BIBLE TEACHING 2 OF 2

THE METHOD

A. As TO THE TEACHER.                           B. As TO THE TEACHING.

I. The Preparation.                                                      I. The Students.

i. Work.                                                                                   i. Essentials.

ii. Live.                                                                                                Ignorance and Intelligence.

ii. Adaptation. Grading.

II. The Purpose.                                                          II. The System.

i. Essential.                                                                              i. Occasions.

Spiritual Results.                                                                     Existing Organizations

ii. Processional.          

Knowledge.                                                                ii. Apparatus.

Obedience.                                                                                          Eargate and Eyegate.

III. The Process.                                                          III. The Scheme.

i. Persistence.                                                              i. Extensive.

ii. Patience.                                                                  ii. Intensive.

If it be accepted that the utmost responsi­bility of the Christian Church is that of the knowledge and incarnation of the truth of the Bible, in order that it may be pro­claimed to the world, it will at once be recognized that the subject of her equip­ment for the fulfillment of this purpose is of the utmost importance. In considering the subject, therefore, of the method of the teaching of the English Bible we shall con­fine our attention to the true method as within the Church of God.

I do not mean to suggest that our teach­ing of the Bible will be confined exclusively to Christian people; but I am dealing with the method of the teaching of the Bible within the atmosphere of the Church, on Church premises, and in connection with the regular work of the Church.

Mr. D. L. Moody once said, "The Christian is the world's Bible, and very often a revised version is needed." I believe the whole of that statement to be true, but for the moment I am particularly interested in the first part of it. The great truths of the Bible can only be communicated to the nation and to the world through the Church of God; but it cannot be too often repeated, and furthermore it must be remembered, that this communication of Bible truth to the world by the Church cannot be accomplished merely by proclama­tion. There must be a manifestation through the lives of those who constitute the Church, who, according to the prayer of the Divine Lord and Master, are sanctified through the truth. To leave these fundamental considerations out of any discussion of method in teaching would be to neglect a most important factor therein.

A glance at the diagram will reveal the outline of our subject. We shall deal with the subject of method first as to the teacher, and secondly, as to the teaching.

A. As TO THE TEACHER. I. The preparation.

It is inevitable that when we deal with the subject of method we commence with the teacher; and the first matter of import­ance is that there should be adequate preparation for the work. In order to preparation two things are necessary, which may be chiefly expressed in the words "work" and "live."

As to the first, let me state in the briefest manner possible what I want to impress upon the mind of those who are contem­plating Bible teaching, by declaring that the Bible never yields itself to indolence. Of all literature none demands more diligent application than that of the Divine Library. To that statement let me hasten to add another. The Bible yields its treasures to honest toil more readily than does any other serious literature. No one can be a teacher of this Book who treats it with scant intellectual application and respect; but, on the other hand, those who devote to it earnest work according to their oppor­tunity may become teachers in the best sense of the word.

Limitations which are fixed within the government of God are no barrier to pre­paration for teaching; but limitations which are created by the indolence of men con­stitute a barrier insurmountable.

I draw special attention to this fact because I am so often asked, "What method would you advise for a person who has very little time for study?" If a person has honestly very little time, but uses that time with all application, earnestness, and diligence, God will make up to such an one in ways which will be full of surprise. Only let none expect this Divine help unless there be honest and full use of whatever time or opportunity may be available.

To ministers and students preparing for the ministry I most definitely say that it is impossible to be teachers of the Word apart from hard, honest, and continuous sweat of brain in the sacred business of studying the Bible. No man can truly teach it who picks it up and reads it casually, and then, when some isolated passage has impressed him, lays it aside while he attempts to find on his bookshelves things which other men have said concerning the passage which has appealed to him. That is not study of the Bible, and it cannot issue in teaching of the Bible.

On the other hand, those occupied in business, whose hours are few and precious, but who make full use of those hours to the utmost of their ability, may expect and assuredly will find that God will give them such clear insight into the meaning of His Word, and such wonderful unveilings of its hidden glories, that they will be growingly amazed; for this Book is not as other books, as there is ever super-added to that wonderful and mystic quality of its own inspiration, an inspiration within the one who is earnestly devoted to the work of dis­covering its meaning. The human side of the literature may be appreciated and studied by the unaided intellect of man; but the Divine element, that which constitutes it inspired literature, demands that the student shall be inspired, and this inspiration is given only to those who dedicate their best strength to the work of studying the writings.

The work of preparation involves famili­arity with the familiar things, accompanied by determination to become familiar with the familiar things. Does that sound like a paradox? Think of it. There are some things with which we are so familiar that we do not know them. We know them by rote; we know them by hearsay; we know them by the habit of continuously repeating them; but some of these most familiar things we do not know, never having come to a true apprehension of their significance. It is important, therefore, that we begin on the simplest level with the determina­tion to give attention to those fundamental matters with which we dealt in our first article, and to make ourselves intelligent possessors of them for all time.

Let the Bible teacher make use of all available means to help him in his study of the Bible. When I earnestly plead for the reading of the Bible itself, I am some­times asked, "Do you suggest that a man should burn all the books he has about the Bible?" or, "Do you say that a man should never procure any book about the Bible?" Certainly I mean nothing of the kind, and earnestly advise whom so ever may contemplate the work of teaching to secure every available aid.

To young people I would, however, say, even if you have the means, do not buy a library of expository works. Build up your own library one book at a time, accord­ing to that particular portion of the Bible which you are studying. Select and choose, under the advice of those in whom you have most confidence, the books you require; and buying and studying them one at a time, you will soon find that you have gathered around you familiar friends in your books. Such a collection constitutes a true library. It is quite true that you can buy at cheap and reduced rates whole series of commentaries, but the probability is that if you do so the majority of them will never help you; but the books which you gather one by one will certainly be those of greatest value to you throughout the whole course of your ministry of teaching.

The second word indicating the true method of preparation is the word "live."

If it be true that the Bible never yields itself to indolence, it is equally true that it never yields itself to disobedience; and also that it does yield up its secrets grow­ingly to honest obedience.

There never can be weight and point and power in teaching unless the mystic and spiritual truths which have come to us as the result of our study are obeyed. And in this connection let me say that there can never be the study of any part of the Divine Library, but that there will come from such study some definite and direct appeal.

The Divine Library is a revelation, and a revelation means light, and light means an unveiling of the things of darkness, accompanied by a demand that they should be put away.

We cannot study the story of the men of the past, with its account of earnest purpose and constant conflict in the struggle after the high and noble in the mere twilight of revelation, and with its revelation of the principle of faith that made them strong and courageous, without being con­scious of the lure of that life. When that consciousness is felt, there must not be merely the intellectual apprehension of the truth, but the answer of the will thereto. Where we fail in this respect, the Bible immediately becomes a sealed book.

It is impossible to read the stories of the past without discovering the reason of the failure of certain men; and that quality of the revelation is in itself a flam­ing light of warning falling upon our own lives; but if we persist in the things against which we are warned, the Bible becomes a sealed book, and we can neither know it, nor teach it.

This is a mystic quality constituting a difference between the Bible and all other literature. I may study Shakespeare, and the tragedy of "Macbeth" breaking in upon my soul, I may see the awfulness of sin, and yet may fall a prey to the same sin without losing my ability to take up another of the writings of Shakespeare, and to under­stand its teaching. But if I read the story of wrong in the Bible, and do not yield to the teaching conveyed thereby, I cannot take up another part of the Bible and under­stand it on its highest spiritual level.

I am sometimes asked if I do not think that what is known as Higher Criticism has hindered people from reading the Bible. Well, that may be so; but I am quite con­vinced that people have far more often been hindered by their own disobedience to the Bible, because by such disobedience the eye becomes dim and the ear dull.

All that is most assuredly true it the case of the teacher. We, who in preparation for teaching must necessarily deal with the technicalities, will become sounding brass, tinkling cymbals, the click of the machinery forever discoverable in our very method, except as our teaching is rend­ered powerful by conformity of life to the claim which the Bible sets up thereupon. There is nothing more disastrous than to traffic with the letter of Scripture while we disobey its spirit. By such action we be­come such as having eyes, see not; having ears, hear not; and therefore are unable to communicate to others the virtue and glory of the revelation of God.

These are solemn words, but full of importance. The Bible teacher must re­member that the twofold preparation necessary is that of hard work and con­sistent life.

II. The purpose.

The teacher of the Bible must always have in mind the twofold purpose of the work, what I may describe as the essential and the processional.

As to the essential, I take it for granted that we accept the preliminary considera­tions that the Bible is religious, that it is dual, triple, multiple, and unified. I take it for granted, moreover, that we have not only accepted these things, but have come to the conclusion that the unified message of the Bible is a full and final revelation to men, for the purposes of the present life, concerning spiritual things. Conse­quently we are face to face in Bible literature with the deepest values of human life.

It is a literature with a purpose, and that purpose is spiritual. It is a literature intended to bring men into the knowledge of God, and into direct dealing with God. It is a literature intended to teach men what God is, what man is, and what the inter-relation­ships between God and men are. It is a literature intended to set sin in its right light, that men may shun it; and to reveal to men all the high and the noble things of their essential spiritual nature.

We must remember, therefore, whenever we teach, that the ultimate purpose of our teaching is not the illumination of the intellect; is not the moving of the emotion; but is the bringing of the lives of the people who hear, and understand, into right rela­tionship with eternal things.

That is why no man can teach the Bible unless he himself be a spiritual man. We are in constant peril when we ask men to teach or interpret the Bible, unless they are called and prepared by God for that sacred and solemn work.

The processional purpose must also be recognized. In teaching the Bible our first business is to impart knowledge, to make others see, to be perfectly sure that the people we are teaching understand—whether there be a multitude or half a dozen matters nothing. That is teaching.

In teaching we must be prepared to sacrifice many things held in high esteem, such as dignity of deportment and beauty of style. I am convinced that in order to teach the Bible we must be free from slavery to a perfected style, and I am absolutely certain we must be emancipated from the bondage of dignity. The business of the teacher is to teach, and that means that his highest anxiety must be that of enabling those whom he is teaching to see the things he sees.

I am not undervaluing beauty of style or dignity of deportment, but I do desire to make it perfectly clear that in the teaching of the Bible these are secondary things, the frame rather than the picture, and I would rather sacrifice the frame to the picture than the picture to the frame.

Then, again, our goal and our purpose must be that of leading those whom we teach to obedience. Whether they are pleased or pained by the truth presented is always a secondary matter, or, rather, it ought to have no place in our considera­tion. Moreover, the utmost matter is not the theory, but the practice which grows out of the theory, and our work as Bible teachers is never completed when we have merely instructed the intelligence or moved the emotion. There must be superadded to these that note of appeal, which was always found in the prophetic utterances of the old economy, and is per­sistent in the apostolic teaching of the new.

III. The Process.

Finally, the teacher of the Bible must follow a twofold process, which may again be described by two words—"persistence" and "patience."

By persistence I mean constant repeti­tion. A Doctor of theology once told a meeting of ministers that they might expect people to understand what they meant when they had repeated it ten times. Personally, I am not sure that ten times is enough for the average man.

When I began the work of more definitely teaching the Bible the thing that troubled me was that in teaching it was necessary to repeat, and perhaps there is no phan­tom that fills the soul of the young preacher with more horror than that of repeating himself, and that may be a perfectly healthy fear; but he need have no fear of repeating the Word of God. In this connection the words of Paul have been to me a source of great comfort—"To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome; but for you it is safe." (Phil. 3:1) That is the doctrine of repetition, and that is what I mean when I speak of persistence.

But it is absolutely necessary that we understand that persistence involves patience. Do not let any Bible teacher expect too much at first from his students. Let him remember the slowness of his own apprehension, and by the memory be made patient with the slowness of those whom he is teaching. Some people who had been attending  Bible School for years ought now to be fully instructed as to the general content of Bible books. But one must take into account the perfection or imperfection of the teaching, and the slowness with which men apprehend great themes.

Finally, strengthen your persistence and your patience by remembering that the Bible teacher cannot and ought not to do everything. Leave something for the student to do. Be content to leave your theme un­finished; for the true system of education is not that of cramming, but that of sug­gesting, so that the mind may act for itself and, proceeding along the line indicated, grasp the larger meaning and the final truth.

B. As TO THE TEACHING.

I. The Students.

In actual teaching the matter of first importance is that of the students, and it is of utmost importance that the teacher should remember two things concerning them, which we may describe as: essential facts, and the need for adaptation.

As to the essentials, they are those of their ignorance and intelligence. The teacher of the Bible must remember that nothing must be taken for granted as to the know­ledge of the students, and that their cap­acity for knowledge must be taken for granted in every case. I think teachers often make mistakes along each of these lines. They imagine that people know simple things which they do not really know; and, secondly, they imagine that people are not equal to grasping what they have to teach. We need to rid ourselves of these two false assumptions. We should face our students, taking nothing for granted, but determined to be simple and elementary in order to reach the level of the simplest mind; but at the same time believing that that simplest mind is cap­able of grasping the profoundest truth we are able to teach. Our business is to state the truth in the simplest way possible, but never to shrink from communicating what appeals to us as a profound truth, because we imagine that those whom we teach are not able to comprehend it.

Mr. Spurgeon gave some impressive advise to young preachers, when he told them that having made a sermon which they considered to be above the average, they were not to save it because the next occasion on which they were to preach was not in their opinion a great occasion. He charged them to preach the best they had, whenever they stood up to face a congregation. That, I believe, is a principle of utmost importance. Then let us take nothing for granted, except the ignorance and intelligence of those whom we teach.

In dealing with students it is of per­petual importance that there should be adaptation. Today this is being emphasized in the work of our Sunday Schools by insistence upon the necessity for grading the children. It is of equal importance, so far as it is possible under the more diffi­cult circumstances of mixed congregations, that the teacher should gauge the mental capacity of his audience, not as to the truth he has to teach, that he finds in his Bible, but as to the method by which he imparts the truth, as to the language he employs, as to the illustrations he uses.

It may be that the ability to do that is either the final acquirement or the specific gift of the true teacher. To be able to confront an audience, and immedi­ately to detect the general level of its ability to follow, and to be able therefore to adapt oneself in the use of language and illustration, so as to convey essential truth to that audience, is the utmost quality of great teaching. To be able to speak the same truth here, with illustra­tions which would not be understood there; and there, to declare the truth in a way which would not be apprehended here; the truth always the same, but the method differing—that gift, I am inclined to think cannot be imparted by any school of training, but it can be imparted by the Spirit of God; and we may pray that in that way we may be made apt to teach. I am con­vinced that persons who seem to lack that ability can receive it in wonderful fashion by the preparation of the Spirit of God.

II. The System.

When in dealing with the teaching of the Bible we turn from the students to the system we are compelled to become more than ever technical, and therefore we may deal with the subject in the briefest way possible. There are again two things to be kept in mind—occasions and apparatus.

As to occasions, I am often asked by my brethren in the ministry, "Where shall we adopt these methods of Bible teach­ing?" I would reply to all such asking, that the first thing is to capture existing organizations for Bible teaching. Let us see to it first of all that our Sunday Schools are Bible Schools. Especially would I emphasize the importance of real Bible study among the elder scholars in our churches? Do not let us make the mistake of imagining that the Bible will not interest them. Nothing has been more definitely vindicated in my own experience than the fact that our young people are highly interested in systematic teaching of the Scriptures. Today the most attractive thing in our work among young people, judged by their attendance, is not the recreation section, is not the intellectual section, of great importance as we hold these both to be, but it is the study of the Bible carefully and systematically, under trained teachers, in separate classes on Sunday afternoons.

I repeat that in order to teach the Bible in the life of our Church we need to capture the existing organizations. If I could have my way, I would make it a rule that the week-night service should be everywhere turned into a Bible school, where the Bible is taught patiently, persistently, and consecutively.

As to the apparatus, let me cover the whole ground by saying that in Bunyan's allegory of the capture of Mansoul he has revealed a matter of utmost importance by his emphasis upon the fact that eyegate is of equal value with eargate in gaining access to the central citadel of personality. In our teaching let us make use of diagrams and charts, and blackboards, and anything else which will give those whom we desire to teach the opportunity of the vision as well as the voice, and thus lead them to an apprehension of the truths of the Bible.

I pass over this question of apparatus quite briefly because teachers must make use of whatever aids will be of most ser­vice to them in the doing of their work.

III. The Scheme.

The final matter as to teaching is that of the scheme, and the ground may be covered by saying that the scheme of Bible teaching should be extensive and intensive.

The extensive is always the first method. If I desired to teach a child geography, I should first take it to the globe, and let it turn it about with its own fingers, while I showed land and water, and indicated facts suggested by the pictures, afterwards crystallizing them into definitions. To begin with a book in which words such as "pen­insula" and "isthmus" are printed, with­out allowing them to see Italy or Panama, is not to succeed in helping them to under­stand. Then still with the globe before them, I would tell them stories of the countries. From that general impression I would pass to outline maps of separate countries, and thus gradually approach the intensive method of full maps and textbooks.

All which is a parable illustrative of the true method with the Bible. We must begin with extensive work, with broad out­lines, with analyses. An analysis is the separation of a compound into its constituent parts. For instance: Water = Oxygen + Hydrogen. That is analysis. Synthesis is the uniting of elements into a compound. For instance: Hydrogen + Oxygen =- Water. That is synthesis. Thus we go over the books in analysis, and say the Gospel of the King presents His Person, His Propaganda, His Passion. That is analysis. And again we say, the Person by His Propaganda and His Passion is King. That is synthesis. Those who have fol­lowed this method will find the value when they turn to intensive work, when they ponder the parts, and weigh the words, and are determined not to rest until they have found the deepest meaning.

Let me close this brief series by declar­ing that Bible teaching is the utmost work of the Christian ministry, and the utmost work of the Sunday-school teacher. Let Christian ministers and Sunday-school teachers devote themselves to this work, and the result will be the Bible known and lived by the Church of God; and that will mean purity and compassion, living and active, in the affairs of men. Only so will the nation receive that Word of God, with­ out which its conceptions will be vulgar, its conduct debased, and its character degraded.

So may we all, in the measure open to us, be teachers of the Word—hearers, doers, and teachers—helping thus to meet the need of the Church and the need of the world at large.