to place. In some quarters we hear of a need of cutting out certain portions of the Bible. Some speak of making a better Bible. We stand for the Bible as sufficient for all our spiritual and social needs with the right in¬ terpretation. It is not sufficient for persons taking a Teacher Training Course to simply study the Bible .for teaching values. No Scrip¬ ture will be of any teaching value unless first it has living value in making the teach¬ er a bigger and better person as a teacher. The personality of the teacher is imma¬ terial it seems here, for surely it takes more than a superficial knowledge of the Bible to 34 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. make the teacher's personality what it ought to be. Why should it be so over nec¬ essary for Sunday school teachers to know certain teaching values in the Bible at the expense of a real grip upon the Bible, since the teacher has absolutely no freedom of choice in the matter of the portions of Scrip¬ ture that constitute the prescribed course of study in our Sunday Schools? We pro¬ test, it is the International Lesson Commit¬ tee, and not the young teacher, that needs the lessons on teaching values. It really looks like the real object is to shut out real Bible instruction and knowledge from the teach¬ ers of the future, and to substitute psychol¬ ogy and sociology upon which scarcely any two authorities are exactly agreed. In this book we shall take up teaching values of the Bible under the part that discusses the pupil, and we shall use this opportunity under the head of the Bible to help to arouse genuine interest in the study of the Bible as essential to teaching it. QUESTIONS. 1. What is meant by "teaching1 values"? 2. What criticism is offered ag-ainst studying- the Bible for "teaching values" only? 3. What is meant by graded literature? HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 35 4. What is the Bible study plan in graded literature ? 5. What is psychology? 6. What is pedagogy? 7. Where in this book can the reader find hints on "teaching values" in the Bible? Esgga IV. TEACHER TRAINING IN COLLEGES. It would seem that it would be hardly necessary to advocate a special chair of Sunday school pedagogy in our theologi¬ cal seminaries, and yet it would apear that our colleges are going ahead of these schools of the prophets in preparing properly equipped leaders for the teaching depart¬ ments of the church. It is now becoming a conviction that Christian institutions should equip the students to become leaders in the various departments of the work of the church. It has sometimes happened that a young person has graduated from one of our best colleges, and yet would not be able to teach a Sunday school lesson, nor take charge of a school. This situation is grad¬ ually improving. Teacher Training Classes are now formed upon a voluntary basis but few of these classes have ever graduated from the full three years' course recom¬ mended as a suitable standard, especially for college pupils. Moreover, most of these 38 HOW TO .STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. colleges are using a text book in Teacher Training that does not meet the needs, and is not recommended by our Baptist con¬ ventions and associations. Baptists are as capable along the line of Sunday school work as any other denomination, and gen¬ erally the Baptists lead in all educational work. It was the Baptists through the American Baptist Publication Society that first advocated and perfected the Graded Lesson System under the name of the Key¬ stone Series, and this is confessedly the highest standard of graded literature, and is far ahead of all others, and so far ahead that it is destined to fail of universal ac¬ ceptance. But it is very high class. Since Baptists are able to supply proper books and literature and standards, our colleges should use these in their Teacher Training classes. Thus they would not only help our denominational work, but they would really be helping their own pupils, for when they leave school they will, no doubt, work in our churches and schools and they should understand the leaders and conditions among their own people. What is the matter with our Christian schools any way ? Do they know what high HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 39 standard is set for Teacher Training in this country ? And what is the matter with our theological schools especially? If they do not stress Teacher Training they are out of date and behind time. A full standard course ought to be required of each gradu¬ ate. The idea of a Christian school gradu¬ ating young people who cannot teach nor manage a Sunday school. It is high time for our schools to wake up, and take their own denominational Teacher Training Course in affiliation with our own Sunday School Publishing Board. Every preacher ought to be an expert on Sunday school work, and the schools are doing the preachers and and people a great injustice not to place more emphasis upon training for Sunday school teachers. Even public schools are recognizing, and in a way co-operating with the Sunday schools. In New York City an arrange¬ ment has been made to turn over to the de¬ nominational agencies pupils of a depart¬ ment at certain hours during the regular public school session for religious instruc¬ tion, because of the conviction of the neces¬ sity of religious instruction for pupils of our schools. At Gary, Indiana, such credit 40 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. as a pupil obtains by reason of his atten¬ dance upon and studies in our Christian Sunday schools is allowed to count for a certain number of units of credit toward his standing and graduation in the public school. In North Carolina, an examination must be passed upon some teacher training book by all teachers of the State. Colo¬ rado State Teachers' Association is on rec¬ ord as favoring closer relation between the public school and the Sunday school. Indeed, the^-Sunday school has so developed, and its usefulness and possibilities have so impressed men and women in high positions and authority, that it is thought that in the near future philanthropists will consider the Sunday schools as worthy of special benefactions at their hands. The great Lon¬ don Times of England some time ago pub¬ lished a striking editorial to this effect, while in our own country our leading edu¬ cators are beginning to see that something must be done to supplement the regular public school course in the way of moral and religious training. Petty denominational jealousies are re¬ sponsible for the present attitude of these public schools against Bible study, as well as HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 41 unchristian teachers and officers in many cases. It probably is true that more pub¬ lic school teachers take part in dancing than take part in teaching in the Sunday schools. But the thing that surprises us most is' the attitude of our Christian colleges to¬ ward high class Sunday school work. There is a movement on foot to recognize the units of credit for Sunday school work to count for college work, provided the class of work done in the Sunday school will compare favorably with that done in college and high school. It would mean a great deal for Christian educators if this plan is car¬ ried out, and we call upon our own colleges to help us raise the teaching standard of our Sunday school in every way possible. QUESTIONS. 1. What is a Christian college ? 2. For what purpose is the Christian college? 3. Why should Teacher Training be taught in these schools ? 4. What other Christian schools should instruct in Teacher Training? 5. How long should college and theological students study this course? 6. For what purpose does the State exclude the Bible from public schools? 7. What is being done to offset the moral effect of this exclusion of the Bible? 9. What is the Gary plan? PART II. THE BIBLE. Table of Contents. 1. The Value of Bible Study to Teachers. 2. Our English Bible to Date. 3. The So-called Baptist Bible. 4. Introduction to the Old Testament. 5. Sources of the Hebrew Scriptures. 6. Purpose of the Bible. 7. Geography of the Bible. 8. How to Study the Bible. 9. The Higher Criticism, the Lower Criticism and Just Plain Interpretation. 10. Interpretation of the Bible. 11. The Historical Study of the Old Testament. 12. The Spiritual Study of the Old Testament. 13. Special Interpretation of the Prophets. 14. The Bible Interim. 15. Judaism and Christianity. 16. New Testament Introduction. 17. The Gospels' Contribution to the Life of Christ. 18. Brief Outline of Christ's Life. 19. The Life of Christ. 20. The Teachings of Jesus. 21. Origin and Growth of the Church. 22. An Exposition of Christianity. 23. The Triumph of Christianity. Bibliography. "0 how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my medi¬ tation. I understand more than the ancients, be¬ cause I keep thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get under¬ standing : therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."—Psalm 119:97-105. Y. THE VALUE OF REAL BIBLE STUDY TO TEACHERS. The Personal Character of the Teacher is the first consideration in teaching. As a person impresses himself upon his pupil, this personal impression will speak louder than his vocal teaching, for what he is him¬ self is what is most impressive upon his pu¬ pils. The teacher should be the right kind of a person first of all, and that means he should be an earnest and sincere Christian; and to grow along that line, to grow in grace, nothing helps like Bible study. This is not the place to enter fully into a discussion of the personality of the teacher, for this mat¬ ter will come up later in a study of the teacher; but we speak of it here to say that the Bible will bring the Holy Spirit into one's life and make him able to favorably impress all with whom he may come in con¬ tact, most especially his pupils. Bible Study, a Training in the Highest Culture. It is a training to teach, for in (47) 48 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. its last analysis teaching is the work of the spirit of a person. There is a teaching spirit, a love for imparting, and a love for receiving to impart, the unselfishness that comes from God's Spirit. Persons who are able to teach have a better understanding of the subject than others. A better under¬ standing will develop more enthusiasm in the teacher, and enthusiasm is absolutely necessary to successful teaching, as we have already pointed out. But it not only trains to teach, but trains a person to live with self-control which will bring self-denial and the respect of others. It will train one to live a successful life. There is no Short Cut to Thorough Bible Study. No mere Teacher Training Course can adequately supply this information. We speak about "teaching values" in the study of the Bible as if we are studying the Bible primarily to teach it. One will never un¬ derstand the Bible unless he studies it first of all for the effect he wishes produced up¬ on his own life. One can never properly understand the Bible himself unless he ap¬ plies it to himself first of all. No diagram or outlines can furnish what is needed. These are mere skeletons that must have Primary Department of the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 49 flesh to make them alive. There is too much studying about the Bible and too little studying in the Bible. Bible Mastery Should Be the Aim, but it will take a lifetime to master, for the Bible is graded to each stage of the human life, and we cannot understand the part of the Bible that belongs to any particular age until we reach that period in our lives. That is why it is so hard, and in fact, im¬ possible to understand certain Scriptures in our day. The wise teacher will not doubt what he cannot understand, but re¬ member that he needs more experience and more time. And just as the Bible fits into the different stages of men's lives, so it fits into certain periods of the world. The Bible is ahead of the world and that is why so few understand and appreciate Bible study. But nevertheless, we should aim at mastery, and that means that we should study in such a manner as to be thorough, and get down to the bottom of the matter. Reading the Bible Is a Far Different Matter From Studying the Bible. We read for the sake of the literature, and this is not bad, for no literature excels the Old Testament as a work of art. The Old Testa- Sig.—3. 50. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE! BIBLEl ment was especially written to catch th£ eye and ear of persons of little taste for spiritual things, and that is why the book excels in rhetoric and every figure of speech, and is largely written in poetry and is po¬ etical even in its prose. There is science and art in the literature that compels in¬ terest and attention, but the New Testa¬ ment refers to it as the "letter," and says, "The letter killeth," i. e., fails to make alive. The literature itself fascinates and holds, but the spiritual effect is lacking. Mere reading of the Old Testament even for de¬ votional purpose, will not bring the desired results, nor accomplish what the Bible in¬ tends to produce. We must meditate over it. We Should Keep the Bible on the Mind more or less all the time. The Bible is giv¬ en to us to enable us to make good as Chris¬ tians and to enable us to withstand tempta¬ tions. But if the Bible is not on the mind it cannot help. Of course it will not oc¬ cupy the principal place on our minds at all times, but it never leaves the mind, and. that means it is in our subconscience, i. e., on our minds without the full power of the will and consciousness. Whenever anything HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE, 51 thus gets rooted in our minds we are always in the end greatly under its influence, and whenever the will ceases to hold certain things up to the mind, then those things that are already rooted in the mind come into greater prominence and make a great¬ er impression upon us. That is why the Psalmist felt it was the thing to do to hide God's word in the heart that we might not sin. That course will bring the result. The Teacher Must Believe in Jesus, or he will not persevere in his studies, and if we believe in Jesus and his word, then when we study the Bible the Spirit comes into our lives, and he will help us recall what is stored away in our minds, and help lis to make good as Christians. If the teacher does not himself believe in Jesus, and in his word, he cannot induce his pupil nor others to "believe what he himself does not believe. Much of our teaching misses the rnlairk because of a real lack of faith in the teabher.1 The kind of Bible knowledge a teacher needs first, last, and all the time, is such knpwledge as will lead him to live the life, and believe in Jesus, and in himself, and have a proper estimate of his pupil. It is the privilege of a teacher to reproduce 52 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. himself in his pupil, and the teacher must be what he wishes his pupil to be. Bible Crowds Out Sin. God desires that our minds should be possessed of his word, for that will mean we are under the power of the Spirit, for God's word and the Spirit go together, for Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit." The word will eventually crowd out sin, for when we are filled with the word we are full, and no place is left for the evil spirit. But if we are not thus possessed of the word then the evil spirit, although once cast out, as Jesus says, will eventually re- enthrone himself in our minds and hearts. One cannot hold God's word in unclean bodies, and he cannot study the Bible prop¬ erly and not make a change for the better. The Bible is the need of our young people, for they run off in frivolity because we are not doing our duty by them in faithfully showing them a better way out of God's word, and by preparing ourselves to proper¬ ly impress the word in our teaching. IMPORTANT INFORMATION. ^ At the end of each lesson a list of ques¬ tions or suggestions will be given to aid the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 53 pupil who is taking this course with a view to graduation to better understand the con¬ tents of each lesson. No diploma will be awarded to any one who does not present the notes on these questions or suggestions along with the special examination at the completion of all four parts of this book. It is through these notes and questions at the end of each lesson that we hope to instruct the pupils in the contents of the book in ad¬ dition to the work of the local teacher of the class. To the pupil taking this course either ill a regular class or by correspondence we offer the following suggestions and urge upon the pupil to comply with each one as far as he is possibly able to do so. 1. Secure a good dictionary of the Eng¬ lish language and use it. 2. Secure a Bible dictionary and use it. 3. Secure a Teacher's Bible, preferably an Oxford. 4. Always study the lesson with note¬ book and pencil in hand to aid memory. 5. Make abundant use of the Encyclope- dia in the back of your Oxford Bible. 6. Study and learn to use maps in back nf thfi Oxford Bible. 64 HOW. TO STUDY AND TEACH THE HBLE. SUGGESTIONS" ON THIS LESSON. 1. Write out all the reasons given in this lesson why Bible study is valuable. 2. Also write out additional reasons for such study. Chart Showing how we jet our Enjfislrfiibte. Ifcll = \ I'7-yC./Authorized Version- l?$S = y S^C? Revised Version Also showing superiority of the revised version VI. OUR ENGLISH BIBLE TO DATE. . The accompanying chart illustrates very vividly how the Hebrew and Greek Scrip¬ tures came to be translated into the English language, and especially how the Revised Bible is a more reliable translation of the Greek Scriptures- The chart is intended to convey the information that the original manuscripts upon which the inspired au¬ thors wrote have all been lost long ago. This may shock some people, but the same is true of all old books, and even of some recent books, for the authors usually have the original typewritten and then destroy the original; or at least when the book is printed, the manuscript is destroyed. So in the case of the Bible, the original manu¬ scripts were used until copies could be made and then they were discarded. To prove •the correctness of a copy, our only recourse would be to compare one copy with anoth¬ er, and the more copies available the more we can be helped by comparing the manu- (57) 58 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. scripts or text of copies. It is safe to infer that whatever reading is found in the most reliable manuscripts of copies, and in the largest numbers of such reliable copies the more we can arrive at the original reading of the text. The chart shows that no copies have been found that were written earlier than the second century, thus leaving a period of more than a hundred years without any copies. What is needed is that we shall be able to trace copy after copy since the first copies were made. We can trace copies of the New Testament only back to within two hundred years of the apostles, and that copy furnished the basis of a translation into Latin called the Old Latin Bible. Two centuries afterward Jerome translated the Vulgate from the Old Latin and the Hebrew copies of the Old Testament available. Then after many other partial translations into English, the entire Bible was finally trans¬ lated into English by Miles Coverdale in 1534, but there was a partial translation previously made by Tindale that decided the stately style of English that is so im¬ pressive in the Authorized Bible, which was made in England 1611 under the royal pat- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 59 ronage. All these translations had been made by comparing the few copies of the Old and the New Testament available at the time, but none of them went back to the time of the Apostles. In 1611 the volumi¬ nous writings of the early Greek Fathers were not so well known as in recent years, when scholars discovered that these Fath¬ ers had quoted in their writings every verse in the New Testament but about a dozen, and their quotations would serve in the place of older manuscripts in part to enable us to arrive at the true reading of the Greek in the New Testament. Moreover, since 1611 Bible scholars had come across more than fifteen hundred New Testament copies and also twenty-five hundred copies of the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus since the old Authorized Version was made both the new copies and the quotations of the Fathers would serve to correct the New Testament text. But in the case of the Old Testament, the same means of correcting the text was not available, for the Hebrew manuscripts m hand did not differ so widely in the matter of Hebrew vowel points which meant so much in determining the right word. In the Old Testament the reading largely de- 60 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. pended upon vowel points that had already- been fixed several hundred years before, and the choice would lie between the Sep- tuagint and the Massoretic texts, and the translators preferred not to make many- changes. On account of the fact that the Revised Edition is arranged in paragraphs rather than in verses, the people have been slow to substitute it for the Authorized, while no less authority than Harvard Universi¬ ty has thrown its influence to the Author¬ ized simply on account of its stately Eng¬ lish. We distinguish between the English and American Revision, the latter being more radical in its changes, and the Amer¬ ican Revision may now be secured in the usual verse form instead of the paragraphs. Whether we supplant the Authorized with the Revised or not, we should never under¬ take to interpret the Bible until we find out what the reading is in the Revised Version, for in some cases the Revised gives a dif¬ ferent impression of the sense altogether. QUESTIONS. 1. Reproduce the English Bible Chart on paper. 2. Explain the Chart. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 61 3. How may we know of the correctness of our Eng¬ lish Bible? 4. What is meant by manuscript, i. e., MS? 5. What is meant by the Septuagint, i. e., LXX? 6. What is meant by thfe Hebrew Scriptures? 7. What part of the Bible is called Greek Scriptures? 8. What is meant by the Massoretic text? 9. WTiat is meant by the Vulgate? [Note.—The Hebrew has no vowels but only consonants and it is up to the reader to know what vowels to insert to indicate a word. After many hundred years certain eminent Hebrew scholars decided upon what vowel should be used in each word in the Hebrew Bible, and these scholars are called Massoretes, and the copy thus indi¬ cating the right Bible points we call the Massoretic text.] VII. THE HOLY BIBLE. An Improved Edition, or the Relation of Translation to Interpretation. Baptists were among the first to agitate for a new translation of the Bible, but the movement did not take definite shape until the great convention of Baptists at Sarato¬ ga,^. Y., in 1883. At that meeting definite action was taken to raise funds and appoint a committee to actually make a new trans¬ lation of the Bible that would be a truer rendering of the original. Baptists wei*e not so anxious to make corrections in the texts of manuscripts, as they were to see to it that the manuscripts which were used in the Authorized Edition should be prop¬ erly translated. But the revisers were al¬ lowed to go over the whole Bible and com¬ pare the old manuscripts'with those more recently discovered, and make such changes as necessary to bring out the full meaning. The translators finally completed their task, 84 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. and in 1913 the new translation was pub¬ lished under the name of The Holy Bible, An Improved Edition, and at once criticism was hurled at it on the ground that the translators were members of the Mission¬ ary Baptist Churches. But Baptists cer¬ tainly would not allow such criticism to only of the Negroes. Semites' and Ethiopians, i. e„ HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 89 Palestine in the Time of Christ claims at¬ tention largely on account of the political geography, for the Roman empire included within its boundary the land of the Jews, though Romans allowed descendants of Ja¬ cob's brother Esau, that is the Edomites or Idumeans, to immediately govern the Jews under the dynasty of the Herods; and Pales¬ tine was divided into Judea in the south, Galilee in the north, Samaria between these, and Perea and Decapolis east of the Jor¬ dan. Herod the Great's sons divided the rule of the provinces among themselves, but Archaelaus of Judea was such a misfit that Rome appointed governors for it directly, such as Pontius Pilate, a non-Jew, perhaps a white man. The Mastery of Bible Geography is a great help to general Bible mastery, and the maps ought to be in constant use to en¬ able one to employ the faculty of sight and location in his study. Whenever a place is mentioned it should be at once located on the map and afterwards associated with the event on paper so that to think of one will recall the other. No method can excel this in the study of the Patriarchs as well as the life of Christ. 90 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. The Jewish people are closely allied to the Syrians, while their most ancient his¬ tory is closely related to Babylon and Chal- dea, because Abraham came from the latter country. One of the phenomena of history is the very slight influence Egypt wielded over the Jews, although several centuries were passed by them in Egypt as slaves. They were called Hebrews when they first immigrated into Canaan, or just about the entire time of their nomad life, or up to the time of Jacob. Then they began to be called Israelites until the Captivity, and were called Jews from the Return to the present. Abraham was the Hebrew media¬ tor. Moses the Israelite mediator, and rather than accept Jesus as Mediator in these days the Jews still follow Moses. The Hebrew people spoke Hebrew which is close¬ ly allied to Phoenician, and hence the Ca- naanites and Hebrews spoke the same lan¬ guage, except the Hebrew was a kind of Yiddish of the Phoenician. The Canaanites were highly civilized, but immoral and un- spiritual, and their degeneracy could not stand before the stern morality of the hardy Hebrews who lived in their midst, or rath¬ er segregated in a part of Canaan. Event¬ ually, the Hebrews took over the entire land HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 91 after a long series of campaigns running through many hundred years, but after sev¬ eral centuries their own unspirituality de¬ stroyed their morality, and a foreign nation carried the best element of the people in¬ to Captivity in Assyria and Babylonia. They in large measure returned after three quar¬ ters of a century, and later re-established their own independence under the Macea- bean dynasty. But after a century or more, in the year 63 B. C., Jerusalem was captured by Romans, and in 70 A. D., was utterly destroyed, and from that time 011 the Jews have been scattered over the face of the earth. QUESTIONS AND HAND WORK. 1. Make a map of the Old Testament World and New Testament combined. 2. Name mountains and rivers. 3. Bound Palestine. ^ 4. Where did Jews prefer to live and why? 5. What race is the same as Canaan? 6. Name three plains spoken of in the lesson as "low- lying- districts." 7. What ancient race was closest kin to the Jews? 8. From what fort and where is the word Armaged¬ don formed? 9. What race of people wrote the Old Testament? 10. Is white man or Negro's influence connected with either the Old or New Testaments? XII. HOW TO STUDY THE BOOK OR BIBLE MASTERY. Bible mastery in a spiritual sense will re¬ quire the rest of our lives, but. it is entirely possible to make ourselves masters of the history of the Bible, and when the narra¬ tive, i. e., the history, is mastered we are in a position to understand the deep spirit¬ ual teachings as never before, The Bible a Story. The Old Testament and the New Testament are founded upon history and biography. The Old Testament is the history of God's dealing with the world first, and then with the Jewish race. The New Testament is the biography of Jesus, his teaching, his work, and his dis¬ ciples' appreciation of him. The study of the Old Testament can be diagramed as follows: (93) 94 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. This diagram shows that the first seven¬ teen books of the Old Testament show how the Jews rose to be a great people, but also how they afterward gradually declined. The Poetical books show the state of reli¬ gious sentiment among that people when the nation was at its best, and the Poetical books thus represent the best phase of the Jews' religion. They afterward went down as a people, and the study of the Prophets show the inner causes of the decline. This part of the Bible must be mastered thor¬ oughly if we would lay a proper founda¬ tion for dependable interpretation. The Help of a Competent Teacher Is Needed to guide us in our study of the Bible, but no teacher can help us unless he is first HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 95 of all an earnest believer in Jesus, and his word. Jesus is our best teacher, and next to him is the teacher with his Spirit. The Psalmist exclaims: "I have more under¬ standing than all my teachers because I keep thy commandments," and he was right. So few of us will be able to secure suitable teachers to instruct in God's word, that we must make wise use of the many books that have been written by Bible students to guide others to the light. Good Books as Teachers and Guides in our study of the Bible will be found very helpful if we make proper use of them, and select the right books. It is the Grace of God that makes it possible for us to get the benefit of all the Biblical scholarship of thousands of consecrated men and women who devoted their lives to a spiritual study of God's word, who themselves profited by those who lived ahead of them, and who have bequeathed to us the results of their profound knowledge. If each one of us had to go over for himself all the ground covered by past Biblical experts, we should die be¬ fore we learned more than the rudiments of the Bible. The books that will help us most are not so-called commentaries, but the 96 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. books calculated to give us the greatest help are small handbooks that are sometimes called Jewish History, or Story of the Bible, or Old Testament History, or The Jewish Church, or Bible History, Bible or Old Testa¬ ment Narrative. It is not best to name the' authors in this place, but at the close of Part I a list of such books will be given. All of these books are simply stating in another way what is found in the first seventeen books of the Old Testament with side lights from the Poets and Prophets. How to Use these Bible Help Books. They are intended to help the reader study the Bible, and no book of the kind should be used unless reference is constantly made to the very' passage in the Bible that the au¬ thor refers to, and the way to wisely use such a book is to turn immediately to such a passage upon reading it and see whether we can discover any such meaning, and do not be too quick to criticize the book, but study the passage patiently in the light of all available help, and make sure the au¬ thor is not right. These.books are not to be simply read, but they are to be studied patiently. Indeed, 'the book should take the place of a teacher to us, and we are not HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 97 to substitute it for the Bible, but we must let it help us by using it as indicated here. In the New Testament a small handbook on the life of Christ, if properly written, and a book on the early Christian church, or life of Paul, will greatly help us if prop¬ erly written, and we are to remember that such books are never properly written un¬ less they point out to us the exact passages that are interpreted and explained in the book. A commentary makes us weaklings, and dependent upon other folks' views. Jesus never intended for us to cite other people's opinions on religious matters, but he wishes us all to go to the source of all truth, and be able to "bring forth things new and old," and learn to trust our own judgment, but only because we give our¬ selves up to thorough and deep spiritual study of the word itself, and not other folks' opinion of the word. But care must be taken never to be captivated with the book as a teacher more than the Bible and Jesus. A good plan would be to accept no teaching as Biblical unless one by hard study satisfies himself it represents the teaching of the Bible. In some quarters in certain centers there is a tendency to make 98 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. light of the Bible as the revealed word of God, but God's word will continue to shape the lives of men and destinies of nations when scoffers will be forgotten. We need full confidence in the Bible, and we could do the Lord's work better if we consulted his word and learned more about how he wishes us to do it. The Order of the Story in the Books. The story of the Jews runs from Genesis to Exo¬ dus, then to Leviticus 8 to 10 chapters (all the rest of Leviticus contains law and not history), then to Numbers, and Deut¬ eronomy. We see that the order of the first five books is also the order of the story. Key Words of the Pentateuch. GENESIS—The Origin and Early History of the He¬ brews. EXODUS—The Race Problem in Egypt and Its Solu¬ tion. LEVITICUS—The Tabernacle Service and Ceremonies. NUMBERS—The Wilderness Wandering. DEUTERONOMY—The More Spiritual Conception of the Law. But that is not true of the next twelve books of history, for the order corresponds to the numbers below: HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 99 1. JOSHUA—Conquest and Possession of Canaan. 2. JUDGES—Commonwealth or the Theocracy. 4. RUTH—David's Family History. 3. I SAMUEL—Eli, Samuel, Saul, David. ) )■ 1 Chronicles. 5. II SAMUEL—David as King*. ) 6. I KINGS—Solomon and Divided King- . n tt vTMnn • i , , (*om" I 2 Chronicles. 7. II KINGS—Divided Kingdom. J 8. EZRA—Rebuilding the Temple. 10. NEHEMIAH—Rebuilding the City of Jerusalem. 9. ESTHER—Divine Deliverance of Jews. If these books are read in the order as numbered they will reveal the story of the Jews in its order. The Poetical books might be read in the order as printed. Study the Bible as a Whole in order that we may better understand its parts. If we study by parts without a knowledge of the whole, at least a general idea of the whole, we are liable to make awful blunders in in¬ terpretation, and such study often does harm because it upsets our minds and our work. A person who has the idea of the general plan that runs through the Bible can see how a part is related to another part and to the whole, and he alone gets the full benefit of Bible study. The following eight words will help us to keep in mind the re- 100 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. lation of the part to the whole, and will en¬ able us to think through the Bible. Diagram of Unity of Bible. Eight words may fitly represent the unity of the Bible and the thought that runs throughout the whole book, as follows: REVELATION LAW 8 PREPARATION HISTORY 12 ASPIRATION POETRY 5 EXPECTATION PROPHECY 17 MANIFESTATION GOSPELS 4 ORGANIZATION ACTS 1 REALIZATION EPISTLES 21 CULMINATION REVELATION 1 66 The idea is this: God gave a Revelation of himself away back from the beginning that was perfect, but men could not understand it, but they did understand more of God through the experience of history which proved a Preparation to help them under¬ stand this revelation, and led to higher As¬ piration. When they began to look up¬ ward to God he erave them the great hope or Expectation of Jesus. Then in the course of time there was the Manifestation amonoj men, and after his ascension his apostles took up the work of the Organization of HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 101 the churches. When these were organized, the people then began to have a Realiza¬ tion of the power of Jesus' teachings, and Revelation shows what the end will be, the triumph of the Kingdom. It would be well to drill ourselves in these eight words and what they signify, for they help us to think through the Bible, and nothing is a greater help to the interpretation, for the Spirit will dwell in those whose minds are stayed upon his word. Get the idea that runs through the book and thus understand God's purpose in giving us this revelation, and then keep in mind the purpose, and try to get the help that God gives us to enable us to live right and serve God through the teachings of Jesus. QUESTIONS AND HAND WORK. 1. How may the Bible be mastered historically? 2. Make diagram illustrating a method of Bible study leading to mastery. 3. What class of books will help? 4. How should these books be used? 5. Why is it necessary to learn order of books? 6. How does the order help to interpretation? 7. Name eight words bringing out the fact that it is one story only that runs in the Old and New Testa¬ ments ? 8. Name the words that give the key to each of the first seventeen books in the Old Testament. 9. Make a statement showing the relation of one of these words to the other in the Bible narrative. 10. How do I and II Chronicles stand related to what books and how? XIII. THE HIGHER CRITICISM, THE LOWER CRITICISM, AND INTERPRETATION. A Teacher Training book should impart some information as to the nature of the higher criticism, and to show up this in¬ formation to the best advantage it is de¬ sirable to consider at the same time the lower criticism, and also to differentiate both from just plain Interpretation. It will also be more helpful to first define the low¬ er criticism for the aid it will give in un¬ derstanding the higher. I. The Lower Criticism is illustrated in the fact that the authors of the Revised Version warn us of the last verses of Mark as lacking authenticity on the ground that those verses are not found in the best manu¬ scripts. It is also illustrated in the> first eleven verses of John 8, where we are told by the translators that that passage is not found in the same reading in the best manu- (103) 104 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. scripts. In fact, the whole idea of the Re¬ vised Version involves the question of the lower criticism, but it was put up to the revisers and not to the readers. Lower criticism is a testing of the authenticity of any passage in a given book in the Bible by the evidence of collateral readings in oth¬ er manuscripts. It only affects inter¬ pretation by warning us that we have no right to cite these doubtful passages in proof of other Scriptures. Those who ac¬ cept the Revised Version also accept along with it the lower criticism, for if the low¬ er criticism is not accepted then we should not approve the Revised idea which is so universally accepted today. II. The Higher Criticism is testing the authenticity not of parts of a book in the Bible, but is rather the testing of the au¬ thenticity of an entire book, and the entire subject matter of such book. For instance, it is claimed that Moses did not write the first five books in the Old Testament at all, but that the present books are made up of two parallel accounts covering pretty much the same ground, one written by an author of the tribe of Judah and the other belonging to the tribe of Ephraim, and the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 105 former portions are assembled under the designation "J" and the latter under "E". It is also claimed that later on an author of prophetic inclinations merged the form¬ er two documents into one whole, and the three documents thus assembled are desig¬ nated "D". Finally, it is the claim of high¬ er criticism that about the time of Ezekiel an author of priestly inclinations merged his own writings with the three former documents, and the assembled documents are designated "P". Then the claim is made that the Pentateuch is made up out of four independent writings merged into one, and that the only proper way to arrive at the true teaching of the Bible is to sepa¬ rate these four documents, and then make a choice of the document which the inter¬ preter should decide is the original and most authentic. It should be said that the pe¬ culiarities of Hebrew language in the different parts of the Pentateuch first at¬ tracted the attention of scholars, for in re¬ producing from another author or document it is noticeable that the exact words of such document are quoted, and thus the language gives an idea o fthe time that portion was written. Moreover, higher criticism claims 106 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. that certain anachronisms appear showing the books were written after Moses' death, e. g., Gen. 13:7. " And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled there in the land" al¬ though if Moses wrote it in his lifetime, the Canaanite and the Perizzite were still in the land. The higher criticism places the complete Pentateuch many hundred years after Canaan had been conquered by the Hebrews. The higher criticism teaches that in its present shape it is impossible to properly understand or interpret the Bible, but that the entire subject matter of the entire Bible needs to be rearranged, and the authentic portions separated into a separate and a distinct book, which should constitute the real Bible of intelligent Christians; and Prof. Kent of Yale has al¬ ready worked out a portion of such a book of the proposed new Bible under the title of "The Historical Bible." This is the meaning of the talk in certain quarters that the entire Bible should again be revised and shortened and made more practical and up- to-date. Of course, higher criticism af¬ fects interpretation if any disputed passage or incident is cited as evidence, and since higher criticism is so radical and far- reaching, it is calculated to confuse and les- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 107 sen the authority and help of God's word. III. Just Plain Interpretation must not be# confounded with either higher or lower criticism. It should go without saying that we do not accept the platform of the higher criticism for it would utterly undermine that respect for and confidence in God's word so necessary to secure its careful study by Christian people. Moreover, even if we should accept the fourfold author¬ ship of the Pentateuch, that would not serve to show that it is not of divine origin; but on the other hand the inspiration would be the better established on account of its remarkable unity along with its remarkable diversity. Nor would such fourfold authorship in¬ validate it in the least, unless we rely more upon the infallibility of the higher criti¬ cism than that of the Holy Ghost. That, after all, is the proposition we are up against here, whether we accept the form¬ er rather than the latter: for we have every reason to believe the separate docu¬ ments of the Bible, whether whole books or any parts of books, have been written and assembled under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Why should the higher criticism dare to put its dictum ahead of God? 108 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. It should be said, however, that every thorough student of God's word should be thoroughly acquainted with the higher criticism, for the highest interests of Chris¬ tianity can never be promoted by ignorance of anything that is connected with the study of God's word. But we need to be warned at the beginning that such study should come after long experience and extended investigation, for unless the heart is fixed, the subtility of some unspiritual exponents of the higher criticism may undermine the believer's faith. It needs to be stated that simply because an interpreter finds a meaning in a pas¬ sage which seems entirely new to old stu¬ dents of the word, that should not cause the interpreter to be branded a higher critic. It all depends upon whether the proof is found in other passages of our Bible, or whether other passages must be utterly ignored to prove the interpretation. For instance, in Joshua 10:13, we read the sig¬ nificant words: "Is it not so written in the book of Jasher"? which means that verse is a quotation from the book of Jasher, which of course must have been written before our book of Joshua. Now turn to II Sam. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 109 1:18, and we see this same book of Jasher quoted to prove that David wrote a ballad in memory of Saul, and of course Jasher must have been written before II Samuel was written. Now then if Jasher is quoted in both Joshua and II Samuel, then both of these books must have been written after the book of Jasher, which shows that our book of Joshua was written as late as Solo¬ mon at least, and Joshua is closely related to the Pentateuch, being a part of the Hexa- teuch. Now, what I have just written is not higher criticism nor lower criticism, but just plain interpretation, for this should be known in order to proper interpretation. There are many such illustrations that might be given, but space forbids. But suf¬ fice it to say that unless a whole book's au¬ thenticity is doubted and science is placed ahead of Spirit, there is no higher criti¬ cism. In the New Testament higher criti¬ cism concerns itself with verifying the say¬ ings and works of Christ related in the Gos¬ pels, and before interpreting any passage the question is first raised as to whether Christ really said it or did it, and a majori¬ ty of his words and works are reported as not authentic; but higher criticism no¬ where raised any question as to the authori- 110 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ty and deity of Christ. Even Prof. Briggs, who was excommunicated by the Presby¬ terians, accepted the Virgin Birth of our Lord with deep reverence and faith. Let us beware not to hide ignorance of the Bible behind a narrow partisan spirit. But we should and do accept the word of God as fully inspired and suited to meet the needs of the disciples of Christ. But not every person knows the Bible who sets himself up as an interpreter and teacher. It is surprising how much is hid away in the Bible that even the best of Bibli- cists fail to notice. Until one is a master of details in Bible study his interpretation is on that account less reliable, for we in¬ cline to stigmatize others as belonging to an unorthodox class sometimes simply be¬ cause we do not take the time to thorough¬ ly post ourselves on what: the Bible really says. Do not forget to read Matt. 13:52, "There¬ fore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which brin^eth forth out of his treasure things new and old." We deem that such a chapter as this is HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Ill really necessary in a Teacher Training book in view of the widespread discussion of the higher criticism. Sunday school room of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church, Washington, D. C. XIY. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE. The Eight Bible Text is very essential. A Bible without references makes inter¬ pretation especially difficult. The refer¬ ences express the opinion of Bible scholars of all the past as to the best scriptures to explain a certain passage. If we had to find the passage in each case ourselves, we should learn but little in a lifetime. But the references bring us the advantage and results of other scholars' work and are ex¬ ceedingly helpful. The Right Translation of the Bible to use is the Revised Version, for it evidently comes nearest to the meaning of the He¬ brew and Greek of the original. The fact is that the translation is itself an interpreta¬ tion of the Bible, for the translator ex¬ presses his understanding of the meaning, and if he makes a mistake it becomes very difficult to interpret the Bible. 114 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Suitable Reference Books such as a Bible dictionary, a concordance, at least five dif¬ ferent maps representing Bible lands at dif¬ ferent times and a revised Bible, are abso¬ lutely necessary. In fact, it would be a good plan for the school to put such books in its library for use of advanced pupils and teachers. The dictionary should be used to find the meaning of the words, such as cannot be found in an ordinary English dic¬ tionary, which should also always be at hand. When the name represents a place we should also locate the place on the map, and in studying the movements of per-' sons and peoples, we should by all means trace the journey or locate the place on the map, and in a teacher's Bible, a system of locating such places is made easier. The concordance will help us to find other pas¬ sages bearing on the person or place or teaching. If we learn to use these books and then actually take time and use them, great help will be afforded us. History of the Canon. By the Canon we mean the books that are found in our ordi¬ nary Bible. Some larger Bibles have four¬ teen other books in the Old Testament not found in an ordinary Bible and these are HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 115 called the Apocrypha to distinguish them from the Canon. The Apocrypha of the New Testament consists of certain books that some churches used to consider in¬ spired, but these books are not found in any of our New Testaments. By the Canon, we mean the inspired books of the Bible. We should try to learn the order in which these books were made a part of the Bible. Bible Is a Progressive Revelation and the historical order is a clue to the interpreta¬ tion. For instance, in II Sam. 24:1, we are taught that God caused David to sin in numbering Israel. But in I Chron. 21:1, we are taught it was Satan that caused David thus to sin. Here the history helps by showing that I Chronicles was written long after II Samuel and I Chronicles was intended as an interpretation of II Samuel and I Samuel. There are numerous other instances of the kind. New Testament Interprets the Old, and the Old throws light on the New, but the New Testament is the final interpretation of the Old. In fact, it is not helpful to study the OW Testament unless we are guided by the New Testament which represents Jesus' 11G HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. teaching. If we cannot find anything in the New, then go on reading and studying, and one day you will find something in the New that will bring the needed light. Jesus Is the Interpretation of the Bible. We must look for Christ in each book, or else for something that represents his teach¬ ing or his work. Keep our minds upon Jesus. "Christ is all and in all," Col. 3:11. The Old Testament makes no sense unless interpreted in the light of Jesus. And whatever appears to be the interpretation of Jesus, accept it at once, even if you can not harmonize it with the account or let¬ ter of the Old Testament. We cannot find in the Old Testament anything to lead us to such an interpretation of Jonah as Christ but his word is final anyway, that a Persona! Knowledge of Jesus us to understand his spirit, in2r?ing kelp us understand the shouldCta,fa«°T °Uf feeIinS- even if 0Ur one's guidl^a 8t4 ti,thD-lmeanin»' 0n® wav" T*?ce' "Let ?e lble under some the New Tested '?ad C?fIead >'ou all the teaching T^ment: which „We are led by ceaenmg-s. If Jesus thus ^Presents his as th® teachers, HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 117 then through the teachers, Jesus will lead the pupils in the study. Other Books Help to interpretation safe¬ ly only in proportion as they cause us to master the books of the Bible, and get clos¬ er insight into what the Bible really says, as has already been shown. Most mistakes in interpretation grow out of a wrong idea of what the Bible actually says, and such books as re-state the Bible narrative are of great value if we prove every statement by finding the place in the Bible. The prop¬ er way to use such books, as for instance, a story of the Bible, which is the same as Bible History, or History of Jewish Church, is to keep a Bible at our side all the time. Finally, we can not be depended upon to interpret the Bible unless we are morally earnest, and apply our knowl¬ edge to our own needs, and seek to live an upright, clean life. God will not al¬ low us to hold the truth in unrighteousness. "But unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: that seeing, they may see and not perceive; and hear¬ ing, they may hear and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted." Mark 4:12. That is to say, they are not 118 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. honest enough to follow the logical conclu¬ sion of the truth. Indeed, one reveals his own spiritual state by the interpretation he gives the word, and we cannot be relied up¬ on to explain the word unless we are earn¬ estly trying to follow in the footsteps of Jesus all the way. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine," Jno. 7:17, says Jesus. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the first requisite to interpretation? 2. What version is recommended and why? 3. What reference books are essential? 4. What is meant by Canon? 5. What is the Apocrypha? 6. What is meant by the Bible being a progressive revelation ? 7. How do we interpret the Old and New Testament each? 8. How is Jesus the one interpretation of the Bible? 9. How does the order of the books in the Bible affect interpretation,? 10. What as the best help to interpretation? XV. HISTORICAL STUDY OF OLD TESTA¬ MENT, OR BIBLE HISTORY. The Seven Periods of Jewish History. The history of the Jewish race, or indeed of the other races, is simply the biographies of a few able leaders who enacted the deeds and established the epochs that begin periods of history. In the case of the Jew¬ ish race the great epoch-makers were: ADAM, ABRAHAM, MOSES, SOLOMON, NEBUCHADNEZZAR, EZRA, JESUS. One would hardly make a selection of all these names, but these are the names that the Bible selects as the great epoch makers (119) 120 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. when it divides the history into Seven Periods. The Seven Periods are thus designated in the Old Testament: Years. Creation to Flood—Adam to Noah. (Gen. 5.)— 1656 Flood to Call of Abraham—Noah to Abra¬ ham. (Gen. 11:10.) 427 Abraham to Exodus—Abraham to Moses. (Ex. 12:40.) 430 Exodus to Temple—Moses to Solomon. (1 Kings 6:1.) 480 Temple to Captivity—Solomon to Nebuchad¬ nezzar. (1 and 2 Kings.) — -411 Captivity to Return—Nehemiah to Ezra. >(Jer. 25:12.) 70 Return to Christ—Ezra to Jesus. (Ezra 1:1 and monuments.) — 536 Creation to Christ _____ 4010 But Bible Chronologists find reason to shorten by— 6 Thus the year of Creation 4004 This chronology and division of time is not of man's devising, but follows closely the Bible account, and the number seven makes it plausible, because among the Jews seven was a symbol of completeness. Thus there are seven Bible periods rounding out the history of the Jews as a people, and eight names of persons represent the seven periods. Thus keeping these periods in mind will help us to think through the Bible, HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 121 and give us an idea of the order of the en¬ tire history. The Periods by Books. 1. Adam to Noah—Genesis 1 to 7:6. 2. Noah to Abraham—Genesis 7:7 to 11:26. 3. Abraham to Moses—Genesis 11:27 to 50:26. 4. Moses to Solomon—Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel 1; 1 King's 1:11; 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 1:7. 5. Solomon to Nebuchadnezzar—1 Kings, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles. 6. Nebuchadnezzar to Ezra—Daniel to Ezra. 7. Ezra to Christ—Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther and Apocrypha. The First and Second Periods. (Genesis 1:11-26.) The Beginning of History. It will be noted above that the first two periods embrace 2,083 years, and the history of that period is world history and not Jewish at all, but is given as an introduc¬ tion to Jewish history, and to show why God selected the Jews as his peculiar people. The facts are that salvation was offered to the world before it was to the Jews, but the world spurned the over¬ tures and went on in sin, and indeed those chapters tell us how man was created holy, 122 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. but fell a victim to sin, and how religious worship started with the idea of offering sacrifices to cover or atone for their sins, and how God was merciful even at that early time, but the Jews, like Cain, did not understand. Then the second period starts off with God's judgment upon the world which seems to have been caused by the close association of the righteous with the wicked, and the flood destroyed the world, except Noah and his family. After the flood, when the world was re-peopled, it was Nimrod, an Ethiopian or Cushite, i. e., a Negro so-called now, who first estab¬ lished government in the world, and ruled an undetermined time as far as the Bible states, but the inscriptions make the time long. On account of God's displeasure, probably on account of Nimrod's selfish¬ ness in providing only for himself, God scattered the nations, and that is how Ne¬ groes happened to go to Africa as the white race went to Europe. The Third Period. (Genesis 11:27—50:26.) Origin of the Hebrew People. The Third Period began with the coming of Abraham, the great father of the Jewish HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 123 race. He was a Syrian speaking Chaldee, which is closely related to Syrian. His un¬ selfishness was remarkable, for he preferred to make a sacrifice of home in order to help other people. He immortalized his name and God honored him by entering into a covenant with him as equal, showing a high estimate of his character. After his death, the blessing descended to Isaac, his son, and from Isaac to Jacob because of his moral power, i. e., his self-control, in spite of some other faults. From Jacob the blessing of God was with the entire Hebrew race who became the chosen people. Joseph comes forward as the leading character of the time, and through his efforts all Israel settled in Egypt. The Fourth Period. (Exodus, Leviticus 8:10; Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles.) The Rise of the Israelitish Nation. Israel told the king of Egypt from the be¬ ginning that they only came to sojourn awhile, and asked to be allowed to segregate themselves in Goshen away from the city t 324 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. life that would make them of a class with the Egyptians. After several hundred years they grew to be such a numerous peo¬ ple as to create a real race problem in Egypt very similar to the Negro problem in Amer¬ ica. They were crushed under the weight of Egyptian race prejudice and made slaves, but God raised them up a wonderful leader in the person of Moses who could not be distinguished from an ordinary Egyptian, Ex. 2:19, and personally, the situ¬ ation was not so unpleasant for him as his brothers; but he chose rather to suffer af¬ fliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, and he made a sacrifice for the good of his people, taking pains first of all to finish his educa¬ tion in the highest learning, Acts 7:22, he then made the mistake of setting an example of race retaliation which re¬ sulted in his exile in the land of Midian for forty years, where he kept in close touch with a wonderful Ethiopian, or, as we say, a Negro, who is thought by Dean Stanley to have taught him about Je¬ hovah for the first time. God finally sent Moses back to Egypt to work for his people, not by retaliation but by seeking the co- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 125 operation of the dominant race, and event¬ ually he succeeded in being permitted to lead his people out of Egypt, which was the only possible solution of the problem, but he left the Egyptians under the impres¬ sion he would return. When once safe on the other side of the Red Sea, he undertook to teach his people how to prepare them¬ selves for citizenship in the government about to be started. His father-in-law, the same wonderful Negro who set him think¬ ing along right lines in his exile, i. e., Jeth- ro, suggested that he change his method of personal ministry, and substitute the insti¬ tutional for the personal. Moses laid the situation before God and the Negro's ad¬ vice was approved, for God eventually gave Moses first the moral, and later the cere¬ monial law as the means best suited to them at that stage of development. But the tab¬ ernacle was set up to start the people on the way to a more spiritual religion. After a stay of two years at Sinai, the people marched to Kadesh-barnea, where they seemed to have remained for thirty-eight years, which added to the two years at Sinai made up the forty years in the wilder¬ ness; and at Kadesh-barnea, other laws 126 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. were promulgated as found in the book of Numbers. Aaron died at Mt. Hor near there in southeast Canaan, and Moses him¬ self died later at Mt. Nebo without enter¬ ing the land. But Joshua, his right hand man, was prepared to take up the work, and he it was who led the people safely in¬ to Canaan, and by a seven years' war sub¬ dued those Canaanites who were not killed, sufficiently to set up a government of the confederated tribes who were assigned cer¬ tain sections as their boundaries where they at least could make a base for the com¬ plete conquest of the district. The government set up could hardly be called a union of church and state; for it was the Jewish church which took under its care the social and legal administration. This commonwealth which is spoken of theo¬ logically as the theocracy, lasted three hun¬ dred and fifty-six years by calculation from 1 Kings 6:1, and came to an end when Sam¬ uel installed Saul as king. At the same time when Samuel took this step, he also began to plan to offset the influence of worldliness upon his race by systematically training young men for the ministry in schools es¬ tablished for that purpose. Thenceforth, HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 127 the voice of the prophet is heard in the land protesting against the doctrine of brute force, and promising the people that God would eventually send the Messiah who would establish, not a Jerusalem of force as they had learned to regard it, but the new Jerusalem, the longed for, the city of God, the kingdom of the Peaceable One, Saul proved a miserable failure, all a re¬ sult due to his unspiritual nature. But David was divinely appointed to succeed him, and he was prepared for proper lead¬ ership by unusual hardships that drew him close to God, and he put God first in all things, and honored the preacher who spoke of God, and through his spiritual leader he received the information that God had de¬ creed that his kingdom would never pass away, and David at once recognized the full import of the divine promise, and re¬ solved forthwith to so administer affairs as to fit himself to become a type of the Prince of Peace who should afterward continue for all time to reign on earth, which David's kingdom approached more than any other up to that time. 128 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. The Fifth Period. (I Kings, II Kings and II Chronicles.) The Decline of the Xsraelitish Nation. Upon David's death, Solomon succeeded to the throne, and his reign was a peaceable one. He excelled as a man of worldly knowledge and affairs, but was by no means spiritually minded like his father, David, and cared little for preachers, and the voice of the prophet carried little weight with him. In fact, he felt he knew everything himself, and did not consult the preachers, and even took upon himself the priest's function. But the training of the prophets served them in good stead, and it was a preacher that laid the plan for changing the situation by inspiring the other dominant tribe of Ephraim through their leader Jero¬ boam to stir up a revolution with the re¬ sult that the kingdom was wrenched from Solomon's descendants so far as majority went, but Judah was more than a match for all the tribes put together. 1 Kings 11: 29-40. The prophets evidently erred in hop¬ ing to offset the idolatrous tendencies of the northern kingdom under the influence of the tribe of Ephraim of whom Hosea complain- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 129 ed "Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone," for after two centuries and a quar¬ ter the northern kingdom was destroyed on account of idolatry's evil influence. It turned out that a minority is considered a majority with God when the minority stands for God, and the southern kingdom outlived the northern by a century and a quarter. But eventually the seed that had been sown by Solomon when he built heath¬ en places of worship around Jerusalem, in addition to erecting the temple, and when the low moral state of those high up caused the whole people to lose confidence in the triumph of spirit over matter, and when the prophet neglected Judah in the vain at¬ tempt to evangelize Ephraim, there grew up and developed such unspeakable idola¬ try that God sentenced the nation to an ex¬ ile of seventy years in Babylon. The Sixth Period. (Parts of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and Esther.) The Exile of the Nation. The sixth period covers the time of the exile. We only catch glimpses of the trials and victories of the Jews in exile, but it is evident that affliction brought them nearer 130 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. to God, and by reason of the strong religious and moral character of individual Jews the people stood high with the ruling pow¬ ers, and their chief sorrow was the morti¬ fication of being captive, and especially, be¬ cause they were shut off from religious wor¬ ship which they felt that they could not offer in any place but the temple. But what they lost in sacrifices, they more than made up in Bible knowledge, and when Ezra recon¬ structed the nation, Bible study constituted the educational system of the nation. Fifty years after Jerusalem was destroyed, but seventy years from the first captivity, Babylonia was overthrown by the Persians whose king cherished no prejudice against the Jews. The Seventh Period. (Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther and Apocryphas.) The Jewish People. Thus God redeemed his promise to the chosen race when affliction had sobered them of idolatry, and after seventy years, Shesbazzar brought back to Jerusalem as many as availed themselves of the permis¬ sion of Cyrus the king of the Persians who took over the Babylonian throne to return HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 131 to Jerusalem that they might serve God un¬ der their own vine and fig tree. The tem¬ ple was rebuilt, and Zerubbabel of the roy¬ al seed of Judah managed to get the reins of government, and later on, the city of Jeru¬ salem was partly restored by Nehemiah, and Ezra the learned scribe and priest was al¬ lowed to return to Jerusalem doubtlessly on account of the high favor of Jews at court by reason of Esther's service to her people. He got the people back to a respect for the law of Moses and put the nation upon a sound basis of Bible study. All of this work of reconstruction was systematically and bitterly opposed by certain mixed blooded Jews that had migrated into Ca¬ naan and established themselves as lead¬ ers of the poor remnant that was not car¬ ried to Babylon in Judah, and others who returned from the surrounding nations, and these so-called leaders were led by the Sa¬ maritans who were the carpetbaggers in Israel. This closes the Old Testament ac¬ count, as found in our Canon, i. e., list of inspired books in the Old Testament. But in the Bible that Jesus used there were four¬ teen other books that were not accepted as inspired, and were therefore called Apocry- 132 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. pha, or uninspired writings. These Apocry¬ phal books, at least two of them, throw much light on Jewish history from the days of Ezra forward several hundred years afterward, and what is not learned from the Apocrypha can be gathered from Jose- phus and the Talmud. After the Return for awhile the prophet was heeded, but later the people lost con¬ fidence in the class of preachers of the time to such an extent that rabbins and scribes succeeded to the leadership. The Jews were allowed local self-government, and to apply part of the royal revenue to reconstruction, and they had a body at Jerusalem composed of one hundred and twenty priests and elders, styled the great synagogue, that had full charge of the Jews' affairs, and similar bodies were organized in all locali¬ ties over the country and called synagogues whose function was instruction in the law, an'd its administration. It was from the great synagogue that the Sanhedrin Court, composed of seventy-two priests, scribes and elders together, was derived. Under the leadership of Ezra and the scribes, the Canon of the Old Testament was fixed, com¬ posed of the same books in our Bible, but numbering only twenty-two instead of our HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 133 thirty-nine, obtained by dividing some of the books into two parts. But the intel¬ lectual ought never to overshadow the spiritual in religious matters, for in such case unspirituality will result. However decided in the Canon, the great synagogue proceeded to put a hedge about the scrip¬ tures by traditions, and afterwards put a hedge about traditions. The idea seemed to build upon a religious aristocracy, whose dictum on scripture interpretation must be final, and thus perpetuate their leadership. They conceived the idea of claiming that the law was both written and spoken by Moses, and the scripture represented only the writ¬ ten law, while the spoken law, which was an interpretation of the written law, could only be obtained as Moses obtained it, by direct ear from God and passed it down the line by whisper from one reliable religious leader to the other until finally it reached Ezra and he spoke it to the great synagogue, and the idea obtained that it was impossible to interpret the law except in the light of tra¬ dition, and finally, as might be expected, they put the oral ahead of the written law, the traditions ahead of the scriptures, and such was the -condition that confronted 134 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Jesus when he dared to give his personal interpretation of the scriptures. Politically from the Return the Jews had local self-government, but were still sub¬ ject to the Persian Empire for two hundred years, or up to the time when Alexander the Great conquered the world. Then they were under Greek dominion for a century and a half, when they finally re-established their independence about 167 B. C., and maintained an independent kingdom for a hundred years, or until internal dissen¬ sions made them an easy prey to the Roman General Pompey, who captured Jerusalem 64 B. C., and the Jews thus passed into the Roman Empire until Christ came, and even until the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 A. D. Thus they fell under the influence of foreign nations successively, but it remained for the Syrian King Anti- ochus Epiphanes, to persecute the race and profane the temple which led to the Jews' independence. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the first requisite to interpretation? 2. What version is recommended a!nd why? 3. WJiat reference books are essential? 4. What is meant by Canon? HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 135 5. What as the Apocrypha? 6. What is meant by the Bible being a progressive revelation ? 7. How do we interpret the Old and New Testament each? 8. How is Jesus the one interpretation of the Bible? 9. How does the order of the books in the Bible af¬ fect interpretation? 10. What is the best help to interpretation? 11. Write out the periods of Bible history. 12. Name the epoch makers. 13. Give brief account of each period. 14. Who was Nimrod? 15. What caused the flood? 16. How long were the Jews in Egypt? 17. How long in Babylon before the return? 18. What caused the kingdom to divide? 19. How long did. each last ? 20. Give your estimate of Sollomon, and why? 21. Give estimate of David, £nd why? 22. When did the Jews attain their independence, and how long were they free? XVI. OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY, OR THE SPIRITUAL STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. It has already been pointed out that God used certain noble preachers of high type to compose the scriptures under the di¬ vine inspiration. These men wrote various kinds of literature corresponding to the dif¬ ferent stages of the Jews' development and best calculated to impress the great mission of these prophets which was to introduce Jesus to the race and through the Jews to the world. The different groups of books represent as many different prophetical methods of preaching ©r instilling into the people the divine word. But in every one of the four groups of Old Testament books Christ is spoken of in types and allegories, and it is interesting to take these groups (1S7) 138 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. and these books one by one and see how, "Christ is all and all." The Five Books of the Law, Or Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. These are the books inculcating the legal aspect of recreation. It was never intended that the law would do more than build up the morality of the Jews, which it did to a remarkable extent, and impart a higher conception of God's nature, and especially to prepare the way for Jesus. Thus Jesus says the law must be "fulfilled," or in oth¬ er words the law itself was only another form of prophecy, for that was the purpose of the entire Old Testament. Moreover, this group that is called the law contains even more history than law, and yet we call it all law. Genesis gives us in creation and genera¬ tion of the heavens and earth a beautiful type of a new creation in Jesus and of regen¬ eration. This first chapter is not intended to teach science but spirituality. Adam is a HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 139 type of Jesus, and the six days are an al¬ legory of the process of regeneration and sanctification. Adam is a son of God be¬ cause we were in Jesus to become the same. In the garden a redeemer is prom¬ ised who should come of the human race but only of a woman, the mystery of the incarnation. Adam and Eve tried to work out their own salvation, or in other words, to hide their shame, their sin, in their own way. But it remained for God to devise the plan of salvation by covering them with a sheep skin, and that is why it is afterwards taught that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins," referring not to sacrifices, but the blood of Jesus indicated in covering over their sins with the skin secured by the death of the animal. This is the doctrine of the atonement which in Hebrew literally means a covering. "Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is covered." Not that sin is destroyed, but it is not imputed, for it is covered over, and God no longer charges us with it. This is what faith in Jesus does for us. He makes it all right with God, putting us in spiritual touch, and the touch gives power and event¬ ually self-control. Space will not allow us 140 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. to enumerate the spiritual significance of Genesis found all through it, but we trust to go into the treasury more fully in the future. Genesis shows that Jesus was to •come of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the family of Jesse, and that he would make his advent before Judah should lose its ascendency over the nation, and no other lawgiver save Moses should be established in the race until Jesus, and Moses further on in Deuteronomy prophe¬ sied that Jesus was to take his place as medi¬ ator of a better covenant (18:15). Canaan is a type of the world, the Jewish race of the church, the Canaanite of the sinner, and the patriarch of the believer. The cove¬ nant that conditionally secured Canaan to the Jews forever passes over to us in a spiritual sense, for we are his spiritual chil¬ dren. It is most interesting and helpful to fol¬ low the life of Abraham comparing his own with the Christian experience. Everywhere we see him meeting with our human prob¬ lems, but we find him as far ahead of us as Jesus was of him. He dared to ask God to meet him upon sin equality by a mutual HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 141 agreement of covenant. The very concep¬ tion of such equality of standing in equity anticipated the teaching of Jesus which shows us to be God's sons anyhow, and his disposition toward us has always been as a loving Father indulging his child. His practical conception of religion is still needed, as well as his faith. Abraham is the spiritual father to us if we have his faith, but only a carnal father to the Jews in un¬ belief, and therefore we take over all the promises. Even in the story of Sarah and Hagar, and Isaac and Ishmael, Paul finds a remarkable allegory pointing to the short¬ comings of the law because too carnal, i. e., Hagar, while Sarah points to the cove¬ nant of grace and glory, given us through Jesus. (Gal. 4:22-31.) The idea of Abra¬ ham's making a sacrifice of his own son to atone for sin is intended to teach that God requires, not the blood of bulls and goats, but human blood as was afterwards freely shed by Jesus on Calvary. We must part with what is dearest to us to serve others best, our lives, our blood. Exodus. Hosea points to the spiritual significance of Exodus when he says: "When Israel was a child I loved him, and called my 142 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. son out of Egypt." (11:1.) God is here call¬ ing out the Jewish church under Moses from Egypt, the type of his afterward calling out the Christian church from the world in and out under Jesus. Just as the sacrifice of the passover lamb was the beginning of the Jewish Church, so the sacrifice of the Lamb of God was the beginning of the Christian Church. The passover lamb, though dead, was to be without a broken bone, signifying that Christ would die with¬ out a broken bone in order that he might have the free use of his body when he rose from the dead. Moses starts his work by giving the commandments and Christ be¬ gins his work by announcing the beatitudes. The book closes with an account of the build¬ ing of the tabernacle according to God's own direction, indicating: the exact swiritual type of Christ represented by it. The tab¬ ernacle will be studied in Leviticus along with the ceremonial law. Ground plan for Tdberhacle S0 Cubits A rk of Covenent Holiest Most Holy Holy of Holies Vail Altar of Sweet Incense Candle¬ stick n Tabie of the bread of the Presence Holy place Sanctuary Inner Court / Door /— Brazen Laver Outer Court C' y Altar of Burnt Offering Cat e The Tabernacle 144 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Spiritual Teachings of Leviticus—The Tabernacle. The book of Hebrews in the New Testa¬ ment is the key that unlocks the door to the spiritual significance of Leviticus and the last sixteen chapters of Exodus. The Jews never did get the spiritual lesson, for their eyes were blinded, and Peter tells us that this was all really for our benefit from the first and not for the times when it was written. (I Peter 1:12.) Of course the tabernacle stands for Jesus in the flesh, the two apartments, holy place and holy of holies standing for his human and divine natures. But Paul teaches that the church is Jesus' body, and thus the tab¬ ernacle also typifies the church, the church on earth and the church in heaven, and the veil that separated the two typifies the ig¬ norance of the Jewish church of heaven and the great hereafter. Now, what was in the holy place stood for what comes to one in the church, light and spirit typified by the golden candlestick, spiritual strength, the tables of shewbread, and forgiveness is as¬ sured the believer by the altar of sweet in¬ cense. The ark of the covenant in the most Beginners' Department—Bethesda Baptist Sunday School, Chicago, 111. HOW TO ST*JDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 145 Jioly place represents God's word as pre¬ served through the ages, and the mercy seat right over the word, as much as to say that God's mercy is based upon his word, and the cherubim stood for Jesus. The al¬ tar of burnt offering was the first thing to notice after entering the outer court and stood for the cross by which alone admit¬ tance into the church is possible. The brazen laver stood for regeneration and sanctifica- tion. The priest is the type of the believer, and the high priest of Christ. The sacrifices show nearness to and distance from God. Aaron, the high priest, going into the holiest is a type of Christ going to heaven to re¬ port to God, and the ringing of the bells on his garments represent Pentecost. The high priest was commanded to take two goats, and one was to die and the other was to live a separated life as Barnabas' Apocry¬ phal Epistle of Barnabas hints indicating that the atonement of Christ was to be af¬ fected both by his life as well as by his death. A significant fact! The Offering. Uniting the ideas in John 1:29, with John 1:51, we derive the idea that since both the Sig.—6 146 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. offerings and Jacob's ladder were types of Jesus, we can better understand the offer¬ ings by considering them as rounds in Ja¬ cob's ladder as in the following diagram: Thus the offerings indicate stages in our spiritual development and nearness to God. Jesus comes from heaven to save us down the ladder of the offerings as in Hebrews, and he takes us back up the ladder as per Romans, i. e., is successive steps in sancti- fication. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 147 For instance, at the appointed time David in Psalm 40:7, represents Jesus as saying: "Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0, God." This is Jesus preparing to come the way of the sacrifices, down Jacob's ladder to save us sinful men. His first step was to offer himself a burnt offering, i. e., lay aside all his glory and all that was dearest to him and to humble himself to take upon him the form of sinful man. His next step was tp offer himself a meat offering, and he afterwards said: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and finish work," Jno. 4:34. He kept up his sactvlYce, know¬ ing that "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," his high purpose and faith sustaining him until on the cross he exclaimed: "It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up his spirit." Jno. 19:30. Then he became our peace offering, re-unit¬ ing and making peace between man and God. Afterward it became necessary for him to become our sin offering, so that just as the sin offering was sacrificed on the out¬ side of the camp, Jesus was later to be cruci¬ fied on the outside of Jerusalem. Finally, 14S HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. he made himself our trespass offering so that "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the right¬ eous," I Jno. 2:1, and the way is open to get right. All of this explains the significance of the book of Hebrews which shows how Christ came the way of the offerings to save us from sin, and it is very strikingly spiritual. Now then he takes us to heaven by the way of Jacob's ladder, the sacrifices, i. e., his sacrifjo^ on the cross. Going back up the ladm»s)( J,rem,<,h{jeho,aKim (10 Jehoiachin 0 Zede kiah - 174 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Diagram shewing most prominent kings in each king¬ dom, grouped in dynasties. On the margin in braces ate shown the nations that waged war against each king¬ dom and when. On the diagram also are shown out¬ standing prophets who wrote the Prophetical books of the Old Testament during this period. QUESTIONS. 1. Why ds all of the Old Testament prophecy? 2. Draw the tabernacle and appurtenances. . 3. Give typology of tabernaclie. 4. Write out typology of sacrifices. 5. Relate the meaning of Jacob's ladder. 6. Describe Hebrew poetry. 7. Why is Isaiah a little Bible in itself? 8. What contribution to Messianic prophecy does Jere¬ miah make? 9. What ds Daniel's special contribution? 10. Name, define and typdfy the several Jewish feasts. XVII. SPECIAL INTERPRETATION OF THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. We have seen that in a very true sense all the Old Testament is prophecy, for it all taught of Jesus' coming to the world by types and allegories. The prophetical books bring out the idea of social and civil right¬ eousness as the true expression of religion. In these books there is a constant conflict between the divine and the human idea of government. These books are destined to play a more important part in the develop¬ ment and administration of the principles of the kingdom in the future than ever be¬ fore. They stress the fact of the need of a practical idea of the kingdom. The Old Testament religion largely concerned itself with this world, while the New Testament stresses the future world. Christ himself stressed both which, doubtless, is the cor¬ rect idea, and the Old Testament propheti- (175) 176 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. cal books will be in greater demand in the future than ever. We can learn much of the kingdom of God, which we have been thinking is one to be set up in heaven when we all die, by studying the kingdom treated in the historical and prophetical books when associated together. If we only knew how to get the meaning of these books of prophecy, and how to study them, we would be more interested "in them. The historical books should be mastered thoroughly, especially I and II Samuel, and I and II Kings, and I and II Chronicles, the six historical books that treat of the Kingdom. I and II Sam¬ uel is like I Chronicles, and I and II Kings is like II Chronicles, except as to the kings of Israel, but there are important differences which can be mastered and har¬ monized if Crockett's Harmony of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles is used in the studies. This is a most useful book and will explain many a difficulty. This is a tedious study to go into the full details of the two little kingdoms in the Jewish race, but it gives a solid basis for the study of the last seven¬ teen books of the Old Testament in a way not only to see Jesus, but to learn more of the nature of his kingdom. Two diagrams Sand Table Lesson—"David the Shepherd Boy." Note the stream on left and town of Bethlehem in background. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 177 are here given to illustrate the proper method of study, which shows that not only will the study of the lives of the kings help, but even the books of other prophets living at the same time will throw much needed light. Sig. 7- THE TWO JUDAH 1 Shemiah • A bijah 3 ■ Asa A z ariah Hanani Prison M Jehosaphat Jehu Jchazael Eliezer 6 . Jehoram 6 . Ahaziah 1 7. Athaliah 6 £ Joash tfO Zechariati | willed 9 Amaziah K Uzziah 5 i| 11 Jotham /6 i* Ahaz / 6 1 I. _Of*edJ •3 Hezekiah a 9 Manasseh S5"1 15" Amori a 1 6 Jos/ah 31 fj 17 Jehoahdz3 mes. e If Jehoiakim II 1 fc l9Jehoiachin 3 mos. E Ho Zedekiah II . > 11 Isaiah Ml Cdl) KINGDOMS ISRAEL > Jereboam ax) 1A b i j a h ( 3t./\/adab aj 3.Baasha a.q 4 £1 ah a 4". Zimri 7<*ays fc.Omri-Tibni J2 7. Ahab a & zedekiah Mrfcaiah pi g.Ahaziah 9-Jehoram io.Jehu II Jehoaha* IX.Jehoa sh tiJereboam \HZecbariab I sSha.ll utn lb- Men ahem I l-Pfkahia h ir.Pekah IJ.Heshea HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 179 Diagram of the two kingdoms illustrating in brackets names of prophets who wrote no books, but exercised remarkable influence in their day. Attention is called to the long ministry of both EMjah and Elisha. PROPHETS AND THEIR TIMES. f Elijah • l Earliest Prophets—Joel and JonahMicaiah I. Elisha 758 Before Captivity—Isaiah 698 628 During Captivity—Jeremiah 586 After Captivity Amos Hosea Micah Nahum Zephaniah Habakkuk Ezekiel Daniel Obadiah Haggai Zechariah Malachi KEY WORDS TO PROPHETICAL BOOKS. Isaiah—Christ the King and also the Righteous Serv¬ ant. Jeremiah—The New Covenant. Ezekiel—Christ and the Ceremonial Law. Daniel—The Kingdom of Heaven. Hosea—The Mercy of God. Joel—The Spirit of God. Amos—Social Reform. Obadiah—Edom. Jonah—The Resurrection of Jesus. Micah—Conversion of the Gentiles. Nahum—Nineveh. 180 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Habakkuk—Faith in God. Zephaniah—Day of the Lord. Haggai—The Glory of the Second Temple. Zechariah—First and Second Coming of Christ. Malachii—Coming of John the Baptist. SOME OUTSTANDING PROPHECIES OF JESUS. 1. Incarnation—Gen. 3:15. 2. Birth—Isaiah 7:14. 3. Divinity—IsaSah 9:6. 4. Humanity—Isaiah 11:1. 5. Time—Daniel 9:24. 6. Forerunner—Isaiah 40:3. 7. Place—Micah 5:2. 8. Prophet—Deuteronomy [18:15. 9. Priest—Psalm 110:4. 10. King—Zechariah 9:9. 11. Gentiles—Isaiah 11:10; Isaiah 49:6. 12. Galilean Ministry—Isaiah 9:1-2. 13. Miracles—Isaiah 35:6. 14. Triumphal Entry—Zechariah 9:9. 15. Rejection—Isaiah 53:1. 16. Betrayal—Zechariah 11:12. 17. Betrayal—Psalm 41:9. 18. Desertion—Zechariah 13:6. 19. Silence—Isaiah 53:7. 20. Mocking—Psalm 22:7. 21. Insult—Isaiah 50:6. 22. Cries on the Cross—Psa. 22:1; Psa. 31:5. 22-a Piercing—Psalm 22:16. 23. Bone not Broken—Psalm 34:20. 24. Burial with the Rich—Isaiah 53:9. 25. Casting Lots—Psalm 22:18 26. Res.urection—Psalm 16:10. 27. Ascension—Psa. 68:18. 28. Second Coming—Zechariah 12:10 and 14:4-8; Dan¬ iel 7:13, 14. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 181 Prophetical Psalms. 2—Son of God, verse 7. 16—Resurrection, verse 10. 22—My God, why, 22:1; He trusted, verse 16; Cast lots," verse 18. 40—Lo, I come, verses 6 and 8. 45—Grace, verse 2; Oh, God, verse 6; Anointed, verse 7; Worship, verse 11. 68—Ascension, verse 18. 69—Stranger, etc., verse 8; Zech. 9; gall and vinegar, verse 21. 72—Dominion, verse 8. 31—Into thine hand I commit my spirit, verse 5. 110—Sit thou, verse 1; Priest, verse 4. 118—Rejection and glory, verse 22; Blessed be he, verse 26. 89—Verses 20, 26, 29, 36.. 18—Verses 4-6. QUESTIONS AND HAND WORK. 1. What technical historical study is necessary to understanding the Prophetical books? 2. What Harmony is recommended? 3. Name the kings of Israel, and of Judah separately. 4. Name the prominent prophets and tell under what kings they prophesied. 5. Give key words to all prophetical books. 6. Diagram Isaiah's ministry as per lesson. 7. Diagram Jeremiah's ministry. 8. Write down the outstanding prophecies referring to Jesus and show passages. XVIII. THE BIBLE INTERIM OR THE JEWISH CHURCH TRAVAILING IN PAIN. The Old Testament canon was closed around the year 420 B. C., in the time of Ezra, and thus the Messianic prophecy was complete and needed no additions to modi¬ fy the picture of the Christ as therein set forth. This restriction of prophecy Christ afterward referred to as the door, i. e., the door of prophecy. Since the picture had been completed and no change could be added, the nation's expectation of the Ad¬ vent was quickened by the long silence that followed the days of Ezra. The con¬ ception through prophecy is now followed by the travail of the Jewish church as sug¬ gested in Revelation 12:2. The nation was downcast, but the church seems to have re¬ called the challenge of Isaiah: "Awake, (183) 184 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. awake, put on thy beautiful garments," and in this dark hour the truly spiritual are described beautifully when John afterward wrote: "Behold, a woman in heaven clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; and the woman was travailing1 in pain about to be delivered of a child." Rev. 12:1, 2. At the same time Satan began to get un¬ usually busy and John in the next verse sees him and writes: "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and be¬ hold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns." (verse 3.) The Jewish nation was under the domin¬ ion of four foreign dominations during this period, and also another included in one of the four designated as a "little horn" in Daniel 7:8, referring to the persecution from the Romish Church in the Roman empire, the fourth of these awful tyrannies, the other three being Greece, Persia and Babylon. But before this last persecution the Jews suffered from another "little horn" as related in Daniel 8:9, representing their persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes' abomination of desolation when a swine polluted the altar of God. Satan was not HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 185 only busy during this period in the govern¬ ments, but he made his way into the church to corrupt the leaders by the vagaries of the tradition, which brought to the front the scribes and pharisees as the responsible religious guides, and these filled up the cup of sorrow by depriving the people of the unfailing comfort of a spiritual interpreta¬ tion of the scriptures, and proved them¬ selves the unjust stewards spoken of later by Christ in Luke 16:15. But the really spiritual proved true to the end, being en¬ couraged by the prophecy of Daniel, whicl? was their one book, in 12:3: "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Satan in the church and in the gov¬ ernment brought the faithful to the critical darkest hour just before the dawn, when in the fullness of time Christ comes to the rescue of his own, man's extremity proving God's opportunity. Although the scribes and pharisees lost the spiritual thread through traditions, which only allowed interpreta¬ tions that had been handed down by world¬ ly-minded rabbins, the humbly spiritual pro¬ duced and studied a class of apocalyptical 186 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. and pseudepigraphical writing that more nearly conveyed the right impression upon the people, and it was not a study of the cabbala or tradition, but of apocalyptic literature and Daniel which gave Anna and Simeon the insight and assurance that qual¬ ified them to witness for Jesus before their departure from the world. Before passing on to the New Testament we should call attention briefly to one or two points in the history of the period. During the five centuries Palestine was under foreign control there arose two parties among the Jews that played an im¬ portant part in the history. The Alexan¬ drian Jews formed one of the great cen¬ ters of Jewish learning and influence, Jerusalem and Babylon being the other two. To enable the Greeks in the midst of whom they lived, to understand the antiquity of their nation, certain Alex¬ andrian Jews, seventy in number, trans¬ lated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, and this is the first and oldest trans¬ lation ever made of the Hebrew scriptures, and this translation was called the Septua- gint, which means seventy. The sadducees supported this translation and it became HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 187 popular, and it was no doubt this transla¬ tion which Jesus used in his preaching and teaching, for the New Testament quota¬ tions correspond more with this than our own Old Testament, e. g., Heb. 10:5, and Psa. 40:6, where "A body hast thou pre¬ pared" in the first passage, is "mine ears hast thou opened" in the other. From this illustration it can be seen there is an inter¬ esting difference, which would seem to point to the high value of LXX in interpretation. The Hebrew had no vowels at all, but it was left to the individual to supply the vowel required by context. Evidently in some cases the LXX used different vowels from our text where the vowel required was in¬ dicated by points. This translation will prove more helpful than a knowledge of He¬ brew unless the course is so thorough as to warrant the translator to decide the vow¬ els for himself. Now the pharisees resented opening up and exposing their scriptures to gentile scholarship, and, moreover, they discredited the translation on the ground that the vow¬ els could only be determined by the unwrit¬ ten law, or the tradition. But the sadducees rejected the tradition or unwritten law alto- 188 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. gether. The sadducees rejected the doctrine of the immortality of the soul or resurrec¬ tion, because they claim the Old Testament taught no such thing. The pharisees ad¬ mitted that, but claimed their tradition did teach the doctrine. They also advocated resistance to foreign rule, and were in the majority at Jerusalem. The pharisees were authority on tradition, and the scribes on the scriptures, the latter gave the letter of the law, and the former the interpreta¬ tion, and individuals were not to make inter¬ pretations unless received from the San- hedrin court in later times, or the great synagogue in earlier days. Christ made his own interpretation and did not cite any authorities in proof. This, of course, was bitterly resented. QUESTIONS. 1. What is meant by Bible interim ? 2. How long diid it last? 3. Describe reference to each of the two "horns" of Daniel, and give passages. 4. How does Daniel's interpretation in Daniel 8 relate to the interim? 5. Why is the Jewish church said to travail during this period? 6. What Bible did Jesus and the apostles use? 7.. What is the evidence? 8. Expllain pharisees and saducees. 9. Hunt up and find out how many pseudepigraphical writings there were, i. e., writings with other peo¬ ple's signatures so as to cause people to read them. XIX. JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY OR THE TALMUD AND ITS LESSONS FOR US. The religion of the Jews of today is knowii as Judaism, and it is based upon the Talmud which really holds the place in Judaism the Bible occupies among Christians. The Old Testament is supposed to be interpreted in the Talmud, and there are no Jews that properly interpret the Old Testament, and still accept Judaism. The Talmud has sup¬ planted the Old Testament, and this has been true since the captivity in Babylon to a more or less degree, but it has been ex¬ pressly true since the silence of the voice of prophecy. The real or spiritual sense and study of the Old Testament was never properly appreciated by the Jews, except the very few deeply spiritual men called prophets. The book has always been be- (189) 190 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. yond and above the Jews as a people, for it came to us from the heart and pen of men who were not appreciated by the Jews. The religion of the masses of the Jews was a ceremonialism that the deeply spiritual prophets never did encourage. But the prophets' standard was too high for the Jews and is only properly appreciated when interpreted in the spirit of Christ. For a number of years there was no writ¬ ten Talmud, but the tradition was im¬ parted from one to another in a secret way from mouth to mouth. The tradition was never written down until the sixth century of our era, as it is in the Talmud. The Tal¬ mud is not only the tradition but it is the traditional interpretation of the tradition. The original tradition was called the Mish- na, and the original interpretation of the Mishna is called Gemara. The Jews were taught that the tradition was the only proper interpretation of the law, and no man was permitted to interpret the law privately. Later on, this interpretation itself of the law had to be explained by another interpretation of the law, and the Gemara is the interpretation of the Mishna. Thus the personal interpretation was made HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 191 more difficult. The idea was to "make a hedge about the law," just as theologians of our day aim to make a hedge about the Bible to safeguard its interpretation and sacredness. But in the case of the Jews, more harm was done than good, and we must beware and not fall into the same er¬ ror. The Jewish teachers claimed that it was God's own plan that the scriptures should thus be interpreted, for they claim that at the same time that the written law was revealed to Moses, God also communi¬ cated to him the unwritten law, and in¬ structed him that it was to serve to explain the law, and that he expressly instructed Moses not to impart the knowledge of the oral, or unwritten law, which the Jews called the cabbala, but we call tradition, until he should first prove the person by proper test to know whether he was worthy. They claim the cabbala was whispered by Moses to Joshua, and then to the judges, then to prophets and Samuel, and then to Jeremiah, and finally to Ezra, and he to the great synagogue. The learning of this traditional interpretation constituted a Jew's education, and that, no doubt, consti¬ tuted Paul's course of study at Jerusalem. 192 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. The one outstanding fact of the Talmud is its utter unspirituality and its most ridic¬ ulous effort to usei the Talmud to put over any proposition the rabbins thought desira¬ ble. To read this Talmud is a real shock to a spiritual person. Spirituality is utter¬ ly unknown, and individualism is utterly crushed in a dead institufionalism that de¬ stroyed all personality and initiative. It is no wonder that the Jews have degener¬ ated as a nation with such unspiritual lead¬ ers as the rabbins and the scribes. It was such interpretation as we see in the Tal¬ mud that the Jews applied to the Old Testa¬ ment, and the book was never properly in¬ terpreted until Jesus came, and broke away from the Sanhedrin and the tradition, and taught others to do the same. The Sunday School teacher can here see the signifi¬ cance of aiming to develop the personality of the pupil rather than crush it. This matter of the Talmud and the rela¬ tion of the Jewish rabbins to the Old Testa¬ ment is deserving a place in a book on teacher training to warn Bible students that it is very unsafe to consult Jewish rab¬ bins in order to understand difficult pas¬ sages in the Old Testament, for frankly HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 193 they are not in a position to help one who is after the spiritual interpretation. All Jews are unbelievers in Jesus, and scoffers and blasphemers in the last analysis, and no man can understand the Old Testament unless first of all he is a believer in Jesus as the Saviour of the world. Consult a Chris¬ tian teacher and not a rabbi. This is a time¬ ly warning, for some of our best known Bible students are tinged with Judaism in their interpretation of the Old Testament. Any one who sees more in the Old Testa¬ ment prophecy than is already fulfilled in Jesus, sees too much, and is more Judaistic than Christian. Of course when we speak of Jews in this article, we refer to unconverted Jews who worship at the synagogue. But it must not be misunderstood that when we warn against Jewish interpretation of the scrip¬ tures that we would in any way encourage our people to be prejudiced against our Jewish friends and neighbors. On the oth¬ er hand we especially advise that we do all in our power to show them that we regard them highly and honor them as a people. But, in the words of Jesus, "Beware of the 194 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. leaven of the pharisees and sadducees," Matt. 16:6. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the cabbala? 2. What is the Talmud? 3. What is the Mishna? 4. What as the Gemara? 5. What is given as the origin of the tradition? 6. What is its purpose? 7. What was the Sanhedrin? 8. How did Jesus teach? XX. INTRODUCTION TO A TEACHER'S STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. The special preparation needed to under¬ stand the New Testament is not so much a study of the Roman Empire in the times in which Jesus lived from a gentile stand¬ point, but the best preparation for the study of the entire New Testament is the thorough study of the Old Testament, and the customs and antiquities of the Hebrew people. If available in some public library, an English translation of the Talmud will prove very helpful to a proper appreciation of Jesus as the Master Teacher by contrast¬ ing the silly and ridiculous ideas of the rab¬ bins with the enlightened spiritual inter¬ pretation of the Old Testament, and the con¬ trast itself will serve to show the need of Je¬ sus. In the study of the time in which Christ lived the emphasis should be placed upon a comparative study of the religion of domi- (195) 19(3 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. nant nations so as to see that Christ meets the needs of all nations by his practical spirituality. Attention is here called to the fact that the last two chapters in our study of the Old Testament in this book are really intended as an introduction to the New Testament. A teacher's study of the New* Testament must be thorough and spiritual. The real teacher is the person that has fine percep¬ tion, and he actually sees more in the sub¬ ject than the other man, and this qualifies him to teach, and the other man feels that way. A teacher training course ought to. be a real help to a teacher in the study of the scriptures, going about in a thorough¬ going way that will impart a full knowl¬ edge. The New Testament is the story of Jesus' work and teaching in the gospels, the work of the apostles in the establishment of the church in Acts, the interpretation of the teachings of Jesus and the full appreciation of him as the Son of God, and finally in Revelation we have a moving picture of the triumph of the church over all opposing forces, and the establishment of the king¬ dom of heaven on earth. Here as in the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 197 Old Testament, we must aim to master the story or narrative of the gospels and Acts, for all the other books stand so related to the gospels and Acts as to make them serve as the key to interpretation of the Epistles and Revelation. But while the story is very easy to be remembered, if properly studied and taught, in the case of the Old Testament, here we shall find much diffi¬ culty to get the details of our Lord's life clearly fixed in our minds because of the fourfold gospel. The Acts is not so diffi¬ cult of course. But it matters not how dif¬ ficult the gospel study may prove, the bene¬ fits to us will more than compensate for the trouble. Now, then, after a mastery of the details of the gospels and Acts, we are prepared for the historical as well as the spiritual study of the other books. We shall find that the more we learn of Jesus, the more we wish to know of the* Old Testament, and the more we understand the latter, the more w 214 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. had the first year of obscurity, the second year of popularity, and the third year of op¬ position; while the previous history was a period of preparation. But the Gospels do not teach that Jesus preached three and a half years, but we can only be sure of a ministry of two and a half years from the gospel account; while it is the prophecy of Daniel only that intimated somewhat a ministry of three and a half years. With the publication of Stevens and Burton's Harmony we no longer divide the ministry into periods corresponding to these years; but the ministry in each country where he preached serves as periods. Thus we have the Judean, the Galilean and the Perean Periods, while we group together all that we know before the public ministry and call this period the Thirty Years of Pri¬ vate Life, and the events connected with John the Baptist we call the period of the Opening Events in His Ministry; and the events connected with his death we call The Passion; while the events occurring after his death we call the Forty Days. Thug we study the Life of Jesus from the standpoint of eight outstanding epochs which give us seven periods as follows: HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 215 1st Period—The Thirty Years of Private Life. 2nd Period—The Opening Events in His Ministry. 3rd Period—-The Early Judean Ministry. 4th Period—The Galilean Ministry. 5th Period—The Perean Ministry. &th Period—The Passion. 7th Period—The Forty Days. The seven periods should be thoroughly fixed in mind in the order indicated above. Then the next step should be such a study as will enable one to find the place in the Bible where each period begins and ends, &nd thus be able to find what scriptures re¬ late to and explain each period. For this purpose it has been found that the gospel of Mark is best suited, for the reason that it appears conclusively that his gospel is the most reliable as to order of events as they actually occurred, and we follow Mark here. According to Mark, the periods corre¬ spond with the following passages: Period One—Nothing in Mark. Period Two—First thirteen verses of first chapter. 216 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Period Three—Nothing in Mark. Period Four—1:14 to 9th chapter. Period Five—Chapter 10. Period Six—11th to 15th chapters. Period Seven—16th chapter. Mark fails to mention events that oc¬ curred during the private life or in the early Judean ministry, but we find the Scriptures for the first period in Matthew and Luke; while the events of the third peri¬ od are found only in John. We thus see that no complete account can be found in any one Gospel, but Mark comes nearest to the full account of events but not of the discourses. The outline brief harmony here printed will be found especially help¬ ful in studying these periods. VASS' OUTLINE HARMONY. Periods Matthew Mark Luke John 30 Years Private Life 1—2 3—4:12 1—2 Opening Events 1—1:13 3—4:13 1—2:12 Judean 2:3—4:42 Galilean 4:13—18:35 1:14—9:50 4:14—9:50 4:43—8:59 Perean 19:1—20:34 10:1-52 "llTl—15:47~ 9:51—19:28 19":29—23~56 9:1—12:11 Passion 21:1—27:66 12:12—19:42 Forty Days 28:1-20 16:1-20 24:1-53 20:1—21:25 218 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Constructing the Life of Christ from Gospel Material. It is generally recognized by experienced teachers that impression is known by ex¬ pression, and these react the one upon the other. It seems to be the plan of the spirit that each person should construct his own life of Christ from the gospel material, for the lack of such a connected account in the Bible, is by no means accidental. Evidently, the Bible plans that each one should con¬ struct for himself the life so as to secure a mastery of the material which would otherwise be impossible. A map of Pales¬ tine and Stevens and Burton's Harmony will greatly help in the study. First, we should get fixed in mind the periods of the life in their proper order and location. ^ Secondly, We should then master the in¬ cidents coming under each period as laid down in Stevens and Burton's, using pencil and paper freely to aid the memory, also the map to locate places associated with in¬ cidents. Thirdly, we should then study the de¬ tailed account m each gospel of each inci- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 219 dent to get the general idea of it, using map and pencil and paper. Finally, we should study thoroughly the teachings of Christ and his miracles as methods of teaching, in each case drawing a comparison with any related teaching of Moses, i. e., of the Old Testament. Now we should construct at least four distinct accounts of the life, going deeper and deeper each time. This is no easy task, and this is not an effort to make It easy for the teacher, but to make it simply possible to master the life, for this is the supreme study of God's word, and if we fall down here, we fall down in all. It will require patience and time, but the labor ought to be one of love, and will crowd out of our lives much that makes against our spirit¬ uality. This harmony by Stevens and Bur¬ ton is especially helpfully arranged for the sake of mastery. The outline at the begin¬ ning is intended to fix this order or se¬ quence of events and is the basis of the study and when once mastered will serve the teacher in good stead the rest of his life, and is fully worthy of the time and sacri¬ fice it requires. Then the body of the har- 220 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. mony itself will serve to give the proper idea of facts, both words and work, and it is wise to use the harmony itself as a basis of the study because each account there ap¬ pears side by side on the open page so that it is easy to compare one account with the other. But one must be sure to locate and find the place in the proper gospel in his Bible in each case so as to become familiar with his Bible, and be able to locate the ac¬ count any time and verify it. The har¬ mony is a lesson help that must be used thoroughly, but the use must not be hurried so that time will be allowed for locating the place in the Bible in each gospel. QUESTIONS. 1. What is meant by historical method of Bible study? 2. What was formerly the way of dividing the life of Christ into periods and what the disadvantage? 3. What is the new way, and why ? 4. Name the periods in the life of Christ. 5. How may a life of Christ be constructed from the four gospels? XXIII. BRIEF HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. Our Lord Jesus was born of humble be¬ ginning in this world about 1925 years ago,, and around thirty years of age he entered upon the work of the ministry about the: same time when John the Baptist was preaching. He began his work by fasting forty days at the end of which Satan greatly* tried him, but he won out through a right interpretation of God's word. He then re¬ turned to his native town of Nazareth, but later on moved to Capernaum which be¬ came the family home. He performed miracles to get a point of contact for his teaching and back of every miracle was a useful teaching, and at Jerusalem during a passover, Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, was drawn to confer with Christ because of his wonderful teaching and work, (221) 222 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Christ then went on a preaching tour in Judea, but after John's imprisonment, car¬ ried his work north through Samaria into Galilee, which he made the base of his min¬ istry with Capernaum as headquarters. He took advantage of synagogue service to teach the scriptures and always astounded the leaders by his words, and if he found any sick he healed them. After selecting four men as his disciples, he started upon a preaching tour in Galilee that caused his fame to spread far and wide and brought together a great multitude who followed him. Then it was that he picked out of the multitude twelve men to be trained so that they could carry forward the work after his death. He then took these twelve men and made another journey in Galilee where very significant things were said and done that made the Jewish leaders more hostile to him. There was a third tour afterward when he sent the twelve men to exercise themselves in the work of the Kingdom. On that trip John the Baptist was mur¬ dered in prison which greatly depressed the disciples so that they all came back to HOW.TO STUDY AND TEACfl' THll BIBLE. 223* Jesus tp tell the sad new& When1' Christ took them aside to rest the people followed and he fed five thousand with two1 fishes and five loaves of bread/ : After withdrawing to Syro-phoenicia for better opportunity for rest and of teaching the disciples, he returned through Decapo- lis, and inquired of the disciples what peo¬ ple thought of him to get a chance to ask Peter who acknowledged him as the Christ and Son of God; and when thus he found that he had about made upon the leading disciple the right impression, and feeling his purpose accomplished, he began to tell them outright for the first time that he would be killed. From that time he began to think of Jerusalem, and coming down from the transfiguration he did not tarry long in Galilee, but went to Jerusalem to the feast of the Tabernacle in the fall of the year where his teachings aroused opposi¬ tion. Going back to Galilee, he returned iiY some few months to Jerusalem where he had to escape for his life beyond Jordan on account of the opposition of the religious leaders of the Jews, who finally charged 224 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. him with opposing Moses and the govern¬ ment. He returned within two miles of Jerusalem upon Lazarus' death to raise him to life, but retired to Ephraim without vis¬ iting Jerusalem. However, after three months he went up to Jerusalem, and for a large part of the week taught in Jerusa¬ lem in the day and retired to Bethany at night, but on Thursday the leaders grew so enraged they paid Judas to betray Jesus, and he was arrested while at prayer in Gethsemane, and hurriedly carried through a terrible inquisition that night and official¬ ly tried early on the morning of Friday, and before the trial was properly concluded, he was surrendered to the mob and crucified. But on Thursday late in the day he ate the passover, but in the midst of the meal turned the occasion into a memorial sup¬ per that he requested his apostles to observe for him until his return. Crucified Fri¬ day, he remained in the grave on Saturday, but rose from the grave on Sunday, ai\d was seen by his disciples and others for for¬ ty days before he finally ascended out of sight, without being fully appreciated for what he really was, but he cautioned his disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 225 Holy Spirit should come to direct them in their work and their life and faith. QUESTIONS. 1. What year was Jesus born? 2. How old was Jesus when he began preaching? 3. How did he win out in the Temptation? 4. Why did Christ perform miracles? 5. How did Christ establish his work? 6. How many tours did he make in Galilee? 7. Give brief account covering each period in you* own words and write it out on two sheets of paper, XXIV. A BRIEF LIFE OF CHRIST, WITH EMPHASIS UPON METHOD AND TEACHING. Introduction. The Old Testament prophecy should be in our mind as we begin the study of Christ, for what we call expectant attention will cause us to appreciate the great mission of our Lord. The details of his life should always be studied with the larger thought in mind of the work he was to accomplish in bringing a revelation of God's nature and his attitude toward us, and his plans for bringing the world in harmony with the divine will. When we read or hear one, it makes all the difference in the world who it is that is talking, and what importance is attached to him. In order to this appre¬ ciation we should aim to master what the Old Testament teaches us about Jesus. (227) 228 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Christ's home having been in Nazareth, while his actual birth occurred at Bethle¬ hem teaches us how to understand and harmonize prophecies relating to Christ, and how to regard apparently conflicting accounts in the Bible. Jesus, perhaps, at¬ tended the local synagogue school beginning at five years of age, where he committed scripture without being taught its meaning, At ten, he was allowed to ask questions as to the meaning and he would thus study with a view to understanding until the fif¬ teenth year, if he followed the usual course of training. A study of the Jewish Talmud will give an idea of the very silly and world¬ ly interpretation given by the leading teach¬ ers of the time, which must have greatly distressed the deeply spiritual Christ. Christ's deity is nowhere shown to greater advantage than the contrast between his own and the rabbinical interpretation. We talk much of human heredity, but when we trace the line of Jesus we see that he could have inherited but little from the human side, if anything, to account for his won¬ derful personality. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 229 Thirty Years of Private Life. The Bible is silent on his boyhood, which means that we must not spend time guess¬ ing and imagining. At twelve, he began to show a deep interest in spiritual things, and it is usually around the same age today that children experience a religious a- wakening. Christ was in no hurry to per¬ form his life's work until he had first tak¬ en ample time to prepare himself especially in the study and meditation of God's word. And, by the way, his education consisted of the study of the Bible only, except the fool¬ ish traditions which never impressed him at all except to make him more disgusted with them. Just think of it, Jesus used the scrip¬ tures as the basis of his education, and still no man has yet even approached him in all around culture. What are we to learn from this fact, if not that the Bible should be the chief textbook of the Christian worker, and especially the Sunday school teacher. The eighteen years that he after¬ wards spent with his parents represent him as being subject to them, and as a mod¬ el young man. No doubt, his annual visits to Jerusalem for those eighteen years made 230 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. according to the law, opened his eyes fur¬ ther to the needs of the times, and finally when John began preaching, the stern moral teaching was at once recognized by Jesus as the proper kind to bring people to their consciences. Opening Events in His Ministry. He was baptized in spite of John's pro¬ test, for he saw no need of such a step on Jesus' part since he was without sin. But Christ insisted that he must obey the word the same as everybody else, and he re¬ garded baptism as essential to full obedi¬ ence, and this should serve as an object les¬ son to us. He then went off into retirement, no doubt, for deep spiritual meditation, and he fasted all the forty days of his retire¬ ment, and thus practiced in self-mastery which he knew would be so essential to the life before him. Here is food for thought on the part of preachers and Sunday school teachers, and shows where to place the em¬ phasis in preparation for Christian service; that is to say, we should place great stress upon the moral side and practice self-control from the beginning. Christ thus e-ained such mastery over his body as to deliber- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 231 ately lay down his life for the cause, for he also had power to take it up, which means that Christ could even exercise a greater control over his body than death itself did, for he rose again. The tempta¬ tions were just as real to Jesus as they are to us, and came to him as he was planning his life's work, and indicate the strong temptation to selfishness, and the spectacu¬ lar, instead of the humble life of service for others which *he decided upon. It is notable that these temptations were only overcome through the spiritual understand¬ ing of the Bible, and after the trial, came the joy of God's presence. Going back home, he made a short visit to Capernaum with the family, and, no doubt, made the ar¬ rangements by which it became headquar¬ ters of his public ministry. Then on his way to a Passover feast, he contributed to the pleasure of the people at the wedding in Cana, doubtlessly, wishing to show that there is the social side of Christianity, and wine was only a part of the dietary in those days, and not like the strong drink evil of our times. 232 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Early Judean Ministry. At Jerusalem he became so disgusted with the mercenary spirit that allowed bus¬ iness for gain to make headquarters at the temple, his righteous indignation so as¬ serted itself, no doubt, on the order of Cromwell in later times, the traders could not stand before him. By this time his reputation was such that Nicodemus sought him for a private interview, showing the effect of Christ's teaching upon the most learned men of his day. He then taught and preached in Judea and his disciples baptized more converts than John the Bap¬ tist who was also preaching in that section. But John was not jealous, but took occa¬ sion to emphasize that he was in no class with Jesus, and he regarded Christ as so far superior to himself that he was not worthy to unloose his shoes. John's un¬ selfishness opened up the way for Jesus, who only comes where the way is thus pre¬ pared by unselfish loyalty to the truth. Galilean Ministry. FIRST TOUR. Jesus went north after John's imprispn- ment, and stopped for two days preaching HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 233 at Sychar, and passed on to Capernaum stopping briefly at Nazareth, where he was not favorably received, and healed the noble man's son on the way. Jesus made it a point to attend the services of the syna¬ gogue and teach the spiritual interpreta¬ tion of the Bible, and he would heal any sick on such occasions. He is thought to have planned and carried out three separate preaching tours in Galilee, and the first be¬ gan with the call of his first four disciples while engaged in fishing. John tells about Christ having disciples before this, but they left John the Baptist for Christ, and, no doubt, Christ had them return to John. Now, after the latter's imprisonment, he makes choice of the four as his disciples, and carried them with him on his first preaching tour. On this tour he healed a leper by actually touching him, teaching us that to help the unfortunate we must come in the closest touch with them. Going to Capernaum, he healed the paralytic and aroused the opposition of the teachers, but the admiration of the masses, who praised God. On this tour another question arose as to Sabbath observance and Christ told them that it was. up to himself to interpret 234 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. the Sabbath, as much as to say that Moses' authority on the matter did not extend to him. He gave them to understand that the proper place for emphasis is not the insti¬ tution but the man; and indicated that the human soul is greater than any custom or mere law. This matter was agitated in several other connections at this time and was used to bring on his death, because his idea was that the Sabbath should be spent in good work, while Moses taught them to sit down on practically everything on that day. Thus when the infirm man was healed at Jerusalem, and the man with the withered hand was healed on the same tour, the same question of the Sabbath crystallized opposi¬ tion, and these leaders began to plan his death. Thus, from the first, Jewish lead¬ ers opposed his attitude toward ceremo¬ nialism as brought out in classifying things as either clean or unclean, but Jesus taught that it is not what goes in our mouth that is unclean. They called upon him to have his disciples fast like John's, but he showed it unnecessary, and he encountered the strongest opposition concerning the Sab¬ bath, and it-would seem that Seven Day Ad- ventists would let that matter rest now, HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 235 since the Christian attitude on that matter was so different from the Jewish as to cause the death of Christ. Christ did not observe the Jewish Sabbath at all, for that was in¬ tended for Jews, and went down with the ceremonial law. We keep Sunday as a memorial to Jesus, and endeavor to observe the day in service for others, which we think pleases him. SECOND TOUR. At the close of this first tour of Galilee Christ realized that his name was known so far and so favorably by the large crowds that followed him everywhere, that he felt the time opportune to organize the movement of which he was the head that when he should be killed, as he knew all too well that he would be crucified, the work would go on. He prayed all night, and the next day came down and made a selection of twelve out of the whole body of followers so that he might give them special training such as would enable them to carry forward the good work upon his death. Then he "preached the sermon" on the Mount, as we say, but Matthew says that he sat down and taught them. And what he taught 236 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. them was the difference between his own teaching and that of Moses, who had been the greatest teacher and mediator of the nation before Jesus. Moses began his work by the giving of the Ten Commandments, but Jesus gives just nine Beatitudes, em¬ phasizing that what is needed for success in our work is the blessing of God upon us, and he proceeds to show us how to secure God's blessings. In many ways, Jesus' teachings are in sharp contrast with those of Moses. He next teaches his disciples that he did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, thus bringing out the pro¬ phetic nature of the law, which prophecy was fulfilled when Christ came. He speaks highly of the law, but in another place he shows that he is referring to the last six Commandments and not the first four. (See Matt. 19:18,19.) His own coming made per¬ fect the revelation of God in the first four Commandments. Touching murder, he taught that the thing that might eventually lead to murder is murder to a certain de¬ gree and is to be guarded against as mur¬ der itself. He taught the same thing of adultery. He urged such positiveness of speech that no swearing would be necessary HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 237 even for purposes of justice. He also taught against retaliation and resistance to evil, but advised rather a contrary disposition to be shown the aggressor. He taught against public show in giving and praying. He then gave a sample prayer, which brings out the idea that personal wants should take up a very small part of our prayers, but the glory and work of God ought to so en¬ gross our mind that we make this work first in our prayers. Then he tells us to pray against temptation which is so hard to re¬ sist. He warned against externalism in re¬ ligion, and taught against money getting as against doing good, and says it is up to us to make a choice between serving riches and serving God, for they do not go togeth¬ er, and shows that we can confidently re¬ ly upon God to care for us even more than the sparrow or the lily. He tells us that we are not expected to judge each other but ourselves. At the same time we cannot help from knowing the tree by its fruits, and that religion is doing as against mere pro¬ fession. He compared life to a building, and advised the right foundation and prin¬ ciple and faith, and indicates that only the few will make good as Christians. 238 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. After this sermon, he went on a second tour and carried all the twelve with him, so as to let them learn how to repre¬ sent him. This journey proved very in¬ forming in understanding the plans of Jesus. The centurion's faith in Jesus causes him to take notice of a tendency oji the part of the gentiles to receive and believe in him from the first, as against Jewish opposition, and he would depend upon the gentiles to follow him. He had cured the leprosy on the first tour, and now he raises to life the dead. He also shows the difference be¬ tween his method of procedure and that of John the Baptist, for while John was made a prisoner he first perfected his organiza¬ tion and plans before going to his death, and he spoke as if there was a radical dif¬ ference between their methods, but neither would reach the masses. High churchmen showed some respect for Jesus, as Simon, the pharisee did, - but the poor and outcast were most impressed for good. On this journey he honored womankind as never before by taking around with him a num¬ ber of devoted women who looked after his needs, and his ministry was thus made possible by the poor, who also seemed to HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 239 make contributions, since a treasurer was necessary, and there is no record of any¬ one working for a livelihood. He spent a whole day by the sea, explaining his pur-' pose and his plans by parables and warned the scribes that to refuse to recognize the work of the Spirit was really blasphemy which made salvation impossible. In the midst of his teaching, some one told him that his mother and brothers wished to see him, but he only said: "Who is my mother? and who are my brothers? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." Matt. 12:48-50. He thus teaches that the spirit should be the strongest tie that binds disci¬ ples. In his parables, he showed the king¬ dom to be like the sower and the seed, good seeds and tares, the mustard seed, the leav¬ en, the treasure, the pearl of great price, the dragnet. He spent another day by the sea performing miracles which proved a helpful way to teach. He healed the Gada- rene demoniacs, and allowed the demons to enter the swine to prove that it was through 240 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. such demons that evil results come, to our bodies. Healing the woman with an issue who merely touched him showed the effects upon Jesus' own body of the power of the spirit that charged his body as a magnet, it seems, for he said, "I perceive that pow¬ er is gone forth from me." Luke 8:46. THIRD TOUR. And he soon entered upon a third tour of Galilee, but this time he sent the disci¬ ples out two by two to help teach and spread the news of the kingdom, and gave them power over unclean spirits, and told them to go only to Jews, and not to gentiles, nor Samaritans, and one reason for this restric¬ tion was the limitation of their prepara¬ tion, which was especially suitable to their own race, speaking the same language; and another reason was that Jews were bet¬ ter prepared to succeed in Kingdom work by reason of Old Testament training. It was at this time that Herod beheaded John the Baptist to please a dancing daughter. Surely, youne: Christians would hate dan- cine: pft^r his awful crime! The master and the disciples were so greatly depressed by this sad news that Christ took them for a Miss Joanna P. Moore, for fifty-three years missionary among the Colored people and founder of Fireside Schools, the forerunner of the Home Department. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 24I> rest in a desert place, but the people fol¬ lowed them, and Christ fed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, and twelve basketsfull were left over. Certainly one lesson to us here is that if we give our all to the Master, we shall in fact be none the worse off. But John's gospel points out that this miracle was for the teaching value, and pointed to Christ as the bread of life, an idea utterly incapable of conception by any one except a believer; and the people left Christ at that time in such numbers that Jesus asked the twelve if they also would go, but Peter spoke up and told Jesus that he had what they wanted and they were not going anywhere. This sad hour is called by us the Crisis of Capernaum, and from that time on Christ talked more to his dis¬ ciples than to the unbelievers. He made another effort to rest with his disciples in Phoenicia, but a woman recognized him and kept after him until he yielded to her prayer after severely testing her faith; and recognizing that he was known there, he came back through Decapoiis, and at Beth- saida fed another multitude of four thou¬ sand with seven loaves and a few small fishes. He told some pharisees that he Sig.—9 242 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. would eventually give the sign of Jonah as the crowning proof of his mission, refer¬ ring to his death and resurrection. Jesus recognized that since John held actually been murdered that his time was short, and he began to find out whether his work was in such shape as would justify him in going to the Cross. Since he deliberate¬ ly refused to acknowledge himself the Mes¬ siah to a single Jew (the Samaritan wom¬ an was not a Jewess) but left it for each Jew to discover the fact for himself, he now wanted to know just what impression had been made upon his disciples. When asked, Peter confessed his belief that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Christ was greatly pleased to note the progress made by Peter in true spirit- uality, and he calls him a rock, and im¬ plied that he would depend upon just such real character and faith in his deity to tablish his church and gave the assurance that as long as faith in his deity is the f0Un dation of the church, it would never die never be buried, i. e., the gates of th#» would never shut it in. (See Matt 16-is\ And he gave the apostles authority to de cide upon interpretation of his teachings" HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 243 and that is why we so highly esteem the epistles, i. e., because they explain Jesus. Peter was thus able to recognize Jesus as Christ because of his knowledge of the Old Testament prophecy, and yet he did not see Christ exactly as he was. So Christ carried him and two others to where they could, through a vision, compare him with Moses and Elias, and let Peter learn directly from God that Christ is not in a class with Moses and Elias as he seemed to think, but Jesus was all in a class by himself, and until he thus saw Jesus there came a cloud to over¬ shadow, as much as to say that if we do not see that Christ is above all, we shall throw a dark cloud over the interpretation of the Bible. When they all came down from the moun¬ tain, the nine disciples were found trying to cast the evil spirit out of a boy, but they made a failure, and called upon Jesus to help. Christ healed the boy, and explained that such a victory can come only after prayer and fasting. Surely the lesson we are to learn here is that if evil habits still haunt the believer and cause him to do wrong, the cause is that the person has not come under the power of the spirit; but 244 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. such an one must not give up, but fast and pray, and keep on till relief comes, for self- control will come in time. It also stresses that it is the nine, i. e., the ordinary believ¬ ers, who run across this trouble. Going back to Capernaum when his enemies tested his patriotism by calling on him for his taxes, he paid by a miracle, and did not tarry, but made a hurried visit to Jerusa¬ lem in the fall of the year to attend the feast of the Tabernacles when he boldly asserts his teachings and calls upon men to follow, speaks of real freedom as against slavery to sin, and declares himself the light of the world; When he told the people that Abraham rejoiced to see his day, and that he existed before the father of the He¬ brews, they took up stones and tried to kill him, but he escaped and returned to Gali¬ lee for a brief stay only, for he planned to return to Jerusalem within three months to the feast of Dedication which was about the same as our Christmas. Perean Ministry. When he would return through Samaria they would not receive him, and so he planned a whirlwind campaign in Perea and HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 245 appointed seventy special disciples to trav¬ el by twos to make arrangements for him so as to enable him to cover the largest pos¬ sible ground in the shortest time. Some of the most essential teachings of his en¬ tire ministry were brought out in Perea where the aim was to impress both upon the people and the pharisees themselves the faithlessness and inefficiency of the consti¬ tuted religious leaders. He shows how per¬ sistence in prayers brings results, how as¬ cribing to Satan what the Spirit only can do, is blasphemy, discourses on the sacrifices in¬ cident to their discipleship, teaches humili¬ ty at the pharisee's table, shows by the story of the Samaritan who is one's neigh¬ bor, and by the parable of the unjust stew¬ ard he warned the pharisees that they had lost their influence by faithlessness, and suggested that they come into the Kingdom and take a new start, and guarantees that if they would do this they would never lose out in their work and influence any more. Another parable of warning was the story of Lazarus and the rich man, and then he spoke three parables of grace: the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son. Going to Bethany, 246 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. he raised Lazarus and retired to Ephraim without going to Jerusalem, where he con¬ tinued his direct teaching as well as para¬ bles and miracles. Then passing Jericho and Bethany where he was anointed against his death, he entered Jerusalem on a Sunday morning. The Passion. He rode upon an ass in his triumphal entry and wept as he contemplated the doom of Jerusalem because of sin. Going out to Bethany to spend the night he cursed the fig tree on his way back Monday as a token of the impending doom of Jerusalem, and going into the city, cleansed the temple the second time, it would appear. Tuesday was a day of conflict when his teaching was vigorously challenged at every point, and he spoke three parables of warning, and being asked three questions by Jewish lead¬ ers, he not only quieted them for the time, but then proceeded to ask them one question which silenced them altogether, i. e., if the Christ was David's son, why did David call him Lord, unless to prove his Messiahship was to be interpreted as spiritual and he HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 247 himself at the head of a spiritual kingdom, which was so impossible to the Jewish mind. As soon as he heard that gentile Greeks were inquiring for him, and wanted to know more of his teachings, he realized that this spelled success for his mission, and he indicated his readiness to die as his entire life focused this end, and he prophesied the coming of the Kingdom in some way closely related to the imminent desolation of Jerusalem. The chief priests and Judas plotted his betrayal, and the next day, Wednesday, seems to have been quietly spent at Bethany, and on Thursday he observed the passover, and may have ob¬ served it a 'little before the usual time be¬ cause he was very anxious to observe it with the apostles so as to introduce the memorial supper in its place to be observed by the faithful until he came again, so he did not finish the whole passover ceremony, but as Judas went out in the midst of the supper, he then instituted the communion because he had the right crowd present and the traitor absent. There is no place at the communion table for the disloyal. The 248 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. reason for supposing that Christ ate the passover a little earlier is on account of passages in John, i. e., chapter 13 and verse 29, where it was thought when Judas left the supper he went to get something that would be needed for the passover; and also in chapter 18 and verse 28, when Jesus' per¬ secutors refused to go into Pilate's judg¬ ment hall at the trial of Jesus, "lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover." This interpretation shows how John ought to be harmonized with the synoptics and not vice versa, as in the case of those who tried to prove by John that Christ himself never really ate the pass- over. That same night while he was at prayer in lonely Gethsemane he was arrested by the aid of the traitor, who was more anxious to make money than to harm Jesus, for he later on committed suicide When he saw what his love of money had' caused. Peter followed Christ at a dis¬ tance, but no other disciples were in sight at all, for Matthew tells us in 26:56, "Then all the disciples left him, and fled," and Mark says the same and tells of his own fleeing (Mark 14:51), as we suppose Mark HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 249 to be the naked young man. Peter was finally admitted to the high priest's place through the suggestion of "another" disci¬ ple that surely could not be John since he rendered Jesus no help but stood by and saw him suffer. John in chapter 18:15 says "that disciple" went in unto the high priest. Surely our John did not play double like that, and it looks very much like "that dis¬ ciple" here was Judas, who may have had to face Jesus with a charge, as well as show where he could be found that night. Peter shows up creditably in the whole trial, if we think he swore simply to keep from be¬ ing put out, so that he could not see the trial through. Jesus was mistreated to an un¬ usual extent for no offense except his be¬ ing represented as speaking in contempt of the temple, his ignoring certain phases of ceremonialism, and his doing good work on the Sabbath. !Finally, they secured a per¬ jurer who swore that Jesus had committed an offense against the Roman authority and so they succeeded in passing him up to Herod first, then to Pilate. "But he was taken from prison and from judgment," and his trial was broken up by a typical 250 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. American mob after a poor Negro, and he was lynched after being dragged about and made to carry his own cross. How can any Christian stoop so low as to repeat this shameful treatment upon a human being whose skin happens to be dark ? The Forty Days. After being in the ground one whole day and a part of two days, making what the Jews considered three days, he rose from the dead no doubt in the same body, as it had been especially prophesied that no bone was to be broken at his crucifixion since he could not have gone about with broken bones after his resurrection. That same day he so explained the scriptures to two disciples on the way to Emmaus that they were so carried away with the teaching they saw for the first time Christ all through his word rather than Christ in the flesh. Such an interpretation was impossible un¬ til Christ had paid the price and died the death. The same night he showed up in a room with the disciples with Thomas ab¬ sent; and a week afterward he again ap- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 251 peared with Thomas present and convinced him thoroughly. He appeared later on to the eleven, and then to still others, and in Acts 1:3, it is said that he remained here forty days before his ascension in the pres¬ ence of the disciples who saw two others beside him, who stated that Christ would come again. And devout believers are still looking for him to come and thoroughly establish the Kingdom he had started while in the flesh. As long as Christ was in the flesh it proved an obstacle to real spiritual faith as we see in the case of Thomas, (John 20:27- 29), and he therefore insisted upon going away: "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Helper will not come unto you," Jno. 16:7. Faith in Jesus is not an in¬ tellectual act, but the conviction of the Holy Spirit, who by the way, does not take the place of Jesus at all, but only helps us to get in proper touch with him and Christ is still "All and in all." Now then as soon as the Holy Spirit enables us to see Jesus as he is, at once we want to know more of him, and we become deeply interested in 252 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. his conception, his birth, his infancy, and childhood and we appreciate and love him to such an extent that neither Matthew nor Luke can picture the incarnation in terms so bewildering but that our adoring hearts and minds thank God for the beautiful glimpse into his early childhood, and makes us still more deeply appreciate and love him. This is the proper way to teach the life of Christ, which is the way both Mark and John present him to us in their Gospels. His deity is not an argument, nor yet a doc¬ trine. It is a fact self-evident through the work of the spirit upon our hearts. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the right study as an introduction to the Life of Christ? 2. How do the prophecies about Jesus' birthplace il¬ lustrate Bible interpretation? 3. What was the significance of the temptation? 4. What was the significance of the sermon on the mountain ? 5. What did the transfiguration teach Peter especially* 6* Who was the disciple that had Peter admitted 'to the high priest's house? 7. What were the charges, against Jesus before the Jewish authorities? 8. What Gospel should be the basis of studying Jesus* life and why? 9. What lesson comes to* us from Christ's casting out devils ? 10. Name the ten appearances after the resurrection. XXV. TEACHINGS OF JESUS. 1. Interpretation of Old Testament Christ interprets and enlarges upon the the teachings of Moses and the Old Testa¬ ment. He insisted that his disciples first endeavor to evangelize the Jews because he came with a special message for them, founded upon the revelation as already partly made before. 2. Christ's work was pre-eminently that of a teacher, and it is through his teaching, both by example and doctrine that we come into possession of the benefits of his life and his death. He did not come to secure our worship and adoration, but he came to help us to know God and serve him acceptably. There are those who make no effort to know what he teaches, but such persons honor and adore him as God, and seem to think it was the superhuman in Christ that made (253) 254 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. his life possible, and they seem to think that it is expecting too much of an ordinary hu¬ man to follow his life and teachings. But Christ taught us to worship God and not himself, for what he wanted us to do is to catch on to his ideas and teachings. That is really what we mean when we speak of believing in Jesus, believing in what he taught. It is very true that Christ is God, but such conviction comes from God through the Holy Spirit. It is not Christ who de¬ sired it, but God willed it, as we read: "Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Phil. 2:9-11. The adoration of Christ as God proceeds from the soul under the influence of the Spirit. But he wishes to teach us "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46). That, no doubt, was his purpose in saying to the man who called him good master: "Why callest thou me good ? none is good save one, that is, God." (Luke 18:19.) HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 255 ^ These passages show his desires. Be¬ lieving on him does not consist of believing in him as God only, but also and especially believing in him as man and teacher. 3. Jesus was the first to teach us the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and this is an interpretation of the creation story in Genesis. 4. Christ does not emphasize total de¬ pravity, but rather he places a high value upon the possibilities of the human soul. He calls us not servants as in the Old Testa¬ ment, but friends and brothers and sons. The parable of the prodigal son expresses Christ's idea of- the relation of the sinner to God. His teachings about God are radically different from the Old Testament, which left us under the impression that God was a master and we his servants. 5. Christ commands nobody to do any¬ thing any time, but he says he gave a new commandment to love, i. e., the law of love, and of course that is not a command at all in the usual sense. Everything is volun¬ tary in Christ's teachings. He takes us from under all law except the law of love. 256 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Instead of law he gives us grace by which we are placed under a sense of honor rath¬ er than under a fear of penalty. 6. Again the teachings of Jesus are not to be harmonized with Moses and the Old Testament, but rather the Old is to be in¬ terpreted in the light of the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament. "Ye have heard that it hath been said but I say unto you." This must be understood to properly appreciate so as to be able to understand Jesus. No matter at all what the Old Testament taught you, follow Jesus, for Jesus is right, and your idea even of the Old Testament is wrong. Because he said he came not to destroy but to fulfill does not mean that he will not differ from Moses. On the other hand, he taught that if new wine is put in old bottles, the bottles will break. (Luke 5:37.) Christ taught the doctrine of a ri.ehteous life, a life and not a creed, and this life the result of a new birth, a new start upon an entirely different basis. He spoke in para¬ bles so that no one would be interested or able to understand except the morally ear¬ nest. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 257 7. As Jesus arrested the thoughtful by- parables, he reached the less thoughtful by another method of teaching, that is by mir¬ acles by which he got the point of contact. Therefore, in studying about a miracle, do not waste time debating the possibility of such a thing, but go right about seeking the lesson indicated. The heart of the teaching, for such it really was intended to be, is to see what truth we are to appropriate. This is a most impressive method of his teaching. 8. His teaching was to wean the Jews from sacrifices and ceremonial laws, and he taught the sacrifice must be a personal one and not external to ourselves. The proper sacrifice was the sacrifice of our own life of ease and pleasure. 9. The sermon on the mount is his inter¬ pretation of Moses' teaching. 10. He offers the reward of heaven and warns against the terrors of hell as incen¬ tives, and gives us power to live right by sending the Spirit into our lives. He warns us against Satan, and by example shows us how to overcome him. 11. He does not teach that God requires 258 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. his death. On the other hand, he tells us that even before he died, he was the resur¬ rection and the life. Believing in his death is believing in his life, and it was not God who slew him, but it was sin in others that caused his death. He does tell us his death was necessary to properly impress men who failed to heed anything less than blood. God did not kill Jesus, but sin killed Jesus, and God simply allowed it because man will heed nothing less than blood. 12. He taught of coming back again, and in the light of what has really happened in fulfillment, he has already come before, and will still come again. Miracles as Object Lessons. Christ used the object method of teach¬ ing as well as metaphors and parables. He gives us to understand this especially in the case of the feeding of the five thousand, but does not take time always to explain. It was a method of his to leave something for us to think out for ourselves and find out more about in the study of the Bible. He healed diseases as the best way to teach the horrible nature of sin and his power HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 259 to cure. He cast out evil spirits to thor¬ oughly impress us that wrong living is due to the activity of evil spirits in our hearts. He raised Lazarus to make his disciples look for his own resurrection, and so on through all the miracles. With him the mir¬ acle was never an end, but a means, and a means of teaching, for his one outstand¬ ing work was teaching by word and exam¬ ple and object lessons. What folly it is to get carried away with the detail of the miracle to the neglect of the teaching! It is like exalting the illus¬ tration above the instructions. What would a teacher do if his silly pupils refused the teaching of an object lesson to discuss the object itself? It matters not what the mir¬ acle is, however seemingly impossible, ac¬ cept it at its face value, and go on to see why the account is inserted in the Bible, or what is its teaching value. Viewed in this light, we certainly follow the example of Christ in his construction of the incident about Jonah when we hunt for the spiritual truth, for this position proves our proper atti¬ tude for Bible study to be morally in ear¬ nest and childlike faith. 260 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. QUESTIONS. 1. What did Jesus teach of God? 2. What was the work of Jesus intended to accom¬ plish ? 3. Was Christ a preacher or a teacher? 4. What incentive did Jesus offer? 5. What of the second coming? XXVI. THE ORGANIZATION AND GROWTH OF THE CHURCH UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF PETER AND PAUL. After the ascension the disciples tarried at Jerusalem for ten days in Bible study and prayer until Pentecost when they were awakened to a new appreciation of Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit as promised. The timid Peter now grew as bold as a lion and preached a sermon of great spiritual power showing that Old Testament prophecy had been fulfilled in Jesus. Such interpretation came through the Holy Spirit that cleared away all doubts. But to the masses there came another evi¬ dence of the Spirit's power when the Jews present from the surrounding countries could each understand the speech of the apostles, though themselves speaking dif- (261) 262 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ferent languages. When it is remembered that the Jews never thoroughly spoke any foreign language, but made Yiddish or Ladino of it, i. e., blended their own with the foreign language, it can be readily seen that there was a common element in the language of each Jew coming up from all the surrounding nations, and, doubtless, the apostles spoke the common tongue through the shaking up power of the Spirit who stirred up fundamental things in the soul. At least there was no so-called ecstatic, but a real language, and there is nothing in I Corinthians 14th chapter contrary to this sense. During the previous ten days the local church had been organized and anoth¬ er son of Mary, the mother of Jesus, had been elected pastor, James, the author of the epistle of James. At once a change took place in public opinion among the masses around Jerusalem, for Peter had baptized three thousand, and a representa¬ tive of the more scholarly class had con¬ fessed Jesus Christ and joined the church, i. e., Barnabas. The persecution of the dis¬ ciples led to the establishment of a com¬ munity in which all shared alike. Peter HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 263 and John were released after arrest, but the entire twelve were later imprisoned when it was seen that great success followed the work of the apostles. Money poured into the common treasury in such quanti¬ ty that the apostles advised that the church should look out for assistants who consti¬ tuted the first deacons, one of whom testi¬ fied so powerfully for Christ that he was murdered. After Stephen's death the dis¬ ciples fled in large numbers from Jerusa¬ lem, and some went to Antioch, and no doubt, some went to Rome and started a church there. Peter's shadow even was thought to have power to heal, and he worked in other parts of Judea; as it were the corresponding secretary of the work in Palestine. He was the first to receive a gentile into the church, but this gentile was not the first to join outside of the Jewish race; for Philip, another deacon, had al¬ ready baptized the Ethiopian eunuch, a Ne¬ gro. Peter and James, the apostles, were finally imprisoned and James was killed, while an angel delivered Peter who left that section as a field for his mission work, and judging from his epistle, he seems to 264 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. have gone to preach to his own race in Babylon, for many Jews were still there. There is not even the least evidence that he ever did visit Rome. He appears later on at Jerusalem and in Antioch, but never did reach the" prominence he had when he was in charge of Jewish missions in Palestine. But we should esteem this noble servant of God, for it was through his practical knowl¬ edge of the Old Testament, and personal sacrifice, that Christ began and carried f or- .ward his work. John the Baptist intro¬ duced Jesus, while Peter through superior Bible knowledge was the first interpreta¬ tion of Jesus to the Jews. While he was not scholarly, his knowledge of the Old Testament was deeply spiritual after the Holy Ghost came upon him, and he preached Jesus as the hope of the Jewish race, and he is still their only hope. Now it can be seen that if the future of the church depended upon the evangeliza¬ tion of the Jews, the outlook was not en¬ couraging, but Jesus had said that he had other sheep that were not of this" fold, and that they would hear his voice, and there would be one fold. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 265 Paul, the apostle of the gentiles, was the man God had in reserve to carry the Gospel to the gentiles. He was brought up in a popular gentile educational center at Tar¬ sus in Cilicia, and no doubt this atmosphere drew him closer to these gentiles and caused him to better acquaint himself with their religion which was nothing less than ridicu¬ lously unfit. His heart went out to them, and it may be that his gentile sympathies caused his father to send him to Jerusalem for a thorough training in the language and traditions of his race, perhaps hoping thus to wean him away from his liberal ten¬ dencies. This view^s confirmed when Je¬ sus afterwards said to him, "It is hard for you to kick against the goads." The idea was that something was urging him from within to accept Christ, and his own will power would not consent to do so. It is probable that while he was in school in Jeru¬ salem the first time he had the opportunity to see Jesus personally, for he must have been about the same age as Jesus since he speaks of himself as an old man about 66 A. D. It was while in school the first time he witnessed the death of Stephen which, no doubt, made a lasting impression upon 266 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. him. Returning at a later period to Jerusa¬ lem he took his seat in the Sanhedrin and lat¬ er secured a warrant to arrest Christians in Antioch. There were, no doubt, many in Jerusalem whom he might have arrested, but God used this opportunity to introduce him in a spiritual way to Jesus, and he be¬ came a Christian in Damascus, but feeling called to preach at the same time he was converted he went into Arabia and re¬ mained in spiritual preparation for three years, when he returned and opened up his first ministry in Damascus, the city of his conversion. Being persecuted, Barnabas could sympathize with him as being in the same class with him, and tried to incline the apostles to trust Paul, but they went pretty slowly along that line, and Paul went on back home; but the evidence points to the fact that he was not idle, for his native prov¬ ince of Cilicia appears to have been evangel¬ ized at a very early date, and this is, no doubt, the time it began. Paul seems to have been pretty much in the condition of a high¬ ly educated preacher among our people. He found it hard to get a church or other suit¬ able work under influential auspices. But when Barnabas carried him to Antioch they HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 267 both shared the pastorate, for both were pretty much out of touch with the religious methods of their race, and wanted more Bible study among Christians. After or¬ ganizing the teaching work of the church, the Holy Spirit impressed the church to let Paul and Barnabas go on a mission work to the Jews in Asia Minor. This caused the first journey of Paul which included the island of Cyprus, and points in Pisidia and. Galatia, and return home. A crisis had arisen in their mission work when their own people refused to allow them to preach in the synagogues because of their doc¬ trines. They promptly arranged to preach elsewhere—to mixed audiences of Jews and gentiles, and many gentiles were converted as well as Jews. A question arose as to what should be the attitude of a gentile as to Jewish ceremonialism, and what ought to be required of them by the churches. When the matter was about to divide the church at Antioch, the whole question was referred to the apostles and church at Jeru¬ salem, where it was finally decided after full consideration that only four require- 268 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ments ought to be made of gentiles so far as Jewish ceremonialism was concerned, namely, "That ye abstain from meats of¬ fered to idols, from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well." Acts 15:29. Here was the time and place when it was decided that the matter of observing Saturday as the Jewish Sab¬ bath was not binding upon gentile Chris¬ tians, for nothing was made binding but what is here stated. Paul afterward started on a second jour¬ ney with Silas, visiting in Galatia and Asia, and on this trip he made up his mind to carry the Gospel into Macedonia and Greece, and wrote I and II Thessalonians at Corinth about 52 A. D., speaking in the first of the early return of Christ to the world, but in the second correcting some misunderstand' ing in the first. The second coming of Christ was believed by the Jews to be a great display of power and even the synop* tics shared that view, and so does Paul in the early part of his ministry. Returning to Ephesus, he goes to Jerusalem and at> tends a feast and also distributes the con- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 269 tributions which he had raised in the churches for the saints. He afterward re¬ turns to Antioch and then started out on another journey carrying several persons with him. He goes directly to Ephesus where he remained two years, stirred up the place, and made many disciples, but he decided to leave after the mob exhibition, first writing I Corinthians to the church at Corinth. Going through Macedonia, he wrote II Corinthians from that country, and in the first letter he taught that Christian* ity lies not in what you believe only, but in how you live. He then went on to Corinth. In the first letter he had strongly written against a certain immoral leader in the church at Corinth advising his dismissal In the second epistle he defends his own claims to the apostleship which had been called in question at Corinth. While at Corinth he wrote Galatians as a protest to the treatment he had received in Galatia, and explaining that we are no longer under the law of Moses. He writes out this position at greater length in anoth¬ er letter he wrote about the same time to the Romans. He then starts on the return 270 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. journey home by Ephesus and Jerusalem, but he was arrested in Jerusalem and tried, but carried to Caesarea to protect him from a mob. He stood trial there twice and finally appealed his case to Rome to which place he was carried with a large number of other prisoners. They had a hard voy¬ age but no life was lost, as he predicted, and he finally was made a prisoner in his own hired house in Rome where he met rep¬ resentatives of the church in Rome and tried to impress his doctrines upon them without success. He is supposed to have been released after the first 'trial when he again took up mission work in Macedonia and other parts, but was imprisoned a second time when he is supposed to have suffered martyrdom. While in prison the first time, he seems to have written Ephes- ians, Philippians, Colossians, and Phile¬ mon. After the first imprisonment he wrote I Timothy, Titus and Hebrews, if he really wrote the latter. When in prison the second time he wrote II Timothy. Paul showed us in detail how the Old Testament really prefigured many things that Jesus did not stop to explain in detail. Paul was HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 271 deeply learned in the Scriptures, and his arguments were enough to convince the Jews, but, as he says, their minds were blinded. But Paul further knew just how to present Christ to the gentile mind. In his early epistle he is combative in his atti¬ tude, and contrasts the teaching of Jesus with Moses. But in the letters to the mixed churches, which he wrote later, he pre¬ sented Christ upon a universal rather than a racial basis. The Pauline epistles large¬ ly shaped the doctrines of the early churches, and his epistles develop the idea of the church rather than the broader idea of the kingdom, because they were written to churches to help them to make good. Be¬ low is given a list of the epistles of Paul and their classifications and Key words. THE TIME OF THE EPISTLES Paul's Second Mission Journey. I Thessalonians 52 A. D. Corinth II Thessalonians 53 On Third Journey. I Corinthians 56 Ephesus II Corinthians 57 Macedonia 272 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 58 Corinth During First Imprisonment. v Rome 63 Gallatians Romans Ephesians Philippians Colossians Philemon Titus I Timothy Hebrews After First Imprisonment. 64 Macedonia (?) During Second Imprisonment. II Timothy 66 Rome KEY WORDS PAULINE EPISTLES. Romans—Salvation by faith. I Corinthians—Christian living- II Corinthians—Paul's apology Galatians—Salvation by faith Ephesians—Doctrine of grace Philippians—Joy in service. Colossians—"Christ is all." Ant i-Judaic Chtristological I Thessalonians II Thessalonians ians "J . \ ians J Second coming Eschatological I Timothy—Church order ) II Timothy—Personal holiness [• Titus—Church Order ) Pastoral HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 273 Philemon—Fraternity Personal Hebrews—Christ in Jewish Anti-Judaic ceremonies KEY WORDS—GENERAL EPISTLES. James—Salvation by work. I Peter—Christ the hope of the Jews. II Peter—Apostasy. I John—Eternal life. II John—Truth. Ill John—Hospitality. J ude—Apostasy. QUESTIONS AND HAND WORK. 1. What is meant by the gift of tongues? 2. What were the apostles doing during their wait of ten days before Pentecost? 3. Who was pastor of the church? 4. Who was Simon Magus? 5. Write out an account of Stephen's death. 6. Who was Barnabas? 7. How many missionary journeys of Paul ? 8. Write an account of the substance of each epistle. 9. Diagram the place and time of writing of each epistle. 10. Give key words for the general epistles. Sig.—10. XXVII. AN EXPOSITION OF CHRISTIANITY, OR APOSTOLIC INTERPRETATION OF JESUS. This subject indicates what we are to ex¬ pect and what we are to learn from our study of both the Pauline and the general epistles. Christ's teachings were directed at the hypocrisy, and superficiality, and formality, and unspirituality of the religion and the religious leaders gf his race and his time, to a large extent. But at the same time he gave us a positive and constructive system of truth which he himself designated the Kingdom of Heaven. He does not inso many words explain what is fully implied in the kingdom doctrines, but he gives us sufficient information in parables and meta¬ phors to distinguish this from all other systems of truth, and especially to distin¬ guish his teachings from those of Moses. (275) 276 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. There never was sucH a teacher as Jesus Christ, and it is safe to predict there nevei will be another until he himself comes back for the second coming and stresses this same fact. Jesus came to stir up men's think¬ ing, feeling and willing powers and to de- velop the human personality. He told us outright only a small part of what he taught us, but he led us to think out for ourselves the things he desired us to know. He led us up to the point where we could do the rest, and the best possible preparation for teaching is to study and learn how Jesus taught, instead of studying to find "teach¬ ing values" in the account of his life, we had better study Jesus himself. The result of such method on the part of this Master Teacher is that he himself wrote no treat¬ ise or book outlining the principles of the kingdom, but on the other hand, he pre¬ ferred a class of anxious seekers after truth as the best way to both teach and develop the doctrine of the kingdom. . Christ gave only fundamental principles, and left it to his pupils, tfce apostles, to interpret and ap¬ ply his teachings as time and circumstances might require. He promised them the Help- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 277 er who would enable them to correctly rep¬ resent their Lord, and said to the believers. "Greater works than these shall ye do, be¬ cause I go unto the Father," John 14:12. What he doubtless means is that his own teachings in the hands of an apostle can be interpreted in terms of the life and times of people to come in a more helpful and prac¬ tical way, than Jesus could himself help fu* ture generations by teachings suited to the present time or to his own generation. Thus it comes to pass that the world has not yet outgrown the teachings of Jesus, and it is safe to say that it never will, for he laid broad and deep the foundation so that all future generations could interpret it in terms of their own people and time. It can be seen therefore that Christ must be inter¬ preted to be appreciated, just as the high voltage is made useful for lighting pur¬ poses by passing through a transformer. Christ is the high power that would put out of commission a small lamp because of incapacity to contain his great ideas. We may by now have reached the point where we can connect up directly, but at first we had to use milk instead of meat: The epis- 278 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ties of the New Testament reduce the pro¬ found teachings of Jesus to terms that will be understood by the less spiritual. Just as Peter's method of presenting Christ in his teaching and preaching is help¬ ful to show us how to study the life of Christ, so the teachings and interpreta¬ tions in the epistles will show us where to place the emphasis in helping to evangelize the world for Jesus. Now as we study the epistles we shall find emphasis laid upon the church, upon morality as related to Christianity, upon Jesus as God, and Jesus as the fulfilment of the law and prophecy, the relations of the Old and New Testaments, the difference be¬ tween grace and law, Christ in the ceremo¬ nial law, the second coming, the new birth, and the allegorical method of interpreta¬ tion. In another place in this book the key words of the epistles are given embodying the outstanding impression or teaching. Romans shows that law is universal whether revealed in the Scripture or by nature, and that law could never save the man, and that all men had to acknowledge the need of a better way to be saved, for HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 279 the law was only intended to reveal sin and God's attitude to it, and Jesus alone can rescue us from sin, and he does this by our placing faith in him so as to do as he directs us, and the Spirit gives the power to make good. Galatians is a shorter form of the same argument, but adapted more to the Jewish point of view, and we are shown that the Jew had outgrown the law as a system of truth. I Corinthians squarely commits Chris¬ tianity to moral reform and the social or¬ der, and in II Corinthians Paul takes us into his confidence and unfolds the trials and spiritual experiences of an apostle, and in both epistles the church is uppermost in his mind. The word church is found 62 times in these epistles, and the word king¬ dom comes only 14 times, showing that the church must go ahead of the kingdom, as Christ himself gave the keys of the king¬ dom to the church as if he says, admittance to the kingdom must come by way of the church. If John had not written Revelation we should still be without any adequate interpretation of the kingdom around which all the teachings of Jesus 280 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. centered, the word being found in the Gos¬ pels 117 times, although the word church occurs only three times in the Gospels. There seems to be some difference between Paul's idea of the kingdom and John's, to say nothing of Christ's, for Paul seemed to regard the kingdom as the end itself. In I Cor. 15:24-28, we read: "Then cometh the end when he shall deliver up the kingdom of God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule, all authority, and all power. For he must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that he shall abolish is death, for he put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put in sub¬ jection, it is evident that he is excepted who did subject all things unto him, and when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things to him, that God may be all in all." There is no conflict here, but a fuller statement in one respect, although elsewhere in the Bible we are to find its fullest interpretation, nota¬ bly in Revelation. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 281 Ephesians is a treatment of the doctrine of grace from a gentile standpoint, show¬ ing us what incalculable blessings come to us through the death and sufferings of Je¬ sus. The doctrine of grace is explained and amplified without a comparison with the law of Moses, but is advocated upon its own merits as an uplift to the world. Philippians discourses on the joy of serv¬ ice for the Master and is projected upon the same broad lines as Ephesians. Colossians presents Christ as the sum total of divine inspiration and treats the subject both for Jew and gentile. I and II Thessalonians stress the second coming of Christ, showing that Paul in his earlier years spoke strongly on this sub¬ ject. Paul's Jewish training shows itself in the spectacular idea of the second com¬ ing as popular Jewish thought conceived of it more than in any other of his teachings. John's idea of the second coming in Reve¬ lation rather impresses the stupendous changes that follow the second coming. H I Timothy teaches proper church order, and II Timothy stresses personal holiness in ministers. 282 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Philemon stresses common brotherhood based on our relation to Christ and God as the proper relation of a master and slave when both see Jesus as he is. Titus is another pastoral epistle to guide the shepherd in leading the flock. Hebrews is a remarkable book or epistle, and its place in the New Testament is hard¬ ly calculated to rightly impress its impor¬ tance. It seems to belong right next to Romans, for as Romans shows Christ as the perfect fulfillment of the moral law, so here in Hebrew, Christ is presented as the per¬ fect fulfillment of the ceremonial law, and the opening verses give the proper attitude of the Bible student toward Christ and his entire attitude to the Old Testament. "God having of old times spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by diverse portions and in diverse manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his son, whom he ap¬ pointed heir of all things through whom al¬ so he made the worlds." Here is authority for our rejection of any prophecy at all as reaching over into the Christian dispensa¬ tion. All of the prophecy ended with Christ, and if we wish information as to the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 283 future, we are not to go back to Daniel, nor any Old Testament prophet, but we are to look to Jesus, and Jesus has expressed what he wished to tell us in the book of Revela¬ tion and through the Holy Spirit. This epistle is deeply spiritual, and we are not concerned with who wrote it since it is sealed by the Spirit. James is said to be the most unspiritual of all the epistles, and yet that depends on how spiritually we approach the book. If we approach it reverently, we shall come aVay with a blessing. He is exceedingly practical, and his morality is more impres¬ sive than his spirituality. I and II Peter stress the importance of prophecy as revealing Christ as our Savior, and points us to the Bible as the source of spiritual life. Peter breathes a beautiful spirit in both epistles. I John shows how to come into the new life, eternal life, and gives us pointed evi¬ dence of the new birth, and finds love as the full expression of the Christian life. II John stresses truth, and III John hos¬ pitality, and Jude is a warning against backsliding. 284 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Since the .apostles* interpretation of Christianity is largely given in a preceding chapter under the caption of The Teachings of Jesus, the reader is referred to that chap¬ ter and requested to study it in connec¬ tion with this lesson. QUESTIONS. 1. What is our outstanding1 difference between the teachings of Paul and Jesus? 2. Why is this difference? 3. State the points made emphatic in Paul's epistle. 4. Give the brief teaching of each epistle. 5. What is the teaching of Romans? XXVIII. THE BOOK OF REVELATION, OR THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN, OR THE FINAL TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS. Revelation is the crowning work of the iSible. We are to distinguish apocalyptic from prophetical writings. Prophecy tells directly about the future, but apocalypse only presents pictures for us ourselves to interpret. Revelation is an apocalypse. It is last in the Bible because we shall need to know all that goes before to understand and appreciate it. But fortunately we are not required to understand it if only we will keep the things that are written therein. (1:3.) Westcott and Horte tell us there are nearly five hundred quotations in word or thought, in Revelation from other books in the Bible. The book shows the triumph of the cross (285) 286 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. results in the establishment of the King¬ dom of Heaven on earth, and this makes an entirely new place of the earth. The book is supposed to have been written about a year before Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A. D. A part of the book, no doubt, re¬ fers to that event, but there are other parts that seem to point to our own times. Bible scholars now believe there are several com¬ ings when Christ will return. He, no doubt, came at the destruction of Jerusalem for that event largely destroyed organized Jew¬ ish opposition to Christ. If Christ inter-# preted John the Baptist as fully answering to the coming of Elias in the world, as in Matt. 11:14, surely we will be allowed to in¬ terpret his own second coming in the same way. OUTLINE. Chapter 1.—Christ in glory. Chapter 2-3—Messages to the seven churches. Chapter 4-5.—The throne of God and the Lamb. Chapter 6-7—The seven seals. Chapter 8-11—The seven trumpets. Chapter 12—The woman, her child, and the dragon. Chapter 13—The two beasts. Chapter 14—The true Lamb and angels of judg¬ ment. Chapter 15-16—Seven vials of wrath. Chapter 17—The woman in scarlet. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 287; Chapter 18—The angel's lamentation over Baby¬ lon. Chapter 19—Second Coming of Christ. Chapter 20—The Millenium.. Chapter 21-22—The Kingdom. The kingdom, so near the heart of Christ, is not spoken of extensively and fully de¬ veloped in the New Testament after Christ's ascension until John gave us this wonderful book. This is a book rather to be felt than understood. The key to the spiritual interpretation of this book lies in the peculiar way John .uses the word "heaven." He does not use it in the sense of the final abode of the saints, but he uses it in the same sense as indi¬ cated in II Corinthians 12:2, by the expres¬ sion "third heaven" or in verse 3, "para¬ dise." Paul tells us that he received a won¬ derful revelation in this third heaven which John styles simply "heaven," and in Reve¬ lation 4:2 he tells us he was in the spirit. Christ died in humiliation, but John now sees him in glory, not dead but very much 'alive and in the midst of the churches. In the vision of the seven seals he sees the need and mission and success of Christ on earth* In the vision of the seven trumpets he tells 288 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. of God putting the world on notice of com¬ ing judgriieiit which seems to have been per¬ fectly fulfilled in the world war. 1st Trumpet—Shot and shell in the war. 2nd Trump^t-r-The submarine campaign. 3rd . Trumpet—The Kaiser's fall. 4th Trumpet—Dark days to follow war. 5th Trumpet—The. flying machine campaign. <6th Trumpet—The war. on land. 7th Trumpefc-£-The old world passes—old order of things. This is not. strained, but the only thor¬ oughly reasonable application, for nothing ever happened in all of the pages of tha world's history that so completely answers John's description of each trumpet. All of which should teach us that our God is marching on,- and we must "nerve ourselves for; the great battle of Armageddon when the final conflict will be staged between Christ and his opposers, i. e., the dragon, the beast and the false prophet, all of whom defeat the purpose of Jesus. John was told that he must preach some more before the end^ preach both the Old and .New Testament,>. two, witnesses, but .that the bp,ast would prevail at first, Jbut God would give success in the end. Then in the 11th HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 289 chapter organized opposition to Christ in the Jewish race comes to an end with the destruction of Jerusalem. Now in the 12th chapter he takes us back to the birth of Jesus showing that the spiritual element in the Jewish Church, represented by the woman, clothed itself in glory in giving the world Jesus, and.this spiritual church was upheld by a less spirit¬ ual church, the Jewish Church. Satan tries to destroy Jesus who was caught up to heaven, and then he goes after the woman, the Christian Jews, but the church flew to the wilderness where in the catacombs it was marvelously preserved by God through¬ out the long period of persecution, i. e., the great tribulation which John speaks of as forty-two months, and also three and one* half days, and also twelve hundred and six? ty days, all of which expressions refer to the three and one-half years of the unful¬ filled seventy weeks of Dan. 9:24-27, left over of the sufferings of Jesus. Then in the 13th chapter he sees the great conflict of Christianity with the blasphemous, Caesars who demanded that their subjects worship them as God, the one with a" wounded" head 290 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. referring to Nero who lost his mind. This dynasty is the beast with ten horns and seven heads. The beast on the land like a lamb with the two horns and a voice like the first beast refers to the religious lead¬ ers of the Romish Church which represented the religion of the Roman empire, the wor¬ ship of the emperor. Then John shows us the true Lamb, or true religion, by showing us a picture of Christ and his great follow¬ ing. God is shown to be so displeased with the blasphemy of these religious leaders that he pours out seven vials of wrath, and the last one was poured in the air and a voice was heard to say "It is done." Aft¬ erward John said one of the angels, pour¬ ing out God's wrath, took him to show him the cause of God's displeasure, and he went into the wilderness where the church was and saw a "woman clothed in scarlet, sit¬ ting upon a scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns, and the woman was drunk¬ en with the blood of the saints." This clear¬ ly refers to the early Christian Church sell¬ ing the honor of Jesus for filthy gain, the Roman Catholic Church as corrupted by HOW TO TEACH AND STUDY THE BIBLE. 291 the Romish Church. But John is assured the end is in sight, and an angel sings a funeral dirge ahead of time on account of the certainty of God's vengeance upon such sinful so-called Christians. Then Christ comes in chapter 19, and with his endless army puts to route these combined enemies to the cross, the sorry preacher, the man that resorts to physical force, and the man that leads the government to persecute the church. Then in chapter 20 the Millenium comes, the dead come back, no doubt, in in¬ fluence, and join with Christ in a great cam¬ paign of* evangelization without organized opposition for a period of a thousand years, which time seems to have already expired, for Satan is doubtless loose in the world right now, but thank God only for a little season.1 The world is right now sitting in judgment upon the merits of the teaching of the peaceable principles of the Prince of Peace, and in the 20th chapter the great day of judgment comes when the decision will be rendered in favor of Jesus, and the op¬ posing conspiracy can no longer mislead the world. There will come the time when men will adopt the principles of the King- 292 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. dom of Heaven, and a perfect social order will be established on earth, founded upon a deep spirituality, for the New Jerusalem is watered by a pure river of the water of life. In chapter 19 John identifies Christ with the word, and this teaches that to know and live the Bible is to know and co¬ operate with Jesus.. And now in the last chapter we are taught that the open Bible in the hearts of God's people will lead to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in pow¬ er on earth to such an extent that the suc¬ cess and perpetuity of the kingdom can be fully guaranteed for all time. Let us all join with John in praying for this blessed consummation. "Even so, come Lord Jesus." QUESTIONS. 1. What special contribution does the book of Revela¬ tion make to the understanding of Jesus? 2. When was it probably written? 3. Give outline analysis of book? 4. What part of the book refers to God's judgment upon the Jews ? 5. What part to his judgment upon Roman Catholi¬ cism? 6. What seems to be the significance of the seven trumpets ? 7. What chapter describes the kingdom? 8. Why should we study Revelation? HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 293 9. Does any Old Testament prophecy reach over to our times? 10. What is the present outlook according to Revela¬ tion? BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1. The Teachings of Jesus G. B. Stevens. 2. The Social Teachings of Jesus Shailer Mathews. 3. The Life of Jesus of Nazareth Rush Rhees. 4. The Twentieth Century N. T. 5. The Place of Christ in Modern Theology Fairbain. 6. Kings and Prophets of Israel Kent. 7. Founders and Rulers of Israel Kent. 8. Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History Kent. 9. A History of the Hebrew People (2 vol.) Kent. 10. A History of the Hebrew People Kent. 11. A History of the Jewish People Riggs. 12. A History of the Jewish People James Orr. 13. Problems of the Old Testament 14. Paul's Conception, of Christianity 15. Pauline Theology Stevens. 18. Book of Genesis ! Dodd. 17. Class Book of Old Testament History Hodges. 18. Prophetical Books of Old Testament Pidge. 19. The Great Teacher of Judaism and Chris¬ tianity Kent. 20. The Sunday School Teacher's Bible Musiselman. 21. Stevens and Burton's Harmony of the Gospel 22. A Harmony of Samuel, Kiings, and Chroni¬ cles — — — — — — —Crockett. 23. Four Centuries of Silence Redford. 24. Stanley's Jewish Church (3 volumes) 25. Josephus ; 26. Baldwin's Prehistoric Races 27. Origin of Nations Rawlinson. 28. Broader Bible Study Patterson. 29. Biblical Study Augustus Briggs. 294 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 30. New Light on Life of Christ Augustus Briggs. 31. Higher Criticism of the Pentateuch Rowland. 32. The Pentateuch Rowland. 33. Student's Life of Christ Gilbert. 34. The Student's Life of Jesus Gilbert. 35. Life of Paul Stalker. 36. The Epistles of Paul the Apostle Findlay. 37. The General Epistles Bennett PART III. THE TEACHER. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Quotation from Rein. 1. The Personality of the Teacher. 2. Authority in Teaching. 3. Essentials of Real Teaching. 4. Methods of Teaching. 5. The Teacher and His Mastery of the Lesson. 6. The Teacher's Preparation. 7. The Teacher's Lesson Plan. 8. Attention. 9. The Use of the Question. 10. Self-activity or Hand Work. 11. The Memory. 12. The Will. 13. The Feelings. Bibliography. THE PERSONALITY OF THE TEACHER EXERTS THE MOST POWERFUL SILENT INFLUENCE. "One may say, in fact, that the entire educa¬ tional centre of gravity lies in the personality of the teacher. If he is candid and true, conscien¬ tious and competent, consistent and just, if he has command of himself in all situations and in all cases, if he is neither malicious nor inclined to anger—in short, if he is a complete man, the dark forces cannot thrive in the community of the school. Thus, it becomes clearly evident that it would be a foolish undertaking to attempt an ethical education merely with the aid of instruc¬ tion. The character of the teacher, his example in judging and acting, his conduct in doing and permitting, are of such great significance that even the most carefully devised method is unable to remove or balance the errors and defects in the personality of the educator. Uninterrupted¬ ly and unintentionally, as Ziller has shown, the ex¬ ample of the educator exerts either an elevating or a depressive influence upon the inner life of each individual pupil. The silent force of his in¬ fluence is almost as important as the force of those relations under whose combined effect ethical per¬ sonality develops; hence, it surely is not sur¬ passed by the formative influence of the instruc¬ tion, in so far as the will and the disposition of the pupil are concerned. This appreciation of the force of personality, however, should produce neither an undervaluation of methodical practice nor a contempt for all pedagogical reflections; on the contrary, the two factors are of equal value." —REIN. I. THE TEACHER'S PERSONALITY. We read much about the personality of the pupil, but not enough about the person¬ ality of the teacher. Just as no two pupils are alike by nature, and this personal dif¬ ference should be respected and cultivated for the highest ends, so no two teachers are naturally alike, and the personal difference is as significant here as in the case of the pupil. What one teacher cannot do with a pupil another one can do, though the equipment may be equal. The personality makes the difference. The Sunday school teacher should be the right sort of person to get results, and he should possess a pleas¬ ing and winning, together with a decided personality. More will depend upon what kind of a person he is than upon what he actually knows. This is the old time idea, and it is right, and especially (299) 300 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. when we think of spiritual values. The teacher should be a Christian whose person¬ ality has been influenced by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. The greatest work of any teacher is through his spirit rather than his intellect, and the teacher's spirit is imparted to his pupils, and the spirit controls the thoughts and feelings and will. Teaching in its last analysis is inspiring the pupil to think and do for him¬ self. Teaching is inspiration, and the teacher must be a person able to inspire another, and inspiration is spiritual. Here in America there are thousands of teachers in day schools and colleges who boast of their indifference to spiritual things, and our government is most unfortunately com¬ mitted to the policy of exclusion of the Bible from public school instruction. As a result, America is suffering from the need of real teachers in our great universities and col¬ leges as well as lower schools, because of the lack of the spiritual element in the teach¬ er's preparation. Too many teachers are mere tutors, and fail to inspire and impress their personalities upon their pupils. A teacher's personality should be such as to HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 301 cause his pupils to desire to be like him, and as he comes before his class from time to time they learn him as well as what he teaches. The outstanding cause of the sad truth that the great majority of Sun¬ day school scholars fail to enter the church is the fact that the teacher's personality is not what it should be. Religion has not left its marks upon him, and he does not know enough about the personality of Jesus to affect his own. What we need is Sun¬ day school teachers that have the spirit of Jesus, and whose lives are under the con¬ trol of the Holy Spirit. Teacher training itself will utterly fair in the future, as it has already failed to bring desired results in so many, cases, unless the emphasis is placed more upon the spiritual than the mental preparation for service. Too much is said about psychology and too little about the Holy Spirit, with the result that in some quarters the Sunday schools are of little help to the churches. Without encourag¬ ing laziness and indifference, it is neverthe¬ less true that the training in true disciple- ship is the best training for teaching serv¬ ice. The Bible trains for discipleship, and 302 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. the Bible is the Sunday school teacher's best teacher training book. Let the teacher aim to be what he wishes his pupils to become, and his actions will speak louder than his words. It has been truly said that teaching is a mental process by which the mind of the teacher comes in vital touch with the mind of the pupil. A teacher cannot produce in the learner a given experience, without having first produced in himself the same experience. If the teacher wishes his pu¬ pil to love his country, he must himself be deeply moved by patriotism. If he wishes his pupils to have race consciousness, he must first be alive himself to the same feel- ins:. The teacher actually builds his own life again into that of his pupil, and it is absolutely essential that he himself should be all that he expects his t)upil to become. The quality of a teacher's life is a part of his professional equipment. His pupil will hardly rise above the teacher's life through the same teacher's teaching. He can only rise in spite of his teacher. It is useless to scold and quarrel with the pupils. It is the personal touch of the teacher with the pupil that does the work, and HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 303 makes all the difference. Elijah knew this in keeping Elisha with him all the time. Our Lord knew this, and scouted the idea of writing, and brought the twelve in close personal touch and knew afterward what results had been wrought, and to such an extent that he entrusted his cause and the work of the kingdom to the care of his apos¬ tles. Feeling plays a very controlling part in all real teaching, and feeling is best rep¬ resented in personal touch. The successful teacher puts his feelings into his teachings, and feelings are closely related to spirit. The feelings of the teacher work upon the feelings of the pupil, and thus influence the thinking process and the will power of the learner. It is not true only in religious teaching that the personality of the teach¬ er is of so great significance, but it is true in all real teaching. A real teacher dupli¬ cates himself in his pupils; no, he does not duplicate himself only, but he so inspires and influences his scholar as to cause him not only to be like himself, but even more than he himself is. A teacher is not fit to teach unless he has faith in the pupil's ability to become as much as he is. A teacher who 304 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. regards that a pupil's race identity makes him so inferior that he can never measure up to his teacher is a misfit and nothing less than an imposition upon the scholar. Such a teacher does not plan his teaching upon the broad principles of pedagogy, but he regards that all the scholar needs is such a training as will fit him for his place in life, that place to suit the program of race prej¬ udice. There are abroad a number of our leaders trained under such so-called teach¬ ers, who to this blessed day are more pos¬ sessed with the conviction of the inferiori¬ ty of their own people than they are in¬ spired with hope for the future of their own race group. There has been much money almost wasted by well meaning phi¬ lanthropists because they insisted that the teacher should come from a certain group regardless of special qualifications for reaching our group. These philanthropists mean well, but their money is not bringing the results. The best teacher of a people is one identified with the people. Moses said in Deuteronomy 18:15: "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 305 the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like un¬ to me, unto him shall ye hearken," referring to the coming of Jesus, the seed of the wom¬ an. The great educator, Froebel, said : "The purpose of teaching and instruction is to bring out of man rather than put more and more into him; for that which we can get. into man we already know and possess as the property of man¬ kind, and every one, simply 'because he is a hu¬ man being, will unfold and develop it out of him¬ self in accordance with the laws of mankind. On the other hand, what yet is to come out of man¬ kind, what human nature is yet to. develop* that we do not yet know that is not yet .the property of mankind, and still human nature, like the spirit of God, is ever unfolding its ififrer essence." This quotation is very significant, coming as it does from the world's forembst apostle of the new education—that grips present day thought. A teacher must himself be what he wishes his pupil to be, and should come from the same race group, if possible, so as to fur¬ ther inspiration. A teacher must have a lively faith in the future of a people or he cannot be what he should to the pupil rep¬ resenting such a people. Modern educa¬ tional methods stress education as evolu- Sig".—11. 306 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. tion, the unfolding of the pupil's awn self- activity, and self-respect and self-confidence are essential to the proper results. The fact is that the mind itself so unfolds itself under proper conditions that a teacher's method could almost be dispensed with altogether, provided always that his personality func¬ tions as it should, inspiring the pupil to self-activity. The great need of any peo¬ ple is real teachers of marked personality and right spirit. It was as a teacher that our Lord and Master came to restore hu¬ manity to the divine image, for the world will always be in the hands of master teach¬ ers", who can make it what they will. The world is just beginning to understand Je¬ sus, and there is no doubt whatever of his ultimate success. But Jesus must have teachers who are on fire, like the early apos¬ tles, and Sunday school teachers can fill the bill, if they pay the price. Keep close to Jesus, and keep close to your pupils. All of this is so true that one is surprised it has not received greater emphasis in denomina¬ tional teacher training books. And what this means is that even if the present teach¬ ers in the Sunday schools are not fully pre¬ pared to do the work, and even if they are HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 807 not prepared to get the full benefit in tak¬ ing a teacher's course, such teachers have already done much good, and can do much better work, if they will study the Bible and seek to live the life, and love the pupils and others so ardently as to be on fire to lead them to Christ. If a teacher is only true and clean and consecrated and studious, his personality will make up for any defi¬ ciencies in large measure. QUESTIONS. 1. What ds meant by personality? 2. How does a teacher's personality show itself? 3. How does it effect the teaching? 4. What part does feeling play in teaching? 5. What argument is advanced, showing why a teacher ought to be of the same group as a pupil? 6. Write down Froebefs quotation in the lesson. 7. Give notable example of the inspiration that comes of personality. II. AUTHORITY IN TEACHING. Next to the teacher's personality comes the authority of the teacher, and, indeed, both are closely associated. Authority is the mark of a true teacher, and this is what first attracted the attention to Jesus as a teacher, and this is what still holds him as the Master Teacher of all time. Authority comes from certain and defi¬ nite knowledge in teaching, truth respond¬ ing to truth, so that the proof is evident from the facts in the case, and reference is made to truth itself as authority instead of referring to some great person. We have all read what Luke said of Jesus: "The people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." In other words, Jesus knew, and he knew that he knew, and his teaching was fresh and attractive. (309) 310 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. There is a class of people who regard it as a crime to say anything in religion that has not already been said, and to teach the Bible in any other than the usual uninter¬ esting way of others, unmindful of Mat¬ thew 13:51, 52. "Have ye understood all these things? They say un¬ to him, Yea, Lord. Then said he unto them. Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." If this passage teaches anything, it is the freedom of the teacher to teach what can be proven from the Bible itself, regardless of the opinion of men. The teacher should be a person who both investigates for him¬ self, and also thinks for himself; but he must be sure to investigate as well as think. It takes time and patience to develop such a teacher, and we must not wait for the de¬ velopment before beginning to teach, for teaching itself will help to develop him, if he is in earnest, and endeavors to prepare himself for the work. Such a person has a clear vision and keen insight, and fortu¬ nate indeed is the class that has such a teacher. To this end the memory must be cultivated, the proper method used in im- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 311 parting information in such a way that the pupil is able to recall and reproduce it at will. The lesson must get fixed in the intel¬ lect and in the feeling and in the imagina¬ tion, and this can only come from careful preparation in a general way, and careful preparation of the particular lesson to be taught. Teaching with authority will not be possible until the subject has long rested on both the consciousness and the subcon¬ sciousness, and time will play an important part. Because of this element, the lesson for next Sunday should be studied not lat¬ er than Monday, so that we can think and meditate, and pass it on to the subconscious area that plays so important a part in our mental make-up. The teacher should make great use of the memory, the logical mem¬ ory, and should rely upon it in teaching, and put both the book and all notes aside, and launch out boldly. In order to do this properly he should form the habit of writing down the substance of the lesson, and then reproducing it several times without notes or book, and this should become a habit. It may seem hard, but this is the cost of efficiency that will lead to au- 312 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. thority in teaching. It will not be so hard after all, but will be a real pleasure pro¬ vided our real interests be along spiritual lines. What the teacher needs is expressed in the lines: "More love to thee, Oh! Christ, More love to thee." A great transformation is needed to be wrought in the teacher who lacks interest in the spiritual things of God, and he must needs be— "Born of the water and the Spirit." John 3:5. The great need is for a deeper consecra¬ tion, and the churches should go down on their knees before God to that end, for edu¬ cational work cannot take the place of the Spirit. There is so much superficial teaching, and^ a tendency to use the Sunday school periodicals in such a way as to weaken the memory and judgment and will. These teachers go before their classes without any preparation in many cases, and insuf¬ ficient preparation in most cases. They do not seem to realize that it is necessary to study the lesson, but seem to think they can HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 313 and do buy the preparation when they pur¬ chase the periodical. They do not even get the lesson on the brain at all, and how are they to teach it? Surely, there is some¬ thing fundamentally wrong which can only be righted by the Holy Spirit working on the will and motive of such teachers. How little they must love the Lord and Master, and how much less the pupils, to do such shoddy work, with no effort at all to im¬ prove it. Even if an effort is made to ac¬ quaint himself with proper methods, he has such little initiative and originality that he does not apply the method proper¬ ly, for he is as much a slave to the method as he was formerly to the book. We need teachers of personality, and then we shall have teaching with authority. There are teachers of such talent who are not now teaching, and the pastor and super¬ intendent should be alert to discover such persons, and enlist them for service. Paul speaks of himself as using great boldness of speech in teaching because the vail of mystery had been taken away (II Cor. 3:12), and when the vail of the Old Testament is so lifted as to let us see Jesus as he is, then we shall be bold, and our teaching will be 314 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. with authority. Our Lord himself taught: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall' make you free." John 8:32. Knowing will bring authority, and au¬ thority in teaching alone inspires the pupil to think and do for himself. Keep in close touch with Jesus and we shall know the Scriptures. This means that we should, first of all, believe in Jesus as our personal Saviour, study diligently his life in the Gospels by the use of Stevens and Burton's Harmony of the Gospels, linger in the studies and make extensive use of refer¬ ences in your Bible, look up everything in the entire Bible that teaches anything about Jesus, and as fast as you learn, go tell some one else about him. "Meditate upon these things and give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all." I Tim. 4:15. Purchase Stevens'Teachings of Jesus, and place more emphasis upon what Jesus taught than upon Strong or Pendleton. But in studying in Stevens' book be sure to verify what he says at each step by search¬ ing the Scriptures. Do not accept what Stevens says until you first submit it to critical Bible scrutiny, and when it is ac- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 315 cepted, accept the Bible and not Stevens, the author being only the humble instru¬ ment in God's hands to bring you back to the source of all truth, for "Thy word is truth," said Jesus. All teaching must be with authority to be effective, and as most of our Sunday school teachers cannot take a teacher training course in a Bible school, some way must be devised by which the av¬ erage teacher may teach with authority, and this article aims to show this way. As Paul says: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good," I Thess. 5:21, and this means conversely to hold fast only after proving. The aim ought to be to reach the point in Bible knowledge where we will not be dependent upon any person's word for facts and meaning. We should all work to that end. Don't be foolish. Don't try to speak with authority except you have made a thorough investigation. Search the Scriptures to see whether these things are so. Authority will come in time, if the right steps are taken. To begin with, be¬ come an absolute authority on some one fact or teaching of the Bible by thorough, disinterested investigation. Later on, you will become authority in more things. Au- 316 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. thority begins to be respected by others in proportion as they see the method by which you reached your conclusion, and in the end your pupils are not the only persons who will rely upon your authority. But authori¬ ty ought never to take the place of proper method and mental process, but should in¬ spire to that end only, the pupils investi¬ gating without prejudice and unbelief. Her¬ bert Spencer has truthfully said: "In education the process of self-development should be encouraged to the fullest extent. Chil¬ dren should be led to make their own investiga¬ tion and draw their own inferences. They should be told as little as possible. Humanity has pro¬ gressed solely by self-instruction." A teacher should always have at hand in preparing his Sunday school lesson a Bible dictionary, a concordance, and a good Teacher's Bible that he has learned to properly use. The best means of understanding the spiritual meaning of the- Scriptures is through the patient and thorough use of references. But the teacher must know t?Ves,fn he ^tends to teach. He should study the Bible in the light of the suggestions made in this book under HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 317 the heading of the Bible, and should aim to secure a reserve supply of information which alone gives power and authority. QUESTIONS. 1. What is authority, in teaching? 2. Upon what is authority based? 3. What is the effect of authority in teaching?, 4. How may authority be developed? 5. What goes hand in hand with authority? 6. What educational principle brings authority? 7. What is the vail that obscures the Old Testament? 8. What will remove this vail ? "Instruction will form the circle of thought, and education the character. The last is nothing without the first: herein is contained the whole sum of my Pedagogy."—Herbart. III. THE ESSENTIALS OF REAL TEACH¬ ING. In order to teach it is necessary to know the process by which the mind learns, for we are dealing with the minds of pupils. We should learn, all to be known about the operation of the mind, and a good simple book that will be of much help is Atkin¬ son's "The Mind and How to Use It." The mind receives knowledge by compar¬ ing facts that are impressed through the senses. It is very important that the senses should be kept in good working order by training them in early childhood. The training of a child up to six years should be toward a proper development of the five senses—seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling with the temperature and mus¬ cular side of the feeling emphasized. The senses report sensations to the brain, and the mind gives attention, and the sen¬ sations register mental pictures of percep- (319) 320 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. tion. N,ew perceptions are compared with old ones, and also with previous concep¬ tions, and by the aid of the imagination new conceptions are formed. These new con¬ ceptions are held in the mind by memory, and by comparing conception with concep¬ tion; by the aid of the imagination, judg¬ ment operates upon the whole through rea¬ son and if the feelings are properly involved at each step, and especially in the final judg¬ ment, then the will acts, and the mind knows, and knows the meaning of knowing, and knowledge is assimilated and becomes a part of the mind. Such is the mental process of knowing. It can be seen that the mind can only op- 'erate upon what reaches it through the senses, and the intuition which is an inner sense not the same in all persons. If there is to be clear knowledge there must be perceptions so that the conceptions will be reliable, and that means that attention must be fixed when the perceptions are reg¬ istered, and also when the conceptions are formed, and attention comes only at the call of interest, and that means the inter¬ est must be aroused, and the memory will HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 321 help to retain and recall these impressions if interest is aroused to the point of atten¬ tion, at the time. Now the imagination be¬ gins to work, and brings up to our minds not the same images, but all sorts of changes and combinations of previous men¬ tal pictures are recalled, and reason takes charge and judgment is formed. Judg¬ ment itself is a process of— 1. COMPARISON, 2. ABSTRACTION, 3. IDENTIFICATION, 4. DENOMINATION, 5. DEFINITION. That is to say, that to form a judgment we compare concept with precept and concept: We then abstract from each the quality that is common to both; we then identify the quality with what we have previously passed upon by reason; we then name the thing, and give it proper definition. From the foregoing, the teaching process should consist of five steps as follows: 1. PREPARATION, 2. PRESENTATION, 3. ASSOCIATION, 4. GENERALIZATION, 5. APPLICATION. 322 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. It matters not how we go about teaching, we have not taught scientifically and effi¬ ciently unless our teaching can be resolved into the five steps as mentioned above. And it is maintained by Rein that an additional factor is necessary, and that is, that the pu¬ pil should be informed as to the aim or the object of the instruction to be imparted, so that he will have it in mind from the first. The Preparation means that the point of contact must first be found by which the pupil's interest is aroused, without which there can be no attention, and until this step is properly cared for, it is useless to go further. Presentation comes with a statement of the facts of the lesson, first general and then particular, and if attention is fixed, the mind is impressed. Association is the effort of the mind to get a clear idea by comparing the known with the unknown, and all that the mind knows is brought to bear to give the most correct idea of the new truth. Generalization is the system by which the mind abstracts qualities from new truths and stores them by proper classifi- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 323 cation so that it will be possible to recall and make use of the information thus gath¬ ered. Application shows the use to be made of the knowledge gained. The teacher will be able to employ the proper method when he knows the mental process, and since all knowledge begins with perceptions, the teacher must adopt such methods as will enable the pupil to have the clearest possi¬ ble conceptions. This means that all teach¬ ing should be by objects as far as possible for all grades of pupils. But this is an ex¬ pensive and inconvenient method, and our next resort must be to pictures or drawings. Let the teacher illustrate what he means by drawings or diagrams. And the next best substitute is to centralize attention upon a mere dot in the blackboard, or a circle, or a line, and call upon the imagination to function to make it serve the purpose of a picture or a drawing or a diagram. The blackboard should be used at every step in teaching all grades, and do not write any¬ thing on the board except as it is being taught and right in the presence of the class. 324 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. This will help you to secure all types of at¬ tention, and expectant attention especially. This mental process will also lead the teacher to aim most of all in teaching chil¬ dren up to six to cultivate all senses as the basis of correct sensations and perceptions in after life. This is the philosophy of the kindergarten, and the kindergarten means more to the child than mere medical inspec¬ tion. Next the imagination will receive proper direction in little children, for in early childhood it runs wild. The child is given to play, and the imagination is the play of the mind, and our teaching must de¬ velop the reason to hold imagination in check, and cause it to function as a creative faculty in later years. We pass from ob¬ jects to symbols in later childhood, and the reason begins to function. In adolesence we pass from symbols to relations and cog¬ nition. We go from concrete to abstract, from particular to general, and from simple to complex. All teaching is either induc¬ tive or deductive, the inductive is from par¬ ticular to general, and the deductive is from general to particular. The inductive meth¬ od is for the younger and the deductive is HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 325 for the older pupils. There are said to be many methods, but the only two methods are the inductive and the deductive, and all other methods belong to the one or the other. The so-called object, picture, recita¬ tion, lecture, question or discussion methods are, after all, to be blended into noe or the other ofo these two methods, and any real teaching employs all methods in a single recitation or lesson. The main thing is to know the aim and the mental process and the subject, and the pupil. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the means by which the mind received knowledge outside itself? 2. What are the senses? 3. How many senses? 4. What is a sensation? 5. What is perception? 6. What is a conception? 7. Explain the process of judgment. 8. How many steps in the teaching process? Name them. 9. How does imagination differ from reason? 10. Objects are best used with what pupils? 11. What is the period for symbols? IV- METHODS OF TEACHING SUNDAY SCHOOL. ^ There is need for some such considera¬ tion of the proper methods to employ in teaching and a discussion of the merits of each. But it must be borne in mind that the method depends upon the pupil. The Story Method is a happy and suc¬ cessful way to teach the Bible to any class of pupils, provided the teacher knows how to grade the story to the experience and needs of the pupil of any age. The small child will require only the simplest outline, but the maturer mind will want the story told in such way as to bring out the more difficult points and require more logical thought. The Picture Method differs from the story method in giving the class something to look at that will put them to thinking in (327) 328 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. the channel you would like to include in your story. The Object Method simply appeals more strongly sometimes than a picture, and the more so the younger the child. He will reach for it and handle it when quite young and thus the impression will be more last¬ ing, but the story must come in after all in the teaching process. Since the story method is capable of such wide use in teach¬ ing it. will repay teachers to take time to learn to tell Bible stories. But, after all more time will have to be spent learning the facts of Bible stories than their telling, for it is easier to adapt a story when you have mastered for yourself all of its details. This is a most effective method of teaching, and that is why the Old Testament is, after all, principally one long interesting story so that we may be able to master it. There is no class of persons anywhere that a good story properly conceived and told will not interest. But the teacher must beware that simple story-telling is not teaching, but. the pupil must be brought up to the point where HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 329 you would begin in such way as to lead Aim to think and assimilate. The Lecture Method is not the same as the story method, but the latter may be in¬ cluded in the former. The lecturer is after imparting information whether your mind is methodically strengthened by it or not. He goes on to talk and tell it all, and saves his pupils embarrassment. Some good, no doubt, results, but this is not effective teach¬ ing. It is a method for the minds that are already trained, and the lecture is simply intended to start the pupil out thinking and investigating for himself along new lines. But everything: depends upon how the lec¬ tures are planned and delivered. If the lec¬ turer aims to employ proper method that should reach the average person in the class or audience, and uses the blackboard as an obiect to illustrate his lectures, why that is a different method altogether, since lectur¬ ing will help any class. The superintendent should aim to employ this method to impress special subjects upon the assembled school in five minutes. The Manual Method is based upon the part we have discovered the hands play in what we learn. We owe very much to our 330 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. hands and what our hands handle gets pret¬ ty close to our consciousness. This is the first way a child learns, by handling objects and everything within its reach. This is a method that is to be employed in a different way for different grades and conditions. For little children, some object you wish to teach about should be passed around so that each one can handle it. Or a picture should be printed in outlines in the Sunday school pa¬ per and quarterly, and the child ought to be shown and directed to color it. Later on, he can fill in a word that he knows is left out of a sentence, he knows, but is not wholly written out. We can have a Junior hunt out something and bring it to the teacher next Sunday, such as a fruit, a flower, or something. He can be given outlines to copy or fill out. He can be directed to repro¬ duce the map in the quarterly on the wall. This method is chiefly for children, but old¬ er pupils take notes and write sketches. This is really not a method by itself, but its best use is to employ it in connection with other methods of teaching. The Recitation Method is for pupils who have advanced to the point where they can concentrate their minds and commit to HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 331 memory and reason out a proposition. This method cannot be employed successfully un¬ less the pupil has first studied his lesson. It is the method of the day school and it is all right, for it requires the pupil to express himself, and secular schools regard it so im¬ portant that study hours are provided to practically compel the pupil to study. The trouble with the Sunday school pupil is that there is no time to allow him to study after he comes to school. Some teachers study the lesson with the pupil in the class, they are going over the lesson with the pu¬ pils by reading the passage with comments. There are pupils and certain lessons where the only sensible course is to go over the les¬ son with the class, but time should be re¬ served to call upon the class before the close to recite what they have learned and to an¬ swer questions. This is a highly valuable method, and we must keep on keeping on until we can induce our pupils to study their lessons at home so as to recite them in the Sunday school as in the day school, and im¬ press them that quarterlies are largely wasted because they are not studied at home If some few questions are given out the pre- 332 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. vious Sunday on next Sunday's lesson, that may help to interest them to study. The Question Method. This is not a par¬ ticular and separate method in itself, unless it is employed all the time to the exclusion of any other method as in case of Socrates of Athens. But while the Socratic Method is a most satisfactory way to draw the self- activity of the pupil, it is too slow and in¬ direct to be used in a Sunday school class. So we simply employ the question in con¬ nection with some other method. There is a question that is asked only to put the pu¬ pil on his guard, and to arouse attention. Never allow the class to answer a question for an individual, nor one person for anoth¬ er, nor questions that carry their own an¬ swers in the way they are put. Never ask a question that will not compel the pupil to think to answer it, nor ask one too hard to answer because it is beyond his knowledge. See to it that a question is properly an¬ swered before going further. Take time and shape the question in such way as to start the pupil to thinking along the right line. There is no one method of teaching/but successful teachers use all the methods at HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 333 times to break monotony and arouse inter¬ est. Methods for Particular Grades. This chap¬ ter should not close until some suggestion is offered as to what method and combina¬ tion of methods ought to be employed in teaching the grades and who should be the teachers, and what kind of Bible study is more helpful for each grade or department. Following is a diagram that may prove helpful to furnish this information. TEACHING METHODS AND VALUES FOR EACH GROUP. CHILDHOOD. ELEMENTARY DIVISION- BEGINNER. PRIMARY JUNIOR Stories, simple, loving1, sweet. Objects Pictures Songs Motion Songs Marches Of God, His care, pro¬ tection Stories ' Pictures Color Pictures and Texts Pasted Pictures in a i book Songs Marches Mental Pictures God's loving kindness Love and work of Jesus What God desires and commands Assignments Home work Handwork Drills in memory Bible Books Life of Jesus Bible History and Geography ADOLESCENCE. SECONDARY DIVISION. INTERMEDIATE SENIOR YOUNG PEOPLE Recitation Method Essays i Reports 0. T. Biography Life of Christ Christian Life Leaders of Israel Thoughtful | Sympathetic Reports j Logical Examples | Wlorld a field for Christian service Apostolic Christianity Poetical Books j; Did and New Testa- i ment Composed j Teacher Training Organized Classes Lecture Method Seminar Method Discussion Method Reports Christian Principfes 3rophetical Study 'ews' Religion HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 335 QUESTIONS. 1. Explain the story method of teaching. 2. The picture method. 3. The object method. 4. The lecture method. 5. The manual method. 6. The recitation method. 7. The question method. 8. How are these methods combined for different grades ? 9. Write out the chart and teaching methods. 10. Use your influence to have school make a large chart for permanent place in school. V. THE TEACHER AND HIS MASTERY OF THE SUBJECT. The next essential in the teacher is that he should know what he teaches. Gregory gives this as the first law or step in teach¬ ing. A person cannot teach what he him¬ self does not know, and he cannot even help the pupil to learn what he does not know. If there appears any exceptions to this it simply means that the pupil learned any way, in spite of his teacher. A matter must first be properly impressed upon a teacher's own mind before he can cause a person to understand it aright. It is often thought that a person's ability to teach is a gift to impart only and that it does not imply t^at he actually understands the sub¬ ject better than others who have not the ability to teach. This occurs to us as a mis¬ take. The ability to teach a subject is the evidence that the teacher pursued the prop¬ er methods to understand it first of all for (337) Sig.—12. 338 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. himself. If one goes inductively into a subject by logical order, he will be able to retrace his steps, and his expressions of what he knows will tally exactly with the impression of the subject upon his mind. The reason why a person is able to impart knowledge to others is because he actually understands the matter better than another person, that he is a person of clear percep¬ tion, who sees into and through a mat¬ ter thoroughly. The Old Testament desig¬ nated a prophet or the religious teacher among the Jews as a "seer" because of his seeing ability, his perceptive ability. This is true generally, but it is especially true as applied to spiritual matters. Jesus spoke of some people who have eyes and see not, and ears but hear not, which means they had no spiritual perception. Experience has taught that one's spiritual insight or perception may be quickened by suitable means and we are stressing this matter here to show that there is real help for the ner son that may be deficient in his abilitv to perceive or see clearly into what he The Holy Spirit will help the Sunday schn i teacher to clearer perception of the word HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 339 of God the more we apply ourselves to the study. This is shown by the fact that when¬ ever we read the Bible again we always dis¬ cover something that we had not discovered before. This is the Spirit enabling us more and more to perceive of spiritual truth. We understand a matter better as we yield ourselves to the study, and as we rid our minds of other things. That is largely the problem of a clearer perception, getting rid of other matters on the mind. This is reas¬ onable when we think of it, because we know that all learning is dependent upon giving attention to the subject in hand, and the person who gives the best attention wholly dismissing other matters will see more in what he studies, just as a person inclosed in a room to himself will see any¬ thing better than if there are other things to attract his attention. Clear perception, then, is possible and especially to the stu¬ dent of God's word, not at once but as a re¬ sult of constant study, and clear perception is essential to clear teaching. Again the character of a person has a great deal to do with his mind. All honest, straightfor- 340 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ward and truthful persons can understand any subject where morality and spirituality are involved better than the opposite type of person. Time is a necessary factor in Bible study, for we understand it better after more experience. The teacher who earnestly desires to know the Bible first of all to live it, and then to impart the knowl¬ edge so as to help some other person to live it, will,- in course of time, be admitted into its secrets in such a way that he will under¬ stand it better, and as he understands it better he will be able to teach it more suc¬ cessfully. A teacher should have a thorough knowl¬ edge of the lesson, and that means that he must know more about the Bible than he will teach and more thanvis embodied in the lesson he is teaching. Just as we must first dam up the little stream and store up a large pond or lake of water before we can develop the horsepower desirable, so we must store up a reserve supply of in¬ formation on the subject matter of the les¬ son in order to be able to teach with power. The success of the teacher lies in the teach¬ er, in his personality, and in his knowledge of the subject. A thorough mastery of the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 341 subject tends to impart enthusiasm to the teacher, and nothing weighs more in at¬ tracting attention than enthusiasm. The enthusiastic man appears to be possessed with something, and the word means pos¬ sessed with God, and a person filled with the knowledge of God's word, and under¬ stands it, and knows he understands by- testing the interpretation by the Bible itself, will always be enthusiastic in his teaching, and his enthusiasm will develop enthusiasm on the part of the pupil. Oh, the sad lack of this enthusiasm on the part of so many teachers! We talk of the laws of the work¬ ing of the human mind, and the laws of teaching, but, after all, there stands out the one law of self-activity on the part of the pupil as the one prerequisite to learning. Teaching is helpful, but the person can do a great deal without a teacher. There are among the colored people especially hun¬ dreds of examples of self-help on the part of men who enjoyed absolutely no educa¬ tional'advantages at all, and yet they stand out today as men of rare vision and power. 342 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. In every case these men are inspired by some living person, and carried away with their enthusiasm. Science or no science, if the teacher will take pains to know God's word to know it and to teach it, he will win the help of the Holy Spirit in his effort to teach it. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the law of the teacher? 2. What ds inductive teaching-? 3. What is deductive teaching1? 4. How may enthusiasm be developed in the teacher? 5. Give notable example of self-help from enthusias¬ tic inspiration. 6. How is a teacher different from others who study? VI. THE TEACHER'S SPECIAL LESSON PREPARATION. We have spoken in another place of the necessity of the teacher knowing his sub¬ ject very thoroughly, and we have still fur¬ ther given emphasis to his mastery of his matter as being the first essential to suc¬ cess in teaching. This is all very true. It needs to be said now, however, that no thoroughness nor mastery of the subject can take the place or render unnecessary the teacher's special preparation of every lesson he teaches. Indeed, he will not con¬ tinue to be thorough in his mastery of the subject unless he continues a hard student of the word, and he must not even allow the special lesson preparation to interfere with his general study of the Bible. Nothing will help this special lesson preparation more than the broad and deep foundation of systematic and regular Bible study along (343) 344 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. lines indicated already in another part of this book. If a teacher finds himself dis¬ inclined to study the Bible in this way it is evidence that his spirit i¬ what it should be for effective work as a Sunday school teacher. But coming back to special preparation of a lesson, the first step should be to read the entire lesson text, not only the small part that is usually printed in the quarter¬ lies, but the entire portion of Scripture in¬ dicated at the head of the lesson, together with the additional lesson material there. If any proper name occurs anywhere in the entire Scripture passage, at once lpok up the word in a one volume Bible dictionary, and jot down on paper what will help you to recall what the dictionary teaches so that you never will have to look up that word again any time in the future. If a full account is desired a four volume Bible dictionary will exhaust the subject. This looking up the significance of names of per¬ sons and places is exceedingly helpful in lesson preparation. The teacher should al¬ ways use as a basis of study a teacher's Bible, because so much is added in the back HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 345 of the volume to help to understand the Bible. For instance, such a Bible contains sometimes fifteen maps of Bible lands to¬ gether with a practical method of helping to locate a place in the easiest possible man¬ ner. Turn, now, to the proper map as indi¬ cated in the table of place and find the place in the lesson, and fix it in mind, and always think of the incidents in the lesson after¬ ward in connection with the place or places. The dictionary and the map are wonderful helps, and should always be consulted. The quarterly announces at the head of the les¬ son the general topic of the entire lesson passage, and further suggests suitable top¬ ics for the three divisions of the school. Veri¬ fy all these topics from your study of the passage itself, and then see whether there is not some other vital topic easily discovered in the lesson that you would prefer to make the center of your teaching instead of the one suggested in the quarterly. A better topic can always be discovered where the one in the quarterly is simply historical, e. g., "Cain and Abel." A better topic would be "How to serve God" for Adults. We are not after improving the quarterly, but improving the teacher by causing him to 346 how; to study and teach the bible. think for himself. Some suggest that you ignore the subject altogether and take your own subject, but the method just outlined seems to us more sane. Of course the lesson must always be read in connection with the Scripture going just before and after it, the context as we call it It would also be wise to read in advance the daily Bible readings that accompany each lesson in the quarterly so as to let the lesson on Sunday be the climax of your studies for each day of the previous week. This is the proper way to use these daily readings, not during the week following the teaching of the lesson with which they appear connected in the quarterly, but read them the week before the lesson is to be taught, and this will be found helpful in fastening the lesson on the mind and heart. A dictionary of English is helpful and should be used when any single word is not understood in any of these passages. More¬ over, the teacher must make sure the sen¬ tence is understood, and the logic of the ar¬ rangement of the thought. Care must be taken not to study the lesson simply to find and prove the topic suggested in the helps HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 847 as already hinted above, but in preparing the lesson, the teacher must make sure that he neglects no suggestion or teaching the passage may contain, not for teaching it but for himself. He must learn much more than he aims to teach. The next step in lesson preparation after the teacher has mastered the lesson, is to plan to present this lesson to his class to the best advantage. He must plan out of a full mind and heart to teach that part of the lesson text that will best serve to religiously educate and spiritually edify his class, and it will be found that the best means to this end will be to select the topic in the lesson that can be most closely related to the gen¬ eral needs of the pupil and the church and the community, some practical topic close¬ ly associated with the every day experience of the pupil and his social group. Such a treatment of a lesson never fails to inter¬ est and help, whereas a merely historical topic is void of vital affect as such. If a subdivision of the topic can be easily made, so much the better, and better still if there be as many as three divisions arranged as an alliteration, i. e., with the same letter beginning each word, as in Phil. 2:5-11: 348 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Service, Sacrifice, Satisfaction. Indeed, when you are not able to find a central top¬ ic, three topics like in the above will serve as a good plan, and really do suggest a cen¬ tral topic, the Christ life. If not al¬ literation, then one central topic with sub¬ topics will leave a better impression. Now, after deciding upon the main line of thought, the next step is to prepare to pre¬ sent that thought in a way to arouse inter¬ est. Of course everything depends upon what grade of pupils we are teaching. If seniors, a news item would serve to pre¬ pare the mind. This matter will be treated under the head of the pupil more fully. It is to be borne in mind that while we are after improving the life of the pupil and his group, we are also anxious to show him how to appreciate the Bible and how to study it, and what to expect to learn from such study. All of this can be impressed indirectly when we proceed alone: proper lines. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 349 QUESTIONS. 1. What kind of knowledge should precede the knowl¬ edge of the lesson? 2. What special preparation should be made for teach¬ ing the lesson? 3. What lesson helps needed? 4. What should be the teacher's plan of studying the lesson? 5. When should the daily Bible references be studied? yiL THE LESSON PLAN. Of course each lesson should be thorough¬ ly studied so as to master the facts, it mat¬ ters not how well versed in Bible knowl¬ edge and other information the teacher may really be or have the reputation of be¬ ing. He should always come before his class with a fresh knowledge of the techni¬ calities in the lesson as well as the detail facts and spiritual and practical lessons. The Bible is a bock hard to remember in detail because it is so closely written, and because our minds do not usually meditate upon the contents enough to hold it in the subconsciousness. Then the devil is ever present to cause us to misquote or misin¬ terpret or misapply it. Any teacher in the world will make some technical error in the course of teaching unless he especially prepares each lesson before undertaking to teach it. (351) 352 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. We come now to the special reason why the teacher should especially prepare each lesson before trying to teach it, and that is that no lesson should be taught until it has been especially planned to suit the needs and conditions of the pupils. In the first place, the teacher should plan to present to the pupil but one big idea or thought in con¬ nection with the lesson, and he ought to have a particular aim or end in view in de¬ ciding what that thought should be. He should know the condition and needs of the people, of the particular community, of the church, of the age, and sex; and with this knowledge in mind he should try to find in the passage of Scripture under considera¬ tion some one truth to impart, and apply in a practical way. The lesson will contain other useful matter, but this should be sub¬ ordinated and properly related to the one outstanding big idea or thought that you wish to impress thoroughly upon your pu¬ pils. Another thing must be recognized by the teacher, and that is that the Gospel is social in its nature, and the one grand object is to reorganize society and build up the ideal HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 353 community that Augustine called the City of God, but the New Testament describes it as the Kingdom of Heaven. Great stress is laid upon the individual, but largely be¬ cause society must be reached through in¬ dividual units. The teacher must be inter¬ ested in society in general, not secret socie¬ ty only, nor aristocratic society of the classes, but in human society, particularly as represented by our own people. He must not get the idea of exclusiveness or holiness that will make him blind as to the claims of society upon him, or to release him from his obligation to help to make the world bet¬ ter. In other words, true Christianity is never self-centered, but is social in its na¬ ture, and is intended for the other fellow's good, and we ourselves never get the full benefits of our own religion except as we serve others. The one outstanding thought of the lesson should be a social application, and it will be found ^ that a ready response will come from the class. This is why the pupils will always become interested in what con¬ cerns "our people," unless it is some person that cares more for another than for his own people. Surely, the great race problem 354 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. in this country presents a social situation that should engage the attention of the Sun¬ day school teacher, and in preparing and planning his lesson he should seek to bring a message of hope and wisdom to his people, and if he does this, under present conditions he will find that he has the proper "point of contact" and the pupil's interest will bring the teacher the attention necessary for teaching and learning. It is idle for the teacher to devote the lesson hour to a tech¬ nical discussion of Jewish history or phil¬ osophy, unless he can make an application to his own people and times. Get the habit of living in the present and the future rather than in the past. The real fact is that Bible knowledge with a social as well as spiritual interpretation furnishes the very informa¬ tion our people need today in confronting a situation such as is represented by the Race Problem in America, and in the world for that matter. Surely, if relieious in¬ formation is of any value, it ought to apply here. And it does apply! Study the weak points of the people, and find where the trouble is; and by close study of the lesson skilfully planned spring a surprise and even HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 355 a shock upon your pupils by bringing them to the point where they get new water out of old wells, and help for the race where be¬ fore they failed to see anything to inspire. What is needed is that the teacher should know quite as much about his own people as he does about the Jewish people, and as much about the pupil as he does about the Bible. There is no teaching where the teacher does not know the pupil, and the pupil must be studied in the light of his people. Now then, we let the pupil know our aim and what is intended to be brought out by the lesson, and prepare the class to take an interest and then present the simplest state¬ ment of the facts of the lesson, and if it be a story, tell it in such way as will cause the pupil to be able to recall it. Talk about extraordinary things in an ordinary way, and use illustrations from the life of the pupils and his own people and times, rath¬ er than from Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire; so that ever afterward when he does the things which you used for illustra¬ tions he will remember the teachings and it 356 HOW! TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. will be brought home to his judgment and conscience. Move among the people and hear them talk and learn their burdens and their as¬ pirations, and bring it all in the lesson study or lecture or question. Let the pupil see the truth from as many different angles as pos¬ sible, and his mind will get busy, and he will compare and contrast and reason, and "finally, he will be able to see for himself what you planned he should see. In another article some of the points touched here are referred to in more detail, and suggestions are made that will still further point the way to the proper planning of the lesson. QUESTIONS. 1. For how many purposes should a lesson be studied? Name them. 2. Why should the lesson presentation to pupil be planned ? 3. What should be the nature of the principal applica¬ tion of a lesson? 4. How should a lesson be illustrated to become effec¬ tive? 5. What is meant by the point of contact? VIII. ATTENTION AND HOW TO SECURE IT, Attention is fixing the mind upon some one thing to the exclusion of others. There are persons who appear to be able to give attention to several things at the same time, as when a person sings and plays and di¬ rects at the same time. But closer study will show that the person subconsciously does one or more of these things leaving the attention still centered on one only. Atten¬ tion carries energy of mind, and the word means a stretching to. Attention is volun¬ tary, involuntary and expectant. Voluntary attention is an act of the will by which the mind fixes itself upon some¬ thing, as when we offer a prayer, but volun¬ tary attention will not last long without in¬ terest. Involuntary attention is where the mind is attracted toward something on account of (357) 358 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. interest in it. A pistol shot claims our at¬ tention at once. It is questionable whether any attention is helpful in teaching except from interest. To hold the attention upon a subject for a long time is a sign of genius, but it is less due to the will than to the lively interest in the subject. In teaching children we must bear in mind they are interested more in things than in symbols, and object teaching at least by pic¬ tures will aid in securing attention. It is to be remembered that the eye great¬ ly helps us to secure and hold attention, and even adults are attracted and influenced by pictures. The use of the blackboard is of signal help. It is not necessary that the teacher, should be able to write plainly or make a good drawing in order to succeed. Let the teacher make simply a dot, or a dash, or a line, or a circle, and let him point to it as he teaches and keep his eye on it, allowing the marks through imagination to represent what he is teaching, and he will be surprised how it helps to secure and hold attention. In order to secure attention classes ought to be so arranged as to cause as little dis- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 359 traction as possible. They should be ar¬ ranged in circles around teachers or as far from each other as space will allow in the schoolroom, and separate partitions consti¬ tute the ideal arrangement. But too much stress must not be placed upon the arrange¬ ment of the classes to the exclusion of the greater factor of the teacher's thorough study and planning of the lesson, and teach¬ ing according to the scientific method. Make no effort to teach unless interest is so aroused as to bring attention. Lay the book and notes aside, and look your pupils squarely in the eye, and ask particular in¬ dividuals questions calculated to attract at¬ tention, as when, for instance, a question is asked that seems to infer an idea that is not correct, e. g., Where was Moses when he was about to slay Isaac? Expectant Attention is fixing the mind upon something we expect to happen in the future. The teacher will have to state what will happen, and then secure and hold at¬ tention toward that end. It should have been stated here before that, if the teach¬ er first fixes his own attention intensely on what he wishes to impress upon the pupil, 360 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. it has a powerful effect in securing and hold¬ ing the pupil's attention. But this is especially true in the case of expectant attention. The more the teacher him¬ self concentrates his mind, the more he can arouse expectant attention. The teach¬ er must have confidence in the outcome. It is expectant attention that enables a per¬ son to rise from sleep at the time he planned, and it is this that aids the physician in ef¬ fecting a cure, and sometimes aids the quack doctor also. The so-called Christian science that does its biggest work among people who care little for real Christianity and its Bible, is based upon nothing but expectant at¬ tention, which attention is secured by securing the point of contact and arous¬ ing the interest. The transcendentalism that is handed out as the science in Which the poor victim is to believe error as truth has nothing whatever to do with the cures, but the victim is brought to the point where he actually expects to be cured, and his expectant atten¬ tion does the work. If Christians could only believe real cures possible, and would teach the Bible to that end, the expectant HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 361 attention would effect genuine cures today as in earlier days. Of course all of this is closely related to hypnotism, for hynotism is only possible where the mind is not pre- engaged and expectant attention is at its best. Sunday school teachers can get good re¬ sults by arousing expectant attention, as¬ suring pupils of success in learning, in be¬ havior and in life, provided the Bible is made the guide of life. QUESTIONS. 1. What is attention? 2. What lis its value? 3. How many kinds of attention? 4. What is the one essential to secure attention? 5. Define voluntary attention. 6. Define involuntary attention. 7. Name and describe expectant attention. 8. Name the two elements employed in the so-called ChristiaJn science. 9. Look up the full meaning of transcendentalism. 10. How may expectant attention be used in teaching? IX. THE USE OF THE QUESTION IN TEACHING. Whatever can be said of advanced meth¬ ods of teaching, there is no real teaching where the question does not play an impor¬ tant part in the instruction. Lecturing the class upon the general subject of the lesson, and telling the facts of the lesson do not constitute good teaching. A teacher has not properly taught a lesson until the aver¬ age scholar is made to understand that les¬ son. A good teacher is not one who has the best knowledge of a lesson, but the one whose pupils have the best grip upon the lesson. A difficulty with all teachers is to know how far the pupils have understood the va¬ rious points in the lesson plan. If any part of the plan is improperly developed and understood the pupil fails to grasp the les- (363) 364 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. son. It is by questions alone that a teach¬ er can get his bearings, and know when to take up his stakes and go forward. There is no teaching without a plan, and the suc¬ cess of the plan depends upon its develop¬ ment step by step, and at each step the teacher must make sure that he has his pupils with him. There is no surer way to know how well the pupils have followed than by the wise use of questions. We too often lose sight of the fact that the aim of the Sunday school is to build up a thorough knowledge of the Bible, as well as to lecture the pupils in morals each Sun¬ day with the Bible more or less as a basis of our remarks. The aim is to impart a general and correct idea of the Bible, and the question must play an important part. A large number of teachers have no par¬ ticular lesson plan, but aim to have the les¬ son recited just as laid down in a lesson help, reading the entire lesson, winding up by asking the questions laid down. Other teachers make a show of a plan which they develop in a lecture or sermonette, scarce¬ ly asking a question that does not admit of "yes" or "no" as an answer, their chief aim HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 365 seeming to be to impress the class that they know the lesson themselves, and often the teaching is so boisterous as to appear to be addressed to other classes. As between these two methods I am decidedly of the opinion that the best and most abiding re¬ sults will follow where the lesson is simply read or recited as laid down and the stereo¬ typed questions at the end asked and an¬ swered. But neither of these ways is best. A method with no questions is fully as bad as one with questions only. In fact, there is no question method standing by itself, but questioning is a necessary part of any good method. The trouble arises from the fact that questions are asked often because a teacher does not know the lesson, while the one that has a good knowledge of the lesson is more anxious to show that knowl¬ edge than to teach by a suitable method. We must guard against the reaction that has followed disgust at asking stereotyped questions only to discard the question al¬ together. Questioning is not all there is of teaching, but there is no good teaching without it. However thoroughly a lesson has been learned and a plan thought out, 366 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. that teacher is still unprepared to teach a lesson unless suitable questions have been thought out for developing the lesson. No one can visit schools and not note how generally' teachers fail to interest their pu¬ pils. As a general thing their lack of in¬ terest is the penalty the teacher pays for neglecting the lesson, especially the lesson plan. We often discuss the best method for a teacher to secure attention. If there is any one answer to this question, it is this: the teacher fails to employ questions prop- ly put. There is no greater way to inter¬ est pupils. The question always interests, and the degree of interest simply depends upon the wisdom and method of the ques¬ tion. It arouses curiosity which leads to interest. If this seems untrue in any case, it is because the question is not put in the proper form. Wise questioning is the cli¬ max of all excellence in teaching. It is by far the hardest part of the work. It is the one sure sign of a gifted teacher. It has been ever employed by all great teachers. But whatever can be said of questions, the fact remains that teaching and ques¬ tioning are inseparable. It has been re- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 367 peatedly said very truly that teaching is not telling. It is not lecturing, it is not preaching. It does not consist of putting knowledge into a pupil, only so far as that knowledge is a pointer to lead the pupil to work out his own conclusion. Teaching is developing the mind of the pupil, leading him to discover truth for himself. He learns only by doing for himself, and how¬ ever tedious and long drawn out the method, that only is the correct one that follows along this line. Questioning is a tedious way, and a longer time is required to teach a lesson, but the longer such time, the bet¬ ter for the pupil in all reason. Truth too easily discovered will be too soon forgotten. Questioning is better for both teacher and pupil, leading both to know the lesson more thoroughly. But, as I have already hinted, everything depends upon the way the question is put to the class or pupil. Some teachers never draw out proper answers, while others suc¬ ceed admirably. First of all, we must con¬ vince the pupils that when asked, an an¬ swer must be given. Let it be understood that the teacher is not going to give the an- 368 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. swer himself. Better change the form of the question if it has not been so put as the average scholar can answer. The average ability of the class, and the particular abili¬ ty of the pupil must be understood. If we should make up our minds to employ ques¬ tions in teaching generally in our schools, there would necessarily be a closer relation between pupil and teacher. Then when a proper answer is given the pupil should be commended. Do not insist upon an an¬ swer in the very terms we desired, but if the reply shows the proper course of reas¬ on, commend the pupil. No question is bf use in teaching that can be answered by simply "yes" or "no." That is the great fault in our Sunday schools. To wisely employ questions in teaching, we must distinguish between two general classes, and employ each in its proper place. 1. There is the training question. This is the question employed in imparting a knowledge of the lesson on Sunday. The questions serve only as pointers enabling the pupil to blaze out his own way to the truth of the lesson. It is employed by all expert teachers of young children, and is HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 369 especially helpful where the pupil is too young to study a lesson as laid down in a more advanced lesson help. It is generally associated with object teaching among the young. It is also helpfully employed among advanced pupils where the lesson is made to bring but one central truth. It is gen¬ erally employed where a teacher has his own plan and is not following a lesson help. It is the natural way to develop a lesson plan. There is no other way except by lec¬ turing, and in a lecture the teacher himself gets all the benefit. Training questions must be pointedly put, and with spirit and good humor, and in proportion as a pupil is sufficiently advanced as to prepare his lesson, ought the question to be addressed to individuals and not to the whole clasp. The aim is to cause a scholar to reason his way to knowledge, for his reason he is liable to have with him all his life, while he must part from his teacher. Therefore, foolish questions should be avoided, and the teacher should take as much care in planning the question as he would have the pupil employ in answering it. By no means should he ask random Sig.—13. 370 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. questions while he is thinking of another step in his lesson plan. The questions are intended to cause the pupil to concentrate his mind and should neither be too hard nor too easy. If no better result is secured than the honest effort to answer, the ques¬ tion has done much good. When the pu¬ pil learns to concentrate his mind, there is great hope for him. 2. There is also the testing question. This is the nature of questions that ought to be put at the beginning of a recitation as a review of the last lesson, and also at the close of that lesson. Of course, before we shall realize- the importance of such questions we must place a proper estimate upon reviews in teaching. Along with the disuse of questions so generally has grown up the testimony to neglect reviews each Sunday, and at the end of the quarter. Re¬ views would never lose their significance if only we get the idea that the school is in¬ tended to teach the pupils a knowledge of the whole Bible, and not to lecture on mor¬ als only with the Bible as a basis. Scattered about over the books of the Bible as the In¬ ternational lessons are even at present, for HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 371 a knowledge of the proper place of the lesson in the Bible narrative and the Bible as a whole we must depend chiefly upon re¬ views. And in reviews there is no method that is better than questions wisely put. This is the shorter way to cover the ground. It is the way that tests the knowledge of the pupil. And of course everything de¬ pends upon the question put. All review questions should be so stated as to show the perspective of all the lessons for a quar¬ ter, or of a particular lesson for a day. Un¬ til a lesson has been reviewed, the pupil never understands it. All reviews should be conducted upon a well thought out plan, for both lesson and quarter with suitable questions. For pupils in course of educa¬ tion, questions that may be called construc¬ tive may be asked for the purpose of lan¬ guage training as well as the advantage of constructive teaching. Properly speaking, these are not questions, but requests.^ In¬ deed, the same are helpful in the training work of a lesson. A good idea in beginning any lesson is to request some pupil to con¬ struct a story of the lesson bringing out the principal facts and teachings. After efforts 372 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. to construct, or rather reconstruct the les¬ son, any defects are to be corrected by bott training and testing questions. For pupils able to prepare a lesson, this is a good meth¬ od—the questions following the efforts ai construction. Most Sunday school teach ers teach inductively and constructive worl ought always to follow. The proper idej of asking questions is not to make this i method by itself, but to judiciously conneci it with any and all methods, the special ob ject of this article being to impress the im portance of a proper preparation for ask ing questions. First, we should have re gard to the kind of question; then the form then the manner and pointedness. It is no" well to use the stereotyped questions ii lesson helps, but it is far better to use then than to ask no questions at all, or to origi nate questions not as good. If there is an^ way to be contrived to secure a longer timi for the recitation it will be a great improve ment in advanced classes. But a certaii part of each recitation should be for re view of the last lesson, teaching of the day's lesson, review of this lesson, and Brevier of the one for next Sunday. In this con HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 373 nection, questions will be most helpful and as a general thing, will cover the whole ground better. If every teacher would not only study a lesson to know it himself, but also search pedagogical books for sugges¬ tions as to how to teach a particular grade, a great improvement would be made in Sun¬ day school teaching. In a class of excel¬ lently prepared pupils that do not require so much method because of more mature minds, problematical questions on the So- cratic order may be asked to quicken the pupils and to teach the application of the principles of the lesson. This is best done in parables suited to teach such applica¬ tion. But such questions can only properly come after the testing and training ques¬ tions have first fixed the lesson in the mind. QUESTIONS. 1. What is proof of rig-lit teaching? 2. Describe the use of the question in lesson prepara¬ tion and presentation. 3. What kind of question should never be asked of pupils ? 4. What is teaching? 5. How should questions be stated for best results ? 6. How catn a teacher best secure answers to questions ? 7. Describe ai training question. 8. Describe a testing1 question. X. SELF-ACTIVITY IN TEACHING OR HAND WORK. The old axiom "No impression without expression" is true in teaching, and is an¬ other way of emphasizing the self-activity of the pupil as the one essential in teaching. There really is no teaching without learning. The Bible in Nehemiah 8:7, expresses the real idea of teaching by the clause "caused the people to understand." The understand¬ ing of the pupil must be aroused to func¬ tion, or else there is no real teaching. Now¬ adays it is understood as a fundamental principle that information must be so im¬ parted that the memory will be able to re¬ call and reproduce it, and reproduction is the only true proof that the teaching has succeeded. There is no way the mind can be trained except through its own faculties and processes, and these must function of (375) 376 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. the pupil's own will power before knowl¬ edge can be assimilated. The teacher may impart information, but it will mean noth¬ ing at all to the pupil unless he is able to think it in by the usual way the mind pro¬ ceeds. The successful teacher puts his pupil to work along lines calculated to make them think of what he is teaching, for learning by doing is true because doing arouses self- activity. Hand work, or manual work, in teaching is a practical way of arousing the pupils to self-activity. It has been noted that the hand is quite closely connected with the brain because it figures so prominently in all the achievements of the human race. The hand is the chief organ of touch, and touch is by far the most important of all the senses. The education of Helen Kellar and Laura Bridgeman chiefly through touch has opened our eyes to the importance of touch in education. Touch includes the sense of temperature and the muscular sense, and scientists now hold that if a hu¬ man being should lose the sense of touch with its modifications, it would be impossi- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 377 ble to live. Whatever a pupil touches gets pretty close to consciousness, and certainly touch gives the clearest perception, and clear perceptions lead to clear conceptions and judgment. In the Sunday school it is not possible to do as much manual work as can be done in a day school, but there is a great deal that can be done, and it should begin with the lowest or beginner's grade. Sand trays and clay for moulding are largely used in day schools where the little pupils are required to spend several hours in school, and many Sunday schools have installed the same. But the short time we have these little ones would hardly justify the doing of such work, and especially since we can get good results from other methods of manual work. Objects should be employed as far as pos¬ sible in teaching and the children should be allowed to touch them. Then the Begin¬ ners should color pictures and outline let¬ ters as provided in the quarterlies. The Primary pupil goes a step further and reproduces words, and pastes pictures in a scrap book as near like the lesson pic¬ ture as possible. There is no use of strain- 378 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ing and putting up appearances unless we are going to get the results. We can dis¬ pense with the sand table, or trays, and moulding clay in Sunday schools, if we will employ methods here suggested, but the col¬ oring, copying, and clipping must not be neglected. It is in the Junior Department especially that the technical hand work program and details bring the best results, because the Juniors are constructive and expressive. This is so true that a Junior quarterly is sometimes called Junior work, because the manual work is so essential to this grade. The Junior is full of life and energy, and wants to exercise himself and keep doing something^, and a large part of the teacher's preparation is planning to keep the pupil busy doing what will help to impress the les¬ son. The main idea is that the Junior age is the most fruitful in results of the school age, because of energy which is equally as valuable as mental ability, and because of the power to recall, and because of the in¬ stinct to collect. The manual work should be in Bible history and geography and orig¬ inal composition and reference work. The HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 379 pupil must be given something to do that will cause him to continue to think along the lines of the lesson. Bible mastery is largely a matter of hand¬ work, for the stories should be written down in outline, and reproduced again and again from memory. Nothing helps to fix the Bible in mind and memory more than to write the substance of chapters and books and reproduce same several times on tab¬ lets. The Intermediate and Senior and all other pupils should use the hand and tablet, and get the habit of reproducing all that is taught or read and it will prove very help¬ ful in mastering any subject. This principle of self-activity is back of the organized class with its many activities extending all through the week. Helping others is expressional of the impression made through the teaching of the word. It is now regarded that mere teaching of a class on Sunday is very far short of what can be done unless manual work and other expressional work is systematically prac¬ ticed by the pupils, for we learn by doing. 380 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. QUESTIONS. 1. How is the mind so developed, as the pupil js taught, that the information will be of service in further studies? 2. What is self-activity in psychology? 3. What is the significance of hand work? 4. Illustrate the use of touch in education. 5. Describe outline of manual work for elementary di¬ vision. XI, THE MEMORY, AND HOW TO IMPROVE IT. No subject is of more importance to the teacher than the question of improving the memory, for he will not only be better pre- pared to teach successfully, but he will al¬ so be greatly helped in his own personal studies. It matters not how brilliant a pu¬ pil may be in recitation, unless his memory is capable of causing him to retain what he learns, and also of reproducing what he learns, his education will be of little service to him, if indeed he can be called educated at all. Memory i& either voluntary or involun¬ tary, the former being defined as remem¬ brance, and the latter as recollection. Involuntary memory reminds us very much of the sensitive plate that a photogra¬ pher inserts in his camera in order to take a -picture. When this sensitive plate is ex- r (381) 382 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. posed to the light an impression is made upon the plate reproducing the picture of everything in front of the lense of the cam¬ era. In the case of memory, the cells or the lining of the brain form the sensitive plate, and whatever comes in the focus of the eye is impressed upon the lining of the brain, and the impression seems to last a long time in the subconsciousness. The pic¬ tures are made on the brain cells or lining, and consciousness is like focusing a spot¬ light on the memory plate bringing back the picture in memory. Involuntary mem¬ ory, or remembrance, is often very marked in certain pupils who can make perfect recitations for the time, but it is generally true these same pupils have a verbal mem¬ ory rather than a memory based upon rea¬ son. Verbal memory is the ability to espec- inal composition and reference work. The vantage as compared with the memory of reason. The memory not only takes account of what is seen, but it also retains all impres¬ sions made upon the senses, so that it has been said that a man is an embodiment of everything with which he has come in con- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 383 tact, which is another way of saying that the memory not only retains the impres¬ sions, but they entfer into the make-up of our judgment even though held in the subcon¬ scious area. Just as we see especially well the point where the light is focused, and we see less perfectly what does not come in the immediate focus, so in the case of the mind, there is a conscious area we desig¬ nate consciousness, and there is also a less distinct area of vision or consciousness that we designate the subconsciousness and we are not aware of the operations of. the sub¬ consciousness, but the results are often more dependable than the consciousness. A mat¬ ter worries us in our waking hours and we can find no solution often, until we sleep over it, and let the subconsciousness handle it, and often we awake the next day pre¬ pared for the solution. Some persons seem to get better results than others, for there are persons who can set the mind to alarm or wake them up in the morning with un¬ failing regularity. The lesson to the teacher is be careful of all that is said and done be¬ fore the pupils, for it will all go into their lives. Another lesson to learn is that time is an important element in placing a lesson in 384 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. the pupil's memory and understanding, for the subconsciousness requires time. Recollection, or logical' memory, is of fundamental importance in education, and all true teaching is so planned as to make recollection possible and easy. All the science of teaching is but an effort to place information in the mind of the pupil in such a way that he will be able to retain and reproduce it, and recognize it for all times. The Five Laws of Memory Are as Follows: 1. THE LAW OF USE. 2. THE LAW OF INTEREST. 3. THE LAW OF ATTENTION. 4. THE LAW OF REPETITION. 5. THE LAW OF ASSOCIATION. The Law of Use. Every part of the body can be strengthened by proper exercise, and the memory is no exception. Take for in¬ stance, the custom, of taking notes at lec¬ tures. If one is intent upon making full notes he is apt to fail to take time to reason the lecture into his memory, for he intends to rely chiefly upon his notes, and fails to exercise his memory and rely upon it. The proper way to take notes is to jot down HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 385 merely a word that will serve to recall the line of thought, and then after the lecture we should immediately write out full notes embracing a logical outline. Again, some teachers even carry notes into their classes because they cannot trust their memory, and this is destructive to memory, and really advertises our ignorance to the class, and pupils fail to gather in¬ spiration and enthusiasm in such cases, and certainly the teacher cannot expect the pupils to be more thorough than their teach¬ er. Put it up to your memory to make goody and more and more we will improve in retaining and recalling what is taught. The Law of Interest. We generally remem¬ ber what interests us most, and this fact should be very helpful to us in discover¬ ing how to improve the memory. The teacher should never undertake to present the lesson to a pupil until he has discovered his point of contact so indispensable in real teaching. The Law of Attention. It also is true that we recall more readily what interested us most to the extent that we give individ¬ ual attention to it. It has been said that the 386 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. mind's retention is in exact proportion to its attention. There are teachers who dis¬ count the value of method, or who at least make no effort to learn the proper method of teaching. The science of teaching re¬ quires attention before there can be any real teaching, and the relation of attention to memory illustrates the value of a proper preparation on the part of the teacher. It can therefore be readily seen that teachers themselves are largely responsible for the failure of pupils to remember what is taught them. The Law of Repetition. This points to the daily lesson review, and shows its value, and there is no real teaching without daily reviews. The quarterly review is a test, but the daily review is an essential ele¬ ment in teaching. The more we go over a matter in our minds, the more we increase the mental associations, and understand re¬ lations. A person who teaches has a great advantage in memory over one who does not teach, for he will understand and re¬ member the subject more thoroughly. This is an advantage the Sunday school teacher realizes from the sacrifice to help others. HOW) TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 387 He will understand the Bible and its rela¬ tions to life better, because going over and over the lessons, aided by supplemental systematic Bible study will greatly affect his personal life. The Law of Association comes last but it is not least. Just as there is no real teach¬ ing without interest and attention, so there is no efficient teaching unless the lesson is taught in such way as to lead the pupil to associate it with other information he already has,, and the more of these mental associations, the better for the memory. The Four Laws of Association. Associa¬ tion plays such an important function in memory that it is worth while to here give them: 1. THE LAW OF CONTIGUITY. 2. THE LAW OF SIMILAKITY. 3. THE LAW OF SIGN AND THING SIGNIFIED. 4. THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT. Now the significance of these laws is that they represent a classification that the mind employs for storing away information so as to be able to reproduce it at will. As in¬ formation comes to the mind, related in¬ formation is placed in certain pigeonholes, as it were, in the way a mail clerk assorts his mail so as to be able to reproduce it. 888 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. The Law of Contiguity. This is the pigeon¬ hole in which time and place will serve to impress the mind. We remember things that happened at the same time or in the same place. The Law of Similarity. Things that are similar to each other are placed in the same pigeonhole, and we more easily learn them, than things opposite to each other. This is the philosophy of Hebrew poetry in the Bible which was written so as to help the people memorize, for to understand would mean to remember, for what we really know we recall. "Blessed is the man that Walketh not in the counsel of the ung-odly, Nor standeth in the way of sinners." Both these clauses mean the same thing and help to impress and aid memory. "The Lard knoweth the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish." Here is a contrast that helps understand¬ ing and memory. The Law of Sign, and Thing Signified, i. e., the grouping of things with their HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 389 names, words and symbols with their ob¬ jects or ideas. We easily recall the image when we see the word cat. We easily re¬ call sacrifice and suffering when we see the sign of the cross. The Law of Cause and Effect takes care of information that is gathered by the use of reason, and what a pupil reasons into his mind is there to stay, and he rather knows it than remembers it, for it is a part of his mind. The process of association is carried on by the mind itself, but the teacher should assist the mind by knowing the laws of as¬ sociation and let his illustrations and dia¬ grams and presentations be calculated to store in memory. Everything must be so taught that the pupil may be able to discov¬ er the relations. QUESTIONS. 1. Why is memory important? 2. How many kinds of memory? 3. Name and describe each. 4. Describe consciousness ? 5. Define and distinguish verbal and logical memory. 6. How is the memory improved? 7. What can the teacher do to help memory? 8. What can the pupil do to assist memory ? 9. Give the laws of memory. 10. Give the laws of association and explain. FROEBEL "To give firmness to the will, to quicken it, and to make it pure, strong, and enduring in a life of pure, humanity, is the chief concern, the main ob¬ ject in the guidance of the boy in instruction and the school." XII. THE WILL AND HOW TO STRENGTHEN IT. It is not sufficient to train the intellect and feeling only, but the will must receive prop¬ er attention. In the Old Testament the word does not appear as often as it does in the New Testament, and the same emphasis is not placed upon the will in the Old Testa¬ ment as in the New Testament. The legal school discounted the will just as out of date school teachers in these days fail to teach in such way as to develop the will. The real fact is that the will is the person. One high authority claims that the essen¬ tial achievement of the will is to attend to a difficult object, and to hold it fast before the mind, and that this effort of attention is therefore the essential phenomenon of the will, so that we both acquire knowledge and put it into practice through the will (391) 392 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. power, and thus the will is the personality. An infant has no will, but his actions are reflex only and the will and personality de¬ velop, side by side. How to train the will, therefore, is of vital importance. There is no better treatment of the subject of the will than the New Testament, for Chris¬ tianity relies largely upon will power for results, and the entire effort is to bring the human will in harmony with the divine will. The whole question is one of the will, and in order to get results our will must be ad¬ justed to the divine will. But this adjust¬ ment is not in obedience to any command— but a purely voluntary matter—or the will fails to function. Christianity does not crush the human will in favor of the divine but it brings the person of his own volition to change his rebellion. The outstanding fact of the New Testament is thai Christ compels no one to do anything, but every¬ thing is voluntary in Christianity. To com¬ pel is to crush the will, and to crush the will is to take from a person the only means by which he can make good. Paul beautifully expresses the Christ plan of salvation when he writes: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 393 that ye should obey the lust thereof. Neith¬ er yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield your¬ selves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace." Rom. 6: 12-14. The idea in this passage is that the will is supreme in human conduct and Christianity aims to strengthen and direct the will, and it is through rescuing the will that grace saves us. There is such a close relation between at¬ tention and the will that we may learn to control the will from what we already know about the law of attention. The whole question of attention is that of inter¬ est, for we give our attention when our in¬ terest is aroused. We have reduced will to attention, and attention to interest, and now the question turns on how to arouse interest in the pupil in such way as to lead the will to function. It is up to the teacher to create an interest on the part of his pupils in spiritual things, and to do this, teachers must show how spirituality ministers to the practical things of life. We 394 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. are all very much interested in the things that are around us, and the issues of life, and we must so teach the Bible as to apply it to the practical things of life, and we shall no doubt interest our pupils. We must so teach as to interest, or there is no real teaching at all. Let us never forget that we must secure the interest or we fail, for interest alone brings attention, and at¬ tention is will power, and the more we use the will the more it is strengthened. So then we must both arouse interest and encourage the pupil to use his will. This is done when we arouse the self-activity of the pupil, and when we encourage him to reach his own conclusion. We should not apply the lesson for the pupil, but help him to reach the point where he can make his own application. In other words, we should so teach as to cause the pupil to think, to think for himself, and to rely upon his own conclusions. This is the method and ob¬ ject of the new education, or modern meth¬ od of teaching, and it is surely worth while to prepare ourselves as teachers so as to attain both mental and spiritual results. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 395 To train the will, pupils should be placed upon their honor and trusted, and let the pupil see great things are expected of him, because he is entirely capable, if only he will. Right here is the fundamental differ- ence between Moses and Jesus as teach¬ ers, i. e., the difference between the Old and New Testaments. Moses did not have a very high opinion of the possibilities of in¬ dividuals, and he therefore did not expect much of them, and the law failed to save the people. But when Jesus came we can see from the story of the Prodigal Son, and all his illustrations, that he had an exalted estimate of the possibilities of the human soul, and upon this estimate he depended for results. Moses regarded people as serv¬ ants, but Christ changed that and tells us that his estimate is that we are not servants but friends. "For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you," Jno. 15:15. Teachers must be slow to suspect pupils, or to let them know even if they are suspected. Put them on their honor and will, and we will follow the plan of Jesus. To will is to choose between two oppos¬ ing ideas and the will is strengthened when 396 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. we so teach as to show what a thing is and what it is not. Man is a free agent and sub¬ ject to his own will. This is very clearly taught in the fourth chapter of Genesis, but the succeeding dispensation of the law crushed the will until Jesus came to restore it to its proper place. Train the pupil to make a choice and show both sides in or¬ der that he may know the facts and then know how to choose. Here is the great ad¬ vantage and need of Bible study to the Christian, because he gets all the facts about religion, and he has a wide range of choice. There is nothing of greater importance than will training to the Sunday school teacher and he should practice upon him¬ self. The will results from an act of judg¬ ment after close attention, and the proper time to will is immediately after the judg¬ ment is formed. It is contrary to proper order to postpone to carry out the decision of the mind. Young converts should be called upon immediately after conversion to dedicate themselves for special service, and they should be installed in the work at once. If a decision is made, and the will HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 397 fails to act at pnce, it is weakened more and more as time passes. "Do it now" is a good motto. But right here we are con¬ fronted with the fact that the will acts not from cause, i. e., reason, but will power comes from motive, or feeling, and in teach¬ ing effectively feeling must go hand in hand with reason in order to reach the will. Where there is genuine conversion both reason and feelings are involved, and we should press conversion to the point of definite service at once. Paul received his call to definite service and entered upon his work immedi¬ ately after conversion, and it is doubtless true in the case of others, and we should teach that persons are converted to a defi¬ nite service for the Master, and such work should begin at once upon decision for Christ, for if neglected then it may be neg¬ lected for ever. A practical expression of will power.is self-control, and this enables a personto learn just how much progress he is making in the cultivation of the will. Let self-con¬ trol be taught as practical Christianity, and let the matter continue to be impressed un¬ til it gets on the subconsciousness, and gradually the will asserts itself, and the 398 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. mind and body are brought under control. Our Sunday schools fail as they fail to stress self-control. We should rely upon expect¬ ant attention to help us achieve this grand end. Work the pupils up to the point to appreciate the power of the will, how it is strengthened and that self-control is its best expression. Then expect great things from the pupils, and let them know it, and place them upon their honor and their will. Set the right ideal and make the standard high and work at this Sunday after Sunday, un¬ til the mind in its subconscious state takes hold of it, and it is in this realm that God gets in his work, "For it is God that work- eth in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure," Phil. 2:13. QUESTIONS. 1. Write out Froebel's quotation on the will. Describe the difference between the use of will in the Old and New Testaments.- 3. What takes the place of will in infants ? 4. How is the will strengthened? 5. How is the will weakened? 6. What immediately leads .to an act of the will ? XIII. MORALITY AND RELIGION OR THE TRAINING OF THE FEELINGS. Just as the sense of touch is the most im¬ portant of all the senses, so the feelings or sensibilities are at the bottom of all men¬ tal operation. There is a tendency to put the training of the Sunday schools upon a pure intellectual basis, just as the intellect is exalted above the feelings in our univer¬ sities. But education cannot attain its highest results until the whole mind is trained, and the mind is composed of intel¬ lect, feeling, and will. The German educators are ahead of the world, and they lay great stress upon re¬ ligious training and the study of the Bible. Froebel taught that man is a child of hu¬ manity, a child of nature, and a child of God. Thus, the training in spiritual things is an essential part of all true culture. The (399) 400 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. people in the United States will not allow the Bible to be taught in public schools, and the entire country is beginning to see the result. Current education is training the young generation in intellect at the expense of the higher religious nature, and God only knows what the future has in store. Even now thousands and millions are turn¬ ing their backs upon God's word and truth, and are believing lies such as are taught in the so-called Christian Science. Our education is based upon a wrong idea. The moral and religious issues are matters of the feeling as against intellect. Even the conscience itself is the result of right feel¬ ings, and yet our great universities are neg¬ lecting to train the faculty that is at the bottom of all mental action. Our feelings may be classified as emotions, affections, and desires. When the feel-, ings are aroused in connection with the in¬ tellect we have surprise, wonder, admira¬ tion, happiness, sorrow, hope, fear, shame, the beautiful. When feelings are aroused in a psycho¬ physical way, we have cheerfulness, melan¬ choly, anxiety, indifference. Our affections HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 401 such as love, anger, hate, and jealousy are feelings. Our desires such as curiosity, ambition, imitativeness, social are feelings, and con¬ science is the moral desire to be in harmony with God and right. It can be seen from the foregoing that if our teaching in the Sunday school is to be helpful in a spiritual way, the Readi¬ er must give much attention to the intellec- • tual training of the feelings. Of course since our people place so much emphasis on feeling in connection with preaching, and in so many cases see.m en¬ tirely satisfied if only their feelings are stirred to the point of exhilaration result¬ ing in shouting; some intelligent people run to the extreme and speak against the ex¬ ercise of feeling in religious service and worship. But we must not be blinded to the facts in the case. Just because certain men merely play upon the feelings of others to arouse them to certain action, shall we allow the feeling faculty of the soul that enters so largely in what we are and hope to be to go untrained and be content to Sag. 14— 402 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. train our intellect alone? Look over the list of virtues and graces inculcated in God's word, and then go and study psychology, and see that they are the results of the ex¬ ercise of feelings, and if our feelings are not trained we shall never attain to the Bible, standard of living. Not much has been learned of the best way to train the feeling, but like other faculties of the mind the sensibilities can be trained by exercise. . And the way to lead to such exercise is for the teacher to so teach as to excite the ap¬ propriate feeling, and put feeling into his teaching. Feeling responds to feeling, and this matter should receive the special con¬ sideration of the teacher who should ac¬ quaint himself with human emotions, af¬ fections and desires, and place his teaching from time to time so that none will be neg¬ lected, and this is to be done repeatedly and habitually. The Bible urges us: "Set your mind on things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth," Col. 3:2. As has already been said, the conscience is a moral feeling, and can be and should be trained as other feelings. It is one thing to know HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 403 one s duty, but it is quite another thing to feel in such a way as to lead to the clearing of conscience by suitable action. People know what is right, but so few feel their duty clearly. The highest feeling of reli¬ gion is conscience, and when religious feel¬ ings have been aroused they should aU clear through the conscience, which points the way to the proper response to the feeling. We must largely look to our Sunday schools to establish the truth that no religious feel¬ ing is acceptable before God except the feeling that stirs the conscience to action. Shouting is all right if it does not inter¬ cept the action, but just as all sensation leads to appropriate action, we must real¬ ize that rejoicing is of no service except as it leads the way to the conscience, and there is no proper appeal in religious preaching or teaching except to the conscience. QUESTIONS. 1. What was Froebel's teaching as to man's nature? 2. What is feeling? 3. Classify feeling in a general way. 4. Name some emotions. 5. Name some desires mentioned in the lesson. 6. Name some wants mentioned in the lesson. 7. What part does feeling play in morality and re¬ ligion? j 8. How best to reach the pupil with morality and re¬ ligion? , . 9. Describe a pervision of religious feelings. 404 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. bibliography. Manual-Work, for Use in Sunday School rIda Sexton. Keystone Training Course for Teachers (2nd year) Starting to Teach' ——"— E. C. Foster. Pictured Truth F- G. Pierce. How!to: Deal With Lads : P* Green. The Junior Worker and His Work -—Emma A. Robinson. Primer, of Teacher Training A. A. Brown. Lange's Apperception — Training for 'Service L__Hurbert Moninger. Preparation' For Teaching Chas. A. Oliver. Training of Sunday School Teachers and Officers ~ : Franklin McElfresh. Teacher Training Class,, How to Conduct it ^ Emilie F. Kearney. Outline of Pedagogics __L_ Rein. Froebel's Educational Laws James L. Hughes. Philosophy of. Tejtfhing : Arnold Tompkins. Teachers and Teaching Trumbull. The Sunday School Teacher's Pupils Musselman. rThe Baptist Training Teachers' Manual Musselman. Practical Primary Plans Israel P. Black. - Elements of. Religious Pedagogy-' F. L. Pattee. Education as a Science Alexander Bain. Sacred Songs for Little Voices . A Sunday School Kindergarten A. C. Harnstick. Handbook for Primary Teachers Annie F. Munor. Sunny Songs for Little Folks (No. 1.) How to Place a Lesson Marianna C. Brown. The Making of a Teacher. Brambaugh. 'Love, Light and Life for God's Little Children —~—--— Mabel H. Wilson. Beginners and Primary , Songs ; Songs for Little Singers The Song Series, Book 1 : ~ God's Love and Care S. Kirshbaum. Lesson Stories for Kindergarten Grades of the Bible School L. S. Palmer. Education Spencer Memory—-What It Is and How to Improve It Kav HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 405 Elementary Psychology and Education Baldwin. Pestalozzi De Gumps. Herbart De Garmo. Text Book in Psychology Herbart. Froebel's Gifts Froebel's Occupations Education by Development ! Froebel. Baptist Sunday School Manual Chalmers. Sunday School Teacher Training Howell. PART IV. THE PUPIL. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Quotation from Herbart. 1. The Study of the Pupil. 2. The Personality of the Pupil. 3. How the Mind Learns. 4. Studying the* Pupils by Groups, i. Childhood. 6. Adolescence. 7. The Adult. 8. Bible Teaching Values. 9. How to Lead a Pupil to Christ. 10. The Training of the Pupil. Bibliography. "The first, though by no means complete science of the educator, would be a psychology in which the total possibilities of human activity were sketched a priori. I think I recognize the difficulty as well as the possibility of such a science. Long will it be before we have it, longer still before we can expect it from teachers. Nev¬ er, however, can it be a substitute for observation of the pupil; the individual can only be discov¬ ered, not deduced. The construction of the pu¬ pil on a priori principle is therefore a mislead¬ ing expression in itself and is also at present an empty idea which the science of education cannot handle for a long time."—Herbart in "Introduc¬ tion to Education." "The chief problem which child study has to solve is to determine the time at which each in¬ stinct of man is naturally most prominent. This being done, the problem of the educator is to apply the right stimuli at the right time, so as to produce the most perfect and rapid develop¬ ment along desirable lines."—Kirkpatrick. L THE STUDY OF THE PUPIL. The study of the pupil should go hand in hand with that of the teacher, for what we learn of the pupil is intended to guide us in our method of teaching, and the time to apply it is as fast as we learn. The best way to acquire a working knowl¬ edge of what is comprehended under the study of The Teacher, The Pupil and The School, is to use a large chart that combines all that is now known of all three of these subjects, so that the knowledge may be cor¬ related in such a way as to make the study practical and really helpful. Such a chart is published on another page in PartV, in this book, and it would be a capital plan if the superintendents of our Sunday schools would'have a large painting made of the same to be placed permanently on the wall in such a place as will keep before the mind of the teachers at all times so as to 412 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. review and suggest in teaching the differ¬ ent grades. There is no question about the value de¬ rived from the study of the pupil. When once this study is appreciated there will follow a deeper interest in the study of the mind and the science of teaching. Because interest in teaching centers so largely about the pupil, and because the central position of the child must be recognized to bring the teacher to a thorough preparation in psy¬ chology and pedagogy, several of the stand¬ ard books on teacher training make the study of the pupil first in the course. This, however, could be justified only upon the supposition that the teacher already has attained a mastery of the Bible, which sup¬ position is utterly unwarranted. The first study in any course for the Sunday school teacher should be the Bible not only, from a historical standpoint but also from a spiritual standpoint, because thus only will his personality be so affected as to guar¬ antee the best results. But the study of the pupil -is of the high¬ est importance as to pointing the way to the proper method to employ in teaching-. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 413 This would apply to the orator, or lecture er, or any public speaker, who' wished to impress his hearers with his own ideas;1 One must make a study of the; pieople whom he is to address in order to influence and; carry them. Human nature, miist receive a great deal of attention frogmen who. wish to sway men's minds., , It i$ necessary to learn how the people look at a matt;eriii, order to so present it as to, receive;their approval and support. Pope. • said*: "Thev proper study of mankind is man,",or human, nature. The study of the pupil, 'is fullyf worth the pains, not only because' it helps us to teach, but it is an essential part of that greater study of human nature the knowledge of which is so helpful in many different ways. A person cannot under¬ stand the Divine nature except through a knowledge of human nature, for our only revelation and interpretation of God comes; to us in terms of human nature which is from the known to the unknown. We study the child and learn right educational meth¬ ods, and as we begin to appreciate the laws of pedagogy we have a better understand¬ ing of Jesus, the Master Teacher. Jesus 414 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. said and did certain things that cannot at all be understood except from the stand¬ point of the teacher, but the new education is a new appreciation of Jesus. The new edu¬ cation as exemplified in the teaching of Herbart and Froebel, and as illustrated in up-to-date pedagogy is a result of the study of the child, and one cannot apply these methods who is ignorant of child nature. The principle of self-activity and mental evo¬ lution is what makes modern teaching so radically different from former methods. A teacher can only build upon what the pu¬ pil already knows, and if he teaches what he already knows he is doing poor business, and it is up to the teacher to learn the scope of his pupils' knowledge by studying in a general way all children, and in a special way the group he is to teach. But the teacher must especially aim to discover the particular interests of the in¬ dividual pupil, and the general interests of the class, in order to be able to secure and hold attention, and attention is necessary to reach both the 'intellect, the sensibility, and the will of the pupil. We sometimes speak of voluntary and involuntary atten¬ tion, but interest underlies both, for a per- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 415 son will hardly tax himself to the point of real attention by an act of the will except for some over-powering motive, and the mo¬ tive will be found in special interest. It can be readily seen that interest plays a most commanding part in education because there is no teaching or learning without attention and no attention without interest. And it is no easy matter to secure this in¬ terest which is so necessary; and the trouble comes from not knowing the pupil's interests. The study of the pupil is the only possible way to put teachers in line to learn the interests of their scholars. We study the individual child, and then groups of children, and the study never will be completed, but great gain will come if the teacher training books can only bring teach¬ ers to the point of observing their scholars closely, and then associating with them in a social way outside of the regular school session. This subject cannot be put too strongly before Sunday school teachers, for it is often so inconvenient to mingle so¬ cially with the pupils that it may be con¬ cluded unnecessary after all. Teachers will give a dozen reasons showing just why it 416 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. cannot be done, but when they have offered the best excuse, it still remains true that the interests of the pupils can be learned in no oth^r way so well, and our teaching is ineffective for lack of interest and attention. But all teachers will not regard visiting pu¬ pils or meeting them often upon a social •plane as so impractical, and these will be greatly helped, and know better how to touch a chord that will lead to response. Social mingling with the scholars can take place otherwise than by personal visits, if teachers will meet the class once a month in their own homes or the homes of pupils. But (Someiway must be.found for the teacher to get a better knowledge of the pupils indi¬ vidually both as to living conditions, hab¬ its, inclinations, and likes, and dislikes. Of course, it is easier to know the state of in¬ tellectual development, but it would be very helpful if the teacher would drop in upon his pupils in the day school classes, and wit¬ ness the day school teacher handle his scholars and learn better how to get the point of contact on Sunday. After all, an occasional visit to the public school to spend at least one hour watching his own Sunday school pupils will accomplish more than any HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 417 other one visit anywhere, for the pupils will especially appreciate such attention from their teacher and will respond with increase of interest in the Sunday school class and work. QUESTIONS. 1. Write out Kirkpatrick's quotation in front of this lesson. 2. What is the best way to acquire a working1 knowl¬ edge of all forms of the teacher traiining studies? 3. Copy in full the teacher training chart on pages 553 and 554. 4. What is the general benefit to the teacher from the study of the pupil? 5. Name two great German educators mentioned in the lesson and find out more about them from an encyclopedia. 6. What is the value of a study of human nature? II. THE PERSONALITY OF THE PUPIL. It was once the impression that a teach¬ er could mold a pupil according to his own idea so that he would never be able to break himself away from the impression made upon him. Such is the idea of Fichte who said: "If you would have any influence over man you must do more than merely talk to him; you must make him—make him so that it is impossible for him to will other¬ wise than you wish him to will." This gives a very high value to education and it would be fortunate if it were true. It certainly is true in the case of some teachers and pu¬ pils, and not because the pupil cannot will other than as his teacher planned, but be¬ cause he does not desire to do so. This comes from the strong personality of a teacher in touch with a weaker personality in his pu¬ pil, and shows also the difference between training and teaching. Training is the (419) 420 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. overbearing personality of the trainer working upon, the passive and willing mind of the person who is trained, but this is not education, it is not teaching. It crushes and enslaves, while education brings freedom as taught by the greater German educator, Froebel, who was a firm believer in-the Christian religion and the Bible, and no doubt was greatly influenced by the state¬ ment of Jesus: "And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Jesus, no doubt, meant for his statement a univer¬ sal application, and Froebel thus applied it, and it is now regarded an essential ele¬ ment of real education to bring the pupil spiritual as well as intellectual freedom. No man is due more credit for the contribu¬ tion made to the course of education than Frederick Froebel, the founder of the Kindergarten Movement. He was an orig¬ inal thinker because an original investiga¬ tor, and being a devout believer in Jesus Christ, teachers would do well to read his "Education of Man" and other books. He first focused attention upon the child as the key to unlock the door into the mysteries of educational science. r„nd he tav.cht tint n HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 421 child is not only a child of humanity, but al¬ so a child of nature and also a child of God, and that education should fit him to real¬ ize the highest ends as a human being, as a master of nature, and as a son of God in full harmony with the divine will. In oth¬ er words, Froebel did not consider a per¬ son thoroughly educated until his will had been brought in harmony with the Divine will. This places religious instruction where it belongs. Froebel taught that there is implanted in the mind and nature of each child the prin¬ ciples of self-activity, and that nothing can be assimilated to become a part of the mind until the child's own mind has func¬ tioned in accordance with its nature to ac¬ quire and assimilate knowledge. He made endless investigation, and built upon this hy¬ pothesis an educational system for children that has proven his position correct, and there is now well-nigh universal acquies¬ cence in his philosophy. The German Gov¬ ernment opposed Froebel, but if this great educator instead of the Kaiser had been followed, Germany would not be where she is at present. Froebel taught that the 422 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. child's own nature is to show us the true method of teaching and we are to study its impulses and instincts as foreshadowing the development of the will and personality. As Mrs. Lamoreaux has pointed out in her book on "The Unfolding Life," just as every flower in the garden has to be espec¬ ially studied because each one is different from the other, in order to learn how it is to be cultivated properly to the end that it may properly grow and bear flowers or fruit: so each child is different from the other, and one study will not answer for all, but each particular child is to be studied separately so as to learn how to cultivate its mind and reach its heart. All the pupils may attend to the same-in¬ struction, but each one will in some particu¬ lar understand in a way different from the other, and since we know this of the pupil we can shape our methods accordingly. We need never consider that there can be any proper impression unless we test it by an expression on the part of the pupil so as to let us see where one differed from the oth¬ er in receiving the impression. The course of nature is irresistible as we can see where HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE 423 we put a band around a growing pumpkin, for instance. Since self-activity and self- development constitute the nature of the mind implanted at birth, education should aim not to stand in the way of nature, but rather to assist it. This law of the evolu¬ tion or unfolding of the mind has always been impressively illustrated in the many cases of self-made individuals who exhibit remarkable development and use of the mind without attendance upon formal in¬ struction. These particular individuals reached the point of freedom from the fet¬ ters that hold the mind in thraldom by rea¬ son of strong will power and personality, which would brook no interference from in¬ feriors. This is illustrated in an apocry¬ phal account of the childhood of Jesus in the Protevangelium of the Virgin Mary, where a schoolmaster is represented as try¬ ing to teach Jesus the alphabet; but Jesus would not pass from the first to the second letter, because he claimed he had not received proper information about the first one. This foolish method was so illog¬ ical or impractical as a way to teach read¬ ing that our Lord refused to do violence to 424 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. his own mental constitution by such a proc¬ ess. The teacher should encourage the child to mental effort by commending what he does and lead the child in this way to re¬ spect his own efforts, and conclusions. Such self-respect bears great fruit in after years, for the pupil is encouraged to try and try again. It also builds up a will and a per¬ sonality. The teacher should expect much of his pupils, and let them see he is expect¬ ing much of them. With all this he should possess a strong personality of the right kind himself, and when the pupil sees his own personality is respected he will be drawn that much more to admire the per¬ sonality of his teacher. The teacher will have to avoid telling instead of teaching. Say only enough to lead the pupil to pass from one point to another and finally form his own conclusion., The question may be employed to advantage, if it is one that leads by easy stages to the desired end. But let the teacher ever hold in mind th&t his little girl or boy pupil may one day grow to great power, if only his will and person- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 425 ality are not crushed by a teacher with wrong method and spirit. QUESTIONS. 1. What is an abuse of a teacher's personality as in this lesson? 2. Describe personality in the pupil and its effects. 3. What should be a teacher's attitude toward the pu¬ pil's personality, and why? 4. Next to Jesus, who taught us most about the value a!nd place of personality in the pupil1? 5. How does personality in the pupil show itself? 6. What does Mrs. Lomoreaux' book teach on this mat¬ ter? 7. What apocryphal anecdote of Jesus' childhood is given in this lesson? III. HOW THE MIND LEARNS. The teacher studies the pupil to find out how his mind learns, and it is now in order to point out some things that we have learned about the working of the human mind beginning with the child. The first fact that confronts us is that a little infant has no mind at first, and knows nothing, and all that he will ever know he is to learn after his mind begins to func¬ tion. The mind begins to operate as the re¬ sult of certain impressions, or sensations, made upon it through what we have called the five senses, but which are now consid¬ ered to be seven senses. These senses pro¬ duce sensations upon the brain through cer¬ tain nerves whose ends come in contact with certain things and conditions. For instance, through the auditory nerves the sound reaches the brain, and the mmd definite impression of sound. The child 428 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. opens its eyes and the mind gets an impres¬ sion of light. All the child will ever know about the outside world must come to its mind through the senses. It becomes im¬ portant, therefore, that the child's senses should be in perfect condition in order to do their work perfectly, for if one sense is de¬ ficient and does not properly function the child is deprived of one channel that should help to make his mind what it should be. The lesson for the teacher here is that the first effort at teaching the child should be an effort to train its senses to function prop¬ erly and to see that no sense is neglected in the training. Of course the senses are: 1. Seeing. 2. Hearing. 3. Smelling. 4. Tasting. 5. Feeling. 6. Temperature. 7. Muscular. The sense of sight comes first in this list, for when it is normal and properly trained it can be made to serve the purpose of near¬ ly all the other senses, and it will help to more thoroughly impress the other senses. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 429 All of the senses co-operate to heighten the impression of each other, but sight makes possible ^ a better impression in a shorter time. It is maintained by some psychologists that the greatest and most indispensable of all the senses is that of touch, including as it does the modifications of the temperature and muscular sense; for if touch with tem- . perature and muscles should fail to function* a person could not live. The story of Helen Keller is a remark¬ able illustration of the place of touch among the senses, for she was blind and deaf and dumb, and yet through her sense of touch she not only learned to read, but she finally educated herself by the aid of a patient and skillful teacher. We have a way of think¬ ing nature compensated her by giving her a wonderful touch sense, but psychologists claim that a sense can only develop by ex¬ ercise ; and her story goes to show that this one sense of touch contributes as much to the mind as the three senses she had lost, or at least she overcame their loss very largely. Laura Bridgreman is another such- illustration. To say the very least about the sense of touch, we must recognize that it is capable of greatly assisting to convey im- 430 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. pressions to the mind, and the lesson to teachers is that in teaching small children they should be allowed to touch the object used to illustrate the lesson. The teacher of the Beginner's Class should think much about sense development' in teaching, and be very considerate of the children, for some sense may fail to function, and this may cause dullness or listlessness, or disorder. Another factor in mental development is the instinct of the pupil. It was once taught that only the lower animals had instinct, but now it is generally recognized that hu¬ man beings also have instincts, but that they do not show up at the same time, or as early, as in the case of the lower animal. After early life, instinct shows itself most decidedly in connection with the propaga¬ tion of the species, and this is true of both man and the lower animals. By reason of fewness of the human instincts, infancy is extended over a long period, and the hu¬ man life extends longer than that of the lower animal with some few exceptions. It is considered fortunate that the child's in¬ fancy is so long drawn out, for he learns to adjust himself to more changing situations JIOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 431 than instinct could accustom him. The low¬ er animal's environment is pretty much the same at all times, and hence his instinct ripens earlier. But it is a fact that instincts do not always show themselves at the same time, but in the case of man there is a peri¬ od in life when a certain instinct comes to the front; and until the instinct ripens the mind cannot be impressed along that line. The lesson from this is that teachers should so grade instruction as to time it to the rip¬ ening of the instinct. It is upon this prin¬ ciple that the strictly graded literature is founded, which holds the pupil to the class of information his already ripened instincts enable him to acquire and assimilate. This matter of timing the effort to the instinct is of signal help in evangelism as well as in indicating what aspect of religious edu¬ cation should be taught throughout the course of the pupil. We now know that it is idle to call upon beginners to r^°nt of their sins at that tender age when they have no idea of sin, the limitation of their experi¬ ence at such a state of development making such a conception impossible. However,when the pupil enters upon the period of ado- 432 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. lescence his religious instinct asserts itself as never before, and his experience at this age prepares him to see the need of repent¬ ance, for he feels himself a sinner for the< first time in his life. The teaching value of this discovery is that we should stress sin and repentance here, i. e., in adolescence, and that before this time we should present God as loving his children and Jesus as Friend and Saviour. The teaching science informs us that we must expect to reach the pupiPs mind through the laws of the mind, and that the way he usually thinks he will have to think in the lesson. It is important to know how knowledge enters the mind and is assimi¬ lated, and this we learn begins with the Per¬ ception of the sensation. Then the memory brings back into the mind images of other Perceptions, and the Imagination creates' new images of other Perceptions or ideas,- and the result is thought or Conception. Then Memory brings back previous Percep¬ tions and Conceptions, and the Imagination ■ works over the mental pictures in a way different from the originals, and the Reason works up the whole and gives us Judgment HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 433 0 But the mind has to be in a certain condi¬ tion in order to acquire Perceptions, and to reason, and this condition is expressed by the word Attention and this condition is the result of the appeal to Interest. On account of this information, we know better how to proceed in the teaching proc¬ ess to secure results, and all teaching must regard the following formal steps: 1. Preparation of the.pupil's mind for the lesson. 2. Presentation of the facts of the les- son. v 3. Association illustrated by previous knowledge. 4. Generalization: new truth found and isolated. 5. Application to body of knowledge. QUESTIONS. 1. Name the senses. 2. Which seems most essential? 3. How do we get seven senses? 4. Why should objects be used in teaching little chil¬ dren? • 5. Define instinct. . ., a 6. Describe difference between instinct of man ana brute. 7. What is the significance of instinct in teaching? 8. Explain the process by which the mind leairns. Sig.—15. "What the educator should care for must lie open before him like a map or if possible like the plan of a well built city, in which sets of lines having similar directions always intersect at ex¬ actly the same angle, and in which the eye finds itself at home without preparation."—Herbart in Introduction to Science of Education. STUDY OF THE PUPIL. CHILDHOOD. EARLY MIDDLE LATER Beginner Primary Junior 4 and 5. 6, 7, 8. 9, 10, ill Active Plays alone Imagination Feelings dominant Dependent Fearful Shy Animism Affectionate Self-willed Egoistic Ruled by senses and instincts Play imitative Imagination Openness Consistency Memory pictures Curiosity Will growing More social Budding reason Ruled by parents and tealchers Growing independ¬ ence Play competitive Sexes apart Imagination Will develops Reason Feeling Teasing Hero worship Loyalty Verbal memory Habits fixing Gangs Boys fight Altruistic Ruled by laws and peers ADOLESCENCE. EARLY MIDDLE | LATER __ Intermediate |' Senior I Young People 12, 13, 14 | 15, 16, 17 | 18, 19, 20 Companionship Play competitive Entire revolution Less energy Organizing Critical Moody Self-conscious Intellectual Social instinct Morality Religion Quality _ Conversion Ruled by sentiment Conversion Increased energy Critical Intellectual! Aspiring Sentiment and ro mance Leadership Social Morality Religion Highest tendency wrongdoing to I Ruled by sentiment rind will X* ULil^ \ Vl-V j^r w Endurance Disallusionized Individuality Doubt Many interests Sex attraction Social life Courageous Self-sufficient (Social Life (Experience as authori¬ ty New moral vision Comradeship Ruled by reason, emo¬ tion and will IV. STUDYING THE PUPIL BY GROUPS. It has already been pointed out in this book that no two pupils are alike by nature, and that in teaching, each one understands the points of a lesson in a different way in proportion as he differs in his make-up from the others, and the difference spells per¬ sonality in the pupil which is so essential to true education that it is by all means to be encouraged and developed. But it can be readily seen that if each pupil is to receive personal instruction in a class the work be¬ comes too difficult of accomplishment. We must therefore push our study of pupils to the point to ascertain whether they may not be so grouped for class purposes as to enable the teacher to successfully know and teach them all together, at least to the extent of arousing their interest and securing their attention. (437) 438 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. On account of the fact that the instincts ripen at different ages, and on account of the laws governing the development and growth of the mind, all the pupils of the same year of age might be grouped in the same class, for although the one pupil would differ from the other, still each would be more like the other than in any other group¬ ing, for pupils of the same year of age ordi¬ narily have about the same instincts and experience. We recognize that some children of the same year of age do not begin to have the same knowledge as other children of the same age, but they do have the same gener¬ al human experience. Moreover, in Sunday school work, experience counts for more than knowledge. Paul says in I Cor. 2:14, what is very true: "The natural man re- ceiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spirit¬ ually discerned." Experience takes the place of knowledge as a basis of grouping in the Sunday school, and children of the same year of age have had pretty much the same general experience. Therefore, the classes that are composed only of pupils of HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 439 the same age can be taught to a better ad¬ vantage than if different ages are repre¬ sented in the same class: and the good teach¬ er will know better how to get the interest and attention, and the pupil will understand better. The ideal arrangement of the graded idea and the graded literature is that pupils are to be classified solely in this way, all the scholars in all classes being of the same age. The graded literature is only intended to be used by classes composed only of pupils of the same year of age. If any departure is made from this unvarying rule of classification, then the advantages of the graded literature fail to materialize, for all quarterlies are arranged for sepa¬ rate years, each with different lessons; so that if scholars of different ages are in the same class they would have different quar¬ terlies with different lessons for each year; and the graded literature would then bring confusion instead of order. For this reas¬ on the graded literature will always be for the more educated anil advanced schools. Franklin McElfresh, Secretary of the Com¬ mittee of Education of the International Sunday School Association, in his book on 440 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Training of Sunday School Teachers and Officers, has this to 'Say of graded lessons: "This better food for the child's religious want is often denied because teachers cannot be found ready to use the graded lesson system, and in many schools where the lesspns have been introduced they have been dropped be¬ cause the teachers were not prepared to use them with skill and thoroughness to insure success." We must discover some other system, if we expect to enlist the support and coop¬ eration of the large majority of schools. Already progress can be reported upon a plan of classification and literature that will not require so many teachers as the graded plan. Attention, for instance, is called to the fact that a five year old child is not so very different from a four year old child as to make it impossible to place both in the same class. The same is true of oth¬ er groups of years, placing three different years in the same class from six years up, so thativhat we formerly called department may now serve the purpose of grades, and the school could be classified as follows: Beginners, 4 and 5. ^ Primary, 6, 7 and 8. V Childhood Junior, 9, 10 and 11. ) HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 441 Intermediate, 12, 13, 14 \ Senior, 15, 16 and 17. ( Adolescence. Young- People, 18, 19, 20 ) Adults, 21 and up. Adulthood In other words, we recognize that after all the radical differences between pupils are represented by these major groupings which establish themselves by the free choice of the groups, viz., Childhood, Ado¬ lescence and Adulthood. These groups are so distinct that they should be kept sepa¬ rate altogether in the Sunday school, or Divisions, each under separate supervision, but all subject to the whole school. We further recognize subdivisions in each of these major groups. Childhood is spoken of as Early, Middle and Late. Ado¬ lescence is described as Early and Late, and Adulthood would be divided in the same way. All of these groups are based upon similarity of experience which usually tallies with the age, but none are so well founded as the three major groups, Child¬ hood, Adolescence, and Adulthood. 442 HOW TO. STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. QUESTIONS. 1. Copy carefullly the chart in front of this lesson. 2. What is the basis of grading, i. e., grouping pupils in Sunda'y school? 3. How are pupils in day schools graded? 4. What is the so-called Graded Idea basis of grading the Sunday school? 5. What does McElfresh say of the graded literature? 6. Group the pupils by the three major groupings in the lesson. 7. Group each group separately. 8. Copy the group diagram in the lesson. V. A STUDY OF CHILDHOOD. In the preceding lesson on studying the pu¬ pils by groups, it was pointed out that these major groups represented Childhood, Ado¬ lescence, and Adulthood. Our study of the pupils with these three groups as the basis yields "certain definite knowledge of valua¬ ble aid in teaching. We can not be sure of relating what we know of pupils to each particular year, but we can relate it very definitely to these three groups. Our further studies of the pupil will be as children, as youths, and as adults. Thus in this lesson we are to study childhood. We are able to vaguely divide childhood itself into Early, Middle and Later Childhood, correspond¬ ing to Beginners, Primaries, and Juniors, in a general way, but we can not be too precise as to the exact year. Early child¬ hood would, for instance, start in infancy. 444 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Early Childhood. The infant comes into the world kicking, and his tendency to move is responsible for his future development, and his moving is closely allied with his learning. His mind is a blank or chaos, because his mind is de¬ pendent upon his senses for development. The training of the infant even up to and through the Beginner's Department is there¬ fore largely a training of the senses in the secular school, and in the Sunday school we can relate our teaching only to the actual experience of the child. The senses that have meant the most to the child are sight, and touch or feeling, and the teacher must reach the pupil chiefly through these two senses; and the object method appeals to touch, as the picture method employs sight. It is worthy to note that the mental facul¬ ty of feeling seems to be related to the sense of feeling, and seems to serve as the con¬ necting link of the senses to the intellect; so that just as the mind awakens from the exercises of the senses, so the mind begins its development with the sensibilities or feelings. The child at first, therefore, shows no intellectual qualities, but his men- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 445 tal progress is shown only through the feel¬ ings. He is active, self-centered, imitative, imaginative, affectionate, shy and credu¬ lous. He plays alone, and personifies ob¬ jects toward the close of this period. These characteristics are manifestations of feel¬ ings mostly, and even the imagination is the play of the feeling upon the undeveloped mind, and is really the play of the mind; for this child takes delight in play which is na¬ ture's method of practicing him for life, developing his whole body and mind. This child is in the midst of a wonder-world, and takes it all in. The teacher must be very tender with this child and careful with his own every look and movement, for he feels more than he can understand; and yet it is possible to be of great help to him; for religion itself is closely associated with feeling, and little children are especially adapted to the right kind of religious instruction. His activity is closely related to his development, and therefore his activity is to be wisely di¬ rected. Just as energy is so closely allied to mental progress, so is the child's activi¬ ty an expression of its energy which is des¬ tined later on to be of equal worth with in¬ tellectuality. Let the lessons be quite 446 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. short, teach each one separately for about three minutes, use pictures and tell the les- .son in a sweet story. Then let them sing, and sing motion songs, and then march, .and then all of them sit around a table and look at the big words on the card, or in the Beginner's Quarterly, and color the letters. The teacher is even more of a study to these children, and she should teach them the les¬ son of love from her actions, her words and her feelings. Middle Childhood. This child has entered school and is less self-centered and more sociable, but is still largely under the control of his senses and feelings. He will now play a little with other children, but is still quite impulsive. His mind has developed considerably and his intellect and reason begin to function. His imitation now is dramatic showing in¬ tellect, just as previously it was only reflex action. The child is beginning to think. For the first time a symbol will cause a mental picture of a bird, etc. This indi¬ cates wonderful growth of mind and the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 447 child is now getting to the place where men¬ tal culture is possible, for culture : is '.re¬ stricted largely to interpreting symbols. From this time on the object should give place to the word, and the child should be allowed to sit at the table in its class room and copy the words that the quarterlies; print for that purpose, and some of the copying ought to be left for the week days so as to engage his mind along the same line through the week. The same simple story of the lesson, a little longer, and ad¬ dressed to the whole class now, instead of to each pupil. Songs, marches, motion songs still greatly help the instruction. As has been stated in another part of this book, these children should have a room that can be shut off from the other part of the school by sight and sound, and an organ and or¬ ganist, and teachers for every ten pupils, and helpers to look after the hats and rub¬ bers and other things, and help to main¬ tain order. The Cradle Roll children are not to be expected to attend school at all until four years of age, for they require too much attention. Let the mothers keep them 448 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. at home, and not break up the Beginner's Department. The dramatic imitation of the child should suggest to the teacher to give the story to the child dramatically. The child's imag¬ ination at this period takes the place of reason, and he seems to use it in the same way, i. e., he goes by his imagination in¬ stead of reason. There is no need to try to curb it here, the only hope is to direct it, and lead the child to appreciate the best stories of the nurseries, and the best stories in the Bible. He cannot use reason until his brain reaches a higher state of growth. Objects are not so necessary now, for the child can imagine the object from words and pictures, i. e., other side of the picture that is not shown up. Scripture Teaching Values For Early Childhood, i. e., Beginners, will consist of those stories in the Old and New Testaments which stress God as the loving Father who protects and provides for his children and which show Jesus as friend and helper; and the purpose for teaching HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 449 such stories should be to lead children to show love for God. The entire two years of four and five year pupils should be to give stories of this nature, which should be short, simple and sweet, because the child's experience is so limited he could not grasp and understand more at the present stage. For Middle Childhood, i. e., Primaries. The experience of these pupils is somewhat more extensive. Here we aim to inspire the pupil to live with reverence toward God, and tell more of the love and work of Je¬ sus, and aim to make the pupil make a choice and to obey God. Of course the Bible material will be the same as the Be¬ ginners and told in the same way, unless more dramatic. Do not teach much of sin against God to these children, for they have had no such experience that will enable them to under¬ stand that they are sinners. They are in union with God as little children, and that is why Baptists do not baptize infants and little children. Very often children will cry when told of sin, but they are generally at this age moved to please the mother or teacher. The fact is, at this age, the pu- 450 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. pil's mind has not developed to the point where his conversion represents his own free will and choice. So dwell on God's love and what it means to the child. Later Childhood. This period corresponds pretty closely to the Juniors, and it stands out in sharp con¬ trast from early and middle childhood. The brain of the child of this age has reached its full size, and this fact shows itself in the pupil's characteristics. The senses have now reached their highest development, and the mind begins to operate. Reason now controls the imagination, and leads to the forming of ideals in the minds of the pupils, and they imitate qualities rather than persons; and they imagine the kind of man or woman they would like to be. This is the time to get them to decide to set the ideal high, and this can be done if the teacher is prepared for the work of teaching. The memory is at its best, and it is verbal memory, the memory of words, and this is the time to commit to memory choice portions of the Bible, and facts, his- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 451 tory and geography. The Junior is very active and should be kept busy copying, memorizing, writing, looking up references, and he should be-given much work of this kind which requires the use of the hand, for handwork helps to make the impres¬ sion lasting. The classes should be separated at this age and all the time afterward, and in many cases classes are organized at this period, for the Junior is disposed to be mischiev¬ ous and to cause the teacher some trouble to have order, but when a class decides the punishment a pupil should receive it great¬ ly affects him. The play of this child is competition, and he likes games, and exercise, and plenty of fresh air. Teachers should take Juniors for strolls through the woods, and if they know botany the trip can be made helpful as well as enjoyable. The teacher should be especially careful of his speech and ac¬ tions, and if he is the real thing, what he should be, his pupils will discover it and will make him their ideal, and he will be able to greatly influence them. Some teachers do not like to teach these pupils because they are so active and full 452 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. of energy they cannot keep still. The teach¬ er must know how to teach these Juniors, and direct their efforts. It is at this age that the instinct of getting things for them¬ selves asserts itself, and the Junior's pock¬ ets contain all sorts of things. This in¬ stinct should be carefully directed, or else the pupil will grow up selfish and mercen¬ ary. He should be taught to get money by earning it, and to contribute to help care for the less fortunate. He is quite suscep¬ tible to high and lofty sentiment and will aim to approve himself to his teacher by following his advice. The child of this age is also a great reader, for he is just learn¬ ing to read with feeling and sense, and the teacher has an extraordinary opportunity to follow up his instruction by idealistic literature such as we have in Christian bi¬ ographies and books especially intended for pupils of this age. The teacher must give the pupils something to do through the week, if they would properly train them, and nothing equals the reading of the prop¬ er books at this time such as "Tom Brown at Rugby," and similar stories. In order to induce the pupils to read the books the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 453 teacher should read them and become fa¬ miliar with the stories in a general way. This pupil has curiosity which is very strong, and curiosity is the hunger of the mind for knowledge, and the teacher should give much attention to preparation and the plan of the lesson, and should also plan much handwork and other activities for the class. This pupil is no longer credulous but is growing to become distrustful, and asks many questions, and these should all be seriously considered and answered as far as possible. The pupils of this age are the best and easiest to teach in school, provided always the teacher is the right person, and thoroughly prepares and plans each les¬ son. But if the teacher is careless and lazy, then this child is apt to rebuke and tantalize as a just punishment. This child is the test of the genuine teach¬ er, and it is a bad sign when teachers indi¬ cate a preference not to teach Juniors, for it shows the kind of teacher one is. He is prompt, and if the teacher knows how to arouse interest, the work will be easy and pleasant. . It would be a capital idea^ to organize the class for social and Christian service, and 454 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. it will prove a helpful training, and this is the time when right training will mean much. The teacher must take the lead in doing what he wishes his pupils to do. He should be sober and serious, but at the same time full of life and joy. The main thing in a teacher is not to be frivolous and silly, and insincere and careless in his manners, but dignified and yet kindly. Nothing said here is to be construed as justifying a teach¬ er in coming before his class in a Puritan¬ ic spirit or style, for unless his teaching is pleasant it will not be efficient. Teachers of all grades of pupils, but especially of children, must learn to teach pleasantly, and make learning pleasant and agreeable. Bible Teaching Values for Later Child¬ hood. We have already partly covered this ground in the preceding part of this chap¬ ter. It is not our aim to run through the Bible and pick out each single story or pas¬ sage suitable to these Juniors. The teach¬ er must aim to master the Bible in such a way that if he only knows the material HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 455 wanted he will know exactly where to find it. Stories of heroes in the Old Testament and of Jesus in the New Testament best meet the needs of the period, and told in such way that the pupil will not think that you are trying to make a hero of the char¬ acter, but let him find the hero in his own way, and these stories only should be given that answer to the active nature of the Jun¬ ior. The Gospel by Mark should form the basis of the Jesus stories for this reason, but as has already been said, the pupil memo¬ rizes and writes down much Scripture and it is now time to try to especially interest him in Bible study in detail, i. e., geogra¬ phy and chronology. The aim of the Bible hero stories is to get the pupil to form a high ideal and choice. QUESTIONS. 1. Give the groups of childhood. 2. Gave ages of each group. 3. Describe early childhood. 4. Describe middle childhood. 5. Describe laftejr childhood. 6. Classify teaching values in Bible fo each group. VI. A STUDY OF ADOLESCENCE. Early Adolescence. The period from twelve or thirteen to twenty is called Adolescence or the period of youth, which is the connecting link be¬ tween Childhood and Adulthood. When the pupil enters upon this period he is no longer a child, and the teacher who insists upon regarding the pupil as a child will lose influence over him. This is the period the pupils begin to drop out of school, and is the so-called teen age period, though the tendency recently is to group the twelve year old child with the adolescents. One reason why the adolescent drops out of school is because he does not care to be rated as a child, and also because he feels that he is misunderstood, and that no one cares for him. This is one of the most sig- ' (457) 458 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. nificant periods of the pupil's life, because childish things are rapidly passing away. He no longer is a hero worshipper, but he is now looking for qualities and values in persons and things. The adolescent is moved not only by reason, but also and especially by emotion and love, and these should decide the meth¬ od the teacher should employ in teaching. Here is the time to make the right illustra¬ tion count and serve to stamp the right im¬ pression. Only stories of fact ought to be used as material for illustrating, and the teacher should be careful to get the details correct. Nothing illustrates better than the story of young persons who found a high purpose and clung to it in spite of every opposition and temptation. This pu¬ pil likes to read stories that appeal to the emotion, and no greater service can be ren¬ dered them by the teacher than to be able to point out the right book, and give some idea of its contents. He is very sensitive and moody, and has a feeling of awkwardness on account of his rapid growth at this time. This pupil will respond to a sympathetic attitude on the part of the teacher, and it is the duty of the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 459 teacher to be very patient with him. The fact is, that the entire physical constitution undergoes a radical change around about this time, and new instincts are ripening, and a great and radical change is coming over the pupil. This is the time to look for conversions, for with the coming of this great physical change there is manifested a strong religious interest, and in many cases this interest may never have been in evidence before. Indeed, it is claimed. in some quarters that there is a close rela¬ tion between the ripening of the sexual in¬ stinct and the development of the religious instinct, and they appear simultaneously generally. Of course the pupil is religious before this period, but the feeling of the guilt of sin is made especially controlling at this time, and it is not a difficult matter to convince such a pupil of his awful condition before God. His love of charac¬ ter and quality here cause him to desire to be the genuine thing, and he desires to square his life with the ideal that began to take shape in later childhood and is now becoming the controlling power in his life. Before now religion has been taught in each lesson, but only such phase of it as 460 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. the child's experience would allow him to take in. Now, however, the Intermediate's imagination is under the control of reason, and the teacher should assign such por¬ tions of the Bible to the pupils to study as would make a strong appeal to both imag¬ ination and reason, and in teaching the les¬ son he should especially emphasize charac¬ ter and motive and spirit, which will event¬ ually tell in his making choice of the right ideal. This is the supreme period for con* version for the pupil is fully able to make choice that will stand for life, and special stress should be placed upon stories and parables that may lead to his conversion, and in teaching, the matter of accepting Christ should be definitely put up to the pu¬ pil. This pupil should not be given the hard work of the Juniors, but the Scrip¬ tures should bring out ideals for life. Bible Teaching Values for Early Adoles¬ cence. We have already indicated what Bible material is most suitable to these Inter¬ mediate pupils. But it is now worth while to stress further the use of material in the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. -461 Bible that shows the risk and infatuation of temptation, and how the great men and women of the Bible overcame. The na¬ ture of temptation and sin may now be in¬ cluded, and also the nature of the Christian religion. Again, evil company should be shown up, and good association in our Bible material. Later Adolescence. This period is now represented by both the Senior and Young People's Departments in the Sunday school, and the knowledge and experience of these pupils enables them to do high class study in the Bible. Some of these pupils are in high schools and col¬ leges and more perhaps will be at work. But all of them are able to reason, and it is hard to reach them except in this way, for emotion itself is now more under con¬ trol of reason. This is the time when most young people make the momentous decis¬ ions of life touching religion and#marriage, and not seldom marriage itself is consum¬ mated at this early age. This period is full of opportunity for the highest kind of serv¬ ice on the part of the teacher to his pupils, 462 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. and he should enter sympathetically into their state of mind and undertake to help them. His teaching should point out the great issues of life, and give right ideas of Christian conduct and service. These pu¬ pils feel strong and equal to any task, and the classes should be organized so as to put them to work for church and communi¬ ty, and also to bind them closer to each oth¬ er in a social way, though the sexes should be in separate classes. The latter part of this period itself, from eighteen to twenty years of age, is the time to plan great organized classes especially, and our Sunday School Publishing Board has projected the great Abdemelech and Debbora Class Movement for these pupils as well as adults. Often they drop out of Sunday school, and the organization of these classes will help to bring them back, for the work they undertake is no small task, and it appeals to them. But pupils of the same Young People's Department ought to have placed before them the claims of the church and school upon them for teaching service, and the teachers of this group should make a spec¬ ial study of the outlook and possibilities of HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 463 Bible schools for the time, so as to be able to make the appeal strong. At the same time the need and possibilities of training for this teaching service should be pointed out. This should be done, not once or twice, but often, and just before the pupil is pro¬ moted to this department. It should be stated that if he remains in the Teacher Training Department for three years, he can not only graduate from the school, but from the Educational Department of our Board. Bible Material for Later Adolescence. The stories of the Bible are not what we need here, but the nature and relations of religion, and Christianity, and morality, and sociology, and psychology, and these should be brought out in the discussion of Bible material, the Kingdom of Heaven and its relation to the church, and the social order. This is the period of grave doubts on the part of many, and if their doubts are seri¬ ous as they usually are, the teacher should greatly sympathize" with the pupils and aim to help them. At least one thing he can do is this: he can show that doubt is a call 464 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. to study and investigate, and he should be so prepared that he can point out certain books for the doubting persons to read. Some of our greatest leaders have passed successfully through this doubting stage, by the help of right reading and the prop¬ er method of studying the Bible. The teacher of this grade of pupils must under¬ stand the psychology of his pupils, and of the times, and relate his lessons to both. Such practical interpretation will commend the Bible to our young people. The teach¬ er should study the working men and women's conditions and render them all possible aid in showing them the Christian attitude to present day industrial prob¬ lems. QUESTIONS. 1. Group the period of adolescence. 2. Give characteristics of early adolescence. 3. Give ages of each group. 4. Describe middle adollescence. 5. Describe later aldolescence. 6. Classify teaching- values in Bible for each group. VII. THE STUDY OF THE ADULT. The study of the adult is what we ordi¬ narily mean by human nature, and we per¬ haps know more about the adult than we do of children and youths or young people. Unless a person has some knowledge of human nature he is destined to failure in life, and his success in promotion in life will be in exact ratio to his mastery of hu¬ man nature. It is not always the most worthy person who obtains the coveted prize, but it is generally the man that knows how to carry men. Drummers for large mercantile establishments often attain to the highest skill in this respect, and their sales are so large that fabulous salaries are often paid them, in some cases more than the Senators and Representatives in Con¬ gress receive. There is nothing that brings larger returns in many ways than the study (465) Sig. —16. 466 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. and approximate mastery of the subject of human nature. Perhaps the first study along this line should be addressed to the Feelings, for un¬ less a person feels kindly toward one any transactions with such person will be un¬ satisfactory; and on the other hand, if one is fortunate enough to impress himself from the first in a favorable way, success is usually assured along almost any line. The Feeling was the first faculty of the mind that showed up in childhood, and no teach¬ er of little children can succeed unless he does so through the child's feelings. In¬ deed, the Feeling seems to dominate life in all stages more than the intellect, though the cultivated intellect usually means a higher state of the development of Feeling; but the Feeling is still dominant, for the Will waits upon Feeling as well as Judg¬ ment. Ordinarily, the study of the adult is what we call psychology, and the science is of great help. But practical experience is usually at the foundation of our practical knowledge along this line. Next to the Feeling, the intellect or reason dominates with adults as a gen¬ eral thing. If these both are favorably im- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 467 pressed we succeed in carrying our point, and the Will acts. The lesson to the teacher is that he must be exceedingly considerate of the feelings of his pupils, and through the emotions he can reach them with instruction to the best advantage along with logical presentation. Bible Teaching Values for Adults. Of course the adult mind can be reached by all the teaching values in the Bible, and the fact is that all the Bible is high class teaching value to the adult. It is true that there are parts of the Scripture, like the first chapters of First Chronicles, that seem to most people to have little teaching value for anyone. But the fact is, that unless the Bible student makes a class study of these chapters he cannot lay claim to thorough¬ ness, and the higher up he is, the more he finds in these chapters. But the adult's mind is logical and ana¬ lytic, and the study that is best suited for him is that of relationship. He can study any subject with interest where relationship is involved. Practical Christianity as taught in the Epistles make a strong appeal to him, 468 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. and the application should be practical and suited to conditions of our own race group and immediate community. QUESTIONS. 1. State value of adult study. 2. Illustrate uses of a knowledge of human nature. 3. How is such a knowledge obtainable? 4. What faculty of the mind pDays an important part in human nature? 5. Give general idea of teaching values in Bible for adullt pupils. VIII. TEACHING VALUES IN THE BIBLE. In the introduction to this book this mat¬ ter was discussed, but it is worthy of notice here also. One must never study the Bible simply for the purpose of finding what is suitable to be taught to different grades of pupils. Such study indicates the wrong spirit, as well as the wrong method. Such information ought to be included in the study of the pupil and the teacher in a teacher training course, and the Bible on such a course should be studied with anoth¬ er object in view. The Bible should be studied for spiritual culture and for mas¬ tery, and when thus studied it means more in the real preparation of a teacher. It seems that some people are inclined to de¬ tract from the Bible as constituting the cur¬ riculum of our Sunday school, and are in¬ clined to the opinion that the Bible in itself is of no service as a means of real education. (469) 470 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. There used to be a time when the Bible was studied as the best means to attain spirit¬ ual ends, which is the highest end of all education. But in these days some of the reputed Sunday school experts are almost inclined to eliminate the Bible as a whole, and only pick out certain parts of the book as deserving merit and suitable to teach and these parts are called teaching values. Now the real fact is that the entire Bible has teaching value of the highest order, and this is substantiated really by such an edu¬ cational celebrity as Froebel when he claims that the individual must go through the same process as the race to culture, for the Bible gives the record of that growth, and the historical sense is inculcated, and this is back of all true interpretation. This tending to underrate the Bible is not gen¬ eral, but only a few persons who happen to hold high positions impose it upon others. Even higher criticism holds that the history is the basis of interpretation, and these per¬ sons are1 not exactly experts in the science of education. The reason why the Interna¬ tional Lesson Committee clings to the Uni¬ form Series is because of the confidence the Christian world has in Bible study as such. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 471 The Graded Literature is very excellent in some respects, but the fact is, it is more of the nature of a Bible reading than a Sun¬ day school lesson. It is more a reference study than a study that would assist to the mastery of the systematic and thorough teachings of the word. The Bible has pow¬ er of a most extraordinary kind to trans¬ form an individual and a people, and this power is not released upon superficial study for reference. There is a constructive idea that runs through the Bible, and the idea is never fully grasped until it is followed at every point and through to the end. Under the Bible part of this book this will appear in the historical portion. The fact is, the connected narrative of the Bible has to be mastered and taken into consideration in all interpretation, and the interpretation is trustworthy just in proportion as it has regard to the history which will show the development of the idea in the Bible. It has already been pointed out that those who planned the Teacher Training Course state that certain knowledge of the Bible is presupposed but it would be far more rea¬ sonable to presuppose that the pupil has no such knowledge. There is a great deal of 472 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. superficiality that is masquerading in these days as scholarship, especially in religious education. It is all right to prepare to teach the pupil, but unless the teacher has special insight into any subject he is not a teacher, in fact, for keen perception is the one prerequisite of successful teaching, and this is true in a double sense in religious study and teaching. The teacher needs God's Spirit, and the Spirit relates himself to the word and they both go together. As already indicated, all the Bible has high teaching value to all classes of people. It would be much more appropriate to mod¬ ify the term teaching values, and state ex¬ actly what grade is to be reached. But there is no special Bible study even then for these values. Study the Bible for personal value, and that will help to teach. It is the business of a Bible or a religious teacher to master the Bible, or aim to do so. And if he knows the Bible, he can then find what he wants. As already indicated, all the Bible has high teaching value to all classes. The matter of the proper class of Bible material suitable to reach each grade is one that is interesting primarily to those who select the lessons and prepare the literature, HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 473 but we shall point out in the accompanying chart the class of Bible material most suit¬ able to different grades, but will not name particular passages for it is up to the com¬ petent teacher to know where to find what is wanted in the Bible. This chart is a careful study of the graded system of les¬ sons which is based upon child study, and the plan is to select such Bible material as best meets the needs of the pupils of differ¬ ent grades. The information of the proper teaching values of the Bible is given in order that the teacher may bear in mind while teaching exactly what class of material it takes to reach his pupils, it matters not what kind of lessons or literature he may use. If the teacher knows this he can so teach any les¬ son as to bring teaching value with few ex¬ ceptions. This teaching value idea is the reason why the International Lessons for different grades are not alike always. The idea is that if there is nothing in the regular passage for the school suitable to children that another passage must be chos¬ en for the children. Perhaps, the teacher has already noticed that children and 474 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. young people and adults' lessons are not all the same even now in the new Interna¬ tional Lessons, and this will have to be noted more in the future than in the past by the teachers. TEACHING VALUES IN OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. CRADLE ROLL 1-3 BEGINNERS 4-5 PRIMARY 6, 7, 8 JUNIOR 9, 10, 11 Goodness of God God and Jesus Pleasing God Learning to do good Stories of olden times' Hero Stories Kingdom Stories God as Father, Jesua as Child. Study of Heroes INTERMEDIATE 12, 13, 14 SENIOR 15, 16, 17 YOUNG PEOPLE 18, 19, 20 Gospel Stories Leaders of Israel Christian Leaders Life of Christ Christian living Efficiency for service Study of Ideals Study of Principles (Compare Jews' and Christian religion^ or Old and New Testament New Testament times and history Bible and social living Critical Study ADULTS Bible and social living \ Study of Prophets of Israel i EH 21 up Kingdom principles f 1-3 \ Snr.ia.1 and SDiritual p Home life / M < HOME Family altar k 16 up Social standards l Religious standards J 476 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. QUESTIONS. 1. What is meant by Bible teaching1 values ? 2. What criticism is made upon studying the Bible primarily for teaching values in a Teacher Training Course ? 3. When should such study come? 4. What kind of Bible knowledge does a teacher need? 5. Copy carefully the teaching- value chart at the close of the lesson. IX. HOW TO LEAD A PUPIL TO CHRIST, This is a .vital question and suggests per¬ sonal evangelism as the right way to win the pupil to Christ. Of course, it is all out of the question to think of a teacher leading a pupil to Christ unless the teacher is a Christian himself; and unless his religion is a source of joy and help to him. He must talk much of his own joy in Christ and talk enthusiastically. He must have Jesus on the mind as he personally runs across a pupil during week days, and do not wait until the class meets and talk to all the mem¬ bers together. The best work in the salva¬ tion of souls is always a personal work. In the Gospel of John we see how the first of the disciples of Jesus came through per¬ sonal work, and these proved to be more dependable than the other disciples with one or two exceptions. The teacher is to get the idea that it is through his personal touch with the individual pupil that conver- (477) 478 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. sion is to be expected, and the teacher can do more through his personal experience to impress Jesus upon them than through mere class teaching. Of course, before con¬ version can take place, the child's mind must come to itself and the brain must function through reason and feeling to willing, for conversion is finally a matter of the will. The very young child cannot use its reason as a starter, and this re¬ mains true throughout infancy and early childhood. Not until middle childhood or the primary age is the pupil fully able to distinguish fact from fancy by reason of the functioning of the reason, and his abili¬ ty to pay attention a little better shows the will is beginning to awake. But it is to¬ ward the close of late childhood, or at the beginning of early adolescence, that the mind has attained its powers of reason, feeling and willing. It is around this period that the religious instinct ripens and the conscience begins to bring out the idea of duty, and for the first time the pupil begins to realize the fact of sin, and it is not hard to still further lead him to see that he is a sinner in the sight of God, and if a proper HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 479 foundation has been laid, the pupil's con¬ version might be expected. It seems that the religious instinct does not ripen until around the period of early adolescence, and science teaches that we must be prepared to present the subject at the right time. Froebel teaches that the child is at unity with God during the period when its mind has not reached the point of separation. Our Lord certainly means this; when he says: "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven," i. e., there is no break between the innocent child and its heavenly Father, but the child is in har¬ mony with God. But later on when his in¬ stincts ripen and conscience forms and he begins to see how he comes short of his own ideals and of Jesus Christ's, he realizes him¬ self at break with God as he begins to look in upon himself. The little child is taught of God's love and care and protection and he is urged to be thankful and obedient and to do right. All of this is easy to take in because it ac¬ cords with the child's experience thus far. As he enters the Junior age his love to read and memorize will cause him to know more 480 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. of Jesus and his word, and the word itself brings conviction of sin. From the very beginning the teacher should have in mind the conversion of the child, but it is need¬ less to try to convince the child of sin until he is able to understand his relation and duty to God. "Against thee and thee only have I sinned," cried David, and the child must reach the point in its experience where it becomes possible to realize that it is not against his teacher, nor his fellow pupils, nor his parents, but against God he has sinned. In other words, it ought not to be expected of a child to do what he cannot do. His mind does not reach the point where it fully functions until around the close of the Jun¬ ior and the beginning of the Intermediate Period. The teacher must lead the child through various stages right up to the cli¬ max, and secure the open confession of Je¬ sus. But all the time before he must have so impressed the pupils that they will love God and rely upon Jesus as a helper and friend and teacher and Saviour, and in the Junior Period he should get the pupils busy acquiring the very words of God from the Bible, for Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you they are spirit," and nothing HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 481 can take the place of the word of God in conversion. There is no definite age when a genuine conversion takes place, but it can not take place before the pupil's mind is ca¬ pable of deliberate judgment, an act of will. But all the time from the very beginning throughout the entire course, let the chil¬ dren and all others see what a joy you have in the service of the Master, and let your sympathy and love for the souls of your pu¬ pils be as genuine and intense as your love for Jesus, and results will follow. So far as presenting the Bible with a view to the conversion of the pupil, there is really no other way to teach the Bible properly. The teacher must be in earnest in thought and in deed. One thing is very certain, and that is, that a teacher must choose between the ballroom and Jesus, if she would win her pupils to Jesus. And un¬ less the pupil's conversion is the real object of her teaching, she might as well resign right now. Example speaks louder than words, and a teacher cannot lead his pupils to both Jesus and the ballroom. Whether it'is a sin to dance or not, it is a fact that those who dance cannot win others to Je¬ sus. This is a fact, and the fact itself ought 482 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. to show whether dancing is right or wrong. Dancing is not the only evil, and the teach¬ er must let her pupils see that there is a difference between her and other people, and her way is best, as it is written: "Their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges." Deut. 32:31. QUESTIONS. 1. What is personal evangelism?- 2. Around what age does a child's mind fullly function? 3. State the order of development of the (three mental faculties. 4. What is- meant by the ripening of religious instincts ? 5. Usually, around what age is there a deep religious awakening in a child? 6. How should a young child be taught religion? 7. What is prerequisite to a dependable decision for Christ ? X. THE TRAINING OF THE PUPIL. Training is not teaching, but it is included in it. Education should begin with training the child in the proper use and development of the senses, and all the way through his education the pupil should be trained in certain directions, and all the way through life afterwards he should train himself to do things in a certain way, and form certain habits. Training concerns habits and our lives are largely made up on habits. If it were not for training ourselves to certain habits the human race could not have made such wonderful progress. We learn to walk after much difficulty of muscular adjust¬ ment in childhood, and if we had been com¬ pelled to consciously go through this move¬ ment every time we walk, our minds would be so preoccupied that we could not make much mental progress. But fortunately, having practiced and exercised to the nec- (483) 484 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. essary extent, walking finally became a habit to which we trained ourselves, and we walk without conscious effort after start¬ ing. The same is true of writing and of everything else we do. We have trained ourselves to do them until we have formed habits to cover all of our activities and life is largely made up of habits, and these hab¬ its decide our state and our destiny. One may be theoretically educated but if his habits have not been looked after and brought in harmony with his instruction his education will have little effect upon his life. We hear in these days altogether too much about teaching and too little about training. Teacher Training Courses for Sunday school teachers have, in many cases been worked out upon such an intellectual basis, and the whole plan of the modern Sunday school follows so closely the pat¬ tern of a secular school, exalting knowledge above spirit, that it is high time some one should remind Sunday school people that this institution's legitimate field is training the untrained in religious habits as well as knowledge. We need constantly to be re¬ minded that Christianity is not a creed, nor HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 485 an intellectual process, but the religion of Jesus is a life made up largely of certain habits of helpful and unselfish service to others; and if the Sunday school is to make a real contribution to the cause of Christ and the local church more effort must be systematically made to actually train the pupils to certain habits of life. The old proverb is surely correct that says: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." This passage expresses an unvarying truth, and if it ever appears to fail of fulfillment the cause will prove to be inadequacy of the training. Training is established and habits are permanently formed by causing the pupil to exercise himself along certain lines freely and gladly until there is an un¬ conscious repetition of the act under similar conditions, as when the habit was being formed. For instance, train a child to the habit of preparation and attendance upon Sunday school each Sabbath, and after a while the ringing of the bells or the com¬ ing of the day will cause him to go to school. Train him to respect an elder, a lady, and to be obedient, and courteous, and industri- 486 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ous and religious, and even if for some period of his life he may wander away, "When he is old he will not depart from it." Home is the great center for training in the fundamental habits of life, but so few homes are what they should be that we must look to the Sunday school to give the mat¬ ter serious attention. There is now a move¬ ment on foot to reach the home to a great¬ er extent than ever before through extend¬ ing the scope of the Cradle Roll and Home Departments in such a way as to come in vital touch with the home. Enrolling babies in the one and reading a quarterly about half an hour a week in the other will not exert any great influence upon the home. So it is now proposed that system¬ atic and wise efforts should be made in con¬ nection with these departments to re¬ vive the family altar in some homes, and set it up in all homes possible. Certainly nothing can excel the family altar as a means of training the children, and its ef¬ fect upon the young people and adults will be the same. Surely, divorce with all its consequent evils, and dancing, and reveling and other social evils could not take strong hold upon the children from such homes. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 487 We bemoan the tearing down of the family- altar, and its absence from many homes; but what is being done to improve the situa¬ tion? We acknowledge with deep gratitude the emphasis placed upon the family altar by the sainted Miss Joanna P. Moore and the good work of the Fireside Schools. But one of the best ways we can honor this good woman would be also to undertake a great¬ er work along the line of setting up the family altar on the part of the Sunday school. And the most effective way to do this is through the Cradle Roll and Home Departments under plans outlined in this book in another place. Another way to stress the training work of the school is to plan to enlarge the Be¬ ginner's and Primary Departments, and es¬ pecially the Beginner's. Froebel, the foun¬ der of the kindergarten, planned it to be more of a play garden than a school and to train rather than to teach; and to give all little children the advantage of knowing what any children in cultured homes had the opportunity of learning before the sixth year or the time of entrance into the secu¬ lar school. At the tender ages of four and 488 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. five years the children are still under the control of impulses and instincts which can be converted or trained, and the great pity is that these kindergartens are not main¬ tained for our children by the government more largely. The Sunday school can do something to help supply such training by making the Beginner's Department what it should be. Moreover, the entire school should be trained in the doctrine and polity of the Missionary Baptist group of churches, and provision should be made to care for such training beginning with the Junior Depart¬ ment. A good catechism of simple design could cover this ground and do much good. Our Board is prepared to furnish a cate¬ chism for use in the schools; and the cate¬ chism is still a practical way to impart knowledge to pupils and less informed teachers who have not enjoyed sufficient educational advantages to know how to read with the understanding. But whatever the plan adopted, it is high time that the Sunday school should return to training as the essential feature of Sun¬ day school work. Of course, teaching is all important, and we should have more teach- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 489 ing and better teaching than ever; but we should also have more training and better training. Let the teacher aim to reach the will of the pupil through his feelings, an'd let the feelings be properly trained by the feeling the teacher puts into his teaching. The main point is to get the idea that train¬ ing is essential, and the good teacher will find many ways to train and teach also. There is need of special training to induce the pupils to go directly from the Sunday school into the church services. A good way to train along this line is to cease to dismiss the school at all, but' have the en¬ tire school march from the assembly room of the school into the main auditorium of the church immediately after the recita¬ tion period, and let them march a proces¬ sional, using hymn No. 674 in the Baptist Hymnal. Then when in the auditorium, seat the Primary and Junior pupils im¬ mediately in front of the pulpit, and the others behind. ^ Then let superintendent make a three-minute review of the lesson for the day, or have some one do so who is prepared. Then let secretary: read day's report. Then sing a hymn that will blend the Sunday school into the church service. 490 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Then the pastor preaches a five minute ser¬ mon to Primary and Junior pupils, and they pass out, and all others remain to service. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the difference between training and teach¬ ing. 2. To what is training- closely related? 3. What do we mean when we say Christianity is a life and not a creed? 4. What is the great training base? 5. Who was Joanna P. Moore and what did she do? 6. What can the school do to promote training effi¬ ciency ? 7. What is the value of doctrinal training and may it be promoted? BIBLIOGRAPHY. The Unfolding Life Antionette Abemathy Lamoreaux. The Study of the .Child A. R. Taylor. Fundamentals of Child Study Kirkpatrick. The Religious Education of Adolescents Norman • E. Richardson. Childhood and Character Hugh Hartshorne. Education of Man —Friedrich Froebel. Bothering the Boy W. Edward Raffety. Youth and the Church Cynthia Pearli Maus. Philosophy of Education Ruric N. Roark. Psychology of Religion G. A. Coe. Child Training Trumbull. The New Convention Manual Burroughs. The Pupil Wfeigle. The Sunday School Teacher's Pupil Musselman. First Standard T. T. Course Barclay. Boy Behavior W. H. Burger. Child Nature and Nurture ; E. D. St. John. Child Study for S. S. Teachers Musselman. The Juniors—How to Teach Them Maud J. Baldwin. Moral Instruction of Children Adler. The Intellectual and Moral Development of the Child — Compayre. Later Infancy of the Child Compayre. PART IV. THE SCHOOL. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Quotation from Herbart. 1. The Place of the School. 2. Public School) and Sunday School. 3. Sunday School Organization. 4. Sunday School Equipment. 5. Housing a City School. 6. Housing a Country School. 7. The Graded Idea. 8. The Pastor and the School. 9. How to Secure Promptness. 10. Recreation. 11. The Social Side. 12. How to Secure New Teachers. 13. Evangelism. 14. The Opportunity of a Country Sunday School*. 15. Thle Program of the School. Bibliography. THE SCHOOL. "Pedagogy is the science which the teacher should know for himself, but he must also be master of the science of imparting his own knowl¬ edge. And I here at once confess, that I have no conception of education without instruction, just as conversely, in this book at least, I do not acknowledge any instruction which does not educate. Whatever arts and acquirements a young man may learn from a teacher, for the mere sake of profit, are as indifferent to the edu¬ cator as the color he chooses for his coat. But how his circle of thought is being formed is everything to the teacher, for out of thoughts come feelings, and from them principles and modes of action."—Herbart in Science of Education. I. THE PLACE OF THE SCHOOL. There is an increasingly large place for the Sunday school in the program of the kingdom of Christ and also in the program of the development of the Negro people in the United States. 1. The Kingdom. Jesus projected the kingdom upon an educational basis, and was himself the greatest teacher ever upon earth. It was as a teacher teaching that he made the impression upon men that he was nothing less than the Son of God. John the Baptist was a preacher, but Jesus was a teacher. The Baptist made the immediate impression upon his hearers and his genera¬ tion; but Jesus grows on his followers every year. Permanent kingdom work must be educational as well as evan¬ gelistic. The churches must face the question squarely, for there is no place in the program of Christ for the (495) 496 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. church except as it serves to min¬ ister to the kingdom's end. There is no place for a church that regards itself as an end rather than a means to an end. The church has committed to it the recruiting and training work of the kingdom. It is filling Veil its mission in recruiting, but it takes slowly to the training and teaching func¬ tions for which it was intended also. Reli¬ gion cannot be preached into people, it must be developed, and developed by the teaching process. Preaching usually ignores the inner self-activity, and proceeds from outside within, and reverses diametrically the teaching process. The most effective means of thoroughly impressing the Gospel is by teaching, employing the same method Jesus has taught us to use. Jesus has digni¬ fied and exalted the teaching profession for all times by employing teaching as the means of bringing the world to God, and he not only used this method, but he improved it and opened up to us the fundamental of the teaching science that has resulted in the universal interest in educational progress in the world at present. John passed out of public view in his preaching when Christ the teacher appeared, just as the moon fades away as the sun rises. Young people are HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE, 497 reached by teaching rather than preaching and the church that neglects to foster and improve its church school is woefully be¬ hind the age. 2. ^ The Race. The Sunday school is a blessing to all people, but it brings double blessing to the community and people who do not enjoy a just share in the public school system. It is not our purpose here to discuss anything extraneous to the Sun¬ day school. But it is only a statement of the truth, and nothing but the truth, to say that the Colored people in the south labor under the great disadvantage of being called upon to measure up to the standard of American and Christian civilization,, while at the same time an equal opportuni¬ ty is not afforded us for training in the pub¬ lic schools. Under the circumstances, it is a double blessing that a Sunday school is usually associated with every church among us, at least each Baptist church, while there are many mission schools; for we have in these schools what will serve to help us overcome in some measure the logical con¬ sequences of such shameful discrimination in this gre'atest democracy in the world. Thus it comes to pass that the Sunday school not only helps the church, but it helps the Sig-—17. 498 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. community and the race. Our Sunday School Publishing Board even to this day continues to get orders for the old time Sun¬ day School Primer because it serves as the only school where some pupils can learn the alphabet. Surely, here is a double incen¬ tive to our teachers to consecrate them¬ selves, and prepare themselves to render the greatest help to their classes, knowing the results will be far-reaching. For practical purposes the Sunday school will more than cope with the public school if practical living value is to be the test of the two schools, and it may be fortunate that our people come more under the in¬ fluence of the Sunday school and church than of the public school. But the chief trouble is that the great majority of our people are neither in the Sunday school nor the public school. Yet we have in these Sunday schools a potent influence to shape the lives of the masses of our young people, and we must awake to the situation, and behold our opportunity, and put on a race- wide drive to land our boys and girls in the Sunday schools. • One great cause of our predicament as a people is our utterly dependent position, HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 499 due to the fact that we clo not get together and co-operate for the good of our race group. There is more of a tendency to pull apart than to pull together. We are being gradually placed in a position where we will be forced to pull together or go down into a condition as bad as slavery. If we will get behind this great Sunday school move¬ ment, and bring in larger numbers of young people, and work to raise the standard of instruction, the very self-activity of our group will help the entire race. The cause is altogether worthy, viewed from any angle, and the effort put forth in this line will react in bringing greater culture and influence to all who help to advance this work. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the place of the school in the development of the kingdom of heaven? 2. What is the work of the church as related to the kingdom ? 3. What is the most effective way of religiously im¬ pressing people, and why? 4. What can the Sunday school contribute toward race uplift ? • 5. What needs of our race group could be met by more effective Sunday school work? II. THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. The Government has unfortunately been committed to the policy of not allowing the Bible to be taught in the public schools. And unfortunately Baptists are among the strongest champions of this policy on the ground of our opposition to the union of church and state, and for fear that the Roman Catholics may again be able to re¬ cover the hold they held long ago on secu¬ lar government. We do not stop to think that if the Bible had been known and read in those days it would have defeated their sinful ends, but the Roman Catholics ob¬ ject to an open Bible, and not until we had an open Bible did the people see the perver¬ sity of such doctrine. As long as we leave the Bible out of the public schools we fall right into their hands, and are doing what serves their purpose, for an open Bible will (501) 502 HOW TO. STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. destroy their church, while it is the only means of strengthening Christians gener¬ ally, and none more than Baptists. We are not here advocating the teaching of Baptist doctrines, nor any distinctive doc¬ trines, but the Bible ought to be taught historically and practically and morally to all pupils to a certain extent, and spiritually to such as choose of their own accord to select it as one of their studies. Of course, a doctrinal teaching that is not made gen¬ eral as to denominations ought not to be al¬ lowed, but the simple truth is that the most helpful and the most spiritual study of the Bible is that which aims straight at the truth in its broadest sense. The mistake is now being more generally recognized, and several experiments are be¬ ing made to see what can be done to reme¬ dy the situation and yet stay within the lim¬ its of the law. On the whole, it is consid¬ ered that the most that can be done, under the circumstances, is to devise some means by which pupils who are faithful and thor¬ ough in their Sunday school work may re¬ ceive credit for their work in the public schools they attend, and such credit as will serve to help them toward graduation, and to make up for any deficiency in some other HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 503 subject. This is a sensible and practical and helpful plan, and Sunday school and church leaders should get and keep in close touch with the public school authori¬ ties and seek to have such a plan adopted. In the case of the colored public schools in the south, and more especially in the country districts, no opposition at all will usually be encountered in teaching the Bible to the pupils, if permission is obtained from the authorities. Opposition comes from others, and not from colored people. Church people should therefore take a lively inter¬ est in the appointment of teachers in pub¬ lic schools in their immediate community, and wherever possible, a Christian, an ac¬ tive Christian, ought to be recommended. Such a teacher could visit all the Sunday schools sometimes and his own at all oth¬ er times, and show how to teach the les¬ son and organize the school. We hear much about what the church and the Sunday school owe to the community, but we do not hear enough about what the public school can do to assist in work outside of its walls. It is a promising sign of the times that in North Carolina, at least, the teachers must be able to pass a successful examination in a certain Sunday school training book be- 504 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. fore they will be accorded a certificate. This shows what can be done. Yes, it is becoming popular for people who do little to help the church to find fault of church work and to suggest that our doors ought to be thrown open to any and all kind of work, simply because the church is sup¬ ported in a more or less public way. But in justice to the church it ought to be said it is the most unselfish institution in the world, but it ought to be spared this dicta¬ tion about turning its attention to agricul¬ ture, and industry, and science instead of stressing spirituality. The institution that ought to be requisitioned for this extra work ought rather to be the public scho.ol which is really public property and sup¬ ported at public expense. Surely, some¬ thing ought to be given public school teach¬ ers as a supplement in the way of communi¬ ty work, for there is a growing tendency among them toward worldliness. Some, however, deserve credit and special men¬ tion because they attend church and Sun¬ day school and often teach classes. But it ought to be expected of all public school teachers in so-called Christian America that they will undertake a definite teaching of the Bible on Sunday, for1 the reason that HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 505 they are far better prepared to teach than the majority of the- Sunday school teachers. Indeed, the^ chief outlook for teacher train¬ ing classes in rural districts as well as cities and towns, is founded upon enlistment of public school teachers for this special work. One thing certainly can contribute to that end, and that is for those in authority and influence to see to it that public school teachers are active Christians, if possible. Moreover, if they are not already Chris¬ tians, the churches and Sunday schools should make special efforts to secure their conversions in the various communities. There is altogether too little work along this line. Sunday school superintendents must be alert to find suitable teachers any¬ where, and if a person is known to have ability to teach, or ability to draw, and yet such an one is not a Christian, the thing to do is to get together and unitedly ask God to convert such an one for teaching service, and the request will surely be granted. In fact, when such a public school teacher learns of this effort in his behalf, it will in¬ terest and surprise him, and, no doubt, lead to his conversion and consecration. Yes, Sunday school work is receiving such high class support in these days from the 506 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. great educators that there is a growing de¬ mand that we raise the educational stand¬ ard of our school so that our work, can stand along with that of colleges in point of edu¬ cational value, and we call upon public school teachers and the authorities to come to our support. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the policy of our Government on the use of the Bible in public schools? 2. Why this policy, and who is responsible for it? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages, and which outweighs the other? 4. What is being done to somewhat overcome this situation ? 5. Is religious training as essential as intellectual training for highest culture? III. SUNDAY SCHOOL ORGANIZATION. Department of Administration. The Small School. The plan of organ¬ ization is conditioned upon the size of the school, the place of meeting, and the availability of fairly competent officers and teachers. There are localities where only one person can be found able to take charge of the school or to teach. If there are no teachers and only one competent person in the school we would have a very simple form of organization. A superintendent and secre¬ tary and treasurer and a class for the adults and young people, and a class for the chil¬ dren under twelve. In proportion as the attendance increases, doubtless more per¬ sons would be available to teach. Of course, the children ought always to be taught in a separate room if one can be had, for they are not so quiet as older pupils, and it is (507) 508 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. not desired that they should be as quiet. We teach young children by marching and singing, and it matters not how small the school is nor where it is held, the teacher of children should teach them suitable chil¬ dren's songs, and let them march as they sing. This cannot be done unless the children are off in a place to themselves. If there is only one room, that might be curtained off, especially when the weather is inclement. If the weather is pleasant it would be a capital idea to take the children out of doors either in the city or in the country. In the country the children might well assemble out doors in pleasant weather even if the housing conditions afforded them a separate room indoors. In case there are two rooms avail¬ able, the children should have one of them. Some small city schools have no yards suit¬ able, but there is usually a private home that could be used to help the situation. Almost any country school is, after all, ca¬ pable of arranging for the children sepa¬ rately out of doors, and has this advantage over many small city schools. The superin¬ tendent of the small school must not think that improvement is not possible because of the disadvantages, for wherever there is a teacher and a pupil we can have a school. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 509 But we are speaking here now of the plan of ^ organizing such a small school, and it is evident the plan must be simple, but not so simple as to try to do the impossible, and the impossible is to try to teach children under twelve in the same room with the rest of the school. Separate them even if curtains must be employed, or even if the children must meet out of doors. Let the superintendent teach all in this small school in one class except the children, if no more teachers can be secured. But this same superintendent should form a teacher train¬ ing class of some of the advanced scholars, and go over the lesson for the next Sunday as well'as study the Teacher Training book, so that there will soon be available more teachers. Such a school should at least have a blackboard and Bible maps. A Large School is one of a hundred mem¬ bers or more, and a more elaborate plan of organization is needed, and yet much still depends upon housing conditions. If there are two rooms, let the children have one. The other room ought to be divided by a curtain so that the young people may be separated from the adults, unless it is a very large auditorium, in which case the adults could be taught in the rear, and the young 510 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. people in the front; or if there is a gallery, the older people could retire to the gallery, Whenever it can possibly be so arranged, let adults and young people and children meet in a separate room and better results will follow. ■' A Superintendent is always necessary, but an assistant superintendent is not al¬ ways necessary, and ought not to be elected unless there is some special work for him to do at each session of the school. In the case of this larger school with three divis¬ ions accommodating children, youths and adults, there should be elected three assist¬ ant superintendents, each one to be in charge of one of these separate divisions, working under general directions of the superintendent, each one charged with the responsibility for the success of a division both as to membership and instruction. Assistant Superintendents are assigned a special work as the head of a Division, and are not merely to act in the absence of the general superintendent. These should of¬ ten be called to meet the general superinten¬ dent to plan and to study. A Recording Secretary is necessary in a school of any size, anywhere, to keep a rec¬ ord in a book provided for that purpose. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 511 In the case of the larger school with the three divisions, there ought to be three as¬ sistant recording secretaries to serve the di¬ visions, and report to the general record¬ ing secretary. In the smaller school the recording secretary should keep the roll of the school, and should do the same in the larger school by divisions, unless other ar¬ rangements are made. An Enrolling Secretary, however, is now added to the list of officers of the larger school, and such officer has no divisional as¬ sistants. This officer enrolls the new schol¬ ars as they enter school, and assigns them to classes. Of course the superintendent will always be consulted, but scholars should be assigned to a suitable class, and not encour¬ aged to enter any class they like. More¬ over, it is the duty of the enrolling secre¬ tary to keep the record of each pupil in a book, or by a set of cards arranged in a box alphabetically, showing the name, address, parents, class, teacher and age. A Treasurer is a necessary officer and he should pay out money only on order signed by superintendent and recording secretary. It is his business not only to account for funds, but he should also plan the raising of the funds. 512 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. A Chorister and Organist. These two offices may be combined in one, or may be filled by separate persons. In fact, there are schools that have no musical instrument, and in that case the chorister is still needed to direct the singing, and he should plan to have a musical instrument either to play himself or to have some one operate. It is very necessary that music should receive much attention in a school of any size. In the rural districts, singing classes are often or¬ ganized in an independent way to be in¬ structed by a paid musician. It would be a splendid plan to exalt the musical side of the school to the dignity of a Department of Music, and let the church and school unite to employ a suitable Christian musi¬ cian to take charge. If an instrumentalist can be secured, then let the church and school help to maintain him by furnishing pupils to take instrumental music. His en¬ tire expense could be met by public recitals once a year anywhere. Music is a means of greatly helping the pupils, and there are altogether too few persons in our Baptist schools able to play a piano or organ. Even where an instrumentalist cannot be secured then employ a vocalist, and make vocal mu¬ sic prominent leading to instrumental music. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 513 A Librarian should be elected along with the other officers of any school, and if there is no library, let him take charge of Bibles and song books, and Sunday school litera¬ ture and collect same. If there is a library, let him learn how to care for it, and wisely plan to make it of the larger use to the school. The Pastor is the spiritual head of the Sunday school and the representative of the church. The superintendent should take pains to keep in the closest possible touch with him at all times, and always secure his consent and cooperation in the work. Department Of Instruction. In the Case of the Small School we often blend the department of administration with that of instruction, the same persons serving on both, on account of scarcity of suitable persons for officers and teachers. But as soon as possible, or as the school in¬ creases in workers and pupils, we should separate these two departments and have a different set of persons for officers and teachers. That will offer a larger number of persons some definite responsibility and 514 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. position, and in the case of young people, will tend to hold them to the school, where now. there is a tendency on the part of the teen age pupils to pass out of the school. A Director of Religious Instruction is needed in each school to look after the teach¬ ing work, and to see that the teaching is made practical and helpful. Of course, the superintendent continues this work in his position in small schools, and in most large schools; but in the case of the schools in towns and cities, the time is now ripe to di¬ vide responsibility as far as persons can be found suitable to the requirements of the position. The proper person for this posi¬ tion is the pastor, but he and the superin¬ tendent may find some one else. This per¬ son ought to be the responsible head of the teaching force of the school, and he should take charge at regular teachers' meetings and of Teacher Training Classes. If possi¬ ble, he should be a professional teacher, if not the pastor. If it be possible to secure a principal of a public school, may be he could also secure the teachers of that school. It may be that by definitely connecting up the public school with the Sunday school it might cause the public HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 515 school to make more of a contribution to¬ ward the higher spiritual development of its pupils. Of course, these teachers would all have to be members of Baptist churches be¬ fore we could use them. The Assistant Superintendents are ex- officio superintendents of the divisions, and in this latter position they come under di¬ rection of the general director of instruc¬ tion. While they stand related to the gen¬ eral superintendent as assistants to pro¬ mote efficient administration and to increase the attendance, they here stand related to the religious instruction director who holds them to account for efficiency in the teach¬ ing of the division. Such little progress is made in this respect in most schools that somebody ought to be charged with the special work of improving the instruction in the school. Usually the superintendent sticks to the administrative side of his work, which requires his time. He should be giv¬ en help by electing a director for instruc¬ tion whose special function shall be to grad¬ ually improve the teaching efficiency in the school. If this is done, and the person elected really becomes active, we shall soon see results. Those superintendents who really desire better teaching will £nd here 516 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. a practical suggestion. The division su¬ perintendent becomes in fact a principal in his relation to the director of instruction, but his office is still assistant superinten¬ dent. It is his business to help find suita¬ ble teachers for this division, and he is to stand related to the teacher under him as the director of instruction stands related to him. He should feel the full responsibili¬ ty for the division instruction as well as for administration. The Division. Each school should aim #to accommodate separately the children 4 up to 11, the youth 12 up to 20, and the adults 21 up. These three groups of pupils are radically different one from the other and to such extent that they do not care to associate together; and if they are togeth¬ er in the same room the best results will not be secured either in attendance or in instruction. If the place of meeting is not convenient for separating these groups, that does not destroy the necessity for sep¬ arating them, and some way ought to be found to overcome the disadvantage. Where there is a will there is a way, and the prin¬ cipal trouble after all will be to get the school to see that the separation is essen¬ tial. Children cannot stand the restraint HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 517 of the older pupils, and older pupils, i. e., young people, do not like to be associated with the adults. It is on account of being promiscuously mixed with children that we do not have a large attendance of adult per¬ sons. If there are two rooms, give the children one, and let the other be for youths and adults, but it would not be a bad plan to let the children meet in the morning, the young people after morning services, and adults in the afternoon, since each division has its own superintendent. Or the chil¬ dren might meet outdoors in the country. In most city churches two divisions could' be easily accommodated, and three with but little change in plans of building. CJasses. After placing responsibility for the proper conduct of the division in the hands of the assistant superintendents, who become division superintendents, the division needs no further dividing up except into classes. We are accustomed to think of the division in connection with administration, and the department in con¬ nection with instruction. But now these are interchangeable in function, so that next to division comes the class. We no longer place a person in charge of a de¬ partment, except in the case of a large, a 518 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. very large school, but all the classes stand directly related to the division. The Classes By Grades. If the school is so graded that each pupil uses a lesson intended for his particular age only, then there would be so many classes that the department would be needed. But few schools are so graded as to provide a separate class and teacher for each year of the pupil's life. The idea is impractical, except in rare exceptions. We do not have to grade a Sunday school as we do a'day school, for the grade in the day school is based on knowledge, while in the Sunday school it is based on experience.* It is entirely sufficient for Sunday school pur¬ poses to grade by certain groups of years, instead of grading by single years. If we grade by single years, then the department should have a responsible head, because there should be so many classes in a depart¬ ment. Take the Junior Department, 9, 10 and 11 years. There should be six classes in this department, even if there were only two dozen pupils, in fact, a dozen pupils, if the three ages were represented; for the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 519 boys must be taught separately from the girls. To be strictly graded, we should have a teacher for a class that had only one boy, or else the grading falls down. Under no circumstances may a child using the graded help for a ten year old child be put in a class with another one eleven years of age, who uses an eleven year old periodical. To mix the ages like that really destroys the grad- ing-by-years plan; and yet that is precisely what is taking place in many schools that pride themselves as being strictly up to date in the work. The very fact that this is the situation shows the impracticability of the strictly graded theory. For all practical purposes it is now dawn¬ ing upon Sunday school experts, that after all, it will be entirely sufficient to grade by departments instead of by classes. About the only use now left for the idea of the de¬ partment is that it furnishes a suitable and scientific grouping of the single years to serve as the basis to a practical system of grading in our Sunday schools. The depart¬ ment carries the idea of a group of years most closely related to each other as follows: 520 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. The International Sunday School Association Plan. From 1 to 3: Cr&dle Roll \ From 4 to 5: Beginners j From 6 to 8: Primary f From 9 to 12: Junior \ Department. From 13 to 16: Intermediate/ From 17 to 20: Senior i From 21 up: Adult J The New Suggestion. From 1 to 3: Cradle Roll \ From 4 to 5: Beginners i From 6 to 8: Primary f From 9 to 11: Junior \ From 12 to 14: Intermediate / Proposed New Department From 15 to 17: Senior \ From 18 to 20: Young- People J From 21 up: Adult The new plan differs from the old, as can be seen from comparing both, beginning with the Junior, leaving off the twelfth year and adding it to the Intermediate; and then allow three years to the Intermediate and Seniors, and creating a new depart¬ ment of Young People for eighteen to twen¬ ty year old pupils. The Sunday School Publishing Board of the National Baptist Convention is now using the new system of departments, with periodicals corre- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 521 sponding in name with the exception that, instead of an Intermediate Quarterly for the Intermediate Department, we are call¬ ing the quarterly for use of the Intermediate Department the Advanced Quarterly, sim¬ ply because we dislike to part with that name. But the new system of departments is really more scientific and more in accord¬ ance with the study of the pupil. The ado¬ lescent period really begins oftener at twelve years of age than at thirteen, and if that is true, then our present system causes us to mix the early adolescents with chil¬ dren and yet we do not understand why so many begin to drop out around that age. So then, next to the division comes the classes and departments which should be grouped as follows: 1. Cradle Poll—1 to 3 years. 2. Beginner—i to 5 years. 3. Primary—6 to 8 years. 4. Junior—9 to il years. 5. Advanced or Intermediate—12 to 14 years. 6. Senior—15 to 17 years. 7. Young People—18 to 20 years. 8. Adult—21 years, up. The idea is that it is entirely proper to grade your school by groups of years in¬ stead of by single years. That means that we can still have the credif of a graded school 522 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. if we will observe the above classification, i. e., never place pupils in the same class that are not included in these groups or de¬ partments ; but it is all right to let any Pri¬ mary child use the same Primary Quarter¬ ly whether he be six or seven, or eight; be¬ cause while there is some slight difference in the knowledge, it is not so decidedly dif¬ ferent as to offer any barrier to the system of Sunday school grading that is based up¬ on experience and not knowledge. This idea of Departmental Grading has already been adopted in the lesson scheme of the Lesson Committee of the Internation¬ al Sunday School Association, and is fol¬ lowed in principle in the Improved Uni¬ form Lesson Series that have already been in use a year or so. This is the system of Departmental Grading adopted by our Sun¬ day School Publishing Board. The idea is to take as the Scripture text for the whole school a lesson that will furnish some ma¬ terial suitable to the various departmental grades, and to treat only so much of that lesson for each departmental grade as that grade will be able to appropriate. Usually there is one general topic covering the en¬ tire passage; then some verses suitable are treated under a suitable topic for Beginners HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 523 and Primary, then others for Intermediates, and others for Seniors and Young People. The plan now used requires that in case no material can be found in the general Scrip¬ ture passage for the lesson that is suitable for Beginners and Primary-treatment, then some other Scripture passage is selected for these departments. This is a most help¬ ful plan, and gives to the average school some of the outstanding 'practical results that have followed the agitation of Graded Literature. The founders of this Graded Literature have rendered a great service to the cause of religious instruction by pointing out just what is capable of being absorbed and assimilated by the various ages of pupils. While some of the findings are too technical for practical use, and we find ourselves unable to accept the idea that no two years can be mixed in a single class, nevertheless, the system has borne excel¬ lent fruit in greatly improving the system of the past, so that our Lesson Committee has been induced" to be more careful in the selection of Scripture passages offered for study, and to do more hard work before of¬ fering the lessons by suggesting suitable topics in the passage for the departmental grades. Of course, the plan of the Interna- 524 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. tional Lesson Committee is still far from perfect because the Scripture text selected does not always afford us topics for young children that are best suited to their age. In some cases, the children's topic is quite suitable, but in others the topic is not suit¬ able. Even when the children's topic is suitable to be treated for children, it is not always the topic needed most by these pu¬ pils. The Presbyterians have devised a sys¬ tem of Departmental Graded Lessons based not upon the Improved Uniform Lessons, but based upon the Graded Lessons. Where the Graded scheme provides a three year course for the Primary, with a differ¬ ent treatment for each year, these Presby¬ terians select the seventh or middle year of this course and publish one quarterly that uses the Graded Literature of the middle year as the basis of the study for all three years of the Department. This course is graded, and represents such a practical idea that it ought to finally meet the approval of the Sunday school world. But we are thankful for the present standard of De¬ partmental Grading of the Improved Uni¬ form Series. In case there are sufficient pupils of a de¬ partmental grouping to allow a separate HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 525 class for each year of that group, the thing to do then is to place each age in a separ¬ ate class, but each class would use the same quarterly as though all of them were taught in the same class. But if the teacher is well prepared he can use the same quarter¬ ly and yet make a class composed only of scholars of the same age understand the lesson better. QUESTIONS. 1. Name the departments of Sunday school! organiza¬ tion. 2. Name the usual head of each. 3. Who should be in charge of the department of in¬ struction? 4. How many divisions, and why? 5. What about departments? 6. What recommendations are made about an enroll¬ ing secretary, and what duties are required? 7. State the argument for a library and reading room. 8. What is recommended along the line of music? 9. What two ways of grading are in use in this country for Sunday schools? 10. Describe the group grading. IV. SUNDAY SCHOOL EQUIPMENT. The Small School in the Country needs certain equipment to do successful work, just as the farmer must have proper tools to do his work. It matters not how much trouble and how much expense may be in¬ volved, he just must have certain tools, or his efforts will be entirely wasted. The same is true of the city school as well as the country school. A Blackboard is necessary to properly impress the instructions, and this is needed the more even where room is inadequate and teachers are scarce, for the blackboard will enable more pupils to understand when taught altogether than if there is no ob¬ ject upon which to fasten the eye, which is a means of securing attention and mak¬ ing the instructions clearer. This black¬ board should be made of some material that is smooth and even, and it can be (527) 528 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. made black by painting with liquid slating obtained at a hardware store. A good plan is to make it of thick paper boards made for ceiling houses. This can be made into a frame, and then painted with slating. If this paper board cannot be secured, the next best board would be to paint the plas¬ tering made of wood fibre in small houses, or slated canvass can be ordered of the Sunday School Publishing Board and can be hung up on the wall. But whenever the school is able to purchase a revolving blackboard of slate, it will be a good plan to do so, for the blackboard will be needed as long as there is a school, and this board does not mar the wall, and stands nearer to the pupils. Bible Maps. The next need is for a set of Bible maps. It will require five differ¬ ent maps to illustrate the Bible, and these can be purchased mounted on a tripod for a reasonable sum. Whenever a place is mentioned or a journey, we should trace it on the map and it helps wonderfully to hold it in memory. Beginners' and Primary Outfit. In case of a city school, or every school with a sep¬ arate room for teaching children, a spe¬ cial outfit is prepared to help the teacher" HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 529 If the teacher is not willing to go to the trouble to learn how to do first class work, it will be useless to fit up this room as long as the same teacher remains in charge. But in any event, the regular Bible Lesson Pictures that usually stand on a special frame in the main schoolroom, should be placed in the children's room, and should be used by the instructor in teaching the children. The picture is not always suit¬ able but it is better than nothing. The picture should always represent the chil¬ dren's topic in the lesson, and if that is al¬ ways observed, and the picture is properly used, it is a great improvement over the Picture Cards, and will really make the cards serve a better purpose: for what the child cannot make out or understand in the card picture will be more interesting to him when he sees the large picture. These large pictures should be hung up around the children's room after being used for a lesson, and frames of pasteboard or wood might be made by the teacher. Little Chairs are a very necessary equipment for the children under nine, and as soon as a separate room is secured for them, these little chairs should be installed, so as not only to make the child more at Si'g1.—18. 530 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ease, but because they can be arranged in a circle which is necessary for reaching and holding their attention. An organ or piano is also needed if any¬ one can be found to play. No mention of an instrument has thus far been made for the whole school, but until someone is found who can play it, we need not buy one. But as soon as possible some one should be found who can play the chil¬ dren's instrument and lead the children in singing the songs which constitute such an important element in training Beginners and Primaries. As the department makes progress, new equipment so essential to the progress will be needed. But the prin¬ cipal equipment is here indicated, and the next need is a suitable teacher with help¬ ers. Purchase of our Board "Songs for Little Singers." Organ for the School is generally needed even when there is a church organ, and an¬ other is needed for special use of the Be¬ ginners. A Library. The idea of the Sunday school library does not receive the atten¬ tion it once held, and yet the library is greatly needed today. It is probable that the general establishment of public libra- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 531 ries in all parts of the country is responsi¬ ble for the general decline of the Sunday school library, but that is hardly true in the case of the Colored people; for large num¬ bers of the Colored people live in sections where we are not allowed to use the public library and where seldom any Colored li¬ brary is maintained as a separate institu¬ tion. It is hardly probable that in the case of Negroes the public library is responsible for the decline in the Sunday school library. The truth is that the class of books that used to constitute the Sunday school library is not found in public libraries today. The decline in the idea among us is rather an indication of a lack of interest in the class of books usually found in such a library. And yet, after all, the decline in the Sun¬ day school library is more the sign of in¬ efficiency in our Sunday school work than anything else, for no argument has been made against the library, no reason stood against it, no propaganda or prejudice. The matter has either been simply neg¬ lected, or else never did receive its proper attention. Then again some schools have such small vision, are so stingy, that they do not want to buy any more printed matter after buy- 532 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ing literature and song books and a few Bibles. The power of the printed page is as great now as ever, and we are losing a grand opportunity to religiously and mor¬ ally train the children, by neglecting to provide a suitable library for the pupils of the school. Instead of the public library taking the place of the Sunday school li¬ brary, it is nearer the truth to state that the moving picture show is the attraction. When a real Christian passes one of these moving picture shows and notices the class of pictures displayed outside, he can make sure worse ones still are seen on the inside. These pictures deal with vice and sin almost invariably and yet this is the stuff fed up to the children and youth of this genera¬ tion; and the Lord only knows what the ef¬ fect is going to be upon this country, upon our churches, and upon the race. We are aware of the situation in some quarters, and yet it seems that America is so free that nothing can be done to check this national spurce of crime and outlawry. It is a ques¬ tion whether a moving picture show in a town is not doing more harm than the churches are doing good to offset it. Some advocate the use of the moving picture as a means of holding our young people, by HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 558 providing pictures once or twice a week. But the trouble is where shall we get pic¬ tures, for all the pictures fall short of the mark, even the best of them, and we can not offset the movies with the movie. So far as holding the children and youth in our Sunday schools to the impression made up¬ on them by teaching the lesson, there is a way it can be done, and that is by means of a Sunday school library handled properly. There are books written especially for use in these libraries, and these books are graded to meet the growing conditions of the child life. Such books are really a commentary upon the Bible, and interpret the spiritual teach¬ ings of the word in terms of every day life. There is an age of a pupil's life when such books make a profound, yes, inerasable im¬ pression upon the mind, and that age is the Junior Period; and this child actually yearns for this class of literature, and would devour great quantities of it, and the good effects would last a lifetime. This talk about the public library supplying the place of the Sunday school library is all "buncombe," for the one deals in entirely different literature from the other. More- 534 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. over, we are not impressing our strong young men and women as we should to take their places in the work of the church and the Sunday school. What are we offering these young people to build them up in the most holy faith and the service of the Lord ? We offer them some Bible, but they are most impressed with books that they like to read and which make a great impres¬ sion upon them. The Bible is a book that is so hard to understand that it is easy to lose interest in the study. The fact is, that it requires a certain class of other books to arouse one to become interested in the Bible, and other books to show us how to study it. The Bible by itself is not suffi¬ cient for us to offer young men and women. At any rate, there should be a department of the Sunday school library especially for teachers and advanced pupils, and it ought to carry such books as a Bible, Dictionary in four volumes, a Commentary on the or¬ der of the Pulpit Commentary, which will furnish the exhaustive class of information demanded by growing minds, Bible His¬ tory, Concordance, Harmonies of the Gospel and of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, and books necessary to train Sunday school teachers and workers in all the departments HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 538 of the church. After putting in such a library as here indicated for the advanced pupils, the teachers should encourage the proper and frequent use of the same by assigning subjects to be looked up and essays to be read. In the case of the young people and children a reward should be offered for the pupil who reads the most of these books in a year and passes a satisfactory quiz on same, which means that teachers must also always read the books they suggest the pu¬ pils read. This library is for circulation, and no charge should be made except for damage to books or failure to return them on time. These libraries ought to be a part of the equipment of every Sunday school and more especially in the country. Coming now to some way of raising the money, we can succeed often by public en¬ tertainments given by the school. Then we can raise money in rallies conducted in the usual way. Correspond with our Sunday School Publishing Board about the matter, and doubtless suitable books can be ob¬ tained at reasonable prices. Sunday School Reading Room. In order to make the Sunday school the power it m HOW, TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. should be in shaping the lives of the pu¬ pils, we must bring the scholars under the influence of the school for a longer time than the usual session. Some are advocat¬ ing a midweek session to be held in the evening. But whether that approve itself or not, the Library will increase the influ¬ ence, and the Reading Room will still fur¬ ther bring the young people under the school's influence. This should be kept open at stated hours each day or night, and high class papers or magazines should be on hand, not old but new ones. A room ought to be provided for this that is lighted and heated at the expense of the school in cities and towns at least. The matter of having suitable persons to take charge of the Read¬ ing Room could be left to the organized classes, and from these a person could be se¬ lected to take charge each week. Organ¬ ized classes should be hunting for just such an opportunity as this to give expression work to their pupils. If this Reading Room is supported, it would serve to offset the movie and the dance hall and other attrac¬ tions. Some teacher should make it a point to be present each evening so as to guide the pupils in this reading. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 537 QUESTIONS. 1. What is the necessary equipment for a small coun¬ try school? 2. How may a blackboard be made and what service is it? 3. How should maps be used? 4. What equipment should & large school! have for the Beginners and Primaries? 5. What general equipment for the school? V. HOUSING A CITY SCHOOL. It is probably true that the average city church building is provided with a base¬ ment and a large room upstairs, and one or two small rooms. If the church will agree to it, (and they will) then the second¬ ary division will simply occupy the main room upstairs, and provisions can be made for the adults by placing them in one end of the basement room curtained off, or bet¬ ter still, a class window partition can be made half way the basement, or folding doors, or rolling doors. No design is needed to explain this idea. (539) WO HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE* Elementary to A r o 3 v£ Adu/ts Basement Main fJoor No. 5 Mo. 6 But a city church will often be found with no basement suitable for meetings, but an annex serves for the purpose. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 541 floor plan no. 7 Adults Floor plan no. $ Adults Main Auditorium 1 • J » 1 y \ ^ Secondary j .1 ! • * Elementary 542 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. The annex is generally intended to sup¬ ply all the needs of the school as in No. 8, but the place is not sufficient for more than one division, and that the secondary. There are in many places regular Sunday school houses built along beside the church build¬ ing and some of our more ambitious churches will adopt that plan. Below is found a model building, or floor plan for this building. One story floor plan wi Debbora Choir Supt; 2> Z3~ a. 3 n Ci 2r Adults Secondary Juniors Elementary No 9 Any basement can be remodeled dccordinj to above pUn HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 543 The suggestion found in No. 9 illustration is for a building of one story only, and shows how an old one story church building can be remodeled within for a school house. The idea is to use roller partitions that can be slided up to the ceiling in separating the various rooms, thus making the entire floor one large assembly room for opening the school. Glass windows can be used for this purpose, but are not as suitable as roller partitions. In some sections a few of our churches are supporting what they call an Old Folk's Home. They are beginning to recognize that the church building of the past is not meeting the present needs of the growing church. We shall see more of these build¬ ings go up, and now is the time for Sunday schools to put in their application to the church for proper housing in connection with an extra building. A community house is a growing need, and it is in connection with such a house the Sunday school should be provided for. The No. 9 illustration could be made a two-story building, and one story could be used for the Community House ac¬ tivities in the week and the same floor would 544 H0W4T0 STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. serve as the assembly room of the school on Sunday; and thus the partitions for the de¬ partments of the school as in No. 9 could be made permanent. We are only giving here plans that are plain and * inexpensive, but should any school use something more expensive our Sunday School Publishing Board will be able to connect you up with a competent architect who is related to our work. If the school will use to the fullest extent the equipment already in hand, the churches through their pastors will not be slow to come to their relief by providing suitable housing conditions. Very often it happens that a progressive pastor has an¬ ticipated the needs of the school for years ahead and has built an ideal school plant, but no superintendent of vision and ability has been found to use the plant already provided, and this is an encouraging sign to really progressive superintendents that they will eventually be able to get adequate equipment if they get the pupils in the school and competent teachers. QUESTIONS. 1. Make drawings showing how a one room building- could be altered for Sunday school purposes? 2. Make drawings for an L addition. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 646 8. Make drawings for a T addition. 4. Make drawings for a permanent one story Sunday school house. 5. What divisions should be made in each Sunday school building ? 6. Make drawings showing how your own church building can be made fully adopted to up-to-date Sunday school work, if it is not already so planned. VI. HOUSING A COUNTRY SCHOOL. Most of the country churches among us have only one room, with perhaps one or two very small rooms at the rear of the pulpit. Such a building was constructed without any special thought of the school. No I f f«or plan of the average country church (547) 548 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Usually such a building has two aisles and three rows of seats. If no better ar¬ rangement can be made, even this building can be made into three separate apartments by stretching two curtains across this large room making three divisions—elementary, secondary, and adult. If not able to pro¬ vide two curtains, stretch one curtain across about one-third the length of the room, thus giving a separate apartment for the young children, and a large space for all the rest of the school. Elementary Secondary Adults HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 549 These two curtains would not be expen¬ sive and might each divide in the middle, so that when not in use they could be folded back compactly on both side walls. Holler partitions that slide up to the ceiling can be used instead of the curtains. But a country school should plan a better house, and if the school is alive and the of¬ ficers and teachers are wise they will be able to interest the pastor to provide better accommodation, and he in turn will stir up the church, and additions can be made by making the building a "T" or an "L" like the plan below in No. 3. Adults y X. Secondary Elementary $3 550 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. If one wing only is added it will be an L. If two wings are added it will be a T (as shown in the figure on the preceding page. This is a practical building for the church services any way, provided the wings are connected with the main body by folding doors which will not add much to the cost, for when the weather is bad or the con¬ gregation small, the main room could be shut off from the wings. Roller partitions could be used here. If a better building is planned, some in¬ formation and suggestions will be found under the city building plans. QUESTIONS. 1. How can a one room country church building be adapted to Sunday school purposes without much expense ? 2. Illustrate by drawing. 3. What suggestion is made for the children's de¬ partment in good weather? 4. Why should the three major divisions of pupals be kept separate? 5. What suggestion is made finally dn the lesson? VII. THE GRADED IDEA AND GRADED LESSONS NET RESULTS THUS FAR. Those consecrated and efficient educators who introduced and championed the sys¬ tem of graded lessons for Sunday schools have placed us under a lasting debt of grati¬ tude, notwithstanding the fact that we are of the opinion that this system will never grow in use much more than at present ac¬ cording to the strict plans of its promoters; but a system of departmental grading is far more practical than grading by single years, and will doubtless grow into more universal favor. But the graded idea will have triumphed and greatly promoted efficient teaching even if it is not adopted entirely as its pro¬ moters planned. Two outstanding net results have been achieved, the study of the pupil, and the se¬ lection of material from the Bible suitable (551) 552 HOW TO STUDY ND TEACH THE BIBLE. to the different grades. It is not putting it too strongly to say that the very general interest now manifested in child study is due to agitation that has grown out of the graded lessons' agitation and child study is revolutionizing our teaching methods. The other asset that comes to us as the result of their long and patient and scien¬ tific work is the grading of the subject mat¬ ter of the Bible in such a way as to give us and show us the best material to undertake to teach the children of the different ages. This course runs three years longer than the twenty-first year, and begins with the fourth year, and the rough outline is as fol¬ lows : For Beginners 4 to 5—The Little Child and the Heaven¬ ly Father. For Primaries 6 to 8—Stories about God's Gift, Help¬ ers and Will. For Juniors 9 to 12—Hero Stories, Old and New Testa¬ ment. For Intermediates 13 to 16—Old and New Testament Leaders, Christ and Christians. For Seniors 17 to 20—The World a Field for Christian Service. ELECTIVE COURSES FOR SENIORS. Old Testament Times. New Testament Times. Bible and Social Living. Christ and the Nations. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 553 These suggestions of what kind of study of the Bible will best reach and help the different grades are standard and will guide us in the future selection of lessons. Of course since the International Lesson Com¬ mittee selects the new improved uniform lessons, it is to be expected that they will be guided largely by these sug¬ gestions. If they do not profit by them, then we ought to get out our own graded lessons for use of our own schools as the Presbyterians have done, and as the Northern Baptists did in providing the first graded lessons. These lesson peri¬ odicals are splendid, but are entirely imprac¬ tical of successful adoption and use. But we can still profit by this great and monu¬ mental achievement if we will use the as¬ sets that have come to us. Now these les¬ sons or kinds of lessons are recommended for each grade or department because of the aim in view in teaching pupils of the differ¬ ent ages. Below we give the aim for each grade: The Bible. AIM. Beginners To guide the little child to know God, who 4 to 5 loves, provides for, and protects him; to know Jesus as friend and helper. To lead him to show love for God by obedience and kindness. 554 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Primaries To inspire the pupils to live with reverence 6 to 8 toward God. To present Jesus in his love and work. To make a strong appeal to choose andl obey God's will through Bible and mission¬ ary stories. To store eager memory with Bible facts and messages. To present ideals of moral heroism. To show consequences of right and wrong doing. To awaken an interest in the Bible; love for Christ and the church. Intermediates To give personal ideas through study of 13 to 16 biography.. To lead pupils to accept Jesus as Savior and be baptized. To lead pupils to realize responsibility for personal Christian living. To give the student Christian principles as guides to his work in the world. To lead to a thorough knowledge of the Bible and a conception of Christianity as the supreme and onlly religion. To train in the principles of the denomina¬ tion and for service. To comfort. To inspire to social service and to larger usefulness in the church and community. To make intelligent growing Christians. It matters not whether teachers use graded lessons or not, they can keep the aim in mind and try to adapt any lesson to the proper aims they should keep in mind for the grade. With this knowledge becoming Juniors 9 to 12 Seniors Iff to 20 Adults 21 up HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 555 more general the schools will see that graded lessons are desirable, and grading by departments or groups of years is en¬ tirely practical for our own Board. There are several by-products of the graded system that we ought to make use of, and one is the idea of the graded teachers for the graded pupils, that is, holding teach¬ ers to the same grade and promoting the pupils to other teachers. This will make teachers become efficient if anything on earth will succeed. So while we may not be able, (and we absolutely cannot afford the experiment at present) to use strictly graded literature, let us remember to study the system, and give our pupils the bene¬ fits of our study, it matters not what kind of literature we use. After all, the graded teacher beats any graded literature, for the teacher can adapt the lesson to the needs of the child without any proper grading of les¬ son material. The fact is that too much has been made of graded literature, and too little has been done to prepare efficient teachers. Our first need is for teachers, for properly trained teachers can teach without graded literature, or can adapt any kind of Sunday school literature to the best use. For in- 556 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. stance, a gifted teacher of Juniors with a lesson entirely unsuited to that grade could nevertheless teach those Juniors the lesson if he found only one word in the lesson up¬ on which to build. It is all in the teacher after all. It must be borne in mind that there are no lessons sent out by the Inter¬ national Lesson Committee in these days but lessons that may well be used for graded teaching. At first, we had uniform lessons, that is, all the pupils in all the classes and in all the schools used the same les¬ sons, but in course of time it was clearly established that it was not at all the proper idea to teach all the pupils the same lessons at the same time; for it has been clearly proven that pupils cannot understand in the same way when of different ages, and that lessons ought to be suited to their ex¬ perience, which experience, it is claimed, corresponds generally with the age. So, for the past few years the International Lesson Committee has issued what we call the Improved Uniform Series, and these les¬ sons are uniform only for a single depart¬ ment, there being provided a different les¬ son for each department, unless the lesson be of such nature in some cases as to be HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 557 used by more than one department. Thus whereas the old Uniform Lessons contem¬ plated all scholars of all departments of all schools using the same lesson; the new Im¬ proved Uniform Lessons are intended sim¬ ply that all departments of the same age group should use the same lesson. Thus in literature now sent out there is one general lesson passage from which the effort is made to select certain verses suitable for: PRIMARY AND BEGINNER PUPILS, JUNIOR PUPILS, INTERMEDIATE PUPILS, SENIOR AND ADULT PUPILS. That is to say, a different line of treat¬ ment, i. e., topic, is selected for each of the above groups, because the teaching science requires a different treatment on lessons for each of these four groupings. Now then, if from the general lesson text of the day there can be found a few verses that can serve as a basis for each of these group¬ ings, only one lesson text will be used by all these groups. But unless the general text includes a very long passage it will not be possible to find suitable teaching ma¬ terial for more than two of the groupings as a general thing. Therefore it becomes necessary very often to use an entirely dif- 558 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ferent lesson text for the elementary children, working up even this text in a different way for early, middle and later childhood. Then the early ado¬ lescent needs special treatment and has a separate topic, while later adolescents and adults may study the same passage under different topics generally. This arrangement of the Uniform Lessons is in¬ tended to furnish graded lessons even if strictly graded literature is not used. It can be seen, therefore, if only teachers know how to teach the present class of Uni¬ form Lessons, as a general thing they will answer every practical purpose to enable the teacher to do efficient work. The main thing now needed is practical teacher train¬ ing material, which is the aim of "How to Study and Teach the Bible." It can be said, however, that it is possible for the Lessons Committee to be more careful in the selec¬ tion of Scripture texts for the department¬ al topics, and that they could be more close¬ ly related to the graded idea, if only more care is taken in the selection. Thus in the new Improved Uniform Literature it will be noticed 'that the general lesson text oft¬ en includes several passages of Scripture, so as to enable each teacher of a depart¬ mental group to find suitable teaching ma- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 559 terial in one selection, if not in another. Thus, the entire Sunday school world is now committed to the idea of adopting as prac¬ tical a system of departmental grading. This is not as perfect as it will be, but the old Uniform Series has gone forever, and the Improved Uniform Series, uniform only as to departments, is here to stay: but it will have to be greatly improved itself; and it will now be a small matter to make de¬ partmental grading conform more closely to the graded idea, by selecting the exact¬ ly right passage for study by each depart¬ ment every time. The Presbyterians, as is pointed out in another place in this book, are setting forth a system of lessons based upon department¬ al grading, but more closely related to the graded idea. The strictly graded idea is that no two ages are to mix in any one class, and no two ages are to use the same quarterly: but each year of age must be accommodated in a class composed of pupils of that exact year of age, and thus that class will use all the same quarterly because all are of the same age. The graded idea still recognizes the department though it serves no use, since the class is the unit. 560 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Now, the Presbyterians have accepted the system of lessons provided for the graded course, but they employ only one lesson for all of the pupils of any one department. They generally select the middle year of the graded course, and treat, that only in a quarterly for pupils, for example, 6, 7, 8 years of age. In this case the lesson of the graded course for a seven years of age pu¬ pil in the primary department is made the lesson for the whole department, and 6, 7, and 8 year old pupils may all be placed in the same class. This is sensible and prac¬ tical, for the course is graded, and yet the literature will not be so expensive and so many teachers are not required. Already the Improved Uniform Lessons are upon the departmentally graded basis, but they should conform the material more to the standard graded idea. But it must be insisted that after all more depends upon the teacher than upon any literature, and our own literature is al¬ ready sufficient to serve • every practical need if the teacher is properly trained. In order to use to the best advantage the departmentally graded literature, schools should be graded as follows: HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 561 BEGINNERS—4 to 5 years. PRIMARY—6, 7, 8 years. JUNIOR—9, 10, 11 years. INTERMEDIATE—12, 13, 14 ysars. SENIOR—15, 16, 17 years. YOUNG PEOPLE—18, 19, 20 years. ADULTS—21 up. Superintendents must see to it that there is no other grouping of ages in the school except as here recommended, as this is the very latest recommendation of the Interna¬ tional Sunday School Council, as well as of our own Sunday School Publishing Board. The superintendent must see to it that no pupils shall enter the same classes unless they belong to the particular group as here recommended. If these particular ages are grouped, then the use of the literature will be more effective. QUESTIONS. 1. Copy out carefully the chart at the close of this book. 2. Try to get your school to have it painted on cloth and stretched permanently on the wall of the Sunday school as a reminder to the officers and teachers. 3. What good has resulted from the system of grading by years only? 4. What are the disadvantages of the strictly graded literature ? Sig.—19. 662 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 5. What have we learned as to adapting the Bible to different groups of pupils ? 6. What substitute is proposed for the so-called graded literature? 7. What is the basis of the grading in departmental literature? 8. What ages are grouped together? VIII. THE PLACE OF THE PASTOR IN THE SCHOOL. Unless the Sunday school is held in a public school, or some other place than the church building, the Sunday school should regard itself as a department of the church whether the church asserts its rights or not. The church has the full right to have its own desires and plans carried out in the school at all times and nothing can be al¬ lowed to stand against the disapproval of the church. The teaching part of the church work is fully as important as the preaching service, but only a few churches have awak¬ ened to this fact. They realize the school as doing a good work, but do not feel called upon to assume any responsibility for its support or conduct. This is largely ac¬ counted for by the fact of the gulf between the schooled young people and the lack of educational advantages on the part of the (563) 564 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. older people in most cases. But whether the church demands it or not, a full report of the school should be made to the church anyway at least once each year, and the church should be consulted on all things per¬ taining to the school, and the school should refuse to take action except by agreement of the church. Now all that has been here said about the church applies to the pastor who is the shep¬ herd of the flock, the acknowledged respon¬ sible head of the entire organization of the church in all its activities. This pastor usu¬ ally represents the church, and in all cases he, will represent what the school does not already represent of the sentiment and will of the church. This pastor should be treated with the utmost consideration by the superintendent and all the officers and teachers. Even if he is not as well trained as some of the officers and teachers of the school, that must make no difference at all as long as he is pastor, for he represents the church, and to respect and hear him is to respect and hear the church. Let not the superintendent ever refer to this pastor in the school at any time in any way that would cause the scholars to suppose the pas- HOW; TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 565 tor is not respected. Let him teach or not, as he sees fit. He is generally thought to be best suited to instruct the Old Folk's Class. This is all a mistake except in the case of an old pastor, or one already out of touch with the young people. If the pastor is alive, and keeps his eyes open, his best work can be done with a class between the ages of twelve and twenty. If the school is a small one, the pastor certainly ought to take a class unless he is only present once or twice a month, as the case may be in the country. If present at church each Sun¬ day, he should be present in school each Sunday. But if he refuses to help the school in any way, the matter should be taken up with pastor and officers to find out the cause. Whatever the cause, let it be righted at once. In the case of a large school, which is usually connected with a large church, the pastor may not be able to take a regular class, but in such cases the officers and teachers should elect the pastor to teach the lesson at the teachers' meeting, or teachers' training classes. A church is unfortunate that has a pastor in these days that is not competent to instruct the teach¬ ers, at least in the spiritual teachings in 566 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. the lessons. If he has not had any experi¬ ence as a teacher himself and is unac¬ quainted with the principles of teaching, then the superintendent or some other prac¬ tical teacher might lecture on the pedagogi¬ cal aspects of the lesson, suggesting what to emphasize in the lessons for the different classes. But the pastor is always able to greatly edify us all on the spiritual side of the lesson, and this is greatly needed to¬ day in our schools. He should be asked to close the school when present. It matters not how far advanced a superintendent may be, let his bearing toward the pastor be one of respect and humility, and the same should characterize the pastor in his bearing. This matter of the place of the pastor in the schools is very important because there grows out of it the matter of the attendance of the school upon the worship services of the church. In too many cases large num¬ bers of the Sunday school people go away from the morning services after the school as if instruction did away with worship. Every officer and teacher should set the ex¬ ample of attendance upon the service, and the Sunday school service ought never to be prolonged beyond the regular time, so as to HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 567 let the pupils see the attitude of" the teachT ers and officers in attending church services. No meeting of the officers or teachers should ever be held between the services of the school and the morning service of the church. Let the teachers impress the pu¬ pils in the classes on this matter. Having done all possible along this line, we shall have to turn the matter over to the pastor to handle, and he should be given full op¬ portunity at each session to properly im¬ press the school. The Kev. S. L. McDowell, B. Th., pastor of the First Colored Baptist Church, Nash¬ ville, Tenn., has the children seated right up front in the middle aisle at the morning service, and after usual preliminaries, he gives the children a story embodying some practical Bible truth in a five minute talk, then allows them to contribute and after¬ ward pass out. Only those usually pass out who are up to eight years, while the oth¬ ers usually remain. Then after a song the pastor preaches the young people and adult's sermon. This is an excellent plan, and where there is an annex to one side of the church with sliding or folding doors, the plan could be worked to even greater ad- 568 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. vantage. This plan stresses the important fact that children require shorter sermons and church services, and unless these be conceded we cannot hold children of the tender age to the services. The school af¬ fords the pastor a fine opportunity to im¬ press the young people along devotional lines, and the school must put nothing in his way. QUESTIONS. 1. How should the school regard itself as related to the church? 2. How should this relation be acknowledged? 3. Who represents the church in the school? 4. How should pastor be treated in the school, and why? 5. What part should the pastor take in a city school? 6. In a country school? 7. Why should pastor be shown so much consideration in the school? 8. What is the plan for reaching children in morning services as employed by Pastor Mc¬ Dowell ? IX. HOW TO SECURE PROMPTNESS. If the question were how to secure promptness of attendance on the part of the pupils, the answer would be easy, for if teachers themselves are prompt the pupils will attend on time. The fact is that in many- cases the pupils are on hand as sheep with¬ out a shepherd, and their teacher is nowhere in sight. Our trouble in the matter of promptness is rather with the teachers than the pupils and it would seem that we should first of all try to secure promptness on the part of the teachers. It would be a good plan to have the teach¬ ers take a part in the opening of the school, a definite part, that may interest them to attend. Let the teachers march in the pro¬ cessional at the head of their classes. Let each class have its own banner in the march, provided it can be fastened securely in its place when the class is first seated. (569) 570 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. Then after the march, let the teachers have a responsive reading altogether among themselves lasting two minutes at least. Let a record be kept of the promptness of teachers, and let it be posted in the school and made a part of the church record. Let a reward be offered in some way adequate to inspire their promptness. Promptness on the part of the pupils can be secured by- using a processional in opening the school, that is, let the pupils march while singing some suitable hymn. Let the choir lead the processional, and then let each teacher march in at the head of his class. They all are urged to be present five minutes be¬ fore time and assemble in classes with their teachers. The processional is not a march to marching music, but it is a solemn parade while singing inspiring music, and is a great help to the spiritual and devotional life of the school. The march goes with a day school while the processional goes with a religious service. Then they can be dis¬ missed in the same way by a recessional. This will help the attendance and the de¬ votion. Another way to secure promptness is to secure public school recognition of units HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 571 and marks of both teachers and pupils. This cannot be done unless the standard of the school is improved, but in case the marks given in Sunday school count as credit in public schools the pupils will have a strong incentive to come on time. It may be that the County Sunday School Convention might arrange with the County Superintendent of Education to allow marks public school teachers get for meritorious work in the Sunday school count in their exam¬ inations for certificates or promotion. Perr haps the arrangement could be made by the State body and the State officer. _ In this way public school teachers might also be in¬ terested both to attend and also do better work. Again, effort should be made to find out whether the pupils and teachers have clocks or watches to guide them as to time. Often it will be found that-they have no timepiece and their tardiness is not always as culpable as it may appear. See what can be done to enable them to know the time. How about a church bell? So far as pupils are con¬ cerned it is not such a difficult matter to secure promptness, provided only they have timepieces, for some come too early and 572 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. they prefer to be late than too early. B.ut it is the teacher that is at the bottom of the trouble here and everywhere else in Sunday school work. Perhaps it would be well for each class to have an assistant teacher se¬ lected from the Teacher Training Class, and let this assistant perform the duties of a regular teacher until she arrives. This practice work by the aspiring teacher will prove interesting and helpful to him, and a younger person can always be depended up¬ on for promptness in such cases. Again, especially in well established city Sunday schools, where an abundance of teachers is available, do not allow teachers who are habitually behind to teach. In fact, all teachers who refuse to attend Teachers' Meetings and who are fifteen minutes late to the school ought not to be allowed to teach, unless it is impossible to do better. There are some schools where this would be of service, but ordinarily the schools are at the mercy of the teachers. On the whole, Teacher Training Classes are the hope of the future. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 673 QUESTIONS. 1. Who ds most responsible for tardiness in most schools ? 2. What can be done to overcome teachers and offi¬ cers' tardiness? 3. What ean be done to promote promptness by pupils ?. 4. What is a processional? X. RECREATION FOR THE SCHOOL. This is a matter that should not cause much worry in the Sunday school for the reason that we do not have the pupils often- er than once a week, and all between the Sundays they are resting mostly from the kind of work we do in the Sunday school. The schools are accustomed to carrying the children and others on a picnic once a year at least. Some one has suggested that the school ought to go ahead and decide what forms of amusement or recreation are al¬ lowable for the pupils. But really that is a matter for the church to pass on. It may be a good plan to encourage the young peo¬ ple in some healthy form of recreation sometimes, but let the church and the pastor take the lead. The Sunday school was not organized for pleasure, but for study and service, and the pupils will find time for rest (575) 576 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. in all cases. They rest more than they work now. . About the only form of recreation we can afford to strongly recommend here is the organization of lads and youths into Baptist Boy Cadets upon the plan set forth by Dr. D. A. Scott, and a similar organiza¬ tion could function for the girls. Recrea¬ tion is afforded by this plan, but discipline and self-control are also taught. So far as baseball is concerned, we have nothing to say to encourage the paying of large gate fees to witness games in which we take no part at all. There is something abnormal in the present day madness of baseball fans. Exercise is not exercise unless each person has some part in the play. But organized classes will arrange their own recreation along with their other social activities, but that would be a class matter, and not a school arrangement. They could provide games that allow thought as well as exercise. We trust that our viewpoint in this mat¬ ter will not be mistaken, and that our young people may not for a moment think that we have no sympathy with their ideas. But circumstances are so different in each com- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 577 munity that what might be permissible and proper in one place may be very improper in another place. This is not said because of a fear of criticism, but because it ought to be said. The playing of dominoes, cards, croquet, baseball, etc., pass right along as aH right in some communities, and no one raises any question. However, in other communities, cards may not be allowed to go except over severe protest, or it may be dominoes, or it may be croquet or baseball that is disapproved. Now this protest on the part of good people, however out of touch with the times, should be duly heeded to the extent that the matter might be brought up before the church for its de¬ termination. It is largely a matter of the attitude of the church on such matters, and Paul gives a clear deliverance on such mat¬ ters in the fourteenth chapter of Romans, and we should govern ourselves according¬ ly. . Touching dancing, there is hardly much difference among Baptists in all communi¬ ties, unless it be a few individual Baptists who are of little service to the cause. The fascination of Herod that led to the death of John the Baptist ought to be enough to 578 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. decide the Christian attitude on this matter. Again, dancing folks are never active and useful Christians, but they prefer to keep company with the dancing set rather than with their own fellow Christians. And yet we say here with emphasis that this whole matter is up to the local church which has full power to handle it under Matthew 16: 18, 19. But what should be said here is what Paul says in Romans: "There is noth¬ ing unclean of itself," and what he there says means that since the church regards these things as unclean, then they become unclean to Christians. It is the spirit of the person who does these things that de¬ cides the matter, and the very spirit of any dancing person is not the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus. So with games. Where any game leads to association with improper persons it is wrong. A devotee of these things is a useless person to the cause of Christ. Certainly the Sunday school is not the body to divide people by championing anything that is disapproved by the church. It is up to those believing these things all right to take the matter to the church and persuade the church if they are able to do so out of God's word. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 579 We must say this word to the pastor, however, as leader of the church. It is not fitting to array the church against young people in such of these forms of amusement as now are acceptable to the great majority of the churches, but the young people must see that the church sympathizes and is only trying to serve their highest interests. Take the matter of moving pictures: let the pas¬ tor give reasons and show the evil. If the older members attend Sunday school they will be in a better position to decide on mat¬ ters like this. Sometimes when the church and school get together on the matter it would be capital to let the young people center their recreation and gymnastic ac¬ tivities around the school. One parting word to leave here to church members is that when young people's recreation is criti¬ cized they are apt to scrutinize the moral standard of living in the church, and if they find the church silent on immorality and out¬ spoken against young people's recreation they will lose confidence in church people and may drop off altogether. QUESTIONS. 1. Is there any special reason why the Sunday school ~ should greatly concern itself with the matter of recreation? If so,, state the reason. 580 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 2. What forms of recreation arouse opposition among churches ? 3. What should be the position of the schools on these matters ? 4. What general suggestion is offered? 5. What is said of dancing? 6. What of moving pictures? 7. What of morality among the church members? XI. THE SOCIAL SIDE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. There'is the spiritual side, and there is the educational side of the school, but we should be reminded that there is a social side that must not be neglected. It is doubtless due to this neglect that it becomes hard to hold pupils when they reach, the period where society enters their lives. The organized class is intended partly to meet this need, but even this class will fail in this respect if they meet only at the regular Sunday school hour when they study the lesson. To properly train the pupils socially they ought to meet together as often as possible at parties and suppers and in literary enter¬ tainments, where they could be introduced to each other, and grow to know each other. The social feeling is very strong in normal persons, and serves to hold the school as well as the church together. The church is as real a social as it is a spiritual center. (581) 582 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. When the social side of the church is neg¬ lected, or when the church happens to be composed of persons who do not mix so¬ cially, it will be hard to make the work a success. The same is true of the Sunday- school. If a school is composed of pupils that never see each other except at Sunday school, such a school is laboring under a great disadvantage that must be overcome in some way if there is hope of success. It of¬ ten happens that the pupils live so far from each other in city and in country that they do not meet together except at the church, and often they know very little of each oth¬ er. Sometimes the pupils do not care to meet each other because of the radical dif¬ ference in social standing. But all these things should be overcome in order to make the school's influence and power what it should be. While the organized class should help to overcome social barriers by week day social gatherings of the class once in three months, it would not be a bad plan to have all of the organized classes or all the classes in any department to come together in a depart¬ mental social group once or twice a year, the early part of the meeting consisting of a HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 583 literary program. Or, in case of the males there might be a debate. There might be three divisional social groupings to provide for the children at an afternoon party, and the young people an entertainment, and a dinner or supper for the adults. If this side of the school is attended to it would soon show its results in increased attendance and efficiency. It is sometimes the social life that makes a school a success, while the offi¬ cers may think the success is due to another cause. One thing is certain, and that is that we find it hard to secure sufficient and competent workers and teachers, because such young people come to Sunday school for spiritual or educational reasons, but they are identified with a different group alto¬ gether in their social life. That is very of¬ ten the case, and as long as this is true, we will fail in doing effective work for them. Dancing and gambling and moving pictures have a hold on certain young people because they constitute the life of their social group. There must be a re-grouping socially if we expect to overcome this worldly influence. We must work to the end of bringing our pupils into closer social relation to the en¬ tire school. The kind of Sunday school we 584 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. are aiming to build up in every community will do such helpful work and render such service to an entire community that it will commend itself to the highest social group in a community, and thus let the strong help the weak.. There are all sorts of entertainments that would serve this social need, and those in charge should never let the social side die down,, but keep it alive and interested in many other ways that our own experience may suggest. Unless we reach the school in a social way we are not reaching the pupils at all the way to best help them. The church and school should both look after this matter, for really this is the cause of our failure to both hold and develop the teen age pupils more successfully. When a young person is converted he should cease to company with unconverted persons as far as possi¬ ble in intimate association. If he can be broken away he will then be broken in, and he will not give much trouble. The whole matter of living a Christian life is largely involved in the question of the -company of young people. As already intimated, there are hundreds of successful schools not be- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 685 cause the superintendent and teachers are so efficient, but largely because the church and school constitute the center of the so¬ cial life of the members, and anything un¬ dertaken there is a success. This is true, and should convince us that this matter should receive careful consideration. Now then, what can be done to remedy the social situation in the Sunday school? The answer is easy. Get the teachers and pupils of all divisions and classes to know each other better and associate with each other. Get the pastor to stress the social side of Christianity, and give the Sunday school lessons a social as well as a spiritual interpretation. Organize all classes at least above fifteen years of age, and get them all to work. Have neighborhood meetings through the Cradle Roll and Home Depart¬ ments. Let each president and teacher of a class become responsible socially for each class. Make the prayer meeting inviting and really helpful by selecting a Scripture bearing upon some subject of a social as well as a spiritual application, let the leader talk on the passage ten or fifteen minutes then ask expressions altogether restricted to the subject as well as the prayers and 586 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. songs and open and close on time. There are many ways to promote the social life of a school, so many in fact that space at our command requires us to close the lesson here. QUESTIONS. 1. How many sides of church life should receive at¬ tention ? Name each. 2. What are the difficulties in the way? 3. What suggestion is made to improve the social life? XII. HOW TO SECURE NEW TEACHERS. 1. A start must be made in time. The superintendent must take pains to plan to this end. This matter should rest on his mind all the time. 2. He should keep his eye on young men and young women beginning around the sixteenth year, and make it a point to place before each one the opportunity and the need, and this to mean the call of God to service. He should make a list of such per¬ sons, and upon some convenient opportuni¬ ty let him invite all these persons to a social gathering, a supper at his own or some other house, and make it the occasion to or¬ ganize them into a Teacher Training Class to be conducted by himself, so as to hold them to the class. This class would take the place of the Senior last year or first year Young People. Let the class do some real work for at least a year, but let members (587) 688 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. of this class be used as supply teachers one Sunday at a time, and this supply work will give opportunity for the expressional work so necessary to thorough teaching and learning. Moreover, the superintendent must not depend upon any one method. He should bear in mind that as chief executive officer and administrator the matter of securing suitable and sufficient teachers is his special work, and he is expected to measure up to the job. There is no other person as re¬ sponsible as he is for securing teachers, and if he falls down here, his school goes down at the same time. He must cultivate the friendship of young men and young women, and show interest in them, and seek to serve them in other ways. Often he might be able to place them in good positions through his influence. It is up to him to make these Young People he wishes to become teachers feel interested enough to make the sacrifice. The school should be made so interesting that it be¬ comes popular, and when it becomes popu¬ lar, it will not be hard to secure teachers. One of the best methods for increasing the general drawing power of the school is to HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 589 make the general exercises or program of the school attractive by music and some¬ times by training an orchestra. Take the matter to heart and keep it on your mind and results will follow. Speak in the church services of the need of consecrated young people for work in the school. They can be kept away from the theatre and dance hall oftener by showing that their services are actually needed in this work, than by de¬ nouncing their dancing and theatre-going. Indeed, this appealing to them to make sac¬ rifice and help in this work will reach their consciences and make the pleasure seeking stand out in its right light as worldliness. Instead of denouncing all the time, find work for them and urge them to deny them¬ selves to help others. Again, whenever young converts of prop¬ er age enter the church, let the superinten¬ dent without delay put up to them the mat¬ ter of consecrating themselves and prepar¬ ing themselves to teach in the school. This will probably prove the way to secure the best teachers after all and it will start the young convert off in the right direction, The cause is suffering because we fail to in¬ duct young converts into a stated responsi¬ bility from the first, for when their enthusi- 590 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. asm abates, it is hard to impress upon them their call to special service. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the first suggestion made to increase the teaching force? 2. What is the second suggestion? 3. What is the final suggestion? 4. What is recommended to increase the drawing pow¬ er of the school? XIII. EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. It is stated upon good authority that only two out of five scholars attending our Sun¬ day schools actually make a public profes¬ sion of Christ and relate themselves defi¬ nitely to our churches. This has not always been so, for in earlier days before the idea of the Sunday school being a school received so much emphasis, there was more empha¬ sis upon evangelism, and more young people became active church members. We must certainly take care not to push the intel¬ lectual idea at the expense of the spiritual. We can hardly hope to do strictly high class educational work within the hour we have our pupils in the Sunday school, to say noth¬ ing about the difficulty and almost impossi¬ bility of securing a sufficient number of pre¬ pared teachers. We may aim at the school standard, and lose sight of the real objec- (591) 592 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. tive of the school after all which is to help the church to become the power it should be in the lives of the members and in the com¬ munity. If we are not careful, it will fail both in the educational and in the spiritual aims, and it is certainly high time our at¬ tention should be called to the situation. The school that wins all of its pupils to Christ is a success in the highest sense if it holds them and instructs them in the Chris¬ tian life. There is no teaching of the Chris¬ tian life to any person who is not a Chris¬ tian, and conversion must be the first aim of the teacher. To succeed as a school the young convert must be held to the school until he learns the meaning and service of Christian living. There is great need of increasing the de¬ votional spirit which will help the evangel¬ istic spirit. The devotional life of the school is largely in the hands of the super¬ intendent whose business should be to pro¬ vide a suitable program for the general ex¬ ercises of the school. The Sunday school literature usually contains a program in each quarterly, and these may differ for the various departments, or they should dif¬ fer, whether they do or not, for the pupils HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 593 using them are expected to be separated by divisions or departments. But the super¬ intendent need not restrict himself to these .programs. At the point in the program for superin¬ tendent's talk, he might speak of the need of confessing Christ, and show the way to Christ, and urge to consecration. Decision Day is a help to promote evan¬ gelism. We must give our pupils to under¬ stand that the matter of this accepting and confessing Christ is going to be put up to them on a certain day, and then let the su¬ perintendent use his five minutes talk to prepare them for that day. When Decision Day does finally come, the usual program might be varied. In fact, if the superinten¬ dent gets out his own program every three months, then the program for the three months should end up for the quarter with Decision Day, and such a program should be so arranged as to lead the pupils to be thinking on the matter of accepting Christ when the opportunity comes on Decision- Day. On that day, instead of the regular lesson the pupils pass to the classes not to study the lesson, but to hear an appeal from the teacher and for Sig-—20, 594 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. prayer, and they can sign cards, and then openly confess Christ upon re-assembling. These are suggestions that others find helpful. The main thing is to see our duty, and opportunity as officers and teachers. Let us not blame the others for the lack of converts now, but let all feel responsible. The pastor is the natural leader along this line, but we may point out to him some sug¬ gestion and offer to help. In olden days it was understood that whenever any person felt the influence of the Spirit, it was proper 'then and there to speak out. That is still true. Let not one wait for the other, but at the teachers' meet¬ ings, and in the general exercises of the school, rise up and call the unsaved to Jesus. No special time is suggested for Decision Day. That will depend upon local condi¬ tions. The superintendent should confer with the pastor and time the day to the usu¬ al revival services, and more than one Sun¬ day could be set aside. But if there is any uncertainty or hesitation on the part of the church, then the school can fix its day and thus not lose the opportunity. . It has been suggested here that evangel¬ ism grows in an atmosphere of devotion, and HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 595 devotional life is largely shaped by the gen¬ eral program. But we should never forget that the class and the teacher should serve as the basis of evangelism. No lesson should be taught that has not been planned to lead the pupil to accept Christ. This lesson should be fol¬ lowed by personal effort on the part of the teacher, and on the part of such classmates as may be interested to do so. This person¬ al evangelism is the most effective. But a proper program helps to impress the teach¬ er to impress the pupils. QUESTIONS. 1. What is the proportion of the Sunday school pupils that unite with the church? 2. What one mistake in modern Sunday school work is hield responsible for this shortage? 3. What is suggested as a method to remedy the situa¬ tion? 4. What is suggested as to the way to observe De¬ cision Day? 5. What is said of personal work? XIV. THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE COUN¬ TRY SUNDAY SCHOOL. The great majority of our Baptist Sunday- schools are supposed to be in rural districts, but no doubt the total number of Sunday school scholars in towns and cities will con¬ stitute two-thirds of our total enrollment. This is because the problem of the country school is largely a problem of the little school. Of course, there is the general problem of the country roads and distances and inconveniences; but we should not be¬ come discouraged if we should be unable to revise the age long situation, and make the country as convenient as the city. That can be done approximately as the years roll on, but Sunday school people must not set¬ tle down to the condition as hopeless^ and, adopt a pessimistic or indifferent attitude toward all progress in the world. 698 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. There is always on hand at conventions the country superintendent who can show just why all suggestions we may offer can not be carried out in the rural school, and we are inclined to view the matter as he does, when we think of the faet that the rural churches seldom have preaching often- er than once a month, and we regard that the school can do no better than the church. But let us stop to see why most of the churches do not have services oftener. It certainly is not because the people are not able to come to church each Sunday, for most country people go some place every Sunday, and are very apt to attend some other churches the Sundays when their own pastor is away. Sometimes we think they do not like to tax themselves enough to pay a pastor for all his time, or for half his time; but there are many cases where they pay a pastor enough for one Sunday to secure a pastor for each Sunday in the month. It seems, therefore, that the majority of country'churches deliberately prefer serv¬ ices at their church only one Sunday a month in order that they may be free to visit oth¬ er churches or perhaps visit neighbors. So then the condition that Sunday School su- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 599 perintendents are up against can be changed, if only the right man gets behind the movement; and he wants to put so much determination and enthusiasm and downright hard work into the school that it will prove interesting to the church peo¬ ple to stay at their own church on Sunday even when the pastor is not present. One reason why they like to leave is because everything is so dead slow. Indeed, the country school has many ad¬ vantages over the city school, and one of the most notable is that practically the whole day is at the service of the school, except on preaching Sunday, and the sessions of the school do not have to be hurried for effec¬ tive work. In the city the morning serv¬ ice crowds the school, and the early hour causes the scholars to be tardy, while the country school hour could be fixed at 11 a. m., to hold the members to the home church, except on preaching day when it could be earlier. Sometimes we fail to see our ad¬ vantages by dwelling too much upon our disadvantages. Just imagine what an opportunity a coun¬ try Sunday school has to make itself felt in a community if they would open their eyes 600 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. and look out upon the field which is white unto the harvest. What is needed is a su¬ perintendent with a vision and one who will make a sacrifice to prepare to do the work. Let him take our Teacher Training Course and at least master this one book. Let him study our National Baptist Sunday School Standard and make up his mind to start out to enroll his as a standard school. Let him inform himself of the details of the plan of organization of the Abdemelech and Deb- bora Classes. Let him study the general organized class movement, and the Home Department and Cradle Roll. These two last named departments might be combined into one, and the scope enlarged so as to in¬ clude special meetings of parents, and effort should be made to erect a family al¬ tar in each home where there is none. The Adult Department might have special dis¬ cussions and debates on the live topics of the day in their relation to Christian principles, and on other occasions could secure lec¬ tures by experts on subjects of special in¬ terest to farmers. The fact is, the Sunday school has the best of the church for reaching the com¬ munity by reason of the once a month serv¬ ice of the church. The school meets prac- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 601 tically every. Sunday unless the weather is inclement. Country schools should be very careful in calling upon the church to name a superintendent who is acceptable to the church upon recommendation of the pastor and officers and Sunday school officers, for this superintendent can make himself felt as effectively as the pastor in the communi¬ ty if he is progressive. Let country superintendents not offer a reason why anything cannot be done to im¬ prove the school until each suggestion has been given an honest trial. In a Teacher Training book it is neces¬ sary that information should be imparted that will enable a school to take rank as a standard school. We cannot keep all the schools back because some carinot adopt the new plans. The standard must be standard for all. In the matter of grading, as has already been indicated, the classes ought to have at least three different grades if no more; i. e., children, young people, and adults are to be grouped separately for teaching. Surely, it is a poor school that cannot do this. As the school enlarges and more workers are secured, there might be two grades for each of the above groups and so 602 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE, on. What is needed is love for the work and common sense, and a continuous course of study in teacher training. QUESTIONS. 1. Where are the majority of Baptist Sunday schoolls situated ? 2. How about relation of membership of city and rural schools ? 3. State some reasons why it is hard to bring the rural school up to a higher standard. 4. State the reasons that favor the country over the city school. 5. What is offered as a means of improving the coun¬ try school? XV. THE PROGRAM OF THE SCHOOL. In the broadest sense the standard of ex¬ cellence when adopted, becomes the gener¬ al program of the Sunday school because it shows the general aim and scope of the work and the means for reaching the end. It is confidently expected that each school will adopt the Standard as its program and then keep the program before the school and aim to work up to it as rapidly as possible. But it is the session program we are to consider in this lesson which means the or¬ der of procedure in the conduct of the Sun¬ day session of the school. One of our rea¬ sons for having such a program is to see that no essential is neglected, and another is to impress the devotional spirit, and a third reason is to secure promptness, since the program, if properly arranged, is a drawing influence to the school. But all de¬ pends upon how the program is arranged and what it includes. 604 how; to study and teach the bible. There are certain features that * every program for a school session ought to in¬ clude, and one is music, another is the teach¬ ing of a new song, and another responsive reading impressing certain phases of the devotional life, another the special instruc¬ tion from the superintendent's desk, and a march or a processional and a recessional. The processional is far superior to the march in opening and closing the sessions. Some schools still open in the same old way without music, but a large number now close with the march, and also dismiss the pupils to study the lesson with a march. The march has the disadvantage sometimes of provoking the pupils to hilarity or ir¬ reverence and especially where jazz is played as the march. It is now urged in some quarters that the processional is far superior to the march, as the processional means the pupils march to the time of a re¬ ligious song, and they sing the song as they march. Of course it can be seen that if a proper selection is made the processional could be made very impressive and devo¬ tional. The most beautiful and appropri¬ ate selection that can be made for that pur¬ pose is: "Ten Thousand Times Ten Thou¬ sand," which is number 674 in the regular HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 605 Baptist Hymnal. It is suggested that if it is planned to open the session of the school regularly at a certain hour by forming and marching and singing the processional, it will prove a helpful stimulus to induce promptness on the part of pupils and teach¬ ers. Let the teachers march at the head of their classes, and let all aim to be present so as to form the line promptly on time. Promptly on the minute, let the procession¬ al begin, and let the march extend once around the entire assembly room and then each class is seated with the teacher. If there is a Sunday school choir and it would add to the interest and enthusiasm, the choir might march at the head of the pro¬ cession in their vestments. Until this meth¬ od is actually tried out all schools should plan its adoption as it both leads to prompt¬ ness and devotion. The school could use another suitable recessional to march the en¬ tire school from its assembly room into the regular morning services. Yes, the Sunday school program ought to contain something that would conduct the pupil from the school into the morning services without any dismissal at all, and the recessional is the ideal way. Other selections for hymns 606 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. can be made for a processional like: "On¬ ward Christian Soldiers." Another feature of a session program ought to allow time for the entire school to practice a new piece of music under the di¬ rection of the chorister each Sunday, and the time for this practice should be immedi¬ ately upon entrance after the processional, thus offering a double incentive to prompt¬ ness, which is so common an evil every¬ where, and teachers are more responsible for it than pupils. To secure promptness will at once indicate a progressive school. The chorister or organist should be employed to take charge of the music and he could be paid by concert recitals and giving private music lessons. Another feature of the ses¬ sion program should be time for a stated talk by the superintendent from the desk to the school, not to scold them for short¬ comings, but to impart special instructions along the lines suggested in the Standard of Excellence, and he should not talk longer than ten minutes. On occasions he might have some one else to prepare to fill this number, and sometimes could divide the time with some other person to read a five- minute paper. A quartet might sing a num- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 607 ber each Sunday. Some schools have an orchestra more or less pretentious. This is all right, but must not take the place of vocal music and choral services and congre¬ gational singing. It has already been said that a program will induce promptness, but it is also true that a right program will prove a great attraction in securing a larg- er membership. Do not neglect the study period, but put pep and brain into the pro¬ gram of general exercises and it will beget much enthusiasm. Below we suggest the outline of a suitable program: 9:30—Processional and opening prayer. 9:40 to 10—Vocal recital of new song. 10 to 10:10—Responsive reading. 10:10 to 10:40—Lesson period. 10:40 to 10:50—Talk from superinten¬ dent's desk. 10:55 to 11—Recessional into morning service. Of course it is no part of our plan to shape details of a program that would suit all the schools. We have only outlined certain outstanding essentials, and each superintend dent should make his own program and when it is made, it should be carried out. 6,08. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. QUESTIONS. 1. Distinguish the two ideas of program. 2. What is a recessional) and a processional? 3. What order of session program is suggested ? 4. What suggestion is made about closing the Sunday school session? 5. What hymn is suggested as a processional or a re¬ cessional ? 6. What advance has the processional on the march? BIBLIOGRAPHY. Principles and Ideals of the Sunday School Burton and Matthews. The Beginner's Department Louise M. Oglevee. Organizing and Building up a Sunday School J. L. Hurlbert. Missions in the Sunday School Martha B. Hixon. Problems of Intermediate and Senior Teachers E. C. Foster. The Graded Sunday School in Principle and Prac¬ tice H. H. Meyer. Modern Methods in Sunday School Work G. W. Meade. City Institute for Religious Teaching W. S. Athearne. The Sunday School Building and Its Equipment H. H. Evans. The Modern Sunday School and Its Present Day Work H. F. Cope. How to Run a Little Sunday School E. M. Ferguson. Graded Mission Education in the Church S. F. Beard. The Church School! Walter S. Athearne. The Home Department Minnie K. L. Karnell. Keystone Training Course for Teachers—First Year. Thoroughly Furnished Westminister Standard Teachers' Training Course. First Standard Manual of Teacher Training Course. Sunday School Essentials • Amis R. Wells. Housing of the Sunday School —: Marion Lawrence. Sunday School at Work John T. Fards, D. D. Seven Laws of Teaching Gregory. Tralle's Teacher Training Essentials. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 609 The Ministry of the Sunday School Pattlson. An Ideal School Search. The Art of School Management Baldwin. Efficiency of the Sunday Schooil Cope. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. TEACHER TRAINING CHART ARRANGED BY S. N. VASS. THE SCHOOL. • THE PUPIL. THE TEACHER. f HE BIBLE. ELEMENTARY DIVISION | CRADLE ROLL. • 1 to 3. # Child not to attend school until 4 years a»d better physically developed.. . Mother is teacher and a suitable periodical is for her showing how to train to prayer and devotions. Study ihe regular Sunday school lesson in Cradle Roll and Home Department or Ab¬ demelech and Debbora Magazine. BEGINNERS. "H 4 to 5. nj Use Beginner's Quarterly. J2 Active, Animism, Shy, Plays alone, Affec¬ tionate, Imagination uncontrolled, Credu¬ lous, Feelings dominate, Fanciful, Depend¬ ent, Fearful. Storie3, Objects, Pictures, Songs, Motion songs, Color pictures, and child gets moth- to help through the week. God, His care and protection, Teach to know God as Father and Jesus as Friend and Helper, and lead to show love for God by obedience and kindness. PRIMARY. 6, 7, 8. O Use Primary Quarterly. O Play imitative, Reason budding, Imagina¬ tion, More social, Openness, Consistency, Memory pictures, Curiosity, Will fc-rowing. Stories, Pictures, Symbols, Songs, Marches, Color pictures, Paste pictures in book and get mother to help get pictures. God's loving kindness, love and work of Je¬ sus. What God desires and commands. In¬ spire reverence and make appeal to choose and obey God and Jesus. JUNIOR. a 9, 10, 11. 2 Use Junior Quarterly. Growing independence, Fight, Play competi¬ tive, Hero worship, Sexes apart, Loyalty, Imagination, Habit fixing, Verbal memory, Gangs, Will develops, Altruistic, Reason, Teasing. Assignments, Home work, Hand work, Drills in memory, Boy Cadets or Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls. Memorize passages, Number of Bible books and Life of Jesus, Bible History, Geography, Ideals and Heroes, Consequences right and wrong choice, Awaken love for Bible, Christ and Church. SECONOARY DIVISION INTERMEDIATE. 12, 13, 14. 0) Use Intermediate Quarterly. HI Companionship, Self-conscious, Play com¬ petitive, Intellectual, Entire physical revolu¬ tion, Social instinct, Less energy, Morality, Conversion, Moody. Recitation, Essays, Reports, Boy Cadets or Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls. O. T. Biography, Life of Christ, Leaders of Israel, Christian Life, Personal ideas and ideals through biography and lead to ac¬ cept Christ and Christian life. SENIOR. 5 15, 16, 17. O Use Senior Quarterly. ^ Conscience, Sentimental, Conversion, Lead¬ ership, Increased energy, Social, Critical, Morality, Intellectual, Religion, Aspiring, Choice—right or wrong. Thoughtful, Sympathetic, Logical examples, Debates, Class Reports, Teaching practical. Apostolic Christianity, Bible History, Poet¬ ry of the Bible. Aim at thorough Bible knowledge and Christianity as supreme and only religion. CO YOUNG PEOPLE. P> 18, 19, 20. 5 Use Abdemelech and Debbora Magazine or 5j Teacher Training Book. m Endurance, Courageous, Disillusionized, Self-sufficient, Individuality, Social life, Doubt, Experience, Sex attraction, New moral vision, Many Interests, Comradeship. Abdemelech and Debbora Classes, Teacher Training Classes, Organized Classes, Lecture method, Seminar method, Reports. Teachings of Jesus, Social teachings of Je¬ sus, Prophetical books. Christian and De¬ nominational principles. ADULT DIVISION ADULT. m 21 years and up. 3 Use Abdemelech and Debbora Magazine. < PI Narrowed interests, Indifference, Commer¬ cial, At work, Distrust emotion, Logical. Lecture method, Discussion method, Semi¬ nar method, Definite work for each mem¬ ber. Prophecy and Signs of Times, Spiritual in¬ terpretation, Love and grace, The Kingdom of Heaven, Christian principles. u> HOME DEPARTMENT. HI All above 16. » m At work, Poor opportunity and indifference, Some cannot read. Meet together for study as often as possi¬ ble and establish family altars. Study Home Department Quarterly, and Bible, applying to daily needs, XVI. STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE SUNDAY SCHOOL PUBLISHING BOARD, NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION, U. S. A. 1. RIGHT RELATIONS. 2. EVANGELISM. 3. GRADED INSTRUCTION. 4. MUSIC. 5. ORGANIZED CLASSES. 6. MEMBERSHIP. 7. CRADLE ROLL. 8. HOME DEPARTMENT. 9. TEACHER TRAINING. 10. WORKERS' CONFERENCES. Jl. SPECIAL INSTRUCTION. 12. SPECIAL DAYS. 13. FINANCE. I. Right Relations. 1. To the Church. 2. To the Denomination. 1. The school is primarily organized to help the work of the local church and so whatever is the objective of the church is also the aim of the Sunday school, the (611) 612 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. church employing the preaching of the word to that end while it intrusts the teach¬ ing of the word to the school. All possible proper influence and method should be em¬ ployed to secure the full attendance of the school upon the devotional services of the church, and no doubt, this will react upon the church to adapt its services so as to reach the children and young people as well as adults. If the church does not elect or endorse the Sunday school officers, then a report ought, nevertheless, to be made to the church once in six months of the condi¬ tion and needs of the school, and this no doubt, will serve to draw the church and school nearer together. 2. Moreover, a school ought to share in the larger life and activity of the church, and should represent especially in district, state and national Baptist bodies that are seeking to promote increased efficiency in the school. A very close relationship ought to be sustained especially to our Sunday School Publishing Board for material help. II. Evangelism. 1. Personal Work. 2. Class Work. 3. General Effort. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 613 1. The teacher should remember that all his teaching should be aimed at a result, and where the pupil is not a Christian, the first aim is his conversion, and all instruc¬ tion of a pupil has failed and missed the mark unless it leads to his conversion. It will be found that personal effort on the part of the teacher will have to supplement the class instruction to accomplish this end. 2. The teacher should show such ear¬ nestness in working for the conversion of pupils that the Christians in the class will catch his spirit and cooperate with him both in the class and outside of the class. Effort should be made to secure this co¬ operation. Such work should go on all the time until all the pupils are converted. 3. Finally, if the church decides upon a general drive for converts along the reviv¬ al line, the school should enter heartily in¬ to the revival effort, but largely restrict its efforts to attendance in the day meetings, except for the more advanced pupils. III. Graded Instruction. 1. Graded Classes. 2. Graded Departments. 614 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 3. Promotions. 4. Graduation. 1. Graded Classes. The pupils should be grouped as follows in classes: 1 ito 3 years—Cradle Roll. 4 to 5 years—Beginners. 6 to 8 years—Primary. 9 to 11 years—Junior. 12 to 14 years—Advanced and Intermediate. 15 to 17 years—Senior. 18 to 21 years—Young People. Use Teacher Training, or Abdemelbch and Debbora Magazine. 21 years and up—Adult. 18 years up—Home Department. Where there are several classes in a school corresponding to the above grouping they constitute a department by the same name. If there is only one such class, then scholars in any one of the above groups may be placed in the same class, and yet the school will be graded, but graded by groups of years instead of each single year. 2. Graded Departments.* A department is made up of two or more classes of the same grade or groups of years. The classes and departments are graded alike by groups of years, but if there are enough pupils in the department to make up one or more classes for each year represented by the HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 615 department, the proper thing to do is to put into each class pupils of the same year of age, but each class in the depart¬ ment is to use the same quarterly, which is graded to suit all of the years in the de¬ partment. Use the quarterly intended for the department, and continue same quar¬ terly for all the years in a department. 3. Promotions are necessary in the case of a school graded as above, not promotions after strict passing of examinations, but promoting the pupils from one teacher to another, the same teacher always remain¬ ing with the same department, and the scholar promoted to another teacher. This will give us graded teachers. The Be¬ ginner's Quarterly must be used by a pu¬ pil two years; a Primary Quarterly must be used for three years; a Junior Quarter¬ ly for three years; the Advanced Quarterly must be used three years and the Senior Quarterly for three years; the Abdemelech and Debbora Magazine three years unless certain members of the class take up the teacher training course the last three years. Promotions are only made when the pupil has spent the required number of years in a department corresponding to his age. 616 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 4. Graduation. Promotions naturally lead to the idea of graduation, and it would greatly stimulate the teen age attendance where it is understood a diploma will crown their faithfulness. Diplomas should be is¬ sued after proven excellence in attendance, character and scholarship, beginning at six years and extending to the close of the twentieth year. Diplomas should only be given to those promising to serve as teach¬ ers and to continue their study of the Bible, and to such as have previously studied in the teacher training class at least three years and passed a satisfactory exami¬ nation. IV. Music. 1. Graded Music. 2. Chorister and Organist. 3. Music Recitals. 1. It is not enough to train the intellect in the Sunday school, but we should also aim to train the will and the feelings, for the soul is reached through all three medi¬ ums—intellect, will and feeling. Now, mu¬ sic is the language of the feelings and we must not neglect this avenue to the soul. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 617 As the instruction is graded to the depart¬ ment, so the music should also be graded, for ungraded music can no more reach a child than ungraded instruction. 2. Chorister and Organist. These two offices may be united in one person, but it matters not how small a school is someone should be in charge of the music and re¬ sponsible for it. In the case of the Begin¬ ner's Department there should be a separate organist who will also act as chorister to prepare the songs and motion songs which ought always to be employed with these children. 3. Music Recitals will be found to take care of all the expenses of the music de¬ partment, which should plan to cultivate the musical art in school, church and home, through a competent music teacher and di¬ rector, on salary wherever possible. V. Organized Classes. 1. Regular Organized Classes. 2 Abdemelech and Debbora Classes. 618 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 1. Regular Organized Classes. All classes from 15 years up should be organ¬ ized, i. e., beginning with the Senior De¬ partment, these classes up to 20 inclus¬ ive will come within the regular grades, and effort must be made to limit the num¬ bers in each class to some reasonable num¬ ber, something like a dozen, or a dozen and a half to the class, if possible to secure enough teachers. Officers are elected, suit¬ able committees appointed, and the same organization kept as the class is pro¬ moted until final graduation. This class or¬ ganization in the regular grades serves several very useful purposes.' (a) It seems to hold the teen age pupils in school. (b) It seems to promote mutual interest in the class in school and after graduation. (c) It promotes social service and prac¬ tical Christianity. (d) It helps to increase responsibility and respect. It would not be a bad idea to organize classes from nine years up as class disci¬ pline is promoted by this means. 2. Abdemelech and Debbora Classes. These classes are different from the regu- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 619 lar organized classes of the grades just re¬ ferred to which are limited by age and number to the department to which they belong. The Abdemelech Class is for men only, and the Debbora Class is for women only, and there is no limit on age or num¬ ber. In fact, the idea here is to get togeth¬ er a very large class, and the larger, the better. The class is organized, commit¬ tees are appointed, and the class adopts a program which includes a definite object¬ ive worthy of the class and responsibility for financing it. There are many needs of a church that such a class could under¬ take to meet. The Sunday School Publish¬ ing Board issues a special magazine for these classes and suitable literature and ac¬ cessories. Both regular organized and also the Ab¬ demelech and Debbora Classes should elect representatives to the Workers' Conference of the school in proportion to their mem¬ bership. -VI. Membership. 1. Present Membership. 2. What Membership is Standard. 3. Increasing Membership. 620 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 1. Present membership. This point on the membership of the school has been placed further down in the standard because it is first of all necessary to take proper care of the present membership, for if this is neglected, an increased membership will make the problem still harder, and it will not be long before the school will fall down to the same low level. Learn how to or¬ ganize and properly instruct the pupils we now have. 2. What membership is standard in the case of a given school? That depends up¬ on the membership of the church. Includ¬ ing all the departments, each school should have a minimum membership equal to the membership of the church. That does not mean that this full number should be in at¬ tendance upon the school in person, but in¬ cludes all members of the Cradle Roll and Home Departments. This is a possible re¬ quirement and a reasonable standard. 3. Increasing the membership. When once this standard is adopted by a school and an honest effort made to comply with the requirements, then the next thing in order HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 621 is to aim to bring the membership of the school up to the standard requirement. This can be accomplished by individuals," by classes, and by an annual drive all togeth¬ er. There is a way of increasing the at¬ tendance by rewarding the scholars of a class with a card of a certain color to be replaced with a card of another color when a certain number is held, and a number of the last color leading to the present of some book. The Sunday School Publishing Board will furnish the cards at a reasonable price. This puts the class to work all the year round. In the case of the drive, the reward is given only to a class as a whole, and the drive should last one whole month culmi¬ nating the Rally Day when the final report is made and the award presented. VII. The Cradle Roll. There are some Baptists that misunder¬ stand the purpose and method of this de¬ partment, regarding* it as catering to ^ a sentiment that sometimes calls for blessing children in church, etc. But the Cradle Roll child is not brought into the regular church or school services, but to the Begin- 622 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. ner's Department once where he is wel¬ comed as a future member. The object of this .department is to reach the mother and make her feel the obligation to see to it that her child attends the regular school when it reaches its fourth year or earlier. All the literature and accessories can be supplied by our Sunday School Publishing Board. The mothers of Cradle Roll children should be organized into a Band and they should meet at stated periods to discuss training, physical and spiritual, and for social purposes. This department should also take the lead in agitating for nurseries at churches so that mothers can enjoy services while babies are cared for by workers of the Cradle Roll who volunteer for such service. VIII. Home Department. 1. For the Employed. 2. For the Invalids. 3. Methods. 1. The object of the Home Department is to give some of the advantages of the Sunday school to those whose employment prevents their attendance upon the school HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 623 in person, or whose duties otherwise stand in the way. These sign a pledge to read the lesson from the Bible and quarterly at least one-half hour each week. 2. In some cases there are chronic suf¬ ferers who cannot attend. It will be a source of comfort to such invalids to be present in spirit when unable to attend in person. In this way the school will grow interested in visiting the sick and helping to care for the needy. 3. Methods. There are two methods by which this department may be conducted. (a) The pupils are enrolled and fur¬ nished quarterlies and collection envelopes and a certificate of membership, but the visitor makes only one visit a quarter, and then furnishes a new supply. This method succeeds in some cases. Of course the pu¬ pils are notified and invited to attend all entertainments and social functions of the regular school. (b) But another method of conducting this department provides for the division of the territory or membership into several groups, and each group meets at a stated time at night, in some home, where the visi- and teach the bible. 624 how to stud* put in charge of that tor or a spec^ ^ be designated a captain, group meets the group and teaches leSeson each week. In some cases this rnethod succeeds when the other fails. Once a quarter some home departments come to¬ gether a week night for instruction or a review by the pastor at the church. (c) Another method still, provides that this department co-operate with the Cradle Roll to establish family altars in each home, and make report on same to school, and that others besides workers and invalids be admitted, if they will not attend the regu¬ lar Sunday school. It is argued that through this latter class the school might, after all, come in close touch with the home, if such persons will only become active in the Home Department. It must be borne in mind that all plans are elastic and can be adjusted to local con¬ ditions. Make any change local conditions might demand, and remember, we are all after results and not just schemers. Teacher Training*. 1. By Classes. 2. By Correspondence. 3. Teachers' Meetings. HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 625 „ 1. There should be connected with each school a teacher training class composed of all officers and teachers from the superin¬ tendent down, and if the school is a large one there should be another class for pro¬ spective officers and teachers. If the school is small, both regulars and prospectives might unite in the same class. The person to teach this class should either be the pas¬ tor or the superintendent, or some day school teacher, if a faithful one can be se¬ cured. The text book should in all cases be the one printed and recommended by the Sunday School Publishing Board. Exami¬ nation papers will be filed with said Board and diplomas issued by the same Board up¬ on completion of the course of study. It would be an excellent plan to have the pupils of the Young People's Department— 18 to 21 years—take up the study of , teach¬ er training. 2. By Correspondence. Another way to take this course is for each person who de¬ sires to do so to take the course by corre¬ spondence through our Sunday School Pub¬ lishing Board. In that case all examina¬ tions will be conducted from Headquarters, Sig.—21 626 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. and the correspondent will pay the postage, and for his diploma. No one may enroll in the classes or by correspondence until first the Board's teacher training book is pur¬ chased. All diplomas may be publicly pre¬ sented in the school or one of the annual state or national gatherings as desired. 3. Teachers' Meetings could be used for the double purpose of studying the lesson, and also for the general preparation for the work found in the teacher training course, and this class could be identified with the regular teachers' meeting, one-half the time devoted to each. This will be found practicable, but care must be used to have both classes during that hour or period, and one should not be neglected for the other. X. Workers' Conference. 1. Officers and Teachers. 2. Representatives of Organized Classes. 1. It is now a very late day for schools to still follow the out-of-date practice of transacting the business of the school in the regular Sunday session of the school. Of course in the case of small schools we might proceed in this way some- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 627 times. In most cases now the business is referred to the regular meeting of the teachers. This is much better, but business should be attended to at stated periods, and the regular teachers' meeting should be for lesson study and general preparation. The plan now growing in general favor is to have a regular Workers' Conference to be composed not only of teachers, but of all the officers of the school, to meet at least once in three months for business, to report on the condition of the school and to adopt new nlans. 2. Representatives of the regular or¬ ganized classes in the grades, and of the Abdemelech and Debbora Classes, should be requested or at least invited to s!t as reg¬ ular members of the Workers' Conference. There might be one representative for each dozen and half or less of members in the classes. It will be found that in a number of lare:e schools there are found persons in organized classes whose advice would ma¬ terially help the administration and also make them feel a deeper interest in the work. €28 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. XI. Special Instruction. 1. Missionary. 2. Temperance. 3. Social Purity. 1. The Bible is the text book of the Sun¬ day school, arid should always be, and this suggestion of special instruction is not intended in any way to take the place of the regular study of the Bible from the Bible passage under consideration each Sunday. But this special instruction is intended both to direct emphasis in the regular teaching of the lesson, and to sup¬ plement the regular Bible lesson. One way to impart this special instruction is to weave it into the regular teaching of the lesson when such opportunity comes in the study, and another method is for the su¬ perintendent or division superintendent to impart the special instruction to the as¬ sembled division or whole school by short talks by himself, or some one who has espe¬ cially prepared for it. It will never be in order to substitute this special instruction for the study of the regular lesson. Mis¬ sionary instruction is needed both to train -the school as to the fundamentals of mis- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 629 sion service and also to enable the school to know the success and extent of the mis¬ sions in all lands. The Christian training that neglects service as a means and an end will not answer the purpose, and if such instruction is to be effective special instruc¬ tion in the history of missions is necessary to complete the training. 2. Temperance is another subject of vi¬ tal importance to the home as well as the foreign field. Prohibition will fail unless there is created a healthy public sentiment to back up the law. But we should go fur¬ ther and not teach temperance to make us law-abiding only, but as a matter of Chris¬ tian self-control which is fundamental in the religion of Christ. 3. Social purity is a matter of much im¬ portance to this and succeeding generations and yet it is a matter so generally neglected by responsible persons and organizations that the government has sent out a general alarm and warned us of the frightful situa¬ tion. We are losing a splendid opportunity to serve our people and our country as well as our God as long as we fail to especially stress social purity in our Sunday schools. But one thing must be observed in all such 630 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. instructions, and that is to see to it that it is properly graded to the age of the pupil, and is imparted with becoming soberness and moral earnestness. The class is the best place to impart it, and the next would be the division. Under no circumstances should we allow a talk before the school by a stranger unless first of all we have con¬ ferred and learned how the matter would be presented. But a great deal must be done in this direction by personal work on the part of the teacher. XII. Special Days. 1. Children's Day. 2. Bible Day. 3. Rally Day. 4. Decision Day. 1. Children's Day. Recently, the cus¬ tom of observing special days to help cer¬ tain causes on the outside of the school has become so general as to tend to lessen in¬ terest in this method of rallying the school to some good cause, but we cannot afford to let the work suffer. Of course, Easter Day has no proper place on the calendar of a Missionary Baptist Church or school. But Children's Day is our day. This could be set for the regular Easter day if desirable, HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. 631 and it would be a good plan to do this so as to afford our schools special interest at a time when others are interested. But the best time for Children's Day is around the second Sunday in June when the season is warm and all nature is aglow, and the chil¬ dren can dress in cool attire without the risk of catching cold. Easter is generally observed very selfishly for our own pleas¬ ure, but Children's Day is observed for the purpose of raising funds to carry forward the work of Sunday school and religious education. 2. Bible Day. This day is observed for the purpose of raising money to be used in purchasing Bibles for the destitute at home and abroad. 3. Rally Day is the closing day of the Membership Drive upon which the award will be presented to the class bringing in the largest number of new pupils for the month closing on that day. 4. Decision Day js intended as a climax to the effort to bring the pupils to an open confession of Christ. On this day the usual 632 HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. lesson may be dispensed with and the en¬ tire service given over to secure the con¬ version of the pupils. They retire to their classes, not for lesson study but for prayer and to make a special appeal to the unconverted of the class, and to sign cards. Then when the class reassembles with the school an opportunity for open confession is given. This day should be announced after conference with the pastor. XIII. Finance. The Budget Plan. Most schools raise their own expenses and pay their own bills and also contribute to outside objects. Some advocate the church fully financing the school, receiving and disbursing all money raised in the school. But the first plan is employed in about all the schools among us. The best way to raise money .in the school is by the budget plan, which im¬ plies that at the beginning of the year the school should decide just how much money it should contribute to its expenses "and toward the different missionary and char- HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH THE BIBLE. .633 itable objects and also to the expenses of the church; and all of these items should be added together and the total should then be divided by the whole num¬ ber of pupils from the Junior age up¬ ward, and all pupils from Junior age up should be asked each to contribute this pro¬ portionate amount as the minimum for the year, and each should be urged to do as much more than the minimum as possible in order to make up for some who may not raise their quota. Each one is then asked to pledge definitely the amount he will con¬ tribute, and try to contribute it in equal in¬ stallments each Sunday of the year. Each contributing pupil should be requested to raise the money he contributes by his own personal effort and industry. QUESTIONS. 1. Name the general items that stre covered in the standard? . 2. Why are the items presented m this order? 3. Rewrite the entire standard. 4. Use your utmost influence to secure its adoption in vour school. Sig".—22 This Standard can be obtained to post in Sunday school at a reasonable price. As fast -as a school attains pro¬ ficiency in any one point a blue seal is to be applied, a red seal for four points, a silver star for nine points and a gold seal for thirteen points. These will be furnished at cost upon satisfactory evidence of first class work for number indicated. Schools with the gold seal will be enrolled in the minutes of our National Baptist Conven¬ tion upon thorough investigation as standard schools.