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Sabbath-School Work

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 7, 1902

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 1.

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Sabbath-School Work

By William Warren Prescott

A MODEL SABBATH-SCHOOL.

(Concluded.)
When we make it simply an intellectual matter, we lose the chief benefit. The intellect will be exercised, and that to its utmost, in grasping the revelation of divine truth made; but it is with the heart that man believeth unto righteousness. It is the word that is hidden in the heart, not in the head, that accomplishes the good. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
The one thing needed as a defense against sin is a power coming into our flesh. It is not simply in form, but it is in fact; it is in reality that that experience must come.
Now when we turn to the forms, the outward dress, in which the life is revealed, and spend the time over that, with definitions, with intellectual discussions, with controversy as to the meaning of terms and propositions, then we are dealing simply with the husk, simply with the shell. It is not the outward form, it is that which is incarnate within; that is the life, and that is received not as a means of establishing intellectual propositions, but as a means of defense against sinful temptations.
In the study of the Word, no matter what portion may be considered, the one aim in that study is to see the revelation of Christ crucified, that through it we may be brought more closely into that union of the human with the divine in which is the strength of all our Christian experience.
When Christ was gathering His disciples, the record says: “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write.” We have found Him, the person. It was not, We have found a new statement of our creed; but it was just this one central thing—we have found Him.
Now any study of the Scripture, any teaching of the Word, that does not help us personally toward finding Him, does not meet its true end. When the time that ought to be spent in getting right to the very heart of the truth, and getting in actual, living touch with that, is spent in the form, the outward things, and we do not get to that central heart of it all, we have missed the purpose of study. Every lesson should be a revealing of Christ to us. If we will just take the Scripture itself, and be guided in our study by the Spirit promised to guide us into all truth, our understanding may be opened, so that we may understand the Scriptures, and we may see what is there, the beauty, the glory, and the joy. These do not all lie on the surface. You remember the words of the wise man, and they are worthy of very careful consideration in this connection: “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.”
That is the one thing to be sought, even the knowledge of God. But how?—If thou criest after knowledge, if thou liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou searchest for her as for hid treasures, then thou shalt find the knowledge of God. But I have regretted very much to observe, as far as my experience has gone, that there is not that earnest soul-hunger for truth that leads people to cry for understanding, to seek for this knowledge of God, as they seek for hidden treasures. If there is any reality in this thing, that there is here hidden,—hidden not to keep it away from us, but hidden in order that it may be revealed to us,—if there is any truth in this, that this is our life and understanding, our wisdom, then is it not worth our while to apply our hearts to understanding? Is it not worth while to treat this as a matter that is practical and real, and know that God by His Spirit will teach us?
The only theme, then, to be studied is Christ crucified, Christ manifested in the flesh, Christ our personal, indwelling Saviour. That is the theme, no matter what portion of the Book is studied. Any lesson that does not help us to a closer grasp and a better experience in that thing is not the lesson we ought to be studying; but if taken from this Word, there will be such a revelation in it.
The third division of the subject is the need of teachers filled with the teaching Spirit of God. Truth must be revealed to us. We must receive it. We are not sent out to roam around in a state of darkness and uncertainty to see if we can find truth. There is a certain class of persons who pride themselves upon the fact that they are simply seekers after truth. That is right when it is properly understood. But know that truth, absolute truth, has been revealed to us; and it is that revelation of truth that we are to study, and not hunt around in a maze of uncertainty to see if we can find the truth. The word of God is the incarnate truth. We are not to go along as though we did not know where the truth is. Here is the truth. Christ is the truth.
There has been a revelation made to us, a revelation made in human conduct, in Christ manifested in the flesh; a revelation made in human language, in Christ in the Word. Now we are to study the revelation made, that we may comprehend that, not putting our reason above God's word. It is not to be brought to our reason, to determine whether it is truth or not; when reason is given that place, it is given its wrong place. This Book is to instruct our reason, and not to be judged by our reason. Our reason will be used to its utmost in comprehending the truth, but not in judging the truth. There is a vast difference between the two. Anything that judges this Book, anything that judges God, anything that judges the revelation of himself, puts itself above Him, and that is the very essence of the papacy. The greatest revelation of opposition to God that this world has ever seen, all grows out of this; that this Book, this revelation of truth, is made subject to human reason.
If we are to be used of God to make a revelation of light and truth to this world, such a revelation that it itself will judge the world, and that will compel every one in the world to take a definite attitude toward it, such a revelation of truth in every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, that everywhere people will be actually compelled to make their decision, their final decision, in their attitude toward Jesus Christ and His truth,—with such a work as that committed to us, do not let us turn aside from the very fountain, and the very incarnation of truth, and put any man, even ourselves, above this Word.
Our understanding is to be instructed by the truth. We are to be judged by the truth. The fact is that every person who sets his mind up to judge the Word, and brings it to the bar of his reason, is by that very act judging himself, and not the Book. It is the attitude that men take toward the divine revealing of truth as set forth in this Book that determines the final decision. Therefore God is calling upon a people now to rise up that shall in themselves be the very incarnation of the word of God, and shall reveal that word as light and salvation in every part of the world.
So the Book itself will carry to every soul ready to receive it, its own conviction of the truth. The place to find evidences that the Bible is true is in the Bible itself. The very best evidence to any one that this Book is the Book of God, and what it claims to be, is what it will do for him in his own experience, if he will receive it.
Therefore it is not to be judged by the reason, but it is to reveal itself in the conduct of life, and that will be the greatest proof of its truthfulness.
But, to understand it, there must be the Spirit as the teacher. The Spirit, the very life that is in it, must interpret it unto us, and in us. God has taken simple language and revealed in it a depth of truth which no human man, unaided by the Spirit, will be able to fathom. It is only the spirit of truth, truth’s spirit, truth’s life, that can open our minds, and impart that to us. Remember that it is the mind through which we are allied to God, and with which we worship God. The truth must come in through that avenue. It must not stop in that avenue; it must come in through that avenue, and be revealed in experience.
And so the Spirit that is itself incarnated in this Word, that is in itself the wisdom, the light, the knowledge hidden here, must itself be the agency through which our minds are brought into direct, living touch and consciousness with that truth. No man, unaided, can do that.
Now take these simple things, and apply them to a school where the Bible is the book studied, where Christ crucified is always the theme, and where teachers are filled with the teaching Spirit of God. Then what will be the possibilities?—The possibilities will be the re-creation, the manifestation of the very image of God in the flesh. The human mind can hardly grasp, it cannot put any limits upon, what the word of God is able to do for those who are willing to receive it in this way, as their life, their light, and their salvation. So it is of no use to try to define these possibilities. They are with God. But, under such a plan as this, there would be a constant flow of the life, of new, creative life, into the hearts of all those who study and teach under these circumstances.
Would that there might be revived among this people a genuine study of the Bible. We are living on the labors of men of the past. Some one else has studied, and we read what they have studied, instead of ourselves studying for ourselves.
When an announcement is made that such and such a book is indispensable to the study of any portion of the Bible, I wonder what the people have done for these centuries before that book was printed.
I will tell you what is indispensable to an understanding of this Book, and that is a heart submitted, and ready to receive the Spirit of God; and that is worth more than all the helps ever printed. The trouble is we have put the “helps” that were designed to be helps, and, properly used, may be helps, in the place of that which is indispensable, and then the helps become a hindrance.
It is often true that what are advertised as helps to Bible study would more properly be advertised as hindrances to Bible study. Real helps to study may be used, but helps are not the first thing to be sought. We have used so many helps that we have allowed the very faculties that God would use through which to reveal to us personally a knowledge of the truth,—we have allowed those faculties to become weakened by depending upon some other help than the real help that God has provided in this unseen Spirit.
This whole people should be a people who study the Word, each for himself. That is the only hope for us. We are coming into experiences where God’s word itself, hidden in the heart, will be the only defense; where it will not be sufficient for us to know what others have thought about this Book; but to know its every thought in our lives; where the only salvation will be the word that is spirit and life.
No matter how it may come, no matter under what technical forms it may come, let there be a revival in all our hearts of the love of the study of the word of God, and let time be spent with that word, that we may feed upon Him who is our life, our light, and our salvation.
W. W. PRESCOTT.