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The Sunday School Teacher's Use of the Bible

By REV, JOHN H. VINCENT, LL.D., Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

John Heyl Vincent (February 23, 1832 – May 9, 1920)

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THE OUTLINE.

1. The Bible is the one text-book of the Sunday-school teacher.

2. The Bible becomes exceedingly important when we find its relation to the work of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of men. It enlightens, quickens, converts, sanctifies, edifies, etc. No wonder it is in itself compared to "seed," "word," "fire," "manna," "silver,' "gold," etc.

3. The Bible is to be used by the whole church-the ministry and the laity.

4. The teacher's use of the Bible, to be effective, requires the aid of the Holy Spirit.

5. The teacher's use of the Bible must, however, be in harmony with the true, natural, and human Laws of teaching.

6. The teacher's use of the Bible is twofold—personal and professional.

7. The teacher must use the Bible to find Christ, since Christ the Word is in his Word.

8. The teacher must also seek the indwelling of Christ, that he may say, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."

9. The teacher thus finding Christ in the Word, and having Christ in his own soul, will be earnest, will love his pupils, and will be patient with them and in his work.

10. Certain important facts are to be recognized by the teacher in his use of the Bible:

(1) The Bible is a human as well as a divine book.

(2) The Bible presents many difficulties to the student of it.

(3) The Bible difficulties may be obviated by the observance of certain suggestions.

11. Certain rules will aid the teacher in the use of the Bible:

(1) He should make much of the spiritual and ethical aim in his work.

(2) He should study the examples of teaching-work which abound in the Bible.

(3) He should study the Bible independently.

(4) He should study it systematically. (Guide-questions to exhaustive analysis.)

(5) He should study every lesson from a pupil's point of view.

(6) He should illustrate fully and wisely.

(7) He should use the art of conversation and questioning.

(8) He should secure home work by his scholars.

12. The teacher's real work and his true preparation.

THE DISCUSSION.

1. The Sunday-school is a school with one textbook—the Holy Scriptures; therefore, the Sunday-school teacher must use the Bible. Whatever other works he consults, his final authority is the Bible. Whatever helps he employs, they must be, in every case, helps to the better understanding and use of the Word of God.

2. This is the more evident when one considers the relation of the truth as revealed in the Holy Scriptures to the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of men. No man can say in what way or how far the Spirit of God acts immediately upon the human spirit without the intervention of revealed truth, nor to what extent other truth not found in the Bible, but set forth in nature and in the constitution of man has its influence in promoting the gracious work of God in the human soul, but this much is painly set forth in the book of divine revelation. The processes of divine grace in the life of man are performed through the truth of God as contained in the written Word of God.

It is the word of God that "quickens" the soul (Ps 119:50). It is the "entrance" of the word of God that giveth "light" (Ps 119:130). The word is the "sword of the Spirit" (Eph 6:17) which Christ used with the adversary in the wilderness (Matt 4:1, 7, 10). It is the "law of the Lord" that is "per fect, converting the soul" (Ps 19:7). It is the "word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (I Thes 2:13). It is the word of God which is able to build up believers, and to give them "an inheritance among all them which are sanctified" (Acts 20:32). Through the "exceeding great and precious promises" of the Word, believers are made "partakers of the divine nature" (II. Pet 1:4). Spiritual enlargement comes from running in the way of God's commandments (Ps 119:32).

If God's Word be so goodly and mighty a thing as these scriptures declare, no wonder that they who knew best its source and mission should account the truth it contains like "seed" (Luke 8:11), like a "sword" (Heb 4:12), like a "fire and a "hammer" (Jer 23:29), like "rain" and "dew" (Deut 32:2), like "honey" and the "honey-comb" (Ps 19:10), like "silver" (Ps 12:6), like "gold" (Ps 19:10), like "thousands of gold and silver" (Ps 119:72), and, finally like "all riches" (Ps 119:14). No wonder that the Psalmist made it his song in the house of his pilgrimage (Ps.119:54), and that his delight was in the law of the Lord, in which he mediated day and night (Ps 1:2). No wonder that we are exhorted to take earnest heed what we hear (Mark 4:24), and how we hear (Luke 8:18). No wonder that earnest Jews searched the Scriptures (John 5:39), and that the Bereans were commended as being "more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scripture daily" (Acts 17:11).

3. It is this wonderful Word which the Sunday-school teacher, as one of the servants and officers of the church, must use in all his work. Parents at home, like the mother of Timothy (II. Tim 1:5; 3:15); men like Aquila; women like Priscilla, in their own places of abode (Acts 18:26),—all church members, from apostles and prophets to deacons and unofficial disciples, are to set forth the word of life. Here among divinely called and appointed teaching-disciples stand the Sunday-school teachers.

4. But since it is the "church of the living God" (I. Tim. 3:15) in which the teacher serves, be may trust in divine aid. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts" (Zech. 4:6). And the best use to which the Sunday-school teacher can put his Bible is to find in it doctrine and promise on which he can rest.

5. In the use of his Bible the Sunday-school teacher must remember that while his work is spiritual, and dependent upon divine cooperation, he is to observe all natural laws of teaching which are based upon a wise human psychology. By the best processes of instruction, which represent the most advanced thought of modern educators, the Sunday-school teacher must use his text-book in gaining access to his pupils, winning and holding their attention, exciting curiosity, eliciting questions and statements of their own, training memory, encouraging rigid analysis, developing self-activity and self-application. In the use of his Bible the Sunday-school teacher should seek to be at his human best in his personal qualifications and in his method of work.

6. It will, therefore, easily appear that there is a twofold use to be made of the Bible by the Sunday-school teacher, the one personal and the other professional. He must know, and be possessed by, the truth; and he must be able rightly to divide and wisely to apply it. The first is necessary to the second.

7. As a means to this the teacher must understand the relation of the personal Christ to the Scriptures. Are they not the "word of Christ"? (Col. 3:16). Old Trapp says: "The Babe of Bethlehem is wrapped up in the swathing bands of both Testaments." The whole book is full of him. He is the keystone of the arch; the heart of the Holy Scriptures; the Sun of righteousness among the planets that shine in Psalms, Prophets, Gospels, and Epistles. The teacher begins the proper use of Scriptures when he begins with Christ. Since the teacher rightly handling the Word is bringing Christ to his pupils, with what loving tenderness, what scrupulous care, what holy reverence, should he use it!

8. There is another feature of the divine revelation to man which the Sunday-school teacher must remember. Not only does Christ dwell in the Word which the teacher is to use, but Christ may(must) dwell in the heart of the teacher himself. He may sit before his class with the Word of Christ in his hand, and with the very life and personal force of Christ in his heart. Here Is the Sunday-school teacher's best preparation for using his Bible. He not only knows, he is.

9. Among the effects of such use of the Bible as one makes who finds Christ in it and draws Christ from it into his own life, will be a peculiar earnestness; an ardent love for the pupil, a love for the very soul life, regardless of social position, personal attraction, or intellectual gifts; so that no stone will be left unturned, no page or text will be left unexamined, no device unemployed, for the bringing of Christ and the redeemed soul together.

10. Certain important facts are to be remembered by the teacher, lest he be too easily disheartened in his great work.

(1) The Bible Is in one sense a human book, and there are many human marks about it. The divine treasure has been given to us in earthen vessels. God has revealed himself through human eyes and ears, intellect and hearts, tongues and pens. The book is God's book but He has used men in the making and completing of it, and by this process man is immensely helped, and is still further to be helped, as the original gift of God in the most ancient tongues is gradually unveiled and set forth through human investigation and scholarship.

(2) The Bible is full of difficulties—the ancient languages, the references to almost obsolete usages, the idiosyncrasies of the Bible writers, the Oriental imagery employed, the divine interpositions in miraculous deeds, the mysteries of divine providence, the severities and apparent cruelties of the divine administration, the gross inconsistencies of certain Scripture characters, whose lives are recorded, and who, in spite of their sins, receive proof in words and in official promotion of the divine commendation. Again, the Bible is, in fact, a book so different from the ideal revelation. It is not at all a systematic and carefully classified series of plain and applied principles. It is a book of ancient history, full of hard names, indefinite chronologies, unattractive genealogies, bloody battles and transactions, some of which it is painful and almost impossible to read, to little children. The Sunday-school teacher, in his casual and professional reading, in his conversation in parlor and class, must meet these embarrassments. He cannot refuse to consider them as unworthy of his notice. What shall he do?

(3) The old commentator Trapp says, concerning the difficulties of Scripture, "Plain places therein are for our nourishment, hard places for our exercise." The Bible as a true history of rugged times must reflect the features of the ages it represents. It was not meant to be "an easy book." To the man who really desires to know love, and obey the truth, there are no insurmountable obstacles in the Holy Scriptures. Difficulties that there appear speedily vanish before his spirit of surrender to the will of God. "If any man will do his will," with the Christ, "he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:17).

11. Let us therefore present certain rules to govern the teacher in his use of the Bible:

(1) It will at once appear that the most important work of the teacher is to present to his pupils, with much urgency, the spiritual and ethical claims of the book. They must accept Christ as their righteousness, but they themselves for this reason must be righteous.

(2) The teacher may find in the Bible abundant illustrations of the true principles and methods of teaching; processes adopted by patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, in the proclaiming, upholding, applying, and enforcing of truth; plans for arresting and riveting attention; for illuminating doctrine and ethics; for answering objections; for enlightening and quickening the conscience; for exciting fear, kindling desire, and bringing to decision. Every fundamental teaching process finds clear and attractive illustration somewhere in this great text-book, so "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (II. Tim. 3:16). In Jesus we have the perfection of teaching. To understand him, to master his methods, to possess his spirit, is to become a teacher of the highest order. Therefore let the Sunday-school teacher use his Bible to gather from it lessons in teaching, and especially from the great Model. Study carefully every word he used, every conversation he conducted, every figure of speech, every method of arresting attention, every argument, every reference to his own times, and every quotation which he made from the Old Testament.

(3) The teacher must study his Bible independently going to it alone before consulting commentaries or other human helps. The appetite for the truth will be whetted, intellectual freshness and vigor increased, and with enlarged capacity he will turn to the library for the help which other men have provided.

(4) The teacher must study his Bible systematically. He must, first of all, collate every passage from the entire book bearing upon the subject in hand, all parallel accounts of the same events, miracles, conversations, sermons, with all incidental references. This will form his body of biblical authority. He should then critically analyze the text material thus provided by some such series of questions such as the following:

First. Some person here writes, and he writes to or for some other person or persons. Who writes? To whom? He writes concerning some person or persons, meaning or referring to them. Who are they? What do we know about them?

Second. These persons speaking, acting, writing, or written to, named, or simply referred to, must have lived in some country, city, or other locality named or implied. Where are the places of this lesson —the topographical elements of it? Can we find them on the map? What can we find out about them—their connection with other biblical events, and the accounts given of them by travelers?

Third. All persons who here sustain a relation to place, also sustain a relation to time. Therefore we ask: When did these people in these places do or say the things here recorded? Or when were they recorded? What references do we find here to days, hours, seasons, festivals, months, years?

Fourth. And now we come to the historical questions. What things are here written concerning these persons, in these places, at these times? 'What did they do? What did they say? Who had the most to say or do? How far did the words or acts of one person or class of persons influence the words or acts of other persons introduced in this scripture?

Fifth . Through this passage, biographical, historical, didactic, runs a divine thought. There are some direct teachings or truths to be inferred, concerning God, man, sin, personal character, the past, the present, the future. What are these teachings or doctrines?

Sixth . All this history biography, doctrine, has an ethical significance and design. It is intended in some way to lay down laws of practical life. There are here some duties specifically stated or easily inferred, which every student of Scripture should be able to know and obey. What are these duties? For the teacher? For the pupil?

Seventh . All ancient history, especially that which records an extinct civilization, is sure to contain many things which are obscure and which perplex the student—references to obsolete customs, to eccentricities of conduct and government, to relations of individuals, and to administration of divine government. There occur verbal and grammatical difficulties in the text, apparent discrepancies of various kinds, affecting the very foundations of faith. What are these difficulties? What added difficulties are likely to present themselves to the youthful student, who, hearing of them from irreverent skeptics, may come to his teacher at any time with his hard questions?

(5) The teacher having then analyzed his lesson, and having transferred the whole subject to his own mind, that he may have it well in hand for further study, should again and again look at it from the point of view occupied by his pupils. A vivid conception of their condition and necessities will present the subject to his own mind in a new light. He should therefore form the habit of thinking intently and sympathetically upon each scholar in his class, his home life, hindrances, faults, perils, most immediate need, and then review the already carefully prepared lesson with this thought burning in his heart: "How shall I make this lesson most profitable to this pupil?"

(6) The teacher must employ the illustrative element in his class work. The open eyes of wide-awake youth must be arrested, the imagination stimulated. Objects, incidents, comparisons, similes, metaphors, parables, facts of this busy everyday world, historical anecdotes, mental pictures, must be employed to place the truth vividly and attractively before the learner.

(7) The Sunday-school teacher, like all successful teachers, must master the art of questioning. This is necessary to find out what the scholar knows; to stimulate his desire to know more; to give him knowledge by making him seek it; and finally, to test the teacher's own work. Attention is necessary to success in teaching and in learning, and attention which is simply the stretching of the pupil's mind with desire and purpose, will break out into numberless questions. When this end is attained, the success of the teacher is assured.

(8) The teacher should awaken within the pupil, first, an interest in the subject matter of the lesson for the ensuing Sabbath, an interest sufficient to secure some advance preparation; and second, an interest in his own spiritual and eternal welfare, that he may apply to his heart and life the truths which he finds.

12. To save his scholars from all evil, by leading them to know Christ, in whom abides all good; to develop within them, through the divine grace and truth, the love of God and the love of men; to make conscience tender and intelligent, faith simple and strong, the will prompt and firm, and the outward life consistent and useful,—this is the varied and divine mission of the Sunday-school teacher. That he may do his work well the teacher must be a Christian in experience as well as in profession; a consistent Christian in life and deportment; a Christian teacher in life and tact, and a Christian friend in sympathy and helpfulness. What he is and does will be a living proof of the truth he teaches, and he may then say in all sincerity and humility to those who are under his care, "Follow me as I follow Christ."

"Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy Holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which thou hast given us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."