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2 *Vvr *"* “ THE BIBLE IN THE TEACHER'S STUDY—HOW TO PREPARE THE LESSON.” BY REV. H. D. D. BTRATON. The preparation of a Bible lesson for purposes of instruction, presupposes a personal taste and relish for divine things—an appetite for spiritual truth. Otherwise all labor in this direction can be nothing else than gratuitous drudgery. In order to “know the things that are fully given us of God,” a capacity for apprehending them must exist in us. There must be an experimental knowledge of Christian life in its impulses Godward—in its hopes, joys and fruition. To the natu ral man, the Bible in its spiritual sig nificance is a sealed book. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” A distinguished scholar once said : “The subject of experimental re ligion, of which Christians speak, is al together a mystery to me.” The rea son is furnished by Paul, 1 Cor. 2 : 14 : “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for they are spirit ually discerned.” No teacher of divine truth can study the Bible successfully unless he can appeal to that truth as verified in his own heart and experience. The Bible is the true fountain of eternal life, in which we may bathe our wearied and wasted hearts, and come forth to our work strengthened and refreshed alike for the conflicts of life and the impar tation of blessing and instruction to others. It is to Christianity in its sub jective aspects, in its experimental forms, that the first students of divine truth constantly appeal, whether this experience wore derived from the di rect teachings of Christ’s personal ministry, or imparted to them by those subtle ethereal influences which came from heaven in a divine influx into their hearts after Christ’s resurrection. “As it is written, ‘I believe and there fore have I spoken,’ we also believe and therefore speak.” “The Spirit of God beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them.” “I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food,” etc., etc. The measure of our love to Christ, as well as the extent of our usefulness Iffitny part of Christian work, may be tested in this way: The scholar who listens to the instructions of a great teacher with a listless vacuity, is very unlikely to receive any good from him for himself, and less likely to impart it to others. It is by personol contact with him, by being always in his pres ence, by breathing the same air, that the students in the school of Christ become imbued with his spirit and clothe themselves with him. The true teacher gives only of what he has re ceived, and no more. If he has caught the spirit of the Master, his heart will burn within him; if he has looked upon the brightness of that celestial face, its glory will be reflected from his own, and he will feel in its high spirit ual import the force of John’s declara tion, “We have seen with our eyes, we have tasted ; our hands have handled the Word of Life." This, then, is necessarily the first essential requisite to successful study of the word of God. We must know its divine value by practical experience. The proper study of a Scripture lesson demands a measure of intellec tual qualification. The written reve lations of God are in no sense incon sistent with the functions of intuitive reason. A distinguished thinker and author has well said : “The powers of the mind are the instruments which must be employed in every investiga tion of the Scriptures. * * * Ti ie interpreter must be well enough ac quainted with the philosophy of the mind to distinguish the several facul ties, to discern their various offices, to know the limits of their abilities, and how far he may trust them implicitly and when he ought to distrust them. * * * The chief difficulty lies in the question, What is the use of rea son both in judging whether the Bible is from God and in ascertaining its meaning? Some have maintained that the only correct way by which we can decide the claims of the Scriptures to a divine origin or ascertain what they teach is to bring them to the test of reason; for if both reason and revela tion are from God they must harmon ize ; and if Scripture contradicts rea son, then, as we know the latter to be from God, the former cannot be from him. This principle, however, clear as it may seem, is quite indefinite, and lends to all manner of perversions of the Scriptures, and often to their entire rejection.” But the difficulty lies in confounding together terms that are essentially different. The intuitive faculty, “the organ of necessary," truth, cannot be imperfect in a true man. He must necessarily believe in his own existence, his identity; he must recog nize the distinction between right and wrong, that every event must have a cause, and so on. All men are alike in possessing these fundamental laws of belief. But reason is often taken in another sense as denoting the reason- The Christian Index and South-western Baptist: Thursday August 21, 1879. ing faculty—that faculty which de duces conclusions from premises, dis tinguishes truth from error, and com bines means for the attainment of ends. Truth, taken in this sense, is far from being infallible. Intui tive reasen is the faculty by which we distinguish truth from absurdity; by the understanding we distinguish the true from the false.” “In judging whether a doctrine is true or false, aside from the direct testimony of God, we must have and know that we have in full view before our minds every consideration which has any connexion with the doctrine, or ought to have any influence in the decision. Now, thus to judge of the doctrines of the Bible implies a comprehension of reasons and considerations which are wholly beyond man’s present knowledge, and his wisdom is to take the well accred ited testimony of God.” * It is upon this principle that we believe the doc trine of the resurrection on such testi mony, as there is nothing in reason antecedently against it. But if the Bible taught that God is the author of sin, our reason must reject it intui tively, as it is impossible to conceive that God can hate sin and be the au thor of it at the same time. By keep ing such distinction in view, the stu dent of the Scriptures will be enabled to prosecute his work in searching them until he realizes that they are the •power of God. The teacher who stud ies a lesson merely for the purpose of deriving from it a stimulus to his emo tions will hardly succeed in imparting much valuable knowledge to his pu pils. A teacher may know nothing of the original languages in which the Bible was written; but yet, if his mind is disciplined to the ‘extent requisite to the work of imparting information to others, the old fashioned English ver sion will afford him all the most im portant implements to success in the work. The very first essential requi site to an intelligent comprehension of any Bible lesson is to read it carefully without note or comment, and apply the rules of interpretation which one’s plain common sense may suggest. This will prevent that confusion of ideas which an indiscriminate resort to commentators and all kinds of hetero geneous opinions will occasion. “The loose ideas of the age and the facility with which people are induced to take up any doctrines which claim to be in the Bible or any views, however ex travagant, in regard to the Bible, whether for or against its authority, come from the fact that men do not study the book itself intelligently and earnestly enough to find out what its real meaning is. A young man asked the great biblicaVand patriotic scholar, Dr. Routh, then more than ninety years old, what he should read as a student of theology. After long con sideration the old man said, with many pauses, ‘I think, sir, were I you, sir, that I would, first of all, read the gos pel according to St. Matthew.’ Here he paused again. ‘And after I had read the gospel according to St. Mat thew, I would, were I you, sir, go on to read the gospel according to St. Mark.’ And so on through the gospels and the Acts of the holy apostles he would have the young man go. The advice, coming from one who hardly had his peer for accurate and extended biblical learning, is wise and wholesome.” After the teacher has carefully read the lesson in its connexion and received all the light that co-ordinate passages can throw upon it, then it will be his busi ness to look into all helps within his reach for purposes of further elucida tion. He, if he is a wise and conscien tious teacher, will consult his maps, his genealogical tables, the principal historical features of the lesson, the dates, the meaning of proper names, its biographical connection if it deals with scriptural personages, and, in short, all appliances and means that will equip him for an intelligent and faithful impartation of all the knowl edge that can reasonably be collected bearing directly upon his theme. He ought to be careful in studying sim plicity in describing and questioning. Clearness in statement is indispensa ble. It is the easiest thing in the world to becloud a Scripture subject in dense fog of high-sounding but mean ingless phrases. It will be fatal to our success also as teachers if we spend too much time in wandering outside the text. A young man about to enter the ministry was greatly disturbed at the reflection that he would have to pre pare two sermons a week, and would I>e expected to give something new and fresh every time ho preached. Ho mentioned his alarm to an experienced minister, who gavo the key to success in this enterprise—“ Always stick to your text” How many teachers—yes, and preachers also—would do well to profit by this sagacious advice. It is painfully true of some teachers what was said of a certain Hard Shell Bap tist preacher once—“lf his text had the small pox, he would never run any risk of catching the infection.” There is perhaps no department of Bible preparation more important than the seeking of apt and forcible illustration for the purpose of impressing the les son permanently upon the mem ory and heart. Great care, however, ought to be taken in making proper illustrative selections. There is great danger in over-illustration—a heaping up of anecdote, parable, allegory and fanciful interpretations, creating a mor bid appetite for highly-spiced intellec tual food on the part of the pupil, to the neglect or disparagement of the more wholesome food of. the word. Illustration should never be adopted exceptas judicious seasoning, lest the relish for sound doctrine should be im paired, and the “sincere milk of the word” be converted into a noxious, del eterious and diluted mixture. The apostle says there is a wresting* of Scripture to the destruction of those who study it. As regards commentaries, while many of them contain valuable sug gestions, it is not often you can get from them what you are in search .of. Instead of being exhaustive, they are very exhausting. The teacher also may overburden his own mind, and by consequence the mind also of the pu pils, by having too much to say on any one lesson. It would seem to be im portant to let his thoughts, his faets and illustrations cluster around onejor two salient features in the lesson, so that the class will be certain to carry away with them at least one valuable priciple or leading thought, and there by the danger will be greatly obviated of having the attention so dissipated and attenuated by a multiplicity of subjects that nothing gets below the mere surface of reflection. A distin guished and successful preacher attrib uted the valuable results that had ac crued from his ministry instrumentally to the fact that he usually brought the greater part of his discourse to bear on one word or one point in the text. As for instance, “Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again.” The word which he made most promi nent in handling the text was the word must. A moment’s reflection will con vince any one of the wisdom of this plan. In interpreting Scriptures we must not overlook the fact that they are a record of continuous historical revelation of God, and not, as the mys tics of the fourteenth century taught,a mere series of dissolving views or a collection of changing pictures. These enthusiasts spiritualized or allegorized everything in Scripture, whether it were a record of national history or miracle or biography. Thus Eckhart, in his sermon on the restoration of life to the son of the widow of Nain, makes the city of Nain represent the soul of man, the disciples the rays of light en tering into the soul, and the widow’s son the human will, which is met at the threshhold of the soul, as it were, and quickened into new life ere the heavenly light can enter.) The other extreme in the method of interpreta tion is that which characterizes th# German school of biblical criticism and reduces everything in Scripture to a basis of rationalistic philosophy. Till, pious and painstaking student keefuß safe and huddle course'; and while re cognizing all Scripture as given by in spiration of God and as “profitable for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, and for instruction in righteousness,” at the same time keeps before his mind and heart the inqiortant fact that the Spirit which dictated the word takes of the things of Christ and shows them to him in all their plenitude of spiritual meaning; so that he shall not rest on , the letter that killeth, but be inspired and illuminated in all those spiritual functions with which, by virtue of the new nature God has imparted to him, he has been invested. It is clear to the most superficial ca pacity that spiritual truth is only dis cerned by those who are spiritual, and that the nearer we approximate in character and spiritual apprehension to Christ Jesus, the more fully replen ished will we be in all those attributes which combine to render us workmen that shall not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, and the less reason will we have to appre hend confusion and dismay before Christ at his appearing. Lastly, another important element in preparing a Bible lesson is sincere love for the book itself, combined with prayerfulness and devout enthusiasm in its study. If we go about this work merely as a task to be performed, it will do us very little good, and failure in instructing others will be a foregone conclusion. The spirit which should inspire a student of the Bible ought to find its expression in the devout ejacu lation of the Psalmist, “0, how I love thy law; it is my meditation all the day.” It is not to take the mere fringes and fag ends of our time to hurry through our lessen, but start with it in our thought and heart from day to day, making it the pabulum of our intellectual life, that by the pro cess of thorough assimilation it may become the vital element of every men tal process. “I delight in the law of the Lord after the inward man.” This is the true secret of that magnetic at traction which wins and holds interest and devout attention. The teacher is full of his subject; and as he muses the fire burns—the holy and undying fire of heavenly zeal and consecration— and it will glow in his face and burn in his thoughts, and wrap him in the atmosphere of a holy influence and power that cannot be otherwise than salutary and divine. If the teacher comes thus, with mind and heart sur charged with the electric fire from heaven, ho will not need to be flaunting in the faces of his scholars the tattered fragments of lesson sheets, and dragging out the half hour in laborious conning over the thoughts in print which every body has read—painfully dragging along and wishing that tho superin .tendent’s bell would give the signal for release. The preparation of a Bible lesson must be a failure unless some thing of a devout enthusiasm is be- gotten in the teacher. If he has caught even a ray of Christ’s enthu siasm, there will be no employment half so sweet and exhilarating as the study of the Bible. “The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up.” He will be less afraid of making a grammatical blunder than of speaking with a cold heart or with listless indifference. He will keep steadily before his mind that he has immortal souls to deal with, and that he must be answerable to God for the manner as well as for the matter of the training he is preparing to give them. What success would an advo cate before a jury be likely to realize if he should appear before them in be half of a client and speak his speech in the dull, lethargic tone of a som nambulist? The wise pleader must take the place of a man conscious of innocence, but who is unjustly charged with crime, and he bends up “each corporal feature” to the task of con vincing twelve men that he is inno cent. If he does not prepare himself to meet every point and repel every charge, he knows he is likely to be de feated, his client ruined, and himself disgraced. With how much greater diligence will a wise and conscientious teacher prepare to battle against the foes of God and man, wrench the weapons of Satan from his grasp, and rescue an immortal soul from death and desttuction. To do this he will “clothe himself with zeal as with a cloak,” and leave no point of his ground unexplored where peril may lurk or danger threaten the interests of those who have been committed to his hands. In prosecuting this work, the care ful student of God’s word will not fail to recognize his own ignorance and helplessness; and he will therefore con stantly repair to a throne of grace, that he himself may obtain mercy and find grace to help him in his time of need. His devout aspiration will ever be, “Open thou mine eyes that I may be hold wondrous things out of thy law.” If Christ found it necessary to spend whole nights in prayer and commu nion with God during his personal ministry, how much more needful must it be for those who are compassed with infirmities and are so easily tempted to turn aside from the truth and be en tangled in the crafty wiles and snares of Satan. As the great end of Bible study to a true Christian is to save himself and them that hear him, he will be wise in seeking his equipment directly from the armory of heaven; and the more sensible he becomes of his utter dependence upon divine grace and strength, the more assured Efill he bq of in the winning of souls. •Christian Review, t British Quarterly Review. PAUL THE WEALTHY. “I have all things and abound.” These are remarkable words. In fact, when we consider Paul’s surround ings at the time he uttered them, they are very remarkable indeed. Behold him bound in chains and immured in a dungeon, despised and rejected as the Master was before him, persecuted, afflicted. The world hates him. He endures the contradiction of sinners. None of the “mighty ones” of earth speak in his favor. He is before us, stripped of wealth and all earthly power. He looks into the future and beholds the prospect of an untimely and cruel death. Now,we would very naturally expect to hear Paul,or anyone else situated sim ilarly, cry out in accents of lamentation, “Wo is me“ Surely my lot is a cruel one“lt had been better for me that I hail never been born.” But, instead of all this, we hear him exultingly ex claim, “I have all things and abound.” What can he mean? Has the presen tation to him of a few presents of trifling value, by the hand of Epaphro ditus, inspired him to the utterance of such language? This cannot be. We look for a deeper meaning in these words. Paul was looking at things unseen as well as at things seen. The things of eternity, as well as the things of time and sense, rose before his vision, and he realized the truth to which the Psalmist gave expression when he said, “The Lord is my por tion.” The Christian’s riches—who will number them? who will measure them? who will weigh them? When the Lord is our portion, what else is to be desired? What more is possible? Certainly Paul was justified in saying, “I have all thingsand abound.” “Yes,” one may say, “it may have been all very well for the apostle to say this, but does not the very’ fact that he had all things forbid the same declaration on my part? How can it be that the apostle could have all things, and at the same time each one of all the saints could have the same?” The benefits of the covenant (thank the Lord for the covenant!) are not to be materialized and divided out in por tions. Had there been but one sinner on earth, it would have required the life and the death of Jesus to redeem him; and, on the other hand, each one of the elect may claim all the ben efits purchased by the blood of the atonement One man’s entire posses sion of “cUf thing a” does not interfere with any other man’s entire possession of the same. H. R. Bernard. “One good mother is worth a hun dred school-masters. EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS TO THE LADIES’ MISSIONARY SOCIETY, OF QUITMAN. READ BY THE PRESIDENT, BEFORE THE SOCIETY, JULY 28. Knowing, as we do, that in heathen, as well as Christrian lands, the foun tain of influence is the home, and be fore there can be streams of blessings emanating and flowing from it, it must be surrounded by an atmosphere of Christian morality ; and that this can be produced only by and through the gospel, we have been stimulated to give and pray for the Christianization of the girls of Miss Whilden’s school. Soon these girls will go forth from the school-room to enter upon the respon sible duties of life. How important that their hearts be illumined by the light of divine truth! The gospel is the only lever which can loosen and lift their souls from the dark quarry in which they are slumbering. May the realization of this fact give us a new impulse towards our work, and a clear er view of its magnitude. ****** Oh, that it were indelibly impressed upon the mind and heart of every Christian lady that the dying Saviour did not bequeath the duty of giving the gospel to the heathen, to men alone, but made it rest with equal weight upon the daughters of Zion. “In Christ there* is neither male nor female.” * * * » ♦ • When we consider that it is only in Christian lands that woman is not a slave; that it is only there that she is held in the high esteem which God in tended her to be ; and only there, that she is believed to possess a heart from which noble aspirations spring, and to be endowed with mental and moral faculties which fit her to lie man’s true companion; is it not surprising that any christsan lady can be indifferent to the claims which rest upon her to help to raise her oppressed and be nighted sisters of heathen lands from their degradation oy giving them the blessed gospel? for that alone will se cure to them happy and respected positions; and that alone can save their souls from eternal wretchedness. With us the gospel is the charter of our privileges, and the pledge of our salvation; so it must be with them. Sad, indeed, is it to think of a Chris tian woman being selfish with the heavenly boon of salvation. “The gift unshared would be unblest.” * * * * * « In reading the history of the first mis- the <ros» —Paul and Barna bas—do we not find a Lydia, a Phebe, and “honorable women, not a few,” waiting upon the wants of these de voted men? And do we not read of Jesus and his apostles being minister ed to by Mary Magdalene, Joana, and other pious women? Why, then, should not Christian women of this day be encouraged to minister to the ne cessities of missionaries in our own and heathen lands? Priscilla, as well as her husband, ex pounded to Appollos “the way of God more perfectly.” Why, then, may not female missionaries tell “the old, old story of Jesus, and his love” to the heathen mother and daughter! And why may not we be to them as were Aaron and Hur to Moses? My sis ters, it is both our privilege and duty to lie co-laborers with our missionary sisters,in working for the cause of Christ “in the regions beyond.” If the Sa viour were now upon earth,l doubt not he would speak words of approbation of the w’ork of female missionaries, also of our efforts to serve him, and would regard both as “precious ointment poured forth” at his feet ** x * * * * Believing that women can accom plish greater results in working for the spread of the gospel by combining their efforts in Missionary Societies, I would urge you to maintain your society— work and pray for its prosperity. Let the history of your work be written on the face of China’s shores, and around it cluster the gratitude of some who may be led to drink of the water of life. Then when life’s labors are end ed we may expect to be welcomed home by some unknown to us here, and to receive from the Master the plaudit, “well done.” PEN DROPPINGS. BY L. L. V. In the whole range of biblical his tory, no character, save that of the grand mystery of the incarnate God, is more sublimely mysterious than that of the prophet Elijah. He comes forth unheralded by any trumpet— simply “Elijah the Tishbite”—and standing in the royal presence, an nounces the sore calamity that is to come upon the land for the sins of the apostate King. There is something of the sublime in every scene in which we subsequently behold him. Again and again does he appear with all the suddenness of an apparition before the weak, uxorious Ahab, and sternly re bukes his follies and crimes. At Car mel, having put to confusion the false priests of a false religion, and having as a judge condemned them to death, he ascends the promontory and wres tles in prayer with Jehovah for the re moval of the fearful curse. Again we see him taking up his abode amid the dreary deserts of Arabia, and hold- ing high converse with God from the bold peaks of Horeb. From this ex alted communion he comes forth amdßg men only for a brief period, to announce the decrees of the King of kings, and then, amid clouds of glory, he is borne away from the sight of his admiring successor. Having received this extraordinary mark of divine favor, it is right that he should be enrolled among the greatest of prophets. Yet, great as was the power and distinction conferred upon him, he was not made the medium through which God would communicate his great truths to the children of men. It was not for him to look back over the history of the past and behold, in wrapt vision, crea tion’s dawn, when light first dispelled the reign of chaos, and “planets, suns and adamantine spheres” took up their ceaseless march. Nor did he look down through the vista of coming time, and, like Daniel, see thrones crum ble and great empires decay; or, like Isaiah, pause in exulting wonder over the city and the mount where the last scene in man’s redemption should be enacted. No fire of inspiration seems to have touched his lips. No holy im pulse moved his hands to write thoughts that shall warm, comfort and in struct mankind until the latest day of time. Yet is he clearly indicated by God as far greater than any of those to whom these tasks were com mitted. He alone, of all who have lived since Noah, was snatched from the agony of death. He was one of two sent from the unseen world to hold converse with the Son of Man, when he for a moment unveiled his glory. And when the Forerunner was sent to herald the coming Redeemer, it was with the spirit and power of Elijah that he was inspired. Why he should be assigned this pre-eminence is not the least of the mysteries connected with this mysterious personage. Guid ed by human judgment, we should not have assigned him a rank higher than Moses, who wielded the graphic pen of the historian, or Isaiah, whose soul glowed with intense poetic fervor, or even the royal David, through whose lyrics the pious emotions of a hundred ! generations have found utterance. But God understood, as man cannot mis take, the character of this prophet, who at his bidding was willing to incur the displsasure of a wicked king and the threatenings of his more wicked wife, and, rather than compromise his religion, exiled himself from the face of men and took up his abode amid the solitude of the desert. Apart from the mystery surrounding it, this frag mentary history of the prophet’s life is full of instruction and encouragement. God honored tl>e servant who so ear, nestly strove to honor him. Not only did he send “the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof” to bear him in bodily form from the toils and perils of earth, but he pronounced his character such as befits the one commissioned to announce the coming of the Lord to redeem, to justify, and eventually to judge, the world. ITEMS FROM SOUTHERN GEOR GIA-THREE PRE A CHERS AND THEIR CHURCHES. Dear Index : I seldom write for the papers, but in response to your earnest i appeal for news from various parts of the country, relating either to churches or individuals, I send you the follow ing brief items: Brother J. M. Rushin, of Boston, preaches to three churches, two in Thomas and one in Brooks county. While all of his churches are in good ; working order, his success at one of them, New Oclockonee, has been won derful. This church is situated in the lower part of Thomas county, sur , rounded by a wealthy and intelligent ! population. At one of his regular ! monthly meetings, without any special i protracted meeting, Brother Rushin received twenty for baptism. Others ' have joined at different times, and there ; seems to be a revival spirit pervading i the neighborhood. Amongst the addi : tions were some of the best citizens of I the county. Brother T. A. White, of Quitman, preaches to four churches, two in Brooks and two in Thomas county. He is an earnest, zealous preacher, and his churches seem always ready to second his efforts. In each of his churches he has had gracious revivals during the past six weeks, and quite a number have been added to them. Brother E. B. Carroll, of Hickory Head, preaches to two churches, Hick ory Head in Brooks and Valdosta in Lowndes county. In both of these he has recently had interesting meetings, which resulted in considerable addi tions to these churches. These three brethren, Rushin, White and Carroll, are all young, strong, en ergetic and efficient preachers. Two of them have not enjoyed the benefits of a classical education, yet they are all intelligent and know how to use the English language correctly and with power. What is still better, they thor oughly understand the plan of salva i tion as taught by Jesus Christ and his I apostles and have great faith in its I power and efficacy. Hence they never attempt to improve it by any of the inventions or devices of man. We have other excellent and efficient preachers in this part of our State, but I write about the three brethren above mentioned because I happen to be bet ter informed as to the condition of their churches and the success they have more recently had. Fraternally, B.