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some, nagging woman. Then I took Deborah, Jeze
bel, Esther, etc.
I want to commend this study to you women. It
would be of vast interest and vast help to you
in your life, in strengthening your character.
I followed up my character study of women with
another character study, that of man. I took the
husbands and the statesmen, the warriors, the
prophets, etc., of the Bible.
I am just beginning a method which I think is
going to be vastly helpful to me and to my people.
I am preparing a series of Sunday night Bible lec
tures on the great tragedies of sin as revealed in
the Bible. I have arranged to give it in three sec
tions, the first comprising the Old Testament from
the creation of the world to the death of Moses; the
second from the death of Moses to the birth of
Christ, and the third from the birth of Christ to
the end of Revelation.
Under each of these sections there will be ten
sermons. I have arranged the subjects of the first
ten. They are:
1. How Sin Entered.
2. The First Murder.
3. The Flood.
4. The First Drunk.
5. The First Family Fuss.
6. The Pillar of Salt.
7. Abraham and Isaac.
8. The Pillar of Cloud and of Fire.
9. How Jealousy was Turned into Leprosy.
10. Murmuring and the Fiery Serpents.
My purpose in giving you this is to stimulate you
in Bible study by showing you some methods that
you can easily adopt.
Then there is the study of the Bible by incidents.
Go through your Bible and select the main incidents
Take one incident and study it, no matter where it
is referred to.
BIBLE DOCTRINES.
Then there is the very important method of sub
jects. Take your concordance, select your subject,
and read everything in the Bible that deals with
that subject. For instance, take the subject of God,
of salvation, of sin, of faith, of love, of repentance,
of propitiation, of redemption. This method has
been very helpful to me in teaching a Bible class.
Pardon me if I tell you of the use of this method
in my work. Last year I started out to spend six
months, every Friday night, with my Bible class,
which was composed of any one who wanted to give
a systematic study to the book of Romans. The
plan adopted was that of selecting the great pivot
words in the book. Around these pivot words we
grouped the whole teaching* of the Book of Rom
ans. We spent the six months in this way, and came
out of it with great help. I commend this study
to you. In this way you can ground yourself in all
of thd great doctrines of the Bible, and that is
where our teachers are remiss—most of them. How*
few teachers can get up before a class and give any
kind of a sensible exposition of the doctrine of sin
as we find it in the Word of God, or of the doctrine
of redemption. How few teachers can explain the
doctrine of redemption!
I was visiting a Sunday school at one time while
conducting revival services in the place, and I
walked around, listening to the teaching. I stood
back of a class of bright looking girls of about six
teen years of age. The teacher was what the aver
age superintendent would call a sucessful teacher,
because she held the attention of her class. As I
listened she said, “Now, girls, the preacher wants
us to talk about salvation this morning.” Then
she smiled as if she were about to tell a joke and
said: “If you are not right good and mind your
mothers and fathers and come to Sunday school
every Sunday that you can, and get here on time,
you will die some time, and then you will go to
hell. And wouldn’t that be ridiculous, girls?”
Then she continued: “If you do mind your
mothers and fathers, and come to Sunday school,
and be good all the time, you will go to heaven
when you die, and that would be nice, wouldn’t it?”
Don’t you know that those girls knew that she
didn’t know the plan of salvation? I shall be sat
isfied if I can inspire you teachers to go back home
and get your Bibles and learn of these great doc
trines of grace so clearly taught in the Word of
The Golden Age for May 7, 1908.
God. If you will not do that, I honestly think you
ought to resign your position as teacher.
I want to suggest another thing, and that is the
method of studying the Bible by chapters. I get
great help out of that method. For instance, take
the penitent chapter, the 51st Psalm; the crucifix
ion chapter, John 19, the comfort chapter, John 14,
and so on. Take a chapter and read it and reread
it, analyze it, study it exhaustively; find out what
it is intended to teach.
Then, of course, there is the method of studying
by texts. Take a text and divide it up and apply
it to things of the every day life.
So much for methods. I do not ask you to use
these methods, but I do insist that you use some
kind of a method, and spend some time every day
upon it. I want to urge upon you again the neces
sity for this study, in order that you may be pre
pared to teach the Word of God.
EQUIPMENT FOR STUDY.
I should also like to say something about the
equipment for the study of the Bibte. Do not be
discouraged if you cannot obtain a great big library
of commentaries. Let me tell you what you ought
to have first. In the first place you ought to have
a splendid Bible. I would prefer the American re
vised. I like it better than any other. Then you
must have a good concordance, and a good Bible
dictionary. With these three you can get along very
well. When you can get a commentary I would
advise you to get Matthew Henry’s Commentary.
It is old, but genuine, sound and good. Another
good,-helpful book in Bible study is Vincent’s Word
Studies of the New Testament. They have helped
me more than almost anything else. You can take
that series of books and sit down for a few hours
and master any of these great subjects that I have
mentioned.
Leaving the equipment, I have one other sugges
tion to make, a very important suggestion. Let me
suggest to you that there is no use in trying to
learn your Bible until you have definitely and posi
tively and absolutely given yourself up to the Spirit
of God. That is the foundation. I feel that I
should press this point. The Apostle Paul tells us
that the natural man cannot know the things of
God for they are not spiritually discerned. Many
Bible students are trying to learn the Bible as they
would learn history or science. The Bible can nev
er be understood with that kind of treatment. It
is a Spirit-given book and to be properly compre
hended calls for the filling of the Spirit in the life
of the student.
Some time ago I was in a Sunday school where
there was a class of one hundred and eighty young
women, and in that class were those representing
almost every class and condition of humanity. Min
gled together in that class were factory girls, clerks,
stenographers and society girls. It seemed to me a
very strange thing. You know how hard it is to
get these classes mixed, and yet, here in this class
were found representatives of each. A very ordi
nary looking woman was teaching, that class, and I
observed that she was a woman with very meager
education, although she. had a manner of great re
finement, and I have seen very few teachers hold a
class as she held that one. Now and then I saw
a girl wipe a tear from her cheek, and I could see
that she held the undivided attention of each one.
I asked the superintendent this question: “How
is it that a woman of that grade of culture can hold
a class of so many college graduates?” I could
understand very, well how she could hold the girls
of lesser culture and education, but how she could
hold the attention of those others to such an ex
tent I could not understand.
“Well,” he said, “if you could hear her pray
every Sunday morning before she goes to that class,
I think you would understand it better.”
“Why,” I asked, “what does she pray for?”
“She prays that God will fill her with His Holy
Spirit to the full every Sunday before she goes
in that class. That one thing she prays for every
single Sunday.”
After the class was over I was introduced to that
woman and I said to her: “Can you explain to me
how it is that you hold this class?”
She said: “I cannot. All I know is that God
fills me so full of His love every Sunday morni"-
when I step out before that class that I feel that I
am in His presence, and He does the holding.”
That is the secret of teaching. My brother, my
sister, do you sometimes feel discouraged when
you think of your lack of time and opportunity?
Let me bring a word of encouragement. There is no
need for discouragement on your part if you will
do your dead level best to know God’s book. Get
down on your knees and ask God to make up for
your lack of training, for your lack of knowledge,
for your lack of time; ask Him to fill you, to fill
you with His Holy Spirit to the full, and He, when
He comes upon you, will take all the things of Christ
and reveal them unto you, for that is the mission of
the Spirit.
Prohibition in Oklahoma.
By B. F. Stamps.
By the provisions of the Enabling Act, which ap
plied to the Indian Territory, and which was
adopted by a majority vote of both territories and
incorporated into the constitution of the new state,
the sale of intoxicants as a beverage was forbidden.
The same Enabling Act allowed the legislature to
establish a dispensary in every town of two thou
sand inhabitants, and one in each county where
there was no town of two thousand inhabitants.
This was the last chance for the liquor interests, and
they fought for it with valor that was worthy of
a better cause. With the help of some prohibition
ists who knew nothing of the dispensary in other
states, the dispensary bill was passed by both
houses of the legislature and having received the
signature of the governor, it became effective May
1. It is provided that those who are appointed
to sell liquors at these dispensaries shall receive a
certain per cent of their sales as their pay for ser
vices rendered. In order that no liquor may be
sold except for medical purposes it is provided that
only one sale of a limited amount shall be made on
every prescription and the physician shall in every
instance go before a notary public and make affida
vit that the patient actually needed the liquor for
medical purposes.
And here comes the rub. The lovers of liquor
want all they can get. The liquor manufacturers
want a market for their stuff. The man who keeps
the dispensary Wants to sell all that he can in or
der to make a living. The state officials want to
sell enough so that the state will not be in a hole.
Everything depends on the physicians. If they
are conscientious and regard their oaths, one dis
pensary would be enough for the whole state. The
only hope is to find a few conscienceless physi
cians who will prescribe for all who come to them.
The physicians all over the state are speaking out.
Canadian County Medical Association met at El
Reno and adopted some strong resolutions declaring
in unequivocal terms that they would not under any
circumstances prescribe alcoholic liquors in their
practice.
The Canadian county physicians have set a
noble example to their brethren in other counties.
Indications are that other counties will follow their
example. God grant that they may till every dis
pensary in the state shall be compelled to close its
doors.
The Way To Do It.
By B. F. Stamps.
Judge Lawrence of Tishomingo, Okla., is not
troubled much now with booze sellers. The judge is
a consistent member of the Baptist church, and he
has enough religion to run him through the whole
week in his legal practice. He was elected county
judge of Johnson county by people who believed
that he would hew to the line. Although the county
gave a large majority against prohibition, yet Law
rence did not yield to the pressure to wink at the
liquor business.
The first man who came before him thought he
had a soft thing of it with the young judge. Imag
ine his surprise when Lawrence said very modestly:
“As this is your first offense, I’ll make it light.
I’ll just fine you $250 and give you six months in
jail. I’ll double this for the second offense.”
It is unnecessary to add that he has had very
few cases of booze selling brought before him, and
none for the second offense.
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